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

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

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

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

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

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

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