Week 45! "An Awesome Future Missionary?"

From 11/17/14

Hola Family and Friends!!!

HOW ARE YOU ALL!!!!!! It sounds like you all had a great week which is wonderful to hear. I can't believe it's getting cold there. Fall and Winter in Las Vegas will forever be my favorite weather. :) I forget what seasons are like. D:

Guess where I am currently at? ....with almost all of my favorite people. You know, Hermana C, Hermana N, and her companion Hermana H!! Isn't that awesome?! We had the most fun today doing nothing, as usual. But when you are with people that just get it, it's always a great time.

 

We've had a wonderful week! I am learning to retrain my thought process, so I am trying to only see the positive. Holding on to negative thoughts that don't help you progress ARE USELESS: Don't hold on to those, people. Let the frustrating, uncontrollable circumstances go. Let those go super far away :) My companion and the sisters that are living in our house are helping me do that.

 

They are awesome! The mission is awesome. :)

 

Hna C and I are working hard on several investigators to help them to progress. THEY ARE SO GREAT!!!!

 

We went with J to the Centro de Autosuficiencia ["center of self-reliance"] on Friday. We got on a bus in the afternoon and met a lady in the stake center who really excited him about finishing high school and preparing to work. He is also excited about the idea of serving a mission. Then on Saturday we met him at the stake center again for stake conference. He showed up in his brand new purple collared shirt that he bought for church. :) The theme of the conference was? Self reliance.

 

He really loved it, partly because he understood a little bit about the theme, and also because a speaker gave a talk with Nephi references. So J totally understood and picked up on those references. He loved hearing from President Kusch too.

 

He came again on Sunday on his own and really liked the messages from the special broadcasted conference by Elder Neal A Anderson and other general authorities. It was a conference only for Cuernavaca, Mexico City and Pechuca. It was about several themes. One of the quotes by him:

 

"Sacrifice is giving up something good for something better."

 

We arrived to church with L and her husband R (refer to old emails about them). They really really enjoyed it. We brought a little bit of chocolate to keep happy, and a coloring book for their little son. :)

 

As we finished the meeting, we saw Ml at church too! Ml is an awesome investigator who is taking lessons with his mom [Mm]. He arrived a little bit late, but came on his own. And enjoyed and comprehended what he listened to. HUGE fan of that kid.

 

Later we went by his house to visit him and to teach the Plan of Salvation. He said he shared the gospel with a few of his coworkers and is really loving what he is learning from the Book of Mormon. He is also in second Nephi!!!!! WHAT. It feels like we just started teaching him. While we were talking, I had a strange thought come to my head: "I wonder if Ml thinks we're weird as missionaries. We kind of just show up at his house to teach him, see him at church and then just disappear. I bet he's curious about that".

 

Then we ended with a prayer, and he asked about conference. "What does it mean to be a 24 hour missionary. Is that what you two are? I just have a lot of questions about what you do as missionaries."

 

We asked him, "Have you been thinking about serving a mission?"

 

"Well, I have actually. I would like to be a missionary"

 

AHHHH... My companion and I couldn't help but beam. It was so great to hear!!!!

 

We also have been teaching an older investigator named E. She is also reading the Book of Mormon. She read the introduction this week and is beginning chapter one of Nephi. She told us, I'm trying to go through it carefully to understand it all. She explained to us perfectly all the things she read about, then she offered a beautiful prayer to end the lesson.

 

My companion told me something that I think is a critical lesson from these wonderful people. She said, "These examples just show that it doesn't matter how fast or slow you read the Book of Mormon. It changes people..as long as you are diligent you continue to progress."

 

The Book of Mormon is essential to enduring conversion. It is really important to be diligent. The amount or depth of our understanding or conversion isn't the question, it is the integrity we have to the truths that we do know. That is the key.

 

It has been a really great week. I am learning a lot from the people that surround me - my companion is THE BEST!!!!! Hna Guevara and Salazar are champs, and the members, the investigators and other missionaries have taught me so much and are teaching me so much.

