October 22.

Hola from Osorno!

Our trip down was really long. We ended up missing our layover in Santiago, so we had to wait an extra 3 hours before finally getting to Osorno. 

 Right now I´m in the actual city of Osorno in a sector called Ecuador. I´ll be honest, the first day I was here I kept saying to myself << no sé porque estoy aqui! >> (Just wait till you see the pictures of our house).

 It was pretty rough and I had no idea how I was going to survive for 16 months, but it´s been getting better everyday. My trainer is awesome. Her name is Hermana McShane and she´s from Washington. This is her 5th cambio and I´m learning a ton from her. She is really encouraging. My second day was absolutely amazing. I think she and Heavenly Father both knew I really needed a pick me up, so on my second day she took me around to meet some recent converts and members who live in Bellavista (that´s a neighborhood in our sector) and they are SO great! Honestly, we probably have the best ward members in the entire world. We are teaching Cristobal, the son of Paulina and Freddy who were just baptized a month or so ago. He turned 8 yesterday, and he´s probably the funniest kid ever. I´m so excited to see him be baptized on Nov. 6th! Actually, he reminds me a lot of Cole. He´s super smart and just really funny and sweet. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and the importance of obedience. I drew him a little tarjeta to help him remember some of the blessings he´ll recieve by being obedient and he seemed to really like it despite my inability to draw well. Another plus, he speaks English, so I was able to be myself a lot more because he could understand what I was saying even when I had to resort to English. His grandmother was there too. She´s a devout Catholic, but I think she´s starting to come around because she´s seen how happy the Gospel has made her family. 

We met some other families in the ward and it just inspired me so much to learn Spanish so that I can tell them how wonderful they are! I met two of the young women in our ward, Valentina and Antonia, who are very very patient with my Spanish and were really loving. It was honestly one of the best days ever. Yesterday was pretty good too. I learned how to chop firewood for one of the older women we are teaching. It was fun. We have a meta of 10 contacts a day per person. We do the contacts together, but the number goes to the person who starts it. My trainer said at first as long as we get 20, she´ll do a little more than her half, but I did my entire 10 yesterday! I was proud. We are teaching some really great people and I´m so excited to get to know them and work with them. Tomorrow is Stake Conference so I´m looking forward to meeting more of the members. I think that´s going to be the highlight of my week. The members here are so awesome.

I love being in centro (where we are right now). It´s not in our sector, but it´s where the church is and where all of our meetings and p-day activities are, so we get to go there a lot. It has the downtown city feel that I love! I think my first day was so hard because I felt so isolated from the rest of the world, but that´s because we were in a not-so-nice part of our sector, after seeing the other parts, I feel much better.

So let me give you a rundown of how cold it is here. It´s Spring here, like the equivalant of April there, and in order to be warm enough to sleep, I wear tights, leggings, sweats, heavy wool socks, a thermal shirt, a sweatshirt, I have the double flannel sheet and the two blankets you sent me, plus 5 heavy HEAVY wool blankets and a little rubber watter bottle that I fill with boiling water and put under the covers to warm everything up. Yeah. However, there is hot water in the shower and that was my biggest fear, so ít could be worse. Also, Hermana McShane says that our house is the 2nd to worst house that she´s seen in the mission, so the bright side is that as long as I don´t get put into Rahue, it can only go up from here! I probably just jinxed myself. Darn.

I was getting pretty homesick yesterday, the nights are the worst. The morning and during the day I´m fine, but it´s those 3 hours from 6 to 9 that are really hard. No sé porqué. However, when I´m at our house and feeling down, I imagine myself showing Camille pictures and telling her stories and I can imagine her funny reactions and then I feel more motivated to stick it out. Thanks Camille!

My Spanish is actually coming along pretty well. Definitely not perfect, and people definitely know that I´m not from around here, but for the most part I can get my point across in contacts and lessons. One of the members who came with us yesterday, Anita, said she was very impressed. I am just really glad she was there because she was able to tell me everything that our teachee was saying. It´s funny that when someone translates for me, they don´t translate it into English, they just translate it into slower Spanish and then I can completely understand. haha.

Usually P-day is Monday, but while I´m here in Osorno it´s Saturday because we´re on the same schedule as the office Elders.

Ok, I want to have time so upload some pictures, so that´s all for today. 

Miss and love you lots!

October 15th.

So, my time at the MTC is about to come to an end, and, knowing me, nothing is ever really complete until I can summarize and make a clear and defined list of what I have learned from the experience. So here it is:

1. Obedience is the first law of everything

2. The ability to know how to follow the Spirit to be an instrument in the Lord's hands in bringing others unto Christ is the greatest ability and gift we could possibly develop in this life. I want to be able to do that even more than I want to be able to sing. I'm glad I'm here.

3. Conversion by the Spirit outweighs logic. Heavenly Father speaks to our hearts and helps us to understand the things that our minds cannot comprehend when we have faith in Him. (That's something my teacher's investigator told him, it's my favorite thing I've heard since being here). We can be sure and have faith that others can truly gain a testimony that will inspire them to have the faith to follow all of the things that God asks of us, even when our minds don't understand it.

