Doing Our Best!! "His Grace is Sufficient"

                                                                                                                  February 17, 2014

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!

We See Miracles When We Are Diligent!

                                                                                                                   February 10, 2014
Hola mi familia amorosa!!! Les amo muchísimo! Estoy feliz que todos están bien y que están disfrutando sus aventuras. Lo siento que hace tanto frío allá. Feliz Día de Amor este semana! Les amo todos! That is so fun that you were able to go to Elder Fisher´s an Elder Mitchel´s farewells! I bet the Spirit was so strong! They will be amazing missionaries! I can´t wait to hear about your missionary miracles! I will be praying for you this week! 

I have so much to tell you all this week!!! We have seen miracles as we have been diligent every day. We were working really hard to work with the members this week and get to know them. We visited a lot of less actives and new converts and we had lessons so full of the Spirit.

 

One of these miracles happened on Thursday I think. It was about 5:45 when we got out of a lesson and so we were going to go straight to our plan for 6:00, but then we decided to follow the plan for 5:30 instead. We were looking for an inactive sister from our ward list. We found her house in a little street and we called Alo. A little woman came out and told us that the sister didn't live there anymore. So, we asked if we could share with her and she said no. We asked if she knew of someone who would be interested  in and benefit from our message. She pointed us in the direction of her neighbor 3 houses down. We contacted her and she said no too. She didn't know of anyone with whom we could share. We slowly walked to leave the little street. As we got to the end, we ran into a teenage girl named Andrea. She had shared with missionaries before. In fact, her mom had just been baptized and she was learning all about the gospel too in a different area. They were there visiting her grandma,  who is a inactive member of our ward. She invited us to share a message with her family. As we shared about the Restoration and the light that it brings to all of our lives, Andrea told us that she loved everything about the church but she hadn't received an answer yet. Her mom shared her testimony  of how she was converted and knew that everything was true. Her grandma also shared about her experience and how she had become less active. She didn't believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet. We then testified about how by reading the Book of Mormon and praying with real intent, we can know if everything is true, if Joseph Smith was a prophet, if the Church is the true church of Jesus Christ, everything! The Spirit was so strong in that lesson, and in the end they all committed to read it and pray to know. Andrea didn't want to say the closing  prayer when invited, but she did. And as she prayed, she began to cry as she thanked Heavenly Father for our visit and for the message of the Restoration. I know that she  received her answer!!! I love my mission! These are the kind of miracles we are blessed to see every day. We get to help these people. We won't be able to teach her more, but we were able to help her in that moment and we will continue to help her grandma. 

 

We visited about 5 less active members and 3 came to church. Including a teenage boy named   Franco, who has a desire to know if the church is really true. We also taught the less active daughter of an amazing sister in our ward. She was committed to come to church. She wasn't able to come, but we were able to help her with our visit and we will continue to strengthen them! None of our investigators came to church, but we found 5 new this week, including Juan, a man who lost his wife recently  after taking care of her for 3 years while she was so sick. He feels like something is missing in his life. And we all felt the Spirit as we taught him that he needs the Restored Gospel, it is exactly what he is missing. We also taught Cesar finally! His wife wasn´t there but we are going to visit them tonight. He wants to be baptized so please pray for both of them. We also found Sulema who needs to pray about baptism. And last night we found Javier and Fernanda. Fernanda is inactive and the sister of a member we visited this week. Her husband isn't a member, and they are very receptive and interested. Please pray from them that they can understand the need for this baptism. We tried to visit Carmen again, but her husband said that they don't want anything because they have a different religion. But we will not give up hope! 

 

This week I learned a lot about following the Spirit. I think sometimes it is hard to know if you have an idea or if it is a prompting from the Spirit. I remember I watched a Mormon message in  which Elder Bednar said, that if it is a good idea and it invites us or others to come closer to Christ, then do it. IT IS THE SPIRIT!!! My companion and I have learned this week that when these promptings from the Spirit come, we must be worthy and ready to hear them and follow them. They may be subtle, but they are heaven sent. We have adopted the saying, ¿Porqué No? or Why not? If it´s a good idea and there is no reason not to do it, then we should follow the prompting. When we chose to follow the 5:30 plan instead of the 6:00, we said, Porqué no? And we went. We must always follow our plans but when the Spirit prompts us otherwise, we must be ready to listen. God always knows what is best!

