HAGAMOS las Cosas Con Buen Animo

CAMBIOS! Yup.... I am coming to AMERICA. Hahahhah

My next area is called America 1. My comp is Hermana Rossi from Argentina. I have known her my whole mission and always hoped that she would be my comp, so I am really excited.

.... and I am capacitadora ( leader for  the sisters)..... oh man..... you have no idea how nervous I got when President called me and told me that..... Me a  leader!?!?! PUCHA! We shall see how this goes. PRAY FOR ME!

So yeah, America is literally like 20 minutes away from this area, so I will be close. I will be in Zona Tiquipaya. I am excited. It sounds like a good area. 

I realized yesterday just how hard it is going to be to leave this area and my comp. I have so many people here that I love. I will need all the strength of the Lord to help me say goodbye to these beautiful people here. Luckily it is close, unlike Potosi! I can always come back! 

This week, we had such success. We had so many investigators at church again, and we have been working really hard with the members. It is hard to leave when so many people have baptismal dates and marriage dates. 

KEITH! Did I tell you that I am starting to do what you did and ask people to be baptized in street contacts? It is actually really fun. One dude accepted this week! Unfortunately, he only wanted to come to church to find a "chica to wash his clothes...."  heheheheh 

Nothing really new here, though. I am glad to hear that everyone is doing great at home. 

Go read  D & C 123:17. Kyle recommended it last week, but if you havent read it yet, GO DO IT! It has become one of my favorite scriptures. It is about what is in our hearts that counts!

LOVE YOU ALL! 

Hermana Routsong 

FOTO.. Some of my best friends here. They are the coolest. Ian and Lorey, I know you are reading this! I WILL MISS YOU! 

Going to miss these guys

Pacai - crazy good fruit!

Pacai

I

Cassandra

Melani,Nicol,and Jhonatan

Dana.... most intelligent 11 year old I know

Suzi

My district

An Awesome family from Peru

Where did you get that BYU Shirt?

Great People!

Papayas

Cute girls in our ward

Saltinas

Last day together

 

 

Intercambios with Hermana Webb and Prieto

 

9De Abril!!

Wut.......... how has time gone by so fast? I cannot believe that I have officially been away for one whole year. I realized that I am not the same person since when I left. I look at my pictures and I dont even recognize myself! It is actually really really freaky to me.....  But more than that, my testimony has grown so much. I have truly come to understand the atonement of Christ. My faith has grown so much. I dont know how I came to be on the mission, but I am so glad that Heavenly Father sent me here, because I have changed into a better person.

And I have 6 more months to learn so much more and to change so much more! QUE BENDICION! 

I am so excited to see what the next 6 months will bring. I still got a lot of work to do! 

First of all, we have an investigator named Wendy who is probably the coolest person that I have ever met. If you looked up "pure in heart" in the dictionary, it would have a picture of her! She is amazing. We have been trying to meet with her daily to get her ready for her baptism, which will be on the 9th of May. Sadly, I dont think that I will be here. I cross my fingers, but I dont know if it is the plan of Heavenly Father that I am here another 6 weeks. But seriously, she is so teachable. She readys everything that we give her. She understands everything. She is literally amazing at the doctrine that we teach her. She sometimes tells us that she is speechless from the Spirit that she feels when she learns more about Christ. She came to church this week! I now know what it truly means when it says in the scriptures that Heavenly Father prepares people for us to teach, because she is so prepared. I swear, we dont even really have to explain anything because she understands it all and accepts it all! I am so excited to see her progress. She is one of the chosen people. I know that I am here to help her. 

Other news...

- I GOT LIZZY`S CARD! It made my whole day. 

- CAMBIOS!!!! Where in the world will Hermana Routsong go?! 

- I have learned that if you pray with real intent, with all your faith, Heavenly Father will answer your prayers. We have been teaching a couple who is not married for about 3 weeks now. They had no desire to get married, and we had been praying for them all this week in literally every prayer (which is a lot for missionaries!). They told us Saturday that they had a date for their marriage NEXT MONTH! I ALMOST PASSED OUT! Heavenly Father answers prayers..... we need to look for his hand in our lives. 

- Mama, can you please send me more probiotics? Gotta keep those smeagols away.... 

- WENT TO TUNARI FOR PDAY! It is like the scenes from LOTR but with LLAMAS! Needless to say, I was happy. 

