Thanksgiving!

Well this week was better. The work was a little bit better, but me and my comp had a great time together. We started joking around a lot better, and the new companion ice was broken so that was really good.

This week was pretty interesting. Today we move houses temporarily. We are going to go stay in a house of 6 for a few weeks until next change. That's going to be interesting. The house is just outside of the sector, so that'll be fun! Our contract just ended in the house we were living in, and so until next change we'll be staying over there for a little bit.

And then today was probably the most fun P Day I've had. Since they don't celebrate Thanksgiving here (it's really an American and Canadian holiday) we did our own as a district. We got really lucky, because the supermarket just got turkeys here for Christmas, and they got here early, so we had a Thanksgiving Banquet as a district. We cooked a turkey, made stuffing, apple pie, potatoes and gravy. It took us all day, but we finally did it and it was awesome! I'll send a picture.

The first one is a picture of our Thanksgiving Banquet. We ate it all between the 8 of us.

An upclose of our turkey. It's not like mama made it, but it was 

just about there. 

(Here's a joke. 

Q: How many Missionaries does it take to cook a turkey?

A: Only one, but it takes seven others telling him how to do it!)

And then me and Purnell found a reaaaaally old soccer ball in our house, so what were we to do? We destroyed it and then wore it as a hat.

Braden also challenged those of us who are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints to share the Gospel with someone.  Help the missionaries in finding people to teach.  He says it makes his job so much easier when members are involved!  He especially challenged me(mom) to do it!  Probably knowing that I don't like doing that!!

Well, this might kind of be a little boring of a letter because nothing really exciting happened this week. We just had kind of normal week. We actually walked a lot.

But something that we learned in District meeting this past week was super interesting. Elder Peck, my district leader taught us something that I think applys to everyone. He talked about our purpose as missionaries, and since everyone is a missionary this applies to everyone. Our purpose as a missionary is to "Invite others to come unto Christ." But the word Invite is interesting because it means that we need to be in the act of coming closer to Christ before we invite others. He gave a scripture which is 1 Corinthians 9:14, which is "Even so has the Lord ordained that they who preach the gospel should live the gospel." So that was an interesting thing that I learned.

And then this monday, I went on divisions with my District Leaders companion. His name is Elder Jackson, and he is from Arkansas. He is really cool. He is a convert of one year and he decided to come right on the mission. He was really fun to work with, and I learned a lot from him.

Here he is. We made a Lot of pancakes when he came over.

Birthday Week

I had a pretty good birthday! I mean, it wasn't the same because I wasn't at home, but it was a lot better than last year! I went to church, and almost everyone wished me a happy birthday because they all know me well enough to know my birthday. I did have a birthday cake that someone made me! And it was delicious! But I'll show more about that in a minute!

But anyway we had a good week this week! Last saturday, we went to a conference with the Santiago West Mission, and we got to hear Elder Viñas, Elder Christianson and Elder Russel M. Nelson, and it was so awesome! All three of them spoke and they also had their wives speak to us. It was just a really spiritual experience. It was really awesome to meet them (yes I shook their hands) and listen to them. I learned a lot, and not just about missionary work, but a bunch of just cool stuff. But the very end was the coolest part. Elder Viñas, Elder Christianson and their wives all spoke in spanish, and Elder Nelson and his wife spoke in English with a translator. When Elder Nelson finished his talk he told us all they he wanted to bear his testimony. He paused for a minute and he started to speak in perfect spanish and gave his testimony. It was a crazy experience. The gift of tongues exists.

But other than that, we worked well this week. My new comp is very good at contacts, while that isn't my strong point, so that's good. We compliment each other on that. We are trying to work more with the members to try and get them to help us.

Alright so this first picture is the cake I got on my birthday. The member sitting in the background thought it would be funny to get it all over my face.

The second one. I know that I am super allergic to cats, but these kittens were way to cute to not play with!

And the third was a random lizard I found while doing service and cleaning someone's patio.

Happy Birthday!

First of all, THANKS to everyone who wished me a happy birthday! It made today really special! I don't know if I'll have time to respond to everyone, but thanks! I was astounded when I opened up my email and saw all those emails!

Well, in other news,

I stayed here in my sector. I didn't get changed. Elder Groen left and I stayed with Elder Diaz. So now I'll leave with more that 10 months here in this same sector. Which is A LOT hahaha. I miss Elder Groen a lot, but Elder Diaz is super great! He is from Córdoba Argentina. He is great and I think we will get along really well!

This week went really well! Especially yesterday! We found an incredible new investigator! His name is Oliver, and the missionaries 20ish years ago helped him out a lot personally and taught him a few things! So this week when we went to his house he let us in, sat us down and told us how interested he was in what we had to say! That just goes to show how much of effect we can have on the people we talk to everyday! He remembered that after 20ish years! Every little thing we do counts!

So today, 2 of my really good friends from the MTC hit their one year, and so they made an asado (Chilean BBQ) and invited me too! It's still crazy to me to think that I already have a year on the mission!

So the first picture is me and Elder Diaz.

The second is the amount of meat we made for the 6 of us today! 

It was so great!

Thanks again to everyone who wished me a happy birthday!