Spunky Sisters and Fields of Flowers

Hola queridos! (Hello Dear/Loved Ones)

This week we had a baptism!  The family we've been working with to reactivate baptized their daughter on Sunday.  It´s been a blessing to see the change in them and the desire that´s grown to follow their Saviour.  Aramí is a very smart girl and says a lot of wise things for a 9 year old.  Out of the mouth of babes... she often reminds her mom to read the scriptures and loves to share what she's learned.  

 

Afterwards, we had an BBQ to celebrate.  We couldn't stay long but we had the chance to eat some great pork chops before we left.  A spunky sister (that likes to speak with a Columbian accent even though she's Chilean) and Aramí decided to photobomb our selfie.  LOL!

 

 

In our sector we have a pueblito (village) called San Ramón.  We can visit there sometimes but it's quite far from Padre las Casas (our sector).

After writing last Monday, we went to a field filled with flowers close to San Ramón to take pictures with the spunky sister. 

 

 

We helped with a service project Saturday morning.  We pulled weeds in the garden of a less active member named Leslie.  She's a really sweet girl and has a really cool plot of land with every kind of fruit tree you can imagine!  Her pololo (Chilean slang for boyfriend) isn´t a member and we´ve begun teaching him a little.  Alan is a musician but performs for the love of music.  He doesn´t like the fame and fortune.   We asked him to play a song for us but he´s a little shy so we listened to his CD instead. He´s really good!

 

 

Sunset in our sector

 

My scripture for this week:

Mosiah 2: 41.  The Lord blesses us temporally and spiritually when we keep the commandments

 

And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it.

 

Les quiero mucho! (Love you lots!)

 

Hermana Jakob

 

Fasting and Prayer Brings Miracles

I don´t know where to start....  This week has been a whirl-wind of activity.  We started the cambio (transfer/exchange) off with a fast.  To help us grow in unity and find people that Heavenly Father has prepared for us to teach.  This week we saw milagros (miracles).

With Hermana Resek (from Utah) in the picture having lunch.

On Sunday, our ward had the Primary Presentation (children 3-12 take over services for the day and sing songs and share the things they have learned with the congregation throughout the year).  It was so cute to see all the children singing and sharing their testimonies.  It reminded me of my time in Primary teaching music.  Two of our investigators came to church, Camila and Nayareth.   They had a great experience and Nayareth became a little teary eyed when the children where singing ¨He Sent His Son.¨  

We´re working to help reactivate a beautiful family.  Their daughter, Arami hasn´t been baptized and she is 10 years old.  She wanted to be baptized but her dad didn´t want her to. We decided to fast and pray to know how we could help them. Claudio is a RM (Returned Missionary). He served in Paraguay.  We decided to visit with him and talk about his mission, his experiences and remind him of the things that he taught and the importance of baptism. It went really well.  The next day we talked to the Bishop and with permission were able to set a date for the baptism of Arami. It´s this Sunday! We´re so exited to help Aramí and her family prepare!  She is a very smart girl and has a lot of wisdom for a 10 year old.  The things she says amazes me sometimes.

 

It was also the birthday of Claudia this week. 

 

The family here is papa Claudio, mama Arminda, Arami and hermanita Claudia (Arami's younger sister).

 

Also, we climbed the mountain of our sector, contacting houses on the way.  When we reached the top, we saw a breath taking view!  The sun was setting and we could see all of Temuco.

 

 

My scripture this week is Alma 17:3

 

But this is not all; they had given themselves to much prayer, and fasting; therefore they had the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of revelation, and when they taught, they taught with power and authority of God.

 

I know from experience the power that comes through fasting and praying. The windows of Heaven really do open and Heavenly Father gives us spiritual strength.  This week, for me, is one of the examples of the blessings that we receive when we fast.

 

I invite you all to participate in the next fast Sunday (first Sunday of the month), if your health permits.  Pay your fast offering and seal it with sharing your testimony.  I promise you will see miracles and receive the help and strength that you may be searching for. Miracles do happen! :)

Love you all lots!

