Soberbio

The Hardest Thing...

Let me tell you a story. I don´t know if it´s a little too soon or not, but it happened this week, soooooo....

My companion was looking for a song and she only has her music on a flashdrive so in order to find the song, she had to go through all of her other songs. And this wasn´t the song that she was looking for, but she decided to stop on one. :) And ask me to translate it..

Now, I love translating songs because it makes me feel cool that I can listen to it and that each time the artist pauses for a second, I can speak the translation. Sometimes it doesn´t go too well but I´m getting good. And I was doing so well translating this song. Until......

It all hit me. In exactly one month from yesterday, my life is going to drastically change as I will have to leave this strange land that I now call home.

My companion is the cutest thing. When I said that I couldn´t do it, she thought that I couldn´t translate because the song was singing too fast but then the waterworks started and she instantly came over to give me the biggest, most needed hug. 

My legs are dying. My veins are exploding and my legs are uglier than I thought they would be at age 80. The sun is frying my face and I am super sick of the food here.

But I would not change these moments for ANYTHING. 

We are working so hard here! Seriously, so hard. And I love it. I don´t care what anyone says, I know that I am giving this my very all. No one came to church yesterday and we are not planning any baptizms in the near future unless a miracle happens. But I am busting my butt and we are helping people to feel the spirit each and every day.

This week, we decided that we needed to go to Soberbio... Which is a city outside of San Vicente where there is no church... 

Hello Pioneers!!! We met the coolest people out there. It was so fun to just be able to hand out folletos and Books of Mormon and to be able to talk to everyone about the church because everyone was curious.

We even found a family.. I´m pretty sure they belong to one of the reformed churches. But they were so interested and so happy to listen to us.

We cooked tacos with our chef investigator Juan Pablo.. And Im going to teach him my barbeque chicken sandwiches this week. :) Yum yum.

We have a cita with Barbara tomorrow and we are banking on her eating everything up. So send lots of prayers for her!!

Ah there is so much more but lady is closing the cyber early so I have to go...

But the church is true!!

Hermana Rupe

Waterfalls

It´s always tough to get used to a new companion...

But I really like Hermana Zambrana. She´s not as crazy as Hermana Torres. But we get along well and she keeps me good company and we are working so hard!!!

She is the cutest little thing. Brazilera from Cordoba Argentina. FINALLY, someone is helping me lots with my spanish. :) She has a bit more than 6 months in the mission and she is full of energy...

And... dun dun dun. So am I!! It´s a miracle honestly. I don´t know where all of this energy came from. :) The prayers are working, people. Thanks a million!! :)

This week was full of contacting and showing my companion around the area... We found a ton of new people to go visit this week. Let´s hope we find time to go visit all of the people that we have contacted.

We found the cutest group of pre-teen boys this week!! Justo I had forgotten my Jenga game, but we made the Restoration work with some cups and knives. :) These kids were just so darling. They all go to a different church but they are the best of friends. And something told us that we should ask them about their beliefs... Every single one agreed that we better have 1 church because there is only 1 God. The church is TRUUUEEEEE!!! They believed everything we said about Joseph Smith and they all went running to ask their parents for permission to go to church.. They didn´t get the permission, but we will be visiting each of their houses. 

There is a reason that the Lord was always blessing the children. They get it! :)

But old people are fun too. :)

One of my favorites that we met this week is Carmen... She´s like 80 something years old and she looks like she´s 60. She walked to the super market hoping to buy a bunch of food... because when you buy a ton, they take you home for free in a car... BUT the car man wasn´t there, so she had to buy a little bit and walk it all home.. Well her little bit was super heavy and we barely caught her in our eyes, but the two of us saw her at the exact same moment and we offered to help. She invited herself to church. :) And when we passed by to visit her last night, she didn´t have time to let us in, but she remembered that she hadn´t gone to church... We´ll get her there this week once we´ve actually had time to teach her something.

