p-day # 21

dear family,

I have so much to tell you all today!

Bad news first. Our baptism didn't happen. :( All week, I called jessica to make sure she was doing okay and that everything was still being coordinated so that it would go over without a hitch. And yesterday, as we were walking to pick up one of our investigators to bring her to church, i called jessica to remind her that she needed to bring the bag with all of the baptism clothing to church with her. Her husband answered the phone, so i told him what we needed, and then asked him how she was doing. ¨"um... wait just a second," he said. Jessica got on the phone, and I will never forget what she said to me. "hermana, I can't get baptized today. I've been thinking about it a lot, and I'm not ready. I still have too many doubts, and I want to make sure that I'm making a responsible decision. I'm so sorry that you have prepared everything but I just can't be baptized today." My heart literally stopped. :( I bore testimony to her that satan was just working so hard on her to get her to not take this step. that she is ready, and that she has her answer and that all of her doubts can be resolved because she knows that the church is true. But in spite of my testimony, she told me that she wasn't going to be at church and that she wasn't going to be baptized. i immediately started crying when i hung up the phone. because there was absolutely nothing i could do to help her. to support her and help her to realize that she is ready. :( it was so hard to keep going yesterday, but after a really strong prayer, somehow i was able to put it out of my mind and keep working. She didn't answer her phone later that day when we tried to call, and I am praying that she is not embarrassed or ashamed. Because she needs us more than ever right now. The super lame part about the whole thing is that she doesn't live in our area, so we can't just drop by to see her. i'd really like some prayers for her, if you all wouldn't mind. Jessica Moya.

But, other than that, our week was absolutely incredible. incredible. On monday night, we were knocking doors because all of our appointments fell through, and we got to this one that's really close to our house. a woman in pajamas came out... blonde haired blue eyed. That NEVER happens in chile. haha. i am like the only true blonde that lives in santiago, so i was expecting this woman to speak english! or to be really grumpy. haha. we told her who we are and what we were doing there... and she told us that her husband was home right then, but that she wanted us to come by on wednesday. We freaked out as we walked away. haha. it has been like the driest 3 months of the mission here. we haven't found like anyone new to teach for like my whole first 2 changes. And here is this woman, who lives 3 houses away from us who was so interested. Turns out she's from Brazil, and that she barely speaks any spanish. It is so hard to understand her because her Portuguese accent is SUPER strong. haha. But when we passed by on wednesday to follow up and teach her, she was waiting for us. we were like 20 minutes behind, and she was like "i've been waiting for you guys! i'm so excited to hear what you have to say!" it was incredible. we taught her half of the first lesson, because we had to speak a lot slower for her to be able to understand us. But she was crying and told us that she has been searching for God her whole life, but never found him in any church because none of them felt right. Ah! We're going to get her a book of mormon in portuguese, and we have an appointment to teach her this wednesday too. :)

Viviana Ulloa is a champion. seriously. We have been calling her every day in the morning to remind her to read her book of mormon and pray so that she can have the strength to go through the day without her pills. And yesterday, at church, she was just glowing. her daughter, Maureen, has been investigating the church for about 6 months now, and her mom has never come to church until these past two weeks. and yesterday, to see them together at church, both so happy was so precious for me. :) We had a family night with them AND Cristian, the dad, who never ever wants to listen to us. And he asked us if the next time we come by to teach the family if we can watch the testaments. We watched it with maureen like 3 or 4 weeks ago, and when it was over she was really emotional and couldn't talk. We decided we would just leave her to her own thoughts and ask her why she was so affected when we saw her again. Last night, when her dad asked if we could watch the testaments the next time we come, he told us it was because maureen had told him how incredible it was. And, THE BEST PART, maureen told us that because of that movie, she knows the church is true. This broken family is coming together because of the gospel. :) And when we left, I just screamed for a minute. haha. Because this is our purpose. To bring families together in the gospel. I am so excited.

And then, on Friday, we were knocking doors again. haha. i feel like all of my good stories start with us tracting. anyways, there was a group of little girls dancing outside their house. i was joking with my companion that i was going to run over and start dancing with them because i miss dancing so much. when out of nowhere, they ran over to us! the 12 year old asked "are you from a different country?" haha. i have no idea how she noted the difference... anyways, we said yes, and i asked her if she was asking because she wants someone to teach her english. she said yes, so i told her that she needed to ask her mom in order for us to say if we could. haha. her mom came outside, and as we explained that we were missionaries and that we love to provide service, her mom spilled that she, also, has never found god in any church, and that she loves him so much. She has a baby with acromelia... or the disease where there's water on the brain and the baby's head is super deformed. she invited us in to meet Flo, her baby, and we ended up setting up an appointment for this next week to come and teach them the first lesson too. the spirit in this home was incredible, as well! There is just something about finding families, and teaching families. We both did a little dance when we left the house... which was really embarrassing because all of the little girls ran out and saw us, and laughed while they told us that we were really pretty. haha. it was such a great day. :)

Then Saturday, we planned 3 hours of our day to go out to the pueblito. missionaries haven't visited this little run down part of the city for a really long time, and we have been searching for people who are more receptive... so we took a taxi out there, and it was like stepping into another world. seriously. i am going to take a video the next time we go out there. dirt roads, farm animals, houses made out of the wood usually used for the inside of houses, no numbers on the houses, wire gates in front of the houses... i had the craziest feeling while we were out there that i am in this sector because i was meant to work in this place. i can't wait to go back! so excited to show you this part of chile, because you're not going to believe it until you see it with your eyes. haha.

