Trent

(excerpt)

This week was better! We have had some sweet experiences with people. It's crazy! They feel the power but it's just so hard for them to act. It crushes me sometimes! I feel like Nephi because I'm crying in prayer for them in the nights. I always want to know if I could do something more to help them. Ariel is having a tough situation. We finally found him yesterday and talked about the Plan of Salvation for about 2 hours. It was crazy. At first, he was so mad at God for the situation he is in. He was telling us all the stuff that's happening in his life and I just started smiling because I knew he was being humbled perfectly. We just started teaching him all about the Plan of Salvation and I just felt so guided in all I was saying. His whole perspective changed. He now knows his divine destiny and why we have to have opposition in all things here in the Earth. It was so powerful! I love the Plan of God! I really understand it now! I love this work even though it's so hard. Martin and Patricia came to a baptism on Saturday but not to church on Sunday. They are doing well but they don't like to commit to go to church. So we hope to get them there! 

I'm gonna keep giving my all! I love these people and I'm giving all I have to them! I hope I can help Ariel and Martin and Patricia and Fabian and Amalia all get baptized! Pray for them! Love and miss you! Till next week!

Rhett

(excerpt)

This week was a good one. We were able to see some awesome miracles! I don't have much time to write and can't really explain in a letter, but Heavenly Father is definitely watching over us and helping us do His work here. Leti finally came to church!! We went and walked to her house about 30 minutes away to get her up and to go to church, which was a little crazy but whatever it takes to help her and her family. We are willing to do what it takes to help her family progress! She loves the gospel and the Book of Mormon and wants to be baptized. She should be getting baptized real soon! We also were able to visit some investgators that we haven't been able to find in a while and had some great lessons with them. I was getting a little nervous with them thinking they didn't want anything to do with the gospel anymore because they didn't answer their phone and weren't ever home. But we have been praying and did a fast and this week we were able to find them, have some great lessons with them, and they have big desires to follow in the gospel. I'm so pumped for them!!! Seriously Heavenly Father is listening to prayers and answers us. He doesn't make things easy. He makes us work for it and then when we are putting in the effort and trust in Him, He gives us just what we need. With every difficulty there is always something we can learn and from it and become better people and understand more about the Great Plan He has in store for us.

In 2 weeks our branch here has planned to hand an Open Chapel. Which is basically an activity where people come and with the members we give them a tour of the church and help them understand more about Christ and our beliefs in the church. Yesterday my comp and I went and explained to the Branch on how it would work and how really it's a great opportunity for every member to invite their friends and anyone they know to come and be able to learn more about the church and maybe be the means of bringing them to Salvation. We shared the video "Invite all to come unto Christ" at the end. There was a great feeling in the room and the branch was excited to invite their friends and family. I think it will help the branch a lot and help with missionary work a lot. It's great to be a missionary, I love this work! Much love,

Elder Reilly

Rhett

Hola Familia!

Everything is good over here. We had zone conference this week with President so that was very motivating. What stuck out to me a lot was the Book of Mormon and working with members. It made me think a lot about how really everything bases off of the Book of Mormon and whether it's true. If we know it's true, then Joseph Smith was a prophet, if he was a prophet, the church was restored, if the church was restored, this is Christ's church on the Earth, and if we follow, we will be able to have peace in this life and one day live with God and have all that He has. If anyone really wants to know the truth they need to read the Book of Mormon. That made me think a lot and it's something we are really gonna try to help our investigators understand. I just got finished reading the Book of Mormon again in Spanish and I can say that I know it's true and that anyone who reads it will come to know God and our Savior Jesus Christ.

This week we visited an investigator named Leti. She is progressing a lot and has a desire to be baptized. She really wants to follow but just hasn't been able to come to church yet. That's been her big obstacle right now. But we have been continuing to visit her and she continues to tell us how she knows the Book of Mormon is true. We did service for her and her husband on Saturday and then after shared from the Book of Mormon. After we said a prayer with her, she opened up her Book of Mormon and read the first page she saw. We read together, and really the chapter spoke just to her and really it related to just what she needed to hear. It was able to help her in that moment and now she has a greater desire to follow in the gospel. The Book of Mormon can speak to us in different ways. It's got all the answers!! I know it's true and really can relate to us all. Love you all! 

