It's Only Fall and I'm Already Freezing!

hola famila,

This week...where to start...I think the theme for this week can be found in the lyrics to the hymn More Holiness Give Me. "More holiness give me, more paciencia y amor (patience and love)...I've learned a lot this week about patience and love with those dang menos activos (less actives). They are great, yet sooo frustrating some times. Pero Bueno... paciencia y amor. Paciencia y amor.

One menos activo we are working with haaha...it's a long story (that I started last week), but she finally has agreed that she needs to stop smoking. She smoked 20 a day, 2 at a time. We went over to her house with a priesthood holder and gave her a blessing of strength. We have been visiting her every day this week, sharing scriptures and 3 minute Mormon messages. AND GUESS WHAT!!! Within the past week she has dropped to 15 a day!!! So awesome!!

And it is freezing cold. Freezing, freezing cold. It's been raining and windy and como (about) 45 degrees out. I'm going to die in June in the dead of winter. I'm healthy, kind of, I have a cold but I've had it for about 2 months and will probably have it for the rest of the winter.

The language is going great, transfers are this week and I think my next comp is Latina!

On a non-missionary note, if you ever need to unclog a toilet and don't have a plunger, boil water and pour it into the toilet. It works like a miracle!

You guys are awesome!!! And Kyle, Jake and Joey....escribame porfa!!!

Les quiero muchooo

Slackin' in Chile

Ola Familia!
This week has been crazy! The mission is literally the best thing ever. I can't even express how much it sucks and how incredible it is.

Accomplishment this week:
I had my first telephone call where I could understand what they were saying and respond to them! Whoop! First tele call with no help! Haha I'm a big girl now.

So this week there was a really big storm over Futrono. I have never felt wind so strong and there was so much rain. It was kind of scary, actually. Especially when the power got cut and we were in complete darkness in the street at 8:45 at night. It was fun though. We were able to pioneer it for daily planning with our candles and little fire. The power was restored later the next day but then got kicked out again...good thing for our 72 hour emergency kits! I guess storms like that are common in the winter and we are going to go without power often. On the bright side, with freezing cold winters...NO FLEAS!

An awesome experience I had this week:
We are working on reactivating a less active. She is progressing REALLY well and has been going to church for a while, but told us just the other night that she has a smoking problem. Yesterday we met with her to make a plan of quitting smoking and brought a priesthood holder to give her a blessing of strength. Her mom (who isn't a member) was there and we were chatting with her (the daughter was out quickly buying some bread). We were still there and I thought, well, might as well make a lesson out of this since we have a nonmember and a member with us. I started flipping through my scriptures to share something and found a verse that I like, Mosiah 4:9.

"Believe in God; believe that he is and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend."

But the scripture just didn't feel right. We have taught the mom before and have invited her to be baptized many times...anyway, I couldn't think of anything else, so I said a prayer and began thinking of scripture masteries and Doctrine and Covenants 18 popped into my head. So I began the lesson and shared that. It turned into a powerful lesson with her mom and the power of the love of God.

"10. Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God;

11. For, behold, the Lord your Redeemer suffered death in the flesh; wherefore he suffered the pain of all men, that all men might repent and come unto him.

12.And he hath risen again from the dead, that he might bring all men unto him, on conditions of repentance.

13. And how great is his joy in the soul that repenteth!" 

I am so grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost. I am nothing without his guidance and support. We are so blessed to have him as comfort and help in our daily lives. Never do anything that could impede you from being worthy to have the Holy Ghost with you!

The family we found when we were being chased by a pack of dogs is doing awesome! The mom told us that she probably won't get baptized because she promised her mom that she would stay catholic, but she wants us to work with her husband. He is mad at God because he and his brother got in an accident and he walked away but his brother died. The mom told us that what we have will help her husband. She knows we have something special, she is just confused a little at what she wants. But she told her daughters if they wanted to get baptized, hagalo! (Be my guest!)

Haha for Pday, Hermana B and I made a makeshift slackline and did that in the park. It was AWESOME!! So relaxing and just what I needed after a stressful week. Haha and we attracted a group of little kids. They were too scared to try it, but ahh, it was fun!

Hope all is great! Les quiero MUCHO!!!

 

conferencia general, angeles, y lluvia (General Conference, angels and rain)

¡Familia!

les quiero tanto! (I love you so much!)

