Week 61 in Chile - 03/25/2013

CAMBIO 11 SEMANA 4

Lugar: Libertador, Chillan Viejo

Compañera: Hermana Morán

Fecha: 25/03/2013

Hola Mi Familia!!!!

 

       ¿Comó Están Todos? I really hope that everything is continually going well for each and everyone of you! Wow can I just tell you it is crazy how fast time is flying by!!!! I really have no idea where in the world that it is going? But I´m doing my very best with the little time I have left and Hermana Morán and I are working as diligent as we can to do this fabulous work! We are so excited to be together and I know the Lord put us together for a special purpose, she is so amazing and we are enjoying every single minute together!! haha and that is the way it should be! This week really has been a good week though, we have done many things and I hope I will have time to write a few of the things that have passed on this week because I´m running a little bit against the clock, because there is a ton to do today, but I will as always try to do my best, just remember to have patience with me today.

 

       This week has been a full week and has really past by so fast! On Monday we were able to have another fun FHE with the Hermanas in our ward that don´t have a chance to have one, and we brought and investigator with us, but it was so much fun! They are always a blast! This week as well we have found a few older ladies that have been very nice to us and we went and talked to them and sang a few hymns for them! There was Ortencia who was very nice and called us Porotitas Bonitas! haha and then one of our future investigators is Maria Elena who is 95 years old and is still doing amazing, we passed by last night and sung for her and shared a message and we are going to pass buy this Tuesday again!

 

     During this week we have had a lot of opposition trying to stop the work from progressing! On thursday I believe Hermana Miskin was going done the stairs and went down the first part, but the second part that has like three steps, she slipped and fell and hit her back hard, and hit the scar right where she has surgery. Long story short they were on bed rest for a few days and talking to Hna. Humphrey and us helping her ice on it. With a lot of prayers and a priesthood blessing she is actually doing ok, it could have been a lot worse but needless to say she will be going home. That is what Salt Lake decided in the end, as well with Hermana Vieda because she has a big problem with her back as well! I have no idea if they are going home with me or if they will be sent home before, but either way it is sad! But we are looking on the positive side and I told Hermana Miskin I would gladly return to being her companion again and we could have companion study through skype and she love that idea! But things are going well here!! :) Hey WAIT A SECOND!! Hermana Miskin just told me that she probably won´t go home, president just called and she is going to have a test trial for 10 days with Hna. Vieda and if there is improvement they will stay if not they will go! PLEASE PRAY FOR THEM!!!!!

 

      Well another amazing thing that happened this week is that there was a baptism in our ward! Esteban, the son of Hermano Vejar was baptized on Sunday and it was a great service! We helped them put together everything and it all turned out super amazing!! They are such an amazing family and it was good to support them in this.

 

      Sorry that this letter is a little short but really I am running against the clock, I´m going over to Cordillera today to say goodbye to Hermana Myrium before I leave! But before I leave as always I would like to leave you with a spiritual thought! Whohoo!! I love the scriptures and things to do with the spirit! I read this week something more in the talk called the "4th Missionary" and I loved what Elder Corbridge said about the spirit and this is what he said: "The gift of the Holy Ghost is the greatest gift available to mankind in this life.  It is the power by which you are sanctified and changed to become like God.  It is the fountain and the only source of power, light, intelligence, hope, love, joy, peace, comfort, knowledge, confidence, clarity and every other good gift.  In this life there is no prize of greater worth, there is no gem of greater value, there is no vault that guards a more valuable possession.  All of the wealth of the world combined is dust and dirt in comparison to this supernal gift made available to every last woman, man and child who is obedient to the laws and ordinances of the gospel. It is available to everyone.  Not everyone has it, but it is available to all." I really loved this quote and I love the gift of the Holy Ghost, it is such a help to each and everyone us us and if we continue to do the things we need to, to mantain it, He will stay! I know that it was a gift from a loving Heavenly Father for each and everyone of us! As well as His Son that He sent for each of us as well! And if there is a few words that I could send to you for this coming Easter weekend, it would be this, "And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!"

 

       I hope that this Easter weekend is full of the Spirit for each and everyone of you, and that you all will take a moment to remember the sacrifice that our Saviour has given to each and every one of us! This is my plea, and request! Remember HE LIVES!!!! And also remember that whatever pain, trial, heart ache or experience that we have in this live, will be and can be fixed through the Atonement if we allow it to! Just requires patience, humility and faith! I know that He loves us and wants the best! I hope that you all remember that I love each and everyone of you and that I am praying for you constantly and that I am extremely grateful for your support and love! I promise to write again next week with more adventures. Until then!

