:)

 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. 

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

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

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