December 26, 2016

Merry Christmas everyone!

Just so you all know....skyping with Hermana Rich on Christmas was amazing!!!!  She is doing great and it was great to spend 40 minutes with her!  We were  blessed enough to have all of her siblings here with us to be able to visit with her since they weren't able to be here for Mother's day!  We are so grateful for the blessing of technology to be able to skype with her.  Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!
Kim

Hola Familia!! 

This week has been really good despite not being in our area for two days!! I had a fun hospital trip to Montevideo to do some blood work and then we had our Christmas conference the next day!! The Christmas conference was really good and it was fun to be with half the mission! Plus we got brownies and ice cream..it tasted like America!! 

It has been super, super hot here this week and super, super humid..that means we had a ton of rain!! Christmas day here was really interesting because it was pouring down rain and everyone was sleeping from partying the night before! So we walked around in streets with water up to our ankles. In the end we just laughed because there was nothing else that you could do!!
Christmas here is pretty different than in the states. Christmas eve is what they celebrate more! They do a big BBQ and stay up partying until super late in the morning on Christmas day! We went to Familia Barretos house and hung out with them until ten thirty. Then we stayed up at our house until twelve thirty! We got up on our roof at twelve to watch the fireworks show and it was pretty crazy!! At one point a big old part of a firework fell on our roof and their fireworks sound like bombs!! They thought it would be fun to set one off right in front of our door..not going to lie..I screamed a little!! The next day we had church and we had seven investigators there! We were super stoked and we have the familia rodriguez's baptism on Saturday!!They are soo excited and have progressed soo much!! Overall it was a really great week and I couldn't be happier!! I have loved being able to be an instrument in the Lord's hands and feel of my Savior's love for me. As this new year quickly approaches I invite you all to think about ways that you can come unto Christ a little more this year!! I love you all and I hope you have a happy new year!!

Love,
Hermana Rich

Hermana Rich & Hermana Backstein

Hermana Rich and Hermana Backstein celebrating with the Barretos Family

Package arrived and it only took two months!

New kind of Christmas tree!

MMMMM...Brownies and ice cream!  AND A STRAWBERRY!  One of her favorites!

Hermana Rich, Hermana Backstein and President Eddy and his family

December 19, 2016

Hello family!! 

This week has been very interesting to say the least! I have been sick with another stomach infection so I wasn't able to go out and work too much! But I am going to go get some tests done and should be up and working real soon!!

This week everyone has been putting up their Christmas lights and Christmas trees! It is finally starting to feel like Christmas even though we are melting from the heat!!

On Friday night we had our end of the year dinner as a ward and it was sooo fun!! Last minute they asked me to play Mary in the nativity scene and so I had a husband who was 15 and super crazy!! It was really funny because it was supposed to be the primary but they didn't have enough kids so I was Mary and my comp was the angel!! For dinner we did asado of lamb and it was really good! I only had a little piece because they put me on a special diet but the piece that I had was wayyyy good!! Speaking of which I also completed my dream of touching a sheep!! (and not the one that I ate!) It was way fun and an easy way to contact some people!

This week even though I have not been feeling great we had a lot of miracles!! To start off on Sunday our recent convert, Omar, gave a talk! It was soo good and made me cry a little just because I was soo happy! Then on top of that our other recent convert, Daniel, received the priesthood! Then We had 8 investigators at church! We were soo happy!! The Lord really does bless us for our efforts! Later that day we went and visited a family that had come to church that we have been working with and the parents and their son all accepted a baptismal date!! So we now have six people getting ready to be baptized and I have just loved being able to watch how the gospel is changing these peoples lives!! The family, Veronica and Ruben, when we first started to teach them wanted to get a divorce and now they are so happy and the feeling in their home is so different. They said they had started reading the Book of Mormon out loud together as a family and it has changed everything!! I am soo grateful for the gospel in my life! I know I am a different person because of the gospel and that through Christ I can do all things! I learned a lot about that this week. It was soo hot out and I didn't feel good but I knew that there were people who needed to hear about the gospel. I know that it was Christ who made it possible for me to find the energy and health to be able to go out and work for a few hours and because of my faith and efforts he helped us to find the people who were prepared to receive the gospel. Sometimes life isn't easy but when we trust in the Savior he will always make everything to be for our benefit and show us the way we can support all things. I love you all so much and I am so grateful for all the love and support that you have shown me throughout this last year! I hope you have a great weekend and A merry Christmas!!


Love,
Hermana Rich

Hermana Rich does love her watermelon!

December 12, 2016

Hola Familia!! 

