11.11.13
Hey guys! What a week. First off, we had a baptism! Valentina, the 15 year old, was baptized on Friday. It was really special that we were able to because in our mission we usually aren't allowed to baptize anyone from age 8 to 16 unless their family is baptized too or is already active. This is so they will stay active in the church. But Valentina goes with her best friend's family who are super active and anyway, we got permission and taught her all the lessons and she got baptized! It was so awesome to be a part of it. The service was simple but so great. Everyone there was so happy. I lead the music and since we didn't have a piano I didn't really know what to do so I just started singing and leading the first song and they all just stared at me like I was crazy standing up there singing. I was supposed to count down from three apparently. Haha oh well I know now.
Hey guys! What a week. First off, we had a baptism! Valentina, the 15 year old, was baptized on Friday. It was really special that we were able to because in our mission we usually aren't allowed to baptize anyone from age 8 to 16 unless their family is baptized too or is already active. This is so they will stay active in the church. But Valentina goes with her best friend's family who are super active and anyway, we got permission and taught her all the lessons and she got baptized! It was so awesome to be a part of it. The service was simple but so great. Everyone there was so happy. I lead the music and since we didn't have a piano I didn't really know what to do so I just started singing and leading the first song and they all just stared at me like I was crazy standing up there singing. I was supposed to count down from three apparently. Haha oh well I know now.
I got to talk to a bunch of kids in the calle this week too which was a lot of fun. They were all really proud because they knew who the President of the United States is. And they are always so curious where I am from. Everyone always thinks Germany because I guess lots of people come here from Germany or something. They always ask, "What country?" after I say Los Estados but they really mean state. But yeah, I definitely don't blend in here. Gringa 100%. We also had an investigator named Thomas who is 17 come to church with us yesterday. We were super excited about it but halfway through sacrament he said he needed to go and wanted us to walk out with him. So he told us he wasn't interested and said he had, "una consulta" for us. He told us, "You two are very beautiful, but why do you wear such long skirts?" PSH. Thanks a lot Thomas. We thought he was going to have a deeply thought out question.
This week I also had the biggest almuerzo of my life. It took all I had not to throw up. It was like a pile of beans and meat and potates and verduras and then after we had eaten it all she brought out this big bowl for each of us with some kind of eggy dessert with strawberry sauce. We were dying. Afterwards we just laughed because she talked to us while were standing at the door and we couldn't even stand up straight we were so full. The Chilenos definitely like to eat.
We had a capacitacion this week as well with Presidente Martinez and the assistants with our zone and the one below us. He had us do a bunch of practice lessons with him in front of everyone. Hna Hawkins and I got chosen by our district to do one of them. We were pretending like Pres Martinez was an investigator named Gloria who needed to pray or something like that. I was soo nervous because it was in front of two whole zones and with the presidente! It ended up going pretty well and my Spanish came out better than I had expected so that was a blessing.
We also had a cool lesson with Felipe about receiving answers to prayer and recognizing the spirit and I felt like I should share DyC 6:23 and the experiece I had with it and how that scripture helped me out a lot. I sometimes get nervous talking to Felipe because he is not that patient when I talk slow or hesitate with words but he listened and the spirit was there and helped me say what I wanted to say to him.
After our baptism with Valentina we didn't have hardly any investigators progressing so Saturday we had all these grand plans to meet with people and had our cita set up with Eliaser, the guy we had found in the park with a family. All in all, every single one of our plans fell through and even when we went to Eliaser's house his wife sent us away and then we ran into him walking back with his dog and he told us he actually wasn't even interested. I was pretty bummed for a second there because I had had such a great feeling about him. The day was long but we ended up being able to teach a couple lessons and run into a menos activo family that committed to come to church. I learned that sometimes things don't go as we think they will but that could be because the Lord has something greater planned and he can see the bigger picture. Regardless, the Lord was mindful of us and blessed us with little things even though it was a rough day.
I am learning more and more here how blessed I am. Everyday I see ways that the Lord is helping me. I know I would not be able to do this alone and I don't have to either. Thanks for your prayers- I can feel them!
I love you guys a ton and miss you all!
Love always,
Hermana Chalmers
Mosiah 21:35 (I think that is the one)
Hermana Hawkins, Valentina and me at her baptism
our huge fish lunch at the mapuche market
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