6 for the books that we call sticks

This week was an adventure-as usual- but lets start with our golden investigator Maria Pinto! She is the next to be baptized and has seriously been so prepared by the Lord! She used to be taught by missionaries years ago and still had the Book of Mormon and restoration pamphlet in her house. She lost touch cause she´d work a lot, but we found her contacting on the street. It´s so incredible to see how even though you may teach someone only once and never see them again the seed is truly planted and in the future will give fruit. She accepts everything we teaches, she prays when she goes home about everything we teach her and receives answers that it´s true. It´s funny cause when we taught her about modern day prophets she was stunned, that night she went home and prayed about it and opened her Book of Mormon and it talked about prophets and baptism. She was so excited for us to come over so she could tell us, and when she told us the page where she found her answer I didn´t read anything there about prophets, but its interesting how when someone needs an answer from the Lord he´ll put what they need on the pages. Recently we taught her about the Word of Wisdom and asked if she consumed any tea or coffee, she said she drank coffee and we told her she could have a substitute coffee drink here called "Ecco" which is made from wheat and she said "Oh! That´s what I drink, I can´t have the real kind cause it makes me sick." It was so awesome to see how the Lord has been preparing her for this moment, tonight we´re gonna have an FHE with her and a member family- she´ll be baptized in July.

I also had a little adventure in Downtown Santiago friday. I had to go with my daughter Hna.Fullmer and another missionary Hna.Nielson to renew my carnet (chilean ID) and to get them theirs for the 1st time. They changed some of the places where we had to go so I got totally lost and almost missed our appt. but thankfully we made it just in time! While we waited I contacted the people sitting around me, mostly all from Peru or Colombia, I love talking to strangers, especially the foreigners (they´re a lot nicer than the Chileans)! There was an empty seat next to me so I read the Conferene issue of the Liahona while I waited for my next victim to approach and it was a man from Peru, and actually her contacted me! He said "Excuse me but do you know how to work this website?" and when I looked it was FamilySearch.org! haha! I was like "YES! Of course I do!" really I think it was an excuse to talk to me, turns out him and all his family for like 3 generations are members in Peru, he had lost touch with the church but was thinking of coming back, so I encouraged him to do it and talked about all his fun memories he had in the church as a child. 3 hours later they finally stamped and registered our Visas but we need to go back friday to pick up our new carnets.

This week Pdt. &Hna. Essig left and we got our new mission president Pdt. & Hna. Videla. Even though I´m gonna miss the Essigs a ton I´m happy that they live sorta nearby in Logan and also that our new mission president is Chilean so he´s gonna help us a lot more on how to get in with the people and culture! We had special changes last night so I spoke with him briefly on the phone and he seems like a funny guy. He said "Hna.Ibarra how are you and our companions?" I said, "We´re doing great!" he said "Oh, good! You´re the only one´s in the mission doing great, everyone else is sad that Pdt. & Hna. Essig left, but their just gonna have to work with what they got now." hahaha! Tomorrow we´re gonna meet him in a conference so should be fun!

This week I also lost my agenda, that was sad. I can only compare it to losing a cell phone. All my life for the past 6 weeks were gone and all my plans for the next 6 weeks blank. I had no idea what to do with myself and I had a lot of important addresses from people I had talked to. Luckily our Zone Leader had an exchange and the member that went with them to an appt found it and gave it to him!!! My pen was still in the spine and everything! Tender mercy :)

To wrap up the week we spent all weekend packing up our entire house and all morning with the Elders moving into their old place where they moved from. It blows my mind everytime how much junk you accumulate, I hadn´t had to pack in over 7 months so I was over it after 1 box, but we finally got settled into our new place this morning. It´s not as nice as where we were, but doable. Theres just a leak of gas in the kitchen and a pipe that bangs so hard it almost busts threw the wall everytime we flush the toilet...nbd.

"Whether truth emerges from a scientific laboratory or through revelation, all truth emanates from God. All truth is part of the gospel of Jesus Christ^."-Elder Russell M. Nelson


xo,
Hna.Ibarra

7 for the prayers we send up to heaven.

This week was so much fun!!! Seriously can´t express how much I love my companions, I feel like I´ve known them all my life. At first I was a bit nervous about being with Hna.Adamson cause she can be a little ditsy sometimes, but it has just been laugh after laugh everyday and her small blonde moments lighten up the mood.

