Week #65: MARIA Y VICENTE

Heyyyy everyone! Sorry I wasnt able to write a letter last week. Had to sacrifice a lot of time talking to the family and everything in order to play paintball!! It was a great time honestly! For sure the most adrenaline I've felt in a long time...but this week was so memorable actually for what happened over the weekend! 

Maria and Vicente got baptized and confirmed members of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints!!! Their baptisms were so special for them. We received a text from Maria afterwards and she told us "Vicente can't stop talking about the baptism!" That put a big smile on our faces!! They were both just so content and happy after the weekend. The whole week leading up to the baptism they were just anxious and so excited to get to the big day! They are some of the truest converts you can have as a missionary. They had worries about keeping the law of tithing, but after literally 2 minutes of talking about it, they just changed their attitude about it. They just changed their whole mindset towards tithing and just said, "It wont be easy, but God will provide the way. We're going to pay our tithing". They have invested everything into this gospel, and they aren't looking back thinking about what they are having to give up to become members of Christ's true church. 

It's really what we have to do everyday as Christ's disciples. We really will never recieve all the blessings that God has instore for us, if even the smallest part of us is looking back and sad about what we have to "sacrifice". The gospel brings blessings as we leave behind everything to follow the Savior! We quickly come to realize it really never was a sacrifice at all, rather it was the biggest blessing all along. 

Baptism Day with Vicente and Maria

Classic 'mirror selfie' on baptism day with Elder Johnson! 

Week #64: P-Day Fun 

Elder Shoemaker didn't have time this past week to write a group email.  He had a very fun activity with his zone in the mountains playing paintball.  It took a little longer then expected, so he only had time to send off a few pictures from the day and say hello! He is doing great and very excited for the baptism of Vicente and his wife on October 26th. I'm sure we will hear all about that next week. 

Adios!!

Week #63: Hay oposicion en todas las cosas

Yooo everybody! Como estamos? It is getting nice and toasty here in Uruguay! in fact, we bout near died of the humidity and from sweating here this week. The rain has arrived and now it's cold again all of a sudden, gotta love the Uruguayo weather! This week was really crazy! We went to another city for a multi zone conference, which was awesome. Also an hermana in our zone had appendicitis...and we were in the hospital with her for a good amount of time. We also had stake conference and interviews with Pres. Dunford!! It was all so good...and the hermana who went to the hospital is now back at home and doing well!!(: 

Right now we are teaching Maria and Vicente and they are what we call ESCOGIDOS. They have been to church a few times now and are so excited to be baptized on the 26th! Their daughter died, at 19 years old, in a car accident three years ago and they say they still don't understand exactly why she died then, but that they understand that for whatever the reason, it was God's will and it was her time to go. They couldn't believe it when we taught them that their daughter can still receive blessings from being baptized and having her work done in the temple. They are so excited now to get baptized to be able to get to Montevideo and do the work for their daughter!! When she passed away, Maria and Vicente went through a very rough time. They had wavered in their faith and weren't sure if God really existed...and they were filled with questions that they never found answers to. While no one wants to go through something like that, sometimes it's very necessary for us. 

"For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things." -2 Nephi 2:11

This verse has grown on me a lot since being a missionary. I think I've come to understand this concept much better in this past year of my life, after having passed the many trials that all missionaries have to go through. If we never knew the deepest of sorrow, we could never appreciate and understand the greatest joy that God has in store for us. If we never knew what it felt like to be separated from Gods love and spirit, we could never know what it truly means to be connected with His endless love. I find it very necessary that we walk along paths of darkness from time to time, so that we may learn to find our way back to the light of Christ. We really must trust in God's plan for us and know that every single thing that happens to us in our lives is for our benefit and as an opportunity for us to get better and reach new heights. I know God loves me because He has blessed me with many trials and a whole lot of weaknesses, so that I may learn to rely on Him and learn from Him, so that I may become like Him one day. 

Week #62: ¡Pa, que conferencia general!

Hola hola everyone! Wow what a weekend. I really hope everyone got to watch and listen and pay attention to the general conference sessions from this weekend! It was honestly just so full of the Spirit and revelation for each of us. 

I have learned as a missionary that if you go into general conference weekends with a few questions, you always get so much more out of it. You really open yourself up to more revelation and the ability to learn from the Holy Ghost! There were a lot of themes that we heard from the speakers this weekend, but I think maybe the thing I personally heard more than anything else was the phrase "Trust in God".

 Maybe it was just me, but I was constantly hearing it and hearing that it's just so necessary that we completely trust in our Heavenly Father and just rely on His wisdom and His plan, rather than our own. If we can learn to not "lean unto our own understanding" and learn to confide in Him more,  we receive gifts from Him that are greater than any worldly thing we can obtain in this life. 

Which brings me to the second theme I seem to hear a ton of...Joy. Joy is a gift from God. Joy is not a side effect we have when we simply do what is pleasing to ourselves, nor is joy obtained from living as the world tells us to live. Joy can only come from God, it cannot come from any other source. When we truly understand this concept, we start to really live in sync with our Heavenly Fathers commandments, and we begin to follow the example of our Savior Jesus Christ. 

God will bless us with the gift of pure joy and happiness, when our desires and intentions are centered in the gospel of Jesus Christ and when we seek to simply do His will. I have learned this for myself as a missionary more than in any other moment of my life. I have found so much more happiness and joy in doing missionary work and Gods will, than I ever did in high school when I was considered "free" to be able to do my own will.

 I testify of a joy that is durable, and unbreakable, as we strive to come closer to The One who suffered absolutely everything we can imagine, just so we could repent, and achieve great things while in this life, and the life to come. Joy is real, and it comes from living the restored gospel of Jesus Christ! 

Week #61: ¡¡Bautismo!!

Yoooooo everyone!! How is everyone doing?? My week was amazing to say the least. We got our transfers and I will be staying here in Salto for another transfer, but I'll get a new companion! Elder Johnson will be coming here. We went to the MTC together the same day and I even sat by this guy on the plane to Colombia and then to Uruguay. He's from Bountiful Utah and he's a stud!! Im super excited to be working with him. 

The greatest part of this week was the baptism and confirmation of Rodrigo!!! Man it was something so special for him and all of us. He loved his baptism so much and said it was just the greatest day of his life. I asked him how he felt after his baptism and he just said "full of peace". He truly understands so much of the gospel already and gets how important baptism is. He was later confirmed in sacrament meeting and he said that was such a special moment for him. Rodrigo has been such an example to me and just being able to teach him has taught me so much. I saw so cleary how perfectly God prepared Rodrigo, to be able to get baptized right now in this exact moment of his life. He is so excited to serve a mission in the following year so he can teach other people about the thing that has brought him so much happiness. 

God truly is preparing us in the same way that He has prepared Rodrigo, and he will never stop preparing us for things in the future. God is so aware of us, but we often don't realize it. A lot of times, we slowly stop seeing the hand of God in our lives, because we are not searching for it. Our mission recieved a challenge to simply point our three tender mercies in our lives from everyday. Its something so easy, but helps us see Gods hand in our lives of every day and second of our lives. We really do have a loving Heavenly Father who prepares us so that we can live closer to Him and eventually return to live with Him! 

Rodrigo's Baptism

Rodrigo's Baptism