Never Judge a Book by Its Cover - Sister Hannah Avery

Written by Sister Hannah Avery serving in the Chile Vina del Mar Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking Spanish.

Hello friends and family!

I hope that you all had a wonderful week and enjoyed General Conference this week! :) I surely enjoyed every moment! It was a crazy week, but ended perfectly! I would love to tell you all the things that I learned and loved about Conference this week, but, I am going to do something a little different and tell you all about the things that I learned this week that I DIDN'T hear in Conference. They were lessons and things that I couldn't have learned in conference, rather, in real-life, personal experiences. Here it goes....

First, this Saturday, Hermana Mori and I finished watching the first session of Conference and had to go to the ATM to take out money to buy lunch since we didn't have a scheduled lunch that day with members. We walked to the local supermarket and took the money out and started walking back to the stake center (church building). On the way, I saw a man who looked a little out of the ordinary, which made me nervous, because I was thinking that maybe he would try to rob us (it has happened in the past, so I am always overly cautious!). He was a younger man of about 40 years, wearing raggedy clothing, unshaven, and well, his appearance made me nervous.

I began to walk faster as we passed him, trying to avoid what could have been a dangerous situation if he was going to rob us. As I walked by with my companion, he stuck his hand out and said nothing. We kept walking, and then, my companion taught me a lesson that I will never forget. She turned around, and started digging in her bag. I looked at her with a startled look on my face, because I thought she was going to try to give him money, which we can't do as missionaries. That was my mistake.

The man looked at her, waiting patiently to see what she would give him. She pulled out a small package of saltine crackers that she had found, and gave them to the man. He looked at her, his eyes full of hope and appreciation, and said "Gracias. Tuve hambre," which means, "Thank you. I was hungry." I wanted to cry as we walked away from him. My companion taught me a lesson that day. She did exactly as the Savior would have done. I personally did not have any food that I could have given him. But, she did what she could with the little that she had, even though he looked like he could have caused danger by his appearance. Moral of the story: Never judge a book by its cover, and love all men as the Savior would. I went home that day and repented for not helping him more. My eyes are opened, and I have been humbled :)

Next, we had M's baptism yesterday. It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon, and she looked beautiful in white <3 Things were great until we realized that the zone leaders had filled the baptism font with freezing cold water (that reminded me of my own baptism, LOL!) but, we were REALLY nervous because she is so old that she could get really sick from going under freezing cold water like that. The man who was going to baptize her entered first and said, "This water is freezing. This is not a good idea." But, Matilde got in the water, without hesitation. She was baptized, and when she came out, she said, "I feel so warm and felt like I was floating!" She told us that the water was never cold to her, and that it was an amazing experience. There is no doubt in my mind that angels were keeping her warm yesterday as she took one of the most important steps of her life and was baptized. What a miracle! :) We are beyond happy and feel so blessed :)

Well guys, I hope that you all have a great week, and remember, that all souls are of great worth in the sight of God. I love you all so much! Talk to you next week! :)

xoxoxoxo Hermana Avery

Preparing for Conference and a Baptism (September 29, 2014)

New Area and New Companion for Sister Avery  (October 14, 2014)

General Conference in English AND Spanish - Elder Brian Burgess

Written by Elder Brian Burgess, serving in the Mexico Puebla North Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking Spanish.

Mexico Puebla North Missionaries (Elder Burgess far right)

Hey you all!! So this last week went by super duper fast!

Thursday I was in an internet cafe with my companion for 6 hours doing the monthly stake forms for our zone. What a blast... my eyes were so tired...I was so tired. Friday morning we got up super early and went to the mission home for leadership council all day long. We ate grilled hamburgers for lunch.... :) Amazing council meeting, and I learned a lot!!! Saturday my companion and I were at the stake center all day to watch General Conference. We got the two zones in the stake together, and all the Americans got the high council room to watch conference in English. It was amazing. I love watching it in English because the emotion in their voices is so much better! But then when they announced that a few would be talking in their native languages, I thought that was cool. When some of the Seventy gave their talk in the Conference Center in Spanish, our talk on the television was translated into English by the translators who just read the talks. So I looked at some American elders in the room and said, "Let's go watch it in Spanish so we can hear the emotion in his voice." I tell you what, that talk was so much better in Spanish than English. It is nice knowing two languages. ;) Sunday was the same, the whole day at the church!

