Glad Tidings of Great Joy

Cambio calls came last night and I am leaving Estanque. I will be going to the city of Osorno, the zone of Rahue in the sector Las Vegas. Oddly enough, I will be reuniting with my first companion there: Elder Azeredo. I believe we will be white-washing the sector so that will bring it's challenges and excitements. I am excited to get to work with him again and be a slightly better, less completely-lost companion. I don't know much detail at all about the sector so I will fill y'all in next week and over my time there. This week we had zone conference and we discussed ways that the members and missionaries can do things to work together more. We are getting a really big push to work with them more and involve them in very small ways. I need to improve the way I apply that to my mission and work. We also had a week full of activities leading up to ward conference.  Friday  was the biggest, a festival of the nations. We made chocolate chip cookies and they were a huge ...

Alex didn't have as much time to write this week because they had lunch with other missionaries and cooked chicken which took a long time he said. He did say that Constansa didn't get baptized on Saturday and that he spoke in church again and suggested that we read President Monson's conference address from April 2017 because it is "really short and really good." Since I didn't get his previous week's letter posted until this week, you can read that one (week 28)! Rebecca

This upcoming week we have the baptism of Constansa Ortiz planned for Saturday the 16th. She has been working very hard to prepare for this date and prayers on her behalf would be really appreciated. Either way, she has made so much progress in her life and way of living. It has been a privelege to meet her and help her along over these past 5 months. I pray she can take this step in her life and move forward from here on out. On Sunday someone talked in their talk about cutting the heads of Laban off in our daily lives. Maybe a bit gruesome at first thought, but it makes a lot of sense. It is much better that one sin or bad habit dies, than that a whole soul is lost and dwindles in unbelief or disobedience. Something I thought a lot about and am trying to apply. Making the little changes neccesary to improve as a person and as members of the church. Read more about that story in first Nephi!  I got to do some service of chopping firewood a couple times during intercambios ...

Elder Price got pretty sick this week so we were not able to do a lot more than leave for lunch each day this week. I got a little sick too, but after receiving a Priesthood Blessing I felt much better. That helped build my faith a lot in that, and also gave me the chance to exercise my faith. I did hear a story that I really like though and thought I'd share it. Sorry if you've already heard it: When Jesus was suffering through His Atonement, we read in one very short verse in the Bible that an Angel came to visit him. We don't know what he said or did, but we know he visited Jesus.  A man studied that verse and always had the question about what the angel said to him. When he died, he went to Heaven and found himself in front of the gates to heaven.  As he was entering, he was told he was allowed the answer to any one question that he had. He immediately asked about the angel that visited Jesus and what he said. The angel looked at him, paused, and then told h...