Hola from Coyhaique.

SS Ok, sorry i was so down in my last letter, i just wasn´t expecting transfers at all.  But i know that God knows better than us.  I absolutely LOVE Coyhaique!!!!!  its not like any of my other sectors in many different ways.

first off, I´m free from the rain!!!!!!! :D  whohooo!!!!  no more rain!  at least not nearly as much.  there´s actually sun here! and even though we´re super far south, the temperature is actually super nice.  but apparently the ozone layer is broken here or something like that so there´s a lot of radiation, so i might just return home with cancer, but its all worth it right? There´s sun, that´s the only important thing! and the weird thing is that the people told me that here during the summer the sun rises at 5am and sets after 11:00pm.  that´ll be a nice change :) easier to wake up and easier to work at 9:30 at night! 

Its sooooo pretty here!  its more out in the country (my type of place) :) surrounded by rolling hills/mini mountains.

The people here are so welcoming! I´m gonna love this branch that i´m in!

My new companion is Hna Sambrano from Peru!  from huanuco (no idea where that is in Peru)   but she´s amazing, i love her to death!  she´s trying really hard to learn english, so she´s also helping prep me to return home so i can actually communicate with you guys ;)

so today we went on a bit of an adventure to take pictures and such, so there was a beautiful look out, but i wanted better pictures so i climbed over the lookout deck.  went i went to climb back up, i swung my leg up and hit some weird metal thing that was there.  i didn´t think to much about it, even though it did hurt, and literally, while sitting here i just realized my leggings have blood stains running down them....uhmm whoops....haha  but the pictures turned out super cool, so its all worth it!

so a picture is worth a thousand words right?  right. so i don´t have to say much today cuz i sent billions of words with all those pictures i sent.

i love you all!  please stop going trunky on me! 

- Hna Hebdon la segunda

i don´t know if you can see in this picture, but my shoes completely died, they lived a good life

this was viviana´s house.....

(i think my hair´s grown a bit) ;)

I feel like this is a shot from the princess bride or something....

the hills are alive with the sound of music.  (i seriously sing that song 24/7 here)

This is my sector, its Huge!!! 

did you guys see the full eclipse??? (this is the best that my camera can do, but it was sweet!)

and this is the fail moment when i hit my knee on the weird metal thing

scripture power! 

she just radiates pure joy!

An unexpected and unwelcome surprise.

Well this week was full of extremes, super amazing moments and some very terrible moments too.  lets start with the bad shall we?

So, i was thoroughly convinced that i was going to finish my mission in puerto montt, so convinced i wasn`t even concerned (or even thinking) that it was transfer week.  So we recieve a call from my DL this morning telling me i`m off to Coyaique.  The city every one jokes about because its so south, so cold and the people there are .,....different (i`ve heard)   so, wish me luck.  i`m prohibiting my mind from thinking. cuz i don`t want to think about the sector i`m leaving behind.  just yesterday we had our weekly planning session and i was saying that i`ve never seen so much progress and never had so many people ready and excited to be baptized.  We were going to have a ton of baptisms this next transfer.  so i just need the faith that its not important if i`m there to see them.  So this time i`m shutting off my heart and mind so it doesn`t hurt when i leave.  It may just be better to leave without saying goodbye.  Why didn`t anyone ever tell me that the hardest part of the mission is leaving an area and people you`ve come to love so much?  I`m sure there`s a lot of success to be found in Coyaique  (i think i jinxed myself cuz in my last letter i prayed i wouldn`t have transfers cuz i have way too much stuff to pack and now i`m off to coyaique where i can only bring 1 suitcase. funny. :P)  

Ok, enough with that, you get the idea that i`m still a bit in shock.   so the other thing that happened this week, one morning as we`re getting ready we got an unexpected phonecall from viviana (my best friend from Portal)  telling us that her house started on fire and the majority burnt down.  Fires are common in Puerto montt but its never affected someone i know before, it was heartbreaking to hear her tell me this.  I`m mainly scared for the reaction of her mom, who`s emotions aren`t always stable and she was just starting to improve cuz she opened a bakery in her house, but yes, her bakery burnt down too.  so pray for Viviana and Rosa.  we got permission to go see them today so i hope i can help encourage and animate them.

and with all that, lets focus on the good....

