Witnessing Miracles

Hey everyone! So not a whole lot to talk about this week!

My compy & Me

But we did have a baptism!! Yay!! G-----s!!! She was our very first investigator here in playas. Her sister is a member and the only member in the family which consists of, X--e (member), G-----s (now a member!!) and her two daughters who are 6 and 1 years old, J----a (nonmember), and their Dad (nonmember). Their mom passed away 7 years ago.  We taught G---s-s for a few weeks then had to stop because she said she didn't want anything to do with a baptism. And she was firm in her decision. A few weeks ago our mission president told us to return to our investigators that we had stopped visiting and the first person that came to mind to me and my comp was G---s-s. So we returned and started visiting her again. She committed to be baptized two weeks from the third visit!!!!!!!!!!!!! We were shocked! She said she still didn't believe in the prophets but she was going to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it. So she did. And she said that she knows they are true. That everything is true and that she is so excited for her baptism! TALK ABOUT A FREAKING MIRACLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I could've cried!!!!! It was great. Her baptismal service was beautiful, and we are now teaching the last sister! She has committed to be baptized on the 28th of this month!

My compy and Me with G---s-s

Up next the.... the dad! He kinda scares me haha but I know that he too will be baptized. Then they can all go to the temple together and one of the girls can be baptized for their mom and they can all be sealed together!!! omg! I'm crying just writing that!!!!! :)

G-----s reborn sin-free

G-----s is my 10th baptism!!!!! Less than three months in the field and I have 10 baptisms... Sorry if I sound prideful, but I'm def proud of myself!! I've witnessed so many miracles and I am so grateful for this opportunity!!!!!

On Sunday J---e was ordained into the Aaronic priesthood!!!! I totally cried! (idk if you can tell but I'm very emotional this week) Seeing that was just amazing. A week after he was baptized he received the priesthood. Before we know it he'll be baptizing our converts… The church is soooo true!!!!!!!!

So my new companion should be here next week!!! The 24th I believe is when they come!! :) woooo hooo! We won't be moving till the end of this month though so we will all 4 be living together in our tiny little apartment haha that should be interesting! But it's only for a week :))

Not much else going on here! I love you all! Hope all is great!

Send me letters if you can!!

KISSES

XOXO

Me drinking Mate! Its like a family/friend tradition to drink this together in Argentina and thats where my comp is from so at night we drink it together!

 

    Me and my companion being broke! haha

Me and a different G-----s! She's due in October! Having a little boy and naming him Dylan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm gonna be a trainer

Hello everyone!

This week was freakin loco! 

We can start with Tuesday, I was in the hospital alllllllllllllll day! 

I had an infection in my stomach. They said it was from something I ate, but me and my comp eat the same things and she wasn't sick and one of the investigators we are teaching had the same exact symptoms so honestly I think its something in the air here. But yeah, so they had me hooked up to an IV, took my blood for a blood test and after 6 hours sent me on my way with some antibiotics. By the time we got out of the hospital it was too late to take a bus back to the playas  so we stayed the night at the mission president's house. He is literally the best mission president ever. He and his assistants, and the mission nurse and her companion all stayed at the hospital and waited there for me all day. He came in and talked to me about struggles I was having.  Every chance he gets he demonstrates the love he has for all of us and his calling. I am so grateful.

So the people at the hospital wouldn't let my comp come back with me so I laid in my little curtained off room and sang hymns.  I actually taught my nurses a little bit about the church and left two pamphlets for her to read! It was super weird being alone for such a long period of time, but kind of refreshing at the same time. But I did miss my compy a little bit!! Crazy I know. When I got out of the hospital they were all outside and when I walked out they all cheered it was so cute! I gave my companion a big hug and told her I missed her. And off to president's house we went!

In the morning Sister D----s (wife of the mish president) took us to the bus terminal. As we were driving there she told us about a historic announcement that had been made! That missionaries in selective areas were now able to use iPads, and some people were being called as facebook missionaries! This is to preach the Gospel in places where we don't have missions. Do you guys know what that means? THE GOSPEL IS NOW IN EVERY NATION OF THE WORLD. Do you know what that means?! JESUS CHRIST IS COMING! AND HE'S COMING WITH THE QUICKNESS!!!!!!!!!! When we were talking about this my whole body was covered in goosebumps. I couldn't believe it. This is huge! Not gonna lie I've always told myself Christ can't come yet, they haven't opened china mission up yet, well think again!! People the gospel is being preached there! Just in a different way! All ya´ll betta be gettin yo stuff together! Cause He's comin!

