New Places, New People, Same Gospel

I´m in Bani, which is between my first and second area, San Cristobal and Azua. I love it here, even though leaving Azua wasn´t very easy. This week has been really great...I learned a lot my first day here how Heavenly Father is in the smallest details of our lives.

As I got to know a lot of the members here this past week and their stories, it inspired me to push myself harder because you really never now who's listening and who is ready to recieve this amazing gospel in their lives. No podemos desmayar, la obra del Señor sigue y ahora mas apresurada!!! As we invited each member this week to follow the guidance of our latter-day Prophet to open our mouths and plead the Lord to guide us to those that need to know what we know to be true, I invite you to do the same. What greater gift could we return to our Heavenly Father than helping Him get His children back to His presence and glory!

Elder Neil L. Andersen said in April 2013 General Conference, ¨Every righteous member of the Church has thought about how to share the gospel. Some share the gospel naturally, and we can learn a lot from them. Some struggle and wonder how to do better, wishing that guilty feeling we sometimes feel would find somewhere else to go.

Our desire to share the gospel takes all of us to our knees, and it should, because we need the Lord’s help...

I promise you, as you pray to know with whom to speak, names and faces will come into your mind. Words to speak will be given in the very moment you need them. Opportunities will open to you. Faith will overcome doubt, and the Lord will bless you with your very own miracles.¨

That´s a promise! I´m so grateful to be part of Christ´s church. The Branch President here shared with us his story on how he was an outsider when he heard the missionaries share with his friend the gospel. He felt it then and became quickly interested, he was baptized a month later and baptized his friend shortly after. We really don´t know who is looking or listening, but the Lord does put us in the right place and the right  time.

I´ve also been called to help the sisters in my zone and in another zone as the hermana leader, and I´ve learned that as we look to the Lord for guidance in the callings He bestows upon us, we understand that this is His work, His words, His glory. He knows each of His children perfectly and we must counsel with Him if we want to be instruments in His hands, answers to prayers, and become more like Him.

Other fun facts:

- Went to Ocoa, which is this city in the middle of the mountains and our branch sang in the choir and apparently I was signed up for it so we headed up there..it´s beautiful. I´ll send pictures soon!

That´s really my week...

I love you all and thank you for all the support and prayers!

Love

Hermana Fernandez

TRANSFER WEEK :S

Hola Mami y Daddy y Amigos!

This week has been absolutely wonderful! We have been working at full speed...this is going to be a short email because we´re in transfers and there´s lot to do today...and lots of changes =(

Hermana Buhrley and I are leaving Azua! NOOOO! Sad day...things always change when we hit our climax!

Hermana Francis is training and Hermana Flores and I get separated...right when she´s done training =(

That´s life in the mission I guess...but we ended this journey with a bang!

Highlights of the this great week:

- Friday. We had an epic missionary work activity with the whole district. I´ll try to send a video...we´ll see if it works.

- Saturday. RAUL got baptized!! WAHHOOOO!! and WE WENT TO THE TEMPLE!!! We went with the whole branch it was a good 35 of us! Such a wonderful experience...some jovenes went for the first time and some got there endowments. Truly special experience. This is what it´s all about.

I love this work. I constantly reflect on the beauty of really understanding what this is all about. The Lord is GREAT and He´s PLAN is PERFECT. At the temple I learned that another fact that TESTIFIES that this is the Lord´s Church is that it is a Church and HOUSE of ORDER. The Lord´s way is the only way. I know this church is the ONLY true church of Christ. He, himself, established it! I am so grateful to know that, not just believe, but KNOW.

I love you all and thank you so much for the prayers and support. I feel your faith in the prayers they do in the temple for us missionaries! Thank you but NEVER forget that you embarked in this wonderful work when you got baptized!

I love you all and I hope you have the best week ever!

Love,

Hermana Fernandez

One for the Books!

A week full of events, Azua is HEATING up & I'm not just talking about the weather =D

MONDAY. great ACTIVE p-day! Then we get out to work and not a soul could be found but the Lord guided us to 

TUESDAY. We had exchanges (that´s when you split up and go with another missionary for a day)...PURPOSE to learn and improve. Hermana Duron is our Hermana Leader and she´s amazing and she´s from HONDURAS so she´s automatically awesome haha. Hermana Tejeda, her companion is also amazing and DOMINICAN! I LOVE HER! She is the funniest person I have ever met. I learned so much from her, I got to do exchanges with her. We had a good time inviting people to be baptized and we got Raul to PRAY in front of us after 2 months of trying to get him to pray!! YAY MIRACLES HAPPEN!!

WEDNESDAY. we had ZONE CONFERENCE...our PRESIDENT and wife are finishing their mission and because of traveling issues they are leaving a month early =( it was quite the emotional scene yet a WONDERFUL spirit was felt. I know that our leaders are called of God. I know it! There's no doubt about it... Hermana Francis and Hermana Jorgensen sang a beautiful version of "How Great Thou Art" and through the great spirit in the room, I felt so deeply the LOVE of my Heavenly Father. He knows us so personally. I testify of this constantly because I know He does. I know it almost perfectly. I live it!

