Happy Mom's Day!

¡¡FELIZ DIA DE LA MADRE!!

Wow! OK so where do I even start with this week...its been a wild one.

So last Monday we had fun in a zone activity playing volleyball and my companion was really excited to be able to touch a soccer ball even though we couldn't play with the elders. hna Murdock showed me how to do a rainbow! She impressed the Latino elders with her skills too. 

As soon as we got to 6:30 Monday night we HIT the ground running!! We were both determined to work our heart out this week and that went super super great until about Wednesday afternoon and I don't know what happened exactly but I turned into a ZOMBIE. Like i COULD not function even if I wanted to and it was SO frustrating because we had a SUPER important appointment with our investigator that night who was supposed to get baptized on Saturday. and I had become basically mute! hna Murdock was tired to but we got to the appointment and literally all I could do was just look at her and smile and occasionally offer a few inspired words. but hna Murdock had to basically be in charge of the whole lesson. She didn't like it but I was actually pretty amazed at how well she did. I think it might have been divine intervention that was making me keep my mouth shut so that hna Murdock could be able to have that experience to prepare her for lessons when I won't be there not there to help her. But it was a wonderful lesson and the spirit was very strong, because we were both just 100%relying on the spirit. Afterward we made cheesecakes with the familia Aramayo and the familia Fernandez. Los amamos tanto!! les encantaron los cheesecakes tambien!!!

On Thursday we had an English class and also Natalia Aramayo had her baptismal interview. Turns out she needs a little bit more time. We're okay with that. The English class we had hyped everyone up about a LOT and we thought a lot of people would come. So we made the cheesecakes AND brownie bites. well we had a nice class with our 3 students and ate a LOT of sugar that night. My companion had a lot of fun teaching English. 

On Friday it rained a lot all morning and I had come down with a cold. We had planning all morning which was good but going out in the cold in the evening was hard. 

On Saturday we woke up ready to work at full gear again and we had a successful day. We had some great lessons and taught some great people about the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation. My companion has been practicing how to invite people how to pray. She's getting really good at teaching now. We got home feeling like we had worked our hardest to the very last minute and we were feeling good until the call from our zone leaders came. Turns out that they are CLOSING OUR AREA :(  that was really hard for hna Murdock. She will be finishing her training with hna Acevedo in La Colorado. They are bringing in elders to Guaracal. It could be that there's just really not any hnas in the mission right now but the elders that are coming seem pretty excited to pick up where were left off and I think they are gonna take good care of the area for us. It is hard though.

Sunday we finished the first six weeks of Hna Murdock's training. She's progressed so much. We had decided to not worry about picking up the familia Aramayo to go to church this week because we wanted to see if they had the strong enough desire to be able to come to church on their own. 

They arrived just before the sacrament!! and they stayed all three hours!! They'll be okay after we leave. The ward was all pretty shocked and sad to find out that we were both leaving. Literally the sacrament meeting hymns were "placentero nos es trabajar" which only exists in Spanish but is what they sing to say goodbye to people also "called to serve" for the rest hymn and "God be with you till we meet again" for the ending hymn. This ward sure knows how to send off a missionary. Honestly I'm so glad I got to end my mission in Guaracal. We loved the people so much this cambio, and we realized on Sunday that they had really really come to love us as well. 

We were busy all day running from one house to the other and we were ready to throw up from all the food people were giving us. masaco, arroz con leche, emanadas. One member felt bad for never being able to teach us how to make cuñape so we went over and she showed us how. I'll make it when I get home its super good. But we were ready to explode that's for sure. We also made our video phone calls for mothers day and had some wonderfully bittersweet goodbyes.

This is God's work and it is a work of Love. Our only job is to love the people. If we can do that, then we've succeeded in our calling as missionaries of the Lord. We did our job. We loved the people, and that's really all that people really need, is to feel loved. I've really striven to do God's will this cambio and we weren't perfect and not all our plans followed through, but we had willing hearts, the spirit, a positive attitude, and a desire to serve, and I feel like that's exactly what He expected of us. Being a missionary, is a special and sacred calling. I love being a missionary. 

