Hola Famila!! I have arrived in Chile!! Writing this is kind of difficult because the Spanish keyboard is very different from an American keyboard so I might make a lot of mistakes.
Lo siento. Como están? I hope everyone is well! I haven´t gotten any mail, I think we only get it once a month, but we get emails every week. Please tell me about your adventures. I will tell you about mine!
So, I arrived safely and everything worked out with the flights. The Lord really blessed us to make all our flights and get all of our luggage. I felt so grateful that I didn't have any problems--His hand is in everything.
We had subway for lunch, which is a rarity here, and we were trying to talk to the new trainers in Spanish but we were all so tired from the flight. I zoned out so much, and couldn´t even really talk to anyone. There was one sister I noticed who I kind of thought was going to be my trainer, but we hadn´t found out yet. After lunch, we had a testimony meeting where we each were "invited" to give our testimonies in Spanish. We did, and after, they announced who would be working together.
My companion is named Hermana Call, and she went into the MTC the same day I did, but she was in the advance Spanish class and only spent 2 weeks there. She had been in the mission for 4 weeks when she was called as a trainer. So she is going through training herself, while training me, but she is amazing!!! You should see the way she teaches. She follows the Spirit in everything, and she knows exactly what to say, and I am excited to be able to learn from her and one day speak as well as she does.
We are working in Cauquenes, Chile, and I don`t know what I thought Chile was like before coming, but it is very different. I love it though! The people are so generous and give so much. In Cauquenes, about 80 to 90 percent of the members are less actives, so we are branch builders. We have a list of over 700 less active members, and our goal is to try to find and contact at least 10 less actives a week. Because we are branch builders, we have lower standards for the number of new investigators in a week. We are suppose to have 10 new investigators a week also.
I love it so much. I have already seen so many miracles from the Lord. We contacted a lady who it turns out was a less active member, and the missionaries use to visit her all the time, but her house was destroyed in the earthquake and she was lost. She was so excited that we had found her! And she is married!!! That is so exciting because the majority of couples here aren't married. It is so sad, because we can´t count them as progressing investigators or give them a baptismal date unless they have a wedding date. I love all of these people so much, and it is so sad to hear some of their stories. Many times we hear of people who have gone inactive because they loved the missionaries who taught them and couldn´t stand it when they left.
We live with a single Hermana in the branch named Hermana Elia. We sleep in really nice beds and have a washing machine, and the showers are so warm, and life is perfect! She is the nicest woman and owns her own restaurant where she works everyday, and also does special occasions like weddings. It is amazing! She has been coming to church with us, and I think the arrangement is a blessing for all of us.
Guess what??? We have a baptism this week!! Nicole is getting baptized on Sat.!!! She is about our age, maybe a year older, and she is a golden investigator. She agrees with everything we teach her! She had already agreed to a baptismal date and had been taught most of the lessons when I got here, but I got to teach her a little. She is so cute, and we are so excited for her to get baptized. I know this is what she wants, and it is going to bless her greatly. I feel like she will stay active. We went to church yesterday with her, and it was her first Sacrament meeting. She had gone to general conference on Sat. and Sun. and that counted as attending church twice. We need 3 church attendances before they can get baptized. But it was also fast and testimony meeting. She felt the Spirit so strongly that she cried! We are going to follow up today, but I think she loved it. We met her through a less active family, who want to come back to church now. Their names are Pato, Angie, and they have a little girl. They are so cute! I am so excited for all of these people, because they are coming closer to the Savior.
So one of the goals of our mission is to mainly focus on finding, teaching, and baptizing families, because these families are so blessed by the gospel in their lives. The gospel gives them the opportunity to have a strong foundation in Christ, and to be sealed for time and all eternity, so they will be together after death. We always teach our lessons and then invite them to pray to know if what we taught is true. The Spirit is the only one that can teach them the truth, we are only the messengers. This week we are really praying to find families, and yesterday we fasted for it.
Last night we were just out contacting, and we met a mother and daughter, Eufemia y Grace. They were so receptive to our message as my companion was inspired to ask what they were struggling with in life. Eufemia had lost her son, and neither can find work. My companion testified that she would see her son again, and that the Lord could help them find work if they prayed with faith. I shared my testimony as well and we invited them to be baptized, the both agreed almost instantly and they both agreed to a date too. The 11th of May. They agreed to pray last night to know of the truth and to read out of a Book of Mormon that we gave them. We are teaching them more tonight and I can´t wait! There are people out there that the Lord has really prepared to receive the gospel. He knows them, and He is the only one who can lead us to them. And He did that last night.
My favorite thing in the world is when I feel the Spirit testify while I am speaking. I am really struggling with the language. Chileans slur their words really badly and my vocabulary is limited, but I know the Lord blesses me as I open my mouth. It doesn´t come out perfectly, but because the Spirit is there, it is perfect. It speaks to their hearts in a universal language.
I love the Lord´s work that I am part of, and I love teaching. My companion is helping me so much by just turning to me in the middle of the lessons and making me have to just talk on the spot, and I know that the words I share are from Heavenly Father and not from me, if I had my way I would plan out what I was going to say before. But the Lord knows better than me, and I will always trust Him. I just want to share my testimony real quick that the Savior lives, and that our Heavenly Father does too. They love us all, and they answer our prayers through the Spirit. The Holy Ghost is our guidance, He is real, and He testifies of truth and of our Heavenly Father and Savior. I love the Godhead with all my heart, and I am so happy to be working with all three of them everyday. I love you all! Can´t wait to hear from you and I hope all is well. I will try to send pictures. Love you so much!!!!
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