November 24, 2015

Hi Mom and everyone!

Thanks for the update mom, that is so interesting about that doctor...Thanks for giving me an update!  and I did pull out my patriarchal blessing the other day, I´ll have to read it again tonight.  We focus all our time on our investigators here, so we don´t really take much time for ourselves.  Not even to read our scriptures, we only have about 10 min a day for that.  Because all of our study time is to study lessons and doctrine and language.  It´s pretty intense.  And I feel like I'm in the military here. :) It must be way different from Provo because everything is scheduled, even on P-day, we don´t have much time for anything.  Only one hour to write.  And I like to read everything too, not just write.  Seriously our first p-day writing time was the fastest hour of my life.  I see though that it has to be that way.  We are on the Lord´s time here and we can´t be wasting any of it.  It is pretty incredible though, there is no other place in the world that can do for the missionaries what they do in the MTC.  We have brand new gringos come and after 6 short weeks they send them out ready to teach the people about Jesus Christ and gospel - clearly, simply and powerfully - in another language.  It is incredible.  You can feel the Spirit here.  I´m so going to miss this place, but I´m also excited to get started.  Less than two weeks.  I´m more going to miss everyone here - I have some amazing new friends, like all of us hermanas are so close - because there´s only 9 of us here right now.  We will be best friends for life.  The MTC is really empty because we had the last group go out last week on Friday.  There are only 40 missionaries here total.  Most of us are all the ones that arrived together - my district -district Pablo-  and district Santiago.  There is one other Latino district and then the Q´eqtche district.  We are all really close now but tomorrow we are getting 94 new Latinos!  Is that crazy or what?!  And then we are getting two new Norte Hermanas an 3 new Norte elders...I feel bad for them because their district will be small.  

 

Anyway, I have to tell you about the Q´eqtche elders going to Coban, some of them are already fluent in both Spanish and English, and then they have to learn Q´eqtche too, which is a super hard language.  They are here for 9 weeks and they are all really fun and upbeat, they´d have to be to endure the MTC for this long.  They leave next week.  Our zone leader (we only have one right now), is from their district and he´s actually from Canada - Elder Nelson.  He´s already fluent in both English and Spanish.  I was telling him we are part of the Winnipeg stake last night at Deportes.  Anyway, ¨Mas al a chol¨ means how are you and ¨Sa¨means bien and ¨Ut la at?¨ means ¨what about you?¨ in Q´eqtche.    Have you seen the new video ¨A Savior is Born¨ or something like that?  It´s the videos about the Savior the church puts out every Christmas?  It was so good, we got to watch it last Tuesday night.  But it was in Spanish.  I highly recommend watching it in English:)   Elder Duncan, an area 70 (I think) came and talked to us that night.  It was so good!  We have so many spiritual experiences every week that when I actually sit down at this computer to write I can´t remember anything!  Anyway...Hermana Colo is doing so great!  She´s finally taken control of her emotions and it isn´t too hard anymore.  Well, not really.  We are doing so much better in our lessons cuz I don´t have to do it all anymore.  We have a lot more unity, and we taught our investigator Gabriella the other day and it was an AMAZING lesson.  The Spirit was so strong.  President and Hermana Cox have been gone for the past 4 days.  They are at a meeting with all the other mission presidents in central america.  But it´s empty without them.  Happy Anniversary by the way!  I was thinking of you on the 20th.  In the middle of class I looked up at the date and said out loud, it´s my parent´s anniversary!   What did you guys do besides go to Walker?

Love you!  They are kicking us off now!

Hermana Erickson

 