 

Well, now for the funny stories. I have quite a few. We were contacting this one guy, and he gave us his address and phone number so we could share a message with him and I was thinking, wow he is going to be someone really prepared...I was thinking that until he asked me on a date ha ha first time that has happened in my mission :) Oh Chile!

 

Another night we were close to home and it was almost 10 but we still had 2 minutes so we went to contact one more house in front of our house. There was an iron gate with a hole  in it and as we approached the hole, I see this face with a light shining on it peering out of the hole!! Hermana Blau and I almost died of heart attacks. I have no idea why but it was a little girl who was playing on an ipad in the  dark outside at night and just decided to stand very close to her gate with the hole in it. I think she just wanted to scare the innocent sister missionaries.

 

Lastly, today we had the brilliant idea to make french toast, because I finally found syrup at Lider (like Walmart)! Well, to use the stoves in Chile, you have to buy a gas tank and connect it. We bought the gas today for a little stove top that the mission had given us and we lit the stove, it was looking all good until about a minute later, a part behind the stove unit burst into flames! ha ha It was so crazy. Our first reaction was to blow it out like a candle, but it was being fed by gas so of course it wasn't going to go out that way. I finally thought right and just turned off the gas. But I think I got about 3 wishes in there from blowing first ha ha Well long story short, we resorted to making the french toast in the microwave. Word of caution, it is not the same. Don't try it at home. ha ha next week we are going to buy a griddle. No gas, and no fire! Perfect!!!

 

Well I hope you all have an amazing week! I love you all so much and I am so proud of each of you!!! Keep being my examples! You make me so proud! I love you!!! Have a great week, and eat some french toast for me!!! Hasta luego!

New Area Brings Great Blessings!!

                                                                                                                                  Feb. 3, 2014
Hola mi familia!!! Thank you for writing me! 

AHHH SO MUCH HAS HAPPENED!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think that this week was one of the craziest weeks of my life! It is such an adventure to open a new area!!

 

On Tuesday I received my daughter!!! Her name is Hermana Blau and she is from Missouri! She is amazing! So kind, and I know that we are going to be really great friends. She knows more Spanish than I did when I got here, so it has been so fun teaching lessons together.

 

We arrived in Coyquen on Tuesday night at about 9, and so we left to work until 10. There are four Elders in our Sector, and us. So six missionaries total in one Ward. It is crazy but it is awesome!!! The Elders gave us such a warm welcome because they had our house all ready and it is amazing! It is big for the two of us, and super cute. The owner is a member and she took such great care of us. I asked if there was a laundry machine we could use and she told us that there was room to put one in, but that there wasn't one. I was worried because I wanted to wash all my clothes and sleeping bag so  I wouldnt have to worry about fleas traveling, and so the first night I was thinking about that while I went to sleep on just a clean sheet, in case fleas came with me.

 

The next morning there was a knock on our door bright and early, and there was the Sister with her brother in law that had an old washer that he wasn't using only because it made an ugly sound. He gave it to us for free and it works well! It was such a miracle from Heaven and I know that Heavenly Father is taking care of us!! Our sector is great! It is big and thank goodness that it is flat! We have seen so many miracles this week!!!! We are getting to know the members and working with them!

 

Some of the greatest miracles are the Bishop and Ward Mission Leader. They are both so enthusiastic about missionary work and are really helping us to work with the ward and vice versa. This is going to be an amazing sector to work in. 

