Hola mi familia!!!! I'm sorry the weather is still so cold. It's really hot here and I'm going to have to buy some new short sleeve shirts. I have such an awesome tan (farmers tan), but it has gotten to the point that everyone thinks I´m Chilean until I start speaking. Wahoo! Now I just need to get rid of my gringa accent and learn to roll my "R's". Sadly, I still can't, but I am determined to learn. I am so proud of each of you and all that you are accomplishing every week!
I hadn't heard the new youth theme until just now!!! That is perfect!!! I need to listen to the song, "Come Unto Christ," so that I an imagine you all singing it and shining His light!
I heard about your great Sunday evening discussion with the youth. I love that you were able to talk about learning and respecting other people and their religions and like your analogy of the Olympics. Just like the athletes main goal is going for the gold, our goal or gold medal is coming unto Christ. What I learned this week has a lot to do with going for the Gold! I will share it a little later.
This week was amazing, every week just keeps getting better! It is our P-day (preparation day where we get a day off) today and we are touring Chillan. I found out its the best place to buy souvenirs. I figured out that I had stayed here one night awhile ago when we had a conference close by. I remember looking out the apartment window of the older couple serving who let us stay there, and I saw the streets lined with all kinds of souvenirs. I thought... I hope I get to serve in this area one day! Well, I didn't even know that that wish had come true until a sister told me this week. Wahoo!!! So fun!!!
This week Hermana Blau went to Concepción for a Conference for new missionaries. So, I was on a mini cambio with two sisters serving in Quillón. They are in a branch so I was able to help them a little bit and it was great! On Tuesday we learned a new format to teach a first lesson and invite to baptism and I was so grateful because the other ways we taught in my last sector, weren't working. I was beginning to get a little discouraged, but then we learned this way for our sector, and it is amazing! Before we would always focus on the Restoration to invite to baptism, but now we are focusing on the Atonement first, and then the Restoration. I don't know why I never thought of it before. The Atonement is the most important and as we testify of the Savior and His infinite love, the Spirit is there and they can have a hope through Him who can save us all!
GUESS WHAT?????? CESAR AND CAROLINA CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They have 3 little girls and are such a cute family. We contacted them the first night we got here when we went out to contact everyone we could in just the 45 minutes we had to work. What a miracle! They are so prepared, and absolutely loved church! They know a ton of members too. They know an less active family, that we visited and we are working with them so they can visit Cesar and Carolina with us and reactivate in the gospel! Please pray for these two families! And please pray that we can teach them correctly. They need this in their lives and we love them so much!
We found 8 new people to teach this week, On Monday night we found 3! It was amazing! We are focusing on teaching Carlos, and Mirta who are among those we found who are progressing and have a lot of potential. Please pray for them!!! That was our biggest miracle for the week. We are still working a lot with the members and Heavenly Father is blessing us and these people so much!
I love the ward! I gave a talk yesterday in Sacrament meeting about how the Savior is EVERYTHING! I know that He suffered everything for us, He can heal everything, He wants to help us in everything, without Him we can do nothing, but with Him we can do everything! We should give Him everything!
AHH I AM SO GRATEFUL FOR MY MISSION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Funny stories: There is this cute little lady that lives on our street. She isn't a member but she just loves everyone and is so expressive. She always hugs us and gives us a kiss on the cheek. This week we were walking towards her on the way to an appointment, and she started dance-walking and singing, "Mis hijitas, no saben cuanto les amo" My daughters, you don't know how much I love you! It was some song she was just making up, And it was so funny and so cute at the same time. I have never met anyone like her, her name is Mercedes and I absolutely love her because she is so different but so amazing! I wish you could all meet her! She always calls us her little chickens.
Another day there was a little girl of a member we were visiting and as soon as we got there she started acting really weird, I don't think she liked us. She said to her mom kinda yelling, Tengo Sueño!!! Which means IM TIRED! And then she just kept repeating the word sueño over and over and over again. haha It was really weird and we weren't exactly sure what to do.
Another day we were contacting an old man and looking for a less active member on the ward list. We asked him what his name is and he started yelling at us that we aren't the police and we should just keep going to the next house. haha I love these people! They are so funny! And we always have really bizarre experiences. Gotta love it and laugh!
Well this week I learned an amazing lesson about our journey to perfection and doing our best. My companion shared a talk with me called "His Grace is Sufficient". It was a devotional given at BYU, and I actually think I was there when it was given, but if you could look it up and listen to it, it is amazing and just helps us understand the Atonement so much more. This week, I learned that His grace is sufficient for us as long as we are doing our best. Sometimes I think that my best can be a lot better. But our best isn't measure by just one experience, or one day. In high school when I didnt do very well on a test, mom used to ask, well did you do your best, and I said, yeah I think so. I just don't want to come home from my mission and not be able to say that I did my best. But doing our best isnt limited to one day, or one experience. My companion made me do an activity this week where i tried to reach up my arms my very highest. And then ask i did that she said, go higher, higher, higher, and I could reach higher! So really, our best comes little by little day by day. As long as we constantly improve and progress, we are doing our very best.
Every day is a new day to do better and be better. We do our best when we constantly and consistly work every day to improve. Maybe we can't do it all, but the Savior makes up for whatever we can't do. I love that! I know that this is true!! I want to work every day to be better. Then I can tell Heavenly Father and our Savior that I did my very best. I love you all!
Thank you for doing your best! Have an amazing week and we will talk soon! Hasta luego!
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