The testimony of earthquakes

This week was a great week in Santa Maria. Me and my companion parcera are getting along great, she´s the sweetest things, and we´re working hard to help our investigators progress and come to church! We have a HUGE district this transfer, 10 sisters and 4 elders, yup! Girl Power! The mission is growing with each transfer and it´s so incredible to see and be a part of this hastening in the Lord´s work. We have some great investigators, one is Anabela who maybe I mentioned before, 16, has a 1 year old son and loves with her pololo (boyfriend), mom, and brother. They moved from Argentina and her mom had a Book of Mormon from years ago when she lived in Argentina and met with missionaries. Anabela is super curious and wants to read the Book of Mormon from the beginning and wants to learn more! I´m almost positive she´ll go to church next sunday! We also have a family of 5, la familia Varas Polanco. The mom Patricia actually contacted us on the street, it was so crazy! She asked if we could come over to teach her and our mouths about hit the floor. They´re reading the Book of Mormon and want to learn more! The other day we taught the plan of salvation and when we explained that the fall of adam and eve was part of God´s plan she said something just clicked in her head, that what we teach just touches her heart more than anything any other missionary from other religions have said. Her daughter went to our english classes this saturday and is so eager to get baptozed, I´m hoping soon that the whole family will be on board as enthusiastically as she! Our english classes are progressing by the way, we started with 0, then 1, and last saturday we had about 10 kids there most of which who´s parents we´re teaching! We also had stake conference this week which was awesome! We not only had the priviledge of hearing our mission president, his wife, and the temple president, but also an area 70 Elder Avila from Argentina. We had a special reunion with Elder Avila before the conference especially for recent converts, invstigators, and less-actives. They went around the room introducing themselves and saying how long ther´ve been members, some just a few weeks! When it came to Javier´s turn he said "Mi nombre es Javier, me bautise hace un mes y espero estar en la iglesia siempre, espero nunca separarme de ella, nunca." He said it so powerfully and with so much conviction and determination, it just brought tears to my eyes to hear those words come out of his mouth. Also, a referal I gave to one of the Elders, Andres who was over Anabela´s house one day and lives in another sector was at the conference! I gave him a Book of Mormon and he had a ton of questions so I gave the referal to the Elders in his area and they´ve been visiting him. That made me jump for joy! Also, this week we were teaching a lesson at an investigators 3rd story apt. It was funny cause the 1st time we contacted him he was drunk and asked us to help him open the door to his house cause he was too wasted to even stand straight. We found him again sober and he introduced us to his family and said his mom is a member which is pretty cool. We we´re teaching him, his daughter and her friend the restoration when we felt a little shake and heard noise, we thought it was just someone coming up the stairs outside the building but the noise went on for like 15 seconds and we all kinda froze and looked at eachother confused. All of a sudden, the room started shaking, I grabbed the couch and my companion and just watched everything around me move, it was pretty gnarley 5.4 on the richter scale! My adrenaline was pumping after that, it was pretty hard to try and focus on the lesson again,but it definitely spiced up the 1st vision! hahaha! All in all, things are great in Santa Maria, my testimony of the gospel is growing daily and my love for the people here increases with each lesson I teach. People tell you once you´re back from the mission "welcome back to real life" but I can testify that the mission IS REAL LIFE, this is as real as it gets! There are no worldy distractions and you´re on the outisde looking in on the wards, the members, and the people. You see with different eyes and I pray daily that I´ll never forget the lessons and things I am experiencing here. "For after your testimony cometh the testimony of earthquakes, that shall cause groanings in the midst of her, and men shall fall upon the ground and shall not be able to stand." D&C 88:89

Hna Ibarra

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Re: 3rd Transfer in Santa Maria!

Mi amada Hermana Ibarra..

Me alegro que tengas una Colombiana por companera, dile que yo soy de Medellin- Colombia..

Mi bella nina, yo aprendi de un Setenta, que no importa cuan duro tu trabajes, esta es la obra del Senor y este es su trabajo, nosotras solo somos sus manos en este planeta.... Por lo que veo estas trabajando muy bien como manda El Altisimo... se, oye bien se con seguridad, que vas a traer mucha gente al Evangelio, y que tendras un lugar muy especial a su lado.. sigue asi, y sube la loma que todavia te falta, aprende mucho companerismo, aunque a veces te tengas que tragar las palabra, no te comas las unas, ni te deprimas, el Evangelio es alegria, sacrificio, constancia mucha paciencia y una tonelada de amor.
Vas muy bien y no te desanimes....Estas en mis oraciones.
Te quiero xoxo
Hna Rodriguez

