Ontono con un Argejicano, 3/6/17

Hola familia!!

Thanks for the happy birthday wish Mom! And thanks to everyone for their love and support. It´s always great to hear from my family. We were very blessed here in Santos Lugares B. We had a beautiful baptismal service of Julieta, and Elder Vieyra and I kept going going so that we can hopefully have a wonderful March and April in the ward with lots of baptism.

So Tuesday I went to the mission offices to drop off my comps Elder Steenblik and Elder Atwood and meet my new comp: Elder Vieyra. Elder Vieyra is another Utahn, but he fits right in here in Argentina. His Mom is from Mendoza, Argentina and his dad is from Mexico. Whereas all the rest of us from Utah had to learn the culture here in Argentina, for him he needed to adapt his Spanish and cultural habits to fit with the rules of a missionary in Argentina (he was used to using vos instead of the usted form of you, as well as other Argentine slang words that we don´t use as missionaries). He has now been in the mission for just over a year, and we got to start our tranfer off together with a bang- the baptism of Julieta.

The baptismal service of Julieta was incredibly great. She was very well prepared for baptism and we had great support from the members. I was blessed to be able to help with the ordinance, and I really felt like the service invited the Spirit. Marlene, the good friend of Julieta, gave a great talk on baptism to start things off. It was a beautiful baptismal service and we were very blessed to participate!

We brought Mario to the baptism with his daughter Honorina. It was really cool to see how the baptismal service influenced the attitude of Honorina. She told us that she felt something different in the church, and that she wasn´t going to be able to attend church yesterday but that this next Sunday she would make sure to come because she "doesn´t want to miss this". 

In addition to the baptism, we had a contact where I really felt we were guided by the Spirit last night. We were walking by a house when we noticed a lady entering the house. At the same time both Elder Vieyra and I turned to go contact the woman. We were able to teach about the restoration in the door and she told us that it was really weird that we had passed by in that specific moment because it has been a long time since she has attended to a church, and her family is going through a tough time. I know that God has been putting us in the path of people as we have exercised our faith to invite more and more people.

I am very grateful for the week we were able to have here in Santos Lugares B. It feels strange to think I will be turning 26-years-old this week. That sounds way to old, but I´m sure God will continue to bless and guide me as I continue to seek his love and guidance.

Thank you for all of your support! Keep seeking the guidance of our Lord and leader Jesus Christ! He is mighty to save!

Love,

Elder Lambert

El trio hasta el fin, 2/27/17

Hola familia!

Sorry for sending out my message earlier but we are trying to get in to right earlier with our new schedule that allows us to start our preparation day at 8 AM. So be prepared! :-) 

I´m glad to hear that you were able to have a good long weekend with Dad and that Landon could have a fun birthday dinner/weekend! It´s always great to hear about the positive things that everyone is doing in their lives!

We finished out our last week as a trio this week. We were able to see some really cool miracles. One of the miracles that we saw was that we were blessed to find 9 new investigators between the two areas. We had many great moments as we strived to work hard and talk with everyone that we were put in the path of people that were willing to accept us.

Additionally, Julieta has continued progressing amazingly well, and is scheduled to be baptised this Saturday. It will be a big blessing to be able to be a part of her baptismal service. She has really accepted the gospel and is continuing forward with faith even though her Mom doesn´t approve her choice.

Probably my favorite moment of the week was last night. We were going to search for a former investigator that lives in an inconvenient part of our area. As we were on the path, we saw a man sitting down resting on the sidewalk while his handcart that he had been gathering trash in rested on the road (there area a lot of people who gather things that people have thrown away and resell them to make a living). We decided to ask him if we could help him and Elder Atwood recognized him as being on old investigator from his area- Gustavo. 

Gustavo had been living on the street when one of the investigators of Santos Lugares A, Delia, told him that he could stay in her house if he would commit to living without drugs and alcohol. He lived in her house clean for a time before relapsing, and being kicked out by Delia. 

When we found him he was pretty clearly feeling worn out by life, and we were able to sit down with him and express the love that God has for him. It was truly a tender mercy of God- I was able to remember how mindful God is of each us- we were lead exactly to someone who needed us and we wouldn´t have seen the same miracle if Elder Atwood hadn´t been with us to recognize Gustavo. We are really hoping that he will take our invitacion to return to church and recommit himself to living a life in alignment with God´s will for him.

The big news today was our changes for the next transfer. It looks like I´m staying here for another transfer! I will be getting a new comp and will be saying goodbye to both Elder Steenblik and Elder Atwood. I´m really grateful for the time that we could work together and hope that we can keep moving this area forward for the better!

I know that God is mindful of us and our needs. When we are tired and worn out by life, he is there cheering us on. Keep holding on with hope. There is always another day, another chance, another moment to change. God only asks that we bring him a broken heart and a contrite spirit- if we have these we will be able to become the people that he needs us to be.

