Week 44 in Chile - 11/26/2012

CAMBIO 8 SEMANA 2

 

Lugar: Agronomia, Chillan Ñuble

Compañera: Hermana González

Fecha: 26/11/2012

 

Hola Mi Familia!!!! 

 

         ¿Como Están Todos? I really hope all is going well with all of you, this week has been a crazy week, but an amazing one, things have been really well, and as always the week just flew by, it felt a bit long but I can´t believe it is P-day. But many things have happened this week, and as always I´m going to try to my best to summarize what has happened this week so that you all have an idea of how I´m doing down here, so here we go! :)

 

       First things are first, I have amazing news are you all ready for this.... ¡¡¡¡YASNA SE BAUTIZÓ!!!! It is great that when you fill out the baptism register that you find out how to spell their names! haha oops :) But it was such a great baptism, and we are all very happy!! This whole week though was a bit stressful getting everything ready, haha we have been visiting or calling her everyday, and on Wednesday she was suppose to have her interview on Wednesday at 8, and we were calling her and calling her, but she didn´t answer, we stopped by for her house at about 8 and she had just barely gotten home from work so it was a little crazy, and our district leader is in a sector a bit far away, so long story short Elder Bracken (one of our Zone leaders) with Elder White came from there sector and did the interview, they got there about 10 and we didn´t leave until 10:30 and we where in our house at 11, it was absolutely crazy, but she passed her interview and all was well. But really her baptism was great, and now we are starting to work with Valeska, her daughter that is 10 years old. So hopefully we will have another baptism really soon! 

 

      This week we also had an activity, we did a mini noche de hogar with Cordillera and Agronomia and we talked about gratitude but it was fun haha we, meaning hna. bowns and I were trying to do something little for thanksgiving, but we had an activity and had a list of things that we were grateful for then we played "are you my neighbor" but with our lists and it was very fun, then we watched a few Mormon message about gratitude and ate some desserts that people brought, but it was right after the baptism of Yasna, and Yasna had a great time, we all did.

 

     So something really freaky happened yesterday, we had the return of the beetle. Remember how I told you that we had a beetle about the size of a nickle that was green and blue that was in Hna. Bown´s room, well yesterday we were planning and had the window open because it was a little hot, and in flys another one of those beetles, but this time yellow and black with a bit of orange, it creeped me and Hna. González out a lot, and we tried to get rid of it, but it flew and now we have now idea were it is at, so we are a bit scared, but it is all good! We have a lot of fleas in our room too, were are getting bit up good, but were are doing a deep clean today of our room, we think they got there because of an old mattress that is under our bed, but that is the good thing that someone invented raid and cleaning supplies! 

 

     Well I really don´t have a lot of time left, because we have to get going here soon to start cleaning and eat something for lunch! But before I end as always I would like to leave you all with a spiritual thought. So I´m sure I told you, but maybe I didn´t, but I have started reading the New Testament, and I really love all the things that I have been able to read and learn, I have finished Matthew and Mark, and I´m now working on Luke (I hope to finish before Feb, so I can read the BOM before the end of my mission) but I absolutely love the stories and the miracles and the teachings that I am able to learn from Christ. We had companionship study the other day, and in companionship study we share what we learned, and I told Hna. González that "well I have told you before..." because the same miracles and stories are in Matthew and Mark with a slight change but it is pretty much the same, and as I started thinking about that, I started thinking why do we hear the same things over and over and over again, or we read the same things over and over again. It is because we have to learn the little things first before God can give us more that is why He has told us "line upon line, precept upon precept" as we take care of the things that we are learning and put them into our hearts and we become converted from the little things He is then able to give us more. Think about the parable of the talents, He gave each of them a talent, two of them went to work and found more and were rewarded in the end, but the other went and hid what he was given and received nothing more because he didn´t show his ability. That is the same with talents that we have or learning the basic principles of the gospel. God gives each and everyone of us the things we need to learn in the time we need to learn it, and it all depends on what we do with what He gives us, on whether or not He can give us more. So apply and get to work to achieve more talents and when the day comes He will look at how we have taken care of the knowledge the we have received and we will hear: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord."

