The good news is - so much is going on right now in my life that it´s just awesome and I love it. The bad news is I didn´t write yesterday and yáll were probably wondering why. I will tell you.
First - I had a meeting in the temple at 9:30 in the morning Monday. Wait...did I say temple? Heck yes I did! I mean, All that is sacred and holy indictes that I did. And family, the temple is beautiful, after our meeting we were able to take a tour of the temple, and it was just so amazing, you could totally tell that it is a sacred house of God even with the workers putting on the last finishing touches of the temple. The Celestial room nearly took my breath away. I literally started singing How Great Thou Art in my head. Which was rough because I only remember like two lines in English, And I don´t remember the words at all in spanish. Oh well. That will be my next language study session. The news is that the Hermanas are going to be helping out with the Temple Open House. Not every day, we don´t know our schedules, but we will be helping. I. LOVE. Being an Hermana. And Being in the Buenos Aires North mission. How cool is it that I was able to be called to this specific mission at this specific time and that I get to help with this specific rededication. I love God. God loves me......YESSSS!
Anyways, and then after the meeting that lasted until 1. The bus decided to take forever to get here and then take us to the apartement in Congreso where we had stayed the night (got to Congreso at 2:45) then another capital colectivo (45 minutes) to the big comfy bus that would take us on a 2 hour ride to Zarate. The only perk was that we got to stop and eat at McDonalds, something my companion had wanted for about.....all this transfer. She loves the french fries. I was just hungry. By the time we ate it was 4 o´clock in the afternoon. We left captal at 5, and didn´t get back to Zarate until about 7:30 - where we had to wait for another colectivo to take us to our apartment. Which we didn´t end up going to because we saw an investigator who is super hard t get a hold of - so we just jumped off the colectivo pj bag and all to talk to her. It was a great lesson.
And then today - I´m writing super late in the day because we´ve been packing, cleaning and moving all, day, long. And we are beat. And we haven´t taught a lesson all day. We´ll be going there soon, we just had to write the Pte and you guys real quick. So, I´m going to leave it at that. We´ll try to get some more writing time scrunched in next Monday, but with my life, we never know what´s going to happen. Anyways, I love you all. Go eat something awesome and think of me. I say that because I´m currently hungry, this isn´t a normal every day thing. Just a in the moment thing.
Toodles,
Hermana Reed
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Sunday, July 29, 2012
"Oh, my soul hungered..."
That´s the song I have stuck in my head today. Alright, I don´t have a lot of time because we have to be back in our apartment to fix our exploding bathroom. I tried to fix it myself, but there´s only so much that we can do when our only tools are a kitchen knife and fork. However, my companion was super surprised that I even knew what to do, let alone had the insight to use a knife to fix a plumbing problem. But it´s okay, it turns out the people who constructed our house messed up in the piping. It´s not that big of a deal, but the good news is that we are getting a new place to live in. It´s an apartment, 5th floor. It´s supposed to be super nice. We´re so cheta. We´ll be moving in about 2 weeks.
So this week has been full of a lot of small but fortifying experiences that we are doing what we are supposed to be doing. We didn´t baptize anyone, but we are starting to see some real progress working with the ward. Part of this is because of the temple rededication. We´ve essentially been asked to contact every member (active or not) and give them invitations to give to their friends. So everyone gets the chance to go to the open house. So we´re going to be updating the ward list, see who lives where and who doesn´t live here anymore, we´ll be contacting all the houses of members that have moved, and essentially finding a billion people to teach. My mind kind of explodes at the idea, but with our bicycles, I think we can do it. Now we just have to fix our bicycles. I have volunteered to help create an Excel list of the ward members and then use a program in word that copies and pastes the names into a formatted letter. I remember that there is a way to do it. The trick will be remembering and doing it in spanish, come on spanish-english dictionary! help me out! But the Bishop here nearly started floating when I offered to do it, there are over 300 families, so to write a letter and personalize it for 300 people....? It would be time for the dedication before we even got the invitations out.
So now the ward is starting to understand what we as missionaries do, and they´re helping us out. We received a call today from a member, who while doing her visiting teaching (and that doesn´t happen a ton here, we´re talking very low percentage, I don´t know if that´s normal in the United states, but I have a new found respect for visiting the hermanas of the ward) found 1) an hermana who wants to come back to church and wants her 2 kids to be baptized 2) otra hermana that wants to come back to church but doesn´t feel prepared to do it (she also has baptizable children) and 3) the direction of an Hermana that moved and got married umpteen years ago and therefore probably has children. Plus we had a Centro de Visitantes en la capilla yesterday and a member there told us her daughter wants to come back to church and wants her kids to get baptized. That´s ...hold on..count that up...yeah a potential 4 baptisms in the next month. I would die. In a good way. And that´s what happens when missionaries help the members. MIRACLE BAPTISMS!!! I´ll let you know how it works out.
