Blessed Girl

SHOUTOUTS.—

THE LINDZARDS BIRTHDAY IS TODAY….

That's the only one I can remember. Haha I know there are more birthdays!!! I promise I'll get ya next week. But for now… HAPPY BIRTHDAY Linds!!! I love you and I hope you're baptizing all of Cali :-) I'm sure you are..

This week was… well. I can't really decide if it was good or bad. Haha we had a lot of good moments, although.. not much happened. If that makes any sense at all…

On Monday last week we headed to Gabriela''s house and we played UNO about 100 times and ate ham sandwiches. What more could a girl ask for?

Hermana Briviesca and I are working our little bums off. I feel like I walk through my front door beat dead every night. Part of that might be that we've started running in the mornings (like we don’t walk enough during the day, right?). We've started waking up at 6:00 instead of 6:30, and we sneak silently out of the apartment as to not wake up the other sisters. Hey we invited them… they said no. haha 

They'll regret it next week when they see my bikini body.

On Tuesday, we had an intercambio with the sister training leaders and Hermana Eden came to my area! It was so nice to be with her again. I've been with her practically her whole mission. We were both born in Tarija, I followed her to Yacuiba, she followed me to Santa Cruz and now she's dying (going home) and we're in the same Zone!!!. I love her dearly and we had a great day. Every time I'm with her I just want to be a better missionary.. and I cant believe she is leaving!

Thursday was the celebration of the Church being in Bolivia for 50 years! And guys. I saw so many people that I hadn't seen in so long. Including the Jojola.

We cried when we met eyes.

I missed her a lot. We're best friends.

On Sunday, yesterday… we had the primary program. Holy cow you guys it was the cutest thing ever. A little different than in Utah… I mean, we all know that in Utah they take up the whole stand. Yesterday there were about…. 14 kids. Haha and it was the best! I about died. I still love kids with all my heart, might, mind and strength.

We are teaching a single mom named Edimara tambien. She is going to get baptized the 13^th of December. It was hard to get her to accept to be baptized on the 13^th, a Saturday, because she so badly wanted to be baptized the 15^th… which is her birthday haha But she finally accepted. She is really wonderful though and we really want to help her progress. We're super excited for her :-)

Transfers are passing so fast now… this is my last week of this transfer. Hopefully Hermana Briviesca and I stay together. Well.. for sure I'm staying. But hopefully she stays too, because we really love each other :-)

I really love it here, guys. I've been getting so many emails from people (missionaries) that either just got home or are going home soon and it's just… sad. Haha poor kids.

Being a missionary really is the best.  I've learned to love these people so fast. I always think I'm gonna like… die every time I leave an area. Because I just get attached too easy! But I just fall in love over and over again. Where I am now… it's just the best. I miss so many people from my other areas but I'm also soooo lucky to have been to so many areas.

I've had 5 areas when lots of missionaries, like poor Hermana Ellison, have only had 2. I'm so lucky to have been able to meet so many amazing people and to have had so many amazing companions. Blessed girl. 

The Church is True!

I love you All!

Love,

Hermana Cedeno

"How can I feel what you feel?"

SHOUTOUTS….

MY DAD!  He's been a Citizen of the United States of America for exactly 3 days now and I'm so proud of him!  

Yesterday was Ellison Green's and Hna. Rivera's birthday!!! I love you both so dearly and I hope it was marrrvelous  :-)

ALSO. My best friend's birthday is this week. CAMERON SCOTTLAND. I hope it's amazing!!!   I love you and miss you lots!  :-)

AND TARYN HOLY COW IS COMING TO MI QUERIDA BOLIVIA. OH MY GOSH!! SHE IS GOING TO LOVE IT HERE!! EXCEPT … depressing. You get here the day I leave… hopefully we see each other :-) I love you!

 My pensionista (mission mom...) I love her. she reminds me SO MUCH of my Aunt Monica... haha she is so sarcastic and so hilarious.

Our relief society president got robbed... and her stuff, her house was a mess and we all went and help put it all back together.   She is so amazing and we love her. She even turned on MOTAB as we cleaned. haha We love her. Pray for her.

 Cleaning the house with the president's son. He is leaving to serve a mission next year. I love this family!!!

 

I love being a missionary soooo much. On Monday, all of us Hermanas went together to get ice cream and today we're gonna go hang out with some friends we have in the ward, Gabriela and Carla. They are part of JAS (YSA) and they have begging us to go hang out with them and do "girl stuff for weeks… so here we are on p-day :-) we're excited. Stay tuned for fotos… next week. Haha

We are starting to have a little more success when it comes to investigators. We're teaching a boy named G*******, the boyfriend of Ca***  :-) We started teaching him last week, and he is sooo determined to receive an answer if the Church is true or not. Tuesday we visited him for the 2^nd time and he still hadn’t received his answer… on Thursday he said he STILL didn’t feel anything.

And all the while… he is still so amazing. And I'm so excited for him to receive his answer because just the fact that he asks us "what am I doing wrong? How can I feel what you feel?" makes me KNOW that he is sincere, and if He is asking God sincerely, that is not a prayer that God will ignore. I'm so excited for him to receive what he's looking for.

We also found and investigator named Ve***** a while ago and we've just had the hardest time finding her again. Finally, on Thursday night, we found her! When we got to her front door, we were planning on teaching her about La Restauración, de José Smith y todo.(The Restoration and Joseph Smith and everything.)

But as we were standing there outside, Hna. Briviesca and I remembered that she'd said something about one of her parents passing away… and maybe we shouldn’t talk about Lesson 1, but actually THE PLAN OF SALVATION – THAT FAMILIES CAN BE TOGETHER FOREVER.

So we go in her house and we start talking and I see an old couple in another room and I ask who they are and she says that they are HER PARENTS. So they're… alive. But Hermana Briviesca already has the pamphlet for The Plan of Salvation out and I'm like… this is so awkward….

And I didn’t want to teach lesson 2 anymore!! I wanted to go back to our original plan… but it was too late. So WHATEVER – we started to teach about The Plan of Salvation.

After just talking about the premortal life, she asks "and where to babies go that are born and then die….?" and we start talking about it and we find out that she can't have children. That she has had many many miscarriages and it's something that’s bothered her for so long…

She kept saying "sorry I have so many questions, I've just had them for so long and nobody has ever had answers… and you do."

I couldn’t believe we weren’t going to teach her about the plan of salvation. Wow. It was an amazing lesson and I'm so excited to finish teaching her about it. I'd never had an experience like that… sincerely following the spirit without even knowing why.  It was just… I don’t know. Really special.

I really love being a missionary. I'm so excited for what's to come. I'm so grateful to be over with the whole "learning Spanish" deal so that I can focus on teaching and following the spirit.

I've actually stopped studying Spanish in the mornings and now I study Portuguese. It's such a beautiful language and there are lots of people helping me learn it. I'm actually getting pretty good at it if I do say so myself… ;)

 Me and Hna Briviesca (my companion).

 Me and Hna Briviesca (my companion).

The girls I live with!!  Hermana Rivera (from Ecuador), Hermana Lainez (from Honduras), me and Hna Briviesca (my companion).  We actually love each other a whole lot :)

Hermana Briviesca made this to give to our investigators to hang up in their houses :)

<3

Humble, Hermana Cedeño… humble…

Kay guys. I love you a lot. And I really love Jesus. Especially cuz I just hit chapter 3 nefi in el LDM (Chapter 3 in Nephi in the Book of Mormon) and I just love Him :-)

I love you all!

Love,

Ate: HERMANA CEDEÑO