What do you think of when you pray? 10/29

Well winter has officially started. Yesterday we had a blizzard here in Vitoria. I haven't seen snow like that for a very long time! But the cold has definitely started in Vitoria. I don't know why, but I always tend to be in the places where they either have the most extreme heat or the most extreme cold. Who knows? I love this country with all my heart though.

This week my testimony of the Book of Mormon has grown so much! My testimony of Jesus Christ has also continued to grow. The invitation by the Prophet was so inspired! We have been focusing a lot on the Book of Mormon with those who we are teaching also and we have seen so much progress!

We have been working with a Peruvian family, a mother and two kids and one of her kids got baptized a few weeks ago. We have started to devote lots of time to be with them studying the scriptures! It is amazing to see how each of them are progressing as we put so much focus on family scripture study. The mother has so many desires to help her family but she has been inactive for quite some time and has needed a lot of support with the gospel. Marcos, her son is doing amazing, he marks the scriptures as we read and has amazing comments. He is also excited to make a trip to the temple with the ward! Camila, the 12 year old daughter, has not wanted to open up. But this week she has downloaded the scriptures on her phone and has had more of a desire to come to church and participate! There is power in the scriptures!

The Venezuelan family we are teaching is still doing amazing. They have made many goals as a family and their family prayers and scripture study has improved! They are still working toward the goal of November 29 to be baptized and they are just looking for their own personal answers! It has been amazing to see their progress as we have put so much focus on them. We have been focusing a lot on prayer with them and I have found a quote that talks about prayer and how it we can take advantage of this wonderful blessing. 

“Do we really picture an actual father when we pray?  Do we think of him—do we truly think of Him—as our Father?  Do we spend any time on our knees trying to picture the being to whom we pray?  May I suggest a process that works for me.  I don’t mean it to be a ritual for anyone, just encouragement.  Find a private place and kneel comfortably and calmly…    For a few moments say nothing, just think of Him.  Just kneel there and feel the closeness of His presence, His warmth, His peace.  With humility, express your gratitude for every blessing, every good thing you enjoy.  Share with him your problems and fears.  Talk to him about each one and pause long enough to receive counsel.”  Jeffrey R. and Patricia Holland

Praying in this manner takes focus, energy, practice and dedication.  Mighty prayers of the heart are worth the effort!  As we devote the time needed in mighty prayer, our own conversion to the Lord will grow! 

How is your personal conversion going? We must use pray in the way it is meant to be used to develop a close relationship with our Heavenly Father and feel His presence with us daily!

I know that God answers prayers and when we put in the time to offer true sincere prayers, we will feel His presence and receive His guidance daily! 

Love you all! Have an amazing week! 

Hermana Bangerter 

BELIEVE. LOVE. DO 10/23

Hello family and friends! Well it's official I've started my last transfer of the mission! Good news though, I'll be staying with my amazing companion and best friend Hermana Ney! We are super excited, especially because we've been working so hard to build up this area and we've created some great relationships with the ward and our friends we are teaching!

This week has honestly flown by but at the same time has been super long! I can't explain it haha. Last Tuesday we had zone conference and I loved it because we focused a lot on this past general conference that we had! We also had a leadership meeting before the conference and it was my favorite part, we talked about pride and how it is the universal sin. President Galli shared the scripture Ether 12:27 which is a very well known scripture where God tells us to be humble in order for our weaknesses to be strengths. He then referred to Ether 12:37, it says "and because though hast seen thy weakness thou shalt be made strong." he explained that this is the key to humility seeing and being aware of our weaknesses. But he made a good point saying we should not have a pity party over our weaknesses, rather we should be aware of them, and set the appropriate goals, ask for God's help, and TURN OUTWARD with charity in order for them to become our strengths!

I applied this teaching this past week and I asked God to show me my weaknesses and I was then able to make some of the best goals I've made on my mission in order to help those around me!

I've also been pondering and thinking about my experience as a missionary and all that I have learned. I can’t write it all of course but I realized that one of the greatest lessons I've learned is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. This entails quite a bit but to make it short I will use President Uchtdorf’s talk from this past conference. BELIEVE. LOVE. DO.

Believe- a disciple believes in Jesus Christ and God the Father. Believes that this is the restored church of Jesus Christ. Believes that God's speaks to you through the Holy Ghost as you seek and ask through pray and scripture study.

Love- a disciple of Jesus Christ allows love to be their only motive. They do not look for the glory of the world but does everything because they love God with all their Heart, might, mind, and soul.

Do- a disciple of Jesus Christ is worthy of the spirit and acts on its promptings. Serves others. And magnifies their callings!

The path to discipleship is not easy and we will make mistakes, but thanks to the mission I now know that it is possible and it is the only path that brings true Joy!