November 17, 2015

Hi Mom and everyone!  It seems like time went even faster this week and i have hardly any time to write!  Thanks everyone for you´re sweet emails and I´m sorry if I couldn´t reply specifically to you this week!  Things are still crazy here, yesterday our maestros (instructors) told us we can´t use notes for lessons anymore, yes mom, it´s just me and my companera (companion) teaching the lecciones (lessons).  And the investigators are so intimidating.  Now all we can use is the folletos (pamphlets) and our escrituras (scriptures) to teach!  It´s crazy but possible.  The only hard part is answering questions.  But I think even that will go okay.  Actually the real challenge is trying to teach with my companera.  She is so sweet and I love her but she´s so..fragile?  IDK we were in a lesson and started teaching the other day and I was teaching my part and then she was going to take a point to teach but she leaned back and started crying.  I think she might have felt bad because she thinks her spanish isn´t as good as mine.  So we had to abandon the lesson and the maestro talked to us about working hard and the fact that we are here for others and shouldn´t be thinking of ourselves.  I don´t know what I can do better...I´m trying so hard to support her (24/7) it´s exhausting.  So now the hard part is working on unity and trying to get her to prepare her part so I{m not talking the whole time and she doesn´t feel bad or forget what to say.  Oh well we are working it out.  It´s so much work all day every day.  I love the other hermanas (sisters) here. we are all so close now that theres only about 7 Norte Americanas.  The rest are Latinas.  Us Nortes are really close.  The Latinas come and go every 8 days to 2 weeks.  We only have 3 weeks left!  CRAZY.  I don´t know how I{ll ever be prepared!  Not only for the missionary work but for the nursing part.  Hermana Dester (Honduras mission pres wife), is counting on my spanish to be the nurse because she can´t speak hardly in spanish and she is the one i{ll be working with closely as the nurse.  She´s doing my job right now while I{m here at the CCM.   Oh and they made me take time out of PDAY for the nursing stuff!  NOT FAIR J.  So today while everyone is having a break for sports and stuff I have to go in for some nursing training for 2 hours.  At least I get two hours of deportes (sports) first.  So President COx last pday - it was soooo fun!  He came out to play basketball with the elders and he felt bad for me and hermana ball ( we were standing there watching wishing we could play)  so he let us play basketball with him and the elders!  IT was SOO fun!  I haven´t felt better since I got here!  It was a little awkward, or maybe the elders were awkward trying to guard us but whatever.  It was raining too so that was nice.  The rain here is almost like a mist, it´s nice and light.  Every deportes since then we´ve played lightening/thunder and I{ve been so close to winning!  But the games take forever cuz there´s so many of us playing!  Oh I wanted to tell you about the Q´eqtche elders - they are learning the Q´eqtche language and they are here for 9 weeks!  I can´t imagine it I´d go crazy (even though I´ll miss all the safe food and water and the nice people here).  The Q´eqtche language is super hard to learn though apparently.  All I know how to say is SA Kuux (In the neck - they always yell that if they spike the ball well in volleyball, lol).  Ummm....My brain just went blank...I know I had more to say...oh we got to go to the market last week for pday and it was so fun!  Bought some nail polish in Guatemala of all places.  It was a little run down but apparently it was the nicest place in the city.

Tengo un testimonio que el Evangelio de Cristo es verdadero, y Dios es nuestro Padre Celestial, y Él ama nos mucho.  Yo sé que nuestro propósito en este vida es para aprender y progresar.  Sé que a través de la Expiación de Jesucristo, es posible para nosotros volvemos a vivir con Dios otra vez.  Yo sé que los mandamientos son inspirados y cuando nosotros guardamos los mandamientos, es posible para Dios bendicenos mucho.  El padre Celestial quiere bendicenos, pero necesitamos obedecer.  Yo testificó que si nosotros oraramos con sinceridad, podemos recibir revelación de Dios mediante el Espíritu Santo.  En el nombre de Jesucristo, amen.

Dad you can translate that if you want to, and correct any mistakes?  I{m definitely not perfect yet.  

Translation: “I have a testimony that the Gospel of Christ is true, and that God is our Heavenly Father, and He loves us very much.  I know that our purpose in this life is to learn and progress.  I know that through the atonement of Jesus Christ, it is possible that we can return to live with God again.  I know that the commandments are inspired and when we keep the commandments, God will bless us much. Our Heavenly Father wants to bless us, but it’s necessary we obey.   I testify that if we pray with sincerity, we can receive revelation from God through the Holy Ghost.  In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.”

 

Love you all sooooo much! 

They are about to kick me off but I hope next week I´ll have time to write more!

