"Yo tengo un testimonio y lo siento crecer. Primero yo creía más, ahora ya lo sé."

Hermana Orellana

Hna Howell and Hna Sepulveda

Hna Howell 

My Extremely Loved Family,

First of all, I need to thank every single one of you. This week I've seen and heard a lot about family trials here in Paita and my heart is breaking even now to think of it. There are some really hard things that happen in the lives of these families and I count this blessing everyday; to have each one of you as part of my family. God has blessed me beyond anything I could ever imagine and I am a very undeserving soul. Thank you for your love, your commitment to Christ and your faith. 

BLOG CRAWLERS:

This week... wow, how to describe it. Well Tuesday adn Wednesday were a little rough because we are struggling a little bit to find new people to teach. But the hardest part was on Wednesday when we called our investigator Ricardo to find him for his teaching appointment and he told me that he was moving to Lima.  I spent the rest of the day trying not to break down crying every time that we tried to teach someone else. My heart breaks in not knowing when he could possibly have the opportunity to be baptized again and seeing how much his heart ached because of a lot of pains.... 

Well, it was rough. But I want to testify today of something miraculous. First of all, Thursday we had a Sister Training and President personally had sent me and Hna Orellana to sing this song I Have A Testimony or Yo Tengo Un Testimonio.  I got the song about two weeks ago with no idea of the song and no clip of how it should go, so I played it and we worked it out and hoped it was right. Well turns out it was a song that a girl in The Rasmussens ward had written and then translated for them when they left on their mission. Hna. Orellana, Hna. Pay, and Hna. Ore sang it beautifully and the lyrics truly touchedmy heart and the truth of the gospel. The chorus says something like this,

"I have a testimony and I feel it grow, First I believed, but now I know." 

I have spent everyday of my life right now testifying of my Savior Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice, and yet I find that I still have a long way to go to completely understand and fully apply it. But this week I was able to feel more of that Atoning power and know that Jesus is my SAVIOR. 

He saves me as I am full of weaknesses and sins, but promises that if I trust in Him he will be beside me. I thought of it like this, this week,

In a volleyball game of two, one player cannot touch the ball two times in a row. Also, we makes mistakes as humans. But Christ offers to be our teammate , and more specifically He is our perfect teammate. So in reality, even if we shank a ball and it goes flying, He is so perfect  that if we put our trust in Him, He´ll be able to fix it! But if we choose not to trust it Him, and try to do it all ourselves, we will find that we tire much faster, make a lot more mistakes, and inevitably, we will lose. 

I promise you that I have a testimony of Jesus Christ. It is growing everyday as I come to better understand Him and see His power in my life. I have believed this since as long as I can rememeber, and I know it. 

Seek Him and what He has to offer. He is the perfect teammate, companion and friend. He is our Savior and Reedemer. He is what lifts me up and gives me joy. Praise be to His name!!!

I love and miss you all! Press forward with faith!

Hermana Tanuvasa

The Doctrine of Christ

Blog Peeps and those who are still listening after lots of month:

To sum up this week, I wish to speak of Christ. To sum up what I teach is this, We as humans all make mistakes, which weigh us down and cause guilt and pain. But we are also children of our Heavenly Father who loves us so much that he has prepared a way for us to be free from sin. By first having faith in His Son Jesus Christ. This faith is a belief, but also an action that moves us to change and do that which Christ taught us is necessary to be freed from this pain. This faith moves us to repent. Repent is a change of heart and attitude. And when we truly repent, we can receive the covenant of baptism to be truly forgiven and lifted up at the last day if we continue faithfully repenting until the end. 

This is the formula. It is simple, but it requires our humility and trust in God. And this is what I teach. We have received from President a new way to start teaching new investigators and it literally takes what I wrote up there, a less than five minute review of the Restoration ( sort of like the one Mom gave from the stake conference broadcast) and the invitation to be baptized right there. Literally from the first moments we ask people to be baptized. Sounds crazy right? But guess what..... They accept!

And if they accept, we put a baptismal date right there and then. Crazy again right? haha but guess what, they also accept. 

The Spirit teaches the truth when we speak in plainness. This is the doctrine of Christ; to have faith unto repentance, be baptized and continue enduring to the end until we shall inherit the kingdom of God.

