Sam vs. Frodo (September 28, 2015)

so i thought alot about this weeks title... ill explain it later when i rant later on! 

but this week was actually quite wonderful!

we went to rosario again to do tramites (visa work) o! and funny story super quick. while we were there, the secretary of the mission lost my passport! haha so we had to back track till we found it but we did! so all is well, but after that crazy morning we went back to the mission home and ran into hna shotwell!!! we hung out in the terminal till we had to go back to venado but it was fun! i missed her so much and its always fun seeing her. its like seeing an old friend from home! 

okay so on to the week! it was pretty slow with everyone. mariana was sick, we lost contact with fabio ;( flia oviedo was traveling again for his sickness and yeah! so that was rough. we were (and by we i mean i) was sick again so we took advantage of the down times we had to nap and rest to be able to go out for appointments and such. so here is the miracle of this week.

SILVANA

last week we began to teach her and we got to know her and her husband and family. well they didnt make it to church last sunday but this week we passed by twice with members of the branch! the first time we went with the primary president. (becuase silvana has two sons martin:7 and fransisco:3) we taught about the restoration and the book of mormon. silvana expressed that she was worried her husband would never be interested. well this sister shared that she married a non member but then after 4 years he converted! it was great. then the second time we passed by, we came with hna martin who also works in primary and shes so cool. we spoke about the importance to pray daily, read daily, and attend church! they became friends and exchanged numbers! so during the week, hna martin was chatting with her. okay so sunday comes along. during the last lesson silvana had told us that she wouldnt be able to come because she would be traveling to go to a wedding in a little pueblo. so we were bummed but wait for it...we are riding our bikes and pulling up to the church and we see hna martina and her 5 kids and they stop and wait for someone...around the corner come SILVANA AND HER TWO CRAZY KIDS. i felt like crying i was so shocked and happy! turns out that after the wedding she got into a fight with people and decided to come back and come to church! the members were amazing. everyone welcomed her and helped her with her kids. (they are crazyyy) and she had such a wonerful time. in gospel principles she asked when should she get baptized! haha so we said when she gets an answer from her prayers. she still doesnt have a baptismal date but we know shes heading the right direction. just slow and steady wins the race. 

we are here to help people get closer to god through covenants and ordinances right? but our goal as missionaries is to help them become life long active members in the church. not just get baptized and chao. its an eternal commitment! she understands that and thankfully the members are amazing and are doing the missionary work with her. :)

so thats my miracle of the week!

now time to explain the title! i was thinking about how i get sick alot in the mission and its really frustrating right? then on my ipod the lotr theme started to play and i thought about sam and frodos journey to mordor. they went through so many hard trials and had every right to turn around but they didnt. frodo was fine at the beginning but the weight of the ring became almost too heavy to bear...especially when they were climbing mount doom. on the other hand, sam was always looking ahead to the end goal. to making it back home. he focused on rationing his foods, taking care of his friends and doing all he could do to make it back. frodo lost sight of this for a bit.and as they were sitting on the side of the mountain, almost at the end.. sam was reminiscing on the shire, the brooks and the grass, sunlight...frodo said he had lost sight of all that. he couldnt recall any of it. everything was dark and all he focused on was darkness and evil. so lets stop there. are we looking ahead at our end goal and pushing forward to make it back home? or are we sitting and moping about all the bad things that are happening? we all know what happens next. sam says to frodo "i cant carry the ring for you, but i can carry you" 

he then lifts up frodo and walks to the gate. then blah blah blah gollum comes and messes things up for a bit but at the end sam and frodo escape together and make it back home.

now why is this relelvant. we have a crazy mission in this life. and things get hard sometimes and we have two choices. to look at the glass half empty or half full. luckily frodo had sam to carry him when he couldnt go any further. we have christ who carries us. that is called grace. when we give everything we can and christ helps us with the rest. read dyc 24:8 depend on the savior always so that we make it in the end not as messed up as frodo is. we can make it better. we can overcome our trials with grace and ease if we only trust on the savior.

sorry for the nerd moment and the long thought. :)

well hope you all have a great week. love you all!! 

xoxo

hna sanders

Pictures (September 21, 2015)

soaking my toe in the salt bath

matching glasses

Jessica and Sis. Jaimeson

making chunky milkshakes

on bikes...

"mich" (September 14, 2015)

lol

this week was pretty..uhm..how you say...it was a week and we survived so thats good! :)

it all started tuesday. we went to pick up our lunch from a member. she gave us a bunch of different things that are really yummy but we tried a little sandwich of blue cheese...it was a bomba and progressively during the next day we got sick. by thursday we couldnt leave the apartment. from thursday to saturday we were in bed with food poisoning. the second time in my life! the first time i had food poisoning but only like 24 hrs from eating burger king chicken fires...remember?? it was so long ago but wow yeah we lost a ton of weight this week so thats good!...mas o menos. lol

nevertheless, we did have a litttle of success this week. 

we were barely able to see inv. but we did see one and we found a new!

