Semana Curacautin!

This week was Semana Curacautin (Curacautin Week)!

Every night this week there has been a concert literally 15 feet from the front of our house and it was LOUD!  The walls of our apartment were shaking at times!  It was cool though.  We videotaped some of the performances out from our window.  

They played some pretty good stuff!  

Jueves (Thursday) -  a band played some good old rock and roll!  Some of my favourites were "Rollin' on the River", "Born to be Wild" and "Miss You Like Sunday Morning." It's interesting though, to hear the lyrics because they don't really understand the words.  The lyrics are sounded out and learned more phonetically.   

Viernes (Friday) -  a member named German played!  He's 19 years old and performs in a band all over Chile.  He sang some Chilean country songs, which in essence, is the kind of music that Grandpa Archie likes - with upbeat synthesized piano rhythms and such.   That night they had Espanol (Spanish) rap too!

Sabado (Saturday) - they hosted a Rodeo with cowboys! I don't have any pictures unfortunately because we weren't close enough and didn't have time to watch.

This week, I received a clove of garlic as a gift. It may sound funny but this means a lot.  Our investigator Patricia has such a sweet spirit but she and her family struggle a lot financially.  She gave us the only thing that they were able to give to show her appreciation for us. I think it's one of the most heart-felt gifts I've ever received. 

 

This week, my testimony of fasting has been strengthened.  Monday/ Tuesday as a district, we decided to hold a fast for our progressing investigators, that they would take the next step and feel that the decision to be baptized was correct.

Hermana Rimmasch and I fasted that we would be able to find new investigators that have been prepared by the Lord and that we could teach with the power and authority of the Spirit.  After this fast, we found 2 beautiful new families to teach!  During the lessons, they said that they felt something different when we spoke and that they could feel the genuine love we had for them.  Hermana Rimmasch and I also taught more juntos (together) than we have ever taught.  Through this experience, I know our prayers were answered.  I know that Heavenly Father will give us anything we ask for in faith.  I'm so thankful for the gift of the Holy Ghost.  I know that it is the real teacher and carries our message to the hearts of others. 

Love you all!!

(Los Quiero)!

Hermana Jakob

Nightly concert...

This picture is a picture of the recipe of Home made Oreo cookies that Hermana Bluth made for us during entrevistas (interviews).

This is how we bake!  In a frying pan!  Chocolate cake!

Mmmm Tacos!  Avacados here are called "Palta".

Semana de Hermanas (Week of Sisters)

Hola Familia y amigos!

So I´ve been hearing that a lot of you are wondering how my Spanish is coming along. 

Estoy mas mejor que el primero día. Escribo en ingles porque puedo escribir mas rápido.  Los acentos aquí son muy malo entonces es un poco difícil para entender.  (I am much better than the first day. I write in english because I can write much faster.  The accents here are pretty bad therefore it's a little difficult to understand.)

I´m glad the Valetine's Day dance you guys had was a hit!  Our goal here was to have a wedding on Valentine´s day but it doesn´t look like that´s going to happen...oh well!  We always have next year!

Este semana (this week) we had a gran intercambio .(great exchange - where all the sisters mix up their companionships for a day or two)  All the sisters from our area and the capacitadoras (trainers) came to Curacautín and we did a contacting blitz.  

It was fun to have our apartment filled with Hermanas and get to know them a little better.  It was like one giant slumber party!  In the morning we made French toast for everyone!

I learned a lot from working with the other sisters.  There are certainly many different teaching styles. For example, Hermana Robinson loves to hear people´s background stories and works really hard on connecting with them.  I admire that about her.  I want to be able to do that but I think I have to be able to understand our investigators a little better first. 

I was paired up with a Latina named Hermana Gonzalez from El Salvador.  She used to work in Curacautín.  She´s super funny yet very bold. I don´t know why they don´t pair all the Gringos up with Latinos!  The people here are much more trusting when there aren't two foreigners standing on their door step!

