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!! 

It is Repentence When We Change

                                                                                                                              June 3, 2013
Hola mi familia maravillosa!!! 

I have learned so much this week, and I am so excited to share it with you. I have learned a lot about myself, but also about our Heavenly Father and Savior and their work. Sis. L is amazing!!! There is no one more prepared that she is. She loves everything we teach, and if she doubts at all she prays to receive a testimony of it. She is going to be baptized this Saturday!!!!!!!! We are so excited for her and her family!!!!!!!!! And we love teaching her. She continues to teach us and teach herself as she learns through the Spirit. This week is crucial before her baptism, so please pray for her! 

This week we also received many references from members and learned a lot about how we can work with the members to help our rama (branch). One reference looks very promising.  One Sister does not want to hear the lessons, but is deeply affected by music. My companion and I received inspiration that we can teach her the lessons through the hymns. We are going to try to begin this week. I love this work, and I know that the Lord sends the missionaries where He needs them and to find specific people. 

 

Ok real fast, what I have learned this week. I was reading in preach my gospel that when we challenge someone to change, we are asking them to repent, so every time we extend a commitment to one of the principles that we teach, we are asking them to repent. This is the process, and I don´t think I ever really realized it before. I knew that repentance requires change, but it is repentance when we change a little habit, or a bigger habit, either way it is repentance. I can´t really explain it very well, and you probably already all knew that, but I think it is so cool. When we think about calling people to repentance, we think about the prophet from the scriptures who called the people to repentance. But as missionaries, we are calling them to repent too by extending commitments of little change. And I love doing that, because as I do so, I learn what I need to change about myself, and I repent as well. We don´t have the authority to declare repentance like the prophets, but we can help people to repent as we invite them to change, and as we are examples to them. They will start to change just by seeing our examples and the light that we shine, and essentially, they are repenting. It is amazing!

I am so grateful for the Savior Jesus Christ, and for His loving sacrifice that allows us all to repent, and to continue to do so our whole lives. The amazing thing about the gospel and missionary work is that people may feel guilt but not understand why. When they start to live the gospel, and change, and repent, that weight is lifted through the power of the Savior´s atonement, and they come to know exactly who they are, and to feel clean and pure. He has the power to heal us all, and we are His hands in lifting our brothers and sisters and bringing them to know their Savior. I am grateful for the calling that we all share as members of the true restored church of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World. I feel like I learned so much more this week, but this is all I have time to write and will try to share more next week. Thank you for your love and your prayers and your examples! I pray for you each night too! I hope you all have a great week! Chou!

The Lord Puts People in Our Path

                                                                                                                              May 20, 2013
AHHH I am so excited to be staying here with Hermana Call for another transfer. This transfer is shortened to 4 weeks so that the new Mission President won´t have to do transfers when he comes in 6 weeks. That means we have 4 weeks to find more people, and 4 weeks to become even better missionaries here in Cauquenes. It also means we will both be here for the baptism of Sis. L!!! We are so excited for her, and she is progressing so well. Please pray that nothing keeps her from being baptized and pray for us this week that we can find more prepared people to be baptized while we are here in Cauquenes. This week we have a goal of finding 2 new investigators each day, so please pray that we can do this. 

I am glad to hear about and to see all of my beautiful friends!! That was such a treat to watch those videos and see the pictures. Thank you so much!!! Please tell all of those girls that I love and miss them, and am so proud of each of them and the light they shine! I miss you all, but know that this is where the Lord needs me to be, and that you are all doing great! I hope this week has been good, and that everyone is well!

