Let It Go

Hola!

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. 

Chao!

Teaching Simply, Charla Fogoneras, and Keys

Hola!

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. 

Singing

Hola,

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!

Pictures por fin!

Hola!

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. 

Getting to know more people

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. 

Hope you guys have a great week!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hola!

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. 

Éxito!

Carry On, Carry On, Carry On

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. 

I love the mission and I love you guys! 

With one of our investigators

Two kids of a member that we've helped reactivate