9 Meses en la Mission?!!?!!

Hola Familia!!! Buenas dias!

This past week has been an adventure that is for sure! I hit my 9 month mark, can you believe it?! Time flies and all I know is we have to take advantage of every moment we have because each precious moment is a gift from our father in heaven. I do wish time would slow down but I am just working my very hardest and enjoying this awesome adventure with the time I do have!!!

So this week we had Zone training and it was good. We learned about our own initiative and the nac initiative and pretty much about just having more faith and trust in God. I always learn a lot at those conferences and am motivated to go and change all of Minnesota! haha After that we went on exchanges and I was with Sister Toone. She is from a small town called erda in Utah. Our exchange was normal just like any other exchange until we had our interview and studies together. She was asking me some questions I didn't really know how to respond to and I felt a little bit dumb. One of my weaknesses is expecting myself to be perfect all the time so this was hard! And she asked the question a few other times in a few different ways until one penetrated my heart. She had no clue that what she was asking was going to have a huge impact on my mission and life. She was simply following the spirit. I felt like I was going to cry because I felt the spirit very strong of course and I fought it for a little while I fought what the spirit was trying to teach me but then I opened my heart and humbled myself and learned an unforgettable lesson. I first learned that we have to allow the spirit to teach us. We have to be living in a way so we can feel it and then we need to listen and listen carefully. I also learned that we are always instruments in the lords hands and have to be willing to follow those promptings we get! Sister Toone followed a prompting so I could learn and grow. I learned a lot about my relationship with my Savior and with my companions. I learned how to be a better companion and more fully what my purpose is in each of their lives. I have learned that the people placed into our lives each one is like the best investigator we could ever ask for. Our job is to help them access the power of the atonement, to be healed and to change. We can't pass up these sacred opportunities because of the closeness in our relationship. Sometimes we pass by or look past the best opportunities to change a life. So I learned a lot haha:)

Pablo is getting baptized and confirmed this Wednesday and we couldn't be more excited for him. He beams at church and its so fun to see his excitement on this spiritual journey. He truly is remarkable and an example of the believers!

This week was a roller coaster with CJ. He is super excited and soaking everything up and we taught his whole family together. Then he is depressed and worried and scared because Satan is working on him. Satan is the worst. CJ is 18 and has lots of temptations from the world. We are helping him to keep the spirit in his life so he can have strength to overcome! CJ has already been blessed he has been blessed immediately for the changes he has already made! He just needs to keep the faith! So many of our investigators are having these way spiritual experiences unlike anything I have experienced but they aren't letting God change them. It is very hard to see that they know of the goodness of God but still would rather choose what they are comfortable with. I think that is one of the reasons I learned what I did this week. We have to allow the spirit to change us, we choose it. We choose our own happiness and eventually reward in the end. Tana is struggling with this but is still progressing and I just feel so blessed to be in her life right now. She needs more than anyone I have ever met. I wish you could meet all these people. You would LOVE them. I am so lucky. :)

Travis is still set for baptism and has lots of ganas to do what is right for his daughter! Hope Woodrum is making progress and we are planning on setting a baptismal date with her tonight. The work is great here. The people are better. The knowledge of our Savior Jesus Christ is best and I am the luckiest Hermana to be an instrument in the Lords hands right now. The Gospel is true. The spirit is real. Change is possible. I encourage you all to think about what God is trying to teach you right now in this time of your life. We are always changing learning and growing. Allow the spirit to guide you so you can more fully enjoy the blessing from our Father in Heaven.

I love you all very much. Never forget it!! Make it a marvelous week! :)

xoxox

Hermana Pentelute

Pics: "over the hump" 9 month pic, me and Sister Toone and the Kasota goat zoo 2 mins away from St Peter gotta love it!

With the Strength of the Lord, All Things Are Possible.

Hola Familia! 

