Rhett

Hola!!

Yo espero que todo esta bien con ustedes! This week was another good week. We were able to have some great lessons and experiences. This Sunday also a lot of investigators come to church as well. The members now have a lot of confidence and trust in us to let us work with their friends. I can feel the excitement growing in the branch about missionary work. There is one family that has been asking us for pamphlets, and literally just goes out and starts contacting people on the streets and finding investigators for us. Haha it's so awesome!

This week we had a great experience with one family we've been teaching. We have been teaching them for the past month, but they have never been able to come to church. Every time we invite them, they just say awww...the next week...I'm not sure...I need to wait a little bit longer...So this week we had a lesson with them and taught them the importance of attending church. We showed them that we loved them, and wanted them to go because we know the gospel can bless their lives. I was super direct with them. It was actually pretty funny. I told the mom...Hey sister, we have been talking for you guys for about a month now, and every week you say you want to wait. How much longer do you want to wait? The next time you say that it will have been a year! Why not go now and see for yourself? We don't know how long we will be here on the Earth, but we know that God has many blessings to give you. You need to go to church this week. If you don't, you will never be able to know if it's true and receive all of those blessings. Haha they laughed a little bit about that but knew that I was serious. We called them that night to remind them and see if we could pass by their house in the morning before church. She said that they would go but that they would just meet us at church. They called us the next morning an hour before church and told us that they were waiting by the door. Haha they came to church and were even an hour early. It was an awesome experience to see them take the first step and come to church! The members were super good with them and it was a great experience for them!

This work in Obligado is amazing. We have been having experiences on a daily basis that have strengthened my testimony so much. I want to end off with a scripture I read this week, 3 Nephi 13:32-33. The Lord knows what we need. If we seek Him first, he will give us all the rest that we need. I love this work. I know that this church is true. I invite you all to go to church and find out for yourselves. I love you all-Have a good week!

Elder Reilly

Trent

No letter again this week from Trent, so here is an excerpt from his dad's:

This week was so great! We had three families of investigators at church! It was sweet! There was like 5 more members than investigators in church haha. The Lord is blessing us so much with miracles daily and with people who are really interested and willing to keep the committments that we extend. We're gonna baptize many people this transfer. We have about three more weeks.

We have to write the mission President every week by email and then we send in a form of the success of the zone every week too. We have leader conferences every month in Neuquen and zone conferences every transfer. When we go to Nuequen from Esquel we always go by bus and its about 11 or 12 hours. But the busses are super nice. They put on movies and have food and we're allowed to watch the movies haha. My other comp got transferred close to Neuquen so it was about 12 hours. 

There's definitely been a change here in the branch. The members are participating a lot more and we've had some great lessons with them. But it's just really hard to get them to come out with us because they all work.

I'm loving it out here. I've never felt so hyped up for the work. Elder Villa and I just go and invite everyone to get baptized every second of every day! Its sweet. Till next week! Chau

Trent - Deseo!

Hola Everyone!

This week was another solid one. Elder Villa and I worked so hard that we are honestly exhausted spiritually and physically. We have the desire and the faith to make miracles happen with the help of the Lord.

The work is getting the members here to have the same desire and faith. We do everything we can to excite them and animate them to share the Gospel and help us out. We have been visiting a lot of less active members this week to get them to come back to church so we can pull in the lost sheep and then go out strengthened and find more together! We found some great part member families and we shared with them the blessings of the temple and we're going to help them get baptized! 

When we're not visiting with members we are doing everything we can to find people to teach. I've never spoken to so many people in a week. It was crazy. We literally preached repentence and invited ALL to come to Christ. It was sweet. The Spirit works so well between us. We teach with one vioce and that voice is the Spirit speaking through us. 

We have been studying desire and faith and it is something that has really helped us. When we have righteous desires, the Lord makes them happen if we are righteous and worthy and we work hard. It's awesome. We can be miracle makers for the Lord! I love it!

I love you and miss you all very much! Hope your week was great! Chau!

Rhett

Hola familia!

