Friday, November 21, 2014

11/10

Hna Nicia

Hola, 
Its been a fast week Im happy to report that me and my comp know more of our area and almost all of our recent converts but we still have alot to do and know and we still dont like the derections here. There is the derections with numbers then there is the derections of Guatemala that is the second street on your left next to the cathlic church and the tenda the house with the green door thats it! Oh the mission!
We have been working alot with families and its been amazing how many that we have found this week and been working with. I know that Heavenly Father has prepared people for us to teach and sometimes he helps us even when we arent looking for those people the other day we were walking to a new part of our area with the help of a hna and walked past these girls and they asked where is your church I want to attend it. It was a moment of really? But its good the other day we started teaching them and thier parents and they have recieved us and really want to learn. 
There is a new rule in our mission that we cant baptise kids under 14 years its good because we have alot of kids who have been baptised but stop going to church for many reasons but they need thier parents to help them go to church. Its a bit hard at times because we have this one little kid who really wants to be baptised he has a uncle that is a strong member and he always goes to church with him but we cant baptise him yet we have to work with his mom and close family. Its good we are trying to reach out to more families helps us have more sucess. This sunday we had lots of milagros we had 5 families in church soo we had lots of investgadores and also were able to teach the family of this little boy it was really cool seeing all these families come to church because i know that the church strengthens families and this is what this church is about living with our families forever!
I also see people that have amazing testimonies but cant come to church because their circumstances there is a part of our are that is a good 10 ride in bus to the church but these members have big families for example one family of 6 its about 3 qets every person abou 30 quets for total and they dont have that but we are trying to work with the bishop to get a bus!!
I know that the church is true and that heavenly father will help us to all and i know that the gossple is important for families!
Love
hna Nicia Boully!


Hna Mandy

Hola familia y amigos!!
So one thing is absolutely sure about sticking two gringas who don't know spanish very well together: you're going to see miracles and boy howdy did we have our fair share this week. First, we had to go to centro for reunion de district and we couldn't find a colectivo to take us there which was frustrating because the other hermanas in our house found one on a different street and drove by us laughing and waving. Then we finally found one and turns out the driver is a member but menos activo and in our sector! He was so happy to see us he invited us over to teach his family and then drove us right to the church and we got there before the other hermanas :P We went over and taught them and his whole family are members and they were even sealed in the temple but now are inactive but apparently the mom has been praying for help to get back to church especially since she has a nine year old son who hasn't been baptized! We really both feel like we were meant to get into that specific colectivo and talk to him in that moment because apparently the dad hasn't been that enthusiastic about church and stuff but he really likes talking to us so we're hoping we'll be able to reactivate that whole family and get their son baptized!! They have a really cool daughter who is twelve and even though her family hasn't been going to church she has her personal progress booklet and has been working on it by herself and really wants to serve a mission it's soo cool. Second miracle, we have this woman who is an eternigator and has been listening to the missionaries for something like 9 months so we decided to apply a firmer hand and we went to her house ready to discontinue our lessons with her but we left her with a fecha to be baptized!!! We had a really powerful lesson and asked some tough questions and she finally admitted that she knows that the gospel is true and wants to progress. It's the first time someone I've taught accepted an invitation so I was pretty excited. Her desafio was that she wanted church and the sacrament reunions to be taylor made to her likes and wants so she wouldn't pay attention to the good stuff because there was something that she didn't really like and I really wanted to read her Elder Cristofferson's talk about how just because you don't like something doesn't make it untrue but thankfully she came to that realization on her own and hopefully she continues to progress!!! Third miracle, we were a bit hungry so we went to buy some bread and met a woman named Sandra whose trying to learn English so we started stopping by to talk English with her and then ended up teaching her a lesson behind the counter of her store, then the other day we finally had a real lesson with her and came to find out she's talked to the missionaries before and has a book of mormon and everything! They didn't teach her but apparently she was contacted on the street with a BOM by missionaries in 1996 and never took the time to read it but now she's going to start reading it. It only took 18 years but now the seed that those missionaries planted is starting to grow! It gives me hope for all of the seeds we try to plant every day. Fourth miracle, I actually gave a talk in church on Sunday!! It was a lot harder in Spanish than in English but I had the help of a member in the ward so I wrote it out as best I could and then we took it over to her Saturday night so she could correct it and help me out. She read through it and started laughing uncontrollably (lovingly of course) and said she would have to help me rewrite the whole thing to make sense :P I talked about Dawson going missing and how the power of the Holy Ghost is what led us to find him not all of the resources and stuff we had. It went well. Of course with every miracle there's a bit of a down side and we had a couple of bummer situations too this week but in the worst ways. As a missionary I have really come to dislike padres y pololos (parents and boyfriends) when they stand in the way of progress!! We have an amazing girl who loves the gospel and wants to get baptized but she's seventeen and her parents wont let her, then we taught this nine year old boy and he accepted our invitation to be baptized and it was the cutest thing ever because he was like, "Yeah I guess I'll do it but... with the nails and everything?" When we asked him to follow the example of Jesus Christ he thought we meant be crucified not baptized and still said yes!!! Which shows you how bad he wants it but his mom doesn't want to go back to church yet. Then we have a woman who also wants to get baptized but her boyfriend wont marry her even though they are living together and have three kids so she can't get baptized even though she wants to and knows it's true. It's so stinkin frustrating!!!! I find hope in the fact that their testimonies are still strong and one day the Lord will prepare a way for them but gosh dang it I don't like this part of the mission so much. So we had our big mission reunion yesterday and apparently Elder Russel M. Nelson was here on Sunday but had to leave that night so we didn't get to hear from him which was too bad but we still got to hear from Elder Christensen of the Seventy and he was really cool and really awesome. He actually served his mission here in Rancagua Chile and so his Spanish was more Chileno and he had cool stories. One thing he said that I really liked was that " A child is someone who doesn't know anything but knows that they don't know anything so they ask a lot of questions, a teenager as well doesn't know anything but thinks they know everything and will not ask questions or for help when they need it, and an adult does not know much but knows how and where to find the answers." He said that middle stage is dangerous and to try and determine how old your spiritual self is and change something if it falls in the teenager category. Some funny stuff before I close: I'm not the only one that falls, my companion fell on the bike too and was ok but skinned her knee as well and now we match. Then the next day she ran headlong into a door and I gave her grief until later I tripped over thin air and was humbled. We learned a new word this week when I was trying to say Jan works at a mine I said mino and that means she works with attractive men, the right word was supposed to be mina. We contacted a guy on the street and he asked if we wanted a cita and we said yeah and cita means both appointment and date so he thought we were asking him out. It's been a fun, companionship building, testimony building, patience building week and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I'm so thrilled to be here and every day I look out my window and marvel again at the fact that I'm in Chile. It's awesome, the gospel's awesome I learn more and more about just how awesome the gospel is everyday. I love you all soo much 
Cuidese y con todo el amor de mi corazon
Hermana Mandy Boully
 

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