Dulce o Truco!!!

November 3, 2014


Hola familia!!

I seriously can't believe how fast this week went by! And how fast the month! How is it already November???

 

I hope you guys had a great Halloween!!!! They celebrate it here too but it's more a new thing and I guess every year it gets a little more popular! Holidays are like great days to find people because everyone is together. And we happened to be contacting in the evening so I decided to turn it into trick or treating because, why not? Only we were the ones with the REAL treat, the gospel of Jesus Christ!! So we'd go to the houses and we'd call out 'HALO' like normal and then when they answered I'd go 'dulce o truco'! Not everyone found it as funny as I thought it was, but we did find a new investigator out of it all!. And we have a lot of good futuros that we're going to pass by this week. And even though I'm a missionary this year I wasn't about to pass up the opportunity to dress up for Halloween either, so I had my companion switch name tags with me in the evening so this year I was an Argentinean!! haha. So all in all I'd say it was a pretty successful Halloween! Also I got a pretty wicked sweet tan line across my chest from my shoulder bag. I think this is the first Halloween that I´ve gotten a tan! Another treat!

 

This week we also had intercambios (exchanges with another missionary for the day) so I got to work with Hermana Lucas who's from Guatemala. She´s like the sweetest thing I´ve ever met and we had a lot of fun together! We had a lesson with this one investigadora that we found last week. It turns out she has like crazy dreams. Now usually the people here are like pretty superstitious about their dreams and the dreams are like super crazy weird and usually I walk away just thinking the person is crazy. But this lady has this dream that an angel comes to her dressed in a white robe and gives her this white fruit to eat and she said that it was suppose to be the most delicious fruit. And like it's the end of the world and everyone is going crazy but she's super calm and the angel tells her that she doesn't need to fear and she's like together with her family. I was like woah, so then we read the story in the Book of Mormon about Lehi's dream and explained to her what the white fruit meant in the dream-eternal life. Then she told us about this other dream she had where it's like the end of the world or something but her husband was always with her, he always stays being her husband. I mean I'm no fortune teller or ancient indian dream interpreter but the dreams have a lot of gospel symbolism to me.. We taught about the plan of salvation and invited her to be baptized. She said yes! But the problem is that she works Sundays.. BUT she doesn't want to and has been trying to switch schedules. I'm praying for a miracle. Also we found ourselves with a menos activa that we found in the street a few months ago. We've been teaching her and her daughter who isn't a member. After one lesson with them I left them the story to read in the Book of Mormon about the conversion of Alma the younger  and when he saw the angel and how he received forgiveness. So there´s two tellings of the story. One in  the book of Mosiah and one in the book of Alma, right? Well I wanted to leave the one in Alma where it's Alma telling his sons about his experience but I got them confused in my mind and left them the one in Mosiah. Turns out there was a scripture in the version of Mosiah that really touched the heart of Vilma that's not in the version of Alma. She told us that she felt like through this part that God was really talking to her. It amazes me how the spirit works. I think this was one of the only times that I can be right by being wrong.

 

But the work continues on here in good ole Limache. I feel really thankful to be a missionary at this time. I was thinking about it the other day and I really think that serving a mission has been the greatest choice I've ever made. I've learned so much and experienced so much and I really like the person that I am becoming thanks to learning and applying the gospel everyday in my life and helping others do the same.

 

I love you all so much! 

Read your scriptures and invite someone to church this week! You won´t regret it!

 

Con todo el amor en mi corazòn,

Hermana Evans

I've been on my mission for 9 months!!!!  Half way done!!!

Baptism of Barbara


 

 

 

 

Exactly How We Are!!!!!

 

October 27, 2015

 

 

Hola mi querida familia!!

I feel really content right now as I write you guys. I´m so glad you guys had a great weekend in Phoenix! Sydney´s going to be a killer missionary! South America better watch our for the Hermana Evans´haha. 