Thank you for all of your love and support. Love,

Elder Lambert

Fotos- 1. Elder Lambert and a beautiful sunset.

Un Flash y Una Visita, 2/20/17

Hola Mamá y familia!!

I hope that you are all doing well! Thank you for all of your love and support! I hope that everything is going good! It was great to hear about how things are going for Noelle out in Australia!

We had some of our own Australian news out here in Santos Lugares. Last Monday right after we finished our grocery shopping we got a call from the assistants that we were going to have a "flash"- or that we would be having a change that day. They called us at 2 PM and told us that at 4 PM a taxi would be arriving out our apartment to take our Australian- Elder Soberanas away to Ituzhaingo. With Elder Soberanas gone Elder Atwood, Elder Steenblik, and I were left to work as a trio in the entire area of Santos Lugares- a gigantic area.

We said our goodbyes to Elder Soberanas and then the week as a trio got under way. We were able to have some really great moments, and we taught very well together even with the adjustments that we needed to make to be able to include three people in the teaching. We will be in the trio for one more week until we have transfers again- at which point we will be back again to four missionaries and two areas for this ward.

We saw some awesome progress this week with Julieta. She is a friend of a recent convert, and came last week to church for the first time, but this past week we saw some amazing changes in her. Tuesday we were able to meet with her and teach her about the plan of salvacion. We focused in on the atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ, and how repentance is possible through him. We explained how this repentance is complete as we are baptised and receive the holy ghost, and invited her to be baptised.

Julieta gave us a lukewarm response- maybe she would be baptised if she really felt it was right, and after a few months to think about it. After our visit, she decided to read in the Book of Mormon. She read what we had left her, and that night we received a call from her recent convert friend with very good news- Julieta had decided that she wants to be baptised.

We were very excited with the news, and began thinking about which baptismal date we should extend to her. After some study and prayer we decided to invite her to be baptised on the 18th of March.

We had set another visit with her for Friday, and Wednesday night received news that one of the Assistants to the President would be coming in to work with Elder Atwood Thursday and Friday. Elder Scheffemacher (a brasilian that finishes his mission after this week) came in Thursday, and we were blessed to see even more miracles occuring in our areas.

On friday the time came around to teach Julieta again, and she accepted the baptismal date of the 18th of March. We were really excited but had to keep the day going with our English class, so we went and taught without much of a chance to celebrate the excitement of the moment.

After english class, we returned to the apartment and were talking in the apartment with Elder Scheffemacher when the phone rang again. Julieta told us that she had been thinking about it and that she wanted to change her baptismal date to be baptised as soon as possible. We arranged for the fourth of March, and were are super excited to help her prepare!

We are looking forward to an incredible March here in our area. I am so grateful for the chance I have to learn and improve here in the mission field. It is so cool when I think about the blessing I and all missionaries receive to be representatives of the Lord Jesus Christ! There is truly nothing else like it in the world!

With that being said, I know that each one of you in your lives also have opportunities that will never come again. Take advantage and enjoy the blessings that you are receiving!

Much love,

Elder Lambert

Miembros y maestros, 2/13/17

Hola familia Lambert y los demás!

Well I guess I´m going to miss it if Dad hits the big time with the commercials. I hope he just remembers to stay humble and give thanks to the little guys like myself that he knew along the way.

I really like your notes from Sunday School. I really believe that as worthy members of the church we have the guidance of the Spirit much more than we realize. If we are following the commandments or striving to repent he will always lead us step by step to him. 

This week was a week of meetings- we had our interviews with Presidente Robertson, our ward council, correlation meeting, and our district meeting. Meetings have always been interesting to me going through business school and the work environment. I always have this internal battle between whether we really understand and are accomplishing the purpose of a meeting, and I still can´t really say exactly what a great meeting looks like. However, I do believe that no time is wasted as we are sincerely striving to learn and do the will of God. I have learned that when I feel frustrated, or maybe feel like things don´t go exactly the way I want that it is often a good thing. If things don´t go perfectly it means I´m in the process of change and that I´m trying to improve! We always learn the most when we are starting the change process and have the most to improve- so always stick it out! Keep learning every day!

With that in mind- we had a great correlation meeting with our ward mission leader Hermano DellEllicine. We started working on our ward mission plan to go over with the bishop and were able to make some great traction in working even better with the members of our ward.

We were very blessed to see several fruits of the work that we have been doing with the ward this week. One of the most amazing things has been the willingness of the members to help us with Mario. He can´t walk by himself so we need the members to help us take him in their cars. Without fail every week someone has stepped us to help us and it was awesome to have Mario´s smiling face in church for the third week straight. 

In addition to the support of Mario as he progress towards baptism, we have a recent convert, Marlene who introduced us to her friend, Julieta the other week. She inicially didn´t seem like she really wanted to put our commitments as a very high priority in her life but little by little has been taking action- she came to the ward family home evening that we did, attended to our English class, and then finally came to church! We had some very spiritual meetings yesterday and I know that Julieta was able to feel the spirit! I´m excited to see how she continues to progress!