Barbara is also super excited to come this Sunday. We have a cita with her tonight because we went last night while they were watching Soccer. Now, I know that it´s almost impossible to get Argentine men to shut off the soccer game. So we decided that it would be better to come back a different day. We talked to Barbara for a second to make sure that she is still as excited as ever. And she is.. :) And I kindly asked her boyfriend to shut off the TV so that we could pray. He obeyed, we prayed and chao... When we got down the stairs, my companion looked at me, wide-eyed.. HOW DID YOU DO THAT??

Do what?? She raaaavvvvvvvved about how I got an Argentine man to shut off his soccer game. :)

The Spirit works miracles. :)

I had the most spiritual experience yesterday as I gave my improved Sunday School class. Hello, gathering of Israel. Basically it´s just a fancy title for MISSIONARY WORK.  So we talked. And talked about how God can´t do this without us. And I thought for a second... This branch really needs a spiritual motivation to do misionary work.. And I thought about how missionary work has strengthened my spirit. And as I bore testimony of how I have seen my testimony grow as I have had this time to share the gospel, not a single sister in that room had dry eyes. :) I know it wasn´t my words that touched them. It was the spirit. Really, honestly, the Lord gives us certainty of the things we believe when we share them with others.

I love the temple... This week, the members got back from their temple trip and yesterday, they all bore testimony of the temple. Ayayayay!! It was so beautiful. The temple is the house of the Lord and I am so grateful for it! Not to be totally excited to go home or anything, just I am really excited to go to the temple. I could totally say hey, President LaPierre... Can I just go home for a week? Do a few sessions in the temple? Hug my friends and family and come back?? That would be the best!! But it´s not possible... So while I´m here I am just going to take advantage of every single moment that I have left. :)

Which is why I have to cut it short this week.

Sending all of my love and all of my prayers. 

Hermana Rupe

**PRAY FOR LANDON**

Remember my first investigator, Maria?? Yeah I found her in the terminal this week... Tender Mercies.

My companion loves braiding my hair. And now I am obsessed and I suffer when she doesn´t have time to do my hair in the morning. Beauty is pain... And comfort is braids.

We bought mandioca.. :) And peeled it in the kitchen. I love Paraguay..

And I love waterfalls. I have something fun planned for every p-day that I have left... :) Yay for waterfalls!! :) I felt like I was back home in the mountains today.

Our prepared group of young men!! :)

Rock

There's always gonna be another mountain

I'm always gonna wanna make it move

Always gonna be a uphill battle

Sometimes I'm gonna have to lose

Ain't about how fast I get there

Ain't about what's waiting on the other side

It's the climb

The struggles I'm facing

The chances I'm taking

Sometimes might knock me down

But no, I'm not breaking

I may not know it

But these are the moments that

I'm gonna remember most, yeah

Just gotta keep going

And I, I got to be strong

Just keep pushing on..

We have found a fun way to practice her English. Learning mission appropriate songs. This is the new theme song here in San Vicente. And I promise that I will record my companion singing because she sounds like a cute little chinese girl.. You will die. :)

aways gonna be uphill battle

suties I gonna has to loose.

My companion is leaving me. :`( I´m sad. BUTTTT..... She is going to SANTA ANA!!! I am so excited for her. I think that I decided that although I was soooo frustrated in Santa Ana, it´s probably my favorite area. And I just am so happy that Hermana Torres will be going there. They will love her. 

My new companion´s name is Hermana Zambrana. Yay for LATINAS. I don´t know what the Lord has against giving me white companions. It´s fine, I will just end my mission with the highest record of latina companions. My only American comp was half Mexican... (Love you Alex.) And I only got her for a month. (Still upset about it.)

I like the Latinas though. I learn lots from them and they say that Hermana Zambrana will kill me well here.. That´s all I want. I just want to give literally every ounce of everything that i have left in these next 6 weeks. 

Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers on my behalf... They are truly appreciated and I know that your prayers give me strength to keep going. Please pray that my legs keep working.

This week was full of adventures and trials.

