Week 69

Hey hey, USA! ;)
So this week I was just thinking this week of how blessed I am and how I need to count my blessings more often. It's one of the quickest ways to escape the salon of self-pity when one is feeling down. ;) hahaha! 

I am grateful to be a missionary. I'm grateful for the family that I was born into and for all of my siblings who are such wonderfully unique spirits. I'm grateful that the Lord trusted me enough to allow me to be one of His missionaries here in Chile, and I'm grateful for the opportunity that He has given me to learn Spanish. It has greatly broadened my group of friends and opened so many doors of opportunity for me. =)

So yeah. Lots to be grateful for. =) I'm so happy!!!!!

So this week, Hermana Al-Malki and I worked out the divisions. Since we're already in week 4, we're going to be doing a lot of double-duty, but it's doable. I did it during Christmas. hahaha! (divisions between 6 Hnas. in three weeks)

We had divisions planned for this last Friday and I was going to be with Hermana Cook, but she got really sick, so we weren't able to do them. But I have divs planned in Baquedano with Hermana Fea on Wednesday, Hermana Flores here on Thursday so that she can teach Roberto, and Hermana Alvarez in Cachapoal on Friday. Hermana Christensen is totally cool with it because she has an almost photographic memory as far as the sector goes. Hahaha!

This week we had lots of citas, but most of them fell through. =/ We got references, though! And we already contacted one of them. Her name is Elena. She told us right away that she didn't want to change anything because she already had her religion and whatnot. But we just kept asking her questions and then we started making jokes. Then she warmed up to us and let us in so that she could show us her sewing projects. Then we asked if we could share something with her and she totally opened up to us and told us about her life. Her story is so sad and it's amazing how many Gospel principles were highlighted by what she told us. She also told us that she was in Rancagua recently and said a prayer asking God if He would please show her a book that would help her to get to know Him better. So we gave her a Book of Mormon. =D What better way to get closer to God, right?

We have a return appointment for Wednesday and we already scheduled for a member to come and accompany us.

Speaking of members, one thing that we've started doing during our planning sessions is we make lesson plans for each investigator, we write out which member we want to bring to that lesson, then we make phone calls and schedule things out with the members ahead of time. We weren't able to get schedules to correspond much last week, but that's only because we needed to plan things better. I have more confidence in this week. It's just a matter of more notice in advance. But there are some really cool members here who have really strong testimonies. =)

We found another family through a referral. There's the mom and dad, then the 14-year-old son and a little 3-year-old girl. We've heard good things about them and have high hopes. =) We have an appointment with them tonight and are trying to coordinate it so that we can have a return missionary present for the lesson. 

My companion is thriving with the language. She doesn't speak perfectly, but my goodness she learns so fast. She told me during last week's inventory that she wanted me to talk to her in just Spanish, even if she didn't understand. So I told her that that was perfectly okay with me. Haha! Spanish mode, ON!

She's the best, though. Really. She's got such a light in her face that people can't resist. And when she speaks, she reflects her love for the Gospel. She's got a great spark!

Training is a blast. Seriously. I don't even have time to be trunky because I've been so focused on my compy. Hahaha! I honestly feel like I have at least 6 months left. XD

We have one baptismal date still going strong. That's Roberto! We called him this week to make sure that he´s still reading and praying. He says that on the reading part he hasn't been as good, but he's praying every day. His girlfriend is keeping him on the right track and he is SO anxious to be baptized!!!!!! We have an appointment with him on Thursday.

So funny story: We were having lunch with a family two weeks ago when I first got here, and they had this adorable little girl (she's like 2) who was running around and talking to each of us, then she said, "I have to go to the bathroom!" She was gone for a few minutes, then she comes back and announces, "I did it! I went poop!"

We all congratulated her with laughter and kept talking. Then all of a sudden I smelled something really bad and I see that she's next to me with her little potty in her hands and she's like, "LOOK!"

Oh my gosh. We all just about died laughing. Her mom ran her to the bathroom, apologizing the whole way. HAHAHAHA!

Also, we went to visit an investigator, and when we entered the house, there was a little girl who was about 7, and a little boy who looked to be about 5. He was wearing one of those newsies caps and he had a cane. I was talking to both of them and using my "little kids" talk, and I asked, "How old are you?" The girl says, "7." The boy said, "25." I joked and said, "You know what? Me, too!" The "boy's" older sister stared at me and said, "No. He´s really 25." Then for the first time, the guy looked up from the cellphone he was playing with and I saw that he had stubble. Oh. My. Gosh. Talk about biggest blonde moment ever, Hermana Darley. Nice going. Epic facepalm. The guy just looked at me with one eyebrow raised and Hermana Christensen hasn't let me live that one down. She told the other two Hermanas that we live with as well. So now it's a running joke. Hahahaha! 

Anyways, that's about it for the big email this week! I LOVE YOU ALLLLLL!!!!!!!

¡CHAO! 

Hermana Darley

Yup. That's my compy. You can't handle this much class.