Baptism!

We had a baptism this Sunday. It was the father of a family who everyone else in the family are members. He had always said he would never get baptized, but he started dropping his wife and kids off at church. Then, he started staying and then two weeks ago, he called us and told us he wanted to be baptized. He had all the lessons in a week and a half and was baptized yesterday! it was so beautiful. The Spirit is always incredible at a baptism.

We're continuing to work with all the menos activos in our ward and we've had some good experiences. We're slowly winning the ward over one family at a time, but it is going really well and we've developed a great relationship with our Bishop.

I guess the other big news is that I may or may not have a semi-serious infection in my feet. But, I'm on a great round of antibiotics and the good news is...I've been authorized to wear cute sandals! Yay!

Things are good here in the 'hood!

"Things are good here in the hood! I only heard four gunshots this week. It's the middle of the summer vacations here so a lot of people are out of town. So, we're a little bit more sunburned than normal. But, at least I look a little less gringa! It is seriously so hot!

When I got to this sector they only had one sept of investigators that they were teaching, Erik and Eliana, and they just so happen to be out of town this week with the rest of the work. So, we've been visiting menos activos and conversos recientes all week. Hopefully, we'll have some more luck finding people to teach this week.

My companion and I get along great. She's so sweet. I've been so blessed in the mission with great companions. But, Hermana Vindas has already bee in this sector for 4 changes, so she'll probably be leaving this change :( We share our sector with a set of Elders--Elders Gomez, from Argentina, and Elder Allison, from California. They are super fun. We all get along really well and work well together. It's nice to share a sector with Elders who like to work, but aren't uptight.

Things are good. The days fly by like minutes. It scares me. I can't believe it's Monday already. I feel like I just emailed yesterday!"

Painting a Daycare Center

Transfers!

"I hate transfers. It breaks my heart every time. Anyway, I have been transferred to a sector called Cordillera, which is in Puente Alto, or the southern part of Santiago. And it is GHETTO! It is the most ghetto sector in the mission for Hermanas. The Hermana whose spot I took here told me that it's not unusual to hear gunshots while teaching a lesson. No big deal...

My new companion is named Hermana Vindas. She is from Costa Rica and really sweet. I think we'll get along just fine. We live with two other Hermanas, but they correspond to a different sector, and we share our sector with a set of elders. It seems like there is a lot of work to do. My first priority is to track down the Bishop and meet the ward mission leader.

Other than that things are pretty normal. We've been experiencing a lot of little earthquakes lately and they have been stronger and more consecutive than normal. We've had about 4 or 5 this week. They say that this is exactly what happened two years ago with the big earthquake. So, we'll see what happens."

One of the Most Spiritual Experiences of my Mission!

"I actually had two really special experiences this week. The fist was when we did divisions with the new missionaries from the CCM (MTC). We were knocking a street in another sector and towards the end of our time tracting, we knocked on the door of a business where a man named Raul works. As we talked to him, we explained our purpose and a bit of our message. He responded that he didn't believe in God, that his life had been too sad to believe that there was a God in Heaven who loves him. We began to testify to him of his divine nature and how that in deed there was a God in Heaven who loves him dearly, and for that very reason He had sent us there that day to tell him that. The Spirit was so strong. We promised him answers to his prayers and the happiness he had always been searching for and invited him to church. It was a beautiful experience. It's amazing to feel such love for people your've only known for a matter of minutes.

The second experience was with a menos activo in our ward named Sonya. We visited with her yesterday and finally got to the bottom of why she became inactive (she is an endowed member of the church with a firm testimony). We were able to, again, testify of Heavenly Father's love for her, we talked about the power of the covenants she has made with Him, we talked about the healing power of the Atonement, and we promised her healing and strength and love and finally, set a plan to get her back to church. It was one of the most spiritual moments of my mission.

We're also teaching some great people. We've started teaching Matias again because he finished his last exam in the university and that's going really well. We're also teaching this wonderful man named Ian. We're not too far along with him, but I'll keep you posted. We're also working with two eternal investigators, Fidelina, who lives with her boyfriend...but we are working on that...and Felecita, who is an absolute doll. She is married, and has been investigating the church for more than 25 years. She has a strong testimony and we're slowly working with her towards baptism.

We've also seen a lot of progress with our ward this week. They set some mission goals, and each organization has called a representative to come to our meetings and help us. We're planning an activity for every month this year and they also called five new ward missionaries! We're really excited...hopefully we'll get to stay for awhile to see it all work out.

We cleaned a cat lady's house this week. It was probably the nastiest thing I have ever done! We also painted a day care center and went to the temple. It's been a good week."

Mission Christmas Activity 2011

Sister Laycock (from the Chile Santiago East Mission Blog):

"Our mission Christmas activity on Monday, December 5, 2011 was a great success. During the day, we gathered at one of the beautiful Santiago Parks where we played games to build team unity and love among our missionaries.

Then we went to the Lynch North Chapel for a Fireside and Christmas meal together. It was a wonderful day full of fun, learning, and love. At the end, we watched "A Christmas Carol" and ate real popcorn and empanadas. Our missionaries were happy to see this movie, since President Monson had talked about it in his Christmas Devotional talk on December 4.

