Hermana Hess en Chile: a bunch of gibberish and random thoughts

hola familia!

So just a side note, this letter is a compilation of my thoughts, well-being, experiences and reflecions of the past 3 weeks of being in missionary in a huge city.

And on another side note, no mom, I still don’t know what time we will be calling on Christmas....but IF YOU ALL CAN SEND ME QUESTIONS OR THINGS YOU WANT TO KNOW FOR NEXT WEEK I CAN HAVE SOMETHING PREPARED BECAUSE WE ONLY GET 30-45 MINTUES. I’ll send my questions next week so that way we use our time effectively :)

And it looks like we’ve been celebrating birthdays AND Christmas wrong all these years. Here they celebrate the 24^th and the big day. On the 24^th, everyone is eating and celebrating. Then at 12 midnight, Viejo Pascuero (Father Christmas) comes and delivers the presents. The kids open all the gifts and then go outside and play with the toys. All the neighbors are outside celebrating until the sun comes up.

Then on the 25^th everyone is knocked out and asleep for the day... should be a fun day of knocking doors and disturbing the peace :)

This past week, I won’t lie, was really difficult for me. Like I said the week before, out of nowhere the routine of doing the same thing every day got to me and I was trying to fight the feeling of discouragement.

Luckily I have an amazing comp and she was able to help me. It’s hard because in the city everyone has things to do and people to see. When we visit other towns, it’s a loong walk and I felt like we were wasting so much time walking. Also, the ward is huge and I still see new faces every week. There are so many names so many streets so many people.

On the plus side, there are many streets where the missionaries have never knocked and many times we talk to people and they say that they have never talked or visited with missionaries. What?? You never hear that in Futrono or Punta Arenas!

With its ups and downs, I turned to the scriptures and learned an amazing lesson. I love the Book of Mormon. It is the book of secrets and holds the answers to all the questions that we have. I was reading in Alma 49. The dos (two) chapters before it is the story of Lehonti and of Capitan Moroni.

49 talks about how finally the nefitas (Nephites) were enjoying the peace and instead of being still and enjoying not having to fight, Moroni caused that the people should be busy constructing and fortifying their city. Then, it says that the Lamanitas came to attack and they started with Ammoniah (ciudad) because it was less strong than the others. To their surprise, Moroni and his people had worked long and hard to protect the city and the lamanitas couldn’t find a way to enter and attack.

So the Lamanites decided to go attack the city of noe (Noah) because it was known for being the weakest part of the land. Much more to their surprise, the lamanitas found that the land of noe was more strengthened and fortified than the land of Ammoniah. We read in vs. 20 "y asì estaban preparados para defenderse contra os lamanitas" ("and thus were they prepared to defend themselves against the Lamanites")... 23 "y asì los nefitas dominaron en todo a sus enemigos" ("Thus the Nephites had all power over their enemies").

I love the war chapters because there is so much that we can learn. What can you learn from this chapter?? I’ll share with you what my liahona said.

I learned that we need to continue to strengthen and fortify our testimony during times of peace (no problems, trials). ¿Do I pray to God in peace as sincerely as I pray to Him during a trial? ¿Do I study the scriptures like I do when I need comfort, guidance and hope? Or is it only during those trials that I really pray and really study the scriptures.

During times of peace, am I preparing myself for when Satan comes and attacks? Am I preparing now? Many times in our lives, we have highs and lows. I have noticed that during the lows is when I really pour my heart out to Padre. That’s when I really study the scriptures. What a hypocrite am I!

I need to be preparing myself for the trials (studying, praying with real intencion) in times of peace. There is never a moment of relaxation from prayer and the scriptures. If we act as the people of Moroni, we too will be prepared for when Satan attacks and we too can dominate in todo (all).

As a new covert said in sacrament meeting this week "I have a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon. But it is still in construction and will be for the rest of my life." He and his wife are awesome. They were baptized about 7 months ago and are two of the strongest members that I have seen on my mission.

Yesterday as well, we had an interesting experience. There is a lady in our ward that we reactivated. Right now she is passing through a very difficult family crisis. She suffers from diabetes and yesterday she was so worried that she forgot to eat breakfast and take her medicine.

I was sitting next to her in soc soc (relief society) and she started moving around weird. Her body could not support herself. I knew that she hasn’t been sleeping good, so I thought that she was just really tired. I put my arm around her to let her sleep on my shoulder and found that she was drenched in sweat. I asked her if she was hot and she looked at me and couldn’t talk. She was becoming unconscious.

I nudged my comp and we lifted her out of the room and took her to the foyer to get some air. Some others came out too and we began asking her questions and found out that she hadn’t taken her medication for the day and her body was going into glyco shock.

We got her some cookies and the elders lifted her into a car of a member and we raced to the hospital. I was in the back with her trying to keep her awake. By the time we got to the hospital she was unconscious. Two hours later, the doc came out and told us that she was okay just really low in blood sugar. It was an interesting experience.

I was frustrated because I don’t remember anything of first aid that I learned. It started when I entered the field, and with all my comps it passed the same. I don’t remember any of my studies, songs that I liked, bands, movies, what I used to do to pass the time.... haha nada. I hope it comes back when I get released... :)

We are going to have the baptism this week of Eduardo! He’s the one that I spoke about last week that stopped smoking. He is amazing and like a little grandpa to us.

Welp... I have a lot more random thoughts and life changing experiences that has happened but I am out of time. I see the world in a whole different life, from being here in a big city and from having another comp from Colombia and this time being able to understand everything she is telling me. I’ll just say that we are soooo blessed to live where we do. We are so blessed that all our family is still alive and well. We are so blessed to have the freedom that we do and the safety that we enjoy. We are so blessed to have the gospel in our lives and know who we are and why we are here.

I love you all and hope you have a great week! Sorry for the randomness... this week has really changed my perspective with everything and I’ve had a lot of deep thoughts so it’s hard for me to concentrate. haha you should read my journal... it’s pure random thoughts. But I love you all and can’t wait to talk to you in 3 weeks!

Don’t forget your questions!!!!

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY KYLE!!!! I LOVE YOU!!!

I CAN’T BELIEVE I’LL BE COMPLETING A YEAR THIS WEEK.

love ya!

hurrah por israel!