Hola familia! What an awesome conference week!

 Conference is the most exciting thing as a missionary. Its like Christmas. Maybe even better than Christmas. This conference was really great for me and for our investigators. The best part was that they set up a little room in the back of the church with conference in English for all the gringo missionaries. I could understand it all! I felt like this conference was one of the most direct conferences I have heard and missionary work was talked about a lot. It is a great time to be a missionary! I want to testify of the words of the leaders of the church with experiences I had this week.

Lena's baptism

"Ask God for direction, then go and do as the spirit prompts you... Find the great joy that comes from acting in faith." M. Russell Ballard

We had a day this week where everything fell through. Plan A, B, C, D and really we didn't know what to do. We had set a goal to find new people to teach but didn't know where to go. We stopped on a street corner where there was no one around and I prayed out loud that we would know where to find who we needed to go to find who we needed to. I finished praying and a street name came to my mind Jose Olaya. It wasn't anywhere close to where we were but we started walking. Once we got there we started knocking doors and ended up teaching a young woman in her doorway and when we finished she pleaded that we would come back and talk to her family this next week. 

Waiting in the rain for the bishop to come with keys before the baptism.

"We wake up every morning to a new day. Each of us has challenges sometimes physical, emotional...The challenges we face will be for our ultimate good." Richard L Maynes

Sunday morning I woke up to a new day with my own challenge. I was throwing up like crazy and have a stomach infection. The perks of serving a mission in a third world country. I was so very miserably sick. I asked for a blessing and my district leader came over and gave me one. In the blessing he told me that I wouldn't be healed right away but that my body would function properly enough so that I could go to conference and hear the prophet speak and receive the revelation I needed at this time. I was throwing up getting dressed into my skirt and about 1 minute before I walked out of the door to leave for the conference. But as soon as we left I had control of my body again enough to listen to conference. It increased my faith and the faith of those who had seen me to see the miracle that occurred. And don't worry mom its getting better, I take my medication everyday.

Me on pday. Sorry I'm always wearing the same thing. I don't have many options for pday.

pday fotos with the hermanas

"God expects us to use all the gifts he has provided. Live by faith, hold fast to hope and lift one another" Jeffery R. Holland

This week we were on divisions, I was with another gringa in her area. We were contacting in the street and came to a house that looked kind of crazy and we were a little scared to approach it but we felt to go forward and we began introducing ourselves to a little old lady sitting outside. She told us that she couldn't understand us very well because she spoke Quechua. I started to speak to her in Quechua, everything that I had practiced with my pensionista. I was able to remember things that I hadn't practiced in awhile enough to complete the contact, introducing ourselves as missionaries, ask for her name, and where she lived. She told me a bunch of things I didn't understand but I understood the word sad jumbled in and could see it on her face. I hugged her with all my strength and said we would see her soon. 

My city....

"No person has ever lived free of suffering and sorrow. Difficulties allow us to change our lives for the better. Our purpose is to persevere and endure but to also become spiritually refined." Thomas. S Monson

This week was really tough for my companion. She was really very homesick and she is very very shy. I found out that before her mission she worked in an internet place and was on the computer for 7 months so she was going through withdrawals. She always talked about her family and pday. One day she was just so sad and started to cry. I asked her if she knew why she was here. She said she just wanted to but didn't know why. I told her that we should kneel down together and pray and ask God why he wanted her to be here and what we should do. Her half of the prayer was so very sweet. She felt the love of the Lord and somehow stood up from that prayer ready to go forward. I know that the Lord gives us trials to help with our development.

I testify of all the words of the leaders of the church. I know that they are true. Either from my own experience or from the spirit I felt so powerfully as they spoke them. I know they are called of the Lord because of the revelation I received. 

Have a good week! 

Con amor,

Hermana Rhoten