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

October is looking mighty fine... ;)

My companion's recent convert has got us 2 referrals, he's determined to baptized everyone he works with. Haha, we taught his young friend, W last week. Hes really quiet and shy and we made the mistake of not making sure he understood what prophets was. So I'm pretty sure he didn't hear anything else we said because he was stuck on prophets so when we shared the first vision he was like wait whos Joseph Smith? Whats a prophet? FAIL. Live and learn haha we'll clear it up tonight.

 

We ate sushi with R and he started scaring me. He told us he needed to tell us something but we would be mad. He made us pray first so we would be more calm... haha So he told us that he's not getting baptized.... but then said he was kidding. And then told us he went with his friend to a Jehovah's Witness church, and he hadn't been to our church in 2 weeks. :/ He said he told his friend he's happy where he is and he still wants to be baptized. So that's good! He hasn't smoked in 6 days but he's still struggling with coffee. We bought him some fake coffee I guess Utah Mormons use, but he said it'll still take some getting used to. Then he canceled our appointment later that night. I worry about him so much. I just know how hard Satan works the weeks before someone's baptism and I just can't let him fall. He's come to far and I've come so far with him. Both of my companions wanted to give up on because we could never get appointments with him but something was tugging on my heart not to let him go. He's grown so much since the day he chased us down for a Book of Mormon almost 5 months ago. I've been able to witness the changes in his life and how different he is, how much closer he is to the Savior. Sometimes I just watch him interact with others and I can see in him the light of Christ, I can see him doing the things Christ would do. He's not afraid to help people or share the gospel. He truly is becoming like his Savior.

I know that the years I had been preparing for a mission, God was preparing R to hear the message I would share with him. R was born Catholic, was Atheist, and recently developed a faith in Christ when he found us. I was the one to help him strengthen his faith and now he's just 3 weeks from baptism. I know I was sent here for him, Heavenly Father has kept me in this area for 5 transfers because of him and I'm doing everything I can to help him stay converted to the gospel.

We finished teaching him all the lessons and now we're just helping him overcome his doubts and fears. 3 more weeks! We fasted with him friday-Saturday to help him stop drinking coffee.

 

We finally had a lesson with E. We haven't been able to see her for like 2 weeks since we set her baptismal date. I was so worried that she would have changed her mind but she didnt! She has been keeping all her commitments but I know Satan has a lot of temptations to throw in her path. We have two more lessons and she'll be interviewed for her baptism this weekend and baptized the following. I love her so much! She is pretty much a dry-mormon, she goes to church faithfully without us bugging her about it. She reads and prays with her 3 girls every night, we just had to show her a lot of love and patience to build her confidence to overcome her problems. We fasted with her Saturday-Sunday for the health of her little girl. It was the first time she's fasted because she's heard a lot of different things about fasting from other religions. Yes, my companion and I fast one day, ate dinner with Reyes, and then started another fast. Not the healthiest thing in the world but hey, im willing to do anything to help these two amazing people!

 

Friday night the other sisters investigators, K, was baptized. Instead of watching videos or something while they are changing into dry clothes, our mission president has asked the missionaries to use that time to teach because that brings the spirit stronger than anything else. We were asked to teach during this time and i was so nervous. Im fine teaching in Spanish but i get nervous in front of a lot of people because... well, my Spanish isn't THAT good. Needless to say, I prayed a lot. I prayed for the gift of tongues, I prayed that the Lord would guide my lips to say what I needed to say, I prayed that the Spirit would testify to the people there, through me. And God answered my prayers. Although still a little nervous, my companion and I went to the front and began teaching. I was amazed at how fluent I was and I literally felt the Lord guiding my mouth. I know it wasn't me because I was saying things I had never even thought to say before, things Ive never said before, and the looks on the peoples faces confirmed that they felt the Spirit. One of the best experiences Ive had with the language so far on my mission. And afterwards, a little girl came to me and said "Hermana Gutknecht! Your pronuncation in Spanish is so good now! You don't have an American accent anymore!" hahaha gracias a Dios!