On Jun 17, 2013 5:44 PM, "Gladys Ibarra" <gladys.ibarra@myldsmail.net> wrote:

So I´m staying in Santa Maria for another transfer, woohoo! Can´t believe I´ve been there 3 months already, time is constantly tripping me out. My new companion is from Colombia, her name is Hermana Villota and she´s super sweet, I know we´re going to get along just great. Hna. Dodds was so so sad to be leaving, she was bawling, especially when we sang "God be with you ´till we meet again" (don´t know who chose that one lol) but it´s all part of the process of being a missionary and I´m going to miss her tons, she was such a fun girl! This week was good as we´ve committed 7 people to get baptized with a baptismal date for July. Now we have to work to get them to church which is always the hard part. We´re knocking doors in a new area called Villa España and am hoping there´s someone special for us there to find. I know if I´m still in Santa Maria it´s because there is someone waiting for me to teach find them and bring them the blessing of the gospel, it´s my mission to find them and bring them unto Christ. This last transfer was totally crazy, it started out super rough and I was instantly humbled as I was asked to train and open a new area we hadn´t done much work in. I don´t think I´ve EVER prayed so hard and needed the atonement more in my life, but I learned to depend on my Savior with my every thought, action, and plan. And it was something I definitely needed to learn as I realize that my abilities and talents mean nothing and won´t bring us success unless we depend on Him. Looking forward to more mountains to climb, rivers to cross, something that´s gonna make me better than I was cause I know that it´s gonna take me higher than I´ve ever been before. Wish I could take the credit for that line but they´re song lyrics to an EFY song hahah Speaking of which, can someone reading this PLEASE hook me up with some EFY music codes for this years Album!!! I need music!!! As always keep praying for me and my copmanions and all the missionaries in the world, our efforts are futile without the help and support of members! Love you all, till next week :)

Hna Ibarra

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3rd Transfer in Santa Maria!

So I´m staying in Santa Maria for another transfer, woohoo! Can´t believe I´ve been there 3 months already, time is constantly tripping me out. My new companion is from Colombia, her name is Hermana Villota and she´s super sweet, I know we´re going to get along just great. Hna. Dodds was so so sad to be leaving, she was bawling, especially when we sang "God be with you ´till we meet again" (don´t know who chose that one lol) but it´s all part of the process of being a missionary and I´m going to miss her tons, she was such a fun girl! This week was good as we´ve committed 7 people to get baptized with a baptismal date for July. Now we have to work to get them to church which is always the hard part. We´re knocking doors in a new area called Villa España and am hoping there´s someone special for us there to find. I know if I´m still in Santa Maria it´s because there is someone waiting for me to teach find them and bring them the blessing of the gospel, it´s my mission to find them and bring them unto Christ. This last transfer was totally crazy, it started out super rough and I was instantly humbled as I was asked to train and open a new area we hadn´t done much work in. I don´t think I´ve EVER prayed so hard and needed the atonement more in my life, but I learned to depend on my Savior with my every thought, action, and plan. And it was something I definitely needed to learn as I realize that my abilities and talents mean nothing and won´t bring us success unless we depend on Him. Looking forward to more mountains to climb, rivers to cross, something that´s gonna make me better than I was cause I know that it´s gonna take me higher than I´ve ever been before. Wish I could take the credit for that line but they´re song lyrics to an EFY song hahah Speaking of which, can someone reading this PLEASE hook me up with some EFY music codes for this years Album!!! I need music!!! As always keep praying for me and my copmanions and all the missionaries in the world, our efforts are futile without the help and support of members! Love you all, till next week :)

Hna Ibarra

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Re: Santa Lucia!!!

No te imaginas lo que me deleito leyendo tus  experiencias; para ti como para mi es un exito hacerlos felices; tu ensenandoles, y yo buscandoles trabajo y ensenandoles como salir de pobres, es indiscutible, que el Senor esta a la cabeza de esta obra... y digo como   Ammon en el LDM "yo me glorio en mi Senor"...Me siento feliz de saberte feliz, y aunque termine mi mission en dos semanas, estare en contacto contigo hasta que termines, y aun despues de que te cases; te vi crecer, te vi progresar, y ahora te veo triunfar  como embajadora del Senor.
Animo y recuerda NEVER,  EVER, EVER GIVE UP (Winston Churchill).
Oro por ti, y espero verte pronto,  parece que el 27 de Febrero paso hace mucho tiempo ya vas para tu quinto mes wow... Te quiero y admiro mucho
xoxo
Hna Rodriguez

