TODO ESTA DE 10!

Well people. This week has been pretty DANG good. I would give it a 10!

We have been teaching a lot of people and having quite a bit of fun too. 

I’ll list really quick the few people that we are teaching right now. 

Pablo (obviously), Juliana, Jesus, Olga, Cesilia, Sandra, Marta, Dora, Andres, Monica, Oscar, and Hector. 

So we are teaching a lot of people, and quite a few of them are progressing really well! I’m actually super happy with everything that is happening here in Hernandarias right now! I’m loving the area and especially loving all of the people we are teaching. They are all such great people and I’m coming to love them more and more everytime we meet with them. It’s so much fun! I love the mission!!

Yesterday for Easter we had a great time in the church. Even though there weren’t too many people, 10 to be exact (4 members and 4 investigadores, plus Elder Casamona and I) it was great and the Spirit was very strong. Honestly, it used to be a little embarrassing to bring people to church and have very few people there. But I have come to really believe in the Spirit and the power it has in the conversion of our investigadores. 

For example. Yesterday Jesus came to church with us. (I’ll be sure to get a picture with them this week don’t worry) He is a great guy and has progressed so much since we met him. He really didn’t have too much interest in the church when we first started teaching him and Olga. But now, he is very excited and VERY willing to be baptized. In fact, we taught him a little about the Temple this week and gave him the pamphlet that teaches all about the Temple. Jesus read the entire thing! And he is already planning to go to the Temple and get sealed to Olga and his son, Nazareno. Yesterday, during church, we were talking about fasting, and he leans over to me and asks in all but a whisper "and what is fasting??" it was so funny!! So after the lesson we taught him a little about fasting. When we were saying goodbye to everyone, one of the members said "yeah, we have to go and eat. I’m super hungry!", and Jesus said "Eat?? No, we have to start the fast!" It is a real miracle to see the change that Jesus has had in the past few weeks. We are happy for him and to see just how happy he is!

Also, with the Hermano Cristian and his wife, Fabiana. We met with them this week and talked to get them a bit more and share a few things to help them. First of all, we talked about how the family is very important to God and how everything we do in the church is for our personal progression, but just as important is how it blesses the family. We asked them if they had ever gone to the temple and they hadn’t, but were very interested in setting a goal to go as soon as possible. They are really great and have so much energy and excitement to get back to church, which our group is really needing right now to help everyone feel better and more excited and energized in church. Also, they have 3 sons and none of them are baptized! Cristian and Fabiana even mentioned wanting their sons to be baptized (if they chose to do so) after seeing their parents' example in attending the church and reading the scriptures and everything. Holy cow! It’s so amazing what is happening to them and their family. I’m so happy for them and the changes they want to make. 

Alright, so life is all good here. But I hope that you are all doing well and having fun in all that you do. 

Also, I kinda almost forgot to say HAPPY EASTER! I love the message that Easter brings. Christ was resurrected! He lives! Christ overcame death, which means each of us can too. He suffered for our sins. His atonement means that I/we are loved and of value. Because of Him we can have hope and joy and families can be together forever! A quote I read this week by Dieter F. Uchtdorf: “On Easter Sunday we celebrate the most long-awaited and glorious event in the history of the world. It is the day that changed everything.  On that day, my life changed. Your life changed. The destiny of all God’s children changed.” I love that I have the opportunity to share this knowledge, every single day.   

It was an Easter much different than the ones we have back home, but it was very special and I loved it all. I will never forget the Easter of 2019!

Love you all!

Chau

Elder Haley

Lunch with Pablo

Pizza made over fire with Jesus and Olga

My watch broke so now I have to walk around with this terrible tan line

Pday with Elder Casamona

Hernandarias is starting to turn into Nebraska...

I say that because the weather is constantly changing. This week we had some pretty good weather and then some pretty bad weather. Its been pretty funny to watch. The heat and sun turned into cold and rain clouds for one or two days and then we had the heat and sun again. It's making me feel a little bit trunky.... Ha! Yeah right. 

Honestly we are working super hard and we are having fun while we do it. It's been a pretty busy week. I would love to write all about it, but I'm running short on time. So I am going to just share one small but really great story. Real quick….this week was transfers but I am staying in Hernandarias with Elder Casamona.  I am happy, we both wanted to stay!