 

I am having a blast here!!! I am loving life :)

 

Hope you all have a wonderful week! Take good care of the investigators that come to church and give lots of references to the missionaries :)

 

CON AMOR,

 

Hermana Fernelius

Week 44! "Spiderman"

From 11/10/14

Hola Family and Friends,

How are all of you? How did your week go?

We had a good week here! Hermana C had her 9 month mission birthday!! WOO! It's crazy how fast the time goes by! This week we've also found a few new investigators this past week who are great!

We went looking for an investigator but he wasn't home so we talked to the neighbor instead. His name is A and is about 30 years old. We spoke with him for a minute at the door and invited him to be baptized. He accepted and we set an appointment to return to teach him. We invited him to church and left.

Yesterday at our branch council, the President came in and said, "Sisters, A came! He is waiting in the sacrament room."

At first we were a little confused of who he was because we had only spoken with him for ten minutes days before. We weren't expecting to see him at church, but he came! We immediately had a member sit with him and he took care of A all three hours. So cool!

Later we passed by his house to try to teach him at home. His brother came out and told us that he wasn't home. We spoke with him about the church and he said, "Oh, you're from the church that he went to today? He was in a hurry to go this morning but I didn't know where he went to."

We set a return appointment to come and teach him. What a champ! We are excited to start teaching A soon. After church, Hna C and I were talking about how that showed us that the Lord is in charge of this work. He knows who's ready, and we are just a small part of helping them understand the gospel.

We met another man this week who is the best. O was sweeping outside his house and we were close by, waiting to meet up with a member. We felt like we should talk to him.

We asked if we could help him sweep up, and he said (almost without break), No thank you, who are you? We introduced the church to him and that we are missionaries. He told us that about 10 years before, two elders gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon, but that he didn't have it any more. We gave him a copy right then and invited him to read from the beginning. He asked many questions about it.

Omar then sat down right next to us and told us about how he is struggling currently with a lot of anxiety. It was a problem that he struggled with for a few years. He sought treatment from psychiatrists and had controlled it for some time. A little while ago, he was let go from work without reason. That triggered his anxiety again to the point where he is constantly restless. He can't rest, and he says that he hasn't been able to find peace. He wants to learn more about God. He has heard much from many different religions throughout these years and he says that they have all left him confused. His biggest question has been about God.

I really felt for him. And I am so excited that we can begin teaching him soon!

L [the investigator that was hesitant to marry her boyfriend in last week's email] is progressing, but we have run into this divorcing problem. Her boyfriend has to get a divorce before she can marry him. We talked about her situation with a few ward members, two of which are lawyers; one is a judge. They have all said the same thing. R and his separated wife have to be in agreement to get a divorce, and it is expensive to do so.

Normally, the absolute lowest rate someone can get to start and complete the divorce is 20,000 pesos. That is a LOT of money. And it takes a lot of time. :(

This is beginning to seem really complicated and this is hard for us because L is so ready for baptism. Her next decision would be to separate from her boyfriend and live alone - but they have a child together and she doesn't work. That is also extremely complicated. I was just wondering if you could all keep her in your prayers so that this situation can work out. IT IS POSSIBLE! :)

When we were talking about this whole situation, I remembered what Laman and Lemuel said after seeing the angel in 1 Nephi. How can we get the plates from Laban? He can command 50 and can slay 50, then why not us? Then Nephi replied  "And it came to pass that I spake unto my brethren, saying: Let us go up again unto Jerusalem, and let us be faithful in keeping the commandments of the Lord; for behold he is mightier than all the earth, then why not mightier than Laban and his fifty, yea, or even than his tens of thousands? Therefore let us go up."

It's just cool. With faith and a little effort, this divorce isn't impossible even if everyone says it is. If L really does need to get baptized, it's possible. The Lord will provide a way.

