Thursday, March 24, 2016

"smite them with the word of God" (March 21, 2016)

divisions with hna bushman y hna cerna.
so this week was a pretty decent week. i dont have much to write. it was a week like pretty much every other week, seeing tons of miracles, learning, having spiritual experiences and such!

the new celiac life is pretty yummy
(but also very expensive)
this week was pretty much spent preparing melani for her baptismal interview and visiting with sabrina, other than that just working like normal, getting to know the wonderful members here and yeah! on thursday i was sick and we had an appt with sabrina, so right when we were talking about what to do, the stls (sister trainer leaders)called, they ended up coming to help us and we did splits!! it was great! and super special to have such great stls that listen to the spirit to know when and how to help us! :)

on saturday melani had her baptismal interview and she passed! haha so now she is really excited for her baptism! this week we will see her pretty much every day. we love their family so much and its truly been so wonderful to get to know them! i love the people here so much!! melani shared her testimony that she knows joseph smith is the prophet of the restoration and that she knows this is the true church! meaning it is the one church led by God through a living prophet! so that was wonderful!

sabrina also in a lesson this week, shared that she recieved her answer that joseph smith was a prophet, that the book of mormon is true and that the plan of salvation is the plan of God for his children. she was really thankful to know she will be born again spiritually in her baptism!she invited two families to church with her!! and one came! her neighbor is a less active and has 3 small kids and is living with her boyfriend. on sunday morning it was raining and pretty cold, but we went to walk with sabrina to church, we got there pretty late already and would have to book it to church to make it on time, well she wasnt ready yet...so we waited another ten minutes and sabrina told us to go on to church but that shed make it with all the kids..so a little skeptical and sad we ran to church and made it just in time. when we stood up to sing in the choir, we looked and saw sabrina and her friend with their kids sitting in the back! i almost fainted of relief and happiness!! haha they stayed for the first two hours but then the friend wanted to go home, sabrina wanted to stay but had to help the friend with her kids. so she had to leave but sabrina said to me "i really wanted to stay but she wants to go...the important thing is we came even though its really cold and its raining!" that shows perseverance and diligence!! shes so great!!

when youre celiac but you want cake,
so you make banana pancakes with
dulce de leche and stack em!
well heres the funny thought! remember a few weeks ago i said how my comp was super funny? well this week we were walking and we were on our way to a sketchy area, we decided not to bring our bags or anything but we walked with our hard cover book of mormons and a few folletos (pamphlets) haha as we were walking we were talking about what we would do if anything or anyone wanted to jump us, we said we would just hit them with our hard cover book of mormons and run, hna ritchie laughed and said "and behold they smote them with the word of god and they fell to the floor as if they were dead" hahahahahha i laughed tooo hard
 
okay and now for the spiritual ;)
well this week is a VERY special week. this week we celebrate the most important event in our history and our lives. it was an event but even today we can experience the effects of the marvelous atonement of jesus christ. i just want to share with you all that i know that christ lived a perfect life and he was the only one worthy to take our sins and suffer for us. his love and devotion for his father was so pure and strong that he stayed faithful and drank the bitter cup. and after the third day he rose up from the dead to give us eternal life. im not sure how everything works out. but i do know that as long as we accept him, repent, and make and keep sacred covenants, we will be able to participate in the wonderful gift of eternal life and exaltation. i hope you all look at this website and watch the few videos.


have a wonderul week!! love you all!
xoxoxo
hna sanders
my compy making rice and my very own
storehouse of rice cakes and such. haha

Thursday, March 17, 2016

"happy pi day" 3.14 2016

when you need to open a can
but you only have knives
well it was a cool week i guess
everyday i love this area more. being in the centro is super fun, kind of frustrating but i love city life. its always different. and you see a little bit of everything!
well this week we had alot of success! we didnt find new people to teach but we taught those we have with members and they came to church!! being in a ward is so different but so fun! im happy im ending here because its just great! 
so melani is on track to be baptized the 26th of this month! please pray so she can have the faith to pull on through! the weeks before a baptism can be very difficult! she told us this week she is so excited and even though she doesnt have a concrete answer about the book of mormon, she feels better each time she reads it and has less questions and doubts. she said shes basically sure and shes stoked for her baptism! its the last weekend her grandma will be here in argentina and her gma is really thankful, its her first grandchild that has decided to get baptized so its really special for her. we just have a few more commandments and shes ready! when we taught the word of wisdom, -which is the law of health revealed by joseph smith for our days that prohibits drinking alcohol, using tobacco, coffee, tea, and drugs,- melani was really pleased with it and new it was pure revelation. she is also attending seminary and mutual and reading and praying everynight!
quick start on easter!
and with sabrina, this week as we were teaching the gospel of jesus christ, we spoke about baptism and explained the covenant and how when we are baptized worthily we are born again, no sin, a new start, a new life. as we taught that i felt for myself that the spirit was testifying it was true to everyone of us in the small house. tears started to fill my eyes and sabrinas too. after we explained that, my awesome companion invited her to be baptized and sabrina replied without hesitation "si, si! sin duda, yo quiero ser nuevo, quiero ser perdonada" which means roughly-yes, yes, i want that, i want to be forgiven.- it was such a great moment and she has a date for the 9 of april. she came to church on sunday with her son and they loved it! she was asking tons of questions and the memebrs were so welcoming!
im just super grateful i have the oppurtunity to be part of these peoples progression as they come unto christ. its the most gratifying thing i have been a part of. this week as i was crocheting (i finished my scarf i was making btw) at the end of the night i just felt really grateful for the time ive had to serve the lord and i just felt really peaceful and love.
last zone meeting!
on wednesday we had zone meeting which my last zone meeting of my life, so that was weird but i was able to bear my testimony at the end and i just felt again this feeling of peace and love that ive been able to do the right thing and although im not perfect ive grown alot and i know god is happy with the person i am becoming. the conversion isnt an event, its an eternal process. :)
well in terms of funny moments i didnt see any funny shirts, but on our way to zone meeting we took a taxi right? becuase idk the bus routes here in rosario and theres like 28763g4 different busses. so we asked 3 different elders to give us the dirrection. well they were all wrong. on our way we got lost and we asked the zone leader and he gave us the wrong direccion again! well then he corrected himself so we spent so much money on taxis and got to my last zone meeting late...elders....
and for my spiritual thought, i have to give a taller or like teach part of the district meeting tomorrow so i have to talk about finding faith to find new investigators...heres my thought process this morning. well, if we have to find news, we shouldnt just find whatever person to be able count them but we should find the elect of god...well in order to find the elect of god we need to be the elect missionaries of god. 
how bout that! well, if we are going to teach with power and authority we need to be converted and follow the spirit. so this week, thinkn about how this applies to each and everyone of you. what can we change this week to help us becuase the elect of god. its something we have to constantly work for. well i love you all!
hope you have a great week! read your scriptures and follow the commandments of God! "si me amais, guardais mis mandamientos" (if you love me, keep my commandments)
xoxoxo
hna sanders

