Noche Buena Colombian style!!!

Man, another craazzyyyyy week! I am so exhausted people, seriously I just want to spend all my p-day sleeping y punto! The highlight of this week was Noche Buena aka Christmas Eve, our mission president has a lot of trust in us cause we`re one of the most obedient missions in Chile and let us stay out till 12:30 am...WOOHOOO!!! PARTAAAYYY!!! And as our gift he let us sleep in till 9 a.m. DOUBLE PARTAAAYYYYY (and he gave us these awesome leather bookmarks)!!!!! As a missionary you are greatful for every minute of sleep you can get, a nap on p-day is rare, in fact I can count wiith one hand how many naps I`ve taken on the mission and all day you just gotta go go go no matter how tired, it`s especialy difficult now that it`s summer and the sun just sucks the life out of you! That being said, we spent noche buna with la familia Muñoz de Colombia, they are my favorite famiy in the branch, so loving, and made us BOMB colombian food! Platnos maduors, tajaditas, asado, agua de panela y buñuelos, yummm!!! They put on music and we watched them dance to all my favorite songs de Celia Cruz, Marc Anthony y Aventura, WOW that took a lot of self control to sit calmly during all that, anyone who knows me knows how much I LOVE to dance! So I went to the bathroom and let it all out while no one was looking haha ;D

This week we had our new companion Hna.Waters my comadre from Nicaragua, it was so great to be with her, she is one of my idols in the mission and ever since I met her when I got to Chile my 1st day I`ve wanted to be companions with her, she is just HILARIOUS! But she was also finishing her mission and would not SHUSH about going home, and seeing her family, and her friends, and shopping for new clothes, and the food, etc etc. Ugh I was ready to knock this chick out with her trunky talk, it was bad, but we got through it! Now we have Hna.Flores from Peru, she is a total sweetheart and has such a special spirit about her, seriously I`m pumped to finally have a stable companionship and if president changes us I am going to SERIOUSLY flip a switch!

Skyping the family was so great, seriously I love you all and miss you so much! My nieces and nephews are all so friggin´big! Oh my gosh I couldn`t believe how much they`ve changed since May! But it was great to see all your beautiful faces and know that everyone is doing well back in the states :) 5 more months till I get to see you all again!!! This week we also got to sleep over Hna. Stanger`s apt the office secretary and we had a christmas meal, chicken casserole with potatoes, stuffing, and cranberry sauce (thanks sis!) And I got to see my daughter Hna.Dodds!!! We talked all night and caught up on life and her past areas and what she`s gone through these last months in the mission. She has gone through so much and is such a powerful missionary, she is totally ready to train even though she denies it and it`s her greatest fear, but it was so great to talk to her again.

Well, basically that`s been my week, crazy changes in companionship, parties and lack of sleep. These next 2 weeks are gonna be hectic as we wrap up the transfer and have to do 5 more exchanges plus we got new years in the middle of it all which is gonna be terrible cause holidays are a missionaries worst enemy! That and the J dubbs...the evangelicals are pretty crazy here, too...Love you all and have a BOMB NEW YEAR!

Spiritual cookie: "Faith is always pointed towards the future."

Xoxo,

Hna.Ibarra

Missionary mayhem!

SHOUT OUTS: Ian Patton- hopefully you have internet but I got your post card from Africa and yes I did get your Dear Elder. Hopefully you`re back in MIA by now, if so hit up Nathaly she has a letter for ya!

Christian McOmber- A single tear ran down my cheek as my eyes feasted upon the box of candies and best of all CHEEZE ITS!!! Marry me?! hahaha No but seriously THANK YOU SO MUCH for sending that package of goodies, it was every craving I`ve ever had on the mission and more! I don`t even want to know how you payed for the postage, but I am SO SO SO SO GRATEFUL! You are the beeeeezz kneeezzzz :D

This week has probably been the craziest of the mission! It all started out great, we had a special christmas lunch with our mission president and 2 zones. It was delicious and Hna.Ireland let me borrow her sexy red dress, but the best part of all was that I got a ton of mail!!! Thank you to all my friends who were thinking of lil ole me this christmas :) After that I went on exchanges  with the sisters from Simon Bolivar and Los Mares, another trip to the city and it was SO MUCH FUN! But a call from President changed everything, whenever you see his name appear on the screen your heart can`t help but skip a beat. He said I had to be in the office at 11 after the exchanges and turns out Hna.Hernandez`s knee problems were only worstening, they were home all week and couldn`t go out to teach and so she was getting emergency transfered to another area with another sister who also needs rest because of knee problems and we were getting a new companion, mi comadre Hna.Waters from Nicaragua!!! But it`s only temporary cause she finishes her mission this thursday and goes home! So then we`re gonna get ANOTHER companion. So my days of going out and doing exchanges and fun are over, I`ve been called as Sister Training Leader 1 aka "La Bautizadora" (the baptizer) and have to stay in my sector and do exchanges with the Senior companions of my group :( Although I`m excited for my new-new calling I`m also a bit scared to try to teach the sisters how to baptize a lot because the sister who knew the sector and investigators is now gone and we barely know what`s going on with the investigators and what needs they have, but I know the Lord will help us out so we can continue to be an exampleto the other sisters and help them help others come unto Christ. So it`s been a pretty crazy week, but so much fun! That`s the mission! Merry Christmas to all!

xoxo,

Hna.Ibarra

Week of fame and fortune!

This week was full of so many crazy things! Seriously, I think it´s been rare when I have a week in which not a lot goes on. I did my 1st set of exchanges with the sisters and had my first taste of working in the city! Bustling cars, people walking really fast everywhere, dogs barking, horns beeping, and lots of tall buildings (which is nice cause they give a lot of shade). It was a crazy wild adventure and I got to meet people from Peru, Colombia, and even Croatia which was so cool! There´s a lot more diversity, but the one thing is that I barely got any sleep at night from all the noise even though we were on like the 15th floor of an apt building.

It´s been tough asdjusting to my new area in Renca, it´s really different, the area is more "cuico" aka wealthy so the people are comfortable with their lives and not receptive at all to the gospel. I went from an area where I was just flying and baptising like never before on my mission to getting doors constantly slammed in my face. But I know that I´m doing all I can and that with time and after some long suffering the Lord will bless us with a miracle. I feel like my calling here isn´t one to necissarily convert anyone, but to support and aid my companions. One of my comps has tendonitis and it´s been really tough on her, she´s had to rest all week while my other comp and I go out and she´s the one who knows the sector best so we´ve been getting lost and learning on our own which is good and sometimes really funny! But she´s really scared she´s going to have to go home and the Dr recommended another week of therapy so we've had to go to the German Clinic in Providencia which is the California of Chile, very rich area and makes me feel like I´m back in the states haha. It´s been fun but very exhausting on all of us to travel 2 hours there and 2 hours back every other day. We haven´t had our normal studies in the morning so we try to read something while we wait for her in the lobby, but it´s just not the same. Also my other companion recently suffered a heart break, her ex-bf who she was goig to marry but decided to go on a mission instead has another gf and she was just a sob fest the 1st couple days and super depressed and down on herself. We weren´t able to teach well and it was hard to have the spirit and unity between the 3 of us. She´s doing a lot better now, but in a companionship when one person has a problem we all have a problem, so imagine 2 companions with problems! Its been a struggle, but I´m trying to do all I can to serve them, uplift them and love them so they can finish strong. It´s funny cause they actually have more time than me on the mission, so I count my blessings daily that I don´t have health problems (besides my shoulder but I´ll live) and boy problems (ladies if you´re going on a mission, don´t make anyone wait for you, just don´t, too messy and will make you lose focus) hahaha! So due to the complications mentioned I´m now Sister Training Leader 1 and have to take charge of things for a while in this sector while my companion tried to recover from her knee, it was a nice break 2 weeks of not having to take the lead, but the Lord knows what I´m good at I think and is having me take hold of the reigns again.