We have two investigators who are waiting on their baptism. Their dad is really sick and is going to die soon and they are too preoccupied with that to really think or pray about anything else so... we are still working with them but now isn’t the right time for them.

We have an appointment this week to teach the family I told you about last week. The one with the attacking dogs…

Can I just say, conference weekend is my favorite holiday? We weren’t able to watch it all because the internet is really bad. AND IT CUT OUT RIGHT AS ELDER HOLLAND BEGAN TO SPEAK!! Que fome! (Chilean slang meaning “what dumb!”)

But we downloaded conference onto a pen drive and are going to listen to it later.

Pero bueno (But good)... I learned so many things this conference and have a renewed animo (good spirits)  for the Lord’s work and renewed confidence in myself and what I can accomplish if I put all my trust, troubles, and doubt on the Lord. Here are just a few liners that I loved. Click on the person’s name to see the entire talk.

President Uchtdorf= we were designed to become. Those sheep that wander, those precious sons and daughters of God that fall, they are worthy of His help and love, simply because they are His.

Mervin B. Arnold = GO TO THE RESCUE. Don’t wait, just go. There are people that need your help now. There are souls that only you can touch. Go out, find them, help them, love them. They are in your neighborhoods. They are your old friends. They are your family.

Bonnie L. Oscarson=You are already at the tree. KEEP FEASTING! I feel like this is me now, seriously!! The scriptures have so much power. Study them. Pray for guidance and help. They are the way to happiness.

Cheryl A. Esplin= throw away the mirrors and look through the windows.

Neil L. Anderson= he talked about leaders, and just a shout out to all my amazing Sunday School, Seminary, Primary and YW leaders!! You guys are amazing. Thank you so much for all your help, advice and guidance in my life. I love you guys so much. Keep doing what you are doing. You are my heroes and part of the reason why I am here on a mission. 

yep... the perfect present. I love conference! hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did. 

Now we have 6 months to use these talks, study them, and receive more guidance, revelation and help from God and from our trusted leaders. I sustain President Thomas S. Monson as prophet, seer and revelator of our church. I sustain all the men and women in the church. I know they are called of God and worthy of their callings.

les quiero mucho! Review and relisten to all the talks throughout the next 6 months! Disfrutalos! (Enjoy it!)

Changes...For the Better?

Hola familia!

First things first, happy birthday JOEY!! te quiero mucho y ojala que haces algo divertido hoy para celebrar. (I love you and I hope you do something fun today to celebrate).

It’s interesting... I always heard, and always expected that I would be changed on the misión. I anticipated some changes, but one thing that I NEVER counted on has happened... hopefully you guys can forgive me and accept the new me when I come home. Before the misión, I hated cats. They were the spawn of the devil, just ask Kim. Now, I am all for cats. Cats are amazing. I love cats. Cats don’t jump on you and try to bite your ear. Cats don’t try to eat you alive.

Backstory:  Sunday afternoon... Hermana Braithwaite and I are knocking doors on a hot, dusty dirt road about 2.5 miles from Futrono in a little part of our sector called Cuncun. I rattled a fence and yelled a lot. All of the sudden we hear growls from the neighbor fence and out dart 5 médium sized dogs snarling and barking. They charge straight towards us, teeth bearing. Quickly, we pick up rocks (I’m a pro at this now) which usually scares off the dogs... not these dogs. They only advanced more. Hna Braithwaite then pushed me behind her and began screaming at the dogs. One of them got ready to pounce and as it did, she kicked it in the face. I wish I had my camera... and we started walking towards them yelling. The dogs finally ran off.

But, it is amazing, the Lord works in mysterious ways. We decided we weren’t going to finish down that street and headed up another road we would have never gone up had the dogs not attacked us. We were half way up the street when they came charging again. But we were far enough ahead to be able to pick up rocks and pelt them with the rocks. We kept walking and knocked on another house and guess what!! WE FOUND A FAMILY! Yes, we only taught them once, but still! They were all there, let us in, participated in the lesson, asked questions, and wanted a Book of Mormon to read! We are going back to teach them on Wednesday. The spirit was so strong in the lesson and we could tell that they felt the spirit as well. I’m so happy!!

