Monday, August 3, 2015

When one area closes...

 So this week was full of miracles and surprises :) On Wednesday we had interviews with Pres. Thurgood. When I got into my interview and sat down he says, "Well, there´s something that I need to talk to you about." Then he proceeds to tell me that they´re having to close my area in Alejandro Korn. With the division of the mission we don´t have hermanas sufficient in the mission right now to fill all the areas there are so they have to close ours. Luckily it´s only temporary. This week was full of preparations for closing down the pench and passing everything we have over to the elders! We don´t know where Hna. Latoja and I are going yet...but that´s what´s going to be happening!

    We had a lot of success this week and I´m just super grateful for the chance I´ve had to serve here in Alejandro Korn. The ward is amazing, the people here are wonderful and I´ve been able to learn and grow so much. One day this week it rained so much and that was fun. It started raining around 3 and then stopped about 8 at night. It was actually super funny because every time we entered a house they gave us a towel to dry ourselves off....haha but we were able to have some lessons and had success :) when it rains we can´t ride our bikes really because everything is mud!! It´s great because we both just laugh about it and it can be fun to get covered in mud if you make it that way! I learned that everything is really just about our perspective.

   This week we had intercambios!! (exchanges) I stayed in my area and Hna. Knowlton came to be with me. SHE IS THE BEST :) I forgot what it was like to be with Americans!! I learned so much from her in that day and she´s just so awesome. She goes home in just a week, but we had such a blast together. The hermanas in the mission are just the best.

   Oh by the way!! There´s a new rule....that we have to be done using the computer by 4 pm our time, so from now on I´ll most likely be writing in the morning. Also...happy August!!! I can´t believe that we´re already in August. We were talking to someone the other day about how much time I have in the mission and I told them just a little over 9 months and they go "ohhh you only have a little bit left" What!! I couldn´t believe it. Time just flies by when you´re having fun. It is so possible to work and be obedient and have fun all at the same time :)

    Sorry, my letter isn´t super long today, but we´re doing so great. Hna. Latoja is the best and makes me laugh all the time. The other night we just went to bed and then she got up and went to the bathroom....while she was in the bathroom I hoped into her bed and hid myself under the blankets. When she came back it was pitch dark and then I jumped out of the bed and scared her! We laughed for such a long time....I¨ve learned that God wants us to be happy! The purpose of this life is that we can have happiness. 
Cuídense mucho (Take care),
Hermana Feldermann
Streets of Mud


The sky is beautiful here

Working in the mud

Monday, July 27, 2015

:)

 I think that smiley face pretty much describes my life. This week, I´ve been really focusing on letting my will go and trying to do the will of the Lord. There were some things that I have been hanging on to, and this week I decided to let them go. It´s not that they were bad things, just now is not the time for them. Now is the time to serve the Lord with all my heart, might, mind and strength. And wow the difference it made! It´s so much easier to live doing what the Lord wants us to do because we are just being blessed constantly! New pathways are opened, and even though trials come, they are just so much easier to overcome. I learned that the Lord designed this life for us to have success, not for us to fail! If we feel like we´re failing or not having success it´s because we´re wanting to do what we want, and not what the Lord wants. We will never win or be happy fighting against the will of the Lord.

   Robbery is a huuuuge problem in my mission. I haven´t been robbed yet, but in our zone meeting on Tuesday the elders gave us like a 20 minute lecture on how not to get robbed and what to do if you get robbed. It was actually kind of funny. This week we also had exchanges! I headed to another area and it was way fun. The pension of the other hermanas is freeeezing because they just have a tiny little heater that works! Poor things. Exchanges are so fun though because we always end up seeing miracles.

   Something funny that happened this week...Hna. Latoja and I were doing street contacts and there´s this house that we always pass that my comp has always wanted to stop at. We decided to stop because there was a lady outside and I let hna. Latoja take the initiativo (lead). She goes up to the lady and asks, " Can we give you a tarjeta (card)?" (Sorry my English translation is going to be super bad). Then the lady goes "No" With the biggest smile on her face. I looked at Hna. Latoja to see what she was going to do and she just pauses for a minute then goes "are you sure?" the lady responds again with a no, in the most friendliest way with a huge smile on her face. Then Hna. Latoja had no idea what to do so she pulls out every card that she has and makes like a fan with them then goes, " You can choose a color!" jajajja (hahaha) poor thing!!! The lady didnt´have any mercy and didn´t accept a tarjeta (card). But it sure gave us a good laugh. I love my comp! She´s so funny and we also just laugh all the days.

   A miracle that happened this week...we were trying to contact a reference that we had received. There´s this house that we always pass that I like and a menos active (less active) lives in front. I wanted to know the people that live in this house so I asked the menos active (less active) what they were called. We went to contact them and this lady came out. I started talking to her about how I like her house and before we even said anything about how we were missionaries she asked us if we wanted to come in...ummm YES! Then we went in and taught the first lesson of the restoration and it was one of the best first lessons that I have ever taught. The spirit....wow it was amazing! Then we went back the next day to be with her and she had read the whole chapter that we had left her in one night, and had such a great lesson as well. She couldn´t come to church this weekend because it was her mom´s birthday and when she said the prayer at the end, she even asked God to forgive her because she wasn´t able to come to church that Sunday. She´s so great!! This church is so true!! 
Have a great week :)

Cuídense mucho (Take Much Care),
Hermana Feldermann

The baptism of Elias

The elders made us lunch one day

One of the members told us that the key to healthy hair was using an avocado and an egg together, so we did it. 

Monday, July 20, 2015

When one door closes, another door opens

So this week was full of miracles and funny moments. The best parts of life :) the hardships are also pretty great because we always end up learning so much. The motto of Hna. Latoja and I has been, When one door closes, another one opens, and this has not been more true than this week! Every time we got rejected this week, some sort of miracle happened. For example, we were contacting this house and when we knocked, a voice yelled at us "Go away! No one´s here!" hahaha.....so we turned around and ended up talking to a lady on the street who let us in and we taught her a lesson! It was such a miracle. Then one of our appointments feel through and we knocked on another house and a man opened the door and yells "NO QUIERO!" or i don´t want..... sorry it means more in Spanish. Then right after that a lady comes out of her house and says that she´s been wanting to talk to us, and that she´s been trying to find us. And THEN another one of  our appointments fell through and I had this feeling that we should go visit this less active lady. She had been on my mind since the morning and I couldn´t stop thinking about it so I said that fine, we were going to look up her direction and pass by her. Right after we decided this we went about one block, and saw this lady. She started waving us down and when I saw her, I just....somehow knew it was the  less active that we were looking for! Then she comes up and says she´s been wanting us to come visit her and we set up an appointment to go meet with her. When one door closes, another one opens!

    This week a miracle happened with Mariano y Rosana. They are so great, and then just need to get married to be able to get baptized. Rosana wants to get married but Mariano wants to finish his house before he gets married. This week we had an amazing lesson with them and the spirit was so strong. They both said that they have no doubts that this is the true church, and at the end we asked Mariano if he was willing to marry Rosana and he said.......YES!!!! ahhh!!! Then they said we could get a date at the county office I think it´s called....so we went and they didn´t have dates until October!! We were talking with the lady for a little while and then finally she said that in some occasions, they make exceptions. So she called out this man and we were able to get a date for the 27th of August!!!!!! I can´t even express how grateful I am!!! The Lord just blesses us so much!
    Something funny that happened this week....one of the water faucets in our pension broke, so a guy came to fix it. He fixed the faucet and then the next morning when we went to shower.....we didn´t have hot water. Oh man....keep in mind it´s winter here! If it was summer it wouldn´t be a problem. Soo....we heated up water on the stove to use to shower. What an experience that was! This week we were also supposed to have exchanges with some other hermanas but while we were waiting for them at the train station we got a call and they told us that the train had broken....what???? haha so everyone had to evacuate....Then yesterday we were leaving the house of someone and then all of a sudden I hear behind me, Hermana! Wait! So I look behind and my companion just goes."hermama, don´t laugh at me" then lifts up her foot and it was covered with nasty water from the sanja!! hahaha she had almost fallen in the sanja and to stop herself she had put her whole foot in and it was soaked. poor thing....But overall, this week was a good week. I´ve reached the middle of my mission and I can hardly believe how time is flying!! I´m trying to make the most of it. Everyday is a chance we have to improve ourselves and if we don´t, we just wasted a day. Have a great week :)
Cuídense,
Hermana Feldermann

Monday, July 13, 2015

The baptism of Elias

 We had a baptism yesterday!!! His name is Elias. I already told the miracle story of how we ended up being able to teach him, and yesterday was his baptism. He´s so great!! On Saturday, one of the families in our ward, the familia Diaz got sealed in the temple. Just a little over a week ago they completed their year mark as members. About 40 members of the ward went, including Elias and his family. Even though they couldn´t enter, they could still stay outside in the garden. We saw their family and Elias that night after they got back and he was so excited. He was saying how he couldn´t wait to enter, and that he only needs to wait 7 years until he can go on a mission :). I feel so blessed that we could be here to experience and to watch his conversion.