Love, Hermana Erickson

November 10, 2015

Hi everyone!!  It was SOOO nice hearing from you all!  You have no idea how much it means to me to have so much support at home!  It is still really hard here but I am starting to pick the language up a lot better...we have two investigators now and I am starting to be able to hold a conversation with them and teach them in spanish without refering to notes.  You should see my notes they are crazy.  Our schedule is crazy.  We don´t sleep very well at night from stress and then we wake up early for 30 min of personal study.  The ENTIRE day is full of classes - mostly spanish.  My head hurts, and yes Dad it would be so easy to just teach the gospel in English!  We were teaching our investigator - hermana Lucia, and we read a scripture in the Bible that said ¨"Lamb of God," in it,  and she asked what the "lamb" was, and I didn´t bring my english scriptures only the spanish ones, and I could not figure out what the word was - I can´t even remember what that spanish word for lamb is right now because my brain is shot.  So that was awkward.  But oh well the lessons are going really well with our investigators, I do most of the teaching and basically all of the talking and answer basically all the questions and hermana colo says the prayers and occasionally bears her testimony but it´s ok.  She is doing a lot better because we figured out her problem is that she´s not eating enough protein.  The food all grosses her out so she´s not been eating much so now they make her up a smoothie protein shake and it´s helping her a lot (so jealous, miss my vitamix smoothies).  Some of the food´s pretty weird.  They serve beans for breakfast occasionally and then this seaweed stuff I can´t figure out, but sunday they gave us spaghetti!  I was soooo happy!!  there is an elder who I can´t even remember his name (I told you, my brain is shot), but he is the zone leader and apparently 2 weeks ago they went out on pday and got food and now he has a parasite - e. coli!  Pretty crazy.  but they said that it should be fine so he´s still up and about it working.  We are going to the market today later and we get to buy pastries and stuff!  I am soooo excited.  I needed today, when you have spanish all day every day with only 45 min of exercise it really wears on you.  There really isn´t too much else to report right now ....it´s just spanish and teaching all day every day, with the occasional devotional - oh but Sunday they let us watch the Testaments!  in English!!!  Oh so today we lost like 2 whole districts who left for the mission field.  We had people going to El Salvador, Tegucigalpa, Guatemala (Quetzaltenango and Ritelileu) - they go from this MTC all over Central America. It´s going to be lonely here for a while, we hardly have any missionaries and they are only getting two new missionaries coming in over the next 4 weeks or so.   Apparently when I leave I´ll be going with three other elders (there aren´t any hermanas going to my mission) and we have to fly to Honduras at 3 AM.  Four more weeks left!  Soo nervous but excited.  Hermana Lowery the nurse has to schedule in some nursing training, so there goes some of my time for learning spanish!   Me and hermana colo go and walk outside when we have 5 min breaks whenever we can.  I miss the sun!  we sit inside all day without it!  And it´s actually kind of chilly here in guatemala city.  Humid but chilly.  Weird.  But honduras will be sticky hot.  Oh and I found out that in Honduras their spanish dialect is a little weird, like they don´t pronounce their S´s, they just kind of lisp.  So that will be weird to get used to.  You should see the CCM, we have a huge gate around this place and at least 5 armed guards on duty around the place 24/7.  And we are even in the nice part of the city - major upper class place with huge nice buildings and expensive houses up on the mountains to the east.  Oh I wanted to tell you - you remember that I didn´t get the flu vaccine - well hermana Lowery confronted me and tried to give it to me but I told her exactly why I didn´t want it and that I´d talked to church headquarters and they had told me I didn´t have to get it.  She tried to argue that church headquarters had mandated it and that if I didn´t get it I´d have to serve state-side.  But i told her I´d talked to one of the doctors at church headquarters and got President Cox to call them, and guess what?  Apparently they had recently changed policy and now it isn´t required to receive the flu shot!  So I didn´t have to get it - oh I wasn´t backing down after all through nursing school and work I had been able to get around it with the Lord´s help.  But I prayed and I know the Lord came through for that.  Mom can you please send me some more peppermint beadlets?  I love those things, and I have been taking vit D a lot and it´s been helping me not get this cold that has been threatening for a while.  I really wish I could email every day because I forget things!  And they hardly give us any time for this!

