August 22,2011

Hola,

Well guess who woke up with pink eye this morning? Yep me! esta bien I just look a little funny without makeup and with glasses.

This week has been fun and exhausting. There was still all the regular stuff that we do each week but this week we had a few more lessons. Finally!

Saturday we had a sector slam in Macul 2. They were having their ward conference yesterday so we went to help them spread the word the the less actives. Hna. Windous and I had time so we decided that we would walk, after all we walked to Los Platanos last week and it´s just about the same distance. It took us about 45 min to walk there and then the names that we were given lived at the very south of there sector which took us probably about another 20 min. After the sector slam we got back to our sector and we had a cita (appointment) all the way north in our sector and that took us about 30 min. I really wouldn´t be surprised it we walked like 10 miles that day. The cita that we had that night went really good and it was like a little miracle. It was with a 16 year old girl. We knocked her house last Monday and when we passed by she welcomed us in and was really receptive. At the end of the lesson we were giving her a Book of Mormon and she asked what does the word Mormon mean. I told her that He was a prophet that wrote it the book but that his name doesn´t really have any meaning. She then asked if we and the Mormons had the same book. We then explained that we are Mormons. She told us that she would always make fun of the Mormon missionaries with her friends. Had she known the second we knocked her door that we´re the ones they call Mormons I don´t think she would have let us in, But now I have such great hopes for her. She just has to read and pray. Saturday night after all the walking I was pretty much dead. I got into my bed and I literally hurt from head to toe. I was thinking though I hope this is how I feel when I get home. It´s hard but so rewarding. The real unfortunate thing about Saturday night was it was daylight savings and since it´s going into spring I lost an hour. Oh well.

I talked with Hna. Laycock last week and she was telling us that out of all the missions here in Chile our mission is the one that needs the help from members the most. It´s the richer part of Santiago and there´s places that we can´t knock (like apartment buildings) and just people that would take the time to listen to us. The stake mission leader told us this week that the stake is going to start something to get the members more involved in the mission work. The stake is going to try and get every family a copy of PMG and they want the families to teach their family home evenings based on PMG. Also they are going to make calenders for each ward and the idea is to have one family sign up for a FHE each Monday and on the Monday that they sign up for the missionaries are going to come and teach the lesson and they have to have a non member present. It is going to be AWESOME! I know that the members can do it and I know it´s the real way missionary work should be done. I know that I am going to be a completely different kind of member when I get home. I continue to learn each day more and more about the importance of the members.

Last night we had a sector slam in our sector in hopes of finding new investigators. I love my Zone, we´re so united and always willing to help each other out. I went on divisions with Hna. Hudson and we had a fun time getting to know each other a bit more. Y eso es la vida de una missionera. Hasta proxima semana.

¡Les Quiero Muchisimo!

-Hna. Howe

August 15, 2011

¡Hola todas!

This week has been amazing and I learned a HUGE lesson about diligence this week. My first 2 months in Chile were a little rough but amazing! Because of all the rough times and the hard days I learned so many great and important lessons and I could feel the spirit with me almost 100%. These past few weeks have been a little different. I´ve got comfortable with the mission life and living in Chile. When I got to that point I think I stopped giving it my all. I prayed for experiences to humble me because I just wanted to feel the spirit that strong again. Well I was thinking one night about the one goal that I have for me for my mission. I came on my mission to serve the Lord and do everything for him. The only thing that I wanted to gain was to establish good study habits and what I need to change to start that habit. I thought of the one thing that always keeps me from doing my studies and that is being lazy. It´s the little natural man or woman inside each of us that always wants to do the things that are comfortable are not stretch ourselves at all. There are a lot of things in the mission that I´m not comfortable with, like contacting, and knocking. One night this week I studied the Christ like attribute of diligence. I really can´t put into words what I learned or felt. If we have diligence we will have the spirit. Oh this is so difficult I wish I could just talk to you and explain it. But I learned this lesson in such a profound way that all I want to do now it WORK. Diligence also ties into our accountability. Here in the mission all of my time is the Lords time and at the end of the day I am accountable to the Lord for what I did with my time. I know I am so much happier at the end of the day when I can pray to God and literally tell him I did all I could. We can always improve but we can´t expect to do all of our improvement in one day. We should just do all we can do and as we do that we will find over time that we will be able to do more. Pres. Laycock always says to the next level and that we should all strive to reach our OWN next level. We shouldn´t compare ourselves to others but just look at what we can improve and continuously reach for the next level.

Other things that happened this week... It was the first week of the new change so I have a new district and Zone. My new district leader is awesome and he taught a great class on Thursday about how we can be better missionaries. Also on Saturday we had a Sector Slam in Los Platanos to try and have some lessons with less actives. Los Platanos is A LOT different that Ñuñoa 1 and there are a few parts that are much more dangerous for Hermanas at night. Don´t worry we weren´t there at night and I don´t think there will ever be Hermanas there because of that. The rest of the week was pretty much just walking, knocking, and occasionally teaching lessons.

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!

-Hna. Howe

August 1st

Hola
Wow I can´t believe it´s August already! This week has been pretty fantastic! Wednesday we had our interviews with President Laycock. It´s always so fantastic to see him. He really just receives revelation from God and know what each missionary needs and needs to hear. After everyone was done with their interviews and we were all about to leave. Me and the Hermanans in my sector were standing outside of the room he was interviewing in. He came out and said that he wanted all of the Hermanas in our zone to go to the temple this week. There are 8 of us in the zone and we were able to go to the temple on Friday. Oh, it was so fantastic and such a great blessing. I loved the peace and joy I felt in the temple.

Also on Friday we had an activity in our ward for the youth, it was on missionary work and the purpose was to get the youth to have more desire to serve a mission. We have quite a few that are the age to go on a mission but just haven´t yet. The activity was supposed to start at 8 and at about 8:10 there were probably 2 youth there. The hermanas and I stepped out and went and said a little prayer that people would arrive. We then went back to the room and there were about 20 people there. It was muy pero muy genial! (VERY cool). On Thursday us hermanas did divisions so I went out with Hna. Wojciechowski and Hna. Windous went with Hna. Rios. we did divisions for practically the whole day. I learned all the things I didn´t know. As in I learned how many things I don´t know but should or need to know. Hna. Wojciechowski is the most amazing missionary and I´m a little sad that I didn´t have her as my companion for longer but I am very happy for the time that I still have to learn from her.

None of our investigators are progressing. We set a baptismal date for Catalina, who is 12 years old, but we´re having a hard time getting her to church so we´re going to have to push the date back. Even though we´re not having success with investigators we had a hugh miracle this week. I´ve mentioned José and Luz in my emails before, well they came to church this week!!! They have been inactive for 25 years and we´ve been teaching them for about 2 months now, and they came to church!!! oh it was awesome! They were so happy and they brought their family (the family is active). We have cambios (transfers) coming up this coming Monday and we keep thinking about it and predicting what will happen. Vamos a ver muy pronto. (we are going to see very soon).
Bueno, ... eso.
I love you all and hope that you have a fantastic week!!
-Hna. Howe