A wedding, baptism, and unexpected phone call.

Feliz Thanksgiving!!!  It was quite a different thanksgiving for me.  haha, my thanksgiving dinner consisted in baby carrots and a crossaint. i think i actually lost weight this thanksgiving ;)

So, i´ll start with the unexpected phone-call and end with the happy news.  So, we were about to leave the house when suddenly our phone rings, it was a number that was unrecognized, the hna sambrano answered and it was a guy asking for me, when i took the phone, he told me that it was Elder Medina (aka, the elder from my 1st district that decided to stay in his mission)  I couldn´t have been more surprised to receive a call from him. So anyway, he tells me that he fractured his foot and has to return home for it to heal. :/   as he tried explaining more of course the phone randomly dies.  So i´m left without anwers, just super sad knowing that my good friend has to return home 1 year early from his mission. :(

But, i didn´t have time to linger in my disappointment, because....We were leaving the house to go to Jorge and Veronica´s wedding!!!!! :D

This week was crazy, opposition in all things exists, the government here is ridiculous, we didn´t know if they were going to be able to be married this week or not until the day before. and the funny (or not-so-funny in the moment) thing was that we were waiting all week to hear, and so Veronica calls us on wednesday telling us that they were going to be married on friday, we were so excited, and then the next morning they call to tell us that They started another strike and that the government buildings were closed again.    I´ve never prayed so hard in my life.  Finally after all our prayers and fasts, On Friday somehow everything worked out, and we went to their wedding!!!!   and Saturday Jorge was baptized!!! :D   It truly was a miracle.

I´ve never been happier than i was yesterday, sitting in church, next to Familia Melehauchun (they actually came to church with us!!!!!! :D   and watching Jorge recieve the gift of the holy ghost,  pure happiness :)

So basically, my life is perfect right now.  and its only getting better.  next week we have a conference with a member of the 70, so we get to travel to Puerto Montt!!! i´m gonna be in my sector for 3 days :D

i´m glad all is going well at home. Cuidense esta semana!  i love you all!

-Hna Hebdon

p.s.  mom - just a few notes, when i get home can it just be intermediate family in the airport? (and emma obviously)   

and for my homecoming please don´t worry about putting on something grand with a bunch of food, i´m good with something small and simple...

i really do want to move to Chile one day...

This is the Familia Melehauchun!!!, pricilia, Cony and Barbara (we didn´t plan the colors, we just arrived and all happened to be in the same color :)

Yeah, its summer here ;)

I'm still here!

Haha, only lindsey would miss her flight ;)   that ruined my day, i literally was counting down time on tuesday, 1 hour left, 30 minutes, ¨She´s home!¨ ¨what´s my family doing right now?¨ (i´m not trunky at all ;P )my companion was probably super annoyed. and after all that it was for nothing! because she didn´t arrive until Thursday. hahah bien.

so, Lindsey, one rule, you can´t get married until i´m home!!! so take it a bit slower would ya? ;)

ok, so this week we helped a sister paint her house, we arrived in a skirts cuz we didn´t have time to return home to change, so the sister lended me an old shirt but i had nothing to cover my skirt, but figuring we were painting the walls white and my skirt is the black and white one, no one would notice a few drops of white paint.  so we started painting.   i was doing so well until i climbed up on the table to reach a part of the wall.  when i tried to step down, my foot got caught in my skirt, pulling me down suddenly and i went tumbling to the ground, smacking into the freshly painted wall that i just painted, leaving half my skirt coated in white paint. hahah, so much for my great idea.    that might just be the one thing that i´m most excited for when i finish my mission, NO MORE SKIRTS!!! :)

This was a fairly stressful week, but all worth the pain.  Its the weirdest thing i´ve ever done in the mission:  Plan a marraige proposal.   yup, so if all goes well, Veronica and Jorge will be married and baptized this week (we´re still waiting to hear from the government)   so Jorge is a bit shy and just not the one to take iniciative, but in this case, Veronica told us that if Jorge couldn´t ask her to marry him she wouldn´t marry him. so thats when my companion and i decided to interfere.  so we planned a romantic dinner surprise for Veronica, Jorge liked the idea so we planned and did everything, he just had to show up in his suit and tie and ask her to marry him.  My companion did all the decoration and i made the dinner (chicken alfredo, it turned out amazing, and its something they´ve never eaten here before :)  the night turned out perfect and Veronica was more than happy.   i´m just glad that everything turned out after running around asking for help from members and last minute they always cancel and everything, but the important thing is that they´re gonna get married!!!!!!!!

Also, Valeska is determined to return to church and her 2 youngest kids are gonna be baptized Dec 12th!!!   

