Who Needs Cookies????

July 28, 2014

Hola familia!!

 

So this week was super amazing! I´ll get to why in a second but to answer your questions; I love my new area! I guess it´s like a poor area but not really. It´s weird. We´ll enter houses that from the outside look super run down, the wooden fence out front is all rotted, it´s like all dirt, and you walk in and it´s not well lit and the furniture has seen better days and all that but then they have like flat screen tv's and tablets and smart phones. Really I think it´s more an issue of laziness than poverty.
 

The food is still good, mountains of mashed potatoes and pasta every day. But I really do miss eating healthy. Oh well, mashed potatoes isn´t even something I can complain about so it´s all good.
 

I really like our house too. We live by ourselves in this like condo that´s two stories and we have an actual kitchen and a washer! So we get to do our own laundry which is actually really nice.
 

I´m not playing the piano right now but maybe in the future!

Ok, so why this week was so amazing! My companion goes home in 3 weeks now so we put a goal to have 3 bautismos together before she leaves. This is a high goal because one of the requirements for bautismo is that they assist at the church for at least 3 times. Also we opened this area so we both came in blind, having to find all of the old investigadores and new ones too. Last Sunday all the people that told us they would come to church didn´t come which means we have to sì o sì have people come to church the next 3 weeks. So this past week we invited everyone we taught to be baptized and to come to church. We were actually able to put baptismal dates with 6 different people which was awesome! But it all came down to Sunday. So we fasted and did what any good sister missionaries know how to do. We baked snickerdoodle cookies and made cute invitations to church and took them to all our investigadores with dates on Saturday. One of the new ones we found, Veronica, told us that she would come, sì o sì, even if her husband didn´t want to come. Also a mom and daughter said they would come with a friend who´s a member. I love when the members help us out!!!!! So we were like ok so for sure we´ll have these 3. So we go Sunday morning to Veronica's to walk with her to church. And she´s not home. Her husband told us she went to the faria which is like the swap meet thing. WHAT?? So since it was right down the street, we went to the faria to see if we could find her. Wow I really hope that didn´t sound creepy or anything.... Anyway we didn´t find her and ended up having to go to church ourselves. So we were like ok it´s fine, we have Pamela and Tiare! that´s really good. And then come to find out one of our other investigadores came too! She didn´t even get cookies and she came! We weren´t even thinking of her because when we invited her she already told us she was busy. But she came!! Oh my gosh. We had 3 investigadores at church! It was seriously a milagro! Who needs cookies when we have the Lord?? Also yesterday we didn´t have any fixed lessons so we were just contacting and passing by people hoping they would let us in but of course either no one was home or they were super ocupado. So it was like almost 8pm and we´re like ok we need to have a lesson so we just stopped and said a little prayer that we would find someone that we could teach and share the gospel. Then as we kept walking we felt like we should stop and contact this one house. She was a hard catholic and wanted nothing to do with us. So we were like ok and kept walking. Then this lady came walking down the sidewalk and so we stopped and contacted her. Turns out she has a smoking addiction and has been wanting to stop for years but never as been able to. But she really wants to quit because she knows the smoking is separating her from God. It´s was awesome! Not that she has this addiction but that we could share about the word of wisdom and how Christ not only died for our sins but for our struggles and addictions and every bad thing we deal with in life. That because Christ overcame death we can overcome the things in life that hold us down. She was super moved and told us that she was with a friend and ended up walking with the friend all the way down to the corner for no reason and so now had to walk back and now she understood why she had to walk back so she could meet us... And we were like that´s so crazy because we just said a prayer and then went and stopped at this house and if we hadn´t stopped at the house we´d probably have missed her. It was like one of those things where you´re like woah, there REALLY is someone listening on the other side of our prayers. I swear Heavenly Father was probably looking down on us chuckling. From all the amazing experiences I´ve had from prayer on my mission, one thing I've come to believe is that one of the things He must enjoy most about being God is answering our prayers in the most natural but unexpected, yet perfect ways. It´s so amazing how in control of everything He is. Ah man I love it!! So we have another lesson with her this week so we´ll see what happens.

