HEY-PO

Chileans say “po" after most words so why not..

Heyyy fam and friends! What's shaking? I don't have a ton of time this week but at least wanted to check in and say hey, and let you know what's up. 

This week.. well like usual was a blur (blurr?) I also can't spell anymore and it doesn't exactly help that when I type every word is underlined red because well, it's English. I'm actually having a super hard time remembering what happened this week.

But, things have been good.. Hermana Gillespie and I have been working hard and have found some pretty awesome people recently. We found one woman named M who has an eleven year old daughter and we have taught them two lessons so far. We committed them to baptism and she accepted, but obviously wants to learn more and come to know for herself that the things we have been teaching and will continue to teach are true. She's super good though! We also found another family knocking doors a couple weeks ago. R and his two daughters..but I can only remember the name of the younger of the two right now, her name is C. He is an inactive member and his oldest daughter is also a member, but C isn't. We have been working with them as well and have had a couple of super great lessons and also committed her to baptism which was actually amazing and we are super stoked to see where things go! The one bummer was that out of the seven or so investigators that we invited to church yesterday, not one of them came... FOME! :/ But.. we are still SUPER happy about everything that's happening right now. 

We also had intercambios again this week, only this time I was with Hermana Bernal, a Latina from Columbia, in Los Encinos. All of our cita's (appointments) fell, but it was still really fun to spend the day with her and learn from her. To be honest, I was pretty nervous to have my first intercambio with a Latina, because I was worried that although I can 'speak' Spanish now, I wasn't really going to be able to express myself or keep a conversation going, but I was totally surprised about how well it went. In some ways I was able to communicate with her better than I do with people in English, so that was a major shocker. We had to head back to the Hermana Lideres' apartment a little bit early that night so their bishop could fix their water heater and while he was fixing it we sat there talking to him. After a couple minutes Hermana Bernal asked if she could braid my hair and so she braided my hair for like fifteen minutes while he finished working. She couldn't get over how 'soft' and 'shiny' it is.. haha. 

Okay, I feel really pressured because there are like four elders in the cyber waiting for a computer, so I better go. But I just wanted to give you guys an idea of what's been going on over here in Chile recently. I'll try to be much better about sending pictures and writing in the next couple of weeks! Thanks for being patient with me family. Oh, but one more thing. On the 27th of January, the whole mission is getting together in Puerto Montt because.. Elder Stevenson is coming to speak to us!! WE ARE SO STOKED! okay.. that's all for today.

Love you all so much and hope things are well!

until next week..

Hermana Sessions

No letter?

We didn’t get a letter from Abby this week … so I thought I would post a few very powerful messages for us all …

“There has never been more expected of the faithful in such a short period of time as there is of us.” - President Ezra Taft Benson

“The most serious challenge we face, and the most wonderful challenge, is the challenge that comes of growth.” President Gordon B. Hinckley

“This is a season of a thousand opportunities. It is ours to grasp and move forward. What a wonderful t time it is for each of us to do his or her small part in moving the work of the Lord on to its magnificent destiny.” President Gordon B. Hinckley

Have a great week! Hopefully we will have a nice LONG letter to post next Monday. :)

FELIZ AÑO NUEVO!!

Happy new year!! I cannot believe that it's already 2017.. is that even possible? I really don't believe it! What happened?! And on top of that I have been gone for 4 and a half months.. on the 23rd I will have 5 months out on the mission already! How can that be? Time is such a weird concept, I just don't understand!! I hope you all had a super fun New Years Eve.. I know I did, especially because I was asleep, or at least trying to sleep. One of our neighbors literally listened to music ALL. NIGHT. LONG. And on top of that it wasn't even very good music,haha! 

