A Lot in Common With My New Companion

Wow! Cambios esta semana. (Transfers this week!)

I was a little apprehensive to come to this sector.  I had heard a lot of great things about El Mirador and en verdad (in truth), this is the best ward ever!  It is in every way a missionary´s dream come true!  The obispado (bishopric) has a lot of fire for la obra missional (missionary work) and they really support us in the work. The very first day we had a meeting with the bishopric and they shared the vision that they have here .  Afterwards, the Bishop gave us all ¨New Cambio (transfer)Blessings.¨ It was very inspired because I was planning on asking him to give me a blessing that day.  I really want to focus these last two cambios (transfers) and I felt I needed a bit of fortaleza (strength/fortification) to reach my goal.  I am so thankful for the priesthood and the blessings it brings to our lives! 

My knew companion is Heramana Stone.  She´s from Idaho, and is almost 20 years old.  She´s a trained professional singer (sings classically) and she loves a lot of the things I do (being outdoors, music, swimming, running).  She came to the mission the same time as Hermana Bentley so I´m her first companion after her training.  She´s an awesome missionary and speaks Spanish really well!  I´m excited to see what this cambio (transfer) will bring.  

 Sunday was very interesting.  Hermana Stone and I are they only ones in the ward that play the piano and they asked me right away to play the piano.  Do you know how long it´s been since I played the piano?  More than a year!!!  With a lot of prayers we got by just fine :)  My companion and I were asked last minute by the Bishop to perform a musical number.  We decided on ¨All Creatures of Our God and King."  Even though we have never sang together, it turned out pretty well.  I´m so happy that we can sing in 2 part harmony!  xD

There is a different spirit here in the ward.  We can feel the energy from the leaders and the love they have for the members and missionary work... and it´s contagious.  I hope that every ward can have the vision to share the gospel and help their fellow hermanos y hermanas (brothers and sisters) come back to church.

Little fact... the accent here is very different!  Muy campesino (very peasant).  I have over a year in Chile and there are times when I don´t have a clue what the people are saying, jajaj! With time I´m sure I´ll get used to it!    

This morning, the bishopric and their families made a HUGE breakfast for us.  We ate pancakes, French toast, waffles with homemade blackberry jam, eggs, sandwiches, chocolate milk and orange juice.  We were rolling out of there afterwards!  I don´t think I´ll eat until tomorrow!

Love you all lots! You´re always in my prayers!  

Hermana Jakob

Walking over a suspended bridge in Angol

The view over the river from the bridge

Oops!  There's a slat missing!  It doesn't scare me though.  I'm not afraid of heights.  I was swinging it like Shrek with my comp and she started to yell! Hahaha!

On the Move - My Last Transfer!

Buenas tardes mis queridos!  (Good afternoon my dear ones!)

So....we had cambios (transfers) this week!  I´ll be leaving my beloved "hija" en Maquehue ("daughter" in Maquehue) and I´ll be leaving for Angol.  It´s pretty cool because for a long time now I´ve been feeling that I was going to serve there.  Hermana Pemberton will be the new companion of Hermana Bentley!  My first companion is now the companion of mi hija (daughter)!  How cool is that!

I´m sad to leave this sector because we´re teaching some really great people and we´ve gained a lot of confidence with the ward.  They´ve grown to be a part of me...a part of my family. The Ormeño family was crying on the phone this morning when we called to tell them the news.  They´re like our parents here.  We´ve been working with their son these past few months, trying to help reactivate him. These past two Sundays he´s attended church! We´ve seen a lot of miracles, Hermana Bentley and I.  However, I can´t wait to see what the new sector will bring! I know there are people waiting for us!  Amo mi Salvador. Amo la obra missional! ( I love my Saviour.  I love missionary work!)

This week Nelly came to church with her grandson.  It was such a spiritual testimony meeting--an answer to my prayers--She said that all the people spoke so softly but all their words pierced her to the heart and that she had never felt so peaceful before.  Then she promptly declared that she was going to attend ¨si o si¨ (like - no matter what) the next Sunday. Nelly really is great.  We can see her changing and see her testimony in Jesus Christ growing.

