September 26, 2011

Okay, so this weeks message from Katie is really really short. Mainly because she got to look at wedding pictures from Emily's wedding and a couple for Stephen.

Sorry I had a lot of pictures to look through today and I don´t have a lot of time. I still have to write pres. so I am going to do that. Just know that I am doing great. My spanish is growing and amazingly I haven´t had a hard time understanding my comp or the other Hermanas here. Half of my sector is the mountains which really makes me feel like I´m home. I do miss Ñuñoa like crazy!! and there have been a few difficult situations for me here but I am great and I am excited to help this sector out. I LOVE YOU SO MUCH. I hope I have more time to write you but I may not.

-Hna. Howe

September 19, 2011

Hola todos,

 

Alright A LOT happened this week and I really hope I don´t forget anything.

First off Tuesday we had a cita (appt.) with our golden investigator, Lourdes. We went in planning to teach about the Holy Ghost and well... that didn´t happen. Instead she told us about all the doubts and problems she has with the church. The young man that passed the sacrament to us on Sunday was laughing a little bit as he was and she found it very disrespectful and all of her problems just started to spout off of that. She was saying how things about the Book of Mormon and how we´re just like all the others bringing along this new book. She also said she feels like she´s wasting her time but she´s willing to listen to us a little bit more. That was a complete turn around and I was not expecting that. We know that this IS what she´s looking for we just have to work really hard to help her see it. Thursday we had a lesson with her with our district leader, his companion, and one of the young men from the ward. We though it would be good to bring them along to help her understand more about the priesthood and why it´s given to young men. Unfortunately I won´t be there anymore to see how the lessons go... Yes I was changed but I´ll come back to that later. I know that Lourdes loves Hna. Windous and I so much so I hope that she´s not too sad or offended that I won´t be there. I really hope that she gets baptized and I really do KNOW that this IS what she´s looking for. She just doesn´t quite know it yet.

Friday was the next big day. Thursday night everything seemed surreal and it just seemed like another day and not like something big was happening, like a wedding or something. :) That didn´t last for too long because I definitely felt the realness of everything Friday. We had an amazing time at the temple. It was really special there was a couple there at the same time that was being sealed I don´t know if that made it easier or harder on me. haha.

Yesterday was the 18th of September, shocker huh?... No I know that has no significance in the states but that Chile´s independence day. It really felt almost exactly like the 4th of July. Saturday we had a very festive lunch with empanadas. I gave into the peer pressure of the Hermanas and ate two empanadas. It´s alright I´m good... now.

Since it was the last week of changes the whole week Hna. Windous and I were talking about what could happen in changes, let me just say it wasn´t quite what I was expecting but I think it is even better. I finally left Ñuñoa 1 which now I´m actually a little sad about it because we finally had people we were teaching and I had connections with a lot of people there. Both Hna. Rios and I left Ñuñoa 1 and Hna. Wojciechowski and Hna. Windous stayed and got different companions. I am now in a sectore called Lo Cañas. My new companion is Hna. Castallón, she´s from Nicaragua. and I am also going to be living with Hna. Humphries who will be training an new Hna. from Bolivia. I am the only one who isn´t fluent in Spanish but I know because of that my spanish is going to get so much better and I´m so excited for that. I am also excited to get to know the people in this sector and it seems a lot calmer than the city life of Ñuñoa. I am so excited for this change and can´t wait to see what the Lord has in store for me. 

I Love you all!!! and I hope that you are all doing well.

 

-Hna. Howe

September 12

¡Hola! 

So I hear there´s a wedding or something of that sort this week.. Well congratulations to the happy couple. I´m assuming that their happy after all I can´t really see it for myself. 

This week has been pretty great. It´s been busy and everyday was full of things to do, which is really nice because in this sector it´s usually difficult to find plenty of things to do. I´m pretty sure I´ve told you about our golden investigator. (the one we contacted when Hna. Windous rolled her ankle) Well we´ve taught her a few times. On our second visit we asked her to be baptized on the 18th, she said she wanted to learn more and didn´t think that she´d be ready for the 18th. We teach her about twice a week and during one of our visits this week she asked us what other day we will be having a baptismal service. She said that she can´t stop thinking about it. We told her whenever she´s ready we have a service. We extended to her the meta (goal) of Oct. 2. I really think that will happen. She came to church with us on Sunday, she stayed for all 3 hours and other than the crying babies in sacrament meeting I think she liked it. I am so excited for her and I just love seeing more people come unto our father in heaven. I know he loves each and every one of his children and just wants more anything to see them come unto him so that he can POUR out his blessings upon them. 

Thursday we had capacitaciónes (trainings) where Pres. and Hna. Laycock talked to us again. Pres. focused more on the things he talked about during zone conference, things like how everything we do should be helping us to have the spirit with us more. The Holy Ghost is the perfect teacher, I´m definitely not. That´s one thing I´ve loved about my companionship with Hna. Windous. We have always got along so well and we´ve never even had the slightest bit of tension, that has enabled us to have and teach with the spirit. We also listened to a talk that Elder Holland gave in the MTC in Jan. 2011. He mentioned that one of the main reasons why they came out with PMG was that they realized there was something wrong with the missionary program when the missionaries that were coming back weren´t changed by their missions. It was such a powerful talk, I want to be a missionary forever! maybe not in the way I am right now and maybe not even preaching everyday but living with the missionary spirit.

