Overalls Please

I am teaching the Paraguayan equivilent to Justin Timberlake. Seriously, every time I look at him I expect him to jump up and start singing Bye, Bye, Bye!!

Speaking of goodbyes... Today is the start of a new transfer. And I´m staying here! With my companion!! It´s not too often that companions stay together for more than 2 transfers and this will be our 3rd. Our Hermana Lider is getting sent away, so they are putting me back on the job. I am honestly really excited to tell you the truth. Hermana Juarez and I get along like sisters. We get annoyed every once in a while but we are both very pacient (how is that spelled??) with each other and we have a lot of fun together.

This week has been full of adventures. Like we found a million new investigators. All of whom have funny stories. Felix. (See the man in the overalls) We found Felix this week. We were running to a cita clear in the lejos far away from where he lives but Hermana Juarez, even JUNIOR and I felt like we should stop and talk to him. So we did. And we discovered that he had gone to church with the Elders before! What?? And that he wanted to go with us. He is a heavy chain smoker and he has been drinking his life away for about 10 years. But he and his friends want some help and we are here to give it to them! Felix came to church yesterday. He came in his best dress and his arrival made us so happy! He is quiet and a little unsure of things. Maybe he doesn´t understand because of the Alcohol, but he´s going to get it. I just know it!

Hugo got mad at us after General Conference. He thought that we would be at the Priesthood session waiting for him... and NO. So he avoided us for a couple of weeks. But this week he decided to forgive us and we went to visit him a few times. (His friend is Justin Timberlake). We are having such spiritual experiences with him because he WANTS to learn and he UNDERSTANDS. He brought his friend to church yesterday and he said that he enjoyed himself. He told us that he has noticed that every person, including the Prophet, says that this is the only true church. How can that be?

Pray, Hugo. PRAY!!

This is the only true church. I know it. I know it now more than ever.

This week we had the wonderfully painful opportunity to reuinirnos with a lovely Pastora (woman pastor) From a church somewhere here. She basically told us how everything we believe in is wrong and how she recieved revelation from God that PLACKS (like missionary tags) are from the devil to separate us as brothers and sisters. Of all the revelations that God could give someone, He decided to teach her about name tags. Wow. She told us that prophets aren´t as important as personal revelation and then once we taught her about how God ALWAYS calls prophets, she exclaimed, yep we have lots of prophets in my church. What do you believe in lady? So that was hard. But it only helped my testimony grow STRONGER. We have the truth. Why? Because it makes sense!! Everything makes sense!! There is not one gospel teaching that contradicts another. It´s all true!

We met Yeni and Yony too this week. They are so great. Yony already had a Book of Mormon. And he studies it with the bible. Being catholic, he only had one doubt. Why do we have IMAGENES in the front of the Book of Mormon? This is ironic if you know what catholics believe in. :) But they are loving meeting with us. And they have promised that they are coming to church next week!! Even Yeni´s drunk husband told us that he wants to be Mormon. Maybe sometimes the spirit does speak strongly.

These people are PREPARED!! We have been working extra hard talking to extra people and the Lord has been so merciful this week.

We found Virgilio, Roberto, Rodrigo, Yeni, Yony, Cornelio, Oscar, Armando, Felix, Jervacio, Roque, Noemi, Romi, Pedro, and many more!! Prayers please. :) 

I have been working hard on being a more consecrated missionary and succumbing my will to that of our Heavenly Father. And I have found that as I strive to have the desire to do what He wants me to do, it comes!! And missionary work is so much fun!! :)

"Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of Him to declare His word among His people that they might have everlasting life."

I gave a talk in Sacrament yesterday. About being Stewards in the Lord´s kingdom here on earth. And that in doing so, we will be blessed. And we will be able to bless those around us. But there is something missing.

LOVE.

If we really Love God, we will keep the commandments. We will clean the church. We will go to activities. We won´t fight with our neighbor. We will SHARE THE GOSPEL.

"La iglesia es una iglesia de progression, si no estamos progresando, no estamos viviendo completamente El Evangelio."

 The Gospel is LOVE.

Like Maria. She loves the gospel. She isn´t even a member!! She has to get married before she can be baptized. But she wanted her neighbors to know about "her church." So on Saturday, for our activity, she rounded up about 20 of her neighbors and they came. She brought more investigators to our activity than members who came on their own!! And they stayed ALL day. And they watched movies and they listened to stories. They all took a Book of Mormon home with them. Even the little ones cried when they had to go home. I kissed a boy because I thought he was a girl. But once we teach him about Modesty as a man, he will cut his hair. I promise you that. How are we showing the Lord that we love Him?

