February 27, 2012, Radimadi

Hello!

I hope all is going well for you. We're just pushing along here as usual. We have a lot of investigators, but we're having a hard time getting them to progress. I was a little worried that we were on the line of basically obligating them this week for how much we tried to animate them and verify them in keeping their compromisos, but it doesn't seem like anyone is resentful, they're just not doing it... Manuel came to church this week! That was a really cool suprise. We invited him earlier in the week, but we've only taught him once in his doorway so we didn't think much of it, but he came, on his own, in the rain! It was awesome. He stayed all 3 hours and made friends with German. We're going to teach him tomorrow. I'm grateful that I am continuing to learn and that it seems that all I'm going through and reading in the scriptures has to do with what's going on with our investigators. I've been reading in Alma 18-22 ish lately and I just keep hoping that some sort of similar miracle will happen with Cristian and if he'll just take the first step and pray he'll just be so overcome with faith in the Savior that he'll be willing to make the big changes. We're not giving up! It seems as if my own struggles and what I learn from them are things that I'm able to use in knowing how to help him. That has happened so many times in the mission, I love how the Lord helps me FEEL what my investigators feel so that I can really have empathy for them. I really continue to learn so much and remember all of the things that I have learned and the ways that I've grown in this last year and a half.

Nearly every time I open my scriptures, or even a Liahona, I am directed to some scripture or article that talks about planting seeds and seeing the harvest at a later time. I am willing to accept that perhaps the Lord trusted that I wouldn't be so caught up in pride about the numbers that He called me to be a planter. That's ok, right? I don't want to give myself excuses for lack of success if it's my own fault, but something I read in a Liahona helped me remember that there are many ways that we can get answers from the Lord, not just the physical manifestations of the Spirit, so with everything I've been reading lately, I feel like that's my answer. I also feel like maybe it hasn't come yet because I haven't actually completed my mission, I still have a week left to be guided by the Lord, maybe the feeling will come the day I'm asked to take off the tag.

Anyway, we're just working away as usual. I love this mission!

Love,

Hermana Gebara

February 20, 2012

This week has passed by in a blur. There were some great things and some really hard things, but in the end it all worked out and we're doing alright. We're still struggling with getting our investigators to really progress, but at least I finally fully understand how Alma felt when he talked about how his soul was heavy and sorrowful unto pain for how much he wanted the people to repent and have faith in Christ. I'm right there with him sometimes, but all in all I'm able to maintain positivity. I have a new little dicho that I thought of they other day: "Perhaps today isn't the day that we're going to see the miracles, but that just means it's all the more likely that it'll be tomorrow." I don't remember if I already told you that or not. 

That reminds me of another quote that I saw and just loved the other day. It's on the DVD of the life of President Monson. He said something to the effect of: "There is no sweeter feeling than following a prompting of the Holy Ghost and finding out later that you were an instrument in the Lord's hands in answering someone's prayer. I want to live my life in such a way that the Lord knowsthat if He ever needs an errand run, Tom Monson (or Jamie Gebara) will run it for Him." I love that!

This week we had a special "Hermana Training Meeting" at the mission home. That's a fancy way to say giant sleep over with the sisters. It was super fun and I really liked being able to see Hermana Moss and Hermana Nakayama again as well as a lot of other sisters who I just adore. We made pancakes in the morning, I hadn't had pancakes in so long! Hermana Moss has the pictures, so we'll have to get copies from her.

Well that's really all the news there is for now. I'm trying to think of what souvenirs you all will want, but I'm really bad at picking those kinds of things, so if you have anything you'd like, please let me know!

Well I always send these out and then think of more things I could have said, so I'm trying to delay sending it, but there's just really not that much to report for now. Hermana Bertagnole is engaged, she wrote me today and told me. Other than that just working till the end and trying to be as prepared as possible for school without stressing about the fact that I can't really do anything about it. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't. I'll be sad to leave the wonderful people that I love here, but I'm excited to see you again as well as all of my missionary friends.

See you soon!

Love,

Jamie

February 13, 2012

Hello!

We're on a bit of a time crunch because I still have to send in my slide show pictures to the office, so this will probably be a very short e-mail, but we saw miracles this week as usual! It was rough because a lot of people were gone, members and investigators alike, but we found Margarita again and she isn't completely closed to meeting with us more! Also, Cristian FINALLY had some time to meet with us and once we got to talking he completely opened up and we found out about his family and about his childhood traumas and why he does all the things he does now. We're finally making some headway in how to help him! We also found out that two of the girls in our branch know him so that'll be a good support for him. We found a really awesome investigator named Franco, but when we went back for our 2nd cita he told us he didn't really want to share with us, he just thought it would be interesting to see what we had to say the first time. It was like a half miracle. We have a lot of other great people that we're working with. José, Alberto y Ester, Omar... they just aren't coming to church! We're sticking with it and trying all we can. There's not really a lot of new stuff to report, we're just working away!

Let me know if there's anything you'd like me to bring home from Chile. I've got 3 more weeks!

Love,

Jamie

February 6, 2012

We saw some cool miracles this week. There's a less active kid, Diego, who hasn't been coming to church for the last 7 years or so because he decided to take a trip through proverbial Babylon. We always went by to invite him to activities and stuff, and he was always very polite, but never really wanted to participate. Anyway, we were near his house the other day and heard blaring loud music, so we knew he was home. We went by to invite him to church and he let us come in and share something with him. We read Alma 36 and asked him if he wanted to make that kind of change. He said that he had been thinking about it a lot lately. He said that he had been changing a lot decided that he was at the point of deciding whether or not he was going to come back or just turn away forever. We challenged him to give it a lot of thought and prayer and to come to church on Sunday. He said he would. He talked about how in spite of everything, he knows the church is true and that Heavenly Father loves him because of so many times when he has felt the Holy Ghost warn him of danger or protect him from something even when he knew that he didn't deserve that help. I think it was the first time (if not, one of very few) that I cried in a lesson. He came to church yesterday, and we called him in the afternoon to thank him for coming and he said: "Creo que nos vamos a seguir viendo..." which basically means: "I think you'll keep seeing me there..." I am so amazed at the miracles that are happening all around us everyday.

Anyway, that's kindof the big news for this week. I just keep looking for the good. Thanks for all your support and help.