We´ve really grown close, the other sisters and I in the house.  The other night we had a FHE (family home evening) after planning for the next day and ate Churrascos (Chilean Hamburger)  and ice cream and we made a big blender full of fresh fruit juice.  The fruit here is very abundant and cheap!  You can buy 2 kilos of kiwis or peaches for 2 dollars!

Love you all lots! Until next week!

Hermana Jakob

Qudditch, Pigs and Role Playing

Hola familia y amigos!  (Hello family and friends!)

Está semana era una semana muy caluroso!  Oops! está en español (This is in Spanish!)  Bueno (good), this week was really hot!  But I can´t complain because who will know how many times I´ll be able to disfrutar (enjoy) a climate like this in Canada.

 

Today, we had a huge combined zone activity and we played Quidditch!  It was a lot of fun!  A little bit like basketball but you run around with a broom.  There was also a snitch... a pig dressed in a yellow shirt!  The snitch was released near the end of a match and the seekers had to run around and try to tackle it to the ground.  I think they should have greased up the pig... it would have made it a little more difficult! Hahaha! (Note: no pigs were hurt in the playing of Quidditch!)

 

 

Our leaders are really pushing that we practice or ¨role play¨ everyday during studies.  It´s really cool to see how the Spirit works during role playing because every time we practice, we end up running into a similar situation later on in the day that we made up in the morning.  One of these instances was Juan Antonio.  Hermana Bentley said we would find a man... kinda jokingly and we went along with the role play.   Later on, we knocked on a door and found Juan Antonio.  We shared the message of the Restoration and he has a sincere desire to pray and to know if it is true. We gave him the nickname ¨Bishop Juan¨ because he was joking around and said ¨Who knows? Maybe one day I´ll be bishop of the chapel.¨ Hahahah!  His comment is going to be very ironic when he gets baptized. ;)

It´s cool to see the change that is taking effect in Neli.  She said the other day she had a panic attack when she realized that she had forgotten to pray.  She said she wants to change her life around and develop good habits so that she can feel closer to Heavenly Father.  

This week is the last week Hermana Bentley and I have together. :(  We have cambios (transfers) on the 9th and I´m pretty sure I´m heading to another zone to wrap up my mission.  I´m so excited to see what will happen and who will be our new companions.  I´ll be sad to leave but I´m willing to go wherever the Lord sends me!

Love y´all lots! 

Hermana Jakob

 

(Happy Mom's Note:  We think we got the problem with uploading pictures resolved.  Lots of them this week!  :)   :)   :))

 

 

Making gnocchi at Hermana Pamela's house.  Yum!

Farewell for future missionary Benjamin

Hermana Arce is making Columbian food!  (Pinto!)

Like a subdivision...  a lot of green houses

Near the end of the day... Look!  Still smiling!  Sharing the gospel and teaching others brings us joy.

 

A Mother's Biggest Wish...

Hola familia y amigos!  (Hello family and friends!)

I feel like this week has been very long but very short at the same time.

Wed -  We went to eat at a Japanese restaurant.  Hermana Lockling (former companion) and Hermana Rowden (friend serving in the same mission from home) accompanied us.  They´re companions right now. The food is pretty authentic.  I´m pretty sure (LOL!) because the family there is from Japan.  It was really cool to hear the waitress talk in perfect Spanish with all the Chilean slang and jargon.  We ate a really good Japanese curry with chicken!

 

 

Today we went to Ruizá family house and made pizza Argentina style! The Argentines are known for their Italian food (there´s a lot of Italian influence).  They put eggs on their pizza!  It was a little weird but I can´t complain.  It tasted good!  We made the sauce and crust and baked it in Hermana Ruiz´s industrial oven.

 

(sample picture)

 

 

This week we participated in the first world wide capacitacion (training) for missionaries.  It was the best!  It helped answer all of my questions!  As I´m winding down to the end of my mission, I really want to give it my all and fine tune the skills that I´ve learned. Elder Bednar realizes that our purpose is to create an atmosphere where the Spirit can dwell and invite people to act.  As they act, they will receive their own spiritual experiences.  

