Thursday, November 27, 2014

Argentina Bound!

Finally!! This is my last email you will be receiving while I am still in the MTC! Our P-Day got changed to Wednesday this week instead of Friday because of Thanksgiving. We have infield orientation all day Friday and then we depart nice and early Monday morning!! I am so excited. 5 days! Less than that actually. This week has been such a good week! I feel like every day is a good week. How could it not be when you're serving the Lord 24/7?

So last week I met a bunch of missionaries serving in Minnesota! It was so great, and I'm way excited for them. I told them that they had the best mission in the world. Sundays here are amazing, if I haven't already said that a million times. We had another district leave in our zone, so now we are officially the oldest! Our of two zones...but it's great. They had 3 sisters leave and 5 elders to Mexico! They sang a farewell song and I had the chance to play for them as well. It was "Come Unto Christ" and was so beautiful! I just loved it. Funny story, so there was this huge flat screen TV on a stand by the wall, and I sat kind of near it so I could have easy access to the piano. After the talks were over, when I was going up to the piano I completely tripped over the TV stand...haa classic Rachel move, huh? I love being a missioanry. 
On Monday, the coolest thing happened. I was in line during lunch and I thought I might have accidentally cut in front of the couple that was behind me so I went to apologize and talked to them and then they were older so I asked where they were serving their mission, because older couples that are serving missions come to this MTC as well, and they told me that they would be serving in the MTC for the next two years! So I thought wait a minute...and then I asked them if they were the new MTC presidents and they said yes! Oh my goodness! So I met the new MTC presidents and then when I was sitting down the current MTC president, President Nally stopped and talked to me. What a neat thing, they are such great people! I was so fortunate to be able to meet them even if I won't still be here when they're serving. Mom! You know how you asked me about Hermana Cannon? She is in my district!! I love her so much! Her mom had asked her if she knew me as well. She's such a great person. 
Tuesday was the best day ever! It was November 25th, but since we aren't going to have a cold or snowy christmas in Argentina, we decided to celebrate Christmas on November 25th instead! Oh my goodness it was so fun. I convinced everyone to wear Christmas colors so we all showed up to class wearing red and green and sang Christmas songs all day. And everyone loved the little stockings! It was such a fun day. The spirit of Christmas can be alive any time of year, right?
Celebrating Christmas on November 25th


Sister Turner and I on "Christmas" I love her!
Also to add to that, we got to hear from Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles!! Best Christmas ever!! He gave such an amazing talk and I was just so humbled to be in the presence of an apostle of the Lord. During choir beforehand, our choir directer said something that really hit me. We sang the song 'Nearer My God to Thee' and he said that God and Jesus Christ have the power to solve all of our problems in an instant. So why don't they? I guess I always knew that sort of, but I never really thought about it that way. I thought more about it and I was thinking that sometimes we are allowed to suffer through hardships and trials because we need them. We need them to become better and to become the people that our Heavenly Father knows that we can be. I read this quote once that said something like, "Every trial you suffer is necessary for your salvation." So the things we go through, all our difficulties and trials, are not pointless. Everything has something that can be learned. It's amazing too, because even though we may suffer sometimes, we never have to suffer alone. When we turn to Christ, everything in life is so much easier to bear. 
I feel so blessed with this amazing opportunity to serve the Lord. The more I'm out here, the more I realize how much this is not my mission, but it's the Lord's. Dallin H. Oaks gave this really cool analogy of comparing a missionary to a pen, and being an instrument in the hands of the Lord. The pen is an instrument. The outside of the pen are our bodies, and they need to stay healthy. The inside of the pen is all the stuff we're filled with. When we pick up a pen we want it to write what we want it to write. We don't want the pen to say "I'm too tired to write today" or "it's P-Day" so I'm not going to work today. I love this! We need to be willing to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord. We need to desire to do His work, His plan, according to His timetable. We become less effective when we are disobedient, or choose to do our will rather than His. 
Can I say again, I love being a missionary?? Thank you for all of the letters and packages! Also, please don't send me any more dear elders after friday morning. They don't print them during the weekends so I won't get them if you send them to me! I love you all very much and I can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for me in Argentina! I might not be able to write for a couple of weeks because I don't know what my schedule will be like when I get down there, but I love you and I love doing the Lord's work!
Alas, my nickname "felderdude" from highschool made it to the mission too! I lost my tag and one of our hermanas found it and made this for me. So funny!
Our favorite russian sisters! they live near us and they left this week and we love them!