Overall, we had a great week. I love the chances we have to talk to Mario, he always share his wisdom with us. One of the truths of life is that in the modern world we are always getting stressed with deadlines, etc. but the fact is that life always continues! There is no final defeat! All struggles eventually pass because Jesus Christ has overcome death and overcome the world! If you don´t feel like you can make it, keep going forward, be still and know that all flesh is in the hands of our master.

Much love,

Elder Lambert

Super Mario, 2/6/17

Hola familia!

Thanks for making a blog Mom. I´ve been trying to write more in my journal and take more pictures so that I have more of the memories from the mission recorded. I still have some work to do though. It´s also crazy to hear about all the different events going on in the family. I´m really excited to hear where Connor gets accepted and chooses to go! 

As for the work and the weather- we had a week that really wasn´t too hot. It rained  a few of the days and was cloudy basically the whole day for a few of the days. It looks like we´re going to have the same this week. We´ve been really blessed this summer that it hasn´t been too hot. A lot of people have sad that the past two summers were much worse.

This week was filled with some really good experiences. One of which was the chance to go on divisions with ElderAtwood, to his part of the area. Elder Atwood is from Pleasant Grove, UT and has been out here in the mission for 14 months. He is a really good kid, and I´ve always really respected him since I met him (he was in my first zone and trained one of the other elders from my group). He recently finished some time in an area in the middle of nowhere where he served as the 1st counselor in a branch presidency and where his companion was the branch president.

During divisions we had the opportunity to visit with a member family where we were blessed to find, Karina, a cousin of the family that is not a member. You could see in the beginning that Karina seemed a bit hesitant and uncomfortable with the situation. As we began to teach I really felt like the Spirit was present and that the attitude of Karina changed as she opened up to the message that we taught about the restoration. While she didn´t commit to be baptized, it is in the small moments of change that we can tell if people are progressing to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ or not.

People will always have their ability to choose, and we can be the best teachers that we possibly can be and still not see someone progress to baptism. However, I know that God sees the big picture that we don´t. We need to thank God for even the smallest of changes- whether it´s just a change in attitude of a person or that someone chooses to take the risk and pray for the first time.

To continue with the changes that we were able to see, all 96-years of Mario have continued to progress. He came to church again and we taught him afterwards. He is step by step remembering better the things we have taught and showing signs of progress. He had a tendency before to share his same doubts with us multiple times, but has recently been opening up and sharing with us new thoughts and ideas of his. I really feel like step by step we have been blessed to help him come closer to Jesus Christ.

Thank you all for your love and support. I know that my Savior lives and loves us. I know that he has a beautiful future prepared for each one of us. As we follow the gospel of Jesus Christ we have the incredible opportunity to be changed from the inside out. Our desires and hearts change and we are lead to take control of circumstances. I pray to forever be an instrument for the good of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Love,

Elder Lambert

Ensene arrepentimiento, y bautice conversos, 1/30/17

Hola familia!

Thanks for the news. That was crazy to see all of the advertisements that the Church put up in Melbourne. Very cool to see. I also love the thoughts that yall heard from Sister Arnold- I´m really trying to trust in the Spirit more here in the mission. We just had some pretty interesting changes here in the mission that are going to require that we really follow the Spirit more.

Now that I have your interested piqued (I´m not sure if that´s how you spell that word), I´ll go ahead and give you guys the news! Maybe it´s news that you already have, but we found out this past week that the missionary schedule and our key indicators for conversion have been changed! 

This past Thursday we all gathered together in the mission office and watched a worldwide training from the missionary council- Elder Oaks, Elder Bednar, and Elder Andersen all sit on the council as well as the young women´s general president (Sister Oscarson?). They reviewed and discussed a training from this past year called "Teach Repentance, and Baptise Converts" and then announced changes to the mission schedule and key indicators.

The training was really awesome and I felt really impressed by a lot ot the thoughts they shared to improve my teaching as a missionary. Then to finish- we got hit with the news- our schedule now means that we leave the apartment by 10 AM each morning and have to schedule for ourselves when we are going to have comp study and language study during the day, and when we get back at night we don´t have any planning to do. 

Where before we had an hour of preparation time at night if we got back at 9:00 PM- we now have from 9-9:30 to write in our journals and then have the option to go to bed at 9:30 or to finish preparations and go to bed at the usual 10:30 PM. It doesn´t seem like much but I have been a lot more consistent with my journal now haha. Also, we have a bunch more time on p-day because p-day now begins at 8 AM and goes until 6 PM. I really hope to be able to use these changes to prepare myself better and work more effectively. 

As for our key indicators we are no longer reporting how many lessons we taught! Every week we only report 4 things- baptisms and confirmations, investigators with a baptismal date, number of investigators that attended to church, and the number of new investigators found. It was pretty weird to do weekly planning and only set goals in these four categories- but I really felt like it helped us to focus more in on the needs of our investigators.

