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