Feliz Navidad - I Could Live Here Forever

WEEK 22

This came early in the morning... "i will write later today, but i got some gnarly news for ya´ll... stay tuned ;) be excited!"  See paragraph 4 below for details

Some comments and replies to our emails to her:

Elder Bredsguard and Hna Goimarac are coming home in like 3 weeks and said they would bring stuff home for you guys.  Anything you want specifically?  I might just send letters and caramels or alfajors :)

Nate - !! Jr came to church ?!  So awesome!! Get him taking the discussions!! If he goes to church and has all the discussions he can get baptized!! That´s just so fast to me, i never really knew that before the mish. keep it up i am so proud of you :)

Kate it sounds like you had a flippin’ blast at the dance.  Oh I am so happy.  Wish I could have been there to listen and share the magic with ya.  Know that I was listening as you told it through the letter.  I could hear your voice telling me every word.  I love you. Your dress was darling! Tell fern i love her and congrats on the call! where is she going?  Way to go on the missionary work!  Who is Belle?? Taking the discussions with Isabel Huish? And Miranda came to church! Awesome!

Mom hope your tennis match went well today!  Sorry you didn´t win last week.  Real success is how you face adversity. :)

That´s what I have come to learn.  And the neighbor family is inactive?!  I know all about that!  Get over there with the missionaries (IT IS SO AWESOME WHEN MEMBERS GO WITH THE MISSIONARIES TO INACTIVES)  and talk to the about their covenant they made. Find out their reason for not coming.  We have a formula we are following as missionaries cuz we are really focusing on the less actives because PResident Hinckley said, Ïf they are worth baptizing, they are worth saving.¨  

There are 7 steps in the formula:

1. Teach a doctrine

2.  Help them remember their conversion

3. What changed for them to be baptized or after their baptism

4. Evaluate their spiritual state

5. Preach repentance

6. Testify

7. Invite (do something like read the BOM cada día (every day) or come to church :)

                                                      Feliz Navidad

 ¡Feliz Navidad! Hermana Goimarac and I are celebrating Christmas, the 25th of Septiembre!  I am so excited. We are playing my Christmas music on my ipod (obviously church Christmas music) and we are doing presents and everything.  The best part is, we are gonna make cinnamon rolls and take them to people.  Plus familia Flor invited us to dinner Christmas night!  It´s really like Christmas!  I love it.  Sometimes you gotta make the most of things.  Sister Goimarac said it´s a good idea to be celebrating it, cuz Christmas here doesn´t feel like Christmas cuz it´s so hot and you work.  We got lucky and it´s been cold the past couple days hopefully Christmas day will be too.

Any way this week has been awesome.  Thursday we were fasting with Hno Flor for his wife in honor as well for the 40 day fast.  Did I even tell you guys?  Our ward is doing a 40 day fast... everyday for 40 days one member is fasting in honor of missionary work, with someone in mind or to have an experience.  So Thursday we went and taught Yeny and Hno Flor about the Book of Mormon.  We had her read 1 NE 10:19 and as she was reading she slowed to a stop and you could tell the words were starting to take effect on her.  She didn´t look up at us but kept reading it.  I looked up at Hno Flor.  Everything was silent and the spirit was so strong.  Hna Goimarac, Hno Flor, and I all exchanged smiles of excitement and anticipation.  She looked up expressing her feeling of the verse and she committed to read it everyday.  We gave her her own copy, which she was so excited about and acted as though it were a treasure (shouldn´t we all).   What an answer to ayuno (fast).

Also, Natalia Rivarola is doing wonderful!  Just not going to church :(  We are fasting with her today and going to visit her today (I hope I can walk all the way there).  She was hoping to be baptized this Saturday, but she needs one more asistencia a la Iglesia (visit to church).  BUT! She is reading the Book of Mormon intently everyday, prays with her husband, her kids, and separately, like all day everyday.  She is such a strength and has the most incredible faith and desire to change that I have ever seen.  She is also keeping a journal that she is going to let us read after her baptism so we can see the change this gospel has had on her life. She cries with us every time and tells us how grateful she is for us.  She is doing really well giving up the smoking and drinking and today we are all fasting.  I love her so much and am SOO excited for her baptism.  I love her family as well.  I feel like she is my second mom.  We had a family night last night in the house of her father in law´s (who lives behind them) and we were laughing, talking, crying, and singing together. I just felt the spirit so strong. Wish you all could have been at the family night. I must say Hna Goimarac and I planned a pretty stellar one. :)  Anyway afterward, Sofia and Natalaiah and Hna Goimarac gave me the biggest hug.  I felt like I was surrounded by family and seriously my heart was so full it was as though I really was with you guys. I told them I wish I could live in Paraguay forever. They laughed and then begged me to.  Sofia is so cute.  She is like another little sister. I also need to get her coming to church.

