Week 32! "My Week..."

From 9/8/14

Hi family!!

First off, as I was reading Ashley`s email from last week....the whole time I was just kind-of thinking, "uhhhh," because I was on the other end of what happened to her. Ash was one of the two who left the sector, but I was one of the two who came in [to a new area that had suddenly been vacated by two sisters before me]. And I can tell you, I really really appreciated all the work the two sisters before me did. They left the ward and sector better than they had found it, and also left a little piece of paper with explanations of who they had been teaching and where they lived mas o menos. It made the transition for Hna L and me so much easier! So...thank you Ashley for all your hard work!!! There`s definitely a reason that transfer had to be done in that way, and I know the Lord will bless you for it.

This week was....crazy.

Pretty much every day Hna L and I had SOMETHING going on:

Tuesday we had weekly planning. Three hours of hard-core planning which is tiring enough in itself. And a fairly unsuccessful afternoon. Well, it didn`t help that I began falling asleep as I was making a phone call at a cabina. jaja

Wednesday. Division with the hermana leaders. I helped Hna L plan and prepare everything to be in charge in our sector for a day while I spent that day and night in my old sector!!! with Hna M. It was cool to see some old investigators and less actives that I haven`t seen in some time.

Thursday...bright and early...VERIFICACIÒN para los nuevos. Hna L got to go to the Panecillo while I stayed at the chapel. The ONLLLLY hermana amongst all the elderes. I whined a little just in case the President decided he wanted to take me to the Panecillo too :) jejeje. But, President responded saying, "Well, you will get a lot of attention now, won`t you?" What! President? jajaja It was fun though!

When my companion got back, all the "trainers" and "nuevos" did a ton of practices. And Hna L and I did every single one with the only other hermana there...Hna Richardson `,:0 But Hna Richardson is great and the Spirit was helpful. We learned a lot. It was a good experience to be able to participate with confidence. I still remember very clearly when I was in Hna L's shoes and Hna C was training me. Now, I`m the one to speak up more in the meetings and share my own experiences. So, that was cool. Sometimes we don`t see how far we`ve come until we have an opportunity to express and reflect in situations like this. The best part was that President agreed with the two big comments I made, even standing up and adding on to one of them. So, that made me nervous, but also made me feel good knowing that I haven`t been teaching apostasy all this time :P jeje

Friday we had a mini-conference for our zone.

So you see? FULLL reuniones and crazy things going on this week. By the time Friday came around I was just about given up on all the "catching up" we had to do in our own sector. I felt good that we were finally able to have a recent convert in our sector meet with the family history consultant...but it sure took a lot of time out of the day. At night, when we gave the informe of what we were able to accomplish that day, our district leader didn`t seem too happy. wahhhh. But, it`s only because he didn`t understand how hard we had actually worked to accomplished what we HAD done. Still, that response gave me such a drive to accomplish BIG GOALS for the next day jajaj. We have a goal to contact 3 families every day in my zone. So, Hna L and I decided to contact 5. I`ll insert the outcomes of that in the letter I wrote to President.

There are two experiences I would like to share.

First of all, Hna L and I were waiting for the bus at night to go to the church for consejo de barrio. We waited....and waiteeeed. Nada. We were going to be super late! We finally said, "should we pray?" jeje We did, praying for a way we could get to church. Then, from behind us we heard, "Hermanitas!!!" It was "A" (friend who baptized "J L"). It was so out of the blue! After waiting 25 minutes for a bus, he showed up right behind us after the prayer. He informed us that the bus we needed didn`t pass there so late at night, and that he would show us where we should go to take the bus. Why is it that the Lord always has answers to prayers after we ask first? There are so many examples of that in the scriptures.

Also, I decided to make a covenant with the Lord. It`s something I`ve been doing for a few weeks now, but wow. The Lord is so real. We have been covenant people with Him from the beginning, but the power of a covenant means so much more when we make it personal with Him. I will tell you more about this covenant later on, but for now...wow. Covenants are real. We keep our part, and the Lord will always keep His.