We decided to go visit hermana Yoli this week. She lives a million miles away.. Okay more like 4.. We decided to call a taxi to take us out there in the middle of nowhere so that we wouldn´t get lost. And we thought that it was super close because the taxi got us there in like 5 minutes. So, when we left, we decided that we would walk back home. We had a great lesson with the hermana and her sister in-law.. and we realized that the sun was starting to set. They told us that it would take us like 15 minutes or so to walk back to el centro. Cause we´re missionaries and we walk really fast. NOT. So we started out trek along the FREEWAY to get back to our stomping grounds. 5 minutes passes by... then 10... then we had to run past a dead animal... 15 minutes... 20... 30... HEY, there´s a supermarket! I´m STARVING. Sooo We stopped and bought some facturas and started the rest of our trek to the Gypsy Family´s house. We got there in a total of an hour and a half or so...

NEVER am I walking to Hermana Yoli´s house again... 

The gypsy father, Tito, is very ill. He has lots of medical problems and he wants to be healed. He used to be a drug addict but reciently, his family found God and they have promised to live better lives in order to be happier and healthier. Well, Tito´s health has already been shot to no sé donde.. And he is desperate to be better. Last week, he asked us if we believed in miracles and healing. YES. :) And so we offered him a blessing which he so happily accepted. 

Well, there are a few churches out here that scare their members to death in order to keep them active. And this poor, wonderful gypsy family is terrified of offending God. And so, as we were explaining the blessing, one of the gypsy son´s thought that it probably wasn´t a good idea to mess with the powers of God and he scared the crap out of his dad and they were all debating in their gypsy language if we had been sent from God or from the devil and that if we were devil servants, they shouldn´t let us say the prayer. (The gift of tongues is real people, I understand gypsy.)

Oh goodness. I have never been so upset with a God-loving people in my life. But, we patiently explained that the blessing would come from heaven and that it was no more than a normal prayer with hands placed on their heads. They opted for the blessing, asking Heavenly Father to forgive them if it was not really from him. We know that blessings come from the Lord. And honestly, the spirit came. I hope they felt it.

This week, we met the Ricardos. Ricardo papa, Ricardo hijo and Kevin, the other son. Now, some people might think that it´s not a good idea to hang out in front of the DaSilva family´s bar, but they give us references and all of their friends want to learn more about the church. Ricardo is Marisol´s dad. Marisol has been an investigator for a while but she can´t really progress much because we have never been able to talk to her parents. UNTIL NOW. And he was SO excited. So happy. They all were. The littlest one, Mili, helped us teach her dad about Joseph Smith. Ricardo told us that if it´s true, he would like to know. And he took the folleto and told us that he would read it.

TRIAL.. On Friday, our phone stopped working and Ricardo was trying to communicate with us so that we could go over and answer his questions. Hermana Lorena DaSilva was calling and sending messages telling us that he had read his librito and that he wanted to go to church. He didn´t come to church and they canceled their appointment for tonight. So PLEASE. Send some prayers for Ricardo and his family that they might still be excited about the church tomorrow. :)

Someday, when I get home, I want to be a mochilera. A backpacker. Who´s in??

We had a Zone Meeting in El Dorado this week. And in the Plaza in El Dorado, there are always drug addicts selling cool art in the streets. I usually buy some things from them and tell them that they can´t use my money to buy drugs. It´s fine because the majority of them grow their own marijuana. And Javier, was selling some pretty cool rocks. Now, I have never been a rock lover before, but he let me read his rock bible and I fell in love with the Rocks.. 

He asked us if he could travel back to San Vicente with us where he and his friend had been staying. SURE... :)

So after the meeting, we found him at the terminal and we talked for a bit. Took some pictures. And the dummie covered up my plack. WHAT ARE YOU DOING?? He explained to us that he doesn´t post anything on facebook that has to do with God or Jesus Christ. Because suposedly, he´s athiest. AAAAhhhh great. I thought that I was going to be able to talk about God with this dude. The majority of these naturalistas that we find in the streets believe in the "Great Spirit" Like King Lamoni and his people. 

