The 2nd Two Weeks of 2014

January 27, 2014

 - Hna Fonseca wanted to decorate my planner so I gave her some family pics and that cute little picture I got from Zac to use and she, gosh, really went for it. So now everyone that sees the back of my planner is going to think I am a crazy bus. Haha. I thought it was something Courts wouldve done.

 - More of the creepiest planner in the entire world

 - Some of the awesome flowers that we see all the time. Mom, I thought you would appreciate these. So crazy huh?

- Hermana Fonseca and I 

CCCCAUTIN- January 20, 2014

Hey you guys! How has it already been another week? 

Well, I am with my new companion, Hermana Fonseca. She is so great! She has been in the mission for almost a year and was at BYU before this. We get along really well and are working hard this cambio to work more with the members and leaders. Our goal is to get all the members doing their home and visiting teaching because they don't really understand it that well but we are working with the obispo on that. We have been having a lot of fun working together! I learn a lot from her everyday. I may have got us lost once or twice but nothing too serious. Haha. One of these days I am hoping my direction skills will improve. Our sector is just so ginormous. 

This week we played soccer on Saturday morning and are going to start making it a regular thing with the other Elders in the area and a bunch of members and menos activos are coming and we are working on getting investigators there too. It is a blast! I am sure Cam is laughing picturing me playing soccer with a bunch of latinos but it isn't as bad as you think. We get all kinds of people coming and it works out really well because it isn't as threatening as inviting someone to a lesson or to church, especially with jovens.

Also this week we taught two brothers, Juan and Felipe (classic), who are both super interested in religion in general. They look at things very literally and intellectually and have about 1 billion questions. It was pretty tough getting them to listen without interrupting every 5 seconds but it was a really cool lesson. Felipe was so amazed that we actually have the Book of Mormon and after we explained to him where it came from and how we have it he was just so thrown off that we told him we believed in it and were here dedicating our lives to sharing it. He said, "If this book really did come from an angel and was from gold plates I would dedicate my life to studying it and it would be exploding all over the world." Oh man we were dying. We just wanted to stand up yell, "It is true! It is exploding all over the world! Why do you think we are here?!" It really was so cool. He has so much potential in this gospel if we can just help him to not look at everything so logically so he can let himself feel the Spirit and let it work in him to change him. More than anything he is just confused because he has been researching religion forever. He even has a brother that is Buddhist. I am sure that throws him for a loop. To end the lesson I told him that the Book of Mormon has changed my life and shared my testimony about it and Joseph Smith and he asked me a couple times after if it really did change my life. It was so cool to see someone that is so close to the truth. He understands so well the importance and miracle it is that we have this gospel restored on the earth today he just won't let himself believe it yet. 

Also this week, I taught my first lesson to a drunk lady. It was actually pretty sad because we were trying to teach her husband and she kept interrupting and crying and telling her husband to shut up and all this crazy stuff. We brought a member too that is waiting to receive her mission call. Haha. Hopefully she doesn't think that is how missionary work normally is. Actually I am not sure there is a norm for missionary work. Crazy things happen every day and I love it. 

I hope you guys are all doing great!

Go to the temple!

Love you lots!

Hermana Meg Chalmers (the Chilenos put so much emphasis on the ChALmers. It makes our last name sound so creepy. haha)

Mosiah 2:41

Two Letters From The First Two Weeks of 2014

                                                                                                                           1-13-14
Fam! It has been a wild week. It flew by, but at the same time it felt like a million years long. First off, CAMBIOS. I am staying in Cautin. Yeah! But Hermana Hawkins is going up North to be a Hermana Capacitadora. I think it is called a trainer leader or something like that. I still havent met my new comp, Hermana Fonseca, but she has been in the mission for almost a year I think and was born in the states but is Colombiana. I am excited! It is crazy that my training is over because I still feel so new, but I know it is time for change. I know there are still lots of things that the Lord needs me to learn. Change is always hard, but I think the reason things are constantly changing in the mission and in life really, is so we can continue to grow and get better. 

Also I got your package! Thank you thank you! I loved it all! Especially the calender. Haha what the photos?! Nothing like looking at an upclose picture of me holding a batman shaped quesadilla all January. The stress ball was especially helpful also when we were waiting for the call this morning about our cambios. Ha! Also I was cracking up at Jonny's letter that he wrote me. Hopefully he remembers what he wrote. 

I cant even remember what happened this week, it was so crazy. But we did do an attack of our sector, Cautin with our district where we have all the missionaries from our district and members that are willing to help and we go out and contact and try and find news. We ended up being able to get two girls to help us that are both waiting to leave on their missions so Hermana Hawkins and I did splits with them. The girl I went with, Claudia, is 21 and is still waiting to receive her call. She is so cool and cracks me up. We contacted all day long and it was a good thing she had my back because I still mix up my 6´s and 7´s when I am writing down people's phone numbers in Spanish. Haha you would think I would have that down by now but they just throw the numbers out so fast. 

While we were out contacting we found this student, Juan, who had about 40 billion questions about the Mormons and the Libro de Mormon. Oh gosh. He is so confused about which religion is true, but he firmly believes that there is only one true church on the earth which is surprising because most people here just think that all paths lead to God and it doesn't really matter which. It was a super overwhelming lesson because he would not leave us to teach at all, he just asked question after question practically interrogating us which definitely tested our patience, but he really does have potential. He just needs to let us teach him! But there is definitely something the Lord wants me to learn right now and that is patience, and something that I know I lack. Haha I am sure you guys know that, too. but I am working on it and getting better. Paciencia! 

Love you guys a ton!

Ether 4:11-12

Love always,

Hermana Chalms 

                               More Lago Colico of last week with Hermana Leyva de Peru.

        Last week Adrianna painted our nails and it looks like I am taking an engagement photo with her.