So Thursday night Hna. Windous and I were walking back to the house when we got a call from the Hnas. in Ñuñoa 2. They said that the assistants to Pres. Laycock called and that Pres. wanted the Hnas. in my zone to go to the temple on Friday. Well I wasn´t going to fight with that. :) I was so excited to go and I was even more excited at the thought of going to the temple two weeks in a row. :D. I really can´t imagine what I would do if I didn´t have a temple in my mission. 

This is the last week of the change and we things to do almost everyday so I know that this week is going to fly by. I´m kind of sad about that because I´m pretty sure I´m going to get a new companion. Hna. Windous and I have been together for 3 changes and it´s rare for a companionship to be together longer than that. There are a lot of fantastic Hnas. in my mission though so I´m excited to see what changes bring. I am also interested to see if I´ll change sectors. WE´LL SEE!

Until next week!

I LOVE YOU ALL!!

-Hna. Howe

September 5, 2011

Hola,

Well I don´t really know what to write about this week. I think the big thing of this week was Zone Conference. The talks were based on PMG (Preach my Gospel) ch.2 How we can study more efficiently. I honestly have forgotten a lot about it but good thing I´ve got two full pages of notes. I just remember afterwards how inadequate and weak I felt. I want SOOOOO much to do everything right and to give all my heart, might, mind, and strength to the Lord. I don´t think I realized before the mission just how difficult that can be. I really want to be the best missionary I can be but I always feel something holding me back. I talk to Hna. Windous in the streets a lot and mention all my weaknesses and the things I could do better. She just turns and says "you´re too hard on yourself." I think I always have been. I´m learning right now how to have patience. I always thought I had patience and out of all the Christlike attributes that was the last one I needed to work on, but I didn´t realize how I need to have patience with myself. I´m not perfect and never will be. Everything comes in it´s own time and it it´s own way. That´s a big part of why they say line upon line, precept upon precept. As I look back I can see improvement I´ve made and I know that throughout my mission I will continue to improve. I can´t expect to do it all at once or to all the sudden in one day know everything. On thing President Laycock always says it "Al Proximal Nivel" (to the next level). Usually he follows it by saying don´t compare yourself against others but just try to improve yourself. Improvement is gradual. But If we can gradually improve one thing at a time then we can gradually reach where we want to be. He also Always Stresses the importance of making goals. That´s something I need to work on a lot. I always say I want to do something but unless I make a goal and WRITE it down I usually don´t do it. 

Sorry I don´t really have more to say. just not a ton happened this week. 

I love you all and miss you more than ever!!!!! 

Have a GREAT week!!!!!

 Katie with Pink Eye

-Hna. Howe

August 29

¡Hola Todos!

 

Well this week has definitely been interesting. We had some pretty big ups and downs, the roller coaster they call the mission. Tuesday Hna. Windous and I went knocking and we got the hardest rejection I´ve seen so far and people were really making fun of us. Then we went to visit some people that we had taught lesson 1 to. The first person that we stopped by is a woman that´s in her 80´s we had given her a Book of Mormon but she returned it to us and said she didn´t have time for it but rather needed to focus on preparing her self to die. ha ha. I know if she really understood she would know that this would be the way to prepare but she just wouldn´t listen to us. We then passed by a little family the mom wasn´t there but the daughter let us in and we began talking to her and her brother. About 10 minutes in the mom got home and pretty much kicked us out. I realized that night just how much I love the people and how much it hurts me to see them reject eternal life. The rejection doesn´t hurt me, what hurts me is just seeing all the people stuck in their pride. 

 

So last week Hna. Windous and I were going to visit a recent convert and as we were walking we passed this lady we were just going to walk right passed but Hna. Windous rolled her ankle (which she always does) but we decided we would contact this woman. Yeah she´s pretty much golden. We passed by for her this week and she was totally ready for us. She told us she doesn´t have a job right now and she´s really grateful for that so that she can spend her time reading the Book of Mormon and investigating the church. She´s amazing and already loves what we´ve taught her. It´s funny she´ll go off for a while bashing the catholic church and the Jehova´s witnesses. 

 

We have also found a family their pretty strong catholics and right now we´re actually only teaching the mom but I have pretty high hopes of teaching the rest. We´ve taught the mom twice now and last time we talked to her about the Book of Mormon. In the end I invited her to pray the way we do (instead of the written prayers) and she told us that since the first lesson she had been praying like that with her daughter. Oh my gosh little things like that just make me so happy. 

 

Yesterday we had a sector slam in Ñuñoa 2 and I went on divisions with one of the Hermanas from that sector who has less time on the mission than I do and actually I was FANTASTIC I learned so much about myself and I really just loved the experience. But I do still hope I´m not senior companion anytime soon. 

 

This morning we had a zone activity where we all got together and played soccer, ultimate frisbee, and ate churipan (it´s like hot dogs but with chorizo). Of course I only had the chorizo but it was so good and so much fun. My zone is awesome and I love the opportunities that we have to come together!!!

 

This week we have Zone Conference on Thursday and I´m SUPER excited!!!

Well until next week. I LOVE YOU ALL!!!

-Hna. Howe (or as they say it here Hna. House) :)