Week 40

First off, Hermana Alvarez says hi.

Also, I would like to share a fun fact! 

Remember the horse in the Dreamworks cartoon "The Road to El Dorado"? His name is "Altivo". His name means haughty or arrogant. :D Spanish is fun!

Speaking of El Dorado, for today's Preparation Day, we went to the museum of Colchagua (Spell check? haha) and it was AWESOME!!!!

They had a bunch of exhibits with ancient animals including dinosaurs, mammals, and marine animals. And they had this SWEET Megaladon jawbone. My gosh I was in shark nerd heaven. I was so awestruck with the jawbone that my companion and I got left behind by our group and we had to run to catch up. hahaha

As for the artsy part of the museum, there was tons of stuff from Incans, Mayans, Aztecs, Mapuchans and lots of other cultures. Precious gems, jewelry, swords, armor, tapestries and gold pieces that were so beautifully crafted. It's crazy how creative people were even in the old days.

There was also an exhibit of the 33 trapped miners in Chile. Admittedly, I was emotional when we walked through that part of the museum. It was so beautiful. They had all of the original letters that the miners sent to their families, Chilean flags with motivational quotes and family photos. They also had the pictures, names, and a lot of the personal items of the 33 miners. It was awesome. I want to go again. :D 

Best part: We four Hermanas that live in my house got in for free because one of the guys who restores the exhibits happens to be the recent convert of Hermanas Demetrio and Vorwaller. YAY!

In other news, as of September 3rd, I hit 9 months! We know what that means! HUMP DAAAAAAY!

Yep. I am in the middle of my mission. Holy popcorn, Batman. I can't exactly say that the time has gone by fast, but I can't say that it's gone by super slowly, either. It's weird. I actually feel more like I've been a missionary with a nametag forever. Like, " Yup. This is my life." 

Yup yup. This is my life.

In other news, all of Chile is preparing for the 18th of September. It's like our 4th of July. Their Independence Day.

By Chilean law, all houses have to have a Chilean flag out front, of the people living there have to pay a fine. So we will be flying the "star and stripes" out front this next week. :D Chi chi chi! Le le le!

As far as teaching and lessons go, we found some future investigators who seem promising. And we found a new investigator yesterday. Her name is Fresia. Her husband is a less-active member that we found about two weeks ago and he told us that his wife was interested in the church for a short time. When we went to teach them The Restoration, we asked inspired questions to make sure that Fresia could understand what we were teaching. 

When we came to the part where we told about Joseph Smith's first vision, Fresia's husband started to cry a little and even laughed. We felt the spirit pretty strongly. His wife was completely stony-faced up until that moment, then her armor cracked. We could both see that she felt something. After we introduced the Book of Mormon to her, she said, "Now I have something to say." 

She told us that she flat out didn't believe what we were saying, and that she didn't like that we asked her questions because she doesn't participate in "our religion." Then she said that she is Catholic, she will be Catholic for the rest of her life, and she will die Catholic. But it was interesting because the way she said it indicated that she actually had felt something during the lesson. But she shook it because she didn't want to accept a possible change.

She finished by saying, "I don't trust in you, I don't trust in any other religion. I only trust in God." 

Before we could reply, her husband jumped in and said, "Okay. Then if you believe in God, then do what these girls are telling you to do and ask God if these things are true. And if you really trust Him, He'll answer."

Fresia nodded and stared at the floor. Hermana Alvarez shared a scripture about feelings of the Spirit, then we ended the lesson with a prayer. 

We have a return appointment to go back to their house this coming Friday.

That's pretty much it for this week. Thank you SOOOOO much for all of your love and support!

-Hermana Darley

Sri lankan money from Hermana Rajapakse (the back side)

HUMP DAAAAAY! IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MISH!

Megaladon Jaw!!!!! (For those of you who are not familiar with sharkies, it's basically a monster version of today's Great White.) This thing could eat me without even having to swallow!

At the museum! We so classy. Here is my "blue steel" look. jajaja