Week 31 in Chile - 08/27/2012

CAMBIO 6 SEMANA 1

Place: Agronomia, Chillan Ñuble

Companion: Hermana Martinez

Date: 27/08/2012

Hola Mi Familia!!!!

               WOW THIS WEEK HAS BEEN AMAZING!!!! There have been so many miracles, and Hermana Martinez is so amazing! I love her to death. We have had so much success together. We found 17 new investigators this week, and we pretty much passed all of our goals but two, it has been so amazing, and it was all linked to our obedience and sacrifice! There really is a link with those two things! But we have had a great time together and we know that it has only gotten started, for sure we still have another 5 amazing weeks ahead of us! Yeah it is probably going to happen that many of those new investigators that we found probably won´t listen to us, but finding many news like we did, helps us sift through all the people and look for those that are prepared right now to be baptized, and then help those that aren´t ready, have the seed planted in their hearts for those missionarys that will be able to sift through and help them later on!

       Haha so this week has been full of fun things that we have done. So Wednesday it was Hermana Steinmetz birthday, so what did I do as a good ex-companion, I woke up a half and hour early and made pancakes for her and her hija (Hna Morales from Guatamala). Haha it was so great to see the look on her face when she came down stairs and saw it, and she told me "I´m glad I´m not going crazy, I thought I smelt pancakes when I woke up!" But it was awesome to be able to so that for her! and I´m going to wake up early again tomorrow and do the exact same thing for the three of them! :) Lets just say I think that I have started a service war! :) and it is so much fun! haha we came back after a long day of work and on our table we found chocolate and a cool sign that told us that they loved us, and right when I saw that I ran into my room and grabed a chocolate bar I had an hid it in Hna. Steinmetz coat, wrote a note and put it in her journal to look there and told her "You started it now, this is war! haha!:)" She put on her jacket the next day and couldn´t figure out why it was so heavy, so the chocolate, said "stinker" and told me I was in for it! So we are in service wars now, haha I´m going to heart attack their room! It is going to be so much fun, I´m excited! :)

     So really I couldn´t figure why in the world I got moved over to Agronomia for this cambio, but little my little I have been able to see the Lords plan for me, to be in this ward. So I can´t remember if I told you about Fabian, he is a new investigator that Hna. Steinmetz and I found together about two weeks ago, and we gave it over to Agronomia because we thought that they lived in their sector, but then they told us that he lived in los volcanes, but long story short, this week we recieved a call that Fabian lives in our sector! and I have the ability to teach him. He was one day away from being baptized the last time with the Elders a few years ago, but things happened and he moved. But we have found him, and his girlfriend Joanna who is a less active member that we are going to reactivate, and we are helping them get married, and then Fabian is going to get baptized. They also have a cute little girl named Javiera, who is the cutest thing you could ever see, and little by little I´m gaining her trust! ;) But it is so awesome! I grew really close to this family the first day I met them, and I´m excited that I ended up being on the missionaries that will teach and help them, blessing right! 

     We have also found Marisol, and Franciso this week who are really great, we have to help them get married to, but they have had all the lessons before and know this stuff so they are prepared, we just have to help them get married and live the word of wisdom, but little by little, and they are very excited that we are teach them. It was cool how we found Marisol, we actually contacted the house next to hers and her neighbor and Marisol came out at the same time, so I split off from Hna Martinez and started contacting Marisol while she contacted the neighbor, but we found that she has shared with missionarys before, and let us come in, and now we are working with her and her husband, and they came to church with us this week. WHOOT!

     Well that is pretty much it for this week, but before I end, it is time for a spiritual thought from my gospel study this week! WHOHOO! I LOVE reading the scriptures there are so many treasures! So I´m continuing to read in D&C and I found a really cool scripture that I would love to share with you all! It is in D&C 58:2-7, which says: "2 For verily I say unto you, blessed is he that ^akeepeth my commandments, whether in life or in ^bdeath; and he that is ^cfaithful in ^dtribulation, the ^ereward of the same is greater in the kingdom of heaven. 3 Ye cannot behold with your natural ^aeyes, for the present time, the design of your God concerning those things which shall come hereafter, and the ^bglory which shall follow after much tribulation. 4 For after much ^atribulation come the ^bblessings. Wherefore the day cometh that ye shall be ^ccrowned with much ^dglory; the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand. 5 Remember this, which I tell you before, that you may ^alay it to heart, and receive that which is to follow. 6 Behold, verily I say unto you, for this cause I have sent you—that you might be obedient, and that your hearts might be ^aprepared to ^bbear ^ctestimony of the things which are to come. 7 And also that you might be honored in laying the foundation, and in bearing record of the land upon which the ^aZion of God shall stand" I absolutely loved this scripture when I read it and it is exactally true, as long as we are obediant and faithful, all in it´s due time will be revealed unto us why something has happened, whether it be here or after we will know that it was for our benifit, just like the fact that I got moved from Cordillera to Agronomia. God has a plan for each and every single one of us, He specifically took each and everyonce of us aside and told us how we would be a part of His plan, and we all agreed to it, because we are here. So just have patience and trust in the one who created the plan because He will reveal to you the things you need to know at the time it is needed to lay the foundation for a great work! And know that tribulation is just a fine tuning process. Just like you told me mom when I was in the MTC, just at a diamond is formed from a piece of coal after a ton of pressure, we are formed into the people/diamonds that our Heavenly Father sees in us after the pressure and tribulations. Just be obediant, sacrifice, and have faith and all will work out in the end and you will see the beautiful diamond from the fine tuning process.

