Miracles in Escondido!

Wow! We are being so blessed! We dropped like 15 investigators because they just weren't progressing. So we had ZERO. Needless to say we've been working our faces off with Finding and PRAYING HARDDDD! And God sends the miracles! :D First though, C hasn't developed enough faith to get Sundays off from work in order to come to church. So her bap date is pushed to the 25th of May. We'll keep working with her and praying for her.
I can now run the full 30 mins a day. It's true i can do all things through Christ who strengthens me hahahaha I had an amazing spiritual experience with my trainer the other day. We're practicing the Restoration lesson lately so I can take the lead in teaching it. In our practice I was doing the best I could with the Spanish and then got to the first vision and got out of character and just started saying it super fast cuz I knew it. My trainer was like slow down practice it for real. I backtracked and started over and oh my gosh the spirit came so strong. As I was saying the first vision in Spanish my trainer and I were both holding back tears from the overwhekming spirit that was there. The church is so TRUE! In any language!
We did a finding trick of "chalking" on a busy sidewalk. It was so fun! We wrote mormon.org and scriptures and questions of the soul. On the way we contacted everyone we met, gave out a BOM in English, and everything! It was great! Then we went tracting and a Mexican woman actually let us in and we taught her a short lesson and gave her a BOM in Spanish. 2 Boms in one day! WOOO! We're working with an inactive girl I think I can help a lot. She's going through a lot and I know my experiences will help her. I'm excited to talk to her again tonight. We do so much inactive work here.
Cholos, gangsters, they're insane! We have two inactive boys 12 and 14 all about the thug life. So we shared part of the Stripling Warrior story with them and asked them to relate it to their lives. The 14 yr old said you know I'm fighting a battle everyday with my friends in gangs but I never doubt my mom or God. IT'S SO SAD. We actually have a man in our ward who's story is in the movie Freedom Writers. He's the one that saw his friend get shot in the gas station. Glad he found the gospel!
I ate a Mexican popsicle with chile in it. Weird. lol We taught M and J!!!!!!! Our MIRACLE is becoming an even bigger MIRACLE! M investigated the church awhile back but J never did. We went to visit them again and C, the recent convert, came with us. We briefed her on who they were and what we'd be teaching and went in and SHE KNOWS J! J told us he was always busy and never home but every time we visit he just happens to be there. The last time we visited they were home but we couldn't teach him cuz we needed another woman. It was hard to turn around but we knew God would bless us for our obedience and HE DID. So because C was there I think was the only reason J stayed, he looked like he was on his way out. So we taught them and his little sisters the Restoration. M didn't seem too interested but J did. When we shared the JS story we asked him what he thought about is and he said "I really don't know what to say" The spirit was strong. Praying for more miracles with this beautiful family!
We went to visit A who has been a member her whole life but her paperwork got lost in Mexico so she has to be re-baptized. She's been struggling a lot with money and everything. She's been so upset and worried and depressed lately we decided to share Pres Uchtdorf's talk with her Forget Me Not. It was a great lesson. Most of it was in Ingles because the talk was in the Ensign not the Liahona. I bore testimony to her of my experience coming out of depression and learning to be happy and she cried and grabbed me and Hma Schwegler into her arms and we all just sat on the floor hugging and crying. She thanked us a million times for sharing that with her. I gave her the Forget Me Not bookmark mom sent me. I figured she will use it more than me. ;) MORE MIRACLES!
So we fasted on Sunday for member referrals because we need new investigators! Fasting works y'all. I have such a strong testimony of it BECAUSEEEEEE we got to church and were practically HANDED a baptism! They told us that our inactive family we've been trying to work with wants their son to be baptized on May 4. He barely turned 9 so they didn't realize he's considered a convert. So we get to teach him all the lessons before then! He's a sweet little boy, A, who has a learning disability. So hma Schwegler and I made an ugly little book with pictures to tell the story of the restoration. Him and his mom loved it! It was so awesome! So we're looking forward to his baptism. Seriously though, fasting, we got a member referral baptism just handed to us on a golden platter! Miracle!!
I've also been blessed with nice people on all my contacts and door approaches lol But we did get a basher the other day we wanted to bash his face in a wall. I'm glad I have such a strong testimony or he would have made me shake. It was rough. I regret not testifying to him because I knew I couldn't control my anger at that point but I repented and will testify to every basher I find from now on! And I'm praying for patience lol Well that's my exciting adventures for this week! Stay tuned for more! ;)

LOVE YOU ALLLLL!!!! :DDD

BONUS LETTER!!!! (:

We got a bonus letter this week! I didn't find it in my email until today. So here it is! 

