boost.

I've been trying to figure out the solution to the following question, "how do you raise a ward's self esteem?" There's this kind of depressing attitude in the ward (church congregation) I'm serving in. They seem to think of themselves as 'black sheep' with cries of, "we're the poorest ward.' 'we want to move to this ward instead.' Last night we dropped in on Hna Marroquin (primary president) and she said, "We have to take pride in our ward like we have prides about our home countries. This is our ward, and we have to fight for it."

I know that missionary work is the cure-all. We have so many return missionaries living within our ward boundaries, and we just have to excite and rekindle that missionary fire in the ward. My companions and I are planning an activity, a "fiesta de 'P'" so to speak, pelicula (the other side of heaven), palomitas (popcorn), pijamas (pajamas), and pizza!

We're working hard to help change the attitude of the ward, this situation reminds me VERY much of a story President Monson shared once in conference about Kingston, Canada a place missionaries had labeled, "stony kingston" because no one baptized there. President Monson closed the area, but then built up the hype about the area talking it up as the place where President Brigham Young once baptized 35 people. (full story found here. My companions and I have a similar plan of attack, we've decided that every time we are in a member's home, we are going to talk the ward up a storm, we're going to help the members feel that their ward is something to be proud of!

In other news, Saturday we had a knock at our door, a pair of Jehovah's Witnesses came to share their message. I know what it's like to be a missionary and knock doors so we opened and spoke to them. We explained how we were Mormon missionaries, and they had actually just caught us during the middle of our studies. They proceeded then to kind of attack us, asking us where in the bible it said the Mormon church was true, what God's name was, etc. The interesting thing was that all the things they used to ask us, I helped them to see didn't exactly strengthen their beliefs or arguments. For example, we taught them briefly the Plan of Salvation about the reason Adam and Eve were sent, etc. He questioned us saying "where in the bible does it say that?" But, the man later proceeded to say that God had stopped the angels from stopping Satan, that he wanted Adam and Eve to create a perfect people, and I asked, "well, where in the Bible does it say that?" Hna Dedrick pointed out that in the end, we learned nothing really about their beliefs, except that they don't at all agree with ours, but we were able to bear testimony about the nature of God, the plan of Salvation, and our ultimate purpose on earth.

Lastly, we started teaching Pedro how to read! We bought a little tablet to help him learn to write letters, and we've also been leaving him assignments to find and circle letters in the Book of Mormon. The other day, we wrote letters and words on a dry erase board to help him recognize and learn to read small words. Pedro only knows how to right his full name in All-caps so we wrote down his name on a board and had him sound it out. I wish you all could see the joy on his face when he sounded out, "peh-d-ro." He brightened up when he said, "That's my name!!!!" It was so cute. Pedro has a desire to know what he needs to do to follow Jesus Christ, and this Saturday we're planning on showing him the restoration movie and extending a baptismal date. So pray for us please! We need your combined faith! I love you all. I love the ward I'm in, it's the best.

Love,
Hna Flores

Picking up supplies at Zone Conference. :]

free lunch at a member's taco truck!

It was Christopher's birthday (he turned 12) and so we made a chocolate cake with sparkle candles! Christopher and his mother are recent converts and he got the priesthood on Sunday! :]