President and Hermana Cox gave a devotional Sunday night and it was so good.  THey talked about restoring priesthood keys through Moses, Elijah, and Elias, and they talked about how we were forordained to our callings in the pre-existence and it was so neat to be able to sit in that room with all those missionaries - I feel lucky to be with such amazing people because none of us have to be here and I kind of feel like I don´t deserve to be here.  but I could just see while I was sitting there how special everyone around me was.  And I could picture us after this life looking back on that day when we were just beginning our missions.  It was pretty neat. "It´s not what we gain in this life, it´s what we give.¨

I really love this scripture:  ¨Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie within our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God , and for His arm to be revealed.¨

I just love you guys so much and I really wish I could respond to everyone´s emails!  I am SOOO sorry I can´t send pictures, but after ward don´t worry I´ll send them.  I already have a few!

Hermana Erickson 

November 3, 2015

Hola everyone!

Thank you all so much for your emails!  It´s the highlight of my week and I´m really sorry if I couldn´t respond to all of them, they don´t give us very much time for anything, even on P-day!  

I´m going to have to sit and try to remember everything that´s happened over this past week.  Also mom, if you could email on Mondays or Sundays or whatever, just so I get your email before P-day (Tuesdays), I know you already did but they just wanted me to tell you that.   

So after I emailed last time they let us sleep for ONE HOUR.  how nice right?  We were all half asleep for the rest of the day, and they had us jump right into learning spanish!  They split all of us newbies up into two districts, there are four hermanas and 6 elderes in my district, and all of the elders are really neat, we had a district testimony meeting and they all started crying and gave super powerful testimonies...they´re like the brothers I never had (love you too Alex, Ethan and Eli).  Sorry if I start spelling in spanish or forget a word and just use a spanish word...I feel like I´m already starting to lose my grip on english.  Plus the keyboards are weird.  I LOVE being on a good sleep schedule - 10:30 at night is lights out and 6:15 AM we get up.  I NEVER used to get this much sleep!!  :)  I´m still exhausted, but it´s only mentally.  We have classes all day to learn both spanish and the missionary lessons and everything at the same time!  I have notes everywhere and it´s so confusing and hard!  I thought I knew a little spanish before I came...I knew next to nothing.  And they had us teaching an investigator solo en espanol on the second day!  My companion is hermana colo.  She´s from California and i love her tons!  But she´s been having a hard time being away from her family and she cries ALL the time.  It kind of takes a lot out of me trying to support her and everything.  Not gonna lie but I only cried once on the plane when we left.  I still think about you all the time and miss you but I know this is where I´m supposed to be.  My companera does enough crying for the both of us. and she visits with President COx (he´s amazing, we all love him, he´s the CCM mission president here).  The upside is that I´ve been able to just sit and visit with Hermana Cox (president´s wife) while Hermana Colo has been in meeting with him.  President Province is great, in my interview he told me kind of how the medical advisory system works - he´s actually not over Honduras where I´ll be serving but when he found out I have my RN he was like ¨man, you sure you don´t want to switch your mission over to mine?!¨ The nurse here is Hermana Lowery and she said she´ll have to switch my schedule up so she can meet with me sometime to give me some nursing training, so there´s more time out of my schedule to learn Spanish.  It is so demanding here, it would be so easy to just teach the gospel in English.  It is super hard when we are trying to teach our investigators who don´t speak a lick of English and we know exactly what we want to say but we have no idea how to say it.  We can be prepared and know what we want to say in Spanish, but then they ask questions that we don´t know how to answer in Spanish.  Ugh it´s hard.  they have us teaching all the time.  And because Hermana Colo´s kind of struggling and been out of commission I have to basically plan and do everything.  Oh well.  I really do love her and want to help her.  There are two other hermanas in our room, Hermana Moore from Utah and Hermana Fale from New Zealand, they are super sweet and we all already have such strong friendships.  We´ve decided after the mission we are all visitng Hermana Fale in New Zealand, so just be warned Mom.   The food here is pretty good actually some of it´s kind of weird, but my stomach has just been hurting all the time, probably stress but it´s okay, I can handle it.  I just havn´t been eating as much but that´s okay because I also am not as active as I usually am.  They give us 45 minutes of deportes after dinner and they actually have a nice gym and basketball court and volleyball net.  I love playing volleyball but I can never play basketball because the hermanas aren´t allowed to play with the elders in basketball, only volleyball.  And by the time me and hermana Colo get out there the elders are all already playing on the basketball courts.  I don´t want to be rude and kick them off, but I really want to play!  But it´s all good I just play volleyball which is fun and work out on the elliptical with hermana Colo.  Oh I was going to tell you about how when we first arrived at the airport after customs we were all standing out side waiting for the bus to take us to the CCM, and this really creepy looking guy was fingering a pocketknife and just looking at us and our luggage (there was kind of a crowd there), then he stowed his knife and was just walking around us looking at our luggage.  It was kind of funny but scary at the same time.  I was in the back and one of the elders dropped back and said something to him and the guy just shrugged and walked slowly away.  Oh, today we got to go to the Guatemala temple!  It is literally a block away and we can see it out of the East side of the CCM windows!   It´s a beautiful place and it really rejuvenated for the next week.  I REALLY hope this gets easier because the first week was soooo hard.  They make us sit with the Latina Hermanas at meal times and try to learn spanish from them (they don´t speak much english).  We never get a break from spanish till 9:30 when we can go to our rooms for personal study.  Oh so they finally figured out that I play the piano so now I usually never get to sing the hymns in spanish because I´m always playing the piano!   I´m sorry I can´t write more they just don´t give us enough time!

