HAAAAPPY HALLOWEEEEEEN!!

¡HOLA, HOLA!

Hey everybody, Happy Halloween!! I hope you all eat lots of candy for me tonight! This week was a really good week. I don't have time to write about everything that happened pened, but we had 'intercambios', or companionship exchanges, on Thursday! Hermana Ruiz stayed in Angachilla with one of the Hermana lideres, Hermana Sarrano, and I went to an area called Calle Cale with Hermana Norton (She's from Lindon, Utah and went to Pleasant Grove high school).

I was really, really nervous for intercambios because I had absolutely no idea what to expect and I knew Hermana Norton was going to speak to me in Spanish pretty much the entire time. I was super worried I wouldn't be able to communicate with her or understand anything that was going on, but I totally understood almost everything and all was well. The hermana lideres have some countryside in their sector and so we got to take a bus there to meet with a family an it was soooo beautiful. On the bus ride there we talked to this cute, little woman and it was such a cool experience. As she was getting of the bus she was holding on as it was slowing down, and she just kind of fell and flopped into some empty seats face first and it was seriously the cutest thing. Hermana Norton also taught these little kids on the street how to make oragami cranes and I think I struggled more than the little kids, but leik for real!

OHHHH!! quick side note because I keep forgetting to include this in my emails but it really is so important that everyone knows that the first counselor in our ward is actual Campell McGavin's real twin! It is so bizarre!!! I seriously can't look at him without feeling uncomfortable. Also his mom is actual the chilean version of Dawna Rasmussen and I really just can't get over it! I wish I had pictures of them! I'll try to take some sometime soon if I can bring it up in a way that isn't super creepy and awkward.

Okay back to buisness.. Hermana Norton! Seriously just had such a good time with her. She was just so much fun to be around and I feel like I learned so much from her. That girl knows how to love everyone and anyone and I admired her example so much. She's also really good at accents and I spend most of the night laughing. They had a ton of lessons scheduled that day and they all fell, but all day I could just feel the spirit so strongly in our efforts to contact people and really just seek oportunities to serve in anyway that we could, even if by just making someone smile! 

So I can't end this email without telling you about an experience Hermana Ruiz and I had the other day.. que verguenza! we were walking down the street and we saw this guy in a mask, like for Halloween or something, and he was carrying this thing that looked like an axe of some sorts.. fake or not, it was scary.. so we are walking down the street and he's walking towards us and it's pretty sketchy.. and then all of the sudden he starts running towards us and I was just like, 'no, no, no! Hermana!' and I ran away because I was too scared of who was behing the mask.. and well let's just say it ended up being like a 12 year old boy, but I wasn't taking my chances. 

Haha! I love you all so much and I hope you have a wonderful Halloween! If you have an excessive amount of candy, feel free to send it my way! It might be hard by the time it gets here, but I'll still eat it I'm sure!

hugs,

Hermana Sessions

Semana 3 ..and halfway through my first cambio??!

Hola everybody!

This week has been really, really good! I realize that you guys know next to nothing about what we are even doing here, so I figure I should probably fill you in.. Hermana Ruiz and her previous companion Hermana Delmaz had recently dropped a lot of their investigators who weren't progressing.. sooo we currently only have two 'progressing' investigators.. who in reality really aren't progressing and we are probably going to have to 'breakup' with them this week. We have been working really hard to gain stronger relationships with the members in our ward and seek references from them. We have also been knocking doors and contacting in an effort to find new investigators. Last week we were able to find 5 nuevos which was seriously such a blessing after the week we had before that. We found a family of three and another nineteen year old girl named Valentina who is just so cute! Our first two lessons with her went really well and we are really excited to meet with her more this week!

Here in Angachilla there are two sectors.. Hermana Ruiz and I are in Angachilla 2 and there are two other Hermanas (Hermana Bailey and Hermana Arrington) in Angachilla 1. We always meet up with them on p-days and usually see them a handful of times during the week and it's really fun to have four hermanas in the same ward! They are so cute and just awesome!

Okay.. so lunch here is like the main meal of the day. We usually have lunch with a member everyday and it's just so funny. You are either absolutely stuffed and it feels like you just ate Thanksgiving dinner or it does absolutely nothings and you are starved. I'm not sure how it works out that way, but it's quite funny. We usually just have cereal for breakfast in the mornings.. and then again at night, because well.. I'm used to having dinner and we're hungry again by 10:00pm.

Fun fact for the week.. to use a public restroom in Chile you have to pay. It's like so unfortunate! like I already have to pee.. just let me go please!