What to say about this week... hmm. Well Cambios were last Thursday and I'm still in Angachilla II.. BUT Hermana Ruiz left me to train a new missionary in another sector and.. I have a new companion! woot woot! (Pause: Cambio 2 statistics... steps: 638,087; miles: 268.08; floors: 1034) Anyway, her name is Hermana Gillespie and she's from Colorado Springs, Colorado; or at least that's what she keeps claiming. Her dad is in the Air Force so her family is military and has lived all over. She's lived in Colorado for the most time, but her family has also lived in Washington, Massachusetts, Florida, Germany, and Italy.. and now they live in Utah! So no big deal really. She speaks a little bit of Italian and likes to run and work out, which is probably going to be really good for me this transfer, haha! She also grew up playing sports and got to play on her school’s soccer team in Italy.. they would like travel to Germany to play soccer, so that's really neat. Seriously I learn knew things about her all the time, and will continue to do so I'm sure, because she has lived in so many different places! Super cool!

Well.. I'm just a 'normal' missionary now.. I grew up and I'm no longer in my training, which means we get to leave the house about an hour before lunch to start our day! It really is crazy how different it is to leave that early. I feel like we have so much more time in the day and it really changes so much! This week has been really really cool. I feel like a totally different missionary.. it's funny. I guess more than anything I just feel more capable. I've felt a lot more confident this week. I've noticed that every time I really make an effort to contact or participate more actively in a lesson, I've been able to do my part. In my training I was always so scared to make mistakes and I feel like I sort of impeded my progression a little because of it. I was worried I was going to be even more scared to make mistakes now that I'm a 'normal' missionary and I am supposed to be self-sufficient, but I've found that I really am capable to do His work. Every time that I've made an effort and initiated a contact or participated more in a lesson I have been able to feel the spirit working and testifying through me. I'm confident that even if I'm not sure what to say, or maybe if I'm just feeling shy and nervous to contact, if I just make an effort and put myself out there, the Lord is there to help me out. He really, really is and I have complete confidence in that. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ really are always right there for us, they want to help us more than anything, but we have to act on our faith and do our part too. This week I've really gained a testimony of that and have been so surprised by all that we are able to do when we trust in Him and do our part.

I love you all so much and hope that you are all doing well! As always, thank you so much for all of the support! Make this year great and I'll see you all next year, haha!

hugs,

Hermana Sessions

Photos, no mas .. so sorry!

I have no time this week, but I love you all so much and hope that you had a wonderful Christmas!!!! 

hugs,

Hermana Sessions

Hey everybody!

Since I won't get to email you all again until after Christmas I just want to wish you all a Merry Christmas! It's super weird being here in Chile celebrating Christmas in the summertime, but it's also a fun change! I miss wearing oversized sweaters, leggings, and boots.. and surprisingly enough, I really miss the snow. It just doesn't feel like Christmas here.

This week was super crazy! It went by super fast and I feel like not a ton happened. On Monday after we got done emailing, Hermana Ruiz and I kind of panicked about the spider situation and decided that it was probably necessary that we spray our house silly with raid and deep clean our room. We spent the rest of our day cleaning and spraying for spiders and then had a sleepover with the other hermanas at their house. It was super, super funny because we shared their bunkbed. Hermana Ruiz and Hermana Bailey slept on the top and I slept on the bottom with Hermana Ault. I woke up in the middle of the night and I had to pee so bad! I was sleeping on the inside against the wall, but I really didn't want to have to wake Hermana Ault, and I didn't want to try climbing over her and risk falling on her and scaring her silly, so I climbed out the end of the bunk bed over the foot post and it was the most painful thing ever. I really was so worried about how I was going to get back in bed and was just praying that I would find an easier way. To my surprise when I walked upstairs Hermana Ault was standing at the top because she had to pee too, haha! I was able to climb back into bed without any trouble.