 

This week we found a family of Adventistas (Adventists).  The mom´s name is Viviana and she had a lot of interest to know what the ¨Mormons¨ believe because her aunt and cousin are members of the church and they´re always inviting them to visit church! We shared the Restauracion (Restoration) and that families can be forever. It was magical the way the Espiritu (Spirit) filled the room.  Tears filled her eyes and she asked us to come back to visit with her, her husband and her children.  He has been angry with God since his father passed away and she feels that we can help him find his faith again.  Her biggest wish is that her family can grow closer together and closer to Heavenly Father.  I know that we can find real peace and happiness through the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and that families can be together forever.  

 

Really lame (I know!) but the connection with the camera refuses to work.  I´m as annoyed as you guys are!  Three weeks without pics is a long time! I got a new SD card though!  :)

I read this great talk on the Atonement!  I invite you all to read it! https://www.lds.org/liahona/2008/03/the-atonement-of-jesus-christ?lang=eng

Got to go! 

Love you lots!

Hermana Jakob

www.mormon.org

 

 

Where Do We Go From Here?

Hola mis familia y amigos (Hello my family and friends)!

 

This week we worked a fool!  Por fin (At last/alas), we had a full week without interruptions of conferences or holidays. 

 

The other day, we didn´t have any citas (appointments), so we decided to pass by futures and have a day of tracting (proselyting).  Normally we do a ¨called inspirada¨ where we pray to receive inspiration of where we should go to find the people that Heavenly Father has prepared for us to teach.  It didn´t work.  We tried again and it didn´t work.  I thought something was wrong with us but we put our trust in the Lord and left without knowing where we should go.  We contacted people all day, praying a menudo (often) to receive direction.  We found very good people to talk to but we still hadn´t entered a house to teach.  We prayed to receive direction and we started to walk.  I didn´t know where we were going but I felt that someone was pushing us along.  We finally knocked on the final door of an apartment building in the upper most floor.  A woman named Olaya opened up and let us in immediately.  She started sharing her story and I couldn´t believe it! This women has been prepared for the moment that we knocked on her door!  She is sick with a heart disease and because of her trials she has great faith in Heavenly Father.  She was asking questions like, ¨Why are there so many churches? Out of all the churches, which church is the true church? and more!  It was a truly humbling experience to learn that we don´t always know what we need to do but we should continue to move forward with faith.

 

This experience reminded me of the prophet Nephi in the Book of Mormon when he said he entered into Jerusalem not knowing what he was suppose to do beforehand.  1 Nephi 4:5-6

 

5 Y era ya de noche; e hice que se ocultaran fuera del muro. Y cuando se hubieron escondido, yo, Nefi, entré furtivamente en la ciudad y me dirigí a la casa de Labán.
6 E iba guiado por el Espíritu, sin saber de antemano lo que tendría que hacer.

(5 And it was by night; and I caused that they should hide themselves without the walls. And after they had hid themselves, I, Nephi, crept into the city and went forth towards the house of Laban.

6 And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do.)

 

He followed the Spirit and Heavenly Father provided the means of completing the task he had given Nephi.

 

I invite you all to move forward with faith and in prayer and I know that Heavenly Father will direct you for good.

 

I´m so sorry but this week I won´t be sending any pictures either because I have to buy a new SD card for my camera.  Next week I promise!

 

Love you all lots!

 

Hermana Jakob

 

 

 *Sigh!*  Back to blackmail pics.... From family Easter 2013

 

With Uncle Phil and Uncle Joel blowing bubbles

 

With my Aunt Katharine

 

 

 

Frustration With Cyber Cafes and Ode To Starfish Moments

This week was a week of travelling!