By loving everyone else around us. By sharing the gospel. By saying we´re proud to be members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Like Maria! We show our love for God by living and striving to be more like His son. Because, afterall, it is HIS CHURCH. And it is the ONLY one that is completely, fully, entirely true.

I know it.

Hermana Rupe

The Reason for Our Hope
Love—the Essence of the Gospel 

p.s. I found good sushi in south america.. It´s a miracle!!

Andrea had a birthday shout hooray!! All of the young women went to her house... And she came to church POR FIN!! yaaaay for friends at church!

Jugo de Papa.

The only thing worse than cockroaches..... are flying cockroaches. Did you know that there is a species of cockroaches that have WINGS?? I had heard that they existed.. But I thought it was a lie. Until.....

Once upon a time, I was making a banana smoothie (15 bananas for $1dollar here.) And I was just minding my own buisness peeling bananas until, HOLA biggest cockroach I have ever seen in my life. I screamed a little. But I´m pro exterminator by now and so I calmly went to pick up my companion´s new shoe to kill the cockroach. But that darn cockroach seemed to read my mind as I lifted the shoe and it flew directly for my face!! I woke up all of the neighbors and my companion thought I died. Ew....

Paraguay is like a giant sauna. And that means. BUGS. This summer is going to MURDER me.

I have now begun to drink Potatoe juice. Not lying. Chop up a raw potatoe. blend it with water. Drink 2 times daily. Before breakfast and after dinner. It´s supposed to clean out the impurities in your skin. I´m desperate and hoping it works.

So, I didn´t give a very good conference recap last week. I was rushed for time and basically just looked for all of my favorite quotes and typed without really looking. But this week I decided to spend some time studying my conference notes. Since we spent a lot of time this week talking about the Restoration. Not all of our investigators are understanding the importance of the Prophet. So we have been focusing lots on teaching about President Monson.

Yesterday, we had a cool experience with Elias. He has been visiting with the missionaries for about 2 years now and he basically knows nothing. I don´t know what they ever taught him or if he just never listened. But finally, he is listening. He promised us that he would go to conference last week but he didn´t show up. So yesterday, we decided to listen to President Monson´s talk.

Ponder the Path of Thy Feet

I loved that President Monson teaches us that "Walking where Jesus Walked is not as important as walking AS he walked."

And that is also what Elias learned yesterday. The prophet doesn´t ask us to follow him. He asks us to follow Christ and to be more like Christ is. So now Elias has new homework. To find out of President Monson is a true prophet. And I promise you that he is.

30-day Enos Challenge.

We´re going to play a game. And read Enos every day for 30 days. I think it was President Poll that promised me once that it would change my life. And I´m promising each of you the same thing now.

Let´s talk about Enos.

He wasn´t sinning. But he desired his own salvation. He prayed and prayed and prayed to God for a remission of his sins. And God granted him just that. Then, once he had felt the pure love of Christ, he wanted to share it with EVERYONE. He dedicated himself to missionary service. And he prayed and prayed for the welfare of his fellow men.

 12 And it came to pass that after I had prayed and labored with all diligence, the Lord said unto me: I will grant unto thee according to thy desires, because of thy faith.
 13 And now behold, this was the desire which I desired of him—that if it should so be, that my people, the Nephites, should fall into transgression, and by any means be destroyed, and the Lamanites should not be destroyed, that the Lord God would preserve a record of my people, the Nephites; even if it so be by the power of his holy arm, that it might be brought forth at some future day unto the Lamanites, that, perhaps, they might be brought unto salvation—
 14 For at the present our strugglings were vain in restoring them to the true faith. And they swore in their wrath that, if it were possible, they would destroy our records and us, and also all the traditions of our fathers.
 15 Wherefore, I knowing that the Lord God was able to preserve our records, I cried unto him continually, for he had said unto me: Whatsoever thing ye shall ask in faith, believing that ye shall receive in the name of Christ, ye shall receive it.
Last night we had another miraculous experience. A couple of weeks ago, we contacted Perla. At first she seemed a bit ornery and iffy with talking to us. Then she warmed up a little and told us about herself. She invited us back but she is NEVER home. We have passed by 4 or 5 times to find her missing. But last night we found her. With her mom Ramona and her little sister Cindy. As we were talking about the Plan of Salvation, my heart melted when Cindy said, "There´s a reason you two are here right now, with us. God has a purpose, right?"

I´ve been struggling understanding that God really does have a purpose in everything He sends our way. There is a reason that my investigators are falling through with their promises. There is a reason that these less active members are falling into apostasy. One reason is so that I can learn to pray like Enos did. For their salvation. And so that I can learn to have faith like Enos did so that the Lord can grant me my desires. 

