Week Fifty-Two: One Year Complete ... I Do It For Love

Hermana Romney made me pancakes!
(About the crazy pants ... Those pants are called Bombachos and are SOOO popular here. I love them! They are comfortable and perfect for the beach. I will probably be bringing back ten pairs to the US hahaa).

Area: Penco
Companion: Hermana Romney
Hermana Romney's Blog: Christmas Time is Here!

Oh, wordy familia.

I really had a good week. First of all, I am twenty. How weird is that?? I feel like the oldest girl in the whole world ... But at the same time, I feel so young. I can distinctly remember what I was doing my last birthday ... and it doesn't seem right that a whole year has passed by. It doesn't seem fair, really. I guess that I am on a train that only moves forward. Hurrah for 2 decades.

For my birthday, I really wasn't expecting that much. I was actually glad that it was going to be a little more laid back ... it gave us more time to work. We went to have a lesson with a less active recent convert and it went pretty well ... as we were heading down hill to run to another cita, I got the best surprise in the whole world! BERENICE CAME TO SEE ME!! Ahhhhhh, that was awesome. I just loved seeing her! And the love just kept coming in. I got phone calls from a ton of people (still not exactly sure how they got my number) wishing me happy birthday. AND Hermano Torres came with his family to celebrate with me. AND during our mission correlation, we had a little party.

[A sweet video of the birthday celebration posted on facebook last week ...]

Post by Carlos Enrique Torres Cisternas.

Berenice!!!

I don't know what I ever did to deserve so much love. I don't understand it at all. But once again, I learned that love is the very best gift that I have ever received ... and it is the gift that keeps on giving.

They bought me a cake!

My confidence as a missionary keeps increasing. I guess there is such a thing as Missionary SWAG ... like, acting like you know what you are doing ... even when you don't have a single clue. That is something that I am getting better at doing. Also, I have been praying to be able to recognize and follow the spirit more, and I have been seeing wonderful results. My thoughts have been sooo clear during lessons and I feel as though I am able to understand people a little bit better now. Incredible.

We had a sweet lesson with Andrea the other night. She is a fourteen year old girl that was SOOOOOO CLOSE to being baptized about a year ago ... but something happened and her mom asked that the missionaries stop coming. Anyways, we have been teaching all of them again and it has been a manifestation of the miracles that God is always working. Basically, Andrea was looking to go back to church, but she was thinking about trying the Evangelical church ... the weekend that we started to visit her, she was determined to start investigating in that direction. But we showed up, she came to church, and now she has brought up the desire to be baptized ... without us bringing it up. Incredible! We have to get her family on board so that she can have a support in the church, but Heavenly Father is helping us sooo much to find the chosen people.

Our zone activity today. We went back to Tomé. I loved it!

Hermana Romney and I get along sooooo well. I love Hermana Romney because she is amazing. She is such a good teacher and is really, really funny. I don't know why we get along so well ... but we do. She is lovely. :)We spend a good majority of the time that we aren't talking to people or teaching lessons laughing. Some funny things that happened this week ... we were talking to this man outside of his house about Christmas and the message that we are sharing about that (HE IS THE GIFT LOOK IT UP!!). I asked him what his name was and he said, "Yo? Luis." But I heard him say "JOE LUIS." I repeated it back to him and the look on his face was sooo confused. Hahaha, sometimes my Spanish brain turns off (usually when I am dead tired) and I can't hear what people are saying correctly. It makes life a lot funnier.

A dog also peed on me. That was fun.

This week, we tried really hard to build our relationships with the members. We had Noches de Hogar, etc. etc. It has been really weird to have to do this, mainly because in Frutillares, I knew EVERYONE in like 3 weeks. But it is awesome, because I love meeting new people and loving new people. This love is why I am on the mission and why I am happy on the mission. It motivates me sooo much.

In this past year, I have learned that big time. I have never been so frustrated by the decisions of others. I have never been sooooo happy and content with the decisions of others. I have never cried so much (or maybe I have ... but I can't remember) ... but I have never felt so happy in my entire life. I feel like I earned this year that I have tacked on to my life. I am still feeling happy.

Hermana Romney told me this week, "I feel a little frustrated." We haven't been having a lot of success with finding investigators that are progressing. But even with that, I feel happy because I know that we are working as hard as we possibly can. I personally am trying really, really hard to do what Heavenly Father wants to me to ... and I have been feeling the blessings of that. It is really interesting how different the mission has been for me than what I had originally expected. My idea of what it means to be successful has changed a lot as well. Basically my whole thought process. But I am sooooo happy!!

I hope you are as well! I hope that this week before Christmas is awesome and that you are listening to all of the good cheesy songs that I love so much and watching all of the good cheesy movies that I love even more. I loved those pictures with el viejito pascuero. Everyone is soooo big! I am praying for you every single day and love you more every single day. Have a great week!!

Love,

Laney