   The baptism was so great, and I also had the most embarrassing experience of my whole mission as well :))))) ....we were talking about temples and family history work. We were talking about how the temple is the place where the families can be eternal. I was trying to say something about when I get married in the temple with my husband.....and the word for husband is "esposo" and the word for wife is "esposa" Just one little letter right? I´m guessing you can probably already see what happened......I guess I don´t know Spanish after all? Instead of saying esposo I said esposa....then everything yelled "esposo!!!" And then I turned super red and wanted to crawl in a hole and die. And then my poor little companion is so sweet and gets so nervous talking in front of big groups of people so she didn´t say anything to continue and well....that was that. But we were able to bring back the spirit and it ended just fine :) never again will I mix up my a´s and my o´s.
   This week Hna. Latoja got sick around Tuesday....and then on Thursday I got sick and we were both sick together and almost died, but now we feel a lot better and it´s all fine :) Hna. Latoja started feeling bad Tuesday morning, which is the day we have our reunions of our district. While we were waiting for it to start, in walks President Thurgood with his wife!!! Everyone just stood up and didn´t say a word. Now that the mission is smaller, they´re going to start visiting all the zones during their reunions....starting with ours. And so for the first part President went with the other district. Then at the end he came and sat in the back of our district. Right after he came in, our district leader said that we were going to do some practices of teaching lessons in a different way, and he called on me and Hna. Latoja to do the practice in front of everyone.....including President.
    So now our mission went from about 250 missionaries to 125 missionaries, and only 32 are sisters. By the end of the year the number is going to go up to 200. I´m grateful that I have the chance to serve in this mission, in this part of Argentina. I know that God lives and that he loves us all so much. This gospel is the best thing in the whole world.
Cuídense,
Hermana Feldermann

Monday, July 6, 2015

Another day, another miracle

Hey there!! Happy late Fourth of July!! It was weird having it be cold and almost not realizing it was the 4th! But it was also fun because we rode around on our bikes singing patriotic songs and Hna. Latoja asked me to teach her some so I did and we sang them all day. :) I´m having a lot of fun being with Hna. Latoja. We laugh a lot and make jokes and this week it rained and was muddy most of the week as well so it´s always an adventure with the bikes and the rain!

  We are going to have a baptism this weekend! I don´t know if you remember the family that I talked about, the family Sosa. They reactivated in a miraculous way after being inactive for 6 years and we have been teaching their 11 year old son, Elías. He´s the best! He had his baptismal interview this week and he´s going to be baptized on Sunday! His mom wanted to make sure that he really understood the things we were teaching before he got baptized. Last week he got super sick and was in the hospital for a few days. He had been praying every night that he would get better and that nothing bad would happen and everything turned our much better than they hoped that it would and he recovered just fine. Afterwards he said that he knows that the church is true because God hears our prayers and helped him feel better. It´s so sweet.
    Another miracle that happened this week was....Ema! We haven´t been able to teach her at her house because her husband (who is a less active) is not liking too much that she´s getting so involved in the church and to avoid problems we´re teaching her in the house of her mother in law! We´ve been a little nervous because we can only be with her once a week and we were afraid that things were just going to go downhill because we couldn´t pass by her house and things like that. So we had our appointment with her this Saturday and man, it was amazing. We were talking and then she goes "I need to tell you something....I want to be baptized." Then she keeps on going and says..." I know that the church is true. I know that it´s true because God is answering my prayers" We were so happy!!! The only problem is that she needs to get married! Ugh!! Satan is just working so hard so that people can´t join the church and be happy! In our fast and in almost every prayer we are praying that the Lord will be able to soften the heart of her husband so that he will be willing to marry her! She came to church this Sunday all by herself....and she walked as well. She lives about 18 blocks from the church. It´s amazing the things that people are willing to do when they know that the church is true!
    So something interesting this week was that one of the members served us something for lunch called mondungo...I think that´s how it´s spelled.It´s cow stomach.....bleck! jMy companion was a lot smarter than I was and was carrying a bag with her so when the member left she started shoveling spoonfuls of it into her bag so she wouldn´t have to eat it! I´ve learned my lesson. 
I just want to say that I know this church is true! I´m so grateful to be serving a mission because I know that the Lord is changing me. I was reading the conference talk by Michael RIngword...I think that is his name. He said something like how we can own up to who we were because of who we are now, or the person that we´ve become. I´ve really learned the power of the Atonement, that it changes lives, literally. It´s changed the lives of so many others, and it´s continually changing mine every day. I pray that we all can realize the power of the Atonement in our lives. There is no greater gift that God has given us! I love you :)

Con mucho amor y un abrazo fuerte [with much love and a strong hug],
Hermana Feldermann

Monday, June 29, 2015

Mission Argentina Buenos Aires Sur!!!

Sooo......transfers were today and....I´M STAYING IN ALEJANDRO KORN which means that.....I´M STAYING IN THIS MISSION!!!!! yay!!!! I won´t be heading over to the new mission, I´m going to stay here in the south mission with President Thurgood.
   So many things happened this week! I talk in my sleep, and Hna. Latoja told me that one of these nights she woke up and said that I was talking in Spanish and teaching the lesson on the Plan of Salvation and that at the end I bore my testimony.....haha do I qualify to be a 24/7 missionary yet?

   This week something crazy happened with family history! We have this family that we´re teaching, Mariano and Rosana, and their kids as well. He is from Germany...well his dad is or someone along in the past line. When I was filling on my little pamphlet of Mi Familia this week I was filling out the side along my German line and found out that one of my ancestors had the same last name as him!!! This means that probably somewhere along the line way back, we´re related. How crazy is that?? It was way cool. We´ve been working a ton with this little family. They want to get baptized, but they're not married. We talked about baptism this week and set a date..or like a goal rather. They were super happy and they´re like, yeah we want to get baptized! and then we had to tell them that they would have to get married first. Rosana really wants to get married, but Mariano is a little....no sé.(I do not know) He wants to have his house done and I don´t know what other things, but he´s slowly warming up to the idea of it. Please pray that they can get married!!

    This week we had an amazing lesson with Ema. We were talking about the atonement of Jesus Christ and it was just so amazing. We read a scripture about what Christ did for us, how he took upon him the sins and the pains of the world so that He would know how to help us when we had problems (Alma 7: 11-13). After she read it she just stayed quiet for a minute and then asked us...."Could this really be? That He would actually do that for me?" The spirit was so powerful as it testified to her that Jesus Christ is her Savior and that He loves her so much, that he would do that for her. Moments like this, is when I know why I´m here. There is nothing more precious that the moments when people come to know their Savior and what he did for them.

   This week it rained for about 3 days straight! I actually like working in the rain, it really makes it such an adventure, especially with the bikes and all the mud. My companion's brakes on her bike gave out Saturday night, so we switched bikes. That was quite the adventure let me tell you, to have to try to not run into anything without brakes! But the Lord blessed us and everything worked out :)
 
     It was raining way hard Sunday morning when we woke up and when we got to church...there was almost no one. We had an attendance of 27!!!! 27!!!!! we could not believe it!!!! One of the last weeks it was 85!! When it rains people don´t come and it´s just so sad. One of the speakers was talking about the atonement of Christ, and he said this quote that I loved by Jeffrey R. Holland. It´s not exact but it goes something like this, "If people really understood the power of the atonement, they would run to church every Sunday." What a powerful statement! How much do we REALLY value the opportunity to go to church every Sunday and take the sacrament and receive forgiveness of our sins? I realized that everything in this gospel has to do with the Atonement of Christ. Our reason that we do everything is because we believe that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can live again. That we can be free of our sins and receive eternal life. We sin because we don´t fully understand the Atonement or what it really means for us in our lives.