We were very grateful to our Assistants, Elders Stark and Deaver, and to our Office Elders, Elders Orozco, Besich, Tooley, and Smith for their diligent efforts in planning and preparing this activity.

We all felt a renewed desire to serve the Lord as we reviewed our goals together and planned for the month of December to be a "White Christmas." We love our missionaries very much. They are obedient and diligent. They are working so hard to bring the true and restored gospel of Jesus Christ to their Chilean Brothers and Sisters."

Happy New Year!

"Hope you all passed the New Year nicely. Unfortunately, ours was super fome, which means lame. We had to be in the apartment at 8pm. And everyone was out of town or preparing for the parties so nobody let us in. New Year's is actually a bigger deal here than in the United States. Way bigger than Christmas. During Christmas, hardly anyone said, 'Merry Christmas', but now everyone says, "Happy New Year' and gives you a huge hug and wishes a million blessings for you! They do tons of fireworks too, but we couldn't see any because of where we live.

Other than our New Year, we've had a great week. We've been working on a new ward mission plan for the last little bit and I think we've finally found how we want to help strengthen the ward. We want to focus mostly on the menos activos, there are tons! It's incredible. So, we're planning on working with them and helping the ward plan frequent ward activities to help strengthen the ward and help make the transition to come back to church easier and more smooth for the menos activos. We feel confident that through our efforts we'll be able to find part-member families and more people to teach and the ward will be in a better position to fellowship them. We're excited about that!"

Specialized Training in Every Zone in November

"I can't believe I'm almost halfway done with my mission!"

"Time has gone by so fast. I can't believe I'm almost halfway done with my mission!

We've had a good week. We are so busy because since they left just two of us in our sector and we really have the work for four. It's crazy, but we have a lot to do. It was kind of lame, because 5 of our investigators committed to come to church on Sunday and not one showed up.

They did the rebroadcast of the First Presidency Christmas Devotional and our choir sang at the end. We got there early to practice and waited for everyone to show up. Everyone got there except for two elders, so we waited and waited. Finally, we called and they had gotten the time wrong and thought they didn't have to be there until 8:00pm...the devotional started at 6:00pm. They got there half way through the devotional and we sang at the tend and it turned out really well. They said there are normally 5 or 10 people there, and this year the chapel was packed full. Our stake president was so pleased.

Hermana Gallardo and I are getting along well. We're different. And she gives me "talks" sometimes. Like, that we need to tell the Relief Society President that we can't drink soda because it's against the Word of Wisdom. The members serve us soda at lunch every day. She also promises homeless people on the street that the church will buy them a house! But, we are working well together and that's what's important.

Lourdes is going strong in the church. She's like a totally different person. It's amazing. And Matias is getting ready to get baptized. Things are good. I'm happy."

Transfers!

Well first things first, we´ve had changes (transfers). Hermana Loza (my companion I was training) and Hermana Windous left. Hermana Loza went to the temple to an amazing companion named Hermana Palmer. I´m so happy that at she is in a great sector with a great companion. I cried when I found out she was leaving.

Hermana Windous´s hija, Hermana Gallardo, is now my companion. I´ll finish training her this change. We have the whole sector to ourselves now which is going to be interesting. Now, just the two of us have to do the work of two companionships. We have so many people to work with, it's nuts!

Anyways, this week has been good. We´ve been working like crazy. Christmas time is an awesome opportunity we have to talk to EVERYONE about the gospel. Whats nice, is that Chile isn´t like the United States because the offical state religion is Catholicism. So there are Christmas decorations everywhere. There are tons of beautiful nativity scenes. I love it. I love Christmas.

I actually had a really cool experience this week that I´d love to share with you. Hermana Loza and I had two appointments back to back, but they were on opposite ends of the sector, so we had to take micro. As we were waiting at the bus stop after our first appointment to go to our second, a bus pulled up and I felt a very strong distinct, impression that we should not get on the bus. But I was nervous we would be late, so I ignored it and got on anyway. The bus started going and I noticed a woman standing close to me and again I got a very strong impression that I needed to talk to her. Unfortunatley, there were a lot of people in between us so I ignored the prompting again. After a few minutes, I noticed she was staring at my nametag. Finally, I smiled at her. She immediately asked where we were headed and when I told her the street, she quickly explained to me that the bus we were on was an express bus that went straight to San Bernardo (which is about an hour away and in another mission!) without stopping. I immediately kicked myself for not listening to the Spirit and thanked her for her help. We were able to talk to the bus driver and he let us off the bus at a red light. We actually got off the bus right next to our appointment. I learned a huge lesson. I was reminded that the Spirit is always guiding us and we need to ALWAYS listen to his council. But also that God blesses our lives through other people. Even strangers. And finally, that you never know when a smile will quickly come around to be a blessing in your life.

I´m grateful to be here, to have the right to the guidance of the Spirit, and recieve confirmation everyday that God loves me and is very aware of where I am, where I am going, and who I need to be.