Lastly this week we went to the Christmas Concert in the Santiago Temple and had a celebrity appearance by none other than ELDER DAVID ARCHULETA!!! Oh yeah you heard right!!! HATE ON IT!!! He´s serving in the Chile Rancagua mission and performed at the concert and we got to go with a family of Colombian Recent Converts and their sons baby momma who´s an investigator and it was AMAZING!!!!! He has a great voice and we felt the spirit super strong as the choir, and other singers and dancers performed. Speaking of famous people and celebrity appearances, I am no celebrity, but if you miss me check me out on Page 30 of this months December Liahona! I gasped in the clinic lobby as I saw the print screen of the mormon message I´m in, it´s a tiny picture, nothing crazy, but my fame continues to spread in the mission, in fact an Elder this week asked if he could take a picture with me, I kindly said no, but it just cracks me up haha!

Anyways, love you all! Till next week!

Spiritual Cookie: "He who was  the greatest of all made himself the least, the Heavenly Shepherd who became the lamb."

xoxo,
Hna.G-unit Ibarra

Nueva Renca

So I`ve been in my new sector for a week, and it`s actually not as flaite aka hood as everyone said it`d be! It`s actually really pretty and all new houses so it`s called Nueva Renca, but the elders have the more humble part of town. I really like it and it`s totally different being in the suburbs instead of out in the country, mainly besides everything actually being clean and pretty the people live comfortable lives and are less receptive to the gospel. Our sector belongs to a branch called Jose Miguel Infante which split off from a ward so there`s 2 groups that meet in the same chapel which is a 1st for me in the mission and it reminds me a lot of home when I was in our branch in Silver Lakes. Being in a trio again is really fun, but hard because we each have such different teaching and proselyting styles and have to adapt to eachother and organize ourselves well. Hna. Hernandez is from Bucaramanga, Colombia (it`s fun to say the name!) and is super tiny and literally talks like a disney princess, haha! I love it! AQnd Hna. Ireland is from Springville, UT, and had a lot of food problems since she`s been in Chile so she can`t eat any animal products like eggs, milk, butter, cheese, any kind of meat and also sugar. I feel bad cause the members judge and think she`s a picky eater and anorexic, but I got her back and always defend her and try to help her explain her situation. Being a sister training leader is fun, this next week we`re going to start doing exchanges, but as you move up the leadership latter the responsibilities and stress increase and the amount of sleep you get decreases since we`re the last ones to go to bed.

This week we had what was called the tour of the mission. An elder from the quorum of the 70 came and spoke to our entire mission about FAQ`s and common challenges we face in the mission and gave us awesome advice and tips. Then we had a huge lunch and took a ton of pics with all our friends in the mission especially those going home soon. Later this week I had to go to the doctors. In the beginning of my mission you`ll probably recall me falling of my bike, well ever since then my left shoulder goes numb and tingles when I`m sitting in a bad posture for too long or carrying anything on my shoulder. There`s not really much they can do, they gave me some NSAI pills and told me to not use my left arm for 10 days...awesome...the pills haven`t really done anything so I guess I`m just doomed to have a tingly shoulder the rest of my life, the good news is that there`s no nerve damage which would require surgery to fix, YAY! We also went on splits with sisters in the ward which was a 1st for me in the mission since I`ve always been training and my companions didn`t know enough to fly solo. It was super fun and it`s a great way to get a lot of work done in little time especially since we`re 3! We ended the week with my lovely companions making banana pancakes and Hna.Hernandez actually washed my feet and gave me a pedicure, after a day of proselyting your feet are filthy especially since it`s summer and we don`t wear tights anymore, now THAT is christ like service at it`s finest, I owe her a big one!!! It`s kinda weird that christmas is around the corner especially since it`s BLAZING hot, but I can`t wait to skype the fam in a couple weeks and we`re planning a branch activity with desserts (again) and it is going to be a hit!

This weeks spiritual cookie is an experience we had visiting a sick sister. Hermana Enriqueta is a grandma who suffers from parkinsons, she can hardly speak and has a hard time getting around so she threw us the keys from her bedroom window and we went to go visit her. We sang her a hymn which she requested "Nearer my God to Thee" and she just sobbed as she looked out her window up to the sky. It really pulled on my heart strings and it was evident to me that she has been suffering for a long time in this condition and wants nothing more than to leave this mortal life and be nearer to Him. No matter where we are, there are people, not just people, but sons and daughter of God, children of our heavenly father, suffering, sad, disheartened, and lonely. My prayer is that we can pray to be lead to them and reach out to them as the Savior did.

xoxo,

Hna.Ibarra

Till we meet again

Sooooo last night we got the oh so waited phone call to hear about transfers, we were all CERTAIN that Hna.Broadhead would be transfered out since she is now done with her training, we went to members homes to say good-bye, and ate a TON of food (empanadas, choripan, mmmm) But as usual the changes were what we least expected. La Hna.Broadhead is staying and I´m leaving!!! I couldn´t believe it! I´ll be going to Renca aka the hood with all the flaites and will be with Hna. Ireland who came into the field with me from Utah and Hna.Hernandez who I have no clue who she is cause there´s more than one Hna.Hernandez in the mission hahaha but she´s colombian so she should be legit! To top it all off I´m going to be a Sister Training Leader! It´s basically like being a Ditrict Leader but for sister´s, I´m in charge of a group of 17 Sisters including 2 sisters in Robison Crusoe Island which is also part of our mission and I have to do exchanges with them, teach them some of my skillzzz, inspect their housing and learn a lot from them. It is going to be a lot of crazy fun!!! I´m excited for this new chapter in the mission but sad that it came so soon, I really wanted to stay in Curcavi another 2 transfers AT LEAST! I stayed up will 1 am packing and this mornng we had to be in the office at 1pm so I visited 2 members to say my goodbyes and my converts, Jose Miguel and Enrique y Victoria. It was seriously the hardest thing ever. I was trying to be strong and optimistic and keep it under control, but when Enrique started crying I just couldn´t hold it in anymore. I just hugged Victoria and bawled my eyes out and we all cried together. Leaving a sector behind is harder than leaving home on the mission because at least you know you´ll see your family again, but you´re never going to see the people you serve on the mission again and it just breaks your heart. The bond between a missionary and their converts is so special and it´s perfect, because both have sacraficed everything to follow Jesus Christ.

In other news, this week was pretty crazy, we had to go to Santiago twice so Hna.Broadhead could get her carnet done, we stayed over Hna. Stanger´s apt which was so fun cause she´s super cool and like one of the girls! haha! We also stayed there thanksgiving night with the sisters who were finishing their mission and going to the temple the next day and Hna.Stanger made us a special thanksgiving dinner with chicken, potato casserole,palta and bread so it was thanksgiving Chilean style, we made due with what we had, but it was still very special. Thanksgiving isn´t celebrated here but there was a family in the ward who lived in Utah several years and so they had us over for a special thanksiving lunch and made turkey and mashed potatos with gravy! It was soooo goood! We were super grateful, they put a lot of time and effort into making it special. We also had some fun activities this week to pump up the embers for ward conference, we handed out Liahona´s with the young men in the neighborhood and invited people in the community to our activities, we had a ward FHE and Enrique our recent convert directed the FHE and did such a great job!!! Then on saturday we had out BIG activity por la obra misional, and we had a dessert competition! We decorated all day, and at 7:30 the members started pouring in. There were all types of desserts, cakes, fruit cups, chocolates, fruit taco, wontons stuffed with jelly, the members got super creative! Us 4 missionaries were the judges and we had a special guest judge, a non-member who is the friend of a member and she´s an expert in culinary arts and made the whole thing super legit! The grand prize was a completada (chilean hot dogs) and everyone had a blast! Another recent convert of the other sisters played the guitar and sang to entertain the crowd  meanwhile everyone ate and then we had a spiritual thought at the end with a tree of life we made out of tree branches and hung candy off of it as the "fruit". It was all a big success! Then yesterday we ended the week with Ward Conference, Enrique y Victoria got confirmed and the patriarch confirmed Victoria so it was very special. They were sooo happy! We had a full class in Gospel Principles and the stake leaders congratulated us for our work. Even though my time in Curacavi has been short I know that I did my part in bringing others unto Christ, the ward had never had so many baptisms in so little time and the Lord has truly blessed us and guided us to his chosen vessels that were ready to accept this gospel. The happy part is that it´s not good bye forever! Curacavi is one of the areas I´m over so I´ll be back to do exchanges, YAY!!! Well until next week!

xoxo,

Hna.Ibarra

Till we meet again...

