November 14, 2011

This has been a long week. We had a conference in Puerto Montt with Elder Cordbridge and Elder Snow (from the presidency of the 70). I translated for Elder and Sister Snow, it was cool. The night before we stayed in the house of the Hermanas in Puerto Montt, all 8 of us that had come up for the conference! In the morning the power went out so we were all blow drying our hair in the church. It was crazy. My zone is a lot of fun and I´m learning and growing constantly. I love you very much!

Love,

Jamie

October 31, 2011

This has been a crazy week. Last Sunday (not yesterday, but the Sunday before) Hermana Perez got sick and had to stay in bed. She continued that way until Friday when we finally dragged her to the doctor. It turns out she had apendicitis but her apendix had already burst so they had to take her in to surgery right then. It was crazy. She´s still in the hospital but will be leaving today. It was a crazy mess trying to get all of the paperwork done and talking to the office when there wasn´t any cell phone service in the hospital. I´ve been in there with her all week so I pretty much have no idea what´s been going on outside of that. Our zone baptized 10 people on Saturday, but I was in the hospital across the street so I didn´t get to be a part of the musical number. I found out today that I´m being transfered to Chiloé on Wednesday. Ít´s going to be rough to leave Punta Arenas because I just love it so much, especially because I haven´t gotten to see anyone to really say goodbye. The sector is basically stagnant. I´m going to be scrambling around today and tomorrow to try to get to everyone! It´s stressful! I´m glad the Primary Program went well! I´m going to keep this short for now because I have pictures to print and goodbye notes to write and souveneers to buy, but I´m alive and well, just so you know. Disappointed because I won´t be able to say goodbye to any of the other missionaries because they´re all getting together tomorrow and I´m not sure if I´ll be able to go. I´m stressed about leaving the sector so weak. It´s like seeing a bottle of milk tip over and get all over everything and just walking away never to return to help clean it up. I don´t want to leave. It´ll be ok though. I´ve learned that the stress of the mission is a good preparation for the stress of life, but what I´ve learned is that I do NOT know how to handle stress well whatsoever. Any tips?

I love you bunches and I´ll try to write more next week.

-Jamie

October 17, 2011

Hey!  

So this has been an awesome week. I´m really excited about some of the new investigators that we have. Ramon and Elizabeth are really excited and receptive, but I think the investigator I´m most excited about is Rodrigo. Rodrigo has a store that we pass by sometimes and he is always so generous and gives us free stuff from his store. It has always been hard to share something with him because he lives in the store and never has much time. However, when we watched the devotional from last Saturday (the 8^th) there was a video clip of people reading the Liahona in Santiago. For some reason it reminded me of why I wanted to be a missionary in the first place. I have such a desire to take people from their darkest places and help them embrace the light of this Gospel. I was inspired to find someone in a really rough time, and help them. That was my fast for that next day, to find someone I could help and fulfill the dream I had of being a missionary. That´s when the thought came to me that we hadn´t gone by for Rodrigo in a while, so we stopped by. Long story short, his wife (well, girlfriend) left him and he had basically hit a really low point. He started crying when he told us about everything that was going on. He was afraid of falling back into alcoholism for how he was feeling. In just this week, he has given up coffee, alcohol, bad movies, has gone from 3 packs a day to 1 every 2 days, and came to church with his son last Sunday. He´s already looking and acting like a new person. I´m so excited! I feel so blessed that my prayer was answered!

During the 50 years of the misión Chilena last Saturday, All of Chile put together a program and preformed in Santiago. We watched it via satellite. There was a part where they acted out being the armies of Heleman. They literally had 2000 young men out on the field (supposely literal decendents of the lamanites) and they played the song "Armies of Heleman" on flutes and drums as if it were in the Book of Mormon times. IT WAS SO COOL! Youtube it if you can. Ejercito de Heleman 50 años misión Chilena. I was really inspired and cried.

Thanks for all you do! Love you bunches!

October 10, 2011

We´re e-mailing late today because today is a holiday (I don´t know why) and everything was closed this morning. That means I´m more tired and have less energy to remember all of the things that happened to be able to write them. We´re celebrating 50 years of missionaries being in Chile, so that´s been cool. I love love love love love you. No seriously, I really love you.

Thanks a bunch!

Love,
Jamie

October 3, 2011

Wow, how amazing was conference?? I really loved President Uchtdorf´s talk about forget me nots. I loved when he mentioned that it is important not to forget the WHY of the Gospel. I would like to share with you all my “Why.”

I have always loved learning about history and reading stories and watching movies that make me wonder what it would be like to live in a different time, place or reality. It seemed so much more interesting and fun and always had some sort of appeal. I´ve gotten lost in music and books that have given me momentary feelings of being on cloud nine or that sort of thing. The trouble with all of that though, is that it isn´t real. The happiness that it brings doesn´t last. You can´t trust it to be there for you long term. There is only one source of happiness that is real and lasting – the happiness and joy of the restored Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is real. It is what we will have when all of the flashy fun things of this world are over. The pure joy of the Holy Ghost and the peace of living the Gospel are REAL. It is a happiness far beyond that which can be found in anything the human mind can invent. It is the happiness that is there for you constantly if you will live worthy of it. It is why I´m here. It is why I have the desire to serve my Savior; it is why millions of people all over the world are faithfully living this Gospel. It is pure, unadulterated, unbelievable joy.

That being said, I want to dedicate the rest of this e-mail to an awesome kid named Dylan. Dylan is 13 and was baptized in April. He has SUCH a strong testimony and these last few weeks I have been so blessed to see the power of that testimony. His mom, in an attempt to inspire him to improve his grades, told him that he would not be allowed to go to church, nor any activities, until she saw some changes. Dylan (remember now, this is a 13 year old boy) offered his laptop, offered all of his games and other privileges, offered time with his friends, offered any other punishment other than not being able to go to church. His mom agreed that if I come and tutor him that he can go to church. It was amazing to see the strength of a testimony when set against opposition. It is great to hear him talk about how excited he is to serve a mission in just 5 years (the age limit in Chile is 18). He wants to go to Egypt or Hawaii. It is such an inspiration to me to see the strength of the members here, especially the jovenes.

Love you!

September 26. 2011

October marks 50 years of the mission in Chile, so we're basically all going crazy inviting everyone to a broadcast that will be held on the 15th. Things are going well. Nothing too big to report. We see miracles everyday so there are too many to tell. I´m including a part of the e-mail I sent to President this week that reminded me of you. I love you and appreciate you for being a great mom! 