This week I have learned that everything is in the Lord´s hands. He puts us in specific places to meet specific people at very specific times. These are people that He has prepared, people that need us specifically for some reason that only our Heavenly Father and Savior know. My companion and I are here because there are specific people that need us, both of us, not just one. We were talking about this last night before transfers and she was saying that she thinks the people that we meet, are people that we knew in the premortal life and that we promised we would find them in this life, and we promised we would find them together. But this is not just in the mission field. We meet people everyday that the Lord has put in our path for a reason. We are to be an example them, help them, teach them, serve them, love them. We get to choose how we will influence them, will it be for good or for bad? On the mission we have been set apart to represent the Savior, and so we must be very careful at all times to only do those things that He would do. But every member and every Christian has this same calling. We are all called to represent the Savior as we follow Him, and we must be careful to make sure that we represent Him in everything that we do, say, and think. We never know who is watching us, who is learning from our example, or who is being prepared to received the Gospel and come to know their Savior. I challenged you all to remember that you are called as missionaries too! You are set apart from the world to stand as a witness of Christ at all times, and in all things, and in all places. He will help you as you pray for help to choose the right and follow Him. He has commanded us to be perfect like Him, and we know from 1 Nephi 3:7 that He gives no commandment unto the children of men save He shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which He hath commanded them. He can help us to become like Him if we ask for His help. I love you all and am so proud of your examples, and of you mission calls. Keep shining His light! I hope you have a fantastic week full of miracles! We are going to have one here in Cauquenes! Thank you for your prayers and support! Adios por esta semana! Chou!

It Is About Being Truly Converted!!

                                                                                                                             May 13, 2013
Hola Familia!!! I love you all so much, and am so excited to hear from you!!

Today I want to write about what I have learned this morning, from dad´s email to me, and also from personal and companionship study. It is about being truly converted. This morning during personal study we received a phone call from our zone leaders who wanted to get us more animated on working hard to reach our mission goals from baptism and also to achieve our vision for Cauquenes. We want Cauquenes, which is only a small branch with about 70 members, to become a stake in the next 5 years. That is a big vision, and our zone leaders asked us if we felt like we had worked hard enough this past week to achieve that vision. We said no. They asked us to study in preach my gospel during companionship study about how we can help our investigators keep their commitments. After the call i continued my personal study of reading in the Book of Mormon. I read 2 Nephi 33;3,4,9 These stuck out to me because it is the same attitude that I want to have about my investigators. I want to be just like Nephi and continually cry unto the Lord for these people, and only care about these people, with the knowledge that as I pray for them, the Lord will bless them. I know that I cannot have any hope for them unless I help them come unto Christ.

 Dad taught me this morning about verse 1 and 2 in the same chapter. He said that we are the means of bringing the knowledge UNTO their hearts, but that is not enough. They must have it brought INTO their hearts through the Spirit that testifies as we teach, and through keeping commitments. After personal study we studied the chapter in Preach my gospel that the zone leaders asked us to read. It taught us so much about extending commitments with a testimony, and with a promise, and then following up on these commitments. It taught that when we ask someone to make a commitment, we are asking them to repent, and as they keep these commitments, they will see the blessings that we promised, and their hearts will be changed as they feel the Holy Ghost testify of the love that the Savior and Heavenly Father have for them, and how proud they are of the choices that these people are making. I know that as representatives of Jesus Christ, we have the authority to not only extend commitments, but to also make promises from the Lord. And I know without a doubt, that these promises are real, and that the Lord will fulfill these promises.

I move forward into this next week with a determination to only care for these people, and to put my whole soul into helping them not only recieve the gospel, but to live the gospel. I know that this gospel is true! I know that it is the true gospel of Jesus Christ, our Savior and our Redeemer. I know that He lives, and that He leads this church. I know that our Heavenly Father lives, that we are in His hands, and we see His miracles everday. I know that the Savior is the only way, and we must proclaim this to all of our brothers and sisters so that we can all return to our Heavenly Father and our Savior, and be sealed as families for eternity. This is what I want for all the people of Chile, and so this week I will go forth proclaiming "with every breath i breathe, with all my faith, He is the way!"  I pray that we can all work on being more truly converted to the Savior and His gospel, so that we can be the means of converting others through the Spirit, and so that we can be a part of the marvelous work and a wonder that was prophesied of in the Bible and in the Book of Mormon, and is being fulfilled today! I love you, and hope you have an amazing week! You are all amazing, and i am so proud of you. Love you, and talk to you soon!