Anyway, I learned from her that it´s ok to planch (asked for clarification - mean "roasted" - in reference to being bold) people once in a while.  They need to see us as confident and understand our purpose.  We are not there just to give them an opportunity to talk to "las dos gringas rubias" (the two blonde Gringas).  We are here to give them the opportunity to be baptized for the remission of their sins and receive the most precious gift God can give us: the gift of the Holy Ghost.  Every good thing comes from the Holy Ghost.  Peace, happiness, knowledge, guidance, comfort.  It is the power that knits families together in unity.  

During the blitz, the capacitadoras (trainers) found a `bruja´(witch).  She believes that she can cure sick infants with a candle and string. Apparently it´s a pretty common thing here.    While they were teaching her, a neighbour came in with her sick kid and they watched the whole routine.  It´s quite a process!  Needless to say, we´re teaching her now but we´re going to have to make the whole authority of God¨ very clear.

Today we made tacos and baked chocolate cake en la capilla (chapel - the church building has a kitchen) because we don´t have an oven in our house!  It was super delicious! I think I´m going to bake more if we have the chance.  Another yummy food thing I tried this week is like Chilean poutine: eggs meat and cheese over fries! It was super rico (rich)!

Fun little cultural fact:  Canned food items are very hard to find here,  They all come in foil packs or tetra packs.  For example tomato sauce only comes in a bag or a foil pack.  Milk tambien (also) only comes in tetra packs...It´s good though. The groceries are super light when you don´t have all that extra metal!

Love you all!

Hermana Jakob

Chilean version of poutine.  Tastes great!

 We ate 1 berry each and our tongues were that purple!  The berries are called Moni...i think.

"Mantecol" Anyone?

Hola familia (family) y amigos (friends)!

So I heard that this week in Canada you guys got a dumping of snow!!  Yikes!  It'll be great for snowshoeing and skiiing though!

This week has been a scorcher! Every day has been about 30-35 degrees and there is no such thing as AC.  Despite that, I'm quite enjoying the heat.  I'd rather sweat than freeze!

This week has been really hard finding people in their homes. It might be because it's so hot.   Everyone has either left for the big cities to visit family or are swimming in the Rio (river) . 

Gracias to Grace, Kira and Kaylee for the wonderful letters you sent me! I have them hanging up on my wall in our apartment!

This week we've been praying to find someone who could have a future calling working with the YW (young women's organization, ages 12-18) here and for a future priesthood holder (there are only 4 priesthood holders in our Rama {branch}).  God answered our prayers! We saw miracles!  We had a "Noche de Hogar" (FHE - family home evening program in the church where families spend one night a week connecting and doing things together.  Usually Monday night) with one of the part member families here.  After, their daughter said that she wants to get baptized!  (That is the girl with the baby in the pictures from last week)  It's a miracle because the missionaries have been working with her for about 4 years and she wasn't interested in the gospel or the church.  I'm so happy that Hermana Ruth will be able to have her family all together now!

We also found someone very promising for YW!  Her name is Natalie and she was a member in a different city.  She's super spunky and adorable but, when she came to Curacautin, she wasn't able to find a job that didn't make her work Sundays.  We're working with her on the Dia de Reposo (Sabbath Day). I'm hoping everything works out.

Gloria's baptism was this week!  It was so beautiful!  The people in her family are either not members or menos activos (less active).  Despite that, 23 of her relatives came out to support her! 

Her baptism was supposed to start at 4:00pm but Gloria's sister, Marixa, was stuck on a bus.  Gloria is really close to her.  Marixa practically raised her. There's no way we could have started without her sister.  So... the service ended up starting at 5:00pm.  It was beautiful to see the chapel full of people!  Gloria cried when Marixa gave the talk and when Hermana Rimmach and I sang "Asombro Me Da" (I Stand All Amazed).  The Spirit was really strong in the chapel and many of her non-member families commented on the beautiful feeling they had when they were there! 

                    (English version of the song "I Stand All Amazed" put to video on Youtube)

I have to start talking on the cell phone now.  I thought it was hard to understand people in person.  It's even worse on the phone!  There's a lot of "¿Que dijo?" (What did you say?) going on.