That´s the most recent and exciting update. Also, this new family that we found did NOT go to church. Super bummed. Even though we left Ward Council early and ran in the early morning to get there and then called and called and called, and potentially knocked on all of their walls and called their names real loud and my companion felt like an idiot and I was just like "look! you´re going to church. Just open the door." Turns out they weren´t even there. Who decides to have their children the saturday night before church? These people I tell you! well, congratulations to the dad he´s a grandpappy again. And now we have to wait another week for their baptism. But other then that they are progressing. They are reading, their prayers are getting better and more sincere. And they at least are happy to see us. That always makes things better.
Another small but fortifying miracle happened on wednesday, we went to go talk to the Bishop for a bit, to update him on our findings and whatnot, and as we were just about to start our meeting a woman walks in the door and starts talking to the secretary "Hi, I used to be a member of Zarate I (ward next door) and we moved here about a year ago. We haven´t been going to church, but we want to start going again. We were wondering what we needed to do to see if the missionaries could stop by our house...." Well lookey there, turn to your left and you will find.....THE MISSIONARIES! Hello, my name is "answered prayer" and God sent me here. Okay, I didn´t actually say that. But i thought it in my head...right now if not in the moment. But we were able to talk to her and later her husband who came in as well. Turns out he used to live in Zarate II and the Bishop knew him. It was a good humbling experience for them, because they came and asked and new that they needed help. And all the people that could help just happened to be in the church at that exact moment. God really does love all of his children. And later the Bishop told us that of all that had happened that day, even if we had had the worst missionary working day ever, vale la pena. Because that was a miracle. Which is good, because i was actually feeling a bit rushed and we were a bit behind schedule going to and from the meeting, but God still uses us when we´re late. So it´s okay.
Alright, last little tid bit and then I´ll be off. Here are some good tongue twisters that I have learned in spanish. They´re called travalenguas in spanish. Good luck:
Pablito clavó un clavito. ¿Cuántos clavitos clavó Pablito?
Tres triste tigres tragaban en un trigal.
Pancha plancha con cuatro planchas. ¿Con cuántos planchas Pancha plancha?
camarelo caramelo
Right....that was some good work there.
Besos and a nice firm handshake
Hermana Reed
So this week has been full of a lot of small but fortifying experiences that we are doing what we are supposed to be doing. We didn´t baptize anyone, but we are starting to see some real progress working with the ward. Part of this is because of the temple rededication. We´ve essentially been asked to contact every member (active or not) and give them invitations to give to their friends. So everyone gets the chance to go to the open house. So we´re going to be updating the ward list, see who lives where and who doesn´t live here anymore, we´ll be contacting all the houses of members that have moved, and essentially finding a billion people to teach. My mind kind of explodes at the idea, but with our bicycles, I think we can do it. Now we just have to fix our bicycles. I have volunteered to help create an Excel list of the ward members and then use a program in word that copies and pastes the names into a formatted letter. I remember that there is a way to do it. The trick will be remembering and doing it in spanish, come on spanish-english dictionary! help me out! But the Bishop here nearly started floating when I offered to do it, there are over 300 families, so to write a letter and personalize it for 300 people....? It would be time for the dedication before we even got the invitations out.
So now the ward is starting to understand what we as missionaries do, and they´re helping us out. We received a call today from a member, who while doing her visiting teaching (and that doesn´t happen a ton here, we´re talking very low percentage, I don´t know if that´s normal in the United states, but I have a new found respect for visiting the hermanas of the ward) found 1) an hermana who wants to come back to church and wants her 2 kids to be baptized 2) otra hermana that wants to come back to church but doesn´t feel prepared to do it (she also has baptizable children) and 3) the direction of an Hermana that moved and got married umpteen years ago and therefore probably has children. Plus we had a Centro de Visitantes en la capilla yesterday and a member there told us her daughter wants to come back to church and wants her kids to get baptized. That´s ...hold on..count that up...yeah a potential 4 baptisms in the next month. I would die. In a good way. And that´s what happens when missionaries help the members. MIRACLE BAPTISMS!!! I´ll let you know how it works out.
