2 for Alma and Amulek

OH MY GOSH! This week was just NUTS! Seriously so much has happened, where do I start?! I guess with interviews with our new mission president, Pdt. Videla. He told me "Hermana, you`re going home soon so I`m not even gonna ask you any personal questions to try to get to know you, but I would like to hear what your mission experience has meant for you." I looked at the picture behind him of Jesus and just broke down in tears, it`s hard to find the words to express my feelings and how significant this experience has been to me. I bore him my testimony of who I came as and who I`ve become. He asked me only one question, "Did you give everything to the Lord" and as I reflected to myself I was proudly able to answer "yes". He shared his experience about being called as a mission president and it was a tender moment for the both of us, I`d say the interview went well. hat same day in District Meeting an Elder shared a story during a time we share experiences that increase our faith. He said there is a less-active brother they`re focusing on to reactivate who works as a taxi driver. This brother has run into us in Renca several times asking for directions to places he needed to pick people up from and one time told me "Man, you guys are always working hard, more than the Elders!" So this Elder shared that this brother told them on their last visit "I always see the sister missionaries in Renca working so hard, knowing they do that to try to help people like me have the gospel in their lives motivates me to come back to church!" The Elder thanked us and it made me feel so happy inside to know that you just never know who`s watching you when your out on the streets proselyting, but people notice if we`re being diligent.

Well the biggest news of all is that Pdt.Videla called wednesday night. The conevrsation over the phone went something like this, "Hna.Ibarra, a little angel told me you`ve been in your sector for a really long time!" I replied "Yeeeaaaahhh???", "Well I`m calling because a sister has gone home due to knee problems and the Lord needs you to be with her companion in Catemu the last 2 weeks of your mission." I about fainted hahaha! It was CRAZY HUGE news, Catemu is in Los Andes, out in the boonies! But I was so pumped and I gladly accepted the call. So the next day I worked my guts out, packed, and then Hna.Stanger (the office secretary) and my new companion Hna.Clark came to pick me up. I only had a chance to say bye to Carolina and Benjamin who are some converts. When I told her the news that I`d be leaving Renca sooner than I thought she couldn`t believe it and broke down in tears. She thanked me so much for everything I did to help her be a better mother and wife and she just cried in my shoulder. It was one of the hardest things I`ve ever done to just dissapear from a sector like that, something similar happenned in Curacavi, but I think it was for the best to just rip the bandaid off, it`ll make my rael departure a lot easier. 

We slept over Hna.Stanger`s apt that night and the next day had our Leadership Council Meeting with president and the AP`s. The president and his wife decided to change our scedule to the international missionary schedule which was a huge shocker for everyone! Right now the scedule is to wake up at 7:30 am, study until noon and proselyte until 10 p.m. with an hour for lunch and bed at 11:30. But now we are gonna wake up and sleep an hour earlier and have lunch and study hours throughout the day after lunch and what not. It`s a huge change cause we`re just used to being in the streets all day so it`s gonna be weird to return to the house so many times a day, but they feel it`ll be the best for our health.

That night after a trip to the temple grounds for a sister who had to see the doctor at the MTC and being stuck in traffic for 4 hours singing hymns and talknig about every subject imaginable we got to Catemu. I`ve been spoiled the past 9 months so it`s a big change to be back in the country. We basically live in a wooden cabin, dirt roads, the smell of chimney smoke from the peoples fireplaces, and the gorgeous view of the sunset everynight is just breath-taking. If I had to return to any part of my mission it would`ve been here so I`m happy! We have to take a 20 minute bus ride to church ni Llay-Llay which is the branch we belong to. This sunday was great cause Pdt. Perez (stake pdt) was there to release the branch president who`s moving and had the biggest smile on his face when he saw me, he gave me the warmest handshake and said "my family and I were just talking about you yesterday!" It was a great reunion and he and his wife invitde us over for lunch next week before I leave. 

After working 2 days in Catemu I can see that Hna.Clark needs a lot of help, she has 9 months in the mission but still a lot to learn and I`m super pumped to help her sort out through the investigators that have potential and those that don`t and leave a solid foundation for her to build upon when I`m outtie. 

