Women of God, Men of God, Children of God

TRANSFER WEEK!! Woohoo! I am still training Hermana Worthington and still a Sister Training Leader in Bilbao. The missionaries in our ward and district are changing up a little bit. Our two Canadian elders are leaving, Elder Coleman and Elder Hardy. It’s sad because our district has been really close. They all are such incredible examples to me and I couldn´t thank each of them enough for all they have taught me. An elder (Elder Hernandez!) from my district in Valencia is coming up to Bilbao. I also found out they are whitewashing (or putting two new hermanas into the area at the same time) my area in Valencia. The hermana that took my place in Valencia (Hermana Stilson with Hermana Gillette after me), is coming up to be a companion with Hermana Mendez (my Guatemalan companion!) in Logroño! A lot of big changes throughout the mission, with so many missionaries going from the South to the North and from the North to the South, and some going from big cities to little islands! We have about 18 new hermanas coming into the mission and 2 new elders. There are a lot of young missionaries who are being asked to train and be leaders, which is crazy, but exciting! It will cause everyone to rise up, to understand their true potential, and seize the challenge with great faith. It is going to lift this mission and everyone´s spirits ... I can´t wait … forward, upward and onward! We all need these "spiritually sky-rocketing" moments in our lives and in our missions.

Because of transfers, we had 7 hermanas stay in our apartment last night! We had fun, as they are all so special and are going to continue to see miracles in this mission. I can’t imagine being anywhere else than in the middle of Spain right now, surrounded by this army of the Lord´s servants. There is NOTHING like it.

I love my companion, Hermana Worthington, so much. She is so strong, so patient and so open and humble. She works hard, she knows why she is here, and she strengthens me and my testimony, each and every day. We have a blast together!

This week, we had the opportunity to have interviews with President Pace. The Paces are the best! I always really enjoy our interviews. Every phrase of encouragement or piece of counsel he gives me, I really take to heart. It is always inspiring, and I am always touched by his words, even if we are just sitting there for a couple of minutes, looking at each other, sharing our testimonies with tears, and simply saying “thank you” to one another. It means the world to me. He thanked me and said, "Hermana Vance, you inspire me. You are so smart, you work hard and you know what you are doing, and it shows. It is obviously working. Everything I ask you to do, or at least try, you have done. As a leader, a missionary, as a companion, as a sister, as a friend, as a daughter of God and disciple of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ … I don´t know what more I could ask you to do. Thank you for your wonderful service. It will bless you for the rest of your life. Your future husband, family, friends, life and everything you cherish, in 5 years, 10 years, or 25 years … will ALL be affected and blessed because of your faithful service. During this moment in your life and your mission, you have just sky-rocketed, and this will set the course for the rest of your life. Keep up the great work. This is a GREAT time in your mission."  When we prayed together at the end he added, "It is hard for me to see so many incredible, amazing missionaries finish their missions and go home, because it hurts and it leaves a big hole for me. But when I really get to know missionaries like you, those holes are filled. You don´t replace them, you JOIN them. You have become one of those exceptional missionaries for me in this mission. Thank you, thank you, thank you … for deciding to serve. We need you here, and that is why the Lord called you here." He said something similar during my first interview, when I came into the mission. I have always looked up to the other hermanas (Hermanas Reid, Gillette, Munns, Manwill, Mangelson, etc.), more than they could ever know, and I never knew if I could ever be like them. They always knew their purpose and stayed on it. They were flawless and consecrated missionaries in my eyes. They shaped my mission and my life. I just hope that I continue on this rising climb and become the true disciple that I know I was born to be. I can´t thank President Pace and the Lord enough for believing in me, encouraging me and trusting me. I´m excited for this next transfer with Hermana Worthington, to hit the ground running!