That´s the most recent and exciting update. Also, this new family that we found did NOT go to church. Super bummed. Even though we left Ward Council early and ran in the early morning to get there and then called and called and called, and potentially knocked on all of their walls and called their names real loud and my companion felt like an idiot and I was just like "look! you´re going to church. Just open the door." Turns out they weren´t even there. Who decides to have their children the saturday night before church? These people I tell you! well, congratulations to the dad he´s a grandpappy again. And now we have to wait another week for their baptism. But other then that they are progressing. They are reading, their prayers are getting better and more sincere. And they at least are happy to see us. That always makes things better.
Another small but fortifying miracle happened on wednesday, we went to go talk to the Bishop for a bit, to update him on our findings and whatnot, and as we were just about to start our meeting a woman walks in the door and starts talking to the secretary "Hi, I used to be a member of Zarate I (ward next door) and we moved here about a year ago. We haven´t been going to church, but we want to start going again. We were wondering what we needed to do to see if the missionaries could stop by our house...." Well lookey there, turn to your left and you will find.....THE MISSIONARIES! Hello, my name is "answered prayer" and God sent me here. Okay, I didn´t actually say that. But i thought it in my head...right now if not in the moment. But we were able to talk to her and later her husband who came in as well. Turns out he used to live in Zarate II and the Bishop knew him. It was a good humbling experience for them, because they came and asked and new that they needed help. And all the people that could help just happened to be in the church at that exact moment. God really does love all of his children. And later the Bishop told us that of all that had happened that day, even if we had had the worst missionary working day ever, vale la pena. Because that was a miracle. Which is good, because i was actually feeling a bit rushed and we were a bit behind schedule going to and from the meeting, but God still uses us when we´re late. So it´s okay.
Alright, last little tid bit and then I´ll be off. Here are some good tongue twisters that I have learned in spanish. They´re called travalenguas in spanish. Good luck:
Pablito clavó un clavito. ¿Cuántos clavitos clavó Pablito?
Tres triste tigres tragaban en un trigal.
Pancha plancha con cuatro planchas. ¿Con cuántos planchas Pancha plancha?
camarelo caramelo
Right....that was some good work there.
Besos and a nice firm handshake
Hermana Reed
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
La Santificación
Bueno, just kidding. I´ll write this letter in english. I thought about writing it in spanish. Just for a second. But then I decided against it. I´m a good person, I promise. This week was great. A lot better then last week. I was a bit stressed last week. This week God decided that I had put forth my faith enough to give me a booster shot of spirit so I wouldn´t go crazy. I love it when God shows me He loves me. It allows me to make it through the next bout of crazyness.
A ver, what happened this week. Lunes - I took a nap. That was awesome. Then my life got rearranged like three times (last minute phone calls - you have to be here at such and such time). But we were invited to a special training conference in San Fernando (training - yeah! Getting up at 4 in the morning - Boo!). We talked about the Doctrine of Christ and read in Mosiah 3:19 about the natural man and how are goal is to overcome the natural man. We do it by the Atonement of Christ first - to become Saints - applying faith, repentance, baptism (weekly through the sacrament) and the gift of the holy Ghost. But we get faith first by learning and understanding the Gospel. Something that needs to be planted in our hearts (Alma 36:13? I think somewhere around there. I don´t have my notes) And if we plant faith in our hearts, we will feel the true fear of God - because we will want to repent because we know we are messing up every day. But if we feel this fear, then we will offer a true prayer (not a quick insincere prayer) and we will receive forgiveness. Which will lead us to become humble, meek, patient, longsuffering - like a child. It was a mixture of Mosiah 3:19 and Alma 36. And it was great. I loved it. And I walked away knowing that I needed to repent but knowing that God knew I could do it. (As opposed to the week before where I went to the training meeting and walked away feeling like the worst/least efficient missionary of all time) Sometimes I just need a good dose of the doctrine to keep me going. And as we become these things we will become even as Christ is - perfect. But it´s a progression. So keep repenting.
Then Hna Lobos and I talked about our Santification - we were given the assignment to teach it in our district meeting. And Santification is being freed from sin and staying pure. The goal of our lives is to be sanctified and live with God (Moises 1:39). The only way to do this is by applying the Atonement in our lives (Moises 6:59-60). We apply the atonement in our lives through the Sacrament. By partaking of the bread and water we reknew our convenants, are cleansed once again, and can begin a new week with renewed faith and motivation. Thus being sanctified. Cool huh?
