Hola, Hola, Hola!

Hola a todos:D

Things are going pretty well here in California:) this week we had a zone conference with elder Dykes from the quorum of the seventy! It was really really uplifting! Many things were said that touched my heart, they talked allot about finding and using members:) me and my comp right now have worked a lot on finding this week, and I have definitely learned that it is very different to find here, but still good! Haha from what ive experienced so far they don't talk quite as much as Puerto Ricans and maybe arent as oersoanl and i just guess are more cautious:) its just getting used to a new culture:) but it's okay because I am very determined to learn new ways And know what I can say that will open their doors to us, haha it's a work in progress, I may be falling sometimes but I'm falling up!

This week there were also many language barriers... Haha not something I expected a lot of but there are many Chinese in my area and we also met someone who spoke Russian! I love the diversity but it is definitely different not knowing what language many speak and not being able to talk to them, but I am determined now to learn our church name in Mandarin:) 

I am still learning a lot and the adjustment is still an adjustment:) The one thing that heavenly father continually blesses me with is a quiet assurance that it's all going to work out and that the people I love are receiving as much divine help as i am, I often think of peop,e in contacts who we shared a little of our message with and I truly pray they will remember us and the truths told. Sometimes in missionary work is easy to ask yourself if we are doing any good, maybe we could go a whole day and not one person could answer their door and we may ask well what was the purpose? I thought I was led to these houses and for sure thought at east one person would let us back? I believe the answer from heaven,y father would be yes, I needed you to talk to that person today, because that's one step closer to the day where they will open their door, or maybe when we share and give them a book of Mormon it was for times like these, when they may remember us and open the book. I just know with all my heart that this church true Something I have also learned from our new youth theme next year is that when there is no peace on earth there is peace in Christ, his love for us in incomprehensible. I love this gospel so so much!

Please keep Puerto Rico in our thoughts and prayers, I love them so much and they deserve all the love in the world they are so so special!!<3 

I love you all so much, they you so much for your continuous love and prayers!!

Con mucho Amor, Hermana Zimmerman 

 we visited a Mexican markesito today!

 me y my companera:)

The Lord's Hand :)

Hola todos:D les amo muchisimo!

I've officially been here for about 2 weeks now,  and ive realized I haven't talked a ton about it yet, but I have had some really cool experiences and definitely seen the Lord's hand through all the things that have happened<3 

Milagros que hemos visto:)

We have been able to find some really sweet people! We have a family who had been taught by missionaries before, and she said that they had recently just talked about how they want to go to church! In our first lesson with them we started by singing families puede Ser eternas, and she loved it and had tears in her eyes, they are very special:) 

Another miracle we saw was with a sweet menos active who my comp said hasn't let missionaries come in forever, we stopped by, and it had been a kinda long day so I just really said a prayer in my heart that she would let us in, and she answered, talked to us for a little bit and offered us to come and sit down, truly a miracle and an answer to a prayer:)

We also saw another MILAGRO with a sweet mom of 3, we came and stopped by for our return appointment and after many knocks she didn't answer, and in Puerto Rico we just call at houses, so since the window was opened we figured it was worth shot, so i just kinda went for it feeling riht at home and I called at the house "buenastardes!" And a little girl came to the window! She got her mom and we were able to teach the plan of salvation! It felt so good and it has been really cool to try things we did in puerto rico here, one of which has been singing too!

I am doing good here, as i am learning to trust in the Lord, but also little things like, you should never eat a bag of doughnuts before a dinner appointment.... haha:) also I still definitely buy canned chicken every time I go to the store! Haha I tru,y came to love it!

Also on saturday i was asked to give  a talk for Sunday about my conversion and our eexperience in Puerto Rico,  hahaha kinda short notice but a perfect topic, it has really allowed me to recognize how my conversion really has been on my mission, and how I am here being shaped into the person he needs me to be, many people ask me what it was like to be a missionary in Puerto Rico during hurricane Maria, and honestly it's one of my greatest blessings I have been given, I have grown and seen the Lord's love and hand in ways I never have been able to before, so for that I am forever grateful to be a Puerto Rican missionary<3

I love you alllll so much! Thank you so much for your love and prayers, especially for the prayers toward Puerto Rico, our little island that CAN! 