Sooooo last night I got the oh so waited phone call to hear about transfers, we were all CERTAIN that Hna.Broadhead would be transfered out since she is now done with her training, we went to members homes to say good-bye, and ate a TON of food (empanadas, choripan, mmmm) But as usual the changes were what we least expected. La Hna.Broadhead is staying and I´m leaving!!! I couldn´t believe it! I´ll be going to Renca aka the hood with all the flaites and will be with Hna. Ireland who came into the field with me from Utah and Hna.Hernandez who I have no clue who she is cause there´s more than one Hna.Hernandez in the mission hahaha To top it all off I´m going to be a Sister Training Leader! It´s basically like being a Ditrict Leader but for sister´s, I´m in charge of a group of 17 Sisters including 2 sisters in Robison Crusoe Island which is also part of our mission and I have to do exchanges with them, teach them some of m skillzzz, and inspect their housing. It is going to be a lot of crazy fun!!! I´m excited for this new chapter in the mission but sad that it came so soon, I really wanted to stay in Curcavi another 2 transfers AT LEAST!

This week was pretty crazy, we had to go to Santiago twice so Hna.Broadhead could get her carnet done, we stayed over Hna. Stanger´s house which was so fun cause she´s super cool and like one of the girls haha We also stayed there thanksgiving night with the sisters who were finishing their mission and going to the temple the next day and had chicken with a potato casserole and bread. Thanksgiving isn´t celebrated here but there was a family in the ward who lived in Utah several years and so they had us over for a special thanksiving lunch and made turkey and mashed potatos with gravy! It was soooo goood! We were super grateful, they put a lot of time and effort into making it special. We also had some fun activities this week, we handed out Liahona´s with the young men in the neighborhood and invited people in the community to our activities, we also had a ward FHE and Enrique our recent convert directed the FHE and did such a great job!!! Then on saturday we had out BIG activity por la obra misional, and we had a dessert competition! We decorated all day, and at 7:30 the members started pouring in. There were all types of desserts, cakes, fruit cups, chocolates, fruit taco, wontons stuffed with jelly, the members got super creative! Us 4 missionaries were the judges and we had a special guest judge, a non-member who is the friend of a member, she´s an expert in culinary arts and made the whole thing super legit! The grand prize was a completada (chilean hot dogs) and everyone had a blast! Another recent convert of the other sisters played the guitar and sang to entertain meanwhile everyone ate and then we had a spiritual thought at the end with a tree of life we made out of tree branches and hung candy off of it as the "fruit". It was all a big success. Then yesterday we ended the week with Ward Conference, Enrique y Victoria got confirmed and the patriarch confirmed Victoria so it was very special. They were sooo happy! We had a full class in Gospel Principles and the stake leaders congratulated us for our work. Even though my time in Curacavi has been short I know that I did my part in bringing others unto Christ, the ward had never had so many baptisms in so little time and the Lord has truly blessed us and guided us to his chosen vessels that were ready to accept this gospel. The happy part is that it´s not good bye forever! Curacavi is one of the areas I´m over so I´ll be back to do exchanges, YAY!!! Well until next week!

xoxo,

Hna.Ibarra

Two in the water

This week was one full of blessings and miracles in Curacavi! I guess to start Hna.Broadhead and I accomplished all the norms in the mission for baptising, having investigators progressing and for work and consistency which means we had 3 or more baptisms in the last 6 weeks, 3 or more investigators progressing and 150 or more weekly contacts. Not tooting my own horn here, but...TOOT TOOT! haha!

This week we met a little old lady named Julia, she´s blind and lives with her 2 kids. As we entered her home it was apparent the level of poverty they lived in, the entire house smelled like urine...need I say more? As we began to talk and get to know her, her sobs became inconsolable as she expressed how sad she was for being in that condition and not being able to see. It really pulled on my heart strings and I held her hand and told her we were  there to share a message of joy. I told her my name and started describing myself to her that I had dark eyes, long black hair and was really tall and skinny, this brought a smile to her face and we taught her the plan of salvation. It was a meaningful experience to me, these are sons and daughters of God, they´re struggling through lifes up´s and downs, and they need so desperately what we have- the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Later this week we had interviews with President which is always a joy! He said I´ve progressed so much as a missionary, I truly feel I have, and that the Lord is bringing about miracles through my service. We had 4 progressing investigators that sunday and he expressed his awe and said "one is good, 2 is a blessing, 3 is a miracle, and 4?! WOW!" hahaha I really don´t give any credit to myself, I don´t feel like I´ve done anything special or figured out some kind of trick to have success, I simply just try to do what I think is right, express my love to my investigators, but more importantly express the love heavenly father has for them. When we qualify for the companionship of the holy ghost we can do great things and might works as instruments in the Lord´s hands. He´s the one who does it all in the end of the day.

As for our investigators, Elvis had his baptismal interview sunday and has to wait for some pending legal cases to close until he can be baptized, bummer, but I´m sure waiting will teach him a valuable lesson and make his baptism that much more meaningful, the brothers in the ward are doing an excellent job fellowshipping him to keep him motivated and the bishop even gave him a suit! Monica we need some help with, her husband recently moved back in the house and he´s very opiniated and is filling her mind with doubts and questions and started mentioning how mormons are polygamists and things like that in the last lesson. It was hard to keep control of the lesson and answer her doubts, but he´s a good man and has a lot of knowledge of the bible. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he committed to read it and pray, something he´d only done once in his entire life. Basically my goal is to get the whole family involved in the lessons, resolve all their doubts and questions and get them all to church. The only way she can continue to progress is if her whole family is on board, it´s gonna be a tough one, but I´m up for the challenge! Also we visited our investigator Natalia yesterday, it´s been tough cause her husband is very anti-religion so we have to go when he´s not around and he makes it impossible for her to go to church.One of the things that was limiting her progress was that they´re not married, but yesterday we finally decided to extend a baptismal date for January with the hopes that it would give her enough time to convince her husband to marry her (I don´t get these men, they already have 2 kids, what more of a committment can signing a piece of paper be?!) But anyways, we never expressed any of these concerns about her getting married or anything, but yesterday in the middle of the lesson on baptism she said she´s been thinking of getting baptized and really wants to see a baptism, then she comes out with "oh and my husband proposed 4 days ago and I said yes so tomorrow he´s going to pick a date so we can get married most likely end of January." I was like WHAT?! We congratulated her and I oh so descreetly looked at the calendar on the cell phone and committed her to be baptized February 9th and she said yes! I testify that the Lord WILL prepare the way for those who are ready to accept the gospel! Sometimes we don´t really have to try that hard, we just need to be patient and follow the promptings of the spirit. It was truly a miracle I wasn´t at all expecting!

Lastly, we have Enrique y Victoria´s baptism yesterday! It was funny because the other day she told us she invited the mayor to her baptism, ha! Sadly he didn´t come but did congratulate her! It was a super stressful day as most sundays when there´s a baptism go. But to add to the stress I had to give a talk, one of our investigators came but didn´t want to enter the building for whatever reason, the counselor was coming to interview Elvis for his baptism and I forgot his baptismal record, and the Relief Society was freaking out because we had an activity planned that overlapped with a stake relief society activity no one told us of when we picked the date at ward council. I was running around like a crazy person, but in the end everything got worked out. The baptism was amazing, victoria looked like an angel and their neighbor Hno.Garay performed the baptism. She submerged in the water oh so gracefuly eventhough she has knee problems and we asked if she wanted to be baptized with a chair for better support, but she refused! Enrique had a little more trouble, he´s a heftier fellow and completely let go when he got submerged and turned into dead weight and brother Garay almost fell over trying to lift him back up, it was kinda funny ha! They the R.S. president, EQP and the bishop welcomed them into their corresponding organizations and the ward, all in tears. The spirit was incredibly strong, and Enrique y Victoria also wished to bear their testimonies and express their immense joy in the end. Their faith is amazing and their next goal is to go to the temple and be sealed! I´m so glad that I could do my part and as the saying goes, a missionary leaves their family so that others may be with their families for eternity. Love you all, the church is true!

Spiritual cookie: "As hard as things may be today, they will be better the next day if we choose to serve God this day."

xoxo,

Hna.Ibarra

Elder Holland!!!

