I am a Child of God

The Beautiful Baptisms of Fiorela and Lucia

Hola family and friends!!

Killin it With Hermana Billin

It was truly a great week! I got to spend 5 days being the companion of Hermana Billin (one of the sisters who I shared the pension with in Parque Field!!!). It was a great time reflecting on some old memories and creating many new ones! She now has 14 months in the mission which blows my mind. She helped me a ton in teaching Fiorela and Lucia who were both baptized on Friday and confirmed on Sunday!!!!!

Pure Joy!

I CANNOT EXPLAIN THE JOY THAT I FELT AS I WATCHED THEM TAKE THIS IMPORTANT STEP IN THEIR LIVES. Hermana Moore was with me on Friday so luckily she was able to be a part of the baptisms! For the program we, along with the young women including the two that were baptized, sang "Daughter of a King." We left many teary-eyed...but what really got me the most was when scanning the room during the song, I saw Marilin, (mom of Fiorela) and she was sobbing. I tried to keep my compusure throughout the rest of the song. I was really touched at seeing a loving mom who had fallen away from the gospel for a time, see her daughter in white, entering into the baptismal covenant,  and singing about her divine nature. The Spirit filled the room. 

This week I have had many experiences that have taught me the importance of parents teaching their children the truths of this world, and the importance of teaching them who they truly are. It was evident in the song that we sang during the baptism. It was evident as we visited a less active member the other day and her 5 year old son.  We asked him if he knew who God was, if he knew that he was a child of God. He told us that he did not. Though we had been testifying to this young mother and stating lots of reasonable things, this simple question and simple reply by her son shook her up. We then sang  "I am a Child of God" and afterward this 5 year old boy sat in silence in a suprisingly calm manner. In a general conference, I  remember reading that if we do not teach our kids the truth of this gospel, the world will teach them Satan's lies. I am grateful to know that I am a child of God, and that he loves me. He has given me a family who love me and He seeks more than anything that each and every one of his children can make it back to live with Him. 

Also a great suprise...we are working with Aby and Liliana and Aby is planning to be baptized this Saturday!! Miracles! And prayers that are answered! 

LOVE YOU ALL!  

Hermana Mathis

We are Daughters of Our Heavenly Father Who Loves Us

The Girls with their Families

We Will Glory in the Lord

Sharing the Love in Arroyito

Valentine's Day Wedding in Arroyito

Wowzers!  This week was jam packed with experiences and I will try my best to cover it in this short period of time-

On Tuesday we had a district meeting and we set the goal to have 6 baptisms within the 4 of us in this transfer. We prayed together and felt like this is possible and that God can help us achieve this goal. In the entire year of 2016, there were only 2 convert baptisms in Arroyito, but we are truly witnessing a great change in the ward and in our investigators! 

This week if all goes well we will have two baptisms! With many changes setting the day and the time and invitation craziness, we are back on good terms and will have the baptisms this Friday!! The two baptisms are 2 young women. One is the daughter of Viky and Roberto- her name is Lucia (13 years old)!! We started teaching her a bit over a week ago and she has been coming to church with her parents. Well she has just loved young women's and has participated in many activities and is excited to take this important step in her life! And in this whole process, Viky has been supporting her so much and coming to church with her even when Roberto had to work! And Viky and Roberto have talked about marriage and are planning to get married in April and Viky will get baptized after! The change that I have seen in their family over my time here in Arroyito brings me to tears! I love them so much! 