I am so grateful for General Conference! I can't wait to study the talks more and strengthen my testimony of the gospel! I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!

HAVE A SPLENDID WEEK!

Elder Burgess

Justice and Mercy (September 22, 2014)

Blessings in Denmark - Elder Kolby Madsen

Written by Elder Kolby Madsen, serving in the Denmark Copenhagen Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking Danish.

Mor!

Well that’s great to hear that Maren saw all four sessions of General Conference. I haven't even seen the last one yet due to time zones and stuff, way lame. I  heard that Elder Bednar gave a great talk though. I am glad to hear that Bree played well, I think it’s good for her. Is she on varsity right now?

Well for BYU, I have thought about it. I think it would just be better and cheaper to apply to UVU.  I can transfer later, but I want to go into exercise science and then into medical after that. I think I want to be a physical therapist, but maybe an ER doc still, I don’t know. I have time to worry about that later.

That’s way sad to hear about BYU losing and stuff.  I would hate to see someone like Hill break his leg. I heard he was doing great this year. That’s also way hard for a team to pull it together after having their QB break a leg. Makes it hard to focus and stuff. Good to hear about the Broncos and that Braden got to go to a game. Crazy to think that he will be leaving and that Maren has already started her papers. That's great though. I think she will come to Denmark or Sweden. She needs to know what it’s like to serve out here in Scandinavia. It will be good for her.

In other news, I just got a new companion. Elder Earl and I were together for 4 weeks. I guess things were going too well or something because we got separated quick. No, I am just kidding. But we really did work way well together. I have a new companion, Elder Child. He is great! He has red hair, but I don’t hold it against him, haha. No, I love this kid. We will have some good stuff going here as well. Elder Earl actually just went to serve with Elder Madsen (lil), I am big Madsen. And Elder Child just went from lil Madsen to me, haha! Anyway, good stuff.

This week we had some great stuff happen. We were down in Nykøbing on splits with Elder Brindley and Elder Peterson. It went great. We found some people for them to teach and they reconnected with some of their old investigators. It was overall a great day. We then came back and had splits with the assistants (APs). That went really well, even though all of our appointments canceled. We were able to reschedule them for the next day, which was crazy.

We taught 7 lessons on Thursday. It was intense, just bouncing from appointment to appointment. It felt amazing. I am very pleased with this week. We were able to work a lot and the Lord has really blessed us with some great people to meet with as well. We found a new friend who met with missionaries in København.  She told them she lived down here, so we paid her a visit and she wants to learn more. We are looking forward to meeting with her.

We had a great opportunity to have General Conference this week, as you know.  We weren’t able to see four sessions, as always no Sunday afternoon, but we had two appointment set for the Saturday morning session which begins at 1800 here. We brought in some reinforcements and had four General Conferences at investigators or less active members' homes, and one with them just at the church.  So in total we had 8 people that don’t usually come to church or are not members watch General Conference. It was great!

On Friday this week we had my first zone training. It was way fun. We had some good things happen and some great goals set. After getting all the information (the reports form the district leaders about their districts), we are well on our way to obtaining our goals this month. I have not been a part of a zone yet that has achieved the goals set. We are really working hard as a zone to change our areas and to improve our work to be more effective and  being all around in line with how our Heavenly Father would want us to work.

We also had the opportunity to meet with our friend, TW, who has chosen to get baptized on the 15th of October. I am way excited that this transfer goes until the 17th! I am also really excited to work with him. He is so great and faithful.

I really enjoyed the talk by Elder Jørg Klebingat. I don’t know why, I just did. We gave all of our investigators a challenge to think about questions they had and told them that they would be answered in Conference. I know that a couple of the  investigators had questions about Joseph Smith.  Those who had the questions were there to see the talks that were given about prophets and Joseph Smith. It was great! I also had questions that were answered.

I know this church is the church of God and that Christ stands at the front and leads and guides this church the way that it is supposed to be run. I know that Christ is the son of God the Father, and that he IS our savior and redeemer. He has made it possible for us to return to our Father in heaven without blemish. Being clean form all of our wrong doing. All we need is to repent and trust in him. He has his arms open and out ready to receive us.  All we need to do is  to come to Him!