So talking to President D----s really opened my mind to something that I am really trying to work on. First off, I have the choice to be offended by the things people say or do. And I am from now on choosing not to be offended. It doesn't punish them or make them realize anything but the fact that I'm sensitive or a drama queen when I am offended by those things. But what it does do is make me sad, angry, and unfocused on the real purpose of me being here. And let me tell you I am SICK of feeling like that. And secondly, I am focusing on alllll the good in people. I'm not gonna look at the bad or focus on it. It just breeds contention and makes me an ugly person. 

This week I finally got down to the nitty gritty of my companion. We talked about her childhood, and clearly its personal so I'm not going to tell you anything about it but it really helped me see why she is the way she is sometimes. And it just makes me love her even more. We had a little bit of an argument this week about love.  One of the questions on my verification for my 12 weeks of training is "I have sincere love for all of the people that I teach" and you have to rate yourself 1 to 5. And I kinda chuckled at the question and asked my comp how could someone not have sincere love for the people they teach?! That's why we are here! And I circled 5 (which is always) and she said, "Well I don't." And I was kinda taken back, and said, "Really?" And she said, "Yeah I don't think its possible to have sincere love for someone when there are things about them that I don't like, or when I don't always have nice things to say about them." And inside, in my personal view it kinda made me really sad for her… I replied by saying, "Well if that was true then it would be impossible for anyone to have sincere love for any other person... because in every person there is something that we don't like. And its human to not always have positive things to say.  But that doesn't mean that you can't love that person sincerely. I honestly have so much love for all the people we teach. That's why we are here! To bring that sincere love of Christ to their lives! And it's through us that they can feel it!" And she replied with "Well excuse me"… And I said, "Wait, for what?" And she just rolled her eyes and said, "Sorry that I can't love everybody." And I just said, "No, I'm not telling you you're a bad person I just want you to see that you don't have to like everything about a person to love them!" And she just said, "Look we're different people with different views." And I just said, "Okay." And that was the end of that conversation. So I've made a goal to really just show her the most love possible, to not focus on the things that bother me and to choose not to be offended by anything. I just want to be able to feel the spirit, and have peace in our home and in our lessons. So hopefully this is the start of something beautiful!

Although it won't be for long, because...........................… I'M GONNA BE A TRAINER!!! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm literally SO EXCITED! We got a new house that is huge here in playas. And we are getting two new sisters hopefully next week!! Me and my comp will both be training. But the only sad part is they are splitting the area up into two sections and if the investigators that I have now aren't in my new section I cant teach them anymore :( but hopefully I'm not in playas 2!! I really want the upper section!! So pray pray pray! 

So the best part about becoming a trainer is the fact that it really makes me wanna better myself as a human and as a missionary. I really want to get to the point where I hardly think about home, and all I wanna do is work work work! I need to be an amazing example to this girl so I'm setting lots of goals for my self and working really hard to be better. 

Us with J---e!

This week we had a baptism...........................…best baptismal service I've ever witnessed. The soul that was saved this day was a soul that saying was lost is an understatement. This man had been involved in some EVIL EVIL things in the past. All of his brothers and sisters and his parents and nephews and nieces are all members. He was the only one in his ENTIRE family who wasn't a member. He had been taught by the missionaries before but didn't want anything to do with it. Then one day he came to church on his own. We set up an appointment with him and two weeks later he was baptized.  I invited him to be baptized on the first visit and he accepted right then and there and literally didn't have one problem or question after that. Everything was so perfect and smooth. He was ready. At the baptismal service his brother who is also the president of the elders quorum in the branch gave the "Welcome to the branch" thing at the end.  Everyone was balling. Literally balling. The past of the man who was baptized is very personal and not something I am willing to share publicly.  But I just can't explain how REAL the Atonement of Jesus Christ is. EVERYONE can change. EVERYONE can be forgiven! GOD WANTS TO FORGIVE YOU! And he WANTS you to come unto him!!!!! My heart is so full this week… He was baptized at the beach! It was such a beautiful moment! He wanted an Elder to baptize him so Elder R-------z and his companion who is also Elder R-------z (fun fact they're both from Columbia too lol) came down from Guayaquil to baptize him! AND it was Elder R-------z first time EVER on the beach! After 21 years he finally got to experience the beach in the most beautiful way possible! 

