Lifting the Hands that Hang Down

                                                                                                                               Sept. 23, 2013
Hola mi familia!!! Comó Están!! Gracias por sus cartas! Estoy muy felíz para saber que tenían una semana maravillosa esta semana pasada! My week was really great as well!!!
 

We loved celebrating the dia de independencia!! The weird thing about the holiday is that they celebrate it for a week and not for just one day.  Ha ha-- and everyone eats the same things. Empanadas are like pizza pockets but bigger and everyone makes them with carne or meat, like beef or chicken, and then cooked cebolla, or onion, and part of a hard boiled egg, and one olive. They can be baked or fried. I learned how to make them too, so I will definitely be cooking for you when I get back. They are super good, until you eat as many as I did this week. At every house we received empanadas to eat and when we tried to say no, they pushed us until we said yes. You do not want to know how many empanadas I ate in the celebration of the 18th of September.... And for the rest of my mission I will not eat empanadas!  I am now dieting and exercising harder than ever to get back in shape.  I really loved celebrating the 18 of Sept. We will celebrate it together next year. Another traditional food we enjoyed is mote con huesillo. This is when they take dried peaches and soak them in water so that they absorb the water, and then they make a juice and put trigo, or wheat pieces and you eat the dried peach and trigo with the juice. It is delicious!!!!  I wasn´t able to buy a traditional dress, but hope to get one in the future. I really want to learn the traditional dance of Chile which is called the cueka and it is so beautiful! I will have to take pics and send them to you.

This week was crazy because we worked a normal day on the holidays and we were able to contact a lot of people and had more lessons! It was great! It was also crazy because we had cambios, or transfers in the middle of the week! Twenty one missionaries from the Provo MTC arrived on Friday and so we had cambios a few days early. Guess what! Hermana V. and I are still together for another transfer in Frutillares! We are so excited and grateful. We have learned so much as Co-companeras mayores, and we are super excited to apply everything we learned and be better. 

We had a really great lesson with Sis. M. She really opened up to us and the Lord guided us to ask the right questions to better know her needs. We found out that she is struggling with the word of wisdom and has some health challenges. In our lesson we were able to testify that the Savior can help her overcome her challenges. We are going to have a lesson with her tonight and talk about how the Lord loves each of us and that He can help us to overcome our weaknesses. This is what I love about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It can help anyone and everyone, and everyone needs to hear it.

 

This week I was reminded of an important lesson...the last couple of weeks we have had a hard time finding new people and being able to really truly help them by sharing the gospel with them. I think I forgot a little that it's not just about teaching, but lifting the hands that hang down in sorrow.  It's about serving and helping people to see that the Savior is the one that can give them the ultimate joy and happiness in this world, and the world to come!  I was losing this vision and just going through the motions of desperately trying to find people to teach, instead of looking for people to help.  As we reached out to less actives and new converts by helping and serving, we felt the Spirit more and were able to share the gospel.

 

I was reminded that this is what I love most...having these lessons to help people! That is what it is about!!! We are here to help our brothers and sisters have the joy and happiness that only our Savior and Heavenly Father can give, in this life, and in the eternities. I am so happy and grateful that the Lord reminded me that this is His work and His glory, and that this is the work that I get to be a part of, and it is the most wonderful thing in the world!  

 

Thank you for all of your love and support, and for your prayers! I know that Heavenly Father is answering them! If you could please continue to pray for our investigators. I love you all so much! Have a great week! Hasta Luego!

 

Weaknesses or Strengths? I Choose Strengths!!!

                                                                                                                                 Sept. 16, 2013
Hola Mi Familia!!! Es una bendición grande para escuchar de ustedes! Siempre estoy animada para leer sus cartas y saber que están haciendo en Chicago! Les amo tanto! Wow you have all had a wonderful and busy week full of adventures! I am glad to hear it!!! 

This week has been full of adventures for me too! The adventures started when we all got fleas or pulgas. Yes, my goal to stay flea free didn´t last. But don´t worry, we are doing just fine and battling the fleas well. Today we hope to buy something called La Bomba! or the bomb, It will kill all the fleas! To stay safe from fleas I have been applying the insect repellant that dad packed for me, before I go to bed. Dad, I know that you were inspired to pack a repellant to combat fleas! Thank you so much! Really, I only had one bad night, so don´t worry. I am only telling you because it is pretty funny. You can all laugh, I´m laughing ha ha!!  Well, let's move on to other exciting moments.

 We are getting excited about the dia de independecia!  It is a big celebration where all they do is eat. We have been invited to countless houses, but we will be wise and I will conquer! This week we tried yogurt cake and it was quite interesting! I love trying the new food here! It is so awesome! 

We are still trying to find more people to teach, but we realize that we need to be more diligent in talking with everyone we pass. I know that if we will prove ourselves to the Lord, He will help us to find those that are prepared to hear the gospel. Maybe He already is placing them in our path and we just keep passing them. I am praying for the confidence to talk with everyone. Sometimes I get scared, and I need to change that. I am going to have perfect faith this week and talk with everyone! I can´t wait to report how I do next week! 

 

We are still working with our investigators, but they have some struggles and set backs with the word of wisdom. Please pray for them so that they can continue to learn. Thank you for all of your prayers and concern. We can see the Lord´s answers manifested in the progress of our investigators. They are doing well, and we have such a love for them and a desire to help them come unto Christ.

 

It has been a hard week, but I am so grateful for each week to be better and learn from mistakes. I am so grateful for the Savior and His Atonement that allows us to repent and change. I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who forgives us and teaches us how to make our weaknesses strengths. 

 

This week I have a new challenge. Think about one of your weaknesses that you want to mejorar, or change to become a strength. it can be spiritual or temporal, such as doing well in school or praying more. Choose one and pray every day to change this weakness to a strength and to have the Lord´s help to remember and change. I know that the Lord will help you as you do this. He has already helped me in the mission to change many weaknesses to strengths and He will do that for each of you!

 

I love you all, I love my mission, I love this gospel, and I love our Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ.

 

You are all so amazing! Have a great week, and just keep getting better!!!!!!!!!

We must be filled with integrity!!

                                                                                                                                            Sept. 9, 2013
Hola mi familia!!! Cómo están? Gracias por todo sus cartas! Me encanta leer de sus aventuras cada semana! Ustedes son maravillosos, y gran ejemplos para mi. Gracias por todo su ánimo y diligencia en viviendo el Evangelio de Jesucristo! ok, that is enough spanish. I absolutely love Spanish and I enjoy writing and speaking and learning the language better, but it might be a little challenging and boring to read if my whole letter is in Spanish.

We are getting excited to celebrate the dia de independencia in Chile on the 18th of September. Everyone says that they celebrate for days, and engordar, or get fatter because of all the food they eat. I need to diet so i can disfrutar, or enjoy the holiday here! They also have cultural outfits that they use on these days, and my companion and I want to buy one of the dresses for this holiday and for a souvenir.  I love Chilean food and can't wait to make some for you when I get home! I am learning to cook here!! Who knew everything I would learn on my mission! 