And J is just the greatest kid ever. We taught him this week and he told us that he is currently in 2 Nephi. 2 Nephi people. Only after two weeks of teaching him. He told us that he prays three times a day: once before reading the Book of Mormon, once after reading, and just before going to bed at night. He's had several dreams at night that explain to him what he doesn't understand while he's reading. He came to church again on his own. He's going to be baptized the 29th of November. :')

He has a nose ring too that the elders were concerned about. The very next lesson they wanted to tell J before they were transferred was about removing it. But they didn't. They were special changed and had to leave asap. Well, when we went to see J this week he said, "I'm not sure if you've noticed or not, but I have a nose ring. Well, every night when I pray, I promise the Lord that on the day of my baptism I will take it out."

Whhaaaa? We didn't even say anything about it. He already knew. It was something really small and maybe insignificant, but it showed his faith and desire to change.

We had a great week!

Sorry this letter is short. I tried to send a few photos to make up for it. Life is well! Please keep our investigators in your prayers and also Sister Guevara and Sister Salazar. We love you all and pray for you everyday. Thank you for your prayers and love and support.

Con Mucho Amor,

Hermana Fernelius

See! The bread is so special that I took another photo with it at a members house for comida.

This photo is one of my favorites. Hermana C was looking at my scriptures one morning during our studies and asked how long I have had my scriptures. If I remember right, I think I was about 10 or 11 years old. She was surprised that when I was younger I took pretty good care of it. She then went to pull out her scriptures. When she was younger, Hna C thought that Joseph Smith's first vision was the cat's meow, so she decided it would be important to highlight THE ENTIRE SECTION. heehee. Then she showed me some other priceless side notes she's included through the years. Her scriptures are truly awesome.

This is around the time of the day of the dead. They are serious about this holiday!

This is a special bread that they only make this time of year.

Got pictures with some of my favorites!! And no, I don't know what's on my skirt either [in the next photo].

Meet Hermana Guevara and Hermana Salazar! They are currently living with us in our home and are supporting us here. They are awesome! We are grateful to have them here in our area. They make a difference.

...then we have another beautiful reaction after seeing a softball sized spider. Not really. But it seemed that big. 

Funny story. So Hermana C and I are fascinated by all things creepy crawly slimy and weird (if you couldn't already tell). Yesterday we met a very nice gentleman in the street who presented us to his grandchildren so that we could share the gospel with them. Well, they weren't interested, so we left them with a folleto and walked back out of the alleyway. Where HE AQUÍ [BEHOLD] we found a gorgeous spider on the way out. Okay, that spider was seriously pretty and scary at the same time.

 

We decided to check it's "Spidey" reflexes, and we put a leaf in it's super strong web. It lightning fast ran and attacked it, and it gave us the chills. haha.

 

So we let it hang out and we were about to leave when all of a sudden we hear someone come out of the house right behind us. There was a very angry man that told us to leave the spider alone. He said, "Can't you see that it's special?!"

 

Us.... O.O

 

"THAT is not from around here. It's Japanese."

 

We felt very very uncomfortable. We apologized and tried to soften the blow by asking him questions about it. Like, "wow, that's amazing. Sorry we didn't know, how did it get here from Japan?"

 

"I dunno".

 

"It seems like you take interest in this kind of thing, have you studied a little bit about it?"

 

We made him a little more defensive: "I have taken the initiative to care for it myself, and I have cared for it for a while y lo cuido BASTANTE." 

 

.....

 

I still feel bad about the whole thing. As we left, he said, "and if you couldn't tell, its spider web is golden."

 

It was. It was beautiful. Every time we pass that alleyway, we have a moment of silence to remember the day we offended Spiderman. Seriously. When we're back home from our missions, if you ever want us to squirm a bit, remind us of this story. haha

 

Before getting my hair cut - the after isn't so great, so we'll just leave it at that. :)

Week 43! "Halloween is Spooky Here Too!"

From 11/3/14

HOLA FAMILY AND FRIENDS!!!

