Monday October 8, 2012

Dear Sweet Momma---

 

Oh Africa, it just sounds buck wild.  I hope that you know how grateful I am for you, I am grateful for your willingness to always go and help those who are in need, grateful for your patience and perseverance...I just love you so much.  I'm excited for when all of you get home, so you can be able to enjoy in those comforts of home, not to mention all the American candy you want without having to travel to the embajada. 

 

As for me, this week was pretty sweet...I'm just kind of really tired to be honest.  We are just trying to work until we drop, which is the best way to work.  There truly is no feeling more satisfying than that of being exhausted in the work of the Savior.  The days when I am exhausted are the days when I know that the Lord is proud of me, and I hope that even after my mission I can stay that way, just doing God's work, serving others, being more focused on the eternal things than on the worldly things. 

 

I've been thinking a lot lately about that scripture in Mosiah... that the natural man is an enemy to God and will forever be unless he puts off the natural man and becomes as a little child, meek, humble, submissive.  I love that concept.  When I think of little children, I think of sweet human beings, who love all they meet, they see the good before they see the bad, they trust, they give, they help others, they are sad with those that are sad, they walk with those who ask them to, they are patient, they laugh, they listen to the counsels of their father, they try anything and most the time they do it with out questioning why, they walk and they go, they have faith and they are willing to learn, they can hear and feel the Spirit and they trust it.

 

Momma, that is what it is all about, I am excited to come home and be with you all but at the same time I am so nervous because I know that that's when the real test will begin.  When I will have to apply all the things I have learned out here.  When I will actually be in the world having to put off the natural man, finding the way to balance it all.  I hope and pray with all my heart that I can be as a little child, that I will always remember the things of eternal value instead of those of the worldly.  Something that Elder Holland or President Uchtdorf said I think, was that once we start this journey, we cannot look back but we must look forward and go.  Mom, I can not look back to my past, but I must go and always be a disciple of Jesus Christ because that is what is most important.  I know this Gospel is true, I have been blessed with that knowledge and testimony and will forever have the responsibility to share it and live it.  I'm grateful for it, for my Savior and for my family.  I am excited to be with you all and to begin the rest of the journey, the rest of my mission.  I love you.

 

Cubo

RR

   

October 1, 2012

Mommy!

Man oh man,

I'm glad to hear that everything is working our for the AFRIKANOS so that they can find their way back home easily...that is such a blessing.  I'm excited for you all to get going back home, there is nothing like it.  That reminds me of a song....I think it's called Home.  It says, "home, now let me go home, home is whenever I'm with you!"  It's wild how that works.  I have noticed that the moments in my life where I have felt lost or sad or confused, where it seems as though I can't continue on, the thing that always popped into my mind was the thought of you, or of grandpa, or of family.  In Hawaii, it wasn't so much my friends, but it was the thought of Matty and Lindsay and Parker...it was never the thought of 460 Albers Rd., but the thought of being with the ones I love, with the ones that know me.  Because it is through you all that I find my support, my peace of mind, my comfort. I am so grateful to my God, for each and every one of you and the promise He has given me that as I do my all, as I strive to follow my Savior I can have you all by my side and I can have greater lasting joy.  I am so excited for the family to all be together again to celebrate Gromzy and Shaybaby...it's gonna be the sweetest.

Right now, I am still in Fredricksburg, training Hermana Wallis.  Our area is ginormous so we have a car, thank goodness, because its freezing!  I heard this winter is going to be awful because the last, apparently for others, was really "warm."  I'm loving it these days though, out here there are tons of trees and so I get to see everything change, and it's just beautiful.  The work is progressing and I am just trying to work as hard as I possibly can to consecrate my work to the Lord.  I just want Him to be proud of me by the end of this all.  Momma, yesterday in sacrament meeting a man bore his testimony. His name is Don Dimas Rodriguez and he is just the sickest ever, I love him so much. He bore his testimony talking about how grateful he was for his missionaries who gave him the chance to have the truth in his life, to hold the Priesthood of God, so that he can bless his family and friends...I couldn't help but cry, knowing what a large impact this work has on others, knowing how grateful I am for the missionaries who taught you and for your willingness to accept it, knowing how grateful I am for the examples of Matty and Grommy and Boofy and Dad, for their willingness to participate in it all and how grateful I am for my mission, for how blessed I am and will forever be to have seen the lives of people I have talked to change and seeing my life change.  There is no greater peace or joy, no greater feeling than helping others and seeing them light up literally at finding the way back to their Father in Heaven.  I love my mission momma, I love you, I love everyone.  BE safe in AFRIKA.

