Season 1 Episode 22 "The one without water" (10-31-16)

Season 1 Episode 22 - The one without water... 

 The Church Building

So this week the biggest event that happened was when we got home one day Tuesday our water had been turned off.  We ended up without water for the next three days. This was a very funny experience because we had told the landlords that they were going to cut our water this week and they told us that they had paid and that everything was going to be okay. But as it turns out they came and shut it off anyways. So for the next three days we were living with the water that had been stored in some soda bottles that we found in the house and then the filtered water we could get to drink from the church. 

Beautiful Red Tree

So that was one of the big things that happened this week, the other big thing would be that the Valdence house is now our house. There use to be Elders that were serving with us in our branch and they closed their area, so this entire time we have been working with the Elders to move all of their furniture into our house. So Thursday morning the Elders came by and they moved a bunch of crap into our house that was in the Elders old house. So as they were doing that our house still did not have water and we had to leave to get to a lunch we had scheduled with a member. We then left four Elders in our house with all of their stuff and without water. So that was an interesting experience. 

We then got our water back Thursday afternoon, which was one of the best feelings ever in life... Then on Friday we had our activity, we celebrated Halloween a little bit which was great. 

Not a lot of things happened this week, sorry about the lack of excitement. 

Here is the Challenge this week- Going into this week I am following up on the challenge to read the Book Of Mormon, how goes the reading? Also, because this is a Fast Sunday the challenge is to pray and read the scriptures in order to fast with a purpose and if you feel like it is a worthwhile cause vamos a decir (just saying), then you can make it a family fast or a group fast. 

Love you all and hope you have a great week, Hermana Sanovich 

*The following  pictures are ones that Hermana Sanovich labeled around "Uruguay" - A little glimpse of what Colonia looks like.

Hermana Sanovich and her Catcus plant

Inside the Hermana's House

View of the Backyard

Hermana Trujillo

Hermana Sanovich

Season 1 Episode 21 "When you get to move a Fridge - No problem...we got this!" (10-24-16)

Season 1 Episode 21 " When you get to move a Fridge - No problem...we got this!"

So here are the highlights and a funny story from our week here in Nueva Helvecia...

After we finished writing on Monday we got on a bus headed to Montevideo, because we have the Hermana Lider Intrenadoras who are in Montevideo now and not in Colonia. So to do divisions we went there. The funny part of this was that by the time that we arrived there it was about 11 pm and we had to take a taxi to their apartment and the taxi guy didn't know where exactly we were going and neither did we. We were just a little lost in the Capital of Uruguay for a few minutes...but that's okay.

 Hermana Nygard, Hermana Sanovich, Hermana Evans & Hermana Trjuillo

Tuesday - We had divisions, I spent the morning with Hermana Evans and we did some contacting. Then we all met up for lunch in McDonald's (it is sad that this is a highlight of our food but it is). Then we went and studied in the church and for our language studies we sang some Hymns so there should be a video recording of us doing that. Then I went out for the afternoon with Hermana Nygard we met a less active member and she told us how she is the 52nd member of the church here in Uruguay. She was actually baptized in the ocean and to this day she talks to the Elders that baptized her, one named Elder Wayne Cardon from all places Utah. That was cool to see that the people here are going to be a part of my life forever and that we can keep in touch with them after the mission. We finished the night on a bus headed back home to Nueva Helvecia. 

Wednesday - It rained!! It really really rained and so nobody really wants to let us in because it is raining outside. But today we found two new awesome investigators named Narella and Maria. They let us in and then we had a really cool Questions & Answers about God and then they asked us a bunch of different questions, we ended up having a great conversation with them. We talked about all of our beliefs and how the Gospel helps us in our lives. It was a great start to a good relationship with them and the church.

Thursday - It rained some more but today we got to talk to Guadalupe and Bruno, who are relatives of the Cabreras and they are awesome too!!  We taught them about the Book of Mormon and they are so ready to learn more about the Gospel and they want to make their lives better before they have their baby soon!! We also had a consejo de rama, umm 

(ward council) that was a mess. We haven't had one for about 3 months now so it was really really long and the people are a little opinionated here in Uruguay, that was interesting to have some heated discussion about what to do to help the people in our Branch.. 

