July 23, 2012

Well I wish there were a way to just "rip the bandaid" of when it comes to the mission, but unfortunately it´s not like that. This week I received the ward bulletin from the Willow Canyon 3rd ward. Attached to it was a post-it that said it will be the last one I get since I will be home soon. Then on the inside it mentions again how I´ll be coming home soon. I´m not going to lie I was pretty sad reading that. I know that there are so many people that are excited to see me and I´m excited to see you all too. However, it makes me realized that I´m going to have to leave everything here and that I´m not ready for!  We had a pretty great week this week. Today for our preparation day my comp. and I went with two members of our ward, Marcela and Karina to a mall in Providencia. It´s a new mall and it´s inside of the biggest building in all of South America. The rest of the building is still under construction and I imagine that it´s going to take quite a while to finish it. The mall itself is 6 floors!! IT¨S HUGE!! I´m not exactly sure how we´ve managed to keep ourselves so busy this last week but we did so much! Right now we only have one investigator but let me tell you he´s awesome. He´s 19 years old and is a firefighter. By the way just to let you know here in Chile firefighters are volunteers actually instead of being paid they have to pay to be a firefighter. We´ve been teaching him for about a month and he´s progressing really well. He went to church for the first time yesterday. I was so happy to see him there and I think he really enjoyed it. We have a lesson with him tomorrow and we´re going to try to set a baptismal date. We´ve talked about it a few times but he said that he wants to go to church before he makes a decision. He did tell us that it´s something he´d like to do though. I hope that you all know that  I LOVE YOU SO MUCH I´m so excited to see each and everyone of you!  -Hna. Howe

Picture Time July 16, 2012

 Pics of me with some of the hermanas from my mission and one of me with Karina, Goretti, and Nelly. 

July 9, 2012

You´re probably anxious to know what happened for transfers/changes.. well.. Hna. Zuñiga will be killing me here in Los Platanos. In other words, I didn´t get changed. I´m actually really happy about that. I´m glad that I don´t have to worry about getting used to a new companion or sector and I´m even gladder that I´m leaving all the members that I love so much in this ward. This last week has been full of farewells for Elder Orozco, he finished his mission today. It made me want even more to end my mission here. It´s been a little weird seeing Elder Orozco end his mission because it´s been a little constant reminder that all of that is waiting for me. Last night I went to bed thinking about the fact that I am now starting my last change. It makes me really sad to think about that and well it scares me a lot. I do have to say that I´m grateful that I have all my plans set up and ready for me when I get home so that I don´t have to think about that this change but rather I can just focus on the work ahead of me and work my hardest until the very end. 

I have to admit our sector is pretty much dead. We only have one investigator and have spent so much time searching for new ones. That doesn´t mean that I´ve lost the hope that they´re there because I know that they are. I think it just means more than anything that I have a lot of work ahead of me this change.
Saturday we had a big farewell Family Home Evening in the Saldaña´s house with some recent converts and ward members. It was really fun and also a great experience to share our testimonies and to hear how much he has blessed the lives of people in this ward. Earlier this week we had a farewell dinner with another family in the ward. We ate SO MUCH that day. We had had a big lunch earlier during the day then we had this HUGE dinner, huge but delicious! Then after dinner we went to the ward mission leaders house for our weekly meeting and they and "once" ready for us to eat. I really felt like I couldn´t eat anymore. Actually I didn´t even eat breakfast the next day because I was still full. We had another farewell dinner on Thursday and we ate pizza. They even made a gluten-free crust so that I could eat pizza too. HOW NICE!! I´m not going to lie it´s been really fun helping kill Elder Orozco and I´ve loved all the good food. I´m excited to enjoy all of that all over again when it´s my turn. I´m going to miss Elder Orozco a lot he has been a tremendous help in the missionary work in this ward!

