Con Amor, Hermana Luna: Week 55

correct mailing address is:

Hermana Kayla Moon

Misión Chile Santiago Norte

Maria Graham 312, 8420164 Recoleta

Region Metropolitana Santiago

Chile

Friday 9 December 2016--It's so crazy how much I adapt to those around me. Happy transfers!!! And happy it HAS been. I'm still here in Los Andes and introduced one of my old companions *drum roll please* HNA MOLINA to Primer Crucero 1, laughing and having the spirit of love much more. She loves the bike like I do and is also dying with the time in the mission and puts importance on timing in the lessons and has such a great light about her! Such a beautiful smile that brings the Spirit. I've been so refreshed this week with her spirit of humility, her ability to be open and show love, and reminding me of some important things. She makes me better in so many ways, and I thank Heavenly Father for this opportunity to learn from someone with more experience, who complements me with her care and humility, etc. We were super super down this morning, mostly because we took motion-sickness pills and seems like they were SUPER drowsy. I've never felt so tired-drunk in my mission! In my therapy, I was also dead and super disanimated afterward...Hna also. We finally got home after going in circles a bit to find the bus, take another, saw 2 hermanos from our ward and with relief got to the house at 2pm to make lunch. We crashed for a bit and (now 10pm) 'Yo creo que Dios me bendijo, porque todos aqui son tan feitos!' LOL. I also know Heavenly Father knows, loves, understands, and has not abandoned me.

Saturday 10 Dec--Today was wild! We had weekly planning, ate with the Hnas and Hna Caroti, had pastel de choclo (YAAS, I LOVE pastel de choclo, but not with bugs in it...poor Hna Nielson found one in her pastel...good thing Hna Caroti found another one, or Hna would've been :{) I had cantaloup for the first time in forever!, we went to the Hna's house and laughed and had fun before going to the stake building for the Relief Society Christmas Activity we were preparing for in choir these past 2 weeks.

On the way, we took a taxi with Hna Gladys and got a guy evangelico taxi driver so we were trying to find en entry by talking about eternal families...he just kept talking about the faith. I just thought to myself how bored I'd get in a church where there's no talk about the priesthood power, temple marriage, explanation of so many questions of the soul, MODERN TRUE REVELATION, modern miracles (The Restoration), a certainty of where is the full truth, acceptance of and expectation to keep ALL the commandments, inspired leaders, be up to date with Heavenly Father's will, have an organization and programs that stretches across all the four corners of the Earth, where we understand all of the signs and prepare ourselves for the Second Coming, teach how to achieve happiness in the home, teach us to be intelligent and get educated, provide such a high-class but reasonably priced education, a second witness of Christ's divinity and promises (the Book of Mormon), so much sacrifice that grows our faith, solutions to all the problems today (health, feeling lost, broken families, not knowing your purpose, not knowing how to be forgiven from God, falling teenage generation, etc., a reliance of revelation of old AND of modern and personal revelation that support each other (because generally God's standards don't vary unless there's a need in a certain time, respects that others may worship how they may and trust that the Spirit will convert those with open hearts, not rely on doctrine of men and memorized scriptures to convince people, believes that YES, a lot can last forever, humbly helps the people when they're in need, teaches us to be honorable people.

I LOVE THE CHURCH!

We've been in the stake center in San Felipe these last 2 days (Today is Monday Dec 12) and I'm impressed with the effort it's putting in to their activities. Friday was the RS presentation where all the wards and the 28 missionaries did musical numbers--fun and spiritual, presented their crafts they've done, and ate a lil fruit and chocolate. I can say surprisingly that our ward's numbers were the most entertaining and put together with llay-llay doing acapella street dance-off jingle bell kinda thing. It was quite fun, all of us in Santa hats and red...crazy.

The bus ride home I got to know a Jehovah Witness and a Catholic lady...just casually, slowly convincing them of the truthfulness of the Gospel and they gained interest after :)

Yesterday we got to church early without investigators :( The Hnas also, so for the first time in forever, we greeted the members, which was good for Hna Molina and Park who are both new to the area. Our ward mission leader who doesn't hold coordination mtg was released and the returned missionary who served here and baptized Edith was called as the new WML, WooHOO! We're gonna get work DONE! Lunch at the Hna's house, we laid out a little frazada and picnicked it up. It was so good to have GOOD BBQ once again with some BBQ chicken.