Feliz Día de Muertos! And Halloween too! Mi gente aquí celebran los dos. So that basically means that we celebrated Halloween for three days straight. My companion and I both agree that the best time to visit Mexico is from Sept to November. There are beautiful traditions that they celebrate here in Mexico. We have yet to see how a Mexican Christmas is, but I'm sure that it is another holiday rich with traditions.

From what I understand, here is a run down of how Día de Muertos goes:

One Catholic Church tradition here is that they encourage their members to create an altar for their deceased ancestors where they place an offering for the dead. Normally the offering is flowers, candles, pan (bread) de muertos, and the favorite food/drink of the dead laid out. Many create a pathway of flowers from the door outside to the altar for the dead to find their way to the offering inside. In the cemeteries on November 2nd, people place more offerings on the headstones and play music, eat and party there. :) Party is also called pachanga. Children dress up in costumes of skulls and the dead and go house to house. People give them fruit, candy, and bread as a treat. It's different [than what we do] but the same. It's really cool.

Halloween was the first night here that it actually felt like Autumn back home. Seasons don't exist here, it's summer or spring year round. But Halloween was spooky :) It was dark, windy, cold, and the moon was out. It felt like just like Fall!

Other random tidbits:

• A less active member gave us a drink called Ponche. You pronounce it just like it's written. Ponche is Punch. Homemade fruit punch. It's probably not very healthy. She told us that she made it by caramelizing fruit, pineapple, apple, pear, cranberries, oranges, guayaba, and raisins, in sugar. Then she added juice from those fruits, and I think some more sugar. BUT IT WAS REALLY GOOD. 
• Enchiladas are super easy to make and happen to be my favorite. I will make it when I return!! That and pozole. That stuff is REAL good. 
• I have eaten chicken feet. Once, and never again. Put that on the list of fried pig skin, cow stomach, cow head, and I think I ate goat one time too. YUMMY
• We contacted a reference from the mission offices. When we received the reference of this man, the elders told us, "P is super escogido! He's going to accept a baptismal date and be a great investigator! Go visit him, he's excited to learn more." We went to the address of this man's house 2 times and he was never there. We went again this week and a bunch of awkwardness went down. We enter the business and a woman addresses us. "What do you need?" A man was sitting behind her and I assumed that it was P. "Hi we are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We received a reference for someone named P who lives here and wants to know more about our message." Then, from behind the woman, the man straight up tells his wife, "digales que no estoy" or "tell them I'm not here". My face--> :O It was really awkward from there because I guess he thought that we didn't understand Spanish that well. Buuut.. we do, so it was weird getting out of that situation. It was the equivalent of knocking on someone's door, then hearing them say 'go away, no one's home'...but in person....right in front of him. Joy! 
• Tuesday all the missionaries in our stake got together for our seasonal shots to prevent the flu! Yay. I am currently dealing with sickness right now as a result from the shot. Ironic right?

Truth be told, Hermana C and I had a really awesome week. Like awesome. It was exhausting, but when we look back, we are super happy. We've been working with the missionaries in our area and have had a blast! The companionships here have been working hard and we see changes in the branch because of their efforts. This Sunday we had 6 investigators in church and we were missing 4! It was so wonderful to see these individuals at church because it means that they really are repenting and preparing for their baptisms. It was especially awesome because L and her husband came!! :) I will write a little more about them below:

Monday night we went to L's house to teach her the next commandment of the law of chastity. As we began our lesson with a prayer, the first comment she said to us was, "I'm not getting married! That's what is going to keep me from getting baptized. I accept everything. I will follow every commandment. I will do everything, but I can't get married."

She commented to us in past lessons that she's afraid of marriage because every marriage she knows has fallen apart and ended in divorce. Even in her own family with her sisters. On the other hand, her friends that are unmarried live happily and don't fight or have strong challenges in their relationships. She really loves her boyfriend and she loves her family. She's expressed great interest and a strong testimony in eternal families, she really wants that too. So it was kind of funny because she said no to it and then told us, I know I need to. I know it's the right way to live. I know that God will bless me for be married to my boyfriend. He actually wants to marry her too.