      Well that is it, I hope that you all continue to do amazingly well. Remember always that I pray for each and everyone of you each and every day and night, and that I feel you prayers and love for me, thank you for that support, it means more to me that any of you will ever realize. Know that this mission is really turning me into that diamond that God sees in me, and I hope that each of you can look and understand that He is doing to the same for each of you. Well until next week with more amazing adventures from El Barrio, Agronomia! Love you all so much!

  Con Amor Siempre, y Para Toda La Eternidad,

   Hermana Aubrey Jo England

           

Week 30 in Chile - 08/20/2012

9 MESES EN LA MISIÓN!!

Place: Cordillera, Chillan Ñuble

Companion: Hermana Steinmetz

Date: 20/08/2012

Hola Mi Familia!!!

             Wow this week, I don´t know were the weeks are going, but they just keep getting faster and faster! I really mean it, look at what pasted by this week, I hit nine months in the mission, NINE MONTHS!!! I´m half way through! It is so crazy, and I don´t know if I´m liking that it is passing so fast, not that I don´t want to see you guys, it is just the blessing that happen here, and the things that I am learning are so numerous that I can´t count it all. This week has been filled with blessings and fun times, that I will never forget! Everything from taking great pictures, and falling and breaking my chair, haha to wonderful miracles that occured with obedience, and I will explain all of that in a minute. Ok so for the news that you have all been dying to hear what in the world is going to happen with cambios, ready for this!!!!! I am moving super super far away!!! It takes about five buses and a long walk to move all my stuff over one room in the house! :) LOL that is right I got moved over to Agronamia, and my new companion will be Hermana Martinez. It was so funny when Elder Carvajal call this morning and I answered and he told me to prepare to move super far away, and I´m thinking great I´m going all the way to Curico (Which isn´t bad Hna. Kraemer don´t freak out) but it would have been hard to leave after 6 weeks, then he started laughing and told me I was just moving over to Agronamia.

      So I will be in the same house just one room over, and Hermana Steinmetz is going to train!!!!!! It was so awesome to see the look on her face when I told her. I was on the phone and when Elder Carvajal told me, and she was praying, and when he told me, I shouted NO WAY, and she bolted off of the ground after  the amen of her prayer and was like you tell me now! She is still in a little bit of shock, but it is funny! She will be a great mamá. I have learned so many wonderful things from Hermana Steinmetz and I have gain a life long friend as well, we have become really close, and I think the Lord knew that we must have learned all that we needed from each other so it was time to split us up to help others :) so I´m excited to work with Hermana Martinez, she is the cousin of Hermana Sanchez! Haha now I will have double the reason to go and visit, El Salvador (hint hint mom and dad) Lol Just kidding, but I will let you know more about her next week.

      So some of the funny things that happened this week. So as you know I had nine months in the mission, and so what picture do you take when you hit nine months, that it right the pregnant picture, haha it worked great that all my tshirts are really big on my now because I have lost a good amount of weight, but I will send you the pictures next week, because with all the hustle and bustle this morning I forgot my cord to download pictures so I will send them next week. And like I told you I broke my chair yesterday. Yeah so we were planning last night and I just had a little shiver because I was a little cold, and Hna. Steinmetz got up to turn on the heater, but I told her no, and she told me yes, so I grabbed her arm, and I was trying to stop her as I was balancing on the chair, haha yeah lets just say, the legs broke and I went crashing down flat on my back, haha I couldn´t get up for a good 5 minutes I was laughing so hard, and because the air got knocked out of me. Hna. Steinmetz told me it was payback from God because I wouldn´t let her serve me! haha lets just say I learned.

     That and I did a good face plant this week and we were doing service and got a good scrape on my knee. So there is a less active member that we found this week, that doesn´t have a job, and not so much food. So after lunch one day, the memeber gave us extra bread and some cookies, so we decided to drop it off and give it to fabiola, so I put it on her door, knocked and ran, and lets just say I fell. But I got up really fast and we started walking away, and you could hear her behind us shouting "Elders, Elders" yeah we explained that we weren´t elders, but she was very grateful, and she gave me the opportunity to chop her wood!!!! Yes Finially someone who would let me do it!!!! She loves me know because I was able to do it! and now she isn´t cold!

