9-25-11

Monday: We spent some of the morning cleaning. While we were going
through a box of trash that has accumulated over the past months, we
found a starfish corpse. So, of couse, we posed and took pics. :) We
went to write the family early. The whole city was shut down. But we
had asked the people, ahead of time, if they`d be open. they`d said,
"yes." Hno. and Hna. Solar passed us and took us there. It was closed,
which was lame. We went to Mauricio`s office above the cyber, and
waited. Hna. Solar invited us to her country house to have a
pre-lunchy, before we went to Hna. Rodriguez`s. They were fighting
over us! Our lunch with Hna. Rodriguez and her family was delicious.
We had all of the yummy Chilean food. Empanadas. Kabobs, pastel de
choclo, and everything. It was so good. We wrote the family while we
were there. Alan sent me another email full of good memories. Mom and
Dad are well. Jon is back with Lindsay after his training. The family
watched "The Best Two Years" last night. They said they thought of me.
We did contacts in the evening. We got into one house, and found
another lady that wants us to come back tomorrow. All in all, it was a
very successful holiday weekend.

Tuesday: Today was an absoluetely wonderful day. It started out by
going to the Distrizona Meeting, where I got to see Elder Lisonbee for
the first time in 2 weeks. In my District Meeting, I did a Practice
where on person had to do contacts to everyone, but the "elect" would
have to be spoken to 2 times before accepting the Missionaries. But
while elder Gomez was pretending to be a wheezing man, causing all of
us to laugh, Hna. Velasquez "the Sister I`d chosen to do the ocntacts)
thought we were laughing at HER. She started crying and left. But she
was okay, afterward. Then, the Assisstants came with mail! My leather
Scripture cases, LIndsay`s package, a nd Cassie`s (friend) letter all
came. My spiffed up scrips. had trouble fitting in my little bag, and
I knew I`d have to buy a backpack. But then I found on ein Lindsay`s
pachage, alkong with Velveeta shells! AH! My favorite! Cassie`s letter
was awesome. My Scrip. cases are SO legit. We found a family in our
contacts, where both parents listened, and we got a return appt. We
did lots of walking. Ever since we found that new Villa, my gluteus
"beautimus" has been getting it`s butt kicked. That was an ironic
statement. Haha. We taught English to Sabrina and all of our other
appts. fell through. I talked to Elder Burch. He`s tired of his
sector, of his comp, and of the Mission. He doesn`t know why he`s
there, in San Pedro. I gave him some scriptures, and som epages from
Preach My Gospel, to read.

Wednesday: Today was an excellent day. I`ve been having lots of those
lately, ever since my friends and parents helped me learn to see the
good in every situation. We got up, and I loved studying with my new
cases. They keep the pages open. :) We studied How to work with
Members, something I`ve never been able to master. So we`re going to
try and gain the members` trust and get them excited to be part of
this great work. We`ll teach the lessons to the members and practice
with them, to help them learn how to present the invitation to
ppeople. I called elder Calaway before lunch. He`s still awesome. Our
first appt. fell through, but we found some others that went pretty
well . We tried to visit one guy, but his nanny shut the door in our
faces, before we could ask if he was home. That ticked me off. I mean,
I was frustrated. We did a contact, and the guy said he didn`t have
time but was genuinely interested. We visited a less-active member.
She said she wants to go to the Temple. We set up an appt. with the
Bishop for her interview. and we told her about General Conference. We
set things up with her visiting Teachers to help her for that. Hna.
Pinar was depressed when we visited her. She needs to "charge her
batteries" at the Temple, she said. I spoke with her for a while,
sharing scriptures, and had her laughing as we left. I love helping
people!