This week was so great! We worked harder and the Lord is blessing us with more people to teach. Paul and Josue are progressing a lot. This week we had Paul teach us lesson 3 about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We made him a little plaque with Elder Paul written on it. it was just paper with a pin on the back, but he used this, and we were the investigators. he had to teach us everything and it was amazing because we were able to still teach him as we asked questions as the investigators that he had to answer, such as what is a covenant? This works so well for him, and we are excited for tonight as he is preparing to teach us the restoration. My companion had done this before with other investigators and it is so awesome! You can suggest it to the missionaries in our Ward, if they are working with youth. Paul came to church yesterday, as did Josue, and both are progressing towards baptism and changing. I love seeing how the gospel of Jesus Christ changes people.  Please pray that they can resist the temptations that they have, and that they can be ready.  Thank you for praying for all the people we are teaching. They are so special and precious to God, and to us, as are all of God´s children. But we are so grateful that they are prepared and that the Lord leads us to them.

 

Yesterday my companion and I had the opportunity to speak in Sacrament meeting! We were able to choose our topics. Hermana V. spoke on Faith, and I spoke on Repentance. The Spirit was so strong, and we were so grateful to speak on topics to help our investigators that were there, and all of the members and new converts. I am so grateful for the testimony that I have of repentance and that I could share it with the people of Frutillares. We truly love it here!

 

This week I continued to learn about sharing my testimony, not just with those that don´t believe, and not just during the lessons, but also when we are contacting.  It is my goal this week to speak to everyone, and bear my testimony as I teach the doctrine. If we live the doctrine, we have the authority and the Spirit as we bear testimony of how living the Gospel blesses our lives.

 

I want my mission to be filled with integrity. I want to make sure that I am always working for the Lord! I want to make sure that I am doing everything I can to honor Him and our Heavenly Father. My challenge to each of us is to take a step back and look at the activities that we are participating in and ask ourselves if we are representing the Lord.  And if not, what I can I do to change, and to be a representative of Him at all times and in all things and in all places? This is something that I am trying to do every day, and perhaps it is different in the mission field as we have the calling to talk with everyone about the gospel, but it applies to members in another way. As members we are not asked to use all day every day to share the gospel, but we are asked to represent Him in everything we do. As we pray for the strength to do so, and the ability to change and repent, I know that the Lord will help us to become like Him. I know that we will become closer to Him. We will have a love for Him and for our Heavenly Father as we strive to honor Them, and we will have a love for the people all around us as we allow them to "see our good works and glorify our Father which is in Heaven." Have an amazing week and know that I love you! Can´t wait to hear about your adventures next week! Hasta luego!

Lemon Squares and Lessons Learned

                                                                                                                  Sept. 2, 2013
Hola mi familia!!! How are you! Thank you all for your sweet emails!

This week has been hard. We are having difficulty finding new people to teach and so that is what we fasted for on Sunday. But part of fasting, is doing all you can to prove that you are worthy to receive the blessings you need. We didn´t feel like we did that last night, but we are so grateful for repentance and the opportunity to change. This week is going to be so much better as we talk to everyone, and do all we can to serve and find people to teach. If we prove ourselves to the Lord, He will trust us and know that we are ready to teach those who are prepared. I am excited for a new week to work harder, and be better with the Lord´s help.

This week we taught two investigators--Josue and Paul.  We invited Josue to baptism and he knows this is what he needs to do, but he doesn´t want to feel rushed so he didn´t accept the date. He said he would pray about it and tonight we are going to teach him and verify if he received an answer. But he came to church yesterday!!! Paul seems to be progressing well. We have a noche de hogar, or family home evening tonight with him and his family and he is going to invite his girl friend. It will be so fun. Please keep praying for Josue and Paul! They are both progressing wonderfully so I know that the Lord is answering all of your prayers and ours as well. Also, please pray for Elizabeth. She feels the Spirit in our lessons, and I think she wants to be baptized but she is really evangelical and doesn´t agree with some of the things in the church and has a lot of questions. She wants to know that it is true and have answers to her questions, which we promised she could receive through pray to her Heavenly Father.  Please pray that she will have the desire to pray about the truth and ask God all her questions. I think she is afraid to pray and know that it is all true :)  

Today we had a zone activity at the beach! We played volleyball, ate shish kabobs. and also something called Churipan. It is sausage inside of bread. Kind of like pigs in a blanket. It was really good, and I had the wonderful responsibility of making an American dessert for 16 missionaries. I found an amazing recipe book in our apartment that I think one of the elders left. I decided to make lemon squares! I made 2 batches of lemon squares and they turned out pretty good! Who knew I would be doing that in Chile! it was hard to find time to make them in the little free time i have as a missionary, but I was able to do it!  The activity was really great and I took some cool pictures that I will have to send next week.

 

Ok, now that I mentioned the lemon squares, it is time to talk about the lessons learned. This week we contacted different houses, and sometimes we contact people who don´t believe in God. In this instance we contacted a man who didn´t believe in God, and he talked to us for a while. I didn´t want to argue, and i didn´t want to listen, i just wanted to leave in this instance and so i watched as my companion testified that she knew that God lived. Afterwards we were walking away, and she said why didn´t you say anything. I felt so bad because I had had ideas come into my mind that I know were from the Spirit and I didn´t open my mouth. She then told me a story about how she had had a teacher once who didn´t believe in God and was arguing about it. She was with her friend and her friend defended God and shared her testimony that she knew that He lived, but my companion didn´t open her mouth. She said that she felt horrible and from that day she promised that she would always bear her testimony to those who don´t believe in God because that is all we can do, and testimonies are powerful. I am so grateful for the example of my companion. Now and forever I will always share my testimony and defend God because I know that He lives. I know that our Savior lives!! I have received a witness from the Spirit that this is true. I will never remain silent ever again. I will always defend our Heavenly Father and our Savior because I know that They live! People can argue with all the logic in the world, but that will not weaken my faith, and the witness I have received from the Spirit. We must walk by faith in this world, but faith is stronger than anything. I am grateful for the Savior and for the forgiveness that we can receive from our Heavenly Father through Him. I am grateful that I can repent for not opening my mouth, as I go forth now and testify of them in every moment. I am grateful for the lesson I learned this week, and I challenge everyone to do the same. I challenge everyone to promise that they will always defend Heavenly Father and the Savior and bear testimony of them when others say bad things about them. We must be firm in our testimonies and unshaken in our faith.  