Alright. So it all starts about 2 weeks ago or so. We were visiting Alberto, the member in a wheel chair that has been working hard in the church and trying to be an inspiration for others. So, about 2 weeks ago we visited him and he shared with us an experience that he had the night before. He was invited to a friend's house to eat dinner with them and when they got there, Alberto asked if they could say a blessing over the food. After the blessing, they got talking about religion and church and everything and Alberto told them that he is member of our church. When he told them that, they were very surprised and told him that they were also members of the church! But that they hadn't gone to church for almost 15 years. Their names are Cristian and Fabiana and they have been living here in Hernandarias for a few years now. It turns out the Cristian and Fabiana were baptized in Santa Elena, a town about 2 hours away from here. They were baptized and were active for a few years, but later moved to a different town where there wasn't a church building, let alone meetings on Sunday. So, over time, they turned away from the Church until they were completely inactive. Then, about a few years ago, they moved here to Hernandarias. By this time they had almost completely forgotten about the Church and their times as active members. But, every now and then they would see the Hermano Maxi Vega, who, 15 years ago back in Santa Elena, was in young men's and had met Cristian and Fabiana when they were baptized. But, after so much time, they weren't really sure if it was actually him, so they never said anything to Hermano Vega. So, Alberto told us all about that experience and gave us their names and where they lived. We went looking for them one morning without too much luck. The directions that Alberto gave us were a little hard to follow, but we were in what we thought was the general area. So we started knocking and clapping at doors and asking for a Cristian and Fabiana. But, after almost all morning, we hadn't had too much luck. So, on the way to other plans, we were walking and walked past a street that I had never been on. Remember, Hernandarias is not very big so it was crazy that I hadn't been down that road before. So I figured, Awe heck, why not go down this road. So we went down, doing the same thing that we had been doing the entire morning. We clapped at one of the last doors on the road, and out came a man. When he saw us, he had a big smile on his face and came to shake our hands. It turns out that it was Cristian! So we planned another time to come by and get to know them a little more and maybe teach them. Once again, putting faith in our works!

So, just this last Friday we were in the church building with Hermano Vega waiting for people to show up for an activity that we had planned. After about 25-30 minutes of waiting, no one showed up. I guess you could say I was a little disappointed and feeling pretty down on myself. But, we asked the Hermano to come with us to the appointment that we had made with Crisitian. So we showed up to his house and he wasn't home. Bummer. So we were leaving the road that leads to his house when he comes home from work on his Moto. He stops and invites us to come on in. So we sat down with him and started talking and getting to know him more. It was great to have Hermano Vega with us too because they had already known each other, so they also caught up for a little bit. In the end, Cristian told us that after all the moves, they had lost all of their scriptures. So we gave him a Book of Mormon and invited him to start reading again. Then, as we were closing up, the Hermano Cristian asked if we could sing a hymn. We said why not and Cristian picked number 208, Brillan Rayos de Clemensia or in English Brightly Beams Our Fathers Mercy. 

If you guys remember from a few weeks ago when we had Zone Conference in La Paz, Hermana Westover shared with us the back story for the writing of the song and also the importance of being the Lighthouse for other people to come to and afterwards Presidente Westover and the Assistants sang the hymn for us. It was amazing. Then, a week later in our weekly meeting with Hermano Vega we sang the same song. Then, while in the house of Hermano Cristian, we sang the song, yet again. In the moment, I couldn't help but think of all the connections and the miracle of what was going on. It was amazing. I loved it so much. I was reminded of the Elder Rasband's talk called By Divine Design.

Just this Sunday Cristian came to church with us. He is very happy and very excited to restart his conversion and reactivate himself in the church again. He came to church alone because his wife is working on Sunday's, but we will be meeting with them regularly to help them really see the blessings of the Gospel and to help them come back to the fold of God. Oh, and not to mention that Cristian already has both the Aaronic AND Melchizedek Priesthood, so we are very happy to have him in the church again. 

Then, just Monday night, we went to visit Alberto. The day before he hadn't come to church because he had to do some election processes that the entire town had this weekend. But he was feeling pretty bummed out. He told us that he was just having a hard time staying positive and keeping his testimony alive. We tried to help him feel better and give him a few tips and ideas, but he just started talking about all the problems that he is seeing in the other less active members of the church and their examples to the other people of Hernandarias. He was just having a hard time. He told us that he just wants people to be "a light to others while in church, and a light to others outside of church." So I told him about how Cristian had come to church the day before and how he is super excited and wants to come back to church full time. And then I told Alberto that Cristian was found through his (Alberto's) efforts and example. I told him that he has been exactly what he wants others to be: "a light in the church and outside of church." And then I thanked him for being such a great example of faith and diligence. 

Well, that nearly brought Alberto to tears. And me too. It was a great moment. 

So, now I would just like to share with you my testimony that I know that this Church is true. I know that things happen in our lives all by God's will for us. I also know, that as we reach out to others in brotherly love and kindness, miracles can happen and that we can grow in our own testimonies as we do so. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Love you all and thank you so much! Happy Easter!

Chau

Elder Haley

We were caught in the rain...