So monday after our p-day we went to Hna. Stanger, the office secretarie`s apt. for a slumber party!!! It was us 4 sisters from Curacavi and the 4 sisters from Llay Llay (pronounced yay yay) cause we are the farthest from the rest of the mission and needed to be in Santiago early to hear from Elder Holland live and in person!!! We woke up at 4 am, got ready, and met with the office elders at 5:30 am to walk to the metro and be there when the doors open at 6 am. We made the long trip to La reina and got to the chapel at 6:45 to get desent seats for the event. It was a historical meeting, for the 1st time ever all 4 missions in Santiago (Santiago North, South, East and West) were gathered and about 1000 missionaries were present. Hna. Broadhead and I got great seats in the 7th row, not that it was necessary to sit that close cause I`m sure the people in the streets could hear how hard Elder Holland was banging the pulpit! It wasn`t supposed to start until 10am so meanwhile we went around and said hi to our friends and old companions. I saw my daughter (trainee) Hna.Dodds for the 1st time in months since I began her training and it was great to see everyone. What was even more great was that I got to see President and Hermana Barreiros from the Weston ward!!! It was such a happy reunion, I haven`t sen them since they moved to Georgia and they are now the mission presidents of the Santiago West mission! I gave Hna.Barreiros the biggest embrace and President Barreiros a firm handshake although our eyes conveyed that a simple handshake wasn`t enough to express our feelings and happiness, but since we can`t hug I gave him an air hug and were so happy to see eachother. They begged me to come over for dinner when I finish the mission so I`m certain I`ll see them sometime in the future again. Finally, the oh so awaited moment came, Elder Holland entered the building and the ranks of missionaries all arose. He hadn`t even entered the chapel yet, but I could here his voice in the hallway and my heart skipped a beat. It wasn`t the 1st time I`ve heard Elder Holland speak in person. I heard him once in conference as well as at the ground breaking for the Provo City Center Temple, but this time was special, because he wasn`t talking to the church in general...he was talking to me personaly, as a missionary. If I could copy and past everything he said in that meeting I would, suffice it to say that Elder Holland is a great man who loves the gospel, the Lord, and serves Him. He made direct eye contact with me once and it was as if he were looking into my very soul! His sweet wife oh so temderly expressed her love for all of us as if we we`re her own children. Elder Holland came in after with the hammer and chewed us all out in his pulpit banging but loving way. He mainly spoke about how he doesn`t understand how returned missionaries can go inactive after such a testimony and faith building experience that is the mission. He said that if we do he will haunt us and slash our tires and put pepper in our empanadas, LOL! He is seriously such a funny guy, I laughed so hard, I`d never seen that side of him! Of all the wonderful things the Lord spake through him one sentence struck me the most, "This moment in missionary work ranks with the First Vision, the coming forth of the Book of Mormon and the restoration of the gospel." Let me repeat myself in case you didn`t catch it, "This moment in missionary work ranks with the First Vision, the coming forth of the Book of Mormon and the restoration of the gospel." WOW. That is a pretty BIG DEAL! This is a historic moment in the church, and what a blessing it is to be a part of it. The best part is you don´t have to wear a plaque to do so, every member can be a part of it too by sharing the gospel with your friends, families, and neighbors, going out with the missionaries, doing temple work, and going after the lost sheep because it is all part of the Work of Salvation! 

Beside the incredible blessing of hearing from an apostle other great things have happened this week. It`s starting to warm up down in the Southern Hemisphere so my tan complexion is coming back...YESSSS! Also, we have Henrique y Victorias baptism this sunday, they are so excited, they can`t wait for the day to come! Monica is also progressing and has stopped smoking this week. She is seeing the Lord`s hand in her life, her husband whom she was sepperated from moved back into the house and her whole family is reunited, her son has healed from his wound, and she is the happiest she`s ever been since we met her! She is seeing the joy the blessings of the gospel brings and it is so amazing to see the radical change that has taken over her heart since we first met her. Elvis has also stopped smoking this week and is progressing towards baptism, he`ll have to get a special interview from President for some past sins, but it`s beautiful to see the effort he`s been making to turn his life around and be a new person. Speaking of which, President called us yesterday and asked us to come in for an interview...dun dun dun! I swear my whole mission flashed before my eyes and I tried to think if I`ve done anything wrong or been disobedient in anyways, but honestly can`t think of anything!!! What`s weirder is that our zone is scheduled for interviews this thursday, so I don´t understand what it is that can`t wait until then. Literally every possible scenario has crossed my mind from being called as the AP (asistant to the president) to someone dying in my family JAJAJA Cross your fingers it`s good news! Anyways, love you all, thank you for all your supportive letters and e-mails! Until, next week :)

Spiritual Cookie: "The reason I`m standing here today, is because I found heaven on a mission." -Elder Holland

p.s. Ian I got your dear elder! Hopefully if you`re in Miami for christmas you`ll get a letter from me via Nathaly, hit her up!

xoxo,

Hna. Ibarra

Restaurant Wars

Another great week in Curacavi with Hna.Broadhead! This week we worked super hard, as usual, and are truly seeing the fruit of our labors! Our investigator Monica is preparing for baptism this weekend, her only struggle is with the word of wisdom, she`s a smoker and has cut back a lot and now smokes less than a cigarette a day, but she still hasn`t let it go completely so we`re trying to work with her on that. If she can keep cigarette free she`ll be able to be baptized saturday, so pray tons for her!!! We also have Elvis, the druggy zchizophrenic (sp?) bad combo I know. But he`s been coming to church and reading his scriptures, he even does little summaries of what he reads and highlights words he doesn`t understand it`s so cute. He`s a little slow (the drugs fried his brain) but we gave him a baptismal date for the 1st of December and have to focus on his smoking as well. The loves of my life Henrique and Victoria are progressing amazingly! There incredible faith is such an example to me and they just love the gospel and coming to church and just fit right in! Victoria already considers herself a mormon and in conversation says things like "Right Hermana Ibarra that in our religion we..." hahaha. Yesterday we visited them with the bishop and taught them about the law of tithing, it was a powerful lesson especially with the bishop to back up on what is done with the tithing money. When I extended the committment to keep the law of tithing after they`re baptized Henrique`s reply was just incredible "Obviously I will Hermana Ibarra! It`s only logical that this is the way it has to be, this is Christ`s church!" AAHHHH!!!!!! I seriously LOVE them, they truly are heaven sent! Victoria gave Hna. Broadhead and I little sweaters she had that don´t fit her to keep us warm at night, she is the sweetest thing :) 

Something funny that happened this week was when we went out for lunch last p-day at a super yummy place here called "La Nave". There was some crazy guy who claims to be a muslim who followed us in and was like "Take a sit ladies I`m gonna pay for your lunch! SIt down!" We kindly rejected and he kept insisting and insisting so we just ignored him and he started yelling things at the workers like " can we turn on the lights in here!" cause the place has a "hollister feel" with the dimmed lights and started making a spectacle of himself. We had to wait a while for our food cause the kitchen wasn`t open yet and the guy started complaining to the waiter for us like "These girls have been sitting here for like an hour! When are they gonna get their food, at dinner time?!" I was sooo embarrassed, we just laughed and said it was okay. In my cuban accent- Bro, el tipo formo tremendo show, QUE PENA! jajaja

Besides the usual earthquake, flaites (ghetto chilean guys) whistling and hitting on us in the streets, and making friends with strangers things are just wonderful! Later today we`re gonna go to Santiago and sleep over the secretaries apartment, Hermana Stanger a senior single sister from Ogden, cause tomorrow our mission is gonna be addressed to by Elder Holland!!!! EEEEEEKKKKKK!!!!! A trip to Santiago (the city) is like going to disney land, it`s so fun, but geeting to hear from an apostle on top of it, I don´t know what could be better!

