Mackenzie's Mission: February 23, 2016

Kim here again! Well, I've been a little behind in getting Mackenzie's emails and pictures up but here is one week and I will try to get the other week up tonight as well. She is loving her mission and is so grateful to all of you for your love and support and your interest in what she is doing in Uruguay! We love you all!Hi everyone! This week has been really great! We have had a lot of rain and have seen a ton of progress in our investigators! Also, this week we have the conference with Elder Bednar! I am super excited about it!

So we have an investigator, Alejandra. She is 22 and has a 9 year old son and 7 year old daughter. Alejandra has been struggling with using drugs for a really long time now. But her and her family are so amazing. I seriously love them so much! This week her and her son committed to baptism! Yay! She also came to church this week! She has been receiving lessons from the missionaries for over six months and she has never been to church. This was a huge step for her! Also, she has been clean from drugs for a week now! She knows what she wants now in life and is working super hard to change it! It is so amazing to see the gospel working with others to improve their lives! It is such a testimony builder to me. Also, funny story. Yesterday we had a charla (lesson) with her and her kids and we were talking about how the gospel blesses our lives and some people can have really hard lives. Well Alejandra said oh yeah! I learned about that when I was in prison last year! I got bored and stir crazy one day so I attacked a security guard! They put me in solitary confinement and it was the worst!! What? haha she is so funny!

Plus right now, she has a friend and her two kids living with her! When we taught them yesterday her friend's son was with us. When we showed the picture of Christ being baptized he freaked out! He started yelling no!! Why are they trying to kill Jesús?! It was soo funny hahaha. We get random funny questions like that all the time!

We also have another investigator who we are teaching. His name is Alejandro! He also went to church this Sunday! He had taken the lessons two years ago and then his wife died. He didn't want anything to do with the church at that point. But he is coming back yay! He also has really bad knees and so he can barely walk. The bishop of our branch is a friend of his and so he came and gave him a blessing Saturday when we had our charla(lesson) with him. And when we talked to him yesterday he said he woke up that morning and it was like he forgot he had ever had pain in his knees!! What a miracle right?

I am so grateful that we have the authority of God on the Earth today with things, like blessings for health and sealing families together for eternity! I am grateful for this gospel and the peace and comfort it brings to me! I know that we can have our families forever and we can always talk to our Father in Heaven wherever and whenever! I know we can receive answers to our prayers if we are putting in the work. If we don't care about receiving revelation we really won't get it. We have to put in the work and be spiritually prepared to receive answers! I also know that we have to have patience in the Lord's timing in receiving those answers! I was Reading In Jacob 5 with the parable of the Lord of the vineyard and the servant. We need to be like the servant and spare it a little longer (Jacob 5:2). We need to keep working and have patience. I love this gospel so much and the opportunity I have to be serving a mission! I love it so much. Everyone here is so relaxed. Last night was a really nice night out so everyone was outside their houses and my companion and I were walking home. There were a bunch of kids playing soccer in the street and they all yelled Hola Mormonas! haha You can just really feel the love the Lord has for the people here. I hope you all have a fantastic week! I love you all!

Love,

Hermana Rich