Week 35 in CHile - 09/24/2012

CAMBIO 6 SEMANA 5

 

Place: Agronomia, Chillan Ñuble

Companion: Hermana Martinez

Date: 24/09/2012

 

Hola Mi Familia!!

 

         ¿Como Están Todos? As always I hope that you all are doing well. This week for Hermana Martinez and I, has been are really good week and we are excited to continue doing the Lords work with a new week ahead of us. This week we did a lot of walking, and a lot of contacting, and many doors were shut in our face, but we continued with smiles on our faces because we know that "When one door closes, He always opens a window" or a family that needs to be found an taught! :)

 

      We have found some good people this week and we are excited to go back and have the opportunity to teach them again this week. Such as one lady that we found yesterday, Maria Isabel. We were walking around an we received a call from an Elder in Los Volcanes, and he told us that the daughter of Maria Isabel, who is a member, and wanted that we could pass for her mom, but we were not suppose to say she sent us. We were close last night, and had another lady we had to find in the same street. So we decided to ask someone where the house was for both of them because it was a little bit dark, we found one lady sitting on her porch and we asked her if she new where the first lady was, she told us it was her neighbor but she wasn´t there, and because we were there we decided to ask her were our reference was, so we were like, "Do you know where a Maria Isabel lives in this street?" and who do you think we contacted? It was her, she asked us how we knew her name, and we had to think very quickly and say that some missionaries had written down her name and said that she was a very good person that we needed to pass for, and asked if we could share a message with her! So she let us in, and she has a baptismal date/goal for the end of october, we are very excited to continue teaching her, because she feels like she needs to try and go to our church because 3 of her 4 kids are members! So I´ll let you know how it goes with her this week! :) See God opens windows!! :) 

 

     Well like I told you last week this week was 18 de Septiembre celebrations! Lets just say for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we were in or close to our house, because of the possibility of drunk people in the streets. But we had a really great time, we spent the time with Hermana Myrium and we made Empanadas and Chilinitos, and had a Barbaque. I would just like to say right now, for quite a while I don´t want to eat another empanada or chilinito again, because I can´t tell you how many I ate this week, I lost count! But it was all really good, just a lot and my stomach didn´t like me after words, do can we say the word diet or something like that! haha no but we had a really great time, and there are some pictures that I uploaded. Hope you like them.

 

     Well I´m going to end this letter for right now because we have a few things that we need to do in Centro. But I would like to share a spiritual thought with you as always. So this week we had Stake Conference, and Elder Alliaud, of the Seventy came and talked to us, and one story he told us want to share with you. The whole conference was great, but one story was in particular I loved. He talked about a man who was a little bit busy one day, and was also watching his son, so to keep his son preoccupied while he was doing his things he looked in a magazine and found a pictures of the world and cut it up in to many, many pieces like a puzzle so that his son could have entertainment putting it together. Because his son was young and didn´t know what the world looked like, the father thought it would take him days to put it together, and he would have time to do the things he needed to do that day! To his surprise his son returned in one hour with the puzzle finished, and his father looked at it thinking that there would be some flaw, but to his surprise there wasn´t a single flaw. He looked at his son in amazement and asked "How did you put the world together so fast, when you don´t even know what the world looks like?" His son looked at him and said, "I don´t know what the world looks like, and I didn´t know how to do it, but as I was playing with the pieces I saw that on the back was a picture of a man, and I know what a man looks like, I turned all the pieces over and started putting it together. When I was done putting the man together, I realized as I turn it over I was able to see the the world looked like!"

 

    I hope the story makes sense because I translated it but I loved this story, and it has a great meaning and principle the we need learn, sometimes we don´t know things that we need to do, or we don´t understand how we need to put something together, but if we little by little do the things we know how to do, we will eventually see that we can put the things we don´t know together. So I would like to invite all of you to continue doing the little things each day! The things we know how to do, read our scriptures, say our prayers, go to church, keep the commandments, the little things, and as we do this the mysteries that we don´t understand will be revealed to us. Well I hope that you all are doing well, remember always that I pray for you and think about you, and I hope that you week goes well. I promise to have more adventures to write about next week! Especially since it is cambios! da da da! So we will have to see what happens! Love you all! And more adventures next week!

