Lili's Wedding and Griselda and Norma

Hola a todos!!! Como les han pasado esta semana pasada?

This past week has crazy. Honestly, sometimes being a leader isn’t very fun because we had meetings like almost every day and I felt super useless in the mission field but God knows that it is necessary. But it was also a super amazing week!

The biggest things that happened were:

We had Consejo de lideres. So Hermana Pitts and Hermana Martinez were here in Encarnacion! It is great to see both of them and also all of the other elders and hermanas. President and Hermana Svec were there as well and it was good to get to know them better!

Then there was a wedding!!! When Hermana Lopez was in Rama 2 here in Encarnacion about 7 months ago she reactivated Lili. This past Friday Lili got married to a returned missionary and Saturday they were sealed in the temple. It was incredible! It made me think so much about the wedding that I will attend in December... of my twin sister and I almost cried.... but we won’t talk about that right now. On to happier thoughts! haha

We met with Norma and Griselda. They are sisters that are referrals of some members and they came to church last Sunday, They are both super excited to be able to get baptized! They are both praying to know if the church is true and if they should be baptized. Norma is 20 and Grise is 19. Grise wants to serve a mission!!! Last night we had a family home evening with the Zanabria Family and Grise. Heck, it was so spiritual we talked about faith and Brother Zanabria shared about baptism and Grise was so excited to be baptized. In the week we had taught about the Book of Mormon. When we gave her one she said, “Wow, this book has gone through so much and you guys just gave it to ME,” and she was so excited to read it! When in the world does an investigator say that about the Book of Mormon? Then when we talked about the baptism last night and I invited her to be baptized she was like, “Wow, thank you for the invitation!” She felt so special and was super excited to pray to see if she should be baptized! She is amazing! So she and Norma are amazing!

Graciela, the recent convert, is doing amazing. She wants to start her family tree and go to the temple to do the baptism for her mom! She is so excited to learn more and in progressing a ton!

Today we went to the beach and built sand temples, haha. We built the Paraguay, Salt Lake and Honduras temples. It was pretty great!

Something that I learned this week:

WE have really been focusing on extending baptismal invitations.I have learned that fear weakens faith and that as we have faith, and we act and we ask and invite it becomes so much easier and more spiritual, and that only by that can the people change their lives.

Also, read Romans 8, it is an amazing chapter that explains so much about who we are and our relationship with God, our heavenly father!

I love you all!

Hermana Newell