So basically that was my crazy week! I`m ni the ciber in San Felipe, it`s been so nuts walking around and seeing so many of the places I went to a year ago when I was a greenie, so happy to end where I started :)

Peace & Blessings,

Hna.Ibarra

3 for the tree in Lehi´s dream

This week was full of SO MANY miracles and blessings!!! Where do I start?!

Well last week was tough cause we had ZERO success finding new investigators and a lot of things just fell through. That week I was working on patience and boy did the Lord try me! This week was humility so I was expecting another tough week (haha) But the Lord blessed us with so much success as we strived to work diligently. Monday was a rainy day, but an hermana from Peru (who fed us chicken feet and chicken liver the other day) wanted to have an FHE in her house for us to invite investigators and to teach her daughter-in-law who is super interested in the gospel. We called up our 2 golden investigators-Ricardo and his family and Ingrid (also from Peru) and her family and all committed to come amidst the rain (that´s just plain ole miraculous in Chile, when it rains no one wants to go out to do anything). We taught them the 5 steps of the Gospel of Jesus CHrist with smores and everyone met and had an awesome time!

We were also blessed to find 10 new investigators,committed 5 investigators to be baptized end of August, and had 20 lessons. Best of all on Friday was Ricardo and Glorias wedding!!!

We were all pretty nervous about the big day, I mean last time Gloria tried to committ suicide 2 days before the wedding, so the tention was high. But she asked for a priesthood blessing to help her feel at peace and sure of what she was going to do. So the Elders came and gave her a blessing and we showed her a Mormon Message called "Courage" about Esther and other LDS women who faced their fears or difficult circumstances with courage. We helped her pick out what she was gonna wear and her jewlery, Hna.Thomas gave her a necklace like the women in the video to give her courage to take such a big step in her life. The next day we woke up at 6 a.m., got ready, and then went to their house to help them get ready. I did Gloria´s make up, and the sisters helped her daughter Javiera pick out an outfit and get ready. We headed to the registro civil in Quinta Normal and waited a bit in the cold until the big moment. The ceremony was short and simple, but the lady who officiated the ceremony shared some lovely words with them and congratulated them for taking this step after being together for 20 years. We all walked out with a huge weight off our shoulders knowing that nothing was holding Ricardo back from his dream to be baptized. It´s been a crazy long 8 month wait for him, but finally on Sunday July 10th at 2 p.m. Ricardo Ahumada entered the waters of baptism dressed in white along with 3 other investigators from our branch and the other ward (Valle Azapa) combined. It was a huge turn out at the baptism and the spirit was very present. Hna.Thomas, Hna.Adamson and I sang #58 "Roca de Eternidad" as a special number and made a special arrangement for the baptism since it´s Ricardo and Gloria´s favorite hymn. The smile on their faces was indescribable and filled me with so much joy I could just cry! I know without a doubt that they are the reason why I´ve been in Renca almost 9 months, the Lord had a work for me to do and I had to see to it, and I did! I am just so grateful to Him for using me as an instrument in His hands to bring about the joy and blessings to such a wonderful family. Yeah they have their problems and aren´t perfect, but they have come SUCH a long way from when I first met them and wanted to get sepperated and didn´t even know if God existed. As promised in my patriarchal blessing, I´ve been given the courage to stand among strangers and bear humble testimony of the restored gospel and to see those I teach enter into the waters of baptism and have the joy that comes from helping my brothers and sisters There is no other joy in the world like it!

Spiritual cookie: "The Lord uses the unlikely to accomplish the impossible." -Elder Russel M. Nelson

4 for the Lord who stands at the door

This week was tough...I was sick like I mentioned last time and had to stay in a couple days. Wednesday I went out and started proselyting again and I`m tons better now (although I still have a really annoying cough that comes and goes) so thank you all for your prayers!

