So just to let you know for those who were wondering, there was an earthquake yesterday that was a strong one. I am ok. I was actually sitting with my companion on a park bench, studying a bit of Spanish, her reading her Book of Mormon in English and I was reading mine in Spanish, when it started to shake. Everything just shook a bit: the windows shook a lot and there was a weird sensation of the earth moving. I don't know how to describe it, the best way is to say the earth was moving, and you could see and feel it. Its not like the movies, its even cooler. My companion is Chileno, so she just looked around and said that maybe we should get away from the trees because some of them could fall. But besides shaking for a minute, nothing else happened. She told me it was strong, so I believe her. Its her native land. It was pretty awesome.
Everybody keeps asking me how the earthquake was and whenever I say it was awesome, they look at me like I'm crazy. I guess I am one of the random foreigners that finds earthquakes entertaining.
Other than that we had a good week. We had a lot of miracles happen and found a couple families that are really special that are part families that want to come back to church. We also had a census this past Wednesday. So all the missionaries had to stay in their houses, and even after the census came and asked us questions, we had to stay inside and could only leave if we had lessons that we programmed before. My companion and I worked our area book, studied, and watched a movie, which does not happen often.
So you may have noticed that by my subject line I have finally left my old area. I am also not going to say where I am now. You´ll just have to guess by the pictures!
I was ready to leave Javiera Carrera at any time, but this last week I felt like it was my last week there and it was the week that I most wanted not to leave. We found some great investigators that were progressing really well and had a great hunger for the gospel, and everything had improved dramatically. I wanted to stay the most, but at least I know that I am leaving my area in good hands and giving the next missionaries plenty of work to do.
And I am also sending a lot of pictures, because pictures speak louder than words and I tool a lot of pictures this past week.
Chao!
First foto: Here was one of my investigadors, Eduardo, whom I taught and was preparing to get baptized.
2nd: Moon picture, because it's pretty.
3rd: Here is the family of my ward mission leader. They are the best. And the dog is the cutest and jumps like a bunny every time she sees the missionaries.
4th: Carmen, another investigador we were teaching. She's our ward mission leader's niece.
5th: Last picture with Hermana Hair with the best view in Santiago.
6th Last zone picture in Javiera Carrera
7th: Generation picture! In the Charla Fogonera I got the rare opportunity to see my hija (the sister missionary I trained) Hermana Hirchack, her hija Hermana Karstulovick, and her hija´s hija Hermana Cordova. So in mission language, I am a bisabuela! I´m so old! It's so awesome.
Besides having the tremendous blessing of having conference here in the mission (which is the best weekend and time we get to fill our spiritual tanks) this week was a good one.
This past Wednesday we had to be in our apartments before 6:00 at night because its the anniversary of teenagers that were killed by the government. I don't really know the story, and everybody I talk to aren't really sure what happened, but every year on this day people take advantage of the anniversary and apparently its dangerous to be out. So my companion and I did studies and worked on our carpeta de area during the time we had in our pension. I actually came into the mission field on this day a year ago, so my trainer and I moved into our apartment and had the whole night to unpack and get used to our area.
One night we had a pretty red moon and enjoyed the view of the city.
This was in intercambios this week. I happened to be taking a picture with my camera, so that's why my arm is in front of Hermana Dariano. (She's from the Philippines!)
This is the room where all the English speaking people got to watch conference. I would say gringo, but Hermana Dariano isn't gringo and is a native English speaker. There is me, Hermana Hair, Hermana King, and our zone leaders Elder Moròn and Elder Dahneke, who made cookies for us.
We have a charla fogonera that we are preparing for Principe de Paz. My companion and I are singing in two of the songs, so I will let you guys know how that turns out. Its supposed to be a very special themed charla fogonera, and my companion and I are inviting a lot of people to come.
This week was a great week because of all the things we got to learn!
First we had a zone conference, and it was a pretty awesome one. It was focused on the scripture in Alma 37:6-7, on teaching simply, which is what we have been doing this past cambio. It works by the way. I have a lot of proof of it in my sector.
We also had concilio de liderazgo (Leadership Council) in our mission presidents house. They taught again how to teach simply and everybody bore testimony of how its been helping our areas. This is about my 10th concillio, and maybe my 4th or 5th in his house. Our President likes to have us in his house and I realized this past council that it may be our last one in his house. We always have it outside in his backyard, and in the summer its nice, but recently its been really cold. This past Friday was the coldest day of the week, and we happened to have concilio that day. My companion forgot to bring a jacket and by the end of it we were running home to put a coat on. It was so cold!
