Fabian's baptism

Linares: City of Dreams‏

Okay, so this week has been great. I am absolutely LOVING Linares

It is NOT little. Everyone told me it was this little campo town, but it is at least 5x bigger than Hualqui- it is surrounded by farms so people think there is nothing out here. There is a huge city center that is beautiful. I am absolutely thrilled to be here. I got to jump right in a start teaching this week with a good of investigators. I can tell the difference in sectors in the city that are near Concepción and out here in 'campo' people are a little more friendly and willing to listen which is awesome.

We are teaching two families who have dates for baptism this next month. Right now I don’t know if either of them feel ready to be baptized, but this week we are going to do our best to help them learn how to understand the voice of the spirit so that they can know they have received an answer to their prayers and feel comfortable and ready for this big step.

Our home here is HUGE. It is so sad there are only 2 of us in it. We are actually the only Hermanas in the zone too.

Here we also have BIKES. It has helped out a lot this week because this sector is so big. They have to be fixed up a little this week, but they are super nice to have around.

We also have our own washing machine. I am not really sure how this sector can get better, but I will let you know. It really does surpass my dreams. Well Love you. I will let you know more in the coming weeks about the sector. I am loving being with Hermana Ovando once again and excited to learn more from her.

Besos

Hermana Saunders

Fabian's baptism

We had a baptism yesterday! (¡Por fin!) It might be the most beautiful thing I think I have ever witnessed. We had it after church and so many people helped out which was awesome. His family came and while we were taking pictures President and Hermana Arrington showed up! Hermana Arrington had taught him with us a few weeks back and we had invited her to come (but didn’t hear from them after so we expected them not to come) It was such a pleasant surprise. We started the meeting with two talks from a youth in the ward and one of Fabians mentors in his basketball team. Hey were really neat. We then went to the font and there he was baptized by his neighbor, Hermano Colla- It was a really emotional moment for me and Hermana Prettyman. After that We heard his seminary teacher give her testimony and then Hermana Prettyman and I sang a musical number together. The Spirit was so strong in the room when Hermana Arrington then got up and bore her testimony about how Fabian was a chosen spirit to help the Lords work and share the gospel- tears were shed.

I feel so lucky to have had the chance to teach Fabian. I know that God put him in our path for a reason

Other craziness CAMBIOS today! I am going to Linares! It is literally a dream come true! Hermana Ormeño and Hermana Prettyman have both been there and LOVED it- their favorite sectors. I am thrilled to meet their converts. It is 'Campo' or away from the city which I am really excited about. I will be with Hermana Ovando AGAIN! Crazy right?  I am excited 3 weeks just wasn’t enough together.

I want to testify that God lives and he loves each and every one of us. He has a beautiful plan for each and every one of us. He will help us achieve heights that we never could alone.

I love you!

Besos

Hermana Saunders

Fun tidbit- we woke up to the sound of meows and when we looked in our garage the tom cat that hangs around our house had kittens on an old sleeping bag in there. We now have 4 of them that wake us up every morning.

What sign do I want to show God

Hello Family and friends! How was your week? Mine was fabulous. Uneventful but it is absolutely wonderful to be in the service of my God.

Fabiàn is doing so great. We are preparing him for his interview this week and his baptism on Sunday. We made invites and everything.

Jannier as well continues to progress and this week we will complete all of her needed teachings before her baptism. In talking to President Arrington, he would like her to attend church for another month before her baptism, so she will be set for the beginning of November.

We have a reading chart for both of them that we are all doing together to help them get to know the stories and teachings of the Book of Mormon.

When they are both baptized we will be totally dry without investigators...So we went finding this week. Many days of a of walking and praying, but we reached our goal, only through the miracles of God. We will have some new people to visit this next week hooray. I'll let you know if any of them progress.

This week we taught about la Dia de Reposo or the Sabbath Day. In our zone conference last week we learned about how the First Presidency sent out training videos to all stake presidency in the world about the importance of the Sabbath day. They promised us that if we keep the Sabbath day holy we can increase our faith and have lasting conversion! That is a huge promise! Especially when we are looking at the number of less actives in our area.

Something we taught it that the Sabbath day it not just going to church. It is devoting ALL of our day to our Heavenly Father to do HIS work. It is a day to rest from our labors. It means using our time to do HIS work and not ours.

My invitation for you guys this week is to analyze your dia de reposo and as Elder Nelson challenged us from his last conference talk 'what sign do I want to show God?  Then with our actions show Him that he is first in your life.

Sending my Love from Chile!

Besos

Hermana Saunders

¡Conferencia General!‏

What a wonderful week. A long, but wonderful week.

Here are some highlights

 

On Tuesday we invited our mission President's Wife, Hermana Arrington to come out with us on so visits. It was such a great day! We visited Fabiàn with her and her testimony brought such a great spirit to the lesson. We taught him about prophets and he asked us if we'd be happy if he became prophet one day. It was a joke, but we told him that we would be very proud of him if he became prophet but that first he needed to be baptized. He has always related to Joseph Smith so we joke and call him Fabiàn Smith. He came to all sessions of conference and told us of his excitement to become a teacher after his baptism. He is so incredible. He has such desires to change and please God. He is so excited to be baptized in 2 weeks.