We had to do a couple exchanges this week with our sisters. The first one was a challenge- it was a sister who has been struggling to open her mouth and contact. In an entire week she talked to 1 person...we strive to talk to 70 which is 10 a day which was a goal that Elder Ballard established. So we did some practices and talked it out to see what was making it so hard for her. That day with a lot of motivation, love, and encouragement she was able to do her 10 contacts for the first time the 4 months she`s been on the mission! But man, it wasn`t easy! After that intercambio Hna.Duffy the mission nurse did an exchange with me. She is just starting her training but is way ahead of a lot of greenies I`ve met! She also graduated from BYU`s nursing program so pretty much she`s my new idol on the mission and gave me tons of tips and advice for my application and how I can get a better shot at getting in. Plus she saved my life and helped me get better! So grateful!

This week we also did A LOT of service, probably more service than I`ve done in all my mission! We helped our investigator Ingrid paint her brick wall and the ex-branch president paint part of his house that he expanded and built. It`s always fun to change up the routine and give a hand.

Then Hna.Thomas came back from the exchanges and was super sick (she didn`t get it from me!) So she had to stay in a couple days to recoop, but is tons better now as well. Winter season is tough health-wise, while Hna.Duffy was with us she received about 20 phone calls from missionaries who were feeling sick in just one day, it`s nuts!

As for our investigators Ricardo is finally getting married this week! Yesterday him and his wife (who`s less-active) showed up dressed in their sunday best! He was in a suit, white shirt and tie, and his wife in a dress. They looked lovely! Ingrid is our other hopeful towards baptism who is from Peru and eating up everything we teach her. And Maria is also progressing a lot with her Book of Mormon, she`s already in 2 Nefi and finds all the answers to her prayers within it`s pages, but the challenge with them is the same as usual...COMING TO CHURCH!

Anyways, we`ve been struggling a lot to find new investigators, we`re going through our 7 years of drought. I knew something was gonna happen because last week I was working on the attribute of patience and boy did the Lord try my patience with being sick, the exchange, and then my companion being sick and not having any new investigators. This week is humility...another scary one...but I`m ready for whatever He`s got for me, after that I`m pretty much home-free :)

Spiritual Cookie: "Being a disciple of Jesus Christ is not an effort of once a week or once a day, but once and for all!" -Pdt. Uchtdorf

Hna.Ibarra

5 for Alma who came back alive

This week has been hectic, when is it not?! We moved out of our place last monday, apprently there`s a property war going on with the mission housing Elder and the owner of our previous house. She doesn`t want to pay back the $400 downpayment if there was no damage in the house so she`s been evading Elder Condie, so he asked us to pretty much spy on the house and pass by once a day to make sure the owner hasn`t come back and that she pays the money before moving in and closing the contract...skeeeetch! 

We did sime service this week helping our ex-branch president paint his house that he expanded, that was fun! We seldom do service projects around here cause everyone complains that we`re gonna get dirty or that it`s work for men, clearly they haven`t seen how solid my 6-pack is from doing 4 minute planks ;D

We also had a multi-zone conferenec with our new mission president, Pdt.Videla and his wife. I am so in love with them! He is the funniest guy ever, he`s Chilean so he was using all this slang and we were all cracking up! His wife is a sweetheart and she actually teaches us things since she can speak spanish which is awesome! It`s like having 2 mission presidents! No doubt they are going to make miracles here, our mission is enormously blessed to have them! P.S. I met an Elder Diaz in this conference from Kendall, what?! A fellow Cubaniche! Well actually he`s Chilean, but ya`ll alraedy know it don`t matter where your from, if you live in Miami you WILL pick up the cuban accent, haha! We got to talking about croquetas, Pollo Tropical and Jupiña, there was no stopping us, hahaha!

As far as investigators go Ricardo is progressing smoothly towards his marriage and baptism end of the month. Maria Pinto had a few doubts about the law of chastity and dressing modestly, one thing led to another and next thing I know she was talking about nude beaches...oh dear! Hopefully it`s something she`ll come to understand with time. We left an investigator that wasn`t progressing, her name is Luisa. She has a lot of potential, she reads the Book of Mormon and everything, but after teaching her for over 2 months she hasn`t stepped foot once at church cause she says she simply hasn`t felt the desire grow in her. When I told her she had our number and that when she was ready to act upon her faith she could call us she scrunched up her face and started to ball like a little girl! It broke my heart, but sometimes tough love is necessarys o they can reflect and start taking things seriously. 

