July 28, 2014

Dear familia mía,

How are yall doing??? How are yall doing with the heat in the United States?

This week was fantastic as always! I absolutely love serving here in Apoquindo y we are seeing miracles even if they do not show in our numbers haha. The people here are open. Wednesday morning we had an anti-tronky meeting (trunky or tronky means that you get lazy because you just want to go home) for the people that go home in August. We talked about how we can set goals so that we do not waste our precious last few months on the mission and it helped to remember why we are here. We saw a video about an olympic sprinter who was favored to win the race but pulled his hamstring in the beginning of the race. He refused to stopped and kept on limping. His dad broke through the crowd to help him through it and at the end he hopped passed the finish line. I learned a lot from this video. Many times things do not go according to our plans, but we still need to finish and endure to the end. Don´t yall worry, i am going to finish my mission giving it everything I´ve got.

We had intercambios or exchanges this week too. I went to Ñuñoa 1 with Hermana Todesco. Hermana Todesco is basically Rapunzel from the movie Tangled, but a real person and as a missionary. We laughed a lot. We taught the grandson of a less-active member. he has LOTS of addictions but wants to change. In the middle of the lesson he broke out speaking English and we had no idea that he knew English. We taught the rest of the lesson in English (my first time teaching in English) and he really wants to change. I truly have a testimony now that anyone can change and that we should not give up on anyone.

Carlos is a new investigator that we have. He is in his 30s and lives with his extended family (we do not know how they are related exactly but there are a lot of people living there). He said that he wants to get baptized, but he has a long ways to go still. We had only taught him outside of his house until this week,a nd when we went to teach him Friday we entered and his family was there. They agreed to listen to us and we taught them about the Restoration. We have another appointment with the family on Friday. Also, Carlos read the pamphlet that we gave him. Sunday he called us because his friend had just died and he was feeling a little overwhelmed and sad. We went with a couple from the ward and had a good lesson. He said that he had actually read what we had left him and wants to read more. Unfortunately he works most sundays so he cant go to church, but we will work with him.

Also, we are visiting the Chiffelle family, less actives for about 10 years, and the son, Jean Paul is progressing a lot. He has a new light in his countenance and has been reading  the book of mormon and believes that it is true. His family went inactive when he was 12 so he does not really remember anything. He is basically an investigator and he is so excited to learn more. Great things are happening here in Apoquindo and I love serving!!!!

I am learning even more how to let go of things and leave it unto the Lord. I can try, worry, and think about the complications we have, but when I let the Lord take care of it it all works out. Also, I am learning more about the Lord´s Atonement. It truly covers everything for us. We can be healed from ALL hurt, pain, sin, heartache, etc when we draw closer to the Lord and follow his will. I know it is true and have seen the power of it in my life and in the lives of the people we visit. I am so very grateful for the Atonement.

I love yall a ton!!!! Have a great week and dont forget to study the scriptures, pray and serve others!!!

con mucho mucho amor,

Hermana Taylor

Me and Hermana Hallenberger in the anti tronky meeting

A cool view of my sector

Hermana Ekins and I have fun in the street

We go out with lots of the young women (like Sofia) to visit people

Exchanges with Hermana Todesco

Some chilean dish that is super unhealthy, but hey without gluten!!

Here is everyone’s name in order:

Back Row: Elders  Henderson, Covarrubias, Watts & Vasquez.  2nd Row: Hnas. G. Zuñiga, Hallenberber, K. Adams, Huber, Millett, McKinley, Mesa, Nuñez & Burnett. 3rd Row: Gómez, Alvarez, Allred, Urzagaste, Sharp, Woodmansee, Willard, Runnells, E. Jackson, Burr.  Front Row: Hnas. Maciel, Altamirano, Acevedo, Hna. & Pres. Wright, Hnas Sanabria, Garcia, Ekins, S. Taylor

More P day pictures:

So today we went with President Wright and his wife to Ebalso de yeso (something like that) and we took lots of pictures. It was FANTASTIC!!! Did yall know that Sheep have tails? I sure did not.