Some fun on Pday! Futbol!

Lunch today

This is how we wash our clothes.  This is the first area where I have had to wash my own clothes. 

This drying rack is very helpful!

I’m glad that this week went by so fast

It really did go fast. I was kind of hoping it would to because HOLY COW I LOVE GENERAL CONFERENCE. It is so awesome. 

If you think about it, General Conference is basically just like reading the scriptures. It’s like the Doctrine and Covenants says: 

"...whether by mine own voice or by the voice of my servants, it is the same" (D&C 1:38)

So we were literally listening to the word of God people! That’s so awesome!!! I loved Conference so much, I really felt the Spirit and it gave me a nice kick to the pants Spiritually and I’m feeling a whole lot more excited for the work. 

But yeah, this last week went by super fast because we had to go to Santa Fe and have some paperwork done for Tuesday and Wednesday and then we just had a bunch of great Conference goodness for the weekend. But we were still able to get a bit of work done in between all of the traveling and listening to the good Word of God.

Just to make the email shorter, we are working hard with a few of our investgadores to help them come to church. For some reason, no matter how much we help them have the reasons to go and promise them all the blessings in the world, it’s still hard for them to come to church. But, we are just trying to get some of that good work done and putting a lot of Faith into our Works. 

I’m really loving the area right now and we are having a lot of fun finding a bunch of people and helping others come unto Christ. Thank you all for reading and hope to hear from you all. 

Oh and this week we have transfers, so I’ll be on Tuesday to let you all know if we got moved or not! 

(sorry for not sending pictures mom! the internet isn’t the best!!)

Love you all and God bless

Chau

Elder Haley

I Almost Kissed My Snake...

Yep. I almost kissed her. Or it. Or whatever. It was a snake.

But anyway, on to the email part. This week as been really great. We were able to get back from Santa Elena alright on Tuesday and spend the rest of the week running around and doing a lot of good work. We were able to visit a lot of people, new contacts and have a lot of good lessons and experiences. 

Today for Pday we had Choripanes ( a kind of sandwich) with our friend Alberto. He is a member and was baptized about 6 months ago or so. He is the one I told you about a few emails ago that is in a wheelchair. He is preparing to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood in the next month or so and we are trying to help him prepare as much as we can. But as we were waiting for the food to get ready, he was a bit tired so he dozed off a little bit. So we took a picture with him. Ha. Well, sometimes I feel so tired that I want to fall asleep right in the middle of a conversation too hahaha. 

But alrighty. So my companion is super great worker and he is always talking to everyone in the streets. It is great because this week we were able to meet a lot of new people that have a lot of potential. And I mean a LOT of potencial. We are in the process of meeting with each of them this week and we are hoping to have good lessons with them and be able to teach them and share the Spirit. 

As for Pablo, he is still really good. He wasn’t the least bit disappointed in not being able to be baptized last week. He understands the need for another interview and is actually really excited for the opportunity to talk to Presidente Westover and learn new things from him and ask a few questions. He tells us that he is just super anxious to be baptized and that he just wants to do it now! He is very excited and has a great desire to follow Christ and finally take the steps into the Baptismal Waters. I can’t wait for his actual baptism. It will be amazing

Also this week we were able to teach a few other people that I won’t mention in detail right now. But I will be sure to write about them next week when we get to teach and talk to them a little bit more. But rest assured, we are working our butts off to help all the people of Hernandarias learn more about the Gospel. 

And, obviously there is a big thing happening this week... It’s General Conference BABY!! I can’t wait. I love the opportunity that we have to listen to the words of the Lord’s chosen leaders of the church, especially from the Prophet himself, Presidente Nelson. It’s going to be a great Conference and I am so excited. Yesterday in Sacrament Meeting I was asked to give a talk (which makes that about 5 that I’ve given now hahaha) and I spoke on Revelation and the blessed opportunity that we have to receive personal revelation for our lives, especially during General Conference. I love the chance that we have to prepare ourselves and really listen to the words that God would have his great leaders speak. I can’t emphasize enough the magnitude of General Conference. I invite all of you to prepare yourselves and go into General Conference with specific questions that you want answered. And I promise you that you will be able to receive the answers that you need. But! You have to be listening. So, with that, I’d like to bear my testimony that I know that Jesus directs this church and that President Russell M. Nelson is a Prophet of the Lord and that he is the literal connection that we have with the heavens. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Thanks for reading! Love you all

Chau

Elder Haley

A bit of basketball!  Even in slippers I still had game!

Another amazing sunset!

In Entre Rios on our way home from Santa Elena

The 7 dwarfs...

The snake...kissy kissy

Dead gross insects and rodents...

Alberto taking a siesta while we are waiting for our sandwiches

He is a great guy!