Friday- We baked some treats for our activity, shout out to my Mom and Dad's banana bread recipe, they all love it and want to have it every single week at the activity that's awesome!! Today we also helped Virginia with a dress so that she can enter in the temple this week when they go as a Branch on Saturday to take out her endowments. It was a great experience talking to her about the importance of Temples. Then we had our activity where we talked about Temples again. It was such a neat reminder how blessed we are in UTAH, to have so many Temples so close by us. 

Saturday - We found Alejandra!! Her street actually does exist, it is just too new to be on our map so we had to ask a member to use google maps to find out where it was. Oh the blessing of technology. Sadly she wasn't home but we did get her real cellphone number and talked to her. Turns out that her boyfriend kicked her out and she is living in the streets right now trying to make her life better. She told us that she had been praying to be able to find us and talk to us again but it had not happened for awhile. We set up for her to come and meet with us on Sunday in the church.. 

Sunday - Church was really good, we tried to help the Primary because they are practicing for their program. But that didn't turn out very well. The kids here are a mess and they make the sunbeams and rowdy kids at home look like angels. Then the sad part was that we were waiting for Alejandra to come and talk to us but she called us and told us that she didn't feel like she could enter into the church right now. We set up to meet with her on Tuesday of this week. Then we had a call that Virginia and her kids were in a moto accident so we went to the hospital to visit them for a minute. They sent Virginia and Maxi to Montevideo to do some tests to make sure that everything was okay. We know now, that everyone is okay and should be home soon. 

Fridge

Funny little story - The Elders dropped off a fridge on Monday, that we moved into our house on Tuesday by ourselves (HERMANA power) We moved it in and then moved our old fridge one outside, then two funny things happened. #1 The outlets didn't match so we had to move the fridge in the middle of the kitchen (which is tiny) and we ran into it all week.... #2  It rained while the old fridge was outside so it is totally ruined now but...that's okay...

Pranked by the Elders & "Hermana Power"

Challenge: This week in RS we were talking about the talk called "Always Remember Him"(liahona)..By Elder Gerrit W. Gong. It talks about how we need to Always Remember Christ and then explains that our time,agency, and memory help us to learn, progress and strengthen our Faith. I also loved that he mentioned 6 points that help us to remember him always. This week the challenge is to act on one of the 6 things that he mentions for example, having confidence in His covenants, promises, and assurances, or by acknowledging his hand throughout our lives, family history, repentance or to Thank Him daily for all that he does for us.. 

Thank you for all of your love and support, 

I hope you have a great week 
LOVE, Hermana Cassidy Sanovich 

Season 1 Episode 20 "Let the games begin" (10-17-16)

Season 1 - Episode 20 "Let the games begin"

The Summer Games have begun, and currently it is

Uruguay 5 (ants, cockroach, centipede. rain, humid heat) Hermanas- 0 

So this week was a little crazy and packed with a bunch of random things that happened so I will start at the beginning... Usually a good place to start right? 

ANT ATTACK

Cockroach

Tuesday we vistited our friend Luke. He is only 14 and is amazing! He speaks English, it was surprisingly hard to teach him in English. However, it ended up being an awesome conversation with him because he told us that he is really curious about all of things we have been teaching him because he has never heard about any of it before and it is cool to watch someone learn about God and Christ for the first time. 

Wednesday- We took a little trip to Valdense. A little town that is right next to ours that is also part of our branch. We visited a bunch of less active members and also some investigators that the Elders had been teaching with a member who also drove us around in her car. We then realized how fast everything is and how many people you can visit in a shorter time with a car. So that was something new, and kind of funny to realize that we will not be getting those in the bolsa 
(sack, bag or purse???)

Thursday- NOTHING.. Well stuff but nothing worth reporting... Except we did find a bunch of ants in our house so that is something. 

Hermana Sanovich drenched

Friday- We were outside teaching and it was pretty warm but it was cloudy and humid, which is not new but very normal. So we left like normal and then all of a sudden it was a down pour, we got drenched.  Funny thing, when we DO NOT wear our rain-boots it rains but, when WE DO it never does. 

Then during the night we went to the church to help the Cabrerra's set up the baby shower that they were having on Saturday with all of her extended family that we are using as a missionary tool to meet more people to talk to. Once we came home we were greeted by our little friendly cockroach... YUM!! Not, it was gross, so we had Hermano Cabrerra come over and show us how to kill it so that we can kill the next ones... 

Hermana Trujillo also drenched

Saturday- We went to the church to clean up in the morning and we found a centipede (we do not have a picture, but it is bound to happen again) And that was really cool.                           