 I’m spending money buying warm jackets and stuff to make invitations to come to church and other activities that we are trying to have, so people will remember to come and when and where.

haha i need a cookbook! Everyone makes fun of me because I don’t know how to cook. They say it’s a good thing I’m white because if not, I would never get married...

We get an Ensign, don’t worry about sending me a conference issue, but thanks! I think we get to see General Conference live but idk... I still haven’t seen the Women’s Conference. We were going to watch it Sunday, but didn’t have internet...

Can you also tell sister Farrell thank you for her letter! I love the little notes and if she wants more ideas for finding and helping people, look in preach my góspel. There’s lots!

Hope you all are safe and sound. I am! ¡les quiero mucho! ¡tenga una buena semana!

I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH!!!! I MISS YOU SO MUCH!!! HAVE A GREAT WEEK AND SEA FIEL EN LA VERDAD! (BE FAITHFUL IN THE TRUTH!)

TIL NEXT WEEK, MY FAN CLUB

Another Week Come and Gone

Hola Familia,

Sometimes you feel like you have no friends and even the dogs hate you. But not the fleas. The fleas will always love you. Lol I woke up to shower yesterday and found a flea crawling on my stomach...

I got nipped by a dang dog. We were walking into the house of a less active and her dog came up and bit my ankle. It hurt, but no blood luckily.

If you get bit, you have to go to Valdivia to get tested (for Rabies). But this is only if the dog draws blood.

Dude,  need more warm clothes... I did not bring enough. The stinky thing is they get wet and we don't have a dryer. Just a hot stove like at the cabin...

There are stores... I just don't want to waste a p day shopping... haha lol but yeah, next week I think is when I'll have to do it. WINTER IS HERE!! BRING ON THE RAIN!

Jaja these weeks are starting to mesh together. People we taught 2 weeks ago, I thought we taught 2 days ago. Not much happened this week... I got Hermana Braithwaite sick, but we are both feeling a little better now. Just have the back end of a bad cough.

This week we went to visit a member in the country and IT WAS SO FUN! We had to walk for a while to get to her house and when we got there, she was cleaning wool from sheep. We helped her take out all the sticks and bugs and helped wash it. Totally can cross that off my bucket list. I’ll send pictures. Her house is so pretty and the view is amazing.

Friday night, our neighbors had a fiesta. A thin wall separates us. They woke us up at 4 am, all drunk and screaming, laughing, singing, banging on our walls. We asked them to please stop, but when we got back into our house, they just turned the music up louder and began saying nasty things about Mormons. The last 2 days have been really hard because we didn’t get any sleep. Thank goodness for p day!

I can’t tell you how much I love my mission. Seriously. Out of all the places in the world, I love Futrono. It is such a challenge. Every day I have the opportunity to choose to be happy and look at the bright side. Every day I have the opportunity to come to know my Savior a little better and His sacrifice for me. Every day I have the opportunity to fall to my knees and beg for the strength and grace of God. I have learned so much about love, patience, and hope. I have a new vision of the person I want to be and I have more confidence in my Savior than I have ever had before. I have felt the spirit so strongly many times. I wish you could be here experiencing it with me. I LOVE MY MISSION! 

Have a wonderful week! I love you all so much and miss you like crazy!

This Week

Hola hola familia,

This week has been meh. But I guess it happens to everyone... some background info first: They construct houses here how I thought houses were constructed when I was younger. You stick a piece of wood in the ground, and then 3 more, and make a box shape and then throw some tin on top and you’re set to go! Its actually pretty cool, like camping without commitment. You’re safe, kind of, from the rain, but you still get your spiders, fleas, animals and freezing cold air... and slugs :)

 

We get a lot of visitors

Soooo Sunday I was out for the count with vomit and diarrhea. Fun. Then Monday morning I woke up and still felt sick so we had a chill p day. Then that night I wanted to work since we wasted a day inside on Sunday. So we went out and that was a mistake... Tuesday morning I woke up and my bottom lip was swollen but just in the middle. As the day progressed, so did the swelling and pain. Then that night, it began to blister. On Wed. I woke up and my lip was white, pussy and swollen. So we went to the hospital. Which, don’t freak, it’s not really a hospital (the closest is 2 hours away in Valdivia). But it is the only doctor clinic in Futrono.

