Interpretations of keyboards

Okayyyyy.... why do I always have the dumb keyboards... Forgive m if there are no E`s, B`s, G`s, or C`s in this email. I`m stabing the keys as hard as I can. Interpretations of keyboards

but hello!!! I love you all!!

Yes, Chile did lose in Mundial this week. boooooo we were super bummed for  a coupl minute there, ut then I remembere that that means I don`t hvae to be stuck in the house, an felt better. Hermna Lopez teased me after bcaue they all watched 17 mirales and I swept the floor, washed the dishes, worked on our area book, and cleaned our study table. It took me a couple hours of normal proselyting to hlp me wind back down to normal haha Ugh I just can`t stand not doing somethin productive.

Well, had my last interview with Preidnt this week, and he took us out to lunch after.

It was the first time I cried in an interview, but what ele was I supposed to do when he said to me `Just kep doing exactly what you`re doing for a couple weeks more.` Ohhhh it just hurt my heart. This is a special tim for me, not just beaues it is the end of my mission, rather because this i the time where I most have needed to trust in the Lord. He is so aware and so close to me, and sometime I just long to go to  Him, shut my eyes tight and bury my hed in His chest, like I might with my earthly father. Just hold me strong through all the hard things or life changes- I know I can do this if He is on my side.

I just want you to kno that anythin really is possile with help from the Lord. Every once in a while I still feel that weird internal opposition that I kin of told you aout. This wek when I felt that, my patience left me and I got annoyed at a coupl members in our ward as a result for some things they had said and done. I cooled down, prayed for help that niht, and oke up very refreshed the next morning. I listed off all the positive things that I ould think of about those mmebers, (their willingness to always help, their kindness, their social abilities, their esires to serve the Lord, etc.) and focused on hving positive thoughts, and hd the bst Sunday. I felt the Spirit and a love so strong for thoes members and for each one of my brothers an sisters. As I partook of the Sacrament, it was very specil to feel God`s happiness and even gratitude for those efforts I was making. He sets a high bar for us and does expect us to be perfect someday, but He is so happy with us in the meanwhile so long as we are stretching oureslves and tryin our best to improve.

We had lots of intersting street contats this week- a man that was convincd that the Bible supports the theory that Alien are atually our creators, the drunk less active man that tells us he is an active Mormon, the sincere Columbian man with his great acent, th typical gangster young man that tells us how beautiful we are. One day, a sinere young man said to us `That is so great that you`re misionaries. Have you felt God bles you for hat you do?` The question really, really touched me. `I wish I could tell you all the ways I`ve felt that, my friend. More than I can ever say.`

Also, I hope you`re all going to the temple often. I miss the temple.

Yours!
Hermana Oldroyd

(p.s. They just playd Uptown Girl by Billy Joel in the siever. Whaaa?!!? Best Day ever haha)

Mundial

My dear people!

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers- I really felt them this week. Honestly, I've felt so strengthened and so happy. Everything is ok!!

This week we organized ourselves better and didn't have any problems with Conce travel time. Hermana López is doing ok, and we have about two weeks of treatment left. Hope she keeps feeling better- right now she is about the same.

As for Mundial (World Cup), it has been kinda fun and very interesting. This week we just stayed inside during the game, and got to leave after. (See the pictures I included.) Today they played again at 12:00... right at our PDay lunch hour, when every eating place was either closed or blasting the soccer game. So we decided that if you can't beat them, you've just got to grab your completo and join them! hahaha Not really- we sat close together and tried not to watch or hear, so as not to be disobedient. I even took off my glasses so I wouldn't be able to see the screen, but even still we were kinda bummed when we lost 2-0. The good news, though, is that our investigators might actually go to church this week- if we had won this game, we would've played again on Sunday at 12, right during sacrament meeting. THAT would've been a big trial of faith. God really knows what He is doing.

I love being a missionary, love feeling God teach me and lead me along His eternal way. So many times, I look back at the simple lessons I learned in Primary, in the lyrics to the hymns, in our Family Home Evening lessons, in Seminary, and I am amazed to really feel and know the living truth that they hold. This really is real. I know it, feel it, can see it in everything we do. I think my life will be one long lesson from God that the things He´s taught me from the very beginning really are eternal truths, and that they are real for ME.

The key is learning how to apply it.

I love you all very much, and I pray for you.

Hermana Oldroyd

Right after the Spain game, we had to go to Centro to buy medicine for another Hermana. It was CRAZY. Honking horns, waving flags, dancing in the street, singing on the bus, anything you could imagine. These people are almost all our friends- we go to Cruz Verde quite frequently to buy medicine so we asked if we could take a picture with them.

Angel Moroni, mundial style

Just to demonstrate that I am taller than our front gate.

The blessing teeheehee

Mundial T Shirts we bought

Winds are strong

Ok, lots to say this week.

1. The shift key on this keyboard isn't really working. forgive me if there are no capital letters in this email.

2. Found out that hermana lopez's back problem is more serious than we thought. We'll be traveling between Conce and Tome about three times a week for the next three weeks, while she receives her treatment. The good thing is that she is a trooper and doesn't complain- we're still working hard but also seeking the balance to protect her health.