Thursday: I`m getting worried about Jorge. We haven`t seen him since
last Tuesday. We had an appt. with him today, but he called two hours
beforehand to cancel with us. Dang it! He`s so close! I don`t know
what to do, to help him. We NEED to teach him, but he seems to be
running away from us. Anyway, we did our studies and learned some
really cool things about the çAtonement. We did our weekly planning
and then watched "The District" for more study. We had luncyh with
Hna. Roa. She loved my leather scripture cases. While I wasn`t
lo9oking, her daughter, Javiera, sewed my sleeves closed. haha. Then
we did divisions with Santa Barbara and Eler Barton came here, to work
with me. He`s really cool. He`s form Provo and went to Provo High
School. He knows all the places I know, back home. We taught Sabrina
the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. We had our appts. fall
through, so we did contacts before heading to Comitè. Hno. Garcia got
kidnapped by his Home teaching companion and we were left with free
time. Which is just as well, because Hna. Quiroga came and asked me
for group0 game ideas for the Youth. There, I was really blessed
because I had been through this experience in Hualpencillo.l I was
able to give them plenty of ideas. That`s what Church callings do. We
ende dwith a visit to Hna. Gloria. She`s fine. But she has some doubts
we have to answer another day.

Friday: Today was a good day. I really liked being comp. with Elder
Barton because of how new he is. No offense to Elder Zuñiga, but it`s
just that he already knows everything. Haha. For our study, Elder
Barton and I listened to some talks that I have: The trilogy of
Schousen, and Elder Holland`s "mission" talk. then I helped him learn
how to teach the Plan of Salvation. He needed a LITTLE help with his
Spanish, but he`s got a lot of it down. We had lunch with Hna. Quitoga
and her non-member Husband. No Missionary has ever been able to get
his trust, or be his friend. But I think I know what I can do. She
invited us over on Wendesday to teach ehr daughter english. She
mentioned, for some reason that her husband had an ipad, but didn`t
know how to use it. Do I see this as God`s hand in the work, putting
my nerdiness to use? Yes. yesd, I do. we switched our comps. back and
we went to teach a new investigator, Hector. He has a lot of questions
about God. First question:Why did Jesus havew to die in such a
horrible way, on the cross, for us? Wow. Jump right to the heart of
it, why don`t you? But we shared a little of the importance of
prophets and how god works through them to bless us. We ran out of
toilet paper, and had to dash to the Super Market before going to Hna.
Pinar`s to pick up the clothes. We found som eother good new
investigators, too.

Saturday: Today was a great day. We spent the whole morning lending
service to the local Cemetary. It was a stake project, but only 15
members showed up. But all of the Missionaries were there! We got to
clean up weeds from graves--chilean graves are just concrete boxes,
about a foot above the ground, with dirt in it. Those that were poor
are just piles of dirt. Yuck! But we had a good time working together.
We got to wear those spiffy yellow "helping Hands" vests. They said
they might get our photos into the Liahona. While there, we saw a man,
who was obviously not a member, sitting at a recently-deceased woman`s
grave, while some candles burned. My hijo and I went over to him and
taught him the Plan of Salvation and how our families can be together
forever. He was mourning the loss of his mother, but he told us he
wasn`t interested in what we`d said. I guess it depends on everyone to
accept it ofr not. But what bugs me is that the Catholic church
recently started teaching about Eternal fAmilies and how they`re a
given--not an ordinance. So lots of opeople assume that everything`s
gonna be peachy after death, no matter what we do here. Ugh! We found
Lily and her family again. We got to know her husband, Ernesto, and
taught them part of the Restoration. They want to come closer to
Christ but want to take it slow. I spent the whole day trying to learn
how to say things like a Chilean gangster. It`s hard. Haha.

Sunday: Today went really well,. I think the MIssionaries are finally
getting the Ward`s trust again. Actually, while we were doing contacts
in the afternoon, we heard a honk, and turned to see the Rodriguez
family across the street. They had been watchin gus for about 5 min.
in secret! They`re our friends, but still. The thought of people
monitoring us for the slightest misstep is nerveracking. Anyway,
Church was great. Jorge didn`t come, but Gloria did. she`s had doubts
about Sunday School, because she doesn`t understand much. But she
loved it today. She would ask a question and everyone would help her
learn. And she did! the Bishop gave a really bold talk. There were
parts where I thought he crossed the line. Like when he condemned a
Sister because she had a big house but her husband wasn`t baptized.
Ugh! Our lunch forgot about us, so we ate with Hna. Pinar. W had fish
sticks. In our sector, there aren`t a lot of houses. So we`re knocking
the same ones every 2 weeks. They don`t know my co9mp. but they see my
red hair and tell me, "I told you no last time." I`m like, "Lady, I`m
offering eternal life with your family!" They don`t understand, so I
won`t give up on them. It`s not as hard as it used to be.