Trent - Time is Flying

Hola Everyone!

This week was great! Elder Johansson and I are working really hard. This week we were finding very few people to teach and then our Ward Mission Leader stepped up and they invited a bunch of people to their house for a family home evening. They made like 10 pizzas and we all ate and then we shared a message. It was sweet. We did a funny little activity. I went around asking everyone one by one if they wanted a galletita and if they said yes, I made my companion do a ton of pushups. If they said no, I also made my companion do a ton of pushups. And I kept going around until Elder Johansson in his shirt and tie was literally dead on the floor and couldn't move his arms and everyone was begging me to make him stop haha. After, we compared the suffering of Elder Johansson to that of Jesus Christ. It does not matter if we accept or not, Jesus Christ suffered for each one of us more than we can imagine. We explained that He suffered much more than Elder Johansson and that He showed us the way to receive the blessings of His suffering, the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Spirit came in really strong when we testified of the power and all the relief of our burdens that comes when we follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ. All of the people at the Family Home Evening were not religious and didn't really know who Jesus Christ was so it really helped them to understand. 

We are all so blessed to know who Jesus Christ is. He is the only one who can get us back home to our Heavenly Father! I love this scripture in Matthew 11:28-30:

28 ¶ Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

It's true! All that come unto Christ with have their burdens made light! Love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Reilly

Rhett - NDETAVY muitas coisas Ajapo- haha I am now speaking Portuguese, Spanish, and Guaranee

Bom Dia!

What's up brothers and sisters! I hope it was a good week. We had a lot going on this week. On Tuesday we had a meeting called Consejo de Lideres, which is a meeting with the zone leaders to talk about the mission. Then on Wednesday and Thursday we had interviews with President. On Friday we had zone conference...so yeah it was pretty crazy. We had lots of stuff to do. Hermana Svec shared something I thought was cool about the Sabbath Day. She shared with us the story when Moses lifted up the brass serpent and all the people had to do was look and they would be healed. But, because it was so simple, many just walked the other way without looking and in the end passed away. We can compare the story to the Sabbath day...how every Sunday we have the opportunity to be healed, maybe not physically but spiritually. It's something so simple, we just have to go to church and partake of the sacrament, and it gives us the opportunity every week to become clean and start the week right. I thought that was cool and stuck out to me in the conference.

This week was a little bit difficult for a lot of our investigators. A lot of them love when we come by and what we share but just don't want to commit and come to church, so sadly we have had to stop visiting some of them. That's always sad when that happens, but we planted the seed and maybe later they will be ready for the gospel. Edgar is really progressing though. It's pretty crazy, he seems like a completely different person now haha. We can now have normal talks with him as he is cutting off the alcohol and smoking. He has been drinking and smoking a lot less now and wants to stop completely. He keeps telling us to keep passing by because he feels good and knows we can help him.

It's awesome to see the changes he is making! We also had the opportunity to find a new family this week...Familia Ariste. They are a really big family and have been passing through a difficult time as a brother of one of the parents is in the hospital and was going to have surgery the day after we found her. We said a prayer with the mom to give her comfort and to help her know that everything would be ok. She told us after that she felt better about it and that she wanted us to visit her and her brother in the hospital the next day. Pretty crazy, that the next day we had interviews with president in Encarnacion which is right next to the hospital, so we were able to visit her and her husband and say another prayer with them. They felt good after and invited us to pass by their house another day to visit them. I know that the gospel will help them so much. I feel that we were sent to find them that night to help them just when they needed it. I know that the Lord really does answer prayers and if we are willing and have a desire to help others He will put people in our way to serve. I have seen that so much here on the mission, and continue to see it. Mann, the gospel is true!!! I hope you all have a great weeeekkkkk! Much Love,

Elder Reilly

Sorry no pics for this week. I only have 1 of my chileno comp

Rhett

Hola Familia!

I hope you all had a great week! I don't have much time but I just want to share an experience that I had this week.