 

     Remember that I love you all so much, and I hope that you all are doing amazing! Know that all is going well here, and I´m very thankful for all of your prayers and love. Know that I pray for each and every one of you each and everyday. Please take care and I will talk to you more next week with more adventures!

    Con Amor Siempre y Para Toda La Eternidad,

     Hermana Aubrey Jo England

    

    

Week 43 in Chile - 11/19/2012

¡¡¡¡UN AÑO EN LA MISIÓN!!!!

Lugar: Agronomia, Chillan Ñuble

Compañera: Hermana González

Fecha: 19/11/2012

Hola Mi Familia!!!

       ¿Como están todos? Another week and year has just flown by! It was so crazy on friday to think that a year ago I was a scared little missionary that didn´t know any Spanish, entering into the MTC. I really have no idea where time goes, and Hermana Brennan and I were talking today, and she basically looked at me and told me that I have had the fastest mission, she couldn´t believe that I have had a year, when not that long ago we were in Tierra Bella together on a mini cambio, the both of not knowing a ton of Spanish, her with only three months in Chile and me with three weeks! but we survived and taught all we could, the gospel. So many memories to think about!! :) But like I said this week has gone by really fast again, so I´m going to do my best and give a summary of somethings! Here we go! :)

      First things first, Jasna! :) We have a great possibility that she is going to get baptized this week, and we are so excited! because this week be my first baptism in a while. Jasna is doing really good! This week we taught her the word of wisdom, and she had a problem with smoking, tea and coffee, and she has had a little bit of a hard time dropping it, but she is doing great now because we bought her Ecco (café of wheat), herbal tea, and we also bought her many suckers to have in her mouth; haha she looked at me and told me with a smile, "yeah your taking away my cigarettes and turning me into a diabetic!" There have been so many miracles with Jasna, we have started visiting her everyday to make sure she is alright, and on Friday we had an amazing lesson with her! she has been having a lot of stress and started smoking more, so to help her out we went over with Hno. Rudy our mission leader and we talked with her and taught better about having faith through opposition, then Hno. Rudy gave her a blessing to help her out. She told us the next day that she had never had the feelings that she felt before, she said all the feeling she felt during the entire blessing was in her heart, and it was something she couldn´t describe, and we told her that was the spirit! We are so excited for her, and we are going over tonight and we are going to do a Noche de Hogar with them! So please continue to pray for Jasna, that all will work out well this week! :)

     Well things have changed in the house a bit we have a new missionary! On Tuesday we were with Hna. Bowns because the flight of the new missionaries got delayed because of difficulties, so it was good to be in a trio for a while, we has a good day, and did some good contacts. We found one family that has like 40 chickens, that is counting the little baby chicks, it was crazy, but really fun to see, haha reminding me from when we had chickens! But so the new hermana came on Wednesday, her name is Hermana Burgess, she is from Logan, UT and she is doing well. We got to see her in English class, when we went, she knows much more Spanish than I did when I got here, I´m telling you they come more and more prepared! But we are all doing well in the house!

     Pretty much this week Hermana González and I are in the process of finding new investigators to teach, it has been a little hard I will have to tell you that, but we are still working on it, haha it was really funny yesterday one contact that we did, we contacted this lady, and she looked at Hna. González and told her, "you speak very good Spanish where did you learn it!" and she told her that she was from Argentina she speaks Spanish as her natural language. We don´t know if she understood very well but said it again, you speak very good Spanish! And I´m standing there telling her, "She speaks Spanish, she doesn´t know English, I speak English and learned Spanish." But it was really funny the whole contact, we were laughing about it the whole night, "haha Hna. González you speak very good Spanish!" :) Adventures of the mission, aren´t they great!