Hermana Jakob

BTW- I talked to Hermana Caitlyn Rowden, por telefono (by telephone)!  She's doing great.  She's in Gorbea about an hour from our sector.  We live with the Hermanas Capacitadoras (training sisters) so I´ll probably see her during an intercambio (exchange)! So exciting! (Hermana Rowden is a friend from Kitchener who happened to be called to my same mission.  Sometimes it's a really small world.)

LOTS of Walking in Maquehue!

What a change this week!  I´ve gone from the far north of the mission to the south.  I´m good with that though.  I wanted to be in the south for the summer.  It´s so beautiful!"  Reminds me a lot of the North of Canada with all the pine tree forests, mountains and lakes.

I couldn´t be happier here in Maquehue.  There is so much work to do here. We fall into our beds exhausted at night.  It´s funny how you can be so tired and so happy at the same time.  There are many prepared people here, ready to accept and embrace the gospel.

 

Padre de las Casas is a HUGE sector.  It´s probably the size of Cambridge and we walk all parts of it.  The barrio (ward/congregation) is pretty big too, about 150 people attend regularly.  It´s a little overwhelming when I´ve only been in branches or small barrios before.  I´m really excited to get to know everyone and work with them.  

When I arrived here, I was surprised to find that we had a wedding followed by a baptism planned on Saturday.  I felt bad for Hermana Enriquez because she couldn´t be here to help celebrate with her investigator.   But the Spirit was so strong during his baptism.  I felt that Heavenly Father really prepared José for this moment.

I think the biggest thing I´ve learned this week is that Heavenly Father truly understands the desires of our hearts and if our desires are righteous, when we keep the commandments and ask in prayer, He will give it to us.  What a wonderful Father!  I remind you all to trust in the Lord.  At times things seem bleak but in the end, it will all turn out right.

 

My scripture of the week is Doctrine and Covenants 6:33. 

 

"Fear not to do good, my sons, for whatsoever ye sow, that shall ye also reap; therefore, if ye sow good ye shall also reap good for your reward."

 

What are some of the things we can to "sow" good works?  What blessings have you received from the decisions you´ve made in the past?  What do you hope to have in the future? What can you do now to reach your goals?  I invited you to read and meditate. :)

Love y´all lots!  

Hermana Jakob

 

 

My new companion Hermana Mamani!

 

Selfie!

With members from San Pedro branch.

Bus trip to zone conference with Elders and Hermanas

With 2 awesome kids, Ezekiel and Jeremy

With Hermana Ivonne and Hermano Raul

 

I'm Getting Transferred!!!

I`m leaving La Marina!  They`ve decided to close down the sector for Hermanas and open it back up for the Elders.  It`ll be a little bit of a shock for the members here but all in all, it`ll be a good change.  The people here are more receptive to the Elders (we saw that during the zone attack in our sector). 

 



Areas where I'll be serving in Temuco below. If you notice in the above map, Temuco is close to my first area of Caracautin.

 

I`ll be travelling back to the south to serve in Temuco, Maquehue.  Hermana Lockling will be in my Zone too!  It`s cool that we`ll get to see each other every week in district meetings.  My new companion`s name is Hermana. Mamani.  She`s from Bolivia and is super sweet! I met her once in the bus terminal about 4 months ago and we talked for a long time.  I felt the impression that one day we would be companions and here we are!  I`m excited to work hard this cambio (transfer). I´ll go there with a lot of references too. There´s a family here of converts and they have LOTS of family in Padre de las Casas. How beautiful will it be to teach their brothers and sisters?!

 

How amazing was the General Conference!? I am so thankful that I could watch it in English to help get the full grasp of the messages.  President Uchtdorf (I just love him) gave amazing talks.

 

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/10/a-summer-with-great-aunt-rose?lang=eng 

 

He actually answered a lot of my prayers and questions.  I wanted to know how I could help our investigators feel more joy in their lives and how I could improve as a missionary and as a person. 

