BE BOLD but not Overbearing!

Yeeaaaaah....the stupid computers aren´t working today and I don´t have any more time!  If this gets to you, it will be lucky.  Today is a holiday in Chile and the internet isn´t working that well (Too many people using up all the bandwidth!).  The computer has frozen 2 times and it erased all of poor Hermana Martinez´s photos!  Ouch!

I tried to send a recording of Feliz Cumpleaños and a voice letter for Grace's 16th bday, but it´s not letting me send it!  I´ve had it with technology today!!!  I´m so sorry I won´t be able to send something special for the actual day of her birthday this week.  I´m going to be triple prepared next Monday.

The beginning of this week was good.  We had a conference in Los Angeles.  We had to wake up at 5:15am to catch the bus.  One of the area 70, Elder Gonzales, spoke about how we need to be bold, but not overbearing.  We shouldn´t be afraid of the chance that we might offend someone as we contact.  Look at what happened to Jesus when he was proselyting.  Lots of people took offence to him and his teachings and he did so many amazing things!.  The important thing is that we keep pressing forward, teaching what Jesus taught, sharing what we know to be true and to be BOLD.  

This week has been hard to contact people because we´re getting to the end of Copa America...and Chile is doing really well! Tonight we´re going to watch the game with a family with menos activo (less active) children and eat lots of BBQ! Yumm!

I wish I could write more but I have no time left thanks to the problems today!  It´ll be better next week!

Love you lots!

Hermana Jakob

 

 

(Mom's Note.... *Sigh!*  No pictures again due to technical difficulties!  If this keeps up, I'll run out of pictures!!!)

 

Hermana Jakob and Grace in Kirtland last April at the visitors centre.  Reminds me of the Primary song, "I'm Trying to Be Like Jesus".

Last June getting her wisdom teeth out.  She looks thrilled!

Last year at girls camp trying out the zip lining.

Earthquake!

Hola!

So I´m sure you´ve all heard by now, we had a tremor in San Pedro.  It was a 6.4 but nothing major.  Only a little bit of movement  Me and my companion were praying and I started to feel the house move.  It was kind of like being in a big boat, bobbing on calm waves. It was such a weird sensation and made me a bit motion sick.  I realized what was happening and turned to my companion saying ¨What do we do?¨ I was ready to hide under the table.  She said nothing and continued to pray until Hermana Salazar burst through the door of our bedroom saying ¨¡Hay un temblor! Hay un temblor¡¨ (There's a tremor!  There's a tremor!) (She´s a bit of a spaz jajajaja!).  Hermana Martinez just told us to calm down and that it would pass.  The tremor lasted for a good minute but there wasn´t any damage.  During the night and the following day there were some residual after-shocks(echoes).  It was a cool experience!  Needless to say, because of all the earthquakes lately, we´re going to work on our emergency backpacks and make pan eterno ("eternal bread" is an emergency food staple item that provides nutrition and calories during an emergency, kind of like a granola bar.  It's dry and has a long shelf life when sealed properly) to stock up on food.  We already have water but I think it would be a good idea to save up more.  Who knows how long we could be without clean water if something big happens.  I´m not scared at all with that possibility, in fact, it would be kinda exciting!  I´m not saying it would be fun because natural disasters are never a laughing matter but I have confidence that Heavenly Father would take care of us.

 

 

This week, all the sisters in the San Pedro zone came to La Marina to help us find new people to teach.  We started with a capacitación (training) that was based on a BYU talk by Sheri Dew.  It reminded me of my purpose as a missionary and as a child of God.  Sometimes it´s hard to choose the right and to keep moving forward but Heavenly Father hasn´t left us solo.  He´s given us lots of tools so we can all become people of spiritual power.  

I also love what Sheri Dew said about understanding the language of revelation.  I know sometimes I think ¨Is this impression really from God? How do I know that I´m receiving personal revelation?¨ A friend asked her “Have you asked the Lord to teach you how He communicates with you?” I know I´ve never thought to ask so I have began to pray daily that He will tell me. In the mission, little by little I´m learning to recognize the whisperings of the Spirit.  It´s like learning a new language.  In time I hope to become fluent.  