I hope you have a great week! Que Dios les bendiga :) (God bless you)
Con mucho amor, (With love)
hermana Feldermann

Everyone in the mission received blankets

Hermana Latoja and I

My Comp had to go to the dentist

Monday, June 22, 2015

Hogar, dulce hogar (home, sweet home)

 I actually don´t even know where to begin to start telling about what happened this week......haha okay so on Tuesday we had intercambios (exchanges). So I went to another area, and when I get back the Hna´s told me that our power had gotten cut at like 4 that morning. I thought no big deal, but then we called the pensionerios...or the elders that work on the pension and they said they would send someone to fix it the next day. That night was the best, because it was like we went camping!! It was way cold, and so before we went to bed we put on 5 layers of clothes and then got in our sleeping bags! Haha so the man came the next day anddd....couldn´t fix the power. And my companion was also pretty sick so after he told us he couldn´t fix the power we went to the hospital with Hna. Latoja....haha I have officially been to the hospital with all my companions except my trainer. We headed to the hospital because she´s been having a ton of pain in her mouth and her head for a lot of days. Then the doctor sent us to go see the dentist. We went to the dentist and they ended up having to do an operation thing on her tooth....poor thing. Then afterwards we had to go to the mission home to arrange some things. When we were there we were talking with Hna. Thrugood, President's wife, and when she found out we didn´t have power she got super upset with the pensioneros! They told us that we might not have power for about the next week.....so that night we took our mattresses and a suitcase and moved to another area, San Vicente, to live with the Hermanas there. Then when we got to their pension that night.....the power got cut in their area as well, and because the power got cut, there were a ton of protests.....people got mad and lit fires in the street and stuff like that. we had to travel in colectivo, or bus for 20 minutes every morning and night to get to our area, but at least we were still able to work! However, yesterday night we were able to move back into our pench--finally!

   So this week we saw some amazing  miracles with some of our investigators. We have this one investigator named Ema, I´m pretty sure I´ve already talked about her. She wanted to know how she can recognize answers to her prayers, so we left her some chapters to read in the Book of Momon and she read them. Then when we went to visit her she told us about how she was making biscochuelo....it´s like a type of bread, but it´s really specific and has to be at the right temperature and everything to rise right. She was  making it for a family event and needed it to turn out right and the first one she made turned out flat like a pancake. Then when she went to make the second one, she said a prayer....and it turned out perfect!! Then she made the third, didn´t pray, and it turned out flat again. It was way cool to see how excited she was, and how that little experience really helped her build her testimony about prayer.
    We found this amazing family, and the parents are named Mariano and Rosana. We´ve been teaching them for a few weeks now, and they´re the best. Mariano loves to read the Bible and knows a ton, but he has never in his life went, or wanted to go to a church. Rosana has always wanted to go to a church so her kids can have some kind of Christian background. They have 3 kids, Julieta who is 11, Lucas who is 8 and Samuel who is 3. They live waaaaaayyyy far away from the chapel and on Sundays, the buses that run by there only pass like once every hour, and sometimes not at all so it´s really hard to get from there to the chapel. We were talking to our bishop about them and planning about how we were just going to leave super early to go look for them and then bring them with us in bus to the chapel. He told us that just this once, he would pay for a remis, or a taxi thing, to help us bring them to the chapel! So we got it all set up and then they came with us on Sunday and LOVED everything! They loved everything they learned and everything they saw...they told us how they just feel such peace and calm when we come and teach them and when they´re in the church. Literally, there is nothing like this kind of happiness. :)
    I´ve learned a lot this week. That despite of everything that´s happening, I´m so happy. THAT´S what the gospel does! If we´re living the gospel, we can be happy no matter what circumstances we´re in or what is happening. Because this gospel is a gospel of happiness! We have the certeza ((assurance), that we´re doing the best we can, repenting and being obedient. The only thing that can happen is blessings. When bad things happen, or things don´t go according to plan, what a great thing it is to know that the Lord has an even BETTER plan than what we had wanted. And in the end, we receive even MORE blessings. He just wants to bless us and love us--nothing more :)
Con mucho amor,
Hermana Feldermann 

Monday, June 15, 2015

Guinea Pig Hunting

I´ll start with the subject line first....that today we went....GUINEA PIG HUNTING!!! Haa it was the best thing ever! We have this family in our ward, the familia Diaz and they live way at the edge of our area, so right next to a huge field. When we were over there for almuerzo (lunch) on Friday they served us guinea pig, and then today for our P-Day activity they brought us out in the field to hunt them!! We got a bunch of slingshots, because that´s how you kill them. Then we gathered together a ton of rocks and went to go find them! They have some dogs they bring with them to help chase the guinea pigs out of the tall grass and weeds and then you try to hit them with the slingshots to kill them. It was the best!!! This field we went in was huge! I couldn´t even see the end of it. And we just hunted and chased guinea pigs :) We ended up with 12 of them! Then afterwards, we got to skin them and clean them and prep them to eat!  I ended up skinning like 4 or 5...you´ll have to see the pictures. It was so much fun.

      Other than that....this week was quite interesting work wise! On Tuesday there was paro....or like strike of transportation, so everyone was home and in their house. It´s the best! My bike got a flat tire that day and my seat broke so that was quite the adventure let me tell ya. We had some amazing lessons this week and found some new investigators :) Do you remember me telling you about Ema? If not, I´ll tell the story again.
   We taught her the first week I was here and then she said she didn´t want to know anything but then we refound her a few weeks ago and she came to Family Home evening in the chapel on Thursday, and church on Sunday! We had an appointment with her this last week and she had two questions for us. 1. Who is Joseph Smith 2. How can I recieve eternal life? man....it was the best. The lesson was so incredibly spiritual and she said that this is everything that she´s been looking for!
   Hna. Latoja has been kind of sick all week with a cold, and then it really hit her hard on Saturday, so we weren´t able to leave really because she spent all day in bed. Poor thing. Being sick on the mission is the worst. I feel so grateful to be here on the mission and to be working for the Lord. I just feel.....so happy and so grateful. I think that´s the thing. Every night during our planning Hna. Latoja and I write "miracle of the day". It´s awesome because it gives us a chance to look back on the day and see all the ways that the Lord has blessed us. Not every day is easy, but every day there are blessings as long as we are doing our part.
Cuidense, (Take Care)
Hermana Feldermann




Monday, June 8, 2015

Every Week is a Miracle

 Not a day passes in the mission or in life where we don´t see miracles! If we look for them, we can find them every single day. My first week here in Alejandro Korn, we taught a lesson to this woman named Ema. When we finished teaching her, (we were in the house of a less active), we asked if we could come by her house some other time to continue teaching her. She said no, that honestly she would rather not know anything more. We left, and then about 2 weeks ago we refound her! We were riding in the streets and we passed right by her! So we stopped and said hi and were able to set up an appointment with her. We went to the appointment and she had forgotten that we were going to come, but said that we could come the next week. That night, she came to the Family home evening that we have every week in the chapel. She loved it and was talking to some of the members and when she found out that during church there were classes where her kids could go, she was way excited and told us that she was going to come on Sunday and.....she came!! And she brought all her kids as well. It was such a miracle, that we were able to find her again and that she was able to come to church. I just feel blessed that the Lord put us in the right place where we could find her again!