 

Many of the Apostles and Seventies talked about how to find happiness and how to improve and spiritual strength.  I love the talk about how we should pray and asked ¨What lack I?  What should I improve?¨ I decided to take the challenge and when I prayed, I felt that I need to express my love for others more.  So, I´m going to make it my goal to be more expressive in my words and in my actions.  I also decided to take up the challenge to "ponderize" (A combination of ponder and memorize) scriptures every week for the rest of my mission.  I´ll be sharing with you my scripture every week and invite you all to join in, choose a scripture to ponder and memorize and share it with others.  Like Elder Durrant said, it will help uplift our thoughts and give us a greater knowledge of the gospel.

 

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/watch/2015/10?lang=eng&vid=4531487647001&cid=4

I know that God speaks through his servants. I know that they guide us for good and give us a vision of what we can become and the actions we need to take to reach our full potential and fullness of happiness. I´m so thankful for the love that Heavenly Father has for us.

 

Les amo mucho (I love you lots).  I invite you to take up the challenges that were extended during this conference and to study the talks that were given.  I promise that you will receive the spiritual security and happiness that the Apostles and the Prophet have promised us. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

 

Hermana Jakob

Saying Good-bye to Teenagehood

Thanks all for the birthday wishes!  Wow does it ever feel weird to be 20!  I still feel like I´m a teenager and have the urge to say 19 when people ask me my age.  Also...in the mission a lot of wrinkles have started showing up!  WHAT HAPPENED I´M ONLY 20!!!  #lifeofamissionary. Walking all day in the sun, stress and diet will do a lot.

Super excited to receive bday package from home! Thanks mom and dad!  Canada, eh?

Micro SD card with loaded with EFY(approved) music and USB connector

Shoes!  Yeah!  I REALLY needed a new pair.  This was so timely!

Can't live without Brookfield chocolate!.... and a bunch of other goodies!

On the 22nd, Hermana Lockling's birthday, we had lunch at the house of the Jarpa family.  They had a cake of manjar (kind of like dulce de leche - so good!) and sang for us and gave us a pack of cookies with manjar (I´m going to have to bring some back home with me) as a present.  The little miracle that we saw on her birthday is that we had a really spiritual lesson with Luis. We´ve decided that we needed to focus more on the Book of Mormon so we introduced it in a special way to help him apply it to his life.  Then we shared our testimonies. He said that he felt the Spirit when he read it!  Yay progress!

 

 

On the 23, the Jerez family shared a black forest cake (so good) and sang for us. There´s this thing that they do here in Chile on your birthday. You have to take a bite out of the cake after they sing.  But...Hermano Yoni decided to push the cake into our faces!  We got frosting all over our clothes and in our noses! Good thing that we live in the house next to theirs so we made a quick change after lunch.  

 

 

On 23, it was rainy and the weather was really ugly.  We were a little unanimated so we decided to pray in the street for direction to find someone that the Lord had prepared. We felt that we should knock on some doors around the house of an old investigator.  We knocked on a door that I´ve knocked on probably 50 times in the past 6 months I´ve been here, and a blond haired, blued eyed women answered the door.  We were a little surprised to see each other. She gave me a big hug and said ¨Una otra Rubiacita!¨(Another blondie!) She let us in and we began to talk. Her name is Edita and her parents were from Germany.  She´s a very smart woman and had a lot of questions about how we interpret the Bible.  We shared the Book of Mormon with her and shared our testimonies.  She was very happy to accept it and said that she would share it with the rest of her family.  We´re going to visit her again this week.  I can´t wait to see how it goes.  I know it was inspiration that my companion and I felt that this week we should focus more on the Book of Mormon.  I also know that Heavenly Father listens to and answers our prayers.

Today we had an activity in Lota with la Zona (zones in) San Pedro, Coronel y Lota.  It was great to see a lot of the missionaries from other Zones.  I think about half of the missionaries from my first zone (Victoria) were there.  We played volleyball, egg toss and other games (I don´t know what you call them).  After, we ate a big BBQ with choripan (like a chorizo hotdog/sandwich) and steak! 