Being a trainer has given me a whole new appreciation for moms all over the world. I understand now what my mom went through in wondering if she wasn´t being strict enough and that I was going to turn out bad, then trying to be more strict and having me resent her for it and her wondering if she was doing the whole “being a mom” thing right. I understand now her worries about whether or not she´s giving me too much or not enough responsability and that she feels like all of the other moms (or trainers, in this case) are doing it so much better and that she feels like her daughter resents her and compares her to all of the other moms or expects her to be June Cleaver (or the hermanas from the Preach My Gospel DVD´s in this case). I get how she feels when she says that her daughter turned out well despite her. Those are all things that I feel.

All in all, I think the Lord is pleased with who I am and my character as a missionary, an that has given me a lot of peace and comfort, however I think that He would tell me to shape up in terms of the horario and learning to work harder. That´s a huge weakness of mine, I´ve never had to really work hard before. I´m working harder in my mission than I ever have in my life, but I know it´s still not as hard as most missionaries, at least from what I see. I´m trying to accept that it´s the weakness that has been dealt to me instead of challenges with the language or with teaching ability or family problems or whatever the more common missionary challenges are. I´m constantly hovering in the balance between accepting that I´m not perfect and feeling that I´m expected to be better.

 I'm going to use most of this time to upload some pictures from Torres del Paine because I haven't sent any in a while.

September 19, 2011

We went to Torres del Payne today and it was awesome. I have to go, but today was our p-day so it'll be until next week that you hear from me next! Love you tons!

September 12, 2011

Ok, today is a crazy day of getting errands done and taking care of my missing ID/no money situation, so I´ve completely blanked on most of what happened this week, but here are 2 scriptures that brought me a lot of comfort this past little while:

Matthew 10:38 - To follow Christ, we take His name upon us. Sometimes the path of discipleship has rough spots, but I wouldn´t trade being on the path in order to avoid them.

1 Peter 5: 6-10 - "will make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you."

My mission has changed and continues to perfect me more with every challenge. I love this Gospel, I love being a disciple of Christ, no matter the cost.

We had zone conference this week and the assistants made a super hilarious video that reminded me of how grateful I am to be a part of this family of missionaries that is the mission Chile Osorno.

Love you!

-Jamie

September 5, 2011

Please tell everyone I love them and Grandpa Jim that I hope he feels better soon!

It turns out our golden investigator went to a natioinal park for the week. He came back and went to church yesterday and loved it. We are really excited!

August 29, 2011

This week has been a week full of trials and epiphanies. Our golden investigators have been cancelling appointments or just not answering the phone aka avoiding us and we have no idea what happened. We found two new people this week, but after we talked to them for a bit, we realized that they were patients in a psychiatric care facility. One of them was a singer for 30 years in Argentina before she was hospitalized, so for service we´re going to go by and sing hymns with her! I´m excited about that. Also, I lost my wallet with all my money, my ID and both my credit cards running to catch a taxi. However, I´m deciding to stay positive. Trials happen, and I have a clear conscience so I have no reason to believe that the blessings aren´t on their way and that this is all happening for a reason. The quality of our teaching is improving leaps and bounds. I love this new training program! If only we could do more of it! A shining moment this week was that a kid came to church on Sunday completely on his own because he remembered going to an activity there when he was little and wanted to find out more. Awesome! Hermana Perez is awesome. That´s all for now because I´m out of time!


Love,
Jamie

August 19, 2011

Yeah, I feel fine now.

I flew back to Osorno with Hermana Contreras and two other Elders. Elder Galovich is also training this cambio so we both had to go to the training and then come back. The new program is basically an outline of what we´re supposed to be studying every week. They changed our schedule to have 2 hours of companionship study everyday instead of 1. Basically it´s that they´ve recently come out with "8 principles to improve teaching" and the new training program has to do mostly with helping the new missionaries learn and apply those 8 principles. Hermana Perez pretty much already knows what she´s doing so it´s not that hard, I was blessed =D. The new schedule is a little hard to get used to, but we´re doing our best, it seems as if there´s so much to study and so little time to do it! However, I came to a realization this week: Don´t sweat the small stuff. None of us are living life perfectly all the time, it´s all just a part of the "Endure to the end" process.

The new blog is www.chileosornomission-rappleye.blogspot.com

Hermana Perez was sick this week, so we spent Friday at the Mamita´s house and I got to help her get ready for the primary banquet Saturday. I learned how to make a cake out of vanilla cookies, bananas and manjar. It was fun.

We´re teaching a new couple, Coni and Juan. We´re really excited about them because they are really receptive and interested. We talked to them about the Plan of Salvation and the Restoration and the Spirit was SUPER STRONG. It was awesome. We´re going to have a family home evening with them at the Mamita´s house on Wednesday.

For our one year mark, Hermana Moss wrote me a little card about the ways we both have grown in the mission this past year. It was really sweet. One of the things she said was: "Don´t forget why you wanted to come on a mission." It made me think about the times that I was just dying out of a desire to be able to do contacts and knock doors telling people about how awesome this Gospel is. I need to stop looking at stoping people in the street as a chore and start appreciating that I only have authority to do it for 6 more months. That´s my goal for now. Hah.

Yeah, that´s all for now. Kinda uneventful, I know, but I´m doing well and I´ll look forward to hearing from you next week!

Love,

Jamie

August 15, 2011

So I am loving training Hermana Perez. She is from Lima, Peru. She reminds me a lot of me when I first started my mission (in a lot of funny, ironic ways). I´ve realized that I´m actually not too bad at this training thing, better than I thought I would be, anyway. I think I´m actually better at (and enjoy more) teaching/training other people how to be missionaries than actually being a missionary. I hope that makes sense. I´m learning a ton from the new training program and I´m really glad that I have the opportunity to use it.

We´ve been sick all week. My ear drum popped again in the plane, and my zone leader told me he thinks I have strep throat because I´ve had a fever for the last 4 days, but it seems as if things are looking up in the weather down here, so hopefully we´ll be back to 100% soon!

