DID YOU KNOW THAT IT'S CHRISTMAS SO YEAH THAT MEANS....IT'S CHRISTMAS.
So,
I'm not going to lie, I wrote one time in my journal this week. I just
was lazy with it. I'm getting to that point where the days blur so much
together, I don't even realize when a day ends and the next one begins.
It's just working and loving it and sometimes you lie down and close
your eyes for a minute, but then you get up and take a shower and get
out there and boom there goes your day. Then you close your eyes again
for a minute.
First of all, just so you all know, I'm still LOVING
the mission! I'm loving it to death. I'm also loving my companion!!
Hermana Kenney and have been getting along great. I really like working
with her in the lessons, because we both want to follow the spirit more
than just teaching the lesson, so it's easy to lend to the other person
and work in unity. I've been learning a lot about working hard, and how
much better you feel at the end of the day when you feel you've done
your best. It's awesome.
This Tuesday we had our Zone Christmas activity,
which was really fun! But I had to leave near the end to go to Santiago
again to get our test results. But when we got all the way up there, it
turned out that the doctor wasn't in his office that day...so we had to
go back the next day. (But that was okay, because I got to se Hermana
Pineda again!) So Wednesday was another trip up to Santiago...not much
to report there. The president and his wife drove us all up there both
days, so we sang them himnos de la Navidad in the car to thank them. :)
Hermana Neira left early Thursday morning for her
home! That was the first official day that Hermana Kenney and I worked
together solo. We decided to take a half hour bus ride to a part of our
sector that is super far...this place is cool, because the people are so
accepting of the missionaries! Hardly anyone there has heard of the
church, and they are eager to hear more. Right now we have someone there
with a baptismal date for the eighteenth...the challenge is that she
lives so far from the church, and she needs to attend at least three
times before her fecha. We're going to work with her. There is a member
family that lives two houses away from her, but they really are not
interested in helping us. (HELP THE MISSIONARIES.) (YOU REALLY HAVE NO
IDEA WHAT IT MEANS AND WHAT A HUGE HELP IT IS WHEN A WARD MEMBER IS
WILLING TO HELP THE MISSIONARIES. Also, sorry to break it to ya, but
it's kinda your duty as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints...okay. I'm done.)
As for our cute little lady investigator,
Maria...she is doing awesome! She went to church with us again and loved
it, but apparently she was afraid to ask us if the church had a
bathroom, so her stomach bothered her afterward. Oosp. She's the cutest
little lady ever. Oh my word, I love her. Our leaders really wanted her
to receive the Palabra de Sabiduria (Word of Wisdom) and Ley de
Castidad (Law of Chastity) lessons by the end of the week, so on Friday
we talked about her giving up tea. She said that she'd stop that moment.
On Saturday, we brought her a big thing of Herbal Tea to trade with her
black tea, and she happily switched us. Then we proceeded to teach her
the Ley de Castidad, which she accepted, and we managed to escape that
lesson without hearing too much about how her "body doesn't even work
that way anymore." She's the darn dangest cutest.
As I've described in previous letters, menos activo
miembros here in Chile are almost as common as the dogs. When we were
buying the tea for Maria, a man started talking to us. Turns out he's
LDS, served a mission, but doesn't go to church because he travels six
months at a time to different countries for work. But that's SO SAD
because 1) the gospel and attending church are more important than work
and 2) HE IS SO FUNNY. Seriously. This guy was cracking me up. He lived
in Utah for seven years, and he speaks pretty good English. He was going
between that and Spanish the whole conversation. And he was being SO
sarcastic with us! It was...like...the first time I've heard sarcasm
here in Chile. At one point Hermana Kenney was talking about how we need
more money as missionaries because she's always running out of money to
buy food, and this guy says, "don't cry, Sister! PEOPLE GIVE YOU FREE
FOOD ALL THE TIME." Oh man...I could have died. I was laughing so hard.
A funny story while contacting...we were knocking
door to door, and one guy opened the door. We waved at him, and he told
us to wait just a second. Then he returned to the door and said, "are
you bringing the word of God?" Smiling huge, we happily replied "si!
Si!" He took a second, and said, "I have a Bible," and slammed the door
on us. Awks. We had a good laugh about that.
You guys, I'm loving the work! Christmas really is
meaning more to me this year, I think. I want you guys to read Doctrine
and Covenants...45:3-5 (or 6...) It's about Jesus Christ pleading for
each and every one of us before God. His love is so unconditional for
each of us. He's rooting for us to make it home to him and our Father in
Heaven. He didn't just suffer for the sins and pains of those who would
choose to come unto Him and repent--He suffered for the sins and pains
of the world. It breaks His heart when we don't take this opportunity we
have to repent and draw nearer unto Him. I know with all my heart that
He is my Savior and Redeemer. I know and can feel His love.
Merry, Merry, FELIZ, FELIZ NAVIDAD. Sometimes I so
wish I could be at home for just this day and spend it with my family
with the beautiful tree and all, but then I think...how many times am I
going to get to do this? I LOVE WHAT I'M DOING, AND I LOVE YOU ALL SO
MUCH. KEEP PRAYING AND READING THE BOOK OF MORMON. Hey, email me verses
that you like. I'd really like to hear them!
LOVE, Hermana Thomas
ps:
prayer is the bomb. This morning we had a Zone activity where we had to
prepare a dessert from our country, so Hermana Kenney and I made
brownies. Well, we couldn't get the oven to turn on. We have to light a
match and use the gas and all, and we tried a million times, and it
wasn't working. So we called someone else in our zone to ask how they do
it in their apartment, and she said, "have you tried praying?" We were
both pretty shocked by this answer, but we decided to try it. I had to
say it, and I'm not going to lie, I started laughing pretty hard asking
for the oven to work so that we could make brownies. and BOOM it
worked!! the first try! Don't ever think that someone isn't listening to
your prayers. If He cares about brownies, He sure cares about
your needs.
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