Going the extra mile

January 18, 2016

WOW THIS WEEK WAS SO FANTASTIC: 

honestly there has never been a better time in all of my mission. my companion is the best. God is blessing too much. We are always laughing and having fun, and then we enter the lesson and BOOM teach with such power and they accept baptism! And the members are too great. One family went on vacation and brought us back bracelet souveniers (who thinks of buying the missionaries stuff on vacation?!) Another hermana sent us a text "Hermanas, I want to give you some fresh baked empanadas that i´m making right now, i´ll drop them off at your apartment" YESSS!!

We were sitting in the parada esperando colectivo. y empezamos a hablar con dos hombres. invitamos a la iglesia uno dijo "sí. voy." His mom passed away 8 months ago. At first he was mad at God but it didn´t take long for him to realize that he was mistaken. He and his wife (married one year ago, after living together for 7 woohoo) were looking for a place to raise their kids, and find God. So we wrote down his address and went by the next day. BUT WOW it was in the very corner limit of our area, past all the country and farms. and we almost couldn´t find it and gave up. and if we turned back at that point we would have never returned because it was so far away from everything. But we were guided by the hand of God. They are SUPER PREPARED. The wife said "I feel peaceful talking to you" and asked if we could visit when her husband is home so they can listen together. They accepted baptism. 

To go to church we told them we would pass by to get them at 8:15. and Sunday morning we got to their house and saludamos el esposo. he looked really tired and said "one moment" and came back with his wife and she had just gotten up and she told us "uh... we were confused. we thought you meant 8 in the night!" nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. I thought. awww. we apologized for not being so clear but the husband said "We´ll change right now and my wife will go with the kids" WOW INVESTIGATORS DON´T JUST DO THAT. and they started to wake up the four babies. and the dad said he needed to go to work because he was taking care of a house and he left it unlocked so he needed to go or else people are going to rob. and we said ahh yah, we understand. but how sad because you need three church attendence to baptize. and he said "okay, i´ll go for the first part!" WOWOWOWO and then the little kids came out in little dresses and collared shirts. SO CUTE. and then Fernando (the dad) said that his dad has a car and could drive us!! woohoo! because we were super far from the church. AND THE BROTHER OF FERNANDO (14) WANTED TO COME TO CHURCH TOO. so we all piled in the car, and the windows were open all night so it was FULL of mosquitos, it was awesome. and Fernando´s dad looks like bob marley, no joke. he has dread locks and little circle sunglasses and smokes cigars, but he drove us. and he started up the car and adel was playing "WE COULD HAVE HAD IT ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL" and we were speeding down the bumpy farm roads of Argentina, crammed in with as many children and mosquitos as possible, going with a family to change their lives in the church. 

I was so happy. you should have seen the smile on my face. hahaha. And They loved the church. I could have died of happiness.

This week we had super success. We put 6 baptismal dates. Do you know why?! i´ll tell you why. First of all I love hermana Vasquez, I love that we can set goals and plan. She is super smart. And we have been reading the book of mormon for the challenge before conference! and we have been super impressed with the example of Nephi. We have a such power in agency to choose how we see the world, and our circumstances. Just look at the difference between Nephi and Laman/Lemuel.

 2 And so great were the blessings of the Lord upon us, that while we did live upon raw meat in the wilderness, our women did give plenty of suck for their children, and were strong, yea, even like unto the men; and they began to bear their journeyings without murmurings.

20 And thou art like unto our father, led away by the foolish imaginations of his heart; yea, he hath led us out of the land of Jerusalem, and we have wandered in the wilderness for these many years; and our women have toiled, being big with child; and they have borne children in the wilderness and suffered all things, save it were death; and it would have been better that they had died before they came out of Jerusalem than to have suffered these afflictions.

We have been super thankful and looking for all the blessings of the Lord. and this week we have seen Him guiding us. from the bus stop to the members we eat with that offer to go with us to the appointment. God is in this work. If you look for Him, He will open your eyes to just how much He is doing and preparing backstage. It has helped us A TON this week!

LOVE Herman Haight

PS don´t tell Nicole, but we wrote a song about the branch to the tune of One direction What Makes you Beautiful
Oh, oh oh! Vientecinco (25) bau-tis-mo OH OH Tigre es un ba-rri-o!
(because the goal this year for the branch is be come a ward, and 25 baptisms)

Burden of Discipleship

January 12, 2016

This week has been so emotionally heavy. Jonathan that was going to be baptized Sunday decided to stop coming to church. it was so heavy to hear. me dio mucho peso. I felt a difference, in that I was a lot more serious about everything. But also more spiritual. Because I could see just how powerful our message is. But with all this power it only heals us when we choose to accept it. I felt how important is the work we are doing! This is Salvacion! and I thought the only thing we do is explain clearly so that they can make the right choice. Its not easy to change your life, for anyone.

after, we recieved a message that he had already made his decision years ago and that unfortunately wasn´t going to come to church. Oh, how it broke my heart. It was too much for him to accept. Too much that God was asking of him. I cried thinking that maybe I could have explained things better or done something more. and I read Jacob 5:41 "And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard wept, and said unto the servant: What could I have done more for my vineyard?"

