Another week gone!!!

This Tuesday we had a really amazing experience. We went and taught one of our investigators we found contacting. She was so nice to us and told us a bit about her life. We gave her the first lesson about the restoration, and it went great. My companion and I had been working on reciting the First Vision with more conviction and more meaning. Our practice paid off, because the Spirit was so strong. And after our lesson she started asking us all these questions about the church and where it was. She did not come to church this week, but we will keep trying.

 

Now for some funny things. Everyday this week there was rain, which made it a little chilly. Not to mention that we had run out of gas for a week or two. Now usually that would not be such a big problem, but our hot water decides to be iffy and not work all the time. So we had been boiling hot water to shower with. But this week we had not gas. Then to make it even better I was in the shower one morning and the power went off, which equals a cold shower. We went a couple days without power, which meant we did our studies in the dark with candles. and finally... One of the bathroom's toilet broke off the wall and we had a flood in our house. So this morning we were trying to dump buckets of water down the drains and keep the water contained. Oh the memories I have in Paraguay haha. But a member came and fixed it all today, so we are all good. Plus he fixed the heat in our room! Blessings!!!

Saturday morning we had one of the future missionaries come out with us. He is just so Amazing, and has such a strong testimony. It is great. On our last lesson with him we visited a less active family. The lesson started off great, but towards the end it went all crazy. The 16 year old boy started asking all of these questions about the Book of Mormon and how he didn't believe that Jesus Christ came to the Americas and that the Bible never says any about the Book of Mormon and lots of stuff like that. But the member that we had with us started testifying of the Book of Mormon, and answered every question that he had. It was as though he took all the words out of my mouth. I know it was the Spirit. It was such a wonderful experience seeing the youth of the ward defending their faith, just how Elder Holland puts it. I am so glad that we are able to have the knowledge of the Restored Gospel. I know the church is true. I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I have no doubt of what I am doing, I know that it is true.

I love you all, and hope you all have an amazing week.

Love,

Hermana Sanders

{6-23-2014}

Jun 23

This week was really good. We had 2 confirmations at church and also one of our investigators attend. We also had a pretty big assistance at church which was a really big blessing. But I want to share with you a really amazing experience. After lunch we went to visit a less active member who has not been to church for almost a year. We had a little trouble finding her house, but we finally found her in the street. We sat down and talked a little about her baptism and started sharing our lesson. During our lesson I could feel the Spirit take over and start to put words into my mouth. I don't remember what I said, but I was tearing up while saying it. Then my companion and I both bore our testimonies, and something we said made her open up and tell us why she had not come to church so long. Because we had the Spirit in out lesson we were able to find out her need, and hopefully help her out. We really felt Heavenly Fathers love for her, and how desperately He wanted her to return back to Him. It was such a wonderful experience.

Today we went and taught our newest converts. We showed them the Restoration video, and they loved it. They told us right after the video that they knew that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that they feel so happy to be members. It just melted my heart! Some times I wish I could take these people home with me, I just love them! 

 

So I was reading some of the priesthood conference talks, and really loved them. One that really helped me was by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Are you sleeping during the Restoration? (I think that is what it is called in English) Something that made me really think was when he asked, "When our time comes to an end on this Earth, what experiences can we share about our contributions in this life for the advance of the work of the Lord? Can we say that we put our hands in the work and worked with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength?" (sorry if this doesn't make sense in English) I like to think of Jacob 5:41 when I read this. Did we do everything that we could for the work of the Lord? Will be be able to say we put our all in, and did everything that was possible? I love how Uchtdorf also said that to be a disciple of Jesus Christ it isn't a labor one time in the week, or one time a day. It is a labor constant and permanent. We are all disciples of the Lord, just how it says in 3 Nephi 15:12. This work is not easy, but I am forever grateful I chose to serve a mission. I know that the Lord will never abandon me and that he loves me. I want to make him proud, and say that I participated in this marvelous work. I am so grateful for all the missionaries all around the world. For all the returned missionaries, and all the future missionaries. A mission is the best decision anyone could make. I know that Our Father in Heaven loves all of His children, and wants every single person to return to Him. This church is true and is the restored Gospel on the Earth.

Anyways I hope everyone is doing well. I miss you all! Have a wonderful week!

Love, Hermana Sanders

 

Transfer # 6

So I survived yet another change. I am happy to report that I will be staying in Marambure with my companion! I was so happy to find this out, because I love this area and also my companion! We will be getting a new sister in our house though, which will be fun. It is crazy to thing that I only have 5 more changes.

This week was really good, and we had some really good lessons. We were also really happy to have a baptism this weekend. 2 kids got baptized on Saturday, and we just love them so much! They are so cute and just love learning about the Gospel! And their baptism service was so beautiful and there was so many people who showed up. Also their was a whole lot of food. We have such a great ward.