 

  Con Amor Siempre, y Para Toda La Eternidad,

   Hermana Aubrey Jo England

    

Week 34 in Chile - 09/17/2012

10 MESES EN LA MISIÓN

 

Place: Agronomia, Chillan Nuble

Companion: Hermana Martinez

Date: 17/09/2012

 

Hola Mi Familia!!

   

       ¿Como Estan Todos? Things here are doing pretty good! I really hope the same is for you all as well. Just a heads up this letter is going to be some what short because today isn´t our p-day, our p-day has been moved to tomorrow, because of 18 de Septiembre celebrations, but we have been given permission to write today, because we couldn´t tell you this last week. So I have to write really fast because we have to get back to work, and we have a ward activity that we need to go and help with.

 

      But this week has been a good week, and like each and every week, just keeps getting faster and faster. I´m really not liking the faster and faster part, because it hit me on Saturday, that I have 10 months!! and so we work with time in cambios (transfers) here, things like how many cambios to you have, how many left, things like that, and each cambio is 6 weeks long. The things that hit me on Saturday was that in two weeks at the end of this cambio I am only going to have 5 more left! I can count on one hand now!! HELP ME!! I really don´t know where time is going! But no things are going good, because that just means I´m going to be working even better and harder each and everyday! Right? Right! Progression! That´s why we are here :)

 

     We have found some really good people this week, we didn´t find many, but amound the people we found, we found Dayana and her daughter Ailyn. They are really amazing! We were walking and Javiera, a girl we contacted on the Saturday of last week, and we told her about and English class that we are doing, well she saw us walking and ran up to us to ask if her friend Ailyn could come to English class too, and that is where we got to know Ailyn. We told both of them that we would love to have the both of them in English class but we needed to ask her mom if that would be ok as well, so we walked over with Ailyn to her house, and we met Dayana. We introduced ourselves, told her that we had an English class and asked for her permission, and she told us sure. After we told her that we had a message that we would love to share with her as well, and she told us that she was very busy making flowers for an outfit that Ailyn needed for school. We offered to help her and she let us in! :) So we helped her make the flowers and shared a message about Jesus Christ and the importance of baptism, and she was very interested. Long story short, we invited her to baptism, she accepted and we visited her about three times this week, both of them are really amazing! So wish us luck, and pray for them, because they need the prayers, there are few things happening right now that aren´t going very well, but I know with the prayers of everyone we can help them out.

 

     As well with Marisol y Fransico, pray for them as well, they need help to stay strong, and Marisol needs help so she can get a divorce, so that she can get married to Fransico, but all in all just pray for our investigators that they will find that going to church will help them find their answers, because we know that it is in church and studying the scriptures, and praying that we find peace, and we need to do all three. So if you could pray for them we would appreciate it.

 

      Hermana Martinez and I are doing really great together, we continue to work our best, in trying to find people. We have had a lot of fun this week, and we have felt the spirit together as well as we have been teaching. We had a lesson with a less active member and his wife who isn´t a member, she has been taught by many missionaries, but we decided to try again, and we had a noche de hogar with them and taught her how to make microwave fudge :) and we watched "Finding Faith in Christ" The spirit was very strong, as we invited her to continue building her faith in Him, and the testimony of her husband, wow! Boom! That was were the spirit hit really hard. So we are continuing to work with her, and we are hoping we can help her, because we found out she loves DVDs so that is how we are going to start teaching her! :)

 