Med Kærlig Hilsen,

Ældste Madsen

The Second Harvest (September 29, 2014)

Baptism in Denmark  (October 13, 2014)

Dos Companeros! Dos Bautismos! - Elder Jake Avery

Written by Elder Jacob Avery, serving in the Peru Lima West Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking Spanish.

Dos Companeros! Dos Bautismos!
(Two companions! Two baptisms!)

Ro** y Ma** have finally been baptized and confirmed into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was really neat to see them as husband and wife get baptized. They looked like little angelitos. I thought it was so cool. Yesterday, they paid their first fast offering and received their first visit from their home teachers. That's how you begin enduring until the end.

We also had the unexpected arrival of Elder Mohlman this week. He's a brand new missionary. He left the MTC (Missionary Training Center) less than a week ago and had nowhere to go until changes next week. So they put him with Elder Estrada and I in the meantime. He's already been reassigned, but for several days we were in a trio (but I prefer the term trifecto!). It made it much easier to stop people in the street, but a lot harder to make enough breakfast and dinner. He was our lucky charm because the people also seemed to be much more interested in what the white gringo had to say than in what the "gringo falso" had to say. The best part is, he got to see a baptism his first week in the mission, so now he'll be a missionary machine in the field.

Well, that's my update for this week. I'd like to thank everyone again for all your support, prayers, and effort in the Work of Salvation. I know that it's a real work and that it's being realized by millions of people. We are taught by prophets, seers and revelators, both living and dead. We have a marvelous opportunity to eternally grow as we participate in this great and marvelous work. I love you all and hope the very best!!


Hi Mom!

I had a great week. We were with Elder Mohlman for several days. It was really weird to see what he's like, as a brand new missionary, and to think about how I was when I started my mission. I'm so thankful for President Archibald and all that he has done to make this a successful and happy mission. When I started, I was put with a kid who was only 2 months in the mission and hadn't finished his own training yet. Neither of us knew what to do, haha! But now I see these new missionaries finish their training as powerful teachers and strong in every phase of the work.

It was super nice to finally have baptisms. We're sad though because we can't have more baptisms until the end of October. Next Sunday is elections, so we won't be able to watch General Conference at the church. They'll show it the next week, then finally we'll be able to have more baptisms. I'm hoping to have a hundred by that time ;)

Mom, I love you more than you know! I'm so thankful that you guys raised me well and helped me understand what is important. I love you so much and I'm doing what I can to be true to what I'm learning :) Tell the family I love them and miss them!! Have a great week!

- Elder Jake Avery

Keep the Commandments  (September 22, 2014)

Reflections on a City Bus  (October 6, 2014)

Preparing for Conference and a Baptism - Sister Hannah Avery

Written by Sister Hannah Avery, serving in the Chile Vina del Mar Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking Spanish.

Chile Vina del Mar Mission Leadership Council

Hey family and friends! :)

Wow! This week has been one of the fastest ever! I don't have a ton of time to write, but I will try to type things out as fast as possible before time is up!  :)

First, we had a really great week getting ready for Ma**'s baptism scheduled for this Sunday! She is going to be baptized October 5, between sessions of General Conference. She will be my first and only General Conference baptism of my mission. She is the sweetest lady ever. It has just blessed my life beyond words to know her, and to help prepare her to make covenants with the Lord <3 She passed her baptism interview last Friday, and we are just getting ready for the baptism now! :)

We also had a Family Home Evening this week with converts, less active members and investigators! It was GREAT! Ma** came, Al** and his whole family came, and a bunch of other less active members and converts came! It was amazing to see everyone all together learning about the Gospel, and then getting to play games together :) It really helped bring everyone closer! We really need that here in the ward for sure, so it was a blessing!

Here is an invitation for you all! I invite each of you to think of a question, concern, or doubt that you have with the Gospel and pray this week to receive an answer to it in General Conference. I promise it will be answered! Tell me your stories about it after and I will tell you mine! :) Enjoy it! I LOVE CONFERENCE! :)

have a ton of pictures to send you all, but my camera has been acting up and won't install the software to send them! UGH! Hopefully next week. I will try again! I hope that you all have a great week and I will talk to you all next week! Love you!

xoxoxo Hermana Avery

Independence Day in Chile (September 22, 2014)

Never Judge a Book by Its Cover  (October 6, 2014)

Always learning!