Counsel to the Lord because He really is the only one that really understands PERFECTLY who we are and what we need and who we can become...He also LOVES US PERFECTLY..MORONI 7:45;47,48

THURSDAY - SATURDAY. We focused on committing people to come to church and TAKING NO for an answer! This is the salvation of our brothers and sisters we are talking about. Like Jeffery R. Holland says in Preach My Gospel! He´s amazing...TOTALLY INSPIRED OUR WEEK!

SUNDAY. we had almost everyone we wanted at church and more!! We had 9 at church!!! Miracles are happening...AZUA is HEATING UP Y´ALL!!

I know this CHURCH IS TRUE! I have no doubt about it and I know that this is Christ church and that Jesus Christ himself directs it! I know that God knows us personally. I love you all!

Love

Hermana Fernandez

Semana Santa

Querida familia y amigos,

Espero que esta semana les fue de lo mejor...recordándose de Cristo y de que Él vive!!

Easter Week...here it´s called Semana Santa and there are different traditions which is cool but it didn´t really feel like Easter really...it´s an all week thing when people go to the beach all week and all the little girls have braids and beads in their hair and lots of habichuela con dulce (beans with sweet...hahah beans, sugar, milk and sweet potato and raisins)...k sounds weird but it´s like my FAVORITE..SOOOO GOOD!

Has everyone seen the Easter Video...holy cow so great!! If you haven't watch it! (http://easter.mormon.org/?cid=HPTU041514694)

As for the rest of my week:

We met the cutest 9 year old. Her name is Yileini and she is so interested in religion...it's inspirational. She asked us to meet up later in the week and she was going to round up all the kids of the neighborhood to listen...SHE DID JUST THAT..for the first time since I've been in Azua we've had 10 kids in primary...that's right the work is hastening on!

Oscar and Valencia are getting married this week...which means they are going to get wet in no time with Carlitos!!! GOLDEN FAMILY =D

We met this old lady named Laura. She's had 12 kids and she's 80 and still walks like a champ as if she were 50! She's amazing and she spirit is really so peaceful...as we taught her, she had great questions but she believed that she was to old to get baptized. Hermana Flores and I looked at each other and with our looks we thought the same thing..."IT'S NEVER TOO LATE..."

I know this church is TRUE! It is true in all the WORLD and it is the only way to happiness! I know it with all my heart! I know that we have the authority restored today as it was when Jesus Christ came to the earth. I know that we can make sacred ordinances on earth that will take us back to our Heavenly Father as long as we keep his commandments, remember Him always and take His name upon us. This is the Church of Jesus Christ.

Love

Hermana Fernandez

If you just BELIEVE...

Trusting in ADVANCE & what will only make sense in REVERSE...

Faith.The first principal of the Gospel, but really of life. Without it, we would be lost in a world of endings. A faithful servant of Lord in these last days, President Dieter F. Uchtdorf said that there are no true endings in the Plan of God, only true beginnings.

Faith brings the answers to the profound questions of our human existance...How is it that a force that we can not see cause a tall, rooted palm tree swerve back & forth in the direction it demands? How is it that our bodies are built so perfectly that it can endure so much until we part from this life?

He. Our Heavenly Father. I testify that He is there, listening, and creating winds so that we may be swept in the direction to happiness and eternal life, & inspiring doctors and priesthood holders to continue the miracles of healing.

If we simply have faith, it inevitably leads to action, which brings to pass the miracle of witnessing the Lord´s hand in the very details of our lives and in the lives of others.

La fe...mueve montañas. -Mateo 17:20

Only when we work to move that mountain. The mountain is never going to move if we don´t exercise our faith and put our hands on that mountain to more even if it´s rock by rock.

GENERAL CONFERENCE was amazing!! This week´s lesson for Hermana Fernandez was on faith if you haven´t guessed. Satan has been pretty persistent on tripping our investigadors over little rocks that may seem insignificant. We have been so blessed to be working here in Azua there are so many families the Lord is preparing here, but just as the Lord´s work is hastening, Satan´s power is growing.

BUT...have no fear because the Lord is on our side. Someone just shared this with me and I´d like to share it with y´all..You have the Savior on your side. How can you fail?

Oscar and Valencia and Carlitos are what we like to call golden investigadores but the only thing that has kept this wonderful family from making covenants with the Lord is their church attendance. I have learned up to this point in life that church isn´t an option, but I must remember that I didn´t always know that. We must help each other build those testimonies by sharing ours.

I know that this is Christ´s Chruch and that He leads it through his servants the prophets. I know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God and that the twelve Apostles are too called of God. I am so grateful to have the priviledge to know these truths, they have shaped me into the person I am today and I know that as I am faithful I can reach the highest kingdom where God is and reach my highest potential. and you know what....YOU CAN TOO!!!

I love you all and pray that you can come closer to our Heavenly Father.

WITH LOTS OF LOVE,

Hermana Fernandez

FULL force...

That has been the theme of my last couple weeks. 

The Lord is hastening His Work with FULL force! So this week was crazy powerful, hectic and just full of witnessing how the Lord has His hand in all the tiny details of our lives. Not going to lie it was a challenging week, but I learned a lot and experienced a lot about trusting in the Lord´s Will and Timetable. It takes great faith and patience!!