 

My cute companion and I made it a goal to talk to everyone this week, since we don't know anyone. we contacted 203 people this week. The standard is 140 haha. We tried to enter and teach people in their houses and we were able to find 5 people. Maria, Mercedes, Yuli(Julie), Jackeline, and Carmen. Yuli, Jackeline, and Carmen all accepted the invitation to be baptized, but Carmen accepted a baptismal date. She is amazing!! The lesson we had with her was so amazing and she really needs peace in her life. She was going to come to church yesterday, but we called and she couldnt hear us and then there was no answer. We went by her house but she had left to bike like she does on sunday mornings. She said she would come on her bike, but she didn't make it. We are going to visit her tonight with some members. Please pray for her!!!

 

Jackeline was also a huge miracle that came from talking to everyone. She felt the Spirit in the lesson, and couldnt come to church this week, but will next week. We also found some future investigators that we will be visiting tonight. One of them is Jackeline (another Jackeline) and she lives with her husband and two children! She asked us a lot of questions about our beliefs and really wants to learn more so that her family can be blessed. We also will visit Cesar and Carolina, and their 3 daughters. They are so cute and really nice. We are excited to teach them. Please pray that everything will go well tonight!! We are being blessed to find wonderful families to teach!!! 

 

I had a really cool experience this week!! The Relief Society sisters had an activity on Saturday at 6 in the morning!!! Crazy right? When I heard it was a 6:00 a.m. I thought I had misunderstood haha. I still question my Spanish. We wanted to support them and get to know the Sisters, so we got up at 5:30 instead of 7:30 haha it was hard but it was so worth it. We went to the chapel and they were outside sitting in a circle of chairs. We then had a testimony meeting outside as we watched the sun rise. The Spirit was so strong as we admired the marvelous power of our Heavenly Father and Savior as the sun came up and the warmth washed over us. I love the sun because for me, it is the love of God. It is the warmth we feel when everything else is bad. I love it and I want to help everyone feel it every day! The Saints here are so strong because they are all converts and have such great faith. I have seen so many miracles and I love this area. I know that we are going to work really hard and be exactly obedient and Heavenly Father will help us to help His children. I am so excited for this opportunity and I will do my best! 

 

I had a ton of funny moments this week too! We went to visit a less active sister and the miracle is that Heavenly Father sent us right when she needed it. That day she was feeling like no one from Church ever visited her, and then we showed up! We all felt the Spirit so strongly. But after that she went to walk us outside and her door shut from the wind and she had the keys inside. The only way to get it was through the back door, but she had a giant fence without a door. I decided to climb up the wall in my skirt, and walk along the fence which had a giant tree in my way, I had to get over a ton of branches, but then I was able to climb down an old ladder on the other side. haha It was quite an adventure. I don't know if you can picture how funny it must have looked to see a sister missionary climbing over a huge wall and conquering the forest of branches. Probably wasn't the best thing to do as a missionary, but we were able to serve :)

 

The other embarrassing thing is that we have a new cell phone and the Elder in the office had called our phone with his to see if it received called, and then called his phone with ours to see if it worked. He did this and then gave us the new phone, and the phone saved his number on the top of the list of the call log. So, I would try to call investigators and it wouldn't work so I would try to redial, and because his number was saved at the top of the list I would always call him and ask for the investigator. Haha I did it like 5 times this week and he would always say, is this Hermana Harris again!!! haha so embarrassing.but, I finally figured out how to delete it so we wouldn't have the same problem. I thought it was all solved until I tried to called the sister leaders number, which I had saved the other day, and I called the Office again because when I saved the number I save the first one on the top of the list. haha

 

Well that is all the excitement for this week. I will send pics next week. Just know that I love you all, I love this area, and I am so grateful to work as hard as I can to serve the Lord and His Children. Love you!!!! Have an amazing week! Hasta luego!!!

Inviting Everyone to Come Unto Christ

                                                                                                                                 Jan. 27, 2014
Hola mi familia!!! Thank you for the letters describing your awesome week! I am so glad that you had an amazing Standards Week! Wow, that brownies example is perfect and so true! When we don't share the gospel with our friends and neighbors, it is like we are eating brownies in front of them and not sharing the sweet treat.   