Also this past Saturday we went to the temple with a menos activo and her family to go to the devotional of Principe de Paz (the Prince of Peace). There were special prepared musical numbers and they showed us a preview of the video that the church has prepared for Easter. At the end was the best, because they passed a balloon to everyone in the audience, and we tied a card of Principe de Paz at the end of it with a note of a principle of the gospel. Everybody let go of their balloons at the same time and we all watched them fly up and away into the Santiago sky.
Everybody loved it. Right after we came back to our area and went straight to the general women's conference.
So this week we seemed to lose everything. We got our keys last Tuesday, but then we forgot our phone in the house of a member. We had intercambios the following day so we didn't have our phone for two days until we could get it first thing Thursday morning. The day we got back and got our phone, our lider misional called us and asked us where exactly did we drop off the face of the earth...and that he had my companions missing hymnbook. So now, every time we leave our house, we double check ourselves to make sure we have everything! And it has been working the past few days.
Intercambios was fun. We went to La Dehesa, where it has a mix of rich and poor people. The past intercambios that I have gone there, I was on Cerro 18, where the houses are very crowded and the roads have all the same name. But this time I got to go work a little bit in the rich part, and it reminded me of all the past memories that I have working in Las Condes. We had a couple lessons with some investigadors and got references. It was a good working day.
In one of our recent coorelation meetings with our lider misional, he said to my companion and I, "You girls have a song prepared for us, right?" My companion and I looked at each other and asked him what we were supposed to sing when he said, "Let it go! Let it go!" So now our lider misional has given me and my companion a nickname: Frozen. My companions hair is long and blonde like Elsa, and mine is brown, not so much like Ana, but he thinks its close enough. But he's not the only one. A lot of other people have said we look like the princesses from Frozen and we have heard plently of people singing Let It Go as we walk past.
I also attached some pictures. The first one is my district which is pretty awesome. We have some great missionaries in our district with lots of laughs and good times. Also I get really impressed with a lot of the graffiti I see. Its pretty awesome.
My companion and I are also trying to be healthier by eating healthier and running in the mornings. I hate running, but I do it because I know its good for me. We usually run two miles, but this morning we ran four and I nearly died. I'll get used to it though in time.
Our mission right now is focusing more on teaching simply. And its awesome because we are learning so many fun ways to teach simply and fast. Yesterday we had district meeting and it was so much fun because we shared all the cool ideas that we have and I was so excited to leave and start teaching the world. My companion and I have a goal to teach a lesson in each contact we make, teaching about the restoration super simply or the plan of salvation. And since yesterday its been working super well!
This past week we had a charla fogonera (a fireside). Our mission president tries to do them in every stake in our mission at least every month. The first one this year was in Las Condes, and this past one was in Vicuña Mackenna. Knowing our president, my companion and I prepared a song to sing, and I used a copy of Be Still, My Soul in Spanish, which is called Mi alma, ten paz. The song doesn't exist in Spanish hymnbook, but I got a copy from a member a while ago who has a lot of different music of hymns. This copy was also meant for a choir, so we talked to two elders in our zone to accompany us singing. This past Tuesday when we came to the chapel to practice, another companionship came and joined us. So it ended up being four elders and us. A lot of people really liked it in the charla fogonera.
There was also another family there who came and talked to my companion and I. They are from a stake where there aren't any sister missionaries (because its dangerous for us to be there) and they told us they come to every charla fogonera that our President puts up. They said they annoyed him, because they are his biggest fans. My presidents the best anyway so they were just saying a truth :) . The mom talked to my companion and I separately, explaining that her daughter was listening to the missionaries. She said her daughter liked more of the sister missionaries because we are more loving (en español seria que somos mas de piel pero eso no se traduce muy bien en ingles) but she can't listen to the sister missionaries because there aren't any in her stake. So she asked if we could talk to her. Apparently we've sung a lot in charla fogoneras that she felt more connected to us. After the charla, we talked to her for a bit and said what she needed to hear. She cried at the end and gave us a great big hug. Actually several hugs. Its always the best when you get to help someone when they need it, even if they aren't in your area.
