Baptizing Nationzz 😎

Buen dia gente! This week was a good one. 

Baptisms!

First and most importantly our friend Eduardo is getting baptized next week so I'm going to need a lot of prayers that everything goes well!! He is so ready and so excited! 

When we were doing the baptismal interview questions with him his testimony was so powerful! It's crazy how fast he changed from telling us that the Bible says the Book of Mormon can't be true, to testifying thay Joseph Smith is a prophet of God and he restored the true church! 

This week when we talked about baptism with him he was so scared and hesitant because he said his family wouldn't support him, and he didn't want to hurt his wife and kids by doing this without them, but then as we talked more about it he said that God was calling him and he couldn't say no. 

So on Friday he will be getting baptized!! 

Also our friend Mía said she's ready to be baptized on May 30th! She's going to ask her parents permission and we're going to fast all together because she really wants her parents support in this! But she said she's so sure that May 30th is the day because as she prayed about what day to choose she received the answer May 30th!! 

Pray for Mia!

So prayers for her too because she is so determined to be baptized!! 

One of our friends Leandro also accepted a baptismal date! He's still very hesitant because he doesn't know very much about God or churches, but he wants to follow the example of Jesus and be baptized so we're helping him prepare to be baptized in June! 

Conference

We had our zone conference this week! It was fun to see everyone and receive so much inspiration from our Mission President! Also we received the flu shot so this conference was a bit of a downer, but we survived. 

Pensamiento Espíritual! 

I'd like to share a little scripture I was reading this week in 2 Nephi 33, which says, 

"7 I have charity for my people, and great faith in Christ that I shall meet many souls spotless at his judgment-seat" 

I love this scripture because at times there are moments where one feels that it's not worth it everything that we do. That some days no one answers the door or no one ever progresses. But I love this scripture because for me it shows Nephi's experience with this. 

In a lot of his writings Nephi laments the wickedness of his people, but here he says he has charity for them, and he knows many of them will be saved thanks to the things he has taught and written. In our lives there are so many people who come to know Christ through our words and actions. 

If we are doing our best to be charitable, loving, and a little more like Christ every day, our efforts will always make the difference!

Councilors

I'm sleeping next to mold - But at least there are LEDs...

Illegal Divisions

Amount of illegal Divisions I did this week: 1 😎

Nah, just kidding, my illegal divisions were approved by my District Leader and the higher ups, my zone leaders. But basically our District leader asked us to do divisions with hermanas who aren't our Sister Training Leaders. So here in Tres Arroyos with the other companionship of hermanas we did a little division for a day. 

Me and the Hermana Ramirez had a bomb day, we found 8 new people to teach and had a member named Sasha accompany us to walk around and had some bomb lessons with her. 

In our area my daughter, the Hermana Villagrán, also had a lot of success and all in all they were awesome divisions. 10/10 - would do divisions again. 

Divisions (They don't exist anyone) 

Speaking of Divisionsssss, we have officially decided divisions don't exist in Tres Arroyos. Basically in a city every missionary has a part of the city as their area to work, for example, before Tres Arroyos was divided in the middle and I only worked on one half of the city. 

But the Elders moved houses and when they asked how to handle the new division, I jokingly said, lets just not have divisions and everyone goes where they want. And he said, okay, all in favor? And everyone was in favor. 

So basically limits don't exist here starting today and we're about to have a really weird transfer. 

Tarjetas 

MILAGROSS! The miracle for this week is a little game me and my daughter Hermana Villagrán have been playing. We have little cards as missionaries that we pass out with our number and directions to the church. Hermana Villagrán had the idea to write little phrases of encouragement on the cards for people. 

I added that we could put questions on the cards and have people pick one randomly and we have had unlimited success with this game, it's unbelievable. Every single card a persons picks has been something they've needed. 

Story time! 

We stopped these two guys walking and asked them to pick a card. Guy number one, (lets call him James), quickly gives his cigarette the boot as we start talking to him, and pulls the card, "what aspects of your life to you want to better?" 

Well he says, "My bad habits." Then explains to us that he is actually a member of the church, but he hasn't been active in a long time. Then his friend pulls the card that says "You can do it." 

To say James started crying in the middle of the street would be a lie, but we did receive a very thankful message that night. And on Sunday he came to church then went to a Young Single Adults activity 😎

Less active members who renewed their covenants this week: 1 

Spiritual! 

I don't want to make this too long, but I will say I have seen greatly how through small and simple things we can be instruments in the lord's hands this week. Through this card game, many people have received answers from God specifically for them. 

We knocked a house looking for a member, but instead found a woman who moved here from Necochea and had already been talking with missionaries and had a Book of Mormon. We found a less active member in the middle of the street who gave us her direction and an invitation to pass by her house. 

When we put in a little effort, our best effort, we see the Lord magnifies it so much more than we ever could. 

Metas y planes (Goals & Plans)

There's not too much to say this week because we were too busy working like crazy. 

Goals

We had a very good week, we managed to beat a lot of our goals. We found 18 new people to teach, we had 13 lessons with the help of the members of the Branch and we put our friend on date to be baptized!

