Argentina Posadas

Argentina Posadas

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

A Happy Girl



Family, and Everyone!!! 

So can I just say that this past week was amazing? I’m just a happy girl chillen here in Paraguay.  
Bridge between Brazil and Paraguay
Today we walked the bridge and went and saw Brazil!!!
This Wednesday, the 30th, we are having two baptisms!!! Carlos and Julio Martinez! They are the kids of a recent convert, Liliana, who was baptized in December. They are super cute. They are two little boys, and they are nuts!!! Like this past week they had their baptismal interview with the District leader. We went to get them to walk with them to the church for their interviews and they were super excited for their baptism. They were running and jumping up and down the whole time to the church. It is like 3 miles, haha. But they passed! They are super smart and know a lot. It has been fun teaching and working with them. 

Francisco is another investigator. He is 17 and the friend of some members. He has come seven times to church now! And last time the spirit was super strong as we taught him and he told his friend that he wants to serve a mission!! He should have already been baptized but he doesn’t have a lot of time for lessons so we haven’t been able to teach all of the lessons, but we are hoping that will happen in the next couple weeks. 

Victor is awesome still and he is planning on his baptism on the 9th, so we are praying! 

Ramon: He is 17 and he is kind of creepy cause he texted Hermana Pitts and told her that she was cute... haha. But he is a less active member´s friend and so we were like, “if they don’t come to church this week we will drop him.” BUT he came to church, so we will see where things go, haha. 

Last week one of our more chuchi [well-off?] families took us to this super nice Brazilian restaurant for lunch. It was fun.
The Rolim family continues to feed us each week.
Also, this past week, we met Ruth! Ruth is super cool. We contacted her house and shared to her mom and then when we were leaving, Ruth arrived home, and we were like, “we will come back another day to talk,” and she was like, “can´t you talk now?”, so we sat down with her and started to talk. She is Catholic but has been going to a Muslim type church but she just left it. She is really looking for the truth. We shared about lesson one and the Book of Mormon and she loved it!

THEN we met Rocio. So you know those days that EVERYTHING falls through, and it´s night time and you’re in a sketch area and you have no idea who to visit? Yup, that was this past Saturday. But we remembered this reference that a member had given us, so we went to see if she was home.

She came out, but she didn’t look very pleased to see us, so we were like, “this is going to be bad.” But then we said a prayer and we started to talk. The spirit came instantly and it was sooo spiritual!! She has been looking and going to different churches. She has been to ours twice before and she was like, “I felt the spirit there and I know that it is the true church”!
We invited her to be baptized and she readily accepted! I have never had someone say yes to baptism so fast! She still has to get married to her partner, which they are planning on, and she wants to be baptized! That lesson was so spiritual and one of the coolest and most directed by God. We knew that our plans had all fallen apart for a reason! 

God knows who is prepared and he knows how to do his work!
from Consejo with all those who have been my companions
Leadership Council
Yesterday for Easter we had hard boiled eggs and ate a chocolate bunny, haha. It was good. 

I know that God lives and that he loves each and every one of us and that Jesus rose from the dead, and that through him we are saved! I invite you all to watch General Conference this next weekend and beforehand have some questions on your mind. I know that God will answer them! 

Hermana Newell

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

The Second Coming



So what a week!!! This week was about the Second Coming! 

So we have always heard that the Second Coming was close and that we are in the last days but at least I thought that that meant that like I was going to be raising kids and grandkids and maybe then the Second Coming would happen. But this week my mind switched.

So we were eating lunch with Dr. Decio and we were talking and he was telling us about this transmition [satellite broadcast]  with Elder Bednar for the Stake Presidents and Bishops and presidencies. Elder Bednar said that we need to start using technology more because the work needs to go faster. He said that we need younger people who know how to use it because at the rate that we are going now it would take 40 years for the gospel to go to all the earth and to be ready for the 2nd coming. He said, “But we don’t have 40 years.”

An apostle of the Lord said that we don’t have 40 years to wait, it’s going to happen before 40 yrs. I’ve been super freaked out, well, not really, because I know that it is going to be something amazing but it has really made me think about how am I preparing and what more can I do to serve God.