      We has a stake activity this week! Because it is the indepence day of chile tomorrow, it is a lot of celebrating about culture and things like that. Each year they have a stake activity where each ward is assigned a part/region of chile to show the dances and different things about chile. Our ward was assigned La Isla de Pascua "The Easter Islands". Yep the Easter Islands is a part of Chile, it was cool to learn that we I first arrived in Chile! But we got to help out with the activity, and the whole ward dressed up, even us! :) And we sang Sau-Sau, and song from there, and other things, it was really fun. I have pictures and videos, I will see if I can send the pictures today, I´m not sure if I can with this computer I am on, if not I will definitly send them next week. But someone in our ward gave us the link for the blog spot of the stake if you would like to try and look at videos and pictures, he told me that he was going to upload them, so go ahead and try it is

 

estacachillannuble.blogspot.com that is the link. I don´t know when he will put it up, but that is the link, remember it is in spanish! :) So if you can read if be patient to see the videos until I return home.

 

      Well I really have to get going there is so much to do, but before I leave I would like to leave you with a spiritual thought, I read this in D&C 93:12-20, it talks about how Christ learned everything he learned "gracia sobre gracia" (Sorry I have my spanish scriptures) but he learned it all just like we are doing little by little, until He learned it all, and that is why we are here, is to learn. So my message is don´t get frustrated if you don´t understand something because all will be reaveled little by little and one day we will know all, and just as God said, "This is my beloved Son" when Christ was baptised to complete all the will, or as well when he appeared to the Nephites, said the same thing because Christ understood all. And when the time comes for us to stand before our Father, and He will judge us on how we learned, I hope to hear the words, "This is my beloved daughter, You learned well" I hope that all of us strive each day, gracia sobre gracia to learn all we need to, with patience, and on day we will hear thouse words.

 

     Well I need to go, there is a lot of work to do today! Remember always that I love you all so much, and i´m always praying for each and every one of you! Please take care and I will write more next week with more adventures!

 

  Con Amor Siempre, y Para Toda La Eternidad,

   Hermana Aubrey Jo England

 

ps. Sorry pics next week, and haha I think it is impossible to write a short letter :)

Week 33 in Chile - 09/10/2012

CAMBIO 6 SEMANA 3

 

Place: Agronomia, Chillan Ñuble

Companion: Hermana Martinez

Date: 10/09/12

 

Hola Mi Familia,

 

              ¿Como Estan Todos? Sure hope that things are going really well! Things here today are going much better, this week has been a roller coster ride of emotions but like I said much better, and I´ll explain more at the end, because it is a part of the spiritual thought. But this week so many things have happened that it is hard to keep track at times, haha I have my planner in front of me again :)

 

      There was a mini cambio in Cordillera this week, Hermana Steinmetz is area sister, so she is in charge of helping mini cambios with 3 different sectors, and this week there was the mini cambio with Cordillera and Libertadores, and Hermana Brennan came to be comps. with Hna. Steinmetz, it was good to spend time with her again, she was one of the people that saved me from going crazy (learning spanish) when I first got here, and being on opposite sides of the mission for nearly six months I´m sure you can see why we had a good time  being together again. Oh which reminds me of something cool that I figured out this week, I figured out how to make microwave fudge, and don´t laugh, but I couldn´t figure it out for the life of me, took 2 trys to do it, but know I know how to make it, and the chileans love me for it! :) Only thing is it is a bit expensive because chocolate is pretty expensive here, so it is only a once and a while thing, but I made it for the second time on monday and when Hna. Steinmetz and I saw that it worked out we were jumping around the kitchen and then ran to have our latin companions try it, they loved it! :)

 

      Hermana Martinez and I continue to do well together, sure we have disagreements but they are always worked out by the end of the night. We have really grown close together this week, and I know that we are going to continue to grow close, which will help us become even a more powerful companionship! :)

 

      So pretty much this week with our investigators many of them don´t want to listen to us, or are never there, so we have had to drop a lot of them, and we have dropped Fabian as well, because we passed every day this week, was never there, and when we called to ask when we could pass he told us a time, we went and wasn´t there, so we are putting him on the back burner pretty much because he just doesn´t want it, and we need to be using that time to find the people who do, so that has been a down fall this week that we don´t have many investigators now, but we are still working.

