Season 2 Episode 21 Many mini-miracles (4-24-17)

Alberto brought US roses, he is so sweet!

Season 2 Episode 21 - Many mini-miracles

MILAGRO - acontecimientos extraordinarios causados por el poder 

de Dios...

(MIRACLE - extraordinary events caused by the power of God)

This week was full of a lot of little things and some really good reflection time... 

For starters this week when we visited Alberto he gave us some roses.

Then we were able to meet this new lady named Teresa who was a saving grace on a rainy day. We were able to talk with her and even her son who is 7 listened to us. Then a little miracle happened was when he asked us a bunch of funny questions like - Are you from outer space? Do you speak Japanese? Do you know about God? It was a great and hilarious experience for us both.

The Not so CLEAN bunny

We visited a less active member and her daughter who is 7 she is wanting to get baptized here soon. So while we were at their house they showed us that they have a bunny and it was the cutest little guy who also was a little gross - it is an animal from Uruguay... (enough said) We also had the chance to go see Loana and her family she made this delicious bread roll type thing that she is going to teach us how to make so I am excited about that. For those of you who know me really well you know how much I love bread so this was a great miracle. We also visited two investigators and they showed us their wedding pics from 1960s, it was a sweet opportunity for us to get to know them a little more. We visited our friend Neder and she was so happy to see us because we had not visited her in a long time.  We also saw Roxana and Mimo, we were able to share a couple of Mormon Messages.  We felt the spirit really strongly while in their house. We ended the week with a Relief Society social and a Young Women activity, so Saturday we were really excited to be able to see and 

RS & YW Activity

be with the entire ward and help them all grow closer together. 

Hilarious Hermanas... We are keeping a "tripping tally" to see which one of us falls more because its getting a little intense on how often we "trip." We are also being reminded every hour that another hour has past because Heywood's watch now beeps every hour on the hour.. lol (we have NO idea why it has started doing this) it is helping us keep time in a very creative way.. 

This weeks BIG miracle - it was raining real hard towards the end of the night and we were still one investigator short to meeting our contact goal so we decided to walk a little ways away to go and visit someone that was a reference from the Bishop. It was the best decision we have made. We got to her house and were not expecting her to be home, however after knocking (clapping) three times she let us in her house. We were able to teach her about the Restoration of the Gospel and it was truly great lesson. Then we were finishing and she asks us "Why did you come here today?" we looked at each other and told her that we had planned on going to visit her that day when we planned earlier that morning. But didn't make it.  She looked at us in awe, then explained that about a half an hour she had prayed to know if she should keep on this path and what she needed to do in her life. Then we showed up at her door. She told us that we are were the answer! THAT IS A MIRACLE!  She is going to come to church and put in her all to follow Gods direction for her.  Needless to say as a Missionary that was a great experience for us to feel that we are really doing what God needs us to be doing here in Bella Union. 

Me with the "Carpincho"

Desafio (Challenge) So some weeks we have big miracles, like for us last week we had Alberto get baptized.  However, this week we only had some contacts and not a lot of "number success", but it is not the numbers or the investigators or the baptisms that matter. We were able to see Gods hand in our lives in so many little ways this week. It rained, we took a little pit stop. It rained again and we got to see Katarine. We were walking all day and some of the other little things happened to make us smile. The point here is that every single day there is a miracle, and if you cant see one LOOK HARDER!! God loves us, we are his children and he is showing us everyday how much he cares about us. So this week make note of all the mini-miracles in your life. I promise that as you do your attitude will improve and that the hard stuff wont seem as bad.

It's P-Day (What are those Elders doing?)

I love you all and hope that you have a great week..

Love , Hermana Cassidy Sanovich 

Thoughts from Hermana Heywood (4-17-17)

These Thoughts are from Hermana Heywood on the Baptism of Alberto
(I hope she doesn't mind)

The baptism of Alberto was INCREDIBLE. Not many people showed up but you could feel the Spirit SO STRONGLY! Alberto had to change A LOT in his life, and I mean A LOT! 

I can´t even begin to describe the changes he has made in his life to be where he is now. 

He smoked.

He drunk.

He had his many "women".

He had a potty mouth.

But he changed. 

He found Christ and wanted to follow Him.

He gave up ALL these worldly things that don't bring us happiness. 

As he entered the water and came back out I could see the relief, peace, 

happiness that he had. 

He was CLEAN.