This week we were able to teach a guy named Edgar. I have passed by his house before to visit some investigators that live nearby, and told him we would pass by another day but never went back to teach him. He is a drunk, with one leg, that lives in a house with basically a floor and a bed. This week we were walking by his house and we decided to go over and talk to him. As we started talking he invited us to come and sit in front of his house and you could tell he had been drinking. He told us about his life and how he wants to quit drinking and smoking. Long story short, he has had a really tough life and has been really down with all of the things that have happened. He told us how he wantsd to change and that he knows we can help him. We testified about how with the help of God and Jesus Christ he will be able to change. As we talked back and forth he just started crying and was so grateful that we were there to help. We visited him another time during the week and yesterday he came to church. He seemed so happy at church and says he wants to come every week now! It doesn't matter who we are, where we are from, or what we are doing, Heavenly Father knows each and every one of us and through His son Jesus Christ we can change. I know that that is true! I am so grateful to be a part of this great work and see how the atonement of Jesus Christ is helping peoples lives! I hope you all have a great week, Love you!

Elder Reilly

bautismo de Karina, i look super burned... haha

​

Trent

Little bits from his parents' emails again...Trent didn't send a main letter!

...I'd run through a wall for my Heavenly Father too! That's what the mission has taught me. It's awesome. I feel full of love. Sometimes I just talk to someone in the street, and I already feel like running through a wall for them too. God is filling me with His love.

In the area the work slowed down a little and we had a tough week but we are going to keep working like crazy! We had some people that we had a lot of hope for who are not progressing anymore and we had to stop passing by them so much but we are finding new people ad helping those who are still progressing. I love this week and I am so glad to be here. Really I wouldn't want to be doing anything else anywhere else. I LOVE this work!!!!!

Love you! Til next week!!

Rhett

Hola Familia y amigos!

This week passed by super fast. We had a ton of stuff to do for the transfers, mostly helping people go to their new areas while waiting in the terminal before they came.. So that was fun.. Elder Prina left for Argentina and now I'm with a Chileno named Elder Mendoza. He has about 8 months in the mission and this is his first time being zone leader, so I'm helping him out with that. We already get along super well. Haha he's a funny dude and likes to work hard so it's gonna be a good transfer.

Karina got baptized on Monday! She seemed so happy to be baptized and become a member of the church. I can definitely see a difference in her from when we first started teaching her. She is a solo mom with 4 kids so it's been hard for her but the gospel is helping and all of her kids love to come to church too. One of her kids is 8 years old and after seeing her mom now wants to get baptized too. It's great to see the impact the gospel can have on families. The gospel blesses families!

We are still trying to work a lot with the members and it's been working well. I have been able to see that when we serve others our love for them grows and we really have a desire to help them. I have really grown to love these people and want to just serve them in every way I can, so that they can come to church and receive all these blessings. "When ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God!" I know that's true and that serving others brings joy. Have a great week! Much Love

Elder Reilly

Trent

No main email again! Excerpts again...

Yes I'm glad too that I am staying with Elder Johansson . We really are a good team it's so fun working together. We will be great friends for life I'm sure. Don't worry about the fasting mother! Sacrifice bring blessings! At the beginning of each month all the zone leaders have a "council" in Neuquen to talk about the problems and challenges in the mission and make a plan to get better and fix them and baptize more. They are actually really cool and spiritual. Being a Zone Leader is actually really awesome and it does teach me so many things that will help me for the rest of my life...Like how to serve and love and work and minister to. There is a lot of stress but mom thats fine! It is helping me be able to manage stress too for when I back and when I get married and have no money and have to manage anyway haha. 

The Spirit really is with me! He's guiding us constantly and he testifies of our words! So thanks for your prayers! 

I feel like I am learning and progressing so much in the mission it's crazy. I'm so glad that I'm out here. My testimony is now unbreakable! I love the scriptures and believe what they say. I pray like 100 times a day it's crazy. I am really getting to know God and Jesus Christ and the how the Holy Ghost works too. Its amazing! I am so grateful! The mission is no sacrifice. I am getting recompensed(I think that makes sense in english) 100 fold. And the craziest part is that I'm never thinking about me. Sometimes I just look back after all this time of working and serving like crazy and I'm like wow God is blessing me and changing me a ton and I didn't even know it. It's awesome. This is what I needed in my life! It's setting me up for the eternities! Thank you Dad for preparing me for this! You and mom's example got me out here!

