Hot Hot Hot!

HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT! You guys would not believe the level of hot that it is here! I don’t know how many degrees 38 is in Fahrenheit, but I can tell you that it’s a lot when you are missionary and you live in the street all day every day, ha-ha. That was the average this week! 

The only real story that I want to tell is about Juliana! Juliana is a Venezuelan lady who works as the conserje (I don’t know what that is called in English) in the apt building where Rafael lives, and also a whole bunch of members, so basically, we are always there. We always said hi to her, and she always seemed kind of sad. I always wanted to talk to her more, but we never had time. But last weekend we had the perfect opportunity and she was so excited to receive us! She is 29 years old and has a 9-month-old baby. On Tuesday we had an appointment with her and we asked her what was keeping her from being close to God. She told us that sin, just small things in her life that she could tell she wasn’t doing well. So, we invited her to be baptized and receive a remission of her sins and start over. She accepted, and will be baptized on Febrero 16! 

There are SUCH PREPARED PEOPLE out there, like the Doctrine and Covenants says, that are lost and suffering just because they do not know where to find the truth. If we open our mouths, we can share the gospel with those people. You would not believe the difference in the countenance of Juliana. 

On Sunday she went to church and the members loved her! She loved Sunday school, about baptism and repentance! It was awesome!  And right after church, a Venezuelan family she had just met walked up to her and invited her to a family home evening in their house that same night. So yesterday we decided to go visit her at 6, and then head to the noche de hogar with her at 7. At 6 we get there and she’s not in her apt. We called her, and her phone was turned off. My comp and I offered a prayer, and we tried a few more things and then we couldn’t do anything else. So, we sat down on the curb, offered another prayer, and we waited for her to come home. We didn’t know where she was or anything, but we had so much faith that she would come back. We waited for almost an hour. And at 7:05 she got there running so she could go to the noche de hogar! It was a miracle, I had a prayer in my heart for the rest of the night just thanking god for that!! It was amazing! And Juliana was the life of the party also! Please pray for her!! Her name is said just like it sounds, not Huliana, but Juliana! 

Rafael did not get baptized, some things happened with his family, and in total, he needs a little bit more time. We hope that in two or three more weeks. Please pray for him too :)
Well, I love you a lot!! 

Hna Stanley

Busy Week!

We had such a busy week, it was totally awesome! On Monday I got my new comp, who is totally awesome (and who i totally forgot to take a picture with...). On Tuesday I had to train my companion and another companionship how to do what we do in the office. That was fun! On Wednesday we had to be in the office and go to district meeting and I had to give the class about how to baptize with the help of the members! Then on Thursday morning we had Consejo de Liderazgo, its one of the things we have to go to as LIders capacitadoras. It was really interesting! Basically president tells us what the new plan de cambio will be and we as zone leaders and capacitadoras, plan the zone conferences, like what classes we are going to teach, or just in what things we need to work. For example, this plan del camio will be planificar para bautismo! How our planning makes a big difference. So we thought of some different classes we can to do capacitar the missionaries! I love it, it is super interesting! 

Also, every day this week, we worked out in our sector finding people from about 4 and on. it was hot this week ,super. On Saturday it was like 38 degrees or something, ALL DAY! But this week we found like 11 new investigators so I cant complain :) 

This week they will probably be assigning us the hnas that comp and i will be training, and that just basically means that they will come and do divisions with us a few days this cambio and we will work with them on their personal goals and in their sectors! Its gonna be super fun! I'm excited!  That's basically all this week! Please pray for our inv so that we can make good decisions for them, especially Rafael who has a baptismal date for this weekend. We aren't sure if we will move it or not so pray we can have the spirit's guide :)

Also please keep praying for Raul, the situation is still really bad with his daughter so he really needs our prayers!  Love you all!!

Hna Stanley

Las Aguas de Bautismo Leave the Font

Soooo, I had a really interesting week this week, which included seven different companions, one baptism, one flooded church building and one 1-minute long earthquake! woohooo! 

