Attitude Makes A Difference

July 25, 2013

So this week was an adventure as always full of lots of great stuff!

1. I need a haircut....but I think I’ll wait for Siomaras mom to cut it next July..

This week I went on splits with the other sisters while our Sister Training Leader came to El Golf to go on splits with my comp. One of the sisters had the worst, like the worst experience with her hair cut. She wanted layers and she was left with pretty much a bowl cut slash mullet it’s the saddest thing I have ever seen. She has been growing her hair out for 4 years and in 15 min it was all gone except for a little bit in the back. The poor thing.  Ya I am in desperate need of a haircut but I really don’t trust anyone except Siomaras mom, so tell her that she is amazing and that I miss her and so does my hair haha and that I will come back speaking Spanish!

2. Sickness Strikes again

me and claudia my dear friend in our ward

So this week my comp caught a stomach flu and we were stuck in the pension for 1 day and a half.  It was the longest day ever!  It was nice we studied and watched some movies but there is like a flu thing going around here and I hope that I don’t catch it.My comp is doing much better and we are out working hard once again. 

3. Goal for this week- We can choose what type of attitude we want to have

me and a m and m sign hehe i had to take a picture with  this hehe 

This week I had the goal to choose to react to everything in a positive way even if it really wasn’t that positive and you  know what I had a fantastic week! Sure we had bad days for sure, but I decided to make them good days.  Like the day we waited in the registro civil for like 5 hours to find out we had to go to another one and just pick my comps carnet (visa) up. When we finally made it to the right place it was closed. Rough!   I was like hey it’s all good we are going to have a great day anyway and we did. Sure things some things don’t go our way and sometimes we fall down, but just get back up laugh at yourself and go on smiling.  That really is the only way to live life cause being grumpy just isn’t really fun. I also realized that the Lord is in charge and that we just need to trust Him and do what is right and keep the commandments and all will be well. I love being a missionary it is like the best thing ever and love teaching people about our Savior Jesus Christ. All is great here in this part of the world I hope all of ya’ll are doing so very well.

Love ya’ll so very much. 

you know just saving a life...ok being a goob....

Hermana Jennings

Trouble on the Bus

July 22, 2013

I just want to say that the Lord will put tender mercies in our lives when times are hard. I have seen that in my life this week. This week was hard, but I think we all have hard weeks but we can’t let weeks like these define us they are the past and we can determined to have better tomorrows. 

This week I had the chance to leave my sector and head out of El Golf the land of the Quicos.  I went to a different part of Chile and I felt like I had left America.  Where I am now is really no different than Atlanta – just another big city.  It was a good experience. I was in a trio for the splits cause my sister training leader is training 2 sisters and being in a trio is weird and hard. It’s hard to know when to talk but ya I am thankful to be with my companion. She is so great and we are good friends.  I just love her so much! She is really patient with me as I learn Spanish and helps me speak better.  This week was weird cause Spanish was extra hard and I was having a really hard time understanding, but today its going better. 

This week we got to go to the dentist cause my comp has a cavity.  When we were on our way home we were on a bus and I ran out of money on my bus card. We were like in the middle of nowhere so we got on and of course with my luck the bus patrol people got on  the bus also.  They scan everyone’s bip to see if you paid and if you didn't they kick you off the bus and you have to pay an 80 dollar fine! ... yes 80 dollars, what! So of course I hadn't paid cause my card had no money and they guy comes up and scans my card and it beeped indicating that I had not paid..... my heart dropped.   I am not sure what happened next but he passed by me.  At this time I was having struggles with Spanish and I was so confused. There were some Elders with us cause they went to the dentist too and the Gringo said that he let me slide for some reason,  my comp says it was because I put on my “gringo no comprendo”(this is really bad Spanish haha)  “face” bhahha! Ya I lucked out and said a prayer of gratitude after that. 