      So you want to hear something really cool, so we had a noche de hogar (Family Night) with Fabiola yesterday, and she invited some friends and we got to teach them. The cool part is, Fabiola´s cousin who lives in Santiago came to visit and was there for the Noche de Hogar, and you will not believe this, SHE SPEAKS ENGLISH!! and what is even cooler, guess where she lived for ten years, that is right UTAH! She isn´t a member, but she is a really wonderful lady, and we had a good time talking about utah, and things that we loved. She was a CNA for primary childrens hospital for a long time, and lived in Sandy and lots of other cool things. She told me it was really good to speak in English again, because little by little she has been loosing what she has learned, so I promised her that I was going to write her in English so that she could read, and then write me back, and keep up the practice. And I told her about the power the book of mormon has to help her strenghthen her english more, and how I learned spanish really fast by reading the book of mormon, and she was like yeah of course, I would love a copy, so now we have her address in Santiago, to send the missonarys and I´m going to write her, it is so cool. It really is a small world after all, isn´t it!

        Some other cool things that have happened this week, is we have made Apostasy cookies! So let me explain, so we have the recipie for No Bake Cookies, and so to teach the apostasy we decided for a NDH one night that we would cut up the recipie and tell them to put the recipie together and make the cookies, and we weren´t going to help them. And the great part is they don´t know how to make the recipie because they don´t make them. So you watch them struggle to put it together and you keep telling them nope it is wrong, they finally give up and then we explain to them that it is hard to put something together that you don´t have the original recipie too. We explained after the death of Jesus Christ and His Apostles that is what happened the recipie was cut up and everyone tried to make it their own, but the cookie just didn´t turn out (and as we know no bake cookies don´t work if you don´t follow the recipie) So we explained about the restauration and how God had revealed the original recipie again through a prophet to guide us to make the correct cookie. It was a lot of fun and we have done it multiple times this week and people understand the great apostasy and the restauration through it. So now Hermana Steinmetz and I call them Apostasy cookies and not No Bake Cookies! LOL :)

     Well so to wrap it up, I´m going to tell you that miracles happen. Hermana Steinmetz and I have seen great miracles this week together, our numbers this week sky rocketed from what they were. What is the secret, obedience and faith. On tuesday for zone class, they gave us a challenge for the rest of our mission we would not loose a single day where we didn´t have a companionship study and a personal study, which is two hours of study, they told us even if we had to wake up early and sacrifice time to do it, do it. So Hermana Stienmetz and I promised to do it, and when Sunday came around we saw that we wouldn´t be able to study the two hours and leave to find Loretto and Bruno to come to church, so we sacrificed time and woke up at 5:45 and started studying at 6 until 8. And by the end of the day/week you wouldn´t believe the miracles that we saw we found 18 new investigators this week (The most I have ever had), and other great things, and all because of our obedience. Which goes to show, if we are obedient to what that Lord askes and do our part, He is obligated to do His. DO YOU BELIVE THIS? Because I sure do, and I promise you all that as we follow the example of Jesus Christ and do what He showed and told us to do we will see miracles in our lives. 

    Well I´m going to end the letter for now, and I will write again next week which more adventures, from a new sector. Remember always how much I love you all and I´m thinking and praying for you guys always! Please take care. 

    Con Amor Siempre, y Para Toda La Eternidad,

    Hermana Aubrey Jo England  

Week 29 in Chile - 08/13/2012

CAMBIO 5 SEMANA 5

 

Place: Cordillera, Chillan Ñuble

Companion: Hermana Steinmetz

Date: 13/08/2012

 

¡¡¡Hola Mi Familia!!!

 

          ¿Como Estan Todos? Wow this week has gone by so stinking fast I have no idea what to think; haha before you know it I´m going to be dying of heat in the middle of summer and Christmas will be here! Well this is going to be a bit difficult to tell you a few things that happened this week, because it is like a blur in my brain, haha if you want to know the truth I have my planner open and in front of me looking at what happened :) So lets get going and start from the begining, bueno here we go...

 

     So Monday, we went to the wonderful Lider, (haha which is walmart basically, lots of great value stuff) because we had to buy peanut butter, because it is so stinking expensive everywhere else, Lider is the cheapest you can get it, and even then it isn´t too cheap, but we are going to start making no bake cookies and leaving them for the less active members and members! :) So we went there, and we also met up with Hermana Brady and Hermana Mena because like I told you they had my scriptures! So haha that was pretty much our p-day going to lider and writing, but after we went out and started working, one lesson though was incredibally powerful with the spirit, that was so not me teaching.

 

     We went to a lady named Alicia, she is a nice lady, and her kids are members but not her, one because she isn´t married to the guy she is living with, and two she just won´t accept it. But we stopped buy and taught her a bit about the Book of Mormon and we also invited her to baptism, but she told us no, she wasn´t going to be baptized because it wasn´t something that she wanted. So this would be the part that I told you was the spirit teaching with me as an instrument, because I don´t know how the words came out of my mouth. But you know the story about the hearts that I shared in my farewell talk, well a few cambios ago with the help of Hna. Lopez and Elder Tuller we got it translated into spanish, and I have it in my scriptures so that I can share it, something told me I should share it with her, so I read it to her and I also explained how the meaning of the story to me was more that just a boy, and old man and their hearts but was a deeper significance of us, Jesus Christ and His Atonement, and well right after I explained that, I started telling her that we accept the piece of the heart that he has given us through being baptized, and I then told her that she was basically just looking at the piece that she was given by him, saying thanks and then tossing it aside, because she said no. I´m telling you right now Hermana Steinmetz eyes were like "what did you just say" and I was wondering the same thing, because I wouldn´t have said something like that on my own. But after I said, I invited her to take a copy of the book of mormon that we had, I told her on the very first page to write a question she wanted answered, and then to pray and start reading from the beginning, and she started warming up and told us that she would do that, and she is reading. But it was as though I wasn´t teaching that lesson at all, and being able to feel something like that makes you feel a bit humble and privileged to be an instrument and voice box for the spirit.