I LOVE YOU ALL! KEEP BEING GREAT. 

Hermana Routsong 

FOTO. There is a 9 de Abril street in my area. ONE YEAR?! No puedo creerlo

9 De Abril

Aurora...she reminds me of grandma

Hermana Vara

Carmen

Wendy

Love these kids

Cinthia

llamas

Pday

carrots

 

Yo se que vive mi Senor

FELIZ PASCUA! FELIZ CONFERENCIA GENERAL! 

How are you all doing? Kicking butt our there in the real world? I hope so. 

This week, I wanted to share what I took away from General Conference. First of all, WOW. It was amazing! I feel like I received revelation from every single talk! One theme that I took away was that we really need to convert ourselves more as members to this gospel. Are we just going through the motions? Is our obedience casual? Why are we really being obedient? Just because we have to? Or are we really striving to be better and better each day through the grace, or enabling power of the Atonement? We as members of this great church should be striving every day to keep the commandments of God. And we should be doing it with JOY! "If ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, can ye feel so now?!" If we have been converted to this gospel, can we really say that we wake up with joy every morning with joy? That should be the case. Let us never take for granted the fact that we can see miracles every day in our lives. We can apply this to missionary work, too. Are we being casual in our obedience? Why are we really obeying? Do we wake up with joy at 6:30, knowing that the Lord is on our side and that we can do all things through Him? I felt a true joy this week as I saw my investigators progressing and truly wanting to learn more. 

We had Carmen`s baptism Saturday. It was beautiful. She is the little, old lady with cancer. She talked so much to us about how excited she was to receive the Holy Ghost. As we sat there, I watched tears stream down her face as her wish came true. She is truly one of the pure in heart who shall see God one day. It made me tear up to see her finally get what she most desired in her life. She probably wont live for very much longer because her cancer has no cure, and she doesnt want to get surgery. But we talk all the time about how we will have parties in heaven together. I love her. I didnt realize how attached I could get to a little old lady who I just met, but I know that that is how Heavenly Father feels for her. Below is a picture of her baptism. 

I hope that you all took a minute to remember what Easter is really about this past Sunday. There is a video that the church made that is so amazing. He is there for all of us. He is our rock and our light. He will save us from any heartache that we may have. Look to Him in every thought. Doubt not. Fear not. 

I love you all! HAVE A GREAT WEEK! TELL ME ALL ABOUT WHICH CONFERENCE TALK YOU LIKED!!! 

Hermana Routsong

Leah... Her mom asked me to be her godmother

Erica

More Watermelon

Carmen's baptism

Carmen's baptism

Carmen

Carmen

Love these people

General Conference in English

Everything comes in bags!

General Conference with Peanut Butter Sandwiches

 

"Charity Never Faileth"

HOW ARE YOU ALL?! How is my weeping family doing? Is everyone making sure that my mom doesnt have a meltdown with Kyle gone? I HOPE SO! Kyle sounds great in his letter! I am so proud of him. He is going to be an amazing missionary. KRISTY! I want to read Tiff's letter, so make sure that you forward it to me every week if that is possible! 

Anywho... it was been a GREAT WEEK! I really dont know why, and I say this a lot lately, but I am SO DANG HAPPY. I go to bed each night literally so happy. I cannot stop smiling. It is truly one of the greatest feelings to be serving these people here. They are amazing. I have gained such a love for the people here, eventhough they are crazy! 

I wanted to tell you all about yet another member reference that we have! Their names are Ian and Lorey. They are a young couple that we just started teaching, and they are amazing. They understand everything so well. They have such insightful questions. They are so teachable. And they came to the ward baptism that we had this week! It made me so happy to see them sitting there, singing all the hymns with us. They told us how beautiful they thought the baptism was. They are such an example to me of the chosen children of God who are really ready to hear this message. 

I also learned a great lesson about virtue this week. Before, I guess that I really didnt understand virtue. But in our companionship study, Hermana Parry told me that virtue is POWER. I always want to have more of the power of God in my life to help me do this work, and I really learned that we really need to separate ourselves from worldly things to truly have that power. That is why we are here on the mission... to truly learn to be more virtuous in this world. 

