The Gift We Can Give Him is Our Will

                                                                                                                                Dec. 2, 2013
Hola mi familia!! Thank you so much for the birthday wishes!!  and for sharing about your wonderful vacation/thanksgiving/birthday celebration!! So fun!!! I have lots to tell you about this week!!!   

First, a very special Feliz Cumpleanos Hermana Valdiviezo - We both celebrate our birthdays this month.

Now a few funny moments!!! This week we were out contacting people on the way to an appt. and there was a girl selling pajaritos. These are like rolls with cream on top. kind of like cinnamon rolls but not quite as good, but since cinnamon rolls don't exist here, they are really good! Well, I asked the girls selling them, Que esta vendiendo? or what are you selling, and she said, pajaritos. So I said, Oh, quiero uno!( I want one) Then I turned to Hermana Amaya and asked, Usted quiere uno? (Do you want one) And she gave me the weirdest look. I thought she was freaking out because I was breaking my diet again haha, but once we had bought them and were eating I asked her why she looked at me like that. Well it is because, pajaro means bird and pajaritos mean little birds and so she thought that I was buying a little bird because I wanted one, and that I had asked her if she wanted one too ha ha. We can't have pets, so she must have thought I was crazy. Well I am.

Then right after that we were walking up a hill and there were some young men walking down the hill with a soccer ball. One of them kicked it down the hill on their way  to play some futbol, and so I started walking toward it to kick it back. They all watched me as I walked up to the ball. I was pretty sure they thought I was going to take it and run, but then I kicked it back to them, perfectly. This little missionary with a skirt that can play futbol haha. One of them turned to his friend and said, mire, ella patea mejor que usted (Look, she kicks better than you) haha I love Chile!!!

Ok, now for the adventures. I love this branch! It struggles sometimes, but the members are amazing!! On Wednesday a member family invited Marcela to a Family Home Evening with us. It was awesome and they are really helping fellowship her. Oh Thursday night, another family invited us and Marcela. We taught a lesson on the Atonement, and then came the refreshments. Well this sweet family wanted to make sure I had a thanksgiving celebration! So they made homemade pizza and had cookies and all the foods I love in order to celebrate thanksgiving. I love them so much! It was a thanksgiving Chile style, very different, but just as amazing!!! Feliz dia de accion de gracias!

On Friday, it was Marcela's birthday. I made here a cake Chillean style! They make cakes really differently here, but they are so good! I will have to make one when I get home. We went to her house and celebrated with her and it was great!

Sadly, she still struggles with word of wisdom challenges. We really need your prayers in her behalf. This is her biggest struggle. She wasn't able to come to church on Sunday either :( but we will see her tonight!) 

Ramon and Maria came to church on Sunday!! Ramon came for 2 hours and then left, and Maria came with us to Sacrament meeting! They still are struggling, but we know they can obtain their goals and we are going to help them!

My companion made sure everyone knew it was my birthday. On Sunday they sang to me in the Relief Society, and a few members gave me gifts! They are so sweet! After lunch I opened your package!!! It is amazing! Thank you so much for all of the little gifts and for the party in a package! We are definitely going to celebrate tonight. We didn't have a lot of time yesterday to celebrate, but we are going to go to a barbeque here with a member whose birthday is today, so we are going to celebrate together!! My birthday was amazing! Thank you for all of your love and the card! I loved all of the candy! 

 

Oh, also, Cristian is preparing to be baptized this Saturday!!! He wasn't able to come to church because his baby boy was born on my birthday!!! haha I have 2 sobrinos born on my birthday! One that is my cute blonde Reuben, and one that is Latino! His mom is from Peru and his dad from Chile haha so cool, but I hope to let you all know about Cristian's baptism next week!! 

We found 5 new people to teach this week!!! Carmen, Karen, Cecilia, Belen, and another Cristian. Please pray for all of them! Karen is our miracle this week! The elders had given us a reference for Carolina, who supposedly lived directly in front of the church. So we went to the place directly in front of the church. It had a few houses so we went around asking for Carolina. A man told us there was a girl named Carolina in a house on top of the hill so we went up there and found out that the Carolina there is 4 years old haha she wasn't the reference, but her mom Karen is so prepared! Please pray for her!! She is out of town this week so we will be teaching her the next week. This week has been amazing!! 

Something I learned better this week is that our Heavenly Father and Savior are owners of everything. The only thing we can give them that they don't have is our will. They will never take away our free agency because they love us so much, so the greatest gift that we can give them is our will. I know that this is true! I love our Savior and our Heavenly Father more than anything! They live and love us! This gospel is the way back to Them. I pray that we will all turn our will over to Them. Love you all and hope you have a fabulous week!!! Thanks for everything!! Hasta luego!