Happy Birthday to dad yesterday! You're so old! whooop!

Haha not really, but I hope you got to skate with your buds and Uncle Dave :)

Many things have happened this week and Ive learned so much.

Danitza is doing so amazing. She is so strong and is ready for baptism, we've almost taught her all of the lessons and more! She's made a best friend in the church too! Her name is Dayana they're both studying to be lawyers and Danitza just found a house in the same apartment complex. She's literally trying to change her whole life. I don't know how many times I say it, but I really do love what God does to and for people.

I've been thinking a lot about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The whole reason why we as humans can actually be happy and improve in our intelligences.

Christ died so that every person that came before him and that would come after him, will resurrect. I've been reading a lot in Alma lately. Alma and Amulek are such a strong companionship and I love how strong their faith is. They prophesied of the coming of Christ. I could imagine that it would be so hard for the people to just believe. However, they were prophesying of the things that God had revealed to them. And they sincerely knew of these things by the power of the Holy Ghost.

When Christ bled through each pore in the Garden of Gethsemane, I know that he felt every temptation, pain, sorrow, and affliction that each and every single one of us would feel. So that in our lives, sometimes lonely, lives, we can always know that there is someone that actually knows exactly how we feel. And when we come to him in our sadness, his arms are wide open and embracing us. To give us the firm knowledge that we are never actually alone, and that there is a tomorrow that is ready for a change, a change further towards our Father in Heaven. And when we feel the heavy feeling of guilt and we come to Christ in our sinless state, He will take that weight off and replace it with a calm happiness, and refresh our state of being.

I know that God has a plan for us, and the most essential part of His plan was that Christ would come to redeem us and to take away our sins so that we can progress and live again with our Dad, our Father, our King, and His beloved son, Jesus Christ.

I love you all. Have a good week and don't forget to count your blessings and improve yourself in this short opportunity of time, that we call life, that you have chosen.

BLESSINGS!

I hit my 6 month mark! Time is really going by fast.

I don't really know where to start because so many things have happened this week.

We have been praying a lot lately to know exactly how we should be as missionaries to have success in opening this area. Its not all that easy to open an area. So there is a saying, "Obedience brings blessing, Exact obedience brings miracles." So guess what we did! We worked on the things that we could do a lot better to be exactly obedient.

So, theres this thing called "Mundito" which is like "Mini World" and after lunch we thought about where exactly we should go and what we should do. And Satan gave us a small idea but we shunned him. Lol. So we went to contact by the mundito. To a mom and her daughter, The moms name is Tomasa. We talked for about 15 minutes and then she invited us to go to her house right then to talk more because she has had so many questions and just never felt like she could trust anyone. So we went to her house and taught her about The Restoration and prayer and the Book of Mormon and we gave her one and she was so happy that we came, and now we have another appointment with her on Tuesday.

Then, (I will say because we shunned Satan, God gave us those miracles) later that night, we went to the church cause every Thursday night, in the chapel, we have a lesson for investigators and play games or sports. So we got there and had our lesson planned, and while we were waiting for people to come in, this young girl Danitza Savedra(19) from Santa Cruz, came in and we went to find the room that we were going to have our class and we ended up just talking to her. She told us she came Monday night, Tuesday night, and Wednesday night just to find us. She broke down crying to us saying that she wants to change her whole life and find peace and calmness and hasn't been able to find it in any other church. She knew the church from years ago from a friend but now that she has been hurting, memories of the the church came to her. She shared with us her beautiful repentant heart. It made me cry. We have been visiting her a lot and she will be baptized on the 10th of September. I have never met someone so ready and prepared for this step. She even went and bought a skirt that was long enough for church and just watching the young single adults of the ward just take her in like she was theirs made my heart so full. I haven't been able to think about anything else than, "Just look what God does, He is a God of miracles." And I'm sure he loves to give us these blessings and miracles. Im so excited for her.

Yesterday, we had a lesson with a family that had been taking lessons from the missionaries since January. We haven't been able to meet with them until now. So when we got in their house, we had with us our Mission leader Evelio and his wife Marcela, and the mom had her friends from school there to do a project. There was a really weird feeling and neither my comp and I nor Evelio and his wife, knew what to talk about. We shared a scripture and asked them questions. The mom was almost making fun of us in the way she was looking over at her friends and then responding and I started to actually get offended, in a way that I probably would have just walked away had I been at my house. But I was in a lesson. I prayed to know how to help cause it was like a hopeless moment that we were trying to share. Then all of the sudden in a moment of silence, I just said, "The things that we talk about are not things of man. They're things of God. We are here to testify of the words of God so that you can have stronger relationship with God cause He´s not just God, He´s our father. When we invite you to pray and read His word, its so that you can feel His love for you in your lives." I really don't know how I said all that, I saw all their heads turn to me and it got so quiet and I had never felt such a high immediately from the spirit. Like I don't even know how I was able to process these words. But it was way cool to feel that and to fight for the truth and not just take mans embarrassment of the word of God.

I love this work. Its really special and brings many blessings and a lot of happiness and the best part about it, is that you don't even need a missionary tag to fight for this truth.

Have a great week, God loves you all! :)

"Teach the children and it won't be necessary to chastise man."

