Obedience Brings Blessings- June 9, 2014

Hola Hola! 

       Ah so I can barely even type this week because I am so overwhelmed by news of Mom and Dad`s call to serve as the Presidents of the MTC IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC!!!!! Ahhhh but really Mom and Dad I am so happy for you both and know that it will be an amazing experience. Of course your reporting date would be the month before I get home in January of 2015, but I guess I will just be going home to the Dominican Republic instead of Dallas?? Do you think I could work as a teacher there for sometime after my mission?? Welp Mom at least you are already experienced at having to pack up the house once again for the second time! Either way I am sure it will all work out and that is so awesome. The Lord really is hastening His work. How incredible. 

     Well down here in Cauquenes, it has been rain, rain, and more rain!! It has rained everyday off and on for this whole week and our house is super prepared for the rain (NOT) so we have to clean the floor every night since water leaks through the roof in the Kitchen. It`s fun. Also it has gotten cold!!!! Our house is made of cement and there is just a little space heater and that`s it, but we just always wear lots of layers and it`s all good! We still go out even in the crazy storms no matter what because there are so many people that need this Gospel!! 

      So this week has been great as always and as a whole mission we had a fast and study about obedience and becoming completely consecrated to the work. We studied about the Atonement the whole week and I loved it!!! I now know that I really did not understand the Atonement hardly at all before the mission, but I can feel that my knowledge and understanding is growing everyday as I serve Him. The Savior was perfect, he had no bad consequences, no wrong doings, no regrets, and no punishments. He was perfect. Yet, he suffered all of the pains, consequences, punishments, feelings of guilt, everything for us. I think about how unfair that was for Him, but he did it out of love. I really do stand all amazed every time I think about that. I know that because of what He did, I am going to push my self further, consecrate myself even more to give Him all that I have while I am here on the mission. Hna Oronà and I analyzed some things that we could change to become exactly obedient and I know that it helped a lot this week and will help in the future so that the lord can trust in us. So that we can show our love for the one who gave His life for us. 

     It was a really good week to have self reflection about how I can become more like Christ. Even though it rained on Sunday and affected the attendance of the branch and our investigators, it was still a good week and we are seeing progress so that is all we can ask for. We even had some investigators accept a baptismal date that had not before so that was awesome! And we found an awesome family last night!

     Thank you so much family for everything!! Your support and love means everything. This week my comp Hna Oronà had a little bit of a hard time since her parents aren`t members and she barely has been a member for two years. Two of her siblings are also members, but it is still hard and I admire her soooooo much!! She is a champ and I feel so lucky to be her companion. I know that the Lord will bless us as we are obedient and everyone else as well. He is obligated to do so. Have a great week everyone! 

Con mucho amor, 

Hermana Romney 

This picture is pretty much what I look like every day in the rain..... gotta love it. 

La Obra del Señor- June 2, 2014

Hey Fam jam, how`s it going?? 

   Well life is really really good here in the Mission Chile Concepcion - the best mission evahh! So many good things happened this week that I don`t even know where to begin. First off, we had a mini-cambio with the hermana leaders and Hermana Moràn (from Ecuador but was studying at BYU for a year before) came with me to Estaciòn and it really was a day full of miracles. We were able to find a couple new people to teach who are amazing and then we finally got the father of the family of 4 that we have been teaching to come listen to us and he even accepted to be baptized on the 21st of June!! It was incredible because his wife, Maribel, really loves the church and has even shared with the missionaries on and off for about 2 years now and it was the first time that ever listened to the missionaries. Her and her son, Jose Luis, want to get baptized, but they don`t want to split apart the family so it was key that her husband now is open to listen to us and to make covenants with the Lord! The time before that we shared with the family, the father just waited in the kitchen listening from there and all the other times he has left the house. But this time he shared with us reading and all and he said that if it is God`s will that he needs to be baptized "again" like he says, then he will do it!! Love that attitude!!! 

   Then this week we had an amazing conference just for all of the Hermanas in the whole mission!! It was incredible and even better that I got to see my old comps and friends!! My baby, Hna Lino, started balling when she saw me and apparently she is killing it out in her new sector. They said that as soon as she arrived, their numbers shot up and it was incredible. THAT`S MY BABY!!! Hahah but it was so good to see everyone and we had the nicest lunch I have had in about 10 months with waiters that came to our tables and a gourmet lunch. Talk about a big change!! We had an elder who specializes in mental health come down from Santiago to talk to all of us and it was great. Sadly, I have known too many hermanas that have gone home early from their missions here, so it was necessary. 