4.True conversion comes through action. It is through a person keeping committments and promises that their hearts are changed. All missionary work is about inspiring people to ACT. We do this by having an attitude of love for the Gospel and for those around us.

5.God gives us miracles. I've seen it in the courage that I've had in things I've been able to say and do that I never thought I could. As a missionary, the Spirit works through you far more than you realize.

6. God pushes us to reach our potential because He loves us and wants us to achieve all of the great things He has in store for us. God doesn't spoon feed us happiness when He knows we need to grow. He wouldn't make us endure any hardship that wasn't necessary for our becomming who He needs us to be. It is a great compliment to be pushed to be better, it means God sees and wants greater things for us.

7. The hand of the Lord is in our lives far more than we realize. Even in the times when we think we messed up the plan, or we somehow got off course, we realize that those were significant times that our Father in Heaven used to guide us to recognize and recieve the happiness and blessings of the answers we seek. He is in control far more than I ever realized until being here and looking back on everything that brought me to where I am.

Also...

 "Called to Serve" is a great song, but that doesn't mean you have to sing it twice a week.

October 8th.

Ok, so first things first HOW AWESOME WAS CONFERENCE! En serio, so good. I loved the talk on how to be a better teacher of the Gospel, for obvious reasons. The people in our zone who were waiting for their visas are leaving Monday so things will be much less crowded.

So SURPRISE we got new roomates. Usually scheduling leaves a note on your door saying that you're getting new sisters so that you can clean and prepare their beds for them and stuff, but we did not get a note. Completely random story actually. One of the other Hermanas in our zone was sick and her companions had to stay with her in their room, but they needed to go get lunch so we switched off and my companions and I stayed with Hermana Pace. Well, Hermana Moss and Hermana Nakayama ran over to our room (it's just two doors down) to get some extra packing and cleaning in when all of the sudden they hear a knock on the door and it's new sisters looking to move in. Luckily they were there and could move stuff around for her (because when the other Hermanas left we spread out and took two closets each) I can't imagine how sad it would've been for the new Hermanas to come in if we weren't there. They're pretty cool. They're not in our zone so they don't have our schedule, we don't see them that much other than at night. One of them is from Orange and when she walked in she was like HEY! I know you! It was cool.

So when they say you get blessings from serving a mission, they're not kidding. Not that this is the main blessing I was looking for, but it's definitely cool. One of the other Hermanas on our floor I guess hears me singing all the time around the residence hall (yeah, I know, sorry) and came into our room the other night and basically said that she loved it and wanted to record me and send it to her family who owns a record company in California and a recording studio in St. George. SO AWESOME! Also, there's an Elder here, Elder Smith, who honestly has one of the most amazing voices I've heard. We ran into him thismorning and he told me to come find him after dinner and he'd play/sing with me for Hermana Gillum to record. Also one of my teacher's Dad was in charge of production for all of the church movies and one of my companions worked for BYU broadcasting. Coincidence? I think not.

I really miss the district that just left on Monday, our old roomates were in that district and some of our very favorite Elders. I miss them, but I know they are doing great things in Argentina!

So I can't even remember all of the funny things that happened this week, but there were many. Let's just say we were taught a first lesson and the main point of the lesson was that we should come to church because there are guapo hombres there, and another one where we were talking about the Apostacy/Restoration and Hermana Nakayama said something to the effect of "I look out the window and what did I see? Churches popping up everywhere!" Maybe you had to be there. Also, a lady came up to us and very sweetly said "Oh! Sisters! Where are you going?" Both of my companions, because they are smart, said "Osorno, Chile" while I replied "Uh, to our room?" Yeah. Awesome.

Well I only have a few minutes left, but I love you! Keep those dearelders coming!

Also, Scott: I have letters for Adam Calderon, Vince, Fran, Dan, Ryan, and Jacob, but I don't have their addresses! I know you're busy, but when you get around to it remind them to send me a dearelder or something with them. I might just send them to you to distribute.

Love you all!

October 1st.

All there is to say is how much I love being here and love my zone. Es lo mejor. The oldest district STILL hasn't gotten their visas for Mexico. They're going crazy, and as much as I love them, I'm starting to go crazy too because they have nothing to do all day so they just come in and want to talk to us and distract us from studying. That's one thing I'm really really looking forward to about being in the field. I won't have the distraction of trying to study in a room full of really good friends, I'll be able to focus more.

I need to mention again how much I would love to hear from you dear friends out there. Even just dearelder's. Hermana Moss and I were so desperate for mail (and jealous because Hermana Nakayama gets like 12 letters a day - she is loved) that we solicited OTHER PEOPLE's friends and family for letters. Elder Stevens' brother wrote me, and I just got a letter from Elder Jackson's girlfriend who agreed to be my penpal. It was cool, but not as cool as you! C'mon people. I want to know your lives! Scott, Vince, Dan, Ryan, CAMILLE!!!, I will not hesitate to call you out.

Bitsy just got here! I saw her at lunch the other day. Pure chance since we went to lunch early and she went late haha.

I'm not sure what else there is to say, our teaching is getting better, lots of practice. 

Love you!

Hermana Gebara