Week 36

I have a TON to tell everyone about this week.

We got the calls for Cambios (transfers) two days ago. Hermana Peralta is going to a sector in San Fernando and being put back in a companionship with Hermana Curo. She was the comp of Hermana Peralta the transfer before me. So that's kind of weird.

I was told that I'm staying here in Santa Cruz...

And I'm TRAINING!!!!!!

Oh my gosh. I had a mini freakout moment, and then my legs felt like jelly. Seriously. I didn't quite know how to deal with the emotion of the moment. 

I've been in the mission 8 months (as of August 3rd), but I still feel like I just got here.

That being said, I'm kind of nervous about training a brand-new missionary. But I'm also super excited! I loved my trainer because she was awesome, so I want to be an awesome trainer as well. :D Also, Elder Judd and Hermana Chapman from my first district in the CCM (MTC) will be training as well. I'm one of three missionaries in my zone who will be training. 

I'll be heading to the mission office in Rangagua tomorrow to meet my greenie. hehe I don't know whether she's Gringa, Latina or from a country entirely. But from what I've been told, there are six Hermanas coming to the Chile Rancagua mission, and only one of them is from North America. So I have no idea. I just know that I'm super nervous and excited. 

In other news, we had nothing but torrential rain all this week. It was crazy. Chile was going through a dry spell last cambio and we were told to fast for rain, and boy did it rain. But we headed out to work every day anyways. I discovered that I have tiny holes in the soles of my boots, so my feet are almost always wet. I need to buy a pair of rainboots this week or my feet are going to disintegrate. They're so wrinkly and swollen by the end of the day.

We discovered that it's impossible to walk side-by-side on the sidewalk when we're carrying umbrellas, so I usually walked in front of Hermana Peralta.

Also, this week we were walking down the street to go visit somebody and heard somebody yelling "ATRAPALO!!!! ATRAPALO!!!!" behind us. (Get him! Get him!) We turned around and Hermana Peralta immediately plastered herself to the wall next to us to get out of the way. But I had a split second of "duh, what?" so I stood there for a couple of seconds to look at who was coming; it was a purse snatcher in an orange hoodie with a security guard in hot pursuit. (Well it looked more like he was tiptoeing after the guy, but I just wanted to say "in hot pursuit." hehehe) I saw the following few seconds in slow-motion because I had no idea what was going on. 

I would like to say that I totally pulled a Batman and stopped the guy in his tracks, but in my moment of "duhhhhh" I heard the high-pitched wail of Hermana Peralta, "HERMAAANAAAA!"  So I snapped out of my trance and side-stepped, and the two guys blew past me. In the end, the thief got away. Lame.

A couple days before that, we saw a dead guy on the sidewalk. He was covered with an orange sheet. Apparently there was a hole in the concrete. He tripped, his his head, and died of blunt-force trauma on the spot.

I did divisions with Hermana Perez this week in Chepica. It was one of the most interesting divisions I have ever had. We were on bikes all day for the second time in my mission. Chepica is so small and the maximum attendance each Sunday is between like 12 and 16, but the sector is overall awesome. 

Also, miracle moment! 

Two Saturdays ago, it was really windy and Hermana Peralta and I were heading to a lunch appointment. Something blew into my eye and stuck. No matter I did, I couldn't remove the stinking thing. I don't know if it was a bug or a wood chip or what. But it felt like it was literally stuck in my eye because it wasn't moving around. I felt it kind of up back behind my eyeball. It hurt SO much.

The hermana who gave us lunch and her family gave me a long list of suggestions on how I should remove the thing from my eye. I tried everything. I rubbed, rinsed, put eucalyptus under my eye to make me cry, and nothing worked. It hurt to blink or to move my eye around at all. 

We went back to the house after lunch and called the Elders to give me a Priesthood blessing. They came at 3:00ish and started talking to me about how I needed to call the nurse and quite possibly see a specialist. But I said, "Give me the blessing first, and we'll see what happens."

So they laid their hands on my head and gave me a blessing of healing. It was beautiful, too.

Once the blessing was over, I blinked a few times, and the pain was COMPLETELY gone. I didn't even feel the stick/bug/rock or whatever it was. Absolutely nothing. I was SO happy!

Priesthood blessings work, guys. Trust in them.

Iiiiin OTHER other news, da da da daaaaaa!!!!! Amador was baptized on Saturday and confirmed yesterday!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! The mission president attended and gave a welcome to Amador. He really was a golden investigator. And now he's a golden convert! YAAAAAY!

In his testimony for his baptism, he said that we are his angels. That phrase has been used before; when I was in the baptism of my other convert Adan.

I'm so grateful for this opportunity to be out here in the mission field and be somebody's angel; to see the joy and gratitude in people's faces. There are not many feelings better than that.

I know that missionary work is the work of the Lord, and I couldn't be happier for being part of it.

Anyways, that's all for now.

LOVE YOU ALL! CHAO!!!!!!!!

P-Day crazy faces

Amador's baptism!!!!