The Mission is Always an Adventure.

I honestly don´t even know where to start. a TON has happened, i´m emotionally exhausted. my emotions have been pulled in every direction possible the past 2 days. quite literally.

So first off, I´m off to Valdivia, one of the most north sectors in our mission. with i don´t remember her name but she´s latino. apparently she just finished her training so she´s relatively new. which will be interesting cuz i still haven´t had a normal schedule becuase i went straight to training so i´ve never left to proselyte in the morning...  and guess what, Hermana Palma is my hermana lider! (if she didn´t get transferred...)  I don´t really know how i feel. i´m excited to go and work in a new sector but then i almost break down every time i think of the people here. i´ve come to love them so much. after 6 months the people in the ward literally are family to me. and my district has been the best district ever, i can´t even express how much hermana Rhees and the elders have helped me.

Ok, i´ll start with the weird story of the week, if you´re not tired of reading this yet.  so this morning, i´m having the best dream of my life, i´m super comfy in bed and a sound starts tugging me out of my dream, in my head i´m all ¨oh the soothing sound of air conditioning¨ (it really did sound like that), and the spirit in my head is all ¨dude, you´re in Puerto montt, they don´t have air conditioning¨ so i´m all ¨well someone´s washing their car¨ and the spirit´s all ¨at 5 in the morning?¨   so finally i gave up the fight with the spirit and threw my covers off.  and stepped out of bed into 2 inches of water!  literally our whole house was flooded with water.  luckily we had that other smaller leak in january so we had learned how to turn the water off.  so at 5 in the morning we were using brooms to sweep the water out of our house.  its a mess.  everything is soaked. and with transfers this week its even worse cuz i have to pack but all my clothes, shoes and such are wet (that´s what we get for leaving our clean bag of clothes on the floor for 3 days)  so this´ll be fun.  so we can´t get ahold of our landlord so we still don´t have anyone coming to fix this so we´re gonna be without water for a day or two. the missionary couple came down and brought a bunch of fans so now all we can do is wait. 

So yesterday, i sang in church, savior redeemer (but in spanish), then right after church we had a baptism for a investigator of the elders in which i had to sing again, a mix of when i am baptized and i feel my savior´s love.  both went really well and helped bring the spirit super strongly.  The baptism was beautiful, i haven´t felt so much joy in a long time. just pure happiness.

right before the baptism Julio, an investigator that we found and now the elders are teaching him showed up.  there´s a long story with him.  3 days ago he randomly showed up to the church as we were all getting ready to leave after english class.  he was super nervous and so the elders took him aside and talked with him.  he left the room for 2 minutes to go to the bathroom and the elders are all ¨you need to leave now! go!¨ so we ran out of the church not knowing what was going on.  when we got home that night the elders called us.  apparently Julio had come to the church to express his love for us.  He had fallen in love with us and said he wants to marry me.  unlike the other stockers i´ve had this just broke my heart.  We´ve been trying so hard to help Julio and I really thought we were helping him to recognize that God exists.  He has a really sad life and backround and no friends.  So the elders told him about transfers (which i think it was a terrible idea) cuz that´s why he came to church yesterday to talk to the elders because he literally was in a state of depression with the idea that me and Elder gomez, his 2 friends in this world are suddenly leaving. he wouldn´t even talk to me because he was so depressed.  My heart broke, i wanted to help him so badly but i didn´t know what to say that would help him. it just seemed better to be silent.

So he left quite suddenly after the elders forced him to say goodbye to us. and i broke.  we talked with the elders for an hour, a super spiritual experience that words can´t describe.  but at the end of elder gomez´s pep talk elder medina, who is just finishing his training suddenly spoke up.  So this is another long story, sorry.   so about a week ago one of the elders got in a fight with elder medina, so elder gomez calls us and tells us that elder medina was locked in his room crying and he´s been really struggling all throughout his training and what the other elder said to him just cut him to the core.  So elder gomez prayed and asked God what he should do, how he could help elder medina and he got a super strong impression to call us.  So he just told us he didn´t know what we could do but just try and help him.  so we were a little confused but we told him we´d do our best.  so then the next week, i had forgotten about that. and one day while elder gomez was helping hermana rhees with spanish i started talking with elder medina, not thinking anything of it.  he told me some of his worries and so we talked and i just said what i could to encourage him and help him.   so then back to yesterday, elder medina suddenly speaks up, cuz we just had this little pep talk and i´ve felt a bit discouraged.  and he told me that apparently he hadn´t told anyone but he was planning on returning home this transfer, he had given up and didn´t want to serve his mission. but apparently what i said to him that night changed his mind and now he´s staying out in the field and excited to serve his mission.   