 

     Tuesday was a really great day. So the night before when we were planning we had made the goal to teach 7 lessons and find 2 new investigators that next day, and Hermana Steinmetz started looking at it, and said she didn´t know if we would be able to do that because she had never had that many before. So here goes that spirit thing again because I´m ususally not this blunt, (which buy the way has happened a lot this week) but I looked at Hermana Steinmetz and asked do you have faith? I then showed her the pictures that we put on our planner, they are both a picture of Christ, hers of Him as a Shepard, and me with his Resurrection, and started explaining that because he over came death and the death of all men, all things are possible, and if we just have a little faith and put our action into place and work hard we could do it, I promised her, then we got down on our knees and I said a prayer asking for his help because we needed it, and told him that we had faith, and we would do all we needed to. And at the end of Tuesday, guess what, WE DID IT!!! We taught 8 lessons that day, and we found 4 new investigators. It was a great learning experience for the both of us, and we have learned that it just takes faith, patience and action on our part to have a miracle take place.

 

      Wednesday, was a really good day too, we had interviews with President Humphrey, which is always amazing to have, he is such an amazing guy and very spritual. We also had classing with the assistants and Hermana Humphrey and learned some really good things. One thing got me a bit scared though, so there are 5 new hermanas coming this next cambio, which is next week, and Hermana Martinez was like "usted va a entrainar, usted va a ser una mamá" basically saying I was going to train this next cambio. But we are not sure because I was sure that I was going to kill Hermana Steinmetz because she only has one cambio left. But because the last cambio was just a simple switch of Hermana Rojas and me, this next cambio is going to be crazy and we don´t know what is going to happen! So I will let you know next week!

 

       So just a few more stories, sorry I´m running out of time, we just saw the time, and we need to hurry home, but we found some great people this week, we found Patricia and Mateo, who are a mom and son, we found them cleaning out their car, and started teaching them, and they invited us back this week :) But after we were done teaching them, we invited Mateo to help us with a service act, we heart attacked the neighbors door (who is a less active) and left an general conference ensign too. But Mateo helped us put all the hearts on very quietly, then we had him ring the door bell like crazy and we all took off running. Haha he loved it so much, and I´m sure the mom loved it too, to be able to see her son doing service like that! (and a good note for us!!) because she is going to remember this always! :) Also this week I gave my very first talk in Spanish! It was great! I talked about service and charity, and how we need to always serve and help others, it didn´t go as bad as I though it would, my spanish has improved a whole lot since my first weeks here! haha and this won´t be my last talk in Spanish! So I´m really excited for the next talk! :)

 

      Alright so a spiritual thought really fast before I take off. So I was reading my scriptures this week (haha in spanish :) ) and I found a really cool scriptures, it is in D&C 39:10, and then 11-13,15. But in 10 it talkes about after baptism and we have recieved the Holy Ghost we will "recieve a blessing so great as you have never known." I just sat there and I started to think about was the greatest blessing it that we can recieve, so great that we have never known, and as I sat there thinking, something told me to keep reading, and I did, and found my answer in 11-13 and 15 and it talks about how we have the great ability to go and preach the gospel, and to share the gospel. That is the great blessing, once we have recieve the gospel, we must then go out and share it whether it be as a missionary, acts or service, or whatever way you can think of, we have HIS BLESSING and HIS HELP to go and share this gospel. This week I have learned that as long as we have His help all things are possible and we will be given the ability to share this gran message! 

 

     Well that is that is it for this week! I really need to get going. We are going to learn how to make bread from Hna. Myrium, the lady that is renting the house behind hers to us. She is so wonderful I love her so much! and this isn´t any kind of bread, it is one chillean bread, and two Hna. Myrium´s bread! So I´m excited! Well I hope you always remember how much I love you all and that I hope that you remember that I´m always praying and thinking about you all always. Thanks for all you do! I apprciate it all! Now go out and share this great message with others! He will help you! Until next week!

 

    Con Amor Siempre, y Para Toda La Eternidad

     Hermana Aubrey Jo England 

    

Week 28 in Chile - 08/06/2012

CAMBIO 5 SEMANA 4

 

Place: Cordillera, Chillan Ñuble

Companion: Hermana Steinmetz

Date: 06/08/2012

 

Hola Mi Familia!!!!