Yesterday Hna L and I visited our ward mission leader who had inguinal hernial surgery last Sunday ...(is that what it`s called in English...my therapy friends would be so ashamed...:P). He was apparently very sore and moved to the chair very slowly and carefully in order to sit down. We chatted for a bit. Then we shared a scripture with him. We didn`t plan anything in particular in advance, but I opened my scripture and Alma 11:44 was looking right up at me. "Hno. C, we have a scripture we would like to share with you..." I looked down at the page my scriptures were opened to..."...and it`s about the resurrection." We read the scripture about how our bodies will be restored to their perfect frame, and that not a hair on the head will be lost. Hno C is gracefully balding on the top front of his head, so he and his daughter got a kick out of our "spiritual message." I bore testimony how Hno C will once again have a beautiful, full set of hair... He laughed so hard.

It was funny because of how unplanned it was. But it was perfect jaja. It`s amazing though, after so much practice, that we are able to take any scripture and tie it into the lives of the person we are sharing it with. Every scripture can be applied to the lives of the people, because every scripture ties into a basic gospel truth. So, at the end of it, we tied it in to how we appreciate him and how his service and good works will all be a testament for him "at the last day". If you read the scripture, this would make a lot more sense jaja.

Hna L and I are starting off this day strong. The start of a new cambio! We keep you all in our prayers! Our prayers are so long sometimes before we ever do anything every day and night; because we pray so specifically for our investigators, ward, and loved ones (you!) jeje. I used to get a little desperate to get out and work when our prayers before leaving were so long. But I quickly realized that we are nothing without them. And the best days we`ve had are when we implement frequent and heartfelt prayers to bless our day.

So with this I ask, please continue to keep us in your prayers. It will help us to keep working with diligence and faith, with a perspective to give it our all every day.

"This week we have had quite a few great experiences. For example, Friday Hna L and I spent a LOT of time trying to coordinate and eventually convince a recent convert to have a cita with the ward family historian. She did, but we lost quite some time that day after mini-conferencia de la zona and less time to work in our sector. So, we didn`t contact any families, which is a goal in our zone to contact 3 every day. We felt bad after the informe with our DL. The next day we went out with set determination to contact 5 families! Interestingly enough, the Lord blessed us with EXACTLY 5 families in the streets. If we hadn`t have contacted each one of them, we wouldn`t have met our goal. But it also shows that the Lord will always help us reach our goals if we set our sights on accomplishing them.

Then, a cita at night fell through and we went to a ward baptism of an 8-yr old child. We hadn`t planned on going, but did. And there, as we waited for the ward to arrive to begin, a family of 4 walked in , nicely dressed, and there to support their friends. Hna L and I decided to give them a tour while we waited. The bishop came and joined us for the tour. The C family live in our sector and were very interested in coming to church to learn more. They are planning to come next week!

The Lord blessed us to accomplish our goals, but then also blessed us with a BONUS family. Very receptive, parents married, and who have been 'investigating' various religions to know which is true.

We have continued to have similar experiences and tender mercies of the Lord. I am far from perfect. Some days I feel tired and undetermined. But, I know the Lord wants me to live up to my potential, and He keeps confirming our work with experiences like these. I love the work of the Lord!"

Love you all!! Have a great week!!

Hna Fernelius

Picture of our zone! Last zone conference, before the cambios! :)

We kind of wrote our names in wet cement. Hopefully it will still be there many years from now jejeje. That is, if the lady who came up from behind us didn`t erase it after we left jaja.

"Dr. Fern" and "L"

Today at QuiCentro. It was an accidental destination point on our search to find a Megamaxi. Hna L's boyfriend collects bugs, so we stopped to capture it in a picture so she can send it to him jaja.

[A "business" card Tiffany's dad ordered to give out when people ask about her.  It includes her mailing and blog addresses, and it seems like a good idea because so many friends and family ask about her]