Lota is really beautiful. It´s a port city built into the mountain side.  It´s all hills (A workout and a half to climb), but I wouldn´t mind getting transferred there.  Unfortunately I don´t have any pictures of the city.  I couldn´t get good pics from the bus. 

 

 

 

 

Love you lots!

Until next week!

Hermana Jakob

 

 

More bday photos....

 

With Hermana Pemberton.  Remember she was my CCM (Missionary Training Centre) companion.  We live in the same house, different companions though.

The birthday girls

 

 

 

 

Earthquake and the Day of Patriots

Hola!

 

What a crazy week!  A LOT happened!  Let´s start with the terremoto (earthquake).   We were walking in the street, contacting people when we saw the power lines swinging in the wind...but there wasn´t any wind. I thought, ¨Hey! That´s weird,¨ when we were walking past the house some members.  Suddenly they ran out their door yelling ¨Hermanas!  Está temblando fuerte!¨ (Sisters!  It's shaking really strong!) We talked with them for a bit outside to help them calm down when an alarm started to sound on their cell phone.  Everyone has an alarm on their phone in Chile that the government initiates when there is danger of a tsunami after an earthquake (Chile is one of the most earthquake prone countries in the world).  Within 5 minutes the streets started filling up with cars and people fleeing for the hills.  We had just had a capacitación (training meeting) of what we should do in an emergency when this happened (inspiration from Hermana Bluth - Mission President's wife).  So we went to the house to wait for a call from our zone leaders and prepared our emergency kits.  We ended up having to go to the stake center (larger church building where more people can gather)to wait.  We were there until about 11:00pm playing ping pong and "Mafia".  The tsunami never hit here like it did in the north but it was an interesting experience to say the least.  A lot of people here are still scared because of the big terremoto (earthquake) and tsunami de 2010.

 

(Note: In 2010 a massive earthquake measuring 8.8 hit the Concepcion area triggering tsunami warnings in 53 countries around the Pacific.  525 people lost their lives and approx. 9% of the population in the affected areas lost their homes)  

This week we also celebrated the Day of Patriots.  I have never eaten so much BBQ or meat in the 10 months I´ve been in Chile! I am not complaining! The BBQ here is VERY good!  On the 18th, we went to the Laguna Grade to fly kites and buy stuff at the fundo.  I found a booth of all vinyl in Spanish but they were really expensive so I didn't buy anything.  We bought Churros and left to prepare for Cristian´s baptism!  It was so great to see all his family there to support him!  Presidente Bluth and Hermana Bluth came to the baptism too!  I was a little worried how they would baptize him because he has partial paralysis.  He can´t move is left arm or left leg.  In the end, todo salió bien (It all went well).

 

Having a good time at the Laguna flying Chile kites with the Hermanas.

 

At Cristian's baptism.

 

 

I just love to see the change and light that grows in the eyes of the people we teach.  I love to see them accept the evangelio de Jesucristo (gospel of Jesus Christ), to help them find the purpose of life and see them come to know and feel that they are children of a Heavenly Father that loves them. 

 

After the baptism, we celebrated the 18th with a big fiesta!  The Latinos sure know how to party!  I have never seen so many people dancing! Young and old, it doesn´t matter your age!  We also had a Karaoke contest... they wanted me to compete but my knowledge of Spanish songs is a total of.... 0! One of the traditional dances here is called" La Cueca".  Another is called the Huaracha (it's super ridiculous and made me laugh).  

 

 

 

Ah!  I´m running out of time! I wish I had more so send all the details but it´ll have to wait until next week.

Les amo mucho!  (Love you lots !)

Hermana Jakob

***SPECIAL EARTHQUAKE UPDATE***

Just writing you all to let you know that we´re all fine here in Chile. They've ginven us permision to write and let you know how we´re doing. Yes, there was an earthquake in the north around Santiago but we just felt a little bit of movement here.  There was a tsunami warning after and we had to meet together in the Stake Center (church building), just in case but nothing happened here in Concepción.

Love you lots! Don´t worry everything is fine here in our sector.

Hermana Jakob