Week Twelve - Filipinos!

Bom Dias!

I hope everyone was able to watch Conference this past weekend! Can we all agree that Conference is so uplifting? 

The last few days that led up to Conference and the weekend of conference was insane. We were emailing about calling everyone in our online area book and reminded them that conference was that weekend. We challenged all of our investigators to watch conference and majority of them did! As a zone we were able to attend the Saturday morning session on conference. We got the the square and started to contact all of the members that were standing in the standby line at 7:30 am but got to the square at about 7. Talking with the members before the session started was great! I met so many members that where willing to do missionary work back at their homes. It was really easy to commit them to do missionary work but they all were so prepared to share the gospel! I love members that are like that. :) We weren't allowed to watch conference because there were so many people on the square and so many people to uplift. The only talks that I was able to watch were the ones that were speaking on Saturday and two others during personal study on Monday. I unfortunately have no time to really sit down and read them. 

We had a lot of miracles this past weekend. 

Sister Fisher and I made a goal to receive 38 quality member referrals this weekend. It was actually a huge struggle for the mission to get referrals from members because they were already talking/teaching with the people that weren't members of the church. So a lot of the members said "Oh we are working with this one family and are already meeting with the missionaries." Which is great because the members are doing missionary work, but not so great for us because we set this goal and  it was a really small goal to reach compared to other sisters. At the end of every meal we counted all of our referrals and by the end of the weekend we were able to receive 41 member referrals. The number of the member referrals the whole mission received was over 3,000! 3,000 precious souls that need to be saved! It just gives me goosebumps of all the teaching that we will be able to do in the next several months! Ah I'm so excited! 

So remember Amber Sellers? The girl that stayed with us when I was in middle school? Im sure you remember because you were all there too...Ha Anyways I thought about her the other day. It was actually a really random thought. I was in one of the theaters in the mission and all of a sudden I thought "Man, I wonder how Amber is doing. Where is she is even at? I really want to share the gospel with her but I don't even know how I could, or even how the family could even get her number." So after that random thought it just left me. Okay so on Sunday I went on exchanges with Sister Asuncion (she is from the Philippines), the reason why we were on exchanges was because we were going to the Filipino fireside later that evening to get more member referrals. All the Filipino sisters went so that was really cool. So while we were walking to the North Visitor center we ran into GOBS of Filipinos. I knew they were Filipino because they kept on saying "HOY!" and I could understand what they were saying. Sister Asuncion and I stopped to say hi. While we were introducing ourselves, all of the Filipinos said "Hoy! Do you know a Roel Opeda?" Then I said "Yeah that is my Dad." They all started to freak out because apparently the whole group of Filipinos knows Tatay and Nanay! They would say "I know your Dad, we went to school together.", "Or your Grandpa gave me my Patriarchal Blessing."," You're dad and I were missionary companions.", "You're mom and I were best friends when we were kids." Anyways it was cool to see all of these connections. The coolest part was when this lady came up to me and said "Do you remember me? I'm Amber Sellers mom. The girl that lived with you for a couple of months?" I was floored. I started to talk to her about Amber and I asked how she was doing and then her mom gave me her number so I can call her! Crazy right? I thought about calling her but had no way in doing so, then all of a sudden Heavenly Father says "Here you go Sister Opeda! Time to share the gospel with Amber!" Heavenly Father puts people in your life for a reason! The hardest part is to really know the reason why he did. I'm lucky because all of the people I met are meant to hear the gospel. 

So President Gillette really likes to give surprises to mission and on Monday night he surprised us big time! I guess as a reward for all the hard work that we did over the weekend and because President love all of us, he got Jon Schmidt to come and play for us! If you don't know who is he is the piano player that is in the piano guys. Youtube him. He is an incredible piano player. So we had a mini concert with him and we were able to do a questions and answers session with him. Someone asked him "What made you decided to do this as a career?" And he told us of this quote from President Benson that said "Men and women who turn their lives over to God will discover that he can make a lot more out of our lives than they can."  He told us of some stories on how he gave his whole life to the Lord and never thought that he would be doing something that he loved so much. It made me think about how sometimes when we plan out our lives or sometimes when we need to make decisions. All of the decisions that we make, rarely are counseled with Heavenly Father. Sometimes I think we get so catch up of doing things our way than to really asking Heavenly Father what he thinks about them. He wants to be involved with the details of our life. When we have confidence and faith in knowing that Heavenly Father has a plan for us, a lot of the worry and struggle that we have are then relieved. Heavenly Father wants us to be happy and he knows how we can be happy. I hope you all turn your lives to God because it is true, He can make a lot more out of our lives than we can. 

I love you all.

Sister Opeda 

Alma 5:26 

Here are some photos that people with Sister Opeda during the conference weekend. If anyone happened to see here please send us your pictures! Mahalo -Kariza

Sister Opeda and Sister Asuncion with Tita Nedy, Tito Joey, and Tita Geny

Tito Lamber and Tita Geny
These are Kariza's (Sister Opeda little sister) roommate, Gee's parents!

