and the Verdict is............

I am getting transferred to a biking area!!!!! EEK! We got a call from President McCune this morning and found out that I will going to a new area and my lovely companion is training! I am SO excited for her even if she is not the mooooost excited about it lol :) But she will love it! :)

So yes...I need to pack up my 15 months of things and stuff them into three little suitcases and wait until Wednesday to find out who my new companion is....fun! :) haha And sadly say goodbye to so many people I have come to love so dearly here :) Santaquin has been a lot of fun :)

This past week was pretty great, nothing too exciting or special. Just a good week :) 

We had great lessons with Angelica this past week, but sadly she didn't come to church and neither did Juan! :( Sad day!!! But what was really neat was that she believes that the Book of Mormon is true! I just don't know what is really keeping her from moving forward...But I love her and she will keep reading progressing and one day she will get baptized! I am sure of it :)

Then the Women's meeting was fantastic! :) Sadly though, my mind resorted back to the Midwest and I thought that the meeting started at 7pm....which is does for most of you. BUT here in Utah it starts at 6....so needless to say we showed up a little late lol But I did get to see the amazing talk given by President Utchdorf! :) EXACTLY what I needed to hear. I know that what was said was true! I know that my Heavenly Father loves me and is raining down blessings upon our heads, just like the weather here the past few days, and we just need to make sure our umbrellas are closed shut so that those blessings can reach us! :)

Our Investigator Erick!

I love you all! I hope you have a lovely week and enjoy watching conference! My mission president said something neat that I want to share with all of you. He said in our zone conference that every General Conference he takes just 2 things and works on them for the next 6 months. We all thought, wow just TWO things??? Aren't there so many things we could improve? Especially after hearing the prophets speak? But he said something that makes a whole lot of sense. Think about it. If you live to 80 years old. You have about 144 general conferences if you start listening at 8 years old. If you just apply 2 principles and work on them really really hard, over a lifetime, you will have developed and grown 288 times. That is pretty amazing. So let's go into this conference and take 2 things that we will work on and develop really really well over the next 6 months. I promise that we will change and become better! :) 

I love you all! :)

Have a great week :)

Love, Hermana Derges

Lay it Down for Him

Hey! :) How are you all? I bet you all had a fantastic week! 

This week was really fun! On Tuesday we were able to go up to Mt Timpanogos temple for one of Hermana Santos recent converts :) There were a lot of sisters there! :) It was so nice to see so many familiar faces! It was a gorgeous day too :)

Yesterday was the rededication of the Ogden temple! We were able to watch it from our stake center here in Santaquin :) It was so amazing! That temple is gorgeous! The Spirit was so strong! :)

So on Friday we fold a puncture wound in our tire....it was a bolt!!?!?!? what lol? Anywhoo I just have bad luck with cars...lol

We have an amazing investigator named Juan :) He really is interested! We had a really good lesson with him on Saturday :) We are going to teach him all he can before he goes back to Mexico for a couple months. 

Well that is pretty much it lol It was an eventful week, but short. Something that I was studying about this week was about obedience. I really wanted to be exactly obedient in all that I do. It is really hard but I know there are blessings even miracles that come from being exactly obedient. Something that I read said that when we are obedient we receive protection from the dangers of the adversary. It is really a safety barrier between us and him. I know that when I am obedient to even the smallest things, I feel a difference and I am happier for sure. I came across this quote by President Benson that says: 

"When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment God will endow us with power"

I found this quote astonishing because it is so true! I know we become more and more converted to the Gospel when we are being obedient. The commandments turn into blessings and not burdens upon our backs. That is when we truly show our love to Heavenly Father. When we serve faithfully and cheerfully, letting Him guide us and holding nothing back. Last night we were able to attend a musical production and one of the songs said something I am rather fond of. It said 

"He will ask what is the hardest thing to give, He will ask for you to lay it down for Him. Lay it down, lay it down for Him and you will find your life again" 