Our friends our doing well here, we had a family home evening with the Venezuelan family that we're teaching and it was very spiritual and they opened up to us and put their trust in the members we were with! Marcos and his mom are doing super great, they are working on their family history and hoping to go to the temple at the end of November! I love this ward; it has my heart!

Love you all! Have an amazing week!

Hermana Bangerter 

READ THE BOOK OF MORMON 10/5

Well, October is half way over and I'm just a tiny bit bitter that they don't celebrate Halloween here. Haha… don't worry we are throwing a Halloween party in the ward so I'll get a small taste of itJ 

Anyway! To the important stuff… Marcos got baptized!!! It was such a beautiful service, pretty much all of his family came to the baptism and the majority of them aren't members! Marcos was so happy and the day he was confirmed he received the Aaronic priesthood! His mom got up and bore her testimony and was so emotional it was so tender.

Another big update, our friends from Venezuela who have been attending church for about 6 months now accepted a baptism date! It is not until the end of November but they are very determined to read the Book of Mormon, have family home evening, and do all they can to be prepared on that day. It has been difficult for them to make that commitment so it was a huge miracle. They just have such a strong desire to have the blessings of the gospel in their lives!

Another amazing miracle this week, one of our friends Alex from Nigeria is very faithful and has so much love for God. He has loved all of the lessons so far it’s just hard for him to leave behind his religion. Well this past Friday we met with him and we had planned to watch some of conference with him (he speaks English too so that's a weird change) but as we were talking he told us that his father had passed away years ago and it was very hard for him. We started to testify of the state his father is now and he began to ask many questions. We decided to teach him the plan of salvation. It was one of the most spiritual lessons I have taught in my mission, he understood it all so well and as we pulled out scriptures to help him understand each part of God's plan. He was amazed. He told us that he believed it and he even started to ask about temples and family history work. We asked him what he thought he needed to do to make it to the celestial kingdom and he told us he only needed to receive the Holy Ghost because he had already been baptized in his church. We were able to open to Acts 19:1-6 and show him an example of those who were baptized, didn't receive the Holy Ghost and therefore were re-baptized.  It clicked for him! He told us he would go home and pray to know if this is what he needs to do! He is so prepared; the only problem is his hard work schedule, which most of the time is on a Sunday.

Well this week has been very busy and quite a bit of my study time has been taken due to traveling. I just want to testify of the Book of Mormon. I have started this challenge given to us by the Prophet to read all the Book of Mormon and highlight everything about Jesus Christ and it has been amazing. The Book of Mormon is true. Read it! It is another Testament of Jesus Christ and can help us in whatever situation we may be in, if we are struggling financially, physically, with school, relationships, family, etc. Read the Book of Mormon! It WILL help you. It brings God's power into our lives and will strengthen us with whatever we may be struggling with.

I love you all and I hope you have an amazing week!

Hermana Bangerter 

Revelation and Inspiration 10/8

What a week full of revelation and inspiration! I LOVE general conference and watching it as a missionary just makes it so much better. I don't know about you, but after listening to and watching all of conference I left with a new sense of meaning and desires to continue to progress on the covenant path and help those around me either find this path or stay on it!
I loved the invitations from the Prophet! To leave the world behind (social media) and spend time focusing on our Savior as we read the entire Book of Mormon focusing on our Savior and highlighting every verse that talks about him! I don't know about you but I'm very excited to do so! I also loved the invitation to go to the temple and if you can't, go study and learn about it as much as you can! You already know that I'll be studying all I can before I go to the temple again here in a few months!
This week as I was trying to focus my thoughts on my Savior I was able to see how the Lord can strengthen us as we "continually treasure in our minds the words of life." it was after a rather long day where we had quite a few rejections and I had a lot of humbling experiences that I started to think of the Savior to help get me through the rest of the night.
I thought of the day that Christ preformed the Atonement. He knew that this was going to be the hardest thing that any man will ever have to do and more. He could have easily been wracked with fear or let the rejections of others get to Him just as we so easily tend to do. But what did He do instead? He went out and served and loved. He washed the feet of His apostles, he taught and expressed his concern, love, and appreciation for others right before He did the hardest most excruciating task any man will ever have to do.
In our lives we will be faced with trials, fears, and hardships. But let us follow the example of the Savior and not look to ourselves but look outward and minister to those around us. This is when the Lord strengthens us and helps us with any task we may have ahead of us.

Just an update on our friends and the work here in Vitoria. Our friend Marcos is getting baptized this Friday and the ward is supporting is many ways. (you know the ward has been helping when they start fighting about who gets to participate in the baptismal program) haha We are teaching a couple from Venezuela and they came to conference this weekend and absolutely loved it, they said it answered so many questions and they wanted to listen to more so I'm very excited to see their progress next time we meet with them!

Well I love this work, I know the Lord lives, and this is His church with His name!
I love you all!
Hermana Bangerter