 

Anyway my week was super amazing! On Tuesday I finished the Libro de Mormón completely for the second time on my mission!!! We read it together as a mission and our president gives us themes to highlight throughout the book. This time we highlighted whenever it talked about heart, might, mind, and strength. It's interesting though because the translation to Spanish is: heart, SOUL, mind and strength. And then we could choose whatever theme we wanted for the last one so I chose 'testimony', but more especifically whenever someone said "I know"... Almost all the pages are entirely colored in my book!!! I loved really searching out these themes. I learned that we need all of these to really serve the Lord. I found the most about the heart. I also learned that it's through these things that not only the spirit works in us, but also the adversary. We really have to be careful of what we let in our heart and mind... How we use our strength and where is our might.  Another theme that stuck out really strongly to me was how much love God and Christ have for us. Like a thousand times it says, "except you shall repent". In the Book of Mormon we always have extremes right?? The best of the best and the absolutely worst of the worst. And God is always there with his arm of mercy extended to the people if they will just repent!  He is SO DARN willing to forgive and erase. We just have to humble ourselves and go to him. It's SO EASY and yet it's amazing at how hard it is for people to do that. And the thing that I can't even understand is that God is so willing to forgive and then bless and, in the next life give  kingdoms and principalities and all things glorious if we will just repent of our sins and come to Him. It seriously amazes me at how simple of a request it is that he asks of us. I was reading a conference talk by Tad R. Callister the other day and he was talking about the Book of Mormon and he said this about the book that I just loved because it is SO true: Would you like to have emblazoned on your soul an undeniable witness that the Savior descended beneath your sins and that there is no sin, no mortal plight outside the merciful reach of His Atonement -that for each of your struggles He has a remedy of superior healing power? Then read the Book of Mormon. So simple. So straightforward. So true. Read the Book Mormon. Just do it. 

 

We had two baptisms Saturday!!! Barbara. The girl with the cutest little baby that I told you guys about, that we just found on the street contacting got baptized!!! I can´t tell you how happy I was! Also Diego, this little boy who is 9 got baptized too! It was a beautiful day of white! I was thinking a lot about baptism and what it means. It's a big promise. We promise to always keep the commandments for all of our lives and to always remember God and Jesus Christ. But also God is making a promise with us. He promises to wash us clean and that we will always have His spirit to be with us to comfort us, to guide us, to protect us. I've also always found it interesting that for such a big promise, or covenant, the ordinance is so simple. The people dress in plain white clothes and they enter in the water. They say the short prayer and then they are submerged in the water and come out. For such a great eternal promise it takes like 2 seconds. I was thinking why isn't the ordinance more, I don't know, elaborate and glorious? But I realized that in the simplicity we can simply be focused on this promise. On ourselves and the Savior. There is nothing to distract from it. How wonderful is that?? Also I was thinking back to my baptism. I remember before people always telling me that I was going to feel so clean and good and wonderful after! So I had in my mind I was going to feel something really special and amazing as I came out of the water. But for me, I felt exactly the same. Maybe it was because at 8 years old I probably didn't understand the great importance of the baptism very well. I knew I loved Jesus and I wanted to follow Him. And maybe some people do feel the spirit really strongly during their baptism but I think that for many they feel like I felt, the same. And I remember thinking afterward, dang it. I didn´t feel anything good (I didn't feel anything bad either). And I was thinking  this yesterday too and I realized that that's another thing so great about baptism. We can receive this forgiveness of our sins in how we are now! I remember an Audrey Hepburn quote that said ¨Success is like reaching a really important birthday and realizing you're exactly the same¨ The beauty in baptism is that we are the same. That Christ accepts us right now. Exactly how we are. He isn't waiting for us to gain more knowledge, more experience, to be richer, or 3 sizes thinner. He wants us now. We can receive forgiveness now. We don´t need to change. He will help us with that in time. We just need to be willing. We need to be humble. We just need to come to him with a broken heart, contrite spirit. If we just go to Him and ask for forgiveness, He gives it. No hesitation. And He continues to be the same even years after our baptism. As we just repent and take the Sacrament to renew this promise, he continuously washes us clean, he continuously forgives us, he continuously strengthens us, and we can continuously grow. It´s never too late.  Baptism is so simple because really the gospel is simple. There are no distractions. There are no, like Pres. Uchtdorf said, "you must be this tall, or this righteous to enter signs."  IT¨S MARAVILLOSO!!!!! With every baptism I feel my heart growing and stretching with love for the people here and for this gospel. I know that there is no other way we can be saved and no other way we can be truly happy. It's just all good stuff. 
 

I love you guys so much and wish you another great week!!

Con todo el amor en mi corazón,

Hermana Evans

 

The English class I'm teaching

The most beautiful roses I've ever seen!

Guillermo, the most amazing gardener!