    Also the familia Arellano is still progressing! Aida came to church alone this week, but she has so many desires to learn and knows that we showed up at her house for a reason, but can`t seem to recognize her answers from God yet. Ruth came to church as well!!!!!! She was a less-active that we have taught a few times and came to church the first time in years. She even had a foot cast on and didn`t let that stop her from coming!! Francisco came to church as well, but we found out this week that he still has to go to jail during the week and then they let him out on the weekends and he probably won`t be all the way free until October, so he won`t be progressing very fast. However, he has the most sincere desires to change and our ex-mission leader, Nicolas, (we don`t have a mission leader at the moment) was also in jail before he got baptized and knew him from there and so he has been key in helping us help Francisco. I`ll have to tell you guys the story of Nicolas later, it is incredible and he is awesome!!! 

       

      Then just today as we were coming to the centro in the collectivo (like a taxi), we started talking to the driver like always and it turns out that he was one of the first members here in Estacion and said he brought like 200 people to the church with him. I`m not sure how true that is since he also told us that he saw Jesus, but he said he has a desire to come back for his daughter and we are going to see him this Wednesday!! It`s crazy how our Heavenly Father puts prepared people in our path like that when we are talking to everyone! 

    Well Estacion really is insane sometimes and I often wonder where I am, but I love it so much and I know that there is so much work to do here. I feel so happy to be the instrument in God`s hands to do His work. Also it made me soooo happy to hear about all of the missionary work going on at home and in the Dallas East Stake!! The work is hastening and I love being a part of it! I am so glad that I have this time to be a full-time missionary and to know that when my time here is over, that I can still share the gospel!!!! I love you all so much and have an incredible week. 

Con mucho amor, 

     Hermana Romney 

From the Hermana Conference. My hija!! and then Marta, the less-active who has now been to church 3 times since we started teaching her!!

Màs Allá- May 26, 2014

 ¡Buenos días! 

     Hope everything is going well with everyone. This week has been great and we were able to see lots of progress and good bonding between the members here in the branch with the activities of the conference this week. Also sorry, this is going to be short, I know, I need to manage my email time better, but next week will be better! 

     We were able to see a few awesome miracles this week! So Friday as we were walking out of the activity at night, a couple with their 4 year old daughter were walking by and we started talking to them and invited them in for a tour of the church, which they accepted! They loved it and we invited them to the activity the next day and they showed up all on their own! And they even already knew some of the members of the branch which was awesome and they loved it! Sweet little miracles just for talking to everyone! 

     Then on Saturday we went with one of the members to go find some of the less actives to teach and we went to Hno Pedro, who hasn`t wanted to accept the missionaries, and he let us right in! He got offended about 2 months ago when they released him from his calling and thought they were "demoting him" and didn`t come back after that. However, we tried to help him realize that Heavenly Father needed him in a different calling that he would do even better at and then he came to church the next day! Sometimes, I think all people need is to be reminded of the simple concept of looking beyond the circumstances and to be reminded of what the purpose of our life is. To remember to always put God first in our lives. I think the simple concept of just getting our priorities straight would help all of us in our own lives and in consequence help the world become a better place!

      This Sunday in Relief Society, they started talking about how we need to have a vision of where we want to be in the future and what we are working for. That exaltation is our ultimate goal in the end and what ever little pebbles or trials that come in our path will seem so small in the end. It will all be worth. As humans, we tend to forget that so easily and get hung up on the little things that impede us to do what is right, or to go to church, or even just to be happy for that matter. While talking with so many less-actives here, everyone seems to be offended by something some one said or dumb things honestly, haha but if we all could just have the vision of the big picture, none of those little things would matter. That has been our goal to help the branch here in Estacion. To help the lost ones come back to church and to help them have a vision of màs allà. 

    The familia Arellano is doing good still! In fact I just saw one of the daughters, Nadia, here in the ciber doing a school project and she says Hi to everyone. Welp I have got to go, but I love you all soooo much and thanks for everything!!!! 

Con mucho amor, 

Hermana Romney 

This is an email that President Arrington sent me today, I mainly include this for your sake Dad. But he is so awesome and always gives me lots of animo to keep working for the Lord!! 

Hermana Romney,

Thanks so much for your letter and for the great work you are doing in Estacion and for the attitude and animo with which you do it.

I too have faith that you and those you are serving with can make a difference there in that little branch. A few menos activos back to church is a huge accomplishment!!! By bringing some back and by bringing some new ones in I believe we can change the culture of that branch that has been so negative for so long. I have no doubt that you have been called there at this time, that you have been prepared all of your life to make a differnce there. 

Thanks for always having such a great attitude.