With all the excitement with the changes, and the renewed focus- Elder Steenblik and I had a really great week. The biggest miracle we saw this week was with a former investigator that we found and were able to begin teaching again- Mario. Mario is a 96-year-old man from Paraguay. He is in incredibly good shape for his age- he can still walk although he uses a cane at times, and he can see almost perfectly- he just can´t see sufficiently to read.

We really focused in on trying to help Mario progress and we scheduled several times to visit with him just to read in the Book of Mormon. We also planned ahead to pick him up Sunday morning with a member that has a car. Miraculously- the member said that it was totally cool, and when we got there he was all ready to come to church! He had gotten ready that morning and was waiting for us with a big smile! The real cherry on top was when he said that he really loved the meetings!

It´s going to be interesting to see how things go moving forward. I´m excited to adjust to the new changes and help more people like Mario progress and be baptized in the church of Jesus Christ. I´m grateful for all of the love and support that I have from my family and friends. I know that Jesus is the Christ, and I encourage you to seek his hand in your lives every day.

Much love,

Elder Lambert

Elders Steenblik, Soberanas, Lambert, Atwood.

Mario with Elder Steenblik.

Edificaos sobre el fundamento de profetas y apostoles, 1/23/17

Hola Mama y familia!

Great to hear from yall. It´s very strange to think that a whole new presidency is beginning in the US. Just like the Australians for Noelle, the Argentines are constantly asking us about our opinions on Donald Trump. We are really blessed these days with all the information we have, but it is also a bit sad to see how the news is sensationalized to make it more controversial. There are many Argentines who think that we live in constant fear in the USA because all they see on the news are the tragedies that occur.

The sweltering heat has continued here, but Elder Steenblik and I got through it no problem. Elder Steenblik grew up in the Cottonwood Heights area and went to Brighton High School- so his family is right there close to us. He comes from a family of 9 kids, and he´s the second oldest in the family. He´s been out here in the mission for 14 months- he came here in the same group as my other companion Elder Salmon (Alabama, USA).

As for finding people to teach- the idea of a cottage meeting is something I have never heard of, but it gives me a good idea- I would love to arrange something where members and non-members have the chance to drink mate and talk about the gospel together. We have been teaching English classes, but we need to get a little better with organizing it and getting more people there. It´s been good, but we have a ways to go.

We mostly find people to teach through references from the members, and our own contacting efforts. We were able to talk to a good number of people this past week and found a few that we really hope will progress.

Overall, Elder Steenblik and I kicked off what looks like will be a really good transfer. It had a few ups and downs but I really am excited to move forward and see what the Lord has in store.

The week started on a big upswing- we were able to meet and teach Saira (a widow that´s about 70 years old) and Silvano (an evangelical cristian that´s about 60 years old and is a father of 13 kids!). Our visit with Saira was really great and she committed to baptism if she comes to know that these things are true. It´s going to be difficult because it´s really hard for her to walk and there aren´t very many members that have cars to help her get to church, but we are working to see what we can do. With Silvano, he also accepted to be baptised if he knows these things are true, the struggle is that he attends to his church every Sunday right now the same time as our meetings.

After the fast start out of the gates we hit a bump in the road Wednesday night. I don´t know what happened, but I think that when I had sprayed myself with OFF bug repelent Wednesday night I accidently ingested a little bit somehow because at about 3 in the morning I woke up feeling very sick. I proceeded to spend a good portion of the night and the next morning in the bathroom throwing up.

Luckily with weekly planning Thursday I was able to rest up a bit Thursday and we were able to head out again Friday. We put in a hard day´s work Friday, and then were really blessed Saturday to teach José Luis, our investigator that attended church the previous Sunday. We invited José Luis to be baptised the end of February and he accepted. I really hope that we can help José Luis continue to progress towards baptism. He is a really good guy, and I know that he will be able to help his kids alot more as he comes to accept and follow the gospel of Jesus Christ.

After all of the craziness of the week the true cherry on top was Sunday- stake conference with ELDER STEVENSON! It was awesome! His talk was so powerful, and pure! I really loved the chance to hear from him! He shared a beautiful talk about how all of us are sons and daughters of a loving heavenly father. In his talk he briefly shared three short stories that I would like to share with you guys.

First, he told us about a member of the Church in the Marshall Islands. The Marshall Islands is a small set of four Islands in the Asia north area. One of the islands was recently blessed to change from a district into a stake. The member that was called as the stake president is a humble fisherman that each day goes out to fish to provide for his family for the next day. Every Sunday he gets up early to walk six hours to his meetings before church, and then walks back six hours after church. 

Second, Elder Stevenson related that as a member of the area presidency in Asia North he had the chance to enter into North Korea, where the church has an orchard of apple trees that allows the people to eat fresh apples. He shared how he was touched to see the people in this nation that like all other places has parents that love their children.