Cubo

RR

PS: Check out the crazy chihuahua that always tries to eat me at the trailers.

September 24, 2012

Dear Family: 

We found on Saturday night a woman named Nina, momma, she is so sweet.  She is from Mexico and lives with one of her three sons, the other two live in Mexico with her parents.  She is working to support all 4 of them in Mexico.  It was crazy, as she let us into her apartment and we started to talk with her, I could just see how tired she was, how much she needed peace, the peace that comes from the gospel and immediately i thought of Mathew, when Jesus says, "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and i will give ye rest."  I knew, in that moment that I was in the right place, that there was no where else in this world i needed to be but there, with her.   So we began to share with her and well, the incredible thing about her is that in Veracruz, Mexico, about 13 years ago she had spoken with missionaries, read the Book of Mormon and attended church regularly.  She lost contact with the elders when she moved, but we invited her to be baptized and she smiled big and said yes, that she had gone to baptisms of her friends and that was something she was wanting to do.  There is nothing more special than that, than finding someone who has been searching.  I know momma, that this gospel is true, that it is the thing that brings us eternal happiness.  I love you so much and am so grateful for the example that you are to me.  Tell every one I love them.  Be happy, cause momma, we are so blessed!

 

Cubo

RR

September 10, 2012

Mommy----

 

Sounds like Africa is just buck wild.  Keep enjoying it, just think, how many times will you get to be secluded in another country.  I love you so much and am so grateful for all your support.  Everything here is going good.  Just working hard and trying to make God proud.  I'm really trying to just focus on becoming the best that I can especially now that time is a matter.  Man momma, I love my mission so much, I'm so grateful for the things it has taught me and the way that I have grown...this will forever be the best decision of my life.  I think anytime we chose to draw closer to the Savior it's the best decision of our lives though, it just brings so much more light and peace to us.  This may sound wild, but I find more comfort and peace in my life now as a missionary with non stop days than I ever did in Hawaii.  It just goes to show, there is a difference between happiness and joy.  Happiness is the momentary satisfaction, its the fleeting gratification, but joy, it's lasting, it's an inner peace and it comes by following the Savior...(now I'm sure there is a balance between the two in this life and we need to find that balance.) But I'm grateful for the time I have to follow the Savior, to walk with Him and share the gospel with people.  That's the only thing that can truly change people's lives...so momma, those people that you see in Africa, I know how badly you want to help them and although you cant bring momentary happiness to them economically, you can give them joy - so snag some pass along cards from the missionaries and go buck!  Give em out like Matty did when he had just gotten home and we were in San Francisco for Christmas.  Remember how he gave them to everyone...I always thought he was so weird but now, I get it.  

I love you momma.
I'm so proud of you.

Tell everyone I love them so much.

 

Cubo

Raquel

September 3, 2012

MOMMMAAAA!!!!!

 

I'm so excited to write you!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

 

I couldn't wait to read my emails this week from you to hear about the AFRICAN ADVENTURES of you and Nonie!  That's gonna be such a fun trip!  I'm stoked you two are getting to play a lil bit.  So you are going to be there in Africa forever - haha, just embrace it, have fun and love the members. You should go out with the missionaries if you have time!  I love that you love the ward there in Africa, the Spirit you feel.  Its incredible, I love the gospel so much momma, but I Love it way more in Spanish, its so pure and true, these converts they know the difference between having the gospel and not having it and so when they have it, they share it, they feel it and they tell everyone what they love about it cause they know that that is the best gift in the world we can give those we love.  It's sick. 

 

Out here in Fredricksburg, we are just working really hard trying to find people.  The work is so much more different than before. It's good though, it makes me humble and rely on God more.  So the other night, we were out knocking on these trailers and it was late, we had about 5 minutes left so we went and knocked on the last door.  Right after we knocked it, this white kid came out and he smelled so bad, his whole trailer smelled like marijuana and the look in his eyes just looked empty.  In that moment, I told him who we were and asked if he had faith in Jesus Christ to which his response was a chuckle and a no.  I remember looking away right after that to grab a pass along card and I just felt fear, we gave him the card and left but I learned something from that experience that I wanted to share with you.  I learned in that moment how important the Spirit is to me.  How much I thrive off of it and when it leaves, it makes me sick, so sad and scared.  I was thinking about how before my mission, I had kinda lost that for a while, I lost the ability to feel and recognize the Spirit like that because I wasn't surrounding myself with the best situations.  Now, I am so grateful for my mission because it has help me come to see the difference.  I'm sure I've told you before that my favorite scripture is in Corinthians, where it says that by faith we walk not by sight.  Well I have come to realize, with the Spirit we can come to have sight, as we follow it we are given more and more, as we trust in it we are able to be in the right places at the right times to help those who need us.  Momma, the Spirit is so precious, we need it so badly in this life, and God knew we would need it, thats why He gave it to us.  I'm so grateful for it. I never want to lose it.   I'm grateful for you.  I love you tons.  Tell Boofy and Seth and Thomas Thales Sherry (and Cali) that I love them.  Enjoy the time you have with them. 

