November 25, 2014

November 25, 2014

LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!

Okay, well I have some COOL, but COOL stories to tell this week!!!! So lets see, first... Yesterday we were sharing something with Hna Stephanie after church. It was awesome because we were just outside on the grass enjoying the Spirit and the warm sun!!!! It was AWESOME!!!! Well we hadn't really planned out what we were going to be sharing for her because it was just a lesson out of nowhere, but I just started talking and some how it led into Martrimonio Eterno, (Eternal Marriage) because we were talking about the Temple. She had gone to the temple last Thursday, she didn't go in, she wanted to but plans changed and she just got to go enjoy the outside for a bit!!! I was disappointed that she didn't end up being able to go in, but she said she felt the Spirit outside and loved it!!! She is excited to go again soon and take family names!!!! Stephanie is the only member in her family right now, she was the first to have the courage to be baptized!!!! Her family will soon follow!!! Yo se!!! One of her sisters came to the church for her confirmation, but came late and then left right after Sacrament ended. She regularly attends the Catholic church, but we are praying for her! You can too! Her name is Caroline! And we just met her little brother Wilber yesterday, who is 14, I think... I hope to tell you more of the story of how we met him in a second, but he could really progress in these next few weeks too!!! We are going to be working with him!!!! But so Stephanie's mom has been giving her a bit of a hard time for her decision to be baptized and it has been a bit trying for her, but we are praying for her mom and I know things will turn around and I know she has her Savior at her side!!!! Listen to this: So we were teaching yesterday after church about eternal marriage and the goal of going to the Temple when I felt out of no where to express that Christ feels everything she feels, that all that is happening right now adjusting to living the Gospel, is hard, but that is okay, because He truly understands!!!!! I shared how my companion accidentally burnt herself the other day, when she was making me breakfast actually, and I used the experience as an example to show that I dont have the pain of her burn so its hard for me to remember sometimes that she is hurt, but she does all the time because she feels it! I was sharing that even if it seems like others have forgotten us at times, we can ALWAYS know that our Savior has not forgotten us, because He literally feels all the pain that we are passing through!!! He can not forgot us!!!! We are imprinted on His hands and feet!!! 1 Nephi 21:15!!!!! And then it was really cool because she asked if we pray out loud. We answered that yes we pray out loud together as companions through out the day and in our personal prayers we also pray out loud sometimes. And then she told us that the Sunday before when she had knelt down to pray, she felt sad and frustrated with the situation with her mom and then as she was praying she heard my voice, my companion's voice and the voice of Hna Luna praying for her!!!! And she knew we loved her and she wasn't alone!!!! HOW AMAZING IS THAT?!!!!!! I honestly dont know how the Lord works miracles like that, but oh He does!!! I am SO GRATEFUL!!!!!! SO GRATEFUL to know that the Lord LIVES and LOVES us!!!!! That He is here for us!!!!!! EVERY SINGLE STEP of the way!!!!! Well lets see, so like I mentioned before in other letters, I believe, the Familia Luna are PILAS!!!! But seriously, PILISIMAS!!!!! They ALWAYS help us with whatever they can do they are ALWAYS SO HAPPY to help!!!!!!! W are SO THANKFUL for them!!!!! Like the other night we where in a sketchy part of town and we felt a little sacred so we called them to see if they could give us a ride home so we wouldn't have to walk alone back to the house, because it was almost 9. Their car is really old and I dont know how it is still running but they came and got us and took us home! And when I saw them I noticed that Hna Luna was in her pajamas and I asked, "Were y'all sleeping when I called?!" They had been, but they were not upset whatsoever, just happy to help!!!! :D :D :D I know that they are building there Home on High!!!! They to me are the PERFECT example of 3 Nephi 13: 19-21!!!! "Lay up your treasures in Heaven, where moth and dust do not corrupt... because where your treasure is there will be your heart also."!!!!!!! They live in a tiny little house that is made of metal sheets and hard plastic, but I can testify that their mansion in the Heavens is GINORMOUS and GORGEOUS!!!!! They are teaching me SO MUCH of how I can really put what matters first and Serve the Lord with all my heart!!! They have so little physically, but SO MUCH joy Spiritually in their home!!!! We got to spend almost the whole day yesterday with them after we gave our house a good cleaning job, a few cock roaches and flies had to be evicted. ;) We played soccer and ate lunch with them!!!! It was THE BEST!!!!! I have pictures, but I forgot my camera. I will send them along later! I Hope y'all get to meet them one day!!!! I told them I was going to bring my brothers to play soccer!!!! Well I have got to go!!!! But I LOVE Y'ALL!!!!!! HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!!!!!! Love, Hna Tarah Ray Sherrod!!!! Please pray for Doming and Alan y Aridane. We are preparing them to be baptized on Sunday!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

November 17, 2014

November 17, 2014

So this week....

