Maybe if you guys are interested I can send only you two a diary of my day to day life and a shorter mass email every week. Lol. I think you guys are the only ones who read my emails anyways!
Wednesday:
As missionaries, we go to ward council. It is actually one of my favorite parts of the week because I love seeing the ward leaders work together to strengthen the ward and work out problems. They also give us a lot of time to talk about our investigaters too. Super interesting, the topics they pick to discuss. Tonight an issue came up about whether the pregnant women should have to be assigned to do clean the church. After comments from every leader, the result is that they should ask the pregnant women if they would like to participate. All I could think about was Amy on that exercise routine and gnarly diet when she was pregnant and Kristi wake boarding when she was pregnant. Maybe they are just dont have the Pulsipher strength in them. But I really do love this ward a ton. When I go to church, I feel like I am with my second family!
Thursday
Ive been really focusing and consecrating my thoughts (or at least trying to) and I can really feel the power of God more presence in our day. The other night we were knocking doors looking for someone and we mistaked the door for another person and were able to meet Elisa. A really nice woman who told us to come back the next day when she want busy. So we did just that. We went by today and it was almost miraculous how easy we entered her house and one by one her daughters started to leave their rooms to talk with us and the three of them just sat there and stared at us for a really long time, asking us about a million questions and paying close attention to our responses. I bonded with one of the daughters Carolina, who is studying dentistry right now (24 years old) and the other Fernanda (18 years old) sat there so intently engaged in the conversation. The three of them (mom and two daughters) had a different light about them. The mom who is a school teacher, talked to us about how different children are now a days and how down hill things are going in the family. I felt a really sweet spirit being able to testify of the families that are centered in the gospel of Jesus Christ and of the values that His church teaches the kids, youth, and adults in a constantly changing world. They were quick to allow us to come back and share about why this is the true restored church of Jesus Christ. The only bad part about the lesson was when Hermana Cutler told them that she thought Chile was a really REALLY poor country before she came here. Chileans take huge offense to this, she says, “No but like I thought Chile was really really poor, like Ecuador.”Ooooh I felt real bad for her I tried to save the comment but it didnt go so well. She only said it because we had recently just looked out a photobook of an inactive member that served in ecuador like 50 years ago and it was super humble. Its gotta be just as established as Chile in Ecuador.
Its kind of funny because we had just come from a terrible appointment. We had brought a haitian investigater Jackson that was reciently getting to know the church to the house of a haitian couple who are investigaters and are ready to get baptized, they just need to get married. We started to teach the lesson, ask questions, and Jackson was not paying attention. We put on the restoration in french (his native language), he didnt even look at the screen. Bekens and his girlfriend (the other firm haitions in the gospel that are being taught right now) bore their testimonies and this guy STILL WASNT PAYING ATTENTION! It made me so mad because he had been so receptive just a few moments prior to this lesson. I pictured this guy getting dunked in the baptisimal font. Anyways, to top it off this guy jackson stands up and starts yelling his beliefs in our and bekens and andinas faces. Saying, Ï DONT BELIEVE IN RELIGIONS, MY BODY IS MY CHURCH! JESUS CHRIST IS IN ME, I AM A PROFET!”Like dude what? Bekens and Andina start to LAUGH at this guy and Jackson goes on preaching to us for about 20 minutes. No one could shut this guy down. Pero bueno. Asi es la mision a veces.
Friday
The perfect word to describe today would be tranquilo. Everything just worked out really nice today. With every one of our appointments we basically arrived at their house the same time they were arriving. But something I especially liked was that we kneeled down in prayer with everyone that we taught today. Everytime we kneeled down in prayer with them I felt like I was kneeling down in prayer with my family back home. It was really special. I really love to just love our investigaters. When people have desire to know God or change their ways, it is so easy for me to have charity for them. But something that Im not so good at is having love for others who dont try to understand what we teach, dont do their part when we leave their house, or people who just kind of lead us on. Its hard to tell if its the spirit telling me its not their time or Satan disanimating me trying to get me to not work as hard on those people. I love Cutler a ton, but we have our problems too. But I continue to love her and not hold resentment for our open communication. Right after we leave lessons we are able to openly communicate about what we need to work on when we teach together. She really understands the gospel and loves to share every part, but sometimes she forgets that we are a companionship. I tend to forget to back her up on explaining something when it doesnt sit clear or finding a word in spanish. There is so much I lack, and so much I want to improve but Ive been so thankful for my companions and everything they have taught me and helped me to overcome my weaknesses!Note to self: communication and wanting the best for others are the keys in relationships.
Saturday
Today one of the highlights of my day was seeing Linda's nose. We visited a less active peruvian today and she had the exact same nose as mom!! The conversation stopped for a brief moment and I say to her, “You have the exact same nose as my mom.”and she tells me, Öh really? I seemed to notice you were staring at me weird.”That peruvian is really cute and so is my momma back home and im excited to see Linda's nose in 6 months.
The other highlight of my day was visiting Benjamin. He is a less acive member that is seperated his wife (temple marriage) and has lost all hope in his life. His wife removed her papers from the church, has so much hate in her heart for Benjamin, and teaches her kids that God is an elephant with 8 legs. Not even joking. How do you get to that point in your life? Youve had the spirit testify to you a million times in your life and you get to a point where you believe in an elephant God. I read in the BOM today a verse about people who are baptized and then fall away from the church harden their hearts 100x more than others who havent heard the gospel at all. Im definitely going to ask president for more clarity on that and how we can achieve getting to their hearts and softening them. But with Benjamin today we taught him the hope that Jesus Christ gives us and to experiment just a little bit of faith. At the end, we knelt down with him and his kids and he whispered in his little sons ear as he repeated the prayer. It has been awesome to already see the little changes in him.