So this weeks gonna be weird. I'll see y'all on Saturday. 

I testify that God loves us and that it is truly a Joy to share His gospel. 

I am a representative of Jesus Christ, and a member or His Church. I testify that He lives, he is our Savior, and that repentance brings up true and lasting happiness and peace. 

Love you guys. have a great week, see y'all on the other side,

Love and Luck from Santa Cruz, Bolivia

Hermana Brown

Down to the Wire

Hey everyone!! First of all thank you for all your prayers! Because I know we have been very blessed this week! Thank you!!

Multi-Zone Conference

So this last conference was great because it was a lot about the new ministering program and I think its something we really needed because being a high baptizing mission its easy to get caught up in the numbers but with the idea of ministering to the people and the members we can really see a lot more success and have a more fulfilling experience with investigators and that's really what we should be doing. It was a good conference and I learned a lot. I also felt very blessed because hna Rodriguez assigned me and hna Murdock to organize the special musical number with hna Gardner and hna Allen. So that was perfect because me and hna Gardner are dying together and hna Murdock and hna Allen are in training and it was great to be able to do music again with hna Gardner. We had both thought of the same song to sing too we chose "Peace in Christ" and it all came together really well even though we only had a couple of days to practice. But it was perfect. I'm glad I got to sing in my last conference. Also I'm glad I got to hear the Last testimonies of hna Gardner and hna Hartline who are from my ccm group. The spirit was very strong and I can see how far we've all come from a year and a half ago. Its incredible. I cried as I gave my last testimony in the conference. But I felt like I said all I wanted to say. 

here's the short version of what I said-

"I know that all that we as missionaries teach and all that we represent, is true. I love being a missionary, and I love the Lord."

Marcia y Natalia

We taught about Fasting this week with our wonderful familia Aramayo!! They are progressing so well!! We invited them to participate in a Fast with us this last Thursday and it was really cool to be able to do that with them. I'd never fasted with an investigator before so it was very special to learn that they both had successfully completed the 24 hour fast. They have so much faith I love them!! I feel like they are really growing in their faith so much. I'm so happy for them.

Ministering

This week i feel like me and hna Murdock have been able to put into practice the new ministering concept. As missionaries we always don't seem to have a lot of time to do all the things. But we made brownie balls for some of our ward leaders this week and delivered them just to be able to say thanks and show them that they are loved, and we feel that it has really made a difference in the ward. I feel good because I feel like even though I'm not prefect, at least the things that we do do are meaningful things. So I hope that everyone can work on their ministering skills. Make sure to always do good things out of LOVE. Love the people. Do things that have meaning. Even if they're small. By small things great things come to pass. But those small things have to matter.

Hna Murdock

hna Murdock is doing great!! She keeps surprising me with how well she's progressing! She's a very brave person and she has so many wonderful ideas. I know she is blessing this ward so much and I'm glad to know that I'll be leaving Guaracal in great hands. Her Spanish is very good and she's learning more every day. She's a brave person and a strong missionary and I love her very  much! I feel very blessed to be her trainer.

Love from the Ward

So yesterday we were pleasantly surprised! After church one of the members who is a great friend invited us over to her house to "help her move some things" we said yes, suspiciously sounding as it was and we were surpised with a lovely sign that said " love from the missionaries shows us the love of the Savior" or something like that and lots of treats and balloons. We felt very loved and I wanted to cry. I love this ward and I'm glad that they feel loved. 

I've also learned that every ward is different and you cant work the same on one ward as you did in the other. I think the way to this wards heart is: Food. ha ha 

Well this weeks gonna be great! and we are gonna be VERY busy! i hope y'all will do the same!!

love y'all!

Santa Cruz, Bolivia

Hermana Brown