This week has been soo great!! My new companion is Hermana Backstein! She is from good ol' Rexburg, Idaho! I love her soo much! Her Spanish is amazing and she is the sweetest girl I have ever met! I am super excited for these next two changes together!! 

This week was literally a week full of miracles. First off, I traveled to Montevideo by myself and it all went super smoothly!! Based on my past mission luck that was a huge miracle!!  Then we had a youth activity, something super low key! We just played soccer and at this activity our recent convert's daughters, Ximena and Antonella came!! They have been attending church for over three months but didn't want to get baptized! At the end of this activity they both went up to their mom and said they wanted to get baptized. We had a charla(lesson) with them and their dad yesterday and all of them are going to be baptized on the 30th!! It was the craziest miracle!! Then at this activity we had another girl come that we had never seen before. She was friends with a member in the ward. Well while we were planning, the member called us and told us that her friend wanted to have charla with us. So the next day we met with her and she wants to get baptized!! She will be getting baptized on the seventh!! 

We also had Daniel's baptism this week!! It was so awesome! His parents came and his best friend. Also, when he showed up he was in new clothes! The young mens presidency found him new pants, a white shirt and tie and new shoes! He would come to church in sweats with a beat up blue button up shirt because he didn't have better. I wanted to cry when I saw him and what made it even better is that he said he was a future elder!! It made me sooooo beyond happy!! 

I just love being in the service of my Savior!! All of the miracles that we see every week just strengthen my testimony. I know that Heavenly Father loves us and he knows what each and every one of us need. I love being able to testify of the truth every moment of every day! I know that I was meant to come on a mission at this time in Uruguay. I love you all and I hope you have a fantastic week!! 

Love, 

Hermana Rich

#lighttheworld

#;o

#lighttheworld

December 6, 2016

Hola familia!! 

This week has been sooo great. I just love Sarandi Del Yi and the mission..you know it is just the greatest!! We had the baptism of Elena this past week! It was fantastic..and super funny!! Elena has an aluminum..ohhh what is the word...rod!! She has an aluminum rod in her spine and so she can't bend backwards like normal for the baptism! So we had planned everything and even practiced that she was just going to sit down in the water so that the water covered her head. Well Hermano Girona told her don't worry if we don't get it the first time, we will get it the second time for sure!! Well apparently that scared her! She didn't want to do the baptism over again so instead of sitting down she threw herself backwards!! We seriously thought she had fallen and we were super worried about her back! But when we went to talk to her she told us baptism is only meant to be done once and so she changed plans! It was so funny!! Thank goodness her back was totally fine!  

This has also been a week full of creepy crawly things. The Lord is really trying me! This week we saw a big poisonous snake next to a house that we were visiting..it was disgusting! Then while we were waiting in the church there was a big old spider on the wall right next to me. Then we had flying beetles coming into our house and chasing us out of our study room. It is always an adventure to say the least!!  

This week we also had a little bump in the road with Daniel's parents. We had passed by his house to invite Daniel to a church activity, right? Well his Dad invited us to come in the house but we couldn't come in because his mom wasn't home. (for those who don't know we have to have a member of our same gender with us to teach the opposite sex) We explained to him the rule that we had and he seemed fine. But when we passed by for Daniel again he seemed SUPER different. Well it turns out that his parents got super offended that we didn't come in the house. His dad told him he wasn't allowed to pray in the house anymore or get baptized. If he got baptized they were going to kick him out of their house and the next time we passed by he was going to tell us all of these horrible things. We obviously didn't want to upset the family and Daniel was super sad that he couldn't get baptized. So we decided to pass by and apologize. Every time we passed by his parents weren't home. I was so nervous and sad that Daniel wasn't going to be able to get baptized and I prayed about it every day and I just felt like everything was going to work out. We passed by the other day and we FINALLY found his parents. We apologized for everything that had happened and in the end his parents were fine! They even said that he could get baptized and that they would come to support him!! What a miracle!! The Lord really does answer our prayers!! Daniel is super excited and we are going to have his baptism on Saturday!  I know that Heavenly Father hears and answers our prayers. Christ is at the head of this church and he is working just as hard as we are to bring these people to the truth. I know that I could not have done anything here in Uruguay without my Savior and Heavenly Father. They love us and they know what is best for us! 

On that note I am happy to share that I have been called to train another missionary for the next two changes!! I was not expecting that phone call at all but again, Heavenly Father knows best! I am really excited and I can't wait to see who my companion is! I will go to pick her up tomorrow from Montevideo!! But I love you all and I hope you have a great week!! 

Love, 

Hermana Rich