March 29, 2016

Summary:

We've been getting creative lately with finding new investigators. As I'm writing this letter there is this guy standing behind me and my companion smoking and trying to tell me us his life story in English... so it's a little hard to concentrate... But anyways, so we've been trying to work a lot with the members. The ward is full of awesome members! They're just really not used to working with the missionaries. It's kind of like the missionaries do their own thing and work hard and then if someone gets baptized the ward realizes they need to become friends with them. So we're trying to change that! It's something I wish I would've know before serving mission!

Hermana Garcia is doing awesome. I sometimes can't believe she's only been here for a month, especially when I think about how I was doing when I was a month into the mission! We get along really well and I'm learning a lot from her.

Junior (The man that stopped us on the street last week) went to church on Sunday. After the Gospel Principles class he asked which church is the true one. The Mamani-Leon family got wrapped up in their work and school and really haven't been reading or praying or going to church. :( We really don't want to lose them, but sometimes you've just gotta do all you can do and let it ride from there. 

Spiritual Experience:

Yesterday we taught a man. He didn't let us talk much, but he had SO many questions and all of them are answered by explaining the restored gospel. I was thinking about it afterward, and I realized that I've probably acted the same way with the Spirit. God always has the answers, but sometimes I just don't stop to listen and hear it. 

Funny:
Here  on the weekend they have la feria, which is like a giant fruit market where everyone goes to buy their fruit and vegetables. We thought it would be a good idea to go contact in la feria because there would be a ton of people and we could give out all the pass-along cards, pamphlets, and pictures of Christ that we have in our closet and never use. So, we set up a little table and started handing the things out. It was going alright, but we couldn't really hear anything because all of the the sellers were yelling about how cheap and awesome their fruit was. "BANANAS 50 CENTS!" "WATERMELONWATERMELONFRESHWATERMELON!" and stuff like that. Later, the elders showed up. Next thing I know, I look over towards the table and Elder Tehani, an elder from our ward that's from Florida was holding up the bible images and yelling, "Amor de Dios. Gratis!" I don't know if it's because he didn't know how to speak much spanish or what, but later I was thinking about what I would do if I was in the United States buying fruit and some foreigner was there yelling "Love of God! Free!" haha Hermana Garcia and I were laughing so hard that night thinking about it. Everyone all yelling about fruit, vegetables, and fish and then out of nowhere they hear, "Amor de Dios! Gratis!"

March 22, 2016

Summary:

It's been a good week! We found some good people, but I think one of the 

biggest struggles here in Nunoa is the fact that the people are so busy. Generally, we will visit investigators and then have to wait a week or two to see them again. 

We were able to go to the temple today! It really is such a blessing to have the temple in our mission. I live only about 20 minutes away!

Spiritual Experience:

After a looooong day of contacting and LOTS of atheists, we were finally headed back to the apartment when we heard a voice say "Excuse me!" I looked over and saw a guy walking toward us from a street corner that was kind of dark. At first I was a little scared, but then he said, "Sorry, I don't mean to scare you, but I need help. I need to improve my relationship with God." I've waited a year and a half to hear somebody say that! He continued saying that he recently seperated from his wife and felt sad about it so he started to drink. He knew it was a bad decision and wants to stop before it gets worse. We have a lesson with him on Thursday.

Funny:

Here in this area there are a ton of buildings and apartments and they all have a little shack with a guard that watches the people go in and out of the gate. There's always a button on the shack that opens the gate to leave. The other day we were leaving a lesson, and my companion didn't see the switch that opens the gate and goes, "There's not a switch here to open the gate... Oh! Here it is." and reaches in the window and turns off the light. haha! I was behind her and saw it all coming and tried to stop her, but when I realized I couldn't I watched the face of the guard that was sitting in the shack. He looked so confused and scared! Some girl just came up and turned off the lights on him. haha.

March 15, 2016

Summary:

This week we had Zone Conference and it was awesome! We learned about the importance of studies and listening to the Spirit. We also learned about how to overcome pains and afflictions, both physical and emotional. One of my favorite parts was a message that Hermana Morgan shared about the Lord's promises. She made me think about many of the promises that the Lord has made to me in my patriarchal blessing and other blessings. I realized that a lot of them have already been fulfilled or are being fulfilled as we speak! We also had a Stake Conference on Sunday. Elder Russel M. Neslon spoke in Spanish! He spoke about the Sabbath Day and keeping it holy. 

We were able to find a couple of new hermanos to teach this week! Another random thing is that we ran into  Maria Jesus! She's the lady we were teaching and she had accepted a baptismal date and then we completely lost contact with her. She's moving to the U.S.A. in just a few days and wants to recieve a blessing before she goes.We also met a man that was baptized a couple months ago in another city and wasn't able to review the lessons after his baptism. His name's Manuel. We also contacted a lady that just happens to be the good friend of one of the ward missionaries of our ward! She wants to go to church on Sunday and told us that all she really wants to do is come closer to Christ. There really are no coincidences. (Is that how you spell that?)