Sorry I have no time to write this week. But to make it short we had some good things happen this week... actually some miracles! I will just tell one of them. So, we have this investigator named Marisa. We have been teaching her a lot and she loves the lessons and says she feels so happy every time we stop by to teach her. She's doing great but the only problem is she lives with her boyfriend and he basically hates the church and basically doesn't want anything to do with us. He wouldn't let her come to church which was really sad. We had a lesson with Marisa this week and decided to do a fast with her so that her boyfriend would soften his heart and so that she could go to church. Long story short we did the fast with her, and the next day she texted us about how she and her boyfriend broke up and now she is with her mom. Her mom before didn't like the church very much and was a little sick, but now Marisa told us that her mom is feeling better and wants to come with her to our church. Marisa told us about how the situation was a little crazy and all, but she just feels super happy and now will be able to go to church. It was just one of the miracles this week. It strengthened my testimony a lot on the power of prayer. Heavenly Father listens to our prayers and is willing to answer them if we ask. That's all for this week, I love you all!

Elder Reilly

Rhett - Lessons on lessons on lessons...

Hola Familia, amigos!

>Que tal chera! Detachori chera, este semana fue bueno! (As the Paraguayans would say...) Haha a little mixture of some Guarani and Spanish. I hope all of you are doing great, it's always awesome to hear from you guys. I am very grateful for your support!

This week was a great one to start off the new transfer. We had some cool things happen. One of them was that this week we had a mini MTC with the branch. My comp and I prepared some videos, parts from Preach My Gospel, games, and some other cool stuff to get the members excited to work with us and invite all their friends to come unto Christ. The sister missionaries are also back in our area now so they helped us out too. Unfortunately not a lot of people could come, but with the members that did come it went really great. We talked with them about what was keeping them from sharing with their friends and then did some practicing asking questions and stuff to invite their friends. They all seemed pretty pumped and excited to be missionaries! Yesterday one of the members actually called us after church and told us an experience she had. She told us about how she had talked with 3 families and started talking to them about the church and asked them if we could have a family home evening with them at their house. She said there are about 17 investigators that will be there and that Saturday we are going to go over and teach them. Haha it was insane, she and her family are seriously so awesome, they don't have fear to open their mouths and share the gospel. I'm super pumped for that on Saturday!

This week we had the opportunity to have some great lessons and meet some great new investigators also. We have just been inviting like crazy and trying to get all of our investigators to come to church and learn more about Christ. This week combined with the sisters we had 10 investigators come to church. It was amazing to see them come and see the friendships they made with some of the members here. Also, something else cool that happened was Rosaly and her little sister came too! The work here is going great, I'm excited to see what will happen this week.

> I'm honestly so happy right now to be here doing the Lord's work. It is hard at times, probably the hardest thing I have ever done but I think I am the happiest I have ever been. I am really just starting to see each person here as my brother or sister in God's family. We are all children of a Heavenly Father that loves us and we are all in this together fighting the same fight. I know that if we follow the Savior's example and try to be like Him we will be able to make it back to our Father in Heaven. Thats all for this week. Love you all have a great week!

Elder Reilly

Trent

Trent for didn't send a main letter this week so this is an excerpt from his dad's...

This week was great with Elder Villa! We had to go to Neuquen for few days and we returned on Friday afternoon and went right to work. Yes, he already spoke Spanish and he's a beast. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we worked liked crazy. We found a ton of people and had a few miracles. Late Sunday night, we went to go check on a contact that we made in the street and we couldn't find them. We think they gave us a fake adress which happens a lot. So we just took advantage of the situation and we contacted a few houses in the block and everyone rejected us. We turned to leave to go visit someone else, but as we passed this house I got this unshakeable feeling that we should knock. So we turned around and contacted it. A man came out and let us in. He was so prepared. As we taught him the restoration, everything just clicked. He told us that in that moment he was sitting on the couch pondering why there were so many churches and wanting to know which one was true. He had recently left his church because of some bad experiences. He understood the restoration and told us he would read the Book of Mormon to know if it is true. It was so awesome! I love experiences like that. The Lord puts everything in our path so we can have success. Those first people in the street gave us a bad address so we could be guided to that man in the perfect moment. I just have no doubt that this church is true and that I was guided by the Holy Ghost!