I invite you all to read the talk and pray that it will help you in some way.

https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/sheri-l-dew_born-lead-born-glory/

Love you all!  I hope all you fathers out there had a great Father´s Day! 

Hermana Jakob

 

 

Grafiti of a popular futbol team - Colo-Colo.

Partido! - Soccer match/game and food!

My companion Hermana Martinez.

 

COPA AMERICA and Chicken Feet

¡CHI CHI CHI! ¡LE LE LE! ¡VIVA CHILE!

This week started the Copa America!  We haven´t watched any games yet but we´re planning on watching the Chile vs Bolivia game (we have permission to watch the Chile games) this Friday with some members and recent converts, Pedro and Christopher.  It´s going to be lots of fun! We bought hats to show our patriotic love.  I´ll send some pictures next week.

Despite the hype for this Friday, the Copa America (soccer tournament) is proving to be a challenge for la obra misional (missionary work).  No one wants to open their doors.  You just don't knock on the door of someone watching football (I do it anyway, jajaja!)! 

This week we ate the weirdest thing I have ever eaten during my time in Chile.....Chicken feet!  Ugh!  It was... an experience to say the least.  The flavour wasn´t bad but, let´s just say, there isn´t a lot of meat on feet. It was just rubbery skin and ligaments. The soup they served with it was really good but I don´t think I´ll be eating chicken feet of my own free will again.  

 

 

Chicken Feet Soup....before

Chicken Feet Soup ....after

 

This week I was reminded of the power of sincere prayer. On Friday, all of our appointments had fallen through, and no one was answering their doors.  During trying times I always feel that Heavenly Father is trying to say something.  We decided to stop and offer a pray to receive guidance with the end goal to help one of his children in La Marina.  After we had offered the prayer, I felt that there was a family that we needed to search for close to the house of a member.  When we got to the street where this member lived, we knocked on the first door we saw.  A man named Jairo opened the door and inside we could see his wife and kid sitting on the couch watching a movie.  He explained to us that he was a less active member of the church but wanted his child, Isidora, to have a religious background but allow her to choose which religion to join.  He said he was looking for missionaries to help teach her and asked us if the church had sent us.  We were a little shell shocked and after recovering said that God had sent us.  Like it says in Moroni 7:33 that when we have faith, and a desire to follow the will of God, we have to power to do anything.

 

 

 

WHEN I AM BAPTIZED - (I Like to Look For Rainbows)  

 

I like to look for rainbows whenever there is rain,

And ponder on the beauty of an earth made clean again.

I want my life to be as clean as earth right after rain,

I want to be the best I can and live with God again.

 

I know when I am baptized my wrongs are washed away

And I can be forgiven and improve myself each day.

I want my life to be as clean as earth right after rain,

I want to be the best I can and live with God again.

 

Want to hear the song?  It's really cute!  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCTPeEAfBbo

 

 

 

A big Shout out to Caitlyn Rowden (a friend from the KW area) who's going to be joining us in the celestial mission of Chile Concepción South!!!  You´re going to be an amazing missionary and a great bendición a la obra misional aquí (blessing to the missionary work here).

 

 

Love you all.  Take care!  

 

 

Hermana Jakob

Chile Has Futbol (Soccer) Fever!

Hola Everyone!

This week was pretty good!  It´s was a great time getting to know my new companion, Hermana Martinez.  She´s finishing her mission this transfer  and going home in 6 weeks but she isn´t trunkie at all -for the moment - LOL! ("trunkie" is a word used to describe missionaries who are missing home, family, friends or girlfriends/ boyfriends and are constantly talking about it/them!  It can interfere with their work.) She brings such a great spirit to the lessons we teach.  She´s the kind of person that´s really straight forward but can patch up wounds with love---all in the same moment!  It kinda reminds me of how Elder Holland speaks. The people here in La Marina have more respect and pay better heed when they can feel the Holy Spirit and when people are more bold.

We´ve been teaching a family for the past couple weeks now.  Carlos and his children Cristobal and Ignacio.  This week we were talking about the Atonement and how it can help heal us from past mistakes and experiences.  Carlos shared his experiences with the death of his mother and the anger he had towards God and life in general. After, he said he wanted to start anew and have more peace in his family. He wants to be baptized! I love this family so much!

