April 30, 2013

Viva VALDIVIA!!!





Hola Familia!!!!!

So I am in Chile!!!! How crazy is that???!  I am here in a place called Valdivia! It is a little north of Osorno and rains a LOT haha. My compañera is Hna. Yepez, from Peru! She speaks a little English which is good for communication, and she just barely got done being trained haha. So a nueva is training a nueva! Pero esta bien! Also, we are opening up a new area... we are the first sisters in this area in several years! how crazy is that?? It is kinda of hard, not going to lie because we don't know anyone, but it is so fun to see how excited the barrio (ward) is to have us! They are all so nice!! Seriously! We had a ward activity on Saturday night and they all treat each other like family. and yesterday when I bore my testimony in church they were all so excited to see a Gringa! haha. They all laughed and smiled when I said ¨Hola!¨ haha. But everyone has been complimenting me on my spanish here. I don't know why, because half the time I still don't know what is going on haha. My compañera does most the talking when we aren't talking about gospel related things. I can understand and speak most things relating to the gospel, but lots of other stuff I just smile and nod my head haha. But they are all so friendly, it doesn't matter! :)


Random facts about Valdivia; One awesome thing about being new, is everything in our apartment is new too! We kind of live in the ghettos, but inside is really nice! What a blessing! Also, the whole city smells like campfire because almost everyone uses wood burning stoves haha. I am fairly positive I am going to come back permanently smelling like campfire! :) Also, like I said earlier, everyone is super nice and almost always gives you food when you walk in. Awesome! The food here is so GOOD too! Man, I love it! We have a ¨mamita¨who feeds us almeurzo (lunch) everyday during the week, and then on Sunday we eat with the members.

Since we are new, we have spent a lot of time knocking on doors and finding contacts and such. Not many lessons so far, but we DO have a couple investigators! Literally the first door we knocked on that first day, a lady names Violeta let us in a talked to us for an hour haha. Most people aren't like that haha. But she loves missionaries. We taught her the first lesson and she invited us back and said her granndaughter was going to be there and wanted to learn a little English. So we went back planning on teaching only the grandma. But that second lesson, her grannddaughter, Carolina, was SUPER interested and I invited them both to be baptized and Carolina accepted the fecha!! Oh my gosh!!!!! I have never felt so ridiciulously happy and absolutely terrified at the same time haha. I am SOOO excited, but so nervous that she won't follow through. She is 15 and adorable and super curious and I really think she likes what we have taught. But what if she changes her mind?! Ahhhh lots of prayers! It is all up to the Lord! Anyway, that is by far the most exciting thing so far. 

Not much success other than that, but we have really been getting to know the ward members and they are amazing! Hopefully lots of referencias from them :)
Not much time, but I hope you all are doing super well!! I love you all SO MUCH and I think of you often. I want you all to know that I know this work is real and the Spirit is real. I feel so strongly that there are people here that need it and I want to share it with everyone! haha but I need to get a bit bettter at Spanish first. With time! I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior... I know it with all of my soul! I was reading in D&C 84 today and in verse 63, he calls his apostles (or missionaries) his friends. I love that! I know that I am His friend, just as He is mine. All missionaries need to remember that! He trusts us as long as we are faithful and focused. In verses 79-84 it goes on to talk about how we don't need to worry about trivial things or ¨the morrow¨.... all things will be taken care of and the morrow will take care of itself as long as I am faithful. I love the scriptures! I love this gospel! And I love this work! It is hard, and at times I feel really alone here with all these Spanish speakers haha, but I know that this is where I am supposed to be. You are all amazing! Thank you for your examples!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!!! :)
Your Chileno hermana,
Hna. Teeples



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