30 investigator lessons!

So this week we have been seeing miracles in our área. I´m in just a small little district of 4 missionaries, in an área that other missionaries think is a hard place to be. There haven´t been a ton of baptisms and there aren´t too many members either. But in the last couple of weeks, we´ve been working a ton with the members! And now theý´re super excited. We had 30 investigator
​ lessons this week with members, and only 3 others, not to mention all the other lessons we have with less actives with members present. That is a true miracle for our misión! And, Camiri is the only branch with 100 percent retention in all the misión. We´ve brought back 13 souls in this year to the Lord, perhaps not a huge number, but theý´re still here!

I try my very best to help Elder Peña, but he´s always joking that he´ll only remember me because I say no all the time :D hahaha I´m working on that. I´m hard-headed at times, but I´m very obedient. :) My head is a lot of yes or no´s, black or White. True or false. But that can be a problem for me too. Sometimes I´m a little extreme. But talking of awesome trainers, last week, my trainer, Elder Corrales, was made assistant to the president! I was so happy for him. he´s the best. He really did teach me a ton.

Here are the four missionaries of Camiri with President Silva, one of the counselors of the misión. and yes one is from america! His name is Elder Evans. haha Elder Evenson and Elder Evans. People get our names confused :D He´s from Logan, and he´s a new missionary as well. A farm boy, so he works his butt off! He´s a great great missionary.

Personal revelation and breaking limits

Well my week was quite good. I learned a lot about personal revelation and breaking limits. And also training a new missionary is sometimes like an emotional rollercoaster. haha. I did learn quite a lot. We had 8 investigators at church this week, two families! I just know that we are going to baptize them! We will do it! The Lord will help us! ( I need to be positive :) ) Also, I am realizing that really we are working miracles here in camiri. Many times I feel inadecuate or that my strength just isnt good enough, or that I´m not really making a difference, but I realized that really we are. Even if they are just small changes, ( or kinda big, since I got here the branch has increased from about 90-100 people to 130-140. 75 were attending 6 months ago.) That´s a big change for a little branch. We just have to have a bit a patience at times. And trust that we are doing the Lord´s work. The thing I always feel, is that I could do even more! And that´s what gets me at times.

Wow how exciting for Mandy (Bon - put her papers in for a mission)!!! That´s so cool. Tell her to study Preach My Gospel Chapter 3 from me :) That would be my best advice. And to prepare to work her butt off!!! hahaha personal time doesn´t exist as a missionary :D and also very interesting about President Smith. I didn´t know that. Elder Waddell, one of the seventy in charge of our area, said that he only SAW 2 baptizms his whole mission. It really isn´t about baptizing, it´s about forming our own character, converting our own soul. Of course baptizing is the goal and very important, and I have plans to do my best to help others be baptized. I just need to work hard and learn to love to do it. Really I do love being a missionary. I just need to change little things about me and my way of thinking is all. :)

Picture time!

Picture titles: ¨3 generations¨ and "Do it"  

The first is an inspirational sticky note on my wall, and the second is me and my trainer, with my trainee! 

This is my desk. Many inspirational sticky notes and goals, and other wonderful things to study.

 

The Fourth Missionary

Yesterday, our mission president gave us all a talk titled, ¨The Fourth Missionary¨ by Elder Corbridge, and it has inspired me to change. I realized that much of my mission, I had been living as a third missionary, but not as a fourth missionary. Being a fourth missionary involves giving over to God our will. My dreams. My hopes. My desires. My will. I have to give my Heavenly Father everything. :)

Mom, I can´t come back home as the same person. My mission must change me forever, or I will have left in vain. The only way Heavenly Father can change me into as I should be is if i give up everything to Him. I won´t be the same. :) I want to be who Heavenly Father wants me to be. I can´t go back to living in the world. It just isn´t an option. My time here is so short. A year has already passed like a dream. i have to give my all. I´m ready to give my all.

