If Moses were on earth today...

...would you be interested in what he had to say?

That`s  the queston I made to all of my investigators this week as I prepared them to join us at General Conference and bore testimony to them of living prophets on earth today who lead and guide us as special witnesses of Jesus Christ. The conference was INCREDIBLE, starting with the hostorical General Women`s meeting saturday! There were so many incredible doctrines and principles discussed that no doubt answered the questions and prayers of our investigators and mine. My favorite talk I`d have to say was Elder Hollands talk on defendng our beliefs no matter the consequences, persecution or criticism we may receive from others. As he told the story of the sister missionary who had food thrown in her face I think many missionaries, including myself, could identify with that situation. I don`t talk a lot about the negative things that happen on the mission, most of them I try not to take seriously and just laugh about. But no doubt there have been moments in the mission when like Christ`s appearance to Saul I`ve asked "Why persecutest thou me?" The little black plaque we wear is heavy, it`s the cross we take up to follow Christ and be his representatives. But I like to compare those experiences to when the apostles were being persecuted in Acts 5. A pharisee named Gamiliel of much reputation spoke up as the council conspired to kill Peter and John and said in verses 38 and 39 "And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought: But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God." I know with all my heart that this work is not of man, but of God. It can`t be stopped, it has no end, no matter what trials and tribulations we face the Lord with give us the strength to overcome them because He overcame the world and I carry the same attitude and perspective as Peter and John in verses 41 and 42 "And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ." It is an honor and a blessing to wear His name upon my heart.

Well that was my spiritual shpeal for this week. Besides that we had changes, I`m staying in Jose Miguel Infante Branch another transfer and training a greenie!!! Oh boy!!! But a little sad that Hna.Ireland won`t be by my side :( We had 3 crazy but great transfers together and we`re gonna live next door at BYU so we`ll be seeing eachother around plenty! She`s also going to a new sector to train and it was fun being sister-training leaders but are happy to be able to rest a bit and take on a new responsability to finish the mission strong, to run and not walk through the finish line, that`s my goal!

I also called our recent convert Franco to see how he was doing since I hadn`t seen him around at church much and he said it was cause he was going to his pololas ward to interview with her bishop. I though "oh no! What happened?! What did you guys do?!" But my worries were soon calmed as he shared with me his plans for them to be sealed next February!!!! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!! I literally screamed over the phone and was jumping in the street like a crazy person!!! These are the fruits of missionary work and blessing people`s lives with the gospel!

I also want to give some shout outs to my neice Isabella who turns 13 tomorrow!!!! GIRL I cannot believe it! When I left you were in primary and now you`re a teenager!!!!! (uh oh...fun years ahead sis ;) Also to the only boos cool Gabe, Erik, Mikkel, Leilani and Aliah who I am always thinking about and praying for! Thank you for your cards, letters, and drawings, I hang them on my wall where I study and always make me smile, I love you all bunches and can`t believe how much you`ve grown up!

Also, I want to thank my mom for blessing my life with the Gospel, for being the pioneer in her family, for being a shining example of the pure love of Christ to others and her children and for , like Elder Eyring, preparing me for all the covenants I have and will yet make with the Lord. Your legacy will live for generations no doubt about it mami!!! :)

Also, I am still alive I know everyone was SUPER concerned about the earthquake in Iqique, and tsunami warnings and what not. But we didn`t feel anything at all in Santiago. We`ve felt little shakes, nothing out of the usual, 5.4 friday night, Hna.Quispe`s first, she was ecstatic! But all is well and we are equipped with emergency packs and etc. for these things. But thank you for your prayers in my behalf they are so much appreciated!!!

xo,

Hna.Ibarra

Flaites, bomber jets and Jesus the Christ!

So this week I completed one of the goals of my mission and finished reading akk 793 pages of Jesus the Christ!!! So proud of myself, seriuosly, give yourself a pat on the back Hermana Ibarra! I studied it along with the 4 Gospels in the New Testament and WOW did it help me understand so much of the context of the Bible, I`d reccommend it to anyone! So my next goal is to just finish the rest of the New Testament and apply the incredible ministery of the Apostles to my ministery here in Chile. That is one of the things I just LOVE about the mission that I know I`m gonna miss a lot afterwards is just having hours and hours of studying the scriptures in depth. So taking advantage of it while I can!

