Transfers! 8/7

What a week it has been. Just some fun facts about Zaragoza, there is a paper factory and a beer factory in the two parts of the city that we are in the most. Wow it just has some delicious smells. Haha weirdly, I'm starting to like the smell of paper being made? I don't know how. Second fact, it is one of the hottest areas of our mission!!! I love the heat. Don't worry mom, I’m drinking lots of water and wearing sunscreen. 

NEXT we were able to see our friend Benjamin be baptized!!! And his dad was able to do it. It was the cutest thing, they arrived an hour early to practice everything and make sure that it would all go well. His dad did an amazing job. It was a bit funny cause Benjamin got super excited to get in the water and tried to swim right away.. Cute little Benjamin. He was just glowing and jumping off the walls with excitement. After, the father bore his testimony and was so grateful for the turn out of the ward and said he was excited to baptize his daughter next month. It has been such a miracle to see this beautiful Nigerian family come from the hardest situation to doing all they can to return to the church and help raise their children in the gospel. We were able to do a family home evening with them yesterday and it was just one of the happiest moments to see this incredible family come back to the church. 

Well our friend Adalbert has had a bit of a bump in the road, we had quite an intense visit the other day as he expressed to us that he feels he does not need to be baptized. Something we realized is that he does not have a strong enough relationship with Christ so that is something we will be working on a lot with him. In the visit with him he expressed to us many questions and doubts and something my amazing companion kept saying over and over again is that "you know enough". She kept expressing to him that the spiritual experiences he has had are enough for now and as he keeps trying little by little, that knowledge he has will increase. But for now "you know enough". 

That is something that has really stuck out to me this week. As human beings we tend to easily forget and a big problem of that, is forgetting all that the Lord has done for us. Forgetting spiritual experiences. When we forget, that is when the problems come. We must always keep those memories in our head and doing the little things such as reading and praying daily so we can continue to have the spiritual experiences that come as we do. Many times we have fears for the future, we know the next step ahead but we don't know the next. This is when it is essential to remember that we know enough. If we have been doing those little things and we know at least the next step a head, we need to realize that we know enough. 

The small and simple things are the most important things. 

Last update, I've had a wonderful time here in Zaragoza 1B. I've been transferred to a very distant location... Zaragoza 2B!!! I had to move bathrooms and everything :))) 

Haha I'm excited, I'll get to really know everyone here in Zaragoza so it's going to be an amazing time! My companion is Hermana Lesueur! but the crazy thing is that she goes home halfway through the transfer to get to school on time so I'll be back in a trio here in 3 weeks! got to love the mission! 

Love you all!

Hermana Bangerter 

Gift of Tongues 7/30

Well this week I learned that the gift of tongues is REAL. We have an investigator from Brasil, he has lived here for about ten years and hasn't seemed to pick up on the Spanish at all. We taught him twice this past week and at first I was super upset thinking that everything I learned about Spanish was out the drain, until I realized he was speaking Portuguese. Haha my companion had previously had a Brasilia companion so thankfully she could understand a bit. I felt like I was back in my training, but it was amazing to see the parts that I could understand were the parts crucial to being able to testify and inviting the spirit into the lesson. 

So an update on our friends, we have been finding a lot this week. It's amazing to see how merciful the Lord is, we have managed to continue to find a great amount of people in each area as just one companionship. He definitely strengthens the weak. 

Our friend Adalbert is the definition of a convert. The change we have seen in him is incredible. When we met him he did not know who Jesus Christ was and he now sends us pictures daily of Christ. He tells us what he learns in the Book of Mormon and has grown incredibly. He has been clean from tobacco this past week except for one cigarette and he's determined to quit! He is very excited for his baptism coming up.

With Benjamin and Joy the ward has just been jumping in to help this whole family come back to church. Benjamin's parents were a bit doubtful about their son’s baptism but a member of the bishopric jumped right in and helped them understand that this is what the Lord wants at this time and they are now all in and ready for his baptism this Saturday. Our ward mission leader is still reading the Book of Mormon with him daily and we've had other members offer to have family home evenings with them to help the father resolve his doubts!

