Monday, September 22, 2014

A Day in the Life on an Hermana

HolAAAAA!! (:

Well, here we are again. And I'm sure you will all be so surprised to hear that this week was amazing!! Never happens, right?? Well, we definitely had a bunch of trials, but we made it through and there was just as much good, if not more, to help us carry on.

Last Monday, we played soccer and basketball as a zone and with some young men in our ward. I made a goal on an elder from Chile and everyone started cheering and screaming ''RUBIA!!!''...ugh! Time to dye the hair again (; haha just kidding.  But we also watched Monster's Inc. 2 Monster's University. It was really great! I just get so bored during movies now because they are so long. But I gave a talk during our zone meeting on the importance of commitments. We will never change or repent if we are not committed to doing something that will help us reach that goal. Faith is action, and action is what leads us to repentance. Our actions can be reading the scriptures, going to church, praying, or being obedient to the commandments. All of these things help us change and become more like our Savior Jesus Christ. But as a missionary, we need to also promise blessings so that these people have a desire or reason to want to change. It's like when we go to school. No one would ever go to school if we were not promised the blessing of learning. But we will also never learn if we do not do our homework or study. If our investigators goal is to have eternal life, we need to promise the blessings that come from being obedient. Or they will never want to change. 

All of our investigators are doing great except for Nestor and Brenda. ): Brenda called us on Sunday morning after promising us she would come to church and said she didn't feel like going. We tried everything, but she just won't act. So we are going to drop her for awhile until she starts showing us desires. Our purpose is to invite and teach, but she has had all the lessons, and won't come to church. So until she is ready, we are going to give her some time. Nestor also texted us saying that he never wanted to come to church again or get baptized, or anything. We asked if we could have a charla (chat) to talk about what happened. And he just said another day. It's so wierd, we are going to try and call him to see what happened. But enough about the sad stuff! 

Our week was really successful!! We taught a ton of lessons! We only had to do one division, and I went to a really small pueblito called Villa Adelina. It's ONLY dirt roads and brick houses. SO sad. I'm happy here in ParanĂ¡ gracias. We were going to have another division, but one of the sisters had to go home for health problems, and now we have her companion! Her name is Hna Briggs from Holiday Utah. She is so sweet! She told me Kelly looks really familiar, but can't remember. She went to BYU. But we had so much fun as a trio this week! I missed being in a trio! She is my 13th companion...that's a ton!! haha

We are helping Gabriel, a recent convert, do his family history. I can't remember if I told you last week. But before his baptism he had a trouble with smoking. But he stopped, and to help him stay strong we want to help him do family history work and prepare to receive the sacerdocio and go to the temple. Elder Bednar promises us protection from the adversary as we do this great work for our ancestors and those who have died. 

I have been in Argentina for 9 months and it has flown by! But I have never grown or learned so much in such a short amount of time. These people, their culture, their lifestyles, their trials, their faith, they all help me learn more about who I want to be and who I should be. They are all comfortable living their lives the best they know how to. Our job as missionaries or members of the church are to help them just live even better! The gospel of Jesus Christ is restored! We have all His teachings once again on the earth and we never have to wonder what to do! We know it is true and we need to help others know it is true also. That comes only through opening our mouths and sharing our testimonies of the goodness of God, our loving Heavenly Father.

Love you all so much!!! Hope you have a great week and can find opportunities to share the gospel with others! <3

Con amor,

Hermana Mobery







Monday, September 15, 2014

Challenge Accepted!