Our kitchen

The living room where we study

The bano

Where we sleep

Baptism of Diego! He's super crazy!

Me, Diego, my companion

The Field Is White And Ready For The Harvest!!!!

October 20, 2014

 

 

***WARNING*** 

I´m in a ifferent computer place and the letter that comes after c in the alphabet oesn´t work.. I hope you can still unerstan. 

Let´s just be grateful it´s not a vowel. 

Hola familia!!!

 

¿Còmo estan? I hope you all ha a great week!!! Mine was super busy but super goo! How I like it. This week we ha interviews with the Presient an they went really well. It's funny, always on the way to the interview I get really nervous an like start secon guessing myself. I get worried that what if I'm not obeient or what is it that I´m not oing that I shoul be oing. What is he going to say? Is he going to chastise me??? What if he sens me home?? Like I know it´s umb because I know I´m not oing anything wrong AT ALL. But it´s always like ahhhh man what am I forgetting. But then when I went into the office an we sai the prayer an starte talking it was all goo. We ha a great little chat, a few laughs an that was that. I left feeling really great about everything an even more motivate to continue oing what I was oing an to continue searching opportunities to o more. I really hope final jugement is like that. That we can walk into the office with Heavenly Father an Jesus Christ sitting there an that for me it can be a great little chat about all that I i here on the Earth... Have a few laughs about that one time I learne Spanish an when I ha to use computers with ysfunctional keyboars. haha... and then I can walk through the oor to the celestrial kingom with a gran smile on my face an happiness in my heart. Oh that´d be so gran! Now I even kind of hope the interview is in Spanish because it´s just so much easier to talk about the gospel in Spanish than English now.. Who knows maybe we´ll be speaking heaven language which is probably Spanish, so I´m goo ;). 

 

As of right now we have 4 people with ates to be baptize!!! One of them is Franco, not to be confuse with JFrankyFly... He´s one tough nut to crack... No, Franco who tol us in the first lesson that he thinks he´s Go. hahaha that still makes me laugh. But he shoul be baptize this week! Only last night in the lesson we ha like 5 members there with us. The member we invite invite more people which is great but he´s like super shy so he´s not going to be super open in the lesson. When we aske him if he was still goo with getting baptize saturay he tol us that he has some personal things that he needs to resolve in his mind first. (oh good the d is working now!) But he told us that he couldn´t talk about the stuff at this time. I mean his interview is tomorrow so I hope everything works out!!!!!!!!! Gosh. He´s come so far!! We´re going to try to meet with him before to see what´s up. Diego, our other investigator who sí o sí will get baptized this saturay ha his interview yesterday. It was so funny because he´s like 9 and I think he has ADD or something because he can´t sit still to save his life. But we´re standing outsie the room with his parents listening to him answer the questions. When we taught him missionary work uring the lessons we made him a fake missionary call where he got called to serve a mission in the US speaking English. At the en the last question is if you´re willing to take upon the name of Christ an keep the commanments for your whole life and Diego goes, yes, BUT I CAN¨T SPEAK ENGLISH!!!!!!!!!  I think the Elder was kind of confuse at that response but we were cracking up!  We also went over the questions with Barbara who is just so amazing. After looking over the questions she goes ohh thinking about being baptized gives me this thing in my stomach, I feel like I´m in love or something! how adorable is that???????? Gosh. 

 

Also this week I found the twin of Velora. How is she oing by the way?? I miss that girl. The Chilean Velora is named Karen and is 15 and is just as cute an outgoing an adorable as Velora. She´s going to get baptize. She´s just too happy of a person to not! You know that scripture that says the field is white an ready for the harvest? That´s how I feel about Limache right now. Goo things are happening. The work is progressing an it´s amazing. 

I love you all. You don´t need to worry about me. I´m happy and healthy. 

Con todo el amor en mi corazon,

Hermana Evans

Good Men Better!

October 13, 2014


Hello family!!

So I love the pics that you send me. Hahaha keep them coming!

I hope this emails finds you all good and well! This past week feels like a blur. I feel like I almost don´t have anything to say haha. We had cambios (transfers) but my compañera and I stayed together here in Limache. It was such a relief! I was worried that I was going to change but I have at least 6 more weeks with the wonderful people here! But things continue to be the same. We have wonderful investigadores that are progressing! We continue teaching them and it's so great to watch them grow and change in the gospel. It makes me feel like a proud parent haha!