Those lyrics really hit me and inspire me to want to lay down my wants and my cares and my desires to Him. This is really really hard. But I know, that we will find our true selves when we don't hold anything back from serving with our whole hearts for Him, our Beloved Savior Jesus Christ. And I leave these thoughts with you, until next week, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen :)

I love you all! Stay lovely and sweet :)

Love, Hermana Derges

Search, Ponder and Pray

Hiiiiiiya! :) I am sorry this email is so late, but! My companion and I got the chance to go to the Provo temple this morning and it was fantastic :) I loved it! If you all haven't gone to the temple in a while, I urge you to go! :) 

This week was a really really great one :) It started out on Tuesday- Hna Santos needed to renew her citizenship so we went to Salt Lake! It was really fun! We went with Elder Hamilton, one of the senior couple missionaries- It was just him and us riding in this huge passengar van-When Sister Caldwell told us that we are going just with him I was very confused haha :) so it was pretty funny and kinda weird just being my comp and I with another man. Haha. I am going to be weird when I get home! haha :) But it was a lot of fun! It was POURING and hailing. Very badly. We got there early so we got to go on a tour of the town in the van. We saw the SLC temple and the conference center, the old tabernacle and all the other neat things :) I took some pictures but they look funny because of all the rain. So that was a very fun morning.

Then next Hna Santos and I received our "Sprint to the End" letter from President McCune- otherwise known as "TRUNKY PAPERS"! lol eek! nooooooooooo time has to stop! I do have to tell you- it is very weird to think about how in 3 months I will not be a missionary. How did I ever live life in any other way?? lol So I will stop talking about that! As Hermana Cordova proudly says "Trunkiness never was happiness!!" haha :) So back to work!!

Joseph Smith Memorial Building

Then this lovely weekend, a sweet awesome hermano I taught in Saratoga Springs got baptized on Saturday!!!! Saratoga Springs is reallllly far from Santaquin, so I got to celebrate from afar :) It was the happiest news to hear that he wanted to follow the example of the Savior and be baptized!! Happy happy day!! :) 

Javier!!!

Then yesterday and Saturday were a crazy busy day with all the stake conference meetings we had! On Saturday we had the adult session and then on Sunday we had a 7am priesthood meeting, then regional broadcast at 10am with Elder Nelson and Elder Scott and then 4pm meeting in Span Fork with the Spanish missionaries and our leaders with Elder Leavitt of the 70 and President Farnsworth and a few lessons as well :) I LOVE busy busy days! They are the best. Time flies-but better yet, you are just so focused on serving the Lord and don't have time to think about yourself :)

Something I want to share from the conference yesterday was something from Elder Richard G. Scott's talk on prayer. I realized and learned that when we pray- more times than not we don't receive an answer on our knees but rather on our feet and doing the will of the Lord. Or when we are reading the scriptures or when we are quietly pondering the things of the Lord. I know this to be so so true! I love feeling the Spirit when I am pondering a question or when I am pondering about how I can improve. I just feel the Spirit so strongly and I feel so happy! I invite you to try it. If you are needing an answer, pray, and then later throughout the week ponder and read the scriptures. An answer always comes, but in the Lord's timing. When we think and ponder that same request after our initial prayer with Heavenly Father, He will see how much it really means to us and our dedication to discovering and waiting patiently for the answer :) Then we can see and feel the blessings of the Lord :)

I love you all! Keep being awesome. I hope you all have a great day and a blessed week! 

Love, Hermana Derges :)

Don't Overwhelm Yourself!

