Week 74: Time Crunch

Today I hit the 17th month mark in my mission. It’s weird how it feels like it has gone by fast, but then I look back and realize how much has happened. I will be arriving home one month from today. I still have so many goals that I want to accomplish before I come home. You would think I would be a pro at time management, but this is still a weakness of mine. It appears some of our challenges will stay with us for the majority of our lives. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible and I should quit trying. I shall conquer time someday!

  

We tried food from Thailand for lunch. It was okay, but I’ve found that all the food here from other countries gets "Chileanized". All the food becomes blander. I bet all of the food from other countries in the US gets "Americanized" to have strong flavors and sweeter. We Americans like our sweets.

  

Saturday and Sunday was General Conference. I love General Conferences so much! Hermano Hector went to every session. He said that he had seen big conferences from many other churches, but never one like ours. He said all the talks were really powerful.

Did you watch all the sessions? I sure hope so! The prophet and the twelve apostles receive revelation from God for our day and it’s important that we listen to all that God is telling us. I really liked the talk about grace, from Dieter F. Uchtdforf. It’s easy to feel like we’re not good enough or that we are failures. This talk helps us to understand that God’s saving grace is for us.

Week 73: Hi & Bye

Today has gone by crazy fast - trying to do everything, but not having time sufficient time to do it. We spent about four hours at the doctor’s office today, so now we have no time to write. We are just dropping a quick email to say “hi” and “bye”. Sorry for such a lame letter. Next week will be better!

Unique Flower

Unique Food

Week 72: No Change

I finally felt some earthquakes! They have always happened in the night, so I never noticed them. Everyone else wakes up, but not me. I can sleep through anything. Everything just starts moving; it’s crazy.

This morning my district leader called bright and early - 20 minutes before wake up time. We were all confused to wake up to the phone ringing instead of the alarm. Today was the last time I will receive the nerve-wracking call of the "cambios". I have been wondering what would happen because I have been in Talcahuano for about six months already. Almost no one stays in an area longer than six months – so that would mean I would probably leave. But I am also training a newbie, and usually the trainer stays until the end of the training.

My last 6 weeks in Chile, I will be in... TALCAHUANO! I shall die (figuratively speaking of course) here in this sector. This makes me happy because I like it here a lot! Plus Hermana Parkin and Caceras also are staying, so I don’t have to worry about getting accustomed to another person or anything. Yay! I am very happy with the cambios. 

Week 71: Lots O Migraines

This week was full of things to do (which is good) but it was frustrating because I had tons of migraines. I had one each day for 8 days. Ugh. Luckily there is medicine to take away the pain, so I could keep going. I felt like a bit of a druggie taking pills every day. But what can you do? Just gotta keep going! 

Week 70: 16 Months

I officially hit 16 months in the mission. Whoa man!

 This week went well for me, although I had an increased number of migraines. Luckily we live in an age of advanced medicines, so I don’t have to suffer with them too long.

Attendance at church has increased every week for the past five weeks! At lot of it is due to school starting again and vacations ending, but I’m also sure that people are realizing that it's important to be at church so they can remember Christ by taking the sacrament. It makes me happy to see the less-actives that we have been working with for so long, changing and coming to church. As they dedicate themselves to God again, they become happier people. :) 

Thought of the week:

We should always be asking ourselves, "¿Que más puedo hacer?" which means, "What more can I do?" It’s a fantastic question to be asking ourselves for just about anything: “What more can I do to serve God? What more can I do to help my community/family/friends? What more can I do today to complete my goals for the week?” I encourage you to remember this question all week, and ask yourself, "What more good can I do today, to help make a better tomorrow?"

Week 69: Fabulous Fridays

The Fridays with Hermana Fernandez have been quite good each week for some reason. She says that each Friday will be “Miracle Friday”, and it has been that way for the past three weeks. This Friday it was particularly crazy just how much we could see the hand of the Lord that day.

The first miracle was in the morning. A member accompanied us to an appointment we had planned with someone that was his age (about 68). We had confirmed the appointment, but when we got there the man wasn’t home. Instead we decided to look for Luis, the investigator that we found two weeks ago and haven’t been able to meet again. So we went, and he was there! Luis had read the pamphlet we left and it all made a lot of sense to him, and he wanted to learn more. Coincidentally, Luis and the member we brought with us knew each other and were able to talk about old memories and such. It was cool to see how that all worked out.