Hermana C and I knew that we might have to teach this commandment a little more clearly to L in order for her to make a clear decision too. 

The morning before her lesson, as companions we talked about the real reason why we obey the law of chastity. We do that a lot.  We prayerfully try to answer the why? to commandments as if we were investigators too. Hermana C said some awesomeness that I probably won't write correctly. She said, it's not just a temporal law on physical chastity. God has given each one of us a part of His procreative power that enables us to work with Him and our spouse to bring spirits into this world. We reverence and protect this gift from God by keeping His divine laws that govern it. This is a part of who we can be and what we can do in the Celestial Kingdom with the blessings of eternal families there. It really is so much more than a 'rule' in the church.

We really felt that as we taught L, and she herself expressed her desire to be married to her husband. AHH :)) She has accepted every commandment we have taught her. She is the COOLEST.

Our lesson with her this week on tithing and fasting was also really awesome. Then this Sunday-yesterday- she came to church! With her boyfriend, R! And her son! Ahhh!! She is a tom boy, but she got all slicked up and her boyfriend too. It was so cool to see their family altogether. J, her son, had a fun time in nursery. He's 3 years old and had a blast which made his parents very happy. [All the stuff you do in nursery matters dad! :) It helped a family feel more welcome at church!]. We taught them all together later Sunday afternoon and invited R to be baptized. He accepted also. L was so happy! :)

We've also started teaching a less active family, and they came to church this Sunday!! The first time I saw the brother of this family, I freaked out a little. He looks JUST like Matthew. Yup, so I've found Amy here (hna P), Benjamin, and now Matthew. Just about every companion reminds me of Tiffany, entonces there's that. We are going to teach this family again tonight in about an hour. His wife is not a member of the church but came yesterday with their baby! We are really excited to teach them!

What else...there's so much I don't know what to say. We went to teach an investigator, Ml and his mom, Mm on Saturday. Ml had a few friends over when we came by who were drinking and smoking. We spoke with his mom for a minute until Ml could come in and talk with us. Hermana C said, I think that we should teach him about the Word of Wisdom (which is a commandment on physical and spiritual health), but I wasn't sure how we would do that because this was the second formal lesson with them.

The first lesson, we try to introduce the gospel, our purpose as missionaries and invite them to be baptized. The next lesson usually focuses on the message of the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. BUT we rolled with it according to our plan that morning. We talked about the commitment we had left with them before and shared the video of the restoration. Then we talked about how they felt. In not so many words, Ml told us that he knew the church was true and his mom also. The Spirit was present in that room and it was so neat to hear how their testimonies are growing. We then introduced the word of wisdom. Because they recognized their own testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel, they committed to obeying this law of health.

It was neat to hear them make goals themselves of how to stop drinking coffee, tea, alcohol and smoking. The mom said, wow, I drink coffee in the morning, at lunch, and at night, but I think I can reduce it to 1 cup a day. After that I can go without drinking. I'll just tell myself that my headaches aren't from not drinking coffee. I'll just tell myself that I'm fine, and I'll be okay. :)

This week I've been able to see how the gospel truly changed lives. Knowing who and whose we are changes our lives. Maybe I wasn't the best missionary back home to my friends and family, but I hope that maybe one person will have the desire and courage to talk to the missionaries of the church and open their hearts to hear the good news of the gospel.

I know that my Redeemer lives. I know the church has been restored through the prophet Jospeh Smith. I know that President Thomas S. Monson is the Lord's authorized servant and representative on the earth today and that he leads and directs us through revelation from the Lord.

I am grateful for prayer. We can know for ourselves of the truthfulness of these things by offering a sincere prayer, just like Joseph Smith did. And like him, our prayers will also be answered. Our lives can improve, our happiness can be enduring, our faith can be strengthened and the love of our Heavenly Father has for us can abound in our hearts.