We also had a situation with our keys this past week. Yesterday, we worked and got home at 9:30 as usual, but realized we didn't have our keys. We called our investigadors and they told us that we left it in their house. We hurried and ran to their house and our lider misional gave us a ride home, and got home before 10:00. #blessingsofhavingasmallarea. But today, the same thing happened! My companion had the keys today since I lost them yesterday. We went to the temple (which was awesome I love the see the temple) but got back home to realize that we couldn't find our keys in my companions temple bag. We dumped everything out, called the temple, and weren't able to find them. But we are ok, because our mission president's wife has two copies of our keys, and our mission president is coming to our zone tonight for a meeting with our stake president, and he will give us the extra keys. #blessingsofhavingasupersmallmission #bestmissionpresidentever #thatoneconferencetalkaboutkeystothepriesthood
Sorry I can't add pictures right now. My camera cord got stuck inside my pension and I'm going to get the keys tonight.
So this week was awesome. Hermana Hair and I have been working a lot in teaching, helping our investigadors with what they need and so on. We are teaching a very special family and this weekend in particular they have been waiting for one of their daughters (who is going to get married soon) to have a baby. She's overdue, so every time we meet with them, they tell us about the stress of waiting for their daughter to have the baby. We are also praying that the baby will come soon so everybody can be healthy and well.
We had concillio de liderazgo this past week, which was great as usual. Our mission president is really funny and very caring of us. During one part of the meeting, we were talking about teaching simply when I shared that we could sing with our investigadors, no matter what our talent is. Our president smiled and told the meeting that when he was deciding on transfers, he said as he put Hermana Hair and my picture together and he "felt peace, and I could almost feel the music." Hermana Hair also sings well, by the way. We both felt very complimented about what he said, but when he continued saying that he could see us singing in every house, Hermana Hair and I talked later and said, "Well we need to start doing that!"
So we started doing it, and have seen a lot of miracles sharing our talents with everybody.
I would like to write more, but I ran out of time and my computer is slow. Exito!
We had cambios again, and I am still in the same area but now I have a new companion named Hermana Hair. She is also from Utah, also from a family of seven, who also did choir, and a lot of other things that we seem to have in common. She seems awesome and I am super excited to see how we work together in the area. And for those who are wondering, yes I am still in the same area that I have been for a while now. Next week I will complete one year in the mission and its gone by really fast.
This week we had a meeting with the area seventy President Jose Teixeira and it was awesome and inspired the whole mission to work even harder. As leaders, we also had another meeting before where he instructed us how to be good leaders and it was also awesome. He taught us a new way to teach and help find people that I had never done before in the mission. We left from that meeting feeling inspired and put what he said into practice, which was awesome. We were able to have a lot of success from that.
And now I have a cord for my camera to send pictures! Enjoy!
We had lunch with the young women's president, her mom, and her friend. She is the best!
My companion saying goodbye to our investigators.
Our president wants us to have a new logo, and here is an example from one of our missionaries.
This week we had our paseo del barrio (ward vacation or something) where our whole ward rented a place where people could swim and eat. It was out of our zone so we called our Mission President and got permission to go. We brought some of our investigators and they really enjoyed themselves; swimming and playing soccer and talking with people. We got to stay there for some good hours before we went back to our area. It was very very fun and awesome.
We had a good week of work this week: lots of lessons, lots of new investigators, lots of people reading, and because my area is small, lots of running into investigators in the street. Its nice when that happens because you get to talk to them for a bit and ask them how they are.
Its very common in a normal day to see the same person sitting in the same store at least five times a day. I've gotten to the point in my area where I say hi to them by name and ask them about their family. I still have a lot of more time in my area (I'm pretty sure) and my goal is to get to know even more people.
There is an elderly man who is always sitting next to a fruit store called Daniel. He is the sweetest and is always looking out for us. Sometimes we see him walking to the clinic. But he loves to talk to us about God and helping out the people. He's over ninety years old and takes care of himself, going to the doctor and everything.
I only realized it was Valentines Day an hour ago. Happy Valentines Day to everybody who celebrates it. Or as one of my brothers always says, happy single-awareness day.
Anyway, this week was also really good. We have a paseo del barrio planned for this Saturday, which is a day that the whole ward goes somewhere to have a fun time. We called our President and got permission to go for 4 hours, so we are pretty excited too. Some of our investigators are planning on coming and are pretty excited to come. I'll let you guys know what happens.
We had some great lessons this week. I would love to go in detail, but I ran out of time and now its time to go and trabajar en la obra.