          ¿Como Estan Todos? I really hope that you are all doing wonderful! So guess what, "Wonder of Wonder Miracle of Miracles" You will never believe what I have found, that is right my Scriptures!!! We had been calling the terminal all week to see if someone had turned them and no luck, so we pretty much gave up, well with the calling part, I was still praying; while is was wonderful and new to study only in spanish it was hard too, because not understanding one word here and there changed the whole meaning of the verse at times, haha oops :) But we were out working on Saturday, and someone called Hermana Steinmetz on our cellphone, and as we were walking all of a sudden she said loudly "No way!!" and handed the phone to me, confused of who is was, I answered and it was Hermana Brady, and she told me that just that day someone had turned in my scriptures to them! Miracle Right!!! But I have learned a lesson this week that Heavenly Father was trying to shout loud and clear which is I need to start studying in Spanish with my English scriptures at my side and not the other way around, and by doing this I know the gift of tongues and gift of the interpretation of tongues is just going to increase that much more. "No experience is a total loss if you learn from it!" :)

        This week has really been an adventure and we have seen some miracles this week. So first of all because I was sick and there was rain, I was stuck in the house for two days this week, yeah I´m sure you all can tell that I went a bit crazy being stuck there, but it was a bit ok because Hna. Steinmetz told me even though I wasn´t outside I could still prepare, and help look for people, so I organized the area book and did other things by preparing to look for people. Haha but after the third day, and Hna. Steinmetz looking at me trying to figure out how we were going to meet our goal, Because we had a goal that we promise President Humphrey and the Lord that we would find 10 new investigators and do 140 contacts, so it was a bit hard when she was out with members, haha basically I looked at her and said, "Thats it I´m going out, you need me, and don´t tell me you don´t, WE made a promise to the Lord and WE are going to accomplish it with His help." So from that point on I started going out with her and little by little the Lord has been blessing me with my health and I getting better slowly and slowly.

      There was one day this week that we went out and I felt a bit tired because I was still a little sick, so we went back to the house and she put in my ear drops and then went out with a member for an hour while I slept. Then she came back, sat on the bed and started telling me that she didn´t know how we were going to meet our goal and that she felt as though we missed people that we were suppose to find because we weren´t as obedient as we could have been. So I looked at her and I said, "Hermana do you believe in repentance?" She looked at me and said yes, but... I stoped her right there and said, "I don´t want to hear the word but, do you believe?" and she told me yes. Then I said, "I do as well, so let´s both get down on our knees right now and say a prayer asking for forgiveness for not doing all that we could." We both got down on our knees and said a prayer right there asking for forgiveness and the help and power we needed to complete the goal that we had promised, we then got up, and went to work, and the Lord has blessed us this week, we have found some good people, we found 10 new investigators and we were able to do our 140 contacts. Goes to show what being humble, a little repentance, and going to work to change what you did wrong can do, thats right it produces miracles!

       But there have been some really good experiences this week, many miracles, and some funny experiences as well, we have had a ton of laughing moments together the week, which has been so much fun. Haha like on Sunday, we were leaving for church and we had just left the house and I started locking the door, when all of a sudden Hermana Steinmetz said "Hermana wait I have to go back" And I´m think what is she missing, we are a bit late for church, so I started doing a mental check list: Bueno her hair is done, she has her glasses, name tag check, jacket check, skirt check, shoes che.. hold it! Haha she still had on her slippers and forgot to put on her shoes :) She told me something just felt funny :) We laughed about that one for a while. But have had many great experience together this week.

      Well that is pretty much it, I need to get going here in a bit, so I´m going to leave it at that for this week, because I need to start preparing for a talk I have to give next Sunday, aaah! Wish me luck! First talk ever in complete Spanish!! Please send your prayers, because we all know that prayers, faith, and action on our part bring about many great miracles, it has been proven to me many times this week. Well remember how much I love you all! Which is more that you all will ever know, so good luck with that! :) I´m praying for you always and I hope that all of you are doing great! So until next week with more adventures and miracles.

   Con Amor, Siempre y Para Toda La Eternidad,

   Hermana Aubrey Jo England

 

p.s There are pictures uploaded!!! A few more in the Hualqui Album, and a new album Cordillera! Hope you like them, we are going to take a lot more this week, it is our goal! and we will accomplish it! :)

 

Week 27 in Chile - 07/30/2012

CAMBIO 5 SEMANA 3

 

Place: Cordillera, Chillan Ñuble

Companion: Hermana Steinmetz

Mini Cambio: Hermana Brady

Date: 30/07/2012

 

Hola Mi Familia!

 

       ¿Como Estan Todos? I really hope that all of you continue to do, fantastically well. Well this week, I would like to say that I have learned so much; Nanny´s saying, "No experience is a total loss if you learn from it" has really taken effect in my life this week. I have had many experiences this week, and I have learned from each one of them, whether it was good or bad. So this week I have been a little sick, and because I was there was two day where I was pretty much commanded by Hna. Steinmetz to stay in the house and I wasn´t allowed to leave with her; I will let you know that made me go really crazy! I wanted to be outside teaching so much, and I was stuck in the house like a chicken, but I made the best out of it, and I studied a bit, slept and haha I heart attacked Hna. Steinmetz bed, it was fun. But I think the lesson I learn this week from all of that is I should have listened to my companion sooner and gone to the doctor or have at least rested the week before; we woke up at 5 this morning so that we could go see Dr. Gomez, and her office is in Concepcion, so it was about a 2 hour travel, but we went because I couldn´t really hear very well out of my left ear, for about a week it has sounded like I have been under 5 feet of water, so we went in because everyone I talked to, investigators, memebers and everyone told me to go, but Dr. Gomez told me that the inside of my ear had become infected from the cold I had, and the other ear was starting too, so I have been put on medicine, so I will get better, but as I said, "no experience is a total loss if you learn from it" right? I learned to not be so stubborn and go to the doctor sooner. haha :)