Con amor,

Presidente Arrington

Isn`t he awesome?????  Also I forgot my camera, but here`s a pic that my amazing comp, Hna oronà took. hahah

9 months down, 9 to go-May 19, 2014

Hola Hola, 

  ¿Que tal familiaa? Ahhh I was so excited to hear that Carli had her baby little Kate!!!! She is absolutely beautiful and I can`t wait to meet her! Crazy that I already have 7 nieces and nephews and 2 that I haven`t even met yet! The Romney family continues to keep growing! And as much as I miss you all like crazy, this scripture gives me comfort in Matthew 19:29 - And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.

   How great is it to be serving a mission and doing exactly this!!

     Well as always, the mission is a roller coaster and this week has been full of ups and downs. Luckily the goods as always are much better and make all of the downs worth it! This next week coming up is our branch conference with a few activities this week! That is exciting and we are hoping it will really bring the branch together, because that is what they need. Lots of love and animo! Also since the missionaries basically do everything here in the branch, we have been putting together a choir for Sunday and that has been a hoot. Trying to get everyone to sing the right part while attempting to play the piano is always interesting, but we have had lots of fun with it and I know that Heavenly Father will help us, a lot! 

   Our investigators the family Arellano (Aida, Karen, Nadia, and Ivan) are doing good!!! Only the mom was able to come to church this Sunday since the rest of the family had to go visit their Tia, but she liked it and they are excited for the activities this week! We also have been working a ton on helping less-actives and recent converts to come to church or stay active in the church since this branch has a lot of problems with that. On Sunday it rained and of course that kills assistance and there was only 35 people at church..... so we have LOTS of work to do!! We are excited for Marta (less-active) though who we found the first week we got here to Estacion and now she has gone to church repeatedly 3 times now!! She told us that her weeks have been so much better since she has gone to church and she has a lot more animo now. 

 

     I know that these people here in Estacion NEED the gospel in their lives and I know Hna Oronà and I are here for are a reason. Even President emailed me this past week thanking me for taking on this challenge and that he felt inspired to put us both here. Pray for us and for the branch here! I know that the Lord will bless us, especially as we each contact 10 people a day (140 total in the week) because that is what the Lord has reveled to the area presidency! Hna Orona and I are doing just that and we have no doubt the Lord will bless us!! Thanks for everythign family and I love the mission and life and our Savior sooo much!!! 

Con mucho amor, 

Hermana Romney  

So I hit my 9 month mark and for Hermanas that means the 9 month güata!!!!! Or the mission baby bump!

A Family home evening with a les-active family we have been working with, the familia Landero! 

May 12, 2014

!Hola Hola¡

     Ahhhh family it was sooo good seeing your faces and hearing your voices yesterday! It really was just what I needed to get even more excited to work and to help the people here in Estación. I love how crazy it was having all 18 of us (with the neices and nephews) and everyone! And oh my of course no one can stay still and has to be making faces in the camera the whole time, but I LOVED it!! 

     Well you guys basically know everything from yesterday, so I think today I will mainly just send some pictures. The first one is of the activity that we had this Friday that I told you about. We made food from the different countries where we come from and I had our investigators (Aida, Karen, and Nadia) help me make Lemon Bars!! Ahh I had missed those! And then they came with us to the activity and it was soo great! We are really hoping for them to be able to progress. We watched the Restoration with them this week and I was praying so hard the whole time that they would be able to feel the spirit during the movie. Afterwards we asked them how they felt, and they loved it and felt that they could relate so much! Score! Then Nadia told me that this week she was walking home and that the name Joesph Smith popped into her head and that it came out of nowhere and she feels that God is trying to tell her something. Double score! So we have high hopes for them.

     Next picture is when my comp killed our pet rat... We heard a plastic bag rattiling when my comp screams that there is a rat and then she proceeds to grab the broom and starts wacking it like crazy!! It was intense and then we had to take pictures of course. 

     Then we had a zone conference on Friday which was AWESOME! I love President Arrington and he helped us so much! We got chocolate for our birthdays! 

 Well I absolutely LOVE the mission, I love Chile, I love my family, and overall I love my Savior Jesus Christ. Have a great week everyone!! 

Con mucho amor, 

Hermana Romney

Little towns and lots of Rain- May 5, 2014

Hey everyone!

   Everything is going great here in Cauquenes and since the town is so small we basically know our way around, so that has been much better! We have seen lots of blessings here and hope to be able to keep exciting the members here to go back to church! We have had some powerful lessons with lots of less-actives and have already seen some of them come to church this past week and hope to be able to help even more. Also as I think I said last week, the people are a lot more receptive and we were able to find 11 new investigators this week! Including a family of 4 with two daughters that love basketball and English so that has been fun! We are excited for them. When we got here the teaching pool was basically empty so we have been working hard to find some more people to teach.

