Miracles!!!!

April 13, 2015


Hello family!!!! 

I hope you all had a great week! The weeks feel like they are just flying! Does it feel the same for you guys too? 
 

This week was great, here are some of the highlights:
 

We had interviews with President. This was the first time that I was not totally nervous before. I just really, really, really love President Kahnlein. He is so amazing. The spirit that he has with him is so strong. I love that I can know that he would never do anything against the will of God and that He follows the Savior and the promptings in every way. He has taught me so much by his example.  When he talks to you it just love. It also was my last interview with him as they are finishing their mission in July so the next interview I have will be with the new mission president. I`m just so grateful for Pres. Kahnlein and everything he and his wife have done and do. Seriously, they are just the best. 
 

Then we found a menos active (less active member). Really it`s not that surprising knocking on a door or stopping to talk with some random person in the street and they`re like oh actually I`m Mormon, I got baptized years ago, I just never go. Literally a third of the Chilean population have been baptized in the church. Does a third of the population come to church?? that`s a completely different story. Anyway so we go into the lesson with this less active member and her son is there and he`s in his 20's and is being all mopey and anti social because I guess he`s sick. So then this girl comes over who`s his friend or something and they set up this IV right there at the dining room table and hook him up to it! I`m like ok what the heck is going on! The mom is like oh just be careful. I guess they`re studying in this 2 year medical course in school or something. And then so we`re just talking and getting to know them and as we go to share a scripture the kid just totally passes out so the mom is  freaking out, he`s hooked up to this ghetto IV, seeing the kid pass out makes me feel all queasy inside so I`m praying not to throw up. Then as he comes back to consciousness, he thtows up. Awesome. So obviously the spirit just wasn`t going to be in that lesson. We finish it up and leave and put a cita (appointment) to come back this week. She said she`s going to give us once! So I`m down.
 

The other day, Friday was just a miracle day. We hadn`t really had a lot of luck the other days of the week and Friday was intercambios. So I stayed in my sector and had another hermana come and work with me there. We didn`t have any citas, Ok lie, we did,  but they all fell through... so basically we didn`t. And I was like no, we`re going to make this a day of miracles! We are literally going to talk with every single person we see and we are going to find new investigadors. The first person I see after that is this kinda sketchy looking guy.. but I didn`t care, he`s a child of God too. So I start talking to him and he stops and is interested. Then he realizes that I`m talking about religion and I try to give him a pass a long card. He`s like oh no thanks and then tries to keep walking and I say, wait, why not?? And he just looks at me with his crazzzy hair and says because I`m Jesus Christ. hahaha Ok.... well then I totally understand because in that case you clearly wouldn`t need this then. People are just crazy. So then we start contacting on a street that we hadn`t contacted yet. We found a menos activo after a few rejections. She was open to us coming back another day AND she has two teenagers that aren`t members! SCORE! Then a few doors down we find ourselves with Nicholas. Who`s just great. At first he said that he actually doesn't believe in God, he just believes in himself  and that he can do the things with his own strength and that he can help others. I said, that`s great but what happens when we have moments of weakness or when things happen in our lives that we just can`t control. Where do you find hope and strength then? That made him think, so we shared a scripture in The Book of Mormon in Ether about weaknesses being made strong in Christ and he loved it. Then he said, you know, just today I was thinking that I need to find a way to heal myself and just clean myself of my past.... That is seriously music to missionaries ears! So obviously we talked to him about baptism and invited him to be baptized. (That is seriously my absolute favorite thing to do as a missionary, inviting people to be baptized in contacts on the street. I love the power of the calling) And he said he would actually love to do that, but didn't feel ready for it. Anyway turns out that he didn`t live there, he lives in the Elders sector. So we got his address and passed it to those lucky elders. Then a few doors down from him an atheist answered the door. Doesn`t believe in anything. It was so cool, we just straight shared our testimonies that God DOES exist and that he does love us and that through his plan our families CAN be together forever! And you know what, he didn`t close the door. He listened. He commented, we testified, shared a scripture from the Book of Mormon, and he listened. and slowly you could just see a change in his face. Slowly. He really wanted to believe that what we were saying was true. And he let us put a cita to come back. That`s my other favorite thing about being a missionary. I`ve learned that success doesn`t come in how many baptisms you have or how many investigadors you have coming to church, but it`s in the number of hearts that you can touch and about making people be able to feel the spirit of God telling them that what they are hearing is true. People don`t always follow those feelings, but if I can get someone to feel that, I feel like I am completing my duty as a missionary and I just LOVE IT!
 