 

This week we also had a conference with Elder Gonzalez of the 70. He talked about the 3 aspects of missionary work. Bautismo, retencion, and reactivacion. Baptize, retain, and reactivate. We have brothers and sisters in all three of these areas who need to hear our testimonies of our Heavenly Father and our Savior. Without us they might not have the opportunity to accept and live the gospel in this life, and if they don´t the price might be their salvation. This week I was thinking a lot about how sometimes i worry a ton about the health and safety of others, and how horrible it would be if they died. But think about how horrible it will be if they die spiritually. Protecting them spiritually and helping them obtain salvation is so much more important, because death is part of the plan. Everyone will die, but we need to make sure that no one will die spiritually. we want all of our brothers and sisters to be there with us partaking of the Salvation that our Heavenly Father and Savior offer us. Our brothers and sisters who don´t have the gospel now, those who have been barely been baptized, and need to receive strong testimonies to remain firmly in the church, and those who have become inactive and left the church. Everyone is important and we need to work hard in each of these areas. The members can help by visiting investigators, new converts, and less actives with the missionaries. We must be friends to everyone and make sure they all feel welcome in the church, have a social conversion, a spiritual conversion, and a calling. These are just a few of the lessons that I learned this week! I am excited to learn more and to share with you the things that I am trying to implement into my life! I love you all and hope you have an amazing week full of adventure and miracles. Love you all so much!!! Hasta luego!

Look for opportunities to serve!!

                                                                                                                                Aug. 26, 2013
Hola mi familia!!! Thank you all for your wonderful emails. I really needed the support this week that I always get from your emails!  So, today is my 6th month birthday in the mission. That means that in exactly one year from today, I will be arriving home! Crazy right! Well there is no time to get trunky, I have so much I need to do still! I want to make the most of my mission and help as many people come to Christ as I can because I only have 1 year left! Ok, birthday celebration is over, time to get back to work! Ha ha!!

This week has been a lot better than last week. Sometimes it is hard to find new people to teach, but we know as we keep working with diligence, the Lord will bless us to find the families and people that are prepared to hear the gospel. This week we had the opportunity to visit a kind elderly man named Alfredo. He is so kind, but it is so sad because he doesn´t believe in God. We tried our best to teach him, but he refuses to pray. if you could please pray that he can have the desire to pray and ask God all of his questions, and that he can receive and recognize his answer, I know that the Lord will help him. We've also been teaching a fifteen year old boy, named Paul. He came to church yesterday and has been learning more!!! Last night we challenged him to get baptized on the 7th of Sept. He was unsure so we invited him to pray about baptism, and especially about this date. We are going to call him today and visit tomorrow. I will let you know what happens, please pray for him to receive his answer!

This week I have enjoyed getting to know people and finding out their needs. I love that I have the opportunity to minister to people everyday just like the Savior did. But we do not need a mission call to do this. I wish I had learned this before, but I needed a mission to learn it. We can minister to everyone everyday. Thank you for your examples, for your service and the little things you can do for others, and for sharing your testimony.

In the mission we are studying Preach My Gospel together as a mission. Today I was reading about going out and doing good. As missionaries we strive to do a planned service project every week. But what is more important are the unplanned service opportunities that we find, such as carrying someone´s groceries, or talking to someone. I know that if we pray to recognize these opportunities to serve, we will see that they are all over the place. As we listen to the Holy Ghost guide us to those that need our help, they and many others will see our examples, and our service will glorify our Heavenly Father and our Savior. We will have the opportunity to share the gospel with those we serve and with others who see Christ in us.

My challenge to all of you this week is to pray for and look for the little opportunities to serve, and when the inspiration comes, act on it, even if your natural mind might think, "no, it will be weird if i offer to help". it wont be weird! it will be wonderful! Take every opportunity you see to lift another, to smile at the children of God all around you, and to help them come closer to Him and to their Savior. I love you all! You are all amazing!! Have an great week! Hugs and kisses!!

Hello Beautiful Frutillares!!

                                                                                                                          August 19, 2013
Hola mi familia!!! Gracias por escribir! Estaba muy animada para recibir sus cartas y leer como estan! This week has been kind of long, and I am so grateful for this day to rest a little, and hear from all of you.
 

The baptism last Monday was amazing! It was all really special, and gave me the opportunity to say goodbye to all the members in Cauqenes. I loved working with the people and was sad to leave, but know that Frutillares is the place where I am suppose to be!!

Hello Beautiful Frutillares!!


Frutillares is gorgeous!! It is a smaller part of Tomé, and consists of many hills. I'm excited because my legs are going to be super toned--haha!!

Tomé is the center, so we do our shopping there, and the beach is there. We went to the beach today to see how it is, it is amazing! But it is still winter here so it is kind of cold. Frutillares is colder than Cauquenes, but I have everything I need to stay warm.  My sleeping bag is my best friend!!



My companion, Hermana V. is from Argentina! She and her family are converts to the Church and    her testimony and experiences are amazingly powerful. She is also super obedient, and we are going to get along great! I am excited to work with her this transfer and learn from her. We both have 4 months in Chile, we arrived here together on the plane, so we are co-senior companions ha ha. it is awesome! We replaced the elders of Frutillares and are both new to the area. Frutillares hasn´t had sister missionaries for about 15 years, so we both feel very honored to be here.

 

The rama (branch)  in which we serve is fantastic. The members are excited to help visit investigators, new converts, and less actives. They have such an amazing spirit of missionary work, and the leaders magnify their callings tremendously. I am so grateful and excited to work with them. They have taken care of us so well this week. It was hard at first because we didn´t know any members, and we weren´t sure about who the elders had been teaching. But we went out and worked. We have many new investigators and are excited to share the wonderful message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

 We are excited for the challenge of a new week, to be better, work harder, and help others come closer to the Savior and our Heavenly Father.

This week I learned that the Lord knows us perfectly, has a mission for each of us, and will always help us fulfill that mission. We can do whatever He asks of us, because He will magnify us and help us do His will. I am so grateful to be a part of this work, to proclaim the truth, and testify of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. Come what may, they are with us always, and will always guide us if we turn to them.



I love you all and hope you have an amazing week! Good luck with school starting, I will be praying that everything goes well. You are all so amazing and I am so grateful to be at peace and always know that the Lord is taking care of you and blessing you. Love you so much!

Hasta Luego!

Transfers: Miracles in Cauqenes

                                                                                                                             August 12, 2013
Hola mi familia!! Como estan todos? I am doing great!!!

Today we found out transfers for where we are going to work for the next 6 weeks. I am being tranferred out of Cauquenes after 4 amazing months. I am going to be serving in Frutillares, which is on the Coast, and will be serving with Hna. V. I don´t know her yet, but am excited to meet her tomorrow. I am going to miss the people of Cauquenes so much. This past transfer was 8 weeks and in these two months, I really learned to love the people here. They are amazing! And now I am excited to meet new people and love them in Frutillares. It is going to be so hard to leave Sis. L. and Sis. N., but I am so grateful that we can still write them. They truly are amazing! 