Once again I'm out of time.. but I promise I'll keep working on writing better emails! Soy fome, but I love you all and hope all is well wherever you may be! Have a wonderful week!!

Hugs,

Hermana Sessions

Semana dos!

HOLA!!

I'm sorry this email is going to be the shortest thing you've ever read. I just want to quickly let you know that I forgot to mention that our first week Hermana Ruiz and I almost got killed by a pile of rolling propane cans, and it was really just so odd that I need you all to know. Que raro!

Anyway, this week has been.. I honestly don't have words for this week. But if nothing else I want you all to know that the Atonement is real. It's so real. We have a loving Heavenly Father who gave His Son to atone for our sins. All of them. Every single mistake we've ever made, ever single fear, pain, sickness, doubt, you name it, He's felt.. and any hurt or heartache we feel in our lives at any given moment is a grain of sand in comparison to what Jesus Christ felt and suffered through. I have no words. I'm not very good with words.. I'm not even very good with feelings, but I am eternally grateful for His sacrifice and for his love. Heavenly Father loves us all so much it doesn't even make sense.. He loves us even when we can't love ourselves, and he never stops loving us. So don't ever forget it.. He's always there. He loves you. 

I love all of you! I'll write more next week!

hugs,

Hermana Sessions

HALLLLOOO!!!

Oh my goodness I have so much to talk about and so little time! I made it to Chile!! I'm really, truly here, writing from a little internet cafe in Valdivia (my area, which is north of Osorno I believe).I am serving in the Angachilla 2 Sector and my companion is Hermana Ruiz. She is from Calgary, Canada, but was born in Columbia so she's fluent in both Spanish and English which is really such a blessing. She's a week older than me, and has been on the mish for 9 months!

Okay, okay.. but back up a little bit. So after our 8 and a half hour plane ride to Santiago which honestly felt like a crazy nightmare, we had a 6 hour layover in the Santaigo airport, which was really uneventful. From Santiago we had another hour and a half flight to Osorno, where we were greeted by the new mission president and his wife here in the Chile Osorno mission along with the tiniest airport I have ever seen in my entire life. Enserio, it had one gate, no terminals, one floor, one room, and a tiny little oval conveyer belt for our bags, that very well could have been manual. (okay that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the gist). 

Our mission president and his wife are the cutest!! They are from Wyoming, but grew up in Holladay and both went to Skyline High School. How funny is that?? They have only been here since September 16th, I believe. When President Obeso found out he needed to leave, they were called to serve and had to prepare to leave in 2 and a half weeks!! Hermana Isom knows no Spanish at all and she is having to learn too, so it's really humbling.

Entonces.. the first night here in Chile Hermana H and I stayed in a cute little hotel in Osorno. The next day we took care of our visa stuff, I guess you could say, and then went to meet our companions. We had to take a bus to Valdivia which was about two and a half hours. Then we took a collectivo to our little apartment. Hermana Ruiz and I live there alone, but it is seriously so tiny. It's pretty nice though.. I like it, it's comfy. 

I honestly need like 2 more hours to tell you everything that has happened here, but I am almost out of time as it is. Let's just say, as a missionary you kinda just jump right into the water. I've been speaking Spanish as best as I can and bearing testimony when I don't know how to do anything else. I've been knocking doors, or rather gates, and saying ¨Halo¨, which is apparently how Chileans greet each other rather then using hola. It's honestly so crazy, and I truly can't believe I'm here! I've met quite a few people since I've been here.. families, less actives, recent converts, and investigators. I wish I could talk about each one of them individually, but I simply don't have time. I will try harder next week! Anyway.. yesterday I had my first baptismal invitation... it was one of the most intimidating things I've ever done for sure, but Maria said she would try and that she would prepare to baptized on the 12th of November. 

Last night we also had a lesson with an investigator named Antonio. It was a really awesome lesson and I felt the spirit so strongly, but it was also frustrating because Hermana Ruiz and I just really wanted him to understand our love for him and feel God's love for him and know that he could sincerely and truly repent. It's hard not being able to say what I want to say because I don't know how to say very much in Spanish. It's hard to have confidence, but I've learned that it's not about having confidence in myself. It's about having confidence in Christ. Of course I can't speak Spanish yet, I've been here less than a week.. luckily the Holy Ghost can.

Anyway, gotta go!! Love you all lots!

Hugs,

Hermana Sessions

General Conference October 2016

If you would like to hear the messages from General Conference, you can find the talks and videos published here.

I'm HERE!!!!