I realized that today is my 6 month mark! Can you guys believe that?? I seriously feel like I´ve been gone for like 3 weeks maybe? My first thought when I realized this was wow I haven´t worn flip flops/sandals in 6 months. I didn´t think that was possible for me, but I guess really all things are possible with the Lord haha. And then I thought that means I have to do everything I´ve done only 2 more times and then I´m done. That just about made me cry so I´m never going to think that again. I love being a missionary so much!!! I love everything about it! I love bearing my testimony of Christ to random people on the street. I love sharing scriptures with people and listening to people pray asking if the Book of Mormon is true. I love waking up everyday with so much energy to go work. I love collapsing every night after my prayer with not one ounce of energy left in my body.  I´m SO HAPPY:. ALL. THE. TIME. It actually weirds me out how happy I am. But whatever, I´m a missionary. Thank you for all your prayers and support. I couldn´t do this and experience all this without you guys and I just want you to know how absolutely grateful I am for everything!!!! There´s no words to express my gratitude. But I just love you guys so much with every ounce of my heart. Just thank you. Thank you.
 

I hope you guys have an awesome week and surf a lot! 

con todo el amor y gratitud en mi corazón, 

Hna. Evans

Hola Limache!!!!

July 21, 2014

Hola familia!!!

Wow so this week has been kind of crazy but super great!!!! So we had cambios on Wednesday and I was pretty sure I was going to stay one more cambio but I ended up getting changed! I was super sad because we have some awesome investigadores and I was super excited to see them continue to progress but I guess that´s how the mission goes. I know they´re going to get baptized though because after our last lesson with them the spirit was just too strong for them to not know that this church is true. It was also super sad saying good bye to Antonio and Libertad and Hna. Maria. I love that family so much!! I went over so I could meet their new baby who is the cutest, smallest little bean I´ve ever seen. I swear the hardest rule to follow as a missionary is the no holding babies one. But it was also a really awesome experience saying good bye to Antonio because he got really emotional which made me get emotional. It was just one of those moments when all I could think is this is why I´m on a mission. Seeing the changes in him and in this family over the past months has been amazing! They are so awesome and I know they will continue strong in the gospel always.

This gospel is SO awesome!! I just wish everyone could understand that and experience all it´s blessings! I honestly feel so blessed to have it . Heavenly Father´s plan for us is so perfect and when we understand it and accept it, it brings us so much happiness! No matter what other thing is happening in our life, no matter what trials or problems or annoyances, the peace and stability and happiness of the gospel is always there.
 

But yeah, also it was super sad saying goodbye to my compañera because we were like best friends. But the good thing is that she lives in Provo and goes to BYU so I will get to see her again and there´s more adventures to come.
 

So I´m in Limache, which is this awesome quaint town. It´s super calm and in the country which is so beautiful. Everything here is pretty green, it almost reminds me of Germany a little. But I like it here and my new compañera, Hna. Stewart, is like the coolest person ever. She´s from Salt Lake, 23 years old and a nurse. Also she´s gone to a bunch of different countries doing humanitarian work and stuff. We get along super great and are super excited about the work here. At first it was hard because we´re opening this area. Which means we were both new here so we had no clue where anything was, who were the investigadores, nothing. But now we´ve kind of figured things out and are finding new people and everything is going great! Also our new house has a mirror in the bathroom!!!! I forgot those things existed! It´s awesome!
 

Our ward here is pretty good and the members though not mucho are strong and excited about missionary work. It´s interesting in the chapel, they don´t have any pews, it´s just rows and rows of chairs. And the ward has the most awesome thing ever, it´s called VAS (Viegito adultos solteros) It´s like YSA (young Single Adult activities) but for old people. They meet and have Family Home Evening every friday. 
 

We also teach English classes here which is super fun. I get a kick out of hearing them try to pronounce some of the words, but we help each other, me with their English and them with my Spanish and we´re all better for it.
  

Anyway I´m out of time so I´ll write more next week! I hope you all have an awesome week!!!!!
 

con todo el amor en mi corazon, 

hna evans
 

P.S. I´m with dad on the beehive idea. Bees are bees, they sting. You´re crazy, or maybe just part Amish or something.. haha sincerley, your daughter that´s allegic to bee stings.

Feesh or Fish

July, 14, 2014

Hola familia!

 

Sounds like you guys had a great week full of sun and camps! I love the pictures you sent! I haven´t got your envelope yet but hopefully soon!