So, that´s the doctrine I´ve learned/studied. I´ve also been thinking a lot about the change over from the law of Moises to the Law of Christ (3 Nefi 9:17-22). And I was thinking about the difficulties when it finally occurred. Because all of the believers had been looking forward to the coming of Christ, but were living a different law. So when the time came to change, they had to change all their habits all at once. And I´m sure quite a few people struggled with the changes even though they knew that it was what they wanted, and they wanted to follow Christ. But it took time, to change over. And some people probably changed super fast and it wasn´t even a struggle. It depends on our faith and willingness, and if we understand. It´s how we live our lives, no? We are living and doing good things, but there comes a time when Christ asks us to jump in our faith and live a higher law (we receive a calling, they up the standards, we are asked to do more in whatever position we are in). And it´s hard because we felt like we were completing our part and doing good, and it´s harder what we are being asked to do. But we have to show our faith and receive the confirmation that this is what God is asking us to do right now. And each time, God is giving us a bit more of His laws to live, so that we can become like Him.
Alright, investigators. We don´t have a ton that are progressing. Just one family. The family from Paraguay told us that they didn´t want to change churches (I don´t think they really read in the Book of Mormon) we´re going to try to pass by again and invite them to really read in the Book Of Mormon. We have another family that we were doing good with, but then our lives got super busy and weird so we´ve only been able to have contact by telephono. We´ll see what comes of that.
The most exciting is this new family we found this week. One of the projects of the ward is to clean up the member list. So we´ve been given a list of older members and asked to pass by to see if they´ve died or not (it´s not morbid, we just ask if they are there, and they tell us if they´ve died or not). IT´s a great way to get new investigators because we start talking to whoever answers the door. Anyways, so we go, find out this one specific Hna is not dead, but she doesn´t want anything to do with the church - we ask for a reference and she points us to one of her neighbors. It´s late so we have to go home. The next day we are walking and a member from Zarate I stops us and says "I have a reference for you" He didn´t even introduce himself, just looked at us, searched for our placks and when he saw that we were missionaries gave us this reference. But the reference gave us the needed opportunity to go back and contact the neighbor of this member. So we go, and the reference isn´t interested, but her granddaughter came walking up and we got a return cita with her. We went back to teach her and she accepted a baptismal date and everthing! She was so excited, she´s had a lot of bad experiences, she´s 16, she married some guy ("married" she lived with this guy) who beat her, she was pregnant with twins, lost the twins, and then went back to her family. who only half accepts her because her grandma taught her to rob. The point is she wants to change. So Sunday we go pass by for her house and she does not want to get out of bed - a bad consequence of being out late until 7 in the morning at a boliche. But her 2 sisters and her mom come to church with us. Miracle! And as we were walking home they accepted a baptismal date. And they were super excited because there are a couple of activities going on this saturday and they want to go. Hurray! Miracles. And we reset the fecha with the original so the whole family (poco a poco) will be getting baptized. Love it.
And that´s the highlight of my week. I´m going to go sleep now.
Love you lots!
Hermana Reed
A ver, what happened this week. Lunes - I took a nap. That was awesome. Then my life got rearranged like three times (last minute phone calls - you have to be here at such and such time). But we were invited to a special training conference in San Fernando (training - yeah! Getting up at 4 in the morning - Boo!). We talked about the Doctrine of Christ and read in Mosiah 3:19 about the natural man and how are goal is to overcome the natural man. We do it by the Atonement of Christ first - to become Saints - applying faith, repentance, baptism (weekly through the sacrament) and the gift of the holy Ghost. But we get faith first by learning and understanding the Gospel. Something that needs to be planted in our hearts (Alma 36:13? I think somewhere around there. I don´t have my notes) And if we plant faith in our hearts, we will feel the true fear of God - because we will want to repent because we know we are messing up every day. But if we feel this fear, then we will offer a true prayer (not a quick insincere prayer) and we will receive forgiveness. Which will lead us to become humble, meek, patient, longsuffering - like a child. It was a mixture of Mosiah 3:19 and Alma 36. And it was great. I loved it. And I walked away knowing that I needed to repent but knowing that God knew I could do it. (As opposed to the week before where I went to the training meeting and walked away feeling like the worst/least efficient missionary of all time) Sometimes I just need a good dose of the doctrine to keep me going. And as we become these things we will become even as Christ is - perfect. But it´s a progression. So keep repenting.
