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