Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!  We were with Elizabeth for her birthday on Thursday, so we were able to celebrate a little something as well. She and her family are so amazing and wonderful to us. They gave us extra birthday cake to take home (that´s what I had for breakfast this morning, don´t judge.) If I have time after I write this, I´ll try to send some pictures.

Last Saturday as we were walking home, we passed by one of our investigators´ houses and noticed that something was a little different, it had burned down. Everyone was okay, but they had to move to a different part of the city and now they´re outside of our sector! Bummer, but at least they´re ok. I´m thinking it might be a blessing in disguise because her biggest obstacle was that she and her husband aren´t actually married. That´s a really big thing here because Chile has a program for single moms that helps them get a discount on houses or some sort of subsity or something like that, so what ends up happening is people live together and just never get married in hopes of getting a nicer house. They were waiting for that to go through for them for a house in Ovejeria when this happened. We went by their new house today to take some cookies and help clean everything thismorning, and the new house in Franke is a lot nicer and has a lot more room, so maybe they´ll stop waiting on the subsity for the other house and finally get married? Who knows. Also, her husband was never there when we taught her, but the missionaries in their new district are Elders, so he´ll have to be there in order for them to teach her, and I really think that´ll be the key for them.

We did divisions yesterday, which means we split up and worked with members. This was the second time we´ve done it this cambio, but the first time it was only for like an hour and the member I was with was an English teacher, but yesterday it was me and a 17 (Today is her birthday, so I guess 18) year old girl named Viroska from another barrio who doesn´t know any English. This really put my small talk abilities to the test... in Spanish. We made it work though. Her family isn´t really active, and when I asked her what it was that helped her to stay active, she told me it was because she had been going out with the missionaries since she was 14. I love hearing stuff like that. She is really sweet and loving and just all around awesome. There are two other girls in our ward who we´ve really connected with, Valentina and Antonia. Their mom is really awesome and we´re going to try to start teaching their dad on Thursday. (Keep that in your prayers!) There is another couple who we really thought we were going to have to drop because the wife was never there and the husband understands everything we teach, but just really doesn´t want to stop being Catholic. We decided to give it one last chance and bring Hermana Paulina (as in Paulina, Freddy, and Cristobal) with us. Yeah. The wife now has a baptismal date and the whole family is planning on coming to church on Sunday because Hermana Paulina is amazing.

This is the last week of the Cambio, so our zone will be changing at the start of next week. We went by the mission home this morning for something and got some insider info that both Hermana McShane and I are going to be staying here for another Cambio. I´m so glad because I LOVE the people we´re working with. I get to be here for when Cristobal and Elizabeth (and hopefully her sisters) get baptized! Amazing.

It´s beginning to look a lot like Christmas here in Osorno. It´s an easier adjustment for me than it is for a lot of the other missionaries because in California it doesn´t snow at Christmastime anyway, so it kinda just feels like home. We´re singing in the Stake Christmas choir and we helped Paulina and Freddy and Cristobal (hereby to be known as La Familia Azocar-Vidal) put up their Christmas tree this week. It´s official!

November 22nd.

Not much to say about this week because I feel like it FLEW by. I still have high hopes for La Familia Sandoval (Elizabeth´s family). We´re now teaching the whole family, it´s just a trick of getting them all together at the same time. A lot of times we have to teach something two or three times because different people are there. Their teaching record looks crazy. They are a really REALLY awesome family and I´m excited to see the blessings that the Gospel will bring to them. I feel like we have a lot of people that we are teaching, but not a lot of people who are really progressing, which is a little overwhelming. We´re constantly finding new people to teach, but sometimes that´s rough because I feel like we´re only able to put a little time and effort into a lot of people instead of a lot of time and effort into fewer people who will really embrace and apply what we teach. Really we just have that family, a wonderful woman named Ana who really likes what we teach and is constantly asking great questions, but is still hesitant to fully embrace all the changes necessary to have all of the blessings of the Gospel, and maybe 2 or 3 other families who seem to really be understanding, but probably 15 other people who like meeting with us, but aren´t really getting it. We´re working with a less active family and some friends of theirs, and that´s been SO amazing to see how often times even when someone is less active, when they are explaining the Gospel to a friend, they light up and get really excited to share the blessings they know are available through what they have. It´s also been really cool to see how when we explain that the real goal of everything we are teaching is to have the blessing of being with our families forever, and that our purpose is to help people achieve that, our lessons are so much clearer. Everything we are asked to do in the Gospel leads to that end, ultimately. I think it really helps people understand why all of the other things are important. It´s not necessarily what they teach you to focus on, but I´ve really seen a difference when people understand that that is the real goal.