Spiritual cookie: "To the service of the Lord I have devoted my life; my all has been placed upon the altar of sacrifice, that I may honour him, do his will acceptably, and spread the principles of life among the children of men." - Pdt. Lorenzo Snow (TEACHINGS OF PRESIDENTS OF THE CHURCH: LORENZO SNOWCHAPTER 19 MISSIONARY WORK: "TO REACH EVERY HUMAN HEART" )

Peace & Blessings,

Hna. Ibarra

Baptism by fire

Birthday shout out to my bro Harold as well as my nephew Gabe who is turning 10 on wednesday and got baptized!!! So proud of you Gabers :D

This week there was yet again another feriado (holiday) in Chile which means more failed appointments than the norm, cause let`s face it- appointments fall through everyday on the mission! This week was Halloween which is slowly entering Chile, some people are SUPER against it and hate it cause it`s an "American" tradition and not Chilean, others embrace is and think it`s super fun for the kids. But it was cute to see all the kids dressed up and collecting candy, some people (those in nicer neighborhoods) even decorated their houses, so that made me feel not too far from home. 

I guess the highlight of this week really was Jose Miguel`s confirmation yesterday! Not only that, but he also received the priesthood, knocking out 2 birds with one stone! It was a great day for him and he couldn`t be happier! Henrique and Victoria, my adoptive grandma and grandpa on the mission are also progressing towards their baptism for the end of this month and love learning about the gospel. They are just so humble and ready and accept everything we teach them because they know it comes from God. It`s incredible how receptive some people can be and how easily they have accepted the gospel, it`s just their time.

I had an exchange with Hna.Macetas in San Fransisco while our companoins went to a training for greenies and ran into some crazy old lady who went inactive because no one visited her in the hospital when she was sick. She tried to give us back a manual from the Relief Society class which we refused to take and she got super upset and was like "well I`m just gonna throw it in the trash or you can take it back to the R.S. President!" we told her to gift it to someone or to give it to her family members who are members and she got really mad and was like "I don`t understand you people!" and stormed into her house, hahaha! It was pretty funny and also sad, people here go inactive for the dumbest reasons, cause someone from church didn`t say hi to them or because a member made a comment they found offensive. It just shows they never really had a testimony of the gospel and were there for the social aspect and not to follow the Savior. 

Besides that it was a slow week so I really don`t have a cool story to tell, sorry folks, but something will come up between now and next monday!

xoxo,

Hna.Ibarra

Spiders, fleas, ticks, and creepy crawlies.

So as we go into summer over on the other hemishphere all the plagues are starting to emerge from their winter hiding places. There are spiders in our house, ticks all over the dogs on the streets, and I had the lovely experience of being attacked by a flea in the middle of the night and have flea bites all over my legs. After that I pretty much bathe my bedding and body in insect repelent everynight before I sleep, pretty sure I`m almost breaking the word of wisdom with the intoxicating smell all over me, but whatever it takes to be bug free! And  that`s not all, aside from finding the usual hair in our food this week had its new breakthroughs with all the critters crawling in our food. We ate at a sister`s house for lunch and as my companion prayed I noticed a work crawling out of the salad bowl, there was also a dead spider in another member`s bowl of coliflower and the ocassional ant in our rice. It`s in cases like these where blessing the food before every meal is more than just an act of gratitude, but an essential if I`m gonna make it out of this country without some crazy disease! I also accidentally swallowed a fly mid-lesson (just like in Kung Pow for any of my peeps who`v seen the movie!) it was buzzing around as I was teaching and next thing I know I felt something in the back of my throat and there was just nothing else I could do, but swallow!!! Need I say more about the insects?! 

So this weeks miracle was finding Henrique and Victoria! They are an elderly couple who we contacted on the street and had us over. They were evangelical, but haven`t assisted a church in a long time. Victoria was baptized in a river by this pastor, but she said she always felt like something was missing in her baptism. When we taught them the restoration and priesthood authority she said "That`s it. That`s what was missing!" They quickly accepted a baptismal date for Nov. 24th and came to church this sunday! They felt really great and in the Gospel Principles class we learned about Temples and Family History work and they`ve only been married civily and want a temple marriage! They are just so receptive and ready to accept the gospel in their lives and love having us over. Victoria always makes us treats like torta (cake) or panqueques (pancakes) and gives us candy and flowers from her garden. She is the sweetest things and just lights up my heart everytime I see her! They are so special and it was such a miracle to find them! 

So that`s about it, Hna.Broadhead and I have another 6 weeks together in Curacavi and are pumped for the opportunity to keep working together we get along so well I honestly don`t think I`ve laughed so hard ever with any of my previous companions. The bonds we make on the mission are for eternity :)

xoxo,

Hna.Ibarra 

Jose Miguel`s Baptism!

So as most success stories in the mission go, pay day came around, and we had a baptism!!! His name is Jose Miguel (25). We found him our 2nd week in Curacavi cause we were  trying to look for a referral but wasn`t sure about where they lived (cause some people live in shack houses and don`t have a house #) so we contacted him and asked. He said we could go over and teach him so we set an appointment for monday. Monday rolled around and we called a member to come to an appt with us, but she said she can`t because another member, Marco, was gonna have FHE at her house and was bringing a friend. 15 minuted after that call Jose Miguel called us to cancel our appt because he was invited to a friends house for a "noche de hogar? or something" and it clicked that Jose Miguel was the friend that Marco was gonna bring! We called Juani and invited ourselves over and got to know him a little at the FHE and set up an appt to start teaching him the discussions cause he was super interested. We taught him the 1st two discussions that week with his friend Marcos and he eagerly accepted a baptismal date for 3 weeks from then and came to church that sunday. The following week he was working the afternoon shift from 4 pm-12 am so it was impossible to see him. Next thing we knew the baptism was the following sunday so we literally had to teach him like 10 other lessons in a weeks time plus the baptismal interview and plan the whole ocassion. I thought it was too little time and that it was gonna be too rushed and something was gonna fall through and Hna.Broadhead and I were considering pushing back the date, but the Lord prompted us to move forward and that day in our planning session we planned all the lessons and literally taught like 5 lessons combined that evening (the gospel of jesus christ, baptism and confirmation, obedience, prayer, reading the scriptures, and keeping the sabbath day holy). We kept doing these combinations the rest of the week and taught him everything just in time for his baptismal interview saturday with our district leader. He accepted the commitments without hesitation and it was amazing to see how the Lord had been preparing Jose Miguel before we even met him. He had stopped smoking and drinking tea weeks ago and he would even set up his own member present lessons and invite his work friends over when we were there! To say he is a golden investigator does not even BEGIN to describe him!!! It is truly one of the greatest miracles I`ve seen on my mission. He bought himself a desk and post-its and markers to study his scriptures, he also got a suit and came dressed nice for church sunday and goes to family home evenings with his friends all on his own incentive. It`s crazy because we really didn`t do much, we we`re just at the right place at the right time and the Lord literally did the rest! It was a huge confirmation to me that we are simply instruments in the hands of the Lord and we can`t do this great work without Him. Jose Miguel continually thanks us for talking to him that day, he was looking for a faith to help him turn his life around and we were the answer. He was going to go to Thailand with some friends, but recently cancelled the trip to save his money so he can visit Hna.Broadhead and I in the U.S. He says it`s the only way he feels he can repay us for what we`ve done for him and the joy I feel in my heart for this great blessing is without price. 

xoxo,

Hna. Ibarra

Locked out!

This week on...The Hills...haha jk

So this week in Curacavi things we´re a little cray. Things were going so well for so long and I was just waiting for something to happen, and it did, and it ALWAYS happens when an investigator is about to get baptized...without fail! It all started thursday when we got locked out of our house. I left the keys inside and our home has a gate that can´t be opened without the key so not only were we locked out of our house, but locked in our own yard without escape. We made several attempts at opening windows or sliding our BIP card (for the metro) to unlock the door without any success. 10 phone calls to the Pensionistas (a senior couple who are in charge of housing), our zone leader, the land lord and the local pizza place (we got hungry!) and 2 1/2 hours later the Elders in the office came to the rescue with spares and a camera to take embarrassing pictures! lol. Sadly we were never able to order our pizza because they thought my companion (with her gringa accent) was prank calling them and stopped answering our calls so we managed to use a stick to slide out our cereal boxes through a tiny window in our kitchen. All in all we had a good laugh and lesson learned, we won´t ever forget our keys again! 