This week was such a funny week haha.... I forgot my journal though so I´m going to try to remember everything.... We were talking to this one guy we met last week. The first lesson we brought a member with us since he lives alone and we can´t enter his house, but the second time we just went ourselves and talked with him in front of the house. So at one part he interrupts us and asks us what our birthdays are and then does this weird numerology thing to tell us about our personalities or something (he was so wrong btw). He then tells us that he couldn´t do that for us the first time because the senora was with us and in Chile they kill you if you know too much. Ah man haha I about burst a kidney trying to hold in my laugh. Then a while later this sweet old lady walking by stops and asks if we know where Cristian lives and he looked at her like he had no idea what she was saying so she was like oh well thanks and kept walking. He then looked at us and was like I´m not going to tell her! what if she wants to kill him! hahaha I think se te fueron los enanitos pal bosque (the midget escaped from him for the forest (The Chileans speak with the weirdest modismos but I love them!--this one is my favorite right now, it means,  'he´s crazy').
 

Then yesterday we were at lunch with one of the members and their daughter is like 6 and she was asking me how to say pez in English so I was like fish! And she looked at me and was like no it´s not! It´s ¨feesh¨ bahahahahaha. Then she asked me how to say tortuga in English so I was like turtle! And again she was like no it´s not!! It´s tourtle (I didn´t really know how to spell that like how she said it, but just imagine it´s said with a heavy accent) hahah.  I asked her if she was sure about that and she said yes because she´s been practicing with her teacher at school. ahahahaha kids these days know too much for their own good haha.Oh and Libertad and Antonio had their baby this week too! And get this, Antonio came to church by himself on Sunday just so he could pass the sacrament! Is he golden or what???

Ah man I feel like I had another funny story to tell you guys but I can´t remember anything else. The days all blur together and I can´t keep everything straight in my head sometimes but I guess there´s always next week! Anyway everything is all good here! I´m so happy! We´re finding new people everyday and the work is always progressing! We have cambios Wednesday so we´ll see if I stay or if I go. I think I'll probably have one more cambio here in Quillota but we´ll see for sure Wednesday!

I love you!!!!!!!
Con todo el amor en mi corazón,

Hna Evans

Happy July!

July 7, 2014

 

Hola familia!!!

 

So I seriously can´t believe it´s ya July!!!! How did that happen?? The photos from the beach are beautiful!!! Just keep telling those waves that sorry but they´ll have to wait another year until I´m out there again haha. 

 

For our Fourth of July here we ate tacos but they were delicious! I definitely wasn´t complaining and neither was my Mexican compañera.

 

We also had entrevistas con president this week. He´s so amazing. I swear he´s going to be a General Authority one day and probably the first Latino apostle. There´s just something about him that is super special. Also he told me my spanish is very Chilean. I don´t know exactly what that means because the Chileans speak pretty bad Spanish haha, but I definitely took it as a compliment and the fact that we had the whole interview in Spanish was cool because the last two he did in English (he served a mission in Arizona) but he was like wow you´ve come so far with your Spanish I don´t even feel like I need to do this in English. YES! Win for the blondie. Also it was awesome because I asked him a question that I´ve had for a long time and he was like you know there´s some things in the gospel that we´re just never going to know (and to be honest that was the answer I was expecting) but then he went on to say: I promise you that as you attend the temple you will receive the answer and come to clearly understand why. How awesome of a promise is that! It was almost better than receiving an answer right then.

 

It was also my compañera´s birthday this week which means lots of yummy cake! And it´s super hard to do things as a suprise when you´re with someone every moment but I´m super sneaky and asked what her favorite breakfast was weeks ago and so I made french toast as a suprise in the morning with candles on top. haha

 

We´ve found some new investigadores this week that are awesome and I have high hopes for them! I´m really hoping for one more cambio here so I can see them progress. They´re so funny. Nancy and Gloria are best friends and next door neighbors and they´re like oh you have to be in your house at 10 at the VERY latest, ok so next time come at 5 and then we´ll walk you home at like 9:50. haha they told us they don´t ever want the angelitas to leave. 

 

But everything is super good here! I´m SO happy! I love my compañera, we´re like best friends which makes the work that much more fun! We might quote Nacho Libre and Napolean Dynamite too much haha but it´s awesome and we make homemade tortillas together all the time! They are SOO good!!! I don´t understand why I wasn´t born Mexican.