This past week we had a few ups and downs as usual but at the end of a rather tough day I sat down and opened my scriptures and a particular verse that I had highlighted before stood out to me. Alma 57:20-21

"20 And as the remainder of our army were about to give way before the Lamanites, behold, those two thousand and sixty were firm and undaunted.

Yea, and they did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness; yea, and even according to their faith it was done unto them; and I did remember the words which they said unto me that their mothers had taught them."

This scripture is talking about a war between the Nephites and Lamanites, with the 2,000 stripling warriors helping the Nephites. The war was to a point where the Lamanites were about to overpower the Nephites.

As the rest of the army gave way to the forces of the Lamanites, or in other words, the adversary the stripling warriors stayed strong. Those who:
1. obeyed with exactness
2. Were firm and undaunted (Unshaken in purpose)
3. Exercised faith
Were able to defeat the adversary. Later verses tell us that EACH on of them had wounds of great kind but they ALL survived.
This battle against the adversary is not an easy one, we all get wounded. But we must follow the example of the 2,000 striping warriors who knew their divine purpose and destiny and did all in their power, obedient to their Lord, to defeat their enemies and bless the lives of their families and friends.

I love this. The lord blesses us in our trials and afflictions. Looking back on my mission, the hardest times was when I grew and learned the most.

I love you all!

Hermana Bangerter

Zaragoza "cierzo" 7/23

Well heeeello beautiful family and friends of mine. Let me just say we have been blessed so much this week, for a number of reasons. First, it hasn't been too hot here! The Zaragoza "cierzo" (they named the wind here) has returned so we've had a nice breeze to cool us down! Let me just say when you have two areas to take care of there are zero breaks. We wake up running until we hit our pillows at night. It's amazing though, I love having so much work to do and the Lord is helping us so much. He knows we have limited time in each area so when we get to our area it's just miracle after miracle. We were able to find 7 new investigators in the area of barrio 1 and 5 in the area of barrio 2. And they are all such prepared people.

One miracle story, we are constantly handing out our cards to everyone we talk to and see and throughout my entire mission nobody has called the number of that card until I arrived here in Zaragoza. We have had 3 people call us wanting to know more in the past 3 weeks! One man, Roberto sent us a text today with a lot of interest and we were able to meet with him. He opened up about his experience with prayer and how he has felt the love of God in his life through prayer so we were able to explain to him that he can receive an answer the same way!

Another miracle, I haven't talked much about our friend Adalbert! He is from Romania. I met him last transfer when a member brought him to church. I have been able to teach him since then and see him change inside and out. He had come to church for many weeks now and this week he accepted a baptismal date for August 4. We were worried about the word of wisdom with him but when we taught him he told us he would quit smoking immediately. He told us he talked to his mom about his baptism and at first she was very worried until he explained to her it was something he really wanted to do! He is very excited and it has been incredible to see the spirit touch and change his life.

Sorry this will be a bit long, but I talked about Joy and Benjamin and their family last week. We were able to meet with them a few times this week and their son Benjamin is so excited to be Baptized. The father Benjamin told us he feels ready to baptize him on August 4. Our ward mission leader is also incredible and is helping the family increase their testimony and he committed to read with them in the Book of Mormon every night.

Ok I just have to share something learned from my studies this week.

2 Timothy 4:7

"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."

These were the last words of the apostle Paul and it made me think, how can I have the great confidence that he had at the end of his earthly ministry.

With inspiration and study I have thought of these three points.

1. Learn how to receive personal revelation. 

2. Repent daily. (this is the process that allows us to receive revelation) the greatest failure we can all have is to refrain from repenting

3.  Accept the counsel of all who are sent from God, they all have something to teach us.

Of course there are quite a few more things we can do, but these are the basis of how we can be confident that we have done the Lord's will.

I love you all so much! 

Hermana Bangerter