I had the opportunity to meet our new mission president this week, Pres. and Sis. Wright. They are such a cute couple. Pres. Wright is really funny and Hna. Wright is so sweet and is so excited to get to work. She is trying so hard to learn and speak spanish. I´m not going to lie it´s really different having them instead of Pres. and Hna. Laycock. Not a bad different just really different. Obviously they´re completely different people with different personalities so it should be different. Pres. Wright knows has really great insights on the scriptures and I´m excited to be able to learn from him at least for a little bit. They came to our district class on Thursday and shared their testimonies with us. I can already tell that they love us so much. Today during our change council Hna. Wright told us that in a handbook they received at an mission presidents seminar they attended there´s instructions on how to create a facebook group. She made a few jokes and then expressed that it´s important so that they can stay in contact with us and that the WANT to stay in contact with us because they already love us so much. 

It has been so cold this week. I gets a lot colder in Utah than it does here but I think sometimes it feels colder here because there´s no escape from the cold. There isn´t any indoor heaters other than little gas stoves that some people have and in our apartment we just have a little plug in heater. On Friday we basically spent the whole evening out in the cold. The one appointment that we had fell through and while knocking no one let us in. MY hands were freezing through my gloves and well we were just so cold. We decided we would take refuge at a members house. We yelled at her gate and as she let us in I almost cried in gratitude. Really yeah I would have lived and been fine and she not let us in but that little act of kindness and willingness meant so much to me. So during the winter if you ever see a cold missionary walking through the street you can think of me and I hope that you will let them into your house and give them that refuge from the cold.

Well I think that pretty much wraps up this week. Until next week. I love you all so much!

Con Mucho Amor,

-Hna. Howe

July 4, 2012

We have transfers next Monday. I have mixed thoughts on what I want to happen. I´d like to stay in this ward because there are so many people that I know and love. I´d like to finish my mission here and with all of them. At the same time, I´ve only been in 3 wards and I´d really like to have 1 more ward and get to know some more people. Also I feel like I´ve been in this ward for quite a while. Really I think I´ll be happy with whatever happens. I´ll just leave it up to God and see what he wants to happen.

This week we had a farwell Family Home Evening as a mission for Pres. and Hna. Laycock. It was FANTASTIC! Except for the fact that we had to RUN there. The calendar said that it was at 7:00 so that´s what we planned. We were in someones house at 5:40 when our district leader called us and asked us if we were on our way. I told him no and then he told us he forgot to tell us it was at 6 instead of 7 so we ran to our apartment grabbed our things and then ran to the Metro and to the chapel that´s about a half hour away. We made it in time and guess what the first thing they did was?? TAKE A PICTURE! I love things like that, seriously, they make for great memories! At the Family Home Evening I was able to finally eat a completo with bread. A completo is like a hot dog but with avacado and tomatoes. The office elders found a gluten free store and bought some gluten free hot dog buns for me. :D We then watched a little video from our mission and then listened to Pres. and Hna. Laycock for the last time. I really liked Pres. Laycock´s last counsel to us. He talked about the REAL POWER which is love. I wish I had my notes with me to write you about it more. It´s made me really be focused on loving people a lot more. To end his talk he said. "I plead with all that I am that you love with all your heart, might, mind, and strenght."

On Friday Pres. and Hna. Wright got here. I still haven´t met them yet but I´ll be meeting them tomorrow. Even though I miss Pres. and Hna. Laycock I´m so excited to get to know Pres. and Hna. Wright. 

On Saturday we went to the temple and toured the grounds with a recent convert. I had the opportunity to see one of my converts from Lo Cañas at the temple. It was a lot of fun to be with Hna. Castellón, Hna. Mancía, and our convert again. I felt like I was back in Lo Cañas. Haha. 

I love you all so much!! Thank you for everything!! and HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!! enjoy it for me. ;)

con mucho amor, 

Hna. Howe

July 2, 2012

Here are some photos. There are a few from a sealing we were able to attend. The groom served in my mission and I was in the same zone as him for almost 9 months we became pretty good friends so he invited me to his sealing. It was a wonderful experience! The cookie things are called alfajores and we made them GLUTEN FREE. Yea!! They were so delicious! The other one is, clearly, of Pres. and Sis. Laycock. They left but their teachings and examples will always be left behind. :)

Yesterday we had a baptism!!!