3. on the same note, we both felt pretty bad on Wednesday after hearing the news. Thinking about travel, losing study time in the morning, organizing mini cambios, coordinating with the members, work time, etc. I felt a pretty intense stress wave and i think it was the first time in my life i've cried just out of stress.

The good news is that i have learned my lesson about asking for help when i need it- we asked hermano fierro, my favorite priesthood holder, to give us a blessing. Health for hermana lopez, and strength for me. He said so many special things and it helped me so much. I am continually learning that the Lord strengthens us in our weaknesses, using the perfect balance of difficulties with inspired support.

4. Felt bad last week after speaking so badly of the english language. i still like english, and I promise to communicate with you all when i get back. I think my passion for the mission sometimes goes to the point of overbearance (alma 38) and i`m trying to temper myself.

5. did i ever write about sonya, Seba, and enrique? Well, after discussing the situation with our mission president, he decided that Seba can get baptized!! That  has been a tender miracle amidst all the craziness. He is so excited and they're so active and excited about church. This Sunday the primary did a musical number in sacrament meeting, and I felt so touched to see him up there singing "I love to see the temple". That cute kid, he's not even baptized yet and he is one of the best boys in Primary (I know, because we do the music time here in our ward. i love children, they`re so precious.) and loves reading the book of mormon. He always asks us if we can read a chapter together when we go visit them.

6. During a mini  cambio this week, one of the hermanas asked me if god forgives us right when we repent, or if we have to wait until sunday for the sacrament to feel that. As we thought and discussed, i learned even more about our baptismal covenant and the sacrament. When God says that Christ`s atonement is infinite and eternal, that has a real application- Any time, any day, any person who is really willing to repent and ask forgiveness can receive that instantly. (Alma 34:31) The purpose of the sacrament is not to give us the fruit of forgiveness, rather to show God that we are willing to water our plant of faith and repentance. One day a week, the act of taking the sacrament shows god that we do keep our covenant, and He keeps His part every day of the week that we are willing to receive it.

7. Can you tell I've been studying Alma recently?

8. God is a God of miracles. Did i tell you that i lost my credit cards a couple weeks back? Well i did. The mission gave me money for this month, but then i lost that too... (long, complicated story) so i changed over some of the emergency fund money that i had from the very beginning of the mission. Just this week, that  money ran out and I was praying in the bus this morning that my new mission credit card would come. Elder Kauer, our mission financier, just called me and told me that it came today.

9. It has also been interesting to see and feel Satan turn up the heat in his efforts to discourage or distract me. I've felt and recognized an increased personal opposition- more difficulties played specifically at the things that frustrate or weaken me. It has been teaching me a lot.

first of all, i can see some of the progress i've made as a missionary. the things that made me cry tears of frustration at the beginning of my mission are now just a slight bother, one that i can shake off as i focus on overcoming once and for all these small mission trials.

also, it helps me appreciate my testimony and this work even more. i don't care how hard things are! I don't care how bad i may feel one day or how hard i have to work to overcome my flaws- i want to fight this fight, because I know that what we share is true. Not only is it true for the people i teach, it is true for me. i feel it pick me up and give me the wings on the days when Satan's tempest winds are too strong, and I know it can do the same for each one of us. This is God's work, and i will not be left behind. All that is left for us to do is pick ourselves up and keep moving on. 

I love you, and hope that this email finds you actively engaged in the work of the lord.

Yours!

Hermana Oldroyd

Wednesday for World Cup, making pizza Argentinian style

My choir group, after the YW conference

I learned

People!

Vale Canobra started her missionary application!! Yeah!!! So happy. I know you don't know her, but I'm super excited about it.

Ok, Nada que ver (One of our favorite phrases here. It is like 'Nothing to do with anything, but...') but I just wanted to tell you all that I want our national language to be Spanish. The gospel makes more sense in Spanish, nicknames are better in Spanish, and it is easier to express and feel love in Spanish. We were talking the other day, and I realized that English is literally a cold language. Here in Chile, people always refer to each other with  'Mi amor', 'Mamita' or 'Mi reina' 'Princesa' or so many other endearing terms. I tried to picture the normal family scene in the States and someone saying to another 'Will you pass me the salt, my love?' or 'How good to see you, my queen!' And it just sounds horrible. Blech. Also, Hermana Lopez was teasing me about one of the pictures in the Liahona with two men shaking hands, about a meter the one from the other. 'Is this really how you salute each other? Really?' Just try to be loving, please, so that I don`t die when I come home.

This week we studied the Atonement together as a mission. It taught me so much and I felt so much progress this week. It amazes me how God takes us from our first moment and shapes us every day to become something so very beautiful. We really are his beloved children. I was also pondering on all the important lessons that God has taught me here- in my mission, I learned how to really fast. I learned how to really repent. I learned how to study the word of God. I learned to value General Conference. I learned to sing in front of people. I learned to speak Spanish. I learned to love. I now know how to really express that love to those that surround me. I can show patience towards myself and wait upon the Lord when He asks. I am more humble than I was before, and I understand now the value of asking help from my priesthood leaders.

