Wednesday, June 25, 2014 - Week 44

 

Hey Fam! Guess what? I'm writing you from the CCM today! And I'm going to the temple in just a couple hours!! It was a total surprise. My companion needs to renew her passport tomorrow morning so we drove down here with Elder and Sister Carroll from the office today. I got to see one of my old teachers Brother Nuñez! My other 2 teachers aren't here anymore. :( I was really hoping to see them. But I saw President Freestone too and a few other familiar faces. Wow it just brings back so many memories being here. And to see the new missionaries that don't know a lick of Spanish. How far I've come. It still feels like I was here yesterday though. I'm just so excited to do a session in the Temple!! We're going to eat at the Walker's home first (the mission doctor) and then we'll do a 7 pm session and stay overnight in the CCM. Then in the morning we'll go get the passport renewed and head back to Santiago. Well nothing else I'm going to write will top all of this, but my week has been good. We've been contacting a lot again this week to have more people. On Friday we had a zone conference with everyone in the Santiago areas. It was great! We learned about how to have the powers of heaven with us (be obedient, be grateful, etc.) Hermana Douglas challenged us to start a gratitude journal. We need to write 5 things we're thankful for and why each day. She talked about a ton of studies of how people are so much happier and have less problems if they write in a gratitude journal every day. She said there used to be a ton of missionaries with mental problems when she got here and she had them start gratitude journals and now there aren't any. They all got over their problems. It's pretty cool. I'm going to start one. President talked about how we should ask dangerous questions in our prayers (questions that will force us to change when we receive the answer). For example, how can I have the spirit with me more each day? My question is how can I be exactly obedient? So after we have chosen our question we should first write down everything that comes to our minds even if they are totally crazy. Then we should pray and list all the things we wrote down and during the prayer write more things that come to mind. We can scratch things off if we need to, but after our prayer and after we have decided the things we need to do, we need to change those things. I'm really excited to do it. On Saturday I went to Mao (like an hour away) because my companion wanted to go to a baptism there which was her old area. It was pretty fun. I had to sleep on the floor though which was not so fun. I had back pain for like 2 days. Haha. But it was good. I'm glad I could help out my comp. On Sunday we had 8 people in the church! It felt so good to have a good high number again. I haven't had a high number since Tamboril. But a family we've been teaching my whole time here and before that is inactive came! I was so happy to see them! They came to our branch activity 2 weeks ago which I think really helped them to feel more comfortable to come to church. A lot of people recognized them and greeted them. I hope they come again next week. We have a few people progressing, but each of them have something holding them back. Ivelice like I told you can't give up her jobs right now until she's paid off her debt, but we invited her last week to start reading the Book of Mormon from the beginning and she and her daughter read 7 chapters this week and remembered EVERYTHING. I think this will really help her have a testimony of the church. Emily and Johan have come to church like 7 or 8 times now and are so ready to be baptized, but like I said they are still very young. Johan is ready, but Emily is scared to make such a big decision. But they have a testimony of everything and know the lessions backward and forward that we've taught. So now we'll just have to wait until Emily is ready. But that's about it for now. Thanks mom for getting everything ready for the package! Well if there is room in the box, there are a few things I would like. Mints- it doesn't matter which kind as long as it's like the mint kind (not fruity). Also some like lemonade powder or gatorade powder if you know what I mean. Something I can put in water to have like juice. But thank you! We don't really have bugs because a guy comes to fumagate (sp?) every transfer. Once in a while a cockroach or lizard thouse. Laurette is back in FM1? She doesn't go to the singles ward anymore? Sounds like Jamie got lots of good classes. Why 2nd half of BOM first? That will be kinda confusing. Are there no spots open? That's great that Jaden can be with JD for a while. I'm sure he will have lots of fun. Happy Anniverary!! I'm so happy you guys got married 32 years ago and are my parents! Have a great day together! I love you all!! Off to the temple! :)

Hermana Woolf