So for the exciting news Mom... yesterday Hna Goimarac and I were running to drop some treats off for our family night cuz we had to get/find a new investigator in one hour to meet our goal, but I´ve told you guys how the Paraguayan streets are right? Ya not pretty.  Took a hard spill and I swear I could have caught myself but my flipping backpack is so heavy it just took me down.  I skidded a bit on my hands and then took a hard hit to the knee.  It all swelled a little bit. (I have been icing it and resting with it above my heart.  But all is swell.)  I only have a tiny gimp when I walk and I am taking IB profen to kill the pain.  I made a mini cast for my pinky finger cuz the top got slice like the scalp of Zarahemna (was that his name).  Anyway, some blood and tears never hurt anyone.  I am just glad I have gone a good 4 months without getting hurt.  The funny thing is when something like that happens EVERYONE knows.  We were walking back up that street after Sofia´s uncle cleaned up my hands and knee with hydrogen poroxide and iodine, and like 15 men were whistling over this wall asking hey ¨Que Paso?¨  ¨Esta Bien?¨ ¨Se Cao!¨  haha yep Me Caí (I fell) big time, but seriously you don´t need to worry everyone is so awesome here.  Everyone like dropped everything to make sure I was okay.  Two young men ran as fast as they could to help me up, Sofia´s uncle quickly got out his little doctor kit to clean me up, Sweet Gloria (my recent convert) was telling me everything I need to do to treat it and she was rubbing my knee to make it feel better.  She is a sweet heart.  The Rivarola Familia (Natalia and Ricardo) drove us to our next lesson.  Hno Guillen went and bought me IBprofen! He reminds me of Grandpa Dougie.  I told him not to though cuz it was Sunday.  Then familia Adorno came and picked us up to take us home.  I was in a lot more pain yesterday than I am today.  I love IBprofen.  Oh and I am please to announce that my fall did NOT keep us from finishing our work. We still got 3 lessons after that completing this week with 78 contacts each and 7x7!!! Yippee!!

Wanted to comment about our family nights.  We talked about the light of Christ and we demonstrated it by using candles.  We also incorporated lesson one about the restoration and how the light came back into the world through a prophet. Blowing out the candles represented the apostasy and when we relit the candles we held one next to the pìcture of Joseph Smith´s vision and recited his own words.  We talked about how we have personal apostasies in our lives and how we have to turn back to Christ to come out of the darkness (our personal apostasies).  Seriously I have never felt the spirit so strong on my mission.   I could tell the members felt it too.  The less actives that were present in the lessons... it hit them. I could tell. Especially with Griselda Rivarola (Sofia´s aunt).  It was so powerful.  And then with the candles lit, we sang, ¨Abide with Me Tis´ Eventide.¨ Precious moments.  I fall in love with my mission more and more each day.  Love you all and wish you the best. 

xoxo

Con Cariño,

Hermana Owen

Stellar Moments

First off to catch up with thank you´s :)

   Thank you Grandpa Dougie and Nana for your recent letter, thank you Grandma Rhead for your letter and fun newspaper insert about the Paraguayan orchestra, Amy and Sara for your letters AND CONGRATS AMY I was so excited to find out you are pregnant!!! Thanks to Katie, Kyle, Sweeney´s, Wrights, and fam for the letters, Thanks Lizzie and kids... so fun to see pics and all.  I love my family.  Thank you Megan and kids for you fun letters and drawings. I think that´s it for the past few months... letter wise.  Love you all so much, your letters seriously make my life! It´s like Christmas!

Speaking of Christmas, this week has felt like Christmas a little bit.  Just been playing Christmas (church focused don´t flip) music and it has been a little chilly and over cast the past couple days I LOVE these days. 

