New Companion!

Wow, this week was way different. I just wrote on Wednesday. This was the last week with Hna. Rodas.............on Thursday she got to go to the capital to do tours and Friday she had interviews with the president, so I had a different companion for most of Thursday and Friday. Her name is Hna. Hoy! She´s from Canada! She only has one more transfer than me, so we hit the streets and prayed that we could understand what people were saying! She was great though, and we taught lessons and for the most part I think people could understand us....:) On Saturday this week...we had a baptism in our ward!!!!!! The Elders had been teaching this man named Carlos, and he got baptized on Saturday. It was incredible, to see the change in him after his baptism. It was amazing, because the baptism was at 3, and then afterwards he went out with the Elders to teach with them! What a champ.

Sunday was a day full of emotion because it was the last Sunday of Hna. Rodas. Everyone in this ward loves her so much, that after church there were people crying and all sorts of things saying goodbye to her. I never realized how much I´m going to miss her! This morning we had our reunion de traslados (meeting of transfers) and we met our new companions. I met.....Hna. da Silva! From Brasil! It´s going to be way interesting having a brasilian for my companion! I´m excited though. It´s going to be an adventure.

It was really hard saying goodbye to Hna. Rodas today. She´s an amazing person and missionary, and I learned so much from her about love and service and patience....and everything! While we didn´t get a long 100% of the time, in these short 12 weeks she was an amazing teacher and become such a good friend. I think we were both surprised by how sad we were when it came time for her to leave! I think one of the most important lessons I learned from her is how to love. She always, always, was thinking about our investigadores and miembros, (investigators and members) and anyone that she could possibly help or do things for. She never tired of doing good works, and I hope one day to be as selfless as her. Love, truly is the essence of this gospel, and what this work is really about. When Russell M. Nelson came to this mission before I arrived he said this, "The most effective missionaries always act out of love. Love is the lubricant and life of good missionary work." I think this applies to our lives as well. When our motivation behind our actions is love, we can never go wrong. God is love. We are truly His children and he loves us. He sent us here because he wants us to succeed. I know this is true. Work hard, share the gospel! And never tire of doing good works.

Con amor, (with love)

Hermana Feldermann

Romina and her family.

Our mission leader and his family.

Saying Good-bye!

Opposition in al things

Wow this week!!! Can I just say that I love the mission more and more every day?? I love everything that I´m learning and am beginning to become. I lack so much still, but I´ve learned that with the Lord´s help, we truly can accomplish anything. So this week...we found out...Romina is moving...........They have a house here, but her kids have a school that they go to about an hour away. It´s summer vacations here and school starts in about 2 weeks, and they´re finding a house closer to where their school is. It´s really sad, but we´re going to continue to treat her like she´s going to stay here until she leaves. This little part in Argentina is the part that the Lord has given us to look after and while we´re here, we´re going to treat it as such. This week, again some amazing miracles happened with her. On Saturday we taught her about the Word of Wisdom and found out she has a problem with smoking. She said that she was going to quit and gave us her word. Then on Sunday we were waiting and waiting for her and her family to come to church and....they didn´t show up! We were shocked because she always does whatever she says she´s going to do! About 30 minutes into the meeting in walks the bishop with Romina!! It was so amazing. In sacrament meeting one of the subjects was fasting and after the meeting Romina asked if we could come over and talk to her more about it because she wanted to try it to help stop smoking! So we went over and talked to her about it and she asked about fast offerings. We told her it wasn´t something she needed to do until after baptism but her response was "That´s great, but I want to start doing it now.". And then it gets better. We stopped back a few days later and she told us that she had gotten rid of all of her cigarettes and hadn´t smoked since we taught her the Word of Wisdom. Need I say more?

    So some things funny that happened this week. We received a referencia (reference) from one of the members and went to pass by and visit him. There's a wall about up to our chins in front of two houses, which one of them was the house of the reference. We clapped at the wall and the neighbor answered and told us to just yell to see if they were home. So Hna. Rodas goes "DIEGO!!!" And then I peeked over the wall and...there was a man sleeping on a mattress on the ground!!! Haa it was Diego!! We just about died. He didn´t wake up luckily, and we stopped by later.