J---e entering the waters of baptism 

       

 All fresh and clean from all his sins. Haha look how happy I am!

This ones a little dark and blurry but he's smiling! So I had to send this one! This is the cake we bought and after the beach we all returned to the church and ate cake together! :) 

X--e is one of our best friends here in the branch! And she wants to serve a mission! She comes out with us almost everyday!! Its great! She put on my Hermana Beyouncé tag and we took this picture! Haha so cute! 

A---l and C----s paid their tithing together for the first time today!!! I wanted to cry! So cute! A---l isn't even baptized yet!!!! 

We have family home evening every Friday night at the church! This week we watched Faith In Christ and made pancakes! One of the men in the ward and my ward mission leader asked us if we ate these every morning and we said no, only like once a week and they looked at me and said oh that's why you're so fat. And continued to point and laugh at me. Full grown men… But I chose not to be offended! And just slapped another pancake on their plates. :)

After a very long and crazy week we rewarded ourselves with empanadas last night :)

Not much else going on. Spanish is great. Life's great. Its super freakin hot here. But other than that... I'm super happy! I got a lot of emails this week so I will be printing them out and replying next week! I love you all!

Kisses

I've officially been on my mission for 4 months!!! Yay!

On Fire

Hey hey!

Snuggling with Ford... thanks for sending him Dad

So I'm currently sicky icky pooo :( so lame. I've had a fever for two days now and I feel like someone has beaten me with a stick all over my body. But other than that, I'm great! Lol no I am feeling better today though. So hopefully this doesn't last long.

Sooo, we have 4 new baptism dates! Me and my comp are literally on fire! It feels so good!

So something I wanted to share this week is about the people that we meet and teach here. So many people in the CCM told me that I would find people that can only receive the gospel of Jesus Christ through me, and that is why I am called to where I am. I can truly testify of this, I have seen it so much this week! 3 out of the 4 people we are teaching and have committed to a baptismal date were taught in the past by other missionaries and didn't accept the gospel. But when we teach them they are so excited and so ready and the connection that we can feel in our lessons is indescribable. I know for a fact that I knew these people in the pre-mortal existence and promised them I would bring the gospel to them one day.

So this week I've been thinking about my past a lot... things I've done, the way I used to dress, who I represented myself as, how much I used to hate myself, all the struggle I went through… And at first I started to get down but then I snapped out of that real quick and realized where I am today, how far I've come. I think about my past and I am grateful for it, the good, the bad and everything in between. I know that everything prepared me to be who I am and where I am today. I am so grateful for the Atonement in my life. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer and that He loves me. 

Shout out to Lynn Weisinger for my AMAZING ipod full of songs that relate to me on levels that I cant even explain!!! As I was laying in bed dying this morning I was listening to my amazing ipod and a song came on called "Beautiful Heart Break" the lyrics touched my heart so tenderly and applied to exactly how I was feeling. The chorus says, "All the fear, every doubt, all the pain I went through was the price that I paid to see this view, and now that I'm here. I would never trade..the grace that I feel and the faith that I find through the bitter sweet tears and the sleepless nights. I used to pray He'd take it all away...but instead it became a beautiful heart break." 

We go through things so that later on in life we can help someone, whether its ourselves or someone else. I am so grateful for the life I have. For the opportunity that I have to repent daily of my sins so that I can represent my Savior Jesus Christ in the best way possible. I love this Gospel so much! 

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend! Don't worry I still LOVE AMERICA! I'm still my patriot redneck self!!! Love you all! 

xoxo

This is X--- Gave her a haircut and some bangin bangs!

Selfie of the week!