    So many miracles are happening in our ward right now. The family Sosa that I talked about before....has been reactivated and is now coming to church. We´ve been teaching their 11 year old son Elias and he is going to get baptized soon. When they came back, their older son who has 19 came back also and brought his wife. Also their other daughter returned as well, bringing with her the inactive son of another member. With him, he was able to bring his other siblings. It´s like a rain drop effect and it´s amazing to watch! We have tons of people to teach and the Lord is blessing us so much.
   Sorry that I don´t have a lot to write about this week, just that I´m so grateful to be here and that I love being a missionary! This is the greatest work on earth, for the members as well as the missionaries! When we all work together with our focus on the same purpose, miracles happen. It doesn´t matter if it´s rainy or cold or sunny or windy, because you´re just happy all the time. Obedience brings happiness as well as blessings. I hope that you have a great week! :)
Con amor,
Hermana Feldermann
We discovered a new part of our area today and it is kind of pretty

Monday, June 1, 2015

No words

This week was just crazy...awesome. So many miracles happened this week! First of all, the week before this was way hard, and I figured out why. My companion and I did not really get along super well at first, and it was hard. I was totally focusing on why what she was doing wasn´t making me happy, instead of focusing on how I could help her to be better and be a better missionary myself. I was able to spend a lot of time talking with God this week and trying my best to let go of my pride and repent. And you know what? This week was amazing :) We get along so great now, and I realized that no one can make you feel a certain way. Being happy is a decision we make completely on our own! And how can I not be happy?! I´m doing the happiest work that exists in this world and I get to talk about the gospel and Jesus Christ every single day! What a huge blessing. Our motivation to follow the gospel and to do the Lord's work comes from the love that we have for God. To increase our motivation to the do what the Lord asks, we have to increase our love for Him!

   This week we had potentially our last zone conference with President and Hna. Thurgood! Exactly a month from today the mission divides and then over half our mission goes to the Buenos Aires East mission. As of right now, my area still pertains to the south mission, but If I change areas after this transfer, which is on the 28th, then I will be heading over to the new mission. It might be good not to write me letters for these next few weeks until I know which mission I´ll be in. I know that the Lord has a plan for me, and I will be happy with wherever he decides to place me.
   So a funny story about what happened this week. We have been having troubles with our front door. There´s the front door to our pension and then in front of that is the door to the gate that goes out into the street. We can open the gate door, but the door to enter the pension has been having problems. One night this week around 9 we were returning to our pension to finish up for the day. We got there and....the door wouldn´t open. We tried and prayed and tried again, but nothing worked. We called the elders that are in our area and they came over to try to help us, and they couldn´t get the door open either. They tried for another 5 or so minutes and then we started to try to think of what to do. Around the side of our pension is the window to the bathroom, so the elders went around to the side and took the glass and the screen off the window, to try to see if we could get in and open it from the inside. The opening wasn´t very big and my companion is really tiny sooo....jaa you guessed it!! We hauled her up and put her through the window to the bathroom to try to open the door from the inside. She got in and...it still wouldn´t open....now what? The elders kind of turned to me and were like "well hermana....you know if we can´t get the door open you´re going to have to go through the window as well" so we started shoving all of our stuff through the window, our bags, jackets and everything so that if we couldn´t get it open I´d be going through the window as well.....but then..IT OPENED!! Sweet miracle :)
   Now an even bigger miracle happened this week. Right now we´ve found so many families to teach!! We have so many people to teach that we hardly even have space to breath! it´s great and we´re constantly rushing from one appointment to the next. There´s this less active family, the family Sosa that lives right on the border of our area with the elders. It´s technically in our area because it´s on our side of the street, but sometimes the elders pass by and try to visit them as well. The dad wants to return, but the mom doesn´t want to know about anything. She´s slammed the door in many missionaries faces. On Friday night the elders were passing by their house with el obispo, and they decided to stop by and knock. The mom answered and...she let them in! They were in their for a while and then they told about how they had kneeled down together as a couple on Tuesday night and prayed to know if the church was true, and that if it was if God could show them some sort of sign that it was true and they would come back to church and never leave it again. So on Friday night, at 8 o´clock in the very last hour, the elders knocked on their door. They came to church on Sunday and said they´ll never leave it again! They have an 11 year old son who hasn´t been baptized yet, and now we´re teaching him so he can get baptized!! The Lord works in so many miraculous ways.
    Have a great week!
Con amor,
Hermana Feldermann
We don't have a hose, so when it gets really muddy we have to wash our bikes in the shower


Meeting Sister Latoja with President and Sister Thurgood

Zone conference

Monday, May 25, 2015

A little piece of Chile in Argentina

This week was just so crazy, I don´t even know where to start. I guess maybe I could start by saying that I now have a new companion! She is named Hna. Latoja and she´s from Chile. She actually lives in the same mission that Jessica served in! How great is that?? She´s only been a member for less than 2 years, and is a little shy, but is way great. She has tons of desires to work hard, so it´s wonderful.
  This week was a little tougher than most, but we have to go through the hard times to appreciate the good ones, right? In a reunion we had this week, President Thrugood was talking to us and said that the time we are in right now has never been a better time to be a missionary or to raise a family. I loved that! The church is growing so much and is so accessible to almost everyone who lives in the world. The gospel is being preached to all corners of the world and we are living prophesies being fulfilled! I feel so grateful to be here! 
   It was interesting this week, because as we were riding the train to go meet our new companions, I realized that I felt completely comfortable here in Argentina. I didn´t really have any fears, as far as actually living here goes, and it was the best. I never thought that there would come a point where I would feel like Argentina was my home, but it seems that day has arrived! This week we were blessed with a ton of rain! I don´t know if I´ve mentioned it before, but almost all the roads are dirt here and so when it rains, everything turns to mud. My area that I´m in right now is pretty big and this week we were riding from the bottom of our area to the top. It takes about 15-20 minutes and as we were going it was sprinkling a little bit, and then it just started pouring. We were so not prepared and we ended up just getting soaked alll the way through! Haa it was crazy! There was not an inch of me that was dry. By the time we reached the other end of the area, the rain had let up a bit, but we were still soaked. Then later that day we were in another part of our area that is all dirt roads but it was dark outside. This part is not really near the city so the lighting there is not very good and as we were riding down the road to go to an appointment, my bike slipped on some mud and I fell into a nice big pile of mud :)
     It was interesting how things had happened that day, because I was just already not having that great of a day, and then this was just like kind of hitting rock bottom. When we got to the pension later that night, I started thinking. Sometimes the Lord lets us fall and get up and fall again, sometimes even literally, so that we learn to turn to him, and appreciate all the blessings that he has given us. I´ve been thinking a lot this week about our desires. I have this talk by Dallin H. Oaks, and it´s amazing. He talks about how our desires are our motivators, and that our desires really determine what it is that we will become. If we will become what our Heavenly Father expects us to become. If our desires are temporal, we will never be able to reach our full potential, and the times when we fall will seem so much more harder and dificult. If our deepest desires are the things of eternity, we will gain the power to overcome whatever trial that we pass through. No matter how hard of a day we may have, our eternal desires will be what keeps ups going through the thick and the thin. 
Con amor,
Hermana Feldermann

Monday, May 18, 2015

Good-bye Hermana Wood!

 After just one transfer I am saying goodbye to Hna. Wood! She´s off to a new area...in the other mission. So there´s a good chance that I´ll probably never see her again, at least in the mission. I don´t know who my companion is going to be yet because I´m going to be training again! I´m way excited and it´s going to be the best. Tomorrow we get to go to Banfield to the mission home and meet our newbies. President lines all the trainers up and all the newbies and then he calls your name and you step forward to meet your new companion! It´s going to be so great.

   This week was crazy! We had so many appointments and so few lessons! It seemed that no one really wanted to listen to us this week. However, we did end up finding two amazing families and we´re praying so hard for them! AND ONE OF THE COUPLES IS MARRIED!!! that was the best news is the whole world! We´ve been having trouble getting our investigators to progress, but with a little faith and a lot of prayers, I know that the Lord can work miracles.


    A funny experience happened this week with Hna. Wood! Along the sides of the roads in the more poorer areas there are these things called sanjas. They´re where all the waste that you have from your house goes, like from the kitchen and the bathrooms and all that stuff and basically it´s just a ditch on the side of the road filled with this nasty water. We had just finished talking with one of our investigators and we were leaving on our bikes. The road we were riding on was horrible. Hna. Wood went to cross from the road to the sidewalk and without knowing it...went right into the sanja!!! Poor thing! Her bike wheel went right in and she flipped over her bike right onto the ground. Luckily she was okay and didn´t get hurt. She didn´t get super dirty either. Just her hand went in and her skirt got a little dirty, but other than that she left without a scratch.

    This Sunday we were able to watch the dedication of the temple of Córdoba, Argentina! It was so beautiful. We all went to the Stake Center and were able to watch it live. D. Todd Christofferson served his mission in Córdoba, and he came down to direct it with Dieter F. Uchtdorf who did the dedication. It was so cool to hear him talk in Spanish! The dedication was beautiful, and I think the part that touched me the most was seeing how much it meant to the people here in Argentina. The saints here are so diligent and seeing the church grow in this part of the world so that they now have two temples, was something indescribable.