 

Cubo

Raquel
 

PS:  Katie Kat..Kiki, Katherine, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

August 27, 2012

Hope all are doing well this week. 

As for me out here in Fredricksburg, everything is going really well.  The work down here is way different than in the city, a lot more driving, less apartments, and there are less Hispanics, so you really have to go searching for them.  So we knock a lot of trailer parks which is just buck wild haha, so many different people, we are definitely in the south now haha.  It's so wild, so many silly stories there,  I remember watching on NBC Dateline once this documentary about the people who live in the Appalachian mountains and how there are so many that struggle with illiteracy and drink mountain dew instead of water cause its cheaper, and well, I've met a few people who come from that lifestyle, and all I want to do is give them the gospel and help them overcome it all, but its so hard to help them realize that the truth is right at their door...

 

Knocking on doors, you get to meet so many different people with so many different things happening in their lives and it's like they're are out there drowning in all of their social, physical, economic and spiritual problems and all we can do to help them is share with them the gospel of Jesus Christ, its like we are throwing them a lifesaver, sometimes they take it and a lot of times they won't, and it's mostly because they are waiting for the helicopter to come pick them up, waiting for the sign..  I hope and pray so much that someday these people, who are our brothers and sisters will come to find true happiness and joy, will be able to see that all the peace they need comes through Jesus Christ and His gospel.

 

Something awesome that has happened to us though is we have been blessed with an incredible miracle!  My first Sunday here in this area, an Hermana from an English ward came in to our ward with a women named Angela who had just moved into her house.  Angela is from El Salvador and was super catholic.  We went over to her house last week and started teaching her, she was telling us that she was super catholic until she started to read the bible and began to see that there were somethings that were missing, ever since then, she stopped worshipping the virgin Mary and started looking for the religion that had it all...and now is being prepared to be baptized this month!  She is incredible.  We were explaining to her about the plan that god has for us, why we are here, and all she could say was, "yo quiero vivir en el reino celestial con dios, yo me quiero bautizar! "  I want to live with god, I want to get baptized!   It just clicks for her, I know that she has been being prepared for this moment, I know that there are so many people out there searching for the truth but cannot find it because they know not where to look, and we, who have it have to share it.  I'm so grateful for her, for this gospel, for the truth I have in my life.  I know it's true.  I love you so much momma, thanks for being an example of truth to me.

Cubo,

RR

 

PS: Happy Birthday Nnika and Chris!  Love you guys!

Emily Lehikainen!!!! I'm so estoked for you babaaay gurl!  Love you

My Dear Sweet Momma,

 

I'm so glad to hear that you all are home with Katie and that people are safe in the American front.  As for Caroline and Seth, I continue to pray for them and I know that as they keep the faith, they will be blessed forever from this event.  Not too much going on out here, just the usual haha, miracles everyday, learning so much about others, about myself and about my Savior.  There is no greater work than this...I love it.  I'm just livin' it up and working hard.  I'm super stoked, this weekend Florentino is getting ready for his baptism, so that is super sweet.  He is 20, from Mexico, we have been teaching him since April and he finally feels like he is ready to follow his Savior.  He has left so much behind, and he has changed so much.  It's crazy Momma, but when I was younger, I remember hating change...mostly because it started off with awful events, but I have started to see that the changes are essential to our personal and spiritual growth, change is essential to our lives.  Its the changes that make us grow, make us strive and work, it's the changes that, depending on how we handle them, shape us into who we are.  We need to constantly change, to constantly progress, because we need to become like our Heavenly Father.  I'm so grateful for my mission, for the change it's given me, the person it has made me in to.  I know there is no greater place than this. 

I love you all so much.  I'm so grateful for you and for your support.  Tell everyone I love them.