This month is the "Copa America" (soccer/futball tournament).  We have permision to watch the games with menos activos, conversos recientes or investigadores (less active members, recent converts or investigators) when Chile is playing! Yay!  But I feel that this week we won´t get very much time to work.  If we don´t watch the game, we have to be in our house studying.  With good reason!  No one will open a door or talk to us if there is a football game on with Chile.  It´s a sacred sport here!  Like hockey in Canada during playoffs!  

This week, hay chanch con los hombres! (referring to men who are acting like pigs... when it's over-the-top, they're usually quite drunk)  The things they yell when I walk past!  The other night a man started yelling, ¨You´re more radiant than the sun!  Precious!  Beautiful!  Gorgeous!¨and continued on until we were 3 blocks away.  Someone else has a wolf whistle installed as his horn to his car.   #blondeproblems

 

This week I read an article in the Feb. 2015 Liahona by Henry B Erying.  It´s about the difference between testimony and conversion.  We can have a testimony but to really be converted, we need to act in accordance to what we know to be true.  He said that to truly experience a change of heart, we need to first, trust in the Lord and put our faith in His Atonement.  But Elder Eyring explains it better than I can.  I invite you all to take a moment and read it!

https://www.lds.org/liahona/2015/02/testimony-and-conversion?lang=eng

That´s all the news for this week!  Love you all lots!

 

Hermana Jakob

 

 

Having fun with the fake moustaches my mom sent me.



Making pizza blindfolded.  That was fun!

My old zone with Hermana Alvarado before she left for home in Peru.

 

 

A "Death" and a Funeral

Hola!

First, I´m going to start off by saying that my Mom is probably going to black-mail the blog with terrible pictures of my childhood ...again! For this I am truly sorry :p I forgot my camera in all the commotion of getting Hermana Alvarado ready to leave for home this past week.

So today, I said good-bye to Hermana Alvarado.  She´s flying home to Peru tomorrow.  I was so sad to see her go.  As she drove away, I felt a hole...left without companion.  I really grew to love her.  It was a little rocky at the beginning but throughout these past 6 weeks we had a lot of experiences both spiritual and funny.  I hope she´ll be ok at home.  I heard it can be hard adjusting to ¨normal" life  again.

On Monday we went to the funeral of Hermano Pedro Santander.  It was so heartbreaking to see his daughters cry.  I don´t like to see people in pain. His wife was calm though.  It still hurts when someone you love passes away but she has the calm assurance that she will see him again.  She´s preparing to go to the temple to be sealed to her husband.  They just reached 1 year mark of becoming members of the church a week before he passed away!

 

   

The cemetaries are very different here.  They have concrete boxes above the ground where they place the deceased.  They have a lot of niches too where they put their beloved in the walls of the buildings.  I have some pictures.  I´ll send them next week. 

This week in church, we talked about the parable of the 10 virgins.  Like the 10 virgins, we have received and accepted an invitation to the wedding.  We´ve  been baptised and are preparing for Christ's Second Coming.  We need to develop our testimonies and conversion drop by drop, like the oil that fills our lamps so we can be prepared when He comes again.

 

My new companion, Hermana Martinez is from Ecuador...yo creo (I think!)... or is it El Salvador. I have to pick her up at the terminal tomorrow.  This will be her final cambio (transfer - 6 weeks) too.  I feel like it´s my calling to help Hermanas with the transition of mission life to home life...2 muertes (deaths - that's what they call it in the mission when you go home. Saying "You died!" means you went home) in a row...

Well, I´m running out of time.  Not much else happened this week.  We spent a lot of time saying good-bye to the menos activos (less actives) and converso recientes (recent converts).  We´re going to start planning an activity to help the ward be more unified and work together in la obra misional(missionary work).  

Love ya´ll!

Hermana Jakob

 

 

(Mom's Note:  Yuppers! ... More blackmail photos from her youth!) Pictures of Eden from 2006-2009...Yard clean up!

Always smiling!

Feeding carrots to the bunnies: Chester (caramel and grey) and Sadie (white and caramel).

The "Princess" at her birthday party when she was totally in love with Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers and Zac Efron form Highschool Musical!  Hehhheh!