Then we visited a member home and we arrived when she and her daughter were feeling very sad and overwhelmed. We came just in time to allow them to vent to us. We talked, shared a lesson, and were able to leave them feeling much better.

Later we went to visit a home that we accidentally happened upon the previous day. We had a lunch appointment with a member, but I could not remember which red house she lived in. We knocked on the door of the house I thought was hers, but I was wrong; a young girl (about 12 yrs old) answered the door. She told us she would love to hear our message, so we made an appointment to come back the next day (Friday). It turned out that the girl had seen us walking around the neighborhood before and had wanted to talk to us, because she loves to study the Bible. Her sister, mom and dad joined the lesson, and now we have four new investigators.

  

That evening the member we had scheduled with was unable to accompany us on our last appointment. We were a little disappointed because it was the final goal we needed to complete to earn a point for the day. We stalled for time, trying to think of another member who might be able to accompany us. Just as we were about to knock on the door, the other set of hermana’s came into view. They had an appointment a couple houses away and they were accompanied by Hermano Juan, the mission leader. We told them our sad problem, and they told us to wait while they checked on their appointment. It turned out that their person was not home, so Hermano Juan came with us. Then we found that Hermano Juan knew the woman we were meeting with very well, and her family too. The woman, her boyfriend, and her daughter all listened to our message, because Hermano Juan was with us. Now we have more new investigators! :D

Week 68: My List of Miracles

I am adjusting to the changes, so I feel a little better now. The only bummer this week is that it suddenly started to get colder, with lots of wind. I even had to pull out my winter jacket one day. This is probably karma for me laughing at Bryce last week, for being in the cold Indiana winter. Haha.

This week I am going to write all the miracles I have seen within the last two weeks because there have been a lot.

The first cool thing is that I couldn’t have gotten a better newbie companion for me to train. When I was told I would be training a new missionary I was a little nervous. I asked God if he would give me a companion that was nice, patient, and had a desire to be obedient. At the conference all of the trainers met all of the new missionaries.  My companion said she was hoping that I would be her companion because I was very happy and friendly. God answers our prayers because my newbie is everything I asked for.

Last Friday my companion and I found a new investigator who was extremely receptive. His name is Luis, and he is about 65 years old. He believes strongly in God and loves to read the Bible, but he hasn’t been very active in any church for years. We taught him about the restoration of the Church of God and he listened very attentively. Afterwards he promised to read our pamphlet. At that moment I felt the Spirit strong and thought, "I know the Spirit is here in this room right now - I wonder if he can feel it?" Immediately after, as my companion was bearing her testimony, he began to cry because of the strength of the Spirit. He said he knew it had to be true and was very grateful to us for sharing the message, and wants to know more. The only sad thing is we haven’t been able to find him since. But it was a powerful lesson and my companion was able to see the importance of obedience with exactness. Our leaders ask us to make ten contacts each day. This day was the first that she completed her ten contacts, and she realized we received blessings for being obedient.

This Friday we had a lesson planned with a less active family and a member came to help us. The appointment was canceled after we waited for them outside their house for 20 minutes.  It seemed like a bummer. We decided to call another less active that we have been trying to contact for the past month, and she was home and willing to receive us. The lesson went great and now she has suddenly been coming to church again! Later we were able to meet with the original less active family, but we went with a different member. This member was the right person to bring and had really great spiritual advice for the family. God really does have control over his work and all turns out as it should.

On Sunday, five less-active families that we have been working with attended church! For the past four months my companions and I have been visiting a less active mom and her daughter. The mom has become quite active, but the daughter was not interested in church. With the help of the young women we convinced her to go to EFY, and now she has a completely different attitude. She came to church and bore her testimony for the first time. She said she felt the spirit so incredibly strong during EFY and she realized there were many things she really wanted to change in her life. It made me so happy! Her and her mom have watched a bunch of church videos this past week because she doesn’t want to lose the spirit.

Companions

My Last Four Companions