Finally, Elder Stevenson told us a story from when he was a mission president in Japan. Two of his missionaries on the opposite end of the mission had a woman that he would need to interview so that she could have the chance to be baptised. His schedule didn´t allow him to make the trip, but he was able to call her and interview her over the phone. Over the course of the conversation he was able to bear testimony of and teach her about the atonement of Jesus Christ, and how she can now be free of the guilt that she had felt for years. In the course of the conversation, his phone began to indicate that it was going to die. In all his past experience, when his phone had the flashing red lights indicating that it was going to die, he would only have 30 more seconds to talk. However, with no other way to charge his phone or get in contact with this woman he saw a small and simple miracle. His phone worked for the whole conversation until the very last goodbye was said, when the phone immediately shut down. 

I love all of these examples that Elder Stevenson shared, and that really remind me of the reality that God is a loving heavenly father. He loves each of us personally. He sends his servants individually to administer to each one of his children one by one. His son Jesus Christ suffered for the sins of each one of us, one by one. I am here to find individuals. People with hopes, dreams, achievements, failures, and families. People that live and breath. People that deserve respect and love.

I hope that I can exercise my faith and find God's children here in Argentina one by one. I believe that God loves and knows me. I encourage you to see all of the people around you as individual children of God. There is no one that is just a "bad person" or just this or that. All of them are children of God, and all of them make mistakes. However, all of them can also be changed through the power of their Savior Jesus Christ.

I love you all! I hope you all have a beautiful day today! Sorry I write so much! 

Love,

Elder Lambert

Elders Lambert and Hinostroza.

Probadme y abrire las ventanas de los cielos, 1/16/17

Hola familia!!

Sounds like yall were able to have a really relaxing week this last week. That´s always good. Also- happy birthday to Gina! I can´t believe she´s 40 years old! I always remember the batman movie when she came to visit us once in Salt Lake. That memory has always stuck with me.

To give yall a quick update on the weather, and all that jazz- it has continued to be very, very hot. However, we did have a little bit of a reprieve. Last monday night it rained a boat load for about an hour and then stopped completely. During the week we were lucky to have a bit of a cool wind, and then we had a little bit of rain yesterday as well. It can be a little tough to sleep some nights because no- we don´t have air conditioning. To keep ourselves cool we turn on a fan that we have in the apartment. It´s a big help, but it´s not air conditioning.

As for my week- another transfer has just gone down the tubes here in Argentina. Elder Hinostroza and I oficially capped off our last week together in Santos Lugares B. It was a good transfer, and we got to see some small fruits from our labors this last week. Tomorrow I will be receiving my 7th companion in 6 transfers (including my time in the CCM). His name is Elder Steenblick and he´s from Utah. I met him briefly a couple of other times because he was in my zone when I was in Atalaya. I´m definitely going to miss the help of a native speaker to improve my Spanish, but I´m sure that we´ll work well together.

What I really wanted to share with you guys this week was my experience with fasting and praying that I had recently. The sunday of the 8th here was our fast sunday, and I chose to fast that we could have at least two investigators in church. I began my fast Saturday the 7th, and on Sunday we had a big old donut (0 investigators) in church. However, I have seen many times in my life, that God always answers prayers and that I need to be open to his way to answer and his time.

Fast forward to this week. I don´t know why, but this past Saturday night I really felt that I should pray for the same thing in our companionship prayer before we got ready for bed. This whole transfer we had only had one investigator attend church one Sunday. So I asked that God could allow that at least two investigators could come to church.

I don´t know how everything works on the other side. I know that God cannot force anyone to follow him, and that we as missionaries can´t do it either- but I do know that God answered my prayer. Yesterday, the 15th of January, we had two investigators in church- José Luis, and Valdemar. José Luis is the son of less active members that we have taught a couple of times, and it was really great to see him when he came to church. The attendance of Valdemar was truly a gift of God because he came completely on his own accord- we had never seen him until he entered into the church.

We have continued to work with Marta- the less active member with schizophrenia, and she also came to church this week! In addition to her, we have been searching high and low for other people who are ready to listen to and accept the gospel of Jesus Christ. Ideas are always welcome! :)

I want to bear my testimony that I´m not perfect. I never have had one singular experience in my life that I can always refer to say that I know these things are true. However, I have been blessed with many moments over the course of a lifetime that testify to me that God lives, that Jesus Christ is my Savior, and that the church of Jesus Christ has the fulness of God´s plan for the happiness of his children. I will choose to follow him and glorify his name all the days of my life- through thick and thin, through rough and tumble. I know that there is no other name under heaven by which I can be saved. We can always choose to follow Jesus Christ. We may never have a perfect knowledge, but we can choose to have faith in Jesus Christ. As we do so I know that we will not be left to fall- I haven´t found anything more powerful in the world than the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I love you all. Thank you for all of your love and support.

-Elder Lambert

Que pasen los Reyes Magos, 1/9/17

Hola familia!!