It was the best week of my life!!!!!!!! :D  en serio!   Gina`s baptism was hermosa!  It was perfect she was like an angel dressed in white.  we sang her favorite song, how great thou art, and it turned out super good (God answered my prayers there cuz i was starting to get sick but gave me the voice to sing for her baptism, haha and next day i woke up completely without a voice)    But anyway, it was the best day ever, Gina was radiating with joy.  there just aren`t words to describe this moment that i`ve been waiting to see my whole mission.

after the baptism we had the big celebration for 18.  I LOVE CHILE!  why isn`t the US as cool as chile?  the party was so much fun, and the dancing.  Hermana Oross and I were dying that we couldn`t join in and dance.  

This week truly was a week of miracles, there might have been bad moments but opposition in all things right?  we saw so many miracles, i believe more people stopped us on the street than we stopped them, we have so many people that want to hear our message, that want to be baptized.  At least i know i`m leaving this sector stronger than before, that`s success in the mission.

My fail moments:

1. They asked me to conduct the music in sacrament meeting and without thinking i said yes.  so i get up and as i try to lead the song, literally nothing came out of my mouth cuz i have a super bad cold.  so i waved my hand in the air and mouthed the words cuz only weird groaning/screeching sounds came out of my mouth...

2. We were climbing the mountain of a hill to leave one sector and i slipped, catching myself with my hands on a huge rose bush.  so i sat there the next 3 minutes picking huge thorns out of my hand.

3. we ate 4 completos (aka, hotdogs with a bunch of toppings) for lunch, we were joking with the Hermana who gave it to us that we were going to start out diet.  then only 3 hrs later we had been visiting people with another member who decided she needed to buy something quickly in the supermarket and since we were with her and were going to go to another appt we went with her.  and we lost her in the supermarket.  so we were standing there awkwardly wondering what we should do so we decided to buy a thing of ice cream.  so as we`re waiting in line the hermana who gave us our giant lunch suddenly turns around asking how our diet was going.  haha.  we had to explain why we were there so she didn`t think all we ever do with out time is buy and eat food. hahah

4. we were leaving from an activity in the church and decided we wanted to run home.  so we started running and it felt so good i started running faster and faster.  So right as my companion yells out ¨be careful!¨  i hit a rock went sprawling to the ground.  I get up quickly and the same hermana from the story with the ice cream and completos was there watching with her whole family along with mario and graciela from the ward portal.   I was ok, my wrists were just a bit sore the next day, it was only my pride that was hurt. haha.

So yup, there`s my novel of a letter, mom, DON^T send me a package for Christmas, i`m going to be in Coyaique, i won`t recieve the package until the day i finish my mission. haha, 

well, i love you all, hope all is well! wish me luck.  i`ve learned not to question, just do.  If i question why i have to leave this area that i love with all my heart then i`m questioning the will of God.

¨If you want to make God laugh, show him your plans¨  that´s my motto.

-Hermana Hebdon

Shopping spree!

Hola a todos!

Well, i´m glad you survived Hawaii mom. haha, sounds like quite the adventure.  

so this week i don´t really remember what happened....it was so long ago...

well, dad, i was finally able to withdraw money! whohoo!  and it might have been a mistake. hah...uhm, lets just say i´m praying i don´t have transfers again cuz i have no idea how i´m gonna pack.  Angelmó has anything and everything and so we went there today to get a few souvenirs (cuz its better to buy now while prices are lower before tourism season).  it was the hardest thing of my life not to buy everything. but i´m done buying things for good.  (so this is a i´m already using the christmas money that i may or may not recieve... ;)

We went to Chiloé this week.  it was great, i love traveling way too much.  4 hrs there in a bus, i definitely slept the whole way there and back :)

On Friday the elders in Portal del Mar asked us to sing a special musical number for their baptism, so it was a wonderful excuse to go back to my old ward :)  Gina came with us with her son Franco and i got to see everyone there.  We took advantage when Gina was off talking to other members to talk to Franco (he´s 9 yrs old) to see if he has any desire to be baptized. he said yes, so we made a deal that he has to stay and listen to us when we´re teaching his mom. :)   

Gina had her baptismal interview and passed with flying colors :D  so everything´s ready for the 18th!   it´s going to be the best day ever.  the 18th of september is the biggest holiday here, its independence day for them.  so we´re gonna have Gina´s baptism in the morning and in the afternoon have the grand Sept 18th party for the rest of the day, its a pretty good way to celebrate her baptism :)

Its been amazing to see this change in Gina, how the gospel truly has blessed her life.  so no i have this renewed strong desire to help everyone we teach to have this change in their hearts, a change that truly brings happiness and joy into their lives.

whelp, that´s about it.  I love you all so much!