We finally found a place to live and its awesome cause it is in our same building.  Who knows if I will ever get to live there, but I’ll go where the Lord wants me to go the next transfers. The neat thing was that we started teaching our Realtor at one of our appointments and she is really interested. We are sending some missionaries to her house cause she doesn't live in our sector, but it was so neat there are missionary opportunities everywhere. 

This week was interesting; it was my first time that I ate something on my mission that made me so very sick.... like I could not leave the house sick!  It’s all good I am now going to turn down anyone that tries to give me seafood because  I so don’t want to do that again. Usually I love the food. 

I would like to end with my testimony of temples.  This week I have been studying the purpose of temples because we have been teaching lessons about temples.   I have really  felt the spirit so strong that the temple literally is the house of God and how important it is to  live worthy to enter Gods house.   It is important to be sealed to your family forever and I am of thankful for that in my life. I know families can be together forever through the sealing power of the temple. http://www.lds.org/church/temples/why-we-build-temples?lang=eng

Santiago Chile Temple
The temple lifts us, exalts us, stands as a beacon for all to see, and points us toward celestial glory.

Love ya’ll so much,

Hermana Jennings

I love the Book of Mormon!

July 15, 2013

So this week lots of adventures let’s see where to begin....

1. So Monday we went to see a recent convert and she had Cena her daughter with her which was amazing cause someone said that her daughter does not like us and would not accept visits at her house. Hey she let us in and we even talked about the gospel for a bit with her daughter.  We are going to go back today.  We asked if she was married as we did not want to make the mistake of not knowing again as one of our baptisms fell through because we assumed he was married – never assume. We asked for photos of her wedding like 200 photos later we were 100 percent positive they were legally married... yep haha 

2. This week we got to teach Jorge about service. It was neat cause we had an activity this Saturday called the CVD “Centro de Visitantes en la Capilla” where people come and tour the church and learn more about what we believe. It is a fun event and it was need to see that Jorge came and helped set up and then he came later to help out.  It was neat to see him applying what he learned and how that he has a desire to serve others and I love to see how the gospel has changed people. 

This is the instrument our converso Jorge plays it is bigger than me.....

i have decided to master it when i get home from the mission...ok just kidding haha 

3. This week I have learned a lot about families. I have had the opportunity to enter many different homes and learn from different families what I want in a family and what I don’t want to do with my family. We had some amazing talks in sacrament meeting this Sunday. They talked about how the family should be first.  This one brother told a story of a Stake President that had the job of picking up President Hinckley from the airport when he came to visit Chile years ago because he could speak English.  The speaker talked about how the Stake President studied the facts of his stake; like members that didn’t come to church, the number of baptisms and etc.  But when Gordon B Hinckley got in the car he did not ask about his calling he asked, “What is the theme for your family home evening this Monday?”, “Do you feel the spirit with your family as you have family prayer each night?”   The speaker then talked about how it is super important to put your family first and really teach them the gospel and love them because the family is the most important.  If everyone loved their family like they should the world would be such a better place. Another sister talked about how we need to unplug our lives electronically and always make sure that we don’t put our electronic toys before our children. I know that the family is ordained of God and that it really is so important to build strong families based on honesty, trust and love. 

Me and Claudia Ocampo she is a return missionary that comes 

out with us a lot i love her so much!!!!

4. There is power in the Book of Mormon. So this week every spare moment I have had I have read the Book of Mormon and it really has helped me get through times that are tough.  It is neat to be able to read it in Spanish. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that it truly testifies of Christ and that we can learn from the stories in the Book of Mormon and apply them to our lives to help us avoid making the same mistakes. I know that if anyone really reads the Book of Mormon with the intent to study it and then ask God if it is true they will know without a doubt that it is true!.

5. I think we finally found a new apartment so more sisters can come to El Golf.  It’s in our same building, which is awesome.  Now I hope that I can stay another transfer to get to live in it cause it’s pretty and I like it! I have been in my area for almost 5 months I think I’ll stay another transfer! I love this area and the people here are just like family!  There is a sister in our ward whose mom I call mom and she always asks about Lillers.  

No I don't get to drive - I'm just pretending.

