Here is another entry to the life and times of Las Hermanas Misioneras Tritsch and Schmutz:

Happiness reigns following the miracle of General Conference this past weekend… I love having my birthday right before conference… It makes me feel as if I am recieving God´s word for a birthday present… Truly impressed as always with Elder Holland´s firm and stalwart testimony of the living divinity of the Book of Mormon. I know its not really kosher to have a favorite apostle, but he ranks very high in my list. Probably just shy of the prophet himself. I love all of his talks, especially recently. I felt the spirit so strong, I forgot to take notes… Mental Note: Get this when a printed version is available.

I love conference, and even more now since I am a missionary. It seemed as if every word of every talk was directed toward missionary work... both in and outside of the home.

The members watched it in Castellano in the chapel while Hermana Schmutz and I cheerfully camped out in the primary room in front of a small TV playing in English... The funny thing was that many of the youth and primary children decided that they were too cool for spanish, and decided to hang out with us. Surely they could not understand the conference, but they could understand the spirit, and it was wonderful to know that they loved us enough to listen to conference with us.

With the end of conference, Hermana Schmutz and I decided to shift our focus onto the menos activos and familias en que todos no son miembros. (less active and part-member families) We will work on a very strong impression of Hermana Schmutz, and we know that we will be able to recieve our meta (goal) of 5 more baptisms by the end of the year by working with them because less active families and part member families usually know more people to teach. We were kind of hesitant at first, because it means that our reports will be lower than normal, because we are not working purely with investigators, but we think it will help bring people back from inactivity, unite families, fill the capilla, and help with rama unity.

We ask that you pray for us in our efforts, that they will recieve us, and we will be successful in our endeavors.

José Balmaceda, gets baptized this Saturday and we are sooo exited. With our last lesson with him, he prayed with us for the first time with him voicing the prayer. It was so awesome and the spirit was so strong. His prayer went something like this:

Padre Celestial (Heavenly Father)
Gracias por... (Thanks for...)
Te pido por... (I ask thee for...)
En el nombre de Jesucristo, amen. (In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.)

No content... really said nothing, but he said it with so much reverence and respect for God, that we could not deny that he had really prayed, and that Heavenly Father had truly listened. It was amazing.

He taught that it really does not matter what we say, as long as it is sincere and with pure intent. God will listen.... ALWAYS:


I miss all of you terribly, and I want you all to know that I am thinking of you.

-Hermana Sarah Tritsch

PS Cynthia and Anastasia, If you read this blog, I have letters for you but do not know where to send them since you went off and got married to your fiancees... please send me an email with your new addresses, so you can get my letter.