This week a lot of other cool things happened. We were in Downtown Santiago for our activity with the other sisters (we watched 17 Miracles) and got some food at a cool looking place that served Arabian and Venezuelan food...ordered some falafels and hummus, YUM! The owner was SUPER outgoing and chill and gave us samples of the falafels and started telling us how he was born in Pakistan and moved to Jersey for some time and then Venezuela where he met his wife and now settled in Chile, so he speaks Arabic, English and Spanish! Plus he`s Christian! Then a costumer friend of his came who`s a gringo from Hawaii but he lives in Singapore now and just travels around and is Hindu, so we contacted both of them in English, it`s the 2nd time I`ve had the opportunity to do that here in the mission and MAN, it was so hard! I couldnt find the words to what I wanted to explain and say, but they got it and found it super intesting. We testified that families can be together forever and the Hawaiian Hindu found it SO interesting and said he gained a lot of respect for the Mormons now. Seriously, it was so great! Even though not all contacts lead to an appointment or a baptism, but to just be able to clarify to the world that we are indeed Christian and defend our beliefs so others can debunk all the "mormon myths" and gain some respect for our faith is just one of the reasons I love being a missionary! But really anyone can do it, you don`t need a nifty plaque to share your beliefs with others.

Also, this week we had "Dia de los Jovenes Combatientes" it`s a day where pretty much all the flaites (aka hoodlums) go out in the streets at night and cause chaos and disturb the peace. So we had to go in early that night, but the good part was that I actually got to paint my nails!!! Me time on the mission is so rare and so priceless!

Also, jet planes and all sort of crazy military plains have been flying around our sector (we`re near the airport...way to make you trunky!) and at first I was freaking out cause I thought a bomb was gonna drop on us at any moment...turns out it was just an air show pf planes from all around the world so we got to see them do flips and summer-saults and tricks all week which was super cool! Sadly I kept forgetting my camera.

Well, we`re officially in Fall in Chile and things are getting chillier, I cried as I opened my suitcase with all my winter clothing -_______________________- dreading the winter already...but I feel like this time around I´ll know what to expect and am starting to mentally prepare myself hahaha! Love ya`ll!!!

P.S. SO PUMPED FOR GENERAL CONFERECE!!! Don`t miss out on hearing the Lord through His livng prophets...Saturday`s ALWAYS the best session ;)

"We go to General Conference to learn from the Lord, we go home to apply what we`ve learned to our lives." -the quote goes somethng like that, I forgot who said it

xo,

Hna.Ibarra

17 Miracles

This week for our p-day the groups of sisters we´re in charge of got together to watch 17 Miracles- tear jerker!!! But I love it and all the incredible stories, it strengthens my testimony every time and when I feel like I´m going through a rough time I just think of the pioneers and how many trials they had to endure to reach Zion and it gives me the strength to keep going! 

This week was fun as we taught our new companion Hna.Quispe how we do the work here in Chile. Each mission is different and has their own way of doing things especially different countries so it´s been a chellenge for her but I think she´s getting used to it and she is really so sweet and humble and willing to learn. 

We also found some great new investigators like Enso who I contacted in the street. He said he believes a lot in God but doesn´t know where to congregate. As we taught him baout the restoration he reminded me a lot about Joseph Smith, looking for the truth in many places but not knowing which party to join. He said he just wanted to do whatever necessary in order to have the salvation of his soul and agreed to be baptized!

We also have Raul from Argentina and his partner Paola and daughter Connie. He wants to take things slow but has also visited many different churches and is super interested in the Book of Mormon and want to read the whole thing and go to church. Him and his soon to be wife (but he doesn´t know that yet haha) accepted a baptismal date for May!

Also David, Carolina and Benjamin are progressing great! David still has some small doubts like about modern day prophets and apostles, we brought a member to testify and it was such a powerful lesson and he is anxious to listen to General Conference in a couple weeks and hear the words of Thomas S. Monson and the apostles and see for himself if they are really men called of God. General Conference is such a golden opportunity not just for missionaries (it´s like our REDBOX) but for investigators to hear and see these men called of God and to gain a testimony they the original organization of the church has been restored! SOOOO STOLKED!!!!

Besides that it´s been a pretty chill week, nothing crazy besides talking to crazy Evangelicals who sing and yell at people to repent with megaphones in the streets-they drive me nuts! hahaha Bless their hearts!

Spiritual Cookie: Prayer is much more us understanding God´s will than him understanding our desires.

xoxo,

Hna.Ibarra

Earthquakes & Political Unrest

Well there´s been a lot of quakes these past coule days, everyone´s freaking out that there´s gonna be another big earthquake like the one in 2010, but I got my emergency backpack and not too worried about it. Whenever it shakes it´s kinda fun actually, I enjoy them! haha!