Hola Hola (:
Well, just so you know, once again, this week was amazing. But that's no different than any other week on the mission. When they say it's the best two years, they aren't lying! Hmm where to start!!?? This week was a little rough because we didn't have that much time from traveling and then I may or may not have gotten lost a few times (; I told Hna Rasband I should stay in ParanĂ¡ for divisions so that it would force me to learn the area better. Which it definitely did, but we just had some fun detours along the way. I think one time I accidentally walked outside of our area boundaries. 
We went to Rosario on Wednesday for Leadership Council Meeting. My comp told me it's like Christmas because we get to hear straight from President, and she didn't lie. I learned so much and we received so much revelation for our investigators, how to help them, what they need, etc. So basically even better than Christmas!! I think my favorite part was when we talked about the importance of giving commitments to our investigators. Really, a commitment for anyone is a way for them to act and learn on their own, and then apply those things so that they change. If our purpose as missionaries is to call others to repentance and help them come unto Christ, we NEED to give them commitments. We read in the end of Alma 13 (I can’t remember the verses...) about repentance. In order to repent, we need to humble ourselves, have faith and pray. This requires action. But then the blessings are so much greater! God promises to give us His spirit and we will feel His love. Who doesn't want that? But it isn't just for missionaries and investigators. If any of us want to change and repent, we need to be committed to DO something. 
Our investigators are doing so great!! Nestor is still progressing and came to church again. We taught him the plan of salvation and the gospel of Jesus Christ this week. He asked us ''So I can’t be a member of the church until after I am baptized and confirmed then?'' haha exactly! So he is preparing to do just that so he can be a member of Christ's church. (: Brenda didn't come to church again so her date dropped ): We don't really know what to do with her. But we are praying for the strength to be bold and just tell her all of the things she is losing as she doesn't complete the commitments or live the commandments. She is so special and we know that she will get there, because she wants to, it's just helping her complete all the way through. Her mom, Rosa, is so sad that she isn't coming to church. Last week Rosa told us she was reading in 1 Nefi 8 about the tree of life and couldn't help but think of Brenda when Laman and Lemuel wouldn't eat the fruit. She told us she is praying that that won't happen. So we got a lot of praying to do so that Heavenly Father can tell us exactly what it is that is keeping her back. But GERMAN AND ELIN!!!!! We had a lesson with them and we went over the plan of salvation with them also. We talked about the 5 things we need to do in this life to get back to Heavenly Father with our families: faith, repentance, baptism, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and endure to the end. When we said it, German immediately said, ''SO when am I getting baptized??'' AHH! That's what every missionary wants to hear from everyone! haha I was so happy and I think he could see that because he was just looking at me wondering when I was going to answer him (: I was just speechless haha- But him and Elin are both going to get baptized on the 27th with Nestor also. We also had an awesome lesson with a member's friend, Carolina. We talked about the Book of Mormon, and when we asked her to read it, she said ''Give me one week before we meet together again and I'll read it all!'' Well, I wasn't going to tell her no! So she is in the process of reading it all and we will have another lesson with her this week! I just am so surprised every day with all the miracles we are seeing. This place is like Echesortu again! A place of miracles<3
I got to do 2 divisions this week and stayed in my area. Like I already said, we got lost a few times, but we had some pretty great lessons! I even got to be with Hermana Sanders again!!!! We had a great time together! She is having a little bump in the road with her comp, but they are having a lot of success in their area! I'm a proud mommy (; Her Spanish is so great too!! I can't believe she already has been out for 6 months! It feels like just yesterday we were together! 
It POURED for a few days here so I was soaking most of the week. But it’s nice and sunny again today! Some elders challenged us to each eat a kilo of ice cream and we couldn't not do it! 1. We are girls and 2. It is ice cream! So we bought a kilo with 4 different flavors each and ate it all in 40 minutes! They couldn't believe we could do it. It wasn't too bad until the last 5 bites and I almost couldn't finish, but we did and we were so happy! 
I think that's about it! We are happy and working hard. I love it here! Couldn't want anything more! Theme for this week: be patient in your afflictions, because one day you will rest from your labors and the blessings and end will be worth all the bumps in the road! Love you all so much!! Have a great week<3

Con MUCHOOOO amor,

Hermanita Moberly

The beginning of the kilo




The end of the kilo :)
Most of the Leadership Council
Reunited with Hermana Sanders




Monday, September 8, 2014

I Love Parana!

September 8, 2014

Hola Hola!!!

Well, I survived this week! It was really stressful and I feel like all my time gets sucked up, but it was a great week!! We were really worried that with everything going on, we wouldn't be able to do that much, but just like every other week, we saw many miracles. 

Mon: We have an investigator named Brenda. Her mom and brother were baptized a few months ago, and we are focusing on her right now. She wants to be baptized, but she has a hard time getting up to come to church. We are trying really hard to help her understand the importance of going to church, but she accepted a baptismal date for the 27th! She has 19 years and is just a normal teenage girl, but we are really good friends with her and she knows why we want her to receive the blessings of the gospel, she just needs to act. But we read Ether 2-3 with her about how Heavenly Father answers our prayers, and sometimes we need to choose and act first, and then we will know what to do. So she decided to accept a baptismal date and then afterwards said she felt like it was the right thing to do (: We then had a FHE with a family in the ward. I tried to make cookies, but the dough wasn't turning out right, and when we pulled it out of the oven, it was bread!!! I don't know how it happened and I don’t think I could ever do it again, but everyone said it was so good, so I just pretended like I made it like that on purpose haha (;