Lastly, I wanted to tell you just how much I LOVED President Eyring`s talk at the women`s session. He told us that he loved the phrase "charity never faileth." I had been thinking a lot about how I can become a better missionary, and it finally hit me. Charity is the answer. If I want to be more consecrated, I really need to learn to have more charity and love. Charity never faileth! So if we have charity, we will always win! It has been my goal to pray to have more love and charity in my heart for these people, so I can change their lives and mine. 

 

Other things.... 

- We had a really cool hermana`s conference with president, and he made us taco salad with LETTUCE and SOURCREAM! I almost died... I havent those for a whole year. 

- HAPPY EASTER AND CONFERENCIA! I really dont know if I have ever been more excited about general conference in my whole life. I cannot wait to hear the guidance that I will receive that will shape the next 6 months of my mission. 

- I want all the girls in my family to read the talk by Elaine S. Dalton called "Remember who you are." READ ESPECIALLY KAYLA, NICOLE, LIZZY and GRACIE. This talk is so beautiful. We should all be searching for what is really most important... spiritual beauty. 

Have a great Easter! 

Love,

hermana routsong

Foto.... The couple that I talked about in my letter that came to the ward baptism! They are so cool. 

Bryana's Baptism

Baptism

Brenda at the Frozen Party

Weird clown

Great couple that we are teaching

Meeting with the President and his wife

Election Day.... no one was in the street

Frozen Party

r

 

In the Strength of the Lord, we can do all things

How goes it?! Are you all freaking out? You only got one day left!!!!! KYLE!!!! TIFF!!!!!!!! I am so excited for you guys. You will both be in the MTC together! That is pretty cool.

My week was great!

I wanted to tell you about one of our investigators. You met him yesterday. His name is Juan Carlos. He is going through a lot of problems in his life right now. It breaks my heart. But it is amazing because he has such faith in the Lord. He is always telling us of miracles that he sees even when he has all these problems. He is a member reference (like all of our golden investigatos) and came to church last Sunday and stake conference this Sunday. We had a lesson with him the other day, and I felt inspired to share a scripture with him about baptism in 2 Nephi 31. He LOVED it. He read it several times over in the lesson. I just love when I feel guided by the Spirit in a lesson to the exact need of the investigator. He told us that he feels like our message is true. So we are going to keep working hard to prepare him for his baptism! 

We have a family that we have been teaching for a while now, and they have been struggling to understand all the doctrine. But a miracle happened this week. They decided to come to stake conference, and our great bishop picked them up and brought them. It was a complete surprise to us, and made my heart fill with joy when I saw them. That afternoon, we visited them, and I saw a literal change in the hermana. She was so bubbly and happy! Normally, she is quiet and doesnt say very much, but yesterday, she was talking up a storm about how much she loved conference! I just love seeing that change in people that the gospel brings. 

What else is new?!

- KYLE! So I dont know if dad told you, but he emailed me your farewell talk. Can I just tell you that I LOVED IT. I was feeling actually kinda sad last monday, and I really dont know why. But that night, I read your farewell talk and I was blown away! It made me feel so much better. You are going to be such a great missionary. You really are one of the pure in heart, but I have always thought that. 

- ENTREVISTAS! Wow.... I love interviews with president. MOM. DAD. President literally talked about my last day on the mission with me. It FREAKED ME OUT. I still have so much time! I DONT WANNA TALK ABOUT THAT! He told me that if you want to come pick me up, email Hermana Hansen soon. She has all the info. That night, I had scary dreams about me going home.... 

- Today, I bought TWO GIANT WATERMELONS. My obsession is getting worse. I literally couldnt carry them the four blocks home because my arms killed me. THEY ARE HUGE! Pictures to come. 

- ROSA CALLED ME. She is one of my converts in Potosi and she called to tell me that she is still doing great in the ward. I loved to hear that. I promised her that we would visit her, so if you guys have to come to Potosi with me again. SORRY! 

We are doing really good here. I am anxious to hear how tomorrow goes! GOOD LUCK. DONT CRY TOO MUCH! Remember, in the strength of the Lord, we can do all things. 

HERMANA ROUTSONG

All these crazy kids.... love them

Gabriels's birthday



I love watermelon

These kids make my life so happy

Stake conferenced

Getting a ride home from the bishop

Chocolate cake!

Reminded me of home

Tour of Churches

Another Church

Another church in the tour

Love these guys!

Barana... my best friend here!

My results.... Sméagol is dead!