Con mucho Amor, Hermana Zimmerman:)

1-2 me and my comp

3 us and the sister training leaders one of which is Hermana Logan who was in my ward at BYU

4 area, la skyline:)

D&C 84:88

Hola todos:)

My pray was switched to today because we went to the LA temple:D

First I love you all SO much and am so grateful for the love and support you have shown me and my family<3

So a little bit about where i am in California, I am in an area by east LA called belvedere, we are pretty close to the city and can see a beautiful skyline at night :D Also in this mission there are 7 languages and so there is so much diversity which I love! My zone is all Spanish and I am in a Spanish ward who are all super kind and awesome:) My companion is Hermana Hirschi, she is from Idaho and has 2 transfers left in her mission and is very kind:)

Over the past 2 weeks I have come very close to my Savior and come to rely more on the doctrines I teach everyday, so for that I am very grateful, one truth I have come to learn so far is about the Lord's plan for us, sometimes things can't happen any other way than they do, we have to go through the hard to see the good, and be brought down so we look up and rely on our savior even more. And to be honest over the last two weeks i have learned how to rely on my savior, especially through prayer and the blessings of the priesthood. This Sunday my grandpa Zimmerman passed away, so over the last few days I have really tried to find the peace he promises us as this on top of everything else felt like a little much, this week i have felt peace and comfort through so many experiences and I know our savior loves us. I love him and he loves me, and i know he cares about me as I have seen little tender mercies and come to gain a better understanding of the simple principles of the gospel. I know with all my heart hat my savior lives and that my sweet grandpa is in a better place I have felt his love for me and the gospel, especially in the temple today. I have come to recognize  the importance of my calling and I just know all of the pieces of everything that has happened will fit together! Heavenly father wants and needs us to rely on him because he is always there for us. I have felt the reality of this scripture this week 

D&C 84:88

"And whosoever receivers you, there I will be also, for i will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and my angels round about you, to bear you"

 He loves us so much, and is always there for us! I love you all so much<3

I can't even express how grateful I am for all of you! I have felt so much love the second we landed in Florida we were encompassed with, you are all amazing love you guys dearly:)

Con mucho amo, Hermana Zimmerman:)

Cutting a coconut! Luckily a man with a machete helped us out:)

 Our yummy food:) haha I really do lived canned chicken now!

 Our parents are the best!

 Hermana Rich :D

 my Puerto Rico Hermana Guido

 New comp in Arcadia Hermana Hirschi

 Went to the temple we arrive in California!

8 months down :D

Puerto Rico :(

Hola a todos:D

I honestly have no idea where to even begin this email, I have so many thoughts to share from these past 2 weeks. As many of you know hurricane Maria came and directly hit Puerto Rico:(, so I guess I will just tell our little story and hope to show the many ways we saw the hand of Lord helping and watching put for us

We heard that the hurricane was predicted to hit Puerto Rico the Saturday before, and so like we had done with hurricane Irma we all went to the store that night to prepare! Over the next few days we definitely knew that this hurricane was bigger than Irma because everybody was preparing and talking about it way more, and telling us to prepare. We then began to prepare our house for the hurricane but Tuesday morning we got a text that said we were all to pack a small bag, bring all our food and water and go to the mission home where we would all be staying for the hurricane. So all of the hermanas (50) went to the mission home and the elders (100) went to the mission office. We were just spread out throughout the mission home over the next week became so so so close! The hurricane hit Wednesday morning at around 3am and the worst was over around 10am. Our house was good besides a little flooding in one bedroom and water coming through the ceiling because the roof covering came off, it was honestly incredible how our house took so little damage, we were very divinely protected and during the storm felt very calm and safe!  After the hurricane and when the winds and rain calmed we were allowed to go outside, it was so sad to see the damage and we could only stay within our urbinazation and so for the next few days we helped families clean up their houses and cleared many roads. The entire island lost electricity and we lost water, but we had many flashlights and candles:) and the day after the storm we helped our neighbor clean up his backyard and so he let us use his pool to wash our hair and to use the water to flush the toilets. This was a HUGE tender mercy, the fence was down too and we used a board to get across it and it worked so well! We then over the next few days began to realize how bad it reakly was, people couldmt get a hold family across the island and we couldn't get a hold of anyone in our areas either, we knew that trees had blocked many freeways and so transportation was hard too, then on Friday night president smart with tears in his eyes told us they were evacuating our mission and he read through our new missions. I was assigned to the California Arcadia mission Spanish speaking along with 3 other hermanas and 2 elders. This was the last thing we were prepared to hear and absolutely broke our hearts, we all packed and were ready to head out the next morning. The airport was pretty crazy, and they were only able to get 35 hermana out on Saturday, I stayed for the next 3 days and I am so grateful I was able to, i became even closer to the 19 girls who stayed and we shared many spiritual experiences together. Over the next few days we tried to get flights out but because of the confusion on flights being booked and then dropped the church chartered a plane and we all left Tuesday and then stayed the night in Miami, we then all headed out to out new missions. These are our temporary reassignment and we all hope to return as soon as Puerto Rico is builds up a little again and I pray everngiyh for my beautiful island the people I have come to love there.

