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.

Christmas in Summer

Hey fam! That is crazy that there was so much snow in St. George. Temuco is so hot today! The afternoons are pretty hot now and it feels so backwards to see Christmas trees in this weather but it is still a lot of fun. We had a ward party this week and the primaria and young men and women did a nativity. It was a crack up. I sent you guys some pics. We also brought our investigator Marianela. I sent a picture of me and her, also. Sorry my head looks like the biggest thing ever. 

Marianela! Man, she is so great and her story is pretty complicated but we love her a ton. I may have talked about her a little last week. Her husband, Alfredo, is super super sick and in bed. The doctors said there is nothing they can do about his condition so they are just waiting for him to die and it could be any day. Marianela is so sweet and is so excited to learn about the gospel. She tells us that it is hard to understand things but she also says she prays for understanding everyday and it has helped her understand and learn so much. We were teaching her the other day and Hna Hawkins used an example to explain the priesthood by talking about the authority the guy or priest or whatever had to have to marry her and Alfredo and she was like, "What? Oh we aren't married." Whaaaat?! She really dropped a bomb on us with that one. They have been together for like 40 years and have two kids, but during the next lesson when we taught the Law of Chastity, we found out that she has wanted to get married but can't because he is legally married to another woman and won't divorce her. Crazy stuff. It is all pretty confusing and I feel like it is a race against time because if they don't get married before he dies then she won't be able to get sealed to him. When we were talking to her about the whole deal she said she knew and wanted to know if she had to get married to him to be baptized. We told her yes and man, she is so great. She never loses faith. Her only question was whether or not she was still allowed to keep coming to church even if she can't get baptized. 

We know that Marianela´s situation is so complicated but also that the Lord has His own way of working things out. We are praying for her and that there will be some way that she can get married or get baptized. It made me think of how sometimes things seem so hard or difficult for us but that is because we don't see things the way the Lord sees them. I know that the Lord has a plan for Marianela and that everything will have its way or working out if we do all that we can. 

Also this week we made cookies with the Bishops family so I sent some pics of that. I think there is one of me with Elena, the bishops youngest daughter. 

It is interesting being away from home during the Christmas season, but I have learned a meaning of Christmas that I don't think I ever really appreciated before. Presidente Martinez has challenged our mission to use the month of Diciembre as a time to get to know Christ better and become more like him and know him really as our brother and Savior and what that means to us. It has been hard, but it has been great. I used to think following Christ`s example just meant trying to be perfect, which I guess is essentially that, but there is so much more we can do. We can read and learn about Him and try to handle situations in the way he would. We can repent and use the Atonement to become better and change.

Hope you guys are enjoying the Navidad! Love you all a ton!

Love always,

Hna Megan Chalmers (whenever people figure out my first name is Megan here they call me Megan Fox. HA HA HA. No.)

p.s We are in this teeny tiny cyber doing our emails and it is about a billion degrees today and I think Hna Hawkins and I might melt away from the heat. Its like I am back in STG! 

                                          Our ward's Nativity play

                                          Missionaries!

                                          Me & Marianela

                     Making cookies at the Bishop's house. Me & Elena, his youngest daughter

                                          The almuerzo that spilled all over me last week.

Happy Thanksgiving

Hey team. I am pretty short on time today because we are up in Conce for Return and Report but I will do my best to type rapido. I am not getting transferred as far as I know. Phew! Sounds like you guys had a great Thanksgiving even though our floor is ruined. Mine was great too! If I don't have time to send pics of it I will next week for sure. All the Hnas in our casa woke up a little earlier and did a "Turkey Trot Temuco Chile 2013" and then made pancakes. Then that night we had ourselves a ghetto Thanksgiving feast with whatever we could find. One of the Hermanas in our casas has a suegra that hooks her up with all kinds of stuff so we had stovetop stuffing (yeah yeah yeah!), mashed potatoes and then we had turkey sandwich meat, turkey jerky, cranberry juice and the closest thing we could find to a pie at the grocery store. It was pretty funny. We went around and talked about all the stuff we are grateful for and it was especially sentimental because Hermana Nelson goes home tomorrow. It was definitely a different experience being away from you guys for Thanksgiving. Hna Hawkins and I spent probably an hour talking about our moms' pies. But I also realized how blessed I am and all that I have to be grateful for here in Temuco. 

This week we also had a conferencia with a member of the Seventy, Elder Spannaus. The 6 Hnas from our casa sang a christmas musical number a cappella, what whaaaaat?! It could've sounded horrible for all we know. It really was great though. I learned a lot about what this mission means to me and the great responsibility we have. 

Yesterday in church Hna Hawkins and I taught a lesson in relief society on visiting teaching because no one here really understands it and thinks it's just for menos activos and such, so that was nice.