Great to hear that you had a good time finishing off the vacation break. That´s really cool that you got to meet with the Noelle´s trainer and her Mom! You guys should send some cold weather down our way because it has been hot, hot, hot!

Elder Hinostroza and I started our New Year off really well here in Santos Lugares B. The sad news is that it doesn´t look like we´re going to be able to baptize someone this transfer together, but we were able to have a few milestones this week for us in the area.

In Argentina, (maybe in a few other latino countries as well) the 5th of January is when the three wise men come to bring gifts for the baby Jesus. The tradition here is that the kids set their shoes out on the patio with some water and food for the camels, and the three wise men leave gifts on top of each pair of shoes. While I didn´t get the chocolate I was hoping for from the three wise men, we did receive three great gifts in our area this past week.

The first gift that we received this week was that we met Mari. Mari is a woman that Elder Hinostroza had contacted before with a different companion- and had actually acted pretty hostile when they tried to contact her. However, we talked with a neighbor of hers and he said that we should pass by to talk with her because she has been facing some difficulties as she has recovered from cancer.

We decided to give it a shot, and were really surprised when she allowed us to pass by to talk with open arms almost immediately. We were able to teach her about the restoration and invite her to be baptized. She said that she was open to being baptized again (she was baptized as a child in the catholic church). It was really great to see someone with really sincere desires to follow Jesus Christ after passing through many difficulties (before she was diagnosed with cancer, Mari was earning her living selling drugs). We hope to keep working with Mari to prepare her for baptism in the coming weeks!

The second gift that we received this week was a reference that we received from Church headquarters. The reference didn´t give us close to any information about who sent the reference or how they contacted Ramón, but it had what we needed- an address and instructions to stop by after 6 PM.

We headed out to find Ramón Wednesday night, and were greeted lovingly by an older gentleman. It turns out that Ramón is 90 years old, and his wife was a member of the church (she passed away two years ago). Ramón is very unsure about whether there is a God or no. He has a very hard time believing there is more than what he sees. However, he has a great spirit about him and has always lived high moral principles- he married his wife when they were 25 years old, he´s never smoked or used illegal drugs, and he has always been very focused in helping his fellow man.

We were blessed to be able to visit with Ramón a couple of times this past week, and hope to be able to help him to exercise his faith. I know that God is trying to reach out to Ramón right now, and I hope that Elder Hinostroza and I can help him believer like his wife believed.

The third and final gift was that a less active member in our area came to church! Marta is a less active member that I have mentioned briefly before. Our investigador, Lourdes, is living in her house. However, while we have been having trouble finding Lourdes, we have had the privelege of working with Marta.

Marta suffers from Schizophrenia, and with regularity hears voices. Despite her ailment, Marta really likes to read in the scriptures and remembers all of the readings that we leave her really well. We have really been focusing in on helping her so that hopefully her son, Lourdes, and the other people in her house can make changes in their lives as well.

Marta has been reading everything that we have left her, and has also been working towards her goal to quit smoking. When we first talked with her she was smoking 40 cigarrettes a day, and now has already dropped to 20 or less each day. Even more than this, she is praying, and memorizing a scripture when she has the desire to smoke.

All of the faith that she has been exercising has really helped her, and this Sunday she got herself ready and walked to church! She even arrived almost an hour early. It was great to see her cleaned up and in the church. I know that God loves her and wants to help her and her family.

Overall, it was a good week here in Santos Lugares B. We have lots of work to do to help someone prepare to baptized in this ward, but I´m hopeful as we continue thrusting in our sickle that we are going to find people that are prepared to learn and make convenants with their Father in Heaven.

I love all! I know that our God is mindful of us! There is a way prepared to follow him! Stick with your goals each day this year and become more like our Savior Jesus Christ!

Much love,

Elder Lambert

Ano Nuevo, Ensenanzas Antiguas, 1/2/17

Hola Mamá y Familia!!

Glad to hear that you guys had a great week after Christmas. It was good to see all of you guys as well. Sounds like you have been able to do a lot of fun things during your Christmas break! It´s really cool to hear about how everyone is progressing in their lives! Thanks for all of your words of encouragement and love.

As for the work here in Santos Lugares- we keep on keeping on. This week was a bit tough and crazy with the new year, but we had some really good experiences. In particular, I was really happy to be able to have an interview with Presidente Robertson this past week. It´s always great to be able to sit down with him face to face and pick his brain. He gave me some great words of wisdom this past week.

With that in mind, Presidente Robertson asked us all to come to our interview prepared with our goals for the year of 2017. As I reflected on my goals for this year, and prepared them I really feel like my overall goal is to be more like my Savior Jesus Christ. 

In the mission as I have set my goals I have been doing a lot better job with taking my vision of who I would like to be/what I would like to do and connecting it with what that means that I need to do each day. There´s a painting that I had seen in a Liahona of a shepherd holding his sheep in his arms, and it brought the verse John 10:11 to mind- I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd gives his life for his sheep. (I´m not 100% on that scripture reference because I´m going by memory right now) This scripture really captured for me what I would like to do- I really want to give my life for the sheep in all of my areas this year. I want to follow the example of Jesus Christ and give every day of my life to find and care for his children.

