I think my double chin has a double chin!

I really don't quite know how to explain it, but I'm pretty sure a double chin is a requirement for sister missionaries here in the south of Chile. Everyone gets one at some point.. if they don't have one now it'll come, you can't escape it.

Now that we've set that straight, this week was actually super great! On Monday we were knocking apartment doors and we found three nuevos. The son opened the door and I literally said like three words and he let us in. We taught lesson one and he was cooking like the entire time and it seemed like he wasn't totally listening, but he was actually the most receptive of the three.. he definitely has potential. 

Tuesday we had (tri)zone conference with President and I had to share my conversion story. It wasn't a hard assignment, but I already really don't like speaking in front of large groups of people, so to speak in front of three zones of missionaries in Spanish was a bit challenging for me, but I got it over with and it went decently well. In my interview with President he informed me that Hermana Roney and I are both too hard on ourselves and then gave me a cookie. 

We found two nuevos on Wednesday. One is a young mom with two little kidlets and the other a 16 year old kid who let us teach him a lesson outside in the rain.. they're both really receptive and it was really quite the week of miracles finding people who were ready to listen the the gospel.

On Friday night we taught a lesson to a 19 year old girl named A. She's friends with a member of the ward here and is super sweet. Her mom sat in the lesson and it went super well. The spirit was really strong and her mom started to cry as we were bearing our testimonies of the Restoration and Joseph Smith. She told us that she "always cries" and like hey, I get it, but we know that she was definitely feeling the Spirit. 

A also made us a cake to take to our district meeting so that we could celebrate Elder Mills’ birthday. Literally met her Friday night and she offered to make us a cake the next morning. She's just so sweet! Super, super timid, but really sweet. And she is super artistic, she draws using a computer program and she's super good! 

On Saturday night we went to a baptism in Rio Bueno with A and V (the member). It was super special because they guy who got baptized was somebody that we contacted in the mall when we were in a trio with Hermana Lopez last cambio. He and his friend were initially only trying to mess with us because we're not Chilean, but a month later he entered the waters of baptism so.. worth it! The gospel is true, it's as simple as that. 

Other than that Hermana Roney and I have just been trying to get over some killer colds! We sound like boys and could easily advertise for Kleenex.. bakan. Enjoy the summer because it's getting really cold here and it's always really rainy! Probably why we have colds.. haha. That's about all I've got for you guys this week. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love, 

Hermana Sessions

Asi es la misión

Over lunch today (o sea giant hamburgers) Hermana Roney and I concluded that it was a good first week to start the new cambio.. and I do agree, but I honestly can't remember much of what happened. Asi es la misión!

We were knocking doors the other day in the pouring rain for hours. We knocked one door and a lady opened but said she couldn't attend us.. haha. She basically said, "I can't let you in because it's raining really hard outside.." and we were like.. we totally understand, we're out here in the rain.. haha worst excuse that I've ver heard. 

Things that happened this week:

1. We found a neuva who told us she would cook for us if we're ever hungry

2. Celebrated an 8 year old’s birthday last night 

3. Took selfies with the bishop's daughter

4. Taught the worst lesson we've ever taught together and still the investigator was loving every minute of it, so the Spirit had to have been working wonders.

5. Laughed hysterically while singing a hymn with the family we ate lunch with on Sunday because we thought the husband was joking, but really he just couldn't sing like at all.. he was all over the place. His son was laughing so hard that he started drooling and couldn't breathe.

I'm sure we did other things as well, but I'm drawing a blank! I get to see Hermana Hanosek tomorrow so I'm feeling excited about that! But I have to speak in front of 3 zones of missionaries so I'm really NOT excited about that one!

I hope all of your fathers, fathers that receive my emails, and future fathers had a great Father's Day yesterday! ..and don't forget your Father in Heaven, He loves you all so much. I love being on the mission and feeling just a smidge of the love He has for His children. It's truly incredible! I apologize for the lack of missionary experiences included in this email, but I promise one of these days I'll send an email worth reading! 

Love, Hermana Sessions

sharp instrument prickles.. haha

Good things that happened this week:

I don't know if I've talked about our neighbor Hermano E before or not, but he is a less-active member who lives right across the street from us. He always watches to make sure we get back to the house at night time and will call us out if we choose not to make a fire. He really likes to be heavy with us.. or um.. I don't know how to say it in English, but he's stubborn and likes to be hard on us. He's always complaining about how we don't visit him too. So we finally set up a time to pass by and visit him with a member and what do you know, he wasn't there.. we actually visited him again later that night and he was in his house, but he chose not to answer. At least we have some fun pictures to remember the experience. Hermana A is the cutest little member ever.. I think she's probably like 3' 8" or something like that. We died laughing too because when Hermano E wouldn't open the door she said, "Oh that Hermano E, he's a little special."