 

We also put a date for Jannier for baptism at the beginning of November. She attended 2 sessions of conference and really liked it. Despite the fact that her mother and father do not want her to be baptized, she has a testimony of the church and is following what she knows to be true.  I love her. She so brave.

 

It is weird that our focus group has turned into the youth program! It show me that really in these final days Heavenly Father is sending his strongest soldiers to come and grow in the gospel. I look up to Jainner and Fabian so much. I feel so blessed Heavenly Father trust us to teach them.

 

We also had zone conference this week. (15 hours of conference for us)

 

We spoke a lot about helping our areas understand the importance of keeping the Sabbath day Holy. I learned so much, even about how we as missionaries can consecrate our Sundays more fully to our Father in Heaven.

 

I was so moved by General Conference, and I just want to invite you if you haven't already had the chance to listen to the talks, to do it. And then review it. I know we have a prophet of God on the earth today. I know that through the words of his servants the Lord tells us all that we need to know and do. God can answer any questions and doubts that you have if you are willing to act on the words of his prophets.

 

I love this mission. Through everything I know that this is where I am supposed to be. I know that God has a path for all of us. He Loves us and knows our needs.

Besos

Hermana Saunders

¡Feliz semana de Independencia!‏

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What a week! Well it started out wonderful with a great package from my beautiful Grandmother. In it she set lots of goodies and some band aids- to which I thought, ‘‘She must think I have blisters, luckily I don't, I won't really need these'' (foreshadowing) but all the same I enjoyed the package.

We had a good first half of the week, finding a few new people to start teaching and helping the members prepare for 18th- Chile's independence day. It is bigger than Christmas here. We spent 2 mornings baking empanadas with an Hermana for her business. We made something like 70 of them. They are time consuming little things. But SO good.

In the streets we saw lots of kids playing with these wooden dradel type toys called Trumpos. We ask a few what they were and they told us they are traditional toys that they play with around the 18th. Me and my comp bought some to give them a try and they are so hard! You wind them up with a string and throw them at the ground and they spin...well that is what they are meant to do, but all the little kids are pros. We need some practice.
On Thursday we had an earthquake here in Chile! No worries it was very far from me. About 400 miles or so. The craziness is that we felt it here. It did no damage but it shook us up a little. I think the most annoying thing about it was that is distracted our investigators and they wouldn't focus after that. We were actually giving them the 'kill' speech during it (that we aren't going to keep visiting them) I thought it was ironic that it happened during the earthquake.
On the 18th it was a pretty good day. No one let us in. But we expected that with the holiday. We were allowed 2 hours at the church activity and that was really cool to go and see all the youth dance the traditional dances of Chile. They are really serious about that here. We also went to the Plaza, which was set up just like the fair. It was really neat.

The 19th was probably the most boring day of my mission. No one let us in again and we walked all day. Holidays have their ups and downs.

We were walking past a park and I had the great idea to go down the slide (to break up the walking) it was one of those really old metal steep and tall ones. It was a lot of fun until I fell at the end and ripped up my tights and my knees. I put those band aids to use from my Gram. That is what I get.

Well I think that is just about all you want to know about my week.

Love ya!

Besos

Hermana Saunders

Lucky month 7- Letter

Long week, but a good one! We continue to teach Fabian and he is progressing so much. This week we taught him the Word of wisdom  in a  game of basketball. It was a blast. He is just like a regular youth in the ward. We are still working on his mom. She is busy and not making time for us, but praying for an opportunity to teach her.

Last changes we had the sector in deviations with the other Hermanas, but this week we opened it up. We did a lot of walking and knocking to get to know the new sectors but I really think it will be for the best. We were lucky enough to find o lot of less actives this week that are ready to progress, which is exciting.

 Sad news is that we have in our plans to 'kill' our family of investigators this week. It has been 2 weeks without seeing them at church and we have prayed and feel it is time to let them go. I am sad. I am really going to miss them. Well, we will let go with faith. that is all you can do, right?

 We were put to shame this week when a member made fun of how tall our grass was at our house, so this week we took a morning to pull it all up. We couldn't locate any clippers and scissors just wouldn't cut it so we did things the Chilean way and we pulled every bit of it up. It was quite the adventure. Now we have to huge trash bags full of grass that the garbage men won't take... figuring out what to do with it will be our next adventure I guess.

Saturday we had a mission wide service day. In the morning all of the sectors near Concepcion came in and we cleaned a bunch of the streets. We played 'what are the odds' (sort of like truth or dare) with the Elders in our zone and Elder Meza from Peru had to buy me an ice cream. It was a good day.

 This week everyone is preparing for the 18th. It is Chile's Independence Day and they go crazy from what I hear. I am so pumped.

 The weather is really warming up and it is really nice not to lug around out water gear.

 I am doing great. Happy and healthy

Besos,

Hermana Saunders