SAN CARLOS (Week 29)

Dear Family,

This week was super good!!! How have things been going for you all? Now that school will be ending, what will you guys be doing? Lots of plans? I hope all is well, and work hard until the end of school!!

YEAH!!! Congragulations Megan!! Ah that'll be sooooo fun to be in acting up again! I can't wait to hear more about it and to hear how you are doing..... 

YEAHHH!!! IT'S A BOY!! I'm so excited for you guys, Andrea and Nathan!! Congrats!!!! Good luck now to stay healthy and strong, I'm praying for you and now your new little boy!!

Well to answer you question I have had 4 baptims in the mission.  L., who is 10, in January the 26.  M., who is 21, in January the 31.  Lo., who is 10.... and baptized the 8 of February.  And Le., who is 38, and was baptized March 20 and she wasn't confirmed when I left.... so hopefully they have been able to find her and have her confirmed because it is not good to wait so long.  Every baptism had its own trials to get there and each of them is awesome!! I hope they are all still going to church and staying strong.

Well this week was really good, I still can't believe all that is happening.  

SUNDAY!!! We had 10, TEN, investigators in the church!! WOW!!! The Heavenly Father really is helping and blessing us, because it has been hard.  But last week we went to go visit a new investigator that we found in the street and when we got to her house there was a man standing outside and he said she wasn't home and we started to talk to him and share the gospel with him and he told us he had talked to the missionaries before and that they wanted to go to church and were interested! So we came back a different day and had a lesson with him and his wife and one of their kids, and they were super nice, and come to find out, right when me and my companion came her we had a charla set with them but we didn't have their address and only a phone number and well kinda forgot about them, but this really is Heavenly Father´s work and knew that his children needed the gospel.  Well we have been going back and every time we go back they have a another child listening and we committed them and three of there children to baptism for the 7 of June.  On Saturday we had a super good lesson, and we taught the plan of salvation with my drawings :) and they loved it! And then after we were super nervous to find out if they were married so finally we are going through this booklet, called seguidme! to help them prepare for baptism and has things they have to commit to do and things we have to teach them and we are going through the committments and come to live the law of chastity.  And we are like, we know whe havent taught this but to be baptized you need to live the law of chastity, and be married and.... and you married?? and then there was silence.  And then we told us yes!! We have been married 21 years!! Ah it was perfect! Now the only problem with them is to help them live the word of wisdom that we know so far. And they all came to church and loved it! And we are working to help them prepare for baptsim!! Their names are S. and E. (the parents) and then the kids, Le (14), M (12), and V (9). Ah they are awesome!!!

And then we had another investigator and her kids and grandchildren come to church.  P, and M, C, and F, and L, and then more little children and they are awesome! She is evangelica and wants to get married to her husband now and wants to read the book of mormon but super new and super awesome.  She is really nice and calls all the children to come listen and they are good.  It will take time cause they need to get married first but yeah! 

And then we also had A and G come to the first class. And we had the Stake presidency here and the Stake Patriarch talked about Patriachal Blessings and getting married to live with their families, and after the class they had to leave, but turned to me and were like, we loved it! and want to get married now!!! so we are going to keep working with them!!

Really me and my companion have been so blessed her in San Carlos over this change we have found over 80 new investigators and it is so hard, like near impossible to keep up with them all, the Heavenly Father is really blessing us and helping us, even though we haven't had a baptism we are working super hard with all our investigators and our converts! By the way our converts are amazing!! Almost all are coming to church and coming on their own, we pass by, and I fell like I am being taught.  We have this new thing in the mission called Retenidos, like to help retain them in the church so we are working to keep the converts and new members we have and then also baptize and help more come to the churhc.

I love the mission!!! It is awesome! We have cambios next week so I won't be writing until Tuesday but I'm hoping we both stay here!! I love you all! Thank you for the support! Love you!!1

Love,

Hermana Louder

Week 28

Dear FAMILY!!!!!

How are you all doing?! Ah how was state track? Thank you for the stats dad! And how are you all doing with the family and ending school, getting ready for summer? Is it hot there?

Let me know about Megan and acting up!! And also how Ghana was for Emily!!

It is pretty cold here and they say it is going to get colder! It'll be exciting to see what happens with us ha. Lots of layers! 

We were going to have the ward talent show but... not anymore :( Oh and random but we have like a huge backyard and the weeds are huge! So some of our ward members are coming over to help us clean it up!

Well I'll just get the sad news over with.  M. was not baptized this week :(((  So she had another interview this week with our district leader and it seemed to end well but that night she called us and told us she wasn't going to be baptized because Christ didn't have to sign a form (The register for the baptism they have to sign it).  Well we went over and talked to her the next day and she wouldn't let us talk and she was like it's a contract and I don't want this and it was really bad and sad, she was really angry.  Well the next day our bishop went over and he said she had calmed down and that she was really sorry and she gave him time to explain that it's not a contract it's just a registro and that's it.  I don't know what else happened but she came to church yesterday and she told us she is going to get baptized in the summer in the river....... We're going to contiune to pray that her heart will soften and that she will want to be baptized early, why wait to have all the blessing of baptism and the Spirit when you could have them now?!

That's about it that has happened this week.  We are teaching lots of good people right now but we just have to wait to see what happens... we actually have lots of families which is a first for me! I'm loving it, and of course me and my companion are still working on the Spanish but we are doing great!