 Just casually talking to Hermana Leyva via Skype

I could only think to our Savior, 

Jesus Christ in this very moment.  

He was CLEAN. 

He was PERFECT.

He loved us so MUCH that He suffered for us.

All of us.

He suffered so that we don´t have to.

Through our Savior, Jesus Christ we can CHANGE. 

And that is EXACTLY what Alberto did. 

He changed for HIM. 

He changed to come closer to Christ. 

I hope you were all able to really think about Christ this weekend. He has done SO much for us and will do SO much more for us EVERYDAY. 

We have to accept Him...

His hands are reached out to you...

Grab them, take them, let Him carry you home.

I have the STRONGEST testimony that He lives! He loves us! He wants us to come home to Him. He wants us to change, change for the better.

So, go find something you can change so that you can become just a little bit more like Christ. 

A little more like our Savior, Redeemer, our Older Brother. I know for certainty that you will find more and more peace and HAPPINESS in your life. 

Love,

Hermana Heywood

Season 2 Episode 20 " Baptisms, Birthdays and Bears.. OH MY!!" (4-17-17)

Season 2 Episode 20 " Baptisms, Birthdays and Bears.. OH MY!!"

So this week was crazy, and it felt insanely long... A bunch of just random little things have happened and the best way to tell you about it is a list of 20 things that happened the week I turned 20... SOOOOO here we go,

1. We have some new neighbors and they have started to play music in English.... Lucky for US.

The Birthday Girl "20"

2. Roxanna fell asleep while we were waiting to eat lunch with her

3.  Alberto told us that we were not allowed to help him clean up outside because we are busy looking for the children of God. 

4.  The river got flooded so much that the buses were not going to Artigas. So we were literally on our own private island...

5.  We contacted the sweetest older gentleman and he just thanked us for talking to him. He told us that he was going to live his life so that he could be with his wife in Heaven again, there were tears shed.

6.  I have seriously started to trip at least three or four times a day, which also included stepping in dog poop Sunday morning but, not realizing it until around Sunday school... go dog poop! 

7.  We got hardcore rejected... This lady told us "I'd prefer if you just kept on your way and did not come back."  The funny part about this is that we have taught her parents before and even went back this week and at that time all was good. 
(was she having a bad day? we are not sure!)

The CAR RIDEEEEEEE

8.  All of the creepy guys that live in Bella Unión have started talking to us and telling us that they are going to come to church, we think it is related to the fact that we wear skirts again.

9.  We went on a car ride to visit a less active member and the entire time it just reminded me of the Indiana Jones ride in Disneyland, the car was old and the dirt roads are really bad.

10.  Uruguayan churches will never be clean... Well nothing is really that clean here... But we try our BEST... 

11.  I watched my lovely companion fall down the stairs into the Baptismal font that we were cleaning... She said that it was part of my Birthday present, thanks.

Birthday Present from Heywood 

12.  We ate pizza and some brownies from a package from the USA and they were delicious. #thanksHeywood

13.  We learned that in order to fill up a font it takes about 4 hours and it will only be about room temperature, because hot water does not come out of the taps in the church.

14.  We met some cool Uruguayan people that invited us to tell them all about being Missionaries. GO US!

15.  We were able to explain that Easter is the same because we all believe in Christ. 

16.  We visited Yesica and her puppy decided to attack me this time, but it was a great lesson and discussion so it was worth it. 

Alberto's Baptism was Incredible

17.  ALBERTO GOT BAPTIZED!!! it was an awesome and really spiritual experience to be able to watch him take that big step.

18.  For my Birthday Alberto bought me a stuffed teddy bear that says I Love you... I might have teared up and just wanted to hug him because it was just so sweet .

19.  SALTO is the best zone ever = I got quite a few happy Birthday phone calls, then we were able to celebrate on Sunday with a cake that the Hermana's made for me. Then we even had more cake Monday as a Zone. 

20.  EASTER...We were able to have a little egg hunt as Hermana's in their house Sunday night. But we all know that the holiday is about way more important things than candy and eggs. It is so different here but the spirit of it all is the same!!!

So all in all it has been a Great Week, and we were able to see a bunch of Miracles. 

Picture of the Carpincho - Critter

The challenge this week is to watch at least a little bit of the Devotionals that the General Authorities are going to have this week. However, I am not sure if that is just a thing that they are broadcasting to the Missionaries so the challenge is to watch a Conference talk that you missed or one that calls out to you. I love that we have the chance to watch and re watch time and time again all of the modern day revelation we are receiving.