With my goals set, and my interview past we had a really great lesson this past Friday with an investigator that I met for the first time named Karina. I don´t know how things are going to go with Karina or if she will choose to progress, but I really felt the Spirit as I was able to offer the opening prayer in the lesson. If nothing else, I was able to feel the Spirit as I prayed, and felt like I was able to pray in a way that I have wanted to all of my time in the mission. I could really pray in a way that was a conversation with God.

After all of the craziness of the week was behind us, Saturday we had to return back to our apartments at 6 PM to stay out of the streets on New Year´s Eve. For good reason too- it was really difficult to sleep that night because everyone and their dog was shooting off fireworks from about 10 PM until 4 AM the next morning! I woke up several times throughout the night because- 1. it was blazing hot, and 2. fireworks were going off outside our window that sounded like gun shots all night long. Even with this I was really blessed that I could get enough sleep and have the energy to get right back to work Sunday morning.

Unfortunately, the showing in church Sunday morning was about the same as Christmas- we had about 20 people in total in church, and we weren´t able to find any of our investigators to bring.However, we have been really blessed to know even better some of the strong members in our ward. We are really excited to keep moving forward and to help more people enter into God´s church here in Santos Lugares.

I know that my redeemer lives. The moments that appear the most challenging, can be the moments that are the most oportune for our Savior to work in our lives and the lives of others. So when you are facing something that seems challenging- don´t do it yourself! Put your faith in your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! He who is might to save! I hope that we all might be more like the good shepherd this year and give our lives for his sheep here on earth.

Love,

Elder Lambert

El Calor, La Nochebuena, y La Navidad, 12/26/16

Hola familia!! 

It was great to see y'all yesterday. Thanks for all of your questions and everything! I felt like I didn´t get to hear much about what´s going on in all of your lives but it was great to see everybody and talk! I know I gave y'all a bit of an update yesterday but I´ll send you some more details of this past week anyways!

This week was really, really interesting with Christmas and everything. We hit a lot of highs and lows with the work here. Elder Hinostroza and I are continuing to find and prepare people for baptism. We were excited to see our investigator, Lourdes, progress but we hit a bittersweet bump in the road. She decided this past Tuesday to go stay with her Dad all of this past week- which meant that we couldn´t teach her and even more sad- that she didn´t come to Church! Despite this, I really believe that her Dad´s house is a lot better environment for her. I think that there will be less bad influences and temptation. But from what it sounded, the change is only temporary, we´ll be stopping by to see if we can find her this week.

With our only investigator that is attending church gone for the week we were back to the streets to find, teach, and baptize! I think God´s hand was especially in our week when we found Brandon this week. I mentioned him in the call yesterday, but I would like to describe the situation a little better. 

Brandon is 17-years old and was raised by his mother until a few years back when she was in an accident that left her unable to walk. Since then he and his brother have lived in a house together using money that their mother receives from the government to survive.

We originally met the brother of Brandon, Gabriel, two Saturdays ago when I was in exchanges with Elder Marple. We set up an appointment to return and talk with Gabriel this past week and continued on our way. Then this week, Elder Hinostroza and I passed by to find Gabriel. Gabriel was preparing to leave the house, and didn´t have time to talk to us so Brandon came to the door to talk with us. We explained a little bit about our message of the Restoration and invited him to listen- he accepted and just like that we were off to the races.

In the course of the lesson, we learned that Brandon´s Mom had been in an accident, that they were living off the money from the government, and that as a result of these problems Brandon wasn´t able to attend school this last year and that he and his brother haven´t had electricity in their house in 4 months. We discussed how the gospel helps us, why we needed a restoration, and invited Brandon to find out for himself.

To top everything off, we passed by this past Saturday to a great surprise- Brandon read what we left him (and a little bit extra), and he had prayed for help and that very same night the municipality restored the power to their house. It was really awesome to hear that this small miracle had occured in his life.

We still have a ways to go with Brandon and all of the other people we´re teaching, but I´m glad that we have the chance to help them make and keep promises with their Father in Heaven. I know that he lives, and that he wants us to honor our covenants. He is ready to give us a blessing 100x better than the sacrifices we must make to keep our covenants.

It was a very Merry Christmas here in Argentina. I am grateful to be serving my Savior Jesus Christ this time of the year. I couldn´t do this if I didn´t have the testimonies of many family members and friends to guide me to my own knowledge of my Savior Jesus Christ. I hope that you all had an amazing Christmas and that you enjoy your New Year´s Eve. Remember to reach out to the children of our God that are all around you.