So something that I was thinking about this week... When I was on the bus up to Osorno, I heard some of the Elders talking about something or other and they mentioned, in context to some Elder in their zone "He´s a fariseo" (I´m saying it in Spanish because I forgot how it is spelt in English haha). I thought about that though, about how the fariseos are so concerned with the details of exact obedience that they miss the big picture. I started to wonder if I´m like that. I know missionaries who aren´t as obedient as I am, but enjoy so much more success and happiness in their mission because they seem to just love everyone and have a great time. I wondered if maybe that was the key, if maybe I was missing the big picture and being too concerned with the small stuff. However, I then thought that there is no way that the Lord would want me to compromise my obedience. It´s just not something He would want. I thought about the phraze "return with honor." It doesn´t say "return having had a great time and tons of fun" or "return with visible results" it says "return with honor." I know that the way that I will be able to be an honorable missionary is through sticking to that obedience, so that´s my plan.

Yeah, sidenote, let me just tell you about the torture of today. We went ice skating again, even though I didn´t skate because I needed to rest, but they played 3 consecutive songs from the GLEE season 2 soundtrack, followed by "Here We Go Again" by Demi Lovato, then came about 4 or 5 Jonas Brothers songs, and we left just as Selena Gomez came on, I was dying not being able to sing along. Haha. Oh well. It´ll just make it better in 6 months!

Greetings from Antarctica!-- August 8, 2011

Well it´s that time again... cambios. This one will be a little different. I´M TRAINING! I´m super excited! I don´t know who she is or where she´s from yet, but I´m flying up to Osorno tomorrow to be trained in a new program that the church just came out with about training new missionaries. Wow.

Also, our Mamita finally returned! Her husband is a police officer and works on the Chile/Argentina border, so for 30 days at a time he lives in a compound there. The family went to visit him and got trapped in by the snow for a week and a half! We were orphans! Haha. Anyway, she´s back now and we´re very pleased about that.

We found an absolutly amazing investigator on Monday. He looked kindof sad so we went to go talk to him. He said his car had just broken down and he was walking to look for a mechanic. We told him we were missionaries and he said something to the effect of: "That´s amazing, I am looking for religion, what have you got?" We invited him to come with us to the Bishop´s house right then and he accepted. We had a family home evening with them, gave him some folletos and a Book of Mormon and asked him if he would prepare to be baptized by someone with the authority of Jesus Christ. He said yes right then and there. He left the next day to visit family in Santiago, but we called him the other day and he said he´s reading a ton and used the word "spectacular" to describe how it all seemed to him. We are really excited for when he comes back later this month.

Well, that´s pretty much all there is to say for now. I love you!

-Jamie

So here we are in August... August 1, 2011

This week has been much better than last week. I´m still feeling kindof stressed, but I feel like that just comes with the territory, the sacrifice is far worth it for the blessings.

Yesterday I had a realization. I was thinking about all of the ways that I´ve grown and the things I´ve learned in the mission and I realized that this time has marked me far more profoundly than I even realized. I remember one time Brother Phelps telling me about how when he was realeased from his calling as a missionary, he felt an overwhelming sense that the Lord was satisfied with his efforts, and that he had completed what he was sent to do. That has been my goal ever since. Everything I do here has that hope in mind, that when I have to end my time as a missionary, I will have the assurance that the Lord is pleased with my efforts, and that I completed what I was sent here to do. I am not the "I don´t care about obedience as long as it´s not TOO bad or I don´t get caught" missionary. I am not an "As long as I´m here it doesn´t matter what I do" kind of missionary. I´m an honest and striving to be 100% obedient missionary, I am a missionary with a great desire to serve and help and build the kingdom, and I feel good about that, but I also realize that there are a lot of things I lack. There are missionaries that I see here that seem to have an undying excitement to go out and work for hours and hours, which I will admitt right now is something I have yet to achieve, and there are missionaries here whose focus is centered completely on their investigators and nothing else, also something that I can´t say I have gotten down perfectly. I have a constant insecurity hanging over my head that those things are holding me back from being/doing what the Lord sent me here for, but I also feel a sense of hope and optimism in the future and that I´m doing alright and that everything´s going to be fine. Never in my life have I felt a greater desire to repent of everything I´ve ever done wrong in my entire life, I think that comes with the Spirit, so everyone can be expecting an appology spree at some point.

Anyway, I´m out of time, so I´ll wrap this up now.

Love you!

-Jamie

July 25, 2011

First things first, we had a sleepover in Ovejero last night and Hermana Moss showed me the CD "The Nashville Tribute to Joseph Smith." Go buy it right now! You´ll love it. It´s amazing.

So it has been snowing quite a bit here, but yes, I´m still loving it. I bought ear muffs today, so don´t worry. I´ve been staying nice and warm. I´ll try to send pictures if I have time.

We moved houses this week, we are finally in our own house. It´s really pretty... really girly... but pretty and nice. Not as warm as the other house, but we´re getting by just fine. 

So funny story, the other night we stopped in a store to get some empanadas. The man that works at the store felt bad for us because I guess we looked cold and asked us if we wanted some of his soup that he had just made. (A lot of times the stores here are attached to the houses of the people who own them). My companion, who had been craving soup all day, said yes, thinking that he was going to pour some into a cup and send us on our way. No. He pulls out the entire pot of soup, puts it in a plastic bag, and sends us on our way. We we walking around with a pot of soup in the street. Luckily a member took pity on us and let us leave it there until it was time to go home.

There was a winter carnival this weekend. There were more lights, music and costumes than the Las Vegas strip. It was crazy, and kind of like looking in from the outskirts of Babylon, but also kindof cool because we were able to do something like 50 contacts a day on the corner leading to the plaza where it was held.

Ok, I´m ending this here so that I´ll have time to send pictures. Love you and I hope you´re enjoying your vacation!

-Jamie

July 18, 2011

Happy late Birthday Grandma Lynn! I thought of you all day on the 16th! It is our mission president´s birthday and also Elder Pugh´s birthday, so there was lots of celebrating all the same! I was secretly celebrating for you though!

So when I was on an intercambio, Hermana Moss showed me a CD she has about the pioneers. There´s a track on it that lists off the names of a bunch of the pioneers and one of them was Mary Jane Mount. I know how much you love to look at your family history, so you can have fun with that. Maybe we have pioneer ancestors!