 

(Mom's Note: No pics this week due to technical difficulties, but found this picture in an Asian grocery store today.  Lots of fun finding products with your daughter's name on them! )

 

On Monday we went to the beach with the Ruiz family.  It was the best!  We stopped by the biggest museum of trains in the world.  It was cool because you could climb up into the engines and take a bunch of pictures.  There was a restaurant in one of the booths but we didn´t stop to eat there.  When we got to the beach, it was breath-taking!  The sky seemed to roll on forever!  And to the right, there was a big cliff about 50 ft tall that was beaten smooth by the waves.  We took cool pictures on the beach then climbed to the top of the cliff and snapped photos of the skyline, the mountains and rivers.  Apparently barges from Japan pass by at times but we didn´t see any when we were there.

 

Despite all the pictures we took, I´m afraid I can´t send any......the cyber cafe erased all of my pictures while I was transferring them from my SD card to my pendrive!  Nothing was saved... I´ll see if I can find some pictures from my companions.  

 

On Tuesday, we travelled to Concè (Concepcion) for Return and Report. It`s a conference for all the newbies and their trainers to see how they`re doing and how they`ve progressed.  It was great to hear the experiences of other trainers; their concerns, joys and questions.  I realized they everyone worries if they`re doing a good job training.  I want Hermana Bentley to have the best experience ever and help prepare her the most that I can in the last 4 weeks that we have together. For lunch we ate Hawaiian Haystacks (YUM!).  President Bluth and his wife drove us back to our sector after Return and Report.  What a blessing because we didn´t have to suffer through the heat of the bus for 5 hours!  We reached Padre Las Casas in time to visit a few investigators.  

 

The other day we were walking in the street and a drunk man was walking down the other side yelling ¨CHINA! KUNG FU! HAI-WAAH!  and sending flying kicks into the air.  Chile never ceased to amaze me! 

I was reading a little book of inspirational stories this week and I found one that I would like to share with you all  it´s called ¨The Starfish Thrower¨


Once upon a time, there was an old man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach every morning before he began his work. Early one morning, he was walking along the shore after a big storm had passed and found the vast beach littered with starfish as far as the eye could see, stretching in both directions.

Off in the distance, the old man noticed a small boy approaching.  As the boy walked, he paused every so often and as he grew closer, the man could see that he was occasionally bending down to pick up an object and throw it into the sea.  The boy came closer still and the man called out, “Good morning!  May I ask what it is that you are doing?”

The young boy paused, looked up, and replied “Throwing starfish into the ocean. The tide has washed them up onto the beach and they can’t return to the sea by themselves,” the youth replied. “When the sun gets high, they will die, unless I throw them back into the water.”
The old man replied, “But there must be tens of thousands of starfish on this beach. I’m afraid you won’t really be able to make much of a difference.”

The boy bent down, picked up yet another starfish and threw it as far as he could into the ocean. Then he turned, smiled and said, “It made a difference to that one!”


Sometimes we think that we can´t make a difference; that our efforts won´t change anything and there are too many things we have to do.  But every small act of kindness has an impact.  Every person has been given the ability to shape your future and the future of others.  Maybe on a world scale it doesn´t feel like your act of kindness has accomplished anything but in the world of the one person you helped... it makes all the difference. 

Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God and by small and simple things are great things come to pass!

Love you all <3

Hermana Jakob

Going to the Beach!

Hola Familia! (Hello Family!)

Today we´re heading to the beach with a family... so I´m afraid that we don´t have very much time to write today. 

 

As we begin the New Year, it looks like the leaders of the Church would like us to focus on the basic doctrines of the gospel. I read an amazing talk by Elder Holland about the trinidad (Trinity/Godhead) in the Liahona (Church magazine) this week.  I invite you all to read it! It´s very enlightening and helps us to understand why it is important to know the true nature of God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost.  If we don´t understand the nature of our Heavenly Father, how can we understand our divine nature and our potential?

 

https://www.lds.org/liahona/2016/01/knowing-the-godhead?lang=eng

Love you all lots! 

Hermana Jakob

 

Mom's note.... Sorry there are no pictures this week.  She is having difficulties uploading pictures because of viruses that constantly erase her SD card from the public computers she writes home from.  Needless to say, she is very frustrated about it.