 

      But as you can see I had a mini cambio this week, it was really fun I went to the sector Libertadores, where Hermana Brady and Hermana Mena works, and Hna. Mena and I switched places for two days. It was a lot of fun to work with Hermana Brady, I learned so many wonderful things from her, and I am going to apply them into my life to help me become a better missionary. We had some really great lessons together, and one of my favorites was a contact we did. So there are times when you are walking around and we because we´re human we have to go to the bathroom, and because we were far from our house, we were doing a contact, a lady that told them that they could return the next week, but she was telling us that she didn´t have any time, but Hna. Brady after she heard that was like, alright but can I ask a favor, and I use your bathroom, and she said sure. So while Hna. Brady was using the bathroom, what happens to the other companion? they are sitting on the couch with the familiy :) so as a good missionary I took that opportunity and started to get to know that family and started teaching them right then and there. It was awesome, we taught them about the plan of salvation because there grandma died a few months ago and their grandpa is on his way too, but we taught them about this plan and how their family would be alright if they follow it, the spirit in that lesson was very strong. Like I told you I learned many great things from Hermana Brady this week, and bonus, Hna. Brady cuts hair, so she cut my hair for free, and gave me some layers, it is awesome, especially since it is someone who speaks english and I can tell her exactally what I want :) 

 

      Well I have learned so much this week. I had some really good studies as I was reading my scriptures, but haha a little glitch that happened this week, which is a bit sad, but we are working on is that, on the way home from the mini cambio and all the hustle and bustle I lost my english scriptures, so right now I am reading in Spanish. I guess the only thing i can ask is pray for me that I will be able to find my scriptures, and if not the people who found them will become converted my some miracle, haha :) No we are working on find them! Miracles happen! :) But this is a blessing in disguise I´m going to get a lot better at reading spanish, I can alright understand 80 to 85% of what I´m reading so hey, hey I´m going to improve a whole lot faster si? si!! 

 

     I learned so many great things this week as I was reading, and I few things I learned was in D&C 24:7-9, 24 and these are the notes that I wrote down from those verses. "Remember that this is no ordinary calling! This is a calling from God the supreme creator of all things living, and He has given you a calling, don´t worry about the temporal because He will help you, instead always ask how will what I´m doing help me out in the eternities? andifit doesn´t help don´t do it! It isn´t worth it! Trust in God, He will help you through all afflictions and is right by your side. He will magnify your calling if you allow Him too." vs. 24 "Think about how special your calling is! Think about the time you have been saved for! The second coming is at hand and you ahve been chosen out of billions upon billions of people to be here in this time in this place for this purpose. Trust in God, because He has His full trust in you that you can do what He knows you can do." And a quote by C.S. Lewis, "The Lord said we were gods. How long could you bear to look without times lense, on the greatness of your own soul, and the eternal reality of you own choice." Awesome huh!! I learned so much this week, we all need to remember no matter what our calling it, as a missionary, bishop, primary worker, or parent, whatever the calling is, it is no ordinary calling and is a calling from God, and if you put your trust in Him and He will give you the strength to do all that you need to! I promise because I have seen it in my life. Look who as learned Spanish! That is a miracle! Haha. 

 

    Well I hope that you all continue to do amazing! Remember always how much I love you all and I hope that you all remember that I pray for you always. Please take care and I will write you again next week with more adventures! Love you all! Remember "No experience is a total loss is you learn from it!"

 

  Con Amor Siempre, y Para Toda La Eternidad!

   Hermana Aubrey Jo England

    

Week 26 in Chile - 07/23/2012

CAMBIO 5 SEMANA 2

Place: Cordillera, Chillan Ñuble

Companion: Hermana Steinmetz

Date: 23/07/2012

Hola Mi Familia,

¿Como Estan Todos? I hope that you all are continuing to do amazing! I´m just going to be a little bit honest right now, this letter is going to be a bit shorter than the rest of the letters that I have sent, because I´m just a little bit sick, and so Hermana Steinmetz is pretty much ordering me to stay in my bed today, except for the few things that we have to do, because I have just gotten worse this week, because I was very stubborn and told her that I was fine and that we were going out to work, and so now I´m paying for it a little bit, but no worries I´m going to be just fine it is just a little head cold, and we are going to nip it in the bud before you know it, especially because I have a stubborn companion just like me who is making me stay down, haha fighting and kicking all the way :) No I have starting listening now, so it will be much better real soon! :)

But this week has been a really good week, the first wonderful thing is drumroll please..... we had a baptism, SOLANGE SE BAUTIZO!!! It was a really wonderful baptism, and she is such an amazing lady, and has a very strong testimony. One of the strong testimonies that she has is about the Book of Mormon. So as we know there was a huge earthquake here a couple years ago, and after that huge earthquake, Solange was never able to sleep, ever, and was always tired, but when she got the Book of Mormon from Hna. Rojas, she was promised that she would be able to sleep again. The first night she read it, she said she read a bit and as she was reading she fell asleep for an entire hour, and she felt so happy, then the next night three hours, and it kept building up to where now she can get a full nights sleep and she doesn´t need sleeping pills. Isn´t that amazing! The power of the Book of Mormon is so real, if it can help me learn spanish, it can help anyone do anything.