    Also something awesome happened....so I talk in my sleep sometimes when I sleep. This week one night Hna. Rodas woke up in the middle of the night and I was talking in my sleep...IN SPANISH!! How awesome!

   This is my last week with Hna. Rodas before she goes home to her house. I can hardly believe it, and I´m going to miss her so much. One of the biggest lessons I´ve learned from her is about love. We were talking one day, about the reason that we´re obedient. We shouldn´t be obedient because we want blessings or because we know we should. We should be obedient because we love the people. The root, the motivation behind why we do things should be love. And you know something? The less and less I think about myself, the more and more happy I feel. Because really, this isn´t time for me. We´ve been talking a lot about things that we need to leave behind to become better missionaries and one of them is our will. When we leave our own will behind and our own desires and focus on what the Lord desires of us and try to do His will, we will never fail. We will always succeed. It may not be easy, no, it´s guaranteed NOT to be easy, but I´m here to tell you that it´s worth it.  The reason that Christ was and is perfect, is because He only did the will of the Father, in all things. That there is no other way to return to our Padre Celestial than through this gospel. This is the only way to true happiness. 

"God did not create us in His image to be good people. God created us in His image to be gods."  

   

Con amor, (with love)

hermana Feldermann

We made Tacos for Family Home Evening!

Miracles and more Miracles!

This week I feel like the Lord has just opened the windows of heaven to us...I can´t even believe some of the things that happened this week. First I want to start with Romina. On Monday we had Family Home Evening in the house of one of our members with her. She loved it and said she already feels part of the church, so that was awesome. The next day as well, she invited us over to her house for almuerzo!(lunch) She´s incredible, and everything that happens that might seem like a problem, is instantly fixed right away. This week she´s working on her divorcements, because she wants to marry the man she lives with now so she can be baptized! It´s going to take about 1.5 months to 2 months, but we´re going to keep working with her family. The members love her as well, and they call her and visit her, and I can´t even describe really what it´s like. One thing that I´ve learned is that I´m going to be such a better member to the missionaries when I come home! The members in this ward are incredible and help the missionaries so much. On Saturday we brought Romina and her kids to a baptism as well, so that was a really special experience for them, to see what a baptism is like. If you have any extra time in your prayers, please pray for Romina!

    Something kind of funny that happened this week is that we had.....a cockroach infestation!!! We had lots of little friends visiting our pension. We had this massive amount of weeds and grass behind our pension and it was causing us to have a bunch of cockroaches. Our pension is super clean, and in the mornings we would come downstairs to find about 10 of them or so sleeping on the floor...so we´d have to break out the Raid and kill them. Haa we got someone to cut our pasto (pasture) after about 4 days of this and afterwards we´ve only found one or two in the mornings, which is more normal.

   Another miracle that happened this week....we were planning one night to visit this menos activeo (less active) that we don´t know yet. His name is Esteban, and while we were planning to visit him, we received a phone call from two brothers in the ward that said they had stopped by to visit him today and that he wants to start again studying the Book of Mormon! So we called Esteban and set up an appointment for the next day. When we got there he told us how he hasn´t gone to church for about 15 years...he didn´t go one Sunday and just stopped going after that! But now he misses having the spirit in his life and wants to return to the church and start reading the Book of Mormon again and talk to the bishop and....he came to church on Sunday!! And brought his friend!! What!!! Sunday was a day of miracles.

   We have this girl in our ward named Débora. She´s 22 and joined the church less than a year ago. Her little sister Andrea is 17 and comes to church every single Sunday without fail and goes to every activity, but her mom won´t let her be baptized because she thinks she´s too young and only goes to church because of Débora and her friends.. However, her mom LOVES the missionaries. Andrea went to EFY this past week and when she returned home after telling her mom about the experience her mom was talking to the bishop about how she thinks that now, Andrea is ready to be baptized!!! What!!! And her mom came to church on Sunday!!!!  We´re having Family Home Evening in their house for the first time ever tonight, and we´re so excited and so nervous at the same time!!! It´s going to be so good though because the Lord is going to help us!! 