I saw this quote the other day, on one of the other hermana´s walls … it says: "Women of God can never be like women of the world. The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender. There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind. There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined. We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need more women of faith. We have enough greed; we need more goodness. We have enough vanity; we need more virtue. We have enough popularity; we need more purity." - Margaret Nadauld

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2000/10/the-joy-of-womanhood?lang=eng

I really liked this because she is absolutely right. This is the time to stand out and stand up; to be the women, men and children of God that He intended us to be. People can see your bright lights, your Christ-like examples and your burning testimonies. Don´t ever lose it … stay strong and steadfast in CHRIST. Don´t forget who you REALLY are, in the midst of a world that is telling you who you "should" be. You know better. You are literal sons and daughters of the Almighty God. He loves you and wants the best for you, found on the path only through Christ.

In Mosiah 3:17 it reads: "And moreover, I say unto you, that there shall be no other name given nor any other way nor means whereby salvation can come unto the children of men, only in and through the name of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent."

Remember who you are. I love you all, my brothers and sisters!

Hermana Lydia Pamela Vance

What Lack I Yet?

Time has been flying, as I just hit my 8 month mark on my mission. I hope you are all enjoying the cold; it gets chilly here too, especially next to the beach as the humidity mixes with the cold. It goes right through my bones sometimes, but I still love it. I am missing snow a little bit, but you all can make some snowmen and go sledding for me!

This past week we went to the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum with the elders and it was so fun! It was really neat to go out and see some great, famous, interesting and very different artwork!

This week our ward missionary leader, Cristian, came back from being out of town. He was working at the MTC for a few weeks, and he came back with endless stories about me that the other teachers had told him; like the one on my 3^rd day in the MTC, when I almost set the whole cafeteria on fire single-handedly. That´s what happens when you just want to warm up your bread roll for 20 seconds in the microwave, but you don’t realize one of the teachers was using it before you and set it to "oven-mode". I turned my back for a few seconds and saw black smoke everywhere! Everyone freaked out and was wondering who did it. At first, I thought the same thing … "yeah, who would do that? Who just left something in there?" Then I realized, whoops, that was me. The shameful, slow hand raise. Such funny and great memories! I miss and love that place! 

Jhon was baptized this last weekend!!! It was so incredible. The service went beautifully, and there were so many people, including many of his friends and family! What a remarkable experience to witness. He was so happy, and after the service, his mother bore a powerful, emotional testimony about all she had gone through to get her son here, and that ever since she was baptized, all she wanted was this for her children. As I was sitting beside Jhon at this time, I looked over to see tears rolling down his cheeks. You could feel the Spirit so strong, and you could feel the love within that family, after all they had gone through together and the love that Heavenly Father has for this family and all of the blessings and miracles they are going to see in their lives. Jhon has often talked to me about how badly he wants to serve a mission someday. He said "Hmm … Elder Escobar, I like the sound of that!" He is just precious! I am excited to continue to help him along this great journey. I know none of this would have happened without the help of the Lord. It was through our faith and trust in Him that all of this was possible.

This past week I was re-reading some notes I had from the conference we had with President and Hermana Pace and the Kearons. I really loved these verses, when the young man is talking to the Savior in Matthew 19:16-20:

"And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?

 And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

 He saith unto him, which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,

 Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

 The young man saith unto him, all these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?

 Jesus said unto him, if thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me."

After all we have accomplished and after all the good we do, we are still able to humble ourselves and ask, "What lack I yet?" What things are still holding me back? What can I still be doing better? I will be honest and say sometimes the answers we receive sting a little bit. We can only progress as we humble ourselves and have the desire to change and ACT.

Sister Kearon told us, "When we want to change, yes, on occasion, it does involve a little pain. You have to try and practice with it. Every time you do, you will move a little more upward on your eternal progression. The more spiritually refined you become, the more weaknesses you overcome, the more you will realize you have to improve and change. That is okay! Sometimes it takes us a month to work on something, such as a bad habit or weakness, and sometimes it can take us 10 years. Whatever it may be, DO NOT GIVE UP. EVER. The Lord is very, very patient."

Hermana Pace shared, "I have come to the acknowledgment of my weaknesses, but I have never let them immobilize me." 

