Daddy Yankee and dog fights

sSo I´m happy to announce I´ll be staying in Santa Maria for my 4th transfer!!! Me and Hna. Cottle are happy to be staying together for 5 months even though it´s not as companions, it´s still so fun and we can´t imagine the mission without eachother! In our last district meeting we stood in a circle and passed around our preach my gospel books writing something positive about each missionary and half of my dictrict wrote that they loved my accent because I talk like Daddy Yankee or some kind of reggeaton artist LOL! I died laughing, it´s the Miami accent, what can I say?! I still got it! So I´ve got several cool stories to mention this week, I´ll start with this weeks medical mystery, a weird rash I woke up with on my feet, it was only on the instep though and was super itchy, but thanks to Claritin I´m all good now. Me and Hna. Villota we´re contacting an old lady outside her house who was less than interested when a young boy was walking home from school and signaled us to come over. We introduced ourselves and he asked if we could walk with him while we talked, me and Hna. Villota didn´t know what to think, but we said yes and he began to ask us questions about why the sabbath day is on sunday and not saturday and he pulled out his bible to show us references. Wew though "Oh great, he just wants to bible bash with us." But we asked if we could visit him at his house sometime and talk more and he said he has a lot of questions because he´s found many flaws in his catholic faith and is searching for the truth. He said we couldn´t go to his house cause his parents wouldn´t like it and I knew we had teach him the restoration right then and there, so we sat at a park and taught him on the park benches and gave him a book of mormon. It was the craziest thing ever and seriously proved to me that there are people out there desperately searching for the truth! Sometimes you find them, but sometimes they come to you because they know we´re messengers of the Lord. This sunday was totally crazy, we we´re greeting the members as they walked inside the chapel, the branch president has the bad habit of letting his dog come inside the church and we´re always trying to kick him out. He was outside when a stray dog (a pitbull) started attacking him and it was the craziest thing ever! We all stood there in horror as the pitbull attacked the other dog, we literally thought he was gonna kill him! Half the branch was outside witnessing the spectacle, others ran to get water to throw at the dogs, another member was kicking the pitbull and literally stepping on his neck trying to choke him out, it was nuts! In the middle of the chaos not only did out investigators come ( we hurridly tried to rush them inside) but also the Stake President. He waited in his car in horror waiting for the mayhem to pass before going inside. The dog eventually let go and the member slam dunked the pitbull onto the street as the branch president dog ran for his life. Se formo tremendo show! (as we say in Miami) I was literally traumatized and don´t want to see or hear another dog the rest of my life lol The stake president later chastised the branch for forming such a spectacle out on the street and for letting the dog come to church, it doesn´t leave too great of an impression on the investigators so we backed him up 100%. The branch needs so much help and encouragment, I know if the 4 of us have stayed here another 6 weeks it´s to make a difference and we´re going to pray and fast a lot to be instruments in the Lord´s hands. Until next week!

Hna. Ibarra

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Re: Bipolar weather

Amada Hna.Ibarra. Yo retorne caminando, pero pude volar muy alto, tanto como el condor de los Andes, en mi vuelo tuve desafios que aprendi a superar.  Llegue cargada de amor, experiencias, conocimiento, caridad,servicio. pero sobre todo. mucho amor por el Padre, .Jesucristo y un confianza inmensa en el Espiritu Santo.
Sigue volando que lo vas a disfrutar.

Le he escrito a Sherlyn y no me contesta.
Que el senor te bendiga
Hna. Rodriguez

On Jul 22, 2013 3:32 PM, "Gladys Ibarra" <gladys.ibarra@myldsmail.net> wrote:

This week it got super hot and the sun came out and we we´re so happy, but yesterday the cold hit us and has returned so we´re back to sleeping with 3 pairs of pants and 4 shirts hahaha The best part of this week was the lesson we had with our investigator Patricia. She´s catholic but loves to read the book of mormon and has gained an incredible testimony of it´s truthfulness. She not only reads what we leave her, but more and feels that God is speaking directly to her. She told us that she hates the catholic church because they charge money to be batized (something I didn´t know) and that it´s not christ-like at all and that she finds more truth in our church and what we´ve taught her than what the catholic church has taught her her entire life! It seriously wasa  break through moment, she´s eager to be baptized although concerned and a bit sad that her family won´t be joining her, but we testified that she´s going to be a light and an example to her family and that it always starts with one. She didn´t come to church sunday though so I seriously wanted to stangle her hahaha in teh most tender and loving way possible. But I´m positive she´ll be baptized within the month as we continue to teach and prepare her! Today for p-day Hna. Victor, the 2nd counselor and our biggest support and ally in Santa Maria, took us hiking up a mountain that has some rocks with ancient petroglyphs from prehistoric people who used to live here which was super neat! The hike was rough, super tiring, but totally worth it once we got up there and were able to see the whole view of Santa Maria and the valley. We had a spiritual moment and shared some experiences and Hna. Victor told us a tall-tale about a chick (the bird) who would see the eagles flying and wanted to learn to fly. His sibblings laughed at him and said it was impossible, he was only a baby chick. But he was determined, so he hiked up the mountain to get to the eagles so they could teach him how to fly, and the climb was rough, he had thoughts of returning but he knew his sibblings would laugh at him so he kept going and eventually made it. Once at the top he told the eagles he wanted to fly, but they laughed at him also and said it was impossible, but with time and practice that chick learned to soar like the eagles, and when he did he went back home walking. I though to myself, why did he walk if he just learned to fly? But it´s a metaphor for us on the mission. We´re here to go through experiences and trials, and these things are going to teach us how to fly, but we can´t go back home walking, we can´t return the same way we left. And that´s what I´m most determined to do, to change, to never be the person I was before I left, to never forget the incredible experiences and miracles I´ve witnessed on the mission and will witness as I keep enduring to the end. To all my RM friends reading this, are you still flying? Or did you go back to walking? Never forget the incredible person the Lord molded you into on the mission, and never go back!

xoxo,

Hna. Ibarra

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Bipolar weather

This week it got super hot and the sun came out and we we´re so happy, but yesterday the cold hit us and has returned so we´re back to sleeping with 3 pairs of pants and 4 shirts hahaha The best part of this week was the lesson we had with our investigator Patricia. She´s catholic but loves to read the book of mormon and has gained an incredible testimony of it´s truthfulness. She not only reads what we leave her, but more and feels that God is speaking directly to her. She told us that she hates the catholic church because they charge money to be batized (something I didn´t know) and that it´s not christ-like at all and that she finds more truth in our church and what we´ve taught her than what the catholic church has taught her her entire life! It seriously wasa  break through moment, she´s eager to be baptized although concerned and a bit sad that her family won´t be joining her, but we testified that she´s going to be a light and an example to her family and that it always starts with one. She didn´t come to church sunday though so I seriously wanted to stangle her hahaha in teh most tender and loving way possible. But I´m positive she´ll be baptized within the month as we continue to teach and prepare her! Today for p-day Hna. Victor, the 2nd counselor and our biggest support and ally in Santa Maria, took us hiking up a mountain that has some rocks with ancient petroglyphs from prehistoric people who used to live here which was super neat! The hike was rough, super tiring, but totally worth it once we got up there and were able to see the whole view of Santa Maria and the valley. We had a spiritual moment and shared some experiences and Hna. Victor told us a tall-tale about a chick (the bird) who would see the eagles flying and wanted to learn to fly. His sibblings laughed at him and said it was impossible, he was only a baby chick. But he was determined, so he hiked up the mountain to get to the eagles so they could teach him how to fly, and the climb was rough, he had thoughts of returning but he knew his sibblings would laugh at him so he kept going and eventually made it. Once at the top he told the eagles he wanted to fly, but they laughed at him also and said it was impossible, but with time and practice that chick learned to soar like the eagles, and when he did he went back home walking. I though to myself, why did he walk if he just learned to fly? But it´s a metaphor for us on the mission. We´re here to go through experiences and trials, and these things are going to teach us how to fly, but we can´t go back home walking, we can´t return the same way we left. And that´s what I´m most determined to do, to change, to never be the person I was before I left, to never forget the incredible experiences and miracles I´ve witnessed on the mission and will witness as I keep enduring to the end. To all my RM friends reading this, are you still flying? Or did you go back to walking? Never forget the incredible person the Lord molded you into on the mission, and never go back!

xoxo,

Hna. Ibarra

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Open wide and say AAAAAAHHHHH!