I just know that this is where the Lord wants me to be and even though it´s super hard and it seems impossible to be ready to go out and speak spanish and preach the gospel in six weeks I know He will make it possible.  Love you all so much!

<3 Hermana Erickson

First Email from Guatemala MTC

October 29, 2015

Hello Friends/Family,

If you're getting this e-mail, you're signed up to receive Lilly's emails as she serves on her mission.  In case you aren't familiar with how this works, Lilly has just a short time once a week to email, probably Mondays, so she is going to send out one e-mail that I will forward to everyone.

She would love to hear from anyone who has a chance, but she may not be able to always respond to each individual e-mail.  Her e-mail address is:

lillian.erickson@myldsmail.net.

She arrived this morning after almost 20 hours en route.  I will include the e-mail below. She will be in the training center in Guatemala for the next 4-6 weeks learning Spanish and medical information for the nursing she will be doing.  Following that, she will go to Honduras for the remainder of her mission.

Also, if you are receiving these e-mails it is because you have had a positive impact in Lillian's life. She would not be the young woman she is if it weren't for all the lives that have helped shape her. Thank you so much for all you mean to her, and for your support of her.  We are so excited for these next 18 months and how they will change both her and the people she serves.  She is truly in the Lord's hands now as she shares His gospel to the people of Honduras. 

Thanks again,

Bonnie Erickson (Lilly's mom)

Here is her e-mail from this morning:

Hola!  I only have 5 minutes to write and the keyboard is kind of weird so...

I got here this morning at around 8:30!  have had maybe 3 hours of sleep total but after this they are letting us sleep for a little bit.  I had my interview done by a President Province who is an Area Medical Advisor and in the mission presidency, the mission president´s wife wanted him to interview me since she knew I was going to be the nurse.  The flights were long but I was luckily able to have a window seat for all three flights!  In LA I met up with like 20 elders and 4 other sister missionaries who are all coming to the Guatemala MTC!  So we stuck together after that.  And Dad, I don¨t know what you were talking about cuz customs went so fast!  Like just put stuff in a scanner and voila!  

Okay got to go!

Love you and miss you!!

 

<3 Hermana Erickson

Welcome Letter

October 28, 2015

 

Dear Sister Lillian Noelle Erickson,

We are so excited to learn of your call to serve in the Honduras San Pedro Sula West Mission!  We love serving here, and we know that you will love it too!

This is an amazing time to serve as a missionary.  The Lord is clearly “hastening” His work as He promised He would do in Doctrine and Covenants 88: 73.  You will have the blessing of serving among the wonderful people of Honduras.  For the most part, they are friendly and receptive to the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.  Truly the field is white, already to harvest in this special, beautiful part of the Lord’s vineyard.  As you commit yourself to work hard, to be completely obedient, to listen to the promptings of the Spirit and to exercise your faith in the Lord, we are confident that you will be an instrument in His hands in bringing the good news of the gospel to many, and your joy with them will be great!