I love my Savior and I will forever be grateful for His atoning sacrifice for me. Alma 29:10 is what I feel when others accept the gospel, and I felt that this week as I watched many partake of the sacrament for the first time:

"And behold, when I see many of my brethren truly penitent, and coming to the Lord their God, then is my soul filled with joy; then do I remember what the Lord has done for me, yea, even that he hath heard my prayer; yea, then do I remember his merciful arm which he extended towards me."

I hope you all have a wonderful week. LOVE YOU ALL :)

Con Amor,

Hermana Fernelius

Week 42! "A Week of Many Blessings!"

From 10/27/14

Hola Family and Friends!!!!

:D <<<---- This is how I feel!!! I'm so happy about everything this week. Don't even know where to begin. Sorry if this is scrambled.

We went to a member’s house and asked about less active members that we could visit. She mentioned a sister named A de la Caña. She’s relatively young and hasn’t come for some time. We decided to stop by her house during the week and get to know her. Well, later that day we went out with a member of the church named G. We were on our way to an appointment and had to walk down a HUGE bajada. That word is just to say going downhill. I wrote it in Spanish so I wouldn’t have to write it in English, and now I just wrote a lot more to explain that. But now you all know that when I write bajada, it means descent or down hill. AHEM.

So we walked down a HUGE bajada with G and passed a young lady and her son. G turned to us and said, she’s a member go talk to her! Hurry before she leaves. We inconspicuously ran back up the hill to talk to her. (uphill-subida)

We introduced ourselves and said, “Sorry, we are new and are trying to get to know the area. G said that you are a member! What is your name?”

She said “I’m L. I’ve been a member for most of my life, but I just haven’t gone in a while.”

We asked if we could go to her home and talk more later in the week. She passed us her information. Her name was very familiar…de la caña. Turns out she is A’s sister. UH. WE WERE JUST TALKING ABOUT YOU!!... incredible! Two members subconsciously helped us to meet a member who is ready to come back to church. For 6 weeks I have never heard about her then the same day two members helped us find her. Our lesson with her was great! She has a powerful testimony and really desires to be sealed with her husband and baby boy. Way too cool.

Mm and Ml are also super cool. When I come home I will have to tell the story because there’s not much time today and I always forget to write the next week. But they are just so prepared. I included a little bit below.

Also, fun fact. Hermana C and I are in the largest Colonia in all of this area. It's super dangerous. At least that's what we've heard. But nothing ever really happens to us. Just creepy men and religious fanatics that don't really like us. We get the occasional borracho, but things are just normal. There's only ever danger for sister missionaries, if 1) we are disobedient or 2) we don't pay attention to the Spirit. (There is a 3) and that is that we are supposed to learn something). But what I've learned is that there are a lot of angels that protect us.

The case is a little different for elders. Because they have the Priesthood, I feel like they really face darkness head on. The elders that have been working in our area have had a lot of crazy experiences. Like. CRAZY. (<--Dad's comment about using excess periods in his email really made me laugh. . . . . . ) They have had some pretty close encounters this week---and let me be clear. These elders are awesome, hard workers, obedient. That shows that even when we are doing the best we can, we still face opposition.

The missionaries here are awesome. I've learned a lot from each one of them. Especially from my own companion. I LOVE HERMANA C. Sister and Brother C, thank you for sending your daughter on a mission. I wish you could see and hear how powerfully she teaches. Her love and testimony of the Lord is evident in all that she does. She talks so highly of her family and is a big example to me. But really. Her testimony is incredible. She's brought a life and energy to this area. I have learned so much from her these past few days together, but really I've looked up to her since we knew each other in one of my previous areas. I'm so blessed with each companion. Every one is so different and AWESOME.

"We seriously had a wonderful week!! Every day was full of blessings and tender mercies. I’m going to jump right to the good stuff. Our branch president is so happy. He is so excited about the work that we are doing! It’s the first time I’ve seen him a little relieved during my time here. All the branch members are noticing a special spirit and energy of missionary work. I think that for a long while our members have been sleeping a bit. There are many who have let their testimonies weaken and have put other things before God. We’ve seen less active members get excited about coming to church again. They might be few, but that is significant!