This week was going fabulous, monday me and Hna. Villota hung out with one of our investigators Gina and went window shopping and cruised around town. That night we had several appointments and then we got ready for our Zone conference Tuesday with President Essig and our zone of 50 missionaries or so. It was a blast as usual with funny games, learning activities and delicious food! I had woken up that morning with a bit of a soar throat but nothing I thought tylenol couldn´t cure. As the day went on I felt more and more sick and got a fever. But I thought, it´s all good I´ll just keep taking some ibuprofen to get it under control. We had exchanges with our sister training leader so I went to Centenario in Los Andes for a day with Hna. Thomas, a greenie from Colorado who is basically my twin because she was also studying pre-nursing at BYU and lived in the same dorms I did! We went to a couple appointments and by the end I just was not feeling so great, I was still feverish, had chills, and my throat still killed so I curled up in my sleeping bag early to call it a night. The next day I only woke up worse! The fever never broke, I had a throbbing headache, and now both sides of my throat hurt! I grabbed a flashlight and ran to the mirror to self-diagnose and saw a horrible infection ravaging the back of my throat- redness,swelling, puss, I mean it was NASTY! So we took a trip to San Felipe to visit Pdt. Perez, the stake president who is also a doctor. He literally gave me 4 different pills, a liquid medication, and I had to get some shots of penecilin at the pharmacy. We ran around to 4 different pharmacy´s collecting all the meds and then went back to Centenario confident that their bishop could give me the injections because he too was a doctor...but he was in santiago and after a whole day of waiting, he never showed up! It was 9 pm and I seriously couldn´t take the pain and discomfort anymore. So we called up Pdt Perez´s wife who told us to come on over. We got there at 11 pm, she had a room ready for us, bed all warmed up and everything! I literally just crashed until Pdt. Perez came to administer the shot. I had to get 2 daily, one in the morning and one at night, my bum is still sore to this day, so that gives you an idea of where these shots were placed LOL I literally never felt so sick in my life...ever. But I´m so grateful for the Perez Family´s hospitality and attention, I stayed there 3 days and literally have no clue what I would´ve done with out them, they took care of me the way my mother would´ve and so much more as President Perez was able to annoint me with oil, lay his hands upon my head, and pronounce one of the most beautiful blessings I´ve ever received. I have a feeling I won´t be getting sick again anytime soon. I´d also like to give a HUGE shout out to Hna. Thomas who was my literal and personal modern day great samaratin as she took me everywhere I needed, administered all my medictions and would bring me food and water and chocolate even though I couldn´t even bare to eat it hurt so bad! So after 3 days of being a vegetable I am back from the dead, I got me and my companion the heck out of there and was so ready to just get back to work and be a skirt-wearing, street walking, plaque bearing missionary again! That´s all for this week! The priesthood is real!

Hna. Ibarra

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Espacio Urbano

No Espacio Urbano is not the name of some club in Chile like I thought it was lol. It´s what they call the malls here! Last monday we went and made the beautiful discovery of a store called Lider who has a partnership with walmart and sells great value products! Hallelujah, a brand I can trust! This week was pretty sweet. Anabela said yes to preparing to be baptized the 28th of this month! She´s progressing wonderfully, we taught her plan of salvation yesterday and she had so many deep questions and is super "capa" as they say here, or smart! She understands it all so well and I know she´s fersure going to get baptized, we just need to teach law of chastity and clear up the situation with her pololo. We also contacted someone on the street who´s nam was Lemuel, at first we thought he was pulling our leg, but nope, his name was indeed Lemuel and we´re gonna try to find him and teach his family cause it was just too crazy of a coincidence! haha. Yesterday we had Patricia and Freddy come to church with their 2 daughters and it was so awesome! They are reading and praying as well and am so happy for the spiritual hunger that they have for the gospel. We also had a family home evening yesterday with Anabela and an unexpected guest, Gina! So here´s her story. Gina sells avocados on the side of the road, we contacted her one day and she said she doesn´t actually live in Santa Maria, but in San Felipe (the town next door) and just comes to sell stuff. But we´d always see her around town and I knew she was lying and didn´t actually want to tell us where she lived, but I respected that and me and Hna. Dodds would always say hi to her and talk to her, and one day her and her mom had heavy bags and we helped them out. With time Gina began to gain more trust in us, and invited us to her house for lunch and she confessed she did live in Santa Maria! Hna. Dodds left, but the other day with Hna. Villota she asked us when we could come over so we set up an appointment. Last wednesday we taught Gina and her dad Jose the restoration, and they couldn´t of understood our message more clearly! (a big problem here is we teach the restoration and people don´t get it) They were doubtful of course but that´s good because it means they understand what we´re teaching, the progress of an investigator starts when they say "no!" hahaha. Gina´s reading the Book of Mormon and we´re going to teach them again this week and help them resolve those doubts they have. Some people may not seem receptive or interested, but as you serve and show them your love they realize you´re not just there to preach and annoy people, but to teach something you know is true. "They don´t care how much you know, until they know how much you care." Love ya peeps! And write me Dear Elders!

Hna. Ibarra

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The Lord prepares the way!