        Also it rained 3 days non-stop this week so that was fun...kinda... haha. But nothing stops the work of the Lord and our energy either! Okay this is going to be a short one today since we get to talk on Skype on Sunday!! And I have been emailing some converts from my past sectors and so family you will just have to wait for awesome stories when I get home :) However, this sector is so much different than my last one and on Thursday we first taught a drunk man (husband of a recent convet...we didn`t realize it until we started talking...haha) then we taught a Gypsee (I think that`s what Gitano is in English?) who started talking some weird language between themselves and the spirit was not there at all and we got out as fast as we could.... then we taught an angry recent convert who was mad about something that another member said about her... so things are always interesting here haha. But really though I love it!! I had 3 different people tell me that I had an "angel" with me and that I should make sure and take care of it. I am pretty sure they meant the Holy Ghost, but it was super sweet.

   Anyways, I love the mission so much and Hna Oronà is amazing and I feel like we are always busting up laughing. I feel so grateful to be here in Cauquenes and to be serving in la mision Chile Concepcion. I love you so much family and that is so happy to hear that you are doing missionary work there at home with the Gladys Knight fireside! Keep up the good work and talk to you Sunday! And I am soooo excited for you Brad and Carli to welcome in my newest niece into the world hopefully this week! 

Con mucho amor,
Hermana Romney

Anita (our investigator!) at church and Nelly

Pic of the little town from a hill that we ran up to in the morning

My sweet Chilean hoodie!
With our district eating an amazing american breakfast with the senior couple (the Scholes) here!!!!

Cauquenes Estacion!!​!- Apr. 28, 2014

   ¡Hola y saludos de Cauquenes a todos!

   So this week was full of many moments getting lost, meeting lots of new members from the Branch, talking with lots of old people, having great lessons, getting lost, and getting lost some more. Hahah so it wasn`t too bad, but Hermana Oronà and I did have a good time trying to figure everything out. Hermana Oronà is awesome as well! She is a convert of only 2 years as well just like my previous companion and her parents aren`t even members of the church either. Just her sister and her, but she is amazing and has such a strong testimony. She is from Uruguay and is 21 years old and loves sports, so we are doing great together, even if I do miss my baby Hna Lino.

       My new sector Cauquenes Estacion is the exact opposite of my last sector!!! I am in el campo!!! Basically in a little town in the middle of nowhere. There are lots of old people missing lots of teeth haha, but very loving and sweet! Every night as we walk home I feel like I am camping since it is so quiet and really dark in some places where there are no street lights. Although every night the stars are super bright and I absolutely love it. I am pretty sure that we were the "big news" that came into the town when we arrived because we talked to the members who told us that their neighbors were talking about us....hahah so you can tell that there is not too much going on here. Everyone says that back in the day the branch here used to be awesome and full of active members, so we are not sure what has happened, but on Sunday I think we had maybe 55 people if we are lucky. The Branch depends a lot on the missionaries and yesterday I had to give a talk in church and teach the class - of course without any anticipation, but then what`s new? Haha at least I have had to do that before in Mexico when Dad would just tell me from the pulpit that I would be giving my testimony :)

       So there are lots of less-actives and the people just don`t have any desire or ganas to come to church. Everyone has told us that the Branch needs lots of love and energy to get back to how it used to be so we are hoping that we can help! The members have told us that they can tell that we have lots of energy and excitement to help and we are hoping to be able to transmit that to Cauquenes. Actually FAMILY: Could you please find some good scriptures that would be good to share with someone who has not come to church in a long time??? I would appreciate it soooo much!!  The people here however are really receptive and they actually stop to talk to us in the street whereas in Concepcion they would just keep walking and we would have to run along side of them, so that is nice! It`s a change, but a great opportunity to grow!

    Lots of miracles have happened this week as well!! I almost missed the bus with all of my luggage and my companion on it, but Heavenly Father hears our prayers and the bus had to make a big U-turn to come back so as I ran out into the middle of the road it stopped right on time! Then we brought an investigator to church named Osvaldo who stayed for all 3 hours of church. We had taught him on Friday and then in the morning on Sunday we went looking for someone else and didn`t find them so we invited him and he said sure since he didn`t have anything else to do! Haha. And lots of other little things that have just always made me realize that God is in control of His work, not me. I freaking love the mission and the opportunity to become closer to my Savior and help more of my brothers and sisters to do the same!!! I love you all so much as well and hope you have an amazing week!! Also thank you everyone for the birthday wishes, finally 20 years old!

 

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Romney

With Hna Orona my new comp!!

Then using my height to an advantage to help pick grapes in one of the many vineyards here in Chile.

With hna Richards from Dallas! Remember her Cath? 
I`ll send more picks of my sector next week!