So there's this thing that Chileanos do down here when they are running out of minutes on their phone.  It's called a "Pinch."  They call you and as soon as it starts ringing, they hang up.  I was wondering why we kept getting dropped calls from people.  I thought it was just bad service until Hermana Rimmach explained.

Today we celebrated Natalia's 17 birthday!  YAY!  We ate almuerzo (lunch) with her family.  After, the Elders played the guitar and we sang along to songs by Nickleback, Paramore, Extreme and Oasis.  They love English ballads here! 

We gifted Natalia with her favourite chocolate "Mantecol."  It's like a bar of pure peanut butter with layers of chocolate in between!  Pure deliciousness!  I'll bring some back in my suitcase at the end of my mission!  Promise!

The two pictures are of us with Gloria and Natalia, the other is the two of us at Hermana Paula's house for a Noche de Hogar (Family Home Evening).  She made AMAZING sopaipillas!

Love you all!  Que le vaya bien (Hope everything is going well for you)!

Hermana Jakob

First Cambios (Transfers)

Hola familia y amigos!

So today was my first day of cambios!  I haven't even finished my training and they're moving me!  

....Just kidding!  I'm in Curacautin for another 6 weeks at least.  

Not much has happened since Wednesday.  I have some pictures of our zone and district as well as pictures of some of the members here!  

I've decided to make my companion a good home made meal every Monday.  She can't cook very well and making food for other people is something I enjoy.  Today, we made what's called "Papas de Pastor"  The potatoes here are so good!  Well, all the produce here is amazing and super cheap. On the main street there are fresh vegetable markets everywhere.  And the veggies are local too!

We have another baptism this weekend!  Her name is Gloria and she's almost 14 years old.  I thought she was at least 16 when we first met her.  She's been waiting for a little over a year for her parents to give her permission to be baptized.  Hermana Rimmasch and I were praying and fasting that the hearts of her parents, specifically her mom, would be softened.

This past week, Gloria's mother asked her what she wanted for her birthday.  Gloria said she wanted to be baptized and her mother miraculously agreed! It's amazing to see that the Lord is mindful of everyone, even a 13 year old girl.  I know that He hears and answers our prayers. You should never feel insignificant because Heavenly Father loves you more than you know.  Pour out your worries, fears and questions to him.  I promise you, He will respond.  He will help you, guide you and comfort you because God really is the perfect father.

Scripture of the week:  Matthew 7: 7-11

 7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
 8 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seekethfindeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
 9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
 10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
 11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

Word of the week:  Negocio - a little store in the front of a house.  It's kind of like a corner store but all of them sell pan (bread)

Love you all!  Have a good week!  

Love,

Hermana Jakob

XOXOXO

We can cram 16 grown missionaries into a normal sized van!

Our district

Our zone

This is Natalia. She was baptized 8 months ago and is super amazing.  She comes out to teach with us about 3 times a week.  We´re helping her learn English.  She´s planning on serving a mission (she´s hoping Peru) and her family wants to go to the Salt Lake temple in August.

Going freestyle!

Hermana Ruth and her daughter Daniella and her first grandchild.  We´re currently teaching Daniella

Crazy Busy Week!

Hola Familia!

So this week has been super busy!  We had a zone conference on Thursday and then had to take the bus 5 hours to Concepción right after to attend Return and Report on Friday.

Return and Report was great!  It´s when all the newbies in the mission that came in at the same time, get together and have a conference.  President Bluth and his wife talked about how we can be better compañeros (companions) and how to get the most out of your mission.  I loved what Hermana Bluth said. She quoted `Choose what you love and love your choice´ (ie. mission, spouse, occupation,etc). We choose what we love, and things don´t go as smoothly as we expected and we sometimes forget that the path we chose was our decision.  We need to remember why we originally made that choice and think of all the blessings that came as a result. `The secret to contentment is being grateful for all your blessings.´

On Satuday, we had a baptism!!!  It was an amazing experience.  It was the first baptism for both of us (Hermana Rimmasch and myself)!  The Spirit was so strong during the baptismal service.  Hermana Maria Christina is friends with Ramón and brought her family to support him. She was crying tears of joy the whole time. 