Then Hna Lobos and I talked about our Santification - we were given the assignment to teach it in our district meeting. And Santification is being freed from sin and staying pure. The goal of our lives is to be sanctified and live with God (Moises 1:39). The only way to do this is by applying the Atonement in our lives (Moises 6:59-60). We apply the atonement in our lives through the Sacrament. By partaking of the bread and water we reknew our convenants, are cleansed once again, and can begin a new week with renewed faith and motivation. Thus being sanctified. Cool huh?
So, that´s the doctrine I´ve learned/studied. I´ve also been thinking a lot about the change over from the law of Moises to the Law of Christ (3 Nefi 9:17-22). And I was thinking about the difficulties when it finally occurred. Because all of the believers had been looking forward to the coming of Christ, but were living a different law. So when the time came to change, they had to change all their habits all at once. And I´m sure quite a few people struggled with the changes even though they knew that it was what they wanted, and they wanted to follow Christ. But it took time, to change over. And some people probably changed super fast and it wasn´t even a struggle. It depends on our faith and willingness, and if we understand. It´s how we live our lives, no? We are living and doing good things, but there comes a time when Christ asks us to jump in our faith and live a higher law (we receive a calling, they up the standards, we are asked to do more in whatever position we are in). And it´s hard because we felt like we were completing our part and doing good, and it´s harder what we are being asked to do. But we have to show our faith and receive the confirmation that this is what God is asking us to do right now. And each time, God is giving us a bit more of His laws to live, so that we can become like Him.
Alright, investigators. We don´t have a ton that are progressing. Just one family. The family from Paraguay told us that they didn´t want to change churches (I don´t think they really read in the Book of Mormon) we´re going to try to pass by again and invite them to really read in the Book Of Mormon. We have another family that we were doing good with, but then our lives got super busy and weird so we´ve only been able to have contact by telephono. We´ll see what comes of that.
The most exciting is this new family we found this week. One of the projects of the ward is to clean up the member list. So we´ve been given a list of older members and asked to pass by to see if they´ve died or not (it´s not morbid, we just ask if they are there, and they tell us if they´ve died or not). IT´s a great way to get new investigators because we start talking to whoever answers the door. Anyways, so we go, find out this one specific Hna is not dead, but she doesn´t want anything to do with the church - we ask for a reference and she points us to one of her neighbors. It´s late so we have to go home. The next day we are walking and a member from Zarate I stops us and says "I have a reference for you" He didn´t even introduce himself, just looked at us, searched for our placks and when he saw that we were missionaries gave us this reference. But the reference gave us the needed opportunity to go back and contact the neighbor of this member. So we go, and the reference isn´t interested, but her granddaughter came walking up and we got a return cita with her. We went back to teach her and she accepted a baptismal date and everthing! She was so excited, she´s had a lot of bad experiences, she´s 16, she married some guy ("married" she lived with this guy) who beat her, she was pregnant with twins, lost the twins, and then went back to her family. who only half accepts her because her grandma taught her to rob. The point is she wants to change. So Sunday we go pass by for her house and she does not want to get out of bed - a bad consequence of being out late until 7 in the morning at a boliche. But her 2 sisters and her mom come to church with us. Miracle! And as we were walking home they accepted a baptismal date. And they were super excited because there are a couple of activities going on this saturday and they want to go. Hurray! Miracles. And we reset the fecha with the original so the whole family (poco a poco) will be getting baptized. Love it.
And that´s the highlight of my week. I´m going to go sleep now.
Love you lots!
Hermana Reed
Monday, July 9, 2012
I thought you were an athlete! I am an athlete!
Not write now, write now I don´t think I could run a mile even if I tried, unless it was 8:55 and we had a mile to run to get home on time. And then my companion would collapse on the floor and cry....then we would call a remis.
Alright, this week´s letter is going to be a shorty. I´m feeling some strep coming on and I need a nap. Here are the awesome things that happened this week.
1) We had this awesome lesson with the wife of a less active. She is very Catholic and we´ve been passing by her house weekly - more to help her husband come back to church. Because she has absolutely no intentions of being baptized. We know because every time we stop by she greets us with "Well, come in. But I´m not one of you. I just listen because you need a woman, but I´m Catholic. But I listen to everyone because the Bible says if we don´t listen to the servants of God then they will wipe their feet at our doors and we´ll be destroyed. I even listen to the Jehovah´s Witnesses!" Not even kidding, she says that everytime. But it was even better this week because we were sharing with her and we were talking about how in Ephesians it says that there´s One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism. And she responds with "Ephesians, that´s in the Book of Mormon?" "No...it´s in the Bible." "Oh, then it must be in the First Testament, written before Christ came." "No, it´s in the New Testament." "I´ve never heard of the New Testament, there´s only the First testament and the Second testament." "Right...that´s the Old Testament and the New Testament. And the Book of Mormon is ANOTHER testament. 3 Witnesses that Jesus lives."
