April 27, 2015

I had a fantastic birthday week!  Really it was so great.  We did divisions with Hermanas en Sunchalez and Rafaela.  Both are desert towns in Santa Fe.  It is so fun and rewarding to be able to work with other hermanas and get to know them and be their friends.  We traveled 4 hours there and 4 hours back.  It is also fun to be able to see a little bit of the landscape (I am kind of distracted as I write because there is some screamo music playing really loudly in this place).

But on my birthday, a married couple of missionaries invited us over for lunch (as we were in their area of Sunchalez).  They are from Switzerland and speak English, German, Spanish, and French!  I have no idea how they do it.  They are Elder and Hermana Hohermuth.  And so sweet!  They made me that swiss boiled cabbage that I am forgeting what it is called but it was great to eat something different.  She also made me a cute little blue cake and we ate outside on their patio and drank malta.  Then we RAN to catch our bus and we were almost running late every all week!    Then we went to visit a family in Rafaela during divisions, and it was the birthday of the dad of the family!  And they gave me a wallet (people here are so amazing they just want to give us everything) and I shared with them about pre-exhistence and how they were specifically chosen to be pioneers for their family and the branch.  It was a powerful and amazing night.

I wanted to write about this boy we have been teaching named Elias.  He is 22 and was brought to church by a returned missionary in our ward here.  He had approached this returned missionary (Fabricio) earlier in the week and said that he wanted to change his life.  He had been in the streets a lot... doing drugs and lots of other things.  But we had a lesson with him in the chapel with Fabricio.  OH MY I WISH THAT I COULD EXPRESS THIS LESSON.  The spirit was so strong as we talked about repentance and forgiveness.  He began to cry as he told us that he was willing to do ANYTHING to be able to feel better and change.  He said how he wanted to show to his family that he was worth something, and he knows that Jesus Christ is the only way to be able to overcome the things that he has done.  He is going to be baptized on May 9th and be clean of everything he has ever done and be able to bless the lives of so many as a faithful member of the church! 

I am so grateful for these amazing experiences that we are able to have every day. And to have had 20 years of an amazing family and friends, and the eternity to come!