Dear Family and Friends, First off I want to wish my dad a Happy Fathers Day, and I want to thank him for everything he has done for me. I love you dad so much and I want you to know that I miss you and I'm so greatful for the example that you've been to me and for the love you've always shown me. I love you so much dad! This week over all went by really fast, and it really was a good week. We've been teaching this woman and her two daughters about the gospel and her daughters have gone to church before, but finally she went for the first time yesterday to church and she really did like it. We're working to help them become baptized, and we're working on serving them because they're going through a really rough time right now and as missionaries its our job to not only teach the gospel, but to  live it. We've also been teaching this young adult from Nicaragua and her boyfriend about the church and the importance of families(they're expecting a baby in July) and they're both really positive and she was actually taught by missionaries before so I would like to thank those missionaries who well prepared before. She's really nice and they do want to get married so we're working to help them become a family for eternity and be baptized. We were also fortunate enough to find a less-active member. President Hintze always asks us to visit 25 or more less-actives/recent converts each week because it's the best way to find investigators and to help them become strong members who will help build the branch. Less-actives need others to show love to them so that they can come back and feel needed. SILLY SAN IGNACIO: 1. Crazy enough I got stung AGAIN but this time we were teaching about the plan of salvation and I was holding a picture and was in the middle of saying "and so the celestial kindooooooommmmmouchhhh!"  when it stung me in the armpit! Who knows how the bee got there, but yes I had never before my mission been stung by a bee and now I've been stung twice within one week! 2. Contacting in Belize 101: I don't know how other missions contact but here in Belize we contact people in the streets, through references, and by yelling "good (time of day)" outside thier house. So this week we found a house who is surrounded by houses on both sides and whose house sits all the way to the back and there's a fence in front that surrounds the house. So the only way to contact that house is to yell really REALLY loud. So, without planning or anything, at the same time Sister DeLeon and I threw back our heads and her in Spanish, me in English, yelled "GOOD EVENING/BUENAS TARDES!!" It's a good thing that the person didn't come out of the house because DeLeon and I looked at each other and then just busted up laughing! One house that did happen to respond to our yelling actually ending up as a debate. The first thing that the man said to us was that the missionaries never come back to his house because he just fights with them because the Bible is the only true book, and it's not right the we worship Moroni and Joseph Smith. Um...what?! So Sister DeLeon and I testified and taught The Restoration to this man and when we would prove our point, he'd then find other excuses as to why our we are "preaching false doctrine." For example, he said that we shouldn't worship a prophet who had many wives and then he proceeds to ask us "Did Moses have many wives?" I told him I honestly didn't know and then asked him the same question and he said to me "You shouldn't be asking me I should be asking you!" Then he said that it's not right that we do baptisms for the dead because we should do it in the name of Jesus Christ not in the name of the dead person. An my all time favorite, "The true church is The Church of Jesus Christ." So we said "We are The Church of Jesus Christ brother, read our name tags!" He then read them and said "No you changed the name because you guys were The Mormon Church before! You're teaching false doctrine and we'll see who's right in the last day!" So I don't know about you guys but...I thought it was definitely an interesting contact experience! haha   My thought this week comes from Bonnie L. Oscorson who said "As we act upon the doctrines of the gospel and put them into daily practice, we will become converted and we will become the means of doing much good in our families and in the world." As missionaries and members it's important to not only share the gospel, but live it as well. Before we convert others, we need to first convert ourselves. We must pray often, read our scriptures, have faith, repent, remember our covenants we have made, go to the temple, and go to church, so that we can build and strengthen our own testimony so we "will become the means of doing much good." Love, Sister Ontiveros

ear Friends and Family,
Well this week was a week of ups and downs because our most progressing investigators decided that they're too busy, or don't want anything to do with the church any more. So that was dissapointing and we've been working hard to find positive news, but it hasn't been the easiest thing in the world, the Lord has definitely tested our faith and patience this week. The good news is that we were able to find a part member couple, and thier friend who is from Nicaragua and they are positive. The girl from Nicaragua said that she was going to get baptized, but her mom wouldn't let her, but she really wants to learn more about the church so hopefully all will go well with them and they will be able to progress towards baptism.
Silly San Igancio:
1. Well this week we went with a member to visit some investigators and while we were contacting we found this old lady and she was sweet and told us that we could come in and share a message with her. So we went in her house and I kid you not, it was all full of stuffed animals and baby dolls! There was not one shelf or corner where there weren't stuffed animals or baby dolls. So we were like okay that's kind of creepy, and she was actually holding one of her baby dolls so we started joking about how many times she feeds here baby and what not, but she though we were serious and she gave us serious answers. Then we asked her a simple question such as "Do you believe in God?" and she said of course she did and then she began to tell us a story. She said that she knows God exists because he protects her. There was these guys in the middle of the night that entered her house and pulled her by the hair and pinned her against the wall. She said that when they did that she pulled out her machete and fought them with it! We then told her that's great how she has seen how God has protected her and then she said "God does protect me because one night there were men who came into my house..." and she started the SAME story over again. She did that about ten times during the lesson and then she would tell us about her dolls and oh man...we definitely had to try out best to not bust a gut during the lesson.ha After we left the member asked us if he could go visit with us again because he wants to visit the crazy lady again! lol

2. Yesterday we were teaching our investigators and a couple of her friends outside when all of a sudden I saw something fall to the ground and I felt shooting pain go through my thumb. Guess what happened? A bee stung me! Who knows where the bee came from or how it got attached to my thumb, but that was the first time I'd ever been stung by a bee in my whole life so I was praying I wasn't allergic to it! Luckily I didn't have an allergic reaction to the bee, but it did hurt like no ones business.