 

Something I learned this week from our convert Ramon is that by just inviting them to participate in the gospel, we are fulfilling our mission. He was visiting some people with us, and we contacted a woman that wasn't interested, and we always feel sad when that happens, but he said, it's okay if she didn't accept, you fulfilled your mission just by inviting her. It is so true. We need to invite everyone, and it is okay if they are not prepared and they don't accept. We did our part and our Heavenly Father and Savior are proud of us!

Guess what??? We found out the cambios or transfers today. I am leaving Frutillares and will be training a new daughter and opening a new area in Coiquen Chillan. That's a little overwhelming, but I know that with the Lord´s help, I can do everything that He asks of me. I am going to miss Frutillares. The members are so good to us, and help us so much with missionary work. I absolutely love the Chilean people, they are willing to give everything. Some families have given us new skirts, and shirts, and even shoes. Today a member gave me hand knitted gloves and a hat that are adorable and that I will save for when I get home, because I don't want them to get destroyed in the rainy winter here. The members are true disciples of Christ, as they give their all. I am going to miss them, but I am also grateful for this new opportunity and challenge from my Heavenly Father. He helps me to progress and become better. I will let you know next week how it all goes!

This week was hard. We found 4 new people to teach and that was amazing! The members continue to help us. We found Sofia, Ana, Rosa, and last night we found Marcelo. Sofia and Ana need a little more preparation because Ana says that she will never change religions :) many people say this, but our Heavenly Father is a God of miracles. Rosa wants to come to church, and loved our first lesson. She was unable to come because she is elderly and says it is very far away. Next week we will have arrangements so that a member can pick her up in their car. Please pray for her! She is so special!

 

Hector continues to progress, but struggles with attending church because of work. He needs to stop working on Sundays. He actually came for the first 15 minutes, and then left because he had to go to work. But Sacrament meeting is last so he was only there for the beginning of Priesthood. He says he is ready for baptism, but he needs to come to church :) Carlina was going to come, but cancelled last minute. Emma also couldn't come. But Hno. Ramón, who is her brother in law, visited their home and her two twin daughters who are 17 years old, were both reading the Book of Mormon and had a ton of questions!!!! So exciting!!! Jose also needs to stop working on Sundays. Please pray for him! He feels the Spirit, but he needs to give up working. We are going to start teaching Marcela again this week. I know she can change and stop smoking. I hope to hear about the baptisms of all these wonderful people.

 

Our convert Ramon is doing amazing!! I am so proud of him! He is going to be a father because his wife is expecting. We hope to teach her as well, but the man who owns the building where we live doesn't like religion and so we can't pass into their house to teach them. Maria doesn't leave the house after work because she is so tired, so it has been a struggle to share with her. We didn't get to pass by and visit Angie, but we will this week. So much to do and I love every second of it!

Last night I learned a great lesson because we found Marcelo, and we were teaching him, and his two sons were there too, but I was so focused on teaching him, that I didn't really share with his sons! I have no idea what I was thinking, but in the closing prayer I thought, why didn't we invite his sons to baptism too! We are called to invite everyone to come unto Christ, and I should have. Of course, my companion can fix what happened, but I felt bad. But I am so grateful that I learned this lesson because I am never going to do that again. We are called to invite everyone to come unto Christ, everyone! People who are close friends, and those who we just meet. But all are invited and our responsibility is to express this love for them. I am grateful for all that our Heavenly Father teaches me everyday!

This week has been amazing and I am truly grateful for everything I learned. I found the Ensign of general conference talks in English last Monday!!! Finally!!! I am almost done reading it! This past conference was amazing! It was good in Spanish, but I couldn't quite enjoy it as much as usual. I am so grateful for modern day revelation. Through these talks, I have learned so much about the love of our Heavenly Father and Savior this week. I feel like I have gotten so much closer to them this week, and I am so grateful for their love and my calling as a missionary.

 

My invitation to each of you is to invite everyone to come unto Christ this week! Talk to everyone you meet about the gospel and let the light of Christ shine so that others can feel His love and partake of the goodness of the gospel. I love you all!! Have an amazing week!!! Hasta luego!!!

Happiness Comes from Being Obedient!!