July 21, 2014

Querida familia mía,

How are yall doing? Are yall melting there in Texas? That is a bummer about Rob´s foot. I hope it gets better soon.

This week was absolutely FANTASTIC!!!!! I am kind of in heaven here in Apoquindo because we live on the side of the mountain so we climb hills at least twice a day and we get good workouts. There are lots of apartments here too so we get great workouts going up and down stairs multiple times everyday. It is fantastic!!!!

I am still getting to know everything here and everyone, but i am learning fast. The people here are really open. In my last sector, we talked to EVERYONE in the street and did not have much success. Hermana Ekins and I talk to people here AND THEY LISTEN TO US!!!!!!!!!!!!! If they are not interested, they kindly decline, but people listen to us here!!!! Really, i am a little dumbfounded here. I absolutely LOVE it!!!

Tuesday we visited a new investigator, Ingrid, with her two little girls. She asked us why there were so many churches, and we answered her with the story of Joseph Smith and shared a condensed version of the Restoration. It is quite awesome. She had plans for this weekend, but said that maybe she can come to church the next week. We are very excited and very hopeful for her. We also visited with the Grandma of a teenage investigator. Isidora (the teenager) almost got baptized a year ago but her parents last minute said that she couldnt and she got discouraged because no one else in her family supported her. We taught her Grandma, Maria Ignacia, the Restoration and she liked it. She came to church with Isidora this week!!!!! We are also teaching Isidora´s older brother, Nicolas, and he is progressing too. Isidora said that she has seen a change in him in this little time that we have taught him English and the Gospel. They are great!

We visited a less active family, the Chiffelle family (yes they are descended from French), Wednesday with our ward mission leader. The dad listened to us and his 22 year old son, Jean Paul. They told us that they would come to church this week and Jean paul really does want to know if it is true. They are progressing well. The same day we went to visit the Vargas family, the dad is not a member, and the spirit was strong in the lesson. He came to church on Sunday but he is very slow about making his decisions and a little stubborn and still has not prayed to know if it is true. I think he is just scared that the Lord might really answer him. I shared a little bit of dad´s conversion story with him and I think it helped.

Friday we did splits with a sister in the ward and with a teenager. We were able to cover a lot more ground and it really helped the teenager to get used to sharing her testimony and see how awesome the mission really is. I love doing splits!

Saturday was a crazy day. All of our plans fell through so we decided to go and contact in the rich part of our sector. Our ward has some people that are EXTREMELY rich (we went to the bishop´s house to get to know them and I easily could have gotten lost in his house.). At the bottom of the mountain are the normal middle class people, but as you climb the hill the people go from normal to super rich. We decided to go and try to contact in the rich part because missionaries hardly ever go there. It is literally climbing a mountain basically and there are not quite as many people  in the street, but the Bishop suggested that we try so we went. IT WAS AWESOME!!! The three or four people that we found in the street listened to us, and one said that we could come back another day. We also tracted (i have never tracted in my mission, but there is not other way in the rich part of town). You have to ring the doorbell speaker thing and then they talk to you. We do not ever yell ALOH in the rich part. Most of the time they said no, but we tried another tactic and spoke in English. The rich people almost always know English, and a few people left their houses to talk to us, but in the end did not want anything. We did find some great people in the rich people and i know that people there are prepared too just like the other normal part of town. We decided that we would try one more house and then we had to go back down to our last appointment of the day in the normal part of town. A little kid pressed the bottom that unlocks the gate when he saw us and opened his front door. We asked him if his mom was home (it was kind of awkward because the gate was wide open and we did not know what to do) but he got his mom and she came out to talk to us. She asked us to pray for a friend´s baby that was in the hospital so we did. She said that we could pass by any other day and she was soooo nice! It is almost always the last door, last contact that is great.