The following day we got a phone call from one of our recent converts who´s friends son, Elvis, lives with her and is an invetsigator with a baptismal date for the end of this month. She said that Elvis, who´s been sober for 2 months, got drunk and hit her and took a knife out at her and broke a window. We biked over immediately and found her with stitches and a black eye. We had a lesson with Elvis and Maritza and her daughter Denisse the recent converts, one of which I´ve ever felt the spirit so strong. Elvis not only has drug abuse problems but is zchizophrenic (sp?) and Maritza took him in and has sought out professional help for him and has helped him so much with his problems. Hna. Broadhead we´re able to see the great love that she has for him to the point where she´d allow for this to happen to her and forgave him and doesn´t want to kick him out of the house cause she knows the street has nothing good to offer him. Elvis felt so sorry for all the damage he caused and we taught him about repentance. There were tears in both Hna. Broadhead and I´s eyes as we testified of the atonement and the ability it gives us to be clean of our mistakes. Neadless to say we might have to push back his baptismal date.

Our other 2 investigators with a baptismal date are Monica & her son Cristobal who is in a wheelchair. His mom recently found a wound on him from sitting for so much on his wheelchair and has had to go to a million doctors for the past week making it impossible fo rus to teach her and prepare her for her baptism and making it impossible for Cristobal to come to church since he has to be in bed-rest for 3 months. So we are also going to have to push back her baptismal date a couple weeks. But all hope isn´t lost because we still have Jose Miguel aka Mickey who we found contacting! He is super eager for his baptism sunday, has been coming to church, reading, and went to all 4 sessions of conference! He´s what you call a GOLDEN investigator. He works the evening shift everyother week so we haven´t been able to see him at all last week, so this week we have to teach him lessons 3,4 & 5 and have his baptismal interview and prepare everything for the baptism in 6 days, it´s gonna be hectic, but we´re gonna do it and feel so blessed for this miracle the Lord has given us.

Also, I thought it´d be funny to mention that I was trying to go after a contact that was running away from me (typical) when I tripped on the uneven sidewalk and totally biffed it! Luckily the person didn´t notice and just kept walking, but I scraped my knee (again) and slightly sprained my wrist. I just sat on the floor for 5 minutes crying of laughter with my companion, it was a pretty funny fall.

My last crazy story happened yesterday. Sundays we report our weekly numbers to our leaders. My companion and I had our planning sesh and started getting ready for bed when I noticed it was 11 and our district leader hadn´t called us. So I tried calling him and got no answer and the phone said the call wasn´t able to be completed so I made several attempts at calling other members with no results. I turned the phone off and back on and attempted again and this time it worked and our DL answered, he said he´d tried calling us as well as the zone leaders for the past hour and that they were super worried. Next thing I know the bishop is outside our house and then I start to get an explosion of phone calls from our sister training leader, the office elders, the AP´s, sister Essig and then President! I explained to all of them that our phone had malfunctioned and wouldn´t let us make and apparently receive phone calls and everyone had been so worried that president called the bishop to go check on us. I felt really bad that we freaked everyone out, but felt so comforted to know that  they truly care for us and that in a real emergency immediate action would be taken. I admire President Essig and ALL mission presidents for that matter for what they do to care for us, he is constantly watching over his sheep and is the last missionary to go to bed everynight.

p.s. Shout out to ma boy Ian Hatch who was in the Liahona Noticias de la Iglesia en Sud America for baptising a man of 108 years old in Uruguay!!! Way to be!!!

xoxo,

Hna.Ibarra

Best General Conference YET!

(note: Ian Patton! I got your postcard from Sweden, thanks so much it was cool! I want to write back but only have your FL address, it´s hard to keep in touch with such a free spirit, but tell malcolm to tell nathaly to tell me where I can send you a postcard, too)

Don´t worry folks, I didn´t get abducted by aliens or the international police this week, we had a conference so our p-day was changed to tuesday.This week was a spiritual banquet! It started out friday with a Leadership Conference we had in the mission, we got the amazing news that Elder Holland is scheduled to speak to our mission in November!!!! WHAAAA!!! I´m gonna be praying and fasting that it will happen fersure! Then of course was General Conference, I don´t know if it´s just the mission or what, but it was seriously one of the most inspired conferences I´ve ever heard! There wasn´t a single dull moment (I usually fall asleep during at least one of the speakers lol), the choir sang incredible songs (especially the one that said "Lord turn me not away" what a cool song), and best of all they talked A TON about MISSIONARY WORK! It´s so incredible to witness this hastening in the Lord´s work, so many missionaries have come into the field since the announcement just a year ago and to be a part of it all is the greatest blessing! The prayers given in our behalf were so heartfelt and brought tears to my eyes, you guys have no idea how much we appreciate those prayers and how much we need them, they strengthen us and help us get by during the challenges we face on the mission, so thank you. And well I hope you guys aren´t missing me too much but if you did there was the pleasant surprise of my Mormon Message being played right before the 2nd session started on sunday! It was totally unexpected and my cover was blown to the entire stake, and probably mission, as everyone started looking at me and pointing and all the missionaries in my zone were yelling "Hermana Ibarra!!! Eres famosa!!!" and the youth wanted to take pictures with me hahaha it was really quite flattering, but I just tried to be cool about it and slipped back into the gringo room with my companion where we were watching the conference in english with some of the greenie Elders. And lastly, we had Zone Conference with all the missionaries in our stake and the mission president. We learned about teaching with the spirit and how to improve our contacts, played games, ate a ton of food, and had a good time. My favorite but also saddest part is when the missionaries who are leaving share their testimony, it always makes me tear up and they always say the same thing "the time went by really fast", and it truly does. Next sunday I´ll have 8 months in the mission, I feel like I just got here yesterday, but it´s been incredible to see how far I´ve come in that time and how much I´ve improved spiritually, in my abilities as a missionary and in my character. But like Edward Dube said in conference "Don´t look back, look forward at the work that still needs to be done!" And that´s exactly how I feel, there is still so much more I need to change and accomplish on the mission, and time is going by faster than my mind can process!!! 

Before signing off, I want to share a powerful experience I had this week with conference. So I know I mentioned some time back that I had finished reading the Book of Mormon. Although it was my 2nd time reading it, it was the 1st time actually understanding the story line, characters, and what was going on. This increased knowledge and understanding of the Book of Mormon also brought increased questions and doubts about it´s validity. There were just things that were too similar to the bible, that seemed like the same exact stories only the names were changed or things that were just copied word for word. There we´re also small details I was fixed on because they didn´t seem humanly possible or realistic. Although I had prayed and received an answer that the Book of Mormon was true, I just couldn´t let go of those doubts I had and prayed for guidance. I went into conference with a prayer in my heart, that something in the messages shared would help me resolve my worries. That´s when in the saturday session when Ulisses Soares spoke and quoted a scripture in 2 Timothy, I missed the refernce so I was quickly skimming as he still spake and I stumbled upon chapter 3 verses 14-17 "But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; 15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16 ^aAll scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitablefor doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." I started to tear up (I´m such a cry-baby on the mission, who am I?!) and I knew that the Lord had listened to my prayer and was giving me an answer, "Gladys, you know the Book of Mormon is true, you´ve ALWAYS known! I´ve given you multiple answers, so why do you keep asking me?!" President Uchtdorf later said that we must doubt our doubts before we doubt our faith, and that´s exactly what I did. My questions and concerns are dumb, they don´t matter, they´re not important nor essential for my salvation. What matters is that the Book of Mormon is true, I know it´s true, because God answered my prayer, that it teaches us of Christ, of the precious truths that were lost for hundreds of years and the blessings we now have thanks to his restored gospel. What matters is that no evil man would write such a book, and no good man could without the power of God as Elder Holland said, and that man was Joseph Smith. I know the Lord answers prayers, because throughout my life He has mine, and I know He will answer yours as you strive to live within the bounds He has set. I love you family and friends!!! I hope you had experiences just as special as you watched and listened to General Conference, that the spirit confirmed some wonderful truth to your heart and that your faith and testimony was increased, if you didn´t then you need to ask yourself why.