So this week was pretty good. Not a whole lot happened, but we are steadily moving forward in the work. We had an intercambio on Friday and Hermana Moss came to my sector and I had to lead. We got lost a lot, but it was still fun! Funny story. We had contacted this guy, Juan Pablo, and he told us to come by to share with him and his family. We went by a couple times, but they were always really busy and told us to come back later. We went by on Friday with Hermana Moss, and he basically told us that he talked with his parents and they want to stick to being Catholic. Just at this very moment as we were talking to him in his doorway, two Jehova´s Witnesses come by. One of them says to him "Juampy!! (that´s a nickname for Juan Pablo) It´s been a while! When can we come by?" to which Juan Pablo replied "Anytime man!" The Jehova´s witnesses then walked away, Juan Pablo turned back to us and said... "As I was saying... we´re Catholic and we can´t really share with anyone else..." Hermana Moss and I laughed the entire afternoon about that.
Oscar´s report date to the MTC was delayed 6 weeks. His family was really bummed out, but I got to share with them about how I was about to go to Russia to teach English, which is a great goal, but I ended up not going and it turned out that I met Bekah the very weekend that I would´ve left. We talked about how the Lord works in ways that we sometimes don´t understand until we can see it in retrospect. It was really cool to get to recall the miracles that I´ve had the privilege of witnessing! It made me think about how we are all so privliged to be a part of this work. Missionaries always talk about how awesome the mission is because they get to see people´s lives change, but that´s not exclusive to missionaries! I was so blessed to have the opportunity to help people know the Gospel before my mission, and I know I´ll have the opportunity to continue doing so after. I´m not so convinced about this whole "Best two years" thing. We can always be doing missionary work and enjoying the miracles that we see in the lives of others!

Anyway, that´s it.
I love you all!

-Jamie

July 9, 2011

In the mission I´ve found the key to happiness. I´ve found out what true happiness is and also how to achieve and maintain it. Happiness is a clear conscience before God and the way to achieve and maintain it is faith in Christ and continual and immediate repentance. There are a ton of other things I´ve learned, but I think that´s probably the most broad and all consuming.

  

Well as far as this week is concerned, not a lot happened. We pretty much don´t have anyone progressing. It´s really frustrating. We have a lot of investigators, but none of them are really progressing or excited about the Gospel. I think part of the problem is that we have so many that we´re spreading ourselves really thin and aren´t giving anyone the time and attention that they need to progress. I´m trying to do better at narrowing things down, but the changes aren´t happening the way I´d like them to. I´ve got to admitt I lost a bit of faith and had kindof a bad attitude this week, but I´m doing my best to be better and more positive. We went on divisions twice this week to try to get more done. It´s freezing here. It´s been snowing, which is really fun, but has also given me a bit of a cold. That reminds me, I have become hooked on herbal tea since I´ve gotten to Chile. Yeah, mom, don´t judge me. When I went on my first intercambio in Ovejeria, there was herbal tea and I thought to myself, well if the mission allows it, I´m pretty sure it can´t be against the word of wisdom. Anyway, I´m hooked now. It´s good though because with so much cold it´s hard to drink a lot of water unless it´s hot water. The herbal tea helps me stay hydrated.

Oh yeah! I almost forgot, Tuesday I went on intercambios with Hermana Moss! It was really fun to teach with her again and see how much we´ve each grown as missionaries since the MTC! The zone leaders said we´ll probably be doing it again this Tuesday, I´m excited!

OH! I just remembered. I don´t know if I ever mentioned Juan Carlos in Osorno. I think I was in my first cambio, maybe my second, but I remember walking down the street and saying... let´s knock this door. It ended up being Juan Carlos. We only got a chance to teach him a couple of times before I left, but I remember him telling us that he felt like he had faith that he never had before and we had opened a new window for him in his relatioship with God (He had told us when we knocked on his door, that he didn´t really have much of a concept of who or what God was). Anyway, through a series of phone calls, I recieved a call on Saturday letting me know that he was getting baptized that very day! That was a cool feeling.

One of the guys in our ward is headed to the MTC in Provo this week to head to Mosambique. We had a goodbye party for him on Friday. If any of you would like to follow his adventure, he has a blog. Oscargoestoafrica.blogspot.com

The other Hermanas, Oscar, Hermana Contreras and I are learning how to make a new kind of bread with our mamita today. I´m going to come home with a ton of bread recipes. That´s a big thing here.

I forgot my camera today, but I´ll be sending pictures of ice skating and us playing in the snow soon. I love reading Scott and Bekah´s e-mails and hearing about all of their awesome adventures. If you guys are reading this, I´m really proud of you and brag about you to everyone here all the time! Keep up the good work!

Love you all,

Hermana Gebara

June 27, 2011

Well, I never saw anything about the volcano, it was way way way far away from where I was, but yeah. Anyway...

I made it to Punta Arenas. What ended up happening is that Hermana Bertagnole and I took the bus down to Valdivia, where I met up with Hermana Baum and we took the bus to Osorno and spent the night in the mission home. It was awesome, but also sad because President and Hermana Lovell are leaving tomorrow so everything was empty. We drove down to Puerto Montt in the morning and took a flight down to Punta Arenas. Yes, my ear drum did pop, and I´m taking amoxicilin to make sure there´s no infection. So the housing situation is... complicated. We´re homeless. The hermanas here before me wanted to move, found a place, and terminated their contract for the house they were living in. However, they forgot to get the new place checked by the zone leaders. The zone leaders didn´t approve it, so as of right now we´re living in the Elders' house in another sector and they are living with another set of Elders somewhere else. We have been working on finding a new place to live a LOT this week. We found a woman who is in the process of gutting and fixing up a little side attachment that she has to her house, so as of right now that´s our most promising bet. I´ll be sad to leave the Elders' house though. It´s the best house I´ve lived in thus far in the mission. It's SO WARM and toasty and the bathroom is suprisingly the nicest of any of the houses I´ve lived in. Oh well.

So I´ve discovered I really like the snow. Who would've guessed that one? The houses here are heated by gas instead of wood, so they´re all really nice and warm. Punta Arenas is really different from the other parts of Chile I´ve seen. It feels a lot like Utah. That might just be because I´m associating it with snow, but all the same it feels like Utah to me. I love it.

Hermana Lovell gave me a pair of her boots to take down here, and it was a good thing too because just two nights ago some dog decided it wanted to follow us around all night and when we tried to lose it, it ran after us and all of the sudden I looked down and my ankle was in it´s mouth! I´m not sure if he was really trying to hurt me so much as he wanted to play, but all the same, I screamed.