Much love,

Elder Lambert

The photos- 1. The view from the apartment in Santos Lugares, 2. Elder Hinostroza (Peru), Elder Soberanas (Australia), and I in the cyber, 3. Christmas dinner with the Familia Grandón, and 4. our humble Christmas tree in our apartment

Christmas in Santos Lugares, 12/19/16

Hola Mamá y Familia!

Just like that, week 2 in Santos Lugares is over, and week 3 has begun. We were really blessed several days this past week to be lead by the Spirit as we were finding and teaching. It looks like Papa Noel has a few gifts left to give us this Christmas season in Argentina. I´m excited to see how things progress as Elder Hinostroza and I keep working.

It´s crazy to hear that there´s another Star Wars movie. Just this week here I saw a poster for the movie- the thought hadn´t even crossed my mind that the other Star Wars movies were going to be released during these two years! But it´s all for the better- I hate to offend all the Star Wars fans, but I really didn´t think that the Star Wars movie that came out last year was anything to write home about.

As for the work here, we are hard at work finding people that can progress to be baptized! We had several incredible days Tuesday and Thursday this past week where we were able to find a Bolivian family of five, a couple that lived in Canada for a period of time, and a single mother and her son who were all willing to listen to our message that we have a profet now on the earth just like we once had before our Savior Jesus Christ!

To add to all of this finding, we had an interesting change of events with an investigator named Lourdes. Lourdes has already come to the church a couple of times, but wasn´t reading or praying so we decided to stop teaching her for some time. However, this week we ran into her again on a day when she was facing a really hard moment. 

Lourdes has a situacion that is incredibly difficult. She is 17-years old and both of her parents abandoned her to live in the streets recently. A less active member, Franco, reached out to help her and invited her to stay in the house of his family. Franco is a good kid, but the situation in his house is very difficult as well- his Mom currently suffers from Schizophrenia and can´t care for him or maintain the house. As a result of this, right now the house seems more like a place for troubled kids to meet up away from the presence of responsable adults.

With all of this in mind, while I was on divisions with Elder Marple (an elder from Arizona that will be heading home this next week), my companion Elder Hinostroza ran into Lourdes. She had been feeling extremely depressed and they helped her for a brief moment. She committed to be baptized in the coming week, and came to church with us yesterday- fulfilling her promise to start keeping the Sabbath day holy.

Yesterday we reviewed the baptismal interview questions with Lourdes and I felt really good about it. Really I´m very nervous for her because she doesn´t have the family support that she needs to keep moving forward making good decisions day in and day out. However, I believe that God has a way prepared for her if she seeks out the help of God!

It´s really strange to think that Christmas is this coming Sunday, and that I will be talking with all of you! I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior! I´m excited to represent him this Christmas day as a missionary!

Love,

Elder Lambert

Quedese en Lugares Santos, 12/12/16

Hola familia!!

I´m glad to hear that my ugly sweater is still doing work. Sounds like it was a week of preparations for Christmas! Josh sent me an email a few weeks back when he and Jess first got engaged. I´m really excited for him. Be sure to send him my love!

The first week here in Santos Lugares was very interesting. We have a lot of work to do, but I think we´re going to see some beautiful things happen! This past Tuesday I met Elder Hinostroza in the mission offices before we headed out to the area. He is from Peru, and is 23-years old. He was baptized when he was 11-years old and went inactive after. With 21 years of age, he felt that he needed to return to activity in the church and serve a mission to provide a better future for his family. He is a really good kid, and his training was the same elder that finished my training- Elder Benitez from Paraguay.

The area is very much the city. We live in an apartment with two other Elders- Elder Townsend from Oregon, and Elder Soberanas from Australia. The apartment is in the area of the other Elders and we have to travel by train to get to our part of the area. We have a strong ward with members who were raised in the church, and several others that are converts more recently. 

Elder Hinostroza and I worked hard this past week to get things going here in Santos Lugares B. The majority of the members in the ward live in the area of the other Elders- which means that we need to baptize a ton so that this part of the area can be strengthened! I know that the people in this area need the gospel of Jesus Christ, and that they are people ready to receive the gospel and be baptized.

As we went about working this week, we passed by a family that was seated on the ground outside of a business. We greeted them as we walked by, and I felt strongly that we should return to talk with them. We turned around and asked if there was something that we could do to help them. They said yes, and told us that they were in the area because their son had recently been accused of sexual assault, and was being held by the court. When I heard this it hit me like a ton of bricks and I immediately knew that we were there to offer them the gospel during an extremely difficult time in their lives. They live really far away from our area, but we offered them some words of encouragement and left them with a prayer.

Even though I will probably never see those people again I know that they are children of God, and that they were in our path for a reason. I know that God´s hand is present in our lives and that we can receive his blessings more and more as we keep his commandments. I hope that this couple can receive the comfort of their loving father in heaven and experience the lasting joy of the gospel. We may not always understand why we should do something that the Spirit directs but I know that God knows. I hope everyone can listen to and follow the Spirit this December as you strive to light the world with the love of Jesus Christ.

Much love,

Elder Lambert