With all that is going on this time of year and all of the focus we have put on Christ this week I just want to let you all know that I know without a doubt that Christ lives and that he is our Savior and that he is a part of each and every one of our lives...He loves ALL OF US and he is willing to help us if we will reach out to him.

I hope you had a "HOPPY" Easter and that you are able to always remember Christ even without the chocolate eggs and bunnies.. 

Love you, Hermana Sanovich

Season 2 Episode 19 "Soaking Wet in Salto" (4-14-17)

Season 2 Episode 19 "Soaking Wet in Salto"

H´Sepúlveda said we looked like Tela-Tubbies

So this weekend we were able to come back to Salto for another three day weekend!! WAHOO!! We are having a bunch of fun in our little quartet, and we were even able to do some cool things this week before we came here.

We will just start out with our little Hilarious Hermanas moment from this week - So we got home Monday night around 8:30 as usual and we bought some ice cream to eat on the way home. AND we noticed that we did not have the keys. Long story short we got to break into our own house... So we climbed the gate and then climbed in through the window. We spent the next day leaving and coming into our house this way. It was a great adventure that we are trying really hard not to repeat. We did get new keys and luckily we did just before the gas in the house went out, we had to stop cooking our lunch and have a gas guy come drop off a tank of gas. I'm just happy that we were able to let him in the front door and not the window. (that would have been funny to see)

BRASIL con Elder Gómez y Huanca

In other news this week we were able to find the Carpincho 

(our little animal friend) again and this time there are pictures!!! 

***she did not send us any pics this week of this critter hopefully next week*** I was just as excited as before and this time we have proof. Some people told us that they thought we were from Australia so that was cool to hear for once. We then contacted this cute little 93 year old lady who started to cry when we gave her a little card. Hermana Heywood told a lady that she was from England and I started to laugh just a little, our goal this week is to be from different countries, I'm going to be from Russia.. We contacted two little boys when they asked for a Book Of Mormon we were amazed and it was one of the coolest little contacts ever. When we left them we went to Roxana and Mimos house and they gave us a little box of chocolates to start celebrating Easter. We also taught this girl Marisol and she was so sweet, we were really able to show her how much God loves her because her family situation is not great. The best thing that happened was ALBERTO passed his interview!! (he is going to be baptized on Friday, my Birthday yea) So we went to Brazil with Elder Gómez and Elder Huanca for lunch and then we all got on a bus and came back to Salto. 

SALTO ----- We had an amazing conference with President on Saturday morning where we talked a lot about having a good and loving companionship as well as being able to work with more than the other missionaries here in Salto. It was such a great experience!!!  It started off by being a major down pour!! It's just the beginning of the Rainy season here... Saturday night I was with Hermana Harker and she is super awesome. We laughed at a couple of things that happened during the night some of which are 1.  The power went out in their house 2.  I almost ran into a barbed wire fence with my face 3.  We had two little girls follow us 4.  We went to their house to teach them and it was totally the "Home Alone" house... So this house was crazy!!! We talked with about 7 people who didn't live there and in the end we just told them we would come back later this week.. "Does anyone even live here?"   Then on Sunday we were able to have Stake Conference and it was all about not giving any type of excuses. It was exactly what they needed to hear and what I needed to hear too. Then on Sunday afternoon I was able to go and be a companion with Hermana Sepulveda and we got even more soaking wet than I thought was possible. However, we had a bunch of fun and we all were together... 

Hyrum & Joseph

DESAFIO/CHALLENGE - This week we talked about Joseph and Hyrum Smith. It has been something that President Olsen has been challenging us to focus on. We are all trying to have a companionship like they had. So me and Hermana Heywood have decided that I am Joseph and that she is Hyrum... We may or may not call each other that throughout the day and President mentioned that we are a little too much like them. It has been a great motivation for us to work together and be a team. So my challenge for you is to read more about Joseph and Hyrum Smith and then to apply the way that they love and serve one another into some aspect of your daily life.. 

I love you all and hope that you have a great Easter weekend!!!

Sea. 2 Ep. 18 "Have you seen the Americans or the Carpincho?" (4-3-17)

Season 2 Episode 18 "Have you seen the Americans or the Carpincho?"

Weekend with the Hermanas

So this week has been crazy! There has been some contacting, some good lessons, and then our adventures at our vacation house!! ALERT: email format change from Hermana Sanovich

Starting out with our adventures contacting this week.... 