We hope that you will make the most of the time that you have before entering the MTC.  We encourage you to read the Book of Mormon, regardless of how many times you might have read it before.  Reading the Book of Mormon will strengthen your testimony of the Savior, of the Prophet Joseph Smith and of the restoration of the gospel. We also encourage you to study Preach My Gospel as much as you can, as it contains the material that you will be teaching to investigators and it too will prepare you to teach by the power of the Spirit and to do everything else that you will be called upon to do as a representative of the Lord.  The Book of Mormon and Preach My Gospel – those are the two best things that we can suggest to help you to prepare to be a great missionary!  Finally, we encourage you to get to know your Heavenly Father in prayer, and to come to the mission field clean and worthy to participate in this great work.

You have received a lot of information in your mission call packet, and there is a lot for you to do before you leave for the MTC.  Perhaps we could just add a couple of other quick thoughts that are specifically applicable to this mission. Missionaries frequently ask what they should bring on their mission.  Remember that it is hot here.  You will be glad for every lightweight yet sturdy article of clothing that you have.  A sweater for an occasional cool spell in some parts of the mission would be appropriate, but you do not need to bring cold weather clothing.  We use umbrellas a lot, but almost no one uses a raincoat, since it is too hot to wear them. Choose comfortable walking shoes, because you will be walking a lot (and some type of water resistant shoes might be a good idea if they are available). You will also be able to buy replacement garments from the mission office as needed and missionary teaching supplies.

One of the most important things that you can be aware of before you arrive, is what living conditions are like here in Honduras.  It is absolutely necessary that you be prepared to ALWAYS drink purified water and avoid eating certain foods that may cause you intestinal problems in the mission.  You can stay healthy if you use your Seychelle water bottle (which you should receive in the MTC or you can purchase at the distribution center).  We will talk about that more when you come.  Some missionaries become lax about their eating habits and we hate sending them home early for health reasons.

Please inform family and friends to send letters and packages by regular mail to the appropriate mission office address indicated below.  Packages that arrive by FEDEX, DHL or UPS can cost you as much as US$100 to retrieve upon delivery here, and they always take much longer to arrive than items sent by regular mail.  Please also make sure that your family and friends know your personal missionary e-mail address, since that will be the most common way for them to communicate with you.  You should also bring with you the e-mail address of your family, so that you can write to them shortly after you arrive here to let them know you are alright.

If you have questions about anything else related to this mission, please feel free to e-mail the mission office staff at:  1985981@ldschurch.org.

Again, we are so excited about your call to serve with us here in Honduras.  May the Lord bless you richly as you continue your preparations to serve.

With kindest regards,

President and Sister Dester
Honduras San Pedro Sula West Mission

The Call!

August 8, 2015

It really happened!  After all these months of talking and preparation and paperwork and shopping and guessing where she'd go, this amazing girl got her mission call!

As her Dad is the Branch President, one of the perks was that we were able to track the progress of the call after it was submitted.  We were expecting it this past week on possibly Thursday or soon thereafter.  It didn't come that day or Friday, so we were pretty sure it would be Saturday.  After a few trips to the mailbox, Ethan came home and said, "Start inviting people over!"  And there it was.

It was so tempting - probably more so for us than for Lilly.  We tried to get her to just open it right then, but after seeing her Dad holding it up to the light, she promptly hid it from all of us.

 

Lilly wanted to invite a few friends over, so we planned to open it at 7 p.m. around the campfire. I had prepared myself, I thought, for her to go anywhere in the world, but as you can hear from my reaction in the video as she read where she would serve, I apparently hadn't considered THAT place!

 Oh my goodness!  I think I'm still in shock - not only for where she's going, but for what her primary assignment is!  She has felt led to get her RN, and now she realizes how the Lord knows us each individually, what our talents are, and where we are needed and can use those talents.  She was hoping to speak Spanish and go on a foreign mission, and hardly dared hope to think she may get all three of her desires in one mission!

There was lots of congratulations and hugging and smiling.  Then I had to text some friends who were waiting on pins and needles to hear where she was going.

After she submitted her paperwork, but before her call arrived, we had a contest to see if anyone could guess where she was going.  We had our entire map filled with guesses, but here is the one that won:



 So happy for all the adventures that are in store for this amazing daughter of God.