I love Hermana Contreras! She is probably one of the sweetest people you could ever meet in your life.  I love the members here. I LOVE our mamita and her family. They have 3 kids. 15, 8 and 5. Damian just had heart surgery on Thursday, but is recovering really well. I´m teaching Tommy his times tables (yeah, I know, right?), and we got to help Reinato with his school project about birds. They are all awesome.

Anyway, I have to charge my batteries, so I´ll have to wait till next week to send pictures.

Love you!

June 20, 2011

Note: It was Jamie's Birthday on June 16... In case anyone else remembered.
Haha I´m glad you celebrated for me! I´m sending some videos and lots of pictures so I´m keeping this letter short, but things are going well here! Today our zone hiked to the top of the volcano, which apparently is the most active volcano in the world. A 14 year old told me that though so I don´t know how reliable that piece if information is. It was awesome though. I found out I´m getting transferred to Punta Arenas tomorrow. That´s the one ALL THE WAY DOWN SOUTH near the penguins. Wish me luck! It will be very hard for me to say goodbye to Villarrica. I love the people here SO MUCH. The members, the investigators, our zone, everyone. I´m trying not to think too much about it because I don´t want to get upset, but I know that if I ignore it until after I leave I´ll regret not doing more to say goodbye. It´s hard because normally transfers are Wednesday, so all of the seminary students were going to meet me at the bus terminal at 6 am to say goodbye, but my zone leaders told me I have to leave tomorrow (Tuesday) at 4 in the afternoon to be able to make it to my flight on time. (To get to Punta Arenas, you have to fly, so I have to take a bus to Puerto Montt and then fly down to Punta Arenas) That means that all the plans I had made to say goodbye to everyone Tuesday night and Wednesday morning are gone. That is the roughest part for me I think because I know I´ll most likely never see these people again and they´ve really become some of my dearest and best friends. However, I guess being so attached to the people means that I´m doing the work right, so there´s a reason to celebrate! I know I´ll love Punta Arenas, I really was wanting to go there, and I´ve met my companion, Hermana Contreras, before in Osorno. She is really sweet and doesn´t speak any English whatsoever, so my Spanish will improve by leaps and bounds.
 Love you all!

May 23, 2011

So I don´t have a lot of time today, but my new companion's name is Hermana Bertagnole and she is AMAZING! I had known her from when we were in the same zone in Osorno, so we're already off to a great start. She is the epitome of the missionary that I want to be, so I am very excited for this cambio. We have found some really awesome part member/less active families this week, and we've had some really good lessons with them as well as with Sofia, who has SO many questions, but is really excited to learn. I'll try to include more details later, but we are working hard here in Villarrica!

Love you all!
-Hermana Gebara

P.S. I am still healthy.

May 13, 2011

So let me just tell you about some of the funny things that happened this week. First of all, we bought some wood. We weren´t freezing before because we were using our hair dryers for heat, but just because it was Mom's birthday, we bought some wood. It´s cheaper if you buy it in the neighborhood up top, so we asked two of the young men to help us carry it to the bus stop and then to our house. They, anxious for service opportunities, agreed. We bought the wood and these two kids nearly killed themselves carrying it, but be it male ego or whatever, they refused to let us help. We get out to the main street where a collectivo( like a taxi, but only with a set route) took pity on us and agreed to take us down directly to our house for the same price. Ramón, however, did not hear and kept walking to the bus stop. We were yelling after him "Ramón! Stop! He´s going to take us down! Ramón! RAMÓN!" When he finally got to the bus stop and noticed that we were not behind him, he turned around, saw the taxi, and said "Well why didn´t you say anything!?" Anyway, we have wood now. Part two of funny miscommunication moments happened on Saturday. We were teaching Fernanda, one of our investigators, and Ramón came to help. Just some background to set this up, Ramón´s family is less active and his mom has just started wanting to have family home evenings with us. So anyway, we were setting another appointment with Fernanda and Ramón whispers to us "Family home evening, my house, 7." I said "Great idea! Fernanda, we are going to have a family home evening with Ramón´s family and he wants to invite you, I don´t know why he´s whispering..." She agreed to come, and he just smiled and explained how to get to his house. After we left he turned to us and said "I was just telling you that my mom wanted to have one, not to invite her!" We had to call and reschedule...

Anyway, things are still going pretty well here. We had a movie night where we watched "Legacy." I´m pretty sure it´s my new favorite movie.

Thanks for all of your love and support!

Please send pictures.

Thanks!
Love,
Hermana Gebara

May 2, 2011

It´s been a pretty good week. I heard Prince William got married, our Mamita was very excited about that. Apparently a few years ago Prince William took a trip to southern Chile, so the people here are very fond of him.

I am in the process of writing letters to everyone, but week after week something happens and I´m just not able to get it done. Please assure the family that I do in fact love them and miss them very much. I haven´t heard from Kerrie in a while, how is she doing? Is she mad at me? Please apologize for me if I said something in one of these e-mails that offended her. I really miss you all!

Hermana Kelley is ending her mission in 2 weeks, it´s interesting being with someone who is so close to seeing their family because it makes me feel like I´m close to seeing mine as well, only to remember that I´ve got another 9 months... but anyway, I love you all very very much and I am very sorry for my inability to communicate often.

Anyway, talk to you soon!

Love,

Jamie

April 11, 2011

So basically I love what amazing examples the youth are here. I am constantly amazed, they are by far the strongest part of the church and an amazing influence on me. Yesterday in testimony meeting, Cata, the seminary teacher (she´s only 20 and is also a sunday school teacher, and the district family history coordinator) started crying when she talked about how faithfully all of her students show up looking so tired but so excited to learn and study the gospel. So what happens is that Ramon will walk to her house in the morning, and then they´ll walk from house to house to get all of the students and then take taxi´s down to where the church is (it´s way too far to walk.) She said that just in the first month she and Ramon had spent something like $80 each in taxis getting everyone there, but they are so willing to make so many sacrifices to help others grow in their testimonies. It´s amazing. It´s difficult to see families that can´t get to church because they don´t have the money to pay for the bus ride, and how faithfully the youth save their money so at least they can get there once a week. We´re trying to organize some sort of carwash or bakesale to raise money for them. We´re even considering buying a sheep to have a BBQ from one of the families that has a farm. I´ll let you know how that goes... Apparently some of the Elders think they are skilled sheep killers.

