Week 11! "Jumbled Mind..."

From 4/7/14

Hola familia!

For General Conference, 10 of us gringitos were able to go to a separate room of the chapel and watch in Inglés. Initially I wanted to watch in Spanish, but as I have learned in the past, it´s always better to learn in our native language jeje. And, it was gooood. I took notes on roughly 13 page sides. Therefore, I have no idea what I wanted to share with you today....jaja. I did notice a theme of family history work, the increasing need for our force against the adversary, and a few analogies I really liked...Like the one from Elder Bednar about traction. He put into words something I´ve believed for a long time. Also, did it sound like Elder Packer was giving more of a "farewell" talk? No!

Una cosa que me gusta bastante es que me siento que mi español esta progresando. Yo puedo conversar mas facilmente y contar historias y experiences sin sentirme anciosa antemano. Es una bendicion grande a sentir mas cómoda con el idoma, y testificar en una forma sencilla, y por medio del Espíritu Santo.

There are some phrases that the people use here a lot. They say "Oh seaas" before beginning a thought. Which means "That is to say"...I also hear "No cierto?" a lot, which I´m starting to pick up poco a la vez. I still hear the accent Mom was talking about with the people aqui en la sierra, because they put emphasis in weird places at times. When I pray, I notice that my voice lifts in weird places, so I clear my throat before I continue. Jaja sorry Mom.

Before I go, there is one scripture that strung a chord with me this week: Acts 18:9-10. "...No temas, sino habla y no calles. Porque yo estoy contigo, y ninguno podrá hacer mal, porque yo tengo mucho pueblo en esta ciudad..." I only have it written to share in Spanish, but it´s pretty good. The verse after made me laugh, because it says something about "that is why you are here for 18 months", but in other words.
 

The Lord continues to bless us. I wish my thoughts were a little more together this week. But, biggest of all that I´ve felt this week is of the importance of families. Finding families to teach, strengthening our own families, establishing peace in our own homes, and working with families in the ward to strengthen the kingdom.

Families are fundamental to our Father´s Plan. I´m glad that we were able to recognize the need to work more with families this past week. And that the General Authorities placed emphasis on it.

"We have been focusing on a different part of our sector, and focusing on finding families to teach. It started off a little slow it seems. But we had great desires and prepared many invitations to invite families to General Conference. We spent early one morning preparing many tarjetitas and folletos with our names, number, and info of the capilla to give to every family and menos activo we would encounter that week.
 
 Although the people we invited did not come to the sessions of General Conference, we did have one family - Pe, Y, and Pa - who came to a session Saturday, and a session Sunday of conference. Pe is the brother of a recent convert, and he lives alone with his two children of 12 and 11 years old. Pe expressed deep desires to understand more of the doctrine after giving him a brief testimony of the prophet and short version of the Restoration of the Gospel.

As we found out later, this family actually has attended the church in the past a few times. The children have accepted a baptismal date for this weekend. And, I believe the father will accept a date as well when we have the opportunity to speak with him tomorrow.

I am very grateful that the Lord is mindful of the righteous desires of our heart. I have a testimony that he focuses on blessing us specific to the goals we have set for ourselves. If we have a goal of contacting 'a couple' people one day, He will provide us with those 'couple people.' If we set our standard a little higher and, say, have a goal of 'finding a family prepared to receive the gospel,' He will bless us with a family.

As we set our standards high and work hard to achieve them, I know the Lord will confide in us. And therefore, bless us with His children.

It was wonderful to hear so many miracles and experiences from the other missionaries this morning at the breakfast. After hearing from the prophet and apostles at conference, I feel confident in every way that they are called of God. 'By their fruits, ye shall know them.'

It is a blessing to be here. I love being a missionary. And knowing that every effort is for my Savior....makes every minute worth it. As the adversary works harder, so shall we. I look forward to the testimony-building experiences ahead of us."
 

I love you all!

P.S. ...I love our family!

Hna Fernelius

Yesterday...picking up our investigators for General Conference

 

My zone

 

Today outside of QuiCentro

This morning we had breakfast at President´s house as a reward for ending Fe de Febrero traerá Milagro de Marzo as the second best zone for baptisms. Our zone had 21 baptisms, but we were beat by Ibarra, who had 24 baptisms. jaja Breakfast was good :)