                                                                                                                             Jan. 20, 2014
Hola mi familia!!! Thank you for your letters, I am very happy to hear that you are all doing well and surviving the cold weather. I am so grateful that you have started Standards Week and are having so much success. That will be fun to dress up as a missionary, and I know you will have a lot of "contacts" on Friday. Our success comes from the Lord, and we will always have success if we are obedient. It doesn´t matter how bad the day or the week, if we are obedient, we will feel happy because we are serving Him and this is true success. . 

This week was a little crazy! It turns out that the new area I told you about isn't officially ours until we have received  notification of the boundary changes...so I don't think we will be able to work there for a little while. But we are going to find a lot of prepared people this week because they are out there and they are waiting for us!

Valentina came to church on Sunday with her brother, but her mom, Carlina wasn't able to come. But we have a Family Home Evening planned with them tonight at a members home, so this will really help strengthen them. Ramón taught the lesson in Priesthood this past Sunday :) We are so proud of him and his progress. He loves the church and I am sure he will be active his whole life :)  Cristian hasn't been coming to church, please pray for him. He needs the blessings of the gospel in his life. Hector didn´t come to church again. He is still progressing, but he ends up working on Sundays. Please pray that he can stop. José also worked instead of coming to church :( and Emma didn´t come either. We weren´t able to have anyone in church this week, but we know what we will do this coming week to help them progress. Please pray for them, and please also pray for Marcela, she is struggling. Please pray that we will be able to find the families that are prepared to receive the gospel. We don't know where they are, but God does, and He will guide us to them, or them to us, if we are obedient and follow His Spirit.

 

I hope to report next week about all of the miracles we see as we strive to be exactly obedient. It is a struggle, and a day to day challenge, but as we are obedient, we see miracles. Thank you for your prayers. 

 

Okay, funny moments. I can't remember a lot, but we had another dog following us this week. He looks like a wolf, but sadly he only has one eye. I call him the lobo con el ojo azul. the wolf with the blue eye. I don't know whose dog he is, but every time we leave, he is following us. haha hopefully I won't have nightmares. But it is really sad that he only has one eye. Before my mission when everyone told me that Chile is over crowded with dogs, I imagined myself walking through a crowd of dogs haha. It isn't that bad, but the other day I saw about four dogs lounging in the sun in the street, with about 5 feet in between each one of them. Its not like walking through a crowd, but still, its a lot. haha oh well.

 

Yay! Elder Thomas is home--that is so exciting! I know he was a great missionary. I hope to be a great missionary too. I received a letter from him today that he sent in Nov.but it was exactly what I needed to hear. Thanks Wes! 

 

One of the Hermanas that lives with us, finished her mission this week! So exciting, and in our branch, the stake president´s son was set apart on Sunday night. He is going to Brazil! Here, when they set a missionary apart, they invite everyone from the Ward and friends and families, and non members. They give them all time to hug and wish the future missionary a great mission, and then they set him apart in another room with his family. Then, they rejoin the group and have a devotional afterwards. It is really great because a lot of less active young men and young women come and can feel the Spirit. It helps to ignite their desire to serve. I love it! We invited Hector, and he was with the members, and we left early to work. It is such a neat experience. 

 

This week I spoke in Sacrament meeting, about obedience...I wrote about that to the youth too, so I know the Lord wanted me to talk about obedience because it is truly important. It is something I am working on every day as I know all of you are. The mission is hard because we have rules apart from just the commandments, but I know that the Lord helps us to be obedient. Our motive for being obedient should be because we love our Heavenly Father and our Savior. I know that as we love Them and obey Them, the blessings will come and we will be happy. I know that are greatest happiness comes when we are obedient.

 

I invite you all to think about a commandment that is hard for you to keep, and really strive to be obedient to this commandment this week. The Lord will help you, and you will have greater happiness because you are following Him. I love you all! Thank you for everything! Have an amazing week!!! Hasta luego!

A Week of Tender Mercies

                                                                                                                                 Jan. 13, 2014
Hola mi familia!!! I love you all so much! Thank you for your letters and your prayers.