On Jun 10, 2013 5:11 PM, "Gladys Ibarra" <gladys.ibarra@myldsmail.net> wrote:

This week was pretty good, me and my companion are keeping busy even though none of our investigators are progressing but we´re finding people to teach and serve in any way we can. We helped this 25 year old guy who claims he´s muslim sand his car down so he can paint it and talked to him about prophets and jesus which was pretty cool! We also found a wonderful family who I´m certain will get baptized! The mom actually contacted us on the street, her name is Patricia and she used to talk to missionaries but lost touch after she moved. We taught her family of 5 the restoration and watched the DVD of the 1st vision with them and committed them to baptism, everyone of them said YES! The disappointingly didn´t come to church sunday and that is the toughest commitment for people, but we just need to keep teaching them the importance and the blessings they´ll receive and asking the Lord to prick their hearts. We also met with an investigator this week names Connie who has been going through some difficulties after being recently separated from her husband, we taught her the plan of salvation and had her give the last prayer as we all kneeled. Her prayer was simple, and beautiful and tears were shed as she begged the Lord to take care of her and her 2 kids. I gave her the biggest hug I could after we said Amen [being a sister has it´s perks ;)] and she said she just can´t help but feel happy when we come over. She committed to be baptized although she´s nervous and feels it´s a bit too soon (July 14th) but I know that as we keep visiting her and helping her recognize the spirit she´ll be ready for that big step! Today for our zone activity with the other sisters we got to go to Santiago to El Cerro de Santa Lucia, it´s a pretty sweet fortress castle in the middle of the city and we had a ton of fun! Google it! We went to the shops and ran into literally 20 other missionaries there all from the East mission, but it was cool to mingle with them for a bit and see all the places they were from. The mission is wonderful, it´s hard, and tiring, and painful, and taxing, and crazy, but it is truly wonderful and I know no other experience will ever compare to the things the Lord is teaching me and having me do here. Next week is transfers and they´ll be letting us know saturday what´s gonna go down, but me and Hermana Dodds are crossing our fingers that we´ll stay together!!! Even though we haven´t had any baptisms this transfer, I know the most important convert I had was my companion. She´s gotten her first taste of the mission and how hard it can be, but she´s also learned how to depend on the Lord with all her heart and I feel so blessed to be training her :) Welp, until next week!

Peace & blessings,´

Hna. Ibarra 

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Santa Lucia!!!

This week was pretty good, me and my companion are keeping busy even though none of our investigators are progressing but we´re finding people to teach and serve in any way we can. We helped this 25 year old guy who claims he´s muslim sand his car down so he can paint it and talked to him about prophets and jesus which was pretty cool! We also found a wonderful family who I´m certain will get baptized! The mom actually contacted us on the street, her name is Patricia and she used to talk to missionaries but lost touch after she moved. We taught her family of 5 the restoration and watched the DVD of the 1st vision with them and committed them to baptism, everyone of them said YES! The disappointingly didn´t come to church sunday and that is the toughest commitment for people, but we just need to keep teaching them the importance and the blessings they´ll receive and asking the Lord to prick their hearts. We also met with an investigator this week names Connie who has been going through some difficulties after being recently separated from her husband, we taught her the plan of salvation and had her give the last prayer as we all kneeled. Her prayer was simple, and beautiful and tears were shed as she begged the Lord to take care of her and her 2 kids. I gave her the biggest hug I could after we said Amen [being a sister has it´s perks ;)] and she said she just can´t help but feel happy when we come over. She committed to be baptized although she´s nervous and feels it´s a bit too soon (July 14th) but I know that as we keep visiting her and helping her recognize the spirit she´ll be ready for that big step! Today for our zone activity with the other sisters we got to go to Santiago to El Cerro de Santa Lucia, it´s a pretty sweet fortress castle in the middle of the city and we had a ton of fun! Google it! We went to the shops and ran into literally 20 other missionaries there all from the East mission, but it was cool to mingle with them for a bit and see all the places they were from. The mission is wonderful, it´s hard, and tiring, and painful, and taxing, and crazy, but it is truly wonderful and I know no other experience will ever compare to the things the Lord is teaching me and having me do here. Next week is transfers and they´ll be letting us know saturday what´s gonna go down, but me and Hermana Dodds are crossing our fingers that we´ll stay together!!! Even though we haven´t had any baptisms this transfer, I know the most important convert I had was my companion. She´s gotten her first taste of the mission and how hard it can be, but she´s also learned how to depend on the Lord with all her heart and I feel so blessed to be training her :) Welp, until next week!

