Week 35! "The Details of Our Lives"

From 9/8/14

Hola Family and Friends,

This week went by fast! The branch members are a little desanimados, but they have testimonies that the gospel is true and are willing to work! :) I am excited to be here even though I still get lost!

I am learning SO much from my companion and I am grateful for her. Hna "H" is a HUGE example for me. Her family is very special, and that must make her why she is the way she is. We are practicing English and I am learning Spanish from her. The members love her! She is a rockstar.

We met a few very cool people. "C" and "Cia", "R" and "O". They are excited about learning more of the gospel. C really is escogido and accepted the gospel from the first visit we had with her this week!

I will try to pay close attention to more details for the email next week. Here's the weekly letter:

"We had a wonderful week in my new area! :) I truly love it here. I love and appreciate Hermana H. She is just so special! As we contact and teach people throughout the day, I am impressed every time with her teaching skills. She has a powerful testimony! She asks inspired and loving questions to all she meets, and teaches doctrine in a pure and simple way. During lessons, she gets me thinking, right alongside our investigators. :) Hermana H is a great example to me because she knows deep down who and Whose she is.
 
I am so excited to be here! I’ve felt ‘at home’ since arriving to the area. There are a couple familiar faces here too. One day, Hna H and I went to a ward member’s house and met Hna C and her daughter N. 'N' is not actively attending church, but her mom and brother do the very best they can to help in the branch and with missionary work.

When I met N, I did a double-take because it felt like I’ve met her before. She stared at me a little bit too. haha.  I asked her if we had met before or if she had gone to church in any of my previous areas. She replied, 'I remember now! I met you in the street a long time ago.'

As soon as she said that, I remembered too!! Hna C (one of my previous companions) and I went to an appointment and ran into N and her work colleague back in about April. Thinking they were not members, we invited them to learn more about the gospel and come to church. She told us, 'I am a member, but I am not active! I haven’t gone to church for over a year because of my work. I know I need to go back to church though.'

I vividly remember the details of our conversation with them. We invited her to do all she could to go to church and renew her covenants with the Lord. The Lord always has blessings for us in His hands that are conditional upon our obedience to have them. We reminded her that all those blessings that she stands in need of are dependent on her obedience.

It was the coolest feeling to be there with her this week and remember. She told her mom, 'remember that day I came home and said I found two sister missionaries in the street, here is one of them!!'

It was a testimony to me that Heavenly Father is in the details of our lives. I felt His love for me through N.

In our apartment complex, we have new neighbors living below us. Today as we left the house, a man walked out of his home and said ‘Hermanas! We are members too, but we are less active. We just moved in this week.’

He recognized Hermana H and named a few missionaries that she knows also. It was neat! He and his wife used to be in Hna H’s old area, and now couldn’t be closer to our home. :)

They are a tender mercy today. We are grateful the Lord has sent them to us and that they are willing to have us come by and teach them. AND they have a car. I’m thinking that they need an assignment to pick up investigators this Sunday. :)

The work of the Lord is going to go forward regardless of our strengths or weaknesses. It will go forth regardless of opposition or difficulty. That is the greatest blessing of the Latter-days. I am grateful to be a missionary. I am grateful for my companion and my mission leaders. I feel a need to stretch and be little better because of them."

 

Hope you all have a wonderful special week!

 

Lift where you stand. My invitation for the family this week is to visit a less active member of the church and help them in anyway they need. Bear your testimony to them. Offer service. Offer to pick them up Sunday. Be a friend to them. Help them kindle the fire of their testimony until it burns bright again. :)

 

Con Amor,

 

Hermana Fernelius <3

 

Me and my "new" companion.

We ate a complete pizza for ourselves today, haha :)

[This is a "business" card Ashley's dad ordered so he can share her mailing and blog addresses with the many friends and family that continue to ask about her.]