:) I hope everyone's week was fantastic :)

I had a lot of fun as well. On Monday, we went to Onion Days in Payson and there were so many people there that I knew from when I served in Payson! It was great! :) 

On Tuesday we had Zone Conference with President McCune! It was great as always :) I learned so much! One thing I learned is that we need to work on a couple things at a time and not overwhelm ourselves. I want to be exactly obedient. Which I learned, as well, that it doesn't mean perfect obedience. I can be exactly obedient and I have already seen more and more blessings from doing so than when I don't try my very best. I have the spirit with me more and I am happier :) 

Payson Temple! :)

Then for a couple days we didn't have a car because it was in the shop..lol So we were walking! It was very fun actually. We had one lady from a different church pick us up-which was SO sweet of her-but she also gave us a looooong lecture about what was going to happen to us if we keep believing what we believe and what was wrong about it...very interesting! haha I just testified to her of what I knew to be true and then we got out of the car and wished her a good day :) It was really fun walking- but it hurt! I am so grateful for a car- spoiled I know- but I really have to hand to all the missionaries who had to walk their whole mission. You. are. amazing. lol :) 

Angelica came to church last week and she also read her Book of Mormon!! Yay! She has her big citizenship test on Sept 11...but she is going to rock it! Then after she can be totally focused on learning the gospel!! Yay! :)

So next week is Stake conference which is a regional broadcast and then the following Sunday is the rededication of the Ogden Temple! All the stake centers in the Valley and in a couple other places will have it broadcasted :) The stake centers will be an actual extension of the temple :) So it will be amazing! All the people who I ask always thought that every stake center did this around the world- but it is the first time I have heard of it lol Utah perks I guess. So it will be pretty cool :) 

I got to go to Heber for one of Hna Santos baptisms :) it was SO gorgeous out there! :) Oh! And this weekend is the baptism of Javier! Someone very special that I taught back in Saratoga Springs! He has the sweetest spirit and soaks up the gospel. I am so excited for him!! :) 

This week was wonderful and I learned so much :) I know that miracles happen everyday- I heard so many by going to a couple ward's sacrament meetings yesterday. Look for the miracles in your life and share them with others :) It may brighten someone's day :)

Love you all!

love, Hermana Derges :)

True Example of the Believers

Howdy from Santaquin! :)

Onion Days!

This past week was really really fun :) 

Here are ze highlights:

>This past week I went on exchanges with Hermana Baker!!! I love her so so much! Needless to say we had a blast together :) She is seriously amazing!! :) 

>Yesterday we had a whole fifth Sunday dedicated to missionary work in the Spanish branch :) My comp and one of the elders and the WML gave a talk and an elder and I sang a song! We sang Brightly Beams our Father's Mercy. Which is one of my absolute favorites and it talks about missionary work! :) Fancy that! haha. Then we all taught the 3rd hour lesson :) It was amazing because we got to excite and pump our branch up to do missionary work! 

>Plus! Yesterday Angelica, our inv, came to church yesterday!!!! :) We just stopped by before and she quickly got ready and off we went :) yay!!

>The sweet and amazing Sister Jeffery (from Payson o so long ago lol) and her family were so sweet to go to the temple with me so that I could be there when two of my recent converts (Librado and Carlos) in Saratoga Springs could do baptisms for the dead! :) Plus Hermana Abellan and her comp, Hna Camano were there too!!! It was SO SPECIAL! :) It was Librado's second time, but Carlos' first :) it was so wonderful! :) 

>So funny story, I went with the Jeffery's while my companion Hermana Santos stayed with the Payson sisters because they had a baptism at the same time. So down in the baptismal area, guess who I saw! I saw for one, Hermana Smith (a sister I adore, who finished her mission only LAST week) and Hermana Santos' brother!!! Omg it was crazy! So I had him write her a note and I gave it to her for a surprise! I love those small yet AMAZING miracles our Heavenly Father places in our path :) 

>This past week, was in short, awesome and full of amazing things that happened :) I know that this church is true and is the ONLY true, complete, and doctrinally sound church on the entire earth. I know that through living the gospel and being a true example of the believers, others WILL see our light and want to have it too. So.....Shine it bright!!! :) 

LOVE you all!

Love, Hermana Derges :)