How is everyone that I love? I am doing great, couldn't be better! :)

Let me tell you about Brother Pablo. Man he is crazy. So this week we have been praying and praying and waiting for him to talk with his boss again. He finally did and Heavenly Father answered are prayers. He WILL be having all Sundays off for church...for real this time! Also he had his baptismal interview yesterday and he is all set to go! We are SO EXCITED for Pablo to make this change in his life and for the affect it is going to have for generations! One cool thing about Pablo is that he gets enduring to the end. He knows this isn't just something to do to feel good. He knows its a commitment to God for his life and that this is the one true church of God. So Saturday we were teaching Pablito (that's his nickname) and I really wanted to understand him and his desires and what changed him.  It feels like all of this was happening so fast and such a miracle that came out of no where I wanted to understand! Well it took some digging and the help of the Lord to be guided to the right questions but we finally figured it out. He told us that he gained a testimony by acting and testing things out and seeing results. His testimony didn't start all at once, he was bored to talk to us he said. But then he started keeping his commitments and reading the Book of Mormon and that's when it changed for him. He had a small interest that grew and grew into now great faith. Pablo also had a smoking problem we didn't know about!!!!! He didn't even tell us when we taught him about the word of wisdom. Well Saturday he decides to tell us that he gave up smoking 3 weeks ago. I was like PABLO why didn't you tell us?????? But the important thing is he stopped and is truly repenting because he confesed it and is moving on. That's when his faith really took off because one day he decided if I am going to go through with this I need to stop smoking and he decided that day to stop and it hasn't even been hard for him. He has smoked for many years and gave it up in the blink of an eye because God ALWAYS keeps his promises to us. That he will help, bless and strengthen us as we strive to live the commandments.

Brother Travis Kernin is crazy. We got a text from him on Saturday that said I figured out the Book of Mormon I want to tell you tonight when we meet. We were like okay what does that mean?? So we got there and he told us that he read the whole book of Mormon the night before and was walking on like 3 hours of sleep! Hahah I was blown away! He said he just stayed up and read all night long and didn't want to stop. What he got from it was that it was about faith, hope and love and how we cant have one without the other. Pretty cool faith here in little St. Peter. He is doing good and has a baptismal date for November 1st!

Sister Tana Helmer is changing more and more every single day. It is so cool to watch. We finally opened her up and found her deepest pain that she has had for years. You might think why is that good? Well so we can help her repent and change and get that burden off her back. We told her she needs to go home right after we talked and pray and beg for forgiveness. Tana is starting the repenting process and is feeling the immediate help and love of God. Once we start he promises to help and give us strength immediately!! That first step is hard but so worth it.

Cj is still doing good and we taught his brother this past week his name is Ruot. They are going to be baptized together here soon and I couldn't be happier for them!

As you can see things are VERY busy over here in Minnesota but amazing. I couldn't ask for a better place or time to be serving the Lord.

Make it a great week! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!

xoxo

Hermana Pentelute

Pic: Here is me and Hna Rawlins eating mochi at the Robinsons

Bendiciones Por la Obediente

HOLA FAMILIA!

My little St. Peter is being SO blessed!!!!!!!!!!!!! I feel so special and blessed to be here at this time. I know I am here for a reason!

Pablo is continuing on to baptism for the 1st of October. He wasn't able to come to church this past week because someone complained about him having Sundays off. We told him he needs to talk to his boss and hold him to what he told him before. Its sad to see people being taken advantage of because of various reasons. We have faith he will be able to get Sunday's off forever so that he can not only be baptized but be a strong kingdom builder. Pablo wants to serve a mission, it's so cute. He is 25 though and almost 26....

Do you remember Travis Kernin and Jason Sauld? Well I tracked into them my first transfer here. We taught them for about 4 months and they were very close to being baptized. They couldn't seem to put God first in their lives at the time. We didn't have contact with Jason or Travis for at least 2 months or more. This past week, I think it was Tuesday night, we got a text from Travis asking if he could still be baptized!!! That was such an awesome text to read hahah I even took a picture! :) I was very curious to know what sparked this interest again. We were able to teach him the very next day. We found out that Jason was doing very bad and has closed everyone off. This has affected Travis and he also shut everyone out for 2 months no communication with his daughter or family. He was going down hill fast. Monday he decided to see his little girl and he realized he needed to change. He knew that experience was an answer from God telling him its time to change and your chances are running out! So he said he picked up the Book of Mormon again and got our number and contacted us right away. He came to church this Sunday and should be getting baptized in the end of October!!! (I hope I get to see that!). He wasn't ready when I first met him but now he is. He received an answer from God to his prayers. It is SO very special to see the fruits of our labor from so long ago. It shows me that no matter what happens with our investigators, as long as we are doing the Lord's work and it is worth it and it has an affect! I feel very blessed to be seeing a miracle like this and apart of his change.

