10-30-11

Mon: Today was a good Pday. Hna. Roa invited us over, to spend the day
at her house. We helped prepare breakfast and clean up a little bit.
We had an appt. with Jorge, but he cancelled 10 min. before. I don`t
know how to help him if he doesn`t let us. We visited a new
investigator, Irma, and her friend, Claudia. Claudia had had a fight
with some of those close to her. We tried to cheer them up with the
Gospel, then i told them to get some ice cream together. It makes
everything better.

Tuesday: Today was a good day. the Zone Leaders called me and said
what my clas was supposed to be. nothing really exciting happened at
the Distrizona meeting. We had lunch with Hna. Briones. She gives us
so much food! It was like a war between my will and the confines of my
stomach.For our language study, we had to doa grammar test online. I
got 100%! I know Spanish! Lilian couldn`t meet with us today. Her
cousin was killed on Saturday. That`s why she didn`t come on Sunday.
She hadn`t slept at all, last night and was almost too drowsy to think
straight. She`s still smoking, and we`re trying ot help her quit. On
our way to do contacts, we heard someone knocking their window. They
invited us in. It was the house of Sara, a little old lady that had a
picture of Elder Mcconnell in her house. She`s dead now. Her
granddaughter(member) had let us in, to give a blessing to her mom
(non-member). We did, and they both commented that they had been just
the words they`d needed. Later, I was showing a video to my comp. A
man came out and said he didn`t like us standing in front of houses. I
asked if he would prefer that I stood in the middle of the road,
`cause you can`t NOT stand in front of houses. He shut up and went
inside. I was ticked! But then I felt bad afterward and repented. We
visited Ernesto and Lily. We taught them about the Holy Ghost and
Enduring to the end. They were very receptive. We`ll see how it goes
when we teach them the word of wisdom.

Wednesday: This morning, I was looking through my journal, to see when
we had visited Sara, the recently-deceased lady. It was on july 28th.
She died on Aug1st, 3 days later! that`s so nuts! I hope we were able
to help her be prepared for the Spirit World. We didn`t have
companionship study, because our investigator, David, was only
available at 10:30. But after ourl ong walk over there, we found that
he wasn`t even home. But, fortunately, Hna. Pinar lived close by, and
needed some help. My Hijo knows, or at least, is studying, Electronic
Engineering. Hna. Pinar mentioned that she loves listening to the
radio, but only one speaker works. My hijo took the speaker apart, and
fiddled with the wires, and then it worked! he`s a stud. We had lunch
with Hno. Bravo. He doesn`t believe that completos count as lunch, but
we usually order them at the restaurant he takes us to anyway. Today
he said, "You`re not going to order completos today." So we complied.
I had pork! We went to Santa Barbara to interview a potential convert,
Margaret. She passed! Interviews are so special for me. i love hearing
the process of the candidates` personal Spiritual growth. In the
evening, we had scheduled to teach English to Hna. Quiroga`s daughter.
We called to confirm. She didn`t answer. we went to Hna. Pinar`s house
to ask if she had other numbers for Hna. Quiroga...and we found Hna.
Quiroga there! The Lord guided us! We had an unproductive time with
contacts. I finally found a way to listen to Grandpa`s funeral
service. I can hear mama talk and sing, and Daddy said the closing
prayer. It was a really long prayer :)

Thursday: This week has gotten really stressful as of late the
Mission President wants to baptize a lot this weekend, so we`ve had to
change things up. I`ve been working closely with my District, and
we`ve been making the most progress in the whole Mission! elder Gomez
is a really hard worker, and so are the Sisters in Nacimiento. We had
our Weekly Planning Session. Now that ALL of our Investigators have
dates planned out, we were able to plan more accurately. We hadl unch
with the Bello family. When we went by Lilian`s house, we found out
she was at the Cemetary. Dang it! We tried going by Jorge, trying so
hard to help him get baptized this weekend! He wasn`t there either. We
tried to visit a lot of inactive Members, but no one answered. We ran
into Hna. Roa and she talked to us for a LONG time. We wrote up our
Progress Report and went to Comité. Hno. Garcia´s so funny. He sounds
like the white, cartoon dog with the orange upff of hair. We helped
make Completos with the Young Men and Women.