Since I arrived here with Hermana H, I’ve been praying for a miracle. Something that would wake the members up. Something that would reignite the light and excitement in our branch leadership. Something different that would kick start the work again. Having even more wonderful missionaries in our area was a direct answer to those prayers. Heavenly Father has a plan for everything. Men can’t frustrate His work and glory. It’s so awesome. I know that the Lord must have a miraculous plan for the instant that those missionaries return to their areas. He is preparing the people, the members, and us too to work there. I love it.

An assignment our branch president has given us is to ‘clean’ the ward lists. There are roughly 400 members on those lists and there is little follow up that the ward has made with those members; so we’ve all been working on locating each member and on finding and teaching in the process. One day all of our appointments fell through (you know what I’ve learned? Those days actually turn out to be the best :)) and we decided to go looking for members on that street from our list.

The hunt began! We walked past a house. It sounded familiar, so we stopped and said to each other, 'check your list, I think #52 is on there.' We returned to that house and knocked on the door. A young man came to the door and asked who we were looking for. We asked if the family O lived there. He told us that no one by that name lived there. He presented himself and said that his name was actually J O [same last name] too, but that he had no relation with the members we mentioned. We asked him if he had heard about the church before. He was unfamiliar at first but then recognized the word ‘Mormon’.

He said, ‘I have a copy of that book.’

How did you receive a copy? We had asked. Through friends, family, or other missionaries?

He said that before his mom passed away, she gave him a video on the life of Jesus Christ. From watching that video from the church, he looked up more about it on the internet. From there, he found the Book of Mormon online Wikipedia and began to read.

He said, I’ve never gone to your church before because I didn’t know where it was.

Hermana C gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon and we asked if we could return that same day to teach him. He committed to read the Restoration pamphlet before our first appointment.

That afternoon we were on divisions, so Hna S and C went to see him. He had read the pamphlet, started reading the Book of Mormon, and was waiting anxiously by the door for them to arrive. He accepted the Restoration completely, accepted baptism, committed to come to church, and even commented to the sisters that he wants to serve a mission!!!! YAY! We asked the elders to pass by for him during the week and they really got him excited too. A recent convert/less active member who lives close by is really excited to go with the missionaries to meet J. They are the same age too. It’s such a miracle.

Last Sunday, a member family from one of my old wards came to church with their non-member mom and brother [Mm and Ml previously referred to]. Running into them is a miracle in itself. We took photos with them because we all recognized that it was no coincidence running into them. We met their family and scheduled to teach them Saturday.

Saturday came, we went to our appointment with them. They are so humble and prepared to hear the gospel. They accepted a baptismal date, committed to come to church and especially to pray. We read from Moroni 10:4& 5 and the brother, Ml, paused after reading the scripture. He sat pondering on it and said,  'That’s exactly how I feel, I guess I need to ask God to know if it’s really true'.

It was SO amazing! They both came to church and so did J. Another superstar couple came to church yesterday. They are also investigating. During our Principles of the Gospel class, all four of them participated, shared their testimonies and asked questions. Their responses left us without words. They are so prepared.

It has been a week of many blessings. We are excited to continue to find and teach and hope to truly catch the vision of why our Heavenly Father has called all the missionaries in our mission to labor for a time in Morelos. We are grateful for this opportunity to serve!"

LOVE YOU ALL. Have a wonderful week. Count your blessings each day. There are so many reasons to be happy and smile.

Con Amor,

Hermana Fernelius

P.S. Tiffany: My comp and I were planning on doing the SAME thing in concrete on the cement outside our apartment. We wanted to leave our hand prints in Mexico. P.P.S. We gave a piñata as a gift to a sister missionary that just had her birthday this week. Stop taking our ideas. haha just joking. :)