The second young woman is Fiorela (14 years old). She is the daughter of a less active member (who is not in our ward records).  It was a miracle on how I met them. It happened in the beginning of January and I was walking a busy street with hna de wet, a street where normally people reject our cards or they take our them and race walk on their way without a second glance. As I was in the middle of a conversation with hna de wet, I felt prompted to give this family a card, but at this point we had already passed them, luckily only a few seconds. So I gave them a card and told them that we are missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and begin the routine of explaining the card and how they can enter in the website.. well Hna Marilyn (Fiorela's mom) says yes, I know who you are. She told us about how she joined the church when she was also a young woman. She lived in the US for about 10 years, but it had been a while since she had attended church. She gave us her address and told us that she would like her daughter to get to know young women but that they would be super busy moving in the next few weeks and to visit in about three weeks. So we passed by weeks later and had a hard time contacting them. We caught them one day and Fiorela agreed to come to church with us. Since then, she has come to church 3 times and this week as we have been teaching her, Marilyn has shared her story and helped us in teaching. She said that she used to go out with the sister missionaries back in the states. She knows that the church is true and she is realizing even more so now that she wants her daughter to have this foundation in her life!!! 

So we will have the baptisms this Friday and we still have to teach the two of them a fair amount before their baptisms and interviews and such so it will be another packed week, and we found out Saturday that we will have divisions this week as well, for 5 days, starting today until Friday afternoon! Hna Moore will be leaving to another area and Hermana Billin will be joining me here! The timing of everything has got me a bit scared and President is trying this new division thing out on us but we are praying everything will work out as planned!!! 

We are seeing countless miracles every day. Like when an old investigator and young woman, randomly texts us Sunday morning asking if we can walk with her to church. Or when we were finally about to teach and set a baptismal date with an investigator who is incredible but always working, or when a sister in the church showed me her instagram and her adorable pics (gotta love IG it's been too long!!), or when we have an excuse to visit Sheila now because she needs help with english, and of course we share the gospel as well. It was a good week. And we we had another great Sunday yesterday with 5 investigators in church! 

God is so good!! I echo the words of Ammon and I know that God is the man behind all these miracles that we are seeing. 16 Therefore, let us glory, yea, we will glory in the Lord; yea, we will rejoice, for our joy is full; yea, we will praise our God forever. Behold, who can glory too much in the Lord? Yea, who can say too much of his great power, and of his mercy, and of his long-suffering towards the children of men? Behold, I say unto you, I cannot say the smallest part which I feel.

The Young Women of Arroyito

Alma 26:16

Our New District

Have a wonderful week! 

Hermana Mathis

Happy Valentine's Day: The Best Week Ever!

This first week of the transfer has easily been one of my favorites of the mission! I literally am amazed at all that God was able to bless us with, and accomplish through us. God is so good!

With my new companion Hermana Moore

Tacos with Ruben and Soledad

Ruben and Soledad followed through with their promise to both give us tacos and come to church...and we also had the most spiritual experience with them. After we ate tacos, we began to talk about the importance of this life and the blessings that we can obtain if we live according to God's will. We asked them what they would ask God if they were in His presence in that very moment. Soledad said she would ask Him if they could be an eternal family. They began to tell us what they had told to many sets of missionaries about their plans to get married at the end of the year, wanting all their family to be able to be there, getting married in the south of Argentina, etc.  Everything they said was very valid. When I responded I said that if this was my church, my commadments, my answer, I would likely say GREAT! They are going to get married in the end of the year, they have plans, ok. But I told them how as a representative of Jesus Christ, I must tell them what I think Jesus would say in that moment, how they must repent now and how there is not a better time than today to make the necessary changes in our life. We kneeled down all together in prayer and were overcome by a feeling of peace as Soledad offered the prayer. After a few minutes of silence following the prayer, they came to the conclusion that they would get married March 11th, and Soledad accepted a baptismal date for March 18th. MIRACLES! You bet we were dancing in the street after this experience. 

ALSO, we had a great lesson with Liliana and Aby this week about repentance and the need to accept the help the Savior is always so willing to give us. Hermana Liliana said she would do us a favor by not coming to church- we quickly told her that this is never the case, and with feelings like this, she can be assured that they do not come from God. We testified to her of her divine nature and of the enduring love that God has for her, and this Sunday both Aby and Liliana came to church!!

