Wow! I have so much to say this week and yet I'm sure I won't have time to say it all, but this week flew by! Time really scares me on the mission.. there are some days that feel like an eternity and some weeks pass by in the literal blink of an eye.. this week was one of those weeks!
We have some investigators who aren't progressing very much, but they are really great people so we continue to visit them because we are confident that one day they will understand.. haha. The hermana is just darling and she is in a wheelchair due to an accident that she had about seven years ago. She doesn't speak super well, but she can communicate and she has such a cute personality! They aren't married, but the hermano has been taking care of her for the past seven years. We were able to visit them a couple times this week and yesterday we shared the video called "Finding Faith in Christ" and since we couldn't change the language from English to Spanish we just watched it in English.. which was great for me, but we were worried it wouldn't quite be the same for them.. and maybe it wasn't but the spirit sure was strong. The hermana not only thinks that I look like her daughter.. but I think she might think that I am a younger version of her daughter. She literally can't stop looking at me when we are there.. she just stares at me with a look of disbelief, but it's really sweet.
On Tuesday we had an activity in the capilla for a hermana who served here about two years ago. She came to visit with her husband for a few days. The activity was super.. cute, but it made me a teensy bit trunky haha. I'm not trunky! But I was just a little bit after the activity. She sang, there was food, and all of the members danced the cueca (a typical Chilean dance ..?) I was feelin' just a little awkward and as we were leaving my rain boots caught on the rain boots of my companion and I totally biffed it. I think only one hermano saw me, but I really can't be sure. It really was quite an athletic fall if I do say so myself.. I got up real fast and ran for the door because I was so embarrassed haha!
We also had divisions with the Hermana Leaders in Puerto Montt this last week. I spent the day working with Hermana Falslev who's actually going to finish her mission this Wednesday. We had a really great time getting to know each other a little better and teaching some of their investigators about eternal families and the restoration of the gospel. We were actually walking down the sidewalk when this truck pulled over on the other side of the road. This man hopped out and came running over to talk to us. He wanted to know where the closest capilla was because he wanted to take his friend to church. He had assisted once before and enjoyed it and wanted his friend to have the same opportunity. (1 Nephi 8:10-12) It was definitely one of the most random things that has happened on the mission, but we were stoked!
There's a fairly new development of houses (I have no idea if that makes sense) in our sector and we have spent a couple days knocking doors over there. The first day.. was not much of a success.. haha. Before we started knocking doors, we said a prayer so that we might be able to find people who are ready and prepared to receive the gospel and off we went. We knocked a handful of doors until this middle aged man waved us over and wanted to talk to us. We went over and stood in front of his gate and started talking to him. It wasn't long before we realized that he was a just a little bit wasted. He actually started informing us that he had been drinking and that his wife was really upset with him. We tried to talk to him about Christ even though we knew he probably wouldn't remember much of the conversation. I'll admit I was a little bit worried about his state of being, but he thought I was so scared. He kept telling me not to be scared and thought that I didn't understand Spanish. He told my companion.. (who was actually quite scared) that he was going to talk to her because I didn't understand anything.. he even told her to tell me that I'm stupid .. "Dígale que es tonta!" but she didn't do it.. She loves me haha!
Well a few days later in the same neighborhood we spent about an hour knocking doors in the rain and nobody was home.. at least that's what we thought. As we were knocking a door on one side of the street I looked across and saw a house with a window open and felt the need to knock that door instead. We started tapping the fence with our pens and yelling "alo" because that's how you do it here in Chile. We knocked for the third time and were getting ready to call it quits when a woman came to the window. We told her that we're missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and she told us to wait a minute and came down to open the gate and let us in. We talked to her for a couple minutes about the message that we share and her life. She is a single mom and has a 12 year old son. She also told us that she doesn't have a ton of religious background and has been to a lot of different churches but has never felt much peace. She was getting ready to leave for work so she didn't have time for us to teach a lesson, but she gave us her number and we gave her a pamphlet of the restoration.. she told us she'd read it on her way to work.. we have a cita with her tomorrow.. and she gave us some freshly baked bread and sent us on our way.. mhmm. In less than 10 minutes we had experienced quite the miracle and walked away with warm bread! We literally left walking on a cloud unsure of what had even happened in there.
Well this is fairly long and I'm pretty much out of time here so I think I'll leave it at that. I have been trying my best to recognize the hand of the Lord in the work here in Llanquihue. I obviously know that His hand is far more important than my own, but sometimes I don't take into account all that He does to help His imperfect children. I think I try to do it all myself far too often, when the reality is.. I can't do ANYTHING, not one thing.. without His help, especially as a missionary. I am so grateful that we have a Heavenly Father who loves us enough to let us progress, to make our own decisions, to do our very best, and then to help us when we fall short. I am grateful for the atoning sacrifice of the Savior, who gave His life for all those times that we do fall short and make mistakes, who picks us back up when we fall down, and let's us try over and over again. He loves you, I'm absolutely sure of it. I have seen His hand in the work this week and have felt of His love for the people, and let me tell you it's miraculous.
With love,
Hermana Sessions
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