3. We found a couple to teach and while we were talking about the Holy Ghost the wife asked us if we believe in gifts of the Holy Ghost? We told her of course we do and then she told us how she has the gift to see the future. She said that she has lines on her head that make the sign of the cross, as well on her front teeth and she believes that they are marks from God that give her this gift to see the future. I should have taken advantage of that and asked her who I'm going to marry one day and if I'd be a millionaire. haha

Well my spiritual thought for this week comes from M Russel Ballard. He says "The gospel and doctrine of Christ give all who will accept it power to achieve eternal life and power to find joy in the journey." I hope that we can all find joy in the journey of life and remember that the Lord is always with us.

Love,
Sister Ontiveros

Four months To Go

Dear Family and Friends,

First off, yesterday I finished 14 months on the mission can you believe that? I feel as if I'm in some kind of time warp, as if I'm not really living in real time because I'm in this missionary bubble which seemed to go SO slow at first, but now it's going by so fast. I've definitely had some great experiences in the mission which have helped me to really gain an understanding of the importance of the gospel in my life and to realize how I need to change to become more like Jesus Christ. 

This week was a bit challenging because our best investigators have digressed, but we're still working hard and luckily we've been able to have some good lessons these last few days, with members, and we've been able to find some new investigators. We're working with a mom and her two daughters and they're really positive. The two daughters have really enjoyed the activities and coming to church and they really have a desire to follow Jesus Christ. We're also working with a 19 year old girl and we taught her about The Restoration and The Book of Mormon with a member and the member gave such a powerful testimony about her own conversion which really helped to bring the spirit to the lesson.

This last Wednesday for FHE we had a hot-dog-hoedown! We shared a message about the importance of working and then we taught the members and investigators how to "Boot-Scoot-Boogie"! At first they were really hesitant about participating, but once we started teaching the kids the adults joined in and it was a lot of fun to see everyone getting a little taste of country culture. And afterwards we ate hot dogs and had fun chatting with everyone.

Silly San Ignacio:

1. Monday we went contacting and we got to this one house and started to introduce ourselves. "Hi we're missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints." and then we started to talk about the importance of the gospel and the happiness that it can bring us and then the fun began. When she realized that we were from the "mormon church" she then began to tell us how we're wasting our time preaching false doctrine and how everything that she needs to know she can find in the Bible. We then told her how we preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and we use the Bible and then she told us that we're wrong because we worship Joseph Smith and that it doesn't talk about him anywhere in the Bible. So then we began to explain to her how we worship God and how Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet to restore the true church and we began to teach her lesson one. We tried to finish the lesson, but she stopped us and said "When I see you at judgement face to face, you will then realize that you are teaching false doctrine and I have all I need right here in my bible." And then she got up and walked away. Oh humanity...haha

2. So I went on interchanges this last week in Santa Elena and while we were there we went to give a lesson to a recent convert/less active. Well we planned out what we were going to teach him and we  went in and well we spoke about 20 words in total because he wouldn't stop talking for the life of him! After about an hour of sitting there listening to whatever thing he could think of to say I had finally had it and said "Okay brother thanks for letting us come over and we'd now like to close with a prayer. Would you be willing to say it?" As we're walking out the door he then says to me "You're a very outspoken person. What is it that you want to go into?" So I told him medicine and then he says to me, "You'll do well in that." and walks away. Um...thank you? ha

3. So Sister DeLeon were doing some street contacting last week and while we were there we noticed this cute little girl that walked out of a tortilla stand. She looks up at the sky and then stands  on her tiptoes and shouts to the world "This girl is on fire!" Sister DeLeon and I looked at eachother and then busted a gut laughing. It was one of the cutest things I had ever seen. Alicia Keys would have been proud!haha

4. Well our lock on our outside door was giving us trouble and we couldn't enter the house so we had to call the owner and the Rinderknechts to come and help us open it. So what did Elder Rinderknecht do? He decided to kick the door open! He says "I've seen this happen in movies all the time, I can do this." And with one solid push from his leg, he kicked our front door open! haha 

Well my spiritual thought for this week comes from the April Liahona. President Dieter F. Utchdorf said "The Lords way is not to sit at the side of the stream and wait for the water to pass before we cross. It is to come together, roll up our sleeves, go to work, and build a bridge or a boat to cross the waters of our challenges." I've always loved talks by him because he's so wise. There are challenges that come our way, but if we do our best to work hard and we put forth an effort to find a solution, we will overcome them and we will be able to move forward in life.

Love,

Sister Ontiveros