So we go there and by a miracle we were able to be seen right away instead of waiting for 5 hours which usually happens. Haha this “hospital” was like those 1920 army hospitals in the movies. I was in one “room” and on the other side of the curtain someone was getting their hand stitched and on the other side of that curtain someone else was in pain. Anyways... the doctor comes in to see me. He smelled like he just finished smoking. And, without gloves or washing his hands, he begins to touch my lip and sticks his hand in my mouth, to check out the sore. Turns out a spider or something bit my lip while I was sleeping and it got infected... so he put me on antibiotics. That all would have been great except it has been super hot here and we walk everywhere and people aren’t very sanitary, so I came down with a really bad cold, headache thing... and that’s how I feel right now :) . I could not talk for a day because it hurt so bad, it’s better now.

Pero (but)... an awesome experience this week:

Hermana Braithwaite and I performed a special musical number for our rama (branch) yesterday. I played guitar and sang and Hermana B sang. It was awesome! The spirit was really strong. 

Speaking of music, I play each Sunday on a little keyboard for our branch services… Thanks Grandma Hess, I’m cashing in on all those lessons. We had stake conference and I was asked to play there too! Cha-ching. No opportunities yet to teach kids the keyboard… but looking.

We are working with a menos active (less active member) and she is progressing sooo much! It is amazing to see the power of the Atonement work in her life. When we found her, she was about ready to end her life. Now, FOR THE FIRST TIME, she went out with us, OUTSIDE, to go visit an investigator. She has changed so much! Yes, she still has far to go, but to see how far she has come, where she would sleep all day and hardly eat, now she is coming to church, talking to other people and COMING TO VISIT PEOPLE WITH US!!! We were sooo shocked when she agreed to come! Hermana B and I were smiling ear to ear as we left her house.

The power of the Atonement is real. I am so grateful for my Savior, Jesus Christ, and everything He has done for me. I know that this is His church. I know that although at times life can be really rough, I am so grateful for these experiences to prove my faith and to act and choose how I will handle situations. Faith without action is merely a belief. And one way we can show our faith is by our attitude. I am learning a lot about faith this month, and of the love of our Father in Heaven.

Hope y’all have a wonderful week! Remember, the Lord loves you. Keep doing what’s right. Blessings will come, I promise. The church is true. Read your scriptures. They truly are the key to winning at life.

Tenga un buen dìa! (Have a nice day!)  Les quiero mucho!! (I love you very much!!)

What a Week!

This week has been pretty great! We had a goal to have at least one lesson a day with a member present and we ALMOST achieved it,... faltamos (we missed) one day... BUT an awesome experience with that.....

 

Saturday: we weren’t sure who we could ask in the rama (branch) that wasn’t working that could come out with us to a lesson. As we were praying, we asked the Lord to help us and just as we said those words, our phone rang. We ended the prayer and called back. It was Hermana Laura, a 76-year-old convert. She said that she hasn’t been feeling super spiritually enlightened this week and wanted to go out with us! Talk about a milagro (miracle)!

 

We went to the lesson we had with a young mother named Paulina. Paulina doesn’t believe in God, but in December when Hermana Braithwaite and her other comp found her, she was depressed and without hope and willing to listen. Paulina then had to leave for work in the city for three months (very normal here since there isn’t a lot of work in the small town of Futrono).

 

Paulina just got back and so we decided to reteach the first lesson, about the restoration of the gospel. After talking with her a little and catching up, it was evident that Hermana Laura was here for a reason! Everything that Paulina was struggling with, was the exact same thing that Hermana Laura had struggled with before she got baptized. Paulina’s life was Hermana Laura’s life, and Hermana Laura was able to bear a powerful testimony of the power of the Book of Mormon in changing bad habits and addictions. 

 

Then, yesterday, at 4 am, I got my very own WELCOME TO CHILE fiesta, “Montezuma’s revenge” themed. Ya... our bathroom got destroyed. My poor companion... I am feeling a lot better today. My body still aches and I feel a little dizzy, but I can walk and I can work :)

 

Tomorrow we have cambios (transfers—every six weeks or so, some missionaries are transferred to a new area and a new companion)!! Crazy that my first transfer is going to happen. Although I know I’m staying here and we are 96% sure Hermana Braithwaite will stay too.

 

Have a great week, and you should study Ether 12 if you have time. it is powerful!

 

Kyle, Jake Joey, y’all need to write to me!

 

Love you!

We baptize in this lake, but in a different spot