Saturday night the first counselor called me to ask me to give a talk the next day over whatever i wanted. I have gone my ENTIRE mission without giving a single talk and only sharing my testimony a handful of times in church. Of course when i only have a little over a month left they ask me haha. I shared about LOVE and the importance of just loving people instead of criticizing them. Basically, it was just an extended testimony because i just shared what i had learned from my mission. The Lord definitely helped me and i shared a talk in Spanish. It was pretty fun.  Sunday night we went out with another young woman from the ward, Tatiana, but we had to go an dpick her up in another member´s house because her mom was in a meeting. Our appointment fell through and none of our back up plans were home and we walked lots and climbed lots of stairs. We took her the other family´s house and my companion went to the bathroom. While Hermana Ekins was in the bathroom, the son of this family, Israel, started talking to us. I did not see him in church, but it was my first sunday so i do not know who are normal active members and who are less active. He started talking about his mission. He offered us juice and brownies (the brownies i turned down of course) and my companion came out. She flat out asked him why she had never seen him in church before (she has been here 6 weeks in our ward) and he said that he was inactive. She said, "what?!?!" in a shocked voice and in English because he was just talking about his mission. He just said that things happened, but he let us share a message with him. We shared about the love of God, that God loves him soooooo much. We would not have sat down and talked to him if we had not returned Tatiana 10 minutes early and if my companion had not gone to the bathroom. The Lord works in mysterious ways and we are going to try to work with him.

Also, we had a meeting with President Wright and he only talked about the Atonement. It was absolutely amazing!!!! Really we do not understand the Atonement. He talked about how the Atonement truly heals people from the scars of life. The Atonement also strengthens us (grace in the scriptures we can replace with the strengthening power of the Atonement) and much much more. I have a renewed desire to learn all i can about the atonement.

I absolutely love being a missionary and i love being here in Apoquindo with Hermana Ekins!!!! We are seeing miracles and it is awesome! I know that the Lord has people prepared if we will just be open enough to follow the impressions of the Spirit. I know that the Lord lives and loves us. I KNOW that He loves me, and every one of us! Have a great week!!! I love yall a ton!

con much amor,

Hermana Taylor

Last monday us leaving out in the rain

Hermana Ekins and I showing our byu pride

we went to a cool interactive museum this week and yep that is me on a bed of nails. Cool right?

July 14, 2014

Dear familia,

I hope that everyone is doing great there in the heat in the united states. How hot is it? What fun things are yall doing? 

Well, one thing that i am learning in the mission is to expect the unexpected. Today i got transferred to the other end of the mission in a ward called Apoquindo, where i should finish my mission. I am in the rich part of the mission now (I basically went from the poorest ward with sisters to one of the richest) and it is really different. It is also the ward where our mission president lives, so we have lunch with him every wednesday. I am pretty excited, but definitely was not expecting this. 

This week was kind of action packed. We visited lots of less actives, some progressing and others not. Wednesday we had exchanges and I spent the day with Hermana Berthelson from Louisiana. We were in the same zone for 8 months so it was really fun to be with her again. We saw lots of miracles with her, mainly because the people we contacted that day actually listened to us. That is not too normal in Sótero del Río. That night she helped me finish the plans for my companion, Hermana Bohman´s birthday. 

We switched back Thursday and visited lots of people. It is amazing how the Lord always helps us make all of the appointments we have. Thursday, a part member family called us with an emergency. All day we had appointments, but somehow it all worked. Some people were not there, and an appointment that we had at 7:30, we went by at 9:00 and of course she had just gotten home so it worked out great. That night we visited with a college student named Araceli that we contacted in the street on Monday. She listened to our message and let us come right in. Her dad was watching tv in the same room and he turned it off just to listen to us too. We have lots of hope for them!