Spiritual cookie: "That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we alive, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring." Acts 17:27-28

xoxo,

Hna.Ibarra

Re: It´s a small world after all

Hna Ibarra cual es el nombre de la hermana que conoce todo ese grupo.de hermanos, pues entonces tambien la debo conocer yo.
Me alegro de todos sus esfuerzos y la felicito, por el exito del Senor por medio suyo.
La Amo voy para donde Sherlyn  la esta semana pues tenemos reunion de misioneros que estuvimos en Vina del Mar con Pte Gillespie , tambien voy para la Conferencia General.
Cuente con mis oraciones
Hna. Rodriguez

On Sep 30, 2013 11:28 AM, "Gladys Ibarra" <gladys.ibarra@myldsmail.net> wrote:

So before I dive into this week I`ve gotten several e-mails from friends saying they`ve sent me Dear Elders and asking if I`ve received them. I don´t know if their lost in cyber space or if people aren`t putting the right address or what, but I haven`t received a letter, hand written or in Dear Elder form probably since April, soooo if you`ve sent me something since then know that I love you and am not ignoring you, I am a very devoted pen-pal and honestly haven`t received letters from anyone, so please resend them and make sure to check off the little box that sends it directly to the mission office, you can also e-mail it to me at gladys.ibarra@myldsmail.net just incase to make sure it gets to me!!!

So this week was a great week, we were constantly busy and exceeded most of our weekly goals, Hna. Broadhead and I are just biking our rears off all over Curacavi and teaching and visiting and talking to as many people as we can, there`s a lot of work to do, the members are actively involved in missionary work and are constantly giving us referrals and making goals to have investigators at church, it`s so great!!! Heaven on earth for a missionary, no joke! It`s lightyears away from the other branches I was serving in and I thank the Lord daily for the blessing of serving in Curacavi. 

So a couple cool stories:

1. We were trying to look for a referal and asked a random guy we saw on the street if he knew where she lived, his name was Jose Miguel aka Mickey haha, and well we contacted him and set an appointment for monday to teach him. Monday rolled around and we called a member to come to an appointment with us, but she said she couldn`t cause she was gonna have an FHE at her house and a member from the ward was gonna bring his friend. So we shrugged it off and were trying to think what other member could join us, when we got a call from Jose Miguel. We confirmed the appointment but he said he couldn´t meet with us cause some friends from his job had invited him to a family home evening and that`s when we put two and two together that HE was the friend going to the member`s house we had called earlier to go out with us! We called her back and pretty much invited ourselves to the FHE and later that week taught him the restoration with his co-worker friend who`s a member.He believed instantly in the restoration and said yes to a baptismal date for the 20th of October!!! He said it was so crazy how everything happened last week but that he had been looking for guidance and that he was so grateful we approached him and that the entire week he`s had dreams with us and his mormon friends from work and has been thinking about getting baptzized and that he knew it wasn`t coincidence and that the Lord is calling him. What a miracle! I can testify that the Lord hears and answers prayers and will put you in the path at the right moment to guide and bless the life of others, all we have to do is fear not, open our mouths, invite others to activities, FHE, church, or to talk to the missionaries to be blessed with this opportunity. So many people are willing to make the change if someone would just simply invite them to.

2. I was eating lunch with a member who the 1st time we ate lunch with was happy to hear I was from Miami because she lived there a couple years in her YSA years! But as we named people we knew we didn´t have any friends in common so it wasn`t that cool anymore and I just thought, well she`s a couple generations older than me so we won´t have any connections. But this time she mentioned the name opf President Ayaviri (who now lives in Utah with the Bolivian clan: The Mondacas and the Noriegas) and we started talking about more families we might know when she mentioned the Zenteno´s and the Lopez´s. That`s when I flipped and said YEAH! The Lopez´s are my family! My brother married one of their daughters! We started talking about all my brothers and sisters-in-law and what they were upto now a days when she brought up that her friend Harold married Nahomi, and I was like I KNOW! HAROLD IS MY BROTHER!!!! We both just started screaming and freaking out and she instantly pulled up facebook and sent a picture of me and my companion to my sister-in-law Natalia to send to my family and it was just toootttallllyyyyy crazy! I can testify that the Lord calls us to serve where we are needed and to come in contact with specific people during the mission to make the experience just that much better. It is such a small world, so that makes 2 people I´ve met in Curacavi that have some kind of weird connection to my So Fla roots, haha! Awesome!

3. We taught a kid who claimed to be a catholic atheist...go figure...in reality he was a communist and kept saying how faith is ilogical so I read him Alma 32: 17-18 and peaced out, some people just have NO CLUE what they`re talking about LOL

Anyways, family and friends I love you all, thank you for your love and support and letters (although I havent gotten any I don´t doubt you´ve sent them) until next week...GENERAL CONFERENCE!!! WOOHOOOO!!! It`s better than christmas for a missionary :D

Spiritual Cookie: D&C 35:13 "Wherefore, I call upon the weak things of the world, those who are unlearned and despised, to thrash the nations by the power of my Spirit;"

xoxo,

Hna. Ibarra

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It´s a small world after all

So before I dive into this week I`ve gotten several e-mails from friends saying they`ve sent me Dear Elders and asking if I`ve received them. I don´t know if their lost in cyber space or if people aren`t putting the right address or what, but I haven`t received a letter, hand written or in Dear Elder form probably since April, soooo if you`ve sent me something since then know that I love you and am not ignoring you, I am a very devoted pen-pal and honestly haven`t received letters from anyone, so please resend them and make sure to check off the little box that sends it directly to the mission office, you can also e-mail it to me at gladys.ibarra@myldsmail.net just incase to make sure it gets to me!!!

So this week was a great week, we were constantly busy and exceeded most of our weekly goals, Hna. Broadhead and I are just biking our rears off all over Curacavi and teaching and visiting and talking to as many people as we can, there`s a lot of work to do, the members are actively involved in missionary work and are constantly giving us referrals and making goals to have investigators at church, it`s so great!!! Heaven on earth for a missionary, no joke! It`s lightyears away from the other branches I was serving in and I thank the Lord daily for the blessing of serving in Curacavi. 

So a couple cool stories:

1. We were trying to look for a referal and asked a random guy we saw on the street if he knew where she lived, his name was Jose Miguel aka Mickey haha, and well we contacted him and set an appointment for monday to teach him. Monday rolled around and we called a member to come to an appointment with us, but she said she couldn`t cause she was gonna have an FHE at her house and a member from the ward was gonna bring his friend. So we shrugged it off and were trying to think what other member could join us, when we got a call from Jose Miguel. We confirmed the appointment but he said he couldn´t meet with us cause some friends from his job had invited him to a family home evening and that`s when we put two and two together that HE was the friend going to the member`s house we had called earlier to go out with us! We called her back and pretty much invited ourselves to the FHE and later that week taught him the restoration with his co-worker friend who`s a member.He believed instantly in the restoration and said yes to a baptismal date for the 20th of October!!! He said it was so crazy how everything happened last week but that he had been looking for guidance and that he was so grateful we approached him and that the entire week he`s had dreams with us and his mormon friends from work and has been thinking about getting baptzized and that he knew it wasn`t coincidence and that the Lord is calling him. What a miracle! I can testify that the Lord hears and answers prayers and will put you in the path at the right moment to guide and bless the life of others, all we have to do is fear not, open our mouths, invite others to activities, FHE, church, or to talk to the missionaries to be blessed with this opportunity. So many people are willing to make the change if someone would just simply invite them to.

2. I was eating lunch with a member who the 1st time we ate lunch with was happy to hear I was from Miami because she lived there a couple years in her YSA years! But as we named people we knew we didn´t have any friends in common so it wasn`t that cool anymore and I just thought, well she`s a couple generations older than me so we won´t have any connections. But this time she mentioned the name opf President Ayaviri (who now lives in Utah with the Bolivian clan: The Mondacas and the Noriegas) and we started talking about more families we might know when she mentioned the Zenteno´s and the Lopez´s. That`s when I flipped and said YEAH! The Lopez´s are my family! My brother married one of their daughters! We started talking about all my brothers and sisters-in-law and what they were upto now a days when she brought up that her friend Harold married Nahomi, and I was like I KNOW! HAROLD IS MY BROTHER!!!! We both just started screaming and freaking out and she instantly pulled up facebook and sent a picture of me and my companion to my sister-in-law Natalia to send to my family and it was just toootttallllyyyyy crazy! I can testify that the Lord calls us to serve where we are needed and to come in contact with specific people during the mission to make the experience just that much better. It is such a small world, so that makes 2 people I´ve met in Curacavi that have some kind of weird connection to my So Fla roots, haha! Awesome!