But let´s get down to the good stuff... this week was unreal.  To start out, we visited a family (a reference from Hno Flor) whose 7 year old daughter just died from an accident about 2 weeks ago.  Famila Reyes is their name (Alberto and Ramona).  Everytime we meet someone named Alberto I already feel like I have a special connection with them Dad. :)  (Steve baptized Alberto Medina when he was on his mission in Argentina, and Alberto is an American citizen now and is part of our family)  Anyway this family is taking the death of their daughter really hard and it is hard to give someone faith when they are just bawling their eyes out hopelessly saying, ¨I don´t want to have faith or believe there is a God.¨ Hermana Goimarac and I bore testimony of the Plan and tried to comfort them through testimony of the Savior and how he knows exactly what they are going through.  Our first visit with them Hno Flor (whose kids are all inactive and struggling right now) and his daughter Gabriella came with us.  It was so neat cuz she shared a bit of testimony and I could tell the strings that use to be torn were being mended in such sensative moment.  It is so powerful for those with weak testimonies to bear testimony because you feel it being strengthened.  She said she will try and come back to church.  Anyway back to the Reyes family, at the end of our first visit with them Alberto shook my hand with tears streaming down his face and said that I remind him (or have the same smile) as his daughter.  My heart ached for them.  To think about losing one of my family members (KAte or Nick or Nate) I couldn´t bear it.  I admired their strength to at least listen to us.  I know it brought them peace and I have no doubt in my mind that what ever trial we are facing in this life it´s nothing the Savio doesn´t already know.  He overcame the world.  (John 16:33)

Second of all, we have an investigator Natalia Rivarola, WHO IS INCREDIBLE! She is the mom of Ale y Sofia (I think I have told you about her before).  Anyway, she has had an addiction to drugs and drinking for the past 15 years and the past couple months we have been teaching her on and off.  It was unreal the lesson we had with her the other day.  She has had such a change of heart.  We set goals in the Palabra de Sabiduria folleto al otra semana and she has only drunk like two times and has been cutting back a TON on cigarettes.  She said right before we came she was headed to buy some but then she saw us walking up to her house.  We taught her about the power of the atonement and using D&C 58:2-4.  The Lord gives us tribulation to better us.  He can see the outcome when we can´t.  She has been reading so much in the Book of Mormon and is LOVING it.  She marks it and the other night was writing en su diario.  She said I am writing my testimony... what I want to share at my baptism, because my heart is so full.  How cute is that!  Oh seriously my heart was brim with joy.  Then she tells us (and she cries all the time... so sensitive to the spirit)with tears in her eyes that she wants more than anything, and not for anyone else but for her sake, to be clean.  She said, I don´t want to be before Heavenly Father after this life and stand guilty at the judgement day.  She gets it.  She gets the purpose of this life, of the atonement, of this gospel, baptism.  Salvation is personal and will always be, but the Savior is our advocate.  She expressed to us how grateful she is for our help in helping her.  I never though I (of all people) would be able to help someone overcome the addiction of drugs.  The atonement is incredible. I know it isn´t me but that I am only a small tool by which the Lord is able to accomplish his work.

Third, now THIS was probably the sweetest part of my mission yet. We are teaching a cute couple and their two little girls (Cristian and Celia, Ema (3, reminds me of Boo from Monsters Inc.) and Jasmine (7, brilliant... read like half the intro to el Libro de Mormon).  Anyway, they are progressing faster than I have EVER seen anyone progress.  They are so open to listen and accept what we have to teach and fulfill commitments.  Cristian says it is unreal that his wife is getting interested in something spiritual, he said she has been reading the Book of Mormon at night.  Celia says Cristian has always been the religious one in the relationship.  Anyway, our lesson the other day was off the charts!!! I wish I could have recorded it somehow, Hna Goimarac and I joked that we would listen to it over and over again for the rest of our lives.  That´s how good it was.  The spirit was just incredible.  During the lesson is when I had the sweetest moment of my mission.  He was expressing to us that right before we came he was reading the Book of Mormon and contemplating the fact that this Book could be true.  He said, ¨ I feel something incredible inside that is hard to describe.¨ I had the thought to share Alma 32:28.   The moment we did he sat in silence, then looked up at me and asked, ¨Did you prepare that before hand?¨ ... no!  oh it was the most satisfying, gratifying, and joyous moment yet in my mission.  It was such a small thought but I knew it was good and followed it.  He said it was EXACTLY how he is feeling. I am learning to just follow those good instincts and learning that it really is the Spirit.  It is the companionship of the Holy Ghost.  Hna Goimarac and I read a talk in the August Liahona by Elder Dallin H. Oaks on the spirit and recieving revelation.  He said, ¨We pray continuously for guidance, but we shouldn´t expect continuous revelation.¨ Hna Goimarac had written in the side, ¨We have the constant companionship, not revelationship of the Holy Ghost.¨ It is so true.  We need to trust that those good feelings/thoughts that we think are us are us and they are influenced by the Holy Ghost because we are living righteously. Follow them!