The Lord is working miracles in this sector! i´m so blessed to be here for the last 2 months of my mission, there is a LOT of work to do here!

I love you all!!!

-Hna Hebdon

Hola from Hermana Hebdon La Primera.

Yeah, I´m Hermana Hebdon la primera now :)  

So i´ve recieved bits and pieces of all the news that´s going on in the world right now and i decided i´m content living in my bubble here in my mission.  

Well, we´ve had good days and tough days this week.  So 2 months ago as we were walking to an appointment both my companion and i felt to knock on this one door, so we stopped and this lady opens the door, she was in a hurry but told us that she knows a lot about the church and to pass by another day.  Normally a contact like that we´d try passing by 2-3 times more and if they never answer or never let us enter we drop them.  But we passed by 6+ times, but felt super strongly to keep trying.  So this week we passed by again and her whole family was home and they let us in.  Turns out that Valeska, the mom has been a member her whole life but 12 yrs ago went inactive after her mom died. Her husband and 3 kids aren´t members but they all want to be baptized!!!  Its amazing how many families that we´re finding now that have desires to follow Christ and be baptized :)

If all goes well Veronica and Jorge will be married Nov 27th and Jorge will be baptized the 28th :)

Basically, the work is amazing in this sector!

Random story:  So we´re sitting in a lesson and as i´m talking i´m petting this cat that decided to sit in my lap.  The cat starts licking my hand and it felt cool so i let him keep licking me and suddenly, CHOMP, he bites my poor finger.  My companion just saw me flinch, and i kept talking calmly as i covered my hand trying not to let the blood drip on anything, so i finish testifying, ¨in the name of Jesus Chist amen..... can i use your bathroom?¨  and without them seeing the blood i get into the bathroom and clean up my wound.  haha, i didn´t want to tell this kind old couple that their cat bit my finger, so as we´re leaving i smoothly ask if their cat had to be vaccinated, they said yes.  whew, well at least i don´t have to worry about recieving 5 shots for this animal bite.   my luck is amazing.

Well, i´m loving it here!  its kinda sad, i don´t feel like its Christmas at all. i´m trying to get into the Christmas spirit but its kinda hard when its 90 degrees outside. haha.

Enjoy having lindsey home!!!

love, Hna Hebdon la primera ;)

p.s note to Lindz:  No puede olvidar su español! tiene que practicar cada día y seguir estudiandolo, tenemos que seguir hablando así por toda nuestra vida.  Si va a escribirme, solo puede hacerlo en puro español ;P  Gracias por todo lo que hizo en Peru! Te amo :)

Una semana enferma

Bien, so this week our summer started.  i´m not gonna say anything cuz i know Lindz is dying up there in Peru.  But I have gotten a lot of sun this week and it didn´t matter how much sunscreen i used, i still burned. dad should research it but something´s weird with the ozone layer here so the sun is 10x stronger here.   

So also, this week i got sick again (or maybe it was just too much sun...?)  haha, i was convinced it was just allergies but everyone touched my forehead and is all ¨you´re burning up!!!¨  and i´m all ¨no, i´m sunburnt!¨ but they wouldn´t take that for an answer and maybe I just let the fact that everyone was telling me that i was sick that it went to my head and the next morning i couldn´t get out of bed. but it didn´t last long. i´m all good now.   the only funny thing was trying to teach with my head buzzing and a bit loopy.  hahah   during the lesson, as we´re presenting the book of mormon i try explaining how the book of mormon and the bible support each other.   so i say ¨el libro de mormon y la biblia se oponen¨ (the BOM and the Biblia oppose each other) instead of ¨se apoyan¨ (support each other).   whoops, just a small mistake.....

So mom, familia Melehuachun are doing really well, we invited them for baptism and the 2 daughter already know that the church is true and the book of mormon and they want to be baptized but they want the support of their parents (namely their dad who says they have to be responsible enough to know that if they´re going to make this decision they can´t change their mind after and stop going to church)   so his worry is a good thing, basically we just have to show him that they´re gonna be dedicated.  The only thing that´s complicated, we feel that Coni doesn´t want to go to church because her mom´s not gonna go with her.  Her mom is inactive, but she goes to church when she visits Temuco.  She doesn´t go here because she feels offended that not one member accompanied her when her dad died.  But we have a lot of faith in this family :)