 

     We are still teaching Marisol and Fransico, I don´t know if I told you about them, there are an couple that are living together, and like pretty much all of the investigators we have found, we need to help them get married before they can be baptized, but Marisol is so sweet, and is progressing pretty well, this week has been a bit hard for them, they are being kicked out of their house, so they are looking for another, and they also called us this week, and there was a fire in the next door neighbors house, and it burnt the outside part of their house, luckily it wasn´t any worse. But last night Marisol told us that her neighbors were telling her to not let the Mormons come because that is why the bad luck is happening and why her house got burned, but Marisol told us, "I was thinking about that and I thought no, look my house barely got touched, it could have been worse, but I´m safe, and things are alright." GO MARISOL!!! She really gets it! She understands that we bring a good message and the spirit and that as long as she reads, prays and goes to church things will be alright, they won´t be easy but alright! So we are so excited for them, and are trying to help them get married, Marisol just needs confidence in the marriage part and in Fransico, but little by little.

 

     Well that is pretty much it for this week, so on to the spiritual thought, so like I told you this week has had its ups and its downs, I really seriously felt that I was being attacked from all sides this week spiritually speaking, something was trying to bring me down hard, and to be honest it nearly worked a little bit. Our numbers haven´t been good this week, we dropped about 70 percent of our investigators, and it has been hard to find people this week, and there were probably times where I didn´t give my all, so you can see how I got put down, but it all changed I think it was Saturday night. So as you know Hna. Daglio was in Agronomia before I got there, and so now I´m in the bottom bunk bed that she slept in before she left, well on the wood in glow in the dark paint she put the words "Fe en cada paso, se fuerte" which means "faith in every step, be strong" And saturday night when I really felt down, I looked at that, took my flashlight, charged it up, and just layed there staring at it in the dark until I fell asleep. It was that saying that she put there that changed my whole week, to always remember to have faith in the Savior in each and every step, even if we are not able to see the next step in front of us. As well on each of my planners I have been putting a picture of christ, which helps me realize each day that I am His representive and that He is with me every step. So that would be the challenge I am giving you, keep having faith in every step and be strong, no matter what comes because you will always be able to see the blessings after the trial and HE WILL GUIDE YOU! I promise and testify of that!

 

     Well that is pretty much it for this week, I promise that there will be more adventures from Agronomia this next week, many more adventures, because it is almost the 18 de Septiembre, which is there independence day, and it is a week long celebration, and it will be starting at the end of this week. So wish us luck! Remember always that I love you all so much, I´m always praying for each and every one of you, and I´m so grateful for all that you have done and are doing for me! It means to world! Well like I said more adventures next week, but until then.

 

   Con Amor Siempre, y Para Toda La Eternidad,

    Hermana Aubrey Jo England

     

 

Week 32 in Chile - 09/03/2012

CAMBIO 6 SEMANA 2

 

Place: Agronomia, Chillan Ñuble

Companion: Hermana Martinez

Date: 3/09/2012

 

Hola Mi Familia!!!

 

              ¿Como estan todos? I really hope that you all are continuing to do well! This week has been a good week, there were a few ups and downs, but sometimes that is just how life is and you just take it as it comes along! How else are we suppose to learn! :) Lol so we have a little bit of a problem, there is just one little thing that is a little bit bad about Chillan, want to know what that is? We found a McDonalds!! Yeah lets just say we all freaked out once we found out that there was one here, all the Hermanas that are close, Hna. Martinez, Hna. Steinmetz, Hna. Morales, Hna. Brennan, Hna. Mena and I all went there today for lunch, it was really good, haha Hermana Brennan and I couldn´t remember the last time we had a hamburger, it is just funny, but also we are going to try to be a bit careful too, it was then we were wishing we were in Concepcion where there is a Subway, haha much healthier, but we are happy for what we have! :)

