Book of Mormon Miracles

This week was awesome!  I lost my voice for the first time ever due to a cold and couldn't talk for 3 days.  Teaching lessons and planning was fun... my companion had to listen closely as I whispered my ideas in planning session.  We were both very grateful when my voice finally came back:)

Yesterday we had the great opportunity of going to the re-dedication of the Mexico City, Mexico temple.  It was such a beautiful experience!  It was also fun to see Henry B. Eyring and Jeffrey R. Holland speak a little bit of Spanish:)

We also had a really great lesson this week with a family that are less actives.  We taught them about how the Book of Mormon can answer questions of our souls.  We used an example by letting them choose a question they had and we showed them the answers to their question by reading a chapter in the Book of Mormon.  Their question was, "Why does God allow so much suffering and wickedness?"  We read about it in 2 Nephi 2.  It was a powerful lesson that the spirit taught each one of us as we read.  After seeing how the chapter answered their questions they had a sincere burning desire to study the Book of Mormon.  It is very true what it says in Preach my Gospel that the Book of Mormon combined with the spirit is the best tool that can be used for true conversion.  I love the Book of Mormon and am so grateful for all the sacrifices that so many made in order for us to have it. Through daily study it is truly a book that changes people and changes lives.

I hope you all have a great week.... and don't forget to read your Book of Mormon.  You can't imagine how many answers inside those pages are waiting for you!

Love, Hermana Paini

Yay!! Little Ceasar's Pizza for the second time this year!

Missionary dinner.....fast and easy!

The Rescue

This week was so great!  We did an activity this week called "Al Rescate,"  which in English I think would translate to "The Rescue."  It was an activity that we did with the 6 of us sister missionaries in the zone in the area of the sisters in our district are opening an area.  The idea of the activity is that we can contact and find more people for them to teach.  We all met together in the park that is in their area and one of the sisters, Hermana Cook, played her violin while we sang church hymns.  Several people gathered around to listen to us and after each song we were able to contact them and take down their names and addresses so that the sisters would visit them.  It was a great activity and turned out to be quite the success!

This week we also had the wonderful opportunity of getting to know a new investigator named Maria Esperanza.  She is an older lady who has had a very hard life.  She grew up as an orphan since her parents abandoned her at a young age.  She had 11 children but only 8 of them survived.  Two of her children still live with her.  They are beautiful, disable adults at the ages of 35 and 27.  They cannot talk but understand well and are very attentive in the lessons we teach.  On Saturday Maria Esperanza was very sick when we went to teach her.  We sang her a hymn and said a prayer for her and then they took her to the hospital.  She has a tumor so they gave her some medicine for the pain and sent her back home.  Yesterday morning when we went to check on her to see how she was doing, she seemed to be feeling a little better.  She was laying in her bed in her church clothes and told us that she wanted more than anything to go to church but that she couldn't walk because of the pain in her leg.  So we called a taxi to come pick us up and take her to church and her wish was granted.  Her two children that live with her were also able to accompany us and they all seemed to really enjoy it.  After church she told us she was so grateful for the opportunity she had to attend and said that she hoped she would be feeling better next week to be able to walk to church.  She is such a great example and I have learned so much from her!

I hope you all have a great week!  I love you guys.

Love, Hermana Paini

An Instrument in the Lord's Hands

Well, I don't know where it went...but this week was sure great!  The members here have been working so great with us this past week.  They have been giving us several references of people that they know and love and accompany us to the appointments with them.  It has been awesome!  There is such a difference between a lesson with a member present than a lesson without.  There is a part in Preach my Gospel that says, "The ideal solution is when members invite others to be taught and our present for the teaching.  When members do this, more people are baptized and remain active in the church.  It is very true, there is a higher level of success in the work when we work with the members!

We also have been focussing a lot on re-activating less actives lately.  There is a story that we have used to motivate us and the members to work on a re-activation and never give up.  The story talks about an inactive young man who used to surf.  He would pend his time on Sundays surfing instead of going to church.  However, the ward assigned a member to reactivate him and bring him back to church.  Here is the story......

As a member of the branch presidency in Fortaleza, Brazil, Brother Marques with the other 

priesthood leaders developed a plan to reactivate those who were less active in his branch. One of those who was less active was a young man by the name of Fernando Araujo. 

Recently I spoke to Fernando, and he told me of his experience:
“I became involved in surfing competitions on Sunday mornings and stopped going to my

Church meetings. One Sunday morning Brother Marques knocked on my door and asked 

my nonmember mother if he could talk to me. When she told him I was sleeping, he asked 

permission to wake me. He said to me,‘Fernando, you are late for church!’ Not listening to 

my excuses, he took me to church.
“The next Sunday the same thing happened, so on the third Sunday I decided to leave early to avoid him. As I opened the gate I found him sitting in his car, reading the scriptures. 

When he saw me he said, ‘Good! You are up early.Today we will go and find another young man!’ I appealed to my agency, but he said, ‘We can talk about that later.’
“After eight Sundays I could not get rid of him, so I decided to sleep at a friend’s house. 

I was at the beach the next morning when I saw a man dressed in a suit and tie walking 

towards me. When I saw that it was Brother Marques, I ran into the water. All of a sudden, I felt someone’s hand on my shoulder. It was Brother Marques, in water up to his chest! He 

took me by the hand and said, ‘You are late! Let’s go.’ When I argued that I didn’t have any clothes to wear, he replied, ‘They are in the car.’
“That day as we walked out of the ocean, I was touched by Brother Marques’s sincere love and worry for me. He truly understood the Savior’s words: ‘I will seek that which was lost, 

and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and 

will strengthen that which was sick’ (Ezek.34:16). Brother Marques didn’t just give me a ride to church the quorum made sure I remained active. They planned activities that made me 

feel needed and wanted, I received a calling, and the quorum members became my 

friends.”
Following his reactivation, Brother Araujo went on a full time mission and has served as 

bishop, stake president, mission president, and regional representative. His widowed 

mother, three sisters, and several cousins have also entered the waters of baptism.

