"I've already been on my mission for 4 months!"

"On Friday we had a ward talent show. It was so fun. We worked extra hard to invite people and get them involved and it was a huge success! We had tons of people there and we actually didn´t even get through all the talents. It was so fun. People danced, did magic, juggled, played the piano, sang, played the guitar. It was a huge hit. Diego and his whole family came, even his ¨wife¨ and his daughter. And then we had over 10 less actives there. It was so much fun.

Then on Saturday they had the Stake Primary activiy which was called ¨A missionary for the day¨ it was the cutest thing. All the primary kids had little black name tags and were dressed like missionaries. They were divided into districts and their teachers where their district leaders. They went around to these little stations where they learned about being a missionary. They practiced making the bed, tying a tye, ironing a shirt, and even how to wake up your companion nicely if they don´t get up on time. We got to help do the stations. It was adorable. Our President was there and spoke to them for a little bit and our zone did a musical number.

We had an awesome experience this week when we were walking from one appointment to another in a different area. We were actually talking as we were walking, practicing our spanish or trying to come up with ideas of how to get our investigators to church, when a road we hadn´t noticed before caught our attention. We had a few minutes so we decided to knock. At the third door a woman immediately invited us in and a few minutes later her son came home. As we explained who we were and what our purpose was he stopped us and suprised us by saying that he was a member. He had been inactive for several years but he still had a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon. As we continued talking with him we found out that he worked long hours everyday and wasn´t normally home at that time but he had felt a little sick so he had come home. It was a miracle that we had found him. We were able to testify to him that we knew that our decision to knock his door just a few minutes before he came home was not a coincidence. We testified that Heavenly Father was aware of him. That He hadn´t forgotten him and that He loved him and wanted him to come back to church. The Spirit was so strong. It was amazing."

"God watches out for his missionaries."

We found out earlier this week that our area boundaries were different than we had thought so we went to go check out the area we didn´t know about and do some knocking. We were walking down this road and Hermana Hudson said that she thought it was this other direction. So, we turned off the road to try and figure it out. It turns out we were wrong so we turned around and went back to the road we had been on to start knocking. But, when we got there there were all these people, a bunch of police cars and two ambulances. We looked for a little bit, but all we could see was a man with a leg brace on being lifted into the ambulance. It didn´t really make sense that there was such a crowd for just a broken leg. So we kept walking and we noticed all these police officers looking in yards and bushes and we heard the words ¨drugs.¨ Finally we got to the end of the street where it was all roped off and there was a police officer there. We asked him what had happened and he told us there had been a shoot out between the police and that man! And we had been walking down that street just minutes before. Crazy huh?! But the moral of the story is, God really watches out for his missionaries. We even found a future investigator in the few minutes we were off that street. The mission is full of miracles.

Chili in Chile

"It snowed... It didn´t stick. But it was definitely snowing. Then the other day we ate at a members house who is from Utah and she fed us chili, so I can now offically say I´ve eaten chili in Chile!!!" Madeleine

Hello!

My name is Lisa Clark and I am a member of the church in Santiago, Chile. My husband and I graduated from BYU in December and came down here for a job. We're in your daughters' ward! They have been over to my house a few times for lunch and just to visit and I love having them over. They love playing with my little boy who is 14 months old, looking through my church cds, recipe books, and reminiscing about the U.S. I took some pictures of them today and thought you would enjoy seeing them. I made them chili and apple pie for lunch so they're probably a little homesick today! They are doing a great work here. There are so many less active members that it is mind-blowing. There are a lot of people that need them. I can tell that they are enjoying serving them and doing our Heavenly Father's work.

We love your daughters! They are amazing and we pray for their success here. Thank you for helping the

Lisa Clark

The Power of Testimony

"We had another wonderful lesson this week with our neighbor Rita. Right now she´s kind of angry at God because of all the difficulties she has in her life. She has a daughter that's mentally handicap and her sons have had a lot of injuries or physical problems. She just feels overwhelmed and like it's not fair. She´s normally pretty negative when we come for our visits. But, this time we brought a member with us named Cecilia. And she is wonderful. She´s a return missionary, she served in Ecuador, and one of her sons is actually serving in the exact same mission right now that she served in. She´s really fun and always willing to come to our appointments with us. So we brought Cecilia and at first its started off the same, with Rita being negative, but after a few minutes, Cecilia bore a really powerful testimony and things just turned around. I know when we come she just wants us to promise her that if she joins the church everything will go away. But instead we promised her that the blessings of the Gospel will help her deal with her challenges and give purpose to her trials. The Spirit was so strong. She even cried. We´ve been trying to get her to pray for weeks and she is never willing, but this time at the end of the lesson, she agreed to give the closing prayer and it was beautiful. It was just an amazing lesson and a huge break through with her."

Diego and Catalina

"Diego was the man who showed up at church last Sunday and accepted a baptismal date right there. We taught him a few times this week and the first thing we asked was if he and Carola were married...and they aren´t. We were so sad! In Chile is used to be illegal to get a divorce. A few years ago they finally passed a law legalizing divorce, but its really, really expensive. So, most people don´t ever get married, they just live together. Diego and Carola have been together for 10 years and they have a 6 year old daughter named Catalina. When Diego realized he couldn´t get baptized because he wasn´t living the Law of Chastity, it was so sad. He just looked at us and said, ¨But I thought all you had to have to get baptized was a testimony and a sincere heart.¨ It was so sad. We had to explain that you also had to live the commandments before getting baptized. We were really worried because when we asked them if they would like to get married Carola said, "No, never." But, when we went back and taught them the Law of Chastity and the importance of marriage and families and that they could be together as a family forever, she was much more receptive. The Lord definitely helps to work within the hearts of the people we teach. Its amazing. But, its also hard to get married here because its expenisive and you have to have a judge present. Scheduling the judge is a huge process that can take months. But, we have faith that it will all work out. Diego is so sweet he just wants to get baptized so badly. He keeps telling us how he just wants the gospel in his home to bless his family."

"The craziest thing happened yesterday! We were in Sacrament meeting and this man and his wife came in and sat down about half way through the meeting. They looked a little out of place so I knew they were probablly less actives or investigators. So, we went up to them after the meeting and it turned out that they were non members. The woman left, but the man, Diego, stayed for the rest of the three hours. We started talking to him about why he had come and what he knew about the church and it turns out, he had read the entire Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, and the Doctrine and Covenents! So, we asked him what he thought, and he said, "Oh I already know its true." We were floored! So, we were like "so would you like to get baptized then?" And he said yes! We set a date with him right there! It was crazy. I think someone had to pick my companion up off the ground."