Week 5 - Sprint to the End!

Hola!

So this is it.  The last four days in the MTC!  Man I am so scared and so excited all at once!  I'm scared cause I don't know what to expect but I'm excited to finally go out into the field and help people!  

Last night, we talked with a Chilean....oh dear.  It was crazy fast but, the language doesn't scare me.  I know that no one will expect me to know a lot of Spanish in only six weeks.  

We leave for Chile on Monday. Our flight leaves at 7:45pm and gets into Santiago at 6:30am en la mañana!  Because of the time changes, the flight is really only 8.5 hours.  Once we get to Santiago, we have a 6 hour layover until our flight into Concepción.  I don't know if we'll be able to email before we leave so this might be my last email for the next week and a bit.  

Entonces, a lot of interesting things have happened this week.  For one, the closest mountain near us (the one with the big B) caught on fire the other night.  It was a spectacular view! The whole side of the mountain was in flames!  I wish I had gotten a picture of it.  Apparently it's pretty common for the brush to catch on fire this time of year because it's so dry. I haven't seen rain in about a month!

I LOVED the Christmas devotional.  My favourite part was the full Orchestra.  Is it just me or does it feel like there was 10X the emotion in the music this year? I think my favourite song was "Still, Still, Still." The accompaniment was beautiful!  I'd love to watch the Mo-Tab sing live at least once in my lifetime! 

I also like when Elder Christofferson said that the spirit of Christmas is really the Spirit of Christ.  The feelings of unity and charity that we feel during the Christmas season is really us feeling the love of Christ. I realized that during Christmas we not only celebrate the birth of Christ but what his birth meant to the world.  Because of him, we can live with our families for eternity!  Through his Atonement, we can be forgiven of mistakes.  We can be healed from the wrongs people have done to us, be strengthened during our challenges and be freed from guilt.

(To watch the full  LDS Christmas devotional Hermana Jakob mentioned above click below)
https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/watch/christmas-devotional/2014/12?lang=eng&vid=3929047363001

(To listen to the song "Still, Still, Still", click the link below)
https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/watch/christmas-devotional/2014/12?lang=eng&vid=3929107505001

Oh my gosh there's someone playing the Piano Guys version of  Ö Come Emanuel in the room next door.  They're amazing!  If you haven't seen this cover, search it up on Youtube!  It's so beautiful!

                                                                                  (Link added just for you!  :))

TRC this week (when volunteers come the the CCM so we can teach and speak with natives) was the best!  During the previous TRCs, I felt pretty nervous.  This week, I decided to go with a no fear attitude and trust in the Lord.  We talked with one girl named Jessica over Skype.  We didn't know when we started, but her mother had just passed away about 5 months ago.  For some reason I was prompted to share my testimony of eternal families and explain how the Book of Mormon has comforted me through my trials.  I shared a scripture in Alma 26:27 and she stared to cry.  She said we were and answer to her prayers.

(Alma 26:27 - Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions , and I will give unto you success.)

The other woman we talked to was named Lucy.  I had the overwhelming sense that she felt very lonely and I immediately felt love for her.  I don't remember what we said to her but after, she called us Angels :)

It felt good to be able to help someone feel the love of our Heavenly Father.  

Teaching and talking with real people is definitely different (I'd say better) than practicing with the teachers.

Ok... super embarrassing moment this week.  Hermana Pemberton is teaching me how to juggle a soccer ball during gym time.  So this week, we were practicing by playing a game called "Kill." Pretty much you get in a circle with the other players and juggle the ball. You hit it at least 4 times the catch it on the 5.  Once you catch it, you can throw it at a person in the circle.  If it hits them, they get the first letter that spells out "k-i-l-l." 

Anyways, you know how I get really competitive? Well, I managed to catch the ball on the 5th time and whipped the ball at what I thought was a player that had run behind me.  It ended up being a poor unsuspecting, by-standing Elder.  I hit him so hard that I knocked the wind out of him!  Oops!

Word of the Week: 

So the other day our District was quoting Nacho Libre.  One of the teachers spoke up and told us the meaning of one of kid's name in that movie. Sooo...the word of the week is "Chancho." It means "Pig." When I found out I couldn't stop laughing!

Love you all!   I guess I'll be emailing you next when I'm in Chile!  Chi chi chi le le le!  Viva Chile!

Hermana Jakob XOXO

P.S. This pictures this week are from a farewell for a District that was in our Zone.  I loved that District and cried when we said goodbye.  The Hermanas were our assistant training leaders

Funny excerpts about Hermana Jakob from her companion Hermana Pemberton's POV.

"We try to sit with the latinas a lot. The other day they were talking with us and trying to teach us  how to say 'peanut butter' the word starts with 'caca' and Hermana Jakob said it so loud all the latins around looked at us, oh it was funny. I told them all of the different embarrassing things we've been doing in Spanish they loved it, especially the one when me and Hermana Jakob were singing a hymn and instead of saying 'pecados' which is sin, she belted out pescados (fish). Its so fun to make these mistakes. It is the best part of the CCM.

(Mom's note.... we wish Hermana Jakob the best of luck as she travels to Chile this week.  Please keep her and her companions in your prayers as they start the next leg of their amazing journey.  Thanks for reading!)