Peace & blessings,´

Hna. Ibarra 

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I can see clearly now the rain is gone!

As the rain finished cleaning the streets of Santa Maria me and Hna. Dodds were able to have a much better week! The sun has been shinning, we´re in fall so it´s cool but not too bad, and more people are home at night cause they want to stay out of the cold. We have 3 solid investiugators, Ingrid, who accepted to be baptized! And Anabela, who is learning of the importance of baptism and loves meeting with us and wants to learn more. We also found a woman named Connie and her 2 kids who instantly fell in love with us and wanted to show us all their toys and play with us and wanted to go to church but their mom was going out of town with them this weekend and couldn´t come. Getting investigators to church is the hardest committment we extend, it blows my mind how come people will easily accept to be baptized, but will put whatever excuse for why they can´t or didn´t come to church. It´s also frustrating cause it´s the most important committment. It doesn´t matter if they read the entire book of mormon cover to cover, know it´s true, if they have a testimony of Joseph Smith, etc. If they don´t come to church they CANNOT get baptized, and it really slows down their progress. But we just gotta have patience, teach them the importance and promise them the blessings they need to motivate them to go. This sunday Camila got confirmed which was so awesome! We also had exchanges this week with our sister training leader and it was fun to be in a trio again for a day and we found some great contacts and she helped us a lot in our lessons. It´s 5 of us sisters in a house so we had to put our 2 twin beds together and the 3 of us sleep sideways, it reminded me of the good old days in Helaman Halls (summer of dreams!). Plus it´s always a blast when we get to go to Santiago, the cars, the people, the hustle and bustle, it feels good to be somewhere other than the middle of nowhere, but Santa Maria has it´s charm and I do love it, in fact the Andes Mountains got snow and they look so beautiful! Welp, that´s pretty much all that happened this week, now we´re gonna go to the Stake Presidents house to make choripan and hang out with his wife, she´s awesome! Don´t forget me this summer and send me Dear Elders please, they help me out a lot :)

Peace & Blessings,

Hna Ibarra

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Re: The church isn´t true when it rains...

Mi amada hermana Ibarra, que historias mas lindas, me imagino que este blog va a ser conservado para tu posteridad.... hace 5 meses vinieron aca, un grupo de  misioneros(as) que habian servido mision aca hace 20 anos, se reunieron aca todos con sus esposos y esposas, fue algo tan lindo, el reencuentro con su miembros que bautizaron y que ahora son grandes liderees, asi te va a suceder a ti tambien...
Te cuento que en Chile cuando llueve todo se paraliza.Consejo, hazte amiga de las personas a cargo delcentro de Recursos de Empleos, pues de alli se sacan cantidad de referencias, yo saco referencias para los misioneros de toda mi mision 4 y 5 por dia de las personas que van en busca de empleo y eso ha sido de gran ayuda... prueba o consulta con tu presidente de Mision o tus lideres, pues aca trabaja..

Animo mi nina que lo estas haciendo muy bien, me siento muy orgullosa de ti, pero mi Padre, mucho mas que yo.

Te quiero y cuidate

Hna Rodriguez

On May 28, 2013 3:24 PM, "Gladys Ibarra" <gladys.ibarra@myldsmail.net> wrote:

