Missionaries Love Their Moms!

Madeleine shared this with me while she was in the MTC. I just recently came across it and thought it was worth sharing:

"It is amazing to hear these Elders talk about their mothers. Some of the biggest, toughest Elders have the softest, most tender spots for their mothers and they bear their testimonies of it all the time. It's so sweet to see them cry because they love they love their moms so much. I think as women we play an irreplaceable role in the lives of our young men and their choice to serve a mission. I think sons will naturally value the things that they see that their mother values."

"She's one of our miracles."

Since the first day we were together, Hermana Windous and I have been talking about how we want to make miracles happen in this area. So we were knocking earlier this week and we knocked this one house and this young mother, named Alejandra, with her adorable three year old son, Maurro, came out. She immeadiately invited us in, which is a little unusual because most people just talk to us through their gates. We sat on her porch and explained a little bit of who we are and what our message was. Then Hermana Windous asked if she prayed to God. She told us she was angry at God and so she hadn´t talked to him for awhile but she didn´t tell us why. We asked if we could pray with her. After the prayer, we asked if we could leave a pamphlet. Normally we leave the pamphlet from the first lesson, The Restoration, one but when I went into my bag to get it, I was completely out. I hesitated for a second and asked Hermana Windous if she had one, but then I just grabbed the Plan of Salvation one and bore a brief testimony about how our message was for the family and that I know that families can be together forever. And all of a sudden, she opened up. She told us that she had recently lost a baby and that is why she was mad at God. We were able to bear powerful testimonies of the restored truths of the Gospel, that children are saved in Christ and that she will see her baby again and that they can all be together forever. We´ve already been back to teach her once and it went great. She´s one of our miracles :)

Hermana Bailey and Hermana Hudson with Hermana Arranda

Translations...

When you speak in Spanish all day, you start translating things from Spanish into English and it doesn´t always work out well. I´ll just give you a list of what everything means so I can just type as I think and then you can understand.

Sector=Area (as in our proselyting area)
Changes-=transfers
"We passed by" or ¨We can pass for her" = "we stopped by" or "we can stop by her house"
Menos activo=less active
Converso-=recent convert
cita=appointment

Okay I think thats all the words that I might use that might not make sense to you!

Transfers!

I´ve been transferred! When the assitants called last night to tell Hermana Hudson and I that we would both be leaving I cried. I was so sad to leave. I love our ward, I love our area, I love our investigators. I was completely heart broken to leave. Especially both of us. But we got to the transfer meeting this morning and I found out I was assigned to the sector right next door called Nunoa 1! I´m still in Nunoa and I´m even in the same zone. I was so happy. And I have a wonderful companion named Hermana Windous. She is sooooo sweet. We´ve gone on divisions a couple times and it has always been so fun. Nunoa 1 is a little bit of a harder area because its a little bit more wealthy. But I´m excited to work with the members and really get things going. We already have some wonderful goals set.

Leonel's baptism is scheduled for Sunday

Leonel still is scheduled to be baptized this Sunday. He's seemed a little hesitant the last few times we´ve talked to him, so we´re nervous he doesn´t want to get baptized without his son Diego. But we have an appointment with him tomorrow night so hopefully all will go well. Keep him in your prayers. Can I just tell you a little bit more about him? First of all, he looks like Mr. Rogers. I can´t remember if I told you that or not. But he is so sweet. He´s started calling us "hijas" which means daughter and he always says "my home is your home, you can always come by whenever you want" Hes so so very wonderful. And he comes to church every week.

Another success we saw this week was the family I´ve been teaching piano to, finally came to church this week. It was so great! They all came and they stayed for the whole three hours. Its a single mom, with two young kids. Her name is Nelly and she is so fun. They actually lived in Chicago for three years so they all speak English. Its fun.

"I love the temple."

"On Friday we had a chance to go to the temple. It was wonderful. I´m actually so lucky because I´ve been able to go to temple here twice already on my mission. Some missionaries in our mission only get to go twice in their whole mission. But I´ve just been in the right place at the right time so I´ve been able to go. Its amazing. The temple here is beautiful. Its always fun because the sessions are in Spanish but now I can understand! I really think the Spirit helps you a lot though. I´m grateful that I went so many times before my mission and I was able to go in the MTC because I kind of already know what is being said so its easy to connect the words in Spanish with the ones I already know in English. It's always a beautiful experience. I love the temple."

Leonel is getting baptized!

"This week has been good. I´ve started to teach piano lessons to one of our less active memebers that we have been working with. Its been really fun. She´s such a fast learner and its so nice to feel the Spirit through music. It gives us a great chance to been in her home several times a week talking with her and her son about the gospel.

"On Thursday we had a zone coference all day with several of the zones in the mission. President spoke to us and it was really fun. He taught us that the way we present the gospel to people is really important. He did this great object lesson where he had one of the missionaries come up and placed this beautiful, yummy looking cake in front of him. And asked the elder if he wanted some and when he said yes, President slammed his face into the cake. It was so funny. He then compared the gospel to the cake and talked about the cake is desirable, and delicious and people will want to learn more about it, but we can´t just shove it in their face. It was great.

"Sunday was so cool. First of all, tons of people were there. Lots of less active memebers came to church and Leonel came and brought little Catalina. Diego showed up a little bit later. But the cool thing was that Sister Dibb was there with the Area Presidency! Sister Dibb as in the second counselor in the General Young Women´s Presidency, and the daughter of President Monson. We still had our fast a testimony and the Spirit was so strong. It was wonderful. Hermana Hudson got to translate for her, which was so cool."

BUT! The most exciting news of the week is....We set a baptismal date with Leonel for the 18th of September! We are SOOOOO excited!

Touring Santiego

Today we went to a place called Santa Lucia. It was so cool. First, the National Library of Chile is there. The building is probablly one of the coolest things I´ve seen. They have all these little studies with the big couches and chairs like you would imagine in a Sherlock Holms story. And big desks, and each study had vaulted ceilings with floor to ceiling bookshelves, with spiral staircases and sliding ladders and all. It was so beautiful.

Then just down the road is a castle! So cool. So we hiked up there and checked it out. It was really cool. From the tallest tower you could see all of Santiago. It was great.

Afterwards we went to this huge ferria, which is like a market. Its like the little market with all the little shops that they have in Rocky Point only times 100. It was so fun. We spent the whole day there.