Hermana Hess en Chile: Rain, Rain Go Away

#4monthsleft ... back when it was sunny

back when it was sunny

hola familia!

Sooo can I just say that I am soooo fat. And am sooo glad that I don’t have anyone waiting for me because I think he would run away screaming. If you don’t want to get fat, don’t eat 3 potatoes every day. Don’t cook all your meals with tons of oil and salt. Don’t eat a plate full of meat everyday if you have no say in what they feed you.

The scripture in Isaiah "my soul delights in fatness" applies to missionaries. Literally. I feel so gross. When I get home I’m NEVER eating chicken, potatoes, salt, oil or bread again. We are going to ask the prophet to add to the scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 4 that says "serve with all your heart, might, mind and strength" to say "serve with all your heart, might, mind, strength and body."

If you want to be a consecrated missionary, you literally have to consecrate everything.

Last Monday night we had an interesting experience with a man that literally serves Satan. It was really scary in his house. We knocked on his door and he asked if we were Christian. We said yes and he said please, come in! His mom lives with him so we went in and started talking to them.

Long story short (I’ll have to tell you guys later because it’s a good story) he told us that one time he tried reading the Book of Mormon but the Holy Ghost forbade him to do it.

This man is really Evangelico. We challenged him to pray about it and ask God if he should read it. He said no and then proceeded to tell us about a time when he asked God to help him with something more than once and that a figure came out and broke his thumb.

Then he went to a religious retreat for his church and they started chanting and doing voodoo stuff and now he literally fears God and that God whispers to him at night and tells him what he needs to do to "help his work move along."

I was thinking, "Man, I wish I had the priesthood, I’d cast this devil out of him," but it was pretty scary.

When he started talking about his experiences with "God" his eyes changed. It’s really hard to explain but it was as if they grew darker. I started testifying and talking about Christ and I’m not going to lie, I was surprised how forward I was. I told him that he was deceived by the devil and that he needs to repent or Satan will have complete control over him. We told him that God doesn’t send "angels" to hurt His children when they ask more than once for something.

Then we ended with a quick prayer and ran.

…And that pretty much was our week. haha I think Padre Celestial has been reading my emails and now is telling me, “Is that right hermana Hess? Yeah, let’s see just how much you practice what you preach.”

It started raining 4 days ago and hasn’t stopped. I miss the sun. It’s always so depressing here when it rains. This week was really hard for that. We don’t have a fire or a heater so there isn’t anything but a blow dryer to dry our wet clothes.

Haha every morning I’m reminded of our fun canyoneering adventures when I put on my still wet stockings, rain jacket and rain boots. I’ve been wet for the past 4 days.

When it rains, all the houses are really humid, ours especially because there is no heat source so nothing dries even when we are in the house. We have to be really careful not to get foot fungus. My boots soaked through 2 days ago.

And on top of that, no one wants to let 2 soaking wet girls into their house... yesterday we spent 3 hours straight outside in the pouring rain knocking doors.

back when it was raining... o wait... it still is...my boots were hurting my feet so i went out in my summer proselyting shoes.... it took about 20 seconds before they were soaked through. not that i noticed though because my stockings were already wet.

Our investigadores live in another publacion that we have to take a bus to but the bus doesn’t run Sundays so we had the opportunity to work a little closer to our house and knock, knock, knock.

Not going to lie I was in a bad mood. People sometimes are very rude. But hey, at least it wasn’t freezing cold! Just really wet.

Yes mom, I got the shoe inserts and they help a lot! But I think my foot pain is just because I’m standing up all day and walking. And I’ve been doing this for more than 375 straight days. My feet are just tired. And my back. And my shoulders. Everything is tired.

It’s funny because the first 3 months as a new missionary, I felt with all the energy of the sun. Everyday I walked with the triple combination, the Bible, water, snacks, pamphlets, examples..... but with time my back began to complain and yep there goes the examples. Yep, there goes the Bible. There go the snacks. Ya, I’ll carry the triple if you carry the pamphlets…

You know you’ve been out for a while when your body starts falling apart. Oh! I finally got my birthday present!!! (The one sent in October…) Thank you!

So we were walking to lunch down a really steep hill and there was a patch of moss from it raining so much. My comp didn’t see it and stepped on it and totally biffed it hard core. We thought she broke her wrist because she landed on it. It swelled up pretty good but thankfully it was just a fracture. It still really bothers her. But our zone leaders made us "blondies" to help her feel better.