Sister Opeda with ,Kariza's workmate in Hawaii, Amanda Vela!

Week Eleven - Conference Week!

Conference is just around the river bend and I cannot wait!

These last couple of weeks the snow has been melting and the flowers have been blooming. Well actually the gardeners have been working around the clock to make sure everything looks wonderful for this weekend. It is starting to look like spring around here! Since the sun has been shining people are ready to go outside and enjoy the weather with their families. This last week we have seen and taught so many people. Just yesterday, we met families from Germany, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, and Ghana! It was so great to talk with the members and help uplift them in their struggles. Sometimes I'm surprised at the amount of information people tell me about their life. I sometimes feel overwhelmed and I have no idea on how I can help them, but then I remember the promise in D&C 30:11 "And your whole labor shall be in Zion, with all your soul, from henceforth; yea, you shall ever open your mouth in my cause, not fearing what man can do, for I am with you. Amen." That is exactly what happens, I feel the presence of the spirit when Sister Fisher and I teach doctrine. You can see right in that moment that they also feel it. It is the most wonderful feeling to know that you aided that person on their next step of conversion. Sometimes I still can't believe that I get to do this all day for 18 months! :) We have met so many wonderfully prepared people on the square. We took a tour with this these two men Tom and Jon. They both in Salt Lake waiting for their next plane to leave so they were killing time at Temple Square. We showed them around the Tabernacle and the Assembly Hall and we bridged the history to prophets. They were both so interested in the gospel and were asking the right questions. At the end the both referred for local missionaries to come to their house and have them teach them more! It was great because we taught them about the restoration and about the Book of Mormon and they both said "Where can I get a copy?" Wonderful right?! Ahhhh so so so so great!

Since there is an opposition in all things--Tis the season of Anit's. These last couple of days there have been many people coming to the square talking to the sisters and "trying" to tell us that we are wrong and we have been brainwashed. I've had some anti's come on to chat and some on the phone, but I haven't had any on a tour until yesterday. There was a whole group of them on the Square and I talked to a lot of sisters that said they are all on spring break on a trip of some sort. I was in the Beehive House all day and I didn't think that they were going to ask for a tour of an old house, but they did and I learned a lot! Obviously you never know who is an anti or not but we took a group of 7 of them as well as two guest from New York. At first it started out okay and they were all friendly but then all the crazy questions about sealings, Temples, polygamy, and the Book of Mormon started to come up. My stomach started to go into knots because I could feel my mind blanking. The only thing that came into my mind was "Just testify." So that is what I did and the spirit started to come back and the guest stop with the questions. Then the whole climate changed at the tour because I started to feel so much love for those people. I was sad for them because they looked so lost and confused. Sister Fisher and I just had a desire for them to understand who their Savior is and what he did for us. Some of them still asked questions and we answered them lovingly and prayed that they would be able to feel the spirit.

I dropped Nathan this week. We have been trying to get him to go to church and to have faith in the gospel but he didn't want to change any part of this life. There was no desire at all to come closer to Christ. Every time that we talked to him on the phone it was always really hard because he didn't/want to see how this gospel can bless his life. He has been through a really hard time so he is kinda bitter at life. I told him that there was only so much that I can do for him if he wasn't willing to act. It was hard because I know this can help him through all of his struggle. He has all the tools to succeed in this life but he wasn't willing to use them at all. I have hope that one day he will come back to church, but I just hope that one day is sooner than later.

We have been able to talk to Stephen again. He was the one who was suppose to get baptized two weeks ago but didn't. We talked to him last night and had a great lesson. He said that he would look into another baptismal date that he feels comfortable with. He is moving to SLC for grad school in two months and he wants to wait till he gets here to get baptized. We told him to pray about it first. It would be cool if he did get baptized here, cause then I could go to his baptism. But I think that it would be best if he had it in Tennessee so his family could have a chance to attend.

I hope you are all doing well! Conference is this weekend so I hope you are preparing to be uplifted!!!!

I love you all and pray for you everyday!

Love,

Sister Opeda

Alma 19:6 "...he knew that the dark ^aveil of ^bunbelief was being cast away from his mind, and the ^clight which did light up his mind, which was the light of the glory of God, which was a marvelous light of his goodness—yea, this light had infused such joy into his soul, the cloud of darkness having been dispelled, and that the light of everlasting life was lit up in his soul, yea, he knew that this had ^dovercome his natural frame, and he was carried away in God—"

PICTURES!

Here are some pictures that she recently sent!!

 

 This is what I we do during companionship study

 

    My CRAZY district

 

Better picture

 

 We went to Thanksgiving Point/Dinosaur Museum for Zone Activity

 

Transfer Two: Week Two

Hey Family,

So I freaked when I heard where Kariza was going. I'm slightly jealous that she is going back home, but I know that I was called here for a reason! So it is all alright!