awkward story of the week......Dad, i need help with family history!  so it was District conference right, and i´m sitting there contently, listening as my mission presidente is giving his address, and suddenly he asks if the missionaries from Utah have pioneer ancestors, he looks directly at me and so i nod my head in response (but not quite sure in my head)   and he suddenly calls me to the pulit.  I about died.  So he asks me to share the story of my pioneer ancestors.  So i get up, racking my brain for a story but its only been 5 years or more since i heard the story of James Ritter Hebdon and to be quite frank 5 years ago Family history was not important to me at all so i didn´t really pay much attention to the story.   So in front of everyone i tell the bits and pieces that came to my mind (that i really hope are true becuase it might just be that my bad memory made it up....) I ended up just testifying of the pioneers and thanks to their sacrifice i have the gospel in my life. so i sit down and my companion tells me that that was super good and i´m all ¨yeah, i just hope its true!¨   haha and after the young women in my ward are all, ¨i didn´t know you could get any redder from your sunburn, but you were a pure tomato red as you were talking.¨ hahah, just great.

so dad, what´s the story about James Ritter Hebdon again?  (at least i remembered his name)

The Paro offically has ended!!!!!   so my email 3 weeks ago was a lie. The elders lied to us about the strike (hey i remember the word for paro!)   but now it really has ended and Jorge and Veronica are gonna be married!!!! we´re helping Jorge find a temporary ring and propose :D   (it was super embarrasing today trying on wedding rings in the streets. and of course the elder walked by right while i was trying the rings on.) 

but we´re so excited!!!! we´re planning a wedding!!!! :D

yup, and that´s my week! i love you all!

-Hna Hebdon la segunda  (and in 1 week more i´ll be the only Hna Hebdon :P

Surprise Baptism!

Ok, that Halloween party beats all, can they put that on again next year???

Well this week was one of the best and yet most stressful weeks of my mission!  Monday night when we visited with Nefi and his family (nefi is a niño, 10 yrs old, his parents are starting to return to church after many years)  Nefi has had a baptism date for Nov 7th for the past month. when we visited with them, his parents told us they both work that day and it´d have to be a different day, when we asked Nefi when he wanted to be baptized he said as soon as possible.  So i look at my companion, the wheels spinning in both of our heads, and we ask, ¨do you want to be baptized this saturday?¨  He eagerly agreed and the adventure began.   So we made sure with our District president and LZs that it was ok and started planning the baptism.    

    So, then 2 days before the baptism, after our district meeting our ZLs tell us that they talked with the APs, cuz the mission is being very careful about baptizing kids when their parents aren´t active in the church, and they told us that his parents have to be completly reactivated in the church for him to be baptized and the 3 requirements for that include 1. They have to have visiting and home teachers, 2. They have to have callings and 3. they have to pay their tithing.   So they tell us this 2 days before the baptism, (i was about to murder them, they knew 1 month ago that Nefi was preparing to be baptized, why they didn´t tell us weeks ago i´ll never know)   So as they tell us this we kinda just sat there in shock for 3 minutes, me imagining how we were supposed to tell poor Nefi that he can´t be baptized this week.  Then Hna Sambrano and i left to room to conspire and figure out a plan, we both agreed that Nefi sí o sí was going to be baptized in 2 days and that we could figure those 3 things out in 5 hrs (we literally had 5 hrs before the planned baptismal interview so we had to figure things out fast)   So we re-enter the room where the elders were waiting, but we entered completely changed, now smiling and happy, only filled with complete determination.  the elders were super confused as we calmly said goodbye then turned and ran out of the church, me snatching 2 tithing slips as we left,  to get going on things.    So to make a super long story a bit shorter, that whole day was filled with running around, calling people and after doing everything in our power to complete the 3 requirements but failing with the 3rd one cuz we don´t have power over that, i called the AP (which just happens to be my X-ZL) and convinced him to let us have this baptism.  After all the stress, he finally gave the ok.   We had talked to our district president and he truly believes that nefi´s parents are reactivating in the church so he was on our side (that helped a ton). 

So After the crazy week, we had a beautiful baptism!  Nefi´s sister, cousin and I sang, and all of Nefi´s family was there. 

Today was transfers but Hna Sambrano and I both stay here.  we couldn´t be more excited, now its 99% sure that i´m going to finish my mission here cuz this is Hna Sambrano´s last transfer so i obviously have to stay when she leaves.  There is so much work in this sector and we are finding so many amazing familys.   

Random fact, I have a new dream for my life...I want to move to the country, (or maybe Coyhaique) and live out in the rolling green hills, surrounded by snow-topped mountains and have a beatiful garden and animals and just be a farmers wife ;)  its so tranquilo and beautiful!

whelp, that´s my week :)  Life is great!  Mom, dad, you have to come to Coyhaique some day, there´s no place more beautiful!

love,

Hna Aubrey Hebdon