Tan Lines & Wet Feet

We were contacting and ended up being rejected by this lady in probably the nicest way possible. She let us come in and we said a prayer with her and then she told us about the Bible and how she doesn't want to waste our time because she thinks that we are doing great things but, that she doesn't want to change her life. Then she gave us cookies talked about the Bible some more and we left. It was a great opportunity to just feel loved by people that are not interested in the church at all.. Then the baby shower!! We had about 5 investigators that came and we shared the plan of salvation with them a little bit and then we enjoyed a fun activity all together. The funniest thing that happened is that the Cabrerras were all staying together at her house and they decided to do some karaoke. So we are in our beds ready to go to sleep and we had some fun background Spanish karaoke of some Shakira songs as well as a bunch of 80's songs and of course some Spanish classics. It was awesome!!! 

Baby Shower

Cupcakes at the Baby Shower

la carne delicioso (delicious meats)

Sunday- We woke up to an ANT attack. Our house here is really old and made mostly out of wood so we are dealing with ants coming and visiting us, we are great at killing them with some OFF bug spray (because that's all that's in the house). I also had to speak in church so we were cleaning and I was writing my talk (I am a procrastinator)... Then we went to go get Luke and we were running to his house so that we would all be on time to church. But Luke wasn't home so we were late to church without our investigator with us. We were a little disappointed.  But, because the niece of Cabrerra is leaving to serve a mission in Veracruz Mexico they had her Dad get up and speak and then had her bear her testimony about a mission. So lucky for me I ditched the written talk and just spoke for a few minutes about how important it is to work together doing missionary work. Then another Sister in our ward spoke about following Christ. Then we had the best lunch ever!!! Its called Asado (grilled/roasted meats) it is practically steak and it was delicious. We tried a bunch of different parts of the cow with the Cabrerras including but not limited to - blood, intestine, stomach and real meat.. (I am not sure what exactly the other stuff was but it was yummy and I think that I don't really need to know what it was I really really don't want to know). Then we spent the afternoon with Ponse contacting and then taught a non-active family named La Familia Artuche about the importance of scripture study... 

Asado - grilled/roasted meats

Challenge - Read the talk from Bonnie Oscarson (Do I Believe?) She talks about how important it is to have our own testimonies and to not forget the experiences that we have had... Then think of the first time that you realized that you had a testimony, or the time that you gained your own testimony and share it with others, maybe with me, maybe with more than one person, maybe just with God in prayer thanking him for it. But think about where your testimony comes from and if you don't have one about the church pray and ask God about it. I testify that he will answer and help you in all that you do... 

Thank you for being such an amazing group of people that are consistently influencing my life, hope you have a great week!! 

Love, Hermana Cassidy Sanovich 

Season 1 Episode 19 " When Zayn leaves One Direction" (10-10-16)

Season 1 Episode 19 " When Zayn leaves One Direction"

Hermana Trujillo &  Hermana Sanovich
Dos Amigos :( Missing Hermana Silva

So this week was changes and... Drum roll please::::::::::: I am still in Nueva Helvecia Colonia!! Wahoo!! The biggest change is that instead of our trio, it is me and Hermana Trujillo! After we dropped her off at the bus we went back home and could feel the emptiness, then for the next day we kept looking around to see where she went. Then when we talked about it we mentioned that it was like when Zayn left One Direction because we are still doing everything that we were before and it is great but that it is noticeably different and the way things are done is a little different. 
(bad metaphor but it was what we could think of for us) I only have time to mention the BEST of the BEST and the challenge 

(sorry its a short one) 

So the craziest and best day this week was actually Sunday so we will just jump to that. It had been a long week of contacting and losing a bunch of investigators. 
But when we left on Sunday we had the best experience ever. We were walking down the street and then this lady appeared out of no-where and asked us if we were hot and we said yes. Then we started talking to her and it turns out that she was born in Uruguay, but then moved to live in Queens New York when she was one up until she was 30 years old.  So not only does she speak English but she has a NY accent and its awesome. (it also comes with quite the colorful vocabulary but it was funny) She has had such a hard life, she is an alcoholic and a drug addict, she has 2 daughters that got taken away from her in the states, she was deported back to Uruguay. Once she moved back her she has tried to kill herself 3 different times.  She was talking to us about how much she believes in God and that she is looking for her purpose her on the earth, because she knows that its not her time to leave it yet. As she was telling us all about these trials I could feel so strongly the love that God has for each one of us but especially for her. It was incredible to see the need for the Gospel so clearly in the eyes of a stranger. It was a great opportunity to testify to her of Christ and we plan to visit her again this next week. Meeting her lightened up our day and gave us purpose to be here as missionaries in Uruguay. 

