So I went on an exchange with English sisters. So weird teaching in English! We didn't have a car so we had to walk all day. Got some new blisters on my feet, but it's worth it. People are rude sometimes haha a guy was walking towards us and the Sister I was with tried to talk to him but he ignored her so I stopped walking looked him in the face and said "Hi how are you?" and he kept walking! I wanted to trip him. :p

So what are you all doing to invite one person to hear the gospel between now and Christmas? Our ward is fasting this Sunday for missionary opportunities and then the missionaries are on assignment to go around to all the active members and then inactive members to pray with them about who they can invite. It's gonna be awesome! I know we will see miracles as we help the Lord hasten His work!

We have 4 investigators that are progressing very well. Every one of them are ready for baptism, we just have to help them see that. They are really awesome. I already love the people here and the area. Still getting to know everything but Heavenly Father is helping me learn it quickly.

We drew the Plan of Salvation on the sidewalk using chalk and wrote Mormon.org under it. That was awesome. Hopefully someone will see it :) 

We picked up an investigator that Hermana Schwegler had taught when she was being trained here. She had a baptismal date and she still wants to learn. Seems promising! She's a sweetheart and it's a family of 5. Her and her husband, her mother and 2 sons. Hopefully we can start teaching the whole family this week!

So we decided to walk for awhile because we're getting close to going over on our miles... while we were walking a hobo ran out of the bushes, sat on the sidewalk to get dirt out of his shoe. Since we are to talk to everyone, we said hello to him and asked what he was up to. He said, I'm homeless, not much. I'm homeless because I hate the government. hahaha He had no shirt on and his clavicle was poking up out of his shoulder, it was pretty gross. But he was wearing pumas... fancy shoes for a hobo. So we walked and talked with him about the church and family history. He said his name was Frank Bottles lol weirdo. We were wondering what people were thinking about 2 girls in skirts were doing walking with a shirtless hobo man. Goooood times.

Another funny story. We went to see a family we haven't taught yet. We introduced ourselves to the mom and then the son came to the door. He had to have been like 12-14 years old. He shook Hermana Schwegler's hand and then mine and as he had my name he was like what was your name? Hermana Schwegler said her name and he said "No... her name.." and looked at me. Creepy 12 year old hahahaha We laughed about that for a good hour.

We did a huge service project painting house in the ghetto. That was fun. We got free donuts, chickfila, and tshirts!

My trainer had her exit interview with President Kendrick. :( We are going to work our faces off this week!! We're going to try to set 4 baptismal dates this week. We're going to pray like it all depends on God and then work like it all depends on us!

R is baptized!

I don't have a lot of time to email today but the most important thing is R is officially a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! YESSSSS!! :D I am so so so happy I was able to attend his baptism. It was beautiful. I started crying when I saw the Baptismal program, then again when I saw him dressed in white, then again when Bishop baptized him. hahaha Man! No greater feeling than watching someone you've come to love, dressed in white, entering into the waters of baptism. Taking that first step on the path that leads back to Christ. Used to be Atheist, studied with Jehovah's Witnesses for 2 years, chased us down for a Book of Mormon, took 5 months to get him here. Every tear, every scripture, every prayer, every fast was so worth it. He was mine and my trainer's miracle, and we got to witness his baptism together! Funny how God works sometimes... :)

I was transferred to Oceanside/Carlsbad California. It's beautiful here. Driving over one hill, once you get to the top you just see the vast ocean ahead of you. Paradise. So beautiful. I'm with my trainer again! This never happens in mission life! haha We are having so much fun and working hard! So goes home at the end of the transfer but she is the most consecrated missionary I know. I wanna be like her when i grow up! :D It's a blast! 

Emergency Transfer

This week has been pretty rough. Ive been struggling with feelings of inadequacy and perfection. Ive always been some-what of a perfectionist, I never feel like Im doing enough or reaching my potential. It's really hard in the mission field as we try not to measure our success to that of other missionaries. Struggling with these feelings we ended up having a Zone Conference about how President Kendrick is worries because performance level in the entire mission has gone downhill. So then I just felt even worse haha But it's okay, just keep swimming!

 

We had a lesson with R at a member's home and watched Finding Faith in Christ. Something beautiful that I just realized watching it that night was that many times, BEFORE Christ would heal someone, He would ask them if they believed. Faith is the first principle of the gospel for a reason. Without faith we don't have the power to do anything. But with faith we have power to do anything by the will of the Lord. One of my favorite quotes from conference, :Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith"

 

The one day we planned a "car fast" to save on our miles, it rained. It never rains in California! So we went, step by step, walking for 3 hours in the cold rain doin our missionary thing. I didnt think it would stay rainy and cold so I wasn't dressed appropriately. Freezing! But it was worth it, we met lots of cool people to share the gospel with. :)

 

We went with a recent convert to help a less-active family move some furniture. That was fun! We thought we were taking this big entertainment center out of this little trailer until hermano got a hammer and just started whacking at it and tearing it apart piece by piece. Hahahaha On the drive home we saw a man on the side of the road, dead in a pile of blood... Dont know what happened but if we had been just 5 minutes earlier, it would have been us to find him there. :/

 

So we've been doing this thing called a Harvest Blessing where you offer contacts or door approaches a blessing on their home. We got a return appointment, went back and she actually let us in! We taught her the Restoration but Satan intervened and right when we got to Joseph Smith, her husband came home and she kicked us out! :( But then we started knocking the street and someone let us in their home to leave a blessing. She said it's not mormons knocking on my door, it's Jesus Christ. :D So we went in, kneeled with their family and blessed their home. Since Sister dont have the Priesthood, we have to say "By virtue of our calling as missionaries and representative of Jesus Christ..." How powerful is that?! I don't know what I'm going to do when I won't have the authority to just walk in a stranger's home as an authorized representative of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's such a privilege and blessing to be a missionary!