This week we sang with the Stake Choir at the mall and for a Christmas devotional last night. We have had so many practices and have been singing so much that I have been having flashbacks to vocal ensemble and all the craziness that comes with the month of December. We sang four different hymns in Spanish and it turned out surprisingly well. We had a huge crowd at the mall on Saturday night and it was actually a really neat experience. We also had a ward Christmas dinner on Saturday night and sang 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen' in English with the other hermanas for our 'talent'. I guess they liked it, because they asked us to sing it again as an intermediate hymn during Sacrament.. and on Christmas we are going to sing 'Angels We Have Heard On High' in Spanish. 

Today is Hermana Bailey's birthday and the elders in our district went to a lot of trouble to plan her a surprise birthday party.. with our help. It was difficult though because they wouldn't let us in on the surprise so it was kind of stressful figuring everything out. They basically threw her a wedding with white balloons and a wedding cake in our chapel and printed out a bunch of Facebook pictures of her and her boyfriend. They called it 'Trunky 20th' or something silly like that. It was super funny and super weird, but it was kinda sweet of them at the same time!

I think that's all I have for you this week. I'm sure my email will be a a little more entertaining next week after Christmas and maybe I'll even know transfers by then!

I love you all so much and am super thankful to know each and every one of you! Merriest Christmas wishes! 

hugs,

Hermana Sessions

My Companion is Spiderwoman.. NBD

Well if I'm being honest, this week was a total blur. I'm having a super hard time remembering what happened and I can't believe it's already Monday again. I guess that's good, maybe.. time flies on the mission, it really does. I have 2 and a half weeks left in my training and after I'm just a normal missionary, que loco! 

On Tuesday morning Hermana Ruiz woke up with a super weird bug bite on her forearm.. it was just super red and she had these weird looking marks below that looked like someone or something had scratched her with their nails.. super strange! As the day went on the redness started to fade, but a blister started to take it's place and over time it got bigger.. we finally decided Friday morning that we should probably call the nurse, just in case. We ended up going to the clinic and found out that she had been bitten by a brown recluse!! AND SHE'S ALIVE. The doctor said that it's pretty common for nothing serious to happen, but it's also super common for something awful to happen, and usually the first 24 hours are super critical! She was super blessed, seriously, the Lord takes care of His missionaries. I'm low-key afraid to sleep now, but I'm sure I'll get over it eventually.

Wednesday night, we ordered food during planning and it was the best completo (hotdog) I have ever had and super, super cheap! I was such a happy, chubby little missionary, and I was still full when I woke up the next morning, haha! 

This week we went caroling with the elders in our district, haha! Each companionship chose a day and we spent a few hours in each sector knocking doors, caroling, and teaching lessons. It proved to be pretty awesome for the other hermanas and the elders and we got a lesson out of it as well so that was super good! We got permission to go to an island called Corral in the elders' sector and we took a ferry which was such a neat experience! We also ended up singing at a nursing home and it was super humbling. I felt so much love for the cute, little, elderly Chileans and the spirit was so strong as we sang to them.

We also had a lesson with our investigator “F” and her kids this week and were able to have her friend, who is a member, there with us. We retaught the Restoration and it went really well. We were able to commit them to baptism as well and we are super, super excited to help them progress! They are such an awesome family! The member who came with us was saying that she really feels like it's “F’s” time and so we're pretty stoked!

I'm totally out of time this week, but I love you all so much! Thank you for your constant support and prayers, and please know how grateful I am for all of you! I keep waiting for it to snow here for it to feel more like Christmas, but all we seem to get is rain.. on the bright side it's still summer, so I've still got a tan, haha! 

Okay, 'nada que ver' .. I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!

p.s. I'm still without a camera and couldn't get pictures off of Hermana Ruiz's this week so I'll try my very best to send them all next week! 

hugs,

Hermana Sessions

17 MIRACLES (..well amost)

WOOOOOO.. this week was truly full of miracles, like I almost feel like it's all been a dream. Where to even begin. After P-day ended last week we were able to teach one of our investigators, “V”, that we haven't seen in a really long time due to her studies and exams. We retaught the message of the Restoration and she was super receptive and we were surprised by how much information she had retained from the first time we taught her. She was practically reviewing the lesson herself. After that we had a FHE with “I” and her sister “R” who is less active. She just barely got out of the hospital because she had viral meningitis and we figured she could use a little company so we sang some Christmas hymns and shared watched the 'Ilumina el Mundo' video and read in Luke. It was super super good!