 

   Con Amor Siempre y Para Toda La Eternidad!

   Hermana Aubrey Jo England

 

 

 

Week 60 in Chile - 03/18/2013

CAMBIO 11 SEMANA 3

 

Lugar: Libertador, Chillan

Compañera: Hermana Morán

Fecha: 18/03/2013

 

Hola Mi Familia!!!!

 

       ¿Como Están Todos? Things are going really well here! This week has been a little crazy and a little stressful in some aspects but I´m always doing my best to learn from what is stressful and make it better so that I can become better! It is that simple! haha but really this week has been great! I hope to write a little bit of things that have been happening, but if this email is short, please be patient with me and just know it is because I´m running around like crazy trying to do all that I need to do, because the time just keeps getting shorter. But here we go with a few items and experiences that have happened this last week!

 

       First things are first, are you ready for this!?!? Ok here we are..... CARMEN SE BAUTIZÓ!!!!!!!! We are so happy that things went very well for her, and she was super excited and a little nervous of course but being able to see that change that came about in her in just a short 3 weeks was such an amazing and humbling experience to show that just a little faith in Christ can bring about such a wonderful change!!! I know that she has not only changed her life, but also the life of her son that passed away 5 months ago, and the life of her 4 year old granddaughter that will now have the chance to grow up in the gospel! We are going to start talking to her husband as well, but we are so happy and thrilled that Carmen was able to take this step, her baptism went amazing and I´m very greatful for the support from the members in our ward! I hope that each of you are supporting the new converts in the ward as well, they need it!!

 

     But other than the baptism things have been pretty good this week, there have been many things that have been happening. One monday we were able to have a wonderful FHE with the women in our ward that don´t have the chance to have a FHE, and it was very fun! We are going to do it again tonight and we are inviting our investigators as well! We are so excited to work with our members more and more and gain their trust. This week also there was a stake activity that was put on by the Relief Society for the anniversery and they put on different shot plays each ward, and our ward had cinderella, there was shrek, and others. But it was a blast! Hermana Morán and I helped out back stage, because Anita who was Cinderella needed to change her dress like three times durning the play in 15 seconds so we had to help her do a quick change! haha and making one play in 15 minutes make it go really fast! But it was a ton of fun!!!

 

      This week was also really cool because we had interviews this week with President! And everything went very well, but it was probally the shortest interview, haha because I will be seeing him in three weeks, but it was great! We also had a training for something really cool that we are doing! So that missionaries in our mission have now been called to clean the ward lists, and I know that we have always been called to do that, but now it is in a cooler much easier way, and we are working with the registro civil of chile to be able to verify everything!!! and it is all on the computer. so for one hour every week we go to the geneology lab to use the computer and start working name by name to verify that they live in our sector and if not we mark it one color so that it gets sent to where it needs to go! and if they are dead another color so that we can start temple work if needed, and then the ones that are in our sector we mark a certain color and then verify that it is right! But it is so cool that we are doing this, and I was very jealous that I won´t be here to help much cause I don´t have much time left and I told Hna. Pulsipher that it would be cool if I could do if from my home computer and help mark everything and the missionaries can verify. AND SURPRIZE!!! She told me that I could!!!!! I will have the ability to help the mission clean out the ward list even when I am at home because I have the google doc and the information of my sector, and can continue to help!!! They would love the help!! I was super excited to hear that!!!! This week will go forth!!!! and continues faster and faster each day!!!

 

      ok but before I end sorry don´t have much time left! I just want to share a spiritual experience from a lesson that we had last night! We went over to a members house to have a FHE with two young men that live next to them from two different families. We taught them about the strength of youth and we talked to them about baptism, and we invited, but there was a catch they didn´t understand completely what we were trying to say, haha but it was great the member started talking to them and gave then an anology and then she invited them to follow Christ and be baptized! and they accepted and then we were able to do our part and invite them to a specific day to prepare and they accepted! I know that this is a short version but my message is that "EVERY MEMBER IS A MISSIONARY!!" Just because you don´t have the name badge doesn´t mean you can´t teach! Look at this family we have been working with them for a while to find someone, and they finally found some people and invited them to be baptized and now we have the ability to try to work with their families!!! We are super pumped!! and I would like to invite each and every one of you to find that one person and be an example of the believers, you don´t need a name badge, just get to work and look and you will find with your faith in Christ, it probably won´t be sudden, it wasn´t for this family, but they found the people and the spirit was strong! I invite you all to pray and look for the people that are prepared because there is always someone!

