Hi Loves,

This week has been really good and its all because my companion is the sweetest thing that has ever happened to this planet. Her name is Sister Vasquez and she is from Utah...of course. She is straight from the MTC and she is going to be a powerhouse/she already is. The members love her and you cant help but fall in love with her when you see her.

Training has been interesting haha. I do not feel qualified at all but I am praying that Sister Vasquez will be able to learn and we will be able to grow together. We have been role playing a lot and I have been learning so much from it...probably more than she is. I am excited to see what happens in these next couple of weeks as she begins to break out her shell!

I hope this was the right thing to do but I threw her right into teaching and we have only gone tracting once for an hour. I love teaching and being busy because it makes time go by and it feels like we are fulfilling our purpose. 

We have been taking a family history class so that in the near future we will be able to teach our own class at UTEP and use it as a finding activity. The institute here also put together a council that Sister Vasquez and I can go on campus and set of a table that says "Talk with a Mormon" hahaha...We have been told that there has been some success in our mission doing just that on other college campuses.

This Saturday we got to attend the stakes women's conference and the theme was "Hope in Christ". I left so uplifted and optimistic. I love hope. Whenever we share the plan of Salvation we always emphasize the JOY and HOPE that comes from it. A scripture I have been sharing a lot lately is Mosiah 4:6-7 because it talks about the knowledge we have of the goodness of God. I hope you are all able to ponder your testimony. How bless we are to know that we have a loving Heavenly Father and he has created a plan for us so that we can return to live with him and our families forever. I know that this life is not the end and although we face many challenges and trials that this is but a small moment and through Jesus Christ we are able to have peace. This is where my hope comes from. 

I love you all so much!

Love

Sister Nye

AHHHHHHHHHH,

Hi loves of my life.....I am so stressed and excited. I got a call from my mission president this week and he asked me to train a new missionary. I wasn't expecting it at all. I thought for sure Sister Plitt and I would be together another transfer but nope. The Lord has other plans for us. I will be staying in YSA and Sister Plitt is going up to Albuquerque. I honestly feel like I have only been with her for a week. Transfers go by so fast...

If anyone has any tips for training please let me know! I wasn't able to be on the trainer conference call that my mission president gave so I kinda feel in the dark! 

Eric and Grecia got Baptized on Saturday!! Both had beautiful baptisms. Grecia is super shy so only wanted her mom and aunt and those that needed to be there for the ordinance to attend. There was such a special spirit there.

Eric brought his whole family and they all took Books of Mormon so we will see if anything good comes out of that!! I have been waiting for his baptism for months now and had had tears in my eyes the entire time. Eric was my first lesson in the field and it has been so crazy/amazing to see this change in his life!

Well tomorrow is going to be crazy. I drop off sister Plitt at 1:50 and pick up the new sister. Everyone Pray that she will enjoy her first week! The first day is exhausting and overwhelming so she will need lots of prayers but I know she will find so much joy in this work!! I cannot wait to see her reaction when she teaches her first lesson and the investigator feels the spirit. It is truly the best feeling out there!

Love,

Sister Nye

A little Tribute to Elder Barnard:

Roses:

-Staying YSA

-Eric and Grecias baptisms

-training a new missionary

Thorns:

-Buddy and Killian are moving this week.

-Sister Plitt is leaving me

-A centipede was in our apartment and Sister Plitt made me Vacuum every room while she stood on a chair screaming.  

Hello Everyone that I love so much and hope have the best Valentines day ever,

A lot happened this week which is always the best because sitting idle on a mission makes minutes feel like hours. I got to take a trip up to Albuquerque for a training and it was so much fun and I learned a lot. It was super weird to be out of my area though since I haven't left El Paso in 4 months. It almost felt like a different planet. Also another bonus of the trip was that I got to see my wonderful trainer Sister Hazen! I have missed her so much and it felt like a dream to see her again.

We have been teaching a lot but instead of teaching people who have a lot of desire to change we have been teaching people who want to learn what mormons believe. I have learned a lot this week about the difference the Holy Ghost can make in the lives of those who want to repent vs those that just want information. I was reminded that I can only bring the spirit to them and that it is their job to allow him into their hearts. 

My companion and I have been planning a family history night for our recent converts and they are all so excited. Sadly Killian and Buddy are moving at the end of the month(downside of ysa) but they surprised us yesterday and told us they are planning to go to the temple next week to do baptisms for the dead. I love seeing them progress in the gospel. It makes my heart so happy and I know these steps they are taking now is going to strengthen their faith.

Eric and Grecias baptisms for Saturday are officially planned! It is such a sigh of relief, especially for Eric. He is still in shock that he gets to be baptized!

AHHH sorry I have to leave so I got to cut this short!

I love you all!!

Sister Nye

Happy Valentine's Month

Hello lovely people,

This week we got super good news! Eric got approved by the first presidency of the church to get baptized! When we got the call from our mission president we were shaking and speechless. We got to call him that night and tell him and he instantly started spurting out who he wanted to do what and when and how! He has already given everyone assignments and he chose his date! The church will be gaining the coolest new member on February 18th!  The members in our ward are so excited. All of us have been waiting months for this. Woohoo!

Grecia was also able to come to church this week and she chose the 18th to be baptized as well. She is super shy so she only wants us and her family to be there. She has the strongest testimony already and we have only been teaching her for 2 weeks. I'm pretty sure she has gotten every LDS/mormon app ever created on her Ipad but its awesome because it helps her to understand the Book of Mormon. 

I was reading in Mosiah this week when Abinadi is preaching to King Noah and his priests and all the sudden it just hit me how truly incredible Abinadi is. 

He was called of God to cry repentance and he refused to stop or deny his message even when he was threatened to be put to death. As I was reading I was thinking and questioning Abinadi's purpose. I realized that he suffered death just so that one person named Alma could learn of Christ and the atonement. Alma took Abinadi's words and wrote them down and converted hundreds.

Abinadi never got to see the fruits of his labors and I don't think he cared. He knew what he was supposed to do and without any hesitation he fulfilled his calling. I know God has an important purpose for all of us and if we listen to his prompting we will be able to touch hundreds and thousands of people.

Sorry this email is short! I love you all so much! I hope each of you have a fantastic week! 

Love 

Sister Nye