I love you guys!

Love, Hermana Paine

The Work Begins to Multiply

This week was great!  We have been praying that we would find people who were ready to be baptized this coming week and the next.  We have seen so many miracles and have found several people who have heard the missionaries and are ready to be baptized this week or the next!

This week we began teaching Hermana Flor's mother-in-law, Adela.  It is a beautiful story to how we came to know and started teaching her.  There is a promise in Preach My Gospel that says that if we can teach by the spirit those we are teaching will feel a burning desire to share the gospel with others. After we finished teaching a lesson to Hermana Flor and her boyfriend, her boyfriend told us he felt a sense of overwhelming joy come into his heart and said he would like us to visit his mom.  We went to her house and he began teaching his mom the same lesson that we had just finished teaching him.  He began to cry and told his mother that he wanted to change and that he knew this gospel was the way that he would become a better man.  After the lesson with his mom he also told us about several friends that he has who he has talked to that would like to listen to us.  There is nothing that makes us more happy... the more work the better!:)

Yesterday we had our ward mission program in sacrament meeting.  As missionaries, ward missionaries and our ward mission leader we spoke about the work of salvation.  It was great!  All in all it was a great week in the Lord's vineyard.  I love being a missionary!

Love, Hermana Paini

Eating cake to celebrate Weston's wedding

Our little missionary

He looks mad but he really isn't

The whole group

Tree hugging

Our shadows

The view over the canyon

The Day We've All Been Waiting For

This week was AWESOME!  It was fun, hard and spiritual and just great all around!




On Thursday we had our semi-annual mission activity.  It was a lot of fun!  We went and hiked down 720 stairs to some giant waterfalls.  We played volleyball on the side of the river, took pictures and had lots of fun!  After the trip back up the stair path we were all pretty exhausted, but it was all worth it.  My companion and I did a comparison of what seemed to be the never ending path of stairs with the gospel principle endure to the end.  It was a beautiful and very rewarding experience!





                                                     









                     

                                       
               










                 




Saturday was a long awaited for day!  After 3-4 months of waiting for this day Hermana Flor's baptism day finally happened!  It was such a beautiful day!  Hermana Monjaras and I sang in her baptismal service and it was an experience I will never forget.  We sang, "If the Savior Stood Beside Me," singing half of it in English and the other half in Spanish.  As we were singing I looked up at Hermana Flor as her eyes filled with tears.  She smiled at me as tears ran down her face.  As we proceeded to her baptismal service I asked her how she felt and she said she was so happy and that this was a day she had dreamt about and waited for for so long.  She looked like an angel in her white dress and was glowing all around.  After she was baptized she bore her testimony to end the service. She has such a strong, powerful testimony, you can see it in her eyes and hear it in her voice that she really knows without any doubt that this church is true.  She is such a great example to me and I have learned so much from her!

We moved to a new house this week and it is great!  We live in the same privada apartments as a great family that are members.  The best part is that the wáter doesn`t have a color.. it is clear!  It doesn`t have a smell either which is also a good sign.  I took a shower this week and felt like it was the first time I was actually CLEAN in 3 transfers.  It was a great experience :)

I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week.

Love, Hermana Paini

A Fun Week of Food Poisoning

Well, back to the 4 ft long bed/couch this week!  My companion got food poisoning so it was back to the hospital this week.  The good news is that it is starting to feel more like home every time.  I now know where everything is and the names of each of the doctors and nurses. :)

Our ward mission leader and his wife went out to eat with a couple who are ward missionaries and their son, Daniel.  After eating they brought a couple of plates of food home for us so we could it it for dinner.  However, it was shrimp that they gave us, which is something I have never been too fond of.  My companion however, LOVES it so I let her eat it all.  The next day when we went to correlation with the couple who are ward missionaries and our ward mission leader everyone was sick!  They all said they felt horrible.  Later that night my companion started feeling sick as well.  We went back to the house and she progressively got worse!  She was non stop throwing up and spending all of her time in the bathroom.  We took her to the hospital clinic and they hospitalized her overnight hooking her up to an IV and injecting antibiotics.  After about 24 hours she felt much better so we were able to go back home.

The more time I spend in the mission the more I think about how the mission prepares us to be parents.  I am learning how to love and care for someone else, clean up someone else's throw up, and being able to put emotions of being tired and hungry away in order to dedicate all of my time to helping someone else.  It's a beautiful thing all that can be learned in the mission!

This week was so great and I wouldn't trade it for the world!  We saw so many miracles and were able to witness on a greater level the Lord's hand in our lives.

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love, hermana Paini

Blistered feet breaking in the new shoes!

Sick Companion

Hey everyone,  this week was great!

This email will be short because we don´t have much time.. we are currently getting things ready because we will be changing houses so we've been pretty busy.

Taking care of my companion in the clinic

This week was anther week full of miracles.  My companion got sick this week so we had to stay in the clinic for a couple days  but I climbed up in her hospital bed with her and we talked and had a good time.  She is doing much better now.  The trip to the clinic made us realize how grateful we were when we were able to go home again and sleep in our BEDS.  It´s true that you don´t realize what you have until you don´t have it anymore.  So that was a good reminder that helped us be more grateful :)

I was a little big for the couch they gave me to sleep on in the clinic

Hermana Flor is progressing so well!  She has separated from her boyfriend and we  are going to visit her this evening to invite her to be baptized.  We are so proud of her.  I will keep you all updated :)

I hope you have a great week!  I love you guys!