This week was amazing! It was hard, but it was amazing!! We had a lot of struggles, but we learned so much. The best part of this week is that VALENTINA WAS BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!!!!!!

I had the special opportunity to help Valentina prepare for her baptism...

                     Isn't she cute!!!

In preparing the font we were afraid that the water was going to be too cold, so we spent some time heating the water, and then all of a sudden, the hot water started working and then it was too hot!!With prayers and cold water--it was perfect for the baptism!!                                                                                                                          

                                     

                                                                               


Now we are working with her mom, Carlina, so that she can be baptized too, and they can be an eternal family!

   

It was a wonderful celebration with family and friends!!

 

 

She was confirmed on Sunday morning, but almost didn't make it. We were praying and a nice brother in our ward offered to drive us to pick her up. We got in his car with another young women and drove to pick her and her brother up. Their family was going to follow, but the meeting had already started. I prayed for a miracle that their family would be able to arrive in time. I don't know how it happened, but they walked in 1 min before she was confirmed. I know the Lord made sure they could be there in time. Everything was wonderful! 

We have a new branch presidency that were sustained and set apart on Sunday. We are so excited to work with them and really strengthen this branch! They asked me to sing in Sacrament meeting so I sang, Nearer My God to Thee! I also got to sing in Valentina´s baptism!

The Lord blessed us with another tender mercy last night. We have so many changes in our area, including a new neighborhood that they built recently, and we weren't sure if it was part of our area. But now, we think it is part of our area, so we received a few references from our neighboring sister missionaries. . One of these references is Elie.. She had accepted a baptismal date, but she wasn't able to come to church on Sunday. Well we visited her yesterday, and also met her son, Eduardo, and her daughter-in-law, Katy. We had an awesome lesson with them, and they are all new investigators! We found a family!!! Heavenly Father blessed us so much, and we are so grateful! This week we are going to work really hard to keep finding.

 

Today we were in Concepción for our P-day, we were doing everything so my companion can receive her carnet! haha it was a little stressful, but we did it with the Lord´s help! 

 

A funny story for this week:

We were leaving Valentina´s house, and she lives on a hill/mountain. Well, they have mountain goats as pets...We were walking down their stairs, and a huge black mountain goat was in the way. I took one look at his horns and I didn't know how we were going to get past him. We called Valentina´s brother to help us. Ha ha only in Chile!!

 

This week was amazing, with so many blessings and tender mercies. I have learned that although we have challenges and may get discouraged, that the Lord loves us more than we can understand. If we will turn to him he will be with us every step of the way. I pray that I can share this love with the wonderful people in Frutillares!!

 

 

Steps of Faith

                                                                                                                            January 6, 2014
Hola mi familia!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you all so much for your letters! Wow, that is crazy that it is so cold there! Winter wasn´t that cold last year. I heard that New York got hit really hard with a snow/ice storm. It is crazy what is going on in the world. I am glad that you are all safe and sound and that you get a snow day! I hope you are drinking a lot of hot chocolate with marshmallows and eating soup! YUM!!! It is extremely hot here, and I actually like the cold way better than the heat. I am getting really tan and everyone thinks I am Latino!!! Yay! That's until they hear me speak. Then they know exactly where I am from. This week was amazing! Lets start with a funny moment. 

This week there was a giant bug in our house. I have no idea what it was because I have never seen in before in my life. But it is like a giant cricket spider. We tried to kill it and we thought it was dead, and then I went back to where it was to get something, and it wasn't there! I dont know where it went!!! It was huge!! Then last night we were planning and we heard a ton of screams from downstairs. The bug had returned! (I hope it was the same one and not another!) You have to hit it like 50 times to kill it, and so one of the sisters grabbed my running shoe, and killed it. Disgusting. now part of it is on the bottom of my running shoe.