Victoria, Roberto, and Lucia came to church as well! And Lucia is just loving young women's. Sheila is reading the Book of Mormon and is in Alma by now.  We are facing some challenges in the road as her mom is not allowing her to come to any church related activities.  As we talked to Sheila outside of her house, she told us that she knew the church was true, that what she had felt reading the Book of Mormon and attending church is something she had never felt before. Praying for a miracle here! Fiorela also came to church yesterday and she also is loving young women's and excited to receive her own Book of Mormon! We also have a new investigator we met this week named Claudia who has a baptismal date March 25th! All together in the church we had 5 investigators and 4 less active members!! It was truly incredible!! 

We are working hard! I love being a missionary and Hermana Moore is awesome.  She has got a killer voice that lifts our church meetings, and we were able to sing in sweet little Santiago's baptism Saturday and brought his family and him to tears. Such a sweet experience. 

I know that God knows what He is doing with us. I testify of the truthfulness of this scripture.  

Alma 26:27 Now when our hearts were depressed, and we wereabout to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success.

I know that any success that we have is a blessing that God gives us. I am happy to be here serving in Arroyito- there are so many people prepared to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ. The heat has not been terrible and overall life is good.

LOVE YOU ALL. HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

Fun with the children of the Ward

Never Underestimate the Power of Being a Friend

HOLAA!

Hna De Wet is off to Parque Urquiza

Transfers came and I am staying here in Arroyito and my new companion is Sister Moore from Utah! I am way excited to stay here in this area and work with Hna Moore. I can already tell it is going to be a great transfer! 

Grand Old Reunion (We think Haylie's new companion is the third from the left)

Yesterday was great! As I was waiting for my new companion and sent off Hermana De Wet to Parque Urquiza in the bus station, I got to see all the sister missionies who I just love, and I got to say goodbye to the Hermana Zepeda who returned home this week! For those who do not remember she is the super amazing, fun sister that I shared a pension with in Parque Field when I started the mission. I remember celebrating her 1 year mark- crazy how time flies). Hna Billin was there it was just a grand old reunion!!

With Hna Zepeda and Hna Billin who shared our apartment in Parque Field

Yesterday we witnessed a miracle! So we have been visiting a couple named Ruben and Soledad for some time now, but they have been rather difficult to get a hold of. Ruben is a returned missionary, inactive, and is living with Soledad, his girlfriend who is not a member, and his 1 year old son Francesco. The few times that we are able to teach them are when we miraculously run into them on the street and set a specific time to to come over. Well a few days ago we did just that and set the lesson up for yesterday. So we went yesterday and he answered his phone, miracle, because he lives in a gated passage way and his doorbell doesn't work. But he received us and we got to know them better, talking about his mission, their families, their jobs, and the blessings that God has given them. We were able to gain their trust and understand their reasons behind having fears, etc. to return to church and we set up a lunch appointment for saturday and we are going to eat tacos (super stoked- it has been too long) AND he offered to have us walk to his house Sunday and he would drive and accompany us to church. WAHOO!!

Yesterday with Ruben and Soledad I asked Ruben what his favorite scripture was. John 15:13, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend." I LOVE THIS SCRIPTURE. I know that this love that Christ has for us is so real. We are his friends, imperfect humans who fall and fail over and over again. But I have marveled at the power of love and friendship these past few days. I think of all of my dear friends and family who have shaped and continue to shape my life, who strengthen and edify me. I read in D&C 121:9 in Joseph Smith's moment of severe affliction and suffering, how the Lord promised him that his suffering would be a small moment, and that his friends would stand by him. In Alma 17:2 I read how Alma rejoiced exceedingly to see his friends, his brethren in the Lord. I read in Mosiah 18:8 how we must be willing to bear one anothers burdens and to lift our friends up when they are feeling down, I learn from Alma and Almulek who strengthened each other and together were defenders of the truth, who were able to do more together than alone. Never underestimate the power of being a friend. You are all answers to my prayers and I thank you for being my friend! Have an amazing week!!

Hermana Mathis  

Our great ward members in Arroyito

 

Divisions, investigators and Sabbath Blessings

This week we saw many miracles!!

