Blueberries ...

this week...

We had a lesson with our investigator V. She is 80-something years old and is too cute! She really is super great, and she even came to sacrament meeting this week! Hermana Levrino was directing the hymns during sacrament (something I really can't do.. haha) and I sat with V near the back of the chapel. WOOT WOOT! Lessons with her are always really spiritual.. but we have to be patient with her until she feels that she's received her answer, knows that it's true, and understands the importance of baptism. I know that it'll all come together.. the Lord's timing is always perfect! ..even when it might not seem that way at first.

We've also received a few really interesting references with a lot of potential! So we're super excited to see where things go with that!  Other than that, I have been eating SOOOOOOO many arándanos (blueberries)! Seriously I love them so much! I eat them for breakfast pretty much every day, and on top of that our mamita has been serving them for dessert, so basically I'm just waiting to turn blue and blow up like a balloon like Violet in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I really think that there's a high possibility.

I think that's really all that I have for you guys this week. SUUUUPER fome, I know! ..but I'm out of time and my companion wants to get her haircut before our p-day ends!

I hope all is well back in gringolandia!! Please remember how much I love you all and most importantly that Heavenly Father loves you ..EVEN MORE! ..I know, right? He is always there for you, and is waiting to hear from you everyday, don't forget to tell him what's up. He's there to help you always.. and "He's your biggest cheerleader" -Hermana Ruiz!

besitos!

Hermana Sessions

Thursday marks 6 months.. COMO!?!

I cannot believe that I have almost been gone for 6 months.. then again, in some ways it feels like it's been years.. but most of the time it feels like I just left! It's super weird to think that I am almost a third of the way through my mission. Time flies! I still feel so young on the mission.. and I still have so much to learn and SO MUCH room for improvement! I still really need to learn how to speak Spanish well too! Luckily I have a Latina companion! woot woot! Anyway, it's super crazy, I really can't believe it. I have a year to work my butt off. 

So my glasses have been really loose for a while. In Valdivia, every time I tried to take them somewhere to get them tightened the people would always tell me that they don't fix glasses unless I were to buy a pair from them. Well the other day my companion took me into an eyeglasses shop in centro and I was doubting that they would fix them and had kind of a bummer attitude about it, and what do you know the lady took my glasses, tightened them up, fixed my frames and handed them back.. free of charge! I was so happy I could hardly see straight! I still need to write that lady a letter and buy her some chocolate or something because I really didn't have faith that she would fix them, and she just did it like it was nothing! It was such a good day haha! 

We had intercambios on Wednesday and I spent the day in our sector with Hermana Parkison, who I met in Valdivia! She is just sooo great and I had a lot of fun with her, and learned a lot from her example! She's gringa too, from utah but she has a bit more time on the mission, so it was really neat to have her share experiences with me and to feel a little better about where I'm at with my Spanish right now and all of that. Love her!!

Then on Friday we went to Puerto Montt so I could see someone about getting inserts made for my super lame rabbit feet. Puerto Montt is 3 hours south of La Union so it was a day full of traveling.. a total of six hours. Anywho.. the bus ride there was super interesting. Trunkiest bus ride possible, I'm certain. They had 80's love songs playing the entire time, it was just too much! The best was that we were on the phone with our Zone Leaders.. and they were like, "uh, hermanas.. where are you??" haha! Oh my goodness it was too trunky. I've only been out six months.

What else.. I feel like so much has happened, but I'm having a hard time remembering this past week. It has been a super long week. We passed by for an older man in our ward who is less active. I wasn't feeling super great that day so I was leaning against a post by his front door trying to understand what was going on, but basically he was mad that we couldn't enter his house because he lives alone, and it's a mission rule that we can't enter without a woman. He was just upset about a lot of different things and we tried to reason with him and solve his problems, but he wasn't really having it. After about 40 minutes of talking to him outside of his house and having him tell us that he'd prefer that we don't come by to visit him we finally asked if we could at least leave him with a prayer. He agreed, and we offered a prayer and suddenly we all felt a lot more peaceful. We said goodbye and told him if he really doesn't want us to visit that we'll respect that, and he totally had a change of heart and asked us to come by. We are now going to find hermanas in the ward that are willing to come to citas with us on Tuesday nights so we can teach him. For me it was a huge testimony builder of the power of prayer. It wasn't until then that I could feel the Spirit working through us and he was calm and cared to listen to us. Next time we'll be sure to start with a prayer even if we're outside on the doorstep.. but really!

Oh the mission.. I'm out of time, but I love you all so much! Tengan una semana muy buena por favor!! 

besitos!

Hermana Sessions

LA UNION ...

Well.. here I am in La Union! I actually have loved it here so far. It is really pretty here, even though everyone I talk to here says that Valdivia is prettier.. and in some areas, maybe it is, but I really think it's beautiful here. I definitely don't know my way around yet, but hopefully that will come soon. The capilla (uh church building) here is really nice too, and the ward is AWESOME! The bishop is super young and has a cute little family. Two daughters, the oldest is 7, and his wife is expecting again.. I believe a boy this time around. The members here are super awesome.