We had a huge miracle happen this saturday with an old investigator named Ingrid. She`s from peru and about a month ago Hna.Thomas and I taught her the restoration and she just ate it up and loved it! We thought fersure we had found another golden investigator, but upon our return appointment no one was home. We passed by several times the following weeks and tried to call with no luck and thought "oh well, guess it was too good to be true after all." But saturday afternoon we were walking to contact a referal when all of a sudden I felt a little tap on my back. When I turn around it was a little girl who said "My mom wants to talk to you!" I looked and a couple ways back it was Ingrid with her baby in the stroller! She said she had been in a serious accident while walking with her baby in her arms and got hit by someone on a motorcycle. She was badly battered and bruised all over and her sell phone had broken in the accident. She invited us over and told us she was so happy she saw us today, she had been waving but we hadn`t noticed so she sent her daughter Wendy to run after us, "I was scared Id never see you again!" We summed up the restoration and invited her to go to church, she was more than pumped and showed up in her sunday best with her daughters Wendy and Pedro and stayed for all 3 hours! She said she loved what she learned and shared with me that her grandma who is over 100 years old is a faithful member of the church in Peru and taught her things that she loved about the church and that she thinks it would do her kids a lot of good. Last night we left her a Book Of Mormon and she committed to a baptismal date for the end of August! Lastly last night one of our appts. failed so I felt impressed to visit a recent convert. He was home alone, but thankfully Hna.Adamson came back saturday morning so we`re in a trio and can enter his home. We sang a short him and I said an opening prayer and asked for peace in his home. When we said amen tears were streaming from this brother`s eyes. He thanked me and said he was going through a super rough time, that he was having issues with his family and reverted to bad drinking habits. He said the guilt is eating him alive, that he was sick of falling back to the same mistake time after time and that he can`t escape his past. He excused himself to the bathroom to go cry it out and as I looked around this brother`s filthy home I told Hna.Thomas and Hna.Adamson, "Let`s clean!" I grabbed the broom, Hna.Thomas washed the dishes and Hna.Adamson cleaned the surfaces. When this brother came out after getting a hold of himself he just started to bawl all over again and thanked us. Afterwards, we sat down and I told him that we appreciated the confidence he had in us to share his problems, but that we don`t have the authority to receive confessions and that he should speak to the branch president who will lovingly guide him through the repentance process and help him kick the habbit once and for all. There was hope in his eyes and a sweet spirit filled the home as we left, I told him to take all the credit for cleaning the house so his wife would be happy :) 

Well to finish off the week I once again got a cold. It started out friday with a cough at our Leadership Council with Pdt. for all the leaders in the mission, the next day I had a splitting headache so I worked through out the day, took an antibiotic the mission nurse recommended me and stayed the night hours at a members home so I wouldn`t breathe in the frigid air. It was the branches 2nd counselor`s home and he gave me a priesthood blessing and the next morning I decided I felt good enough to proselyte. But by the time we got home I was beat. I crawled into bed and woke up in the middle of the night totally congested, feverish with a splitting headache and a lot of pressure on my face from the congestion, I pretty much feel like my brain is gonna bust out of my eye socket, it`s terrible. I`m currently at a members house resting while my companions write their family and get groceries and what not. Being sick in the mission is the worst, this is the Lord`s time and you feel like a waste just laying around being sick. But like Elder Holland said "if we do not take time to be well, we most assuredly will take time later on to be ill." So I just need to allow my body to heal. Hna.Videla shared some comforting words with me this week, that satan tries to attack missionaries in 3 ways. The first is with disobedience, he`ll try to convince us that it`s okay to bend or even break the rules and standards in the mission handbook, but that when a missionary is an obedient and faithful servant of the Lord he tries to hinder the work the next way, physically. We`ll get sick and ill, but this will only hinder the work for so long. And that`s when he attacks us the 3rd way, mentally, with stress and depression. There`s no way he`s gonna get me with tactic #3, he may have won the battle but he hasn`t won the fight! It`s a blessing we`re in a trio so my companions can keep working while I recover, the Lord`s work will not be hindered!!! 

Your prayers will be much appreciated so I can have a speedy recovery and give it my all these last weeks!

xo,

Hna.Ibarra