Also, we called them yesterday morning to see if they were still planning on coming to church, only to find they were in the midst of reading the Book of Mormon together.  What! Who does that!  Seriously they are like already members! Plus you should have heard Cristian after church.  Someone gave a talk on Family Home Everning and so afterward, Cristian was telling us his plan of how is going to plan a FHE and surprise his wife, and then Tuesday we are going to pass by and they´ll tell us how it went.  So awesome!!  It is so cute how in love Cristian and Celia are.  Their little girls are really miracles in their lives cuz it was almost impossible for them to have kids.  I just love their little family.

I could write like five more pages to tell you about this week but those were the stellar moments that I will never forget.  Love you all and don´t forget how much the Lord loves you.  xoxo Hope you all have a wonderful week!

Con Cariña,

Hermana Owen

P.S. Hermana Toctaquiza says thank you thank you thank you for everything and she loves you tons(I´m thinking she got other mail from you guys)  Not sure if she got Bro. Johnson´s letter (she might have but I wouldn´t know cuz we are comps anymore)  But tell him thank you so much.  I really appreciated everyones effort in helping me make her birthday special. :) xoxo

Small and Simple Things

(this came early in the morning on p-day - then we had to wait 6 hours for the rest):

SO this week was OUT OF THIS WORLD INCREDIBLE... 

We are going to clean the temple today for pday.  I couldn´t sleep last night it was like Christmas!! I am so STOKED to enter the temple :) I will write and send pics later.  xoxo

love you ton tons tons,

hermana owen

¨Each individual piece may not be easily recognizable by itself, it may not be clear how it relates to the whole. Each piece helps us to see the big picture a little more clearly.  Eventually, after enough pieces have been put together, we recognize the grand beauty of it all.  Then looking back on our experience, we see that the Savior had indeed come to be with us- not all at once but quietly, gently, almost unnoticed. This can be our experience if we move forward with faith and do not wait too long on the Road to Damascus.

-Dieter F. Uchtdorf  -“Waiting on the Road to Damascus”.

Brianne sent me this quote in a letter a while back and I was reading over it today.  It is so true.  I feel like this describes my mission so much.  My mission has been so much like this.  Altogether, I look back and my heart is filled with joy, completely filled.

Highlights of this week: 

-I had 3 of my investigators get baptized and confirmed!!! (Gloria Moreco, Milagros (her daughter-14) and Malena (14 as well)  I have never seen them happier.  It was just the sweetest most perfect moment to see them dressed in white.  I´m calling them my first baptism cuz I found em and taught them up to their baptism.  P.S. Mom Milagros friended ¨me¨on facebook and is waiting for you to accept her request and she sent a message ¨hola¨no mas haha  I love her.  I want you all to meet them all.  You should see Melena´s smile in the pics I have never seen that cute girl happier!!

 Melena is the one laughing, Milagros is in the dress and Gloria is her mom with the short hair.  Luis, our friend from the ward baptized for his first time (melena). awesome kid.  goes to visits with us on Monday nights.

-President McMullin came to interview one of our investigators and I felt like we were in the presence of one of the brethren (apostles or seventy) The spirit just radiates from him.  He is incredible.  I love him so much.

-Hna Goimarac and I made green smoothies and have been running in the morning it is just beautiful!!

-Today we cleaned the temple.  I have never done that before but it was so wonderful.  Hna Sanchez (the lady who has chickens living on her shelves and in her dishes in her house) invited us to come clean with her and her daughter Mercedez.  There was only about a total of 20 people or so.  It was such a pleasure and so perfect.  After cleaning Hna Goimarac ran back to go visit the Celestial Room for a sec.  Oh I am so grateful we went today cuz we are only aloud to do one session once a year (mission rule).  It was so quiet, so perfect, so white, so where I want to be someday... sealed for time and all eternity, and work there, and paint forever .  I love the temple.

con cariña,

Hermana Owen

(Then a third email came asnswering questions about her companion who is from Sedona - didn't include it all but sharing this... )