    This week we had a death happen in the ward. The dad of one of our families here died in a car/moto crash just a few days ago. Their family was sealed in the temple and at one point he was one of the counselors to the bishop, but the family has been inactive for about 8 years now. He died so suddenly, and the family is just absolutely destroyed. It´s so sad and awful to see. However, this is their chance to return and come back to the Lord. If they had been active during this time, this still would have happened, but they would be in a much better state. This is the thing that I learned about he Lord. The covenants we make with him are so sacred and he will fulfill his promises. HOWEVER the Lord says that, "I the Lord am bound when ye do what I say, but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." If we make covenants with the Lord and we don´t keep them, we can´t expect to be blessed. If we break the commandments, we can´t expect to be happy. The Lord makes covenants with us so we can receive blessings! Keeping them will bring us happiness, it´s literally as simple as that. Trials will still happen, and we will still be faced with challenges, but everything about our perspective changes when we make the choice to follow Christ.

Love,
Hermana Feldermann

Monday, May 11, 2015

Happy Mother's Day!

I thought about not writing a letter because we just talked yesterday, but I figured that might not go over too well! Haa! This week was different, in the best way. It was different because this week changed my whole perspective on missionary work. We have been talking a a lot about faith this week, and about not doubting or complaining about the things that are happening. If we start doubting that the people we´re teaching are going to progress, they probably won´t. If we complain that we don´t have anyone to teach and we can´t find anyone to teach, we probably won´t find anyone. FAITH IS KEY! I never realized how important faith really is. It´s a subject that we talk about all the time in church, but have we ever taken the time to really study and learn what faith is really about? If by faith mountains can be moved, then sure as the sky is blue, faith can help us find new investigators!! it does no good to pray to God and ask something if we don´t believe it can actually happen. We started this week looking at everything from this brand new perspective. That everyone single one of our investigators is going to get baptized, that we´re going to be able to find the people that the Lord has prepared for us! When we complain about the situations that we´re in, we´re saying to God that we aren´t happy with what He is doing with us or where He put us. That we would rather do our own will than what He wants or knows what´s best for us. More power than we know comes from faith, and there are countless examples of that in el libro de mormon. We have to BELIEVE that when we ask, we will receive! This is our Heavenly Father, the most powerful being that we´re talking about here! The being that just by his word alone, worlds were created. How can we doubt this miraculous power?

    One of the best things that I´ve been able to see this week is the change that people have been making in their lives. Sometimes it´s not a huge change, but little things, like everytime we go they are a little bit more open to listening to the spirit and what we have to say. A little bit more less argumentative and willing to accept and do what the Lord asks them to do. This gospel changes people´s lives, and true conversion is true change. Change that lasts because the closer that we get to our Heavenly Father, the better we want to be. We have this less active girl named Juliana. She´s 22 and has a little boy named Axel. Her dad is named Eduardo and her mom died about 2 years ago. Her mom and Dad were sealed in the temple and baptized more than 20 years ago. When Juliana was a teenager, her parents started drinking and smoking and eventually left the church. Juliana moved out when she was 16 and began to live a pretty rough life. She returned home, and by this time her mom had cancer and was dying. We started just visiting Juliana first. She told us that she wants to come to church and return, but there are some hard feelings and things about what happened with her parents. She knows it´s the best thing for her son though. After a little time we met Eduardo, her dad. The first lesson we had with him was....awful. He wouldn´t listen to anything we were trying to say and all he had to say were bad things about the church. We´ve been visiting them for about the last month now and the change we´ve seen is incredible. This last week we came by to visit Juliana and we were singing a hymn, the favorite of her mom. While we were singing Eduardo came home. For once he didn´t say an anything, and just stood in the door listening. Then he came around behind Juliana and joined us in singing. Afterwards we had the best lesson ever. Instead of arguing with us, he actually listened. He´s starting making those first little steps and it´s incredible. I had to kind of chasten myself with the lack of faith that I had in that he would progress. We are all God´s children and he wants ALL of us to return to live with him. I think I´ve already mentioned this quote, but I´m going to say it again. It´s from D. Todd Christofferson in the last conference. He said, "No one is predestined to receive less than all the father has." Have a great week!
Hermana Feldermann

Monday, May 4, 2015

Bikes and Mud and Dirt Roads

      Winter is coming to Alejandro Korn! And this means....rain. and lots of it! This week it started getting colder along with some rain. Because the streets are mostly made of dirt here when it rains everything turns to mud. and I mean everything! We had some pretty fun adventures with the mud. You can stand straight up on your bike and it will just tip over because it´s so stuck in the mud! This week was....kind of different.

     We taught some lessons this week. The thing about the Argentines is that they love to talk. They can talk and talk and talk and talk for hours and they get so sidetracked by everything so easily. It´s hard sometimes to start a lesson because they´re talking and talking and then we have to be careful with the questions we ask because if you ask one that is too broad or too general they start off on a tangent about whatever other thing. That happened quite a bit. We were able to find a few people to teach....but we´re really struggling to find people that can actually progress and are ready to progress in the gospel. However, the Lord is preparing people right now, we just have to find them!

     This week we found this less-active member named Juliana. She´s 22 and has the cutest little boy ever. Her parents have been members since before she was born but went inactive around the time she was 15, and then she got into some pretty bad stuff. We stopped by her house and she told us how she wants to come back and return to church, because she knows it´s the best place for her and for her child. She lives with her dad, and when we stopped by to see her again he was home. The less actives break my heart because they HAD all the blessings of the gospel and then they just left it! And then to see their hearts so hard against something that is only good is so so sad to me. There are people I´ve realized that are past the point of listening. They are so set in their ways and they don´t want to listen to anyone or anything. I hope that we never reach that point in our life, where we´re so set in my ways and so against changing or against listening to anyone who could helps us. Anyways, Juliana came to a ward activity that we had on Saturday and it was great. The members all just kind of embraced her and I know that she was able to feel loved!

    One other neat thing that happened this week.....so there´s this house next to the church that they´re going to knock down to make a field for fútbol. A family moved into this house like 3 days before they were supposed to demolish it so they had to kick them out. They´ve been having 24 hour security in the church because they were afraid that these people were going to come back and do something to the church building. So this man that watches the church from 7 in the morning to 7 at night is named Andrés. We started talking to him and the members gave him a Book of Mormon and then he came to the Family home evening that we had Thursday night as well as the activity on Saturday AND to church on Sunday! The members just invited him to everything and he loved it!! We taught the class principios del evangelio on Sunday and the members brought him in and he was participating and everything. Then he raised his hand and made the comment that he loves everything about our church. He loves the people and the spirit that he feels being here with the members. He said that he would like to continue learning more and continue in the church because all of the good that he´s seen and felt from the ward. It was amazing! Sadly he doesn´t live in our ward boundaries, but it´s been a great experience for the members of the ward to be able to reach out and take someone in. If we all did that with all our friends then everyone would join the church....well maybe :)

     I´ve been learning a lot of things from Hna. Wood. It´s been harder to talk in Spanish all the time with her, but I made a goal with president to talk in Spanish as much as possible and I´m going to fulfill it! We have seen some amazing miracles together and I´m grateful for everything that I´ve been able to learn! It´s amazing because the more I learn the more I feel I have yet to learn! I think that´s the amazing thing about this gospel. Sometimes it´s easy to think that we know everything there is to know about the gospel or about a certain subject, but that´s so not true. There is never an end to learning in the gospel. That is the blessing of having revelation. Through the spirit we can know the truth of ALL things. When we let the spirit be our guide in our study of the gospel we will learn marvelous things. Then we will have desires to be better and to keep learning. As we come closer to Christ, we realize more fully His hand in our lives and all the blessings he´s given us. This gospel is a gospel of ACTION. Only through acting on things that we learn will we gain the testimony we need to stay strong and firm in the gospel. 
Con amor,
Hermana Feldermann