Sunday was awesome, we got to watch Music and the Spoken word. They sang all my fav songs! Did you think to pray? Called to Serve, Come Thou Fount, etc. Then we had RS with alllllllllll the Sister Missionaries and we sang As Sisters in Zion and can I tell you how much of a beautiful sight we are. It brought me to tears!

In the devotional we also talked about how people feel when they get home and their Stake Pres releases them and takes the missionary mantle from them. I want to serve my misison with all my heart, might, mind and strength, Full force with no regrets. I want to work hard every day so when that time comes I want it to hurt. I want it to break my heart when they take the mantle from me because then and only then will I know for a fact I did all I could do, I served the Lord with my whole soul.

Hermana Gutknecht

LOVE YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Week 4!

Hola familia y amigos!
I am now the Senior Companion in the MTC which really doesn't mean anything haha Hermana McBride and I were called on Sunday to be the Online Portal Trainers, we're the first sisters to have this position! We got our first batch of newbies on Wednesday and trained them yesterday :) Elder Gainer found me in the cafeteria on Wednesday when he arrived! Good to see him! I got Sammy's Easter card best ever. Bunny riding a unicorn made my day. IT'S SNOWING!!!! I'll send pics next Pday. I wrote David but don't know if he got it or not. Hermana McBride has been working on her testimony and we are reading the BOM together she already passed me!! Her testimony is getting stronger every day and she has discovered a love for reading the scriptures. Please keep her in your prayers as she has been having knee trouble and is worried she may be sent home for surgery.
I'M GOING TO BE ON CONFERENCE. Well kinda... The lady that does the segment in between conference sessions on Saturday had someone compose Ten Thousand Legions Marching specifically for the MTC choir and they had it recorded and will play it in between sessions on Saturday SO LOOK FOR ME!! I'm on and aisle seat wearing my flowery dress I wore with the cowwboy boots. It's awesome!
The MTC is great I love it here. It's like being fed the spirit with a golden spoon. It's also very difficult and frustrating. As my Branch Pres would say "It's the most wonderful, awful experience of your life." Pretty much sums that up! We've had some great devotionals. Elder Scott D. Whiting of the Seventy spoke about how the MTC is like an incubator "controlled environment with desirable conditions to encourage growth and development. I agree! He also talked about how we had certain comforts like family, friends, music, food, etc. and we were asked to leave all those behind in order to rely completely on the greatest Comforter provided, the Holy Ghost. The good times here outweigh the hard times. My teachers are amazing and whenever we get frustrated with the language or our testimonies they help us come up with a plan so that we can overcome our weaknesses. I'm doing much better with the language but I know I can do even better. I'm understanding a lot more and I can read and understand some scriptures. Btw, dad I looked at your first letter and could read the spanish scripture you sent and knew it was 1 Nephi 3:7 thank you!  :D Our lessons are doing a lot better. We taught Jose (our teacher) a few days ago and after he said it was the best lesson so far. I felt inadewuate in the language so I was frustrated and didn't feel like it was as good as he said. But the spirit was there and I bore my testimony in the language and THAT'S ALL THAT MATTERS! And last night we taught Jose again, we taught the Restoration and I went in with a really good feeling about it. Our teacher said it was another best lesson so far. So things are getting better! I'm very happy, I still have hard days and struggle time to time but I know it is for my growth and I know it will help me in the field. No matter how hard this work is I know its where I need to be and I couldnt do anything more worthwhile in my life than this. I love the gospel and I love being a missionary nothing has ever brought me such pure joy than being a servant and representative of our Savior Jesus Christ! I love you all and love hearing from you.
Hasta Luego
Te amo

Hermana Gutknecht