Anyway I`ve run out of time now so I have to go, but I hope you have a great week! Think of someone you can share a part of your testimony with, even if they don`t believe in God, you never know who`s heart you will be able to touch. 

I love you all so much!!!

con todo el amor en mi corazon, 

Hermana Evans

A dead tarantula on the road!






 

 

 

 

The Empty Tomb

April 6, 2015

Hellloooo my wonderful family!! I love you guys so much! 

This week was amazing. I just feel so happy to be a missionary ALL THE TIME: It´s literally the very best. 
 

This week started out interesting. I had intercambios so this time I went to another area to work with one of the Hermanas there. We go to lunch and it´s with this cooky old lady. We enter the house and it was all almost normal, with just little details off... She had this tree in the corner but with huge pears growing off it and the pillows rested above the couch not on it and there was this huge old horse tapestry hanging on the wall. I felt like I was in an Alice in Wonderland house or something. Then we sit down at this huge table and there was only two places set. She tells us to start eating and then just leaves us. Super weird... But it was fine, the salad tasted good and everything. Then I go to take a drink of what looks like apple juice or something. BLAH! I don´t even know. We were like what the heck is this??? My guess was weed water. It tasted like she´d watered her plants outside and then served us the water that came out the other side of the window box or something. So when she came in to give us the soup course I asked her what kind of drink it was. She´s like oh it´s agua de hierbas, I can´t stand normal water... I WAS RIGHT! WEED WATER! When she left we almost busted out laughing. Then she brings out the lunch... It looked like rice with beef cooked with vegetables. One of my favorite things to eat here so I was totally down. But then as we were eating, my companion was like, what kind of meat is this? I´m like beef? And she´s like I don´t know.. it tastes kind of sweet and the texture is kind of off.. I realized she was right. We´re like what the heck are we eating. My companion got a little freaked out because she thought it was horse meat. But we just kept eating it and I pretended it was beef, even though it didn´t taste like it should. So then when the lady came back, I asked her what kind of meat it was and she looks at me kind of funny and she´s like it´s kidney. I´m like OH! KIDNEY! Wow, and then I told her that it was really good because I felt awkward and didn´t know what else to say. She was like of course it is, that´s why I make it. So yeah. I ate kidney. Honestly it wasn´t as bad as it sounds. But still.... I´m not down to eat it again. But then listen to this! So I was telling another member back in my branch about the kidney lunch and how my companion thought it was horse meat but it was really kidney and I was grateful that it at least wasn't horse. And the lady was like well you know the meat you eat in  chorasscos or hamburgers from the little local places? That´s usually horse. So basically I´ve been eating horse meat too and didn´t even know it. The joys of living in Chile right?
 

To answer your questions about Teresa. She´s really sick. We saw her only one time and she´s lost a lot more weight, which I didn´t think was possible, she was already SO thin and she has less hair. We´ve passed by a lot more but she just can´t get out of bed to answer the door or isn´t home. I´m super worried about her. Please please please keep her in your prayers. We don´t really know what to do, but we´re going to keep passing by and seeing if we can help.
 

Olga is just a disaster right now. We taught her again and she seemed like she was getting over what happened and then we invited her to be baptized again and she was like well what good is baptism going to do be if I´m not going to go to church again... Ah! She´s a prideful old woman that just can´t forgive or understand. It´s really sad. Really really sad that she´s letting something so small prevent her from all the glorious blessings of the gospel. We´re going to try to pass by with our mission leader so he can talk to her, but I think that we´re going to have to leave her.. So sad.
 

This past weekend has just been spiritual overload down here and I´ve loved every second. We had our leader counsel with Presidente on Friday who actually talked about a lot of what they talked about at conference. Chastity and humility. I was so sure, SO SURE, that he was going to be called as a general authority. He´s always so aligned with everything! Next year though, I´m telling you! And then of course GENERAL CONFERENCE!!! Which of course I just loved! Did it seem weird to anyone else though that President Monson didn´t open or close the conference?? I really hope that he´s doing ok. My favorite talks were the guy that talked about dancing and music. Do you know how to dance? Can you teach me to dance? Dancing without music is both awkward and unfulfilling hahaha that part made me laugh. I loved though how he said that learning the dance steps takes discipline but the joy of dance comes when we hear the music and it becomes something natural. It was just a great analogy all around! Also though my number one favorite of them all was the one by Kevin W. Pearson!! I loved it! It reminded me alot of the talk from last conference by Jorg. To hang in there is not a principle of the gospel. We gotta stay by the tree! There was just a lot of good one liners there. And of course my homie Elder Holland delivered as usual. It was just a great Easter weekend.
 

