Week Fifty-Seven: Worth It

Area: Penco
Companion: Hermana Romney
Hermana Romney's Blog: Obedience

Dear familia,

I wanted to start off my letter saying how much I really love you guys. I know I say it every letter that I send home, but I love love love you all. I really can feel your support and it has kept me sane and happy. What on earth would I do without my family?

We had a mini cambio this week that was interesting. I was with Hermana G, that has been struggling a long time in her mission with different things. We get along sooo well, so on this mini-cambio, I had a secret mission to see what was going on with her and to see how we could really help her.

For some reason during the mini-cambio, we were not able to get into many houses. Everyone that we had plans to visit were away on vacations. Here in Penco, this doesn't happen very often. We usually are always running to citas and we don't really have moments where we ask ourselves what we need to do next ... but I found myself wondering ... whhhhhhhhhy?

It ended up being okay, because we were able to talk a lot. We talked about everything that has been happening with her. I swear, I have never felt so much love and compassion for someone in my entire life. With Hermana G, it is impossible for me to see her flaws in a dark light. I feel so much love for her that it just hurts me to see her hurting. Seriously, I don't think I have ever felt charity until I started trying to understand her and help her out. 

We still don't have a great solution to her problems because she doesn't really like accepting help. But I feel like giving more and more love always helps. It's such an interesting thing that I am learning.

Another thing. This week, we continued teaching Claudia with her four kids. These girls are sooo crazy, but I love them so much and have a lot of patience with them. During the lessons, they are soooo wild and it makes it impossible to teach them. Usually what happens is that Hermana Romney takes over the doctrine part while I just let the girls color in my agenda/braid their hair/feed them cookies ... anything so that their mom can feel the spirit.

We had a kind of Sound of Music moment on Friday. We were walking home with the family from a Noche de Hogar and the girls wanted to run ahead. So I grabbed their hands and ran and laughed and joked with them. I was just like Maria. Something that I have realized here in that I love love love working with kids. I love it so much. I love THEM so much. They really are so quick to accept and forgive. It is so true that we have to become like a child to enter into the kingdom of God.

Something that I forgot to mention last week was that Sacrament meeting with a lot of investigators is a fun experience. Especially when there are a lot of kids. We came with the coloring books and cookies that Mom sent me. We came with sooooo many crayons. And basically, we were there just to be the moms for an hour so that their mom could have a spiritual experience. It was sooo much fun to take care of these kids. It's a riot ... even though it is a little stressful, I just giggled and giggled. Reverence is in the eyes of the beholder. I feel like one of the most reverent sacrament meetings that I have had in Chile has been with these girls.

I had to give my first talk in Penco yesterday. It was a'ight. I love public speaking. I am getting to be a little bit better. More natural. Less planning. More stories. More following the spirit. I just talked about being doers of the word and not hearers only. That is a BIG thing here in Chile. A lot of people just go to church to fill the pew ... but I have learned that living the Gospel is so much more than that.

But the really cool part of Sacrament meeting was AFTERWORDS. Presidente Navarro from Frutillares was there visiting to do some ward business. He got up and said, "Hermana Blau has been a blessing in my life and in the life of the members of Frutillares." He talked about the assistence of the church and how it is booming there. I was beaming with pride for my little sector.

What's more ... He said, "But the really great thing that Hermana Blau did was this ... she trained a new missionary named Hermana Caceres ... and together they found a good man (AKA MANUEL). He is baptized now and just so Hermana Blau knows he continues faithful in the church." I lost it. I just started to cry and Macarena (the daughter of Claudia that is 15) just wrapped her arms around me without really understanding why I was crying.

I was sooo happy in that moment. Frutillares was WORTH IT. 100 percent. I only kind of remember the hard moments. It was all worth it in the end. Just for this one good man that I found and didn't even baptise. All worth it.

Another moment when I was really happy this week. We had a zone conference and watched MEET THE MORMONS! I started to cry when I heard that we were going to get to watch it because I was so happy. (Maybe I am just a little bit emotional this week ... qué sé yo?) It was soooooo good. AND DAVID ARCHULETA SANG GLORIOUS IN SPANISH. Wonderful!!

Sooo, I am happy. I feel good. We are still working with a lot of good people and are helping a lot of people to come unto Christ. With diligence and faith, we are seeing a lot of miracles. We are in Chillan right now and it is sooo weird because it makes me sooo nostalgic ... even though I really wasn't here that much time. I don't even know if the people remember me here, but I will never forget it. I will never forget my mission. I love it. I love being here! Best decision of my life.

I hope that you have a great week! I love you all soooo much!! Besitos y abrasitos!!

Love,

Laney