The Lord takes care of his missionaries!

Family and Friends,

Wow, family, new ward huh? That's really exciting. I love change. After 12 years of living right on the borders of the ward boundaries, I guess it's about time that we get bumped into another ward, right? AH! And did you hear! They opened up 58 new missions in the world! TWO in Argentina, EIGHT in Mexico, and many more. It's so neat to see the gospel spreading throughout the Earth. :) I'm still anxious to see when a mission will open up in China. :) Ty: I can see you serving your mission there!

Mom, Happy belated birthday! And M (one of the members here) says Happy Birthday too! I showed her a family picture the other day and she called you the young, rubia, movie star. haha It's true. You're beautiful. I hope you had a wonderful birthday.

Yesterday we witnessed something truly remarkable. MG, one of the members has been working on coming back to church. Her son has been inactive for years and years, but he agreed to have a Noche de Hogar (FHE) last night. He got baptized when he was 14, and he is now 35. He's got long hair, a beard, and he's covered in tattoos. Ha! We decided to keep it simple, and we taught about the faith. We read in the Book of Mormón when Alma compared faith to a seed. It was incredible to watch how the spirit brought all of the gospel topics to his remembrance. He truly had a repentent heart and said he wants to change, and he wants to come back to church. We gave him a new Book of Mormón and he started to cry. He told us about how he felt when he got baptized, and how he wants to feel that way again. It was such a blessing to be able to witness that. The Lord has been preparing him to come back, and we are feeling so blessed to be able to help him.

We heard some interesting news the other day: Remember how we used to live in another apartment here in Barrio Pueyrredón? Shortly after we moved there was a huge fire that badly damaged the 11th floor (where we lived) and several other apartments. The Lord takes care of his missionaries!

The church is true! And it always will be. I love you all! Have a good week.

-Hermana Vawdrey

Purifying. Uplifting. Exhilarating.

M got baptized on Friday!! It was a wonderful day. She looked absolutely beautiful, so happy, and SO full of the spirit. She was really nervous at first to have to be in front of so many people and all of her friends, but the spirit really helped to calm and comfort her.

M is 12 years old and is SO beautiful! She has some of the longest hair I have ever seen! And it's HEALTHY! Go M! I would attach a photo, but unfortunately this computer's USB port doesn't work. She is friends with a bunch of the youth in the ward. She was invited to an activity awhile ago (the fashion show), and has been interested in the church ever since! Since she's only twelve it's been a little bit of a challenge to help her remember the appointments we'd set up with her to teach the lessons, but we finally got it done and it was a pleasure to teach her. It has been fun to watch her progress and learn of the love her Heavenly Father has for her. Her testimony is small, but it's strong. I'm realizing that's all you need. It's like in Alma 32 when he relates faith to a seed. Even if your testimony is of one simple thing, that's enough! Because over time it will grow!

Over the short time I have known M, she has also grown. For awhile her dad wasn't okay with her getting baptized. We taught her about the blessings of prayer and fasting, and we decided to have a fast together with her. As a result of that, many miracles happened and she was able to find a way to explain to her mom and her dad why it was important to her to get baptized and it really touched them so they gave her permission! Yes! We can tell her mom and her dad are both kinda interested...sometimes...haha so we're hoping that by helping M strengthen her faith, that one day her parents will be impacted my her example and get baptized too.

I am so amazed at the faith of M. She's twelve! She's doing this all alone! She's the only member in her family. She has plenty of support in the ward and in the youth, but in her family she's alone--but completely devoted! It's so awesome to see.

We had interviews with Presidente Detlefsen this week. They went well! I was amazed at the fact that I wasn't terrified beforehand! I know now that I can carry a conversation with a native speaker! How weird. How cool! It was neat because I walked in, he shook my hand, and he asked: "Do you have any sin you need to confess?" Bold, right? But I could say no and I knew that I really didn't have any sin! It was such an incredible feeling! It took me back to when I was preparing to go on a mission and preparing to go to the temple and my stake president asked me, "Do you feel like you are worthy to go to the temple?" Saying yes to that question was absolutely...what's the word? Exhilarating? I don't know. I don't know if there is a word! It just feels so good! I just thought that we need to be living our life now in a way that we can really say, "Yeah, I don't have any sin to confess." There's nothing better.

The gospel is so wonderful. It's purifying. Uplifting. Exhilarating. And I get to talk about it all day long. I love it.

I hope you are all doing well!
-Brittni

PS. Shawn Cowan, Derek Paulson, Maralyn Durrant, Hilary Larsen, Vanessa Storey, Metta Smith, Sarah Wirtz, Carrie Helland, Jan Rigby, Shauna Healey, Ali Tingey, Geoff Bodily, Devin Jackson, Alex Watkins, Sherilyn Shelley, Erin Jex, LaDawn Dalton, Krista Keddington, Allyson Gordon, and Grandpa Carlston: Thank you for your birthday wishes!! :)