It´s funny how Easter really isn´t that big of a thing here like it is in the States. But I will say it was totally weird to see people walking around with big crosses on their back on Friday.

Hermana Hansen and I colored eggs! We made eggs for all the missionaries in our zone since we´re all basically gringos. It was so funny how excited everyone got! They all took selfies with their eggs haha! I think if the whole college thing doesn´t seem to go my way I´ll become the Easter bunny because it felt good to make everyone so happy with a simple egg. (But don´t worry, that college thing will totally work out). I loved what Elder Holland said about Easter. That it is the most sacred day of the year for a special remembrance of Brotherly hands that saved us.... And what Uchtdorf said, that on that day our lives changed forever.

These past days I´ve been reflecting a lot on how grateful I am for Jesus Christ and for His sacrifice for us and how absolutely amazing it is and how little I really understand or can comprehend all of it. I´ll never ever understand all that Christ went through and the love that he has and how the spirit gives me, as Elder Cook put it so perfectly, a peace that surpasses all understanding. It makes me just want to live in such a way that I can return to Him and thank Him!. He lives. He is a perfect resurrected being. Although He is perfect in every way, shape and form, He loves us so that He chooses to wear His scars, so that one day we´ll never have to wear ours. It´s amazing the plan God has for us. It really gives me an eternal perspective. I know what is most important and that is, returning to live with Him as a family. That empty tomb makes it all possible. We always have an opportunity more to try again. Oh it is wonderful! 
 

I hope you all have a great week! I love you all so much! Thank you for everything!
 

Con todo el amor en mi corazon,

Hermana Evans




The decorated Easter eggs

Samantha and her companion, Haley Hansen

 

Leadership Conference

Leadership Conference

 

 

Let The Thunder Roll

March 30, 2015

Helllllloooo mi familia!!!

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMITA!"!!!! So glad you got the letter in time!! I`m glad you had a great day!

Crazy it`s Spring break there for you guys! My sence of time is just gone now haha.

Ok so first things first, we had cambios this past week and.......... drum roll please!.......... I stayed!!!!!! In Chorrillos! With Hermana Hansen!! So now we`ll be companions until May! Crazy! I totally thought I was going to leave because we already had 2 cambios together and I`ve never had anymore than 3 cambios in an area but hey, not this time! I`m actually really happy about it all! And now we`re no longer in a trio.  Hermana Huaccha went to one of the areas that we do intercambios with and is in a trio there now so we`ll still see her and work with her. So it`s all good!
 

Ok so crazy. Tuesday night we`re sleeping and we just start hearing all this rumbling. I just assumed it was earthquakes because there`s always earthquakes here and so I just rolled over and kept sleeping. But we kept hearing them. So the Hermana got up (we`re still in a trio at this point) and was like oh my gosh! (ok she didn`t say that exactly, I mean she speaks Spanish) but we got up to see what was going on and there was a huge lightning storm! It was her first time seeing lighting so she was kinda freaked out but I just thought it was cool! The best part was that our view from the window is of the ocean so we got to see the lightning going into the ocean!! Way cool. Totally bummed that my groggy 5 in the morning brain didn`t think to go get my camera.. oh well.
 

This week we were in charge of doing the mormon.org stand. Ok so first the stand is just the worst. It`s super heavy and transporting it on public locomotion and walking with it.... it`s a nightmare. Also we`re always full with appointments so it`s just an inconvenience sometimes. I should probably have a better attitude... So finally we suck it up and go down and do it and guess what happens. It rains!!!! It just straight starts pouring down rain!!! hahahaha it was one of those moments when you just have to laugh. Like that totally would happen. It never rains here this time of year. Although it was way funny seeing how everyone gets way freaked out when there was thunder, which also doesn`t happen here. But these nice hippie people helped us move everything under a tree so we could take the freakin stand apart. So see, even in the rain and with the stand there`s blessings!
 

The cutest thing ever happened.... We were contacting a house and this little boy was out front. The mom was busy but was very nice and told us to come back the next week. Then this cute little boy who wears goggle glasses and talks like a little cartoon character tells me I have the prettiest smile he`s ever seen and that I have really white teeth! hahahaha so cute!!! He made me feel like a Disney princess for the rest of the day!
 

This week I was asked to play piano for a funeral. The mom of our lider misional`s wife died. She was really old and was really sick. She couldn`t talk or move or do anything so it was sad, but at least she`s not suffering. I just played hymns and the people gave really pretty testimonies of the plan of salvation. I walked away feeling really really really grateful for the knowledge that we have of God`s plan and the eternal perspective it gives us. The gospel really can bring us hope and joy even in the most darkest times. I`m so so so grateful for that and that this is the message that we get to share everyday.
 

