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