This week we had our stake conference here. It was SUPER good! Our mission president spoke in the Saturday session and then he and his wife spoke together Sunday. Also Elder Zeballos, one of the seventy over Chile, and his wife spoke. It was my second time listening to them as we had a conference with them as a mission a few months back. They're super awesome!!!!

I really liked what Pres. Kahlein spoke about. His talked compared the Dream of Lehi with 3 Nefi 11, when Jesus cristo came to the Americas. In the dream, Lehi tried the fruit and then invited his family and others to come and try it too. When Christ came, the first thing He does is invite the people to come and touch his hands and feet. In both cases there´s an invitation for the people to experiment for themselves the goodness of either the fruit or of the Savior himself. No ones needs to convince them or use catchy or eloquent language. As the people follow the invitation that Jesus gave to Andrew in the Bible to come and see, they´ll know FOR THEMSELVES of the goodness that is in the gospel of Jesus Christ. I thought it was a great message to get the members more motivated to share with their friends. Elder Zeballos spoke about the Atonement and it's everyday power to change us to become more and more like the Savior. I loved a quote he shared from a prophet that the objective of the gospel is to make bad men good and good men better. Also I loved a question he posed for us. ¨Why would we settle for the good when the best is within our reach?¨ He spoke a lot about the scripture in 2 Nefi that we are saved by grace after all we can do and how God doesn't expect anything more than our best effort. He knows that we can't do it all, but that we can do our best. This made me think of another scripture in Doctrine and Covenants 123 that I like a lot that says something like just do all that is within your reach and do it happily and then sit back and watch the hand of God do the rest. I just think that it is so wonderful that the gospel is not like some long list of do this and don't do that. But it's like this grand living thing that encourages us to be better. That tells us we REALLY can do it. And that we can do it happily! We don´t need to wait until we meet with some prerequisites. We can start right now. Right where we are. In a world where it seems like almost everyone wants to tear us down and tell us how good they are and how bad we are and that we are incapable of change, the gospel tells us differently. It says that you really are special. You really can do it. It's like the best self help plan ever. Especially because it's not even a journey that we take by our self. We have a Savior who wants to raise us up. The key is we just have to let Him. Gosh the gospel is just too good. I love it, love it, love it.

Also it´s actually starting to be spring here!!!!! I have tan lines on my feet! Hahah it´s crazy. This is like my first spring in a year and a half!

Well that´s about it. I´m sorry that I don´t have anything super exciting to report this week. But I'm happy and healthy and having a great time here with the people. I love you all!!!!! Thank you for everything!

Con todo el amor en mi corazón, 

Seester Evans

The Greatest Compliment Ever!!!!!

September 6, 2014

Hola familia!

Wasn´t this weekend just amazing!!! Man, I love listening to the prophet and his apostles. I feel recharged and with even more motivation to go out and share this marvelous gospel with EVERYONE.... Because let's be honest, there ain't nothing better!

. 

Hahaha.... mom thanks for asking about our investigadors! DJFrankyFly (as I like to call him, his name is Franco but we have two investigadores named Franco right now so it helps differentiate.... FrankyFly is the 58 year old DJ) He´s doing good. He comes to VAS (the aged single adults) family home evening on Fridays and he even came to the Sunday morning session of conference! His previous dates for baptism have fallen through but after coming to conference we're planning on inviting him again in our next charla (discussion). Hopefully all goes well.
 

Barbara is just made of gold. I love this girl SO much! She´s 23 and has the cutest little baby who´s almost 5 months. Gosh I just want to hold that little green bean every time we teach her. She´ll be baptized the 25 this month!! She´s so sweet! So she told us that she was going to come with us to watch conference at the stake center so we were waiting and waiting for her and calling her but she never came. We felt really sad that she was going to miss hearing the prophet. So that Sunday night we passed by her house to visit her and see what happened this morning. She answers and tells us that she watching it ALL on the internet in her house!! Is she the best or what?? She´s so cute, she was like I couldn´t remember how you told me to find the web page so I just googled latter day saints and I found it!! You wouldn´t believe how much stuff is on there to help you learn and understand!!¨ Haha just thinking about her makes me smile. 
 