Friday: Today was an exciting day. Yu, that`s a good word for it. We
got up early to walk to the Bus Terminal. On all of the other
occasions when we`ve had to travel, I`ve always bought my tickets a
day in advance. But this time, I forgot. Elder Gomez arrived first,
and said they were almost gone. So we ran there in our suits ( Elder
Gomez didn`t have money to buy tickets for us). The trip itself was
uneventful. I thought it would be more of a presentational meeting.
Nope. Pres. Martinez got up and told the new missionaries it was their
time to compliment and complain about their trainers. It was a report!
I was sweating bullets. Thankfully, my hijo didn`t have anything to
complain about. We`re doing all the things we shoudl be. Whew! I was
really happy to see Elder Arjona and Hna. Alanis. they`re some of my
really good friends. Oh, and Hnas. Bair and Miller, who both went to
Timpview. I picked up mail! I got a package from the family and
letters form Estee, Chanel (who`s been called to serve in Portland,
Oregon!), Bitsy, Muzna, and 2 from Cassie! One`s for my Bday! All of
those letters made me so happy! We had to ride home in the
Assisstant`s truck and van...all 18 of us. All the buses were sold
out. Most fit, but my hijo and I had to ride in the metal bed of the
truck for 3 hours. Ow. I opened my package and found a whole lot of
wonderful things.

Saturday: Today was a really good day. We got to go to Nacimiento
(which means Birth) first thing in the Morning. There, I had to do two
Interviews with some 11 year-old boys. The first one was really
distracted. I kid ou not, the kid was craning his neck all the way
back and looking all around the room except at me. But he answered the
questions correctly, I guess. The other kid, Jerson, was less-familiar
with the Gospel (less time), but he was focused and had a wonderful
testimony. We got back in time to have lunch with the weird family
with 9 cats. They had a nephew visiting them. I swear that kid`s sick.
During the prayer he was calling everyone morons and that we were
stupid. He`s like 6. His mom asked us to give him a blessing, and we
did. But he was constantly moving. We even had to start over once.
Nuts. We were the only ones that showed up, out of the Elder`s quorum,
to clean the Chapel. So we lost 2 1/2 hours of work. Lame. Paola is
busy the whole weekend, because a visit arrived. Ernesto and his
family are going to temuco, so they won`t come to church, either. We
passed by Lilian`s house, and found her in the street, locked out of
her hosue. We talked for a while, and I gave her a few of my American
sweets. :) We found an old couple that really wants to go to Church
next weekend. We taught Hector the Sabbath Day. He knew we had to rest
but didn`t know to Sanctify it and dedicate it to the Lord. He`ll come
to church--next week. He already has an appt. with relatives tomorrow.

Sunday: today was something of a discouraging day. Lilian promised us
that she`d go to church today. We passed by her house in the morning,
but she didn`t answer, and her neighbor said she had left to some
river. and Hector didn`t come. Neither did Ernesto and his family. I
was depressed. There was a young man, that was invited by a member,
and who was interested in the Church. Buyt we found out he belongs to
another sector. Then we found out that Paola, our really great
investigator, is also form another sector. *sigh*We visited Lilian
after lunch and found her outside...smoking with her friend. Because
she didn`t go to Church, her baptismal date changed to a time after
transfers. If I go, I won`t be able to see her get baptized. We did
contacts for the rest of the Afternoon. It was SO dang hot today.
after 10 min. my legs were dripping with sweat, my skin was burning,
and I was fidgety. Not a lot happened during contacts. We got back to
the house as elder Burch called us.We let him drop off his stuff. Then
I got some sweets out, and delivered them to Hna. Pinar because I love
her so very, very much. I wrote a start to my response to Cassie. I
was feeling down, but she made me happier through her words and
Testimony.