Im so excited to see Cal and all the kids and how they are doing when I get back. Sounds like the family is killing it! Love you! Till next week!

Trent

Excerpts from his parents' letter again - no main letter!

Happy Easter!

This week was sweet. Conference was awesome. I love the new changes and the awesome talks. We had investigators in church this week too, to listen so that was sweet. I'm sure they felt the power of our modern prophets' guidance. 

Transfers came again and Elder Johansson and I are staying in San Martin and we are pumped! I'm so excited. We are gonna work like crazy. We have a solid group of people now so now we have to get them all in the water this month! I have no doubt that we will have great success this month. We are fasting and praying a lot and working like crazy. My comp is a beast and we have the same vision. President told us that God has some great things in store for us if we keep working like we're working.

Its so sweet that there's a Brazilian Apostle. Finally, we got a latino in there! Of course it would've been nice to get someone from Argentina but I guess we'll settle for a Brasilero. I loved the last talk by President Nelson. It was sweet that there's gonna be a new temple in Argentina and a temple in Russia! I heard we' re basically on the brink of WWIII with them haha so hopefully we can get a temple in real quick.

I'm so glad I have a pair of Bad A parents ready to fight any challenge. I just got done reading Alma and at the end its all about the wars and Captain Moroni protecting the righteous. We're all soldiers in the army of God and I feel like the Reilly Family is on the front lines taking on whatever Satan's got!

My clothes are all good. Maybe I'lll need to buy a new pair of shoes but I think they'll just make it through haha. My black ones are destroyed but I want to wear them every day until they are just unwearable and then take them home as a memory. It will be cool. 

I know Christ lives! Love you! Till next week!

Rhett - The Church is True!!

Hola Familia!

Happy Easter! I hope you enjoyed getting goods from the Easter bunny...that doesn't exist here haha. But I hope it was a great week for all of you, to think a little more about the Savior and what he did for us. Wow... conference was awesome! I got to watch part of it in English too so that was coollll. Sustaining Russell M. Nelson as a prophet was probably the highlight for me. Such a powerful moment. It's so great to know that we really do have a living prophet today that leads and guides Christ's church on the Earth. 

Something that stood out to me in all of the talks was that every one of them reflected on the Savior's infinite love and service and how we should be loving our neighbors and serving one another as well. Love thy neighbor as thyself. We are all brothers and sisters in the same path to God. And it's something we are able to apply in every day of our lives! Every day we can love a little more and serve a little more. That is something I wished I would have done more before coming here on the mission. I'm so grateful for the opportunity I have had to serve and love a little more and come to know the Savior so much more and of His love and sacrifice for every one of us. It brings so much peace and happiness. A double double at In n Out can't buy that!! I love the Savior and I know He reaches out to all of us to take off our burdens and allow us to come follow Him.

This week I was able to feel a little more about the power of the Savior's atonement as we talked to an investigator Karina who will be baptized tonight and then become a member of the church. As we were talking to her preparing her for her baptism she expressed to us how she has felt bad for a really long time about something that happened in the past and has always felt guilty. I was able to tell her how when we truly repent and follow Jesus Christ our sins are forgiven. He remembers our sins no more. Then we explained how when she is baptized she will be completely clean. How great is that! Tonight she will be made clean and have a fresh start and a new life happier life. That makes me so happy to see her making that decision! I loved the talk in general conference about second chances. Jesus Christ suffered for us and will give us as many second chances as we need to change and become perfected in Him. There is so much hope in that to me. Everyday we have the opportunity to change and become better and more like our Savior Jesus Christ. I know that when we do that, we live happier lives. I know this church is true and is led by a living prophet who recieves revelation from God for this time. Love you all, have a great week!

Elder Reilly

We helped build a house!

Making some good chipa for semana santa

Familia Guettierezzzz