Don´t feel bad, mom. It's the Joyful burden of discipleship! Also,  listen to this video of Jeffery R Holland (its about missionary work, but it applies to all work in the Lord´s vineyard)

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2012-12-1270-mission-preparation-track-23-jeffrey-r-holland?lang=eng 

CHAU! LES AMO

ONE MORE TRANSFER WITH HERMANA VASQUEZ! YAYAYAYAY

I took this for nicole

THE ELEVATOR

Pictures of Tigre

LOOK AT THIS THING. ITS LIKE A PIG/RAT/BEAVER. they live on the island of Tigre

Divisiones

Happy New Year

January 4, 2016

Jonathan is doing Fantastic!!! we talked to his mom and at first she didn't want to talk to us because she is catholic, but she came out during the lesson and participated a lot! and really like it. But didn't come to church, so we will see what happens. AWWWW but jonathan (He can go on a mission!! he's 18 right now). He really struggles with the Book of Mormon. We read a verse and we ask him "what did that say?" and he doesn't know. But at church yesterday, he told us that all his family was together for New Years and before they started drinking cider and celebrating the new year, he said a prayer with all of them and they listened to him. and he was so happy. Also, the members here ARE WAYY TOOO GREAT. one member brought a tie because Jonathan doesn't have any. and it was so cute to see them welcoming him and helping him feel loved in the church. His baptism is this week.

Funny Business- there is an old investigator who is like 70 years old and homeless and crazy. haha. but as we were going to church we saw him so we invited him to walk with us and go to church. He said okay. and we got to talking, but it was hard to focus on the conversation because he just talked about ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. he was saying how he is so unhappy and he never has good luck and his life is so hard, and I asked How do you think you can find this happiness that you're missing? and he saidd noooo, i'm not missing any happiness, I have health, my family... but the funniest part is that he was telling us how he had a motorcycle that didn't work, and that "the mormons" gave him a bible. (and at this point he didn't know that we are mormons! haha) and he told us that he tried to rip the book of mormon in half, but he couldn't do it. so he threw it in the street, and then his motorcycle worked. and he told those mormons "NEVER COME BACK". and me and my companion looked at each other like ..wow   hahaha and we told him that we're going to the Mormon church right now, and he said oh, thats okay. and came with us.

Yesterday we had a meeting with President and the assistants in the mission house, and Hermana Ayre made chocolate cake! it was so good! she told me that here in Argentina she has to make everything from scratch! but what a treat. And to work so closely with President is a dream come true. He is a man with a plan and a great leader.

Something that President has said is that the conference talk of Elder Nelson about Sisters having more leadership and playing a big part in the church progressing. and that this talk, he felt, was one of the most important and is the future of how we are going to have more success preparing for the second coming of Christ. I read it again, and I love it. We need women who are ORGANIZED, who can ORGANIZE, who can PLAN, DIRECT, LEAD, GIVE OPINION, DEFEND THE TRUTH, KEEP COVENANTS.

“Much of the major growth that is coming to the Church in the last days will come because many of the good women of the world … will be drawn to the Church in large numbers. This will happen to the degree that the women of the Church reflect righteousness and articulateness in their lives and to the degree that the women of the Church are seen as distinct and different—in happy ways—from the women of the world.” President Kimball.

And Elder Nelson gives us a powerful promise, that I felt so strongly comes from the Lord. He said if we fulfill what President Kimball said: And I promise you in the name of Jesus Christ that as you do so, the Holy Ghost will magnify your influence in an unprecedented way!

How special! and so often do we lose this vision of ourselves. The Lord needs His children to learn these things and become this class of person. I am so grateful for all the experiences I am having now that are teaching me how to be this person. because right now, i'm totally not. But it gives me motivation to develop! Tell all the hermanitas de the ward! i LOVE the goal of 2 baptisms. You are such a fantastic President! Mom, you are exactly what President Kimball saw, strong women in the future bringing forth the work of the Lord in the last days! Thanks for you example.

I love you!

Happy New Year. Set some goals with a spirit of prayer and God will help us accomplish what we need to!

<3 Hermana Haight

Pics

December 28, 2015

here`s a picture of the sanja!

my farm dreams

a whole pig

Christmas!

The christmas actividad

we played secret santa, here`s the watermelon

on christmas day it was p day so we walked along the river

Fecha Bautismal

December 28, 2015

Awh, it was so fun to skype you guys! what a bummer that Andrew and 1/2 of Nicole weren`t there! but it was awesome. you guys are so funny. can`t wait for eternity. hahaha ... anyways

It was crazy with the activity, dinner, skyping and christmas. But it was a really rewarding week. We had an antiguo investigator come to church! Before he worked Sundays so couldn`t progress, but now has changed his work and we found him! so woohoo! He really really liked the church. He said he loved the ambiente, and that it was very positive and the people too were good. After the meetings, we showed him the pila bautismal and talked about baptism. He accepted a fecha bautismal!!!! and basically we`re stolked. OH ALSO, during weekly planning we were thinking about how to work more with the members, and an idea that we had earlier that we talked to our Mission Leader was to do a Sacrament meeting with missionary work theme. but this was like 5 weeks ago that we talked about this and nothing had gotten done. but in Weekly planning (saturday) we talked about it again and decided to call the Branch President. and he said "Hermanas no problem. when do you want to do it? Tomorrow?" and we said .. YEAH. so we with the elderes of the ward each gave a talk. and extended the challenge to give a BoM after we stood at the door and passed out Books of Mormon. It went well and we recieved some referencias! 

My companion had a great idea. we were talking about how the children of Mosiah suffered hunger, thirst, and all manner of affliction, and she told me to tape a lice (how do you say lice singular?) in my scriptures where it says that!

Merry Christmas to all. and Happy New Year!!!

Hermana Haight

Merry Christmas 2015