Week #61 - Changes & Service

MY NEW COMP HNA MARTINEZ FROM URUGUAY!!!

What a week! We had changes and I am training again here in Ciudad del Este! I am so excited to be staying and training. I love it. I had to say goodbye to my BEST friend Hermana Baez and it was really hard for me... I really miss her right now. This is one of the hardest things about the mission for sure, but I am a happy camper!

This week we have been doing lots of service. There is a 81 year old member in my ward who rides his bike to church every week, (yeah I know he’s awesome) got in an accident and he broke his collarbone. We have been over at their house a lot this week to help them clean and sing them hymns.

Also one of the less active members we teach is a lady named Ursula. She is a really sweet lady. Last week, her 38 year old son passed away. It has been a really difficult time for her and her family. We have also been going to her house to help her.

Something that people might not know is that we are also here to help the members. I have a lot of time in this area and I have really grown to love these people. My heart hurts for all of the sad things that are happening with these families, but I am happy that I am here to help them feel better!

One of the quotes I love that my mom sent to me is by Elder Nelson, he says, All missionaries, younger and older, serve with the sole hope of making life better for other people. This is my goal as a missionary. I am trying to help them feel better as they struggle to find relief.

I know that the Atonement of Jesus Christ can help us with whatever problem we might face. I know if we just come unto Him, He will help us. My invitation to you all is reach a little farther and help other people. Do it. You will feel happier! I promise you!

XOXO

Hermana Hannah

Chilean elder greetings :)

Added note from Heather:

Hannah still looks amazingly happy and MAN is her hair getting long!  I know that she has even cut it on her mission.  As of Wednesday, Hannah will be out exactly 14 months.  SO CRAZY.......Still so darn proud of her and excited to read her email's each Monday!!  AND.....even more excited that she has managed to get some pictures sent to us even though her camera was stolen.  Happy Day!  Enjoy!  XOXO

Week #60 - I Will Try Your Cake.........

Well, I am here another transfer! That means I will have 5.5 transfers here in CDE. I just love it here and I have some progressing investigators so I am excited! I also will be training again! I am going to be a mom for the third time!!

We have goals in the misión to contact a ton of new people! (I have been talking about that a bunch over the past couple of weeks...) and we are trying to come up with creative ways to contact people. Just in case you don’t know.... all of the sister missionaries here love clothes so we have been trying to use that. Practically every neighborhood has one house of used clothes here so we have been trying to us that to contact. (We are not allowed to shop during the week but we use it to get into the house haha) It has been working!

2 weeks ago we met a sweet lady named Graciela. She has 2 daughters and her boyfriend lives with her. (They still are not married yet) we taught her the first lesson and she loved it. She told us without us asking anything that she wants to get married to receive the blessings. I told her that we wanted to teach her whole family together and she said that there was NO way her husband would listen...

.... 5 days passed and we went to talk with her & her husband was there!! We invited him to talk and he said yes, but that he never wants to go to our church because it is far from his house. We explained about everything and he was listening very carefully.

I related it to a cake. I said that we will never know if the cake is good unless we try it. & then I bore my testimony.

He said, I will try your cake. I want to go to your church.

It was one of the most powerful teaching experiences that I have had in my misión. I am so excited to continue teaching this family. I love this góspel!

(sidenote: sorry some of the words are in Spanish.... the computer is doing that... haha)

XOXO

Hermana Hannah

Week #59 - Brazil, Consejo, no camera

No mom wants to wake up to a one sentence message like this from her missionary daughter:  

"... hi.... no pics.... someone robbed me:( i will explain later but no one hurt me. it's okay! i am happy!"

I had to wait 6 hours and 46 minutes to receive this next message.  I am much relieved and thankful that everyone is okay........looks like pictures may be few and far between for the rest of Hannah's mission, but that's okay.  She said she'd try to "mooch off her comps" for the last four months.  haha!

Well, this was one of the FASTEST weeks of my whole mission. I feel like it went by in 3 days!

This week one of our main focuses is to find new people to teach. We are working on finding new people. We still feel like it is awkward sometimes contacting so we come up with some games to do. One of the things we did was we picked a random name and decided that we were going to find that person. We picked the name Gabriel. After we picked the name we went on a hunt for Gabriel. We found a perfect house. The doors were open & there were little kids outside so we contacted it!

A woman came to the door. Her name is Selina! As we were contacting her, we asked for Gabriel! Not expecting to find him, she said, ``Gabriel is right here! `` He was her neighbor! Right as we turned, we noticed that he was leaving. So we decided to talk to her & her family! It was such a great experience and we were able to teach them about the gospel!

Now I will share a sad story of the mission! This week I went to a counsel meeting in Argentina and we had to leave all of the bags in a different room and during that meeting someone came in and robbed me and all of the sisters. They sadly took all of my money and my camera! But nothing else and we are safe, so everything is okay!

Today I was able to experience one of the most wonderful things about my mission. 3 countries! I was able to go into Brazil, Argentina, & of course Paraguay! I have pictures somewhere of the 3 fronteras so I will try and send it! I love my mission. I am so blessed to be here. It truly is the best! :)

Week #58 - Be A Witness

zone conference!

Last week we went to a multi-stake conference and it was a broadcast from Salt Lake to all of Uruguay, Paraguay, and Argentina. We learned about the importance of being a witness of Jesus Christ. When we were baptized, we promised to be witness of Jesus Christ in all times and in all things and in all places. One of the men that spoke said, ‘‘Being a witness of Christ is being a missionary.'' I just love that.

I have been a missionary now for almost 14 months and I can really say that it is the truth. A witness is someone who shares what they believe with all people. I want to extend the invitation of being a witness and sharing your testimony with your friends.

This week we started teaching a man that could be the twin of hno Silverio. His name is Marcelo and he is a shoemaker. He is 69 years old and we met him contacting his neighbor Tati. We were teaching his neighbor and we were waiting for her to come and let us in, but she wasn’t home.

.... He told us that she wasn’t home. We started talking to him and he said, “I want to learn more about you.” His first question was why are we called Mormons? It is one of my favorite things to answer! We started talking about the Book of Mormon and gave him one, and of course invited him to read it. He read it & he is reading it.

I know that was a little miracle of Heavenly Father. I know Tati wasn’t home for a reason. I believe in the miracles of Heavenly Father.

I HELD A BABY PUPPY.... actually i do this everyday but i am happy

hna baez is a cutie!

this is the tallest hna villanueva will ever look hahaha

this is a portland pic! elder hutchinson is from sherwood! he is so great!

elder hutchinson, elder christenesen, elder graves, me, hna finlinson! some of my very best friends

zone conference!

the sisters!!!!