Fourth Week in Chile

"I find your lack of faith distrubing..."  - Darth Vader

¡Hola Familia!

CAM!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope you have a beautiful day and all your wildest dreams come true. I sent your package 2 weeks ago but they said it could take about a month to get there :/ So you might be getting a belated birthday package. I love you though and am so happy for the last 12 years of my life because YOU were in them :) Now, go pass that sacrament...

This week was absolutely...weird? Crazy? I don´t know how to describe this week. I got super sick Wednesday night and have been fighting a nasty sinus infection. I´ve never had a cold this bad in my whole entire life. I thought that I would feel worse (mentally) if I just stayed home and slept so I went out and worked all day Thursday. I passed out because the sun was so hot - or so I thought. Turns out everyone was freezing and it wasn´t even hot outside.  I was sweating and had terrible chills...I finally went home at around 6 and slept for an hour or so and then was back out to teach two more lessons Thursday night. 

We have been teaching Josafat. (I can´t remember if I´ve told you about him yet). He is 24, (freaking cute....oh my gosh, he´s so cute. shhh), goes to school in La Serena, lives with his family, etc. His family was baptized four years ago. His sister is Pracilia. (The girl who dyes her hair red.) He knows a lot about the church but has a problem with Joseph Smith. (Along with everyone else here.) But he is starting to read and pray more. I just know he´s going to get baptized and serve a mission. We watched the Joseph Smith video with him on Friday night.  His sister, Jemima, had a terrible seizure. It was so scary. I am happy my mind was able to keep calm and remember all the things I learned when I was getting my CNA. I had an immediate flashback from when I worked at Noodles and Company and had to help that man who had a seizure. She is doing great - just scary.

Pracilia runs with us every morning. I am here to tell you--if Pracilia can get up and run every morning, ANYBODY can get up and run. She is one big mama but she runs the entire 25 minutes. She is losing so much weight. I can tell she is so happy with herself. I feel kind of bad though-I was pushing her really hard this week. So hard to the point that she threw up and wasn´t with us the next morning because she was still throwing up. Haha. I told her to suck it up and she continues to run with us.  :) 

Nivaldo is heaven sent. Oh my gosh. Everything we teach him, he absolutely loves. His brother is struggling and isn´t really into all of it. We taught Nivaldo about Nephi and Sam and how he can be an example to his brother. They have started to read The Book of Mormon together and are both planning on being baptized April 6th. Nivaldo can´t wait for conference. He is absolutely amazing.

On Monday, Marcia told us that she was done trying and didn´t want to give up smoking. She said she had a friend from her old church come and talk to her about "The Mormons" and that we baptize dead people. Hahahaha. That was great. We worked with her every day this week. She smoked every day this week; only one, but still, it´s hard. Last night we went over and talked to her about Conference/The Book of Mormon/Jose Smith/everything. We had a long DTR (determine the relationship) and finally decided to kneel and pray. We told her she needed to pray specifically about The Book of Mormon. What a sweet, sweet, sincere prayer. I wish I could have recorded it. She started to get really teary-eyed and afterward, we all just sat and cried and hugged each other. She said she had a really warm feeling and we explained more about The Holy Ghost. She simply said, "Well, I guess that´s my answer". We decided we are going to call her 3-times a day to check up on the smoking and for every day she doesn´t smoke, we´ll bring her a mint caramel that night. (She is obsessed with that crap.) If she can go this whole week without smoking, she can be baptized with Nivaldo and Ramon on the 6th of April.

Jeremy wrote me a letter at the beginning of my mission talking about how important it is to listen to the promptings of the spirit when we feel like there is someone specific that we need to talk to. Well, I am here to testify of that. This all leads back to Metallica boy. When we first met him, he said he was only available Saturdays and Sundays because he leaves town all week for work. For some reason, Hermana Garcia hasn´t wanted to go visit him when I suggest we go visit him. FINALLY last night I said, Hermana, we need to go follow up with him. We couldn´t find his house anywhere, we looked and looked. We normally don´t do much work where he lives so she wanted to go back the area where we could have more contact. I felt so strong that we stay in that area. Sadly enough, we couldn´t find Metallica boy, (I´ll find him though...) but we found a BEAUTIFUL family that lives on his street. Sebastian, Natali and their 4 year old daughter. Sebastian’s sister was taught by the missionaries a few years ago and the Elder  came back and married her. They currently live in Salt Lake City. AND Natali told us her mom was baptized in the church about 30 years ago. They didn´t know anything about our church but say that are looking for religion. Hi. It´s perfect!

Sebastian wasn´t there last night when we taught but Natali and her daughter were very receptive. During our lesson, Natali´s mom came over and was so excited to see the missionaries there. She hasn´t been to church in a long time but was excited to help us teach about Jose Smith and The Book of Mormon. The spirit was so strong. I am SO excited to teach them. AHhhhhahhahhahAHHHHHH! THE CHURCH IS SO COOL. Even though we didn´t get to find Metallica boy, he helped lead us to this beautiful family. Point is, it´s a freaking good thing I was super metal in Jr. High and listened to Metallica. If this familia gets baptized, I´ll dedicate the baptism to James Hetfield. : )

I felt like the language was coming. But this week was pretty rough. I feel like the more I learn, the more I realize how little I know. Pray for me please. I still have all the faith in the world that the language will come....I just need patience for WHEN it will come....

It sounds like everything is crazy at home. The Norm. I really miss you guys, ya know. Mostly Scooter...but yeah. I miss you. Mom, I am so sorry to hear about your foot! Gahh. Hate snaggin´ that lil pinky toe. I´ll include your foot in my fast this week. 

Dad. Thank you for your letters. I turned your last week letter into a lesson this week for one of our less active members. It was really great. I don´t read them during my email time. I print them off, take them home and read them during personal study. I always turn them into a lesson. So thanks for helping me teach out here. :)  I am really blessed to have such an amazing second Dad in my life.

Becca. CONGRATS ON MAKING THE BYU BALLET THING!!! I am so happy for you and for Jessie. :)  Stay close with your cousins. Jessie is a great girl. I am happy I am so close with Sarah Hoer and Dete. They are my BFF/Cousins for life.

Tay, get over that bar. (Pole Vaulting) That is something I could never do....I am proud of you!

All right, time is up. You guys are great. Love you :)

Love,

Hermana P