Sorry it's not too interesting, but we are doing good and working hard.  I love you all so much and pray for you all the time. I LOVE YOU!!!!

Love,

Hermana Louder

P.S. I did the plan of salvation and it turned out quite nicely! I was going to send pictures but it's not working....

MOTHER'S DAY!!! (Week 27)

Dear Family,

It was so great to see all of you and I'm so glad that everyone is doing great! Almost the whole family.... haha but it was great to talk to you (I could for the most part see Nathan Andrea and Bailey, so no worries).

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!!! I hope you guys celebrated well and also thank you for all the emails, most of you took my challenge to email me, so thank you :) And thank you for the recipies and Plan of Salvation!!

Well there's not too much to say this week because you all heard it.. but I'll repeat some.

This past week, I think it was Tuesday, we were walking and decided to knock on this door that we had tried before to find one of our new investigators.  Well we knocked two times and nothing happened and then this woman close to the street turned around and was like I think you are looking for my daughter and then asked what religion we were and then she asked if we could talk for a bit.  She did not look very good.... well we started talking and she told us that we showed up right in time.  She said that she was just about to cross the street to walk infront of a car, and then we showed up and she was so grateful. She told us about her life and how all these things have happened to her and we talked about the love God has for each and everyone of us and that she has done great things in her life. We set an appointment and should be visiting her soon.

 Interesting how the Lord works no? We hadn't planned to go visit this investigator but we felt the impression and followed it, Heavenly Father confides in us enought that we could help this woman. 

M!!!! Well this past week has been a rollercoaster with her! We went and talked about tithing and she said she was paid but was so worried about all the children in Africa that can't pay.... And then we had lessons on the prophets also.  And something really cool! So the first time she had contact with the missionariares was in 1995 and they gave her a book of mormon and visited her, and then stopped coming.  Well we invited a member to come with us, and they got talking, and then M. pulled out this note inside her book of mormon that was from the missionaries and the member read the names and was like, these are the same missionaries that taught me too! and I'm still in contact with them through facebook! So now she is going to tell them that after 19 years she is getting baptized, how crazy! M. had her interview and is good to go! Now we just have to have daily contact and make sure nothing impedes with this!

I love you all so much and loved talking to you! Thank you for everything!

Love,

Hermana Louder

 

 

Week 26

Dear Family,

HAPPY MAY!!! Wow I can't believe it.  I have been out on the mission now for almost 6 MONTHS!! Time flies by, well at times ha :) But I am loving every second of it.  People say it is the hardest time and the best, and really it is.  You really don't know how it is until you've experienced it.  And wow.  I love it all.

Well, I'm finally remembering to tell you stuff! Ok so I love carrying a family picture with me and so I can show you guys off :) and EVERY time I show people our family picture they tell me I have a beautiful family with all blue eyes.  And then they ask if you two really are my parents, because you look so young!! Every time people are like is that really your mom?? She is so beautiful and young! And it's true mom.  I love you! Happy Mother's Day :) 

Mother's Day: I will be calling around 6 or 7... I'll let you guys know at the end of this hour, to see if my companion knows which is better, and should  I use the same skype information from before?

Oh and kinda random but if you have any nice easy brownie recipes or good food, that would be nice, and also a Plan of Salvation pictures or drawings that I could print out and color and use for lessons that would be nice hahaha oh and in Spanish! But if not, we are going to try to make some ha!

Question: What is the difference between a transgression and a sin? (Me and my companion were talking about this and I want to know what you guys think!)

This past week has been very interesting but very good and crazy! It seems like now we have no time and after we finish planning every night we are running everywhere to do things ha I don't know why!

M!!! Well this has been interesting week with her.  So she has a lot of images in her house of Christ and Mary the Virgin so we had two lessons on the 10 commandments and how she should pray to see if she needs to take them down, and we asked our district leader to ask also and he told us he'd get back to us.  So after we had the lesson she didn't really want to commit to do it.  Well we got a call that night and our District leader said she doesn't have to take them down! Cause we know she is not worshipping them and she told us that she has them up cause Mary is the mother of Christ and is very important and they give her company.  But when we went to her house and told her we have good news she told us that she also had news and that we could go first.  So we started with a song and prayer and then told her that everything is ok, and then after this she started crying and told us that she had felt she didn't need to take them down and that if we were to say she needed to she wouldn't come to church today and wouldn't go to ¨our church¨ But she was very happy to hear this.  So we committed her to come to church with us and she told us she needs to do this on her own and would be there at 8:45.  So Sunday comes and we live right infront of the church (which is SUPER nice), we see her, and it its 8:25 so we get everything and run over and she is great! And she loved church she tells us this ¨I love your church.  I love my church.  Cause I'm going to be Mormon¨ :) Ahh it was so great! And she wants to be baptized, we just have to teach her a few more things and she has to come to church and then will have an interview with the mission president, so it'll be awesome! can't wait!

And Ma. is doing really good too! She came to regular church for the first time and loved it, and she is really progressing and loves reading the Book of Mormon and is applying it like crazy to her life which is awesome, and we should each try to do the same!

My companion, Hermana Talbot is from Seattle Washington and is 19, she has 3 months on the mission, and was going to BYU before and majoring in dance.  She is awesome, and her Spansih is amazing, so that is super nice and we are working really well together, I really enjoy it!

Thank you all for the love and support, and love you all loads! Can't wait to talk to you on Sunday :)

Love,

Hermana Louder