Saturday, April 24, 2010

Zone Conference

This week has been great!! Hermana Plessl and I have at least 6 more weeks together starting today. I am so excited to be staying here and love my companion! We really are out in the boonies, but I am obsessed with this place. Our apartment is way nice too so it has been great. We had apartment inspections and interviews this week. President and Hermana Callan said ours was the nicest and one of the cleanest they’d seen :). I asked President about departure days and it doesn’t exactly work the way I thought it did. The MTC will assign me a departure date (which I’ll find out in June) and then President has about a 30 day flexibility period. I very well could be coming home on Dec 10th again. I know it will be what the Lord wants me to do, but for sure it will be before the December 29th date.

We had zone conference in Ciudad del Este.
The work is progressing along and we are so excited about some of the investigators we found this week. There seem to be a lot of prepared people and we are doing all we can to help them enter the waters of baptism. We have been practicing teaching the lessons from just the Book of Mormon and it has been going great. My little blue Book of Mormon from a few zone conferences ago has become my proselyte best friend!!! I love it and my testimony is growing so much! I am finally almost finished with the New Testament and finished the Book of Mormon again. On to the D and C! There is just so much to learn! I read a great quote this week from my MTC notes that really helped excited me to work more diligently. it says, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t force him to drink." (In response) "Yes, but you can salt his oats!" Just so you know, I am going to put salt in the whole oat supply of Coronel Oviedo. That is my goal.
All my love and prayers.

Your little/big sister and daughter,

Rachel

Monday, April 5, 2010

General Conference

Dear Family,

It has been a great week here in Coronel Oviedo! General Conference was just so great! We aren’t allowed to go to conference unless we bring investigators; so luckily, we were able to see at least 3 of the sessions. Sadly, I missed the Saturday afternoon and of course priesthood, but we were able to at least go to the other 3. It was such a needed blessing.

We saw some great miracles this week. We were really praying that we would be able to bring people to the conference. On Friday, we were clapping some doors in a government asentimineto and were being treated very poorly. People were completely ignoring us or would just go inside when we tried to talk to them. We were about ready to give up on the place when we decided to talk to one more person, a lady who was outside bathing her little girl from a bucket. She let us in and we taught her the first lesson. We asked her what she was looking for in religion and she said that she wanted to know why there are so many churches if there is only one God. Shouldn’t there be one path for all of us? I don’t think I’ve ever really had anyone come out and say that so clearly to us as missionaries. We testified of Christ’s church and the apostasy and restoration through Joseph Smith. She accepted our invitation to go to conference the next day. When we went and picked her up, her boyfriend was there too and asked if he could come. Of course we said yes and all went together. When we got to conference, our district leader told called us and told us that the conference was going to be postponed for another hour. I was annoyed at first, but Heavenly Father knows best and it ended up being perfect. We asked them if they would like us to take them on a tour of the chapel. We showed them the RS room and theme, the YW room and theme, when the man asked "Is there one for the family too?" We were so excited and read with their family The Family: A Proclamation to the World. I was so excited, as you might imagine. After, we showed them the baptismal font and talked about Christ’s baptism and explained how important it is. A member came with us and explained her conversion story. The man was so incredibly touched. He showed us his arms and they were covered with Goosebumps. He told her how much her story touched him. We still have a lot to teach them, but it was honestly the coolest thing and they just fell right into our laps. I feel so blessed to see Heavenly Father’s love for His children. He wants their salvation and for that reason, leads us to their homes. We are praying so much for them. They loved the conference. Especially the talks by President Eyring and Sister Beck. It was awesome.

I know this is Christ’s true church. I love my Savior and loved the focus on His life yesterday. I know He is God’s son and am so grateful for His ministry, loving atoning sacrifice, and resurrection. I am so grateful to represent Him both as a missionary and as a member of His church.

Oh yeah! We opened an area this week. Its 2.5 hours from Oviedo and out in the middle of nowhere. We went with the Elders and members. Missionaries have never been there before. We are going again this Thursday so it should be really cool. It is beautiful and there are tons of birds, cows, sheep, etc.
Love Always, Rae