Franco (the other one) also came to all the sessions on Saturday. I was beyond grateful for Uchtdorf´s message. He pretty much addressed and resolved and said everything we´ve been telling him this past month. I was like Pres. Uchtdorf knew Franco was going to be there and was speaking right to him. Then Eduardo .... something, who spoke in Spanish Saturday was just perfect for Franco to hear too! We´ve seen the most beautiful change in Franco over the past few weeks. There´s just more light in his face. We´ll meet with him tomorrow to hear what he thought of it all. He has a date for baptism the 25th as well!!!!

We also started teaching this man Luis. We had our second lesson with him Friday and we taught him the Restoration. He is probably the most receptive person ever. After describing the first vision and testifying of it, he goes, I don´t doubt what you´ve told me is true. There´s no other way. He´s gone through a lot in his life, he lost his 20 year old son some years back and still hasn´t recovered. He´s always been really religious but fell away from churches because he was confused about why all are different. We got into a really good discussion and we were able to testify of the restoration of Christ´s church for us. And then he gave what I´m sure is the greatest compliment I will ever receive in my entire life. He said that through my words, he could really feel and know that Christ loves him. I don´t even know what I said. But I felt so humbled that he was able to feel Christ´s love for him. He has a date for baptism the 26th of this month. 
 

We have lots of great things to come!!! Hopefully these people can continue keeping their commitments so they can be baptized at the end of the month. The one worry that I have that just gives me a great pit in my stomach is that this Wednesday are cambios. Which means there´s a change that I could be moved to a different area. I don´t want to go. I really don´t want to go. There´s too many people here right now that I just love and want to be here with them when they come unto Christ and are baptized. I don´t know if I´ve ever prayed so hard to stay. But it´s what the Lord wants right?? Hopefully he wants me here too. 
 

So conference this weekend. SO AMAZING!!!!!! I loved that now they´re letting people speak in their native language! How awesome! I bet the people in the conference center didn´t even need the subtitles, the gift of the interpreting of tongues was probably spread over them all haha. I especially loved that two of the talks were in SPANISH!! We watch conference in a separate room in English but for the Spanish we´d run down the hall to listen in Spanish. I can´t tell you what a joy it was to listen to them speak Spanish and to not only understand every word but for it to feel so natural to listen to the gospel in Spanish. He was saying some of the very words that I say everyday to the people here. It was too cool! 

So to answer your questions:  My favorites were Uchtdorf in the woman´s conference!!!!!! SO AMAZING!! And also his on Saturday. I also LOVED the talk by Lynn G. Robbins. Especially because he came and talked to us here in June so I felt like I was watching an old friend haha...I also loved the one by Jorg koknaldnlfk (ok so that´s not really his last name but I think it´s something similar) He was making me crack up with how direct he was. ¨If you can do something about it, DO IT.¨ Bahahaha. And I loved Bednar´s talk and the story about his sons. ´´and brothers and sisters, oh did he howl..´´ hahahah. But of course you know that the words of the prophet have to be the favorite. How amazing is it that of all the advice the Savior could give the world right now, it´s to follow His example. To walk as He walked. I don´t know about you guys but I felt the talks were a lot more direct this session and that the emphasis was in gaining our own personal testimonies. Finding our own answers and staying strong to them. It was all about strengthening and staying true to our testimonies continuously. How wonderful that we can receive our own personal revelation and know what is true and what is not. I also thought it was interesting that like 4 people at least used the scripture Helaman 5:12--build your foundation on the rock of Christ....where if men build they cannot fall. I felt like it was all about spiritual preparation. Now is the time. How wonderful is it that we can ask questions and that we can find answers. How wonderful is it that God listens. That our questions really are important to Him. And that he in turn answers. He sends us His spirit so we can come to feel the gospel is true and as we continue searching and using the tools of prayer, scripture study, family home evening, church and temple attendance, we can be strong and sure in our knowledge. The gospel is wonderful and never ceases to amaze me. I´m proud to be a member of La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Días. 
 

I love you all! Have a great week!
 

Con todo el amor en mi corazón, 

Hermana Evans

 

Intercambios in Olmue.  So Pretty!

My District of missionaries

 

Be Valiant!!!!!!

September 29, 2014

Hola familia!

Ahhhhhhh another week has passed and almost another month. I seriously can´t believe it´s like October... I have no clue where the heck this year has gone. It gives me a little anxiety thinking that there´s only like 3 months left of the year. 