We also have another joven we are teaching, Javiera. Her mom is a menos activo that wants to come back to church and get her family active. She has 8 kids! We taught her the Restauracion last Saturday and it was really really great. We are hoping she can be baptized Dec 21. Our mission is working to have a blanco Navidad! 

I am learning a lot out here and feeling really humbled to be called to do this work. I know I have so much I still need to improve and change but I also know it is all possible. 

Alma 26:12-13 . I have great reason to rejoice! Especially for the fact that I have you guys! 

I am sorry if this email is so scattered!

Love always,

Hermana Meg Chalmers

 Thanksgiving dinner, Indian style with stuffing and mashed potatoes from a box.  Cranberry juice.  Deli turkey, turkey jerky and Blueberry Kuchen, which is about the closest thing we could find to pie.  It was a Thanksgiving to remember at the Llaima missionary house at 10:45 at night.  Still lots of fun.  It was a great day.

Staying Classy in Temuco

It has been a great week here in Temuco. It is supposed to be summertime, and even though the weather today is nice it has been super rainy all week. Holy cow. I know what they mean about the umbrellas because they just aren't cut out for this Chileno rain/wind. Anyway, I learned a lot this week. We had a Noche de Hogar with a family in our ward that is preparing to go through the temple next month (the dad was baptized a little under a year ago) and it made me think of our family nights because everyone was really focused on eating and it took us a while to get everyone focused. It was so cool to teach a whole family though. It is really hard to get that here in Chile with our investigators. Our bishop (our bishop is a gringo and speaks English so that is cool) has been asking us to focus really hard on getting our members to study the scriptures individually and as a family. 

We also had a lesson this week with one of our menos activos that hasn't been to church since she was like 11, Maria Jose. She is 19 years old and super honest and outspoken and has a lot of questions but it is really cool because they are all so genuine and she really just wants to understand. She also likes to laugh at me when I speak Spanish or say the wrong word and at first it really bugged me because I was just trying to tell her things and she was treating me like I was so dumb, but she really is not trying to be mean. I have learned to just roll with it and laugh at myself. I showed her a picture of you guys too and she asked me where I came from and thought my hair was fake. She also calls Courtney the café one. Everytime I show people here a picture of my family they think I am the youngest and can't believe I am the shortest because here I am definitely not short in comparison. 

We had to go into the city earlier this week and I was breaking in my new shoes and they kept making my heels bleed so Hna Hawkins and I were going to have to go home and get moleskin which was going to take a lot of time and so we were kind of bummed about that. But anyway, we were in a bus driving back into our sector and some guys got onto the bus and just started handing out packs of bandaids. He just threw them into our lap and we both looked at each other so surpised. It was a miracle! I know its kind of funny and not a big deal, but we loved it and we were really grateful. Heavenly Father is mindful of all of us!

I also had my first intercambio with Hermana Peck in her sector in Llaima. Which is the area right next to ours. Our house is actually in Llaima and we walk to our sector every morning. We live with the 4 Hermanas that work in Llaima too. It was so much fun. I learned a lot and we had some really cool lessons. We had one with this cool hippy lady that has a HUGE cherry tree in her backyard. She showed us around and let us eat some. She also likes to look up anti-mormon websites so she is very confused, but has a really strong testimony of Jesus Christ. Today it is so easy to get confused and lose our way, but we talked to her about the Book of Mormon and how it can help us receive the answers to our questions. 

We have also been trying to get a lesson with the couple that has two little kids, Jorge y Karen. Their parents are members but they aren't married. We have had lessons scheduled but something always ended up getting in the way and they both work a ton so it was hard to get them both together. Anyway, yesterday as we were walking by on our way to another cita we saw Jorge outside sweeping and asked if we could come by later, and then our other cita at that time ended up falling through. The lesson we had with them was so awesome! Hna Hawkins and I are so excited about it. We have been praying and working hard for a family to teach and we know this is an answer to our prayers. They have a lot of work to do and need to get married most of all but their faith is really strong.

This email was probably really scattered so sorry about that.  This work is hard but it is so important. I am learning that more and more everyday. Time is flying pretty fast too. I am almost at the end of my first cambio. Whaaaat? I love you guys a ton!

Oh also I had a dream that I got transfered to an area that had no people and I just had to teach whatever I could find, which was usually dogs. Haha hopefully it doesnt come true.

Love always,

Hermana Meg Chalmers

 - At our classy Almuerzo this week. A classic Chileno meal except that there wasn't meat. That was rare. It was super good though. 

 - At the bus stop today with my favorite fanny pack

- view from the mall. On the far right you can kind of see the Llaima volcano

Cautin, Temuco

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.

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)

                      Waiting in the chapel for hours while the font filled with hot water. The califone wasn't                                       working that well so we had to stay to make sure that the water stayed hot.

Hermana Hawkins, Valentina and me at her baptism

                                            another baptism pic with the elders

our huge fish lunch at the mapuche market