3. We taught a kid who claimed to be a catholic atheist...go figure...in reality he was a communist and kept saying how faith is ilogical so I read him Alma 32: 17-18 and peaced out, some people just have NO CLUE what they`re talking about LOL

Anyways, family and friends I love you all, thank you for your love and support and letters (although I havent gotten any I don´t doubt you´ve sent them) until next week...GENERAL CONFERENCE!!! WOOHOOOO!!! It`s better than christmas for a missionary :D

Spiritual Cookie: D&C 35:13 "Wherefore, I call upon the weak things of the world, those who are unlearned and despised, to thrash the nations by the power of my Spirit;"

xoxo,

Hna. Ibarra

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

A day in under interogation at International Police

Soooo sorry I didn´t write yesterday, my companion didn´t have her passaport copy with her and I forgot my carnet (aka chilean ID) at home and we were interrogated by the carabineros (chilean police) and detained by them at PDI (Dept of International Police)!!! After a long series of questions and showing them my ministerial card and explaining we were missionaries we were finally allowed our one phone call and called our mission president to save us, it was a crazy day and most of our p-day was spent in a jail cell with 10 other women who were there for prostitution & drug abuse among many other things. What was super cool though was that they let me take my Book of Mormon with me, they confiscated all of our other things, so my poor companion who was on the verge of tears at this point, took advantage and started teaching these women! It was the coolest teaching experience I´ve ever had!!! 

HAHAHAHA so all that up there was a total lie, what REALLY happened was I was one of 2 people in the mission who had some kind of weird glitch with my e-mail account and I couldn´t log on yesterday so I had permission to go on today. I did not get arrested, nor did I teach convicts in a jail cell all though that´d be a cool story to tell.

This week was a tough week to be a missionary, why?! Because it was "El Dieciocho" aka Chile`s Fiestas Patrias aka Independance Day. Even though no one was home or wanted to let us teach them and we only had a total of 8 lessons all week we did party hard (missionary style) and ate A TON!!! We had a ward activity AND a stake activity, both of which had a variety of delicious chilean cuisines such as but not limited to: asado (BBQ), choripan, mote con huecillo, empanadas, helado, ensalada, etc. I ate until my eyeballs popped out of my head, after all, this was going to be my one and only dieciocho in Chile so I had to live it up. They also had games and performances of traditional Chilean dances, the most popular being Cueca...oh my heck! It is sooooo pretty!!! A member is going to teach Hna.Broadhead and I how to dance it next p-day and I`m super stoked! Even though el 18 is only one day Chileans take the entire week off, soo pretty much these people know how to party, which is probably why I get along so well with everyone here!!!

Something cool that happened this week was that we went to go meet a recent convert who hasn´t been going to church lately. She`s the only member in her family and when we went over her younger brother wasn`t really interested in joining us. When we started talking and getting to know eachother I mentioned I was from Miami and she asked where and I said "Pembroke Pines, but no one knows where that is" that`s when Jessica´s brother Arnoldo poked his head in and said "did I hear pembroke pines?" at this point I was totally freaked! Turns out they used to live in Pembroke Pines when they were younger on 63rd street near the FL Turnpike, WHAAAAAAAT?! We all freaked out and they instantly pulled out their laptop to Google Map the house, I gave them my address and turns out we lived 25 mins away from eachother, and to think we came to meet eachother on the total otherside of the planet, how crazy!!! So now that we have the So Fla connection Arnoldo wanted to talk to us and said he`s had a lot of doubts about which church is true and that he`s between the Catholics and Mormons (that`s an easy one to solve) so we taught him and he came to church sunday with Jessica which was soooo awesome! Seriously, the place you are called to serve is SO inspired, the Lord knows why you`re here and he transmits that to his apostles that give us our calls. 

We had the incredible blessing of having 4 investigators at church this sunday, another was Cesar who wants to increase his Faith in God, and Monica and Cristobal  who were a referal from a recent convert. Monica is going through a depression and felt soo much peace when we taught her the Plan of Salvation, she was desperate to have her 17 year old son Cristobal hear us, too. Cristobal is in a wheelchair and has had several doubts about God truly being there for him. But the young men at church fellowshipped him immediately and invited him to mutual friday and for the first time in a while his mom said he has been smiling. She called us today to tell us that Cristobal liked what he read in Young Men`s and asked us to bring him his own copy of the Book of Mormon. They are so special and I have no doubts they will be getting baptized! Also this week my companion felt her first quake in Chile, she was so excited! This morning there was another one, those always make the day more exciting!

Well family and friends it`s been a great week in Curacavi and I`m praying we stay here a long time to help our brother`s and sisters come unto Christ!

Spiritual Cookie: "May Peace be unto your Soul. We will not be tempted beyond our ability to withstand. Our detours and dissapointments and the straight and narrow path to him." -Pdt. Howard W. Hunter

xoxo,

Hna.Ibarra

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Re: Curacavi aka reunion in the rocks

Mucho ojo con el chupe de guata en cualquier lugar, dos misioneros en Vina del Mar estuvieron bien enfermos, seguramente no la hirvieron lo suficiente.
Yo disfruto cada semana tus aventuras y logros, definitivamente eres muy bendecida con: sabiduria. espiritualidad, companerismo y sobre todo el espiritu de Dios.
Me siento prgullosa de ti. Disfruta tu mision que sera un recuerdo para toda tu vida. Ojala yo pudiera volver a otra mision , pero regrese muy enferma de la columna.
Te quiero y oro por ti, le he escrito a Sherlyn y no me contesta
Hna Rodriguez

On Sep 16, 2013 6:53 PM, "Gladys Ibarra" <gladys.ibarra@myldsmail.net> wrote:

So tuesday I went to the mission office to pick up my new companion I´ll be training. As usual all the trainers were sitting in one room and our trainees in the other, both anxious and nervous to meet our new companions. We stood up and sang Called to Serve as they filed into the room one by one and I lead the music. There was such an intense vibe in the room as we looked into eachother`s faces and thought "that could be my companion..." The day before someone showed me a picture of the 4 sisters that were coming and one in particular stood out to me, a tall blonde, who I had actually seen walking around the temple grounds a couple weeks back when I went with our recent converts in Santa Maria! As I looked at her picture something inside me just knew she`d be my companion. President Essig and his wife bore their testimonies about how after picking his A.P.`s the next thing he picks out is who`s going to train. They said that we were sitting there because we are the best missionaries of the mission and they wanted to give them the very best start. Their words impacted me a lot and I am just so so grateful for the trust and confidence not only our mission president, but the Lord has put in me to train again, I don´t feel like I´m anything special compared to other missionaries, but the Lord has blessed me with many talents and strengths to hasten his work here in Chile. Finally the time came, and when they called on the tall blonde the name that immediately followed was mine!!! AAAAHHHH!!!! I just knew it! I ran over and gave her the biggest hug! So my new companion is Hermana Broadhead from Draper, Utah. She´s 19, so part of the new generation of missionaries coming into the field and it has just been the funnest week together, we get along super great and have very similar personalities. We couldn´t be more blessed to be in our new area, Curacavi! First of all, our house is super cute and we have a washer machine, woohoo! Second, after 7 long months in branches I´m finally in a ward, not only that, but we have the full support of the members, we have ward missionaries and the ward leadership is organized the way it should be and they have just been so loving and welcoming, I feel like I´ve known them my whole life already. Third, we have awesome investigators that the previous sisters we´re teaching and I am positive we´re gonna have a baptism this transfer, this place is a gold mine! We jumped right into it, we`re on bike, and everyday when we come home I´m completely exhausted but with the total satisfaction that we are on the Lord`s errand and being diligent so he can bless us accordingly. Fourth, we have district meeting in Santiago so we are close to the city so it´s the best of both worlds since Curacavi is campo (country).

A funny story this week is that we taught a gypsy man named Roberto who thinks he knows english but really the only thing he can say is "wait one moment pleade" and "yeah baby!" hahaha" Hna. B and I were trying soo hard not to bust out laughing during that lesson! He gave us food and my companion got her first taste of "chupe de Guata" aka cow stomach...yummmm! (but really I vomit in my mouth) Anyways, I guess that´s all for this week! Many incredible adventures ahead, stay tuned!

xoxo,

Hna.Ibarra

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.