I know this is already the longest email but I just wanted to share some miracles and spiritual experiences we saw through all of this

1. The first miracle is that president and hermana smart brought us all in before the storm, they had the plans set of who was going to move and combine with other missionaries on the island of those who were expected to get hit the worst, but that say they both received a very strong spiritual impression to "Bring them home" they followed this prompting and had all of the missionaries together which was a huge miracle! 

2. Another miracle is that after the storm we were all able to call our families! I still am amazed at how this was able to happen because our phones could hardly contact anyone even to get in contact with the elders and after it usually took president smart all day to make a couple phone calls from his satellite phone to salt lake it was another huge tender mercy we saw from our loving heavenly father!

3. One story I wanted to share was when we were working around the neighborhood, it was so incredible to see so many hearts open, we were able to share a little bit of our message with many and sing songs to people and many want to hear from missionaries, this is a neighborhood that has been contacted many times and we saw so many miracles and people who so humble and full of gratitude. One story I wanted to share was really cool and special to me, we helped clear the parking lot of a Catholic church that took a lot of damage and they were going to have their service outside I believe the next day. We spent the day clearing trees and after we sang I am a child on God, he said that he could feel the presence of God and we could too, it was such a special moment for all of us and brought so so much joy. The next day we heard that they put the "Mormon women" on their prayer roll, it was so incredible to be able to serve this sweet community and see the Lord truly working miracles!

4. The last story I wanted to share was the Sunday before we left, there were about 20 of us, and we had sacrament in the mission home, it was one of the most spiritual sacraments I have ever had and I wasn't even wearing shoes,the spirit truly touched my heart and we knew he was with us all, we then had a small testimony meeting

I am so so full of gratitude for all of the love and support I have received, I have the most amazing family and friends in the world, it truly still is heartbreaking but one thing I learned in general conference is how we must trust in the Lord, I gained a song testimony that God has a plan for us in my last transfer and it we true then and it's true now. I love Puerto Rico please please please keep praying for them, God is preparing manybmighty miracles for them! I love you all so so much!!

Con MUCHO amor, Hermana Zimmerman:)

 cleaning up from the storm

 Hermana Rich and me :D

Sister Smart and us right after the storm!

HURRICANE MARIA !!!

