September 11th in Chile

September 16, 2013

Ward Party Barbecue!

So this week was a great one.  Lots of random stuff but lots of great stuff too!

1. September 11 in Chile

In Chile September 11^th  is not a day that brings the country together in remembrance of a terrible thing that happened like in the USA.  Here it’s like crazy riots in the street and people die! So we had to go in at 6pm which was weird, but we had some crazy good companion studies so it was awesome. It was kind of frightening, but we live in such a nice area I think going in at 6pm was just to protect the other missionaries. 

2. Drug Peddlers

This week we got asked if we had drugs by someone who probably was on drugs. Yep that was a first haha he even asked us in English random huh?

3. Learning to Overcome Fears

This week I was playing some prelude music in sacrament meeting and the 1st counselor asked me if I could play the piano for sacrament meeting and asked me which songs I could play. I told him yes, but I was so nervous and my heart was in a knot the whole time!  I made it through the whole meeting alive and checked that one off my bucket list. Let’s just say I did make some errors, but hey I did it and I didn’t quit so maybe next time I wont shake the whole time and woke make errors. haha It was neat and it’s always a great feeling to finish something that was terribly frightening and come out alive.  It just goes to show that’s when we learn and grow, so I love doing things that help me grow 

4. I went on Splits

I  had the weirdest experience this week.  I went on splits to the area of our mission that is like the opposite of where I live and had some tough experiences that broke my heart.  We went to this one house that we did service at for like almost 4 hours cleaning and it didn’t even make a dent.  It was the oddest thing ever, there where holes in the walls and the smell was intense.  There were precious children of God living there and the mom was pregnant and on bed rest.  She just kept yelling the whole time it was awful.  We really are blessed and need to remember our blessings and thank God for what we have. We then went home way early cause the sister I was on splits on was sick.  I just felt so homesick for Hermana Leishman and the rest of my family Hermana Talbot and Hermana Rivera the whole time. I sure do love the Sisters I live with so very much!

P-day at Santa Lucia

5. Challenge from the Mission President.

We had our interviews from the mission president this week and he challenged us to read Mosiah 5:2-5 

2 And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually. 3 And we, ourselves, also, through the infinite goodness of God, and the manifestations of his Spirit, have great views of that which is to come; and were it expedient, we could prophesy of all things.
 4 And it is the faith which we have had on the things which our king has spoken unto us that has brought us to this great knowledge, whereby we do rejoice with such exceedingly great joy.
 5 And we are willing to enter into a covenant with our God to do his will, and to be obedient to his commandments in all things that he shall command us, all the remainder of our days, that we may not bring upon ourselves a never-ending torment, as has been spoken by the angel, that we may not drink out of the cup of the wrath of God. 

and find the 10 evidences of conversion. For example when it says in verse 2 they believed all the words that the prophets it’s like how you feel about the words of the prophet. Our mission president said to compare how you feel about the words of the prophets now to 2 years earlier. By this we can measure our conversion and in all these areas we can see where we have grown and how we can improve.  He also compared our growth to that of a tree.  Conversion is something you can really see - like as if you watched a tree grow every day. You can see the evidences of conversion like you can see the evidence of a tree growing green leaves, strong branches etc. It was a neat experiences so I challenge all of ya’ll to do that too!. 

This is the convenience store I was in when it got robbed!

Well love ya’ll so much and I just want to stress to ya’ll it is so important to strengthen your families and that the family is the most important thing.  I have seen so much hurt and just plain train wrecks on my mission cause people try doing the family another way - a way that is not Gods way.  Another thing I learned this week is that we need to judge people by judging their circumstances instead of them because we really don’t know what is all going on and just as we want mercy others want the same too.  We should be willing to show mercy to all. As I say this I am not perfect at that, but I know that we can change and I know that this church is true and that it is where we find joy!

Love yall

Hermana Jennings