      Well that is pretty much all that I can think about from this week, when thing pass so fast it gets a little hard, but time for the spiritual thought of the week! Well I have been sitting here looking at a few Mormon message about gratitude, I kind of forgot that it was thanksgiving this week, because one they don´t celebrate it here, but as I have been thinking about thanksgiving, really one word comes into my mind and that is gratitude, that is what this whole day is about is giving our thanks for the daily blessings that are in our life, and yes there is always something that we can give thanks for daily if we look for it. I just watched a Mormon message of President Eyring "oh remember remember" and he talked about and experience in how he would everyday (without missing a single day) pondering the question, "Have I seen the hand of God reaching out to touch me?" and he talked about that as he pondered and prayed about it, with out fail many many times he always found something that he was able to give thanks for! I loved his message and how he talked about asking that question, and "Did God send a message that was just for me? Have I seen His hand in my life?" I promise each and everyone of you that it is possible to look and find at least one thing that we are grateful for! and how the Lord has blessed our lives! Remember always as well, "No experience is a total loss if we learn from it" There is always something to be grateful for, because all we have, ALL OF IT, if from a loving Heavenly Father whose solo purpose and plan is to bring about the immortality and eternal life of each and every one of us!

      Remember always that I love and am so grateful for each and every one of you! I really can´t believe it has been a whole year away from you, and I say this with tears of gratitude in my eyes, THANK YOU!!! Thank you seriously for all that you have done, are doing and will do for me! Your examples have meant that world to me, at times we don´t realize how important something is to us until it is gone and we don´t have a daily access to it! Remember that I pray and think about each and everyone of you daily! I´m extremely grateful for all of your letters and love, and I promise to send another letter with more adventures this next week! Love you all, Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!! Eat lots and lots of turkey and wonderful food for me!

    Con Amor Siempre y Para Toda La Eternidad!

     Hermana Aubrey Jo England

Week 42 in Chile - 11/12/2012

CAMBIO 7 SEMANA 6

 

Lugar: Agronomia, Chillan Ñuble

Compañera: Hermana González

Fecha: 12/11/2012

 

Hola Familia!!!!

 

        ¿Como Están Todos? I really hope as always that things are going fantastically amazing!! Things here are going well, this week as all weeks lately just flew by! As a companionship we have progressed and it is always great to see how goals help us become better than we were the week or day before! But here we go, haha I´m going to try to make my best attempt to explain a few things that have passed by this week! 

 

      Well first things first, it was cambios were today, and nothing has changed here, I´m still with Hermana González and here in Agronomia, finally!! I was changed a lot my past 4 cambios, so it is good to have a least one cambio in where nothing changes and we can continue working togther. But the only thing that is bad is I have a feeling that I may be changed the next cambio, which is in five weeks instead of 6 weeks because of Christmas, but we will have to see what happens when the time comes, but for now Hermana González and I are happy and we are excited to have another cambio together. There was a change with Hna. Bowns and Hna. Moralez in Cordillera! Hna. Moralez is going to Krav, which is close to Concepcion, and Hermana Bowns is going to be training!!! There are going to me three American sister missionaries in the house now, because we know that three sisters are coming from MTC in Provo, so it will be exciting to see what happens, and I told Hermana González today that this will be a good opportunity to learn English! haha she wasn´t to excited about that, but I told her not to worry, I would be talking in Spanish! 

 

    So on Monday we made the cookies with the Bishop and it went really well! They loved them, and then I also gave him the recipe that I had for donuts and he told me that we was going to experiment with them! So we had a meeting with him on Tuesday to talk about the missionary work in our sector, and he brought the donuts that he made, can I just say, he did an amazing job!!! He made them really good and he also added ingredients, he put a chocolate topping on one of them with sprinkles and then a white frosting that was really good! So this will be very great to see that if he will have success selling them!! :) We also made the sourdough bread with Hna. Marisol this week, and the bread turned out good, it didn´t have too much of a sour taste but I told her that it was because her starter is just new and needs to give it time, but she is going to make it again this week, and see see if it becomes more sour! :)

 

    We have been able to teach a good amount of people this week, we are always in the process of finding new people. But Jasna is progressing really well, she came to church with us this week and she loves being able to come, and she is also reading and praying and told us that each of the reading assignments that we gave her this week had an application in her life, and gave her some answers! But we are continuing to help her out, and hopefully this next week on the 24 she will be able to be baptized, please continue to pray for her and her family. We are also continuing to work with Marisol, we are still in the process of waiting for her divorce, so that she can get married to Francisco. But things are going really well and we continue to work really hard.