So this week has been insane! There have been so many miracles and new people to teach! Its been wonderful!

So first I want to tell you about this Indian family that we met. So we got a text saying that there was  family that wanted a tour and so Sis fisher and I went to take them around. When we first met them in the SVC they were so nice, the parents where visiting their son Solomon from India for a month and they wanted to see Temple Square. So I was really exited to teach them because we planned to talk about the Restoration at that hour. So we first took them to the Temple model because they wanted to see what the Temple looked like if they were inside. So when we were there I was talking to the Dad and somehow prophets came up and I pointed to a picture of Thomas S. Monson and said "This our prophet here today and his name is Thomas S. Monson." Then he cut me off and said "OOOHH is that not Jospeh Smith?" Then I said "No that is not Joesph Smith." Then he said "Is that Brigham Young?" Haha then I said "No it is not Brigham Young, but I can actually tell you more about our prophets, especially about Joseph Smith because he is actually what I wanted to share with you about." Then he said in his broken English "OHHH no no I already know about him. He was the man the God called to restore Christ church again on the earth. He saw God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ and told him that none of the churches in his day are true." Okay so at that point I didn't know he that is what he believed or if he just knew it. It definitely is a big difference.I'm literally shocked at this point. So then I said "Do you believe that Joseph Smith RESTORED Christ church again on this earth?" Then the Dad said "Yes, yes I believe he did! I also believe that he translated the Book of Mormon!" I could not believe what I was hearing. This man who is from India, visiting his son for a month and researched all about the LDS faith before he even got here and wanted to see Temple Square. So Sis Fisher and I could take them to see the Temple Model and tell us that he believe that this was the true church again on the earth. The spirit and love I felt at that moment and for that family was amazing. I couldn't help but smile and I remember looking in to the Dads eyes and I could tell that he truly believe that it was true! So then I lead everyone back to the front of the visitor center and I gave him an English version of he  Book of Mormon. He said "Wait I can have this? You are giving this to me? Thank you thank you thank you!" He was holding the Book of Mormon to his chest and kept on saying Thank you. Then his wife was just as happy and wanted to take a picture with me handing him the Book of Mormon and he told me to sign the book as well. Ahh I love that family so much. But wait it doesn't end there!

So then Sister Fisher and I took them to the NVC and to the section called Scriptures and revelation. We continued to tell them about the church but the parents knew EVERYTHING! They were so prepared! So we were next to the globe where they have the Book of Mormon in all these different languages. So while we were there and the family continued to take pictures I saw that the Hindi version of the Book of Mormon was right there. So I picked it up and gave it to the wife to see. I said "Hey look they have it in Hindi too!" Then the wife almost about cried. She looked at Sister Fisher and and jumped up and down saying "OHHHH LOOOK! ITS IN MY LANGUAGE!" She was gleaming! Their english wasn't all that great but she was so touched to see that it was in her native language. She held it to her chest like her husband and kept on saying thank you! She thought that we were giving it to her, but we were just showing her the book. I honestly was just going to give it to her because how can you take something from an old lady that was jumping up and down! After the tour I was just going to go down the street and buy a replacement copy so we didn't have to tell her that she couldn't take it. But Sis Fisher is more obedient than I am and told her that she couldn't take it. But she told them that she can get one in her language at Deseret Book. She was all like "OHHH no problem! We go get one now! It okay it okay!" Then after we told them to go to Deseret Book they wanted to end the tour so they could buy one. Then they all said their fast goodbyes and Thanked us again for the hundredth time and left.

Oh, Sister Fisher and I tried to get their information so we could send the missionaries to their house, but I don't think that they understood us.They said they will find them themselves and they know where they are at. I was worried that I wouldn't get their information and that maybe I didn't understand them enough and maybe I was misunderstanding what they were saying the whole time during the tour--but then I felt a overwhelming sense of peace and I knew that God had them in mind and that our job was to give them the Book of Mormon and one day they will be baptized.

The reaction that they had when I gave them the Book of Mormon is one that I will never forget. They both were so excited and joy filled their hearts. They looked like they were holding precious gold. They came so far to get their hand on a Book of Mormon and I have a copy sitting in my locker and two more in my apartment. It made me think "Do I react that same way when I read out of the Book of Mormon?" "Do I hold it to my chest making sure that no one will take it away from me?" "Do I try and strengthen my testimony about the Book of Mormon everyday?" "And if I don't....what do I need to do so I can react the same way like my Indian friends did?"

There are many more miracles that happened this week--but this was one I wanted to share with you. I'm teaching a lady in Georgia and she accepted to become baptized on April 13th. I'm not sure if that is going to happen, because she is moving around that time so we will see!! I let you know that happens

I love you all and I have such a strong testimony about the Book of Mormon along with prayer. I know that when we read the Book of Mormon we will be able to get answers to all of our questions! Spiritually and temporally! I pray for you everyday and I love you all so much!

Love,
Sister Opeda