As we notice these things, I can promise you that through the Lord, weak things can become strong. He is molding and shaping us into our divine identity. Every time we chip off a rough edge, we become more refined, but then we find another edge to work on. It is an ongoing process to our eternal perfection, only made possible through our perfect example, which is our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I love Him. I love His gospel, and I know He is at the head of this church and the forefront of this grand work of salvation … especially here in Spain.

Let him refine you, day by day, and I promise, you will never regret it.

Love ya’!

Hermana Vance

Choose You This Day Whom You Will Serve

HELLO 2015!!! I cannot believe we have hit another New Year! Like Christmas, we were able to spend time with our district, and it was a so much fun! We were able to stop by more houses together, and we went to a British man´s house, Michael, for lunch. Once again, MORE food! I thought I was going to pop! We had TONS of seafood, which I still don´t like very much, but I picked through the pile of shrimp and peeled them apart myself. He made me eat about 7 of them! All of the Elders were just laughing at me. Haha, it was fun. Later, we went to an older lady’s house, Nieves, and she gave us even MORE food! We had some pretty good laugh attacks from being stuffed!

We stopped by a nursing home where this older man, Mario, is living. He was so sweet and we sang for everyone that was there before they had their dinner. All of their faces just LIT UP! They loved it, and I loved it! 

We are teaching a 14-year-old kid named Jhon right now. He is from Bolivia and he just got here to Spain about a month ago. His mom had been living here and finally had enough money to bring him over. They were so excited. His mother is a member of about two years, and she is just wonderful. We have been working with him and teaching him a lot, and he is so prepared.

New Year´s Eve and Day were just crazy and fun! All through the night there were fireworks and people yelling and I could not sleep! It was wild, haha, and apparently there is a tradition that when the hour hits midnight, you eat 12 grapes from cups and celebrate. Since we didn’t really know this Spanish tradition, we thought that we had the last 12 seconds to eat the 12 grapes as fast as we possibly could before it hit midnight! So we were lying in bed, 12 seconds before midnight, having a 12 second/12 grapes countdown! We almost died we were laughing so hard! It was the best; I love being with Hermana Worthington, she is just great!

That next day, New Year´s Day, I really did try to take time to think about this past year, 2014. It was a GREAT year, full of moments that have changed my life forever, and that I will NEVER forget. But I was also thinking about the year 2015, and what is to come, and my dreams and goals for this next year and how I can reach them.

Nieves said something very interesting to us about the New Year that I really liked. She said, "The change within you happens, the moment you decide to change your life for the better. It´s that day, that moment, that decision. It’s not just when the year changes, and everyone else is doing it, or when it is kind of the 'cool' thing to do."

It made me think of two scriptures in the Bible:

"... choose you this day whom ye will serve … but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.  Joshua 24:15

 "No servant can serve two masters ..." Luke 16:13

Now I ask you all, as I asked myself the other day … WHOM will you serve? WHEN will you make that decision? It is perhaps the most important choice any of us could make. Will it be tomorrow, or the next day, or the next day? Will we wait to the point where we don´t even remember what we were deciding in the first place, or until we lose sight of what is really important, what really matters, and what is going to matter eternally?

Or … will we choose THIS day?

Then every day we have that choice to make. I will be forever grateful for the choice I made to serve a mission and to serve the Lord. Even so, I still need to make that choice EVERY SINGLE DAY out here. I am still learning, I am still very young, I make mistakes, I have doubts, I have fears, I have questions, I have trials, and I am certainly very far from perfect. But I KNOW that Christ IS perfect, and that if we do our very best to follow His example, we can never go wrong. We can only go forward, upward and onward. Through our mistakes and trials, we can be strengthened and healed. Through our doubts and fears, we can receive peace and hope for a better and brighter future in HIS love.

I know that God loves me and hears my prayers, and that as for ME and MY house … WE. WILL. SERVE. THE. LORD.

I love you all dearly and can feel your prayers on my behalf. I thank you for the incredible lives you lead, and for all that you have taught me throughout my life. Remember to look to your Savior. He loves you, and so do I.

Que Dios Les Bendiga,

Hermana Lydia Vance