All of this is a process, and I know I`m not finished yet. That is something important- Remember how God's work is one eternal round? So are we, and so are all these gospel principles. I learned how to repent, (past tense) but I am still learning how to repent (present tense), and I will still learn very much more about how to repent (future tense).  I will not finish now, or in three months, or in the rest of this lifetime, but I feel so blessed and happy and warm inside in seeing the progress that God has helped me make with all these eternal principles.

That is what life is all about.

Love you all so much!!!

Hermana Oldroyd

Funny Sunday moment- in the house chatting, and Hermana López grabs this off the shelf and starts eating these corn puff things. She offered me some, but I wasn't feeling so inspired, so I passed on that. She paused, looked at me, and said 'But Hermana, don't you realize that these are CrGnBKN?` She pronounced it so funny that we laughed and laughed...

Photo I took for Hermana Sandra to show her I was wearing her earrings

Eco in the morning because of all the cold

Making a peach and cream cake. Oooh good stuff.

Making pizza ON THE COUNTER. I just about died. Do you realize that their recipe says 'three swirls of oil'? Crazy.

 

Everything in the hands of the Lord

My dear people!

Good news. I'm staying in Tomè with Hermana Lòpez!! This will be one of the few times I actually get to stay with my companion for more than one cambio. Super happy about it, since we get along super well, she makes me laugh, and we work very well together. This is almost a guarantee that I'll finish my mission in Tomè, which is also very good news. Reino Celestial!! (Um, in English that would be Celestial Kingdom. The work here is like a dream.)

This week we had lots of special events- which was fun and crazy at the same time. On Wednesday there was an Hermana Conference in Chillan, which meant waking up at 5, traveling at 6, and arriving at 9. This was the first time they've ever had all of the hermanas of the mission all together in the same place, and it was a great conference. They addressed topics like depression, trusting in the Lord to fulfill our divine purpose, Hermana Lopez and I did an activity and class-ish thing about communication and trust within a companionship, and my cousin sang a beautiful musical number!! She even made me cry- it was like I saw a flashback of our whole lives growing up. Playing Barbies together, tromping through my Grandma's orchard pretending to be explorers, having sleepovers, going to BYU together, and now here... I realized that the Lord really does have a plan for us as cousins, friends, spiritual sisters and co-participant in the Lord's work. I need to appreciate her more and learn more from her. She has grown so much and is an incredible woman. How good to see her again.

During the Conference, Hermana Lopez and I were in charge of a game/activity. We gave each companionship a ballon and had them write all their happy things about the Mission on the balloon. THen, we yelled out two body parts, and between the two companions, they had to sustain their balloon. It was HILARIOUS. (Thanks for the idea, Mom!) Talked about unity, communication, finding happiness together as a companionship. They loved it!!

One of the strongest moments for me was when Hermana Arrington spoke- she hit right on the head all of the common problems that Hermanas have. In one moments, she described a conversation she had with an Elder. He told her that they'd given all of their effort that week, and even still, no one came to church- even still, he said he felt fine, because he had left everything in the hands of the Lord. Hermana Arrington got emotional and left a little silence there, then said "I have never heard an Hermana say that." As we all sat and processed what she had said, the Spirit was so strong. If we allow our own self-criticalness and high expectations to overtake our trust in the Lord and His Atonement, we lose touch with the joy of His work and may find ourselves very discouraged.

 I pray that this never happens to any of you dear women or brothers- I lived part of my life and mission feeling that way and there is such a liberating difference in trusting PERSONALLY in the mercy and interposition of the Lord for each one of us in our daily efforts.

To contrast my comment about hyperactiveness last week, I also remembered this week the grand importance of having my personal pondering time. Sitting in so many buses reminded me of my Estaciòn time, when we traveled about 3 hours a week just to go to district class. I loved that time and treasured it, but kind of lost that vision for a while. It really does bring me closer to the Lord when I can just sit still and think about Him- think about what He wants for me, what I've learned about Him, how I've seen him play a part in my life.

One of our miracles was with Yacqueline. She's been separated from her husband for 16 years and is now living with another man, and she finally decided that she really wants to be baptized! (We've been teaching her about a month now. She loves church.) We accompanied her on Friday to start her divorce process, which usually lasts 2-3 months. We went to the family judgment place and the man told her that the first step was talking to her husband, because if they could come together, everything would be easier. We walked outside of the building and Yacqueline said to us "That is my husband on the corner."

Umm, we just looked at each other, thinking "No... Really? Talk to him!!" She talked to him as he walked by and he didn't have any problem- in fact, he came with us and they started the papers right away. If everything goes well, she`ll be divorced by the end of this week. Can you say MIRACLE??

On a less spiritual note, my house is covered in ants. We've got to do something about that...

I love you all :)

Hermana Oldroyd

Eating lunch at home and watching the 80s movie `Gods Plan For Us` Ohh yes, man on a horse talking about the Plan of Salvation hahahaha

This is NOT a normal mission conference lunch.....

This is how I feel about finding ants in my sugar. NOT GOOD. stinking ants.

 

Paloma Fierro Guzman. I see myself in her so much- She is 10 but an incredible little girl. Love her so much