getting in for the night *bars door *sets alarm 



Wednesday, March 9, 2016

"Holly'what'" (March 7, 2016)

Eating after church with Sandra and others
im having a great time with all these shirts with english sayings here in argentina. this week we saw one with the hollywood sign but instead of saying hollwood it said hollywhat haha and another one hahaha...it said "shake your grass" and had a picture of popeye drinking his spinach....#what...that one took the cake hahahaha

well let me just say, this has been a great week with a ton of miracles! ill just list them becuase honestly it was amazing
1. we found news(new investigators) this week and the way we found them was each a miracle. 
2. hna ritchie taught me how to crochet and ive stuck with it so far and im making a rad looking scarf!haha 
3. the members are feeding us
4. we were making phone calls and i went to call someone but then i thought nah, we will call later its too early, set down the phone and randomly it starting calling the person and the person answered! haha and...
making brownies with
melani, ruth, and carlota
5. so first off on thursday we were pretty frustrated because we had been talking to sooo many people in the streets trying to find news and we were finding 0 success. so we were talking about how we could find news when we get a phone call, a member called us and told us to pass by her friend, we talked on the phone with her friend named sabrina. she told us to pass by the next day at 11. so we go she lives on the main street but al fondo de un pasillo...idk how to explain it in english sorry but we went called and she came to the main door to let us in. we start walking back to her house and she is explaining to us that she is in a really bad situation. we get to a gate and then a staircase...a rod iron spiral staircase that looks like it was built in the 1800s becuase it was so tiny, i had to turn sideways so my big hips could fit haha and it was all wobbly...we get up and her house is literally like a 5 by 5 room. its smaller than our kitchen mom...and they only had an empty fridge, a twin size mattress, without sheets or anything, and a tiny table. they DIDNT even have glass for the window or even a door! like, ive seen house with a cloth for a door but she didnt even have anything...come to find out that she had to quit her job because the nanny she had taking care of her 5 yr old son went crazy so she had to fire her. it was pretty devastating seeing someone live in a place like that. we chatted and shared things with her but on our way down (we saw the stairs were only held up by a few cables stapled into the wall). right after that we talked to the bishop about what we could do for her. he is so awesome and said that the next day we would go by her house with some groceries. well we go and he is in an interview. its 745 and we have to be in the aprtment at 830, so we were thinking what we could do. we couldnt bare that sabrina and her son go without food another few days so we decided to go shopping ourselves without the bishop. we went by her house and she was super grateful...well we are meeting with her pretty much every day to make sure shes fine and has food and also teaching her the gospel, she loves the book of mormon so far. she didnt make it to church this week becuase her son was sick but thats understandable. so we are working with the bishop and the relief society president so we can really help her out. shes a very strong girl whos been through alot but still has a positive attitude! 
making brownies with
melani, ruth, and carlota
6. we were contacting a reference from the internet. shes from haiti and is pretty awesom, she gave me a pocketsized bible! but she shared how she wanted to learned more about the word of god and she was exciting to meet with us. then she invited us to talk to a friend of hers. he speaks english so we spoke to him in english. we spoke about the gospel and he and she accepted to listen to us! 

alot of other things happened this week but pretty much it was a week full of miracles. i know every week isnt like this especially in this area becuase its very hard to find news and teach but we were able to do a lot of things this week. alot of service and forming good relationships with the members. they are wonderful here!!

so quick spiritual thought, 
we were teaching melani (the chica who is progressing as an investigator)  the plan of salvation. we were speaking about the life after this one and how important it is that we live well here so we can return to the presence of our loving heavenly father.  i felt in that moment that Heavenly father misses us. he wants to welcome us warmly and lovingly into is glory and all we must do is follow his teachings. he knows each one of us and love us. i love this mormon message so much and hope you enjoy! love you all so much!!!


 
xoxoxo
hna sanders

cool building here