    Also at church on Sunday some other members brought their friends and we have a bunch of appointments this week and I have never been happier in my whole life I think. Everything that´s happening here, is so amazing and I feel so blessed beyond measure. Hna. Rodas only has 2 weeks left before she goes home, and I´m trying to learn everything that I can from her now. It´s going to be so weird to have a new companion, but I know that the Lord will help me. I still don´t understand everything that people say and can´t communicate as well as I would like, but despite everything, nothing is better than this. When we feel down, or defeated or like we can´t carry on, we can always find strength in our knowledge of the gospel. Jesus Christ is our Savior, our Redeemer, and through Him, with His help, we can overcome anything. I testify that this is true.

Con amor (with love),

Hermana Feldermann

PS There´s a holiday next Monday and Tuesday so our P-Day is moved to Wednesday, the 18th so I won´t be writing until then!

Hna Rodas and I. Forgive us, we are sweating because...It's summer here!

We made cheesecake!

I love the Mission

This week, amazing things happened. It was really hot at the beginning of the week and sometimes when it gets really hot they cut the power because people are using too many fans and things like that. So Monday night, right when we were about to plan...the power went out! Luckily earlier in the day, like the klutzy person I always am, I accidentally dumped out a drawer which had...candles!! Yay! We planned by candlelight which was interesting and then about one in the morning the power came back on. We turned our fan on to full power so we would know when it came back on...and then we could actually sleep :) This week we had intercambios (exchanges), which is where our sister training leaders switch companions with us and they help us with things that we could do better or improve on. Last time, I left our area but this time Hna. Rodas left...so it was up to me to lead! It was actually so good, and I realized that I knew a lot more than I thought I did! It was a huge blessing. Also another amazing thing that happened this week. We have one cell phone between the two of us, and usually my skirts have pockets so I´m the one that carries it. Every time it rings I kind of throw it at Hna. Rodas because I´m scared to answer it because I won´t understand what the person is saying. The phone rang this week and Hna. Rodas told me to answer it this time. So I answered it and....I understood! And was able to communicate and the world didn´t come crashing down or anything! And now I can talk on the phone for the most part! Little by little, I´m actually learning this language!

We literally found an investigator this last week that is pure gold. Remember Romina? On Friday night in the capilla (Chapel) we had Noche de Amistad (Night of Friendship), where the members were supposed to bring their friends and things like that and we were going to play games and eat food and have a good time. We invited Romina and she said that she would come so we waited outside the chapel and...she didnt´t come. Then, like an hour later she walks in with all of her kids!! She told us that she had fallen asleep after reading the Book or Mormon and then woke up right when the activity was supposed to start! But she came!! She has 4 kids, and they loved the church! Romina told us she felt comfortable there and wow, I thought that I was going to die of happiness. But wait, it gets better. On Saturday we taught her again and brought her two oldest kids to the chapel for the classes of piano and English that we teach on Saturdays. Afterwards, she came to the chapel with her husband and baby to get the kids. She told us that she´d see us the next day at church! Sure enough when we arrived at the chapel the next day, there she was walking down the street with her kids and she brought her sister! Sunday was a miracle in itself because between us and the Elders, we had 9 investigators at church! It was some kind of record. They liked church a lot, and Romina signed up to feed us tomorrow and next Tuesday AND to wash our clothes for us this week! WHAT!!! She is amazing! Hna. Rodas and I could hardly believe what was happening. Tonight we´re also going to have a Noche de Hogar (Night of home) with her family in the house of Flia. Ferreyra as well! She is reading and she is praying and coming to church and I don´t think I´ve ever been happier in my life. Her marriage situation is going to take a while to resolve, but we have so much hope for her. I can hardly believe that we found her just walking and talking to people in the streets.

A lot of times I feel so undeserving to see all of these miracles happening around me in my life, and I´m just so grateful to my Heavenly Father for allowing these wonderful things to happen in my life. There is nothing that will bring us more joy in this life than the gospel and living by its teachings. We have a wonderful gift that God has given us of agency, or the freedom to choose. So use it to be obedient, to be diligent, to keep the commandments and we will have more happiness in our lives than ever before. This gospel is a gospel of happiness. Whenever we feel like taking a break for a while, from things pertaining to the gospel, God never, not even for one day, takes a breath from helping us.

Cuidanse! (Take care) :)
Hermana Feldermann

Studying Language by candlelight!

Oh! How I love the mission!