The person that got baptized is Nicolas, he´s 15 years old. His mom and siblings are members but up until this point he has never wanted to be baptized. Several missionaries had taught him before but none of them were even able to get him to attend church.    We´ve been working with him for about 3 months now and was gradually progressing and changing. We worked together with the elders in our area, and TOGETHER we were able to help him CHANGE his life and come unto Christ. One of the most spiritual and amazing things was to actually see the change take place in him. He is now a different young man than he was before and is on a better path in his life.  

June 25, 2012

Well I don´t have a lot of time and I´ll have to send some pictures next week. This week has been a pretty fun and special week. 

We had the privilege on Saturday of attending a temple sealing. It was one of the elders that served in my mission. We were in the same zone for almost 9 months. He invited a few of his old comps. and me to attend his sealing. It was a very special experience. I am grateful for the opportunity I had to be in the temple with President Laycock. 

President Laycock is leaving this week. Wow just writing that about brings me to tears. He has been such a strength and a pillar to me this past year and some odd months. I am very excited to go to his house after I get home and I am happy knowing that he lives pretty close and that I´ll be home pretty soon. So it´s not really like saying goodbye. On the other hand our new mission president, President Wright, gets here Friday. I am very excited to meet him and get to know him. I get the feeling that there might be a lot of changes in the mission. I know that each mission president is different and that President Wright will have focuses on different things than President Laycock. I want to give a huge public thank you to President and Hermana Laycock 

THANK YOU!! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!

-Hna. Howe

June 11, 2012

Here´s some cute quick pics from the week. 

My comp and I have been travelling to an area in our mission called La Dehesa a lot recently. It´s a pretty rich area and actually inhabited by a lot of North Americans. There´s a Johnny Rocket´s there, just below the dentists office, how convenient! We took advantage of the opportunity to go in and enjoy some fries and shakes. YUMM!!

This Sunday we had a baptism in the ward. Two of the elders investigators were baptized!! They´re such cute little boys and have really fun attitudes. The elders have been teaching them for quite a while and it was a great miracle to see them finally be baptized. :D

Today we went as a zone to Santa Lucia. It´s a little hill/tourist area just outside of our mission. Here´s a pic of all of us sisters from the zone. 

June 4, 2012

Wo, wo, wo, IT¨S JUNE!! but it´s like 50 degrees outside and dark at about 6:00 in the evening. Not to mention I thought it was February just yesterday. Is someone playing a time trick on me??

Seriously it´s starting to get a lot colder outside. Luckily we haven´t had any rain this week unlike last week when it rained for like 3 days straight. So here´s a few updates from the week..

We did a few service projects this week. One of them was helping someone out with their yard. I had the great opportunity of harvesting the grapes, something that I had never done before. You may be thinking wow I´ve got my glasses. I woke up that morning with a red swollen eye but now it´s all better. Another service project that we did was make cinnamon rolls with the bishops wife. I don´t know how much time she actually gets to do things she wants to do. We asked her if there was some sort of service we could do for her and her response was to be taught how to make cinnamon rolls. :D  We also had a BBQ with the ward mission leader, Hno. Saldaña, his family, and the elders. It was pretty crazy towards the end of lunch a soccer game started between Chile and Bolivia. Since soccer is such a huge thing here in Latin America the Saldaña family turned on the game and we just had to ignore it as we finished lunch. It was actually pretty fun. It reminded me so much of football and the excitedment for football games. 

The last photo is actually from the previous week. We had a Family Home Evening with the elders and a family that we´re all teaching. The mom and the cousin made us sushi. yummy!! Just and FYI that´s not Elder Orozco´s jacket he´s just trying it on. haha. It´s a lot of fun to share an area with elders and work together.

¡¡LES AMO MUCHISIMO!! ¡Disfrute su semana, y que estén muy bien!

Hna. Howe