September 23

 It has been a good week!! nothing really to report. Honestly, it has been a really slow week. I thought it was fun to see everyone getting ready for the holidays, but for us it was miserable. It is mandatory that the people here get the 18th, 19th, 20th off for the holidays and then the weekends were horrible too. It was like a ghost town. There wern´t even people in the streets. So it was a pretty sad week as far as citas go. 

One of the highlights of the week was that one of the members of the 70 came to talk to us at our zone conference. Elder Ceballos de la setenta.- it was incredibly motivating and It was a nice experience to hear from Him. He talked about the obra missional y the need to have a desire to work hard. We had also been practicing for a fireside for all of the returned missionaries in our stake. "Called to serve" (llamados al servir) which we have been singing non-stop for the past week. 

(this isn't Hermana B but it is the song she is referring to, it is in Spanish and it is in her beloved country of Chile, so I felt appropriate to share)  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7Ebc3nqjvE
 

One experience happened this past Saturday- We were walking to the church building, and on the last street that we turned on, a lady opened the gate and literally fell into my arms. She was an old larger lady too. She was sobbing on my shoulder saying that her heart hurt and that she needed to go to the hospital. Meanwhile, Hermana Salazar was trying to call a taxi for her, and the daughter of the lady was just watching while all of this was going on. She was crying and saying prayers and asking God to forgive her. Apparently she had been drinking and had a bad heart condition and while this was going on I was trying to calm her down. The taxi came and her daughter (who was about 30) refused to take her to the hospital, so Hna Salazar and I took her. The taxi driver was driving like a madman and we were trying to keep the lady concious the whole time. So we got her to the hospital and made sure she was okay, dropped her off, and then we left... We´ve been praying for her. Pretty crazy though. 

One of my new favorite scriptures is Hebrew 12:1.  
We don´t need the extra burden of sin when we already have a cross to bear. And then we must remember that with patience, we will win the race. We can do all things Only with the help of the Lord.

September 16

It has been a fun week though (and by that I mean we have been working hard) first, the weather started out great.. until it turned freezing. Again, I am always cold, but all part of the mission experience haha-ç

We have been working with a list of potential investigators. Our little Peruvian family of three wasnt there this week and We didn´t get to visit with them Overall, it has been a week of ups and downs. We have been finding new people to teach, but at the same time, our progressing investigators have been out of town, busy, etc etc... Becuase of 18, everyone is out of town or leaving. Chile has a full week of no school, no work. Entonces, we have been outside a lot trying to contact. And so, this week will definitly be the same, if not worse.

We do have a part-member family and I don´t know if I have mentioned them or not, But their names are J___, E____ and A___. They are awesome! I think I mentioned them in one of my emails from last week or the week before, but we are trying to teach them and do service for them. They are absolutely a wonderful family. It is different here in chile because no one wants to get married.. so The grandparents are not married, their son (J___) and his polola (gf) are not married they have another son who lives with them and his polola who are not married. Basically a whole family who are not married who are all living in the same house. It´s a little funny, but just the lifestyle. So it is a challenge but they LOVE the missionaries. A few nights ago, we went over and they made us sushi (suchi in cast/esp) It was great because we had a lesson with the grandparents who would never sit in and listen to the Elders before. Blessings blessings blessings!

 

What more... I was called out to give a talk in Sacrament meeting yestereday. It was un poco chistoso porque el obispo recibó "the little kid step" so people could see me over the pulpit. I was prepared though, becuase I had my notebook with my personal study notes. I also used my basketball analogy again haha. But it was good from what people told me. I explained the importance of perservering now. How we "practiced and prepared" before we came to Earth, and how we need to live what we believe and use the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I can´t emphasize it enough. We need to use the atonement EVERY DAY! 

I try to live a little bit better than the day before. I am really learning .. well the past 2 months, that I lacked a lot of patience and love and I am trying my hardest to change. But I think that everyone can do a little better. The atonement is real!

 

 

We had a stake celebration the other day. Cueca, emenadas, muchas personas.. the guy in the blue is our Bishop LLancoñanco btw. the dancers are a lady in my ward n her daughter. also a pic of Hermana Salazar and me making sushi

2nd week in September

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Another family that we are teaching that is truly a miracle- A Peruvian (sp?) family of 3. They were a reference from the Elders before us. They live in the same apartment building as us and It was so humbling to go inside. They don´t really have much but they are an AWESOME family. We were talking to the daughter and mom (L____ 15 and Y___) for a while and just as we were about to leave the dad (Willie) came in. It´s not something that I can completely describe, but I could feel something different when he came into the room. It´s so hard to find a complete family and he right away told us that he wanted to be more family oriented. He said he wanted to start going to church with his family. We are going to bring up baptism in our next appointment on Wednesday. I will let you know how it goes.

It´s certainly crazy around here! Independence day is on the 18th. All of Chile is getting ready. Cueca-ing. It´s actually really cool. All of the town is playing "cueca" music. In fact, I´m listening to it right now. Everyone is preparing.

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I always get a little emotional when I end these emails. Not because I miss you, (well of course I do) but for the reason that I wish you all could feel what I´m feeling and know what I´m experiencing.  I know emails just aren´t the same. This Gospel is perfect and words just don´t justify. I love it everyday. I meet crazy people, and have had great experiences But I could never explain in words just how wonderful it is to be here sharing the Gospel.

Chao Po

Jasmine had a great email this week with several pictures.

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We were talking for the past few weeks about having some of the young women come with us to help us teach so yesterday Hermana Salazar and I did divisiones con las mujeres jovenes. Soló por una hora y medio. It was fun! I took J____ (K´s fb request) and D____ out and we worked on contacting the menos activos in our ward. They thought it was a little different- for never having contacted before, I would too. We actually didn´t contact any of the menos activos, but found people on the street to have lessons with. I had each one of them bear their testimonies and invite the people we contacted to have a prayer with us. I think they liked it! I was so proud of each of them and glad they came! Hermana Salazar had two others as well. All four of them were really excited to come with us and it was great to have them be missionaries for an hour and a half. J____ is 17 and is the only active member in her family- She wanted to fb find me (karen) so I hope you responded to the request! haha She is such a sweet girl and we are really working hard to get her interested in serving a mission!

 

One of the highlights of this week was getting two of our menos activos to come to church with us. One of whom is Hermana G____. She is a menos activo suffering from depression. She recently went through a separation, has a son on a mission, and is in bad circumstances every time we visit. We continuously visit with her though. On sat evening we called her and asked her if she would come to church with us the next day. She said she probably wouldn´t make it, so we went to visit her. That evening we bore our testimony about the power of fasting and how she needed to come to church. She did, and yesterday, she gave one of the most incredible testimonies I´d ever heard. It was so sweet and simple. She talked about the importance of having a testimony of Jesus Christ. I was so grateful for that experience.

 

I attatched a few pics. Me at the temple, hermana S and I eating our first empanada (they are amazing!!) I took a pic with a dog on dads bday. We call him "mike" because he has tiger stripes. a view from our apt, ... 

But all I can say is that I am blessed. we are blessed. And I am grateful to see the Lord´s hand in all things.

 

 

 

This pic is the view outside Hermana Berthelson's apartment....