"Oh, well I have a question. Have you ever spoken in tongues?" "I´m speaking in tongues right now, I´m from the United States. My native tongue is English." "No, I mean, have you ever been speaking, and know that you are speaking directly with God?" "You mean, a prayer??"
It was a funny lesson. She´s an older lady, and she doesn´t hear very well. But it was kind of funny. She always likes it when we share scriptures with her, and her husband is awesome. He´ll be coming back to church. And I think God is softening the heart of this Hermana. Good times.
2) We had a special training meeting for invited missionaries only. We were some of the invited. And essentially we got told that we could be baptizing weekly. We just need to get more intuned with God. Which stressed me out like crazy because I thought I was doing a good job and having success, and when I left this training, for sure didn´t feel like I had been doing enough with my time. But those are the thoughts of Satan, I know this because Pte Gulbrandsen told us that. Don´t worry, I´ve been building up my Satan protecting shield for 16 months. It´s almost perfect. Satan is just getting trickier. The only good news is that we know that all the opposition that we are receiving is because of the rededication of the temple. It´s going to be a wild ride.
3) We had our baptism this weekend! It was crazy! It almost didn´t happen! Here, I will explain. It´s called Once upon a time we had a 10 yr old little girl that was super excited to be baptized. Due to the training meeting and the devil we weren´t able to find her until Thursday night. We literally went to both of her houses 2 nights in a row (opposite ends of town) to try to find her. Couldn´t find her. She´s 10 - doesn´t have a cell phone. Thursday night we find her! Miracle. We set up her interview for Friday night only to find out that our district leader can´t make it (it´s a 2 hour collectivo ride) and our zone leaders have a cita justo at this moment. So we have to call the district leader of our other district to come do the interview. Done.
Saturday - it´s our turn to clean the chapel, and we go to fill the font to find that it hadn´t been drained from the Baptism of Noemí. So we have to drain it, clean it, and fill it. Love my life. Plus go to all of our citas.Luckily our ward secretary is awesome!! And showed us how to do it before returning to his wife (it was her birthday). Saturday morning, we wake up and our Sim card of our phone stops working. Sweet, we don´t have a designated 2nd witness, just the hope of a couple of hermanos that said that they would do all that they could to be there. I´m nervous, we have citas, and we don´t have a phone to call the bishop. AUGH! So, we head to the church at 6:30 and we find a menos activo recent convert and invite him to come to the baptism. Turns out it was a miracle because we couldn´t find a 2nd witness, and we got permission from the stake president to have him be our 2nd testigo. She got baptized that´s all that matters.
okay, gots´to go. Their closing for the holidays. Love you .
Hermana Reed
Alright, this week´s letter is going to be a shorty. I´m feeling some strep coming on and I need a nap. Here are the awesome things that happened this week.
1) We had this awesome lesson with the wife of a less active. She is very Catholic and we´ve been passing by her house weekly - more to help her husband come back to church. Because she has absolutely no intentions of being baptized. We know because every time we stop by she greets us with "Well, come in. But I´m not one of you. I just listen because you need a woman, but I´m Catholic. But I listen to everyone because the Bible says if we don´t listen to the servants of God then they will wipe their feet at our doors and we´ll be destroyed. I even listen to the Jehovah´s Witnesses!" Not even kidding, she says that everytime. But it was even better this week because we were sharing with her and we were talking about how in Ephesians it says that there´s One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism. And she responds with "Ephesians, that´s in the Book of Mormon?" "No...it´s in the Bible." "Oh, then it must be in the First Testament, written before Christ came." "No, it´s in the New Testament." "I´ve never heard of the New Testament, there´s only the First testament and the Second testament." "Right...that´s the Old Testament and the New Testament. And the Book of Mormon is ANOTHER testament. 3 Witnesses that Jesus lives."
"Oh, well I have a question. Have you ever spoken in tongues?" "I´m speaking in tongues right now, I´m from the United States. My native tongue is English." "No, I mean, have you ever been speaking, and know that you are speaking directly with God?" "You mean, a prayer??"
It was a funny lesson. She´s an older lady, and she doesn´t hear very well. But it was kind of funny. She always likes it when we share scriptures with her, and her husband is awesome. He´ll be coming back to church. And I think God is softening the heart of this Hermana. Good times.