Friday was my companion´s birthday. She turned 20. In the night I put up the letters Feliz Cumpleaños (it is tradition in our family). We started off by doing our deep cleaning that we do every week. I started cleaning the fridge and there was a HUGE block of ice on the top of the fridge (connected to the bottom of the freezer). I spent an hour hacking away at it. pouring hot water on it, and doing the best i could. We got about two thirds of it out before we gave up to clean the rest of the house. An exciting start to a birthday right? The family that was going to give us lunch got sick so they gave us the food and we ate in the house. They also made Hermana Bohman a cake and gave it to her. They are so sweet. We went to a less active family´s house and made rice crispie treats in a family home evening with them.  Then we visited the Ravello family. The hermano a week and a half ago fell in the bus and got pretty beat up. They were thinking that he might have cancer and he could hardly move because of the pain. We went by to visit them (a cute old couple) and the hermano walked out of his room without a problem!!! It really is a miracle that the most recent tests said that there was nothing of cancer, that he was doing fantastic just a little bruised thats it. Miracles happen.

At night we celebrated Hermana Bohman´s birthday with the other hermanas and sang her Feliz Cumpleaños. When she was ready to blow ou the candle she said, "what should i wish for?" I suggested that she wish that we do not have changes and that she would be my last companion. She said no and made another wish. About 30 seconds later President Wright called Hermana Bohman to sing to her, and then asked us if we wanted to know about changes. Well, hermana Bohman has a new companion and I was told that I would be coming here to apoquindo. We had just done a white wash 6 weeks ago and I only have 6 weeks in the mission but it appears that the Lord needs me here in Apoquindo (or Hermana Bohman just did not take advantage of the wish she had) haha. 

Saturday we did a CVC or open chapel in a ghetto part of our mission. It was pretty fun, but not many people came. One person from the street came and took the tour and she said that she wanted to be baptized and stayed for the whole activity. We went outside for a little while to street contact and there was no one, just drunk people. Sister missionaries definitely do not serve in that part of the mission, but it was fun to be at the church there for a few hours.

Sunday i said bye to all the people here, and we visited with the Quezada family. they went inactive about 2 years ago or more, and the mom died 3 months ago of a sudden heart attack. One son just got off of his mission 1 year or two ago, but struggles to come to church sometimes too. We have never really figured out how to help them, but yesterday we hit an iceberg. Everyone has a reason for the way they act, but many times it is an iceberg and there is more than meets the eye. yesterday they talked to us about how hard it is to have lost their mom, or basically the glue to their family. They know the Plan of Salvation and believe, but it is still hard. Hermana bohman shared a friend´s experience that lost a loved one and received a blessing afterwards. In the blessing it said that she would be able to miss her family member without the pain, and it actually happened. This was what the family needed to hear. Probably, they will miss their mom maybe always, but that with the Lord´s help it will not hurt so much. I thought that was a great promised and a great power from the Atonement. 

Now, i am here in Apoquindo and it is different but i like it. Weird thing is that we came here last week to say goodbye to Hermana´s bohman´s old companion, Hermana Resendiz. I never thought that i would come back to this place haha. I am here with Hermana Ekins from Missouri and we are going to work super hard these last 6 weeks!!!

I love yall a ton and hope that yall have a great week!

con amor,

Hermana Taylor

Our hippie pants

blanket tights

Pancake breakfast to say goodbye (we used food coloring)

P day last Monday in Apoquindo. Who would have thought that I would be returning the next week to serve there)

Hermana Berthelson, our exchange together

This is what happens after deep cleaning in our house, lots of garbage

Celebrating Hermana Bohman's birthday with the Muñoz family

Celebrating el Cumpleaños de Hermana Bohman in our house

Hermana Aranda who is returning to church

Hermana Aranda's grandson who comes every week too now

The Ravello family with the miracle this week

The Muñoz family dropping me off

Old companion reunion

My new companion Hermana Ekins

My new sector

My new apartment with Hermanas Paolantonio, Flores, Ekins and I