We started a fast as a ward (really just us missionaries) and went to the stake for an open house. It was sweet, I wish more people had come.

About 20 decided to enter, one group being a Haitiano group :D...to whom I said the only Haitian words I know (church, prophet, apostles, Jesus :D). They got so excited when they understood! There's potential there!! After, the stake presidency sat all of us missionaries down and had a little meeting that animated us for the work. At the end, the Zone Leader asked if we could say a little something to them, he got up there like a crazy and screamed to us 'LOS ANDES, CUAL ES SU PROFESION?' And as we've been responding all week in the class, random phone calls from our leaders, between comps when we're feeling lame, we responded--BAUTIZAR, RETAINER, REACTIVAR, SOMOS LOS ANDES!!! We left feeling a bit inadequate for the job, but motivated to do better.

I felt proud of myself for heeding the prompting of the Spirit to contact at the bus stop--we started with a young mom who ended up being like 'no!', but we tried our best and I noticed a middle-aged buy watching us contact her. When we wanted to end and go back to talk with the other Hnas, we talked to him instead. He immediately said that he loves what we do, told us about an accident he'd had and how he's left with almost no marks...he even cried and it was sweet. We hope the missionaries of Centenario will be able to find him and teach because he's way receptive.

The bus didn't come until 9:40ish and it was FULL...fuller than I've ever seen here, so we shoved ourselves in there,

Hna Park and I sharing a seat, half the way had a great conversation. She's going through a lot of what I've felt and was so happy to know she's not alone. I challenged her to make goals, goals, goals always. And ice-breaker questions. I testify of those things! She made me feel good by saying that she wants to be like us one day with our willingness to contact people. Also says that Hna and I are so cute with our picture taking and laughing shenanigans. She felt better!

BTW, what happened with the evangelico taxi driver was that we asked if the missionaries could visit him. He was a little hesitant, we bore our testimonies of the gospel and of the Book of Mormon and gave him one. He almost didn't accept, but we explained the need for it and Moroni's promise...he's like, 'Well, Ill accept your book!' We said, 'Are you sure? Because it's very important!' Yes! Chao!

Today we went to my therapy. The kinesiologist's replacement for the week was there and it was good! She focused on my feet and did some new things that were good. I noticed I had a sharp pain in my back doing one stretch. I thought of all the times my back was weirdly cracked when I've stood up, and she said maybe I've got a hip problem...YAY ;} Well, I kept thinking of all the multiplying pains and soreness in my body and felt scared at possibly having to go home...because I feel so SO not ready to finish...I know I've not given my all and I DO have regrets...it'd be so sad to not have a chance to end with VICTORY. I need a good pep talk and a lot of faith to 'DO HARD THINGS' with the time that's left for me...hopefully another 5 1/2 months! Only Heavenly Father knows!

But I feel good from what I've done today--I got to study the language, finish 'Our Search For Happiness', read some good scriptures that gave me comfort (Revelation 3:20-21, Phillipians 4:7, 1 John 3:18, and write all of these journal entries! Hna cleaned the whole house really well and I made Texas mac n cheese (I just added homemade salsa, so is it Mexican?)...she loved it LOL. She always LOVES the random junk I make; it's hilarious because when I'm cooking, she's watching me throw in cualquier cosa to 'mi gusto' disgusted, but is always so surprised every time that it's good. She's a true comp! Hopefully she's not lying. So that's it for today! It's 8:45 pm, the sun is setting, and I'm thinking about all the other things I could be accomplishing now, so bye!

Tuesday 12 Dec--Just real quickly to let you know, they put me on rest for this week because the therapy isn't working if we work the same, so we started Saturday to next Saturday. I have 4 therapies this week so I pray I'll get better! They said they'll evaluate me the next Monday the 19th and see if I need more rest. I hear that if a missionary needs more than 3 weeks of rest, they go home, so that´s a possibility. SOOOOOO hashtag helpmee!!!

oh, and love you two! I'll be excited to read your letters [she probably took pics of our emails] at the house along with trying to finish the BOM and study PMG. and of course make good memories with my comp. pray for me!