We put on a branch activity. We did a minute it to win it kind of thing! It was way way super fun! Everyone got really competitive. We just basically had them do a bunch of funny games. Even sweet Nora was participating. Everyone really like it, so that felt really good!
 

We started talking with Gabriela`s brother this week. He was listening to the missionaries before but he has a terrible drinking problem. He told us that he wants to change and that he wants to be baptized and everything but doesn't think he could give up drinking permanently. We got to talk about the power of the atonement and repentance and how we`re here to progress and not be perfectly perfect. I know that he`s going to get baptized, I just don`t know if it`s his time yet. He didn`t come to church Sunday....But you know who did?? DAVID! He`s that old man that always talks about the time he died but then came back to life.... He came on his own! And then we ended up teaching gospel principles class 2nd hour and we invited him to be baptized right then and he said yes! What a great blessing!!! So I hope everything works out there!
 

 That`s about it for the highlights of the week! Everything is great here! I think Viña is one of the greatest places ever! I love everything and I feel so grateful for everything I`m able to see and learn and experience. Literally I feel like I personally do nothing, but I get to watch the spirit in action every day, touch the hearts of the people and see them slowly change. It`s just the best!
 

I hope you guys have an awesome week!!!!!!!!!
 

Con todo el amor en mi corazon,

Hermana Evans

This is what the mission president wrote to the girls:
 

The first two he sent to hermana hansen, the bottom two to me! YES! (A 7 in chile is like a A plus!)

Hicieron excelentemente bien su trabajo, thanks!

Hermana, gracias por todo el trabajo para ayudarla, lo hicieron de 7!

PD: Gracias por ayudarla a cambiar, yo puedo ver el cambio!

PD: Hermana, ustedes son Celestiales, una bendición para esta Misión, se que cambiaron el corazón de Hna Huaccha.

I don`t have time to translate it, sorry! But google translate it, or ask dad! haha love you!

All Day In The Street, Just Like The Dogs!

March 23, 2015


Hola familia!

This week was great! But the work was a little slower. I don`t really know what happened but no one was home....

As for being in a trio, it`s not as bad as I thought it was going to be. I actually don`t mind it that much. More friends! And the Hermana is a good missionary, she just made a lot of dumb decisions but she told us about it and is repentant of it all. I think we were able to help her and I`m grateful for the opportunity because it helped me learn a lot too.... Cambios are on Wednesday so we`ll see what`ll happen.
 

 Last week we got a reference from a menos activa who just took in 2 kids. She told us she wants them to get baptized, so you know, we`re down to help. We taught them and they`re great. Pretty ¨flite¨ (fly-te) as they say here, which is like ghetto? I don`t know, that sounds kinda bad but that`s about as close as we`ll get...  Matias has 13 years and Barbara has 15. They`re into drugs and all that. The Hermana told us that Matias has been in the drugs since he was little. That just made my stomach drop because I`m like he`s 13! That`s little! They want to change though or at least find a way to have a better life than what they have right now. They`re good kids. I just think they grew up in a home where they were never taught how to make good decisions. It`s really sad, but at the same time it makes me more excited to teach them about the gospel of Jesus Christ because I know that is the only thing that can help them overcome these problems for good. It`s also cool because it`s a menos activa that`s initiating all of it. She shared her testimony of the Book of Mormon and it was really pretty. I think it`s awesome how even though she`not the most faithful member, she wants to help these kids in the best way she knows and it`s through the gospel. I think this will be a great experience for all of them.
 

Tuesday was crazy! The assistants call us way late Monday night and tell us that the Hermana in our trio needs to be in Achupallas at 8 in the morning for her zone conference (we already had ours). We have no clue how to get there and we honestly relied straight on prayer and faith because no one really knew how to help us either. We finally got there to drop her off but it was so stressful. Then we had to return to pick her up in the afternoon. And the transportation here is so bad. I think we traveled about 7 hours in total just to go to the area next to Viña. AH! But it`s fine. I think the bus drivers don`t realize that they`re bus drivers and not the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland but it makes it all a little more fun right?
 

We`ve been visiting Teresa. She has just about all her lessons now! But she`s really sick. The medicine that she`s taking just makes her weaker and she wasn`t able to come to church yesterday because it makes her tired. It`s sad because she loves coming to church but since she missed it the last week it was like the excitement about it died down and then she didn`t come again yesterday. I`m sure it`ll all be fine and I know that she`ll get baptized at some point but it just worries me still because you never know what`ll happen. She said though that tomorrow she has an appointment and she should be getting different medicine so I hope that helps and she`ll be able to come to church.
 