On Tuesday we had intercambios with the Hermana Lideres. Hermana Ruiz went to Los Encinos with the new Hermana Lider, Hermana Bernal (from Columbia), and I stayed in Angachilla with Hermana Norton! I was super excited to have another intercambio with Hermana Norton because she is just the coolest! I look up to her a ton! I was, however, super scared to lead our sector and be in charge for the day! It all ended up working out though, and we only got lost once on the way to a FHE in the other hermanas sector.. so I did alright, haha. Hermana Norton has such a fun personality and an ability to talk to everyone that just kind of WOWS me. I feel like I learn so much when I'm with her, and internally I'm standing there in awe with my mouth open while she contacts people and teaches! We didn't have any set lessons that day so we hadn't yet had any lessons for the day, so Hermana Norton suggested we say a prayer so that we could use the hour before the FHE to the max. We said a prayer and then passed by for an investigator and she and her husband (who we hadn't been able to meet yet) were sitting in their front yard. They invited us in and we taught the Restoration again with her husband present and it was super great! We actuallly have a lesson with them again tonight! Hermana Norton and I were super stoked, and our prayer had definitely been answered. 

I am actually almost out of time so I'm going to have to be super quick and leave out a ton of detail! Hermana Ruiz and I contacted a lady on the street who had just lost her job like maybe an hour prior and was super thankful to talk to us for a minute about the Savior and Heavenly Father's perfect plan. We had an FHE with our investigator “F” and her sons on Friday and it worked out super perfectly. We wanted to have it at a member’s house, but on Thursday night we still weren't able to get in contact with the member and thought maybe it wasn't going to work out. As we were walking home that night we saw the member in “F’s” house through the window and were able to make plans to have a FHE at her house the next night! It was too perfect. Earlier on Thursday we had a service opportunity with the other hermanas to 'cut grass' or rather, remove all the grass, for a little old less active woman. As we were removing the grass in her front yard all around her house some police officers pulled up and honestly we were pretty sure we were going to get in trouble.. arrested, possibly deported.. who really knows, but it turned out that they were just really impressed that we were out in the heat working so hard and wanted to take a picture with us to write an article about it in their 'police officer newspaper' or something like that. It was super weird and super funny!

Yesterday Hermana Ruiz and I passed by the house of a contact we had made a couple of weeks ago. We were able to go in and sing a Christmas hymn for them and share the 'Ilumina el Mundo'  video with them and their daughter. It was super, super.. just perfect and after they just thanked us because it was apparently exactly what they had needed. They had apparently just been through a pretty tough week of family issues and we were able to bring some light into their lives and really lift them up. They were super receptive and we have another lesson scheduled for next week. 

Seriously this entire week just felt like a dream, or maybe one big intercambio, I really don't know. But I really can't even begin to count how many times I've seen the hand of the Lord in the work this week. Heavenly Father really does know what he's doing. He has a plan, it's PERFECT, and sometimes we just have to be patient and keep working. I'm sure that this week we experienced way more than 17 miracles! I am still working on being more aware of the tiny miracles that happen everyday, because there really are so many! God is so good! 

I love you all so much! Keep working and keep praying and always remember that you have a loving Heavenly Father with a plan. He wants us to be happy and he wants to help us recognize the miracles, but we have to work hard and be obedient in keeping his commandments! I think we have it pretty easy if you ask me.. so don't give up, keep on keepin' on! He knows you, He loves you, and He's anxiously waiting for you to return to His presence!

..with soOoOooOo much love!

Hermana Sessions