Emma Is Home!

Enter To Learn Go Forth To Serve

Welcome back to the final installment of The Adventures of Hermana Eastman. Thank you for sticking with us. 

One of my favorite places on this earth is BYU. And our motto there is "Enter to learn, go forth to serve." It's a constant cycle. 

Brazos taught me what missionary work even looks like.

Victoria taught me to pray, really pray.

Missouri City (part 1) taught me to love.

Sienna taught me about friendship.

Missouri City (part 2) taught me patience.

Katy taught me diligence and pure joy.

Alvin taught me resilience.

Manvel taught me about miracles. 

I've learned a lot. And I think I've become a little bit more like the woman God wants me to be. And now is my time to go forth. Serve in a new way. The work won't stop. It's been said before and I'll say it again,

The Standard of Truth has been erected, no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing. Persecutions may rage, mobs may combine, armies may assemble, calumny may defame, but the truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent till it has penetrated every continent visited every clime swept ever country and sounded in every ear till the purposes of God shall be accomplished and the Great Jehovah shall say "The work is done."

I love this gospel. I love this church. I love my Savior Jesus Christ. I love myself and I'm so happy He does too. 

Hermana Eastman

ps I'm coming home tomorrow so that's why this is so dramatic. Thanks for tuning in.🤟

Even Un-extraordinary Things Are Pretty

Here's some little things from my week!

I went to Alvin on an exchange. I didn't think anyone would remember me, but these little girls lit up when they saw me walk into the ward game night and they told me they missed me🥺 made my heart warm and gooey.

Today I won a watermelon eating contest. Brought me a smile.

Hna Thornbrue and I went to a sweet baptism for one of her friends. The Spirit was there. 

We taught our friend Andres!! Two times in one day actually. He's a sweet young man and I'm so happy he's found the gospel. 

Ludmilda came to church again!! The last time I'll see her:( Pray for her family who fled to Germany from Ukraine. 

I'm so grateful for the Spirit. Wow can't imagine my life without it. What a gift. What. A. Gift.

Much love. See u soon.

Hermana Eastman

I Almost Died.

Welcome back everyone!!! I've got some fun stories & miracles!! As always of course:)

Death:

Hna Thronbrue & I are keeping the biker gang strong. Yesterday we were biking around finding. We found George, our miracle man who is super close to passing on to the next life. And on our way back home (we found some alpacas) this fat little chihuahua started chasing us. We laughed at him. Big mistake. We round the corner and the neighbors gate was open. And their massive death dog was unchained. A big black guard dog made a b-line for me even though my companion was behind me and much more easily accessible. Psh. Anyway the dog started chasing me and I pumped my little legs at the speed of light and swerved into the oncoming lane. My short life flashed before my eyes. But eventually he gave up. And when we got home I fashioned a Book of Mormon holder out of a hanger and attached it to my bike so I can have some sort of weapon close by the next time that happens. 

Andres:

My comp and I were up in sketchville. Visiting members but no one was home. But then we visited Hna Maldonado randomly. And we met a young man staying with her. He's from Mexico working here. But he ended up in the hospital. And after he got released he had nowhere to go. So he's staying with this member. And Andres wants to read the Book of Mormon. And we taught him about repentance. And his eyes were attentive the whole time, listening to every word. It was so awesome! The Spirit was there. I felt like a missionary. I felt like God is working with this young man. 

Alex:

Alex is 6 and I helped him pray. It just filled up my soul with joy. The little spanish words that he repeated after me. Aghh precious. And he said the temple was a castle🥺😍 my heart. 

Me:

Man I'm happy to be here.

Hermana Eastman

More Adventures

Wow idk where to begin. This week has been a year long I'm pretty sure! Hna Thornbrue and I are still out here working so hard!! And as always, seeing miracles. 

Eugenio y Yolanda

I love these people. We met them by a miracle and every lesson since has followed suit. Miracle upon miracle!! This past week we visited them, taught them the restoration, found out Yolanda has already been taught before and received a spiritual confirmation that this is true. 😱😱 I love them!!!!!

Roger

Hmm. What to say. What to say. We met Roger knocking doors. And he told us he knew all about us.. he did not. His sources were... less than credible. But I'm including it in my email so when I look back in a few months I can remember Roger and giggle to myself. Key terms from our conversation: "impukes" & "me, ma, and mormonism"

Herlinda

Pray for her. She vented her life story to us and it made me cry for sadness and for fear. So pray for Herlinda.

Zoco!! 

My last one🤧 wow I'm grateful for my mission. 

Biker gang

We met the coolest biker chicks this week. Their names were Hermana Eastman and Hermana Thornbrue. Honestly I want to be like them..

clearly we tried to be so cute in all of these pictures!!🤩🤣

Forgot some KEY pics from the zone pday we had today! Life size hungry hungry hippos & minute to win it🤪

My Miracle Man Robert

"Wow I wonder what Hermana Eastman will write about this week.. there's no way she can have MORE miracles."

FALSE!! I CAN! 

Go back in time with me... 4 days ago. We're driving down the road and hna Thornbrue sees a quaint green trailer out in a field. She says to me "one day we should go knock on that door."

Fast forward to Saturday.. we have time to go finding (lots of our week has been finding time because we want to save souls!) so we go out looking for this quaint green trailer. You can't get to it from the main road so we wove through some back dead end trails to find it. We went up to the door, knocked twice, the dog barked but no answer. So we left a Restoration pamphlet in English (because we were getting an english vibe) and walked away. But as we were walking away we stopped to look at the sunset. It was super pretty! And hna thornbrue wanted a picture. And as we were taking pictures in theyard of this green trailer, a guy comes out, pamphlet in hand. We were kind of embarrassed to be caught taking pictures but we went up to him and he asked who we were. When we told him we were missionaries who felt we needed to knock on his door, he paused. And he said "well you're in the right place because I'm a believer." And he told us his journey (very similar to Paul in some ways) to believing in Jesus. He shared with us his fears about everything going on in the world, about how it seems the prophecies are being fulfilled. We shared with him the Book of Mormon & I got to tell him about Alma the Younger and testify of this message. AWESOME!!! Our new friend told us our visit wasn't a coincidence, it was an answer to prayer. He wants to introduce his family to us. He wants to learn more. His name is Robert, and he was our miracle man this week.

What's even more beautiful about this story is that it's one of many this week. If I can tell you anything it's that I'm so happy to be doing this work. This really is the work of the Lord. It really is a work of love. Don't believe me? Jump into this work! Go to the temple. Teach with missionaries. Share your testimony. Invite someone to church. Pray for miracles. Pray to see the Lord's hand. And my goodness I promise He'll show you. 

It's amazing!!!!!

Hermana Eastman

Picture explanations:

-These members invite us over like every week to braid their hair haha. Is there anything Hna Thornbrue & I can't do? No.

-biking to church!

-sad dog with cantaloupe sized lump on its stomach. Idk what it's name is but pray for him:,(

-our windy trip to Firestone because our tire stinks at being a tire

-our miracle green trailer