 Our friend Eduardo who used to be part of the Seventh-Day Adventists now has a hankering to be part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! He accepted a baptismal date for the 16th of May and is preparing a lot by praying and reading the Book of Mormon. He has started coming to church every week and he says that coming to church feels like coming home. 

Prayers Needed

This week one of our friends also was part of a car accident so lets get some prayers going for him. 

Not much to say this week, I just encourage everyone to focus on goals and plans. 

Spiritual Thought

I want to share a little small verse of Doctrine and Covenants section 38 that says, "but if ye are prepared ye shall not fear." 

I want to share this part because in my week I've seen how true it is. My companion and I decided this week that we were going to be ambitious and try to reach more people than we have before. So we made goals, then plans, then back up plans, and we followed through with faith that we could do it. 

For example, one day this week we decided we wanted to find 2 people in an hour, our plans weren't working so went to our back up plan. Then we stopped in the middle of the street and prayed. The next door we knocked we found someone. Then after that we stopped again in the middle of the street to pray and we found someone else. 

When people have faith that God will help them, they act. We put high goals and reached them because we trusted that the lord was preparing people for us to teach, and we made plans for how to find these people. 

But that's just my little endorsement for making goals and plans. I hope everyone has a super great week! 

Pizza?

Not Positive everyone is in a seat belt...

He is Risen!

Happy Easter to everyone! Yesterday was a super great Easter Sunday and we had a fun week down here in Argentina. First and foremost I am now with my daughter, the beloved Hermana Villagrán! 

My New Daughter!

My Daughter

She is from Chile and she is so so great! I love her with all my heart! She is so determined and such a hard worker! We arrived in Tres Arroyos Friday at 8am and we have seen so many miracles in this short weekend. 

That same Friday that we arrived we put a man on date to be baptized! Then the very next day we put a woman on date to be baptized! (To be honest though, really the member accompanying us put her on date to be baptized. The member told this girl, "the missionaries are preparing a baptismal service if you would like to be baptized.")

We had a lot of lessons and visited a lot of people this weekend. On Sunday we have 5 of our friends come to church and it was so special! 

Our friend Eduardo came to church and afterwards he told us he can't wait to come back! He said he felt something really special at church and he knows that he needs to come back! 

This week has been so special and I feel so blessed to be in Tres Arroyos right now at this time! My daughter Hermana Villagrán is literally the best, all our friends are awesome, and the lord is guiding our steps. I know that things will get dificult, or that we'll have hard weeks or days, but it is because we will be challenged that we will have a lot of success! 

Spiritual thought

Happy Easter! This Easter season I have been thinking about Christ's resurrection. Thanks to his death and resurrection, every one of us will be resurrected as well. Not only from physical death, but be resurrected from all our pains, fears, and trials. 

Through Christ's Atonement, his suffering and triumphant victory, we can rise above all the challenges we face in this mortal life. We can be resurrected as we find or receive forgiveness, as we comfort others, as we find acceptance in a trial, etc. The Atonement does not solely cover sins or death, it encompasses everything. 

I encourage you to ponder on how you have been resurrected this Easter season, or to look for where Christ can help you leave the past behind, and begin anew. 

I'm a Mother

This week was a lot, starting with Monday we traveled to Necochea because on Tuesday we have divisions with our STL's (STL = Sister Training Leader), Hermana Lima and Hermana Costa! 

So much bus time! We may have been a bit tired...

Divisions

Me and Hermana Lima were companions for the day, and we had a really fun day. We found 4 people to start teaching and had a fun experience copying keys. One would think that getting a copy of a key is easy, but one would be wrong. 

We went to a shop, and the guy made a copy of the key! Yay, we went home, tried the key, and it didn't work. So we go back to the shop and we tell him, "Hey! Your key didn't work, can you make one that does function?" And so he "fixes" the key, gives it back to us and we go home. 

And the "fixed" key, also did not work! So we went back and said, "hey, this new key also doesn't work, can you make us a key that actually functions?" 

So he makes a new key, then gives us a black powder and tells us, "listen chicas, if the key doesn't work, do "poof" with the black power in the lock and the key will work." 

Now, I'm no skeptic, but part of me feels like if a key doesn't work, pouring some glitter in a lock and saying the word "poof" like I'm Tinkerbell will not fix the key. To everyone's surprise, the key still did not work after we "did poof." 

Divisions

My Daughter

I've received the news I'm expecting a little baby girl! It's true, I'm going to be training a new missionary here in Tres Arroyos. I'm sad to see Hermana Orellano go, but I'm excited to help a new missionary! Next week when I know who it is that I'll be training I'll send photos and names! 

I loved my time with Hermana Orellano!

Zone Conference 

We had zone Conference this week and it was really awesome! One thing that really stuck out to me was the focus on improvement, but not self criticism. Often times when we strive for improvement we end up falling into the trap of over critiquing ourselves, thinking that we are the worst or that we're failing. 

But while we need to acknowledge our past mistakes for improvement, we don't need to dwell on our past mistakes. We don't need to beat ourselves up for the things that are already dead and gone, we can only look forward and try to do better tomorrow. I like this scripture in Corinthians that says, 

"9 Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. 10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death."

I like this scripture because it explains that sorrow of the world only leads us to misery, but when we look to Christ, our mistakes become beautiful.