Olga didn`t come to church either. So weird, so I guess her son drove her by during sacrament and there was a Hermana from church by the door and she gave the Hermana her books and said that she`s not going to be able to come anymore but she still wants us to visit her. I don`t know what happened, but I want to know what whoever said to her to make her not want to come to church. She`s not sick, she`s just old. But so is everyone here so that`s not even a good excuse. Ah!

Sometimes I really just feel like we`re fighting against the adversary here. He always has to get in the way and mess things up. I know, opposition in all things, but it just gets frustrating sometimes when the people are progressing so well. We`ll see what happens this week tho. I hope everything will work out. Well ok,.... I know everything will work out in the end.
 

Saturday was like the longest day of my life. Literally no one was home, or in the streets. We spent the whole day in the streets, just like the dogs. We passed by investigadores, future investigadores, menos activos, recent converts, everyone. Nothing. We did do the mormon.org stand in the plaza which was fun. We were able to give 3 Book of Mormons. I also received a wedding proposal from a crazy man, and then a lady came over and literally talked to me non stop for more than a half hour. I know just about every detail of her life down to her favorite perfume, her last grocery store receipt, and how she likes her oatmeal in the morning (she soaks it in milk overnight and then eats it with strawberries in the morning. She highly recommends it.) It`s so funny how the Chileans literally will just start telling you their life story in the street.

Then in the night we were out in the street again. We contacted this man in the last 10 minutes before we had to be back at our apartment who is awesome though! He doesn`t live in our sector but is really interested and I just felt really good about him. Just finding him made it totally worth walking through the streets for hours. Honestly, being a missionary is the best.

That`s about it, this week wasn`t too eventful. Which means this next week is going to be crazy. That always seems to happen so we`ll see.

I love you all and think of you often. You`re always in my prayers!!!

XOXO

Gossip Girl

Just kidding..
 

con todo el amor en mi corazon, 

Hermana Evans

Thiare wearing the girls' nametags



Samantha with new hair do

Samantha and Thiare

Samantha's district



 zone conference



Thiare doing hair

Hermana Huaccha



Sister Huaccha, Samantha and Sister Hansen
 

  

Old People Just Make Everything Great!

March 16, 2015

Hollaaa familliaaa! 

This week was awesome! We had our zone conference with Presidente and we got to watch Meet the Mormons! It was SO GOOD!!!!!! Afterword I was like wow! I want to be Mormon!  They`re the greatest!

It was so cute, they had this huge projector set up on the stage on then chairs lined up in front with juice and popcorn on every seat. It was just like being in the movie theater! I`d forgotten how fun it was to go to the movies. Our president is the best! 
 

Then Friday as we were getting ready to leave to have intercambios we got a call from one of the assistants telling us that at 3 we have to go to the office to pick up a hermana that was going to be in a trio with us. He didn`t know any other information. We`re the hermanas that live closest to the office so if there`s a hermana that is going home early she usually spends the night here so we figured that it was just that. So we had to cancel intercambios. Then about an hour later we get a call from Presidente. He told us that there has been problems with some hermanas in an area and that he felt the best way to fix it was to have emergency cambios and to make 2 trios. Hermana Hansen and I about died because we thought he was going to split us up! But no, there`s been a hermana that is super disobedient and doesn`t listen to anything presidente says and is causing a lot of problems and is not working.  So he felt the best thing to do would be to put her with us until the end of the cambio. So yeah. Basically the plan is to make her miserable with righteousness. Since she`s arrived we`ve been even more obedient than exactly obedient and she`s followed us in everything. I`m just hoping that it`ll continue like that until cambios and she doesn`t crack or something. Ah! Stressful! But I do feel really humbled at the confidence that Presidente must have in us for sending her to be with us and not another companionship. I`m glad that Presidente knows that we`re the kind of missionaries that he can trust with this kind of thing. We must be doing something right.
 

The awesome thing about being in a trio is that we can now enter in whatever house! No man home alone in Chorrillos is safe! So we`ve just been teaching up a storm! I love, love love it!
 

We also had some fires going on here the past few days but it`s all fine where I am. It`s just super hot, like the air feels really heavy and there has been a bunch of ash falling from the air. It reminds me of how it was when we had the fires in San Diego.

There`s this cute story that is going around about a dog that dug a hole into the ground and put her puppies in it and then covered it with a pot or something and they all were saved! How awesome is that! It`s amazing animal instinct! I love being able to see acts of love and mercy in the middle of natural disasters. I haven`t heard exactly what happened but I don`t think that many homes were affected like they were last year.
 