Okay, it is funny story time! So the other night we were sleeping and the sirens for the bomberos or firefighters went off at about 1:30 in the morning. I woke up of course because I am a light sleeper, and was really annoyed by the loud noise :)  and also really confused as to why it was sounding. I thought they were having a funeral for a bombero because I had heard the same kind of noises before in the parades they have when a bombero passes away, but they would never have a funeral at one in the morning. They stopped and I went back to sleep. In the morning I talked about it with my companions. All 4 of us live together, but the other 3 sisters said that they hadn´t heard anything, and that it was just a dream. We live really close to the firestation so I don´t know how they didn´t hear it. So, I thought I was going crazy and couldn't tell the difference between dreams and real life. Later I asked our neighbor about it, and he said that they did go off because a fire started. HA! So I was right and wasn´t dreaming and I am not going crazy!! Ha ha, I just don´t understand how they slept through that! Other funny story. This week I was helping a young women named Sis. J. with her english homework. I had to read a paragraph out loud for her so she could learn the proper pronunciation. And I couldn´t say the word communication! I kept saying comunicacion, and the pronuncation is way different. She had to reteach me how to say it in english haha im not going to be able to speak english when i get back! 

 

This week we had a funeral for a less active man who passed away. His sister and father are less active as well, and his sister´s husband and son are not members. The whole chapel was filled with non members. I was invited to sing, "Yo sé que vive mi Senor" (I Know That My Redeemer Lives.) I hope the wonderful people could feel the sweet Spirit that was in the chapel!

 

This week we also had a minicambio and I got to work with Hna. S. who is our group leader. She is so amazing, and I learned so much from her in the mini cambio! She is getting transferred to the same zone as me, so she will still be my leader! We are still working with Sis. V. and her son. Sis. V. who still needs to stop smoking. We have tried to help her all we can. We have fasted and prayed, had members in lessons who had the same problem, and last night we gave her a pack of "cigaros" which were really pieces of paper we had rolled up to look like cigarettes, and we wrote scriptures on them. We found the case to a pack of cigarettes, and decorated it with good pictures and sayings to help her. Whenever she has the temptation to smoke, she is going to take out one of these cigaros, and look up the scripture :) We are praying that she can stop smoking this week so that she can be baptized. Please continue to pray for her! 

 

And now for the amazing news!! Do you remember Cristina? I was able to teach her with Hna. C. for a little. Well Hna. C. and Hna. S. kept teaching her and Alex. They were not married, and didn´t want to get married because of fears and other problems. One Sunday about 3 weeks ago, they came to church for the first time since we began teaching them about 4 months ago. She decided that she wanted to be baptized and be with her family forever. I am pleased to announce that she and Alex were married this morning at 9:30! And she will be baptized tonight at 7. We are so excited for them, and it has been amazing to watch the change in her life as she has learned to trust in the Lord and give up her fears, and follow Him. I know that this gospel is true and that it is the Lord´s gospel. He has the power to change hearts and lives, and He wants the best for us. I know that our loving Heavenly Father has created an eternal plan of pure joy for us, and that through the gospel of Jesus Christ that has been revealed in His true restored church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we can live this plan and be able to return to Him and our Savior with our families!

 

I am grateful for Cauquenes, for the experiences I have had here, for the amazing people the Lord has prepared, for the love that I have for them, and for the opportunity that I have had to serve them, to witness miracles, and to watch my own testimony grow. Thank you for all of your prayers. These people were truly blessed because of them. I love you all, and hope you have an amazing week! I will let you know about Frutillares next week! Love you all! Hugs and kisses for everyone! Hasta Luego!

The Lord's Mighty Plan

                                                                                                                                 August 5, 2013
Hola mi familia!!! Thank you for your emails!  Thank you all for praying for my investigators! It is time to share the miracles of the week!!!

An inactiva named Sis. S. whose husband is the 2nd counselor in the branch presidency, came to church for the first time in 30 years!!! This was the greatest miracle we received this week! We also had an amazing lesson with Sis. C. She is having a hard time receiving an answer because she doesn´t believe in God. She doesn´t believe He exists, because of all of the trials she has gone through, and she doesn´t feel like He helped her in these times. I was able to testify of how grateful I am for trials because through them we are stronger. We talked about Joseph Smith and Liberty Jail, and then I mention the painting of Jesus knocking on the door without a handle to open it, and how we need to come to Him first. She began to talk about how she has been trying to open the door, but He is God, He should be able to open the door Himself and He hasn´t. I then said, but He has, He sent us. The Spirit was so strong in this lesson, and we are going to visit her again this week to see how it is going. Her mom left when we began teaching but returned in the moment that the Spirit was the most powerful! Please continue to pray for Sis. C. and her mom. Your prayers help so much!

Sis. V. received her blessing, but she still hasn´t been able to stop smoking. She didn´t attend church yesterday because she was sick, and we told her that we are here for her, and that we know it is hard.  We left a list of tips of what she can do when she has the desire to smoke. I know that people usually smoke because it helps them relax, and so I was able to share some of the ways in which I have learned to relax when I feel anxious. Prayer, reading the scriptures, positive self talk, crying, dancing, talking to someone, breathing. I hope these will help her!

We had a pioneer activity this past Friday in which we all dressed up as pioneers, and talked about them and their sacrifices, and then watched the Joseph Smith movie. We had 6 investigators come.  They loved learning about Joseph Smith and Sis. M. was telling us about her spiritual experiences, and how she felt such joy in these moments.  We told her she could feel this joy all the time. The activity was great! I will try to send pics of the members dressed up as pioneers! They are so wonderful!

This week I realized how grateful I am for our Heavenly Father´s Plan for each of us. He allows each of us to pass through different trials because He knows we can endure them with His help, and He knows we will be stronger because of them. I am so grateful for my trials and that I can say that I have found my Savior and my Heavenly Father through these trials. I can´t do anything without them. I need them everyday! And I am so grateful that I have been given these specific challenges, and been placed in this specific place, and this specific time, with these specific people, so that I can share my testimony and what the Savior has taught me. I get to share with Sis. V. everything I have learned that helps me when I am anxious, I can share with Sis. C. my testimony of the Savior and how He can help us with everything if we come to Him, I am able love these people and focus on helping them, just as the Savior would. I am eternally grateful for our Savior, Jesus Christ, and for everything He suffered for us. I am grateful for agency and the ability to choose and to learn. I am grateful to know that they Savior can and will help us with anything, and that with His help, we can return safely to our Heavenly Father, and be with our families for eternity. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve a mission and help these people! They are so important to our Heavenly Father. His plan is perfect. Everyone of His children will have the opportunity to accept the gospel in this life or the next, but He watches over everything, and when we follow Him we can witness the miracles that He does everyday for His children. this weeks challenge! look for one miracle each day; and i want you to send me a list of miracles you each saw everyday this week! i love you all! i hope you  have a great week; and can¨t wait to hear from you next week! love you!!!!