 

The weeks go by so fast that I'm struggling a little to remember what even happened since I last wrote you. Well this week we did have a zone conference with Pres. Kahnlein and his wife. They are so awesome! Presidente started with talking about where we have our ¨mira puesta¨ or where/in what is our view. To what are we looking. It should always be in Christ. It was very motivational. Another thing he spoke of was the need to be valiant. I thought that was kind of an interesting topic to choose but when he started talking, he told us that he felt very strongly that this was the message the Lord wanted us to hear. He talked about being valiant as an attribute of Christ and that many times in life and missionary work we can be put in situaciones where there is a need to stand for what is right. I really liked the topic of being valiant. It made me think about how much good examples are needed because though it may not seem like a lot, the very act of being an example and standing for what we believe is an act of valiance (is that even a word? Whatever. I guess I´m a true Chilean now because I´m making up my own words haha) It may not seem like a lot but I firmly believe that when we stand and set an example we are also inviting others to stand and to be an example. It´s a silent way of saying, there´s no shame in not following what the world teaches, there´s a better way. I came away thinking of what I´m doing in the lessons/contacts in the street that SHOWS I know the church is true. Am I loving? Am I assertive? Am I confident? Am I Christ-like? Am I valiant? I think valiant is a little more than being brave, but being diligent and true as well. It was interesting because right after the conference we were in a lesson with a new investigador who brought us a nice cold glass of coke. I love coke. But one of the rules we have in our mission is no caffeine, which means no coke. So it´s always a little awkward saying no, especially because the people always get offended... so I just thanked her a lot and said that as missionaries, we don´t drink coke. She just kept insisting that we drink it. I know coke is not a big deal at all but obedience is obedience right, and I learned that being valiant, though it is noble, is very uncomfortable... haha so we just said no and put it on the table at the side. The lesson was a little rough afterward because I don´t think that she was pleased with us but at least we left the house feeling good about ourselves and not weighed down by regret. It´s totally a parallel for life. Sometimes because of the world we live in,  the gospel is not always a comfortable gospel. We have to step out of the comfort zone and sometimes stand alone. And we feel awkward and we could even think, aww, I might as well just do it, just this once, it won´t make a difference. But it will make a difference because afterward we´re going to feel the regret, we´re going to receive the consequences. But I don´t know about you, but I´d much rather be a little uncomfortable now and  without regrets later than the reverse. The gospel saves us from being weighed down by the rocks of consequence and the burden of regret. I know that as we live valiant to the truths and the standards we know to be true we will always walk away with heads high and hearts happy. 

 

Anyway besides from the conference this week nothing too exciting happened. We´re teaching this one guy, Franco, not to be confused with DJFrankyFly, this is another. When we first met him he had some really weird concepts of religion. When I asked him who is God, he told us that God is in all places but no place and that even at times he, himself, is God.  Quite a character. When I asked him what he does during the day, he told me that he takes walks and looks at the sky and drinks mate alone in parks. When we asked him what is happiness to him, he in turn asked us what is happiness? I´m not sure I know what this is, he said. But he finally came to church yesterday! And we had a lesson with him Friday that was one of the lessons when the spirit was the most strong that I´ve had in all my mission. We´re really trying to help him understand who is God and Jesus Christ, because if he doesn´t have that base, nothing more we have to teach him will resonate. Anyway Friday we were talking about how to recognize our answers to prayers. I had this feeling come really strongly to me that I needed to share my testimony of the truthfulness and the need for the gospel in my life. I opened my mouth and I just spoke. I can´t even remember what I said but as I was talking to him I was looking him straight in the eye so he´d know I had no doubt, and I saw something change. I know now I probably sound just as weird as Franco, but there was a difference. I don´t know what, but there was a difference. And then for the first time in like over a month of inviting, he came to church yesterday and is going to institute classes and is going to attend conference. We have a lesson with him tonight and are going to invite him to be baptized! Keep him in your prayers that he can accept the invitaticion!! The gospel is amazing. We all need it. It´s truer than true.

 

Well I have to go now, but I love you all! Until next week!!

 

GO COUGS!

 

Con todo el amor en mi corazòn,

Hermana Evans

The Strongest Medicine: Prayer

September 22, 2014


Hola familia mía!