Monday, April 27, 2015

Tender Mercies of the Lord

This week....where do I even start!! This week was full of the spirit and miracles of the Lord. We have this investigator named Rubén, and he is super great, but he doesn't want to pray about the Book of Mormon because he wants to read the whole thing through all the way before he prays about it. We weren´t sure what to do because he needs to know if it´s true if he´s going to progress. During our studies we were thinking about him and what we could do and nothing was feeling right. Hna. Wood then says that we should pray, so we kneel down and pray. Afterwards we don´t say anything for a while and just look through Predicad Mi Evangelio (Preach My Gospel) and the scriptures while thinking. I then had a thought that we should read a part of it with him, and then we could kneel down right then and there and have him ask if it was true, and I felt like he would receive his answer. When I reached this point I asked hna. Wood what she had been thinking. She tells me, "I´m not exactly sure how we could do this...but if we could read with him and then have him pray....i feel like he would receive his answer." Wow. Talk about a powerful moment. We knew that was exactly what the Lord wanted us to do. So we went into the lesson with him and the spirit was so powerful. We read parts of Moroni 10 with him and then we asked him, "If you knew that the Book of Mormon was true, what would you be willing to do to follow Christ?" He then answered us..., "What wouldn´t I be willing to do?" We just could not believe it. So we invited him to kneel and pray with us, and to have him ask the Lord if the book of Mormon is true and....he said no. He said he would rather do it when he was alone and all was quiet. Man, that was disappointing, but I learned a lot from this experience. We did what the Lord wanted us to do. Rubén has his own agency...his ability to choose and we could leave, even though things didn´t turn out how we had wanted, knowing that we did what the Lord wanted us to do.

   Another miracle that happened this week...his name is Brandon!! We have this hermana in our ward and her brother lives with her. He´s 17, not a member, but is super smart and knows a lot about God and everything. We had almuerzo (dinner) with her one day and he was there. It was my first week there and I was not being a good missionary because I just thought he was a member so I didn´t even ask. Then later Hna. Wood told me he wasn´t a member so I was kicking myself because I should have asked and tried to find out. Thankfully, the Lord had a little mercy and gave me another chance. We had almuerzo at her house last week, and he was there again and we were able to talk to him and teach him lesson one. Just before we left we asked if we could meet with him again....this is where the miracles begin. He said yes, and when we returned we had such an amazing lesson. We asked him if had been able to read the Book of Mormon and he said that yes, and there was a part that he read and loved and he wanted to share it with us. He opened to Alma 7: 15-18 and read it to us, about repentance and baptism. I hope you can look it up and read it. Afterwards he started talking about repentance and baptism and the things that you needed to do to have sincere repentance. He talked about how he needed to repent and be baptized.....!!! However, when we invited him to be baptized he said that he wasn´t quite ready yet, but he believed that he would get there and that we could continue to teach him until he reached that point. Afterwards we were talking to his sister, the lady who is a member and she started thanking us. She said that the missionaries have tried to meet with him so many times but he has never accepted a second appointment before. It was so amazing.
     Yesterday at church....we had more miracles!! We have been teaching this girl named Ayelén. Her parents are less actives and haven´t been to church in about 8 years. She´s 16 and has a baby and the missionaries had just started to teach her when I got here. They live way far away from the church and they have been wanting to go for a while, but it´s hard for them because if they can´t use the car they have they have to walk and it´s about a 30 minute walk because the buses don´t pass a lot on Sundays. However....they came yesterday!!! The dad came for the first time in 8 years and brought Ayelén and her sister as well. Ayelén is so great and when we went to visit them later that night she started talking about her baptism and asking what it was going to be like.
     I feel like the Lord has been blessing me more than I can even imagine. This ward is amazing, and even though I feel soo...undeserving of all the blessings the Lord has given me, I´m so grateful. I know that this gospel is true even more than I know that the sky is blue. I hope that you never ever let anything come in the way of always putting Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ first in your lives. I hope that you do all you can to help progress the work of the Lord because he has so many blessings just waiting for us! How amazing it is to have a God that loves us more than we can imagine, and when we take the time to count all of our blessings, there´s no room left to complain.

Cuídense mucho,
Hermana Feldermann

Monday, April 20, 2015

Argentine Hospitals

This week was one of the more challenging and interesting weeks that I´ve had. My companion still wasn´t feeling well after last weekend and then on Wednesday she told me she wanted to go to the hospital. She had a fever and was throwing up and all that fun stuff and we hadn´t been able to leave and work really. We left for the hospital at about 11 in the morning on Wednesday. We had to take a train and a bus to get to the hospital that´s about 45 minutes away....lucky I´ve been there before with my other companions so I already sort of knew the way :) We went there and....spent the next 8 hours there! She saw some doctors and they did a bunch of tests and  bunch more tests and finally after all of this they decided that...she needed to be admitted to the hospital....HOWEVER there was no room in the inn. They didn´t have a single bed in this hospital to have her be admitted to.

     So we had to go to another hospital that was about 30 minutes away and even farther away from our area and it was already 8 at night. We had to call President to let him know what was going on...and he actually had a meeting that night near the second hospital that we needed to go there. We arrive at the hospital and then we find out...no one had called or anything from the other hospital to let them know we were coming. They said that they couldn´t let her in or do anything because we didn´t have any money and they didn´t know anything what was going on with her. After trying to sort things out for a while they finally let her back to see a doctor....who poked at her stomach for a few seconds, looked at her test results, and told us exactly the opposite of what the other doctor had told her. He said we should just go home and if she doesn´t feel better tomorrow to come back. We told him there was no way that we would be able to come back because this hospital is about an hour and a half from our area....then by this time President shows up and we go meet him and tell him everything that happened. He was so nice and drove us all the way back to our area and then gave Hna. Wood a blessing. She stayed in bed sick for the next 3 days...but we actually went out and worked yesterday!

    I think I almost went loco being in the pension for so long, but some of the Hna´s in the ward would stay with Hna. Wood while I left with some others to go visit people. Even during this week we found a new investigator and she even came to church yesterday! Her name is María and she is so great. Yesterday was my first church experience here and it was so great! The ward here is amazing and so willing to help out with everything. Today we made about 200 cookies or so to give to all the members for helping us out and to give them to some less actives.
   One of the things I learned from all of this is how much I actually love being a missionary. How much I love being out in the streets and teaching and finding and talking to people. I´m so grateful that nothing bad happened to my companion and that she´s feeling better so now we can work this week. The Lord is amazing and this gospel is amazing and I feel so blessed to have it in my life. I´m so grateful for the Lord for all that He has given me and for letting me be here with His children in this little part of Argentina! If we stay faithful, read our scriptures every day, pray every day, go to church, the Lord will bless us. I love you all so much! Have a great week!

Cuídense,
Hermana Feldermann

Monday, April 13, 2015

Lovin' Alejandro Korn!

Hola familia!!

     This week was full of interesting events! My new comp, Hna. Wood is from Utah, but her mom is from Norway and her dad served his mission in Norway so she speaks Norweigan! How cool is that? I absolutely love my new area, Alejandro Korn. It´s soo much different from my last area in Banfield! IT´s kind of like this town in the middle of nowhere. It's the last station on the train and it´s surrounded by fields everywhere. A majority of the roads are dirt, so it sure makes biking interesting, but it´s fun! I like to make jokes that I´m on a roller coaster :) My ward once again is split with elders and almost all of the members here are converts, including the bishop! He was baptized only 9 years ago and has been bishop for the last 5!

     The people here are also just amazing. They are so receptive! At first I didn’t even know how to react. We can talk to 5 people in the streets, get all 5 of their names, directions and set up appointments!! Sadly however, we weren´t able to do nearly what we would have liked to do this week. We both started getting sick around Tuesday and then by Thursday I was feeling pretty rough...okay mom I know you´re not going to be happy with this buuuut....we kept going because there are souls to be saved!! How can I sit in the pension and do nothing when the eternal salvation of the people of Alejandro Korn rests on our shoulders?? No one else is the whole ward has the keys to eternal life of the people here besides us! So Friday we had to return to Banfield in the morning for a meeting and that was so weird! It felt like I had never left. On Saturday, we had another capilla abierta (Open Chapel), or open house in Glew! It was amazing! At the end they were able to receive 72 referencias y (references and) 4 fechas bautismales!(baptismal dates) Towards the end my companion started feeling pretty sick and by the time we returned to the pension we found out she had a fever then she started puking...so the next day we did...nothing :( poor girl. It was my first Sunday in the new ward but we couldn´t go to church so I still don't know anyone.. but it was worth it for Hna. Wood to get feeling better!

