Hola!

We had our zone activity today and played a lot of fun games and things. A lot of people are leaving the zone so a lot of things are changing this coming intercambio. With our President, everything is possible. 

Also in our ward we have family home evening every week, and its been a bit of a struggle to get people there. The whole purpose of family home evening is for the ward to get together and become closer, and for us to bring investigators and them to feel more comfortable about coming to church. According to the elders in my barrio, at first they were very successful and a lot of people came. But I guess its been a while and these past couple weeks they have been cancelled because of the lack of people. 

But we are trying to get them working again so we have been trying other ways of getting people to come. These can help the barrio so much, because a lot of people don't get to know each other in the barrio because everybody moves a lot (because my sector is Sanhattan). Family Home Evenings are super important! 

This week I found a scripture that I love, and it is in 2 Corinthians 9:7 and it says: "Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver." I love it because it applies so much to my mission. Sometimes its hard because missionaries are always working, and sometimes I feel tired. But the times that are most worth it are the little times in the mission: the times that you can see people change and become happier, the times that they tell you they are so grateful for what we do, and some people have even called us angels (which makes me so happy). And this only happens when I give and do all I can for these people. And I am not doing it because I feel obligated, but because I love my mission and this gospel. I want to become a more cheerful giver. 

Ciao ciao! 

Hermana Reed

Pictures of my sector

Pictures of my sector

The Wilderness of Santiago

Hola!
This week my companion and I decided to explore the concrete jungle of Santiago and find the wild beasts within. So we took our bags, got in the metro, and went to the Santiago Zoo.
It was fun and pretty exciting. It's different because a lot of the animals are from South America, so we saw a lot of monkeys, emu, llamas, and other animals. It's a super small zoo, but it was all you needed. The animals were also super active, which made it more exciting.
My little sector of Sanhattan is getting better and better every day. We are finding more people that belong to my sector and teaching them and getting to know other. One day we were stopped by a menos activos house, and she gave us some shampoo because the type she had is better for our hair apparently. So we started walking around with our Books of Mormon, water bottles, and shampoo. We stopped at another building to look for someone, and the conserje asked if we sold shampoo. Of course I said no, but we have a special message about the gospel of Jesus Christ!
We also had a great fireside in another sector, and my companion and I went because our President asked us to be in the choir. It was great because we got to see a lot of other missionaries we haven't seen in a while, like my trainer!
I am also noticing small ways of how the Lord prepares people to receive the gospel. Something I learned in one of our many meetings as a missionary is that missionaries do not prepare people to receive the gospel; the Lord does.
Through small means He prepares the people to receive our message and we are here to teach it. There are so many people that I have talked to this week. As they have talked to me, I can see how the Lord has prepared them. And it makes me happy that I can help them in their path.
And some photos! The first one is of me and my hija.

Kangaroos and the view of the city from the zoo

One of the tigers they have

Me and the penguins

Have a great day! Ciao ciao!

Sanhattan

Hola,
Recently I learned another name for my area of Cristóbal Colón - Sanhattan. There are some Australians in my ward and they explained that a lot of people call this area Sanhattan because it's like the New York of South America: a lot of people move here to work, there are tons of big buildings, subway, everything.

But yep, that's pretty much how it is! A lot of people here are from other countries too: Australia, Colombia, United States, Peru, Ecuador, etc. Chile had a good economy, so a lot of people move here to work.

People also call traffic jams here "tacos", and they always happen in the morning from 7:00-9:00 and night from 6:00-8:00. Whenever a taco starts to form, me and my companion like to say, "Taco time!" Too bad Taco Bell isn't in my sector.
My hija is also doing great. We've been teaching even more, contacting even more, singing in all the building, it's great. The conserjes are our "biggest" fans. At least some of them. (conserje means doorman)
My hija's name is Hna. Hirchak, which is really hard for some of the Chileans to pronounce. A lot of people think she's German. One time we went to meet with a member, and while we were talking to a conserje, someone exited and saw her placa. He got really excited and said, "I speak your language!" And then proceeded to talk in German. My hijab started to think that her Spanish was really bad while I replied, "Sorry, we don't speak that language!" So he said, "Spreaken de Duetch?" And I said, "No spreaken nada de Duetch."
For those who speak German, sorry, but I don't know how to spell anything in German.
We also celebrated the beloved Fourth of July with Doritos and some Snickers. Yay for the United States!
Hope you guys had a great Fourth of July!
Love,
Hermana Reed