 

But yeah I think that´s about it for this week. I love you all so much! I love being a missionary! I love the gospel! Hasta proxima semana!

 

Con todo el amor en mi corazón,

Hna. Evans

The Book That Taught Me Spanish

June 30, 2014

Well hola!

I´m so glad you all had a good week! I love you all more than you know!

This week went by SO FAST. I seriously can´t believe it´s Monday because I feel like it was just here.
 

A GREAT BIG FELICIDADES to Jordyn on her wedding!!!!!! That´s so crazy. But it sounds like it was lovely! I have so many funny memories of us together from elementary school on up!  haha. It´s so wierd to think she´s MARRIED now! But please tell her next time you see her that though I couldn´t be there I am BEYOND happy for her and I´m sending a great big Chilean abrazo to her! Wish them all the very best! and tell her we´ll get together and celebrate next summer :)
 

So you know how everything is reverse here? Well not everything, that was an over exaggeration, but the seasons? So I realized that meant that the 25th here was like Christmas for us in the winter. My compañera y yo found a box of Christmas lights and a little Christmas tree and stuff so we decorated our apartment and sang Christmas songs the few days leading up to it. You probably think we´re crazy but it was super fun! haha
 

Also this morning I finished El Libro de Mormon for the first time in Spanish!!!! I´ll let you in on a secret.... It´s just as good and just as true in Spanish as it is in English. Actually as weird as it is, I understood some of the verses and parts in Spanish better than I ever did in English. It´s awesome! And I am pleased to announce that from about the middle of  the book of Alma on, I didn´t even need to read it with my English scriptures, I could understand it on my own!

We read the Book of Mormon together as a mission and the president asks us to highlight certain things as we read. For example, this time we highlighted every time there was the word Dios or Jesus or any form of their names, when it talked about prayer, obedience, and the direct words of the Lord. It´s crazy to flip through the book and see how many times it talks about God and Christ. Basically multiple times on almost every page. It´s crazy. It kind of made me think today like wow if my life was a book how many times would the name of Christ show up on my pages? I hope multiple times on every one too. Its a great motivational thought though to make me strive even more to live in a way where Christ will be there on every page, in every sentence.... I love the Book of Mormon SO much! It´s the book that taught me Spanish. I love the promise at the end where we can pray and ask God, the source, no one else, if it´s true. As I read the book everyday I´m really starting to feel like the person that God not only wants me to be, but knows that I´ll be. I know The Book of Mormon is true.

I love you all so much! Enjoy those summer rays!

 

Con todo el amor en mi corazón, 

Hermana Evans

Is It A Road Or A River???

June 16, 2014

Hola mi familia!!!

 

Les amo mucho mucho y espero que ustedes tuvieran una semana super bien! This past week has gone by so fast! On Tuesday we had Elder Robbins of the Presidency of the Seventy come to our mission so we got to go to Viña to listen to him and it was amazing! When I shook his hand and said hello he goes Wow, Hermana Evans, aren´t you just the happiest person, which made me feel really good! It always amazes me how all of the general authorities I´ve seen speak (with the exception of general conference I think) never have any notes prepared. They just get up and can speak and it´s amazing and powerful. He talked about the importance of the Holy Ghost in conversion. He gave the example in the Book of Mormon of Alma the younger who was one of the vilest of sinners but then he was visited by the angel. When Alma the younger is telling his son about the experience he says that it was through much fasting and prayer that he received his testimony of the gospel. It wasn´t from the angel. He then talked about Laman and Lemuel. They saw angels, they received many manifestations from angels and from God but they never gained a testimony from any of that. Elder Robbins said that while powerful manifestations would be super awesome, they rarely happen. That the effects of the holy ghost on one´s heart are way more lasting and powerful than any manifestation from angels or what not. I thought that was super interesting and has made me think a lot more of what I can do as a missionary to help my investigators have experiences where the Holy Ghost can testify to their heart and their conversion process can start. He then did a question and answer segment with us so we could ask questions. I don´t remember exactly what one of the questions was but he ended up talking about success and he quoted Winston Churchill and said that success is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm. How awesome is that! He went on and talked a lot about patience and diligence and the atonement. How rarely it´s easy for missionaries but this is a time where we are learning patience, diligence, and that through the atonement in the end everything will be made right. We have to have the patience and the faith to keep going. I love when I can learn and understand a little bit more of the doctrine of the atonement. What a crazy wonderful power source it is for us to pull from every day. Whatever we need: strength, patience, diligence, charity, etc etc, when we turn and access the power of Christ´s sacrifice for us through prayer we´ll get the help we need. And if I´ve learned anything on my mission, it´s the power of prayer. God REALLY does listen to us!