Saturday was a morning full of miracles! We start contacting a random guy in the street and what do you know a member comes a long who knows him, stops and stays and talks, and testifies about the Book of Mormon and the guy becomes a new investigator! And we got a lesson with a member! Score! But then they asked where we were headed next and we told them that we were looking for an address that the  branch president wanted us to find. Turns out the guy we were talking to lives there! What are the odds! Then we ran into another member in the street that was like hey I just adopted 2 teenagers that I want to get baptized, like sì o sì, come by Monday! And we`re like yeah ok! And then we were looking at our plans to see what we should do with the time we had before lunch and there was a future investigator that we had planned to go see but he lived far from where we ended up being, but 2 seconds later guess who comes walking down the street?? Juan! The futuro! Crazy how stuff works out..... So we talked with him for a little while and put a appointment for another day. 
 

Funny story of the week... We were in a lesson with this old lady and she randomly is like you know why there`s no fish in the ocean here? And we`re like ok, no why? And she says because the Chinese go out in their boats in the middle of the night and steal them all!! That`s why we don`t have fish!! Man, the ab muscles that it took to keep me from busting out laughing..... Old people say the funniest things sometimes! 
 

Speaking of old people.... David and Olga came to church yesterday! They`re two very old investigators that we have. David has lived in the country most of his life and he walks around with this huge walking staff. He`s like a Chilean Moses or something. He always has to tell this story about the time he died but then came back to life like 40 days later. I swear if I have to hear that story one more time... He even shared it in Gospel Principles class at church... haha. And Olga oh my gosh I was just dying at church. She sat between Nora and Herminia, two recent converts, Nora is like 75 with lots of energy, Herminia is like 82 and is a little spit fire of an old woman and Olga, the investigadora is like 89 and well I don`t know how to describe her exactly but she`s great haha. And if you could have just seen and heard them during second hour. I was just laughing. They reminded me of 3 baby chicks or something sitting there talking and listening and responding to the class. It was the cutest thing. And then Herminia just hits Javier in the face with the Gospel Principle book for making some sarcastic joke. So all in all it was a great Sunday! Old people just make everything great. They make me excited to be one one day haha.

Teresa didn't come to church yesterday, we don`t know why. We passed by and she wasn`t home. I hope it`s just because they`d gone on a Sunday drive or something and nothing has happened. But we`re going to talk with her this week and hopefully she`ll get baptized next Sunday after church! Keep her in your prayers, she`s the sweetest!
 

Well that`s it for the week! Full of crazy changes but that`s what makes it interesting! 

I hope you all have a great week! 
 

Con todo el amor en mi corazon, 

Hermana Evans

 Our zone with Presidente and Hermana Kahnlein

                                                                      Viña del Mar



The girls with their new companion

 

 

 

A cat in the internet cafe



Smoke from the fires in Valparaíso

 

Jesus The Christ

March 9, 2015

Hola familia!

I hope you guys are having a great week!

This week was great. On Tuesday we had our consejo with President. I love consejo because I get to see all my missionary friends and of course President and Hermana Kahnlein. But honestly of all the blessings that just seem to come from serving, I really am grateful for all the people I`ve been able to meet and friendships I`ve made with the people here in my mission. I just love everyone SO much! And president and hermana Kahnlein are just amazing. I seriously have the best mission president in the WORLD! Here`s my psychic prediction of the week: In General Conference next month he`s going to be called as a General Authority because they finish their mission in beginning of July. 4 weeks before me! So lame. But yeah we`ll see if I`m right, he is just too amazing and powerful and Christlike and spiritual and everything amazing to not be a general authority. I can`t wait to tell you guys about him in real life because I just can`t accurately communicate how amazing they are over email. He`s such a powerful example of obedience and diligence in my life, I am just so grateful to have him as our president here.