So, this week Hector couldn't come to church because he had to work, but Valentina and José came to church!!! Valentina is going to be baptized this Saturday, the 11th!!!!  We will invite Hector to prepare for the 18th, and Josè is preparing for the 25th! Please keep them in your prayers! They are all so amazing and progressing wonderfully! Please pray for Nicolas, the grandson of José, because he doesn´t like going to Primary without his grandpa, and so José can never go to Priesthood. Also, Nicolas was bored on Sunday and almost made José miss Sacrament meeting. Please also pray for Valentina´s mom, Carlina. She needs to get baptized too! We weren´t able to visit Marcela this past week, but we will definitely visit her this week! I am excited to teach her again and help her. This week we found Jenny, who is Catholic but would like to learn more about the church. Please pray that she will have a strong desire to listen. We also found Emma, she was a reference from a member and she wants to come to church and pray and receive an answer, but she wasn´t able to attend on Sunday. We are still having trouble finding new people to teach, but on Sunday we had an companion exchange for an hour while our sister leader went with Hermana Amaya to meet Valentina. I was with Hermana Urteaga from Perú and we were talking to everyone for a really long time without success, and then we were knocking on a door, and the family came home while we were outside and after we talked to them about our message and how it helps the family, they let us in. We were able to help them feel the Spirit of this message and how it will bless their family and the mom said the closing prayer and started crying because she was so grateful. They need more peace in their family! I was so grateful to be an instrument in the Lord´s hands to teach them. I wish I could keep teaching them, but they live in the other area. That's okay, it was an amazing experience and a miracle I got to witness this week.

 

Today we had a zone activity, and can you guess what we did? We went to another tunnel!!!! haha I don´t know what it is with our zone leaders and tunnels but I loved the activity. We did a few activities while we were walking there, but my favorite was when we were inside of the tunnel almost entering the darkest part, our zone leader read a talk written by a general authority (leader of our church), in which he told about when he was called to be a general authority and he couldn´t see any way to accomplish everything he was called to do. I can´t remember the story exactly, but I think he spoke with the Prophet and told him how he was feeling. The prophet said that usually, we have to take the first few steps of faith into the darkness and then the light comes.

 

Our zone leader asked us to walk silently together through this tunnel until we reached the light and opening on the other side. As soon as we started walking, I saw the light on the other side and we were still kind of in the light so I thought, this isn´t going to work, we are never going to be in pitch blackness. But all of a sudden, I was surrounded by darkness. I could still see the light on the other side, but to get too it, I had to take the steps of faith into the darkness. I was with another sister and there were two elders far ahead. We saw them reach the light, but I was so afraid someone was inside the tunnel and was going to grab me haha. but I knew we would make it through because I could see that the elders in front of us had done it.

 

As I was thinking about the experience, I was relating it to my life. I haven´t had to make a ton of huge decisions yet, but one of the biggest decisions I had to make was whether or not to serve a mission. I chose to do so, without knowing what to expect. At first I was scared to death, I had no idea what it would be like to be a missionary, and I had never really shared the gospel with my friends before, nor was I very outgoing, but I knew it was what the Lord wanted me to do, and I love the Lord and our Heavenly Father, and so I took the first few steps of faith into the darkness. Well the light came really fast when I did this. I may not have known what to do at first, but the Lord taught me everyday, and He qualified me for the work. I have become an instrument in His hands and I have seen miracles and learned things that I would never have learned if I didn´t serve a mission. My mission changed my life forever, and I know that the Lord knows what is best for us. He knew that a mission was best for me, and although I followed His will blindly into the darkness, the light He had in store for me was and is, brighter than I ever imagined.

 

There are so many blessings from serving a mission. Besides the thousands of blessings that I have received personally, I get to help people feel the love of our Savior and Heavenly Father everyday, and that is the greatest blessing. I will always be grateful for my mission and for how the Lord has changed me through my service as a missionary. I still have a lot to learn, and little time to do so, but I know that the Lord lives, that He knows whats is best for us. I know that if we put our trust in Him and take the first few steps of faith, He will guide us through the darkness and we will reach the light, and the blessings will be greater than we can possibly imagine. I love you all! Thank you for your examples and for your love! I hope you have an amazing week!! I pray for you daily and love you dearly! Hasta luego!!!