Okay!!!!! So to answer Mom's question from the other email: YES!!!! We are still teaching Brenda and Miguel!!! They weren't there when we knocked in the morning to take them to church. But we did have a short lesson with Brenda earlier in the week and from what I understood she did pray and ask about Joseph Smith and said she felt good!! We found her in the morning on like Wednesday and right as we came, her dad who doesn't actually live there, but actually lives near the Temple was there and he told us that he and his wife are members of the church!!! That they were baptized about 4 years ago!!!!! HOW COOL IS THAT?!!!!!! He doesn't have a phone, so it'll be hard to communicate with him, but we did get his address so that we can tell him to come when they are going to baptized. They dont have a baptismal date yet, because its been hard to teach them, they haven't been home and such, but we are going to keep trying!!!! I have Fe!!! I feel that God sent me to them or them to me!!! And if I dont do anything else in this area I want to baptize them!!!

But speaking of the area, we are actually teaching A LOT of positive people!!!! We found this girl this week Kenia, who is 18. We found her two weeks ago and just shared something short and left a pamphlet, but when we came back on Saturday she had read it all!!! And she understood everything. We explained about how Christ's church was organized and how it was restored by Joseph Smith!!! At the end of the lesson in her prayer, she asked that she would be able to feel that this all was true!!!! She is GOLDEN!!! Please pray for her!!!!

Also this other boy we are teaching, Domingo came to church on Sunday!!!! He has a baptismal date for the 30th of this month!!! Please pray hard for him!!!! He is a good kid!!! And has a good desire to be baptized!!! He just has a hard time reading in the Book of Mormon and its hard for him to stay reverent in the lessons, because is SO FUNNY!!!! Every lesson he has us laughing SO HARD!!!!

So, that is how it is going with teaching for the most part!!! We had a couple of cool teaching experiences teaching people who dont actually live in our area, but we passed them on as references to the other areas. There was this one lady that said 10 years ago she was going to church, but she never understood about Joseph Smith, she didn't like that part. We taught her about how important Prophets are and challenged her to pray and ask God if He has Called a Prophet in these days. She said that she didn't need to pray, because she could already feel that he was a Prophet, that she had never understood before, but now listening to it again she did!!!! The Spirit was really strong!!! It was really cool!!!!

Well, I gotta go!!!! But remember to ALWAYS look for someone you can share the Gospel with!!!! This work does not go forward without references from the members!!!! Nothing happens until we find someone to teach!!!!!! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!! THANKS for the prayers!!!!!!! I am praying for y'all EVERYDAY!!!!! Love, Tarah Ray Sherrod!!!!!!!