I love the simplicity of this gospel and this week we reached our goal to have 5 investigators with a fechab (date), and we have 8 new investigators. God has truly blessed us and I am humbled to see His mighty hand working to bring His children home. 

Like Nephi, I glory in plainness. Don't lose sight of the plainness of the gospel. God loves us and Hes prepared the way. I love you guys and I know that Jesus Christ lives and is waiting for us. May we all remember Him more.

Bubbles and lots of laughter,

Hermana Tanuvasa

"For the battle is the Lord's"

First of all whoever finds where the title is from, WITHOUT USING THE INTERNET, ONLY THE OLD FASHIONED WAY WITH BOOKS, wins a prize next week.

 Im glad to hear that everyone is good and happy (:

This week has been interesting. Not too much change and we couldn't find very many new investigators. Angie is still excited about her baptismal date. We are still trying to teach Irvin but its kind of hard to find him as he studies in Piura and only comes home every other weekend. Ricardo came to church this week and is feeling very much loved from the branch. Silvia had her baby and we were able to teach her finally but we found out that she isn't married. We've got some more work to do. 

This week I learned a little bit more of what it means to trust in the Lord. I was faced with two situations in which I was left speechless and searching for the right words to comfort another. In both instances, as soon as I put my trust in God and opened my mouth, He put in words. I still remember not thinking too much but just speaking and the words just came. I know that they were words from God specifically meant for those two individuals. I am so weak and often fail, but God is strong and on him I can depend. He provides the answers when it seems like there are none and I look firmly to Him for His help. I feel His Spirit working through me and I know that because of that the gospel is true. 

I love each and every one of you and I hope that you all know that God has words personally meant for you. If you take the time to look for them, He will in His manner and time make them manifest unto you. Believe me when I say that He loves you and misses you and waits for you to come home to Him. He cares for us and for that reason He gave us His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ. I know He lives and loves us as well and through Him we can one day go home to our Heavenyl Father. 

LOVE YOU ALL AND TAKE CARE!!!

Hermana Tanuvasa

Week of February 1

Leadership council with Hermana Orellana

It is actually raining, They don't know what to do with the rain here :)

Thank you Sandy Russavage for the adorable window stickers!!!

Our new district

So this week has been one of sadness and one of great joy. It is true that they sometimes go them hand in hand. This week started out amazing with our new investigator, Ricardo. So a couple weeks back, Elder Abbott our district leader challenged us to a contacting competition, BTW of course we won ah ah but we had made a contact with a guy who had his ear buds in and was rushing to work, but I'm not kidding, as soon as we contacted him he just shined. Later we called and passed by, but we couldn't find him again. Tuesday, we were walking by and he was sitting right there! We went in and taught him 'How to Start Teaching' and we talked a little bit about repentance and baptism and he himself wanted to be baptized to be clean. He told us of his desire to change and repent and wow seriously I have never seen someone here yet so truly penitent. We gave him Lesson 1 on Friday and he has a baptismal date for the 27th!!!! 

Wednesday was hard. As Hermana Leaders, we went to Piura on a call from President with another companionship of Hermanas that we are in charge of. One of the Hermanas found out that her dad had passed away. It was so heartbreaking because she had planned to teach him the gospel after the mission. We cried a lot that day. But she is such an example to me as she decided to stay in the mission. We are praying a lot for her.  

Angie, Irwin's sister, is doing fantastic. She feels so comfortable with the ward and they are really loving her. They even gave her a personal progress book to start. She also told us that she prayed to know if this was the right path for her and when she woke up the next morning she said she just felt so happy and at peace. Then, miraculously her family was able to have a day totally together, which she says she doesn't remember the last time that happened. She is progressing so well for her date on the 20th.

Saturday was Hna. Orellana´s birthday!! She is such an angel and all she wanted to do was work. What a great missionary. So we did, we went to work and we found many blessings. We placed another baptismal date with Vernice, a reference from another investigator for the 27th. Then we found two new investigators, one of which is SO prepared from God. Ill explain a little more next week. But lets say we ended the day jumping for joy and singing down to our room. 

So the week was sad and yet so filled with joy. I know that this is part of the great plan of happiness of our Heavenly Father. I hope all can come to understand this great treasure. The Lord is truly blessing us. 

I love and miss you all tons!! Keep safe and Stay with God!

Love, Hermana Tanuvasa