We had a great worldwide missionary broadcast that helped me so much to recognize again my true purpose as a missionary and recommit to working in a way that I am doing God's will, not Hermana Mathis's will. Right after the broadcast we went to La Florida and had divisions with the Hermanas there. I was able to work with Hermana Ruiz who is just a love and a great teacher, and a great cook!! And Hermana Ritchie made apple crisp so we were all happy campers. We were given a bit of a scare though when the apartment alarm went off around 2:00 am. After scouting out the scene we were reassured to find no burglar. 

Hermanas DeWet, Ritchie and Ruiz 

This week we were teaching one of our investigators, Hugo, and his sister. Well they help their mother every day who is 93 years old. Hugo and his sis are super different in their beliefs, doubts and questions so we had like 5 lessons going on at one time. But as the mother was in a state of pain, they asked us if we could pray for her (even though she cannot really hear either). Before the prayer, she was saying that she was hurting, and that she just wanted God to take her. Well, Hna DeWet prayed and silence captured the room- upon finishing Hugo and his sister had tears in their eyes. The feeling in the room completely changed. They told us that she slept that whole night without problems. Hugo said that if that happened, he would come to church, and he followed through and came to church! He still is in the middle of his questions, and thinks that every church just has their ideas. We are looking forward to continuing to teaching him. He wants to find a wife in the church as well after many times telling him I was too young for him, ha ha!

So I was sick with stomach issues and pains this week, and we went to the doctor. Upon me describing my symptoms, she told me that it was a probability I was pregnant. HA, we laughed and affirmed that was not the case. But all the children in the hospital had a fun time messing around with us, running circles around us, making spider man signs at us. We were dying, the hour and a half or so spent inside felt like an eternity. But on the brightest side, we made a pit stop at the monument being in that neck of the woods and snatched some fun pics. 

But listen up, Sunday is when the miracles all descended from heaven:  

So amazing to have Viky and Roberto with us at church!

First of all, Viky and Roberto came to church with their daughter Lucia and their son Jano!!! They even made it to church before us, because we walked to a less active member's house before to bring her daughter Fiorela, (14 years old) who is not a member, to church with us. She really liked it and she wants to keep coming (But she is about to move to a different ward, same stake)  She was all ready to go in a skirt and all!! Then I already told you that Hugo came! And another less active member we have been visiting came. We were just amazed at the tender mercies of the Lord. 

This week I read King Benjamin's speech and was just so amazed at his knowledge, wisdom and the power that he brought when he spoke, a power that made all those who were listening repent, and be filled with pure joy that lead them to a true conversion in which they had no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually. I found myself marking just about every verse because the truthfulness of his words is incredible. He speaks of Christ and his atonement, the importance of being humble, of keeping the commandments, and the blessings that will always come as a result. Good stuff. Read it!!

Well love you all and next week i will know transfer news ahhhhh. Que tengan una semana muy buena!! 

Hermana Mathis

More hot chocolate anyone?

This week was full of terrible heat, faulty fans, and another, yes ANOTHER hot chocolate in the hottest house known to man. haha. In the week, I got asked 3 times for my hand in marriage, it's too bad that their average age is 60.

We were able to work with a few young women in our ward this week that helped us in the work. It just so happened to be the hottest day of the week, and they were able to catch a little taste of what missionary work is like, walking in the heat, doors shut on us, the glorious moment when someone offers you juice or water. One is set on serving a mission, and shared a sweet testimony on why she wants to serve a mission to a less active member, because she has seen the examples of the missionaries that have been in the ward and she wants to give back to the Lord for the blessings she has been given. She joined the church a year and a half ago and is the only member in her family, power to her! 

Victoria and Roberto are doing well, reading the Book of Mormon and promised to come to church this Sunday as a family. Sheila is doing well, also reading the BOM and has to get permission from her parents to be baptized so we are praying hard for her. We are searching every day for new investigators that God is preparing to hear the restored message of the gospel. 