 

     Well that is it for this time but I would like to let you all know that I love you so much and I think about you all the time! Please take care and I will write again next week and share more adventures!!!! Love you tons!!!

 

     Con Amor Para Siempre y Para Toda La Eternidad!!

     Hermana Aubrey Jo England

      

 

Week 59 in Chile - 03/11/2013

CAMBIO 11 SEMANA 2

 

Lugar: Libertador, Chillan Viejo

Compañera: Hermana Morán

Fecha: 11/03/2013

 

Hola Mi Familia!!!!!

 

          ¿Como Están Todos? I sure hope that everything is going well for each and every one of you! Sorry that this letter is a little bit late today, we had a ward activity so things have been a little bit rushed today and if this letter is a little short or rushed you will all understand why! But as always please have patience with me! Well just like I just said we had a zone activity today and it was a lot of fun, we went to a campo that is in Quillón and we played Capture the Flag and had a BBQ but it was a ton of fun!!! But things this week have been so amazing and Hermana Morán and I have had so many wonderful experiences this week and I hope to tell you about at least a few of them, we have been blessed from the Lord and we are excited to have this next week to watch more blessing come!

 

          Well this week has been really well I and I would like to share with you as least two experiences because I am running out of time here, but so like I have told you all the last week we are working with Carmen, and things are going super amazing now, and if everything goes well with her interview tomorrow she will be baptized this coming friday! We are super excited because we have been working a ton with her and helping her have the peace that this is a good decision! But she had doubts durning the week, but we had a lesson with her and I remember literally using her own front door and keys showing her by example and explaining the baptism is just the door and that she will have the ability to learn everything little by little after she has opened and walked through the door, and after we had a knelt prayer with her and she said the prayer after she said she felt ready!!!! So we are very excited and planning very frantically everything for the baptism! But all will be well and I will let you know more about it this next week!

 

         So one more experience so we have a man whose name is Nelson that comes to the English Class that we have every week and he speaks pretty good english not perfect but you can understand what he says, and during the week we saw him outside of his house and we began talking to him, and told him we would like to share a messgae with him, he told us that we could come back the next day, we did and share the message with him and lets just say to make a long story short, we did our best but he told us that he wanted us to go and look for others that where more important and needed the message. So we left him with a pamphlet and Book of Mormon, and told him to pray and that we are always in the English class. Well Friday roles around and is English class, Nelson didn´t show up right on time which was different, but towards the end of the class he showed up and you could see that he was worn out and had something one his mind. Well at the end I asked if he would like to do the prayer in English and I promise you the prayer was very special, in the prayer he thanked God the missionaries came to his house because problems were fixed and doesn´t know how, and loved the feeling of the spirit or aurua that he felt! To make a long story short we passed by the next day and now Nelson is listening to us and we are helping him progress so that he can recieve the Holy Ghost which is all he wants! Wants that peace he felt! He is such an amazing guy. haha and he loves it now that I can pray in English haha well the best I can, with him that was my first prayer in English in who knows how long! was a bit weird haha!

 

        But I need to get going here, but before I go I would like to leave you with a spiritual thought and that thought comes from the experiece that we had with Nelson! So talking about the spirit with him you could see that he respected it very much and he talked about how it was a very special and that not just any ordinary person could just have it, and it is true! We need to prepare ourselves and continue every day endurning to the end to that we can prepare ourselves to have this special extraordinary gift from our loving Heavenly Father! I would love if all of you could read John 14:26-27! Remember we have a great potential that we can meet to this potential just continue endurning. Something that I learned on Sunday in Relief Society was we are like popcorn kernals, we all are exposed to the same amount of heat and butter and salt, but each and everyone of us pop differently. The question is do we really know that we can pop to our full potential that our Father in Heaven sees in each of us! I promise you all that yes we each can pop very big and reach that potential if we use the very special gift from our loving Heavenly Father! Remember we are not ordinary people we have been specially prepared to be where we are in this exact moment, so let us all live up to the wonderful potential that He sees in us is my plea!

 

     Remember that I love each and every single one of you and I hope that all is going well for you, remember I pray for you always, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for the prayers that you are sending this way, they are blessing not only my life but everyone here! Thank you all for everything and I will write more next week with more adventure from Chillan!!!

 

     Con Amor Para Siempre y Para Toda La Eternidad!

     Hermana Aubrey Jo England

        

Week 58 in Chile - 03/04/2013

CAMBIO 11 SEMANA 1

 

Lugar: Libertador, Chillan Viejo

Compañera: Hermana Morán

Fecha: 04/03/2013

 

Hola Mi Familia!!!!