Ramón is really special.  I knew he would make this life changing decision the moment I met him. I don´t know how, but I just felt it.  I remember when Hermana Rimmasch and I were sitting outside while out district leader was interviewing him for the baptism, I was praying in my heart that Elder Contreras would be sensitive to the Spirit and that Ramón would feel the comfort of the Spirit. As I was doing this, in my mind I saw a picture of Ramón dressed in white baptismal clothes and the verses of scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 18 ran through my mind. I felt a true and heavenly joy for him in my heart.  I imagine it was like what Heavenly Father feels.  

`If it so be that you should labour all you days in crying repentance unto this people and bring save it be one soul unto me, how great will be your joy with him in the kingdom of our father.´

I´m so grateful for this opportunity to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord in helping to bring his children back to Him.  It´s truly a sacred and marvelous calling!

On Monday we had an activity for the whole mission area (that's why I couldn't write until today)!  It was super cool to see every missionary in the Concepción sur (south) mission.  There are about 240 of us.  They held the activity in Triguien about 1 hour 45 minutes away from Curacautín at a school.  The school was cool because it was set up like a log cabin summer camp campus.  

Each zone had to create a banner and a gritar (cheer) for the competition.  We called our district the ¨Victoria Vikings¨ and sang La Bamba. There's a video of it.  I´ll send it if I can get my hands on it.  Each zone received a t-shirt too (great for memories!) with the name of our zone, the motto and the symbol for Concepción Sur.  Our shirts are pink :p

After the competition of gritars (cheers) we played a bunch of sports.  The first was a volley ball game with water balloons and towels.  It is SO MUCH FUN!!!  You should try in our ward with the young women!  Tambien (Also),  we had a game soccer base ball.  Unfortunately, the ball we used for it was shaped like an egg after all the punting and abuse it had been through.  It added an unexpected spin on the match.

We also had an epic match of dodge ball. One sister from Columbia couldn´t believe it was a really game. She had only seen dodgeball in the movie `Chicken Little.´  An Elder on the opposite team is nick-named `Samuel the Lamanite.´ I now know why. Near the end of the match, it was down to 6 of us and only him.  I don´t know how he was able to avoid all the bombardments of balls and pegged us off one by one until he ended up winning!

(The story of Samuel the Lamanite is that of a prophet who as he was preaching on a city wall, those launching arrows at him from below could not hit him or harm him.)

For lunch they fired up the BBQs and we had burgers and completos (hot dogs)!  Mmmm!  I love barbeque!  

For a surprise, we watched `Conozca a los Mormones´ or `Meet the Mormons.´ If you haven´t seen it, I suggest you watch it.  It´s super cool and explains a lot about our beliefs and values.  I´ve also decided to move to Costa Rica someday!  One of the families in the movie lives there!  It is SO beautiful! Hermana. Arce was sitting next to me during the movie.  She´s from Costa Rica and she started to cry when she saw the mountains and the sea. 

It was a wonderful opportunity to get to know the other missionaries in our area. As well, it was a reminder for me that as missionaries, we are not alone in this work.  I loved it when everyone sang `Called to Serve.´  I felt a great unity between all of us.    

Well, I´m running out of time.  Wish I could write more.  The Spanish is coming along.  Es mas mejor que al primera día. (It's much better than the first day)

Love you all!XOXOXO

Hermana Jakob

Look at all those Sisters... and President Bluth photo bomb!

Ramon at his baptism.  What an awesome day!

Elder Averado and Elder Lopez, myself and Hermana Rimmasch and Ramon's friend, Hermana Maria Christina.

 The kid in elder Averado´s arms is Rafa. He is 9 years old and is the son of Maria Christina.

Amazing fun water balloon volleyball towel toss!

Playing sport games on the field

Mmmm!  BBQ!

ALMOST A MONTH HERE!?