This is Eliza's mom-
As many of you know Hurricane Maria had a direct hit on the whole Island of Puerto Rico. Tues. afternoon all the missionaries were given the instruction to get straight to the mission home. I was so grateful for President and Sister Smart for gathering them together so that they would all be accounted for. The Hurricane ended up absolutely devastating the Island and took out cell towers and creating a complete power outage for all of Puerto Rico. Eliza was able to call me Wed. after the worst of the storm had passed to let me know that they were all safe, and had plenty of food and water. She said, I grabbed my scriptures and journals. I'm not sure what else she was able to grab, because we didn't talk too long. She told me she was planning on returning to her apt. within a couple of days. As we here at home saw pictures coming in showing just how bad things were, and hearing that roads were not passable I knew she wouldn't be returning to her area. She would not be able to go back and get anything. Friday I read in the  Deseret News saying that they were evacuating all the missionaries temporarily from Puerto Rico. They would all be reassigned to stateside missions. We received a call from the Church Sat. informing us that Eliza was reassigned to the Arcadia, California mission.
Today is Sept. 26, 2017 - Last weekend 36 Sister missionaries were able to make it out and to their new missions. Eliza was one of 17 Sisters still in Puerto Rico. I heard today that the Church chartered a plane to get all the missionaries out and fly them to Miami. I'm hoping I will hear from her soon. Thanks to Facebook someone posted these pictures and it was so great to see her in the group. I know she is safe, and will have many stories to tell of the miracles and tender mercies that she's been able to see this past week. Thank you to all who have prayed for her and all the missionaries and people of Puerto Rico. I hope in a few months she will be able to return to the people of Puerto Rico and help them rebuild their country. I've talked to Eliza's new mission Pres. wife and she is ready to welcome her and help take care of her immediate needs. There has been an outpouring of love and concern and a willingness to help Eliza with the things she needs. My heart is full of gratitude and love!!  I am grateful to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, where we unite in our wards everywhere to help watch over and take care of each other. This has been the case with these missionaries!
I hope the next entry will be from Eliza herself. Much love, mamma Zimm

Hopefully getting on a plane for the States :D

Milagro after Milagro!

Hola HOLA hola!

This week has been so incredible!  First I got my hija last monday!!  Her name is Hermana Rich, she is from Roy Utah and an absolute sweetheart!  We have had so much fun this week and she really is just amazing i love her dearly!!  It definitely has been an adjustment trying to learn how to train but I can't even describe how much the Lord has helped me, and my greenie is such a blessing to me!

First a little about our week, we truly did see so many miracles this week especially when finding.  It has been so amazing to truly see the hand of the Lord in the work and in our lives, he is so incredibly aware of us!  We saw this everyday!  While contacting a lot of times we were able to find someone and it was usually the last house we contacted, sometimes we don't know why we are lead to certain houses but the Lord does, he knows our hearts and he knows theres, this is something that I can testify of with my whole heart!

one miracle we saw was last night! it was kinda a crazy day as we had stake conference and got to see lots of mission friends!  we didn't get out of the house until later and still had a good hour walk in front of us!  we had a good lesson teaching the book of mormon but didn't have time to go to our other appointment becaue it was too late and too far:(  which we were kinda bummed about it but we felt impressed to contact for the time we had and as we were walking this lady came out running to us!  she had us write our number down and wants us to come visit her! she said she didn't know anything about us but was just so curious what we were doing! haha she was a huge milagro!  THE LORD IS SO AWARE:)

Things I learned this week!

1) the 2 different meaning of the word en, it means in and on!  We recieved a reference from the elders and they gave a street and and urb but i mixed them up becuase i thought they said it was en a certain urbinization, but really it was on a certain street.... haha okay so I'm not sure i explained that well but lets just say we went to the complete opposite area and ended up getting lost for about 3 hours... ah man it was a CRAZY adventure but we had so much fun!  (a lot of this week I accidentally got us very lost... haha Hermana Rich definitely knows the face I make when Im not sure where we are....:) haha but we have so much fun and are learning caguas together!

2)  I learned that after a long day my hair looks even crazier than I thought, in a contact a lady was kind and told us we should put some hair product into our hair and gave us hers! she was so kind:D hahaa

3) learned to chizzle ice!  we were in a lesson with a lady named carmen we found this week, she is very sweet:)  We asked for some water adn she took us to her kitchen and wanted to get us some ice, so we go to the fridge and she pulls out the frozen carton of water, she rips it open and gives me a huge knife and just tells me to cut it! it didn't work super well as you can imagine so she leaves and comes back with a huge stick! she has me hold the knife while my comp hits the knife and the top with this stick as tall as me!  it was a huge adventure to say the least, you learn things everyday on the mission!

anyways but overall life is very good now:D so many funny things happen too like stepping in an ant hill, and being told i need to find a puerto rican boyfriend from one of our investigators:D  haha I am so grateful for the opportunity i have to serve here and to truly grow my testimony every day as i feel the love of my savior and for these people!