Hermana Kelley and I are now in charge of girls camp ideas because we are the only people in the branch who have actually been to girls camp before. I´m excited. We´re organizing a few different young women´s activities to really strengthen their sights to be set on the Temple. One of the hardest things we deal with here are women that got baptized, have testimonies, but never really understood how important temple marriage is, so they marry non-members who discourage them from going to church and living the Gospel and they end up being less active. I never realized just how much of a blessing it was to have a temple so close, even when we were in the San Diego district, going to the temple was never something too out of reach. Just having a temple close by helps so much to remember what your goals are and where you want to end up. I will be SO excited when the Concepción temple is finished! ... in 3 years...

(Speaking of temples, did you see how awesome the Rome temple looks!? We saw it on the report in between sessions of conference. I am so excited! After you told me what the representative from the Vatican said about Prop 8, I feel like, in some small way, I helped. Like it´s my temple too.)

So as I´m sure you´ve realized, the job of a missionary can take many different forms. English teacher, music teacher, activities coordinator, and now we can add map maker to the list. The new sector that we just took over is fairly new, so there´s no map of it, ANYWHERE. We searched the municipal building, fire department, tourism office, it just doesn´t exist. One of our committments was to draw on our maps where all of the church leaders live so that we can focus our efforts on those areas and so that when the new mission president comes in June he will have maps of every sector. So what did we do? We made one. It took FOREVER, but we finally finished it! We even sub sectioned, color coded and wrote down the names, addresses, and phone numbers of the members who live there. I feel very accomplished. Just keep in mind that there is never anything that a leader will ask you to do that you can´t do, you just may have to work a few late nights and early mornings to get it done! We´re considering selling it to the city...

So we had two people, Alejandro and Tabitha, that we were really focusing on and excited about. They both have a baptismal date and were progressing really well. So of course, they both moved this week. One to the Concepción South mission, and the other to Santiago. Those missionaries must have really been praying for a miracle, haha.

Anyway, things are still going great here in Villarrica. Love and miss you!

-Jamie

April 1, 2011

I apologize for this being late... you know how life gets!
-Camille

Hey! Thanks for offering to help, but some kids were playing on the keyboard in the chapel and it broke, so there is no more piano playing happening in our branch for now haha. As soon as the books come in from the office, I will be teaching a music directing class though! We are teaching an English class every Saturday morning and we´ve got about 20 students, so cool! I love teaching!

I love conference so much. I always get answers to questions I didn´t even know I had, but things that I really needed to hear. It amazes me every time. I was walking down the street after it ended thinking about how many people have never felt the kind of joy that I have just from having the Gospel in my life and having the privlidge of feeling the Spirit as strongly as I do in my life. I´ve realized more and more how important the skill of learning to recognize and follow the Spirit is, and how the most important thing we can do to develop that ability is to ACT! I believe it was Elder Bednar(?) who talked about that.

 In our zone meeting on Friday we read a scripture in Mosiah about the warriors who "Fought like dragons... fought like Lions for their prey" and talked about why we as missionaries want to fight like dragons. It was really cool for me to think about how many times I know that Christ has fought valiantly against all sorts of adversity to protect and save me from both physical and spiritual harm, how I depend on Him to do that constantly, and how I should, in return, do that for Him to the best of my ability.

We have some really awesome investigators and are enjoying teaching and helping other people take the next steps in building their faith in Jesus Christ. It is amazing the ways that my testimony of Him has grown through having the opportunity to use it to help others everyday. I started writing down at least 3 reasons everyday that I´m glad to be a missionary, and that seems to be a reoccuring theme, how I am so grateful that I have ample opportunities to bear my testimony, because it gets stronger and firmer every time.

Anyway, that´s what´s been going on with me. Love you!

March 11, 2011

Ok, I´m keeping this short this week so that I can really get around to sending some pictures. Some of them are from Osorno that I never got a chance to send, but the one from of the beach and the volcano as well as one of Hermana Kelley and I are from here in Villarrica. I think the ones from Osorno are of us with the Familia Lillo and Fernando, me with one of the members who faithfully accompanys us often, Coni, and me with la Familia Sandoval just before I left.

We´re teaching a lot of awesome people, I´ll tell you the story of this one guy, Alejandro, when I have more time to write, but to sum it up, he´s a miracle. He just got out of jail and I guess while he was there he met the son of a member who decided to take him in because he didn´t have anywhere else to go. Now he´s really excited about learning the Gospel and has a baptismal fecha for next month!

Love and miss you!

March 4, 2011

Sorry that it's taken so long, I've been busy... but I'm trying to catch up!

-Camille




I love this branch so much. I am now the branch pianist, which is interesting since I don´t really play piano, but we´re also starting a piano class that I will be teaching...

Yesterday was fast and testimony meeting. I really just have to tell you this amazing story of the jovenes in this branch. They all come from less active families, but a few years ago one of the girls in the young womens got a list of names and walked right up to one of the kids at school, Pato, and said: "You´re a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints... we need you to come to seminary." So he came, and he came back super strong, and brought all of his friends with him. He left on his mission about a month ago (He´s in the same mission as Allie Yost!), but before that he was serving as both young men´s president and branch secretary, and I´m pretty sure we here a story from one of the members about something great he did every day. So anyway, in Sacrament meeting yesterday 4 of these other jovenes were all lined up to bear their testimonies about how excited they are to serve missions and how grateful they were for their friend´s example and for the Gospel, and right before one of them walks up to start speaking, his mom and his sister walk in. To top it off, the next kid goes up to bear his testimony, saying that he had always been really shy and had never had the courage to get up to bear his testimony before, but his friends talked him into it and he was grateful that his mom was there to see him do it for the first time. Pretty much everyone was crying the entire meeting.

I was thinking about this yesterday, so here´s a story... About 3 or 4 months ago, after reading the talk that I told you about, the one about the 4th missionary, I remember making a dedicated effort to not only work hard with my time, but to focus my thoughts more on the work as well (I´ll admit, I was still really missing singing). As I made the effort to do so through starting to memorize the scripture mastery scriptures in Spanish while we were between appointments so that my mind wouldn´t have time to wander, I remember one day walking down the street Cervantes in Osorno feeling so unbelivably happy, so unbelivably dedicated to serving the Lord and His kingdom just completely out of love and desire to do it, not just because of the blessings I would get in return. I have made it a goal to try to regain and retain those feelings for the rest of my mission and the rest of my life. Part of my fast on Saturday was to help me to refocus and re-find that desire, and as I was sitting in Sacrament meeting, I couldn´t help but be filled with a desire to serve the Lord with everything I am and in whatever way I can for the rest of my life. I was eccstatic. I was and am thrilled for the opportunity I have to be here in Chile helping to strengthen the faith of the members of the Lord´s kingdom. I´m trying my best not to waste a minute of it. I know now I´m just babbling and my grammer has probably stopped making sense and I sound kinda crazy, so I´ll just leave it at that and send some pictures!