 

We have assignments to find less active people for Bishop so we can find out if they moved or not. We went to one house and no one was home. Hermana Moffit felt impressed that we should stay. So we sat in the car for a few more minutes when a truck pulled up! After he went inside we went to knock on the door (yes missionaries are professional stalkers) and the guy named F answered. He gave us some info about the member we were looking for and I felt impressed to invite him to listen to our message. He said yes I would love to! YEAHHH! We took down his info and we asked if there was anything else we could do for him and he said "how bout a handshake" haha we're teaching him tonight!

 

Sunday... oh Sunday. On the way to church it was bright and sunny, we had the windows down, listening to MoTab.. and I just had the thought, "today is going to be a great day." And it was! Three of our investigators were at church, one old investigator that we had dropped, a less active recent convert, AND a referral we've been trying to find for 6 MONTHS!!!!!!!!!! So F, we've had his name and address for months and it says "GOLDEN. Anxiously waiting for missionaries. FIND HIM! GOLDEN!!!" So obviously we couldn't just throw it away! So we've tried on and off for the past few months. Hna Moffit have tried every week since we've been together- Heavenly Father rewards diligence and persistence. F showed up at the church on Saturday looking for service times, our Ward Mission Leader happened to be there and told him all the information. Sunday morning we were sitting in the foyer making phone calls when the Elders come to us super excited rambling about some guy who showed up to church who's in our area. We met him, asked his name and when he said F, hna Moffitt and I just turned and looked at each other. I asked him if he lived in the apt complex of the guy we've been trying and he said YES! We told him we've been trying to find him but so happy he found us! A member shook his hand and asked if he was a member he said no and they said oh, but you will be right? He said yes! hahaha He stayed for all three hours and loved it. R made friends with him and showed him around. He's coming to watch General Conference this weekend! I can't wait to teach him! He's so cool! R asked us who he was and we told him and he said he must be good, he came to church in a suit! :p

 

MISSIONARY WORK! MISSIONARY WORK! LA OBRA MISIONAL ES LO MEJOR! :D Escondido... la tierra de los milagros!

 

Escondido Forever!

Still not getting transfered, but i'm totally okay with that. :D I love it here! But pretty sure this will be my last transfer here in the dirty Dido.

This week was pretty rough, our less active members have gone crazy, been doing some family damage control with them but praying all will be well. Satan really is attacking families so much, guard your homes against the adversary. We have the gospel of Jesus Christ to counter his efforts, we need to use it! We have power over Satan, he does NOT have power over us. 

Family Home Evenings are so much fun here. We've been bringing R and he loves it. Since Mondays are P-days I'm usually too lazy to do my hair so throw it up in a bun on the top of my head and go to Noche do Hogar like that. R called me Hermana Cebollita (little onion) haha

We taught at the NdH about Sacrafices as members of the church. R participated and said since he started investigating the church he doesn't watch as much TV anymore, now he's either reading the book of Mormon or thinking about church hahaha We ate some tacos and I put a bunch of spicy salsa on it and and Hermana in the ward said "Ella es mexicana!" (she is Mexican!) haha thanks family for helping me love spicy food before my mission :p 

R didnt come to church Sunday so we went to his house that night and what was he doing? Looking at pictures of temples online... how cool is that? :p 

We have 3 baptisms coming up Im super excited for. E Oct 12, R oct 19, and M nov 2

We taught a member referral last night and it was so awesome. It was in English, you know how hard it is to teach in English when you only ever teach in Spanish? We forgot to practice the first vision in english so we went over it real quick before we  went in and I thought I had it down but then when we were in the lesson and I went to say it, i totally blanked. But thats when I truly realized that im not the teacher, the Spirit is! Even though I didnt say it perfectly, the Spirit was there and M felt it. He said while I was reciting it, everything else tuned out and all he could hear was my voice and he felt a tingling sensation go from the top of his head to the bottom of His toes and he felt at peace and knew it was true. WOW!! It was incredible. We set a date with him in 6 weeks!

This transfer is gonna be the bestttttt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS. I think I broke my pinky by catching a falling banana... True story.