Love

RR

 

PS: Tell Katie I'm stoked for the letter and say hi to Maxine for me.  Tell Emily I can't wait to hear where she is going, she is gonna just change lives!  Love you Mom, so so much.  Enjoy the Utah trip :)

July 23, 2012

Mommy,

 

I just want to write one more note to make sure you know how much I love you and care about you.  I know that right now Caroline, Katie, and Seth, are all passing through a hard trial, and that it is hard for you and all the others who love them so much.  Momma, just remember that God is watching out for them.  He has His hand in their lives and in ours.  And that as we all remain faithful, He will guide is to where we need to be and to who we need to be.  It reminds me of the conference talk by Elder Eyring where he says that it is the trials and tribulations that refine us, that make us stronger.  I truly believe that. We would not be the family we are today had we not had to face the trials that we faced. I would not be the person I am today had I not encountered and faced the things that I have faced and the same goes for all.  I have come to realize that there are moments in our lives, the hard moments, where the sun seems to fade and we have to ask ourselves, should I stop, should I give up, or should I walk in the darkness, holding on to the gospel - should I walk in faith.  In Corinthians, Paul says that by faith we walk...and so, as we choose to walk, holding strong the gospel truths, relying on our Savior, we begin to see that up ahead, there is light again, and as we enter into the light we see that it is the most beautiful light we have ever seen.  When we face trials and choose to hold to the gospel and turn to the Savior, we become strengthened in Him, our faith that was once tested becomes stronger, and our knowledge that was once so little increases.  That is the purpose of this life momma, to trust in God at all times, to be rely on Him and be strengthened by Him.  And to know that after the darkness comes the light.  I know, that God is looking after them.  I  know that as I do my best to work hard He will bless them, I know that as we all do our best to work hard and be obedient, He will bless them.  Be strong, tell them I love them.  I love you momma.  

Cubo<

RR

PS: Happy birthday Nonie!!!!

 

Also good news: Noel got his id this week!!  Keep you all posted on it.

July 16, 2012

Hey Everyone

This weekend we were so blessed.  A family of three got baptized and then a 14 year old girl, Maylis also got baptized.  Martha(Colombia), Fredy(Guatemala) y Kamila Pantaleon...we found them in a subway.  My companion was in the bathroom, so I started talking to them and we got a return appointment. With time, we started visiting them regularly.  The only problem was that Martha was extremely Catholic. She grew up praying to the Virgin Mary and everything, but she said she felt like there was something she was missing and she wanted her family to be united.  Well, we finally started getting to teach Fredy, her husband, and he quickly embraced the gospel.  He started changing... leaving things behind, like alcohol and coffee, and he told us that he just felt good at church.  He felt at peace, different than ever before.  So we invited them to be baptized and they said yes!  It was so incredible to see each one of them leave the water...first Fredy with tears coming down his face, then Martha and then Kamila.  She said to us right after that she had been searching and pleading for God to help her family and then He heard her pleads and sent us.  That moment was so humbling and so special for me.  I love them so much and am so excited for when they can enter into the temple and be sealed forever.  I know this gospel is true momma, I know that God has a plan for each and every one of us and I know that our family will be together forever, that we will see Dad and Grandpa again and we will all just celebrate.  That's all God wants for us... to be happy.  We just have to do our part.  But it is a beautiful thing.  I love you momma, tons.

Cubo

RR

July 9, 2012

Dear Family - HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!!!  God Bless America!  What a place to be on such a special day...  Along with the month of July, I start to realize that time is running faster and faster - four more months is all I have left to do some very special and important work.  I'm excited to see you all but at the same time, I'm a little nervous.  I just want to be good.  I want to know that God is proud of me and all that I have done.  I just need to keep working hard to the end, keep giving all that I can!  We are having baptisms this week, Marta (Colombia), Fredy (Guatamala), Kamila and Maylis (Honduras).

The Lord is blessing us so much right now and there is nothing sweeter than seeing people who I love, my brothers and sisters change, and accept the gospel in their lives.  I'm so grateful for it.  I know that it is something so special.  This IS God's work, the work of salvation, the work of eternal happiness.  I am so blessed to be a part of it all.  This gospel changes lives, and more than anyone's, it has changed my life.  I'm so humbled and blessed and will forever be indebt to my Savior.  I love you all so much. Thanks for all you do.  Keep praying for Noel and Osiris - that Noel can get his passport from Honduras. I think I may have missed some birthday shout outs, if so - I apologize.  I think I missed Auntie Lisa Lodi.  KC!!!!!  You are coming up.  Nonie!!!!  You are all in my heart!  

 

Cubo

RR