I love hearing about your week. I´m so sorry to hear about one of your chickens, mom. I can´t say that I know if we get to have our animals we´ve lost in the next life. This isn´t doctrine or anything but I believe that they have to be there right?? Where else would their spirit go? But I am glad to hear that you gave it a funeral instead of eating it for lunch--you´re not completely a 19th century woman...yet ;)

 

But that reminds me. So this past week it was 18 de Septiembre, which is like their 4th of July only they celebrate it like crazy. It was like a 4 day weekend and everything. But one of the menos activas (less active members) that we visit invited us to come over and eat empanadas with her. So we went and she has this old oven in her back yard that she literally lights the top and inside on fire to cook. She says it goes a lot faster than the normal-ish oven inside. It made me think of something you would do! haha. But I can´t even lie. They were the best empanadas that I've ever eaten so I´m 100 percent on board with the horno del fuego! (fire oven).

 

But yeah, this past week was 18 de Sept. The day I´ve listened to just about every Chilean talk about since the moment I arrived here. It´s almost like they´ve got it confused with Christmas with how much hype there is about it. But really I think it´s more of an excuse to drink and eat a lot. We ate a lot of asado which is like Bbq and empanadas and mote con huesillo (but I stayed away from that last one.. I already learned my lesson with that and I´m not in the mood to throw up in a bus ever again, thank you very much). But now I can say that I´ve celebrated an dieciocho en Chile. Check that off the bucket list! haha 

 

To answer your questions before I forget:

 

1. Fleas. They´re terrible. I think the current count of bites I have right now is a rough 22! 

2. I have been nipped at a few times by dogs. I wasn´t super crazy about dogs before the mission but now I am by far convinced that cats are WAY better than dogs. I know hate is a strong word... but it actually might be the perfect word for these dogs.  

3. No, my fitted sheet is still in perfect shape.

4. Really it depends on how cold the night is to have a sleeping bag. For a few months there I was freezing cold during the night, but now it´s not quite as cold so it´s way better. 

5. We have pans to bake with but we don´t really bake so it doesn´t really matter. 

6. My tooth is doing WAY better. Seriously I really don´t understand what happened. Because it was bothering me more or less for like a week and a half. And then last week the pain was almost unbearable so I called the nurse but I couldn´t get an appointment until this week since no one was working the week of the 18th. I have great timing I know. So I was taking a lot of ibuprofen which didn´t do anything to take away the pain. What I needed was like Vicadin or something. And one night the pain was SO strong that I was just praying and praying and honestly thank you so much for your prayers too, because the next day, no pain. and the day after that, nothing, the next day, nada. I haven´t felt any pain or anything at all since last Tuesday. Honestly the power of prayer is way stronger than any medication. Seriously, gracias from the bottom of my heart. Hermana Kahlein, the wife of the mission president called me today to see how it was but I told her that I haven´t been in pain so we decided that for now we´re going to hold off on the dentist. Honestly, it´s a miracle. Thank you for your prayers! 

 

I was thinking a lot about prayer. Mission President Kahlein said something interesting a while back. He asked us to think of our last spiritual experience. So I´m thinking of a lesson we had a few days back where the spirit was really strong.... Then, he says that if the experience hasn´t been since the last time we prayed, we need to work on our prayers... That really opened my eyes because we all know that prayer is how we communicate with God and all those beautiful things we say about it in church. But I´d never thought about it as a spiritual EXPERIENCE. How cool is that? I read the Book of Mormon in Spanish now and one thing I love about it is that when the people pray, it doesn´t use the word pray (orar) that often. But it uses words like clamò (cried), suplicò (begged), ruegò  derramò (shed all of his soul) and more. These words or verbs, give a sense of more urgency, desire, and heart than just the word 'pray'. What verbs would describe our prayers? Do we really realize how much power are in our prayers? Do we realize who we are talking to? Do we understand the love He has for us? Do our prayers reflect the love we feel for Him? For me, this past week prayer was my strongest medicine. And for us it can be more than just medicine, it can be comfort, love, the first and last resort. It is so amazing!

 

Bueno, I think now I´m starting to rant so I´ll sign off. But know that I love you all and I pray, really pray, for you guys every day. I love, love, love you!!!

 

Hasta la proxima semana!

Con todo el amor en mi corazòn, 

Hermana Ebans

Pretty road in the middle of nowhere!

Street where I live

Flags everywhere celebrating September 18th (Chile's 4th of July)

Baking empanadas in a horno de fuego (fire oven)

Making empanadas with Hermana Laura Ella who is a less active
member of the church, but invited me and my companion to
celebrate 18th of September

Beautiful sunset in Lemache