mariana. she is a reference from a sister in the branch here. she is a teacher and has 2 kids. shes married!!!! :) but yeah! weve met with her twice. she has many wonderful questions about finding which church has all the truth of god...so of course we invited her to read the book of mormon and find out for herself if this church is his church, we also taught the plan of salvation. she had always wondered where we came from before this life. we taught her about the pre earth life. how we are literally sons and daughters of God and how we chose to come to this life. we chose to follow Christ when God presented his plan. and now we are on the earth and we have to follow him and his gospel here so we can return to live with him again. she felt that what we taught was true and she even said that she had felt that she had already known this and that she was learning it again. :) so shes really special! :)

then on tuesday we got a reference from the elders of a guy they met in the street. his name is fabio. he has problems like...hes probably autistic or something im not sure but he is very high functioning. we met him and he was very nice. he has a special spirit. we began to talk about what we do as missionaries and we asked him if he could ask anything to god what would he ask. he said very clearly.."i only have one question. what church is the true church" in that moment i felt like a calming sensation from head to toe and i got goosebumps. we shared the story of joseph smith and how he had the same exact question. fabio listened to us attently and said he would read the book of mormon but that he felt really good about what we had taught. :)

after that we had to cancel the appt we had with him because we got too sick but we saw him in the street after and said hi to him and talked for a bit. we will follow up with him this week but i just feel god has prepared him. :)

so becuase we were sick we were dead basically this whole week so here is my funny thought for this week. its a joke so bear with me! (atun means tuna in spanish)

what did the fish say as it fell from the third floor? "AAAAAAAA-tun"
:)

spiritual!

so in my studies this week i read in romans 12. in this chapter paul writes about how we should be as members of the church. how we should serve others. in vs 20 he shows us the way and in vs 21 he tells us why. the way we combat evil is when we do good works. everything that is good comes from god. with all the bad going on in the world we need to fight the bad with the good. you dont fight fire with fire. so with all the wicked in the world we are required to be better and better. where much is given much is required. never get desanimated for what is going on the world but rather have courage and valiance. :) i love you all! and i hope we can always progress. god loves us and is aware of every aspect of our lives. 

keep classy san diego! (and everywhere else you might be in) haha

besitos!!xoxo

hna sanders

"La tormenta va a pasar" (September 8, 2015)

woo!! another week in the books. it actually was a decent week! we didnt have to stay in the apart one day because we are finally healthy! also this week i think ive eaten more cake than in my whole life but its okay because we've had to run a few times haha. i will explain later.also, this week was super spiritual haha just listen to this!

the people!

this week we passed by for the flia oviedo. remember the couple with 2 kids...the father has cancer and hes paralyzed from the waist down. because of his sickness he cant work and the mother make food and sells it so they can pay the bills. well, this week we passed by. we started to teach the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ when we asked them what is your relationship with god? the mom answered and said(paraphrasing) "well before he got sick i didnt really care for religious things, but when he got sick we had to stay in rosario for  a bit. i never left his side. i slept in the hospital so we could be together. i felt so alone but thats when i found god. i prayed i knew he was there" then we asked the father the same question. he said "i always knew god existed. i always prayed, always went to mass when i was younger and ive always had a good relationship with him but then i got sick. any other person wouldve gotten mad at God but i didnt. i was confused because i know im a good person but i just always took deep breaths and trusted ijn him. in the end, he is all powerful. he controls our destiny and all we have to do is trust in him and live his gospel. if he needs me to die, ill die for him but i dont want to..but i would if he asked me to" (sorry this is so long) but when he said that it was one of the most special moments of my life.

 to see a man with every reason to be sad, to feel sorry forhimself...so happy and peaceful. after we finished the lesson, they couple both said they have been looking for the complete truth, and they think theyve found it. its a very special family so please pray for health for the father! :)

we have new investogators this week that we are teaching as well. next week ill write more about them! but its just been a really great week and we are started to recognize miracles in everyday things!

Laura came to church this week!! and if she comes one more week shell be considered an active member! shes also progressed so much in these past two weeks. its amazing to see the hand of god in our lives! okay so i also wanted to share a few more stories. the youth of this branch is amazing. one of the kids told us this past week that hes bullied at school for being mormon..this kid is super tall and hilarious so its kinda weird that kids were bullying him, not an easy target if you catch my drift...that probably sounds really bad haha but its the truth what are ya gonna do. anyways! one day a kid started fighting with him becuase hes mormon and he took a pencil and tried to stab out his eye because he was defending his religion. this bully ran away and the mormon kid went home with a bloody face...hes was alright and everything but freak...its amazing how much persecution people get for being religous nowadays. in the times we are in the world is getting more wicked and disciples of christ will be bullied, made fun of, and persecuted. but lets all look at this example of this kid. he stood up and wasnt willing to let down for anyone. defend your religon. defend the truth because in the end, our testimony will be all we have!

funny story!

so this week everyone had a birthday. hna valenca doesnt like cake but i do, so when the members served us cake i would eat my piece, her piece and sometimes theyd put another one on my plate haha but its okay becuase we had alot of appointments ths week and the bikes werent working so we ended up running to and from houses #fitness.

also i have a new comp! hna jamison. she was trained by hna shotwell for a transfer and then another comp, and now shes my compy! we are very excited to work together! 

spiritual

just read ether 12:27 from the book of mormon. it was an essencial scripture for me this week...hope it helps some of you in this week!

yayyy well hope you all had a great week! love you all and take care!

-hna sanders