 

    So I saw the pictures that you all sent me of the snow, can I just tell you right now, I´M JEALOUS!! but in another way I´m not, haha I have mixed feelings! I really miss the snow! haha I forgot what snow looked like! j/k, but here it is starting to get really really hot! It is still springtime but it is moving very quickly to summer. WE ARE GOING TO DIE!! haha this week was a mixture we had many days that were very hot, but cooled down at night, then we had about three days of rain as well, haha Hna. Bowns and Hna. Morales got soaked, because they forgot to bring an umbrella. But the weather has been a bit bipolar. It has been a bit challenging this week because of allergies, so I was grateful for the rain! the only other things that isn´t good about the heat is the return of the fleas! THEY ARE BACK!! but we are working on not having them! It is going to be a bit weird having Christmas in the heat! haha but it will be fun! 

 

   Well that is pretty much it, time to end with a spiritual thought, so I have been sitting here thinking about what I would like to share with each of you, and as I was a part of a talk that we have here on the mission, called, "The Fourth Missionary" came to my mind, and there was a part that I loved that talks about giving out heart and will to the Lord and I would love to share it with you, and it says this:

     "The Fourth Missionary understands that, as King Benjamin taught, the Lord is never in our debt.  He knows that God always blesses us many times more than the measure of what we give.  Jesus said, a hundred times more.  “And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit eternal life. (Matt.19:29).” 

In the end, your heart and your will is all that you have to give that the Lord does not already have.  If you give your time, two years, and your strength, you give only that which He grants to you with each beat of your heart and each breath that you draw.  If you dedicate your gifts and talents, you only return to Him what He already has given to you.  If you pay tithing you only return to Him a tenth of what He has already given to you.  Everything that you have to give to the Lord, has its origin in Him, except one thing: your will.  He does not have your heart, nor your mind, unless you give them to him.  It is the only gift you have to offer that He does not already have.  And so when you give yourself, you truly give Him everything. 

Jesus spoke of this matter of giving or consecrating yourself in different words.  He spoke of losing yourself.  He said: 

25.  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. Matt. 16:25.

   I really love what this says, because it is really true the one thing that God does not have is a our will, we each have our own agency and that is a wonderful gift that God has given us. I love that if we give our heart and will over to Him, He can work many mighty miracles in our life, because we have given it all to Him. Remember He can´t work with something that He doesn´t have, so the daily question we need to ask ourselves is, are we giving it all to Him? or are we holding it back a bit? Take a chance, give it all to Him! and watch the miracles happen, throughout your life! 

 

     Remember that I love you all so much! I´m very gratefully to be related to each and every one of you physically and spiritually, remember that pray for each and every one of you daily, and I am able to feel your prayers and strength, for which I am very grateful! Stay strong this week, and move forward along with the Lord! I promise to write more next week, with more adventures, but until then! 

 

   Con Amor Siempre y Para Toda La Eternidad,

   Hermana Aubrey Jo England

Week 41 in Chile - 11/05/2012

CAMBIO 7 SEMANA 5

 

Donde: Agronomia, Chillan Ñuble

Compañera: Hermana González

Fecha: 5/11/2012

 

Hola Mi Familia!!!

 

        ¿Como Están Todos? Wow otra vez, this week just flew by! Time always fly by really fast if you aren´t watching out. Take this for example, 14 years ago today, I was baptized! Crazy right! We need to cherish every moment that we have! because we never know how many we are going to have in the future! But it has been a pretty good week, we had a hard time finding people because of the Halloween, and Saints day and another holiday, so it was a long holiday weekend here and many people were out of town, or visiting from another part; but it was a good week. I loved the Halloween photos that you sent me!! Danny is really getting tall and is changing! haha! Halloween here was good, it isn´t as full blown out as it is in the states, but there were some kids and teenagers that dressed up and went out asking for candy, but other than that it wasn´t that big, I believe that it really is only a holiday celebrated in the states more, for the fact that all the members kept asking me what the definition of Halloween is, but it was a good day seeing different costumes. haha we all ran home that night so that we could plan really fast for the next day, then we all got into our PJs, we made popcorn, and we watched a bit of "Together Forever" because we have a DVD player to help with training the new missionaries, Lol that is as much as we were able to celebrate as Missionaries but it was great!