Tues: This day was a little crazy. We taught Gabriel, a recent convert boy (20 years) who is awesome!! He told us he wanted to learn more about the priesthood. SO we found an ensign article and read it with him. He had a smoking problem before he was baptized, and we think he might have slipped and smoked again, but we are trying to help him. He really wants to be the best he can, and it comes with time, so we are just being patient and doing what we can. We had lunch with a less active who is starting to come back. Her name is Luciana and she is about 28 and is so awesome!!! She loves us and is starting to come back, is getting a calling, and comes out with us to visit people. So they all live up by the river, but then we had a lesson alllllll the way in the bottom of the city. So we took a colectivo down and had a lesson with another recent convert (we literally have 11 recent converts to visit and take care of). His name is Mario, and we started teaching his mom, Theresa now. We taught her the restoration and she told us she knows it is the truth. The only problem is that she just recently had surgery on her hip and is stuck in bed for 3 months. So she can’t come to church or anything. But she has the desires and we are just going to visit and teach her until she can come to church. And here comes the crazy part of the day...we had to take another colectivo to another part of the area, but it's part of the new area, and we got on the wrong bus! So for 2 hours, we were stuck and had no idea where we were, so we just had to wait. It went out of our area and it's pretty dangerous in the elders' area, so we didn’t get off the bus. Finally we got off and it was the end of the day. We were so sad and frustrated because we couldn’t do much, but the rest of the week was great!!!

Wed: All of our lessons in the morning fell through, but we felt like we should visit another recent convert who hasn't been coming to church. Her name is Dora. She is about 65 and forgets everything. But her son, Damian is awesome and I think he has some disability but he smiles and laughs all the time, and it just makes us so happy to be around him. That day when we passed by, her mother in law had just passed away, so we talked to her about the plan of salvation and she said it helped her so much. The gospel solves all problems and always gives us so much hope and peace. We also had another lesson with Elin and German. Their mom is inactive but served a mission. Elin has a baptismal date for the 20th and they aren't reading, but they came to church, so we have to help them gain testimonies. 

Thurs: This day we went to Santa Fe and had a special mission conference with Elder Zeballos, from the seventy! He was so awesome and I learned so much!! He taught us about the importance of learning other languages and how we need to learn Spanish the best we can because in the future we can be of service in the church to bring the work even more forward. He then also told us that sin, lack of love, and lack of desires to serve are what keep us away from increasing our faith and completing our goals. This is what our mission needs right now. We have so much capability of doing the Lord's will, but we sometimes lack faith. And President Zanni is helping us a lot with that right now. We were going to have divisions right after that, but the colectivo wasn't going to leave until 1 in the morning so we both stayed in Parana. Hna Rasband and the other sister worked in one half of the area, and me and the other sister worked in the other. We had a lot of fun and were able to teach a few people. We contacted a lot and met a lot of people who accepted to listen more. SO it was an interesting first division, but everything worked out great and it wasn't as hard as I thought. 

Fri: Not much happened today, we finished divisions and taught an inactive lady. Everyone here says they will never come back to church because someone offended them. I just bore her my testimony on the sacrament. Salvation is a personal thing, and when we choose to not go to church because of someone else, we are denying ourselves of receiving the cleansing power of the sacrament and the companionship of the Holy Ghost. She didn’t want to listen, but I know it is true. I never want to miss the blessings that we are promised if we will just sacrifice and go to church, no matter if there are people we don't like, or are hypocrites, or if we even are just too tired. It's not worth it. 

Sat: Today was our talent show and so many people came!!!! We went first and sang the cup song from Pitch Perfect and even though it was in English, everyone loved it and asked us to teach it to them after. Then Hna Rasband also played the piano and now we have people who want us to teach them that too. So we got a lot of referrals and through that, we can find new investigators and teaching opportunities. One referral from another Hermana actually came and we met him. His name is Nestor and he told us he would come to church on Sunday. SO it was a big success! 

Sun: Last, but not least! Sorry this is so long, I have so much to tell you though! Church was awesome! We had 3 investigators at church (Germana, Elin and Nestor)!! Nestor told us that he felt so much peace, and so we asked if later that night we could teach him a lesson. He came back to church and with Luciana, we taught him the restoration. He told us that his whole life he has been going to different churches to find the truth. He said he felt like he had finally found the truth and was so happy! We invited him to be baptized on the 27th and he accepted. He is so awesome. Heavenly Father is the best!! He just puts us in the exact places we need to be to find the people who are searching for Him. We also had lunch with a family today, and they gave us matambre a la pizza or something like that. It's like pizza, but instead of dough, they put the sauce and cheese on a big piece of steak. SO GOOD!!! I ate 4 and then she brought out the dessert....hahaha. But the food here is the best!! 