She is like my sister already. Tell kate i now know how it feels to have an older sister.  :) She is amazing in every single way.  The definition of a 4th missionary (read that talk with the family by  lawrence e. corbridge).  We made armor of god to teach a cute family (with tons of kids) about the armor of god tonight. we used cereal boxes, my packages haha stuff to make armor.  I am super excited.  They are a wonderful less active family (familia Pavón)  GOT my card btdubs!! Thank you soo soo much!  hna Goimarac says thank you for the peanut butter (I gave her one of my small ones I have been saving) and the fruit snacks!!! MY heart JUMPED out of my chest when I opened that package!! THANK YOU!!!!!  love you all dearly.

 xoxo

love hill 

Hermana Owen

                                                 Our Jerry the mouse we killed.  So sad

                                               Some Chinese food that was actually pretty good

                                                       Wallace and Gromit vehicle :)

                                                             A view from our patio

                            I love the flowers blooming here and the trees are beautiful as well

                                                    The Temple, with my comp

It all lies in the Restoration

WEEK 19                  It all lies in the Restoration                   Sept 2, 2013

  

Transfers. I´m still in LOMA!!! :) It was very sad to see Hna Toctaquiza leave.  She will be missed dearly.  She gave me the cutest hug goodbye I think she really will miss me too. :)  I love her and seriously can´t wait to visit her after the mish.... ya let´s go to Ecuador as well M & D :)   Anyway my new comp is Hermana Goimarac (pronounced: Goy-mu-rac in español), her name is Yugoslavian (how do you spell that?).  She is from Sadona Arizona and we are seriously like twins.  We love to run, green smoothies, breakfast is our favorite meal, and smile.  Every morning we recite 8 principios fundamentales y she added one: nueve: sonreír (smile)!  She was companions with Hna Mcfarlane in Isla Bogado in Luque.  Hna Toctaquiza got transfered to Luque but to Marambuye.  Hna Goimarac loves to work and I have learned SOOOOOOOOOO much from her.  Seriously she is amazing!!  She turned 22 in February and will be finishing her mission with me here in Loma.  Does that mean I will be training here in Loma next?? What?? Ahhhh!! 

Things are really really prgressing.  Seriously!  Fasting is incredible you guys.  We had an incredible turn out Sunday.  So many people came.  Hermano Pavón!!  He and his family have been less active for a year. 

Oh life, I really have never been happier in my life than I am right now.  And seriously that´s all I feel like writing but for your sake mom and dad I´ll continue. :)

Okay so Hermano Gregorio Flor (the less active I told you about) came to church!!! We are going to have FHE tonight with him and his wife and possible his son. His son is 21 and the stake sent him a letter to serve a mission but he never ended up excepting it.  Hermano Flor wants nothing more in the world than for his family to return, his wife to be baptized, and his family to be united in the gospel.  He gave the most incredible testimony.  I was bawling my eyes out.  Mom and Dad okay I really didn´t think I would touch any lives here cuz my Spanish is weak, or at least not this early in my mission.  He said that if it wasn´t for my visit (with a yw in the ward) he probably wouldn´t have returned or had a desire to return, because before I visited he was thinking of not ever coming back, because he has lived so long without his wife joining, and his kids have all fallen away.  I don´t know why things worked out the way they did, but he recognizes and wants with all his heart to return.  He experessed that he sees now that salvation is personal.  He siad he used to feel alone coming to church but now sees that he has family here as well.  A whole ward family. Our ward by the way... something is changing.  People are more willing to give us references, everyone talks to everyone now (well almost), there is more interest in the work, and less actives are returning!!!! It´s amazing.  Everyone was so spiritually full after church on Sunday.

It was especially neat to hear our investigators Gloria (48), Milagros (14), and Faviola (16) comment on how much they loved church.  By the way I have failed to keep you all updated... but Milagros (14) and Gloria (48- Milagro´s mother and aunt of Faviola) are getting baptized this SATURDAY!!! Pray for them.  Oh I am so excited.  Gloria was just a random contact one night with a member (3 of us... this is significant).  We clapped, she came out, we taught her a bit, and asked if we could return.  She opened up to us right away.  She told us about a dream she had that 3 angels visited to bring her something but she wouldn´t accept it.  She never told us the meaning and she talks about a lot of interesting dreams she has, but I seriously think that those 3 angels in her dream were to prepare her to recieve us. In other words, we were the real 3 angels :)  She has such a hard life, poor thing.  Her husband left her and her sons live next to her but won´t talk to her or even acknowledge her.  She has found so much refuge, comfort, and peace in the gospel.  She experessed to us how much it hurts yet how much she loves them.  We testified of how Jesus was persecuted first.  Really he was  turned away, persecuted, hated, rejected, and spit upon his whole life yet by his merciful love for all mankind he said in his last moments here on this earth, ¨Forgive them Lord for they know not what they do.¨  I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers us.  If we turn to him we truly find peace, we truly find joy, we truly have a friend.