This week we had to leave some investigators that weren´t progressing, and it just made me so sad because I was doing everything I knew how and felt like the Lord of the Vineyard spoken of in Jacob 4:41 "And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard wept, and said unto the servant: What could I have done more for my vineyard?" But I found a lot of motivation and encouragment in a line I read in Preach my Gospel that says "You have not finished your ministry until people are living these commitments, or in other words, until they have repented." I know there are more people out there who are ready and need this gospel in their lives, and it´s my sole purpose to find them, my ministry won´t be over until I do! And just like that we saw some miracles this week with our investigator Anabela who lives with her pololo aka boyfriend. After some unfortunate conflicts between him and her mom she asked him to move out of the house. The news came as shock to us, but at the same time I knew the Lord was preparing the way for her to more easily accept the gospel and be baptized now that she´ll be living the law of chastity! Both her and her pololo came to church sunday and to a baptismal service which was so awesome! I gained such a strong testimony that the Lord truly plays a role in this work and blesses us according to out diligence and obedience and that he doesn´t give us a commandment without preparing the way for us to accomplish it! Also, this week we got to go on a 2 day adventure to Santiago to get my carnet aka chilean ID. It was fun because I got to sleepover with Hna. Ostler and her companion who was in the same MTC district as me and traveled with me! We got to be companions for a day as we ran around the streets of Santiago with a map and our passaports to all these different buildings to get photos taken fingerprints, and fees. But it´s always exciting when we get to go to the city after being in the country for so long! The mission is wonderful, it´s the best thing that´s every happened to me. I can´t explain how much I´ve learned the few months I´ve been here and I can´t imagine the journey I have ahead of me. Yeah it´s hard sometimes, especially when there´s so many roles you have to play as a missionary when you´re in a tiny branch that needs a lot of help and support. We´re the sunday school teachers, visiting teachers, home teachers, young women counselors, releif society counselors, and on top of that have to find investigators, motivate the members, teach the recent converts, bring back the less actives all while trying to keep sane! But I know the things I´m learning now are helping me to become a better leader in the church in the future and to magnify my calling. There is no greater call, no greater honor, than to dedicate 24/7 to edifying the Lords kingdom at this time! We got to watch a World Wide leadership counsel which was crazy cause there´s going to be a lot of changes in missionary work and it´s so exciting to be in the middle of it all!!! Anyways, family and friends, peace & blessings until next week! Also, please write me dear elders, they´re free to my mission, and I can read and reply to them better than e-mails, plus they make me smile :)

Hna. Ibarra

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Re: The testimony of earthquakes

Es indiscutible tu crecimiento, y el Espiritu que te acompana.
A 8 dias de mi regreso, miro para atras y veo con alegria y tristeza la obra de Dios realizada, pues el sentimiento es agridulce....Dejar las personas que les hemos servido con el alma, dejar el lugar en el cual hemos vivido experiencias de amor, dolor, exito,  frustraciones, donde hemos sentido el Espiritu del Senor guiando su obra, no va a ser facil
Primero te saludo con amor y mucho respeto por lo que estas haciendo.
Segundo dale un abrazo en mi nombre a tu PARCERA, pues junto a ti van a cumplir una mision increible.
Tercero, al magnifico testimonio de Juan tienen que agregarle, el gran hermanamiento de los miembros, lo cual fue ensenado por Pte. Hinckley, y que es muy dificil de aplicar aca en Chile, esa es una de las mayores causas de los menos-activos, tienen que motivar a los miembros a que los acojan, los ayuden y los hagan de verdad sentir sus hermanos.
Cuarto los temblores,mi primera experiencia en Chile fue horrible en Febrero del ano 2012, dormida a las 3:00 a.m. yo sentia que alguien me empujaba el sentadero, y yo asustada desperte y todavia seguian empujandome,  cuando me di cuenta que era un temblor 6.7, en el 10 piso de un edificio de 22 esto se tambaleaba como si fuera de algodon, fue impresionante, corri a llamar a mi companera y ella estaba in shock, pues era la primera experiencia para ella.... pero no te confundas que los empujones de Satanas son de 8.9 y dificiles de identificar "si estais preparados no temereis"...
Doy gracias al Padre por darme la dicha de haberte conocido, verte crecer, y ahora verte convertida en una Embajadora del Senor, digna de toda su confianza...
Da lo mejor de ti, se humilde, muy humilde y veras como la gracia de Dios te cubrira, y su obra va a producir mucho fruto.
Te quiero mucho y aun cuando ya este de regreso en New Mexico, seguire orando por ti...
En Octubre antes de la conferencia, tendremos una reunion de todos los misioneros de Vina del Mar con nuestro primer Presidente de  Mision y espero ver a Sherlyn.
Cuidate.
Hermana Rodriguez

On Jun 24, 2013 4:09 PM, "Gladys Ibarra" <gladys.ibarra@myldsmail.net> wrote:

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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