We have been meeting with all of the members and helping them share the gospel. We finally got the Branch President to start reading the Church Manual of Instruction! Hes been prez for 2 years and he's never read it! 

The gang/crew is looking great! Tell the homies I said hi haha. Out here we are changing Esquel. Literally we can just feel and see the hand of the Lord. He needs this branch to be changed and we aren't gonna continue ignoring the problem. With the help of Him we're gonna work miracles! Til next week

Rhett - Another Transfer in Obligado baby!!

Hey Guys!

Man this week was awesome!! One of the best weeks of my mission so far. This area is growing so much and we are seeing so many miracles it's amazing. This past Sunday we had the opportunity to watch a broadcast for the southern part of South America. In the conference they talked a lot about the role of members in missionary work and how if we are unified and working as a team the missionary work will increase so much more. It was a great opportunity for us this week to work with them and start getting a lot of references. They are now so pumped to work with us. This Saturday we are going to plan a mini MTC with them and help them get pumped up with different ways they can share the gospel.

The branch here in Obligado is starting to grow a ton. The last two weeks at church because of the rain we had about 15 people at church. We have been talking with the president about having the members visit less actives and working with the members to find people to teach. This week at church we had about 50 people come and 7 investigators came. I'm seriously so pumped about this next transfer here! Right now we meet at church on the 2nd floor in a little building. The goal is to increase the number of members here so that we can actually move into a chapel and hopefully into a ward! We're gonna make it happen!

There is so much to share about our investigators and this area, I wish I could just speak to you all and tell you haha cause I suck at writing now... especially in English haha. But to make it short, Obligado is growing, our investigators are progressing, and we are doing the Lord's work. I love this work. Just to end off, this week I starting reading a book called Our Heritage that talks about the formation of our church and what the early saints sacrificed so that they could restore God's church to the earth once again. They were hated, spit upon, tar and feathered, cast out, and even killed... but they kept true to the faith and knew that it was God's work. And now...because of them we have the opportunity to experience all the blessings that come from this great Gospel. If you haven't read it, I would challenge you to read it, it has strengthened my faith a ton. Anyways I'll just end off saying that I know this church is true. And I know that Jesus Christ is the founder of it. I love you all, Have a great weeeeekk!

Elder Reilly

Sorry I need to start taking more photos. Next week!

Food...

More food...

Haha I'm not a birdseed anymore Mike Steck!

Trent - Cinthia Got Baptized and Transfers

Hola Everyone!

This week was so so great! Cinthia was baptized on Saturday and confirmed yesterday! Everything came out great. She is truly converted. She bore her testimony yesterday in church and it was so awesome. She said that at first when we found her, she didn't want to listen and she rejected us. But then, a bunch of really bad things started to happen in her life and in her worst moment, we came and knocked on her door again. She took that as an answer from God and decided to start reading the Book of Mormon and praying for the first time in her life. She shared that from that moment on, a ton of good things have happened in her life and she was able to receive a testimony of the Book of Mormon. She is so awesome! She invited a ton of friends to her baptism and now we're gonna teach them all! BUT, the best part of the story she doesnt know. We had already decided that we weren't going to keep visiting Cinthia because she "rejected" us by not keeping any committments and not coming to church. About two weeks after that decision, Elder Bernal and I felt a prompting that we shoud go visit her again. We were both so frustrated because she had truly let us down before and because of our pride we didn't want to go back, BUT WE FOLLOWED THE PROMPTING. The Lord sent us to Cinthia in her poorest moment and we were able to be tools in His hands to help her return to the fold. So awesome. The Lord tuly guides us if we are worthy and listen: I love this work!

Transfers happened today and Elder Bernal was sent to Plottier in the way north. I will stay here in Esquel as Zone Leader with my new companion Elder Villa. He's a Mexican from the US and he's a beast. We already knew each other from San Martin and I'm really excited to work with him. We're gonna keep changing this branch and being tools in the Lord´s hand as we ACT upon the promptings of the Spirit!

Love you and miss you all. I hope all is well. Till next week!

Elder Reilly