March 9-15‏

Last week I was walking with my companion and I was singing the camp song that goes like this, “I said a BOOM CHICKA BOOM! (Repeat…) I SAID A BOOM CHICKA ROCKA CHICKA ROCKA CHICKA BOOM!! (Repeat…) OH YA!! (repeat…) AUHH! (Repeat…) ONE MORE TIME!!!!! (Repeat…).” HA HA HA LOL!! It was so funny! And then that night we had a “Festival de Cancions” a night were all the members shared their musical talents, and Hermana Aguilar asked me to sing it for them at the last minute to entertain the audience as all the musical numbers were getting ready. It was kind of embarrassing but of course I did it…you know me!! We sang it fast, then slow and then girly-girly style!! Haha the girly-girl part was more like a solo…but everyone enjoyed it! Now my companion and my Zone Leader, Elder Benitez, calls me Chicka Boom!:D One night my companion had fallen asleep as I was writing in my journal and my companion started talking in her sleep and said “I said a Boom Chicka Boom.” LOL haha Then for the ultimate zone party Elder Benitez insisted that I teach all the missionarys! What a curse! This song might follow me for a while… I would like to take a moment and thank my dad for this special moment, (wipe a tear…sniffle…sniffle) for all the crazy camp songs that he taught me! Haha

Wahooo! Hermana Aguilar and I are together this change too! She is super! We are working hard and I’m learning a lot! The mission is difficult and I feel like there is never enough time to do everything that is expected on a daily schedule plus all the extra. Especially because of the language barrier it takes me twice as long to understand everything. My President gave me some good advice to not let the barriers that the investigators present scare me! I’m going to apply the advice to the language barrier too. I’m going to t I’m remaining calm and trying not to let it get the best of me. It is difficult to serve a mission, but I LOVE IT SO MUCH!! There was one day that I was talking to my companion about all the things I needed to work on, and I felt so useless that I thought it would be better to go home. But in this moment I felt the comfort of the Spirit, and the love of my Savior. I felt that everything was going to be ok and that he loved me more than I knew and that he was pleased with my work. In reality I need to be pleased with all I know and understand with only being here in the mission for 4 months. Wow 4 months in Chile, and 6 months in the mission! Yikes! I’m almost a third of the way finished! I understand what everyone is saying and understand the stories in general. It is hard to understand when people are joking and laughing, or using slang when I don’t understand and I don’t want to stop them having fun to explain everything to me, but then it’s bad to just sit there and stair too so I’ve come to the conclusion to learn the freakin’ language. Really it’s so difficult. I don’t have much time to study, and having time to study the language is never a priority for the Latins so everything I have learned is in the homes and streets of Chile, and reading the Scriptures, and walking around with study material in hand to study any chance I get.

We have been teaching Mirium, a woman that was excommunicated, and her boyfriend Jaime, that is not a member yet. They are both really great people and I have great hope that they will join the church. He has a lot of great questions which is great because she teaches and shares her special testimony with him and it builds them both.My companion and I had a fun time working out this week because we went running to the church and exercised in the gym. My companion gained a lot of weight here in the mission to fast and now it is bothering a hernia that she was born with. We had a member check it out and now we are going to work out more and eat less and drink more water. Because the president gave her the option of losing weight or going home to have surgery and I told both of them that that wasn’t an option.This Sunday was absolutely amazing because my companion and I were able to see the fruits of our labors. There were so many people that attended the Sacrament meeting that it was full to capacity. As I sat in the front of the chapel that day ready for my talk, I couldn’t help but have the biggest smile on my face. Alan, Sebastian, Hna Regina, and their grandparents the Alvarez family was there as a complete family as well as Yenifer’s family. I was super content because Hermano Manuel Yañez attended the church after 5 years of not attending because of work and other things. Hermana Sandra de Yañez was so happy and gave me a big hug afterward and started crying because she has always wanted her kids to be baptized in the church and for her family to be eternal in the temple. She was so grateful that we have been teaching her family the importance of baptism, prayers and putting all their faith in Jesus Christ to find a better job to reactivate the dad so he can baptize his son Favion. We helped him remember his baptism and the time he baptized the oldest son and now he has the desire to baptize the three other. My joy overflowed because they are one step closer to baptism and having that eternal family! :D It was a fast unexpected answer to all of our prayers.

Then Fernando Astorga attended the sacrament meeting for the first time! All of the ward members greeted him warmly and he left after the second hour because of all the information and all the members that he wanted to go home to absorb everything that was said. It was super special to have a lesson with him and Hermana Loreto de Venegus because she shared her testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel through her conversion story. Lessons with him are really special because he asked us not to prepare anything just talk about the spiritual things and help his doubts as they come. I love his easy going personality and his honesty, and his questions and his desire to know the truth by reading the scriptures. I know he is going to get baptized and have a special priesthood calling in his future. He has so much potential.

This Sunday was so cold with all the rain and wind, and I was thankful that we were able to find new investigators that took us into their home and gave us herbal tea and chocolate to ward us up. The father is inactive but has a testimony of the Gospel and the church and wants his family to join. He is a marine physical therapist and works in the hospital for the elderly adults to help their strength just like my dad and I! Ha! Being a marine and a physical therapist reminds me of one patient that I was working with that always called me sergeant because I would always say “Breath, Breath!!” as she would exercise because she would hold her breath.

Love Hermana Wade