There is a really funny version of Hello by Adele made for missionaries. You should find it or something because my companion has it in her music. I don't know who made it but its funny so you should find it.
I had such a great week! Wednesday was full of miracles! One of our investigadors accepted a baptismal date and is just the best ever. Her name is Miriam Pardo and it would be great if you guys could pray for her. She has cancer and she finished her chemotherapy a couple weeks ago. Her tests came out really good, but she is going to continue to have tests and everything. She has been reading and came to church one time, but will just have to keep coming to be baptized. She's awesome.
We also had another miracle happen with one of our other investigadors named Astrid Cerda. She has a daughter who has the mental capacity of a 5 year old. She's suffered through a lot of hard things in her life. When we first started meeting with her she didn't want to come to church. But a while ago we made a huge step in finding out the real reason is that she has trauma with large groups of people because of her daughter and people harrassing her. We promised to help her out and everything. This past week we taught the ten commandments, and she recognized that she does not live the Sabbath day. So we invited her to church and she committed! We brought her to church, and it happened to be fast Sunday full with testimonies and a baby blessing. Everything was just so great and she even talked in Gospel Principles and Relief Society. It was awesome and she really liked coming.
Also another small miracle that happened this week that I find pretty significant. I was in intercambios with another hermana in my zone when it was near the end of the day. I consulted with her on whether we should go try to find our investigadors who live on the other side of the area, or stay in the area we were in and visit someone closer. She suggested we stay closer, so we went to visit some neighbors of some members. As we were on our way, I noticed a family I had talked to, so we took the opportunity to talk to them again. They hadn't been receptive before, and that day was no exception. Silvia, the abuelita who lived in the house, said she respected us and everything but didn't want anything more, but then somehow we ended up talking about the temple and the promises of an eternal family, and set up another appointment. When we left, the other hermana and I talked how we viewed that the granddaughter was more receptive and everything, but there was still a hope that even someone super Catholic like Silvia, to listen to us.
So we went back on Sunday to talk to them with two of the kids of the LDS family who lived right in front of them. We started teaching and the member kids testified of how they gained their testimonies. It was so great! They could see how much the kids had grown and immediately let us know their needs. They had even asked the father of them to give blessings to their own child who had cancer, and the following day the child was 100% better. As Silvia shared some experiences I could see how God has slowly opened her heart. I left the cita feeling amazed seeing a completely different person that we had known previously. This is how I see that God is Almighty. Like the experience of Elias, he stayed behind the rock and refused to come out not for the storm, not for the earthquake nor the fire, but for the still small voice. God really shows his power in the small things he does to open our hearts again.
It also bore testimony to me to keep working hard. Sometimes I get frustrated trying and trying, but the more I lose myself in the work and the joy of serving, the more I can see God's miracles.
Something that has made me know even more the power of God is the testimony of our investigadors. When they come to church, they have had the opportunity to bear their proper testimonies and have testified how we as missionaries appeared in their lives when they needed us, and how we have made a difference to them.
This week, we had the great miracle of having one of our dear investigadors, Miriam Pardo, come to church. I told you guys about this last week, and she came! She was there for all the three hours and really enjoyed it. She actually bore her testimony valiantly in one of the classes about her experience with cancer and how my companion and I have helped her when she needed it. It was a huge step for her and both me and my companion are really happy.
The other day we also left to work with a member. We visited a friend of hers and the member, Hermana Marlen, was really excited. She couldn't stop talking because she was so excited. We then tried to visit other people with us, and Hermana Marlen did everything she could to talk to people in the street and took every answer with stride. Her example really impacted me to be not just a missionary in my mission but to always represent him in my life like she does.
As I said before, this ward is the best. Every member is awesome and they try to help us whenever they can.
So this week we have been working harder and trying to reach more and more goals! We've had some success with some goals and have put even higher ones. So that has been a good point of the week. Some days this week have been really busy, with us going from house to house teaching, and other days we have walked in the hot hot hot sun and finding the sparse shade of the few trees. But we are going to change that and have EVERY day be a great day.