The Second Harvest - Elder Kolby Madsen

Written by Elder Kolby Madsen, serving in the Denmark Copenhagen Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking Danish.

Denmark Copenhagen Mission Leadership Council

Mor!

I still can’t believe that you are trying to sell the house but I understand why.  I guess I have always guessed that you would move while I was gone, it’s just different actually hearing about it now, you know? Good news, Elder Ludlow is coming back tomorrow. He will be back, but transfers are next week and I don’t think I will be moving. I just got here, but you know stuff happens, haha. We will find out about transfers later. There are a couple of missionaries coming in this transfer who don’t have their visas yet. Way lame. This visa crap is ridiculous, but everything happens for a reason.

Well, this week we had some really good stuff happen. We were very blessed to have a ton of things to do this week, which was great. We had some missionaries down from Frederiksberg on splits, way good stuff.  We were able to meet with some new converted members who have just made plans to go to the temple for baptisms for the dead. We are looking forward to that.

We also had some good times on Tuesday. We had some appointments, one with the lady from Brazil. She is great. She is getting so close to being baptized and stuff. We meet with her twice a week and talk about prophets. She has a hard time with Joseph Smith, but it is coming. My Portuguese is coming along nicely (just kidding!). It’s fun to learn new languages, haha.

We had a great week with S** too. He has picked the time for Saturday the 11th  at noon to be baptized. That is great. We are really looking forward to that and, of course, General Conference is way good. We already have plans to be with our friends (investigators) at their houses instead of at the church for Conference, which is way exciting. Every single one of us will be with less active members or investigators… goal achieved so far.

We are really having fun with S**’s family as well. We did some service with them last week, and we were able to teach them more and answer some more questions. They plan on coming to Sander's dåb as well. That should be good, and it will help them feel the Spirit as well. So we are excited about that.

We had a great experience this week with some of the less active members. We were talking to a member a couple weeks ago about the people she has not seen in a while in Slagelse. She told us of one who was also from Brazil and was very active, but then she just fell away. So we did some searching and called her. The number was incorrect, but then two days later I got a call from a lady saying that she needed help with moving and that she was moving into Slagelse. We went to help and it was this member from Brazil. She felt like she could trust us. Now the bishop has her contact information and she is planning on coming back to church. We are excited for that.

She has an awesome story. She was born into the Baptist church and her father was a priest living in Brazil. She saw a ton of Latter-day Saints missionaries and one day asked one of them to teach her. Long story short, she got baptized at 13 years old and has never looked back, even though her family are still very active in the Baptist church. So great to hear about the faith and trust that she has in the Lord. She will come back, and we are excited about that.

We had a fun little leadership conference.  This week ended with the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders, along with the Assistants and President Sederholm. We had an activity afterwards.  We played soccer, it was way fun.  Then we played volleyball. I cannot jump as high as I used to, before the knee surgery. It will come back, I know it.

Four of the six Sister Training Leaders for the mission are from my MTC group, so that was fun. Five of the eight Zone Leaders are also from my MTC group, so we all had a great time catching up and saying goodbye to our Sisters because they leave next week, right after General Conference. It's crazy how fast time goes by. Then, Lindsey will be coming home right after that. I can’t believe it.

Oh, and I lost my really good knee brace on a train coming back from København. Is there any way I could get one just like it, the ACE one? It was great with side supports. I liked that one the best.

Anyway, great week.  The Lord's work is really going strong here in Denmark. The mission numbers have almost tripled since I first got here. The second harvest is really here and the time is now!!

Love you have a great week!

Med Kærlig Hilsen

Ældste Madsen

My Big Brother (September 22, 2014)

Blessings in Denmark  (October 6, 2014)

Scheduled Baptisms - Elder Dallin Remund

Written by Elder Dallin Remund, serving in the Virginia Chesapeake Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking Spanish.

Flashback to 16 months ago today! It was goodbye at the MTC. 16 months later, and everyone's grown up and my sister has her mission call, and just barely went to the temple for her endowment. It has been the greatest sixteen months of my life thus far!