          We went bowling as a zone today. I thought I escaped bowling when I left the states! Haha guess not.

                                                                                                                         1-6-14
Happy 2014! We spent ours with a family in the ward eating meat and potatoes and talking about all the cool places to visit in Chile. That was only Tuesday but I feel like it was forever ago. Time is such an interesting thing. Especially on the mission. Anyways, this Wednesday for our P Day our zone went to Lago Colico. So cool! We took a micro that fit probably 25 and stuck our zone of about 32 in there for an hour and a half drive to the lake. It was a crack up. Missionaries all over the place! I will send some pics, but it was so great to be outside enjoying nature. I am grateful for how beautiful Chile is and that I get to live here and enjoy it. 

Thursday was a pretty interesting day. We had all these great plans lined up and almost every single one of them fell through almost all at once. We were just standing there in the street laughing because it was so ironic. Anyways, we had this cita planned and were going to take our relief society president with us but she ended up not being able to, but on our way to the cita with the investigators we ran into a recent convert, Jocelyn. She is sweet and wanted to accompany us to our cita which worked out. The lesson was with this mom, Marta and her 13 yr old daughter Alanis (she named her after Alanis Morisette. Ha!) We taught the restoration and the spirit was so strong. The mom kept telling us that she felt so peaceful during the lesson and wanted to read the Book of Mormon now so she could keep feeling tranquilo. It was so awesome. So the lesson ends and we were trying to get Marta to pray and she was a little shy and nervous about it, but usually it takes us a minute to help them get up the courage to pray so we were there in the living room all kneeling trying to get Marta to pray and then Jocelyn suddenly yells, "Ah yo lo hago!" and then just started praying for her mom, dad, boyfriend, her stomach and all these things and then just ended in "amen!" Haha it was so cute.

Also, that same day later on we had plans to help a menos activo with her backyard clean up and we showed up to her house in pants all ready to go and she wasn't home and we didn't have anywhere to change and were super far away from our house so the whole rest of the night I was in my skirt and jeans. swag! But it ended up working out great because we contacted some people that were really excited about the gospel. 

It was a pretty funny day, but all in all we learned that the Lord has his way of working things out. Sometimes plans need to fall through to make way for other things to take place and you just have to keep rolling with it. The longer I am here the more I love it. I always knew missionary work was important, but I don't think I ever really felt it like I do now. The gospel and this work makes me so happy and even though there are moments where I am so tired and we walk all day long in the heat without having any lessons I am still so grateful that I made the decision to serve a mission. Who would have thought a year ago I would be in Chile?!  

Cambios. All the leaders keep hinting it. I know change is necessary but I am a tiny bit sad about it because Hna Hawkins and I have become really great friends and have a lot of fun together. She is the best and also her birthday is tomorrow. We are going to make ourselves a nice gringo breakfast to celebrate. None of that bread and cheese nonsense. Also I have had the shelter of being in my training all this time so I am a little bit nervous for the unknown of what lies ahead for me, but I know with the Lord's help I will be alright.

I love you all a ton! 

Love always,

Hermana Chalmers

3 Nefi 9:20

                                                

                                                                           Lago Colico

Christmas in Chile

Hey fam,

So turns out we get to write today even though our P-Day is still Wednesday for the new year. So I am back on the Monday schedule now.

Christmas here was so great especially since I got to talk to you guys! But really, we saw so many blessings. Christmas here is pretty different and since it is so hot out I didn't feel like I was missing X-mas in the states. I think I can honestly say it was one of the best Christmases I have had. The people here are so humble and giving especially at this time of year. The family that we had dinner with on Christmas Eve also has a son in the mission field. He has been out for about a year and the family has been having a lot of problems.There was a point a little while back where they had to get a restraining order against the dad and all this crazy stuff but we have been able to see the power of the Atonement working in that family. The dad has come full circle and we could really see it on Christmas Eve. Since he hadn't been able to be in the house for a while, this Christmas was his first time skyping his son and he was so so excited and emotional about it. I think it helped him a lot to talk to us about missions and such. In Chile they open their gifts on Christmas Eve at midnight but they did it earlier so we could do it with them and it was such a great night. I felt so much love. 

The missionaries in our ward gave talks in Church yesterday. I talked about the role of love in missionary work mostly. I had been doubting myself earlier that week and had been a little nervous preparing for my talk since all the other missionaries in our ward have been in the mission for a while and speak great Spanish but as I prepared I learned that if I have the Spirit with me, the Lord can help me speak and say the things our ward needed to hear. The Spirit is so powerful and I think more than anything I am learning that without Christ and the power of the Spirit I am weak and cannot do a whole lot, but with it, anything is possible. Miracles will happen. Sometimes it is hard when I think about all the weaknesses I have and how much I still need to improve but I know that we have weaknesses so we can grow and become better and learn through the power of the Atonement. The Spirit was with me when I gave my talk and I could feel it testifying through me.

In other news, we talked to Marianela's husband, Alfredo, and he wants to marry her! We are still working everything out because he has to get divorced, but it is so exciting. Marianela is so prepared to be baptized and wants to so badly. 

Also, we had lunch with the bishop's fam this week and they had TACOS. We were in heaven. No one eats tacos here and then to top it all off Hna Daisy made pumpkin pie for dessert. We were going crazy. Wahoo!

I hope you guys are all doing really well. I love you! Go to the temple for me!

Love always,

Hermana Meg Chalmers

 Javieras baptism. It looks like we are in a jail cell but the Elders just really wanted to take the pics outside.

                                       Me and Hermana Hawkins on Christmas, i think.

                                    Christmas Eve with my presents from Familia Chacón

The Hermanas in our casa on Christmas after we watched The Life of Timothy Green and ate no bake cookies.