November 17, 2014

November 17, 2014

Re: Package has been sent

Yeah, I guess I exaggerated the shoulders thing, but if feels barely to my shoulders so... But yeah, I like it! I am still planning on growing it out, but it doesn't look bad or anything! And I have been getting complements like crazy from the members when I have it straightened. Its really funny! I used to wear my hair straightened a lot in high school and got complements when I started doing it curly more often, here its the opposite!! haha!!!! THANK YOU SOOOOOOOO MUCH for sending the package!!!!! Seriously!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LE AMO BUSTANTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I had thought of a request for the package you wanted to send for Christmas, but you have already sent it, haha! I had thought of a package of double stuffed Oreos because my companion LOVES, but seriously LOVES them!!! You cant get them here or in Ecuador. She has only tried them from her other Norte companions, but I thought of that this week. It would be awesome if I could give her those!!! Also Javier who got married and baptized, he has been attending church for over a decade now and already knows all the basics, but he is really interested in the Spirit World and all that about family history work and now that he can participate it'll be really cool to see what miracles happen!!! But we were talking about the Spirit World and he expressed a lot of interest in knowing how it is in the Spirit World, I shared a few things that I know from the personal experiences we (you and I and the family) have had and what we have studied but I mentioned the book The Message. He can read English so he has an interest in reading it, so I wanted to give him a copy!!! But if I am remembering right, when you send packages its just in the box that is 20 dollars no matter what weight and then more depending on where you are sending it right? So if it is a lot of money to just sent those two things, dont worry about it!!! I can send them along at a later time!!! I will certainly be praying that the package gets here!!! Hna Macia and I are SO Hoping that we will spend Christmas together. We have been talking about Christmas traditions and everything and I am SO EXCITED to have another Christmas here in Guatemala!!! We broke out the Christmas music this morning, Josh Groban and Celine Dion!!! I am SO GRATEFUL and HAPPY that this year I can think about being apart at Christmas and enjoy Christmas music without sending me into a panic attack because of my depression like last year!!! It was like exactly a year ago that I was starting to have serious panic attacks and depression and wow, I am just SO THANKFUL that the Lord healed me!!!! It is a MIRACLE!!!! Heavenly Father really, truly LOVES US ALL!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH for ALL of your prayers!!!! Because I know He healed me by your Fe!!!!!! But seriously, I am SO looking forward to Christmas!!!! I of course would LOVE to be home with y'all, but I am SO THANKFUL and HAPPY to be a Missionary right now and to have the opportunity to give the Message of our Savior and Redeemer that makes Christmas SO SPECIAL and SO IMPORTANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I AM SERIOUSLY SO EXCITED for CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!! And I AM SO THANKFUL and SOOOOOOOOO HAPPY for the Peace I fill in my Calling as a Missionary this year!!!!!!!!!!! It is SUCH an AMAZING MIRACLE for me!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know God lives and that HE LOVES US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And its cool because I am in a climate that it is more or less similar to the climate Christ would of been born into!!!! WHOOHOO!!!! And if the Tree is still up when I come home I would LOVE that!!!!!!!!!!!!! SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!!!!! So just whatever y'all want to do!!!!!!!!!! Well I am going to read some and write some more!!!! LOVE, Your daughter, Tarah Ray!!!!!

November 11, 2014

November 11, 2014

November 11, 2014

November 11, 2014

I AM SO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!

Well so this week my sister got married!!!!!!!!! WHOOHOO!!!!!!!!!!! I have

another brother!!! YIKES!!! Just kidding!!!!! I am SOOOOOOOO HAPPY and

EXCITED for Eternal Families!!!!!!!! I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO THANKFUL to our

Heavenly Father for His Eternal, ABSOLUTELY PERFECT Plan of HAPPINESS for

His children!!!!!!!!! He LOVES EACH and EVERYONE of us, with a PERFECT LOVE

and I AM SOOOOOOOOO GRATEFUL for the opportunity to testify EVERY DAY SO

MANY TIMES that He LIVES, HE LOVES US!!!!! And He has a PERFECT plan and I

testify that no matter what you are going through, no matter Satan is

trying to throw at you, ALL sadness can be swept in the Perfect Hope that

He LIVES and LOVES us!!!! That Christ died for EACH and EVERYONE of

us!!!!!! ALL of us can change and be made PERFECT in Him!!!! I KNOW its

true!!!!!!!! I testify as a Representative of Jesus Christ that He LIVES,

He LOVES YOU and He wants ALL of us to return home and He has restored His

TRUE church and Gospel to the Earth and because He has done that, FAMILIES

CAN BE TOGETHER FOREVER!!!!!!!!!! I know The Lord LOVES US and He will

complete with ALL of His promises as we are Faithful and strive to follow

and become as He is!!! As we live as He did!!!! Obedient to our Father in

Heaven, with exactness ALWAYS!!!!!!!!

So Stephanie was baptized this week!!!!!!!!! It was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was durring the week so it was just a few

members, the familia Luna who introduced us to her (we have been

teaching her in their home), the Bishop and a few others, another friend of

Stephanie who is a member too!!!! It was cool, because there was a small

earthquake right after she was baptized as we were singing hymns and

waiting for her to come out of the bathroom!! And one of the sisters there

said that it was shaking all the way from the Heavens because the Angels were

rejoicing!!! And I said, that it was the gates of hell shaking, because

another prisoner had gone free!!!!!!!! 

I am SO THANKFUL for the GOSPEL!!!!!!! I know when we are bauptized are wrongs are washed away and we are forgiven for our sins!!!!! I am SO THANKFUL for ALL the Miracles this week!!!!!!!!!! I AM SO THANKFUL that we can make Covenants with God and that He will ALWAYS lead us by the Spirit to completing those

covenants with Him!!!!!!!! Heavenly Father wants us home!!!! He will NOT

let us fail!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE the Lord!!!!!!!!!!!