Elder Reilly

Trent

(excerpt)

Love ya and miss ya! Ariel is doing all right. He didn't come to church. That's so discouraging when they don't come. But it's ok. I one of the coolest experiences of my mission this week though! We taught a family that we haven't found in a while that we taught our second day here: Fabian and Amalia. After the lesson, Fabian drove us to our apartment and on the way he told us the coolest thing ever! He said that the first day when we found him by himself, the night before he had a dream where his mom(who died 4 years ago) told him not to go to work the next day because people were going to pass by his house and share something that was going to help him. That next morning he stayed home and my companion and I passed by. And we were the only ones who passed by the whole day. It was so crazy! We were guided by the spirit and God prepared everything! So awesome! We hope to help him and his wife prepare to be baptized next month!! I love the mission for experiences like that! It makes everything worth it. It's really hard but it's the best thing ever! I don't want it to end!

Trent

(excerpts)

This week was a tough one but thats ok! I always learn the most from the hard weeks. I couldn't find Matrin and Patricia the whole week and they didn't come to church but Ariel is doing well. He's reading the Book of Mormon a lot! He's already almost done with 1 Nephi. It's crazy because I promised him that if he would read every day then immediately God would bless him and it worked! He said that immediately a bunch of work of little jobs from his neighbors started arriving to his house and that he was surprised at how instantly the promise worked haha. It was awesome! We invited him to be baptized the 4th of August and he accepted but it's gonna be really hard to get him to church. He lives in a really ghetto neighborhood and he lives by himself so if he leaves they will rob him basically. We are trying really hard to build his faith so that he can commit to go to church and see what God prepares for him. He already knows 1 Nephi 3:7. So we're just praying like crazy with him.

I did meet with the new President and he is awesome! He is so hyped to work with us and he is excited to break the expectations and baptize way more. He is full of the Spirit and we know that he is called of God. I'm excited to see what new changes he makes.

I have little time sorry! Till next week. Love you!

Rhett - El Plan es real...

Holaaaaa

I hope you all are doing good. This week was a little crazy...We had a conference in Posadas which was about a 5 hour bus ride on Wednesday. We left on Tuesday and then had the conference on Wednesday and then headed back to El Dorado. It was a little crazy but a really cool conference. Elder Cardus a seventy came and talked with us. The conference was a lot about obedience and how when we are obedient the Lord blesses us and allows us to have the Spirit. The Spirit is probably the most important thing about the gospel and if it's not there, really we can't be effective missionaries.

These past few weeks we were able to see how the Spirit can work through us and help us find those in need of the gospel in their lives. We were walking one day this week planning on going to visit a few people in an area a little far away but the people we were going to visit weren't there. So we thought about visiting another person we had visited before and walked over to her house to find out that there was no one home there either. Honestly, I was a little ticked. I think my comp as well as we didn't know what to do. So we looked at each and decided we were gonna go contact and find a lesson. We got walking on a nearby street that we had never taken before, and passed a cross in the road. I don't know why but we decided to keep going straight. We kept walking until almost the end when we felt we should contact the house. Without even basically saying who we were,

a lady came outside and told us to come in. We came out to her porch and met a lady who told us a story about how she talked to the missionareis about 5 years ago and then moved houses and basically never had much contact with the church ever since. We got to takng about the Plan of Salvation and she really didn't know why she was here on the earth nor where she would go after this life. We explained to her about the great plan Heavenly Father has in store for us and how we can live with our families for ever. She just kept on smiling and at the end told us we could come back tomorrow to teach her more. I know the Spirit was guiding us that day and that Heavenly Father has a plan for us all. Sometimes we don't know why something isnt going our way or why something has happened but if we keep going forward and do our part, Heavenly Father will help us find what we need. The plan is real! I know it is and that this is His work! Have a good week, Love you all!

Elder Reilly

Rhett

Hola Familia!!!