On Tuesday morning my sweet companion Hna Ramos and I received the news that she would be going home the following morning. So, I helped her get all ready and before I knew it, she was gone. She will be happy in Brazil now that she can get better! On Wednesday I ended up with Hna Gillete, a new hna whose companion had also gone home. The problem was that we both had baptismal dates for the same day, at the same time. So that was complicated. What ended up happening was that we had to do divisions with members, a few nights in the week, other days we did with other hnas nearby, and lots of fun stuff. My comps this week included Hna Ramos, Hna Gillete, Hna Macarena, Hna Graff, Hna Fran Retamal who came to see Raúl get baptized, and Hna Loreto! And now I’m with my new comp and Hna Hancock who is with us while she waits for her comp to get here tomorrow. My new companion is going to be Hna Condori, from Bolivia. She’s super adorable. She’s super short, her head makes is to my shoulder, maybe! And she has the same time as me in the mission. We are going to be working part time in the office, and part time in the sector. Also, we are sister training leaders... ha-ha! I don’t know how we are going to do that with the office and everything, but it should be super fun! Anyway, I already love her. 

We had our baptism of Raúl on Saturday. The font takes three hours to fill. So, three hours before we turned it on, and two hours later we went to the bathroom and it was full of water. We still don’t know how, but the font filled up too fast, so the bathrooms filled up with water!! And the water in the font was cold and we couldn’t put any hot water in it because it was over full! It was super fun! 

Hna Retamal also came to the baptisms which was good because I felt weird. I was alone at Raúl’s baptism so it was good that she was there. Presidente King, an old mission president came and baptized Raúl. 

That’s all the time I have!

Hermana Stanley

Answered Prayers

Hi family and friends, I love you all! I’m really excited to write you this week because in the whole week I could really see how God answered my prayers! I don’t really remember the beginning of the week, I just remember from about Thursday and on. On Thursday morning, I had said a really sincere prayer and had asked god to make His will known to me. All in all, it’s really hard to be in the sector because I have to worry about the office, my comp’s emotional state, and health, and then the few people we are teaching! I feel like I do a lot of it alone, so I prayed that god would let me know what to do. On Thursday after lunch, all of a sudden, I just felt like calling all of the people that we teach, (which are only three). Each one of them said that they would actually be available that evening, at 6, 7, and 8. PERMISO! So, I started making plans with a lady in my ward to go out and work. Then I couldn’t get a hold of her, then I couldn’t find anybody to stay with Hna Ramos, and I just kept thinking "God has opened up this door for me, we just have to figure out how the door works!" I knew he would make it possible, and OF COURSE He did! In the end we were able to do divisions, and I went to work with Maca. First, we went to Raul, who has a baptismal date for this weekend!! He is doing great!!!! Then we ran to teach Rafael, a young Venezuelan guy! WE PUT A BAPTISMAL DATE WITH HIM! February 2!! It was the best time I’ve ever taught lesson 1 I think (ok maybe not but it had been so long ha-ha). He was really excited to have the baptismal date! Then we visited Nadia and Rigoberto. Nadia is not a member and has never been willing to accept a baptismal date, but now she is pondering and praying about a specific date!! In the end we had to literally run to get home and to and meet back up with Hna Ramos, but we did it! And my foot didn’t even hurt. On Friday we had interviews with Presidente, and Hna Ramos and I were able to give lots of ideas to president about how we could get better in the office! It was great!! It made me feel a lot better. 

On Saturday the elders had a baptism and they asked me to play Jesus es mi Luz, which for whatever reason is like the hardest hymn in the hymn book for me, I just can’t get it! So, I was really nervous and I prayed a lot that god would help me. In the end....... well I lived through the experience, but let’s just say it was not pretty..... sometimes we have to admit our defeats, ha-ha. Also, we had invited Raul and Rafael to the baptism but neither came.... it was really disappointing and I went home a little bit frustrated with God again. I just wondered if he really heard me prayers. The next day, on Sunday, we woke up and started to call Rafael. His cell phone was off....... we got to church and we kept calling, but the meeting started and no Rafael. Also, we had asked a member to invite Raul to sit with him, but he didn’t do it... so Raul was alone, Rafael was not there, and my hands were shaking as I tried to play the piano. "God please hear me!!!" After a little while, I got through the sacrament hymn not too bad. Then a member got up and invited Raul to sit with him. Then Rafael got there :) and I felt Gods love so strongly. The things that matter to us really do matter to him! After the classes, a member of jas (ysa) was talking to Rafael and I asked when we could visit him. He put an appointment for that night, and the member invite himself (which is WONDERFUL). We had a great lesson and his fecha is really firm! 

I want you all to know that God loves you and he really cares about you and the small things in your life. 

Not much else is new here. An elder in my ward is from Italia and he’s supposedly teaching me Italiano but all I’ve learned how to say so far is "MAMA MIA"" (and he rolls his eyes every time I say it, ha-ha. I don’t know why but...:) Life’s good when you smile :) love you all!

Hermana Stanleycita