I Love to See the Temple...I'll Never Go Inside in Paraguay

 November 16, 2015
Hey all! 

Sorry if the title is a little bitter. We were able to go to the temple this last week and I couldn't go inside! Sad day. I mean, I have a cool missionary tag that should get me all the special deals right? ;) But as for the rest of the week it wasn't anything too crazy exciting.

We had some (a lot) of surprises that limited our ability to be able to work as we would have liked too but we were able to show a bunch of our investigators the Restoration video because we are now allowed to take our portable dvd players to lessons. It was a hit! The spirit was so strong and it was made so much clearer each and every time that Joseph Smith and what he did is so vital, not just for the church, but for each and every one of us. He showed us that we can truly go to our Father in Heaven and receive an answer and then he showed us what we have to avoid and what we must do after we receive an answer. Stay strong! Follow it! And keep the faith and trust that you have in your Father in Heaven. Truly we have living prophets and apostles leading and guiding this church today, but we can always confirm for ourselves what they say through our personal prayer and desires to understand the will of God.

Beautiful fountains at the Asuncion Temple

I love this gospel. I know it is what makes us happy. I had the joy and privilege to give a talk on ayuno <fasting> this week in sacrament and as I was giving my testimony I just felt it confirmed to me so strongly that the Lord loves us and truly is trying to help us and answer us in each and every moment.

Well....love you all so very much! Remember who you are and more importantly whose you are!

P.S: Funny moment was when the elder in our branch made brownies with wine that he thought was vainilla. It wasn't. And then he gave them to all the members. My comp was like, "this tastes like wine or something alcoholic." Good times. Later he fessed up and we about died laughing. 

Love,

Hermana Albach

Hermana Gonzales - she's been home for
4 months but happened to be at the temple
the same day we were. So good to see her!

At the temple with Elders Smith and Graves
and Hermanas Cannon, Watts, Hartley, &
Gonzales

H. Lopez -- she LOVES her chocolate!
(on the bus ride that lasted forever!)

H. Lopez is the BEST! I haven't had toast
in FOREVER! and she made it with
smiley faces :)

Tegucigalpa or bust!!

November 11, 2015

Meet Hermana Lopez

Hey all! So this is going to be sweet, short, and spiritually super! :) I am now with the Hermana Lopez and I am SO happy! I was happy before and I am sure I will be happy after but it is nice to be with another Latina and to see the world through new eyes!! She is so incredible. Funny, sweet, really patient, and a hard worker. It is shaping up to be a GREAT transfer. 

New Scripture Cases

 We are now waking up an hour earlier so we can do an hour and a half of exercises. It is pretty awesome. Love her! This week was a lot of getting to know the area, each other, and others. We have been working a lot of find new people to teach and helping those we are teaching to progress. We actually got to go to Asuncion all day yesterday, and I got to go again because I have been in Paraguay so long. Reunited with some of the elders that came with me, and went to the temple to take pictures outside. (I'll send those next week.) It was super great. Other than that my ponderizer for the week is psalms 62:6-8. It is so true that as we truly put our trust in the Lord we cannot fail. I love this gospel. I love that as I continue to question and pray that I continue to receive answers and that the Lord truly is at the head of this work. The lord loves each of us and blesses all who strive to do it. I know this is the work of the lord and that I am SO BLESSED to be a part of it and to be continually learning more each and every day!! Love you all and hope you have a great semana <week>!!

Chau,

Hermana Albach 

P.S.: Got Tim Tams from mom and dad so H. Bowen and I HAD to do a Tim Tam Slam :)

So long, my friend

Happy Halloween!!

November 2, 2015

Happy Day!

Hola. Feliz dia de Halloween!! I am sure you all had fun celebrating in one way or another. I decided that day I would dress up like an hermana missionary and have a baptism. We were able to see Liz enter the waters of baptism Saturday afternoon and it was awesome. This baptism had more problems then any I have been a part of before, to the point where she had to be baptized twice. 

Not because she didn't go all
the way under the disgusting green water, but because the hermano said the prayer wrong. {see below for the clean-up process} Poor thing. She got in to the bathroom to change before we figured it out. She was a champ to go back in and go under again. It smelled something fierce, but hey, at least she is now "clean" spiritually. :)  
She was radiating when she smiled as she came out and all the stresses of earlier from dirty water, breaking the baptism doors open, to this and that were wiped away in her happiness. I truly love seeing the miracles of the Lord. He is a miracle worker. The greatest part is that we fasted for the ability as a zone to complete our goal for 9 bautismos for this traslado. We had 5 throughout our whole zone on the 31st. They don't count for October but we got 8/9 of our goal. It was awesome. Fasting works. Makes change
happen, and gives us the ability to go forward with greater faith. Other than that we spent a lot of the week trying to find others to teach and help progress and helping Liz to be ready.

