Monday, February 29, 2016

Claudio's baptism 2/28/16


So this week has been a long one. A really great one, but I am ready for my P-day nap. Tuesday we took a bus to Concepción and had a presentation about training and being an example for the new missionaries coming. We ate pizza (totally worth the 4 hour bus ride) and then they assigned us our new companions.
People have always told me training was tiring but now I get why. But I am SO impressed by my cute hija. Her name is Hermana Rigby and she is from Idaho. Her Spanish is so good! She still has some things to learn but she is so eager to help out in the lessons and contacts. It makes me a proud mom. 

It has been really helpful for me to review all the basic teaching skills with her. I am learning a lot.

So Claudio's baptism went really well this week. we ended up doing it Sunday at 9 before church and a lot of people came to support him. I was so proud that he finally was brave enough to follow his heart and the will of his Father. 

We have been finding but we are still looking for those golden prepared ones.

Here are some pics from Claudio's baptism. I promise to be better about sending more.

I hope you are all doing great. Love ya!
Que este bien!
Besitos
Hermana Saunders 


hector's baptism and Hermana Black





Tuesday, February 23, 2016

La Caida de Adán y Eva... y Hermana Saunders‏

Eventful week. We ran around like crazy and the fruits of our labor actually came when we reached our goals this week!

Tuesday after English class we were running home when I fell flat on my face! yikes. defiantly left a bit of skin on the pavement there. The drunk man across the street was just the funniest part. Yelling at me to be calm and not run. It made one of my top 5 embarrassing moments for sure. It has been a bit of a bummer that I cant kneel in prayer because my knees are nice and scraped up.

We had a branch activity- it went pretty well despite the fact that not a lot of people came. It was a friendship activity and we had a show and a water war put on by the youth. they did a really good job.

So Saturday Hector was baptized! It was a really great day. We are so happy for him. I feel so blessed to be able to see him through the whole proses from contact to the font. I am really excited as well because I get to keep teaching him. That is right folks i am staying another 8 weeks in Linares the best sector del mundo! and.... I will be training. Pray i don't mess up a newbie. My comp is also leaving to go finish a training and Hermana Briggs who lives with me will also be coming to the office with me tomorrow to pick up a newbie. We are pretty excited. we are already planning the pranks :)
no just kidding mom I'll take good care of her.

We had a really good lesson with Claudio this week. He was feeling a little discouraged but he is right on track for his bautismo this Friday.

I love you guys. I have never been happier. Thank you for all of your love and prayers sent my way!
Que les vaya bien!
besitos
Hermana Saunders

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Amazing people, Amazing sector, Amazing Life‏

So this week was incredible. It flew by. We had two amazing lessons with Hector this week. I know I talk about him too much but he has absolutely blown my mind. He told us this week that he is getting really excited for his baptism. We taught him about the real commit of baptism and the promises we make with God. We were all just about in tears at the end. I have never seen anyone more prepared in such a short amount of time. I feel so so so blessed to get the chance to know and teach him.
Disaster struck on Wednesday when he sent us a text and said he needed to talk with us. Of course we thought the worst and started freaking out. His phone was out of range so it was impossible to communicate with him. The Elders saw him kiss his girlfriend that day and we thought it must be something with her- 
We called him the next day and he told us she had broken up with him. He was super sad. But he said that just as he was walking away he prayed to God for a sign that he was there and that he cared and the Elders magically turned the corner. He took that as his sign. He was like- Wow that was fast.

Pray for him that all will be prepared for his baptism on Saturday!

We are teaching another boy named Claudio. We had a really great lesson with him this week where he told us he realized that we was ready to be baptized (After almost a year of meeting the missionaries) We feel super blessed he finally has come to recognize the spirit responding to his prayers. It was a really light to me that other people that I have taught and not progressed, still have hope for the future. He is preparing to be baptized on the 27th.

Cambios are next week and I have to say I am pretty sad. It is likely I will leave because I have the most time here but I am really really hoping I might get to stay just one cambio more. This really is the sector of my dreams. It is funny and sad how when you really come to love things, it it time to go. Whatever happens, I have never been happier serving the Lord and I can not wait to see what the future holds in store. 

Que les vaya bien!
Besitos
Hermana Saunders

PS I completed a year this week in the mission... Disappointed but relieved face

Monday, February 8, 2016

The dream investigator......

No time to write but I want to tell y'all about some cool things that happened with Hector this week:

So we taught him the law of Chastity this week (dunn-dun-duwn) and he told us about his girlfriend 
(Disappointed but relieved face) but to our pleasant surprise he told us he had been sharing the gospel with her! He told us this was really the most important thing in this life right now and that if she wouldn't accept the gospel it was a sign from God that he maybe shouldn't be with her (Person raising both hands in celebration
We are hopefully going to be able to meet her this week. 

Something else cool is that we did a 'testimony circle' Where we all went around in a YSL home evening with Hector and we all said one gospel principle that we had a testimony of. example: I know that God lives/I know we can get blessings from paying our tithing etc. so we went around the circle 3 times and all said one simple sentence about our testimony when it came to Hector's turn he said: I know I have found the truth. We were through the roof happy. I have a lot of faith his fecha will hold for the 20th. Keep him in your prayers please!

The invitation I have this week. Take life one day at a time. Before we can endure to the END we got to finish today. Keep on perseverando.

Besitos
Hermana Saunders

Monday, February 1, 2016

Sending love from the best mission in the world

Well I have no time so I am just going to write you some highlights

1.A member randomly bought us ice cream on the streets. yummy!
2. We found a 'new' and increased our number of 'the vision'
3. Hector committed to live the Word of wisdom and gave us shinny rocks!
(he is super into nature, he asked Elder Tesch if rocks had spirits and lived- I promise he is not a weirdo!)
4. 30 youth from all around the mission came to the baptism on Saturday for a girl who finally made her decision at EFY - I saw an old friend from Haulqui- Mati
5. We had interviews with President and they went really well. I love seeing them.
6. The old investigator who yelled at us and told us she never wanted to see us again said she had had the worst month of her life without us and apologized.
7.cherry on top- Hector came to Church! 
8. We had a special 3rd hour about the obra misional and it got a lot of members really excited to work with us (Hector decided to stay and luckily it didn't freak him out to much- we worried)

So ya. That's about it. My invitation this week- Read 'Beware of Pride' by Presedent Ezra Taft Benson. It will change your life. I have read it so many times in the mission and I learn from it every time.
 
Que les vaya bien!
Besitos
Hermana Saunders