Funny story for the week, #notsofunny

We were walking and we found a drunk guy laying on the street so we wanted to give him a Word of Wisdom pamphlet we wrote him a little note that said that God loves him. Heres some pictures of that event. #Godlovesyou #wantstotalktoyou #butcantwhenyouredrunk

This week was great!
Nelson moved but he was so thankful that he had the Book of Mormon to bring with him, he said he's going to read it and then he will be back in December and let us know how he feels about everything. He called us right before he left to just say, "thank you so much for everything you taught me, Im really going to read this book."

He's a good guy and Im happy that he can go with his Book of Mormon. I seriously love the Book of Mormon! Its so good!

There is a part member family in our ward, La familia Canchi. Their son Roger(20) is preparing to serve a mission, his two siblings are members but his parents aren't, so we have been teaching them!

Last night, we had a family night with them and they had lots of questions about the priesthood and what it is and every explanation was more and more confusing. I had a experience come to mind that could help them to better understand the role of the priesthood and what it does.

Before my mission, I remember I felt really heavy and no ordinary prayer could help me. My dad didn't know why I had felt this way, and I didn't know either how to put into words to tell him why I felt this way, all I knew was that I needed to ask my dad for a priesthood blessing (the ability to act in the name of God to help guide his children) after the blessing I received I remember feeling a little more comfort but still the heavy feeling. I asked my dad what he thought I should do and he told me that I needed to go to my room and just pray and talk with Heavenly Father.

I remember falling to my knees and for a long time just talking to Heavenly Father as if he were in my room just to listen to me. I no longer felt that heavy feeling. I felt like a feather so light and completely forgiven.

I know the priesthood is truly the power of God. And that it has been restored through Joseph Smith and that we can feel comfort and love through this power.

They understood really well, well, I think they did haha cause they were nodding... But they said it was more clear of what it actually is. And they are a lot more motivated as parents for their son to go on a mission and they want to learn more about the church! Woo! I love this family!

Love you all and hope you have a great week!

This week has been so good!

I love my new area. Were not having too many lessons with investigators cause were basically starting from the beginning in the area. However, I'm learning so much.

Each of us who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ, I hope you know that even if you don't have a specific "calling" in your ward, that you still do have a calling. Its to be a disciple of Jesus Christ at all times. You can call upon the angels from above to accompany you in your service to others and in so doing, you will change lives like even Jesus Christ did.

God loves us so much. He wants to not only be there for us, but He wants to know about the small details in our lives. I promise you that as you pray, if you sincerely tell Him exactly how you feel and how you love this or don't like this and just cant have anymore of that, and you sincerely want Him to be there to help, He will be. He will never let you down. He will get right into the details of your life and I promise you that you will see them.

I know His plan for us isn't for us to just do alone. Its to do with His guiding hand and spirit. Because Satan has a plan to, and its working, and its powerful and its only to destroy. Where as God will only reward and give us the feeling of love and peace that He knows we, as humans, need to feel at least every now and then to keep us going.

This morning, I read in Alma 5.

I was so hit and felt like for the first time, I actually understood the message. In this chapter, it is about Alma who is talking about the importance of repentance and why and then later he tells them that he shares all the things with a spirit of invitation. God respects our agency. But only through following Jesus Christ can we actually feel real happiness.

I learned a lot from this great chapter. I hope to be the missionary like Alma, that is able to make the point clear, but lovingly invites everyone.

I hope all you disciples can feel the spirit of invitation this week and share your love and knowledge will others around you who might want to feel the love of God in their lives more frequently.

We are teaching a young man named Nelson Guerra Cortez. We contacted him one day in the street and it turns out he has been working on the house of the bishop and has been talking a little bit with them. We have visited him 2 times now and in the beginning, he had told us that he has his own beliefs cause he doesn't think it is necessary to be a part of a religion as long as he follows Jesus Christ. Turns out he actually had very similar personal thoughts and beliefs to the Gospel and what we teach. He is so pumped to read the Book of Mormon. He was supposed to move to Santa Cruz yesterday but turns out he won't be able to anymore and I know its a sign hehe :)

I love you all and I hope you have a great week!

We received our transfers last night, My comp is going to train, Im so happy for her, she is going to be great! I got transferred to open an area in Mesa Verde in Sucre with Sister Fuenzalida, I bet you'll never guess where she's from! SANTIAGO, CHILE too! All of my comps are from there :) Im really so excited, she is so awesome, we leave tomorrow!

This week has been really good! I've actually had a cold so thats a bummer. But I've had this desire to just teach more than ever. I've wanted to talk to everyone and I just love these people!

Elizabeth is doing really good and growing a lot. Im sad to leave this area because of all the people that I have met. But I know that it will be a good transfer.

I don't know if you remember Ana Belmonte, however, her dad past away this week and she sent us a text to tell us and that she is so thankful for her knowledge of the Plan of Salvation because of the peace and hope it brought to her. The Plan of Salvation isnt just any ordinary plan, it literally is a plan of God because He loves us so much.

I know that God knows all of us so specifically. I know that He knows the desires of our hearts and that as we follow the commands and example of Jesus Christ, that we will want, what He wants for us, for ourselves. He wants the best, it just takes our own desire to be humble that we will find that. Im so thankful for Christ's example that he has set for us and his pure love for us. I know that we need to have struggles so that we may to know to prize the good. I really love God so much! I hope you all have a great week, and that you can do something to help you feel the love of God in your lives. Know that it wont always be easy, but that it will be worth it.

Love you all.