    As far as miracles go, I feel very blessed to be here and to have Hna. Wood as my companion. Her first trainer was a native Argentine and she was awesome! She went home this last transfer, but she left Hna. Wood super obedient, diligent and willing to work hard, and for this I am grateful. I´m a little bit worried about our Spanish because I don´t want to lose my abilities to speak and understand and she´s still learning the language as well. I´m praying the Lord will help and bless us both as we give our best efforts!

   One of the things that surprised me this week was how fast and immediate I was able to love the people here. I love to serve them and love to see them be successful. In the strength of the Lord we can do all things! Feelings of inadequacy can be swept away because the Lord CHOOSES to work through weak and simple things.

   There´s this awesome iniciatie (initiative) that we´re doing right now called ¨Because He Lives¨and I hope you guys have seen the video! It´s only about 2 minutes but it´s powerful. I invite all of you to watch it, and then share it! Share it with your friends and invite them over to listen to the missionaries. They´re working hard and there´s nothing we love more as missionaries than finding people to teach, ESPECIALLY with the members. We never know who the Lord is preparing to receive the gospel.
Con Amor, (With Love)
Hermana Feldermann

Monday, April 6, 2015

Bye Banfield...HELLO ALEJANDRO KORN!!!

     HELLO TRANSFERS!!! So I got transferred this week!! We got a call Friday morning from President Thurgood, and he told Hna. da Silva and I that the Lord had a special assignment for us...I was going to Alejandro Korn! It´s about an hour from my other area, and I´m going to be with Hna. Woods, from Utah! We met up today, and she´s so great. Afterwards we were by President and he told us that he didn´t want us to speak in English ever....ahí vamos! jaa just kidding :) so my new area is mostly fields, and we have bicycles! I´m super excited for this. We arrived and I´m super excited and super nervous because it´s a lot to learn and get down really fast. They've been having a ton of success here, and I´m hoping that I can continue with that.

   This week was full of miracles. We were able to do divisions this week 2 times, which is where I go with one of the women or youth in the ward to one part, and my companion goes with another person in the ward to another part. We can do double the work in one day! The first time we did divisions this week, we taught 8 lessons and found 3 new investigators!! And the second time we did it we found 2 new investigators!

     I´m so grateful that I was able to leave the Banfield area thriving for the new hermana that was going to come in. The conference this weekend was amazing, and so inspiring. I hope that we can remember to live and apply the principles that we are able to learn. On Sunday, Romina was able to come to the conference! It was the best thing ever. The talks really touched her heart and she said she felt like they were written just for her. After the conference I had to say my goodbyes to them because I was leaving the next morning and I think my heart almost broke. Saying goodbye to them...to the members of the ward...my companion....all the people that I´ve grown to love so incredibly much was the hardest thing ever. I feel so blessed beyond measure to have been able to serve here in Banfield and to learn to love these Argentines so much. I don´t know what I did to deserve such amazing blessings.

    One of my favorite talks from the conference was about seeing the hand of the Lord in all things. The Lord is in every little piece of our lives, if we can humble ourselves and learn to notice them. I feel so grateful for the lessons I´ve been able to learn about humility, and about love. As Elder M. Russell Ballard said, "The most effective missionaries always act out of love. Love is the lubricant and life of good missionary work." Not just for missionaries either, but love is the lubricant and life of our lives. When we think that we´ve done all that we could, there´s always something that we could do more. When we feel like we´re doing everything we should and we´re comfortable, always ask, "What more could I do?" There´s always someone else to be loved, someone to be helped, someone to serve. Until the Savior comes again, our work here on this earth is never done, and we live a fulfilling life when our work is motivated by love.
Cuidense,
Hermana Feldermann

Monday, March 30, 2015

Milagros y más milagros!

This week was AWESOME! I feel so blessed to be able to be here in the mission right now. In my ward here we have Elders and Hermanas. The elders have one half of the ward boundaries and we have the other, and this week we decided to do a change for one day. There´s a lot of men that live alone on our side and a lot of women that live alone on the side of the elders so we wanted to be able to reach everyone. It was....such a wonderful day! We ended up teaching 5 lessons over on their side. We visited some recent converts, less actives, and even taught a lesson to one of their investigators who´s a girl, and the elders have trouble teaching her because she´s alone. The people that we visited kept telling us how grateful they were to have us in their homes and we were able to build a stronger relationship with them and help them come closer to Christ. It was a wonderful day! In our area where the elders went, they ended up finding 2 new investigators for us!! A day of miracles let me tell you.

  We have this guy in our ward named Luciano who just returned from his mission in Peru about a month ago. He lives in our area and told us that he had a friend that he wanted to introduce us to. We set up a time and then we went out with him. We went to visit his friend but he was working so we set up a time to come back. Afterwards he says, "Don´t worry hermanas, I know some more people we can visit!" So we went and he introduced us to this couple and they let us in and we were able to teach them! Then afterwards he introduced us to another one of his neighbors, and we set up an appointment with him and went and taught him yesterday! After the lesson with him Luciano says, "Okay Hermanas, come back on Tuesday okay? I know a lot more people!!" Thanks to him we now have 3 new investigators! It was amazing. THIS is the spirit of missionary work that the members in our wards should have! If it was like this, if we didn´t have any fear to introduce the missionaries to everyone we know, if we truly wanted our friends and family to have the same blessings as we do, we would do this!
   This Sunday was the 5th Sunday, so the men and women met together for a class. The bishop was going to teach the class, but then he asked us if we would like to teach the class instead. He wanted us to teach us on La Obra de Salvación, or The Work of Salvation. It´s a program that the church is doing right now to have the members work more with the missionaries and it´s so inspired of God. I was way nervous, because we each had about 8 minutes to talk about the different parts of the program: baptism, retention, reactivation and temples. We prayed and prayed that we could have the spirit teach so that the members could have desires to be more united with us. The class went....absolutely amazing. The spirit taught the whole time and it was incredible. Missionary work..is truly the best part of this church.
   This weekend is GENERAL CONFERENCE!! We are all so excited!!  I want to encourage all of you to go to conference with a question in mind, or write a few down that you´ve been wanting to know, about anything. We always receive answers to our prayers during the conference. Don´t let anything stop you from being at all the sessions, because really, the words that we´re hearing aren´t the words of the people that are speaking, they´re the words of the Savior. Invite one of your friends to listen to one of the sessions with you. There is no person on this earth you can put more trust in than the prophet! The Lord works miracles in more ways than we can possibly imagine.

Cuidense,
Hermana Feldermann

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Hola!

Hola familia!!! So this week was a good week, and I'm loving that it's finally turning into fall!! There's a ton of trees here but instead of turning pretty colors and things before they fall off, they just die on the tree and we get to enjoy a pretty tan color! This week some miracles happened....Romina found her ex-husband!!!! And he said that he would meet up with her to get divorced!! It was a miracle because no one in the whole world knew where he was and then he contacted her and agreed to go with her to get divorced. Then she can get married and finally baptized. She is still progressing so much. Last week we were going to pass by her house to pick them up for FHE at the house of flia. ferreyra. We arrived a little bit late and when we got there no one was there....so we called her and she told us that she thought, since we were late, that we had just gone to the ferreyras so she went there by herself! Also, she gave us the reference of her neighbor to visit and she shared a pamphlet with her and talked about if she would like to receive the missionaries and she said yes! What a champ. She always says it's weird how she always wants to share the things she is learning with everyone.
 
    This week my companion got sick...poor thing. She came down with a pretty hard cold. I love Hna. da Silva so much! She's like my best friend. And she's been teaching me so many great things as well. She is an amazing missionary and I feel so blessed to be with her right now.
 
   One thing that President Thurgood, our mission president, has really been focusing on lately is the cleanliness of our pensions. He says that if the pension is not clean the spirit cannot be with us, and he is so right! The thing I love about the mission is that everything that I learn can be applied to life as well. When our houses are clean and neat, we can have the spirit in our homes as well. Sometimes it´s the little details that make all the difference. 
 