We also have another huricane coming, hurricane maria who right now is supposedly coming straight for us,  we went shopping satuday night and I think hurricane Irma has prepared us a little for it because now we know what we have to do,  I know that the Lord will watch over us:)

I love you all so much!!

con mucho amor, Hermana Zimmerman:)

 My new companion Hermana Rich (first day) ! Enjoying a nutritional lunch of Ramen and popcorn :D

 Our apt. 

 at stake conference and hermana smart! (the caguas zone sisters

                                      a map of where we wanted to go, and where we did go!

 a dead iguana! :0!

My trainer H. Green and my new trainee H. Rich :D

HURIcAnE Irma!!

Buenasdias todos!

This week was definitely one of the craziest and scariest weeks of my mission!  First I just want to say a sincere thankyou for all of your prayers, this week Hurricane Irma came and had the potential to pass right through Puerto Rico which made this last week pretty insane I'm really not sure where to start!

First all of the missionaries on the island are safe, many were moved who were on the border or in a tsunami zone but all are okay!  We here in Puerto Rico are also very very grateful that within the last day it went farther north, still hitting us but not doing half as much damage as it could have and what we were all expecting. The only horrible part is that it did hit some of our islands that are in our mission, so now we all pray for them and for florida who is now in the midst of this crazy hurricane.

Okay but I guess Ill give a little run down of my week:)  So first on monday night is when we all found out the extent of this hurricane, I am grateful that our leaders had us prepare with food and money the satuday before because it was only within one day that everything escalated.  But  my companion Hermana Johnson was finsihing her mission so she left tuesday morning and for the last week i have been in a trio with Hermana Franco and Hermana Guido!  On tuesday we still went out and worked and for the first time i saw a picture of the storm as we were at an investigators house, she turned on the news and for the fist time we all got to see how big it was and then soon after we got instructions to go straight to the house and bunkered oursleves in, we tried to tie down our car as well as put our fridge in front of our little door, we then moved all of the beds to our back room and put cardboard between our shutters and screens(here in Puerto rico nobody has windows) but we also put tons of food in there and filled up everything thing we could with water! literally EVERY CONTAINER! But then for the next two days we were just bunkered in our little room without light,  There definitley were huge winds and rain but luckily the worst of it was only for about 4 hours but it rained for about 2 days straight.  OUr house is on a tilt so nothing flooded and everything was good!  As we were all huddled in our little room we did lots of studies and played games, as a missionary I think it gtave us all a lot of perspective and we were able to study a lot together, talking more about what things we then should teach and studying together! after the two days as sooon as we got the okay to go out and check the damage we were all just soooo excited to get out of the house and find people to teach and check on our investigators!  I think that for all of us our desire and love for the gospel and his plan grew incredibly!    But really we are just very luckily that everything is okay here, here in caguas all of the stores were up again fast the only thing is that about half of the city is still without light and running water.  WE got our light restored about 2 days ago but still come in from working before dark.  I forgot how much we used light and electricity for so now we are all very very very grateful for that!

Yesterday some of my zone was also able to do a service project, we unloaded supplies from the humanitarian crate we have at the church to send to the islands!  Our zone leader thought we were going to be putting things together in the church so we all wore our sunday clothes... haha lets just say we may not bei using them again!  The things in the crate had been there for about 10 years, and lets just say after 10 years things get wet, and when things get wet they get magots, and when there are tons of magots on the boxes you are trying to carry there are tons of magots on you... haha I think i may still be having nightmares...! haha just kiddin but man yeah i have never see so many magots and cocroaches!  B ut the good news is that we were able to salavage a lot of it to send to the islands and i think i might just go inside of the boxes so they can just send me to help too, i mean i am a whole person!

Also because of the hurricane the new missionaries weren't able to come in on tuesday but they are tonight!  So tonight I am getting my hija and i am excited but also pretty nervous! 

sorry this is so super long, but I cannot thank you all enought for you love, suppoert and dear prayers.  We are all safe and happy and eternally grateful for the prayers for the missionaries and PUerto Rico!  Heavenly Father is always listeingin to our prayers and he will always answer them.  I love this island, this gospel and all of you dearly!!:)

con mucho amor, Hermana Zimmerman:)

 our bunker in our room:D

                                    

 Entertaining ourselves during the Hurricane :D

 the fridge we put against the door

 service project:)

also i forgot to say that a huge tender mercy was that we got to call our families :D  I love my family dearly!!!

I've been out 7 months!