 

      Tuesday was a good day, we did splits with the Hermana Marisol, who is the relief society President, and Hermana Mirea, who is one of her counselors. But we did splits and we went out with them to help them with visiting teaching because there were many sisters that hadn´t been visiting. But it was really fun, I went out with Hna. Marisol and Hna. Gonzalez with Hna. Mirea, and we helped them do there visits. Can I just tell you I love Hermana Marisol, she is such a great lady, and we have a lot of fun together, she reminds me a lot of you mom! :) She make bread every week, well a lot of people here do, but I´m going to teach Hna. Marisol how to make Sour Dough Bread, she is excited to learn, because it doesn´t exist here, and I hope it works out! haha but we are going to experiment! 

 

     Well I´m kind of hitting my head on the desk here trying to think of other things to tell you, it is a bit hard when the week passes in the blink of an eye! So there was a baptism this week, there is a family in our ward, Jorge y Maggie, and their boy Benjamin just turned 8 and he had his baptism on Saturday, so we went to help them out with everything, we went on Saturday and we helped them make no bake cookies! ;) because benja loves them, and we got everything ready for the baptism. I played the piano and I also gave a short talk for the baptism too, haha talk about last minute, it is the good thing about being a missionary that we are always studying the scriptures, so when they asked me, I had many scriptures come to mind and I picked a few and gave a short discurso, but it went well! Benja is very happy and so is the whole family. I´ve grown very close to this family as well, I really have found a second family with all the people the I have come to know here! Thank goodness for things like facebook and skype! It will make things a bit easier!

 

      Well that is pretty much all that I can think of for right now, I promise I´m trying to get better at writing a list of things to talk about, there are always things that we can do better at in life, haha right! But today is going to be fun, we are going to go over to the Bishops house, and we are going to teach him how to make "no bake cookies" because Hna. Gladys and him want to learn how to make them, and I believe they are going to start selling them in their bakery as well! So this will be a great thing, because it will be a recipe that nobody has unless you have gotten to know the missionaries!! haha :) And i´m going to teach him how to make donuts as well! i think we are just going to start switching recipes!! :) Especially for the cake he made me, it was so good!!

 

     Well that is pretty much it for today, and as always I would like to end you all with a spiritual thought! So this week we talked in zone class about the 2000 stripling warriors and a few characteristics about them that made them successful in the fact that none of them perished in the end of the battle, and I would like to share with each of you this three characteristics because it can help each and every one of us with goals and things that we want to accomplish in this life, and the life to come! The three things are this: 1. The stripling warriors listened to all of the things from their leaders and did what they asked! 2. They had faith unbreakable! 3. They were exactly obedient! It was through these three things that helped them have God on their side to protect them through the rough times, so if we give heed to our leaders (Heavenly Father, Christ, President Monsen, Bishops, etc.), if we have faith that all will work out according to HIS WILL and not ours, and do our best each day to be obedient to the things we know we have to do, all things will work out in the end! "Yea, and they did obey and observe to perform every word of command with exactness; yea, and even according to their faith it was done unto them; and I did remember the words which they said unto me that their mothers had taught them." (Alma 57:21) I testify to each and everyone of you that if we do these three things that really we will see blessings and success in our lives, we just need to continue on with this faith and remember that all is done in HIS TIME and not ours, but all will come about, and the blessing will come!

 

     Well that is pretty much it for this week! I hope that all of you have a amazing, fantastic, wonderful, week! and that your are able to achieve your goals this week! Remember the three things and I know that each of you can! Remember that I pray for each and every one of you always and each day! Thank you for all of your support and love as well, I really feel it!! Please take care, and I promise next week I will have more adventures about next week! and news about cambios! :) Love you all!! Until next week!

 

    Con Amor Siempre y Para Toda La Eternidad!

     Hermana Aubrey Jo England