Sunday was also amazing. We had 2 guest speakers come to our ward. One from Peru and the other from Guatemala. They told some amazing stories, and the spirit was really strong. There are a few notes that I want to share with you guys. They are pretty great. The first speaker spoke on the commandments for a husband and wife, and I thought I needed to share. The first commandment for husbands, know that your wife is your companion, not property. She is there to be a partner and that you need to always seek her help in all that you do. 2nd- buy her chocolates and flowers. Remember the days when you were dating and how you tried to impress her. Always be looking for ways everyday to show her that you love her. 3rd- come home with a smile. Show your wife that you are happy to be home, and are willing to help her out. Now commandments for the wife. 1st- Always look at your husband with that loving gaze you had when you were dating. 2nd- don't expect to have material things all at once. You will be able to gain more and more things as you move on with life. Everything comes little by little. 3rd- always be clean and dress up. The speaker went on to tell a cute story of one day his son was asking when they were going to leave, and that they were going to be late for a certain event. He told his son that his mother was getting ready and just to be patient. And 5 or 10 minutes later his wife came out all beautiful and put together. He then told his son to look how beautiful his mother looked and that it was all worth the wait. Anyways those were just a few of the funny notes I took. All the talks were wonderful that day and about fathers and the priesthood.

I hope you all had a wonderful week, and can't wait to read your emails next Monday. I love you all!

Love, Hermana Sanders

 

I'm half way there!!!!!

 So this week was awesome. You know why?

 I totally met a monkey!!! 

 

So... we were teaching one of our recent converts and after we ended with a prayer, she told us that she saw a monkey. And to our surprise there actually was a monkey across the road. So we decided to go over there and contact the house, and secretly to see the monkey. We ended up talking to the guy for a while, who was really nice. Then he told us we could come back and share our message another day. Then he also gave us permission to take pictures with his monkey. And yes... I got to touch the monkey. Best day ever!

 

We have been teaching a very special family this week as well. Their son and daughter are getting baptized this Saturday, which is really exciting. Let me tell you a little back story. We have been having a hard time finding new investigators that have the potential to progress. So my companion and I decided to work a lot with the less active members and hopefully we would find part member families. And if not, we were still going to bring all of God's children back to the fold. Well we found this one family though and found out that their kids weren't baptized. They are all super adorable, and just understand everything that we teach them. They love going to church as well and tell us how big of a difference they feel now. We just love them soooo much.

This week we also went to the furthest part of our area to visit some less actives, but for some reason all of our lessons were falling through. Well we got a call from our zone leaders and they were asking us where our mission leader lived. He lives in the other sister's area, but that morning we happened to be pretty close. The Elders ended up needing keys from our leader, and we decided we would grab it for the Elders. It was neat to think about it later, because in the morning we were confused why all of our appointments were falling through, but then we realized that the Lord needed us in that area to help out the Elders. Plus it was good to help them out because earlier this week they went and brought my medication to our house, because I was really sick and could not leave the house.

So we are really excited to have our baptism this weekend and hopefully everything will go well. Oh and I completed have of my Mission today! YAY! 9 more months to bring souls unto Christ!

Love you all!

Hermana Sanders

Sunday... Day of MIRACLES!!!

Jun 2

This week was really good. It started off a little chilly, but then it warmed up. So Tuesday we went up to an area which is not really familiar for us. 2 weeks ago a lady and her cute little kids had come to church and we had never seen her before. We went and talked to her and we found out she was a member. So we planned on visiting her this week when she had time. It took us a while to find her house, but we found it. She is adorable, and has 2 beautiful kids! One of them is 4 and she is just a little spunky spirit, and the other is 1. Her 4 year old was super friendly, she reminded me of Maddy when she was little, and she kept playing with me the whole time. She even drew the cutest pictures for me while we shared a message with her mom.

We also visited our cute little investigator Sofia this week. It was so cute because she was waiting at the gate for us to arrive. She gets so excited to be taught and always has her pamphlets out and her Book of Mormon. Oh and her grandma gave her a hymn book and she has been practicing. When we invited her to be baptized on a specific date, she got really sad. She told us that she wanted to be baptized this very Sunday, but she said she could wait. It was so cute!

We also visited a recent convert this week, and it just melted my heart... His name is Jose and he is Kaiden's age. We have been reading the Book of Mormon with him for kids, and now he reads 4 or 5 pages everyday. He was so excited to tell us all about what he had learned and share all about Moroni and Nephi! You just can't help but be filled with joy when you see members strengthening their testimonies. Also his dad came and told us how grateful he is that we come to his house and read with his kids. It has been really hard for him, because his wife has been in Spain for 3 years working and wont return for another 5 years. After their mom left the kids have fallen from the church, but now because of the Book of Mormon 3 of them were in church this week.

So for the grand finale... Sunday! So let me rewind a bit... our ward put a goal to bring at least one friend, family member, or less active member to our ward conference. Well, our ward represented!!!! We had over 50 more people in church yesterday. It was packed and ALL the seats were full. There were families who had not been to church in over years as well as new faces who had never been to church before! We also had a powerful sacrament meeting filled with the spirit. The stake president talked about missionary work and also his counselor. After we were frantically trying to greet everyone and planning when we could visit all these people. We couldn't talk to everyone, so this coming week we have a lot of work ahead of us, it is amazing! We could not contain our joy, and to add to all of that we had members coming up to us giving us references out of the wazoo!!!

Overall my companion are pretty happy of the out come this week. I hope you all have an amazing week! I love you all, and pray for you each day!

Love,

Hermana Sanders