There and Back Again, a Sister Missionary's Tale : May 20, 2013

Alo!

How are you all?? I bet its crazy back home. It{s crazy here because our first transfer is already over. Hermana Ortega is getting transfered, and for me, I have no idea, but I am guessing I will be staying here.

It was kind of a bad week for numbers because a lot of our citas fell thru and that was a disappointment, but there were some really good serving oportunidades we have this week.

On tuesday, we had lunch with Hermana Sonia. I love her!! She seriously is like my little Chilean mother. I am starting to understand her better which is good. She discovered i love spicy things and makes spicy food. In fact, we share a love for spicy things and so thats pretty awesome. Afterwards, she came with us to see an elderly member in our ward named Hermano Rabe. he lives sort of nearby, and we shared a brief message, but then hermana sonia got to work and started cleaning away. She{s so cute, just this little Chilean woman, less than 5 feet, going to work. If there is an example of service here on my mission, it is definitely her. It felt really good to help Hermano Rabe out too because he is pretty old. I realized that we ask members if we can serve them, but you really just have to go and do even if they say they dont need help.

winter is definitely starting to kick in here...oh my goodness im sitting at the computer right now and my hands are freezing!! At night, i sleep in 3 layers and might up it to four. apparently it gets a lot colder in july.

so on wednesday, i think it was, we went to an appointment and there was seriously another crazy dog (satanas we call them). he was showing his teeth behind the bars and at first i kinda laughed because it was behind bars. bigggg mistake. the dog of course fit thru the bars and makes its way out. we made sure to not act panicked and just slowly walked down the stairs. seriously. we eached grabbed a rock too just in case. haha. i like cats so much more in chile. i never thought i would say such a thing.

we set a fecha with our investigator alejandro. hes the one who has come to church for a year and is pretty solid, its just hard to get legally married quickly here. we invited his girlfriend of 38 years (crazy i know) to be baptized with him, but she said she was just confused. shes become more receptive and she reads the book of mormon to him because his eye sight is not very good. apparently before she wouldnt be in the same room as the missionaries. its kinda amazing that shes come and talked with us now. i hope she eventually will get baptized. i know she feels something when we teach them. she doesnt like to leave her house, but said she will come to the baptism, so my companion and i put the baptism on sunday...after church =)

So this is weird, but my companion and i make beets for lunch. oh man they are so good. hahaha. the fruit here is like heaven. seriously!! the grapes are gigantic and are the best grapes ive ever eaten.

one thing i studied that was interesting this week was about hope. i studied it in the Christlike attributes chapter in PMG and its so good. i turned to the section on hope and read about that. it wasnt really a slap to the face but kind of. its something i really need to work on! its something id encourage anybody to read. the Christlike attributes chapter, and pick one and try and live it. PMG is da bomb.

We were at hermana sonias another time last week and i helped her do her dishes. it was so cute because she was humming different church songs and we were singing and doing dishes. kind of awesome?? yeah. then afterwards, she said, sank you! sank you very much. so cute.

we had a very interesting visit with some members. we visited the mom and sister of a member who is super active. it was interesting though because they said they ahve a lot of faith and read the scriptures and have miracles in their life everyday, but they come up with excuses not to come to church. we really want to get them to come because they need the blessings of going to church like everybody else!

i think my favorite part of this week was lst night. we visited a less active member family. its kind of a hike to get there. ive only met this member once. we came inside and we decided to do a noche de hogar (family home evening ). she was there with her two kids. i was amazed at that women and her family. their house is tiny, probbaly half the size of our pension. it only has two rooms that you can see, the kitchen and the bedroom. her husband isnt a member, and they dont go to church when he is in town. he wasnt there. when i walked into that room, we saw a gospel princples book and the mom was teaching her two children about joseph smith. they were eccstatic when we decided to do a noche de hogar! the boy was no more than 9 and the little girl was probably like 4.

we let the boy choose which song to sing, and we sang, loor al profeta, which is praise ot the man in english. ummm can you say a little stud!!?? he had all the verses memorized!! and they were both excited and wanted each to say the prayers. i couldnt understand everything, but i could see that that family really are true disciples of Christ, because even though they cant come every week, they do all they can and love God. there was such a special spirit in that home last night. I don{t think ive ever felt it stronger than that this whole time ive been here. there was just something about love among them. i dont really know how to describe it. i think one thing that touched me a lot was when we got there, their mom said, we knew the missionaries were going to come. kamilo just kept saying they would come.

i cant wait to go back and see them again! they are a great family.

the language is coming better. got lots to work on still for sure because hermana sonia{s son, leo, still calls me sister tarzan. hahaha.

there are some pretty amazing things out here.

i finally found an awesome fanny pack!! I am going to try and send something home eventually, soooo...that will probably be amongst it. you can enjoy the beauty of it with your eyes, but touch it and you shall be cast out of my email contacts.

i love yall.

chaoooo

hermana hanks