And I know that He will. He sent me Graciella TODAY. She saw us walking by her house and she called to us.. She invited us in and gave us water and we talked about Christ for a minute. He will send people like Elias and Perla and Cindy my way to show me everyday that He is aware of me. He is aware of my struggles and of my pains. But even MORE SO. He is aware of the people around me. And he wants ME to be more like His son. So that I might be a means to bring salvation to the people here in Santa Ana. So that we all might be able to stand before the throne of God with confidence. 

xoxoxo

Hermana Rupe

Approaching the Throne of God With Confidence

We went to a parade this week. And we made a cake for Ramon´s birthday! And we are planning an open house for this Saturday. I am really proud of the invitations.

Conference... :)

Guess what everybody?? I GOT TO WATCH CONFERENCE!! And wanna know what else?? I GOT TO WATCH IT IN ENGLISH!!

The Lord answers prayers. And goodness gracious did He answer my prayers through His General Conference.

This week has been quite the fight. It honestly was a pretty slow week. I don´t really know why. Because it was such a good week. It was so full of miracles.

Miracle Monday: We were planning on visiting Hermana Aida´s sister last Monday after we emailed. But as we were walking past the church, Hermana Raquel´s friend, Josephina invited us in. She gave us hot chocolate and bread and she asked us all sorts of questions. She then brought her whole family to Noche De Barrio on Wednesday and her husband taught me how to play Brandi Carlile on the piano. P.s. I´m getting really good at piano. I just need someone to play the left hand for me. :)

We started working with Andrea on her Personal Progress. She hasn´t come to church since her baptism because there have been some problems with some other jovenes. Girls are such brats. But every sunday, since she doesn´t come, she asks her sister for the Young Women manual and she teaches herself. Yesterday, she got dressed up super cute and she came to both sessions of General Conference. She felt the spirit and so did Yiseli and last night, we were able to fix the friend problems. Yiseli asked for her forgiveness and Andrea gave it to her.. Andrea has such a sweet spirit. I love her so much. They applied what they learned in conference!

On Wednesday, we had a zone meeting and Hermana Cuevas and I decided to pray to be companions again. God answers prayers!! :) On Friday, we got to be companions for the day. We woke up at 4:40 in Hernandarias to teach Seminary and then we traveled here to invite everyone to conference.

Hugo went to the Priesthood session and the Elders said that they took great care of him. And cute Maria Espinola wanted to go to church on Sunday with her husband Pedro. So they showed up at 8:30 and no one was there. They called us and they ended up going to conference with the bishop and his family. They lost more than half of their day, but they filled it with the spirit.

Wasn´t General conference incredible?? I really hope that you all were able to watch EVERY SESSION!! No one session is more important than another.

Here are some of my notes.

Move into the future with CONFIDENCE.

Which way do we face?

Christ knew-- flawlessly-- which way He faced. We should do the same.

I go to partake of the Sacrament!

We should make the sacrament a truly spiritual experience.

Don´t give up!!

Work together.

As we assist in His mission of saving souls, we too will be saved in the process.

I LOVED THAT people talked in their native languages!! :) So powerful.

God will not live our lives for us.

We are NOT PUPPETS.

We do not decide what is right or wrong. God does.

Go to work so that there is something for Him to help us with.

To know the truth of the Gospel, you must first live the principles.

Light dims gradually-- DON´T LET YOUR  LIGHT DIM.

Love one another! LOVE EVERYONE

Be meek.

Teach the truth and the commandments how Christ would.

Don´t be disagreeable.

Parents are important.

Kindness is powerful.

NEVER doubt the testimony of God´s prophets.

Opposition sends truth seekers to their knees.

Caution: You won´t be of much help to others if you are not sure of your own testimony.

Pray for your future.

Again, parents are important.

Stop making excuses

Work-out

Be Obedient, whole-heartedly

REPENT

FORGIVE

Accept trials.

Say yes to Jesuschrist. Follow Him ALWAYS

Do what you can.

BLESS the poor!!

Our work is about LOVE

"What we do is but a drop in the ocean. But if we did not do it, the ocean would have one drop less."

Always pray. And always help others.

FAST: it´s a law!

Don´t take lightly the love you feel from the Prophet of God.

God Speaks

The church is organized by the Lord Himself.

Make time to PRAY always... If you say you don´t have time. IT¨S A LIE. from Satan.

I´m out of time now. But I loved how straightforward and frank the speakers were. They definitely told us how it is. We have a lot of work to get going!!

But just remember that the Lord loves us. Follow the Prophet. Be good parents. We can recieve our own personal revelation. And If we stay focused on the important things, we will be blessed.

I know that the Lord loves us and He hears our prayers. He wants to guide us. and to help us. He loves us.

Christ lives.

The church is true.

Hermana Rupe

In Case You Missed Conference