Also the power of service is real!! So this past week we helped a lady bring her groceries into her apartment. She is from Sudan and had some interesting groceries! I had to carry bags of full frozen fish, heads and everything. Well she didn't have time to talk then but we got her number and said we would stop by. Well one of our appointments fell through in that area so we decided to stop by her. We found her 18 year old son CJ there just woken up from a nap. We were able to teach him the restoration and invite him to be baptized and he accepted! He is super cool and a very deep thinker. He takes everything very seriously and to heart. He came to church on Sunday and already has a great member friend. He will be baptized in October as well and maybe also his 12 year old brother. HOW COOL IS THAT?

Well family I am so happy and filled with the spirit of God. There is no greater time of life or time to be in his vineyard. I love you all and keep you in my prayers. I hope you make it a fabulous week! Remember the reason for everything, our savior. lord and redeemer Jesus Christ the living son of God.

xoxox

love,

Hermana Pentelute

Me Encanta San Pedro 6 Translados!

Hola Familia! 

Looks like I am the companion who can't get rid of her comps!;) Me and Hermana Rawlins are going on 3 transfers (celestial) and I will be here in St. Peter again!! The Lord really needs me here at this time. I thought I would be leaving but he has a greater plan and what that is I don't know. All I am doing is following his will! Today we had an awesome breakfast with the ward and we played some soccer. I have found out I have some pretty good soccer skills! (really I think its just the competitiveness in me) This past week has been a good one a little challenging. I thought I would be leaving so I was kind of preparing myself. The Rodriguez family is having so many fiery darts thrown at them. We are praying and doing all we can so they can stay here and live a happy life. I am so excited to see them all in the waters of baptism :) somewhere in the near future. 

Gaspar, Talitha and Jay'cion, Miranda, Hope and David were all at church this past week! We were so happy to have them all there. Wade Brother Woodrum passed the sacrament and I was smiling so big. People probably thought I was a huge cheese but I can't help but be so proud of him. Our district also sang this week in sacrament called to serve and we sang in spanish. It was really cool. This district that is now being changed has been my favorite one so far and taught me so much! 

Kyron the guy we found last week has surprisingly sincere interest and good things are in the future for him. It is so cool to work in Le Sueur because missionaries have never been there before. It's a gold mine! Last night we were able to find an awesome new investigator in Le Sueur. Her name is Marina. We had seen her in the hall we were knocking and said hi and so it was very uncomfortable to knock on her door because she new exactly who we were and what we had been doing. But we didn't have fear and we knocked and she invited us right in! We were able to teach the restoration sitting! That is a miracle in of itself! Anyways she speaks both spanish and english..blessing....and she opened right up. It was a really cool lesson. One thing I have been focusing on is getting to know the deep pain of people and so I can teach them and not lessons. And we were able to do just that and promise very specific blessings of healing linked to the baptismal invitation and she immediately accepted with tears in her eyes. The Lord is glorious! He blesses us when we have courage. He is aware of every need we have. He knows us perfectly and being able to be his instrument to get to know these people is truly a gift. I love what I am doing and am excited to see where these next 6 weeks go here in St. Peter in the greatest mission in the world. MMM Many Mighty Miracles are wrought each and every day! 

I encourage you all to go and like the apostles and general authorities pages on facebook and to share links and things you like on social media. There is powerful missionary work that can be done through our resources. The more you like something online and post it the higher up it will go on google so that when people search about mormons they will be lead to more accurate sights which means better views on our beliefs! So use your social media for good!!!

I love you all dearly.

Have a great week and don't forget to pray :)

Hermana Pentelute

xoxo