So this has been an adventure-filled week! Not much with lessons just random fun times. Lessons are slow because we've stopped teaching most of our investigators so theres only a few left. We're working on finding new people, the Elect! 

So I bought a blender bottle to make meal replacement shakes in the morning, its has a little wire ball so you shake the bottle and it blends it. Well me being the blonde I am started shaking it before the top was completely one and the chocolately shake went all over our kitchen and my clothes. mmm :) yeah! Then we were tracting at a trailer park and we were walking up the stairs when my companion realized if the door opened it would smack her so she started coming down the stairs and we both somehow ended up falling, I dropped my scriptures so they went THUD THUD THUD down the stairs.... After hysterically laughing we regained our composure and knocked on the door hahahahahaha so awkwardly awkward. I love being a missionary ;) Ah man we were so tired that night we got done planning and were asleep by 10:10. Our DL called and neither of us heard, Hna Moffitt fell asleep praying. Those days are so great lol

We had lunch with a recent convert, A. He made so much shrimp. Actually it was more like garlic with a side of shrimp. We probably reeked for three days. Ive never eaten so much shrimp in my life. So much cholesterol. haha That day when we were walking to appointments we were so thirsty and neither of us had any water. We contacted this really nice man who offered us water. I love people like him! He came out with a little baby water bottle for each of us and Capri-Suns! We were so stoked for the Capri-Suns, it was so hot and we were SO thirsty. Then we contacted this lady right after who had two small children in a stroller, they looked so hot. The whole time we were talking to her Hna Moffit and I were both having the same internal struggle. "I really want to drink this Capri-Sun, its so cold and we're so hot. But these poor children, they probably need something to drink. But I want the Capri-Sun, but what about the children!" We finally overcame the natural man and gave our capri-suns to the children and the water bottle to the mom. It was hard, but I guess it was worth it.. I guess hahaha Then we finally got to where we were going and our recent convert asked if we wanted water. We said YES! She gave us warm soda..... made us even more thirsty. Then we made it to dinner, and what did she have to drink? Orange juice. We drank and drank but it didnt help. So our motto for the day was "Im full of cholesterol and Vitamin C!" haha 

We got to do service on Saturday for our less active Hermana R. I painted her door and Hna Moffitt painted part of the outside railing. She bought us both a mango to eat, I dont think Id ever had an actual mango before. It was pretty good. She had to teach me how to cut and eat it though haha and she came to church on Sunday because we helped her finish a lot so she didnt have to do it on Sunday! She bore a powerful testimony in RS about the power of Priesthood blessings. Her daughter was in an accident and ended up being in a coma, she recieved a blessing and her finger started moving and with time she came completely around and is fine. So great! 

We had a lesson with a new investigator, G, shes insane! We started talking about Joseph Smith and said one morning in the spring of 1820 Joseph blah blah blah we want to share his experience with you in his own words and Hna Moffit started reciting the First Vision and G interrupted her and said oh so this morning you saw a light? Noooooooo! hahaha oh man it was so chaotic she was crazy. And gave us a cup of water that tasted like fish. All around weird. 

We had an awesome dinner with R on Friday! He took us to a Oaxaquena restaurante (food from the part of Mexico he's from) it was sooooo good! Had some cactus again, prepared a different way but still really good. Annnnnnd we ate chapulines! Grasshoppers! It's a delicacy in Oaxaca, Mexico. We tried one first with nothing on it then with Limon and chile mmmmmm! YUM! Hahahaha they actually weren't bad. Crunchy little treat. One of the Mexican workers there hadnt even tried them. I was like what the heck, im white and Im eating it! hahaha It was a fun little adventure :)

Yesterday at church, in Gospel Principles they were talking about how if it werent for the missionaries a lot of them wouldnt be converted. R raised his hand, looked at us and said "Gracias! Gracias!" I love that man. :)

So Ive been thinking a lot about Enduring to the End. And I thought, to the end of what? To the end of life? To the end of trials? To the end of existence which has no end? An Hermana in my District shared this scripture that is so cool. D&C 19:1 Jesus Christ is the End! We have to endure to Jesus Christ, when we can live forever with Him and our Father in Heaven. Beautiful! 

