It's All About Service!!!

                                                                                              March 3, 2014  

Hola mi familia marvillosa!!!! I am so happy to read all of your exciting news. I am so grateful that the Lord is blessing you and I know He is watching over you! 

Since I am in the souvenir city of Chile, I decided to buy a traditional Chilean Ceuca dress.

The national dance of Chile is called the Cueca. This dance has rich historical roots in both African and Native American cultures. Even though Chileans have been dancing the Cueca for years, it wasn’t declared the official dance of Chile until September, 1979.

The Cueca is a parody of the courtship of a chicken and rooster. The dancers wave handkerchiefs above their heads during the dance. These handkerchiefs can symbolize the feathers of the bird or the rooster’s comb.To celebrate Chile’s independence, many Chileans will dance the Cueca.

I love the Chilean culture and I am grateful for the freedom of this great country. 

This week was truly amazing!!

We are working really well with the members. They are giving us a ton of referrals and so now its up to us to do our best and work with the Spirit to help their friends and neighbors feel the truthfulness of the gospel.

 

This week Cesar came to church with his oldest daughter who is 13. She had been in Santiago the whole month and so this was her first time. Carolina couldn't make it because she got stuck in Santiago waiting for a bus home. The transportation is crazy because school starts today for all of the kids after summer break, and so everyone and their dog were traveling this weekend (they don't actually use that saying in Spanish so don't ever try to use it haha but you could use it in Chile because there are so many dogs here). So, she couldn't make it :( but they are still doing amazing! They even gave us lunch yesterday!!! Please pray for their daughter, Carolina, because she felt a little overwhelmed switching from the Catholic church to our services on Sunday. I firmly believe that she will love it, it will just take a little time. Please pray that we can teach them everything before baptism! Thank you for your prayers because Heavenly Father always answers them. 

 

We taught Jaime/Benjamin, and his parents this week. His parents are also Catholic. He is reading the Book of Mormon and was also able to watch the Restoration movie with them. He is progressing really well and we are exciting to keep teaching him. Please pray that we will be able to do so because school starts now.

 

This week we found Claudio, Gabriela, Eliana, Olivia, Maria, Rosa, and Carmen. They are each really great and we are hoping to teach them all again this week, as well as Mirta and a few others. Rosa is the grandma of a referral, but we will contact her grandaughter and teach her this week as well. Maria is also a referral. Tonight we have a noche de hogar with a family of members who are going to invite their neighbors. The members here are on fire with missionary work and are so willing to let us teach their friends and family. I pray that we can continue to work with them! 

 

Something my companion taught me this week is that when we don't have very good plans or plans fall through and we are going aroud talking to everyone and trying to teach, we should look for service opportunities. Sometimes we focus too much on the numbers, just trying to reach our goals. But the real Spirit of missionary service is the service part. We need to love the people and serve them at every opportunity and as we do so we are going to see success as more people feel the Spirit and accept the gospel. This week we are going to really try to look for ways to serve in every moment. I know that we will see miracles as we do this because thats what the Savior did in His ministry! I am so excited to apply it! 

 

This past Saturday night we played soccer with investigators! I am so sore!!!!! haha But I love it and it is a great way to help people become interested and feel more accepted in the church. Jaime/Benjamin came and his parents came to cheer us on. Hermana Blau and I were the only women to play but our friend Nicole cheered us on. Next week we will have more women come.

 

We are also thinking about starting English and piano classes and involve less actives who can help teach! It is going to be great! We will also have a noche de capilla, or a family home evening for the whole ward, every thursday night. Last time we had it, Hermana Blau and I made a ton of sugar cookies. This week we are making chocolate chip! We are going to be the cookie ladies. But I'm not going to eat them all, just share them :) It is so fun to be a missionary and find new ways to further the work. This week we are going to do a street contacting challenge! I will let you know how it goes! 

 

We had a lot of funny moments this week, but mostly "you had to be there moments" which are kinda awkward to share. I think the best part is that we went running this week for exercise in the morning and we were running around a dirt soccer field by a park and at the end Hermana Blau turned to me and said, lets go on the swings! So we did, and we also played on the teeter totter. It was the best work out ever! We never get to do those kind of things. 

 

I love this work so much! I wake up every morning, so excited and so grateful to be in the mission field. This is the best time and I love every moment of it! Thank you all for your prayers and your examples! I am so grateful for this true gospel and the happiness it brings! Keep sharing it and shining your light! I love you all!! Have an amazing week!!!

We Must Put Our Trust in the Lord!

                                                                                                       February 24, 2014               

Hola mi familia maravillosa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for your letters! I am glad to know that you are all doing well. Wow, such exciting things are happening to each one of you! I will be praying for each one of you and the opportunities that you have ahead of you. Thanks for sharing about your missionary experiences. I know that these people will be blessed because of everything you are sharing with them. This gospel changes lives and it is everything that Heavenly Father wants to give us! Thank you for your examples and your service to the Lord.  I had an amazing week too, with a ton of blessings. Hey, Can you believe that this week I will have 1 year in the mission! It´s crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!! Time just passes so quickly.

 

This week we were so blessed. Something we have been really working on is being exactly obedient in everything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Every little thing. I have to admit that I use to think it was impossible, but it´s what Heavenly Father asks of us in the mission so of course it is possible and He will prepare the way. We have to work hard every day to accomplish it. but it is so worth it. He really blesses us as we are obedient so that we can help Him bless His children. 