   I feel so blessed to have Pres. Thurgood for my mission president! The way that he works with the missionaries and does things, is truly in the way of the Lord. He doesn´t set a ton of rules for us because he wants us to WANT to be obedient. He wants us to do things and follow the mission rules because we have the desire to be obedient to the Lord. I love this, because it´s how it is in real life, and how it is with the Lord. We need to learn to be obedient because we want to please the Lord, not because we´re compelled to. This is when we will be the happiest! Keep the commandments because you love the Lord. What greater reward is there than that! This gospel is amazing because it doesn´t only just change our behavior, but it changes our very nature. This change comes through obedience to the commandments and our love for the Lord. When we allow these things to go to our very center and change our very nature, the promise will be fulfilled that when He comes we will recognize Him because we will be like Him.

Cuidense mucho!
Hna. Feldermann

Monday, March 16, 2015

A cockroach got the best of me!

Hola!!! So much happened this week! Oh first of all...DON'T SEND ME PACKAGES!! We had zone conference with the President of the misión this week and this was what he told us. Before, there were some missionaries that would go to the capital and get the packages for us if you sent them, but now they´re not going to go anymore because it costs a lot more money than it´s worth. So if you send them, or are planning on it don´t do it please because I won´t ever get them.

   So last night I had an adventure with a cockroach! We pretty much always have cockroaches in our pension no matter how much we clean, and last night I woke up in the middle of the night and went into the bathroom. When I got in there was a cockroach on the back of the door so I grabbed a bottle of Raid and went to kill it. It ran out of the bathroom so I chased it with the Raid.....and then it turned around and ran towards me! So I jumped up and when I landed I landed where I had just sprayed Raid, slipped, and slid into the banister that blocks the stairs....By this point my companion woke up and I realized that when I slipped I had cut my knee pretty bad. So my sweetest companion ever helped me wash my knee and we put a band-aid on it and called it good. When I woke up in the morning it was still bleeding and Hna. da Silva thought it might need stitches so we called someone and they told us to go to the hospital to get it checked out. We went and....yay I don´t need stitches! :) He just told me to keep it covered for a week and it should be fine. No need to worry!

    This week we got amazing gifts from the mission....pillows and sheets!!!! We were all so excited because most of the pensions don´t even have pillows. Best gift ever. Something that also happened this week, we were at Romina´s house teaching her with one of the members. Before the lesson started, the member, her name is Rocio, was facing the window. As she was looking out there was a semi truck backing up and a little old lady waiting at the corner for the bus. Rocio started saying "they´re going to hit, they´re going to hit" and then we look and she goes "They hit!!" and the semi truck had backed into the old lady and knocked her down!! So we sprinted out of the house and ran over to her and helped her up and brought her into the house of Romina. She was all covered in mud, so we cleaned her off and the driver of the truck came over as well. It was a miracle, she just had a tiny little scratch on her cheek and her hand, and nothing else! What a trooper, she didn´t even complain or anything! Afterwards the man that drives the truck asked us about our plaques and and we told him we were Mormons! Then the old lady tells us that she´s Jehovah´s Witness and then the man tells us that he´s....Umbanda!!!! Here there´s a religión that´s called Umbanda which basically means devil worshiper. Then the old lady and the truck driver started arguing about religión and about what happens after we die and then we hand the truck driver a pamphlet on the plan of salvation. Romina was just standing there laughing about all of it! What a day. So Romina...poor thing. Please pray for her! She wants to get divorced so she can get married and then baptized but we found out this week that her ex husband disappeared. She´s called him and she even went to the área where his phone number is and...nothing. His mom lives nearby and she doesn´t even know where he is. We´re praying for a miracle, that he will show up somehow because it will take forever for her to get divorced without him!

    Right now we´re searching for more people to teach. We had an awesome activity in the chapel on Saturday and we got about 15 references between the elders and us! It was so great. I love this Ward, and the bishop is fantastic! He really has the spirit of missionary work, and it literally makes all the difference. This week I´ve been learning a lot about love. My companion is amazing, and one of the lessons that she´s been teaching me the most is how to love. She loves EVERYONE and is constantly looking for ways to serve and help everyone. Charity is the attribute that will bring us so much closer to Christ. Like mom always says, you don´t have to like everyone, but you have to love them. To love, is a commandment! Actually, to have charity is commandment! What a blessing that is, no? Because when we´re filled with love for others, we desire to serve them and to do what´s best for them and to help them. And then when we´re focused on helping others more than helping ourselves, we will find that we are soooo happy! It´s like a little equation! Heavenly Father loves us all equally. That´s what´s amazing, and we should love everyone equally as well. It doesn´t matter what someone looks like, or acts like, or what country they´re from....if we´re truly striving to become more like Christ we will see that these things are not the things that matter. We´ll be searching for the good, and see their potential. We will see them as beloved children of God, with the same possibility to become gods that we have. SHARE THE GOSPEL!!! This is the Lord´s work! Being a missionary is not just for those who are set apart to be, if we truly love our God, we will have a desire to bring other people closer to him as well. Our pday is getting moved to Wednesday next week because of the holiday so you won´t hear from me til then!

 Cuídense,
Hermana Feldermann

Monday, March 9, 2015

Where are you winter?

So summer is still in full swing here! I´m learning to enjoy it though, so that´s probably the best part.

This week I feel like I learned a lot of things. My companion is awesome, and she teaches me so much every day. We´re always laughing pretty much, and we always fight over wanting to serve the other one! Haa it´s so funny. We always want to help the other one at the same time, but then we´re both stubborn about it and then we end up "fighting" over who gets to serve who. This week my companion got sick...so we pretty much didn´t leave the pension for about 3 days. This was actually a good learning experience for me, because I realized how precious our time out on the streets really is. When we were able to leave, I found myself talking to more people and having desires to do more and work harder because I realized how valuable that is! We´re doing this thing in my mission called "Tres de la vez" Which means that we´re focusing on doing 3 things at once: Baptize, Retain, and Reactivate. It´s great because by trying to do all three things, we´re finding more people to teach. This week we were looking for a menos activo, and when we arrived at his house we talked to the people that lived there and found out that he had moved! So then we talked to them some more and then let us pass and teach them and now they´re investigators! AND THEY¨RE MARRIED!!!! It´s some kind of miracle I think. No one here that´s under the age of about 50 is married. So we´re going to see how things go with them!

  Romina is doing well...we´re working on her divorcement right now. She came to church on Sunday with all her kids! And then after we stopped by to talk with her and we taught her about the commandments. When we talked about honoring the sabbath day, she told us that the day before she had bought all the food and everything that they needed so they wouldn´t have to buy things on Sunday, that she had just realized that she wasn´t supposed to do certain things on Sunday..... !! She is practically just teaching herself!! Seriously. She has a son that´s 8 and the other day he kept asking us a bunch of questions about the things that you need to do to prepare for a mission so we talked about that and about temples and he was asking what you need to do to prepare to go to the temple. It´s just incredible.
   On Saturday we had a sort of open house thing in one of the chapels in our zone! We have to take 2 different buses and a train to get there, and we had just arrived at the train station and were crossing to the other side when we saw the train coming. The trains don´t pass by very often so we had to make this one or we would be late! So we started running to try to make the train, and then remembered that we still had to buy our tickets! So the train was stopped and letting people in and off and we were buying our tickets as fast as we could....and then the man who stops us to punch our tickets was encouraging us on. So after we bought our tickets he told us to just go so we sprinted and just as we entered the train the doors shut! ahh success.
   One thing that I learned this week was about the dangers of pride...I´ve been thinking a lot about this lately, and how letting pride get in our way can really inhibit our progression. When we think that we know all there is to know or can do all that needs to be done, we´re forgetting that everything we do, every breath we take and the chance we have to live day to day is completely reliant on somebody else. There´s someone granting us the gift to do all of these things! All the good that we do, all of things that we accomplish in our lives are do to the successes that God has granted us. When we are filled with pride, the spirit cannot work with us, because we need to be humble enough to be able to hear the whisperings of the spirit. We need to be humble enough to have the faith to follow those whisperings, and to recognize that maybe, just maybe, God knows a little bit more than we do. How wonderful it is really, that if we humble ourselves we can receive the help of someone who knows immensely more than we do! Who´s only interest is what´s best for us. How incredible is God´s love for us!

Cuidanse,
Hermana Feldermann