There is Sunshine in My Soul Today : Hey everybody!‏

Hola,

So this week was crazy busy. Last night I realized that today I have exactly a year left on my mission. I still feel like I just got here, and like I still don´t know what in the world I´m doing some days. However, I do feel really happy here and I love the work. I wouldn´t trade this time I have here for anything. It´s honestly the best experience, and I know that I´m going to want to extend...haha but, I guess we´ll see when we get there. We´ll see what the Lord has to say about it, but for now, I can´t get trunky, I´ve still got a long ways to go :P

Anyways, we found the most amazing family this week! They´re familia Cepeda. There are the parents and then seven kids. The oldest is 14 and the baby is 8 months old. They are adorable children, and we´ve had three lessons with the family this last week. They live literally across the street from the church! We contacted them last week right after church and made an appointment with Graciela the oldest to return on Tuesday. When we came back on Tuesday morning, her dad came to the door. We asked him if we could share a message with his family. He said yes, and we walked in and shared the message of the Restoration with almost all of the family! The spirit was so strong, and Hermana Regalado did a wonderful job with her cool examples to teach the kids :) We made an appointment for the next day and went back and answered questions and talked about the Book of Mormon. It was also a really great lesson. They haven´t followed through with their commitments to pray about what we´ve taught yet, which is the only problem. They didn´t come to church because of the storm we had that morning, but we´re hopeful that they will, because we gave them a tour of the capilla. They have tons of potential, they just need to work on some family problems and get married (a common problem here). But their awesome, and I´ll keep you updated on their progress :)

Another cool thing that happened is that last week I really felt like we needed to go see a young man named Santí. He is the only member of his family, other than his uncle and family who is Family Abate Daga, and I didn´t really know why we needed to go see him, but we headed of on the trek to his house (it´s like 30 minutes or a little more away to walk). We arrived at the approximate location of his house, but I couldn´t remember which apartment it was, so we knocked on a door. He and his mom came up right behind us because they actually live in the one next to that and they just got back from something. We we invited in and talked for a little while and it was a great opportunity for us to talk to his mom and meet his brothers. Yesterday, we went back and were able to have a really amazing lesson with his mom. We all felt the Spirit, and she confided in us that she felt like she needed to go to church, but she was a little embarrassed because of things that she´s done in the past. It was amazing to share the message of the Atonement with her and that we´re all imperfect. Missionaries have been going to her house for years, but I don´t think she´s ever been ready to accept the gospel until now (she normally leaves for the "lesson" part of the visit). It was really amazing, and I love knowing that we do things for a reason and that we´re truly guided by the Spirit to the people that need us and are ready.

On Thursday we had the third worst day ever in Laguna Larga. No one was home, or they weren´t interested, or they were "busy". Our investigator friend Florencia even tried to hide from us, which was a bit hard to take. So basically we came home to Oncativo early, but we went and visited Monica, who needed some help. She was having a particularly hard day and was so glad that we were an answer to her prayers. I think that the Lord could have just sent us home early instead of sending a really depressing day in Laguna Larga, but He knows better than I do :)

Monica is doing great and is on schedule for baptizm on the 21st of this month. She has gone four days without smoking, and honestly, she is a totally different person than when we found her. It´s so cool to see the gospel change someone´s life. She participated a lot in Gospel Doctrine class, but we did explain to her that we don´t directly participate in Sacrament Meeting, so that was good :) She found a new place to live and now is just waiting for the keys so she can move her shop and start her new life.

Honestly, I love it here in Oncativo. I know that it´s hard to believe, but I don´t! I got my package from my family in the bolsa, and that pretty much made my week. We had an awesome Zone Meeting last week where we learned to apply the "you fix it" attitude of the mission to our investigators and allow them to fix their own problems! It´s genious! I got drafted to sing in the choir for our next Zone Conference on the 19th, so I´ll keep you updated on that.

Well, that´s a wrap for the week! Hope you all know that I love you, and that most of all, you always have our Heavenly Father to rely on! 3 Nephi 11:14-15 is my scripture of the week. When Christ came, he had time for each of the people in the multitude to witness for themselves that he is their Savior. This gospel is such a personal thing, and it´s all about your own relationship with God and Jesus Christ. It´s our own responsibility to strengthen and build that relationship so we can have the most happiness possible, so YOU FIX IT! :) but the missionaries are there to help you if you need it!

Love you all, and have a very Happy Valentine´s day!

Sincerely,

Hermana Swan

Hermana Regalado y yo SELFIE :) I´m really tall...