Well this week we had a mission conference, and it was freaking amazing like always. President Humphrey and Hermana Humphrey are so amazing, I love them both with all my heart! We learned a lot of great things to help us become better missionaries, such as how to study better, plan a bit better, and how to give commitments better. It was very inpirational and I am working on applying everything that I learned. We had lunch there which is always good, we had half a chicken, and a baked potato, and bread, and then a awesome bannana bread dessert which is amazing. The conference was pretty much all day, and then we went to terminal to take a bus home but because it was the weekend, the bus didn´t leave until 7:45, so we didn´t get home until about 9:15, but that was alright Hermana Steinmetz and I did a lot of contacts as we were waiting.

Well I´m going to kind of end it there but I want to share with you a cool thing that I read today that I really loved. I was reading a conference talk by Sister Dalton, from the YW general conference, and she said something I really loved, change that, everything she said I loved, but this is what stuck out to me the most as I was reading it this time. "If you desire to make a difference in the world, you must be different from the world... When you live the standards and qualify for the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost, you can have a powerful impact in the world. Your example, even the light in your eyes, will influence others who see your “shine,” and they will want to be like you. Where do you get this light? The Lord is the light, “and the Spirit enlighteneth every man through the world, that hearkeneth to the voice of the Spirit.” A divine light comes into your eyes and countenances when you draw close to your Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. That’s how we get the “shiney”!" I really loved this, and it is so true, we each need to remember that we have a light to share, so what do we need to do, SHARE IT!! Remember that you can make a difference, it is in each of us to make a difference, our Heavenly Father has put His entire confidence in each of us, that is why we are here in this place at this time, because He knows we can change the world, if we just believe in ourselfs and put our confidence in Him. He will help us through all! I can and do testify of that because He has helped me so much as I have been here, and continues to help me accomplish all my goals and I know He will do the the same for all of you!

Ok looks like I need to do a bit of repenting because I lied, this letter is a bit long, but I´m sure all of you will forgive me, haha! :) I hope you all remember who you are! And I hope you all remember how much you all mean to me, and that I love you all more than you can ever imagine, that is one of the many reasons I am here, is for all of you! Remember that I pray for each and every one of you every day and night and always, that Heavenly Father may bless you with the blessings you need. I love you all so very much, please take care, and I promise that next week I will have more wonderful adventures from Cordillera!

Con Amor Siempre, y Para Toda La Eternidad,

Hermana Aubrey Jo England

Week 25 in Chile - 07/16/2012

OCHO MESES EN LA MISIÓNPlace: Cordillera, Chillan Nuble
Companion: Hermana Steinmetz
Date: 16/07/2012Hola Mi Familia!!!


        ¿Como Estan todos? Can you believe it!! I already have 8 months in the mission! Entonces haha Happy Chili Day! Where in the world is the time going? It is so crazy!!! Wow well this week has been absolutely amazingly fun! I really love my new sector, Cordillera is a beautiful place, the thing I had to get use to though here is it is more of a city, and many cars, yeah I have had to be a bit more careful crossing the street. And hear this the coolest thing ever, we are pretty close to the mountains, and there is SNOW!!! I´m so excited to be able to go one p-day and play in the snow, I have missed it so much, because Christmas there was like no snow whatsoever, so I haven´t seen snow for a long time, and this christmas there definitly will not be snow since it will be summer, so i´m sure you can see my excitement! :)   My companion is amazingly, fantastic!! We hit it off really well, really fast, and I know that Hermana Steinmetz and I are going to have a lot of success together, I´m so excited, our personalities are casi 100% the same, which is really crazy, how often does that happen, where you are put with a random companion and you hit is off really well, the first day, it is great. Bueno a little bit of information about Hermana Steinmetz, well she is from Houston, Texas, she has the same tick day as I do, so today she has 16 months in the mission, yeah lets just say right now I will probably be the companion who kills her, because she is almost finished, it really is crazy how fast time passes, we need to cherish every moment that we have. But so something cool about Hermana Steinmetz and I is that we are 1 of the only 2 gringa companionships in the mission, all the other companionships for the hermanas are either one latina and a gringa, or two latinas. So we were both thinking about that the other day, and we decided there is a reason that we were put together at this time, as one of the only gringa companionships and we are going to find those reasons why, together!