We have a little house here. It's super chiquitito, but really cute. This seems really big to me right now, but I honestly can't tell if it's bigger than my last or not because I'm so unfamiliar with it all. We have a mamita that feeds us every day except for Mondays and Sundays so hopefully I don't gain even more weight here.. but I guess I can't do much about it if I want to eat. My companion’s birthday was the 11th and we had GIANT hamburgers and she was planning on us eating two. Seriously it was bigger than my face! I ate one.. and then thought I might die.

My companion, Hermana Levrino, is super sweet! She's from Argentina and her parents served as mission presidents there a few years back. She just turned 20 on the 11th.. has two brothers who are 18 (I'm pretty sure they're twins), a younger sister (not quite sure how old she is), and a little brother who's 11. She made me cupcakes and decorated the wall above my bed for me when I first got here! She is so cute! She doesn't have quite the accent from Argentina though.. and it's a tad bit difficult for me. I need to really learn the language though, so hopefully this will be super good for me!

I feel like I stick out even more here than I did in my last sector. Maybe it was because my other companions spoke English, I can't be sure, but I really feel like an alien, haha. Our ward mission leader has three daughters and the youngest is probably like 6, if I had to guess, and when I first met her she was immediately obsessed with my hair, haha! Every time I've seen her since then she always says something along the lines of, "hi, prettiest hermana" haha! She's too cute and I just have to laugh!

Oh my goodness.. funny story kind of. The other night we had correlation with our ward mission leader where we talk about the people we're teaching and how the ward can help. Anyway it ended late and we had to take a collectivo to get home before 10:00, which is 30 minutes after we're supposed to be home, but we have until 10:00 if we're teaching a lesson or in a meeting.. like correlation. Anyway we finally flagged down a collectivo and it was kind of sketchy, but we had to get home so yeah. There were these weird blue lights inside and the driver and I think his friend.. who was trying to take selfies of us the entire way to our house. Then when we got there we had them drop us off a couple houses away so they didn't know where we lived and we felt a lot of relief. Then just as we got to our house Hermana Isom called and wanted to talk to me about my feet and caulquier problema that I have haha.. so I'm talking to her in English, meanwhile my companion realizes she doesn't have the keys and is freaking out and speaking Spanish, but my brain can't handle both, so I'm trying to keep calm so Hermana Isom isn't worried.. and luckily the collective happened to pick someone up and pass us heading the opposite direction so that my companion could flag him down and get the keys.. and somehow we made it inside before 10:00, but I just have to laugh. My brain definitely doesn't process both languages at one, and poor Hermama Isom was trying to check up on me and I wasn't even giving her my full attention. YAPO. 

I was surprisingly really sad to leave Valdivia and to leave my sector. I was really sad to leave Cata because she is just SO special and I want the absolute best for her! I know that Heavenly Father has been preparing her to be baptized and make the decision to follow Jesus Christ! But, I'm super excited to be here in La Union. I'm excited to find people to teach and to work with the members here because they are amazing! I love that the gospel is always applicable in every situation. I love that we can be talking to someone about caulquier cosa (something random) and somehow we are able to relate it to the gospel. I love being a missionary and I love sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the people here in Chile! I'm excited to work hard here to be able to find the people that are being prepared to receive the gospel here in this sector! Being a missionary is something so special, but we are all here on earth to spread the gospel.. we are all missionaries here to aid in the Lord's work. So just do it! Share at every opportunity and try not to be timid like me, haha! 

Love you all so much!!!

besitos,

Hermana Sessions

Choa Valdivia!

So this week has been mas o menos uneventful, but.. I do at least have one pretty funny story for you all! On Tuesday we were knocking doors (shocker right?) and an older lady answered the door and immediately asked if we were from the US.. we told her yes and she basically went off about how racist we are without even letting us get a word in and then finally just said, "UGH.. NO. No, no, no.. and went to slam the door- I was all stoked because it would have been my first door slam, except for she kind of ruined it because little did she know there was a little piece of wood acting as a door stop and it took her a solid minute to actually shut the door while we just stood there smiling. I was not impressed. haha!

Anyway! Big news! I'm leaving Val-lluvia!! ..but I'm not going very far. I'm going to an area just outside of Osorno called La Union and I'm going to be companions with Hermana Levrino from Argentina!! I'm stoked, but I'm going to be forced to speak Spanish all the time, so wish me luck! I know it will be super good for me though and is going to help me learn the language so much better than I could on my own, or with a gringa comp. Surprisingly I'm actually really sad to be leaving my sector.. Angachilla II has been good to me. BUT I'm SOoOoo excited for my first cambio! woot woot!

I don't have any pictures from this week, but I'll be sure to send some pictures of my new companion and sector next week! This week I have just felt overwhelmingly grateful to know that Heavenly Father has a plan for each and every one of us, and that He really knows what He's doing. He always knows best. So trust in Him. 

I love you all and hope you had an amazing week! 

hugs,

Hermana Sessions