Con amor,
Hermana Feldermann

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Happy Thanksgiving

This week was amazing!! I was going to wait until the end of the letter but I'm way to excited soo.....WE GOT OUR TRAVEL PLANS TODAY!! I'm so beyond excited! We leave the morning of the 1st and arrive in Buenos Aires the morning of the 2nd! So a really long 24 hours, but it will be so worth it and I am so excited to finally be arriving in the place I have been called to serve!
   
 I just want to say that I am so grateful that I am learning Spanish. There are these Russian sisters that live by us that I've gotten to know that are soo amazing! I love them so much, and I'm so amazed by their ability to learn Russian. One of the sisters I actually knew before the mission because she's from minnesota! Brynn Balls-Barker. She's speaking Russian, but serving in Washington State. I was talking to her one night and she told me that she's the first Russian speaker that is being sent to her mission, and they they told the people in her mission about 2 months ago to start learning Russian. Isn't that crazy?! I can't even imagine...her comapnions won't even speak Russian! I feel so blessed to be going to a place where everyone speaks Spanish, even if I don't! On Tuesday we had the chance to give a skype discussion to a member in Mexico. It was the coolest thing ever. I'm pretty good at understanding Spanish, but speaking it on the other hand is a whole different story. Wednesday was the best day ever because we got to host the new missionaries that were coming in! They had 700 new missionaries come in this wednesday, it was crazy! My first sister was serving her mission in Singapore speaking Mandarin, my second sister is serving in Hungary speaking Hungarian and my last sister is serving in Sweden speaking Swedish. Did I mention that I'm soo grateful for Spanish? It was so great to meet all of these wonderful sisters and introduce them to the MTC.
   
 This last Sunday Hna. Morgan from my district and and elder from the new district sang a duet and I played for them! I play for church every Sunday here, and we have a district leaving this Sunday who asked me to play for them as well. I love accompanying so much. So Dad, you will probably find this funny, but literally no one can pronounce my name here! It's not that hard and I don't really understand what the problem is. It took my teacher about 2 weeks to stop from stumbling over it...so I'm interested to see how they will say it in Argentina. 
   
 What I've learned this week is that the Lord has given us commandments sot hat we can be blessed. Most of the time when we go through difficult times, we aren't quite sure what the Lord is trying to teach us at that time and we just have to trust and him and endure it well and in the end we will be blessed. The 2nd counselor in our branch presidency shared this poem this week that said, "Winning is no more than this: to rise each time you fall." I absolutely love this. Life isn't about winning or losing, it's about enduring and trying to be the best person that you can be. Trying to be better than you were the day before, even if it's just a little bit. Like it says in Ether: , "I give unto men weakness that they may become humble." As I've been studying more, I've been discovering what things in myself that I can improve on. It's such a blessing to be able to recognize those things, so we can learn how to become better. Our purpose as missionaries is to invite others to come unto Christ, and one of the best ways to do that is to try to become more like Him, to become one of His disciples. This gospel is amazing, the MTC is great, but I'm so excited to get to Argentina!! I cannot wait! I love you so much!




Con amor,
Hermana Rachel Feldermann

Friday, November 14, 2014

November 14, 2014

Hola! I cannot BELIEVE how fast time is flying here!! It feels like it's going by a million miles an hour and I can barely keep up. We only have about 2 weeks left here in the MTC! I can hardly believe it. I'm closer to being in Argentina than I am to having left home! The weather has held out soo nicely here! At the beginning of the week we were even able to go outside and play sand volleyball during gym time. This last Sunday, we had one of the districts in our zone leave for Mexico. So exciting! They sang this song written by the cousin of a member of the branch presidency, and asked me to play for them. They sounded so great! We had another hermana leave this week. She was supposed to go to the Madrid, Spain MTC, but didn't get her visa in time, so she spend about a week with us and then left for Spain. She was one of the 2 new roomies that we got. The other sister is Samoan! She's so funny, and it so great to have around. She likes to teach us awesome native things, like how to hula dance.



This Sunday, we heard from the Young Women's general President! She gave an amazing talk. Every day I'm realizing more and more, that forgetting yourself and serving others is the key to happiness. We will be the most happy in our lives when we focus the least on ourselves. A few weeks ago we were told something really cool. A speaker came and spoke to us and said that the language you are called to serve your mission in is the language you can best teach the gospel in. Isn't that amazing? Trying to teach anything in English is actually way harder than Spanish! it's so crazy.
So Thursday was the best day every. IT SNOWED!!!! i was so beyond excited! I was starting to get worried that I wouldn't be able to see any snow before I left! There was one other hermana that was excited with me, and besides that everyone else was not happy it was snowing! I don't get it! how can you not be happy when it snows! I'm trying to enjoy the snow and cold as much as I can now, because I would have a white Christmas for the next 2! 