 

We had a lesson with the R family that I've been working with a lot because of how similar our family situations are. We're trying to help hermano advance in the priesthood. He told us it's because he doesn't have enough money to pay his tithing and he owes like $12000 or something. I testified to him about the miracles my family and I have seen and promised him if he would pay his tithing FIRST, he would have enough money for everything he needed. He just looked me in the eyes and said okay, help me. How much do I pay? So powerful.

 

The other Hermanas had a baptism on Friday night. R came but he was like "ive never done this before, Im missing Mexico playing soccer for a baptism. I made the right choice." hahaha It was a beautiful baptism!

R had his baptismal interview and passed! He's soooo ready! I'm stoked!

 

I found out on Sunday that I'm being emergency transferred. Broke my heart. I cried and cried. But I sucked it up long enough to keep working. I don't know how but those are the times when I know there are guardian angels all around to lift us up. I had to say goodbye to R but he said "Don't worry Hermana. We're under the same God and in the same church. you're in my prayers that all will go well in your mission and go with happiness in God, bringing people to our holy Gospel and God will protect and bless you." Greatest soon-to-be-convert ever!

Saying goodbye to the R family broke my heart too. Hermano shook my hand. looked me in the eyes and said "Thank you. You have helped us so much. If you come visit and we're not here, search for us. You're a part of this family now." His 8 year old son hugged me like 5 times and made me pinky promise to find them. I love them so much. It feels good to know that I have helped so many people. I did what I was sent to Escondido to do. i helped who god sent me here to help. And I know I will do the same in my new area.

 

Yesterday a guy contacted us. We were walking and he called us over asking what we were doing. He asked us to read from the Bible with him. Im still not a pro at the Bible so I was flipping through with no idea what to share. I wanted to use the Book of Mormon somehow but I didn't know how. I've been tabbing my scriptures but it didn't seem to be helping in a time of need in which I didn't know what I needed exactly. I flipped and a page opened to something I had marked and tabbed previously. It was a scripture about how with two or three witnesses my word will be established. Still right now I couldn't tell you the reference. But because I had put in my effort beforehand to study, the Spirit guided my hands to find that scripture so I could introdcued this man to the Book of Mormon. He accepted it and is excited to learn more. YES!!!

 

The mission has it's ups and downs but it's all about learning and growing. I'm so blessed to be here. Every day is so precious.

The church is true!

 

-Hermana Gutknecht

(This is from last week, my modem died so I couldn't update the blog, sorry guys!)

Next week we are going to the temple again! And we will be emailing on Tuesday, monday is a holiday or something. I dont know I just do what I'm told :p

R is so great! We reviewed the baptismal interview questions and he is so so so READY! He just needs to quit drinking coffee!

We had a fun lesson with C using dart guns and water bottles. Yes, we are fun missionaries! :D We went on exchanges and I was able to help a newer missionary with some of her struggles. It's crazy I'm not the new missionary anymore! Where is the time going?!

R asked us a long time ago to come to appointments with us but we haven't because he's not a member. But Thursday we had a lesson after English Class so we had a recent convert stay with us and R stayed too. Our investigator has a lot of doubts about the book of mormon and the church and R bore testimony to him that he used to be Atheist but has come to know for himself that this church is true. He even tried a different church just to make sure. He told him the only way he can know is to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and he'll know it's true and this is the only true church. It was so powerful! He's going to help so many people with his testimony!

I went to my first quinceanos! So much fun! Mexicans know how to party... ;p It was killing me not being able to dance haha I was dancing in my chair and the members were cracking up!

How much did you just LOVE conference?! So great! So misionary minded! The time is now! Step it up members! :D

R came to all 4 sessions of conference and loved it all. After the one about attending all Sacrament meetings he leaned over to me and said "After my baptism, I cant miss?" hahaha I listened to 3 talks in Spanish until my head hurt. :p

We had a lesson with E... sad. We found out she doesn't have a testimony of ANYTHING. A week before her baptism. Gah. :( So we dropped the date and are working diligently with her to help her overcome her doubts. 

This reminded me of something my mission President said. He was helping us learn how to do a new numbering system for baptisms and then reemphasized that we're not about numbers. The numbers represent real people, our brothers and sisters we are helping come unto Christ. He said if we were a church about increasing numbers then we would be like other churches. Go into any other church and ask the pastor to join, he would probably gather your information and get you registered in some way. If someone walked into our church and asked the Bishop to become a member he would say YOU CAN'T. You can not become a member of this church until you have a personal witness and testimony that this is the true restored church of God, that the Book of Mormon is true and that the Priesthood authority is again restored to the earth through a living prophet. After learning from the missionaries, attending sacrament meetings, THEN you can be baptized and become a member. What a beautiful truth. We don't want to increase the numbers in our church, we want to increase how many of our brothers and sisters gain a testimony of the restored truths and enter into the waters of baptism, beginning their journey home to our Heavenly Father in the Celestial Kingdom. So, we will not baptize E until she had this deep and abiding testimony. She is reading the Book of Mormon and I trust in the promise that if anyone reads this book and prays sincerely, they WILL receive an answer.

I know this is the only true church on the face of the earth. I know it and I will not deny it. I cannot deny it.

Hermana Gutknecht