So like I was saying Hermana Goimarac... She has taught me sooooo much! First off, she has taught me that God really is preparing people for us to teach, everyday! Sometimes it is hard but seriously as we plan, listen, and look the Lord places people in our path.  It has happened everyday with her.  Like the scripture says, the Lord will hasten his work in these latter days.  It is amazing.

She has also taught me how crucial and important the restoration is.  It is SO TRUE. If people don´t understand the restoration they are just going to think you are sharing another "sweet message" with them. Before, it didn´t really matter which lesson we taught first (1, 2 , or 3) but Hermana Goimarac has helped me see that Lesson 1, like it says in Preach My Gospel, should always be taught first, unless otherwise instructed by the spirit.  There isn´t one lesson that has gone by that I haven´t testified of the Prophet Joseph Smith and that he truly restored the Lord´s Church once again on the earth.  People have to hear/know the difference.  It´s the fact that we have the priesthood.  It was given to Joseph Smith by 3 origional apostles of Jesus Christ and then passed from prophet to prophet in these latter days.  I have never known something so gratifying or sweet than testifying of this grand hope that our Loving Heavenly Father has extended his hands to us in these latter days and restored his church.  (rekindling my greanie fire :) His church which has always and will always be directed by a prophet and the power of the priesthood.  When poeple just take the time to listen and learn a whole knew conocimiento (we call it) or knowledge is unfolded and we can´t deny it, because it is made known unto us by the power of the spirit and the spirit of God does not lie.  

Gloria said this is the only church that she has not ever been confused in.  The other day Hna Goimarac and I were teaching this cute girl Pia.  I think she could really progress.  As we were testifying of the first vision she literally gasped in reverance and awe that Heavenly FAther and our Savior actually descended.  THAT is how we should respond to the message of the atonement. Oh it is the greatest message to hear in these last days.  The Lord is preparing to come and the Lord needs us to prepare.  He´s not just gonna give us a bunch of churches and say, ¨well good luck findin your way back, hope you´re prepared when I come.¨   There is one God, there is one way.  His church (a prophet, apostles, the autoridad, revelation, and scriptures) and gospel (faith, repentance, baptism by immersion by those who hold the priesthood, the merciful gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end) are on the earth.  These truths have been restored. I find the most incredible joy when I testify to people of this.  Today on the bus I told this cute girl Saeda (about my age) the story of Joseph Smith and bore my testimony.  It was one of those ¨Wow, serious? How beautiful!¨ reactions.  

Man I could write forever about this week.  I just want to tell you about all the wonderful people here and tell you all their names and a little about them. Maybe I will do that next week. 

For starters, Yesica and Paul this cute couple in my ward says hello.  Yesica siempre sale con nosostros.  Ella es muy muy amable and adorable, a petite little Columbian.  She met Paul when he was serving his mission in Columbia and they got married here in Paraguay in the temple 8 months ago.  It is super hard for her because she is the only member in her family and no one came for her wedding or anything.  

Hna Ana Acosta says hi.  She makes us delicious stews every Tuesday.  Oh and dad Hno Rojas in our bishopric served in Buenos Aires South about 10 years ago. Oh and Hna Ortiz (the cute one that reminds me of Grandma and who made me a skirt) has a grand daughter who is living in Tuscon and attending a spanish branch.  Her name is Diana Ortiz but she is married to an American (Adan or Adam Efran I think and they have a new little baby).  Just curious if the Mortensons might know them?  

Any way sorry for the crazy long email hoy.  Tengo mucho a expresar.  Mi corazón es lleno hoy y cada día.  Oh tambien!! Today Hna Goimarac and I went on a 45 minute run it was AMAZING!  We are finding fun paths and cool trails that take us to awesome views.  Afterward, we came back and enjoyed an ice cold glass of chocolate milk on our roof as the sun rose.  The weather is wonderful today but it is definitely warmin up.