The other day we were able to pass by the house of a member who moved to our sector a few months ago. His wife isn't a member and they have a daughter who's about a year and a half old. Anyway, we basically only had time to get to know his wife and we sang "las familias pueden ser eternas" and shared our testimonies. Unfortunately they're going to visit the US and are going to be out of town for like 3 weeks, but she really has a lot of potential and the spirit during the lesson was so strong! 

I also included a super funny picture of the packaging of a shower cap I bought from a China shop. Hermana Roney and I bought shower caps for fun because they're useful and they were cheap and when we got home I started reading the back of the package and about died I was laughing so hard.. I really hope you all enjoy it as much as I do!

Hermana Roney and I got talking during companionship inventory and basically came to the conclusion that we really just didn't do much last cambio.. and it wasn't so much that the work was slow, but we were just kinda slow. We feel like we really lost a lot of time last cambio and that we didn't really give all that we've got. We had a lot of fun together and a lot of great moments as well, but when it really comes down to it we weren't exactly obedient, and because we weren't exactly obedient we weren't exactly happy and we weren't exactly doing everything in our power to move the work in our sector. After our talk we felt a lot better having recognized what we've been lacking and what we need to improve, but we also felt really fome because we feel like we pretty much threw an entire cambio down the drain (which is a little bit drastic, but you get the point). Then with cambios approaching we both started to worry and feel more fome because neither one of us wanted to leave the sector having felt like we hadn't done our part. So long story short last night  we didn't receive a call about transfers which means we're going to stay together another cambio and we we're super happy! At least I'm really, really happy!!! I love Hermana Roney and I'm really excited to continue to love her, but to also to share the love with our sector haha. There's a lot of work to do! Thankfully, because of the Atonement we can start new and give absolutely everything we've got.

Anyway, that's about all I've got for the week! Shout out to my sister Kaitlin who turns 16 on Sunday.. I'm actually terrified.. but feliz cumpleaños little sis! Love you all! Have a great week!!

besitos!

Hermana Sessions

Volcán Osorno

I feel like my emails are getting more and more fome.. I'm so sorry for that. Honestly I don't have much to say today either, but I already feel bad that I didn't say anything last week, so here goes nothing! 

Today we went to the Volcano in Osorno and it was amazing! It was also super weird to see snow.. but also super comforting in a way. I feel like it's been way too long! I will send the pictures because they are super rad! 

A ver.. our mamita has been kind of down in the dumps lately, and since she's not really feeling it and she's not super animated she's been cooking with more and more salt. The food here is already loaded with oil and salt, but lately we've been eating lunches with so much salt that my throat starts to sting a little bit and I feel super parched despues. We really don't mind too much and our mamita is really cool so she doesn't mind if we ask for more water for our super salty soup. Well the other day she made something called 'charcican' (not sure how to spell it to be honest) but this time it had like absolutely no salt haha! She told us, "It doesn't have any salt so if you would like it more salty you'll have to add it yourself." Honestly I thought it was great, although I couldn't pronounce the food that we ate. When she first told us what it was I really had no idea what she said and I tried to imitate her, but it didn't work so well so I gave up and called it 'Jackie Chan' .. and everyone laughed pretty hard. Then we had rice pudding and we were trying to get the mamita to say it in English.. well she said something that sounded a lot whole lot like Brad Pitt and I lost it! I died laughing! So we ate 'Jackie Chan' and 'Brad Pitt' the other day.. que bakan!

Hermana Roney and I taught a super awesome lesson last night with some new investigators that we found and have been trying to visit for a really long time. The lesson went super well and was super, super spiritual. I wanted to invite them to baptism, but didn't really want to do it without the direction of the spirit so I basically told myself that I was going to let it slide this time and save it for the next lesson, but towards the end of the lesson as we were talking about how they could come to know that what we had shared with them was true, my heart started pounding really hard, and I thought it might jump out so I knew I had to do it. So we invited them to baptism and the best part was that the guy said that if he comes to know that the church is true that he will for sure , without a doubt, be baptized! BAKAN! It was really a great lesson! 

And.. I'm out of time! Love you all and I really do apologize that my emails don't make a ton of sense ever! Wishing you all a wonderful week! 

Love, Hermana Sessions