Thursday, June 3, 2010

CHCHCHCHCHANGES!

Oh hello my dearest family!
It was changes week! Earlier in the week, I got a phone from the assistants that 3 more sisters would be coming to our apartment - 2 of them opening an area. The sisters that came are Hermana Casteñeda from Perú and a local missionary from Paraguay that is holding the spot until another sister arrive. Which brings me to me. I am training. I got my new missionary yesterday, Hermana Quartino from Montevideo, Uruguay. She is just incredible!! I felt so responsible when I knew that I was going to be training! I am so grateful though for the confidence that my Heavenly Father and my mission president have put in me to be able to help a new missionary become adjusted in these first couple of months of the mission. Man, I still feel like I´M new! I will do everything in my power to live up to the responsibility. She told me yesterday before we went to bed that it had been the best day of her life. She gives me so much ánimo and I love her faith. She is a convert of about 8 years and is a twin. More to come, but I just absolutely love her and feel so blessed.

I took my companion to the office and saw Hermana Jara too (who also went home this change) and it was so fun. We were taking some pictures and just so happy. What a joy it is to be a missionary!!! There are some days that I miss you all terribly and wish I could be with you, but really I am so happy to be here. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I am so grateful that I have such a blessing and opportunity. Your love and support means the world to me. Thank you for always being there and for all your loving words.


Well, my time is up! More to come on Monday. Give my love to everyone!
Love,
Hermana Edwards

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Mother's Day

Dear Family,
The city of Ñemby is incredible. The ward is SO organized. They actually have a visiting teaching and home teaching program! There’s a ward mission leader. The bishop comes to the activities and holds consejo de barrio. I am just so impressed with how well things function here. The members are so faithful and they helped us out a lot this weekend. It was so much fun to go to lessons with them and hear their testimonies. I really think that I will enjoy my time here and am excited to work hard. We found a great family this week. The mom is a single mother with 3 kids. She is so great and accepted a baptismal date. She wasn’t able to make it to church this Sunday, but committed to come next week. She is so sincere and I am excited to see her progression. All in all, I am just trying to get a sure footing on how to get around the area, know the members, and find out more about our investigators in these 3 1/2 remaining weeks. It will be a fun and interesting challenge, but I feel humbled that the Lord blessed me with another opportunity to progress.

It is honestly incredible and I really think I am going to love it here in Ñemby. A girl who served part of her mission here 2 years ago and one of her friends came to visit for the weekend and did divisions with us. They are awesome and helped so much! Her name is Diana Schumicar and she is planning on going to Utah in October for conference. I told her to stop by, so hopefully she’ll call you! She is great.
I am still learning so much about the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
Well, I love you family! Have a great week!

Love,

Rae

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

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Women at the Well

Hi family! So I always thought it was weird when people would talk about 3rd world countries as not having "running water". I always thought, "well at least they have water, right?" Now I know why that’s such a big deal. Running water means, toilets, showers, clean clothes, clean dishes, washing your face, brushing your teeth. It doesn’t just mean water, it means water pressure. Water pressure flushes toilets and gets the grime off of dishes and your toothbrush. A handful of water splashed on your dishes doesn’t get hem that clean. Imagine all of the things that you do with a faucet and then imagine doing them with a bucket or a cup of water. Dear family, I just want you to know that this is my 5th day of survival without "running water". Ha ha. I’m sure you can all image what a funny image that is. Thank goodness I am with Hermana Plessl and we make it fun. We have been hauling our water from a lot of different sources, the neighbors well, a truck that drove in front of our house, and a members who let us fill up 2 liter bottles from their filtered well. It has been quite an adventure. There was an enormous rain storm this week that flooded everything. It devastated a lot of the houses and flooded that government asentimientos. It broke the motor that supplies the water for the city. We spent a few hours on Saturday morning trying to help a widow with 5 kids get her house back in order. The water entered up to their knees! It was so horrible. We have heard that the water will be back on today though. Menos mal. All in all, it has shown me how blessed I am and how much my Heavenly Father loves me. It is also kind of empowering to know that I can live from well water for 5 days :).

Honestly this has been a great week. We have a great investigator named Mabel right now; we found her knocking on doors. She is a widow of 10 years and is just great. She has been so open with us and we have really been able to help her feel the Spirit and answer her questions. We taught her about how families can be together after death and how the Restoration of the gospel makes that possible. She is having a hard time changing though. We all prayed together one night to ask if Joseph Smith was a prophet and we all felt the Spirit so strongly. I asked her after, "Mabel, was Joseph Smith a prophet?" and she said yes. The next time, we went back. We let her pick one of questions of the soul from the Book of Mormon which she read but didn’t understand completely so we read together and helped her to understand. We asked her if she had prayed to know if the Book of Mormon was true and she had. She said that that night she had fallen asleep and dreamt of her husband. She said she was at a meeting with some friends and that she saw her husband and that he was beckoning her. She said she didn’t know how but that she knew it was somehow an answer to her prayer about the Book of Mormon. We then explained to her the plan of salvation and what her husband is doing right now. She felt the Spirit so strongly. At the end though, she told us she still wasn’t ready to change and likes when we come but doesn’t want to change religious. Ugh. It was so frustrating but I am not convinced yet. We have another appointment with her this week and are PRAYING that she will come to General Conference! I don’t see how you could listen to the prophet and apostles and not get baptized. It is just so incredibly powerful.