2) We had a special training meeting for invited missionaries only. We were some of the invited. And essentially we got told that we could be baptizing weekly. We just need to get more intuned with God. Which stressed me out like crazy because I thought I was doing a good job and having success, and when I left this training, for sure didn´t feel like I had been doing enough with my time. But those are the thoughts of Satan, I know this because Pte Gulbrandsen told us that. Don´t worry, I´ve been building up my Satan protecting shield for 16 months. It´s almost perfect. Satan is just getting trickier. The only good news is that we know that all the opposition that we are receiving is because of the rededication of the temple. It´s going to be a wild ride.
3) We had our baptism this weekend! It was crazy! It almost didn´t happen! Here, I will explain. It´s called Once upon a time we had a 10 yr old little girl that was super excited to be baptized. Due to the training meeting and the devil we weren´t able to find her until Thursday night. We literally went to both of her houses 2 nights in a row (opposite ends of town) to try to find her. Couldn´t find her. She´s 10 - doesn´t have a cell phone. Thursday night we find her! Miracle. We set up her interview for Friday night only to find out that our district leader can´t make it (it´s a 2 hour collectivo ride) and our zone leaders have a cita justo at this moment. So we have to call the district leader of our other district to come do the interview. Done.
Saturday - it´s our turn to clean the chapel, and we go to fill the font to find that it hadn´t been drained from the Baptism of Noemí. So we have to drain it, clean it, and fill it. Love my life. Plus go to all of our citas.Luckily our ward secretary is awesome!! And showed us how to do it before returning to his wife (it was her birthday). Saturday morning, we wake up and our Sim card of our phone stops working. Sweet, we don´t have a designated 2nd witness, just the hope of a couple of hermanos that said that they would do all that they could to be there. I´m nervous, we have citas, and we don´t have a phone to call the bishop. AUGH! So, we head to the church at 6:30 and we find a menos activo recent convert and invite him to come to the baptism. Turns out it was a miracle because we couldn´t find a 2nd witness, and we got permission from the stake president to have him be our 2nd testigo. She got baptized that´s all that matters.
okay, gots´to go. Their closing for the holidays. Love you .
Hermana Reed
Thursday, July 5, 2012
I want a baby....
puppy. I know, You all freaked out on that one. Don´t worry. I´m not trunky. I do want a puppy though. We were over at a recent converts house and they have a baby puppy and it was just so cute. And...now I want one. Which is weird, because before the mission, I wasn´t in to the whole "pet" thing. We´ll see what happens. All right, that was less then important, I just share my thoughts with all of you. And I like keeping it real. I´m funny, just accept it.
So, this week, was awesome. Hermana Lobos and I work great together. She´s got a lot of good ideas and good experiences, we make a good team, teaching in our lessons, bringing in the spirit. It´s awesome. Plus some miracles - we got permission from the mom of Yamila, and she came to church on Sunday which means we have a baptism this Saturday! Whoohoo! And we found some antiguos investigadores who accepted a fecha for the 14th. Whoohoo! Hello milagros.
So, Yamila came to church this week, and we got the signature of the mom! It was most excellent. Plus, it included a return appointment with the mom to teach Yamila in her house. And when we were teaching (them both, with miembro justo) the mom really liked it, she told Hna Figueroa (Yamila´s aunt and mom of 3 recent converts) that she felt a peace/change in her home the whole day. She´s not super interested in changing her life (yet) but we keep looking for opportunities to teach her and have her see the changes in her daughter. This more then anything, we feel will help her become more interested in the Gospel.
And then, Sunday night we had some miracles. I´ve been praying and searching for a family to teach. Because in my whole mission I´ve never really taught a family - just individuals. And Sunday we went to contact a reference, and outside was this Dad - named Julio - he´s from Paraguay, he moved here 7 months ago and has gone to a couple of churches, but hasn´t felt really good about any of them. One he did like, but the pastor up and closed the church. (Act of God, I think). Anyways so we asked him if he´d ever thought about why there are so many churches and he just exploded. "yeah! I´ve asked a lot of pastors but they never could give me an answer that I understood!" He´s super excited for us to go back. Oh, it´s a family of 7 - 6 of which can get baptized. I love my Heavenly Father.
And Hermana Lobos and I are working great. It´s weird because I´ve never really had a companion with a lot of time in the field. I´ve been the 2nd companion of a lot of Hermanas (or the 1st) as senior comp and working with Hermana Lobos has been great. We work together always and share our ideas and it´s never one person doing all the planning and thinking and the other just accepting because they don´t have any ideas to share. I´m not lazy, it´s just nice to have a good 2-sided discussion. Something that comes with experience. aka. I love Hermana Lobos.