One of our investigators received an answer to her prayer the other day. She has twins that are seven months old and probably the cutest babies in my area. Our lessons are fast with her because they lose patience and start to cry. Our first lesson with her was a while ago when we were sharing the Christmas video. As she watched it, her babies were silent and paid attention, but after they were anxious and wanted to move and go outside for a walk. But as we said the prayer to leave them, they grew quiet again and didn't make a peep until my companion said, "Amen." Every lesson since has been different with them. We invited her to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it was true, and she did one night after putting the kids to bed. When we came the next lessons, she said she got an answer, because she felt a lot more peaceful, and her babies slept more and have been more tranquil. It was awesome.
Another one of our awesome investigators has cancer. She has wanted to come to church for a long time but for health reasons, she hasn't been able to make it. She said she will come this Sunday so we are praying that all will be well. She loves the Book of Mormon and reads it a lot, and finds out for herself questions that she has. She's really really really awesome.
We also had cambios this week, but both my companion and I are staying for another cambio. We called our ward mission leader to tell him we were staying, and he was so happy he drove to the church during our meeting to talk to us. A lot of other people were really happy that we stayed. Again, my ward is the best.
So the pictures weren't downloading, but this isn't the first time I haven't sent pictures, so I think we are all good.
This week was very interesting. We had intercambios with La Dehesa, which is the place the Hermana Captacitadora Entrendadores are. They are hermanas who help out the hermana capacitadoras. I spent the day in a trio with my trainer Hermana Velasco, and Hermana Steed, whom I spent a little time in the CCM. It was fun being in a trio for a day, but I don't know how it would be for a transfer. We got to do service and clean windows of a free daycare center, and teach great lessons to some awesome investigadors. It was nice going on intercambios instead of having intercambios. They are much more enjoyable to go to.
Which was also sad because my trainer is going home this next week and we had one last day to work together. Its crazy how much time passes and how much you learn in a mission.
We had a unique miracle in my area the other day. It wasn't a so successful day and not a lot of people wanted us to be there, when we ran across someone we talked a couple days before named Connie. She's 13 years old, and we asked if her mom was home because she said she couldn't meet us without permission from her mom. She didn't seem to want us there, but we asked her if she could ask her mom if its okay if we visit. So Connie went to where her mom lived, and came back out after a while saying, "Pasen." (pass). It really surprised me at first, but we came in and the mom, named Marcia, was in the midst of piles of clothes that she was ready to donate. We quickly offered to help, and helped her fold them and put them in bags. It was great to see the change in Connie. At first she was not very interested in knowing us or letting us talk, but as we talked and helped, she and her mom opened up and were very grateful for us for being there and helping them out.
It was awesome and it was also great finding them. They live behind a mechanic shop and I would have never guessed someone lived there until we saw it. It just helped me realize that even though my area is small, there are still people who have never had the chance to listen to the missionaries and want to listen.
Happy New Year! As a missionary, I slept right through the new year and didn't wake up for any of the fireworks. But my companion, who woke up and sleeps right next to the window, said they were very pretty. It was also really funny seeing the stages of New Years: the excitement of New Years Eve and everybody buying things for their parties, everybody drunk the next day, and the following day that everybody is a little bit on the edge and angry. Despite the stages of New Years Eve, we managed to have lessons and work the same as we have every day and have some amazing miracles happen. One of our investigators has a fecha bautismal (a baptismal date yay!) and we have been able to have new investigators. One of them is Joseph.
He came to Chile from Haiti 5 years ago and slowly has been helping his family. His son, Jean, came to Chile 4 months ago, and he is the only member in his family. We recieved his reference, found Jean and Joseph, and have been helping them recently to know the ward (for Jean) and teach Joseph. Its a very interesting because Joseph speaks Spanish fluently, and Jean understands a little bit. As we talk he is usually silent until he understands something and gives a very big smile. When we ask if he can give the prayer, he asks if he can say it in French, and we say that is perfectly fine. They have been a miracle and I am excited to see what's in store for their family.
Its weird sometimes when I hear four languages in a day: Spanish for everybody here who speaks it, English for the random people who try to talk to me in English, Portugese when people speak to my companion, or French when we teach Joseph and Jean.
This past week has been really fulfilling for me. We have been working harder to help people and though everything we do may not turn out, miracles still happen. And this week I feel especially happy for the members in my ward and everything they do to help us, for the investigators we have, but most especially for my Heavenly Father and how he has helped me and guided me throughout my mission. There is no way I would be here without His help and continual guidance and strength he gives me. I have learned so much in these past three months that I never thought I would learn about missionary work and how I can be an instrument in his hands. I have received more than one confirmation every single day that he is there and watching over me and the people in my area.
