Tuesday 26 April 2016

I Like to Look for Rainbows Whenever There Is Rain

Hola mis queridos!  (Hello My Dear Ones!)

Bueno, this week we did a bunch of cool things.  On Friday we went to Purén to help out at a home for the Elderly.  We painted their fence white and painted cartoons from Disney and the flags of our home countries.   The viejitos (elderly) were so happy to see us. It started to rain halfway through the service project but happily, nothing happened to our paint job!   The Elders moved a HUGE pile of firewood from the backyard to a shed and others took apart a green house and harvested the potatoes that were planted there.  Everyone was dead beat tired in the end but the ride home in the bus was about and hour and a half long, so we ere well recuperated for the afternoon!


Walking along the countryside


We are currently teaching a young woman named Mariana.  She was born with...  I can´t remember the name of it but she uses a wheel chair.  She´s a really sweet girl with a big desire to help others and loves the Lord. We´re going to invite her to share some of her experiences in the Principios del Evangelio (Gospel Principles) class to help her get more involved with the church and the members.  We´ll be visiting her today with one of the YSA (Yound Single adult members) that recently moved from Santiago to Angol.

There was a lot of rain this week, with sun...so we´ve saw a lot of rainbows!  It was really beautiful.  Actually, the day the we took the picture of the rainbow, we had a ¨rescate¨(rescue) activity with all the leaders of the ward here.  We prayed over names of some of the less active members that haven´t been to church in a while and made a list of families we should visit.  Then we divided up and visited them.  The turnout was great!  It was an awesome experience for the members and for the missionaries, so that we could see the success that missionary work has when we work together.



Hermanas with some of the leaders of the ward.

Love you lots!  You´re always in my prayers and see you soon!

Hermana Jakob

Monday 18 April 2016

Interview With a New Mission President

This week was pretty awesome. 

It rained for three days straight.  I use to hate the rain. The mission has taught me to love it.  Everything is so clean and the air is fresh afterwards.

Yup!  I'm still a little goofy and having fun!  :)

We had interviews with our new mission president.  To be honest I was a little nervous because I didn´t have the same confidence with him as I did with President Bluth. However, as we began the interview I could feel the love that he has for us and missionary work. I had a bunch of questions about what I should do these last three weeks.  I was pretty stressed out because everyone was telling me different things and all I wanted to do was focus on the work here.  He told me to pray for the strength to focus my thoughts on el campo misional (the mission field) and start making my plans for my life when I´m on the plane home. I could feel all the stress leave and I can say that I have more energy than I did before!  

Yesterday we had another miracle!  We felt that we should have visited a part-member family.  They´ve been less active for a long time and we were running out of ideas and plans to help them come back.  Their daughter Connie, has had the desire to be baptized for a long time now and when she prays, she always asks that Heavenly Father can help her whole family come back to church and that He can help her be baptized.  She has such a pure spirit.  Anyways, last night we were talking with the grandmother, when Connie and her mom Karen arrived from their trip in the south.  Karen saw us in the living room, walked to the centre of the room and with tears in her eyes said, ¨I want to come back to church!" She said that their vacation was beautiful but she felt that something was missing. When she saw us, she realized what it was. We ran to her and gave her a big hug.  Connie jumped up and started dancing and yelling, ¨I won´t be going to church alone anymore!¨ We were all crying tears of joy. 

I know that Heavenly Father is always aware of us and our needs and desires, even the little children.  He hears each and everyone of our prayers.

This experience also reminded me of the talk from General Conference about spiritual rescue. Never give up!  https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2016/04/to-the-rescue-we-can-do-it?lang=spa

To all the shy people out there that feel they don´t have the talents or ability to share the gospel.  I invite you to read this article and reflect on how you can overcome fear.

https://www.lds.org/liahona/2016/04/youth/even-if-youre-shy?lang=spa

Thanks for everyone that has been writing me and giving me encouragement!  I wish I could write each and everyone personally! 

Love you all lots!  