I hope all is well over there! Sorry I really don't have much time but this week really was a great one. We have been just trying to gain the confidence of all the members so that they get excited about the work and want to share with all of their friends. So we have been trying to do that and so far it's going well. I can see the excitement of the branch going up and I know that we can do big things here. We are trying do all we can and just follow the Spirit so that we can find everyone we can! I know there are people waiting it's just up to us to go and find them. It's gonna be a good week! Have a good one, Much Love

Elder Reilly

Trent

(excerpts)

Yes! I got transferred after only a short time in Villa Ceferino. This area is very similar haha. It's pretty ghetto but I like it. Yes I am living with Elder Johansson again! I'm so glad! I thought I wasn't going to see him until he was home at his homecoming talk. We have to look for another apartment though because we live so far away from our area! We have to walk 45 minutes to get there and 45 minutes back. Its very inefficient but for now it's all we got. We are looking for new apartments but every one that we have found has been too expensive! YES, my mission president gave me a blessing before he left. I was so thankful! It was really nice of him to do that. I haven't met the new mission president yet. But Elder Johansson and his comp got to go to the leadership council thing and meet him and they said he is a beast! So I'm excited. I get to meet him on Thursday. 

Everything is good here. We are teaching this really awesome family of 4. Martin, Patricia, Tisiano, y Agustina. They didn't come to church though!!! Immediatly after sacrament meeting we left to go to their house and see what happened and they were sleeping dangit! But we explained to them the importance of going to the church and they committed to come again the next week. We are working hard and doing everything we can to put this place in order.

Sounds really fun with the whole family down there! Plan something good when we get back! LOVE YOU! Ciao!

Trent

(excerpts)

Man I got transferred! It seems that God always does this haha. We start having success and he changes me to somewhere else haha. I recently learned that two of the people I found and taught in San Martin got baptized though so that's sweet! I hope to hear that the Antelo family gets baptized too! Sad that I have to leave them! So now I'm in Roca! I got here with another whitewash! Me and my new comp, Elder Stuardo from Chile, got here Wednesday and we didn't know anything about our area haha. That was interesting. The past Elders didnt leave us a single investigator. The area book is all disorganized and the area was pretty much dead haha but were just gonna work it like crazy! My new companion is a good missionary and we are getting along well so that's nice. I'm still a district leader too. I'm excited to be here! It's a big ward and the members are great! We already found two great families and taught them so that's sweet! We found a woman named Susana who is really prepared to receive the Gospel!! The Lord is blessing us a ton! We just have to work! So that's what were gonna do! I love you and miss you! Till next week!

Rhett - Argentinaaaaaaaaaaaa

Hola Familia!

Happy Birthday SID!!!!!!! i HOPE YOU HAD A GREAT BIRTHDAY, LOVE YOU! (to his mom)

First week in Argentina! Pretty crazy, I'm close to a city called El Dourado, about 2 hours from the Iguazu Falls. I'm here with Elder Peters! He's from Las Vegas and has about 3 months on the mission. We already get along great and he likes to work, so it's gonna be a good transfer! It feels like I'm starting the mission again haha. The money is different, the food, and the way people do things is all different so it's been a little weird getting used to it. But it was a great first week! There are actually a lot of Paraguayans here or people that speak some Guarani so thats been cool keeping up with the Guarani. They are all super shocked when they see a white guy saying something in Guarani in Argentina. Jaja they all just start cracking up laughing and then we can share what we do and why we are here, so that makes it fun.

The Rama here has about 25-35 people that come to church every week. This week we focused on trying to visit lots of the members and get them pumped up to share the gospel with their friends and help us find people to teach and it worked really well. We had a little meeting with the branch president and leaders and basically gave the idea of how every member can think of one person to share the gospel and pray for opportunities to share with them. They all really liked it and now we are going to be setting up family home evenings every week to have them invite their friends so that we can help them know about the gospel. They were all pretty pumped and tomorrow and Thursday we have planned to have family home evenings with 2 of the families. I'm really excited for that! 

This week we had some lessons with some investigators of the elders before who are really prepared! They love the gospel just the elders before never really invited them to do anything, so we invited them to pray and ask God if these things are true and then invited them to follow Jesus Christ and be baptized and they accepted! So awesome! Yesterday we taught Gabriela and her boyfriend Ganzalo about the restoration. We explained to them about how today there is a modern day prophet and 12 apostles who recieve revelation and help guide the church on the Earth. They were shocked and looked so happy! We then invited them to be baptized and they said they would like too. I'm so excited for them! I honestly feel like Heavenly Father has been preparing me and the people here for this time. I have learned so much in these past 1 and a half years and now I feel like I am able to use it and that Heavenly Father is using me as an instrument to bring souls unto Him here in Ruta. Ahh, the gospel is trueeee!!! I know it blesses lives and changes them for the better! How great is that! Love you all, have a good week!

Elder Reilly