This week we were on the hunt for a house! T-2 weeks so we printed out little papers and posted them on all the almacenes (little grocery stores) in the neighborhoods and talked to everyone asking in contatcs if they knew anything. They all had us on a wild goose chase until I saw a woman sweeping up her leaves (it´s oficially winter here!). This week I was working on the attribute of charity so I offered to help her out and while I did I asked her if she knew about anyone renting a place. She said yes, that it was the owner of an almacen across the street. So after helping her we went over and talked to the lady. I had already talked to her before but I thought we had nothing to lose so I tried again and she said she wasn´t the owner of the apt, but her coworker was and called her over. She looked like she was in a bad mood and asked what we wanted and we explained our situation and she offered to take us to look at the place. It´s a house where the bottom floor is a ferreteria (hardware store) and upstairs it´s divided in 2 apts. It´s tiny but clean and decent and technically in the Elders sector so they would have to live there and us move into their house in our sector. But it was the 1st thing in weeks that was a posibility. Later that week a brother called me from another ward who moved and wants to rent his house to the missionaries! So we went and checked out the place with the Elders, a lot roomier and in a safe part of town so looks like the Elders will be moving there and things are gonna work out, so hopefully this time next week we´ll be in our new house!!! God has seriously answered our prayers!

Besides that this week was full of dogs trying to attack us, stepping on poop every other day, contacting strangers with a herd of cows mooing in my ear, and painted another member´s fence for a service project! Just another week in Chile!

P.s. there´s another game today so the e-mails short cause we gotta lock ourselves up before it starts. Chi-chi-chi, le-le-le ¡VIVA CHILE!  

xo,

Hna.Ibarra

8 for the boy who just couldn´t wait!

Haha, well there really is no boy who just couldn´t wait,it´s just a catchy rhyme. But This week we had changes!!! After much prayer and fasting I am-  Drum roll...............................................................................staying in Renca with Hna.Thomas!!!!!!!!! AAAHHHHH!!!! So nuts! We were praying so hard for it to happen, but really we didn´t have much hope since I´ve been here 5 transfers now and since Pdt. Essig said he´d be changing a lot of the leaders in the mission since the majority of the leaders now are leaving this transfer or the next. We were jumping and screaming in the middle of the street when the District Leader called us. Not only is the Dream Team staying together, but we´re gonna have a new addition, Hna.Adamson from Pleasant Grove, UT! Super cute blonde that reminds me of one of the BRATZ barbie dolls. I am so pumped to be staying here my last transfer, that means by the end I´ll have 9 months in the same sector...that´s HALF MY MISSION! Who´d a thought?! Seriously, God works in mysterious ways. When I first got here I was soo sad to have left Curacavi and after a week I was already over it. But now I´m like part of the family, I love the members, the people, the branch, and can´t imagine myself anywhere else! Plus I´m so happy to be able to see Ricardo and Gloria get married and him get baptized next month. The Lord knew my mission wouldn´t be complete until I saw to it!

Some highlights of this week was that we had a General Authority come, Elder Robbins of the 1st Quorum of the 70. That´s like the 3rd General Authority in less than 6 months, either we´re doing something really right, or really wrong!!! Hahaha! It was an amazing conference together with the Santiago East mission where we were able to have a question answer session with Elder Robbins about how to work more closely with the Holy Ghost. My mind was blown!

There was lots of rain this week and we had to do several intercambios (exchanges) with the sisters we´re in charge of which was fun but the streets we´re all flooded and it took forever to get to our appts. (Thanks mom for the boots and waterproof jacket- it all held up!) But I guess one of the highlights of this week was La Copa Mundial!!! Chile played Australia friday and won 3-0!!! We were all sent home early that day cause literally EVERYONE in Chile got off work early and was BBQing and partying and watching the game. We were planning but heard every goal Chile made cause the entire neighborhood was yelling and screaming and blowing horns and beating drums and shooting guns and firecrackers everytime, it was hilarious!!! Hna.Thomas and I had out own little celebration in our house and a member painted our faces and we planned with our Chile shirts, haha! Gotta make things interesting in the mission!

Seriously, I can´t express how much I love the mission and Chile! This change is gonna be one of many changes, we need to find a new house in 2 weeks or we´re gonna have to live in the mission office, Pdt.Essig leaves in 2 weeks and our new mission President, Pdt. Videla and his wife are coming in as well,more exchanges with the new sisters we´re in charge of, and more! I guess over all I´m just super grateful that it´s a long transfer (8 weeks) and that I´ll be staying with Hna.Thomas who I know is gonna push me and help me give my all ´til the very end.