Hola a todos!

We were very blessed this week with lots of success. We hit our goals once again for 5 lessons with a member present; not an easy feat in sharing a small Spanish branch with 2 other companionships of Sister missionaries! Seeing lots of miracles from taking out members, like always!

Quick update:
J** W**, one of our American investigators who is a Latina member's husband is getting baptized this October on the 25th! Very excited for him and the changes he has made as he's come closer to Christ at this time in his life. His wife and sons are members, so that completes the family and the goal is the temple a year after his baptism! So amazing to be a part of this. This will be my first baptism in the mission after 16 months! A true blessing!

E** and M**, the couple from El Salvador that I've been teaching since I got out here in February, are getting married on December 20th and baptized on January 10th! Wonderful news after having taught them since the beginning of the year. They too have come a long way and I'm enjoying the blessings of staying in an area for 7 transfers in seeing the fruits of faith and repentance!

Les quiero mucho,
Elder Remund

Another Remund Missionary! (September 22, 2014)

Jamestown, Virginia  (October 13, 2014)

One of my favorite street names out here. Perfect for missionary work! Diligencia!!

Independence Day in Chile - Sister Hannah Avery

Written by Sister Hannah Avery, serving in the Chile Vina del Mar Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking Spanish.

Hello family and friends!

This week was a fast one! We had a lot of celebrations, and lots of exciting things going on. Here is the update for this week:

Monday: We wrote our families and went shopping, then went home to relax and talk :) It was a super relaxed day! We did have a Family Home Evening with a less active family in the ward and had a great time. But when they dropped us off at the bishop's house afterward, the security gate to the apartment complex closed on their car and left a dent and broke the side light. We made them a "sorry about that" card, even though it wasn't our fault. Their car is fine and they aren't mad...thank heavens!

Tuesday: We did quite a bit of walking around! Pretty much everyone canceled on us, so we walked around and around and around...nothing too interesting :)

Wednesday: We saw Mat*** who is still getting ready for her baptism, but we had to move her date to the 5th, after General Conference, since she didn't come to church yesterday due to illness. She is doing great and is ready to get baptized. It's just a matter of time now :)

We also saw A*** (our new convert) and his family and, well, they are in pretty bad shape. They are fighting a lot and have several problems in the family. It was a hard lesson to be in with them yelling at each other, but we have faith that things will get better. He still comes to church every week and is fine, but it has to be hard being the only one in your family who wants the Gospel...please pray for them!

Thursday: Was the 18th of September! That's Chile's Independence Day. No, we didn't eat a ton, but we did go to our ward mission leader's house and helped him make empanadas, bread, etc. to sell because he has a in-home bakery! We had a lot of fun, and yes, I am expert in empanada baking now :) We also saw a few less active members that day, but we didn't find hardly anyone since everyone left town to celebrate with family. It was a fun day with our ward mission leader and his family though :)

Friday: We had zone conference with our mission president! We learned a lot about how to be valiant, and how we should always be faithful and obedient. It was a really awesome day with the mission president. Sorry to not write more with this, but time is killing me here, haha! I will try to write more on it later :)

Saturday: We had interchanges with Hermanas in another zone in Quilpue, Chile. We had a pretty good day, but did a lot of walking and visiting less active members. It was a LONG day and very hot!!! We had success, but I was just ready to get back to my cute companion, Hermana Mori, ASAP :)

Sunday: We had a great Sunday. It was the first day of SPRING here in Chile! It is getting hotter everyday, and we are starting to leave the apartment without coats! Wow, my tan lines are back on my feet again from my shoe straps, LOL! It feels like just yesterday that I had these in Ovalle. How the time flies! We had "once" with Mat**, which is like "tea time" here in Chile. It was super fun, and she is super excited for her baptism. She always thanks us for coming over because she lives alone. Sweet lady :) I love her so much!

Well guys, I don't have much news other than this! Thanks again for all that you all do for me and for my family :) I hope that you all have a great week, and I will talk to you all again next week! :)

xoxoxoxoo Hermana Avery

A Week in the Life (September 15, 2014)

Preparing for Conference and a Baptism  (September 29, 2014)