Spiritual Experience:

Lately, I've been trying to improve the charity that I have towards others. It's an attribute of Christ that I know need to work on. While trying to keep an eye out for service opportunites, we spotted a lady that was carrying a bunch of bags of groceries into her house all alone. We ran to help. As we got to her doorstep she says, "Why don't you guys stay for a little while and talk to me about Jesus?" We responded, saying that we would love to. She turns out to be a very sweet, humble lady, and she is truly looking for the truth.

Funny:

There's a less-active family in our ward that is always willing to give us lunch. I think every single time I've eaten lunch with them, they've told their 5-year-old son, Cristobal,  not to spill the beans on what we're going to have for desert. I don't know why, but his parents just really like it to be a surprise for us. Cristobal always tells, though. The first thing he said when we stepped into their apartment yesterday was, "Today I'm not going to tell you what we're giong to have for desert." Ten minutes later he talks to himself and says, "I just want to finish my food so that I can have my pineapple ice cream.... Oh woops!" haha!

March 8, 2016

Summary:

It's been a weird but good week! It really is a blast working with Hermana Garcia. I can't believe she's in her first transfer. I wish I would've come to the mission field as prepared as she was! Everyone's starting school and college here in Santiago, so a lot of the lessons were cancelled. It gave us some good time to find new people to teach! We also did exchanges on Wednesday with our Hermana Capacitadores! I learned a lot from Hermana Reynolds. Spending the day with her made me realize that we've both changed a lot since we met each other in the airport almost a year and a half ago. On Sunday, Sion and Gsunming (two of the Mamani-Leon girls) went to church. They are still progressing but we're going to have to visit them less frequently now that they're in school and the university. 

Spiritual Experience:

Yesterday, we ran into a lady that's a Jehova's Witness we contacted about a week ago. She was walking into her house and we stopped her and asked if we could share something with her. She said yes! We were able to explain a little of the restoration of the gospel and set a new day to come back. Right after that, we ran into a Catholic lady that we contacted I think on the same day that we contacted the Jehova's Witness. She also let us into her house to share a message. Then right after that, we went to look for an address of a reference. The reference didn't live there, but we asked the guy that answered the door if we could come in and share a message with him. He said yes! He said he's Atheist, but was very, very nice and receptive. Anyways, in the nighttime last night I was laying in bed thinking, "Man. Today, in less than three hours we were able to share a message of the restored gospel with a Jehova's Witness, a Catholic, and and Atheist. And to me, it really has all of the answers to all of their questions." There really is nothing better than sharing the good news of the gospel with all the world!

Funny:

The other day, we finished a lesson a little late. We had to run to get to the apartment on time. We were literally in a full sprint when this random guy passed us and says all casually, "Hermanas. I invite you to a party." We've been laughing about it all week!

Hermana Gonzales and Hermana Christensen moved out, now we live alone. 

Exchanges with Hermana Reynolds and Hermana Mendoza. 

March 1, 2016

Summary:

My new companion is Hermana Garcia from Guatemala! I took a picture, but this internet hut doesn't have a cable thing to connect the camera. There's only one other missionary in this mission from Guatemala, so I always tell her she's a delicacy. haha. She's 20 years old and just the greatest. She's also the second oldest of four children of all the same ages, with the difference that the youngest is a boy.  Honestly, the new missionaries are coming into the field way more prepared than I was. On Wedesday, we had a satalite-trasmititted meeting with Elder Bednar. It was so inspiring! He said so many things that I really needed to hear. The kids in Chile started school this last week, so everyone was running around really busy. We weren't able to see the familia Mamani-Leon, but we did lots of street contacting! 

Spiritual Experience:

In our meeting with Elder Bednar, they talked about talking about the Atonement of Jesús Christ and how it applies to literally every problem. Later, in a lesson, we came to a point where neither of us knew what to say. The words from the meeting came to my mind, so I pulled out a pamphlet about the Atonement and we just started explaining a Little bit about it to the Hermana. Her whole attitude changed and she finally felt something different. I think all of our testimonies were strengthened that day. 

Funny:

The other day we were eating lunch with some members. The littlest son just stood up and left the table and the dad says, "Brace yourselves. He's incredibly tired." All the sudden we hear his voice, "SOMETHING IS HAPPENING TO ME!!!!!" and we look over and he's got his hulk outfit on and he's jumping from couch to couch knocking over all the furniture. The hermano was all, "Seriously... he always acts like this when he's tired."

Here is a picture with Hermana Martin, Hermana Bartholomew, Hermana Christensen, and Hermana Reynolds who all started their mission together on Oct. 8th 2014.  They go home on March 28th. Kylee will return 5 weeks later in May.