Spiritual cookie: "One of the great teachings of the Man of Galilee, the Lord Jesus Christ, was that you and I carry within us immense possibilities. In urging us to be perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect, Jesus was not taunting us or teasing us. He was telling us a powerful truth about our possibilities and about our potential. It is a truth almost too stunning to contemplate. Jesus, who could not lie, sought to beckon us to move further along the pathway to perfection." Pdt. SPencer W. Kimball- Jesus the Perfect Leader

"Therefore, what manner of men ought ye to be? Verily I say unto you, even as I am." 3 Nephi 27:27

xo,

Hna.Ibarra

9 for the miles we ride on our bikes

This week rain welcomed in the winter. It`s rained almost everyday which makes proselyting super fun because it`s something different and because not just anyone is walking around in the rain, only the super special souls the Lord has prepared for us to preach the gospel to! But of course with the drop in temperature I caught a cold and lost my voice so it`s been a little hard to contact and teach. I don`t know if the people are looking at me all wide-eyed because I`m teaching with such power and authority or because they`re trying really hard to understand what I`m saying, hahaha! Nonetheless, whenever my voice gives out my trusty companion Hna.Thomas jumps in and saves me, this is why we preach in two`s!!! Also I`m happy because my feet haven`t hurt at all this week, so either your prayers are working or it`s so cold my feet are numb and I can`t feel the pain, either way it`s awesome! Also, we got a letter from the owner of our house so we have 30 days to find a new place and move or were homeless...awesome! It`s been a good excuse though to talk to random people and contact!

This week we did a couple exchanges with the sister`s in our group. Our first was with Hna.Carhuas from Peru. It was an incredible experience because originally her companion was gonna stay in my sector to work with me but they got confused and Hna.Carhuas brought her stuff to spend the night so we just went with it, little did we know it was a blessing in disguise from the Lord. We went to several appts that night and Hna.Carhuas` powerful testimony and personal experiences helped our investigators and converts so much, they were so grateful for her words and were so uplifted! I knew then it was no accident at all! Then Hna.Quintana came to Renca, she`s my homegirl so we had such a blast together! She`s been struggling with some depression but it did her so much good to work somewhere new and I was able to see that she truly has the ability to do the work, she just needs a companion to love, support and motivate her. Love her to death, she rocked in our lessons!

Besides that this week I`m working on the attribute of Hope which is perfect cause there`s been several challenges with our investigators that were GOLDEN and I need to increase my hope that they`ll progress. David has stopped progressing and has been going out with his buddies to drink and smoke and hasn`t come home until the next morning and things like that. Carolina is super upset and they were thinking of sepperrating. I read Moroni 7 with them about having chairty and loving eachother with the pure love of Christ and that sepperrating was not the solution to their problems. That night I went home feeling guilty...I told myself "I didn`t convince them to get married so they`d get sepperated! Maybe I made a mistake. Maybe I shouldn`t of told them to get married. Now they`re gonna get sepperated and it`s probably my fault in the first place!" I really didn`t know what to think, but I prayed that the Lord would help them look beyond their immperfections, forgive eachother and have the pure love of Christ. The next morning during my personal study the Lord answered the secret pleadings of my heart when I read Ether 12:36-37  "And it came to pass that I prayed unto the Lord that he would give unto the gentiles grace, that they might have charity. And it came to pass that the Lord said unto me: if they have not chairty it mattereth not unto thee, thou hast been faithful; wherefore, thy garments shall be made clean. And because thou hast seen thy weakness thou shalt be made strong, even unto the sitting down in the place where I have prepared in the mansions of my father." I knew then that I didn`t do anything wrong, I invited them to keep a commandment of the Lord and that I did was I was suppossed to do as a representative of Christ and that I shouldn`t feel guilty about that. It`s always a special experience when the Lord speaks so directly to me through the scriptures. It`s happened to me countless of times and each time it`s another testimony that I have a Heavenly Father, He hears and answers my prayers, He loves me and guides me, and the Book of Mormon is His word. 

Today for p-day we went bowling with other sisters in the mission, it was so hilarious, we`re all so rusty! It was even funnier to see the latina girls try to play, it was many of them`s first time ever bowling so I was trying to teach them how to throw the ball down the alley. After a couple of gutter balls, slips, falls, and laughs we finally got the hang of it again. My goal was to get one strike which I did so I was happy after that! Hna.Quintana got like 3 and we we`re joking about how this is good preperation to go dating again haha! Oh dear! Can`t even think about that right now, so much to do, so little time! We have a conference with a member of the quorum of the 70 this week, 3 exchanges, and Chile is playing in the World Cup so we have to go in early that night incase they lose or win and the people get CRAY in Renca. People here get drunk on weekdays so I don`t even want to know what it`s like when a soccer game`s on! 

This is the last week of the transfer so I`m pretty nervous! I really love where I`m at and my companion Hna.Thomas and don`t want any changes, but it`s what the Lord wants not me, so I`m just trying to enjoy every second I have this week and opening my heart to change for the last time in the mission...kinda nervewrecking to think it`ll be my last transfer. I just want an awesome companion who can work hard and push me even harder to give every ounce of spirit and testimony I have left to these people!!! Love you all!