It blew me away, how the Lord used other people, he used me to help someone else.  Elder Gomez´s prayer was answered and somehow the Lord used me to convince elder medina to stay.  It was the most powerful thing of my life.  Elder Gomez was super emotional when he heard this too and was all ¨i knew i felt that you could help him¨.  

So the lord works in mysterious ways. (especially because its in the white bible not to give counsel to missionaries of the opposite sex and i obviously broke that rule in this situation, but it was what the Lord wanted apparently)  I haven´t seen much progress in my investigators here but i´m leaving this sector knowing that i had a grand impact. because elder medina is going to stay and he´s going to help a million people on his mission.  I´m so thankful that i´ve been able to be a tool in the Lord´s hands to help others

So my other moment of pure joy yesterday was when viviana, my best friend here, who was baptized one month before i got here, told me that she´s going to start her mission papers in march!  i´ve been trying so hard to encourage her and animate her to go :D

So here´s my novel for the week. the next two days are going to be crazy trying to say goodbye to everyone.  wish me luck!  i love you all!

-Hermana Hebdon

1 week left.

i´m kinda freaking out. we only have one week left before cambios and its almost certain that i´m gonna get moved. sad day. i love this sector with all my heart!

So we just got back from a paseo to volcan something i have no idea the name of it.... but it was so great. i´m exhausted we hiked for 3 hrs. i´ve missed hiking so much.  i get to walk a lot on my mission yes, but i don´t know there´s something super relaxing in hiking with all the nature around us.  perdon mi inglés no sé si tiene sentido. haha. my mind right now is dead. i´m so tired....

so my fail of the week:   so i broke my plaque so i bought super (como super super) glue to fix it. so we´re just sitting at the table, giving the elder our numbers for the week over the phone, while i´m trying to open this tiny bottle of super glue. and suddenly it explodes! there was super glue everywhere! and i was just kinda in shock and hermana rhees is all ¨wash your hands! wash your hands!¨ so i run and wash them in cold water....super bad mistake. the glue hardened in an instant.  literally my fingers were glued together, and my ring was glued to my finger.  i couldn´t get them apart for the life of me.  literally when i tried i was ripping my skin off.  so there was nothing to do so i went the whole night with 4 fingers on my right hand.  super smart.  the table is still coated in super glue too.... 

the work has been a little slow, we´re working super hard cuz i ain´t leaving this sector without success. i know we can have éxito!

well i love you all! take care :)

Hanging in There!

Well hello mi familia!

So, dad, that´s really cool that you´re helping that lady with her genealogy, as missionaries they´re always trying to get us to use it when contacting people because it can catch their interest really fast.  i can´t believe that its that warm in Utah, everyone here´s always asking what its like during winter in Utah and i guess i´ve been lying when i said its pretty cold with snow...

I can´t believe Brynlee´s walking! that´s impossible, she´s still a tiny newborn to me.

so transfers are in 2 week and yes i am quite terrified & positive that i´m going to be transferred. :(  its almost positive. but honestly there are some really strange transfers here so i have faith that i can stay here one more cambio. i hope! i love this sector and my ward with all my heart!

Well it was another interesting week but we´re keeping up our animo, honestly at this point i feel like teh world is on my shoulders. i have to maintain my animo/determination or everthing/everone´s gonna fall.  i have to be strong for Hna Rhees who´s still struggling a bit, i´m even trying to help all of the elders maintain their faith. i´ve never seen them so discouraged before, all 4 of them.  so basically by the goodness of God i´ve been able to keep up my energy to suppor our whole district. i pray i can keep it up....

Awkward moment of the week: (for a first I didn´t do anything)  we were buying groceries on monday, Hna Rhees was puishing (more like pulling) the shopping cart.  i turned around for 1 seconds and hear a huge crash behind me. i turn back around and Hna Rhees had ran the cart into a shelf of soda pop and 3 big bottles fella off, & 1 exploded all over the place. literally there was soda all over the floor.  and Hna Rhees is just standing there with the most priceless face of my life.  so i was the one that had to go and try to explain what happened and as i´m offering to pay for it the worker is all, in english ¨just go, go¨  so yup, we turned and got out of there as fast as possible.  haha it was so embarrasing. 