 

Guess what??? Cesar and Carolina came to church with a baptismal date! They are preparing for the 15th of March. It was so hard to invite them to a baptismal date because they don't like pressure. But we promised Heavenly Father we would and He prepared the way! Please pray for them that they will be prepared and receive an answer from the Lord. Their daughter who is 13 comes home this week and they have signed up to give us lunch on Sunday. They used to work on Sundays but they stopped and the are going to come home early from work so we can visit them earlier in the night. Carolina told me she has to leave on Friday for work and will be back Saturday night so they can go to church on Sunday! They are so amazing!!!!!!!!! Please pray that we will be able to teach them simply and completely so that they will learn and understand the gospel. Please pray that they can have good friends in the church to help them in the transition. They are amazing!! Their family is so cute, and they are so prepared to receive the gospel. They were really Catholic before, but they love the church!!! They have had good experiences both weeks and we will be praying that they keep progressing. We love them so much! They are so special to us! 

 

We are also working with Mirta, who is also Catholic. She feels the Spirit in every lesson, but she is hesitant about baptism. Please pray for her! Also, we are teaching Teresa. She is a little grandma who doesnt have any legs, she wants to be healed by Heavenly Father and she wants to see her husband again one day. He passed away recently. She has difficulty coming to church because I think she is embarrassed about her wheelchair and everything. But I think she will come in the future!

 

On Monday night we had a family Home evening in which a member family invited a friend and the members taught about baptism!!! It was amazing!!! I'm am so proud that you are helping your friends too! Their friend is named Benjamin! He is 13, but super tall and his family is really catholic but he loves the church activities. I know that if he has a testimony that it is true, he will be baptized. His parents are Catholic missionaries and we were able to teach them last night and we have another cita or appointment fixed to teach them all! Please pray that we will be able to teach with the Spirit to help them accept the gospel. I know that Heavenly Father is blessing us to find the people who are prepared. We also found another family this week. The mom is named Andrea, and she has two daughters who are 9 and 11. We had a first lesson and they loved it. We are going to go back this Saturday. We are excited to teach them!!!

This week we worked a lot with the members, and they are giving us more and more referrals. I know that this is what Heavenly Father wants us to do, is work with them to help His church grow. We are doing are best and getting better every week!!! We are excited for this week and the amazing experiences ahead! 

We had an activity on Thursday and we tried to make sugar cookies. They almost worked, but it was so hard because we didn't have an oven ha ha. We had to go to the church early and bake them all in an oven that wouldn't light and then it finally did. Ha ha it's not that funny, but you know those kind of experiences where you just have to laugh because it was ridiculous.

 

This week we just had a ton of cool experiences. We are planning to play soccer one night with the youth and invite a ton of nonmembers, especially young women!!! That should be awesome!!! 

 

I learned a lot this week! But something I learned that was really special to me was from church yesterday. One of the elders gave a talk about trusting in the Lord. He told a story about a man who trusted in himself more that in Heavenly Father. This man wanted to climb a mountain which was really cold and really high and he wanted to do it in the shortest time possible and so he climbed all day and all night and all day and all night until one night he was climbing it and one of his picks slipped in the ice and he fell. As he was falling he saw his life flash before his eyes and he felt something catch onto his bungee cord so that he stopped falling. He was hanging in mid air and he started to pray, Heavenly Father please save me. And he heard a voice that said, "Do you believe that I can save you?" He said, "yes, You can do anything." The voice came again, "Do you trust me?" The man said yes!!! The voice answered, "Cut the cord" He was afraid and so he waited and didn't cut the cord. After a few minutes he prayed again saying the same thing, and he heard the same voice answer, cut the cord. Still fearful, he didn't listen. Once more he prayed and heard the same answer but didn't listen. The next morning he was found frozen clinging to the rope just 6 feet above the ground. I don't know if this story is true, but I loved how the elder applied it. He asked if we trust the Lord enough? Do we trust Him in everything? While he was telling this story yesterday, I was frantically praying that Carolina and Cesar would have a good experience in church. I was worried because I don't think the members welcomed them very warmly when they entered, and  because we sang Praise to the Man for the first hymn, and we had taught Cesar the restoration but we hadn't taught Carolina yet and I was sure she was going to think that we worship Joseph Smith because that's what everyone says here haha I was so worried about that and so I prayed over and over in my head that they would have a good experience. I was praying as I heard this story too, and then all of a sudden I thought, do I really trust in the Lord. We had done everything we could to get them to church, and to help them have a good experience. I cannot control the hymns or the members or the talks or the classes. But this is Heavenly Father´s and the Savior´s church. They are in charge. Of course They are going to make sure that they have an amazing experience at church. And so, i stopped worrying. And they had an amazing experience because their Heavenly Father and their Savior were watching over them. They were in Their hands and there is no better place than that. I am going to work on trusting in the Lord for everything. He knows best, and when we trust in Him and do His will, he will guide us in the right way, and take care of us. He will provide the way and the blessings. I am so grateful for this lesson. It is my prayer that we can all trust more in our Heavenly Father and our Savior. I love you all so much! I hope you have an amazing day and an incredible week! Hasta luego!!!!