<3,

Hna.Ibarra

 

10 for the Ten Commandments

Not gonna lie, this week was super trunky...SOOOOOO trunkyyyy!!!! But mainly because we had to kill Hna.Ireland who is probably landing in SLC as we speak!!! Our goal was to have to give her all and work her hardest this week, which she did, to the point where she went home with a cold...poor thing. But it`s like Elder Holland told us when he spoke to our mission last november, we need to go home in a stretcher because we gave everything we had! I think I`ll be going home with amputated feet they hurt so bad, I pray every day and night that the Lord may bless my feet with the strength to get where we need to go. Another reason this week was trunky was because yesterday I had my last Zone Conference and so I had to bare my farewell testimony to the missionaries. I had been pondering and praying about what I should say so that my words could sink into the hearts of the missionaries still in the middle or just beginning their missions and have a lasting impression and motivate them to continue in so great a cause. It was bitter sweet having to do it, especially since I still have another transfer left so I don`t feel like I`m leaving anytime soon whatsoever!!! But The spirit spoke through me, their hearts were pricked and my testimony was the spiritual punch I wanted it to be. So enough trunky talk, now for the rest of our power week!

We visited our investigator who`s GOLDEN- Maria Pinto! She went to church this sunday and shared with us in our appt that no instead of going home and watching TV she reads the Book of Mormon. She shared with us an incredible experience of how the house she`s building in Valparaiso near the beach was left abandoned with the doors opened. She was super anxious and worried that her things would get stolen so she opened the Book of Mormon and read a verse that brought her so much peace, she said it was a burning in her bossom, something she felt only once before when a family member passed away and she prayed for them. We testified it was the Holy Ghost and asked her if she felt she received her answer- she said yes, I know the Book of Mormon is true. Music to a missionaries ears!!!

Our other investigators have been dealing with a lot of opposition...nothing new...Eli had an accident at her job and a iron rod penetrated her hand and she had to get stitches. She`s been taking very poewrful pain medications that make her loopy so she hasn`t been able to read her Book of Mormon or go to church yet, but I have faith she`ll get there!

We had a powerful lesson with Enso on the Book of Mormon. We watched Elder Holland`s testimony on the BOM and then testified ourselves of its truthfulness. He still hadn`t received his answer so we read Alma 22 where King Lamoni prayed fervently to know if the gospel was true and invited him to kneel and pray with us. The spirit invaded the room...when I opened my eyes after the "amen" he was still moving his mouth and praying in his heart, his eyes were scrunched, there was such real intent in his face. He opened his eyes, red with tears. I asked him what he felt in that moment, he said "a lot of peace and emotion...I feel the Holy Ghost" and we testified that it was his answer. But it blows my mind how after such a powerful spiritual experience satan attacks. That weekend Enso didn`t go to church. We saw him yesterday, but when I saw his face there was an obvious absence of light...an absence of the light of Christ. There was darkness in his eyes, and it was such a strange feeling, something I`d never felt or seen before in a person. He was bizarre during the appt. We went over the baptismal questions and he was being bery sarcastic and said he had doubts about Joseph Smith, didn`t want to commit to keep the law of Chastity, and said he still wasn`t sure about the Sabbath day. My jaw dropped...WHAT?! After all the immensly powerful lessons we had to resolve his doubts where he felt it was the truth he was denying it all. Then he confessed that that weekend he went to "carretear" meaning party and drink and smoke with his friends.Then I knew, I knew why there was an absence of the spirit in his countenance. Something like that had never been so evident to me before. It was a sad realization, he has the desire to change, but lacks the will so we`ll see what happens.

Today for P-day Hna.Thomas and I went to an ancient art museum that had artwork of all the indigenous tribes in Latin America which was pretty cool! It`s weird being only 2 again, but it`ll still be fun fersure! Things are going great over all and just jumping over every hurdle the Lord throws at me. This week I`ve been reflecting a lot on my change as a missionary. No doubt I`ve come a looooooong way since I first began, the spiritual mountains I`ve climbed and conquered have been great...but have I changed enough? So starting this week I decided to work on the Attributes of Christ listed in Chapter 6 of Preach my Gospel, one for every week I have left, it`s perfect! I know I am so much more like my Savior now than I ever was before, and I just want to continue to change more and more, do my all, so the Lord can make me who he wants and needs me to be. 

spiritual cookie: "For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? Indeed, you are our glory and joy." The joy and glory of a missionary are his converts -1 Thesalonians 2:19-20

xo,

Hna.Ibarra