I guess I should write something.

Hola a todos!

well, there´s not much to say and not much time.  but this week was amazing work-wise.  we found so many new investigators this week, it was amazing! i´ve never had so many people to teach before.  :)  its amazing how fast time flys by when you´re busy working.

so, we had interviews with Presidente this week.  but it was a little different.  He came to our house with Hermana Obeso and the Zls to inspect the house, i think our inspection failed cuz we have to move. so we´re in the process of looking for a new house.   and we always failed cuz i believe our ZLs are gonna hate us now.  hahahah, so our door is somewhat broken, and we have to slam it super hard for it to shut, so as they leave, Hna Oross slams the door, but it didn´t work, so with 3 times as much force she slams the door right as Elder sandstrom turns back to ask something and in the process points at something in our house, and yes, Hna Oross slams the door with all her might, smashing his finger in the door.  He just says in a voice of pain ¨its ok, it didn´t hurt¨  and quickly walks away, leaving Hna Oross there in a state of shock with what she just did and me (though i shouldnt´ve laughed at his pain), dying of laughter for 10 min.

So we´re off to Chiloé this week for intercambios! I can´t wait!

and that´s about it.  well, i love you all tons!

Crazy week!

So when Curtis told me in his letter to ¨Sprint to the finish¨ i don´t think he knew i´d take it so literally. haha.   this week was soooooo crazy and i´m exhausted. i´ve never been so excited for P´day.  all i´m gonna do today is sleep.

We had 4 exchanges with the hermanas this week because we were already 2 weeks behind because my companion came late in the transfer.  So we literally were running from place to place everyday this week. My poor companion was living in a suitcase cuz she was always staying with the other hermanas while i lead our sector.  But it was super fun cuz i was with all the newbies. I miss training, its so much fun to work with the greenies cuz they have so much animo but have no idea how to do things :)

Gina´s still going strong.  3 weeks until her baptism!  Yesterday we had an interesting experience with her.  she arrived at church a bit late and when i greeted her and asked how she was she said ¨scared¨  but she wouldn´t tell me why until our appt with her that night.  so when we went she told us she saw a video that scared her and made her question everything.  so she showed us 2 min of this video that´s on youtube and i about died of my mix of emotions.  it was the session in the temple.  the whole session.  I can´t believe someone could do that, i almost started crying just seeing how terrible the world is, how they can play with something so sacred.  it was hard for me to overcome this fear that Gina would change her mind about everything, but she´s amazing, a real testimony for me.  she´s stronger than the adversary. and after much testifying and a lesson truly guided by the spirit she accepted it and understands that its something she´ll understand when the moment is right.

whelp, i don´t really have too much to say this week, probably cuz i´m brain dead. that´s one thing i´m learning in my mission, is how to think of and do million things at once.   leading my sector, focusing on the needs of our investigators and less-actives, figuring out when and where to do exchanges, what the hermanas need and how to help them, doing everything our ward leaders are asking, looking for a new house (we have to move for security reasons), and managing 3 separate funds and how to use the money and how much we will need.  i´ve never had so much on my mind.  so yes, i feel like i am ¨sprinting to the finish¨, but of course i can always sprint faster and give a little more! 

random fact:  so i failed at managing the money this month  because they gave us the money for traveling in our sector late, so i had to use money from my funds for food and now i´m broke and it just so happens that there are 5 mondays this month so we don´t recieve money for 1 more week....and we literally only have rice and oatmeal in our house. haha, so i guess i´ll just starve for 1 week...or fast...every day...

other random fact:  After correlation with our Leader misional we decided to stay in the church for the last 1/2hr of the day to prepare a special musical number for the elder´s baptism the next day.  but our mission leader was concerned for our security the fact that we´d be alone in the church at night.  so he told us to lock the gate after he left.  so we lock it, practice our song and as we go to leave we couldn´t unlock the gate!  we were there for 15 min trying everything to unlock it but nothing worked. we were locked inside the church grounds.  so we had to call the elders to come free us.  they arrived 15 min later and we were just sitting on the ground doing our daily planning session.  haha. fail.

whelp, i love you all tons! i hope you´re enjoying hawaii mom & cas.

oh hey mom, haha, you told me in your email that the basement was a bit behind schedule becuase cassi was there with the kids, but hasn´t the basement been behind schedule for the past 6 years??? ;) 

Have a great week!

-Hermana Hebdon la segunda