So we had out dear Chapina Hna.Pascual this week, but such is the mission that in seconds everything can change completely! There´s been some political problems in Venezuela and they had to take out ALL foreign missionaries and close the country to outsiders, so 7 missionaries from Bolivia came to our mission, 2 of which were sisters, 1 of which is with us in a trio- Hna.Quispe! We had to take Hna.Pascual to the office this morning and she´ll be with other sisters in our group so we´ll still see her when we do exchanges, yay! So yet again, another new companion, I officially ran out of space on my Preach My Gospel cover to put more names, the mission is so crazy, and even more when you have some kind of leadership position!

This week we saw many tender mercies. We were teaching Jenny, a contact who we found watering her lawn and just had a baby and wants her daughter to be raised with a certain faith in God. She´s been reading the Book of Mormon and feels really comfortable with us, she says we have something different, and this sunday she came to church with her husband and liked it! While we were teaching her this week she shared a special experience with us. Her dad died when she was young, and she said that one day she was coming back from the cementary and visiting her dad´s grave when she was at the bus stop and saw a man that looked just like her dad but older. She said this man was talking to her and mentioned he couldn´t read and handed her a mormon pamphlet and said it would be of better use to her. She said she never looked into it further until the day she met us and that she feels it was a sign from her deceased father. It is so amazing how the Lord prepares people to learn and accept the Gospel in small ways. SOmetimes as missionaries we hand out cards and pamphlets with little hope of it going anywhere else besides the trash (sometimes I see my cards on the sidewalks on the ground, it´s a lil heart breaking), but you never know how or where the seed will grow once you plant it, and it really doesn´t matter, our job is just to plant it.

We also taught a less-active this week, we´ll call him Julio. We were walking home one night when Hna.Ireland had the impresion to look behind us, when she did, she saw Julio walking and contacted him. Turns out he was a member and we set an appointment to visit him. On our first visit he mentioned he´s been inactive for over 7 years, he´s an RM and served as a stake counselor even. He mentioned he got divorced and now lives in Renca and has a polola (girlfriend). I knew something terrible must of happened but it´s not my business to pry on peoples personal lives and in the right time they will pour out their hearts so we can better teach them according to their needs. Well our second visit with him that´s exactly what happened. He gave us his whole sad life story of how he was so busy as a counselor and in stake meetings and committees and taking people to church and visiting other wards he saw his children grow up from the stand. He had little time for his family and this caused great damadge to his marital life which ended in his wife becoming inactive and them getting divorced and with time he became inactive as well. He expressed with such sorrow how he pleaded for the members to help his family, to visit his wife, to visit him, and no one went. He mentioned how he moved and lived a solitary life full of saddness. He´d see his friends from church with their families and weep bitterly daily as he reflected upon his circumstances. He said the night he saw us walking he begged in his head "talk to me!" and that was when Hna.Ireland turned around. He said he didn´t know when he was gonna go back to church, he has to fix a lot of things in his life, but "don´t feel like you´re wasting your time with me" he pleaded. The spirit was so strong in this lesson, my heart was full of compassion and I let a couple tears slip as I heard his story. I was filled with that perfect and pure love of Christ and was able to testify to him of that love, that God´s love is always there for us even when we turn the other way, and that I could literally feel how much the Lord loved him, and I did feel it, and it was incredible to be an instrument in the Lord´s hand to transmit that love to one of his wayward children.

Another special lesson we had this week was with Pedro and Andrea. I contacted her on the street on her way home and she let us in. Her husband Pedro wasn´t really at all interested since he had studied to be a catholic priest. The second time we visited he was more involved in the lesson but still had his ideas and they just weren´t listening and didn´t get it and there were so many distractions. We went a 3rd time but his wife wasn´t home so he told us to come over next thursday. Upon that visit they had forgotten we were copming but let us in. They said they were very stressed and down and had forgotten we were coming, but this time the Lord had prepared them, they were humble and teachable and finally they listened. We taught the Restoration for the 3rd time, but this time it was different, the spirit was felt, they understood the message and had the desire to learn if it was true. They said God sent us in a critical time because they weren´t feeling so great and that our visit had left a special spirit in their home and they felt better! We left them with a Book of Mormon and have an appointment this week to see how it went.

There are so many other stories, so many miracles that occur daily, if only I had time to write them all down!!! But I am just so grateful to be able to witness these blessings and to just serve the Lord and His chidren in Chile. I also want to give a shout out to my 2 best friends Katie Bell who got her mission call to Paris, France and Nathaly Calevoso who is starting her mission papers! WOW! I never EVER imagined that they would decide to serve a mission!!! There are so many amazing people waiting to meet and hear the gospel from YOU girls! You are going to do such incredible things wherever you serve and I´m so excited for you girls although sad I´ll be home once you go and won´t be serving full time I´m determined to be a member missionary afterwards!!!