February 25, 2011

Ahora para todos:

So I am now in Villarrica and it is GORGEOUS! We´re right on the coast. Last Thursday we did out lesson plans on the beach. It´s the furthest sector north, so it´s really really REALLY hot, which makes the pulgas (fleas) come out in full force, but I´m surviving. I´ll try to send pictures. My new companion is Hermana Kelley. She is from Alabama and she´s AMAZING. She´s finishing her mission in May so I´ll be her last companion. Did I mention she´s amazing? I love her a ton, she´s really funny and a great missionary. The house is... bigger. Let´s just leave it at that. This cambio they joined our sector with a sector that belonged to Elders last cambio, but they took them out and doubled the size of our sector. It´s gigantic, and it´s strange because we have a lot of investigators now that we´ve never met, but I´m excited for the challenge, I think we´re up to it. The branch president asked us to think of some activities we could do that are focused on encouraging people to read the Book of Mormon, so if anyone has any ideas... please let me know. Villarrica is right under an active volcano, it´s cool because sometimes at night you can see the lava sparkling in the sky. They say we´ll get a lot of earthquakes here, but I´ve only felt one this week and it was pretty small. One of the things that amazes me about this branch is that they have so many jovenes that are so excited about missionary work, even though their families are completely inactive, they love to help us and are preparing to serve their own missions. It´s aweseome! I have learned so much about what it means to really give everything in the service of the Lord. I think from being a missionary, I´ve learned a lot about how I should be as a member.  The miracle of a mission is far more than the baptisms. There´s a lot of work to be done! Speaking of baptisms, I was pretty bummed at the end of last cambio because Fernando had been traveling so his baptism kept getting pushed back, but he came back RIGHT before I had to leave. When we asked him if he had any concerns about his baptism he said "Just one... where can I buy white pants?" He is so prepared. Elizabeth and la Familia Sandoval also said that they really felt like the message we had brought them changed the way they look at their relationship with God, and this guy Juan Carlos told us that he really feels like we helped him to find a faith that he never had before. I might not be there for their baptisms, but I will never forget the influence that Heavenly Father has allowed me to take part in in their lives. It´s hard leaving a sector and all the people that you love there, but I know that I´ll grow into that here too, and I can´t wait. Hermana Nakayama was transferred in to Osorno, so I know that they´re in good hands. I´m going to go ahead and finish this up so I can have time to send pictures, but I want to say thanks so much for all of your letters and support, it really helps!

Love,

Jamie

February 11, 2011

We have everything painted but the kitchen, which needs another coat. We got a bookshelf and a new dresser too. Just in time for me to have to leave! At least that´s what I think. I don´t know for sure, but ususally the girls don´t have more than 3 cambios in one sector.

I´m keeping this short so that I can have time to send pictures, but I´m still doing great! The mission is hard, but I love that I´m here. Elder Amado, the area president of Chile, came for our training meeting last Wednesday. We´ve found a lot of great families to teach, my muscles were not sore from painting, and today our zone went to Las Cascadas.

Love you all and thanks for all of your support!

Jamie

February 4, 2011

So, we´re painting our house today! I´ll send pictures later, but that also means that I don´t have much time to write. Elder Amado, the area president of Chile is coming to talk in our training meeting next Wednesday. Most of the people we´re working with are traveling this week, but everyone is still doing really well and we´re seeing a lot of miracles. It´s so exciting to hear about all that is going on at home. Thanks so much for all of your love and support. I´m glad to hear that everyone is doing well! I love you all!
Love,
Jamie

January 28, 2011

I don´t know where to start. This week has been crazy. Great, but crazy. We´ve found a lot of really great new people to teach which is awesome but very tiring. All of the missionaries in our zone came to work in our sector last Thursday which was really fun, but created a lot of work for us because they all set citas with different people for the same times for us to follow up on. Two elders found a couple who had taken the discussions before, but for some reason had fallen through the cracks when our sector switched from Elders to Hermanas. Anyway, they ran up to these Elders and basically said "We want to get baptized, how do we get in contact with the missionaries?" It turns out they were getting married the next morning, so the four of us went to the wedding Friday morning. We´re in their wedding pictures now, so we kinda have to do something significant for their lives, like bring them the joy and fullfilment of the Gospel or something. The ironic thing is that right after the wedding we went to the church for our zone meeting just as a funeral was ending there. The circle of life...



In other news, I have hit a record number of bug bites this week... 21!



We really have too many great people we are working with to give you all the details on everyone. Fernando is still doing great and preparing for his baptism on the 12th. We have this new couple and their baby, the parents and little sisters of the husband of that family, his uncle and cousin, another kid who told us after our second lesson "I feel like I learned something today. I feel like you opened a window and I´m a little bit closer to God." It was awesome. We have about 6 other families that we´re working with as well. There´s a lot to do, but it´s rewarding work! I wouldn´t trade the experiences I´m having right now for anything else I could possibly be doing at this time in my life. It´s hard, but I can already see the ways that it has changed me and who I will be for the rest of my life for the better, and I´m excited for all of the other lessons that await me in the next 13 months.



Thanks for all of your love and support!

Jamie



P.S. Please tell Afton her letter made my life. haha. I´m trying to get to writing everyone back, but I don´t have a lot of time for writing. I think about you all all the time!

Jan 26, 2011

So this is Camille, I'm taking over her blog as Bekah goes off on her own mission (!). I'm still trying to get the hang of it, so if there are any questions let me know.

Ok, so Hermana Lovell asked all of us to send her our testimony of the Book of Mormon and she´s going to make a book out of it. Since that´s probably going to take up most of my time, I don´t have a ton of time to update you on what´s been going on, but it´s pretty much the same. Fernando is still doing great, it´s a blessing to be able to witness what a miracle is happening in his life. I was thinking the other day about how blessed I have been (and currently am) in my life and I think the words of Enoch describe it best when he says "Lord, who am I to have found such favor in Thy sight?" or something like that, I don´t know it word for word, but I have realized that I have been far far too blessed in my life to use the blessings and opportunities that I´ve been given for anything other than dedicating my life to doing what the Lord wants me to do and fulfilling the purposes that He has for me. It would just be plain unfair. My companion is awesome. It´s not as bad as I thought it would be guiding the sector, a little stressful, but we´re surviving.