Another miracle was when her brother who has not wanted to meet with us at all came for a "tour" after her baptism and only wanted to see the baptismal font which I was a bit reluctant to show him because...well.. the water was disgusting and we tell
them that they will leave clean....;) but when he saw the font he got this look and just kept staring and then told us he wants to be baptized and feel clean again and asked us what he needed to do to have this happen. Say what? That never happens. So we explained to him about gaining a testimony, asistencia a la iglesia, and taking the lecciones. He should hopefully be at our noche de hogar tonight and we will see how it goes. It was crazy the desire that we saw in his eyes. Funny story from before. One of the hermanas came up to us as we were distributing the cake and told us that hte brother of Liz wanted to be baptized. Without thinking I said with a very confused look on my face, ¨"why?" Hermana bowen being very witty and sharp shot right back....."because its the truth". Made us all laugh!! Great point. Why not should have been my question...haha. Well I hope you are all doing great. For those of you who don´t know I will be staying here in Rama 2 and I have never been happier. I love this place and thses people. But unfortunately my invigorating journey
with h. bowen has come to an end for now until we reunite in about a year or so. :) She will be heading to help and bless the lives of the people in San Vincente Argentina. I will be joined in this epic battle between good and evil by the Hermana Lopez de Honduras. She seems to be really sweet and I am excited to see what we can get done! Love you all and your support. Have a great week and know that you are in my thoughts and prayers. And remember EVERY MEMBER a missionary!! 

Love,

Hermana Albach

p.s. apparently i walk funnily because everyone was talking about how they love how I walk with purpose and power....weird. but I knew it was true when everyone chipped in there support.....good times. 

Grandma Lybbert's Texas Sheet Cake! Num

**Preparing the font:

It had water left in it from the previous baptism in September (before Kaitlyn and H. Bowen arrived) Bleck! The drain wasn't working correctly, so they had to take it out (spiders, mosquitos and all) one bucket at a time. They scrubbed and cleaned it and then tried filling it again. Still gross so they started the process over. Finally, they filled the 3rd time and, knowing it was clean, left the water. I will never take clean water for granted again!!! 

Best Text Message EVER!

October 26, 2015

Hola mis queridos!!

"Hello Sisters :-) How are you? I wanted to let
you know I DO want to be baptized the 31st! :-)"

Hope you all had a great week because I know I sure did. You know a

week is good when it is suddenly Pday again and you don't even know

how. You have a baptism the following week, and you get to wear your

rain boots because it won't stop raining. 

Well as for the title. We received the best text message ever this week during our studies Thursday afternoon. It went something like this. "Hey hermanas I just wanted to let you know that I DO want to be baptized Octubre 31st." We were so SURPRISED because we were fully planning to move the date back a week and give Liz a little bit more time to recognize the Lord's hand in her life and be ready. Then, we received the text. Needless to say we thanked our Heavenly Father for such a great blessing and being put in a position to be able to teach her. It was incredible. We went out and visited her the next days to go over the preguntas bautismales <baptismal questions> and she just knows. She said that she was praying to know what she should do and if the 31st was the right time and she found a scripture that talks about not delaying your repentance. When she read that she just knew there was no reason to wait an delay the chance to have the Holy Ghost and be clean again. She came for the evening and Sunday session of District Conference and passed her interview with flying colors. Our district leader was like, "wow, great job with her she is so

Fun w/ Rama 2 at a bday party

prepared and so well taught." H. Bowen and I looked at each other and

said, "it wasn't us. She came prepared. We were just blessed to give her the resources and ability to know more." So we will be having the happiest of halloweens this Saturday with the baptism of Liz. Keep her in your prayers because the week before the baptism is always full of challenges from that meany, Satan. 

Other than that I received my package! Joy!! Also was able to do some divisiones with our hermana leader and her comp. Learned a lot. Was able to direct the youth choir the district conference which is like stake conference but with branches instead of wards. I was terrified. You know you have been on the mission awhile when you are directing the hymns and the choir. We were also to visit a lot with Monica who is also coming along really well. She just needs to pray to know what we both know she already knows.

In other news I hit one full year in Paraguay this week!! Say what? It is such a

testament to me that the Lord knew where I needed to serve and it was in this part of Paraguay and with my mission president, I just remember thinking I would never serve in Paraguay. Jokes!

Other than that my ponderizer for the week is D&C 122;7-9. It is a bit long but I am striving to be more positive and hope filled every day and I know that whatever trials come will be for my benefit and good and that as I turn to my savior he will help me through them because he has been through worse and is always there to lift me! I love the scriptures, I love this gospel, and I love that we have the opportunity and privilege to pray each and every day. I challenge you all to pray to know how you can best share this wondrous gospel with those around you. Maybe it is reading the Book of Mormon at work in front of nonmember co workers, maybe it is writing your testimony in the libro de mormon and giving it to the missionaries, maybe it is inviting over the missionaries and nonmember or less active members over for dinner. But I know there is a part that we all must play with our without the tag. So get to it! The joy you will feel and find is the most fulfilling in this world!

Love,

hermana albach

More pics from the party: 

This hermano makes these kites for fun!

It's HUGE!

Never ride without a helmet! hahaha

Me and Bowen

So sweet!

And then it rained...

Rain water for days...