We have a lot people that the Lord has prepared for us this last week, but it took absolute diligence and faith. As we embark in this journey of life, we must continue faithfully and trusting fully on our Lord Jesus Christ, because we are nothing without Him. He has given us everything and we are heirs to His kingdom, we just humble ourselves and COME UNTO HIM.

COME...that´s an action, not just a belief. It isn´t enough just to believe, we must do and show our Heavenly Father and we are ready and will do His Will.

¨Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.

¨And again, believe that ye must repent of your sins and forsake them, and humble yourselves before God; and ask in sincerity of heart that he would forgive you; and now, if you believe all these things see that ye do them.¨ Mosiah 4:9-10

We invited many to do just that this week and it was the absolute reminder and kind of preparation I personally needed for this coming general conference. Have we Come Unto Christ and applied the last general conference talks in the last 6 months of our lives? Think about it.

I am so grateful for the priviledge we have and know of the love Heavenly Father has for us that he has restored his Gospel on earth again exactly how He established it through Jesus Christ on earth. We get to hear from our beloved prophet and apostles this coming week....LET´S PREPARE to COME UNTO CHRIST.

Love,

Hermana Fernandez

EPIC HALF POINT...

Family & Friends

This week was jammed packed with greatness!

Flashback:

-          On Tuesday, we went to the Temple!! It was so great =) I got to reflect a lot on my life up to this point & all I´ve gone through during the last 6 months since It´s been 6 months since I´ve gotten to be in the Lord´s temple.

The LORD loves us...just look around you & up...what else could you ask for? He made it ALL...FOR YOU!

¨But Alma said unto him: Thou hast had signs enough; will ye tempt your God? Will ye say, Show unto me a sign, when ye have the testimony of all these thy brethren, and also all the holy prophets? The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator.¨ - Alma 30:44

He made all of it for us.. How does that make you feel? How does it make you feel to know that you are literally a child of an Almighty Being, the King of Kings, the Eternal Father, your Heavenly Father?...Think about it for a sec.

-          On Wednesday, I HIT 9 MONTHS...and I was like WHAT?!?!?! Because time doesn´t exist here in the mission, so when we stop and think about it...it feels as if days do not exist, only months or every six week (a transfer). So to realize I´m halfway kinda was crazy...but I did get to reflect on how much I´ve grown and who I´ve become in the past 9 months of my life! I´m so grateful to be here! So much has happen in such little time...

-          On Thursday – Sunday, we are working with tons of families which is such a huge blessing here! And it´s amazing to see how the Lord is preparing amazing families here in Azua. Everyone is so ready to come unto the Lord, we just have to open our mouths and declare what we know to be TRUE. SHARE what makes us unbelievably happy in this life and what gives us greater hope for the future.

General Conference is coming up sooooo so soon! I can´t believe it...I´m so excited! And to prepare I´ve been focusing on reading all of the General Conference talks from last October...Key to Spiritual Protection = SCRIPTURES...I´d like to share a talk I read this week from President Boyd K. Packer. HE´S AMAZING.

I want to highlight some parts of this talk...

¨The scriptures hold the keys to spiritual protection. They contain the doctrine and laws and ordinances that will bring each child of God to a testimony of Jesus Christ as the Savior and Redeemer.¨

That is fact. The scriptures WILL bring you a testimony of Jesus Christ and show you the path way back to our Heavenly Father.

¨Years ago, Elder S. Dilworth Young of the Seventy taught me a lesson about reading the scriptures. A stake was struggling with tensions and difficulties among the members, and counsel needed to be given.

I asked President Young, “What should I say?”

He answered simply, “Tell them to read the scriptures.”

I asked, “Which scriptures?”

He said, “It really doesn’t matter. Tell them to open up the Book of Mormon, for instance, and begin to read. Soon the feeling of peace and inspiration will come, and a solution will present itself.”

Make scripture reading a part of your regular routine, and the blessings will follow. There is in the scriptures a voice of warning, but there is also great nourishment.

If the language of the scriptures at first seems strange to you, keep reading. Soon you will come to recognize the beauty and power found on those pages.¨

This kinda explains it in itself…READ the BOOK of MORMON even if you don´t understand it…GREAT PROMISES await you.

¨We live in perilous times; nevertheless, we can find hope and peace for ourselves and for our families. Those living in sorrow, despairing at the possibility of children being rescued from where the world has taken them, must never give up. “Be not afraid, only believe.” Righteousness is more powerful than wickedness.¨

I know that Prophets and Apostles are called of God, just like I know that Christ and I live. I know that we are privileged to be part of His Church in these last days. LET US TAKE THE GOSPEL TO THOSE THAT HAVEN´T FOUND IT YET! I know that Heavenly Father loves you and me more than we can possibly imagine. Hold on to the IRON ROD and help others come unto it…(if you don´t know what the IRON ROD is…READ THE BOOK OF MORMON=))

Thank you so much for everything! LOVE. SUPPORT. And STRENGTH.

Love

Hermana Fernandez