Oh I forgot to add this to the email.

Our Zone went ice skating today! It was fun. Im glad I had some-sort of practice with Sammy before I left haha Now I can say Ive been ice skating in two of the most sun-shiney states - Florida and California! I didnt fall on my butt! But there was a 5 year old there who had been skating since April and she was doing all sorts of tricks and spins showing us all up lolz :D

What a crazy week! I absolutely LOVE my companion! She's so fun, we laugh ALL the time. Laughing is good for the soul. ;)

We've had some fun contacts this week. One lady told us we were crazy in our hearts and minds, the next day an Atheist told us we were brainwashed, and then a man had the nerve to tell me I don't believe in Christ! Not gonna lie...I let myself be offended my that. Don't tell me I don't believe Jesus Christ is my Savior! But the Atheist guy that said we were brainwashed, by the end of our conversation he said he would pray to God to thank Him for not sending him to war. So we had some progress ;)

I had the weirdest moment at Zone Conference.. We got in groups to share our talks we had written about the Book of Mormon and to tell who would go first we did whoever was the youngest missionary (time-wise in the mission). And.... I WAS THE OLDEST. THE OLDEST! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH D:

R Update: He's a BALLER! For realz. He found out that our zone has a goal of 20 baptisms by the end of the year and he told us he wanted to help us reach it. He brought a FAMILY of 3 to CHURCH with him on Sunday!!! Afterwards he had them set an appointment with us to teach them. We're teaching them tonight and Reyes is coming with us. Seriously, my investigator is doing more missionary work than lifelong members -  STEP IT UP! hahahahahaha Last night he came to a FHE and a member asked him who he was and he said "Im an investigator... well I'm not investigating because I have a date!" :DDDD Made my heart smile!!!!! Everyone can see him changing. And most member treat him like a member because they probably think hes a member! He's going to be a leader in the church I just know it. He's so great! And Elder in my District that's been here the same time as me has seen him from day one and asked me last night what changed, he looks different. He is different. He started reading the Book of Mormon and he's been changing ever since. He's on 1 Nephi 20 now. :) We've been praying to see if we should change his date and make it closer so hopefully we'll know what to do soon.

Hermano R came to the FHE with his son A who I've been working with a lot. He told me A is doing a lot better thanks to me and all I've been doing to help him. It warms my heart to know I'm helping bring souls to Christ or BACK to Christ. It makes it all worth it knowing that my past experiences can help other families come back together, that I was sent here for that purpose because of who I am because of what I've been through. Its amazing, God's plan for each of us.

We had an amazing lesson this week with a family we had taught once awhile back. We finished the Restoration lesson and it was truly a beautiful experience. So we were knocking doors awhile back and a 17 yr old girl, L answered the door. Said she wasn't interested at all but thought her mom would love to hear our message so she gave us a time to come back to talk to her mom. We went back and taught the mom, V, and L decided to listen too with her twin sister L. We didn't get to finish the lesson but we tried to come back for the return appointment but they weren't home. They left a note on the door apologizing! So sweet! We finally were able to catch them at home again this week. V was busy cooking so we taught L and L the rest of the Restoration. Their friend showed up in the middle of it so we taught her too. When we got to the First Vision the mood changed, the Spirit swept into the room and everyone felt it. My companion shared the First Vision and all three of the girls wiped their eyes and said they'd never felt anything like that before. That it was beautiful, it felt good. We invited them to be baptized and they said they would think about it because they want that feeling with them forever. :')

I love every day here. Every day being able to share what I know with other people. Even when Im rejected or laughed at. Every no is one closer to a yes. Every no is just helping me get that much closer to the Elect, the prepared people Heavenly Father is putting in my path. I know the church is true. Every single part of it. I know who I am. I know Christ is my Savior. I represent Him every day through my words and actions. I am in the service of my Lord and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. It's hard to explain the feelings I have as a missionary. My Mission President said a quote that explained exactly how I feel about the mission.

"From the outside you can't understand it, from the inside you can't explain it."