Bringing the Gospel to All the World

                                                                                                                              July 29, 2013
Hola mi familia!!! Thank you so much for you emails and your fotos! I am so grateful to hear about all of your amazing experiences!

 

What I am most grateful for this week is a very special miracle that we received this past week. Thank you for all of your prayers for Sis. C. and her mom, and I thank my Heavenly Father for answering them. On Friday we went to visit Sis. C. after not speaking to her since Sunday. We were praying hard the whole way and I was so scared that she was not going to let us in and tell us to leave. When we arrived, with faith I took a breath and called "Alo" at her door. She came to the window to see who it was and i was so afraid she would just look and then never open the door. But just the opposite happened. She opened the door happily and said pasen! We entered and just talked to her as a friend, without mentioning the church. We talked about how we just wanted to see how she is doing, and talked about school and everything. Her mom was there too, and was nice but went to bed early while we were there. Sis. C. told us that she loved church and that she wanted to come on Sunday. She said she would come on her own. I have no idea what happened but it was as if she had never even called us to tell us not to come back. We left so grateful that the Lord had touched their hearts. She did not come on Sunday because she ended up going to her grandmas, but she said we could visit her this week. We hope to start sharing the gospel with her again. Please continue to pray for her and her mom so that they can continue to progress. Thank you so much for your prayers, I know that our Heavenly Father heard them and gave us this miracle. 

Thank you so much for your prayers for Sis. V. and her son also. They continue to progress and attended church with us on Sunday. We need to pray that her son (that struggles with autism) can continue to feel calm and peaceful in church so that he doesn´t get spooked, and so he can relax. We taught them the word of wisdom as well and Sis. V. told us that she struggles with smoking. please pray for her as well, because we are going to work with her this week to help her stop. She wants to receive a blessing on Thursday for this. I am so grateful for miracles and the power of God to change hearts and help us in every way!  Thank you for all of your prayers and support, we are so grateful to be here doing the Lord´s work!

 

I want to share what I learned today in personal study. I was studying the characteristic of faith, and I read in Hebrews 11:40. It talks about how through us others can also be perfected. We are the means of bringing the gospel to all the world and to certain people that are prepared right now to receive it. We must do everything we can to share the gospel with them because they might not have the chance to hear it again. We are to help certain people at very specific times so we must be ready to follow the spirit and share the gospel with everyone so that everyone can have the opportunity to hear it! This is our call as members of the church. We must have faith in our Savior, our Heavenly Father, and faith in ourselves to do it.  I challenge each of you to talk to someone about the gospel this week. Pray and search for the opportunities that the Lord will put before you. We love missionary work because through it, we can feel the Spirit manifest of the love that our Heavenly Father and Savior have for others, and the love that they have for us. This is the most glorious feeling to our souls!!  I don´t know if you all read my letter to Abby last week, but there is a promise that as we share the gospel, we will have the Spirit with us more abundantly, all the time! It is the most glorious feeling!! I love you all and am so proud of you! I hope you have a great week!  Love you all!!

I want to share some of the beautiful sights
in the city of Cauqenes.

I

I love how they use bright colors to decorate homes and neighborhoods. 

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The Atonement and Missionary Work

                                                                                                                          July 23, 2013
Hola mi Familia Amorosa! Thank you so much for your emails! 

 This week has been amazing! We had a goal as a zone that each companionship would have 3 people attend church this week, because this is something we have been struggling with. It is hard to get investigators to go to church. But we made this our goal and we did everything we possibly could to get them there. Sunday morning I was just praying that they would come because they are unable to progress in the gospel if they don´t come to church, and we want them to have the joyous blessings of the gospel because we love them so much! I prayed that Heavenly Father would help everything to work out because we had done all that we could do. I feel like I have never worked so hard in the mission, and I am so grateful to learn early, how hard I need to work to help these people. The Lord answered our prayers, we had three people in church. Sis. V. and her son came, and we are hoping that they are going to be baptized the 10th of August. But we still have a lot to teach them in these next 3 weeks. Please continue to pray for them so that they are protected from the adversary, and continue in the lessons. They are our miracles, and we wont be able to meet with them until Thursday. 

 

Our other investigator at church was Sis. C. she is 16 and we found her this week. She was really interested the first lesson and we went back and everything was great! Her mom didn´t want to go to church but said her daughter could learn and be baptized if this is what she wanted. She knows a ton of members, and she absolutely loved church and we have a youth camp, like youth conference, this next weekend and she was planning to go. We visited her yesterday after church to talk about everything and she was shining, loving the gospel. She only needed her mom's permission to go to the conference. We said we would visit on monday and that we would be praying for her mom that she would allow her to go. Last night while we were out working, we received a call from her, and she said that she has received some sort of sign that she took to mean that the church wasn´t true and that she didn´t want us to visit anymore and that her mom doesn't want us to visit the house anymore. Hna. Garcia and I were with Loreto trying to contact someone when we received this call, and we were both heartbroken and started to cry. We love Sis. C. so much, and want her to have these blessings, and she was so perfect in the lessons. We felt so sad, but we have faith that she will return.  The adversary always tries people right after a good experience, but Heavenly Father and our Savior are so much more powerful! We are going to start slow by just asking how she is. It was so hard to work last night, we just wanted to rest after this, but then we went over to a members house for 15 minutes before we had to be home, and he showed us a video that I believe is on Youtube. It is called

"The Atonement and Missionary Work." It is amazing, and I invite you to watch it.

 

What I have learned this week is that missions aren't easy, because salvation is not easily obtainable. The Savior suffered everything for our salvation! In order to receive the blessings of Salvation, we must do our part and share the gospel. When we are sharing the gospel, we are part of the work of salvation as well. If we are in this work as well, How can we question why this suffering is necessary. He suffered so much, we can´t even imagine! But how are we to understand the Atonement of Jesus Christ if we never suffer. In our life on earth, we will never suffer even the minimum of what He suffered, but we will suffer, and this suffering will bring us greater understanding of our Savior´s sacrifice, and greater love for Him. And so last night, when I wanted to rest, I thought of the Savior who after Gethsemane had every right to rest, but He continued in His work of Salvation, and even when He died, He was doing this work in the Spirit World. How can we rest, when He had every right to, and didn´t. Salvation is the most important work to the Lord. If we are to be His true disciples, and bear His name, this must be the most important work to us as well. And we must do all we can do, night and day, even with trials, to do the work of the Lord and to bring every child of God to Him. And the greatest part is that we are not alone. When we can't keep going, He will carry us. He suffered alone for us, but He will always be with us when we suffer, and He will carry us. I hope this makes sense. The video is way better, but this is what I learned this past week. I am grateful to have learned this, and I know that Heavenly Father helped me to learn it right after this trial. I love the tender mercies and miracles that I see everyday. Please pray for Sis. C. that she will know that her sign wasn´t from our Heavenly Father. It might have something to do with her mom as well, so please pray for her mom, that her heart may be softened. I know that all will be okay, and thank you for the prayers you offer for our investigators. It makes such a difference. I love you all!!!