Spiritual cookie: "All that is not eternal is too short, and all that is not infinite too small."

xoxo,
Hna.Ibarra

Paula´s Baptism!

So many great things happened this week! I´ll start with the best part which was Paula´s baptism! Paula is a 20 year old girl who´s dating a young man who´s going on his mission to Brazil end of the month. We had contacted her mom and made an appointment to pass by which fell through, but I felt the constant need to go back and find her. Each attempt led to no results and we passed by one last time before attending the saturday session of our Stake Conference. At the end of the conference Paula introduced herself and said we had gone to her house several times and spoke to her mom, as she described her to me I remember it was the woman who we tried to find with no luck. Then out of nowhere Paula explained that she wanted to be baptized and had been attending another ward for some time and had made her decision! Our first appointment with her she said she wanted to get baptized that next sunday but that her dad was gonna be out of town at work. We were a bit releived because although we were eager to help her get baptized there´s a lot that goes into preparing someone for baptism and the actual event itself and so we committed her for a date in 3 weeks. In that time we taught her the lessons with her pololo aka boyfriend, her mom then joined us in the lessons, now her father who we´re going to try to help quit smoking and her entire family, grandparents, cousins, uncles, friends, etc. came to support her in the baptism sunday, it was a huge success and we´re hoping that their first contact with the Mormon church was a positive one! Paula is a pioneer in her family and I know that her decision to follow Christ will be a great example to her family and eventually help them make the same choice.

Other good news is that our GOLDEN family, David & Carolina went to the Registro Civil and

will be getting married the 16th of April!!!!! WOOHOOO!!!! It wasn´t the March wedding we were hoping for, but we made several phone calls to other Registro Civiles and they didn´t have dates until June or July so it really is a miracle they got a date so soon. Hna. Ireland is not so happy and want them to go to BFE in Til-Til to get married in March, but I´ve prayed and fasted so much and I know that this is the Lord´s will, he is trying our patience and this time will only helo them to be better prepared and converted before making this promise with the Lord.

Random news is that there was an earthquake this week in the middle of the night, those are always fun! 5.5 on the richter scale! Hna.Ireland was sleeping like a rock, but even the little ones wake me up at night, it´s a part of everyday life here...nbd. Also, it was Hna.Ireland´s b-day and we got a new companion for the rest of the transfer! Hna.Pascual from Guatemala, Chapin, woohooo!!! So the chapines and catrachos will be united for a month until the next transfer and then we´ll see what happens afterward. President pretty much told Hna.Ireland and I we´re not gonna have another transfer together...tear :´( we we´re hoping to see Carolina and David get married and baptized with their son together, but one of us will be left out of the picture, that´s the sad part about changes.

Spiritual cookie: " And they did land upon the shore of the promised land. And when they had set their feet upon the shores of the promised land they bowed themselves down upon the face of the land, and did humble themselves before the Lord, and did shed tears of joy before the Lord, because of the multitude of his tender mercies over them." Ether 6:12

xoxo,
Hna.Ibarra

I know how the Lord works!

Things continue to go well as Hna.Ireland and I begin our 3rd transfer in Jose Miguel Infante! Franco got confirmed, yay!!! It was a beautiful thing, and we were able to teach him about missionary work and he committed to prepare to receive the priesthood and prepare to go on a mission, he actually understands that it is his responsability, he actually knew that before we even taught him about missionary work and I know one day he will make an excellent edition to the Lord´s Army and help bring others unto Christ!

Paula is preparing for her baptism this sunday, we have started teaching her along with her mom and she´s reluctant, but our goal is families and I hope with time she will be able to nourish the seed we are planting in her and follow the path her daughter has chosen.

David, Carolina and Benjamin have been going to all the church classes 2 sundays now, Benjamin (who´s 9) is LOVING primary and learning all the articles of faith and is so pumped! He loves reading his Book of Mormon and participates in the lessons and everything. Seriously he is such a special kid, everytime I see him I see a future missionary and leader in the church, I know the Lord has special blessings prepared for him. David and Carolina are going to the Registro Civil tuesday to reserve a marriage date for this month as well as our investigator Ricardo, woohoo!!! We have been fasting and praying that it´ll all work out and that we´ll be able to witness these 2 miracles God willing.