I love it here and couldn't be happier. I hope you are all doing great! Happy Birthday Emily and Kenz!!!!! (: Love you all and hope you have a great week!!<3<3

Con amorrrrrrrr,
Hermana Moberly

Seeing Hna Nelson and Elders Cruz and Galleguillos from my last district at Mission Conference

Me and Hermana Rasband

My Cookie Bread :)

Monday, September 1, 2014

I Hate Goodbyes But I Love Hellos

Hola Hola (:
            Well, I now have my first official week in the big city again! It was so weird at first going from little Sunchales to big Parana! It was really hard saying goodbye to the members, but I only cried coming home from saying goodbye to Joana. She is basically my third sister. I love her!! But now that I do divisions with the other sisters, I think I get to go back to Sunchales with Hermana Nelson at the end of the transfer! Cross your fingers (: 
But I love ParanĂ¡! It is a pretty big city, nothing like Rosario though. It reminds me of an Argentine Los Angeles. Lots of hills, cars, people, shopping. You never get bored and you never go a day without seeing something completely crazy. It's an adventure!  We get a lot of lunches which is really great! And we walk a lotttt which is even greater because that means that by the time we walk home, we have already walked all the food off (; SO this is what happened....there used to be three areas for our ward (yes its a ward and not a branch!!!!). Us, two other hermanas, and two elders. But not enough sisters came in this transfer so they closed the other sisters' area. Which means we have two HUGE areas and it is basically alllll of Parana because the elders area is tiny. I have to learn SOOO much because when we go on transfers, I sometimes have to stay here. I was really stressed in the beginning, but now I'm just enjoying it and will get to really learn how to read a map haha. This last week we spent most of the time visiting the other sisters' investigators and all our recent converts (there is about 11 which is great). We also visited a lot of the members and asked them for help because we don’t know anything, and they gave us so many referrals! I think it is because they feel bad for us and are trying to think of people they know, which is great! This next week is full of appointments of members' friends! This is how missionary work is supposed to be (: 
We ate lunch with one family twice this week. The husband is sooo funny! My first day there, the kids were testing our English and would say a Spanish word and see if we knew it in English. They were so amazed because we knew English so well, haha I don’t think they understood English is our native language (; But the husband also brought out a picture and told me it was him and some family members. Elder Richard G. Scott was in the picture, and at first I was so confused. I thought, ''Wow! I didn’t know Elder Scott had Spanish blood...'' hahahah then they all busted up laughing because it was a joke (: Same old Hermana Moberly! 
We are having a talent show this next week and we have about 3 acts since we are the missionaries haha, I'll let you know how it goes next week! But I think we are going to play heart and soul on the piano with 3 people. There is a recent convert here who shared her testimony with us on tithing. She told us at first she thought it would be so hard because she doesn’t receive a lot of money. But she just does it. Now every week when she gives the Bishop the envelope of money, the next week she receives so much more and she doesn’t understand how, other than God really opens the windows of heaven and poors out blessings upon her and her family. But I loved that. She didn’t know how she was going to pay it, but she just did it. It's the same with us. Sometimes we don’t know how it can be possible to be obedient, but we just need to do it and the Lord will bless us. 
One recent convert also told me that if he didn't know I was from the US he would think I was Argentine by my accent!! WOOHOO!!! But then the day after one investigator told me she couldn’t understand me...haha oh well! We can’t sleep with the heaters on now because it's dangerous so I sleep at night with 2 pairs of pants, a sweatshirt, gloves and two pairs of socks haha. But I don’t get cold, don’t worry Mom (: 
Here in the city horses carry carts down the streets and I feel like it’s the olden days. People sit back in the carts with microphones and call out what they are selling, or they pick up trash haha. Here they have different stores for everything you want to buy. A fruit shop, a pharmacy, a potato shop, etc. SO we have to go to lots of different stores, I miss Walmart and Target haha. We live right by the river and it is so pretty, I will try and get a picture this week! It's beautiful here. We have lots of work and I am happy. It's better that way. Everything is better when you are doing the Lord's work and being obedient. Hna. Rasband is the best!! She works so hard and loves these people so much!! This week we are looking for a family of three and we think we already found them, but we have an appointment on Tuesday, so we will see! But with faith and prayer we can see miracles! I love it here and couldn't be happier. 1 Nephi 4:6, sometimes we may not know the reason why we are called to do things, but if we just do it, the Lord will provide the way and blessings. Love you all so much! Have a great week<3

Love,

Hermana Moberly
My new companion, Hermana Rasband August 2014

Meeting Hermana Nelson July 2014



Hermana Zanni, me, Hermana Nelson and President Zanni, July 2014
Incoming Missionaries, July 2014
Mayonnaise on EVERYTHING!

Sunchales Argentina

Parana Argentina