 

On a happier note, p-day was awesome, we played soccer and volleyball as a zone! I hope you have a great week, and please be safe! Love you!!!!!

"I Know it, I Live it, I Love it!"

                                                                                                                           July 15, 2013
Hola mi familia!! Thank you so, so so much for your emails! They are my strength as I start every week!! I am so proud of each of you and so grateful for your righteousness! I am glad you are all having an incredible summer! Thank you for sharing your adventures, both fun and spiritual! I love hearing about them, and I promise that they don´t distract me, so please keep them coming.

 

This week has been great! Last week our numbers were really low, so we had a goal as a zone to make sure we had 140 contacts with people during the week. We had 146!! We were finishing up the contacts last night and trying to enter houses and share the gospel through lessons with the people we contacted, but it is sometimes really difficult to do so. But last night we met our goal and were continuing to contact with the determination to teach and share the joy of the gospel. And guess what? We found a miracle! Her name is Sis. V. She lives with her son who is autistic and this family is so so special to us! We love them so much already, an only met them last night!! She had shared with missionaries before but never recieved an answer, but we taught her a lot and helped her understand how she can know the truth. In the past she had been in another church, that didn´t accept her son. I was able to bear testimony about the scripture that says by their fruits you shall know them, and how i know that this is the true church because all of the fruits are good and are of God and everyone is invite to come and partake. But it was in simpler words because I had to speak spanish :) But it was such an amazing lesson, and renewed our ánimo(excitement) for the work! We had kind of been going through the motions a little, just teaching the lessons instead of teaching according to their needs, and the Lord taught us what we need to do to help these people understand the gospel and all of the doctrine as it relates to them. I am so grateful to be taught daily! Sis. V. is so ready and as we describe the Spirit as it can speak through peace and tranquility, she told us that she felt peace and tranquility when we walked in. Please pray for her as we will not be able to visit until thursday. She needs to recieve an answer, and continue strong until we can teach her again. Thank you for your prayers. 

 

We had another activity this week. Noche de talentos! It was a great strength to the members, we didn´t have any investigators come, but we invited a ton. But next time they will come! We got permission from our district leader to do a dance with the relief society sisters in which we put glow sticks on our clothes in the form of a stick figure and then danced in the dark, it was awesome! 

 

 This week I learned a lot about goals and what I want to accomplish in my mission. I want to help as many people as I can to come closer to Christ. I am setting goals to be able to do this. In life, we need to set goals, and then have other steps on how we can accomplish these goals. That is the order that the Lord has set, a big goal such as baptism, and then smaller steps to get there. We can do this in everything we do in life! It can always apply! My goal for this week is to love the people more, and I am going to do this by looking for service in every moment, not just saying words when teaching but saying specifically what they need to hear and always speaking kindly and with interest in them, and studying for them every morning. What will be your goals for the week? And how will you accomplish them. I love you all so much! I hope you have an amazing week. Please travel safely, I know the Lord will protect you as He blessed me in my setting apart not to worry about my family at home. I love you! Rejoice everyday and know how proud I am of each of you! Have a great week!!! Hugs and Kisses!

With all the love in the world! 

Hermana Harris

I LOVE MY MISSION!!!!!

                                                                                                                             July 8, 2013
Hola mi familia!!!  I love you all so much!

This week has been really great! How was the fourth of July for everyone? I completely forgot it was July 4th on Thursday because we celebrated it here on Friday with a branch activity! Una Noche NorteAmericana! It was so fun! And a lot of members came. 

It is so amazing to be able to watch the branch become more of a family because they have struggled with this in the past. But the activities are helping. For this activity we started with a hymn and a prayer and then they asked me to sing the star spangled banner, and then we played a giant game of twister with all the members. We had papers that we taped to the floor and it was about 12 by 4 circles so the game was huge. When they were done all the papers were shredded but it was way fun for them. Next we did a pie( or pay, pronounced the same) eating contest. It wasn't really pie, it was more like crushed up cookies, some cherries, and whipped cream, but they all participated and had to eat without hands. I will try to send a video! Next we gave them each a cookie and they had to place the cookie on their foreheads and use facial movements to get the cookies in their mouths. I will send a video of this too! And after that they played musical chairs, and then missionary tag. We finished up with some papas fritas or french fries, and some peach cobbler, but for lack of plates they were both on the same little plate so many assumed that we eat french fries with peach cobbler as a dessert, ha ha it was way funny. The best part was being able to share some of the fun things we do in the states, and see how much fun they were having.

 

One miracle was that an investigator came! He came by himself, but we are hoping to teach him, his wife, and his daughter. He had a ton of fun at the activity. We also had the son of a less active member come, and then his dad came later. They saw how the branch is more of a family and this was a blessing too. I am so proud of this branch and I love all of the members, they are some of my best friends. 

This week we are also going to focus on helping the youth, they struggle with having mutual here, so we are going to try to work with the branch to organize mutual activities that the youth enjoy and that will strengthen their testimonies. Especially the young men who are preparing for missions here.

 I absolutely love my mission! I love the people of Chile, I love the food, this might be a problem when I return, but I found out there is a Chilean restaurant in Provo!!! But most importantly I love being able to share the gospel with this people and see the changes. I love being able to learn from their examples, but also learn from serving a mission. I rarely shared the gospel with my friends before my mission and what I am most grateful for is that I am learning how to so that I can continue to do so when I get back. The Chilean people are my brothers and sisters, and I want them to have the blessings of the gospel! But when my mission is over I will have all the knowledge I need to be able to share the gospel with my friends, my family, and everyone!!! I am so grateful for the opportunity to learn while helping others and seeing their testimonies grow. Missions are incredible!!! I am so grateful for all the leaders who helped prepare me for a mission! It is the greatest blessing in my life and because of them, their testimonies, and their love, I am here!!! I thank my Heavenly Father for His plan, for His blessings, for the Gospel, and for His Son, and for my testimony that I have the amazing opportunity to share now and for the rest of my life. I am rejoicing in my mission! I get to see miracles everyday, and I am so grateful!

I love you all! I hope you have an amazing week!!!!!!!! 

We Must Pray to Know for Ourselves!!

                                                                                                                         July 1, 2013
Hola mi familia!!!!!!!! Thank you for all of your emails! I love reading about your adventures and spiritual experiences! 

Everything is great, and even in times when it is hard, it is still great! I strive everyday to make the most of it and work my hardest for the Lord, but there is so much I still need to do. This week has been pretty busy. We found many miracles!! This week we prayed specifically for families, and we found them! We have two new families to work with. 