I absolutely love missionary work with all of my heart. yesterday, i gave my very first talk in church about missionary work. and i was so dang excited. :) I can tell that my confidence in my testimony is growing because i barely read any of it from my papers. I just spoke and shared scriptures, all in spanish. The second counseler had to stop me because i was taking too much time. haha. In three months, I have grown so much in ways that I never would have thought possible. I am so grateful for this mission, because I am someone so much better than I was when I left, and I continue to get better every day as i strive to be obedient and do what God would have me do to help these people that I love. :) Everyone should serve a mission. haha.

For that, we are going to start a program with all of the young men in our ward called "the army of the farfana". like the army of helaman, but with our young men. we are so excited! we're going to assign them to go out in companionships and visit less active members in our ward, and have activities and a captain moroni... i am so excited!

it's true that our lows are lower than we have experienced before in our lives. but we are so blessed to be able to see miracles every single day. There is nothing sweeter than sharing this gospel.

hermana spencer.

p-day # 20

dear family and esteemed fans :)

well, hermana krites is gone. And I have received a new companion from Cordova, Argentina. :) Her name is Hermana Cantero, and I love her SO MUCH!! Seriously, if you were to compile all of the attributes of a perfect missionary, she would have every single one. It's been a little strange because there are 3 Argentines living in our house now, and me. but my ear is becoming even more accustomed to listening to fast Spanish speakers, and my tongue is loosening up a little bit more. I still definitely struggle to say everything that I want, but she is very patient, and right now we're working on my accent more than anything, because i really just lack vocabulary, and we work on that while we're out walking around.

And we are working our little butts off. haha. I come home exhausted every single night because we have done so much work and walked as fast as we can in every single direction of our sector. We found out this week that it's even bigger than we thought it was, and that we have even more work to do. But we're both so excited because our sector is really rich in comparison to the rest of chile, and the areas that we discovered are pueblitos. a lot more humble. :) She is so organized, and we have been teaching 6 or 7 lessons every day, in comparison to like 4 maximum with hermana krites. We ended up teaching 31 lessons last week, and we even had 2 little meetings together to coordinate how we want to work as a companionship and goals we want to accomplish in this time together. It is going to be an incredible change. :) There is nothing better than feeling like you gave your complete all at the end of every day, and knowing that the Lord is pleased. :)

On tuesday, we went to visit one of our investigators that hasn't been progressing because she hadn't attended church... and she told us that she had started taking her prescription pain pills again, and stealing money to be able to get them... It broke my heart. :( we told her that this is where she is going to find the help she needs, and that we are going to help her every step of the way to overcome her addiction. We've been calling her every morning, and when we passed by again like 2 days later to invite her to the relief society activity and church, she, with tears in her eyes, told us that she is so grateful for our being worried about her, and that she wanted to come to both. we picked her up for the relief society activity on friday, and for church yesterday. :) and she stayed the whole 3 hours, and randomly, miraculously, found out that her uncle is in our ward. :) it was one of the sweetest experiences i have ever had. We have already begun to see life come back into her eyes, and I am so excited to be able to witness the power of the atonement heal this incredible woman. I love her so much, and i am so grateful that i have a companion who knows how to love the same way i do. :) we're going to put a baptismal date with her this week for the end of september to help her work towards something. :)

we also decided that we're going to start giving classes of preach my gospel to the youth here to help them prepare for their missions. I am super excited to get the youth more involved in missonary work, to excite them and help them realize that it's not all that hard to share your testimony with those around you. :) we're currently working with Oliver, who came home from his misson 3 weeks after he left... and we both felt like working with preach my gospel with him will help him have the enthusiasm and desire to work towards going back. he lit up when he realized that we had been thinking all about him, and that we are going to help him with the thing he wants most for his life. :)

We have a baptism this sunday!! I am so excited. Jessica Moya is 100 percent ready and so excited for her own baptism. We worked on invitations and assignment cards for like 2 hours on saturday night so that we can have everything all prepared and ready when sunday comes. :) it was absolutely insane at church trying to talk to everyone about what we need them to do, and finding the baptism clothes and everything, but it is going to be a beautiful baptism. :) Francisco, who we baptized about 2 months ago, is going to be baptizing her! ah. it is absolutely incredible to me that these people have completely changed their lives to accept this gospel, and have rock solid testimonies. It makes me emotional that the church started with joseph smith, but that by the power of the holy ghost witnessing to people through the lord's missionaries, the church has grown to where it is today. I am so grateful for this chance that i have been given to be one of those missionaries, and bring the spirit to these people. Our heavenly father has so much trust in every single one of us, and I am so grateful that I am fulfilling my responsibilities to bring others to the flock.

I love being a missionary!!!!

I hope you all have a wonderful week, and that you're all reading the book of mormon. every day. :)

hermana spencer.