All is great we are searching for new investigators and praying to be lead to people that are prepared. Love ya’ll so much!!

Hermana Jennings

Nemo loves being on a mission!

Baptism - Ultimate Joy!

July 8, 2013

So this week was very interesting to say the least like let’s just say everything went wrong that could have gone wrong. (this always happens the week before baptisms)

Earlier this week I celebrated 4th of July....ok let’s be real I totally forgot about it until I went to district class and they were all like happy 4^th!   I was like what? Oh ya its July..... where did the time go?  I only have like a year left of my mission.  Now I am freaking out cause time passes so very fast so use it wisely! There was a promotion at Johnny Rockets if you brought a gringo you could get 30 percent off haha!  We didn’t go but I thought that was supper funny.  Later that day we went to a members home and she gave us some mac and cheese, Kraft brand, I just about died and went to heaven cause I had forgotten about that.  I love the food here, but sometimes my body doesn’t but not important.

Me and Miranda -  she is the member that gave me mac and cheese for 4th! 

This week . . . Jorge got baptized!!! Before he got baptized on Friday he called us and told us he couldn’t get baptized.We were like what! So we rushed over there as soon as we heard (this was 30 min before his baptismal interview) and we went to see what was wrong.  He told us that his mom had called all sad that he was getting baptized while she was in Europe and that if he got baptized she would never forgive him.... We were like oh no, if he waits 6 weeks Satan  is bound to get to him cause lets just say this week was he-double hockey sticks for everyone and I can’t imagine what would have happened in 6 weeks more.... We finally talked to him and by the end he was like I know I am supposed to get baptized Sunday so all was well. We had another baptism planned for Sunday too but it fell through Friday for certain reasons. It was so sad and when Jorge called saying he couldn’t get baptized either we practically almost died, but in the end Jorge got baptized and it was the best ever! 

Anyways back to the story the Sunday of his baptism Jorge didn’t show up for sacrament meeting we started freaking out and called him ( we woke him up) he had gone to bed at 4am in the morning.  He came for the last two hours of church and then we finally made it to the baptism and it was an amazing experience.  The parts that were my favorite was when Jorge after his got baptized hugged Hermano Reijer and just cried he said it was a beautiful experience and that he feel so good!  It was so neat to hear of his testimony.  He talked about how 1 year ago times had gotten so bad that he did not have the desire to live and he tried to take his life,

The Baptismal Font Room

but he said that a force stopped him and he wasn’t hurt.  He said that now he knows that that was the Lord and that the Lord knew that he had a greater things yet to do in this life. It was so neat because his life has really changed so very much.  He really wants to do what is right and he is such a funny jolly guy.  It has been so fun to teach him and become his friend. All and all I am really grateful this week is over!  It was one crazy week full of lots of not fun stuff but I have a feeling that next week will be better.  In reality we had lots of really great times this week interspersed with all the bad.  Lesson learned this week -  so no matter how bad things get just look for and create good moments where you can smile and laugh.  Some of the things that really made my day this week were the people here they really are just some good people and i learn from them every day. I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to be in El Golf and meet all these people that have become my dear friends.

I really love my comp we really get along ahaha we enjoy singing titanic at the top of our lungs, singing off tune together and just having each other during all the crazy stuff that happens and it was so fun to have her as my comp during my first baptism.  I am really going to miss her if we ever get changed she is really funny and she has a powerful testimony and let’s just say I know I’ll always have a friend in Honduras!

All and all I am loving life.  I hope ya’ll are loving life too! Keep smiling and know that things happen for a reason and that God loves you and is aware of all that is happening in your life!

Love ya’ll

Hermana Jennings

I Love Little Children!

July 1, 2013

This week was a great week! So this week I finally got my carnet!( my visa). It was sure a trip getting there. It was like one of those times we took the long way (3 wrong buses later and lots of walking)  where we could have just hopped on the metro and gotten there in like 3 stops... ! Ya you learn from experiences like this, but it was fun because I got to see Hermana Willard one of my dear friends in the mission and we wouldn’t have seen her if we had taken the fast way= definitely a tender mercy of the Lord.