My favorite part of being a missionary is being able to share my testimony all day everyday, and to be able to feel the Spirit testify to the people we are teaching that what we are saying is true. But there is something so important that they must do. They must pray to know for themselves. We can bear testimony all day of our experiences, but if they don´t pray for themselves with faith, nothing wavering, they are never going to receive an answer for themselves and be able to proclaim that they know without a doubt, because they have prayed. Prayer is so important for our investigators and for anyone who has a desire to know the truth. If we have a question, all we need to do is ask our Heavenly Father to help us find an answer. He is there, He is always there listening, and He wants to give us the answers. Prayer is the most amazing thing because we can communicate with our Father in Heaven. We can talk to Him anytime we need to, or just when we want to. And He hears us! My invitation to all of you this week is to evaluate your prayers and think about what you can do better to make your prayers more meaningful, or to pray with more thankfulness, or to pray more. And when you pray, really speak to Heavenly Father. Pray is a conversation that we have with Him, it is no different than speaking with our earthly parents. A line from one of the songs in Savior of the World, that I love is, "Ask God all your questions, tell Him all your fears, thank Him for His blessings, then wait with open ears. Listen as He answers, Hear His voice so still...Then go and do His will." I love this! I testify that we can pray to our Heavenly Father for anything. He wants to hear us, and He does. He will answer in His own time, but He will answer, and if you ever have a question or a doubt just ask Him. It is through prayer that we can feel the love that He has for us, and can receive the answers He wants us to know. i love you all! This is my spiritual thought for the week, sorry it is short. But I am so proud of each of you and your testimonies, and I am so grateful for the prayers you offer for me! I know Heavenly Father hears them, and He is answering them and helping me. Please have a great week! Be safe and know i love you ! 

The Love of God

                                                                                                                            June 24, 2013
Hola mi familia!!! Les amo mucho!!!!!!!!!!! Con todo mi corazon! Thank you for your letters! This is getting to you so late because we had a wonderful conference in Concepción today to say goodbye to our wonderful mission President, President Humphrey and Hermana Humphrey! My heart is so full today. I have been crying the whole time I have read your letters. What a marvelous week full of the blessings of our Savior and our Heavenly Father, and their love for us.  

 

So I have a new companion - Sis. Garcia from El Salvador!! I went to Parral to pick her up on Tuesday and she is amazing! We are the best of friends and have a ton of fun together. Also, my Spanish is improving!!  Also, I have a new sister!!! In the mission, our trainers are called our moms. So Hermana Call is my mom, and she is training again so now I have a new little Sister. Her name is Hermana Skirvin, and she is from Utah. She reminds me a lot of myself when I first got here. We have so much fun together too, and it is so fun to have a little sister. The Elders left their house really dirty for us! We cleaned a lot and now the house is perfect. I love our little rama, One sister gave us a washing machine, and mentioned something about wanted to find us a dryer as well, and the branch wants to get us a stove as well. I love these people with all my heart. They are so humble, they don´t have much, but they give all that they have to help others. They are near and dear to my heart as they are examples of the Savior in all moments

. 

This week we found two new investigators to teach! We invited them to baptism on Thursday and Friday (Those two special days!!!!!!!!!)  One is named Sis M. and she is so sweet as we taught her the first lesson and she prayed. She wants to keep learning but her husband is not interested. She wants us to teach her somewhere else, and there is a member that lives right by her who has offered to let her be taught in his home. His wife is less active, so we are hoping they can be good friends. When we last visited Sis.M, she had her 12 year old granddaughter over. We couldn´t teach the granddaughter because her parents are Catholic and haven´t given permission, but we asked Sis. M. to read the pamphlet about the restoration and then pray to know if it is true. I told the granddaughter a little bit about our Young Women's program and about my friend who is part of the branch and is her same age.  I wanted her to feel the love of the Savior that I began to feel more when I started attending Young Womens and participating in the program. How inspired the Young Women's Program is!!  Anyway, when we returned to visit Sis. M. (the grandmother,) we ran into the granddaughter outside the door and she said, "I read the pamphlet and I know that it is true!"   I asked her how she knew and she said that she had read it, and that she had prayed about it and God had answered her.  We really want to teach her as well. So please pray for her and her parents! We want to teach the whole family!! Our other investigator is Sister G.  who lives by a member too! We love her so much and she has had a lot of hard struggles in her life, but she accepted the invitation to be baptized the first time, and has a baptismal date set as well. Sadly, she didn´t come to church this week, but we are going to do all we can to encourage her to come. Please pray for her, her daughter and granddaughter. Thank you so much for praying for our investigators! I love them each so much!      

 

So, real quick what I learned this week. Last night there was a incredible broadcast on missionary work from the Marriott center in Provo. We heard from many of the twelve apostles:  L. Tom Perry, Neil L. Anderson, Russel M. Nelson, Boyd K. Packer, and our Prophet, Thomas S. Monson. There was a large choir made up of missionaries from the MTC  and all of the new mission presidents were there, and we got to watch it all the way here in Chile! It was such and amazing and sweet experience!!! Also there were many videos along with music, and there were about three shots of our Girl´s camp! I got see Christina and Rachael!!! The broadcast was all about members being missionaries and working with the full time missionaries to bring others into the joy of the gospel. I especially loved Russel M. Nelson´s talk. He spoke about how our actions should always be motivated by love. When we feel in our heart that we should do something for someone else, we should do it and not wait to be asked. We need to share the gospel with our friends by finding opportunities to do so everyday, creative opportunities. There was a video clip and I hope that it is on lds.org now, but it was about a family in which each member of the family did something to share the gospel with those they meet, and it was incredible. They dad offered service to a elderly neighbor, and invited the missionaries to do the service. The mother received help from someone else and then served them and invited their family over for a family night with the missionaries. The elder son invited a friend to play basketball and the missionaries came. The daughter had a friend at work going through a hard time and introduced her to the missionaries. And the youngest son invited a friend and his family to his birthday party and also to his baptism. There they met the missionaries. It was such an incredible video and it renewed my testimony that we can share the gospel in so many ways and work with the missionaries. But we should do it because we love the people. All of Christ´s actions were motivated by pure love. We can pray for and strive to have this pure love for all people, and when we do this, we will be able to be better representatives of Jesus Christ. But the main message I loved is that we must learn to rely on the Spirit and trust the inspiration we receive that is motivated by our love for others. Boyd K. Packer taught us to learn to only depend on the Spirit as we share the gospel and President Monson taught that we must have the faith to act. Our faith, coupled with effort to share the gospel  will bring the blessings of Heaven, and the Lord will show us how to do His work. I wish you all could have seen this broadcast! It was incredible!

