Week Nineteen: Good Enough Isn't Really Good Enough

Area: Chillán
Companion: Hermana Hillary Harris AND Hermana Montañez (for a few days)
Companion's Blog: http://hjhmissionabroad.blogspot.com/2014/05/the-importance-of-making-and-keeping.html

Hey, dear familia!

It sounds like all is well in the good old USA. I am SO happy to hear it! I love reading the news from home. Holy cow with Savannah's new calling. Holy cow with [redacted]. Holy cow with soccer! Holy cow ... it sounds like there aren't any boring minutes allá.

First of all, a little bit of secretarial news. Mother's Day is in two weeks (and Hermana Harris and I are officially dieting until that moment haha)!! Here is a note from the mission president about SKYPING!! Whoooooo!!!

"Por favor, es esencial que se comuniquen con su familia hoy para asegurar que ellos podrán tener acceso al Skype ese día. Necesitamos saber esto el próximo lunes, 5 de mayo, para poder hacer otros arreglos si sean necesarios. Si no confirmen esto con sus familias esta semana es posible que en el día 11 no habrá nada que podemos hacer para ayudarles. Si hay alguien que no va a poder hablar con los padres en ese día y quiere hablar con alguien más, favor de llamarme."

So, there you have it. Let me know about Skype so that we can have an AWESOME face-to-face speaking experience. It's crazy to believe that by that time I will have been on my mission for almost 5 months! Whooooo, the time sure does fly ... whether we want it to or not.

Well, I have some sad news ... we are no longer a trio in Coyquen. We got a call yesterday morning from the Asistentes ... and Hermana Montañez left for another area in the mission. Apparently one of the sisters had to go home early for some emergency or another ... and since we had one extra, we were the lucky companionship that got split up. This was sooooo sad for me. I love Hermana Montañez! She is such a good missionary and she really helped us to keep up the ánimo and diligence. It also has been nice to have more company to talk to (because there is only a certain amount of times that I can tell Hermana Harris about the time I tripped on a hamburger bun and busted my chin open haha). Hermana Harris and I are solitas again in Coyquen. We are determined to make the most of this transfer and work with crazy zeal.

Boy is there a story behind this "crazy" zeal. When the Asistentes called yesterday, they said that they would come to our house to pick up Hermana Montañez ... perfect. We decided to spend a little bit of time cleaning the house after planning. It wasn't perfect, but we knew deep down in our hearts that it was WAY cleaner than any of the elders' houses ... so it was good enough.

We woke up and got ready. Buena ... We started to study. Buena ... We got a phone call from President. FROM PRESIDENT? He said, "Well, I am going to be at your house in about an hour ... will you be ready to go, Hermana?" Hermana Harris and I just looked at each other with terror in our eyes. We looked at our kitchen with dirty dishes still in the sink. We looked at our bathroom and saw all of the products that we use just lying around. We saw our floor littered with hair (we have a shedding problem). Suddenly, good enough wasn't good enough. We got up and started cleaning in FRENZY mode. It was crazy.

After the quickest, deepest clean in the world, I sat down and started to study. I am reading about the Savior coming in the Book of Mormon right now. I usually just limit my Book of Mormon reading time in study to about 20 minutes so that I can study for our investigators, but today I could not stop reading. I was captivated by the Savior and the perfect way in which he taught. AMAZING.

Anyways, I was reading about the higher law that he taught and thought about our worries about the house being clean. I just thought that the difference in attitude that we had with the Asistentes and President was SO interesting. As soon as we realized that President was coming, we realized that we really weren't as prepared as we thought we were. We were like the 5 foolish virgins that thought that everything would be a'ight with the lamp and the little oil that they had. It turns out that good enough never really is good enough ... especially on the mission! Everything has to be our very best because that is what the Lord is asking. He asks me to give it all and to do it right. So, that was a little terrifying life lesson that I learned today. Haha.

Things like this happen all of the time. I have learned SOOO much about life so far on my mission. Sometimes I forget that I am only 19 ... it is crazy to think about! This week, I really tried to focus on feeling the spirit and praying constantly. It wasn't too difficult to do this ... because we didn't really speak English this entire week (with the exception of the super fun English class that we had this week ... people came! Being a teacher is soooo enjoyable). With this being the case, I spent some time being quiet and thoughtful. It was amazing what a difference this made with working. As soon as I started praying to know the people that we could help, Heavenly Father helped me to know what to do. INCREDIBLE!

One time, we were on our way home for the night. We still had 30 minutes ... so we decided to contact while we made the long trek home (it's like 45 minutes walking from every extreme of our sector). While we were walking, I was praying. I knew that there was SURELY one more person that we could reach. While we were crossing some random street, I felt this impression ... "We need to turn here." I paused in the middle of the street and looked super far down it. This street was in Sketch-town Chillán. It is a neighborhood super close to our house in which we have been told to NEVER EVER ENTER. There didn't appear to be anyone in need of serious help on the street, but I felt the impression again ... "We need to turn here."

I told the Hermanas and we started to walk down the road. Weird ... there really was nobody out and it was really creepy. Suddenly, we saw a family of four and walked over to talk to them. "We'll just do this and then we'll leave," I promised the Hermanas. We talked to them and they basically told us that we were wasting our time and that we needed to go home. Loveeeeeely. We turned, ready to leave, when we saw a light on in the house of a menos-activa that we had been trying to visit for ages. Of course, we knocked there.

The menos-activa answered the door and to our surprise, there already were a few Hermanas from the church there. Whaaaaaat? It turns out that this girl (she is 17) is only in the house super super late. We could never get ahold of her in the day because ... well, she wasn't there. And we never would have in the night because we NEVER go into this neighborhood after 8. Wow. The Spirit helped me in this moment to know who's life we could bless. It was an awesome reminder that Heavenly Father knows how to do this work better than I do.

Anyways, I am working hard down here in Chillan and things are about to go crazy. Hermana Harris and I are going to work with CRAZY INTENSITY to bring people to the Savior ... because this is the most important work that we can be doing at this time ... and good enough isn't really good enough. I hope that you all have a great, great semana!!

Love,

Hermana Blau