I can´t believe that we are in NOVEMBER!!!!! Where is the time going??? haha. I guess it has to be that way. I am learning to accept the Lord´s timing in all things. Hard, but good.
We had a great week! My new companion is fantastic. She is Hermana Salazar from Honduras! So fun! Her accent is SOOOO different, and it took me a good 2 days to get used to it and be able to understand her. haha. But now, we are good. There are still some things that I don´t understand, because there are a lot of words that are different, but she explains it to me, and I understand and then I teach her the Argentine version. haha. For example, here, "strawberry" is "frutilla" and in Honduras it is "fresa." haha. So I am now learning Honurean. She is really great. She is 22, a convert of 5 years and one of only 2 members in her family of 13 brothers and sisters! She was baptized when she was 17 but started going to church as a girl. She had to wait to get baptized because her mom didn´t give permission. Her other sister who is a member is also in the mission, in Mexico. Hermana Salazar has been waiting for her visa for 4 months, and in 3 of those, she did a mini mission in Hondurus, so she already learned a lot. Makes my job a lot easier! haha. She has a ton of scriptures and things from Preach My Gospel memorized, so now we are just working on making it her own and following the Spirit. She is really fantastic and I know that we will work really well together. I miss Hermana Hualpa a lot... we became such good friends and we really taught with a lot of unity. But I know that she is really needed in Tigre and I need to be here so it is all good. The really fun part is that we are now all in the same district, so I will see her often! And Hermana Hill!!! Great things!
The work is going well. We had an amazing experience with Marcela. She was having a TON of doubts... really, just putting a lot of excuses. She told us that she thought her baptism as a child was good, that she thought there were a lot of rules, etc. We weren´t worried, because we have been with her and seen her true conversion. She has really had her own personal "sacred grove" experiences, and she knows that what we are teaching is true. She has felt the Atonement in her life. Satan was working hard, but we knew that the Lord was working harder. Well, Saturday, she was especially upset. Her son had said that she was different now that she has started going to church and that he didn´t like it. We showed up at the exact right time and were able to help her through it and through questions that help her recognize her conversion, she was able to see that she really does have a testimony, but still said that she didn´t think she wanted to be baptized. We committed her to go to church on Sunday, promising that she would receive a definite answer. She agreed. She and Jonas showed up nice and early and really enjoyed it. She agreed to go home and pray. We tried to see her that night, but she had gone to her Mom´s house. This morning, we went for a lesson and she started to tell us of the experience she had last night. She said that Jonas came into her room and started crying and said "Mom, I want to be baptized, but I don´t want to do it without you." She said that really hit her and she started thinking more seriously and they had a good talk. He went off to bed and she tried to sleep too, but just couldn´t. She said that at 2AM she decided that she had to make a decision. She went into the living room and took her Book of Mormon. She knelt down and said a prayer, asking Heavenly Father to guide her and tell her what she was supposed to do. She then opened the Book of Mormon. The page fell to Alma 42, the end of Alma´s talk with Corianton. She began reading in verse 18 and when she got to 27, she said she felt that God was speaking to her. It talks about how no one is obligated to come unto Christ, but that we must all choose. Then, in 28 and 29 it talks about giving up your sins and repenting. And verse 30 talks about leaving behind excuses. She said that she felt a great burden lifted from her. That she realized that she DOES have sins and must be baptized. She said that she recognized in that moment that she had just been making excuses and that she really did NEED to be baptized. It was such a powerful moment. She was crying, I was crying, Hermana Salazar was beaming. It was all just so great. She has truly had her own personal conversion experiences. She and Jonas will be baptized this weekend.
Rosana, the Mom of the Suarez kids is doing great! She wants to be baptized so badly. She has been looking for work that is just Monday to Saturday, and we think that she has found one! She has to wait to hear officially, but please pray for her.
Aidee is a new investigator that we found this week who is really doing great! She is not married, so she can´t be baptized until she and her "husband" get officially married, but she is really enjoying the lessons and had a great experience in church yesterday. We only see her once a week since she can´t really progress a lot right now, but it will all work out.
Augustin is a young man who has been coming to church with his friends, and he is really loving church. He has been two times now. We haven´t been able to teach him very much because he goes to school and then going to soccer practice and then goes to his mom´s house (he lives with his dad and visits the mom in the evenings). But we have set an appointment up with him, and we will see how it turns out.
I love you all so much! I love this work. Being a missionary is the best. I can´t believe how very blessed we are! Well, I can believe it... because this is the Lord´s work. When we do it in His way, we receive His blessings. I truly do love seeing the miracles that we get to see each and every day. I love seeing the Atonement work in the lives of the people that we are teaching and see how they are growing and changing. I love to see the changes in my own personal life. I am a different person than I was 16 months ago. The Atonement is real and it truly makes us who the Lord needs us to be.
I love you all!!!
Hermana Shelley
pictures: 1.New companion Hermana Salazar
2.Pasta Frola (before it was baked)
3. Kailei's birthday cake
4. Menezes family
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