When I left, I didn´t give my Heavenly Father everything. I had hidden parts within me holding me back. Things that have held me back all this time. At times, it made things so hard. Some days were unbearable. I´m ready to stop fighting. :) I am here to do the Lord´s will. Not for any other reason. Any other reason is selfish. Any other reason will not change me. Any other reason is for the pride that is within me. Why do we fight it so much? Why do we allow our pride to cause contention, to not love, to not progress? I´m so very tired of fighting agaisnt myself. Does that make sense? 

Heavenly Father has always blessed our family so very much. It´s astounding to me.

A great birthday

It was a great birthday. Our Pension made a wonderful Lemon Marange Pie! It was super good :) and we also ate some delicious fried chicken in the night, but my best present was surely general conference! Wooo it was the best. But I felt utterly selfish receiving things as a missionary.. I felt bad. :D So I decided to give Heavenly Father a birthday present for my birthday! I went to Him in prayer and made a promise with Him. But if sufficeth me to say that I wanted to give for my birthday and not receive so much :) Oooh those were all great talks :) My top three were, Pres. Uchtdorf, about revelation and light, Elder Lynn G. Robbins about not fearing man but fearing God, and Elder D. Todd Christofferson about the commandments. ahhh they changed me forever :) I´m ready to go and call people to repentance! haha :) My conviction and conversion of the Gospel was greatly deepened. And to me, that´s the most important thing in all the world. I want so badly to be able to, through my conviction, help others feel the joy of the gospel. I want to be able to speak from the fire of my soul every time I speak of the gospel. I want others to feel that fire!

 

So here is my experience with conference!

Well we had a good week here in Camiri. Well there was a big festival here during the conference, so there was music blasting all our the church but we had a wonderful spiritual experience. It was incredible because we hardly even heard anything! The attendance was a bit downheartening, but I know the conference changed the lives of those who heard it and payed attention. It changed my life! Of all the talks that impacted me the most were the talks by Elder Lynn G. Robbins of the Presidency of the Seventy, and Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. I loved especially that Elder Christofferson said that the commandments are the greatest manifestation of the love that God has for us, that God is no respector of persons, and that we as children of God have the capability to become who we choose. Our decisions, and desires I would add, determine our destiny. I felt my testimony strengthened to a new level in this conference, to the point where I can now call people to repentance without fear. The commandments are for all. We are not, and never will be an exception to the law of God. They apply to all of us, and they are absolute. Obeying the will of our Heavenly Father is the only way to true and lasting happiness and peace. If I teach the commandments any less then they truly are, I am falling into apostasy and teaching others false doctrine. The same goes for the requirements of baptism. We can´t baptise people before they are ready and have manifested by their works their desires to be baptized, or they will surely fall away. My expectations for me, and my investigators has gone way up since the conference.

 

We have to use the internet to get conference. I think BYU tv is only in utah and idaho :D haha. But yes, I wish that I could help everyone understand the importance of the church. People just don´t grasp it sometimes.... Your Salvation is on the line! ahhhhhh That goes for everyone. Every single day we must choose to travel closer to our salvation. read Alma 34:31-32 for more references. Exaltation is a daily choice.

 

So this week I think the theme is, ´Put your shoulder to the wheel¨ Sometimes you just have to work, and work and work a little more. That would be missionary work! So at this moment, I am training a new missionary, and the other day he told me, ¨We never rest. Do we?!¨ haha it´s a bit transition from home to the mission field. There isn´t time to take a breather. :) But I wouldn´t have it any other way. There is no work so fulfilling as being a missionary. I could be a missionary forever I think and be happy. :) Time just seems to fly by so fast for me as a missionary. I can´t believe i´m about to finish a whole year as a missionary! That´s just crazy to me. And it makes me realize I have to work a lot harder in the next year. I don´t have a minute to waste. No one does really. ahhhh but really I just love the Gospel. Why do I have to do anything different??

 

I was quite productive today, I wrote everyone!! haha but now my times up.