The highlight of this week was a special conference we had with the head of the missionary department for the church, Elder David F. Evans. It was once again conjoined with the 4 missions in Santiago, there were over 1200 missionaries present, we filled every single seat in the chapel all the way back to the stage in the cultural hall, it was impresive! We woke up at 5 a.m. to walk 30 mins to the bus stop, the another 30 minutes in bus and another 15 minutes walking to the chapel. Elder Evans spoke to us from 9am-1pm and his message was remarkable! We all kinda went not knowing what to expect or what he was gonna talk about, but we left with a greater vision of our purpose and objective as missionaries. The spirit this man brought to the meeting was incredible and as I heard his words I could see what an inspired man he was, the spirit of the Lord was transmitted so heavily through him, it was amazing, literally I felt the spirit as powerful as when Elder Holland spoke! Then we had a lunch break, took a million pictures with all the missionaries we hadn´t seen in forever and the leaders in the mission stayed for another speach session with him from 2-5 pm. This meeting was different than the previous, as leaders in the mission I though he would speak about the importance of obedience and being an example to the other missionaries, but his subject surprised me, him and his wife both talked about the Doctrine of the Family and the importance of understanding why it is central to God´s plan. The things the spirit taught me there penetrated the deepest part of my heart and gave me a better understanding of my mission after the mission, the importance of parenthood and raising our children in the gospel and our personal "Work and Glory" within the walls of our home. No matter what our family situation or circumstance, we can choose to have an eternal family today. This message gave me a lot of hope. Then we had another meeting just with our mission- leadership council  and set a goal for 100 baptisms for the month of March! It´s incredibly daunting, but we set goals to show our faith and we follow up on goals to count our blessings.

Love you family and friends! Thank you for all your support and love as I go about doing good :)

Spiritual cookie: To finish the though of my title "I know how the Lord works, He works through US!" -Elder David F. Evans

xoxo,
Hna.Ibarra

Franco´s Baptism!

Another transfer in the bag, I was tossing and turning on the top bunk ALL saturday night until we finaly got the call that Hna.Ireland and I would be staying just the 2 of us another transfer in Renca, YAY!!!!! We were stolked, cause our investigators are progressing like crazy now!!!

Sunday we had Franco´s baptism and it was all a success! He was taught by Elders a year ago when he lived with his mom, but was 17 and didn´t obtain permission from his Jehova Witness parents (his mom got excommunicated from the J dubs as well...ouch!) and so he couldn´t get baptized. But Now he´s 18 and lives with his dad in our area so the Elders passed us the referal and we started teaching him. The YSA have fellowsipped him well and the bishop is anxious to give him the priesthood and want to ordain him to the Melquizedec (never spell that right) priesthood in a month around General Conference! He´s dating a member from Quilicura and is a good kid, he´s going to do great things in the gospel, next step...the mission!!!

We also taught Paula who is going to be baptized not this sunday but the next. This week her mom joined us in the lesson and we taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ making smores, it´s a pretty fun object lesson and Chileans love anything "gringo" from the states, it´s so funny cause it´s something they´ve only seen on TV or in movies so they were super excited to taste it and got so hooked!!! Hahahaha!

Ricardo and his family went on vacation this week, they´re planning an April wedding, we want to convince them for a March wedding, but are trying to also be patient with the Lord´s will and timing, at least they WANT to get married now, we´ve achieved HUGE things with this couple and he´s closer to baptism now more than ever!!!

Our golden family David, Carolina and Benjamin are seeing the joys and blessings of the gospel transform their lives. They read and pray as a family, they are having less marital problems and have a great desire to get married and baptized in March! They´re going to the Registro Civil today to check out dates and start making the plans and Carolina wants us to go wedding dress shopping with her- girls outing!!! Woohoo!!!

It´s amazing to me how a couple of clueless 20 year old girls can touch peoples lives and help them not only come unto Christ, but be spiritual guides, psychologists, marriage therapists, child-rearing experts, health care providers, etc. The responsabilities and jobs of a missionary are many, but the title of a missionary is one- Representatives of Jesus Christ! We´re doing what He would do and surely he had to deal with people problems daily. The skills we´re aquiring now are going to help you be a better person, spouse, parent, child, employee, etc. So to anyone contemplating going on a mission- JUST DO IT!!!

Spiritual Cookie:
"Good timber does not grow with ease,

The stronger wind, the stronger trees.

The further sky, the greater length.

The more the storm, the more the strength.

By sun and cold, by rain and snow,

In trees and men good timbers grow."

xoxo,

Hna.Ibarra