Week 42

Dear Family,

How are you all?! Wow I have so many things to say once again ha! And I hope you are all doing well, now that school is in. I would like to see a back to school picture :)

This whole week I remembered that it was your 30th anniversay!! Yeah! Congragulations! I love you! Wow 30 years.

And... Grandma Louder!!! Happy Birthday!! It looks like you had a fun party! And I sent off a letter about a month back so that should be getting there!

This week is transfers week! And I will be staying here, but I will be receiving a new companion, she is from my group and her name is
Hermana Herrera, and I will be meeting here tomorrow, I think I will be staying here to work in a trio because it is like a 6 hour drive there...just kidding, my zone leader just told me I will be going to a different area to work with another hermana.

Well this past week we had an intercambio and I went to Gianola and while I was there my companion went and visited J.L.. He didn't go to the lesson, and so they went to find him, and he came out and had been smoking and told them he doens't want to be baptized and doesn't want anything more. Ah rough.  So we went over the next two days to talk to him, but now he doesn't want anything.  But yesterday we were passing by and needed to contact his brother because he was a reference and we invited J.L. to the baptism today of B., and he said he would come, so we'll see.

B.´s baptism is today!!! At 6:30 so we are getting somethings ready and one of our converts will be baptizing him! He is so excited and all of his family is going to come so that will be really good.

This past week we had stake conference and we sang... and they also had a broadcast of Elder Bednar for Uruguay and Paraguay and it was really good.

Things are going good here, I love being a missionary and it is the best! It has been nice because well we are working super hard to do our best to complete our goals and be diligent and I love it.

Thank you for everything, I love you all so much, and hope everything is going great! You are the best!!

Love,

Hermana Louder

N, a convert from May!

We did an activity with the recent converts and investigators!

Our District!!

And this past week, was soooooo hot!!!

Week 41

Dear Family,

My amazing family, how are you all doing?! Wow it sounds like everything is going great, and I can't believe school starts tomorrow right? And I'm glad you enjoyed your time with the Pinders, now you will have to invite others over and do it more often :)

Here is Melo it's going great! We had another open house in Colon, so we went and helped with it too, thought this church is on a busier street, not as many people came in, but it was good.

JL was not baptized this week, he has a date for the 30th for right now, because he needs another interview, but this is no problem! This will help us and him, because a veces we teach really fast to get it all in, but now we can go over a couple things with him.

B, is an eleven year old boy and he is very smart, it is amazing.  His sister and niece are members and they are recent converts so that will be good, and although his mom doesn't want anything to do with the church, she is very nice and she allows him to come to church and everything, he has a date for the 26th.

Ah something that I forgot to share with you the last time, but I really wanted to.  So last week when we had the conference we were talking about commitments and we were thinking and well yeah.. here's what I thought ha.  So with our commitments we are always giving our investigators and members commitments, because commitments help them change and repents and without one they cannot progress.  And also we as misisonary get commitments, to complete and work with our area and such, and I was thinking of how we feel when our investigators don't keep theirs, and we are sad, because there is no progress, we need them to complete.  Jesus Christ had a commitment also.  Heavenly Father sent him here to complete a mission, to atone for all of us.  And think about it, what if Christ hadn't completed? What if we couldn't repent? But I know Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer, and he did complete.  He fulfilled all that the Father asked him to do, and because that we can change.  We can be made whole. We have hope and we can become clean.

I am so grateful to be here, and to be able to serve a mission.  I am grateful for the confidence that my Heavenly Father has in me.  Thank you so much for your love and support, you really are the best family, and I love you so much!!!

Love,

Hermana Louder

 

 

HOLA!!!! :) (Week 40)

Dear Family,

How are youy all doing??! Fa I read your emails hahaha and they are probably the funniest ones I have read so far..... How was the open house? Will that picture you sent me be used for something or it was just a poster? And MEGAN!!!! You start acting up this week! Heck week! Wow! Good luck with that, it will suck all of your energy but I'm sure you will love it! And that is nice about the car...... Maybe it'll be ded by the time I get home hehe ;)

This week has been a week of miracles wow. I don't even know where to begin because so many things have been happening.  Bien.

J. L.!! We are preping everything and trying to get all the lessons in with him so that he can be baptized this Saturday! On Saturday he came to the open house and then on sunday to church.  He has stopped smoking, and he is great.  He keeps every single last one of his committments which is amazing and can remember.  Probably my favorite experience this past week with him was that we were on an interchange and we had given him the pamphlet of the restoration to read and so we began the charla... and we sang ummm I cant remember the name but 14 about Joseph smith oh how lovely was the morning... and after we sang he was like oh it talks about his experience in the folleto and I want to learn more about the book (LDM) and wow.  It is amazing that he is so prepared and so willing to do everything.

This past week we got a call from a bishop with a reference of a girl who is less active and her boy friend wants to be baptized, though we haven't had a charla with them they are super nice and great.  On Saturday when we had our open house. AWESOME!!!! A couple came in and we were asking them had they been here before and are they memebers, and Orlando says I am a less active and this is my girlfriend and she wants to be baptized. They wanted to come to church and saw that the open house was that day and so they came. WHAT?!? And then we found out that they live in our area and they are great! though they are not married, we had a charla with them yesterday about marriage and they want to get married! and they also came to chuch!

We also had a meeting with President and Hermana Cook and the assitents in 33 and that was really good, we talked about being PME missionaries and also about committments and that was all really good.

Sorry there is so much to say and I hope I said it all, but things are going really good here, it is amazing that the Lord is preparing so many people! Thank you for your love and support and for the amazing people you are.  I love you!!!

Love,

Hermana Louder

9 MONTHS (Week 39)

Dear Family,

How is my amazing family doing? What have you all been up to? Jason is home now! Jason and Emily... are you two dating anyone? and are you guys moving?.. you keep telling me that everyone is moving but haven't told me anything else.

MELO: Our ward is pretty big, and I don't have to play the piano or give lessons, but they do want us to sing in the stake choir. There are four of us in our house, and this week was really warm, I finally decided to use the sleeping bag because I have it so I might as well and I haven't been cold all week! And this past week was really warm, some nights we didn't even use our coats. Our church is about a block away from our house so super close! But where we have our zone and district meetings is about 30 minutes away walking.

We found an amazing investigator. His name is J. L. and at first we weren't going to talk to him, but then we did and the Holy Ghost told us we needed to talk about baptism and the Word of Wisdom and it was amazing.  He drinks and smokes but really wants to change that and doesn't want to do it anymore.  We had a really good lesson with a recent convert and then the next day he came to church! And he usually smokes about 60 cigarettes everyday, but he told us he only smoked 8!!! He is awesome! And has a date to be baptized the 16!

Right now we are having a couple open houses in Melo and we had one on Saturday and then we have another one this Saturday in our church, and it is actually pretty interesting, and us, the sister missionaries, lead them for like the first little bit and teach them a little of all the lessons, and then the elders and members take them to the class rooms to show them what we do.

Thank you for everything I love you all so much!! I hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,

Hermana Louder

P.S.I might almost be out of contact solution... I have like 1 and half bottles left... but I can use glasses so... yeah ha. Unless you put bottles in other suitcases but I can only find one more in the medium one. Thanks :)