Well this is all for this week, I will be writing more next week I hope!!!!

Hna Macias and I are still doing GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She is SO

AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOOOOOOVE HER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We decided that she

will be marrying Vallan!!!! hahahaha!!!!!!!!!!

LOVE YALL!!!!!!!!

Love,

Tarah Ray Sherrod!!!!!!!!!

November 11, 2014

November 4, 2014

November 4, 2014


Okay, so this week....
 
SO!!!! How are y'all?!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And guess what, I know Heavenly Father LOVES us too!!!!!!!!!! ABSOLUTLEY PERFECTLY!!!!!!!!!!!!! So this week was changes. I received the BEST companion EVER!!!!!!!!!!!! No seriously, the BEST EVER!!!!!!!!!!! Her name is Hna. Macias, she is from Ecuador!!!! She is PILAS, but seriously PILAS!!!!! She has 5 months in the Mission and I am like, WOW!!! If you are that good at 5 months in the Mission I cant even imagine what the Lord has in store for you to do here!!!!! It was really funny, because when they announced the cambios, we were actually sitting right next to each other and we had been in the same zone before in El Frutal and I told her, I want you, I am going to be SO THANKFUL if you are my companion! And what do you know?!!! She is teaching me SOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously!!!! I had been praying that I would be able to learn how to ask better inspired questions and teach people with more love according to their needs and Heavenly Father sent me the PERFECT companion to teach me that!!!!! Asking inspired questions, testifying of the Truth with true LOVE for the people really is the talent of Hna Macias!!!! She is also SO DILIGENT, right on top of things and ALWAYS Serving!!!!!!!! She finishes one task and there she is doing another one until all is in order and done and she does it so happily and with love!!! Like seriously, you guys, she makes me breakfast like everyday!!!! Hahaha!!! She is the BEST!!!!!!!! The Mission work with her isn't work at all, its Mission Fun!!!!!!!!! Having a good companion who supports you, who is willing to make sacrifices and reach for the same goals really makes all the difference at how effectively you work!!!!! I KNOW we will see miracles these next few weeks, we have a goal of 400 baptisms in the Mission for the month of November, and 7 here in our area!!!! We have A LOT of prepared people, please just continue to pray for us and them so that we will find God's Sheep and bring them back to His fold!!!! And GUESS WHAT?!!!!! THIS WEEK WE HAVE A BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Remember Estfani from a couple weeks ago who had already been coming to church and had a Book of Mormon and reading it and we just didn't know?!!!! Well, she is getting baptized on Thursday at 7!!!! She will be out of town on Sunday so we are having the baptism before then, because you know how the enemy attacks! So please with all your Fe pray that her interview and baptism will all go over well!!!! We are trying to have a Family Home Evening with her today with the Bishop in his house!!! I am SO THANKFUL for this Miracle Heavenly Father has Blessed us with with Estfani and I know that their are many more Miracles waiting for us this month!!!!! BRING IT ON!!!! I testify as a Representative of Jesus Christ that He lives and LOVES us and that we all can make sacred covenants with Him because His power and authority has been restored to the Earth through a True Prophet, Joseph Smith!!!! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOVE, Hna Tarah Ray Sherrod!!!!!!!!!!!

November 4, 2014

November 4, 2014

We went to the Temple!!!!!! I AM SO THANKFUL!!!!!!!!!! AND SOOOOOOOO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE THE TEMPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And the new video was AMAZING!!!!!!!!! The Church of Jesus Christ really does amazing work!!!!!!!!!! The Church is True yall!!!!!!!!!!!

November 4, 2014

November 4, 2014

Hey this is our last baptism we had!!! That is me, Hna. Graham, Javier, his wife Brenda and Hno. Herenendez who baptized him!!! Such a pretty familia!!! They will be sealed in a year!!! WHOOHOO!!!!! I testify as a personal Representative of Jesus Christ that Heavenly Father TRULY LOVES ALL OF HIS CHILDREN and desires ALL of us to have the ETERNAL HAPPINESS that He has!!!!!!! I know it is possible when we follow the Perfect example of our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ and make covenants with our Father in Heaven and we keep those covenants!!!!!!