Februar 20, 2017

Hola mi familia y amigos!! 

So another week has just flown by!! It just goes by faster and faster!! We have just been working like crazy and the heat is also killing us!! The weather here just throws me for a loop!! At one second I am walking around in a sweater because it is cold and the next I am getting sunburned! Then you throw some rain in and that makes up the weather for this week!! It is crazy!! 

We have new investigators popping up everywhere and makes for a very busy schedule but I love it!! We have an investigator in Pueblito de Dios so we get to walk alll the way out there! It is only five miles but there is nothing on the way there!! 

Julia should be having her baptism on Friday and we are sooo excited for her!! She is the craziest old woman I have ever met and I love her to death! She let us name her two new kittens and sowe named them California and Idaho! It is pretty funny!!  

Cambios(transfers) are getting closer and I should know where I am going next week! This area just has my heart and it will be really hard to say goodbye! Everyone is just doing so well and they really are my family out here!! But I trust that the Lord knows best and that whatever happens is what needs to happen!! I love you all and I hope you have a great week!!

Love, 

Hermana Rich

February 13, 2017

Hello my dear family!!

This week has been one for miracles, that is for sure!! Sarandi del Yi is just the promised land!! We have been working with this investigator, Julia. She is Leandro's mom and Leandro is currently waiting for his mission call!! She has been taking the lessons for about a year and has never felt that the time was right to get baptized herself. Well we had a charla with her and we talked about baptism and she tells us that yes, she wants to get baptized! And on the 25 of this month!!! Now all she talks about is her baptism! The crazy thing is that is the same day that her sister has decided to get baptized as well!! I was sooooo happy!! It is all in the Lord's timing!!

Also, last night we had a noche de hogar with the familia Sosa Gonzalez y Rodriguez Gonzalez! We milked alfajores, ate brownies, peanut butter sandwiches, AND it was Ruben's birthday!! It was so fun!! I love these two families sooo much!! It has been amazing to see them progress and grow! I can truly see a difference every time we stop by their house!! 

Today we had a zone activity and it was sooo fun!!  It was super humid out because we have had rain for days, but we played soccer anyways!!! It was sooo fun to be out playing again!! Of course, the Elders didn't know I had played before and acted like I had never touched a ball in my entire life. It was pretty funny!! 

I just want you all to know that I know this gospel is true and that Heavenly Father is aware of us and everything that is going on in our lives. He hears and answers our prayers and He knows what we need best. I have loved being able to watch how the Lord plays such an intricate part in all of our lives. I love my mission and I am so grateful for the decision I made to serve. I know that my mission was made just for me, with everyone of my areas and companions. I love my Savior and my Heavenly Father! I also love all of you!! I hope you have a great week!! 

Love,
Hermana Rich

February 6, 2017

Hola Familia!!

It has been another great week this week!

We are currently trying to find new investigators to teach!! But we were walking in a part of our area this past week and we felt very strongly that we needed to go pass by one of our old investigators that we had left when I was here with Hermana Rios! Well we went and this investigator, named Juana, was sitting outside!! We talked with her for a little bit and she let us share a message with her!! We talked about the love that Christ has for us and how he never leaves us alone! She started crying and saying that this is exactly what she needed and accepted a baptismal date there and then!! We are super excited but she has a few difficulties with going to the church so we are going to see what we can do to help her! Gladys is doing very well with a renewed desire to come unto her Savior and is taking her baptismal date with a lot more seriousness. There is a completely different feeling in our charlas and we can really see that she is doing her part too. Also, on Sunday Ruben Sosa received el sacerdocio!! Ruben Rodriguez was able to participate in the ordenanza and it was a very spiritual moment for me!! I have grown to love these two families so much!! To watch them grow and progress in the gospel makes me soo happy! I can only imagine how Heavenly father feels watching us as we grow and progress!! Everything is just so great here In Sarandi Del Yi!!
This week I have been reading in Third Nephi and the spirit is just sooo strong!! but there is a part that Really called my attention today during my studies. In chapter 18 verse 25 it talks about how Christ never commands anyone to leave him but he is inviting everyone to come unto him. Every single one of us, he is calling us and inviting us. But he won't come to us. He requires that we take those steps of faith to show him that we are willing to submit our will to His. That is why we have the scriptures, prayer, our church assistance, and our leaders. Heavenly Father has given us all of these things so that we can come unto our Savior. I personally have set goals to help me come unto my Savior even more and I would like you all to do the same! I know if we do so with a spirit of prayer that the Holy Ghost will tell us just how to do it!! I love you all and I hope you have a fantastic week!

Love,
Hermana Rich

January 30, 2017

Hello Family and Friends!!

This week I think will forever hold a very special place in my heart! The familia Sosa Gonzalez got baptized this week!! It was the most special moment in my entire mission. To watch each of them enter into the waters of baptism was sooo amazing. To know that a year from now they will enter into the temple to be sealed as a family for time and all eternity brings so much joy to my heart that I cannot begin to describe it!! The changes that have been made in each of their lives personally and as a family are so amazing! The Lord had been preparing them for such a long time and I am so grateful that he found me worthy enough to be able to witness them come unto Christ! The whole ward came too! We had over forty people at this baptism. We didn't have enough seats so people had to stand up in the back!! 

I can't lie when I had received the cambio call that I was going to be leaving Pando I was really upset and frustrated but now I understand why I needed to come to Sarandi del Yi. We really cannot rely on our own understanding. Heavenly Father knows soooo much better than we do what we need and how we can help others. I know it can be hard to accept his will but the blessings we receive from submitting our will to his are indescribable. I have really seen this throughout all of my mission!
I love my mission so much. I am so grateful for the choice I made to serve. If I had never submitted my will to Heavenly Father's I would never have come out here or met all of these amazing people and witnessed so many amazing experiences!!

On a side note, today in the kitchen Hermana Backstein and I made emapanadas!! They actually turned out really good! We made the dough, cooked the meat and threw it all together!! It was a lot of work but we were really proud of them!!  But I love you all and I hope that you will be able to recognize more fully the Lord's hand in your life day in and day out!! I promise you that if you will look for it you will see that he is there helping us every step of every way every day!

Love,
Hermana Rich

January 23, 2017

Hello my dear family and friends!!

This has been a great one but Hermana Backstein and I have been melting!! We are supposed to have some even more intense heat in these next few days and then rain..and then heat again! You got to love the good old Uruguayan clima!!

This week we had Maximo's baptism and it was soo great!! He was so excited and when he was confirmed on Domingo he just cried! It was really precious and I have loved being able to see him progress and change! That is one of the greatest things about missionary work is being able to see how the atonement plays such a huge role in people's lives to help them find the true happiness!! I have really been able to see a difference in all the recent converts that we have here in Sarandi Del yi!! And not just for those that have been baptized. The familia Sosa Gonzalez have progressed leaps and bounds these last few weeks!! I actually told them that we can feel the difference when we walk into their home! It is amazing! All three of them will be getting baptized on Thursday and the whole ward is soo excited!!

As for this week on the menu we learned how to make fideos con tuco! O sea pasta with a vegetable sauce! Making the pasta was sooo fun and it was soo good!! I really have taken a liking for cooking in the last few weeks! We will see how I do!

But I want you all to know that I love you very much and I am so grateful for my Savior that paid the price for me to be able to go back to my Heavenly Father. I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father that willingly gave up his only begotten son so that we can return to him! I love you all and invite you all to think of some ways that you can apply the atonement or the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made more fully in your lives! Have a great week and know that this girl is praying for you!!

Love,

Hermana Rich