This leads into the challenge for this week - BE A LIGHT 

In an email from my family they gave me the advice to be a light. Then when we had a zone conference awhile back we talked about the light of the gospel and the way it blesses those around us. This is going to be the theme of this change for me, to always be a light for those around me. We may not be teaching a bunch of people and have a bunch of baptisms but if through me others can see and feel the hope, light and love of Christ that is beyond good enough...

Thank you all so much for your love and support, as always.  
More stories to come...until next week! 

Con Amor, (with tenderness)

Cassidy 

Season 1 Episode 18 "One of the Two times a year church is in English" (10-03-16)

Season 1 Episode 18 "One of the Two times a year church is in English" 

Nueva Helvecia

So this weeks big highlight, as you may already know was that we had the opportunity to watch conference this past Saturday and Sunday, it was an amazing experience. But before we get to that just a few things happened this week.

Monday - We were in Montevideo and I got to see all of the people that are in my generation (the group that was in the CCM with me) and it was awesome to be able to talk to them and share all the experiences that we have had already. 

In the plaza Nueva Helvecia  

Tuesday - We had interviews and a zone conference with President Olsen it was really good to talk to him. Every time that he teaches us, we all can feel how inspired he is and how the changes that he is going to be making and the vision he has for our mission is inspired by god and that we are going to be able to accomplish great things if we are BOLD. Life and mission advice That we are going to be applying every single day here in Uruguay. 

In the plaza - Nueva Helvecia1

In the plaza with the sign of
Nueva Helvecia

Wednesday - We left with a member and visited with some of the less active families along with some sweet older ladies in our area. That was a great experience and every time that the members are involved in the work we can see the miracles and the amazing affects that they have on us and the people that we are visiting. 

Thursday - We heard about the Novela Moses and the 10 Mandamientos. (this is like a Soap Opera) Not really sure how accurate it is in portraying the bible stories but it is a major culture thing here in South America right now.

Friday - Divisions with Hermana Nygard and Hermana Evans... I spent half the day with Hermana Silva and Hermana Nygard and then the other have with Hermana Silva and Hermana Evans and Hermano Ponce... It was really cool to see how every single missionary does the work a little differently but that the gospel never changes... 

Sat - We watch Conference, sadly because of some technical difficulties we missed out on President Uchtdorf's talk but we were able to watch the rest of it in English.  
It was incredible!! Then in between the sessions we got to eat some torts fritas with President Hurst, Hermano Bias and Hermano Ponce... Then we watched some more conference and received some more revelation for all of us. 

Conference with Hermano Ponce

Sunday - Today was an amazing day filled with so much revelation and the spirit was so strong. So when we got to the church everything was set up for us to watch conference on the computer in the office at the church, but it was struggling to load everything so we were unable to watch the first little bit. We then decided that it would be better to watch it in Spanish with everyone instead of missing most of it but having it in English. I was devastated... We continued the session in Spanish and to be honest for about one talk I was a little angry, then I decided I needed to stop being a baby and listen with more than just my ears. I decided to pray and ask Heavenly Father to help me have the same connection to the Spanish version as I would have had with the English one, it was incredible the difference that it made... The lesson I learned from this experience is that God listens to even the simplest and most selfish of prayers. I should have been happy to watch it in Spanish (I do live in a Spanish world everyday for heaven sake's!!) but instead, I was only thinking about me and what I wanted. Once I was able to realize that sometimes we just need to "Buck Up Buttercup" (as my parents would say) and enjoy what we do have!!! 

We were able to watch the last session on Sunday in English and it was absolutely amazing!! No matter what language, these people are inspired and their words of advice are for all of us... 

The missionaries in the Nueva Helvecia area of Colonia

Challenge - Go back and watch any conference that you missed. 

If you didn't miss any of it go back and watch Elder Nattress' address 

(it was one of  my favorites) 

Have a great week!!! Love Hermana Sanovich

                        Note from Mama Nic - This is one of my very favorite pictures of Cassidy! 
                                    She looks so Happy and with her Favorite animal of course.

Me and Beethoven with the Libro de Mormon

Abuela Pocha - "Grandma"

Me with Beethoven

Beethoven