     The house in Cordillera is amazing! It is really big, too, I promise that I will take pictures and send them to you next week, because I forgot the cord to download them. But it is a great house, and the amazing thing, there is hot water!! In Hualqui, there wasn´t hot water, you had to boil it, and the shower was electric, (where as here it is gas) so you really had to play with it to even find a little warm water, but it is so amazing to have hot water, I will never, ever, take hot water for granted again, I think I forgot what it felt like after six months, but never again will I take it for granted, because it is a blessing to have. Oh the only thing that really scares me about this house is the stairs, they are tiny, my feet are bigger then the steps, and they are steep, haha so pretty much I was crawling up them so I wouldn´t fall for the first few days, but now it is getting better with more practice, and I learned you just have to go down sideways, so ahora it is really much better, but they are still a bit scary. Haha so the other day for exercises Hna. Steinmetz and I did a P90X dvd that one of the other Hermana´s left for her, and all I can say is I was so sore the next day, it was so crazy, but it was somewhat of a good sore, haha.


     We aren´t the only two hermanas in the house, we live with two more hermanas in the house who are in the sector Anagronamia (It think that is how you spell it), they are Hermana Daglio, who is from Argentina, and Hermana Martinez, who is from El Salvador, and get this is the cousin of Hermana Sanchez, it is awesome! But they are so much fun, and are full of a lot of energy! I love both of them so, so much! I want to thank you for the package you sent me, there was a lot of cool things in there, and Hna´s Martinez y Daglio, loved the pop rocks and the silly straws. Haha so I am probably just a little bit of a joker, (I learned that from you, mom and dad.) but this morning, Hermana Daglio came in to our room after she woke up, to tell us hi, well you remember the sour cry baby gumballs you gave me, well I gave one to Hermana Daglio and told her it was gum, which wasn´t a lie, and she put it right in her mouth and started to chew it, and you should have seen her face it was one of the funniest things in the entire world, it made me laugh so hard, but then I had to run down stairs after and told her sorry, and then she told me that we have to do it to Hna. Martinez tonight, which she is excited about. haha it is just really funny because they don´t know what it is because the wrapper is in English, and I´m sure Hermana Daglio will get me back so we are even.


    There are so many funny things that have happened this week, it is like a comedy movie in our house. When I first got here, it was funny I started putting my stuff away (Which was so crazy to pack by the way, it is crazy what you obtain in 6 months) but I was upacking and I saw a little bug or something on my bed, and I said, "Hermana Steinmetz what is this" she came over looked at it really close, jumped back quickly, and yelled, "THAT´S A PULGA (flea), THATS IT WE ARE CALLING ELDER CLAWSON RIGHT NOW FOR PULGA SPRAY" haha oops looks like I brought a few fleas with me, Hermana Steinmetz has never been bit and she wants to keep it that way, it was just funny the look on her face, when she say that it was pulga.


     The people here in Cordillera are amazing! I love the barrio, they are tiny, about 70 active memebers, but each and every one of them are great and I´m excited to work with them! And the investigators are great too, there is Solange, who is really funny, and I love her, she has a fecha for her baptism this saturday, so we are very excited for her and finishing teaching all she needs to know. There is Juan, and he is great too, he has a lot of faith in Christ, There is Elva who is a new convert and she is awesome I´ve grown very close to her already. There are very many people here, and I know that I´m going to have are really great time here. One of the things that was really cool this week, was we were teaching this lady named Anna, she has a store that she works in, and that is where we were teaching her, Hermana Steinmetz was teaching and I was thinking "what in the world am I going to say, what does she need". So I said a little pray in my heart and that was when a scripture came to my mind that I had studyed that morning, which talks about gifts from god, so I began talking about that, and I can´t tell you everything that I told her, because I don´t remember all I said, but I knew in that moment I wasn´t the one teaching, the spirit was using me as an intrument to teach her what she needed to hear, and I invited to her to be baptized, which I hardly ever do in the first visit, because I´m just getting to know them, but something told me i had to invite her, it was the coolest feeling ever to be in an instrument in the hands of the Spirit.


      Well I can´t think of too much more, but before I finish I will leave you with a scripture that I came across this week that I love. So this cambio I have started reading that Doctrine and Covenents and all I can say is it is absolutely, fantastically amazing, there are so many treasures to be found in these revelations, but the scripture I found this week is in D&C 6:14,18-19, 36 which says: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee,blessed art thou for what thou hast done; for thou hast inquired of me, and behold, as often as thou hast inquired thou hast received instruction of my Spirit. If it had not been so, thou wouldst not have come to the place where thou art at this time. Therefore be diligent; stand by my servant Joseph, faithfully in whatsoever difficult circumstances... for the word´s sake... Be patient; be sober; be temperate; have patience, faith, hope, and charity. Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not." I really loved this scripture, because it just shows us that we are each where we are in the point of our lives because God has plans for us to be where we are, we just need to be diligent, faithfully, not doubting that through Him we can absolutely do all things, because He was the one who has permitted us to be here at this time specificly, to touch the lives of people that are around us. Well I hope that all of you are continuing to do amazingly well, and I hope all of you always remember how much that I love you all, and that I pray for you all always each day and night and always. Please take care and this next week will be more wonderful news from Cordillera. Until then take care!


  Con Amor Siempre, y Para Toda La Eternidad,
   Hermana Aubrey Jo England