 

            ¿Como Están Todos? I really hope that things are going well for you all! Things here are going really well, and I have had so many adventures this week, haha but it has been super great! We just had cambios so things have been a little bit crazy but we are getting back into the groove of things little by little. But so you are all probably wanting to know who is my new companion and a little bit about her right! haha well Hermana Morán is SUPER BUENA!! She is from Guayaquil, Ecuador! She is from a family of 8 and she is the 2nd of 6 kids! I also learned that her parents were mission presidents a few years ago in the Santiago East mission! And just like Hermana Peña she speaks English because she studyed in BYU for three years. She has so much animo to work and we are so excited to keep working together and watch miracles happen! But that is a little about her! Ok time to remember a few things that have happened throughout this week, I promise that I will try to remember, but please have patience with me like always. I have been a little sick; Hermana Morán was sick when she came because of some virus in the MTC, so lucky I have been able to share it with her, but little by little it is getting better! Ok enough of that, on to other things!

 

            So this week we have been teaching some really great people! We are continuing to teach Iris! and she was able to come to church this week!!!! We were so excited for her and little by little we are continuing to prepare her for the 23 to be baptized! She is super buena and very accepting! We are also working with Carmen still and she went to church for her 2nd time this week, and has just loved everything that we have been teaching her! and I will be sharing another experience about her in the end of my letter! We are also working with a less active family (familia Arriagada) and we are helping them become active again and as well prepare the dad and their daughter, because she turns 8 in may and we are preparing them both so that they dad can baptize his daughter and then preparing the family so that they can go to the temple to be sealed! We are so excited for them, because we know it is possible just take a little bit of preparation. I was able to see Maggie and Jorge, who is a family from Agronomia, they came to our stake conference and I was able to see them! They were the family that we helped be sealed with there kids, so that is how I know that it is possible, but it was so great to be able to see them! We were also able to have a great time this week with the Familia Vejar! But we went over to their house to have our correlation meeting and to talk about things about the work, and we taught hermana vejar how to make donuts! Everyone loved them but it was a ton of fun to go over there and strenghthen the work and the family!

 

            We had a really great opportunity this week, we had our stake conference, but it was a broadcast from Salt Lake City, especially for the south of Chile. We has the opportunity to hear from Elder Corbridge, Sister Burton, Elder Anderson, and President Monson! It was cool to hear Elder Anderson talk in Spanish!  It was so cool and there were many wonderful things that they all talked about! They talked about the Atonement, about how we need to put all our faith in Jesus Christ and become more like him, talked about Tithing, and President Monson talked about how we need to love others as Christ loved! Then he told many great stories as he always does. But it was a really great experience to hear from them, and to have Iris and Carmen have the ability to hear from the Prophet!

 

           Ok well I am kind of running out of time because we are going to go out to lunch with our zone! We are going to the Fuente Alemana (haha I know you love that place Hna. Breannan!) But before I end as always a spiritual thought! So like I told you we had an experience with Carmen that was really cool. So we went over one day this last week and we taught her about the Book of Mormon, and as we told at first what it was and that Christ visited the Americas after His resurrection, she was telling us no that didn´t happened it couldn´t! But calmly we started explaining to her about it so that she could understand, and as we were teaching I had the impression to read to her the part about when Christ appeared to the people, and I hardly ever do that, I usually leave it so that they can read, but because of the impression I told her I wanted to read the experience to her! And as I read 3 Nephi 11:6-17, you could feel that spirit very strongly! and when I was finished we asked her how do you feel? she then responded that she felt really good, then we asked do you believe that he came here to the Americas? and she said yes! I believe! and I know that He will come again! It was such an amazing experience and I was so grateful that I follow that impression to read it to her, but I know that not only testified to her that the Book of Mormon was true, but it also re-testified to me that it was true! I know that the Book of Mormon has so much power and that this book is 100 percent another testament of Jesus Christ that they we are able to come close to him when we read the Bible and the Book of Mormon together! I would like to leave you all with a challenge, and this challenge is to read that part in 3 Nephi and then Moroni 10:3-7, and I would invite you all to take the challenge or Moroni and ask if the book is true. It doesn´t matter if you have asked before or not, it is always good to continue to ask and re ask to reaffirm what you know! And I know He will answer because He did this week for me!

 

       Well that is pretty much it for this week! Remember always that I love each and every one of you so much and I am always praying and thinking of you always! Love you tons and I will return next week with many adventures from Chillan!!!

 

     Con Amor Para Siempre y Para Toda La Eternidad!

      Hermana Aubrey Jo England