 

This week marks 4 months in the mission. Time is flying and I have so much left to do, I want to use every minute to share the gospel and help them feel the pure love of God!!! Scripture for the week!!! 1 Nephi 11:22,23  We have all felt the love of God this week as we have rejoiced in the blessings of His gospel and how He loves us and made a way for us to return as eternal families. It is my prayer that we can share this perfect, joyous love of God with everyone. I love you !!! Chou for this week!!

"A Perfect Brightness of Hope"

                                                                                                                              June 17, 2013
Hola mi familia maravillosa!!! Como esta? Gracias por sus cartas. Estoy muy agradecida por vosotros y por todos los bendiciones de nuestro Padre Celestial y nuestro Salvador! i am glad to hear that everyone is doing so well! 

Well this week we did not have much success in numbers, but I learned a ton! We are so happy that Sis. L. was baptized. She is doing well and received a calling yesterday as a Relief Society teacher. She is going to be so wonderful!!! We are working with many new investigators and are trying to find those that are prepared to hear the gospel. We are going to try to do 30 minutes of service each day. Just small stuff, and work with the members to help them share the gospel with their friends. This next week looks very bright and promising! Especially because I have learned so much that i want to implement from last week.  Now a quick review: 

This last week was hard as we felt very discouraged and could not figure out why. We were praying to learn what we were doing wrong, and our prayer was answered. We haven´t been using all of our time and every opportunity to share the gospel. In lessons sometimes we talk too long about other things, or dont fulfill our plans with exactness. But i also learned that I have been relying on Hna. Call too much to do all of the talking, and then only add in my  thoughts sometimes. I am in training, but i should have been progressing and getting better so we could teach in unity. But I would get scared sometimes and not talk, and she was having to carry the lessons. But NO MORE!!!!!!!!!!! I have been taught what I need to do, and I will do it! I know as I open my mouth more with courage and faith and perfect hope, the Lord will help me know what to say, I can be the kind of missionary that the Lord needs, the kind of missionary that the people need, the kind of missionary that my companion needs, and the person and missionary that I want to be. i have been focused on myself and my fears and my feeling inadequate for far too long! i have been called to do this work by our Heavenly Father. I have been set apart as a representative of Jesus Christ. This means talking to everyone, serving everyone, standing confidently in the knowledge of who I am and what I am capable of just like the Savior did. He never doubted who He was, not even when the adversary did everthing he could to tempt Him to doubt. Well i am done doubting, and I am done fearing! The Lord is with me and I can do anything with His help. As I focus more on the people and what they need, my doubts and my fears will go away and I will become waht the Lord wants me to be. Today we sang i will go where you want me to go, and the last sentence says I will be what you want me to be! This is what we are here on this earth to learn. We are here to become like the Savior and submit to the Father´s will and trust in Him in everything, so that we can become what He wants us to be. I am so grateful for everything that I have learned, but i am even more grateful for the opportunity to help others come unto the Savior and our Heavenly Father, recognize their divine nature, and become what our Heavenly Father and Savior want them to become. I know that they live, that their plan for us is real and amazing, and that we can learn and grow and progress in this life so that we can return, but we can only do this with their help! We must be humble enough to be what they want us to be. I love you all and I hope you have an amazing week! Thank you for being who the Savior wants you to be! 

It is not about the numbers--It Is About Bringing People to Christ!!

                                                                                                                 June 10, 2013
Hola mi Familia!!!!!!!! Como esta? Guess what??? Sis. L is now the newest member of the church here in Cauquenes!!!!!!!!!! Her baptism and confirmation were so incredible!!. It was a tough week because the adversary always works to discourage our investigators before their baptism, and this happened a bit, but with the Lord´s help, she conquered her worries and was baptized on Saturday (My half birthday!) 

We are also working with Sis. L's mom and have invited her to be baptized. She prayed about it and felt that it is right, but she lives in the campo and it would take 2 hours to get to church every week, so she doesn´t want to get baptized and then stop living the gospel because it is so hard to go to church. She wants to wait until her husband's health improves so they can drive to church together.  He is not a member, but we are hoping that he too, will be baptized. Please pray for their family!!  We are having wonderful experiences with lots of new investigators and look forward to teaching them the gospel. I am so glad to hear how everyone is doing! Thanks for all of your emails! 

Real quick, what I learned this week. my companion and I really want our new converts to remain active in the church, so this week we read a talk about the vision to baptize. We all say that we have the vision to baptize, but we learned what it really means. It means having all of our lessons focused on the Savior´s Atonement and baptism. And also inviting people to be baptized on the first lesson. I used to think that that was weird to invite right from the start, and we have had some members tell us that we probably shouldn´t do that. But in preach my gospel it says to invite no later than the 2nd lesson. I have been thinking a lot about this because i used to think it was way too fast too. But this week we realized that when we invite people to baptize from the beginning, then they have a goal and reason to keep all of the commitments that we give them. They have a reason to repent and start changing. We could teach them one thing at a time and have them commit to going to church, and have them commit to reading the scriptures and praying, and after they keep these and learn a lot more, finally extend the invitation to be baptized, but then they don´t have a reason to keep all of the commitments, and because of this they might not even keep them. But on top of this, if we invite them on the first visit, they have a reason to keep the commitments because they help them reach their goal of baptism, and they have the goal of baptism because they want to become closer to the Savior, and as they prepare for their baptism by keeping commitments, repenting, learning, and changing, they grow closer to the Savior and gain a very strong testimony of Him and the plan that Heavenly Father has for His children, and the restored gospel. If they have the goal to be baptized, then after their baptism they will have a unshakable testimony, and then they can have the goal to go to the temple, and then the goal to endure to the end valiantly in the Gospel. With Sis. L and Sis. N. this is what happened. They are going to continue to live the gospel because with the goal of baptism they have gained a true and pure and lasting testimony.

 

People sometimes may think that we are upfront in inviting people to be baptized right away. They might think that we are just here to get more people to join our church, or to have more baptisms so that we can count them as numbers. But that is not what we are doing. We are here to proclaim the truth, to help our brothers and sisters who we love to have a strong relationship with their Heavenly Father and their Savior. We are here to make help them get on the path, and to stay on the path, and we can do this by making sure that they have the goal to be baptized, and they have the goal to endure to the end, and they have the testimony to do so. We are not here to count numbers, we are here to change lives, bring hope, and help people come unto the Savior and ALWAYS walk with Him throughout thier lives. We want all of our brothers and sisters to return home with us.! I am so grateful for the opportunity that I have to proclaim the Gospel. It is my joy, and it is what  I know to be true, and I want everyonen to have the opportunity to find out the truth for themselves! THis is the true gospel of Jesus Christ restored to the earth. He is the Savior of the World, and He is the way that we can make it back to our Heavenly Father with our families! This is my testimony and I am grateful to be able to share it everyday! I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week and enjoy the first few days of summer! I love you all!!