I'm learning to love every minute here! Although I can't say I'm not way excited to get to Argentina. The Lord blesses me so much every day, and I promise I will have much more to write about in just a couple of weeks! One little miracle that's been happening in my life lately: bed time is 10:30 and we're supposed to get up at 6:30. I've made it a goal to be in bed by that time and to never sleep in, even an extra couple minutes and I have not been tired the whole time i've been here. It's been amazing. Everyone is always complaining about being tired but I always feel so alert and have so much energy! Exact obedience brings miracles! The Lord is amazing, this gospel is amazing, and I just keep thinking about how it says in my call letter "More happiness awaits you than you have ever experienced." Mom, thank you for all your little life lessons that you've repeated a million times to me. I've been using the "you can't change other people, you can only change yourself" one so often and I even used it in a lesson once! Keep the faith, work hard, and the Lord will bless you!

All of the Sisters in my zone.

Con amor,
Hermana Rachel Feldermann

Friday, November 7, 2014

Hola!

Wow! Time is such a funny thing. The first week I was here dragged on so much...but now time just seems to fly by! It's so nice, because we are always busy and always doing so many things in one day that before you know it a week has passed. This week was so great! On Sunday it was fast Sunday! I bore my testimony....in Spanish during church! I love that I'm able to do that now. Even though it was bad spanish, it was still spanish! After church we had mission conference, where all the missionaries in the whole MTC along with their branch presidencies met for a conference. On the way there we met none other than....President Nally! The President of the MTC! He chatted with us on our way there about where we were from and where we were serving, etc. It was way cool. He was the last speaker in the conference and when he got up to speak he started talking about how he had met a few sisters on the way in and in his own words...."I would like to invite Sister Feldermann to come up and share her testimony with us." What! I could not believe my ears! He asked me to stand up so he could see where I was sitting and then told me to come up and I bore my testimony in front of everyone at the MTC...which is over 2,000 people. I have never felt so small, nor so humble. The only way I made it through was the spirit! I was way nervous and I barely remember anything I said, but I know that the spirit really guided me. People are still coming up to me telling me good job or saying "aren't you the girl that bore her testimony at mission conference?" yes...yes that is me. Sunday night was awesome because we had a devotional by the wife of Russell M. Nelson! So great! Her devotional was absolutely amazing.



     On Tuesday we had the chance to go to BYU for their morning devotionals! It was kind of nice to get out of the MTC for a while. with the way things are set up here, you don't get to see much of the sky because the walkways are all covered and sometimes I forget that Utah even has mountains! But anyways, we were invited to go to the devotional and I ended up seeing a few people I knew! I saw Samantha and Sam! That night, we were supposed to have an apostle come speak to us but then he canceled last minute because of flight delays!! It was kind of sad, but the speaker than came in place of him spoke very well. We will get to hear from an apostle on Thanksgiving so that will be so neat! Oh and I got your package mom! Thank you so much again. As I've said before, getting mail is one of the best things in the MTC. DearElder is so awesome for while I'm here at least. In the next week feel free to start sending mail to Argentina because it will take forever to get there!

     So the elders of the leaving district wanted to sing this song for their last Sunday and they asked me to help them out playing it and learning it. It was written by one of our branch presidency member's cousins. Imagine trying to get 8 elders to all focus and learn a song... haa they've been practicing the last few nights and have really managed to pull it together! It's been an experience that's for sure. I'm so grateful that I can play the piano! Thank you for never letting me quit lessons, mom. Nothing great in life comes without effort, that's for sure! 
     The Lord blesses me in so many ways every day throughout my week. It's truly possible to see his hand in all things if we look for it! This week we were teaching an "investigator" who is really a member, and it was supposed to be our last lesson with him so afterwards he was talking to us. His name is Marco and he's this cute little man from bolivia. He asked us for our emails and said he would write us every week on our missions and that he writes over 80 missionaries a week! Isn't that crazy?! He gave some of the sweetest advice, and told us that he has a daughter and he hopes that she will be able to become like we are. He has polio so he was never able to serve a mission, but he said that he likes being taught by the missionaries because he feels like through us he can learn a little bit of what a mission is really like. 
     Keep praying every day! the Lord truly hears and answers our prayers. I love you so much!

Con amor,
Hermana Rachel Feldermann