You´re all probably wondering what in the world is up with the title for my e-mail this week, don´t worry I´ll explain later on in this e-mail...cliff hanger...dun dun dun...This monday we had interviews with the mission president Pdt. Essig and what a blessing that was. He is such an inspired man and knew exactly what was troubling me and exactly what to say to give me the comfort that I so desperately was seeking. He cares so much about all the missionaries and their well-being and not only takes the time to listen, but to write down the most important details of our interviews and truly loves us. I am so grateful for his guidance and wisdom and for the daily sacrafices him and his wife make to serve us in any way possible. That being said, this week was cray! (But what week on the mission isn´t ?!) We had Capacitacion de Zona where we get together with all the missionaries in the stake of Los Andes to learn new things and pracitce techniques to get our converts in the water! It was fun to see all the new sisters in our zone, most of which came to Chile with me! One sister´s name was Hna. Dutson who started out her mission in Til-Til after I was transfered and she was able to update me on the branch and our investigators Kathy and Fransisco who finally got married and baptized last sunday!!! Also our recent convert Manuel who received the priesthood and is preparing to do baptisms in the temple, wow! I am so proud of them all and the progress they are making in the gospel! This week me and Hna. Dodds continued to work hard to find people to teach, we got into a lot of doors which was great, but the majority of the people either don´t understand our message of the restoration or don´t care enough to act upon it which is soooo frustrating!  But after weeks of prayer and searching we got a reference from the Elders in another ward, her name is Ingrid she´s 14 and super interested in learning more. This was the miracle me and Hna. Dodds had been praying for!!! We called her the next day to set an appt. but when we arrived only her mom was home. I asked if we could share something with her and she kindly let us in. We came to find out she (Doris) was baptized when she was 16 but hasn´t gone to church in years and remembers close to nothing. We began our lesson (as usual) with a hymn and a prayer and then expressed the love that heavenly father has for her and the special plan he has for her and her daughters life. Tears streamed down her face and there was such a powerful spirit in the room. I don´t think I´ve ever felt the spirit so strong in a lesson before. We shared with her the miracle of the restoration and gave her a book of mormon to remind her of the beautiful feelings she felt the day she decided to be baptized. Just as we were about to walk out the door Ingrid was coming in and we were able to meet her! She had her Book of Mormon and pamphlets of the discussion in her backpack and was eager to know when would be our next visit, we have an appointment with her today and will be inviting her to be baptized the end of June :) Another miracle we saw this week was when we went to go contact a reference someone gave us. No one was home and I felt we should knock on the door in front. A 15 year old boy came to the door and said no one was home but his 16 year old sister. I asked if we could meet her and when she came I asked if we could share a message with her. Hna. Dodds gave me a puzzled look but went with the flow as I began to ask Anabel about her life. She´s a 16 year old teen mom who is originally from Argentina. She has a lot of faith in God but doesn´t practice any religion in specific. We taught her about the restoration and asked if she had ever asked herself which of all the churches is true. At this point of the lesson most people say no and it totally kills our transition into Joseph Smith, but she said YES! She said she´s always had that doubt, that she´s gone to many churches and studied with Jehova´s Witnesses and never felt satisfied with anything. We tried not to jump uot of our seats as we talked about Joseph Smith´s search for the truth and testified to her the miracle of the restoration. We invited her to be baptized and she said yes! We´ll be seeing her today also and will need to work a bit with her because she lives with her baby-daddy. This sunday was one of the most uplifting I´ve had in the mission. It all started at church when Javier our recent convert passed the sacrament for the 1st time. The 2nd counselor Hno. Victor Vargas gave him a suit and I was just so proud of him that I couldn´t help but smile all during the Santa Cena. Later that sunday his little sister Camila was baptized after threats from her father that he´d never see her again if she did risking the possibility of it happening. But she did it all on her own, no one forced her or made her, she simply told us it didn´t matter, that she knew she has to be baptized and it was amazing to see such a little girl with such a powerful testimony of Jesus Christ. And now for the explination of this weeks title!!! We had an FHE prepared for the branch to present the Branch Mission plan and to help the members help us in the work so they can get their chapel built. As we arrived from the interviews from president it was raining like crazy!!! The streets were literally rivers of brown water and by the time we got to the chapel we were cold and wet and sopping. It was 30 minutes until the activity was about to start, we had already passed out the invitations on sunday and all that was left was to set up a scavanger hunt we had around the chapel to make it fun. Eventually 7:00 came and no one was there and the rain didn´t stop, 7:15 still pouring, 7:30, and someone walks in, it was Hno. Victor our biggest ally and advocate in the branch. We sat around the gas heaters drying our feet and clothes as we told him we were just going to leave an find someone to teach with defeat written all over our faces. He said "wait, what did you come here for?!" and we said "FHE" and he said "Lets have FHE then!" he made us prepare a spiritual thought while he ran for treats in the rain. When he came back, we started with a song and a prayer and Hna. Cottle and I shared scriptures and spiritual experiences about how the Lord builds us up through trials. Hno. Victor shared a personal experience as well and by the end of it all we were all in tears. We knelt in humble prayer thanking the lord for the spirit we felt that night and the spirit testified to our hearts the truth of our words and the purpose of our sacrifices and moments of dissapointment on that rainy day, in an old leaky chapel, soaking wet, with 5 missionaries and 1 member in an empty chapel. A sweet spirit was felt, and although we don´t always have the members support I know our efforts don´t go unnoticed because the lord is always looking down on us. 

Keep writing me and sending me dear elders as you travel and have fun this summer! I truly need your words of advice and encouragment if I´m to get along in this great work. Your prayers are always appreciated and I pray for you all in return. Until next week!!!

Hna. Ibarra

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