Week 67

Oh my goodness gracious. So we had a LOT happen this week!

So first off, I found out that we will not have to work in the Elders' sector anymore because Elders Wilson and Neilson are just going to take care of both because President will be reopening the sector in five weeks. Whew! Dodged a bullet there!

I went to Rancagua for a meeting in the mission home to meet my new companion. One of the newbies left the room running because she had to go to the bathroom so bad, but she couldn't be alone, so I went after her. As she was in there, I could hear the assistants announcing the companionships. GAAAAH! I missed the first part of it. But that´s okay. 

The group only had two latina sisters. The rest were Gringas; All fresh-faced, bright-eyed and bushy tailed. 

I met my companion! As I thought, she´s a Gringita. Her name is Hermana Fowers from Plain City Utah (close to Ogden ...Spell check...) 

Aaaanyways, so I´m teaching Spanish this cambio! WOOT!

Hermana Fowers is so chill. She´s just got like a ¨come-what-may¨ attitude about things. She´s told me that she worries about the Spanish, but for a greenie, she already speaks it pretty well! She understands very little, but she´s very brave when she speaks. =D

Also, Hermana Fowers twisted her ankle really badly in the CCM, so she has a big, black boot. She has to have it on for six weeks. We can´t ride the bikes now, and Hermana Warne just told us to take colectivos (taxis) everywhere. I´m sooooo stressed about money right now because it´s expensive to take colectivos. D= President Warne said that they would reimburse me if money was that tight, though. Thank goodness. Because the only food I have right now is a bag of flour and some oil in the house. If I´m really hungry at night I make myself some bread.

So Hermana Fowers and I have had a number of adventures this week. We had the Reunión de Nuevos on Tuesday, had to travel to Rancagua for a zone meeting on Wednesday, went to a leadership meeting on Thursday, and stayed overnight in Baquedano on Saturday to go to conference the next day. Travel is so expensive. 8(

But we've had our share of tender mercies this week. Example: We were standing in the street trying to write down an address in our planners, and suddenly from behind us we heard the ticking of a bike slowing down. We turned and there was a guy with two strawberry popsicles. He handed them to us on the driveby. He kept on his merry way and all he said was,
¨¡Chao!¨

Okay then that was random. =D God takes care of His daughters.

Then in the same day, we had to go almost all the way to Villa Esperanza for an appointment, and we had no idea how we were going to get there on time without taking another colectivo. Suddenly a colectivero pulls up and says, ¨¿Para donde van?¨ (Where are you going?)
I told him not to worry about it because we weren't planning on taking a colectivo, and he said, ¨Don´t worry about it. Your friend has a bad foot. Free of charge.¨

Suuuuuuch a tender mercy! We got to the appointment on time and had a lesson with a lady named Lorena. She´s been investigating the church for four years and never once went to church in all that time. We asked her questions about her experiences with the other missionaries and she said that they all invited her to be baptized. Like they were trying to force her. We asked, ¨Why do you think that the missionaries all invite you to baptism?¨ She paused for a minute, then she said, "I actually don´t know."

So then we explained baptism; The importance of it and what blessings we receive by it. She said, "You know what? My husband and I kept all of the commitments that the missionaries left for us except for going to church on Sunday. I can't really say that it´s not a good thing if I haven´t even done it. So not this Sunday, but either next Sunday or the one after my husband will have the day off. And we´ll go to church."

Hermana Fowers and I were like, ¨What the whaaaaa?¨

Mi-la-gros!

Oh! Here´s another miracle! 

So remember Denise? The lady that we found in Buin? SHE GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got the news from Hermana Vera when I went to the leadership meeting on Thursday.  Not only that, but whenever we went to visit Denise, her husband would go upstairs. He didn't really want to have anything to do with us. But I just got the news that now he wants to be baptized, too, because he wants to get married to Denise in the TEMPLE!!!!!!!!

I was so happy when I got the news. I probably looked like a crazy person jumping around and squealing like a 12-year-old girl at a Twilight expo.

Seriously, though. The joy that I had inside of me was something so profound. I still feel it when I think about Denise and her family. I´m so grateful that I got to be a part of this mission at this time and that I was able to participate in helping Denise and her family to one day become an eternal family. I hope to return to Chile one day to see them. :´)

So about the drunk guys:
We were in a colectivo heading to the sisters´ house in Baquedano and my comp sat in the front and I was squished in the back between a lady with a kid and a drunk guy. The colectivo his a bump and it scared me, so I gasped. He looked at me and smiled and bumped me with his shoulder and said, ¨Did you get scared?¨
I was like, ¨Oh gosh.¨

He stared at me the whole drive with this weird grin on his face. When the lady got out of the colectivo, I tried to scoot over as fast as I could, but I didn't realize that the guy was sitting on my skirt! So when I scooted, three of the buttons ripped off. Now I've got a slit that comes up past my knee and I can´t use the skirt until I find new buttons. Baaah!

On the second occasion, it was the middle of the afternoon and some guy stumbled out of a boteleria with a beer in his hand and went stumbling after us and yelling English words at us. We didn't pay any attention to him, and we weren't too worried because there were a bajillion people around us. Then we hear fast footsteps and ¨PERMISOOOOOO!!!!¨ and he comes flying between us to separate us. So we took a different path, but he sidled up next to my comp and tried to talk to her. I told her to get on my other side and we pretended to not speak Spanish. So he got bored after like ten seconds and walked the other way.

Adventures of the mission...

So the mission has changed its lingo once again and we will be using all of the key indicators from Preach My Gospel again! Before we were only using five, and two of them were baptismal dates and Temple. So really we were only using three of the original indicators. 

So this will be fun. We´re putting a huge focus on lessons with members present, so we've been making a lot of phone calls to find out schedules and work out those logistics. =D I´m excited!

Lastly, we went to Cristobal´s house (one of our converts) last night and we taught him how to teach the Restoration because he wants to be a missionary one day, and he´s already sharing what he believes with his friends. That kid is such a champ. He saved up his own money to be able to go to the temple two days ago and do baptisms for the dead. He´s so good!!!! Anyways, so we turned the lesson into a three-way practice between Hermana Fowers, Cristobal and I. We got to the Great Apostasy, then we had to stop there because we were short on time. 

Then something awesome happened.

The mom said, ¨This missionary, Elder Cristobal, made me fall asleep. So next time you come back to our home, I am going to teach the Restoration and show you how it´s done!¨ Cristobal said, ¨You can´t explain it!¨ She said, ¨So I´ll learn it. And I´ll show you.¨

She COMPLETELY opened up right there! I have never seen Cristobal´s mom so animated. She called her husband and they gave us a ride home. And all the way the mom was laughing and super fun. She told us in private that she wants her husband to start taking the lessons, so she´s planning a Family Home Evening for this coming Tuesday! =D WOOOOO!!!!!

So that´s that for this week! Working hard, finding new people, the works! Hermana Fowers is awesome. She´s so diligent and she´s soooo easy to teach. She learns so fast, too! 

Anyways, that´s all for now.

Chaoooooo! I love you! 

-Hermana Darley

First day in the field! Hermana Fowers and I.