 

Also this week I FINALLY finished reading Jesus the Christ by Talmage. I just have to say that everyone should read that book!!! It is SO SO SO amazing. It`s way cool how he chronicles through Christ`s life from the pre existence through the millennium. He takes you step by step through His life as written in the bible and then pieces it with the Book of Mormon and his visit to the Americas and then goes through the apostasy and then when he restored His church through Joseph Smith to today how he still is leading it to the second coming. Oh my gosh it is just so awesome! My testimony of Jesus Christ has been strengthened SO MUCH! I love how he shows Christ as a real person, not just the Savior of the World. It shows that He really did have emotions, and reacted to things. He celebrated holidays, He liked traditions, He even got mad. He did it all but He did it in the right ways, without ever losing control. The thing that impacted me most was to realized that just because He lived a perfect life, He didn`t live an easy life. He experienced temptations just like me. It wasn`t easy for Him to overcome the temptations. He experienced the pain and the strong desire of giving in to the temptation, And yet when we say yeah I can`t take it anymore and give in, He kept persevering through the strong desires and wants. I always just thought it was easy for him to say no or to always make the right choice because I mean, He`s JESUS CHRIST! The Son of God! It should be easy for someone like Him to say no to worldly things. But He was just as human as each one of us. It wasn`t easy for Him in the very same way that it`s not easy for us, yet where we can`t keep going and give in or say well maybe just this once or make the excuse that we were born this way and can`t change, or whatever other justification we make, He kept going and kept enduring, inspite of everything else.. He kept his eye on the prize and never let it go. I really really really admire that. A lot. After reading about His life and His sacrifices, it makes me want to be a better person to show Him just how grateful I am. I want to endure like He did. I don`t want to make excuses, even in situations where it could be totally justified. I`ve heard a lot of excuses from people over the past year and honestly that is just what every single one is. An excuse. And honestly they all just suck because they just block blessings out of people`s lives. It keeps them from becoming more Christlike and taking advantage of all that Christ did for us and does for us. 

 

I want so bad to be like Christ. I want to have His gentle touch. I want to always stand for what is right. I want to keep my emotions under control. I want to be patient. I want so bad to be like Christ. I have a long way to go but, the great thing about the gospel is that I know that I can get there. That book is just so so awesome. I`m probably going to start it again. 

 

So anyway, our investigator Teresa came to church again yesterday!!! WOO HOO!!! She loves it and she is way excited to get baptized! We taught her about baptism yesterday and I shared my testimony of what my baptism means to me and she was so cute, she had to get up and hug me afterward in the middle of the lesson. That actually meant a lot to me that she did that because I know that it means she felt something through my words and she could see that what I was saying was really important to me. She was way cute too, she told us that she loves church and that she`s going to keep going even when we leave haha. I mean that`s kinda the idea. But Teresa is just the most loving and faithful woman. She loves everything and wants us to come everyday. We also had once with her and her husband Julio. He`s great too but whenever we start talking about the church he usually just bolts it up the stairs. But over once we were able to talk with him and he`s such a good guy. He told us that he`s more realistic though because he carries the responsibility of providing for the family so he can`t be as spiritual and trusting like his wife because he has to look at the reality and what really will happen. He`s really worried about their son Christian, because he has special needs and he`s worried what`s going to happen to him when he`s not around anymore. We`ve gained a lot of confidence with him this past week and I know that one day, when it`s his time, he`ll listen to the discussions too and be baptized. But I just love this family. Really they are an answer to so many prayers. 

 

Funny story of the week: We met a drunk Spaniard in the street the other day contacting who starting singing us Spanish love songs and he kept thanking the people of Viña del Mar for their support and love and how he`ll be having performances all week. It was entertaining to say the least haha. We gave him a card to visit mormon.org. Maybe he will. Who knows. 

 

But yeah that`s about it for now. I love you guys so much!! Have a great week!

 

con todo el amor en mi corazón, 

Hermana Evans

 

Consejo de líderes de la misión - Marzo

Posted: 09 Mar 2015 04:39 AM PDT

Esta vez sólo hay una foto .. pero el consejo fue tan poderoso como siempre!

 



Birthday potato for a zone leader

 

  

Chilean cats chillin in the sun

Cute story by Samantha's companion, Hermana Hansen:

 Fun story, we can´t drink coke in the mission, and we were contacting this guy, and he says ´do you want something to drink?´ And we´ve been walking hills all day and it´s a million degrees so of course we say YES. But then as he goes inside to get us something, we remember that Chileans drink coke like it´s water. So we´re like SHOOT what are we going to do?! So then he comes back out with just one glass of coke, and my companion says coke makes me sick, can you fill my water bottle instead? and I said yeah that would be awesome! so then he took the water bottles inside to fill them and I just dumped out the glass of coke off the cliff. The things we do to obey... but we got water all the same. Good day good day!
 

The Cambio Of The Phoenix

March 2, 2015

Hola Familia!!!!!

We have risen from the ashes.  This is not a Harry Potter reference! We have gone from rock bottom with the whole Alonso situation to soaring above the clouds. This week we have been working harder than before and we have seen so many miracles!

