I love you all so much! The weeks really fly, and I can hardly believe that another week has passed. Lots to say and so little time-
Two big realizations this week. One is about ´the
commitment`. These are so key for missionaries. When we meet an investigator,
we always leave with them some sort of commitment to read, pray, come to
church, etc. If they keep these commitments, they progress in the gospel and move
towards baptism (and we all know how strongly I feel about that!!). If they
don´t, things get more complicated. If this happens, which it does often, we
have to decide if it was a fault of ours to not explain something properly, to
not bring the Spirit enough, not verify with them enough, etc. or if they´re
just not interested in the gospel right now. This week we had several really
good investigators that just didn´t keep their commitments, didn´t come to
church, and came up with some really grand excuses for not meeting with us
again.
I´m actually grateful for this, because I realized
something important. There are only two people that I can count on to be
committed- myself and the Lord. If I am absolutely obedient, absolutely
dilligent, absolutely focused on the Spirit, I know that the Lord will guide me
and bless me in this missionary work. If I want others to be blessed by the
gospel, I need to start inward and these blessings will come naturally as a
result of dedicated missionary service.
Also saw a little miracle this week, one that I´ve actually been seeing for a month and a half. Hermana Gonzalez has changed! Not her personality or anything specific, per se, and I don´t mean to say that she had any great need to change. As we were talking one morning this week, she was sharing her feelings with me and explaining that she feels a need to improve, to change something inside of her, to seek the Lord for help to be a better missionary. It came to me so strongly- she really loves and trusts me. She was NOT this open, this willing to confide and accept counsel from others when we first came together. She still has her personality quirks, and she still had a couple ups and downs this week, but she´s already mentioned discreetly that she hopes we don´t change in the next cambio and that our companionship is something different than she´s had before. I know that working next to an American is still hard for her, but she´s working through that as well (I say that it is hard because Chileans really love Americans, and sometimes we get comments from contacts, investigators, etc. about the contrast between us. This week it came from a set of Menos Activo twins that we visit- they´re super bubbly but not very careful with words, and they made some comments about how American missionaries are always so fabulous and all the rest are average.)
Also gave my first talk this week! Felt the Spirit and the words just came. I was
worried about filling the time, but I used the outline that I´d prepared and it
was honestly amazing how calm I felt. So grateful for all my blessings!!
Mom, you asked about more day-to-day details. As for my
cereal, of course my corn flakes are sugared! They´re the perfect balance
between kid sugary cereal and too-healthy granola. I also eat a lot of fruit.
Oh, and cookies! They have a cookie culture here- there are entire aisles in
the Jumbo of packs and packs and sleeves and bags of different kinds of
cookies, crackers, sweets, chocolates, etc. Also a big juice and soda culture
here, but I drink water. You´d be proud of me, Mom!
The shower took a while to figure out- first you have to
make sure that the electricity is turned on properly, (we have an electric
shower head), then fix the shower head to the right setting. Turn on the water
until the light blinks, then hold it right there! The water at this precise
spot is nice and warm. So long as no one uses the mini water heater or the
microwave, you´re set for a nice warm shower. Realistically, however, you´ll
have several cold bursts before getting out. I had a couple cold showers before
figuring all this out, but we´re all good now!
Laundry- the wife of the Bishop washes our clothes for
us. We pay her 6 mil at the beginning of each month, which is the equivalent
of... Oh man, I don´t even know. In my mind, I measure money in terms of bus
routes and cookie packets. To take the bus from Lirquen to Penco, where we have
district meetings, it costs 300 cien. A pack of cookies is about the same. A
pack of instant milk is about 3 mil, and a bag of corn flakes is about 1800
cien. Getting better with my concept of money, but I can´t transfer it over
exactly... Anyway. We pay her at the beginning of the month, and then we can
take clothes over whenever we like. Usually once a week. She washes and folds,
but we have a little iron and do that part ourselves. Want to guess how many
times I´ve used it? Maybe twice...
District meetings. I love them! They´re so great,
especially now that I know my district and zone so much better. We meet in the
chapel in Valle Hermoso building, the area next to us. We take a bus each
Tuesday and meet with the Zone in the chapel. Sometimes I play the piano, but
we have a couple musical missionaries. Chat, ask everyone how their week went.
Begin altogether as a zone with Elder Carter and a new elder leading. Split
into zones and discuss our numbers of the week. To be perfectly honest, our
numbers haven´t been very good, individually or as a district. This is our time
to `rendir cuentas`- remember that phrase? We discuss ways we can improve, etc.
Then we meet back together, and the Elders present a class for all of us.
Setting goals, how to contact more efficiently, something like that. We´ll
split into groups and do practices, then at the end we usually have food. At
first it was unofficial, just the elders bringing candy bars or something, but
then the Hermanas from Crav (Peterson, Frandsen, etc.) brought cinnamon rolls
one week, and now it is tradition. I volunteered to do the treats for tomorrow!
I came up with the brilliant idea to make `Manjar Bars`, or in other words,
Rice Crispies made with corn flakes instead of rice crispies, and with a little
extra flavoring. Familiar with manjar, anyone? It is kinda like caramel, and it
is super rico!! I thought it´d be fun to put some of it in with the
marshmellow, etc. I´ll be making them this afternoon. Hope it goes well!
Other cooking- basically, there isn´t any. We have a
microwave and a little gas stove, but I don´t have the time or animo to try to
work with the materials we have. We might have one pot? I do know that we have
a nice big plastic bowl that I can stick in the microwave, but much more than
that, no. Because of this, I eat cookies, fruit, and cereal.
As for shopping, each P-day we take a bus here to Conce.
Stop in the office to pick up mail and ask any questions, make copies of any
papers we need, etc. The office is on the fifth floor of an offiece building
here, and there is usually quite the hustle and bustle of elders and sisters.
To use the computers, we walk a block or two to an internet cafe here in Conce,
which we call the `siever. I don´t know why we call it that or what that word
really means... There are a bunch of computers here, and about half of the
customers are missionaries. We can print, etc. as well. To shop, we leave the
siever and walk another couple blocks to `the mall`, which is exactly what it
sounds like- a gigantic mall with quite the reputation here. We´re actually not
allowed to go in the mall, but underground, there is a big grocery store, or
`super`, called Jumbo. We´re allowed to take a side entrance and go downstairs
to do our shopping there. It is basically like Walmart, and we buy all that we
need there. From there, we take our grocery bags and ride the bus back to
Lirquen. This is the typical Pday.
Love you all so much
Hermana Oldroyd
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