Hermana Sanovich in Uruguay: Season 3 Episode 23 " Saturday is a special day!" (11-06-17)

Happy Halloween

Season 3 Episode 23
"Saturday is a special day!"

This week has been a little different than normal.. We were able to celebrate Halloween a little bit as a zone on Monday by making cookies together in the morning on the 30th. Then to our surprise we got to go on a trip to Tacuarembo, another zone of the mission that is about 2 hours away. We went to go on divisions with a companionship of Hermanas that the one comp had fallen off of her bike and been in the hospital for about a week. So around 5am Hermana Harker and I were on our way in a bus to a place we had never been to before without a clear address for where the Hermanas lived and no way to actually talk to them. This was just the start of our Tacuarembo ADVENTURE. I decided to be Harker for Halloween and we had a chance to teach a bunch of cool people that after a week without missionaries were in need of some Gospel lessons. Oh and it was also my 17 month mark so Harker made some creative cookies with the injured Hermana and we Celebrated that together.

Me as Hermana Harker for Halloween

Us in Tacuarembo

Wednesday- we were up and out the door because the Hermanas had conference and we were just going to take a bus to the terminal but we decided to make it more fun and walk the 3 Kilometers (almost 2 miles) to the terminal from their house without knowing where we were going at all. It was a fun adventure and we saw some of the sights and even contacted people on the way. Then when we got to the terminal we found out they had cancelled our bus due to a strike they were having in Montevideo.

However, the cute older ticket salesman was a

Xis - a Brazilian Lunch

lifesaver and remembered that we had bought tickets and saved us tickets on another bus so that we could get home. BLESSINGS!!!! he saved us because there was only one other bus going to Rivera that day late at night and our bus was so full of people standing up that he was a little miracle worker. We went from a great morning to a really weird afternoon where this Evangelical lady chewed us out for about a half an hour about all the ways that the Gospel is wrong and the church is fake. It was a little test of patience and in the end all we shared was our testimonies.

Tacuarembo ADVENTURE

Road Tripping

Thursday- we did weekly planning and it was super hot and humid so we were glad that the first half of the day we were in our house. Then we found this really cool 14 year old girl that lives in front of the church and is currently going to another church by herself so we are excited to go and teach her some more coming up this next week. The other big event this week would be our interviews with President Olsen. We were finishing up with our missionary council meeting, we received a call telling us they were here early and asked if we could go have our interviews. SO we went and it was a great talk with President Olsen about how to enjoy and just keep being the missionary I have been this entire time. Then as a surprise we went with President, his assistants, and the zone leaders to dinner in Brazil. It was a cool little ADVENTURE where I had the chance to get some awesome advice from President about studying, working and I also ate a chicken heart!! Yes that's right people....I keep eating odd things!!

Us at Conference

Conference de Rivera

Friday- we had a great Zone Conference we talked about the Baptismal calendar that we are trying to use in the mission to help us raise the vision and to have people getting baptized every week. I also had the chance to share my testimony with the zone because it is my last change and that made the end of the mission feel really really real... We found great new investigators that we are wanting to teach more soon. Then the big day came around, SATURDAY!!

Me cleaning the Baptismal Font

Saturday....is a special day.... its the day that Daiana got baptized!! We were able to help Daiana reach her goal and get baptized!! It was a crazy race all day to be able to get everything ready and working for her baptism but she did it. We got to watch Lupe and Enzo as she entered the water and you can see the happiness on her face. It was such a special day and everyone was helping with her kids so that she could enjoy it. It was such a spiritual experience that we know she will never forget and to hear her bear her testimony about the church and the restored gospel afterward was my favorite part.

DAIANA'S BAPTISM

Baptism DAY!

US with Daiana, Lupe and Enzo - Happy Day!!

Sunday- she (Daiana) was on her way to church without us.!!! We were on our way to pick her up and make sure she made it to church and we get halfway there and we see a stroller and then a little child walking towards us and it was her and Lupe with Enzo in the stroller.... I loved seeing them all ready for church and on their way (with their dog to). Our little joke about Sunday was that we were dog sitters outside, babysitters inside and missionaries later that day with the self-sufficient devotional. (jajaja)

CHALLENGE- reach out to someone that is less active or an investigator. They need it, everything is so new and they need people to be their friends. We have seen this with Daiana because there have been some people that have not been nice about her and her situation. However, there have been a handful of members that are willing to help with her kids and trying to make her life easier which I loved seeing.

I just want to thank all of you for still reading these and for going on my little adventures with me. I promise that next week will be just as crazy...