Recently,  I have studied a lot about prayer. In Jacob 3:1 I read "Look unto God with Firmness of mind and pray unto him with exceeding faith, and he will console you in your afflictions and he will plead your cause." We must come unto Him with a firmness in mind and know what we need from Him. Enos is a great example of praying with faith and firmness. He spoke of his wrestle with God, how his soul hungered, how he cried unto God in mighty prayer all the day long, struggling in the spirit, and through this process he is able to reach the point where his faith began to be unshaken in the Lord. God will console us. He will plead our cause if we are faithful to him. He will help us starting from where we are now, perhaps with faith the size of a mustard seed, but the potential that the seed has to grow is incredible and known to the Lord. And in the end, we, like Enos, can be comforted that in the Savior, our redeemer, we will find our rest. 

Love yall have a great week! 

Hermana Mathis

Mini Miracles

The Sisters on the Loose with a Selfie Stick at Zone Conference 

This week was full of many mini miracles, and "coincidences" in the street that were divinely inspired by God. I could spend quite the time writing out every single experience, but just know that God is always so mindful of us, and that He will lead us to those who are in need of His help and His love. 

We had a great Zone Conference in which we learned the importance of inviting everyone to come unto Christ and to not be afraid to open our mouths and testify of the truth. We are never, nor will we ever be, abandoned. We can start over new. We can change and commit to be true disciples of Christ, and invite others to do the same.

We had a great lesson with Victoria and Roberto this week. They have not really been progressing much over these past weeks. They feel the Spirit when we teach but after we leave they fall back into their routine. Well we decided that we would read the Book of Mormon with them. Starting with the intro, then 1 Nephi chapters 1 and 2. The Spirit testified of the truthfulness of what we read. They were able to understand the scriptures, take the examples of those in the scriptures and apply them into their own lives. We then asked them if they would come to church on Sunday. Viky, usually the quiet one who waits for the response of Roberto, says yes, we are going to go, as a family. Wow the Spirit was so strong. 

We had a fun little birthday get together with Sheila who turned 16. Hna De Wet and I impressed all the young women with our justin bieber singing skills, or rather lack of. Sadly, Sheila is on vacation and has been for about a week which tends to complicate teaching and baptism and things, but it's all good. 

Yesterday, Sunday, we were struck with crazy rain. Some streets were flooded and this resulted in no investigators and only 24 members showing up to church. There is a lot of work to do!! We are trying to increase the love that is present in our ward. Love for God and for our brothers and sisters are the greatest commandments, and the greatest recipe for happiness and success in our lives. Really, if we are filled with love, the pure love of Christ, we will see everyone with the eyes that God sees them. In a talk yesterday, a member got real direct with the ward, saying that the reason many people are becoming less active is due to the lack of love in the ward. People are worried about their reputations or just being right which leads to quarrels and causes the love to diminish. The best way to show our love is serving others, and showing them that we have time for them specifically. 

Through my studies this week, I have marveled at how God truly places things, people and even trials in our lives for a reason, and everything in His own perfect time. They are placed by a wise and all knowing Father in Heaven and prepare us to face what comes next. Many times, He allows storms and winds, when He surely has the power to let them pass and  He guides us calmly and safely to our destination, eventually,  (Ether 2) As I was reading a talk recomended by my sister, "Bread or Stones, understanding the God we pray to," I better understood the importance of the trials we face and following the counsel of our wise and loving  Father in Heaven. He listens to our prayers and knows what we need even before we ask. Do not think that after 1 hour, 1 day, 1 month, 1 year, 10 years, that he has abandoned you. His time is perfect and His answer may come to us in a delayed time (according to us), but a time in which we are prepared to receive His answer and can understand it better. There is never a prayer that goes unanswered or forgotten. 

Love you!!! Pray for you!!! God loves you and He is extremely mindful of you. Find time to show Him your love, serve others! Learn more about His love and His life. 

LOVE,

Hermana Mathis