Hola mi familia!

So...I´ve been in Chile for almost a month!  How crazy is that? Where has the time gone?  It honestly feels like time has flown by!

I have amazing news!  RAMÓN IS GETTING BAPTIZED THIS SATURDAY!!  We are super excited!  When I got here, my compañera (companion) was thinking about no longer teaching him.  He wasn´t progressing and avoided a lot of appointments but I felt really strongly to teach him about the Plan of Salvation.  It´s just fantastical looking back at how some of our  investigators have grown spiritually and realizing that finding them was a miracle.

 I ADORE Viviana.  She´s the 17 yr old I talked about the other week.  She is a jem.  She asked if we could study chapters of the Book of Mormon that she´s read to help her understand. We read 1 Nephi 2 and analyzed the family of Lehi.   In order to understand something spiritual, we need to ask the source of all spritual knowledge--Our Heavenly Father--through prayer. Even the son of a prophet had to gain a testimony for himself by asking. 

We ran into some Jehovah Witness missionaries in Victoria when we were walking to our District Meeting.  They were super nice and had an Acer tablet! They shared a video with us right there in the street.  It was pretty cool.  We in turn shared about the plan of Salvation and gave them a pamphlet.  The one girl had great interest in the Book of Mormon so we gave her one of those with our phone number in it and planned to meet with them a week later. We´ll see what tomorrow brings! I´m super excited!  

This week, I woke up in the middle of the night to find a mouse scurrying down my bed!  EEK!  We decided to give the apartment a good clean-out today. It´s pretty much impossible to buy mouse traps here.  They just poison the little vermin.  So we bought some of that too.  Fingers crossed that helps.  It make sense that we´d have mice though.  Our neighbours sell animal food and right below us is a grainery!  

This week we read an amazing talk called ``The Fourth Missionary´´ by Lawrence E Corbridge.  This guy is amazing!  It talks about the different kinds of missionaries there are.  In reality, the only difference is thier attitude. It really changed my view on life as a whole.  I encourage you to read it. I think it not only applies to missionaries, but to members and everyone else.  Your attitude can help you get the most out of life.

(Link to the talk mentioned above in case you're interested.  Could be applied as a metaphor for life.)

https://www.freelists.org/archives/ourlunchgroup/11-2013/pdfdQPoSP5qZl.pdf

BTW -  I don't know if I´ll be able to email you next week.  We´re having a mission wide activity on Monday about a 2 hour bus ride away.  By the time we get back, the Cyber (where they email home from) will probably be closed.  We might be able to email a different day but I´m not sure.  

I promise I´ll send picture from the baptism!

LOVE YOU ALL! Les Quiero! XOXOX

Hermana Jakob

Panoramic view towards the mountains

Sorry.... there was one more picture but it failed half way through the upload to home!

A New Year!

Happy New Year!  I can´t beleive that it´s already 2015.  It´s kinda weird to think that I´ll be spending the next whole year in Chile but I´m super excited that I get to have this experience.

I´m not sure what to write this week.  It was a little slow because a lot of people had gone to Temuco to visit family for the New Year.  That or they had visitors so our investigators would cancel their appointments.  

For New Years Eve, we stayed in our house for the night.  We didn´t have any citas (appointments) for dinner so Hermana Rimmasch and I decided that we would try our hand at making sopiapillas (which are pretty much dough that you fry.)  Our first batch was terrible!  They were as hard a rocks but we kneaded the second batch of dough more and they turned out fine.  We like to eat sopaipillas with mustard and hot sauce or manjar (dulce de leche). After, we stayed up reading Jesus the Christ until midnight.  When 12:00am struck, the town´s fire alarm blasted for a whole minute and the people living downstairs broke out in a patriotic song. Hermana Rimmasch and I wished each other Happy New Year and promptly went to sleep. #missionarylife 

They whole New Years Day was a P-day. We made pankekes for the Elders at the capilla (chapel) and they taught me how to play ping pong.  It was a nice, relaxing day.