 

      Oh so like I told you last week, I started a service war, yeah it is on now! They have been thinking like crazy on how to get us back, and the other day I completely heart attacked their room, and i mean completely, and I stuck cookies on their ceiling with a note on their desk with the scripture from Malachi and how the blessings of heaven will pour out upon them, and told them to look up to the heavens to see blessings, haha they thought is was a nice suggestion to always look for the blessings, and they didn´t take it literally to look up, that was until we told them! haha we didn´t want the tape to fail in the middle of the night and have the cookies smack them in the face! :) Thursday night we came home, and Hna. Martinez and I took off our shoes and then as we were taking them off we saw the hearts that we used, on the ground leading in a line up the stairs, we started following them and they led to our room and they had heart attacked both of our beds and put cookies. Haha so like I said, it is war, and tomorrow I´m waking up a bit early and I´m going to make breakfast for all of them!! :) 

 

     This week has gone by a bit fast and I´m having a hard time remembering what happened this week, but a few things that I can remember are the fact that someone actually let me cut their wood this week! Yes finally after how many weeks someone let me do it! I was so excited and it was so much fun! Like I said, it doesn´t matter if I´m in a skirt of not I can still cut wood, haha! and another thing is there are so many dogs! in the sector that we are working in there are a lot of them, and Hna. Martinez is scared of them, which as times makes me jumpy, like the other day we were walking down the street and it was a bit dark outside and there was a dog the just started barking so loud at us, scared me half to death and I jumped really bad, Hna. Martinez was laughing really hard about that one, and then later that night she nearly got bit by two other dogs, if it were for me pulling her out of the way, she probably would have been bit, but luckily she is alright and we know to be careful around that house now. Yep but lots and lots of adventures with dogs. 

 

     And another adventure I´m having fun teaching Hna. Morales and Hna. Martinez, English, it is a lot of fun, but I have learned I need to slow down, haha the other day I started talking to Hna. Steinmetz asking for something and Hna. Morales just looked at me with a deer in the headlights look and told me she couldn´t understand I word I said because I was speaking so fast! haha looks like it isn´t only the chileans that speak fast, but us too! haha and I´m still trying to get use to her accent in Spanish, so we both of compromised and i´m slowing down and she is having patience as I learn her accent. I can now pretty much understand people from Argentina, El Salvador, and a few others, but she was the first I have heard from Guatamala, and it is a bit different, but it is all fun, and her English is coming really good!

 

      Well I think that is pretty much it for this week, but time to leave you all with a spiritual thought, haha and I having a hard time finding one because I brought my English scriptures and I really haven´t been marking them up because I have been reading in Spanish, but I found one scripture that I read today, and it is in D&C 76:25, which says, "And now, after the many testimonies that have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!" I really love this, the fact that our Savior and Redeemer lives is a miracle, to think about all the things that He suffered and did for each and everyone of us puts me in awe and amazement and is hard to comprehend. But I would like to invite you all to ponder on that this week, "That He lives" and then continue everyday from here on out to add your testimonies to all the many that have been given of Him, and let others know that He lives, and that through Him all will be well. "And as surely as Christ liveth, bear testimony of Him." (Moroni 7: between vs. 26 and 31) Share your testimony! I know that He lives, and I bear a solem testimony of it as His representitive!"

 

     Well that is pretty much it for this week, remember always how much I love each and every one of you! More than all of you will realize, thank you always for your letters, they mean the world to me, each and everyone of them, they mean the world to each and every missionary!! Remember always that I pray for you all always and you all are always in my thoughts. Please take care, and I promise that next week I will have so more adventures from Agronomia this next week! Love you all!!!

 

   Con Amor, Siempre, y Para Toda La Eternidad,

    Hermana Aubrey Jo England