We had another really cool lesson with a member’s friend. Her name is Marie José and was way cool.
I have been studying the Bible a lot lately and am amazed at how much the apostles, especially through the epistles of Paul, worked and traveled to keep the church in order. Without modern communication, it would have just been a disaster. I am so grateful for their efforts and boldness. I am honestly loving reading about it. It makes me understand more and more though, how the churches of Rome, in Jerusalem, Corinth, etc. could have apostatized in a matter of not many years. Thank goodness that we have a living prophet and apostles that guide us and that will again speak with us this upcoming weekend. I am So excited!!!!

Things are wonderful here and I am so happy and loving being with Hermana Plessl. This church is true, I know that will all my heart. Thank you for incredible love and support. Tell everyone hi for me!!!!

Love always,
Rae

Monday, March 22, 2010

All Is Well

HI family! As you know, last week was a tough one and I think it was kind of a good learning experience and allowed me to rely more completely on the Lord. I always look forward to the emails from the family and everything just seemed to be going wrong last week.
This week has honestly been awesome. Things got better...as they always do...and we are working very hard. Hermana Plessl is just great and I love being her companion again. We work so well together. I am excited that I have this change and probably the next to be together with her. She has such a strong testimony and love for these people. She loves the individual and the details, something that I had lost a little, so it has been refreshing to be with her.

The work this week was still tough, but we are working hard to get the trust and help of the members. We went out with one hermana this week and have a few others that are going to go out with us this week. It honestly helps a lot. The hermana that we went with this week showed us the houses of some less active members so we went and visited them with her. One of them was a family whose dad was terribly sick. He has cancer and is literally skin and bones. You can see his whole skeleton. His wife and daughter take care of him all day and he just looks terrible. I asked the brother if he would like a blessing and he agreed so we came back with the elders the next day. The blessing was special and after, we asked them why they had stopped coming to church. There weren’t many good reasons why and finally the mom said that she really was Catholic and that she had only joined the church because her husband promised her he would quit smoking and drinking if she got baptized. Sadly, he did not keep his promise and for that reason, he has cancer. There were a lot of tears and sadness. We talked to them about repentance and that this brother still had the chance to change. We told them to come back and that they knew it was right. They made excuses about why they wouldn’t be able to make it and I left just feeling sad for them and worried about how much more time that brother has before it’s too late.
In contrast, it made me think of one time where we went to visit one your friends, dad, who was in the hospital with cancer. I don’t remember how old I was or his name, but I remember that man’s happy and smiling face. He was a good member of the church and had a family that he loved. I remember him joking around and jumping up and down on his skinny little ankles. I remember crying as I left and thinking that it must have been such a challenge but he was so happy. That really had a big impact on me. That was not the scene that I saw this week. It broke my heart to see him miss out on those years of joy and blessings. I know that God loves His children so much and that the gospel means joy for families. Whenever I ask people what they want here, they usually say the most important thing is health, but that just isn’t true. I am so glad to know that there is more than that.

Speaking of joy for families, we had another really cool experience this week with a recent convert family. I LOVE them! We ate lunch with her on Friday and she taught us how to make empanadas. After, we sat down and wanted to share The Family: A Proclamation to the World with her. She and her husband loved it. It was as if it gave them personal counsel. We talked about the threats of the family today: homosexuality, abortion, pornography, immorality, and especially here in Paraguay women working out of the home because the father doesn’t want to. The roles are completely switched. She got teary as she explained how much she loved the counsel that it gave and that she had found from the church and prophet.

Well, I gotta run! I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week.

All my love,

Rae

Monday, March 15, 2010

He always sends a rainbow!

Hey family!

This week has been tough. I feel a lot of responsibility right now in this area, because all of the people that had been here for like 6 months, my companion, district leader, zone leader, left this past change. Everyone else has only one change here, so it has been a challenge to figure everything out. I am still really new in a big and unfamiliar area. We have gotten rejected all week and there is just no one who seems promising. The family that was going to get baptized this week disappeared. We haven’t heard from them since last Saturday when they told us that they were coming to church, but they weren’t there when we went to pick them up in the morning. We’ve gone and called every day, but haven’t been able to contact them.

So why do I tell you all these negative things? Because the work must go on. I can only do my best and work my hardest and hope that it will be acceptable to the Lord. I know He loves me and wants the best for me and these people here in Coronel Oviedo.
So...I will put a smile on like always, and get out there again. I will try harder this week and see what I’m doing that I can improve on. I will try to look at the positive and never get discouraged. I really like some of the counsel that President Callan gave me in my last interview. Try to improve the things that we have control over. He brought up the example of Noah and how he only saved his own family but that he considered him to be very successful. But speaking of Noah, God promised him blessings for his faithfulness and reminded him of his promise by "placing the bow in the sky." Yesterday was probably one of the worst rain storms I’ve seen here in Paraguay, but after, I saw probably the most beautiful rainbow I have ever seen. It touched on both ends and you could see the complete rainbow. It was so bright and beautiful. Although it may sound cheesy or cliche, the clear skies really do come after the storm, light after the darkness, blessings after the opposition and trials, and rainbows after the rain. I will send the picture of it next week :). I know also that God will send us blessings for the opposition and trials that I am facing now in the mission.
All my love to you all! Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Rae