Roh hey huy (I love you in Guarani)

Con Cariña,

Hermana Owen 

P.S. This morning as I was sweaping I sweaped up a DEAD MOUSE!!!! AHHHH it was so sad.  It looked like he died in running position.  I will send a pic next week.  He was so cute, but I am so happy cuz now we won´t find nasty mouse poo in EVERYTHING!!!! Seriously he got into our suitcases, food, drawers.  BLEH.  

P.S.S. Grandpa Dougie, Grandma, and Aunt Deone thank you for the wonderful letters! :)

2 important things

WEEK 18                           2 Important Things                  August 26, 2013

Okay this week was fabulous... uhhh but not the numbers.  So, the beginning of our week was blazin´ hot here but since Thursday it has been raining and freezing (in the 40s).  Wednesday I had a surprise party planned in the capilla for Hna Toctaquiza.  She thought we had a mtg with the bishop the whole time but little did she know the ward was all there ready to surprise her.(lie, like 10%)

Thursday morning I got up early and made her pancakes and eggs and put out all the letters and packages that came for her, THANK YOU!! She seriously has never been happier.  Pancakes are her favorite and the recipe I have with me is flipping delicious! (They are like the Catie Porter´s sweedish pancakes).  Also we celebrated with cake and your cute candles and decorations, Mom, that night.  

And ya not sure what else to tell.  Awh ya yesterday in sacrament is was AMAZING!   The spirit was so strong.  Because of the CRAZY heavy rain there was only 39 in attendance, but seriously I felt so much love and joy between all.  There was a unity there that never has been.  Hno Rojas told a funny story in his talk and we were all laughing, Hna Curcui (a less active) inspired us all), and Hna Toctaquiza made us all bawl.  Especially me, because por medio la expiacion y mi Salvador I have really gained a love for her, we have grown so close, and LIFE THIS WEEK THERE ARE CAMBIOS!! I´ll let you know next week if we have cambios.  We´re supposed to get a call today but we´re still not sure who will leave or if we´ll both stay.  But we have been talking as though Hna Toctaquiza will leave.  

I´m nervous, sad, and excited all at the same time.  

What else what else?

Oh I wanted to say... so two important things that have really been impacted into my brain and heart while serving here, is

1: the importance and role of members.  We play a HUGE part in missionary work.  I could go on forever about this but really the members are where the work starts and where the work continues (it never ends:) and 

2: church attendance... it is SO important.  It is where our testimonies can constantly be nourished, where good friendships can be formed, where testimonies are built, where we can draw closer to our Savior, and learn the Lord´s will for us.  I am humbled and amazed at the power of the spirit in Sacrament as we truly put everything aside and focus on our Savior, what he did for us, and what we can become with him.  

Without fail... tears everytime.

Oh and we are placing dates! Not for baptism, but for less actives to ¨return and remember¨ because we have tons and President McMullin talked to us about how the Lord loves the less active and investigators the same.  So all is going well.  Hope you all have a fabulous week!

Con Cariña,

Hermana Owen

P.S. LIZZY and family!! Thank you for the card and pictures! I have the funnest and coolest cousins ever!! hope all is well.  Sending my love, hugs and kisses... hilly :)

P.S.S.S. Mom and Dad there is this thing called ¨23 preguntas para el Libro de Mormon¨ a member had in his scriptures.  I am sure you could find it somewhere on the internet.  If you do could you send me a copy?  It is a list of 23 questions and scriptures to match them in the LDM (BOM).  Gracias gracias gracias para todo!! LES QUIERO muchísimo!  xoxo 

LOVE HILLY

 this is a cute less active family!  we do family nights and have lunch at their house sometimes.  Hna Ana, su hermana at my right and her two kids :) they came to celebrate

 eating Lomitos con Hno Pablo for Hna Toctaquiza´s birthday!

 our second home (the back of Hno Pablos truck... our chauffeur.   he is always so kind to give us rides or acompañarnos to lessons :)

 us on her birthday morning p.s. she LOVED the package :) 

 we celebrated with Dilce (21, member- adorable and like our best friend) and Yesica (pronounced Jessica she is a newly wed but like our older sister... we´re in her house)  they are the funnest!!

 Dilce is a dippy flipper and threw cake in Hna T. face for this photo haha, but apparently it is tradition in Ecuador to do that on your birthday (so Hna T. just laughed :)