I really love Osorno. I hope I get to stay here for a few more cambios, if for no other reason than to be able to know enough Spanish to finally really express to the people here how much I love them. I have 4 things that I´m really working on learning right now. 1) How to be better at developing relationships with people. I´m terrible at the whole getting to know you small talk thing, but I´m getting better! 2) How to listen better 3) Spanish (this is a bit of a hinderance to #2) and more than anything 4) To recognize and follow the Spirit. I know that in order to really get good at that, you have to act on what you´re given, which is a little scary because a lot of times that requires me to be much more bold than I am accustomed to being, but as I´ve tried to just go for it, I´ve seen the way it has guided our lessons to get people to really open up and feel the Spirit. It´s awesome. I feel like I´ve learned SO much in my short time as a missionary, about the true meaning of faith, about relying on the Atonement, about a lot of things. I´m excited to keep learning more!

November 15th.

Our sector has a mix of more wealthy and less wealthy people. There is a neighborhood called Bella Vista that I LOVE going to. The houses are so cute! and there´s a Lider (Walmart) and a little bakery within walking distance. This is where more of the members live, It´s just that we can´t spend our days there because everyone who lives there works all day so there aren´t people to contact or visit, so we usually have to wait till after 6. There are some really great people there that we are working with though.

Paulina and Freddy and Cristobal are so awesome. There are a ton of awesome people here. Paulina and Freddy were just baptized in September and Cristobal is going to be baptized December 11th. Paulina was just called to be the head of the primary. (There is only one class because there are so few kids.) Talk about an intense first calling. The primary program is in November, so we´re all looking forward to that. Also, I think you would really appreciate our Bishop because he works almost as hard as you do, haha. He´s been the Bishop since like, 2002, and he doesn´t have any councelors or anything, not even a mission leader, just him. He´s also our ¨landlord¨(Our house is an attachment of his) and his wife is our ¨Mamita¨, but she recently got a job so he usually makes us lunch everyday. He´s awesome, their whole family is.

Lunch is really fun. We eat with two of the other Elders in the sector next to ours. My Spanish is coming along more or less, I´m working on it anyway.

I tried empenadas and Berlines for the first time this week. Berlines are like a cream filled pastery. I was not a fan, but Hermana McShane made me try it for the experience. There is a lot of German influence here, lots of German bakeries. EVERY meal has bread, bread and more bread. It´s everywhere, you can´t escape it even if you wanted to. It´s pretty delicious though. All the food here is good. Dangerously good.

Some of the Elders in our zone had a baptism last night and Hermana McShane and I sang ¨Señor, Te necesito¨ and we´re singing ¨I´m trying to be like Jesus¨ (I don´t remember the title in Spanish) for Primary graduation tomorrow, so that´s fun!

I think I´ve figured out that I really have a soft spot in my heart for the mujeres jovenes (young women). Their program (and each of the girls) is really strong. They have SUCH strong testimonies and are always happy to help us out. They constantly amaze me with how ready and willing they are to share their testimonies and I´ve realized that I really want to have a goal of strengthening them and their families and making sure they know how wonderful and beautiful and strong they are. I know that sounds super cheesy, but it´s something that I learned about who I am as a missionary (and probably as a person in general).

I´m not sure what else there is to say. I´m liking it here, it´s growing on me as I settle in, I´m finding more and more things that really just make it charming and give it a lot of character, which I love. I´m really striving to love the people more, prayers are appreciated. Thanks for all you do!

Love and miss you tons, as always.

-Jamie

November 8th.

So I´m realizing that the weeks here are LONG and a lot of times I
really can´t remember all of the things that I thought throughout the
week that I wanted to tell you, but here it goes.

We had a noche de hogar with la familia Sandoval which was honestly
one of the most amazing experiences ever! We had been teaching the mom
and one of her daughters, but the other two daughters joined in and we
watched ¨The Restoration¨ and played ¨Cuantos Pecas.¨ It was a really
awesome experience to see the way that the Gospel brings families
together. I loved it. I´m seriously so excited for them. They believe
what we´re saying is true, and I really think they´re starting to
understand the importance of it and how it can change their lives.
Slowly but surely. Also, they promised to teach me how to make
empanadas, I´m excited.

Speaking of food, we have 3 Elders in our zone from Honduras, so our
activity for P-day today is to learn how to make classic Hondurian
(?) food. I´m really excited because I hear it´s amazing, sort of like
a breakfast burrito of sorts. So the food here is amazing, but you
only get lunch. Breakfast and dinner, if you choose to have them,
you´re on your own. So pretty much I live off of peanut butter and
these really good oatmeal and granola cookies that I´ve become
slightly addicted to.