Hermana Jakob

Oh yeah!  This pizza was to die for!!!  Stone oven baked, home made pizza dough.  Cheese from the farmers... yum!


Monday 11 April 2016

So Why Would I Turn Purple?

Oh my gosh! I just received my itinerary for coming home!!!  That left me a little breathless...




Knocking doors, we found another miracle! Nielson is his name.  He is 40 years old and wants to change his life.  He´s felt that he´s in a standstill and that there´s something missing. We shared a bit of the doctrine of Jesus Christ and taught him how to pray.  After praying he shared with us that he was super agradecido (grateful) that we passed by his house because he could feel a peace that he needed.  We explained that the peace he felt was the Holy Spirit. Nielson invited himself to church and has a lot of interest in the Restuaracion (Restoration). We´ll be visiting him tomorrow with the Bishop!
I know that only through living the evangelio (gospel) we can find true happiness.  Living the Gospel isn´t always easy, but it´s easier than anything else!

This week we helped clean the backyard of a lady that the other sisters are teaching (there are 4 of us Sisters in the ward).  I love that all the people here have a lot of fruit trees and grape vines.  Gabriela gave us a TON of grapes and apricots.  I think I´m going to turn purple like the girl in Willy Wonka from all the grapes we´ve been eating!  jajaja!



We ate at a restaurant this week with a family from the ward.  It´s called El Quincho (it means BBQ shed or smokehouse).  The restaurant is really cool because it´s decorated all rustic like with a bunch of artisan madera (wood) and cosas mapuche (Mapuche made things - the Mapuche are the indigenous people of  south central Chile and south western Argentina) .  The food is to die for!  Aaaaaannd I found a Chilean cook book so we can make lots of delicious food when I get back!  


Love you all lots!  I invite you to go over some of the talks from General Conference! It was awesome!


Hermana Jakob

Monday 4 April 2016

Sunday Evening Miracles With My New "Daughter"

Queridos! (Dear Ones!)

Guess what!  I´m training again!!!  I´m so happy that I get to train on my last transfer!  I secretly wanted to train and end with a Latin companion and Heavenly Father cumplió mis deseos! (fulfilled my desires - gave me my wish)  Hermana Peña is from Santiago.  She´s about 5 feet tall, hahah and is the sweetest girl I know! She comes from a large family of seven (lucky number!) Hermana Peña is the best friend of Hermana Fres (we lived together in the house) and Hermana Fres showed me a photo of her the week before.  Can you imagine my surprise when I was assigned to be her trainer?! xD! She is a professional cueca dancer.  If you´re not sure what the cueca is, look it up of Youtube.


 

There´s a Hermana in the ward that makes vestido de Huasa (Huasa dress) for the sister missionaries.  She´s going to sew one for me! Yay!  

I loved General Conference!  Why didn´t I pay more attention to conference before my mission?  It really is a time to spiritually recharge.  I love so many of the talks given but I like Elder Holland´s talk at the end.  To remember that we won´t always be able to maintain a spiritual high but we can try our best, and Heavenly Father blesses those who try with all their might to improve.  

The church building.

We had an after-conference miracle.  We met a gentleman, Mario, on the street and scheduled an appointment to visit him Sunday evening.  We passed by his house and there weren´t any lights on so we assumed that he was sleeping.  Right when we were ready to leave, he opened the door and invited us to sit on his front porch.  We learned that he took care of his sick mom for the most part of his life and that she had died about 4 years ago. This caused him mucho tristeza (sadness).  We shared a bit of the Plan of Salvation and extended the invitation to be baptized.  He accepted right away!... And invited himself to church! Heavenly Father really has prepared Mario.  The sad thing is, we realized that his house se queda (stays - is situated) in the Elder´s sector :(  

Bueno, hay sembradores y hay cosechadores. (There are sower and there are reapers - referring to harvesting and the parable of the sowers)

Love you all lots!  

Hermana Jakob


Burros in the street.

An upper view in Angol