  

However, instead of trying to avoid my new athiest friend, for fear of him trying to convince me that God doesn´t exist-- Like Korihor tried to do, I decided to try love him. As Alma decided to love Korihor.... I tried to see him as the Savior would.

And so, we talked. First, about movies and then about life. I discovered that 2 years ago, Javier´s mother died. She devoted her life to the Lord, she always went to church and she always paid her tithing. But Javier never could see the blessings in all of it. He expressed his thoughts about God. He doesn´t believe that God exists because he thinks that God shouldn´t allow righteous people to suffer, like his mother suffered. Javier doesn´t understand why opposition exists. And I, personally, believe that he believes in God. He is only upset with our Heavenly Father for taking away his mom. 

I would be upset too, but I understand the purpose of trials. They make us stronger. I couldn´t convince Javier to admit that there is a God, but I was able to bear a firm testimony of the knowledge that I have that we have a Father in Heaven who LOVES us. And He sent His Son, Jesus Christ to die for us. To suffer for us so that we don´t have to suffer. He came so that our trials and afflictions can be bearable, with His help.

Sometimes, I feel alone. Sometimes, I feel like my prayers hit the cieling and fall right back down to hit me in the head. But I know that God exists. Because he HAS answered my prayers. I know that He has a plan. A perfect plan of happiness. That allows us to have faith and HOPE in this life that the next one might be better. Free of suffering and pain. Free of death and separation. We can have the secure knowledge and confirmation that we can be with our families forever. I don´t know if Javier believes it. But he knows that I do.

I love the Book of Mormon. It is so powerful. And I decided to give Javier one. But it was a special Book of Mormon. He decided that he liked us Mormon girls so much that he would make us cool necklaces for free. We just had to meet him in the terminal to get them. Dun dun dun. So all morning, I looked up scriptures and I highlighted them and I made a list of Questions of the Soul in the back of the book and a list of scriptures and page numbers and I wrote quotes and went all out on this Book of Mormon. I didn´t let the fear of him not accepting the book hold me back. 

And he accepted it. He even thanked me for it. Now, who knows if he will read it?? But I know that if he does, his life will change.

The Book of Mormon is the word of God. If we just invite people to read the Book of Mormon, they will fall in love. Like I fell in love with the rocks after reading the Rock Bible.. :)

The spirit works! I love the conversion story of King Lamoni. He was just so willing to incure of the Lord and the Lord answered his prayers. It was because King Lamoni was prepared! With a humble heart and a willing mind. :) He was so willing to learn of the Lord and the spirit allowed him to know that the things that Ammon was teaching are true!

And I love that as soon as he woke up from his spirit-induced sleep, the King started preaching and teaching and converting his people!! He had been converted so completely, that many people in the kingdom followed his example. So much that they were able to establish a church in the land!

Yesterday, we met Barbara. The cutest little 21 year old that you ever did meet. She is a Sabotista. Adventista... They keep the Sabbath day Holy on Saturdays.. But she can´t go to church because she studies on Fridays and Saturdays. Thank you, Resurrection that changed the Sabbath to Sunday. :)

She expressed to us her desires to go to church and even before we taught the lesson, she accepted our invitation to join us next Sunday. She was with a bunch of her friends and a few of them seemed interested. Her boyfriend seems skeptical but he said that he would pray. Now, Barbara. She´s a prepared one. Just like King Lamoni. As my companion recited the first vision, I looked at Barbara. Her eyes did not leave Hermana Torres´ face. Call me crazy, but I honestly think that I had an Ammon-like experience and I could read her thoughts in this moment. Or maybe I could just read her face; It seemed to me that her eyes were saying, 

"THIS IS WHAT I´VE BEEN LOOKING FOR!!"

It´s what we´re all looking for. 

All of my love,

Hermana Rupe

"And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall."

--Helaman 5:12