I´ve decided that in my rebellious nature, I´m refusing to accept that there are so many menos activos and weaker wards in Chile. Yeah, people may say it´s just the way the culture is and that there´s not much we can do to change it, but I for one have never been the kind of person to accept what society says can´t be changed. We have a calling to change it, and when you have a calling from the Lord, there´s a way. (1 Nefi 3:7)

So here´s the testimony that I´m sending to Hermana Lovell, there are probably a lot of grammar mistakes because I haven´t had a chance to ask anyone who actually speaks Spanish to proof read it, so forgive me, but here it is.

Es interesante para mi para pensar en mi testimonio del Libro de Mormon. Siempre he sabido que es verdadero, que las personas, las historias, las cosas que pasaron son real, que en realidad Jesucristo vino a las Americas para enseñar y hacer milagros por Sus discipulos aquí, pero no sé si realmente entendía porque es tan importante para mi. Porsupuesto entiendo que es la clave de nuestro religion, que es una herramienta por cual podemos saber que José Smith fue un profeta y que esta iglesia, entonces, tiene la autoridad verdadera de Jesucristo. Pero, para una persona que ya sabe todo de eso, ¿Por qué es importante para MI este libro?
Yo estaba muy preocupada en esta pregunta algunos meses antes de salir a la misión, y con mucho oración, pedí ayuda para entender eso. Él me ayudó mirar a mi vida y todo de las maneras en cual yo he crecido en mi fe en Jesucristo y las cosas que he aprendido y ahora puedo decir que sé, sin duda. En este momento, me di cuenta que todos de los principios que me han ayudado se encuentran en el Libro de Mormon. Cada desafio, problema, o pregunta que he tenido en mi vida, la respuesta está en el Libro de Mormon. Este libro es un don de Dios para nosotros, para guiarnos cada día, y para enseñarnos los principios que edifican nuestra fe en Jesucristo en maneras grandes. Tengo fe en mi Salvador, Jesucristo, que Él me ha cambiado, que Sus promesas son reales, que uo puedo tener esperanza en todo por Él. He encontrado y crecido en esta fe por medio del Libro de Mormon. Estoy tan agradecida por tener la oportunidad en mi vida de conocer este Libro y Jesucristo de quien testifica.

-Hermana Gebara

January 19.

¡Hola! ¿Cómo están todos? Today in Osorno it is raining. A lot. I have a feeling it will be like this until next December. Wednesday was Cambios so I now have a new companion, Hermana Larkin. She is really sweet and I am really excited about this cambio, it´s really scary being the one who has to know where everything is, who everyone is, and how everything works, but I´m surviving. Hermana Larkin got in without a problem, but Hermana Baum´s (the missionary in Ovejeria) new companion was stuck in Punta Arenas because Wednesday they started a protest because the government raised gas prices. They weren´t letting anyone in or out so the missionaries had to walk for two days (something like that, I´m sure the story has been made a little more dramatic by now) around the barricades to the airport to fly up here. In the mean time, Hermana Baum was with us in a trio. It was fun, but really difficult to balance teaching and to always stay together. It was cool that we got to switch off which sector we worked in though. Hermana Baum is great and Hermana Bertegnole finally arrived last night safe and sound, I´m really looking forward to getting to know the new Hermanas because they all seem really awesome.

So we had a lesson with Fernando yesterday. One of the first things we did was ask him if he had any questions that he´d like us to help answer. He then said, I kid you not: "Yes, what do I need to do in order to get baptized?" Yeah. Awesome. We´ve got his baptism planned for the 5th of February! I don´t think we realize the effect that we can have on people just as members. Everytime we talk to him about something, he says something to the effect of "Oh yeah, I already know about that. Caituska told me." By now our lessons pretty much consist of him explaining to us what he understands about a certain principle and us saying "Exactly." It helps that Caituska is amazing. I always joke with her that I want to be her when I grow up, even though she´s 18... Anyway, don´t forget the great help you can be to the missionaries and investigators!

So also, random cool moment yesterday. I had a Ricky Ricardo moment where I just went off in a rant in Spanish. Then it hit me... "Oh my goodness... I speak Spanish!" It was cool.

It´s been a really crazy week with cambios, we´re still working with a lot of great people and I´m really excited to be working in this sector. I love being a missionary. I love the ways I am able to grow every day. I love being able to see Heavenly Father work miracles in peoples lives. I love being able to see more clearly the love that the Lord has for me. I´m trying to follow the direction that Christ gave in Matthew about "Lose your life to find it" and I´m trying to do that one step at a time.

A mission is a miracle. It´s not always easy, but everyday can be a lifechanging experience if you make it.

Love you all,
Jamie

January 10.

So today we went down to Llanquihue to spend the day at the house of the Hamiltons, a missionary couple that is serving here, but also own property here individually, it was amazing, we had an amazing view of volcan Osorno, I´ll try to send pictures!

Our miracle of an investigator, Fernando, is still doing great. We are so excited! He´s going to try to stay home from his trip this weekend to go to church with us because he really wants to know 100% that it´s true. Honestly, I always heard stories about these golden investigators, but now I get it, prepared by the Lord does not even begin to describe it. We also found 3 new people who we are really excited to start teaching, and another one of our investigators is starting to really progress. Ah the life of a missionary, tiring but amazing. I was walking around Friday just super excited and happy even though I was exhausted. I love it. Not that it´s always easy or always fun, but I will be VERY sad when it´s over. I still have plenty of time to not have to think about that, but I´m glad that I still have a lot of time to take advantage of here. Things are really picking up in our ward as well, I´m so excited to see the progress!

Cambios are this week which means Hermana McShane will be leaving and I´ll be getting another companion. I´m sad to see her go, and very scared to have to be the one who knows how to get places, because we all know how I am with directions, but that´s why we have faith, right?
I´m going to miss our zone, but I´m sure that I will grow to love my next zone in its own special way.

Thanks for your letters! I finally got some Christmas cards and letters this week. I really appreciate all of your love and support!

Love,

Jamie