This past week it was SUPER rainy for a few days. The roads here are crazy in the rain too. And when I say roads I mean rivers. At one point we´re walking on the sidewalk, not even in the street, up on the sidewalk and the water is up to our shins! I didn´t think swimming was allowed for missionaries but I guess rainy days in Chile are the exception. Crazy stuff. But it was fun because my companera and I were making up Spanish raps about the rain haha. But now this next week is looking like it´s suppose to be in the 70's and 80's so that´s great news too! It was crazy though because the next day after the huge rain we were saying how we hoped it would rain until after our studies in the morning and then it could start raining again after 9:30 when we return home and it was POURING that morning and then justo cuando we finished and it was time to leave, the rain stopped and it didn´t rain for the rest of the day. Spooky right? Ahhh. 

 

Today we climbed the cerro mìyaka (spelling?) in Quillota which is where Parley P. Pratt had the revelation that everyone in Quillota would be a member of the church one day. It´s basically like This Is The Place: Chile! haha  The view was BEAUTIFUL! I still can´t believe how incredibly blessed I am to be serving in one of the most beautiful places in the world. I know my Heavenly Father loves me and I know He loves all of you! 
 

Anyway that´s probably the most exciting stuff that happened this week--besides the fact that Chile won their partido in the mundial! CHI CHI LE LE VIVA CHILE!!!!!!!!! 
 

Hasta next week!
 

Con todo el amor en mi corazón,

Hermana Evans

It's Truer Than True!

 

Jun 9, 2014

 

Hola familia!

 

This week has been super rainy here! Funny story time: So like last Tuesday it was a downpour and the streets here turn into rivers when it rains. We needed to cross a street so we bought trash bags that we used potato sack race style to cross the river, I mean street, to keep our feet dry haha. It totally failed and we were soaked but it was fun!
 

This week I got a new compañera!!!!!!! She´s Hna. Farias and I just ADORE her! She was born in California and lived in San Diego for a few years and goes to BYU too! She´ll be 20 next month and her parents are Mexican so she grew up speaking Spanish in her home and in their Spanish ward so it basically couldn´t be any more perfect! 
 

This week went by way too fast it feels! Yesterday we had a beautiful baptism service for Catalina! She´s 14 years old and her parents are menos activos that we found contacting one night. It´s amazing to see the change in this family. They hadn´t gone to church in 11 years but are reactivating now. The mom had a problem with smoking but she prayed hard about it and was able to give it up just like that. You should hear her testimony of prayer because of this experience, it´s so powerful! The family is so much more happy now! Catalina is just all smiles! There´s just no words to describe the change the gospel has brought to this home. They had a lot of problems before but now the problems aren´t gone yet but they are overcoming them with strength and happiness and a new perspective. I feel too blessed to be able to see this change in the family! I just love them so much! This gospel is so true, it´s truer than true. I love being a missionary and being able to see everyday miracles like this. I wish I could communicate in words how amazing it is, but there´s just none.
 

Besides that, nothing more exciting happened this week. Oh! actually I have another funny story but it´s actually more sad than funny. So for my birthday I bought myself this super cool backpack. It´s like the coolest backpack I´ve ever seen in my life. It´s super colorful and made with the same material as my baja jackets so super Latin America and Super cool. On the front pocket is this square that was stitched on that´s a bunch of colorful checkers. I didn´t think anything about it, I just thought it added to the color of the backpack. My new compañera saw it last night and was like uhhh did you add that on to the backpack and I was like no, why? Apparently it´s a communist flag.. Gosh. Why didn´t anyone tell me that before I bought it! So I´m going to find a Chilean flag to stitch over the top of it. Man. At least now I know what a communist flag looks like...

On that note, I hope you all have an awesome week!! Enjoy the warm sun because here it´s FREEZING and rainy. But the snow on the mountains is a pretty sight! Also I´m sending photos! I love you all and I´ll talk to you next week!!!

Con todo el amor en mi corazon,

Hermana Evans