After the whole Alonso thing we were like yeah not letting this get us down, we are good missionaries. So we put the goal that every day we were going to invite someone to be baptized, whether it was a contact on the street or in a lesson, every day we would extend at least one invitation. We are now going 10 days strong and the miracles just keep coming. We have found some amazing people this week. My favorites are first, Olga. She`s 89 years old. It`s crazy, my area is nothing but hills and everyone we find is way old. It`s funny though because she acts and looks like she`s 62 or something. But she`s so awesome. She read a part of the Book of Mormon and when we asked her if she liked it she said yes because she felt like she`d already read the book before. We were like that`s so amazing!!! We invited her to be baptized and she was like well yes! Why wouldn`t I get baptized?? She wasn`t able to come to church yesterday because she had to go do tramites because she just moved here from Argentina but she`ll hopefully come next week. She`s so great though. She told us that she feels like we`re her sisters. So sweet. She`s also a crazy clean freak, she gets up at 6 every day to go out and sweep her dirt, I mean.. yeah. At least her dirt is clean dirt right? Keep her in your prayers though!

Then my other favorite we found is Teresa. She`s in her fifties and is recovering from cancer. She`s really sweet and is definitely a woman of faith. We found her while contacting her street. She lives at the bottom of the hill and down where all the rich houses are so they all have intercoms outside their fence. Intercoms are the WORST. No one ever lets you in. But she did. The funny thing was when we went back to teach her, she spent 20 minutes just taking pictures of us, with her, with her husband, with her son, in every room of their house, outside, in front of their truck. We were like what the heck. One picture ok fine, like 30.. haha they just really like gringas I guess. But her family is super important to her and her husband works a lot so she`s super lonely. She`s lost a few people and then with the whole cancer thing she is just worried about the future. We first taught her about the plan of salvation and she was like wow what you think is really pretty. We told her we don`t only think it, we know it, and that she can know too! We invited her to pray about it and to come to church. AND she did! And sweet thing, she walked all the way there. She didn`t think it was as far as it was. BUT she came!!! And she LOVED IT!! She couldn`t stay for the classes but we gave her a tour of the chapel before she left. She stopped in front of a painting of Christ being baptized and was like that`s so pretty. I asked her if she`d like to do something like that and she said yes, very much. We told her that we were planning a baptism day for the 21 of march and she said then that`s the day I`ll be baptized! We didn`t even need to invite her! haha but then it was really sweet because she was like wait, what do I need to do? It was like she committed to it because she wanted it with her heart, before she thought it through in her head. I love that! Keep Teresa in your prayers too! She`s so awesome!

Friday we had a talent show for the ward activity. It was your typical Chilean talent show complete with at least one act dancing to a Grease song and another act of the two young women dancing to weird Asian music haha but it was a hoot. Only when it ended it was 9:22 and we need to be home at 9:30, 10 at the VERY latest. But afterward the branch president wanted to talk to us about this list of people and other things and by the time we got out of the church we had 12 minutes to climb the hill to our house. And locomotion does not pass by the church that late at night and no one in the branch has cars. We`re like oh my gosh we have to run up the hill. Now, note that to climb the hill from the church to our house, going very quickly normally takes 25 minutes. So we just took off praying praying praying because getting home late is the absolute WORST!!!! So we went and I just couldn`t bring myself to look at the time as we were going, I just didn`t want to know how late we were. We get to our house and look at the time. It took us 12 minutes to get there. 12 MINUTES!!! We were like woah.... ok that`s weird. That`s like crazy record time. It was a miracle!! I know that God was definitely slowing down time or something because yeah, 12 minutes is just not possible. 

But what I`ve learned most from everything is that when we`re diligent and go to work, the Lord takes whatever actions and efforts that we`re giving Him, no matter how awkward or imperfect and He uses them to work His miracles and to do His work. He knows what needs to be done and He does it. I know that the Lord really is doing His work, He is bringing in more and more of his children to the truth, but He needs us to be His hands and His feet and His mouth. He really does do the rest. I really feel like I have done nothing this past week. I didn`t make Olga feel the familiarity of the Book of Mormon, I didn`t make Teresa feel the importance of baptism, it is all the spirit. I`m just here as a witness of it all. I know God lives, I know that Christ lives, I know that they  are active Beings, doing what needs to be done so more of their children can choose to live with more truth and more happiness.

I love this wonderful work and the wonderful people here in Chile. It`s the best. I also love you all. Thank you so much for your support. I hope you have just a wonderful week!!!!!!!!!! MUAH!

Con todo el amor en mi corazón,

Hermana Evans

Tan lines from just one day!

Weird caterpillar!

Teresa and me

Another pic of Teresa and me