Spanish is getting better and better each day and sometimes I forget words in English...whoops. This week we went to a members house for almuerzo (lunch) and their family is super musical.  Their dad is in charge of EFY in South America or something like that so they translated the EFY songs into  Spanish and they said they are going to give  us a copy.  I am obsessed with it! That was a huge highlight because I don’t have any music in Spanish.

Transfers were this week so in district class we took lots of pictures and Nemo got to be in them! haha Ya he vacations all over the mission it’s funny.  Ya I love my district and we only have one person who left cause he went home.  I am so grateful that I get to stay in El Golf.  I just love it here and the people they are amazing! I am now scared that I will leave next transfer. I really don’t want to. 

Me and Hermana Silva and Nemo haha he is going to go home with her when she goes home to Columbia in November

Me and Elder Garcia de Peru

Me and all the Sister's in my Zone

My district minus Elder Carleson and Elder Palmer

Me and Elder Jardon

Me and Elder Aravena

My comp me and Elder Palmer who went home today

We still haven’t found a new place to live so we are still just 2 sisters living in a high rise in the city, but sometimes I feel like I am like fancy camping. haha   The closet rod broke and we live out of suit cases and I sleep in a sleeping bag every night hehe but we might be able to find a place to live for next transfer.

Santiago - Big City Missionary!

The little Chilean children love me heheh and I love them more!  One of them always is like Hermana Jennings haha Her dad told me that one day this week she was in her  carseat and she started to yell Hermana Jennings help me bahaha I laughed so hard! On Sunday we have a recent convert who has a son who is 3 and he didn’t want to go to Primary so he came to our class and he was kinda noisy so he sat by me and I showed him pictures in all of my pamphlets and in the gospel principles book so his mom could learn, cause that is what is most important. He was really cooperative with me and it was fun. By the end of the 2 hours of church he learned to fold his arms when we prayed and we led the music together in the back of Relief Society and he now knows how to shake hands. I was fun teaching him and one day I wants lots of kids cause they are so great!, but ya but not anytime soon.

We have 2 baptisms for this Sunday and I am so excited.  Our investigators are like polar opposites, but that just goes to show that the gospel works for everyone. Jorge is so funny he is just a funny guy.  He calls us every time he has read a bunch in the Book of Mormon and he was like, “I hope ya’ll don’t leave and he called to make sure we didn’t get transferred. He is always saying he is the black sheep of all the investigators but the change I've seen in him is incredible!  To see in a suit and a tie on Sunday was amazing and he hates ties. It is so true that the gospel of Jesus Christ really changes people.  Ruben is our other investigator and he is an older gentleman and he is so studious and loves the gospel so much.  He really is solid they both are and it is so fun to have the privilege to teach them. They are so solid and they never question anything we taught them.  They have a testimony and they accepted all the commandments of God and they just want to change for the better.  They are inspiring to me and lots of other people.

This week we went to my grandma’s house (my Chilean grandma)  don’t worry Grandma
Emery you still are my number one grandma love you!!  She is so precious she calls me her nineta and I call her my abuela it’s the best.

My comp is the best!  I really love her and we have a good time together she calls me her “freakin’ gringo” it’s so funny. We are always swapping stories and she is hilarious.  We love to sing that song from Titanic, that Celine Dion sings, out loud as we walk home every night.  It’s so funny. haha  Ya I learn from her each day and we love El Golf.

Me and Soledad 

I know that being a missionary is the best ever and that I know that this Gospel is true.  I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that he died for us and that through him we can repent.  I know that the Atonement is real because I have felt its cleansing power in my life. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that it testifies of Christ.  I know that this Gospel is true and that we have a living prophet today Thomas S  Monson and that if we persevere we can live with god forever with never ending happiness.

Hermana Jennings

So this week we needed more Books of Mormon so we got this box of 32 and it was so freaking heavy and we carried it all the way home and these are the pictures of us being so tired hahaha