We had another really embarrasing story that yes, was completely my fault. but honestly it would take 3 hrs to write so just know that i struggle at life. In a nutshell, I can´t recognize faces at all. And I thought that 3 different people were the same 1 investigator therefore causing a terribly uncomfortable moment for me (for the record it was a new investigator so we had only met with her once).  so i need to learn how to remember faces, i don´t know exactly how to go about learning this but its kinda necessary.

well i love you all! take care this week! & keep smiling :)

-Hna Hebdon la segunda

Creepers

Hola mi familia!

so this morning we woke up to a HUGE thunderstorm! :) my life is so happy right now, i´ve missed thunderstorms with all my heart.  It may rain practically everyday for 10 months of the year but rarely is it accompanied by a thunderstorm. i couln´t even study this morning, i was just staring out the window for an hour straight :)

We had zone conference this week with President Obeso and 3 other zones. I love zone conference, we got to have lunch with all the missionaries and our animo is back up.  My zone leaders had a part in the conference and they surprised me by calling me up to give my testimony.  they would do that to me. gracias elderes. but it was actually great to be able to share my testimony with all the missionaries and presidente.

So latest news....our creeper now wants to be baptized.  it literally is always the last person that you think that ends up progressing.  So we had this creeper about a month ago that i didn´t tell you guys about cuz i didn´t want to worry you. but now that the situation´s dramatically changed i guess its alright.  so Hna palma and I contacted this guy a while ago and taught him just once, he started coming to english class and was a bit strange. he asked me for my address in Utah and i tried explaining i couldn´t give it to him but he doesn´t understand the word no, so i gave him a fake address just to please him.  the when we sang at the plaza for christmas he randomly shows up, telling us that we need to go with him to the registro civil (i don´t know why.. but one of the only things you do there is get a license to be married......)  so the elders then interfered luckily and got him to leave. so we were a bit freaked out.  Then that sunday he stocked us to church, we avoided him like the plague.  So to make a really long story a little shorter, he continued to stock us to church but for the past 3 sundays he hasn´t even tried to talk to us. so the elders talked to him and he´s interested in the church and wants to be baptized.  So basically the mission is very unpredictable.  who knew.  stocker becomes convert, thats one for the books.  

and now the elders are telling me that i need to find more stockers so we can get more baptisms.  well, i might just be completing that goal.  yesterday i had the most awkward lesson of my life.  some 70yr-old man wants to be my boyfriend. so maybe if i invite him to church he´ll come... he asked us about the church so as i start teaching him every 2 seconds he´d throw in random questions or comments so here´s our conversation in a nutshell:

¨We believe that God has restored the true church on the earth¨

¨do you have a boyfriend?¨

¨no, we don´t have boyfriends for this time so we can completely focus on our mission¨

¨so you don´t have a boyfriend?¨

¨no¨

¨Because you´re a missionary that means you´re perfect right?¨

¨no, no one´s perfect¨

¨no, you´re perfect¨

¨no, i´m definitely not perfect, but i´m trying every day to become more like Christ and follow his example¨

¨but you´re a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ, you´re perfect¨

¨no one is perfect, but with the atonement of Christ we can be clean from our sins and strive everyday to become better¨

¨Your eyes are so beautiful, they´re almost green¨

¨can we leave with a card, this has a internet site where you can find more info about our church, but it was good to meet you bye!¨

So yup, I ended that one suddenly, i was so done it wasn´t even worth trying to teach him. hahaha, just another typical day on the job.  (please family don´t worry, we´re perfectly safe here) however, i am considering dying my hair black and getting brown-colored contacts.....

so yup, my week was quite interesting.  mom, i love those scriptures thanks!  well dad, yes sadly ground-hog´s day doesn´t exist here but if it did, the groundhog definitely wouldn´t have seen his shadow cuz of this huge storm we had, so maybe this signifies only 2 weeks left of summer.....hopefully not.

Curtis and Mindy, Addie is adorable!!!! there aren´t even words to describe!

Andrew and Jenny, i got your package and it is long gone! thanks a ton, those cookies are to die for! just send me a pack of those every week and i´ll be happy :) 

well i love you all! have a great week!

Hermana Hebdon la segunda