I think something that´s really frustrating about working in Chile is
that people are willing to believe everything you say, which seems at
first like a good thing, but it´s hard because they´re not really
gaining a testimony of any of it because they just are like ¨Yeah, ok,
it´s true.¨ My trainer told me that Chile is the #1 country with the
most inactive members, so our goal is to really help people understand
not only that all of this is true, but why it´s important to them.
It´s really tough, for example, here is how a lesson might go...

Us: So did you read (whatever chapter from the Book of Mormon)?
them: Yeah
Us: Awesome! How do you feel about what you read?
Them: Good
Us: Did you pray about it?
them: Yeah
Us: Great, do you feel like you´ve received an answer to that prayer?
Them: Yeah
Us: How do you feel about that?
them: Good
Us: So do you believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet?
Them: Yeah
Us: And why is that important to you?
Them: I don´t know.

You get the idea, but we´re working on it! I´m almost wishing people
would have problems with it because at least then we could help them
resolve those doubts and questions, but nobody ever really has doubts
or questions, they just believe us, and that doesn´t really build
strong testimonies. However, that´s why we´re here, to figure out how
to help them understand why this Gospel is so important, not only that
it´s true, but how it can change their lives through living it.

I´m going to try to attach some pictures with this
e-mail from our trip last week and just of some of the cool things
that I´ve seen around Chile.

One of the things that I love so much here is all of the colors. The
houses have so much character, it´s charming. Me gusta mucho.

Jamie and Missionary Friends in her Area

Companions!

Cute.

Osorno, Chile

Viva La Chile!

November 1st.

Hola Todas!

Ok, so here are basically the stages I´ve been going through. My first two days or so I was like ¨There´s no way I'm going to survive 18 months here¨Then it was ¨Ok, I know I can do it, but I´m still kinda miserable¨ and now I´m really starting to like it. The mission president promised me that if I work hard, I won´t have to just endure my mission, I will really start to love it. It´s coming in small steps, but It´s coming. I was sick this week, really sick. Couldn´t get out of bed for 3 days sick. It wasn´t fun at all, but I´m feeling a lot better now. This morning our zone took a trip up to a national park with something called ¨Aguas Calientes¨ it rained the whole time, but I loved it. It was gorgeous. My camera ran out of batteries, so I can´t send pictures today, but I´ll try for next time. I just realized It´s a little frustrating to try to type on a Spanish keyboard when you´re on a time limit, but I will learn!

Ok, international mail is super expensive, so even though I love all of you at home, don´t expect a ton of mail.

We have some really great people we´re working with. It´s easy to get discouraged here because there are so many menos activos that sometimes I feel like it´s hard to get excited when people accept commitments because I´m skeptical about how long it will last, I guess I just need to stop being so pessimistic.

One thing that I learned this week in training that I really loved was when president said (he was quoting someone but I don´t know who) ¨ Humility isn´t thinking less of yourself (as in tearing down your self-esteem or thinking you´re not good enough), true humility is thinking less ABOUT yourself, and thinking more of what you can do for others¨. I think, well actually I know, that as I start having more of that attitude, that the time will fly by and I will love it here. I think one of the things that I´ve learned this week is that when we say ¨All things are possible with God.¨ It doesn´t only apply when it´s for something we want. If we have faith in miracles when it´s for something we want, we have to have faith that things are possible even when we don´t want to do them. For example, saying ¨It´s impossible to get 20 contacts a day¨ but then saying ¨I completely believe that God can give me a miracle for whatever it is that I want¨ is a little hippocritical. If we expect the miracles for the things we want, we have to be willing to have the faith to act on them even when it´s something we don´t want.

I´m not sure if any of that made sense, but I´m tired and still wet from this morning, so just go with it.

I still love my zone, everyone is so awesome and I love my companion a ton. She took very good care of me when I was sick, you would be proud.

I´m starting STARTING to get more used to the weather. I´ve still got a long way to go.

I´m tired and cold, but much happier. Discouraged, but hopeful because I know everything will be ok because my Heavenly Father loves me and I know I have His support. I know I probably won´t write back much, but I would love letters! They really would help me out. We only get them on Tuesdays though. Also, I found out everyone, family, friends, whoever, can e-mail me, I just can´t e-mail back. So let everyone know they can feel free to shoot me an e-mail if it´s easier.

The mail system here is fine, things will get to me. Just don´t ups or fedex stuff, it costs me money when they deliver it. USmail should be fine.

Well, I´ve got another 15 minutes but I´m out of things to say. If you get a chance ask how Scott is doing and let him know I am thinking supportive thoughts for him constantly. Dan and Ryan too if you see them, let them know I miss them!  I know that I´m in the right place and that everything will be ok. It´s 18 months of work for an eternity of blessings.

Love,
Jamie

Aguas Calientes