God led us to a 21 year old girl this week named Viviana.  She is super amazing!  She´s Catholic but has a lot of doubts about it.  She has an amazing knowledge of the Bible.  We gave her a Book of Mormon and she loves it because she says it helps her clarify teachings in the Bible. She had a lot of questions about baptizing children too. (and why we wait until 8 years old to baptize)

Today, we went to a little town called Collipulli (pronouced Co-je-pu-je) for a zone activity.  The main attraction for this little town is this huge yellow bridge.  It´s super high and super long!  Really cool! After taking pictures and walking across it, the Elders from the area took us to some caves. It was so beautiful!  It kinda reminded me of Webster´s Falls in Dundas, ON !   The first cave was super cool because the roof was held up by three pillars.  It kinda looked like someone had built and formed them but it's totally natural!  The rock here is a little different.  It´s not solid bedrock like we have at home.  The cliff and cave faces look like a bunch of round rocks mortered together.  It would be super awesome to go rock climbing!.  There was a cascada between two of the caves. I have a bunch of pictures of that.

I´m not sure what else to tell you...the weather here is a little wonky.  We´re finally getting into the warm part of summer.  It´s about 28 degrees here right now and I´m loving it!.  At night it can get really cold.  New Years Eve was about 12 degrees and super damp!  

Love you all!  Thank you for all of your support!

Hermana Jakob XOXO

(Mom's note - Whooot!  She got a new upload cable for her phone this week.  So as promised, lots of photos!!!)

Christmas with Hermana Rimmasch in their house.

Looks like packages and letters from home!

Now that's a way to make completos! (hot dogs)

These are the "successful" sopaipillas

The long yellow bridge @ Collipulli with the elders from her zone

The name tag's there somewhere under all that hair!

Trekking towards the caves

Inside the caves @ Collipulli

Enjoying the beautiful Chilean greenery

Inside the caves with interesting rock formations

A little bit of history from Wikipedia...

SOPAIPILLAS

In Chile, sopaipillas (or sopaipas) are known to have been eaten at least since 1726. Although Traditional Chilean sopaipillas (made in the central part of Chile) include zapallo (pumpkin) in their dough, it wasn't typically used in the South of Chile. Depending if they are served as a pastry or bread Chilean sopaipillas are traditionally served with either pebre (a sauce of onion, tomato, garlic, and herbs) or chancaca sauce (and then they are called sopaipillas pasadas). They are also served with mustard, ketchup, hot butter, guacamole, cheese or manjar. In Chile sopaipillas are traditionally made and eaten during days of heavy rain. Chilean sopaipillas are round and made flat by holes, usually made by forks.

CHILEAN SOPAIPILLAS

INGREDIENTS

9 oz zapallo- can use sweet potato, sugar pumpkin, or any orange squash (you want ≈1 1/4 C when mashed)
4 C flour
1/2 tsp soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 Tbs sugar
½ C butter

Cut squash into ½” cubes and boil over med-high heat until soft and easily pierced with a fork, ≈15-20 min. Drain (reserve liquid) and mash with butter. Mix flour, soda, baking powder, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl. Stir in squash mixture and knead dough on lightly floured surface. (add flour or reserved liquid as needed) Cover with a towel and let rest 10 min. Roll dough to 1/8-1/4” and cut into circles with a glass. Poke each one a few times with a fork. Heat vegetable oil in a skillet over med-high heat, cook until browned on both sides, 3-4 min. drain on paper towels.
*to decrease fat simply add less butter to the dough

In Chile they eat sopaipillas with ketchup and mustard, but they also serve them sweet dipped in spiced syrup- it's quite good if you want to try it:

SPICED SYRUP

1 C brown sugar

2 cinnamon sticks
3/4 C water
1 teaspoon cloves
1 whole orange, sliced in 4
Bring all ingredients to a boil in a saucepan, simmer 5 minutes. Strain syrup and keep warm. After draining sopaipillas on paper towels dip them in the warm syrup and serve hot with extra syrup on the side.

http://www.just-cook-already.com/2010/12/chilean-sopapillas.html