I would like to invite all of you to do the same, “What can YOU do to prepare for the 2nd coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ?”  “What can YOU do more?”  “What can you change?” I have been studying a lot about this topic and I have felt the answer to so many questions and ideas. I have felt the spirit so strong as I’ve meditated on this! 

Also! So Victor is awesome! He is not going to be able to get baptized this Saturday because he couldn’t have his interview yesterday so we put a date for the 2nd. We had a lesson with him yesterday and it was soo spiritual! He told us that he knew the church was true, that he wanted it to be and that he wanted to eventually serve a mission. (He is 22!) The spirit was so strong as we talked. He felt it and we felt it. He is scared to take the step but he knows that it’s true and he is willing to do it!! 

Then, with Carolina, we are figuring out a wedding date so that she can then get baptized. She is so excited! 

We had 6 investigators at church yesterday! Hermana Pitts and I almost died. haha, It was so cool!

Oh, Yenni, a young woman that always goes out with us, received her mission call yesterday to the Brazil Fortaleza East mission!!! She leaves July 6th!  And another youth got his call to Cabo Verde, I think that is what it is called in English, the islands outside of Africa!

This past week was full of blessings and miracles and the spirit! We had splits and we also had our leadership meeting in Encarnation. It went super well! But we left at midnight Sunday night and didn’t really sleep Monday and then Tuesday night came home, so we were exhausted! 

We have been living without air conditioning for the past two weeks and it’s been like 40 degrees C so we have been dying of heat!! But hopefully tomorrow we get air! 

All is going really well! Sister Pitts is all better! I hope all is well there! And remember my invitation, do a self-analysis! 

Love you all, 

Hermana Newell

Monday, March 14, 2016

Amazing Cookies!



So this past week was kind of nuts. It went by so fast and we are already in week two of the transfer!
Well, right now I am in Encarnacion. It is right across the border and the river from Posadas, Argentina. Last night at 11:30 we left Ciudad del Este. We have our leadership meeting here tomorrow. It is like 6 hours in bus and they are Paraguayan buses so let´s just say that it wasn’t the best night of my life. haha.
Last Monday we had a lesson with the referral of a member family. It went super well! If they feel like it is true they said they will get baptized! They are Adrian and Elisa.
This week we had a ton of lessons and almost all of them with a member present, so it was great! Our investigators, Carolina and Sebastian, have a baptismal date for the 9th of April.  They have to get married first and Sebastian doesn’t have his correct paper work, so this is gonna be a rough one. But God is going to help! They really want to be baptized.
Clotilde is great. She is progressing and reading her Book of Mormon! We have a ful (a lot) of people progressing right now. It is incredible to see and the spirit has been so strong. Like in every lesson the spirit is there super strong.
From the past two worldwide capacitaciones [training] for missionaries we have started to implement a lot of new things. We are really focused on testifying and teaching repentance, and a whole lot of other things that have been making a big difference!
With Enrique, he is a recent convert, we talked about the obra misional [missionary work] and when we gave him his own copy of Preach My Gospel he started to cry. It was really special. He was so touched and is so ready to serve the Lord!
Joanne March is a lady from South Africa. She is a member. She doesn’t speak any Spanish and speaks British English. We went over there and shared a scripture but heck was that hard to do in English!!! Like the prayers, the reading of the scriptures, testifying, it was all soo much harder and super weird. haha.
We have so many people who want to give us lunch it is nuts! Like everyone is fighting over us and giving us so many referrals! It is so weird, like amazing, but so different from any of the other areas here!
Funny story: This week at lunch, with a wealthy member, she asked if we wanted cookies. We were like, “sure.” So she opens this good sized cupboard and it is jam-packed full of cookies! Like 200 different types of cookies! She gave us each (us and the elders) like 6 packets!
Yesterday we had our choir! It went really well. And we had 144 people at church!!
My Guarani and Portuguese are getting better! But all the missionaries say that my Mexican accent is turning into a Paraguayan one, which is awful because it is not a very pretty accent, so I’m sad....
I’ll be here in EncarnaciĆ³n until tomorrow night, and then head back to Ciudad del Este. Everything is going really well. I want you all to know that I know that God lives, and I know the Jesus Christ is my Savior. I know that this is his work and he is the head of this church!
Love,
Hermana Newell