Sunday
I really love this ward. A ton. Heavenly Father has blessed us with so much “success”here. We have helped the members and established confidence and friendships. The ward council gives us half of the ward council meeting to talk about missionary work and our investiagters and we are finding so many amazing people to teach everyday. Today Jose had his baptisimal interview and passed! He was so cute, I always get really excited for him and he always makes fun of me for smiling super big and waving my arms in the air for his baptism. He is a really awesome guy. We are super excited for his baptism!You know it was a good week when you feel like your legs are going to fall off. Im dead tired. Its my second change with Cutler but we are bringing the energy to this sector.
Benny the asian came to church again today and he is the sweetest guy ever!! We shared a hymn book and every time I looked away from it he guided me back to where we were singing with his finger. Also, when Cutler got up to bear her testimony he took out his phone and started snapping pics of her like he was a proud dad. I wonder if thats a problem in the churches in China because asians love to take pictures of everything.
Monday
Today I was very sassy. I love the second change with the second companion because the real personalities always come out. But my reasoning as to why I was sassy was because we were fasting and in the zone meeting they passed out shishcabobs and kettle corn and it was 12:00 in the afternoon so I asked Cutler if we could end the fast and she said no. It wasnt that big of a deal but I was really hungry and didnt see the point in waiting one more hour until lunch. In the end, I saw her reason. She is so dilligent in being exactly obedient and it is something I need to learn from her. Dont get me wrong, I love being obedient but there is the letter of the law and the spirit of the law (thanks garebear) and It has been hard to find a balance of that with each companion.
But today we taught a peruvian family about the restoration of the gospel and they actually understood that the church of Jesus Christ is the only church with the priestood!!I think we finally found a way to teach others in a way that they really understand the importance of the message. Obviously there are prepared people who are going to open their hearts and have a better understanding but this family started out only believing in God and not religions but THEY ACCEPTED A BAPTISIMAL DATE BECAUSE THEY UNDERSTOOD THE PRIESTHOOD! I think the two things that I have loved the most in the mission are when people understand the importance of this message and when families unite and progress into becoming an eternal one.
Another highlight of the day was going to our recent convert Rodrigos house and setting a date to meet back with his mom! She is going to come to the baptism this week and church, and then we are going to talk in her room with her, just us GIRLS. This is why I think I stayed in Parque this change. I love this family so much and I have so much faith that they are going to continue to progress one by one!
I love my Heavenly Father so much. I am nothing without him. I am so thankful for all that He has blessed us with here, this is without a doubt His work. I have always heard people say that but now I REALLY understand what it means. By listening to the spirit only He can put people in our path, only He can put the right words in our mouths, only He can give us some of the love He has for His children so that we might love these stubborn chileans too. This guy yesterday came up to us and was SO rude. He kept dominating the conversation, and defintiely got His point across after the 5th time he said to us, Ï will raise my family in my own way, they are fine without your church!”Like chill due all we said to you was Hi. After passing him a card and telling him he is always welcome to come to church anytime, I thought I was going to walk away super angry, but I actually felt a lot of peace and hope that He would find his way back to the Savior. I really love how much peace the gosepl brings to our lives. With the knowledge of the plan and love for our Savior, we dont feel the need to hold hate in our heart, or hold grudges against others.
Tuesday
Good day. Ate a lot of food. Pancakes, subway, chocolate chip cookies, lemon pie, sopaipillas, and pancakes again.
We went to go see a peruvian woman who has been taking lessons from us and had SO MUCH DESIRE to know which chruch was the true church. Literally, the most desire I have ever seen in someone. We went to her house 2 times every week, planned for lessons with her, taught her, and prayed for her tons. But she never did anything. Never prayed, never read, and never came to church. So many excuses my gosh but we tried our very best to help her. Today she killed us. She told us that she is going to just baptize her kids in the Catholic church. She knows nothing about the Catholic church... I was so confused and so upset with the whole situation. Faith in Jesus Christ is the first principle in the gospel but if you never put it into action, what is your faith good for? That is something that has been really clear for me here in the mission. A lot of people here have faith but what are they doing right now in their lives to help that little seed of faith grow and become something greater and more useful.
Wednesday
It was Darianna Rincons birthday! All of the missionaries who have taught this family plus their companions, 20 missionaries, went over to their apartment to celebrate! Oh this family is everything for me, and its a family that just keeps giving. Their uncle is getting baptized this saturday and now the bestfriend says, [Im kind of catholic, but i want to be a mormon- member of the church.[ And they want to move to the U.S. So mi sure we will have many more of these [missionary reunions[ with their family in the future! I love venezuelans so much, they are always smiling and trying to give as much love as possible to others!
Thursday
So usually the haitians live in one big ghetto house but it is all divided so that they can have their own rooms and such. Thalie )recent convert= lives in one of these houses but the house owner is this drunk man who always steals from the haitians and asks for extra money to buy drugs. He is really terrible to them. Well, we go to Thalies today and he greets us at the door and says, [Hello, are you guys from the church in the street Magdalena Vikuna_[ and we answer, [Yes, but that church is closed right now, we assist the one in''''[ )cuts us off= and he says, [well too bad this house is closed to you guys too