So we went out to contact and find some more people and we found a really good street so we decided to talk to everyone. So we knocked on the door and then this dog comes around the corner to say hello. Then I hear Hermana Heywood say "The dog only has one eye!" And then I looked and we felt sad for the poor thing until she says "He needs a pirate eye patch." Then we laughed hysterically in front of the poor dog. In the end the lady was really nice and we are going to go back and visit her soon. A different day we had someone respond to the question "Why are you here on Earth?" with the response of "Because I haven't died yet"... WELL yes sir, but there is more than that, we talked for a minute and then when he realized we were Mormons he told us to go away. It was a good teaching opportunity at least. Also there was a group of American students visiting here in Salto that we were trying really hard to find but, we never found them. But everyone else who live on this street asked about them...

Uruguayan Animals 

1. We got to see a carpincho.. That was a highlight of the week for sure!! They are these little animals that only live here in Uruguay and it just casually strolled by us while we were contacting one day. I might have been overly excited and so now it is the ongoing joke in the zone. BUT it was really cute and just so random that it made my day.

2. I got kind of attacked by a dog today. We were waiting for a bus and the dog just jumps up on my lap and it just starts pushing me until I almost fell into a ditch...well, at least I didn't fall into the ditch - mom

Nothing better than French Toast,
Oranges, and General Conference with our favorite Hermanas

Our lessons - We went back to the house of Yesica, with the dog and the kid and YES they were at it again. However, this time the Dad had pushed the kid into the dog so that it would bite him and guess what? IT DID! Needless to say I had had enough of the animal abuse so I started to freak out just a tad about it. Well my little freak out turned into me "talking loudly" in English about how I would take the dog home with us if I could and that I was sorry for the poor thing... Once that was over we were able to teach them about how important their own desires are and how much they need to put in their own effort because we cant do it for them. It only took a small freak out to be able to finally get through to Walter just a little bit...maybe just maybe they realized that we need to be kind to all!

Home away from home

Vacation HOUSE - So on Friday night we got to travel to spend the weekend with the Hermanas in Salto!! It has been a really really fun weekend here with them. On Friday Heywood and I hit our 10 months in the mission so the four of us decided to celebrate with some pizza!! Then on Saturday we were able to eat some lunch and then to watch some General Conference and then go back to the Hermanas house and just laugh about the day. Then on Sunday we got up and made some french toast, and it was fun to have our own little Conference party before we went to the Stake Center to watch it. We also began to practice our musical number for our Zone Conference that is coming up... 

The Gringo Room!!!

Gringo Room - So for Conference we were able to all get together and the Americans went into a different room in the church to watch the conference in English and it was AWESOME!! I love the Spanish language don't get me wrong. However, being able to hear their own voices is incredible. We also enjoyed the little clip about the Mormon Tabernacle singing for Trump and we all started to do our best impression of the Star Spangled Banner, it wasn't the best but we were all enjoying it. Also, for the last song we were all excited to be able to sing in English that we joined in.. Which leads me to a question that we had. Why were there not the words for us to sing with them this time? If anyone knows the answer it would help us out... 

However, speaking of General Conference and of some the musical numbers, this leads me to the 

Challenge for this week: So we were singing along with the lovely Mormon Tabernacle during Conference and then when it was over we started to practice our own song for the upcoming zone conference. To say the least our zone is no Mormon Tabernacle Choir... Nor do we have a lot of musical talent. HOWEVER as we heard this weekend from Elder Holland "All God's critters got a place in the choir" He went on to explain that we are all invited to be part of the choir and to sing, it doesn't even matter how horrible our voices are we are still invited to be a part of the choir! Now in our zone some Elders were not wanting to participate at all and there were a few that were willing even though they were not the strongest singers. Those that put in their whole effort, with the help of some direction and practice, together now  WE have a good musical number. Now applying this to our own lives... we are all invited to be a part of the choir and as Elder Holland said "there is a place for everyone all that wish to be there." Just like a struggling Elder trying to learn his part in a choir we all need the help of a director that sees our potential. We all have access to this direction and he has already given us all the keys to success.. So the invitation is to be a part of the choir, to do everything that he has taught us to lead us to happiness and eternal life. Now we may sing a little differently but when we work together the end result is beautiful.. 

I love you all and hope that you got the chance to listen and watch some conference. I wish you all the best this week... 

Love Hermana Sanovich