Some fun experiences included when we went to go contact a reference - well it was the 2nd time. We had a cita with Juan and he didn´t show up, so we went to set up another appointment and he accepted but as we were talking he turned to me and said "you know what, you look like someone really well known. Wait, who was it....uh...the wife of Tom Cruise, with the curls? Nicole Kidman! You look like Nicole Kidman!" And I honestly didn´t have a response to that. It´s the first time any one has told me I look like Nicole Kidman. It´s a good compliment.
And I´m just excited to start working again. I had a bout of boredom this week, but we´ve found some new investigators and things are starting to fire up again here in Zarate II. Keep praying for me. Keep doing good in your own lives. Prepare to go to the temple. Pray for us as missionariesy in Argentina that we get to be part of the rededication ( The Buenos Aires Temple is going to be rededicated September 9th - barely made it - and rumors are spreading like rapid fire that the Missionaries in the 3 Buenos Aires missions may get to participate. Pte. Eyring and Elder Ballard and Elder Christofferson are coming down for the dedication. So exciting!
Allright, gots to go. Love you all.
Hermana Reed
So, this week, was awesome. Hermana Lobos and I work great together. She´s got a lot of good ideas and good experiences, we make a good team, teaching in our lessons, bringing in the spirit. It´s awesome. Plus some miracles - we got permission from the mom of Yamila, and she came to church on Sunday which means we have a baptism this Saturday! Whoohoo! And we found some antiguos investigadores who accepted a fecha for the 14th. Whoohoo! Hello milagros.
So, Yamila came to church this week, and we got the signature of the mom! It was most excellent. Plus, it included a return appointment with the mom to teach Yamila in her house. And when we were teaching (them both, with miembro justo) the mom really liked it, she told Hna Figueroa (Yamila´s aunt and mom of 3 recent converts) that she felt a peace/change in her home the whole day. She´s not super interested in changing her life (yet) but we keep looking for opportunities to teach her and have her see the changes in her daughter. This more then anything, we feel will help her become more interested in the Gospel.
And then, Sunday night we had some miracles. I´ve been praying and searching for a family to teach. Because in my whole mission I´ve never really taught a family - just individuals. And Sunday we went to contact a reference, and outside was this Dad - named Julio - he´s from Paraguay, he moved here 7 months ago and has gone to a couple of churches, but hasn´t felt really good about any of them. One he did like, but the pastor up and closed the church. (Act of God, I think). Anyways so we asked him if he´d ever thought about why there are so many churches and he just exploded. "yeah! I´ve asked a lot of pastors but they never could give me an answer that I understood!" He´s super excited for us to go back. Oh, it´s a family of 7 - 6 of which can get baptized. I love my Heavenly Father.
And Hermana Lobos and I are working great. It´s weird because I´ve never really had a companion with a lot of time in the field. I´ve been the 2nd companion of a lot of Hermanas (or the 1st) as senior comp and working with Hermana Lobos has been great. We work together always and share our ideas and it´s never one person doing all the planning and thinking and the other just accepting because they don´t have any ideas to share. I´m not lazy, it´s just nice to have a good 2-sided discussion. Something that comes with experience. aka. I love Hermana Lobos.
Some fun experiences included when we went to go contact a reference - well it was the 2nd time. We had a cita with Juan and he didn´t show up, so we went to set up another appointment and he accepted but as we were talking he turned to me and said "you know what, you look like someone really well known. Wait, who was it....uh...the wife of Tom Cruise, with the curls? Nicole Kidman! You look like Nicole Kidman!" And I honestly didn´t have a response to that. It´s the first time any one has told me I look like Nicole Kidman. It´s a good compliment.
And I´m just excited to start working again. I had a bout of boredom this week, but we´ve found some new investigators and things are starting to fire up again here in Zarate II. Keep praying for me. Keep doing good in your own lives. Prepare to go to the temple. Pray for us as missionariesy in Argentina that we get to be part of the rededication ( The Buenos Aires Temple is going to be rededicated September 9th - barely made it - and rumors are spreading like rapid fire that the Missionaries in the 3 Buenos Aires missions may get to participate. Pte. Eyring and Elder Ballard and Elder Christofferson are coming down for the dedication. So exciting!
Allright, gots to go. Love you all.
Hermana Reed
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