Well, I have officially completed my first cambio (transfer) here in Chile! That was probably the fastest that 6 weeks has ever gone. We have been working super hard and having fun, I guess the combination of the two makes time really fly!! Crazy. So I am staying here with Hermana Hamblin in Caupolicán. Yay. I love it here! The new training program is 12 weeks with your trainer, not 6 like how it used to be. So if one of us had gotten transferred this cambio it would have been a huge surprise. Which, crazy things happen sometimes, but this time we are staying here. :) Yesterday was Hermana Hamblin's birthday! We got soo much food hahah oh gosh. The members here are great. Even without the food... They are just so loving (but the food just makes it even better). There's a couple families here that I'm really close to. Love 'em.
Honestly, this was my worst week in Chile. Nothing bad happened, we just didn't work as hard as we usually do... Let time get away from us in visits, just didn't use our time very effectively. And I felt really really bad. Ugh. It was just an awful feeling to feel like I didn't use the Lord's time as best as I could. It's hard here to keep visits short because the people looove to talk. They are so sweet, like if we stop by anyone's house they always always invite us in, and bring us like juice and cookies, or fruit, or something. Always. And it's kinda rude to turn down food, but we try to do it as nicely as we can. If we can't get out of it, we eat fast. Also this week our cell phone wasn't working so we couldn't call anyone to check up on appointments. So we would go down to an appointment and they wouldn't be there, and that happened a lot. So lots of wasted time. Sad. But I'm not trying to make excuses. We didn't do our best, despite all the other set-backs. But thankfully, Heavenly Father is merciful to us... Soo merciful and forgiving. We felt really bad and repented of our shortcomings. We asked for forgiveness and help to be better... Saturday was FILLED with tender mercies from the Lord. Oh my gosh. First of all, we had a lunch appointment cleeear on the other side of our sector. She has forgotten before and we wanted to call to make sure so we didn't walk all the way over there and she didn't have lunch... But we didn't have a phone. So we tried to use a pay phone but we couldn't get it to work. A man was waiting for the bus to come and he offered us to use his cell phone. So nice! The lady didn't pick up so we figured we'd still have to walk down there, in case she was waiting with lunch for us cause that would be really bad if we didn't show. But on the way, we stopped by the cute old lady who gave me her shoes last week. We didn't get a chance to visit her this week, so we stopped by real quick to see how she was doing. She told us to come in, she had empanadas. And we were like ahh we want to, but we have lunch plans maybe. So we told her we'd go down and see if we had lunch, and if not we'd come back to visit her. Well, the lady was not home, fome (lame). But it was okay, we went back to Eliana's house and she had empanadas for us! She is soo sweet. What a blessing. Otherwise we'd have to buy lunch somewhere. So that was the second tender mercy. Like I said, we didn't do super good work earlier in the week. We are supposed to try for 10 new investigators every week. Which means we have one lesson with them in their house and we have a return appointment. Well, we went to this girl Javiera's house after lunch. She doesn't really believe in God, but was interested to hear what we had to say. Well the rest of her family is religious, and just so happened that her mom, two sisters, and all the daughters' boyfriends were there. They had just finished lunch. We taught them a lesson and have a return appointment, so look at that we just got 7 new investigators at once! Wow, what a blessing. I seriously almost cried after that. Then we got to stop by a baby shower at the chapel for a bit. Normally we wouldn't but they needed us to take pictures because none of them have digital cameras it seems haha, but also a member told us about one of her friends that we can teach, and that lady was there. So we actually did have a valid reason to stop by, to meet our future investigator. But the baby shower was so lovely, there were like 30 people there and they played cute games and shared treats. The lady is supposed to have her baby this week, I'm so excited! But that was fun, we just stayed for like 30 minutes. Then we went to a member's house because he had a friend for us to teach (I'm telling you the members of our ward are awesome). We had a suuper good lesson with him. He is so awesome, his name is Ramon and he is just super ready for the Gospel. Another new investigator. After we stopped by the grocery store to grab a snack, and while we were in line we were contacting people standing behind and in front of us. I was talking to a cute couple in front of us from Santiago, vacationing here. They were Catholic and way nice. He saw we were only getting a couple things and he asked if he could help us. He bought our groceries! He said, for my new friends, you guys are doing a great thing. So sweet. Wow. Tender mercies left and right guys. Proof that when you are sincerely repentant for your faults and go to work to make things better, the Lord WILL help you! The day was just great and we did lots of good, hard work. I felt so good coming home that night. Exhausted and happy. :)
Like I mentioned yesterday was Hermana Hamblin's birthday. We had another good day. Lots of deeeelicious food, nothing tooo terribly unhealthy, so that was good. I have pictures but the ciber (internet cafe thing) that I'm at doesn't have the adaptor for me to plug in my camera today. Well, they have it but someone else is using it. So I will send pictures next week. But the day was good. We actually heard and saw lots of sad sad things though... For one this lady in our ward, Gladys, last Monday got her kids taken away from her by the government. :( She basically lives in a shack.. The kids have ticks and they don't have running water or electricity in their house... One room and cats and flies and oh, it is just so dirty. I understand why the kids can't live there, but it is really really sad. I totally cried when we visited her. She's only 27 and has 4 kids, age 9, 7, 6, and almost 1. Ah. So sad.. To see the conditions that some people live in... I just can't believe how fortunate and blessed I have been my entire life. We heard other stories of people's growing up years, just really sad things that have happened. We don't know why but yesterday was the day that everyone was telling us all these stories, for some reason, ha. Made me so humbled and grateful for my life and the wonderful upbringing I've had and the ridiculously amazing opportunities I've had and the things I've done. It's not fair. But that is a part of why I am here on a mission, to help others find the joy that I have. Because the joy of the Gospel and the gift of the Holy Ghost surpasses any earthly treasure. It's the least I can do.
Anyway, things are going well. We are going to work harder, like we usually do, this week. I'm trying to let this past week be a learning experience and not something that I feel bad about forever. Ha. I love you family so much, I pray for you every day. Thank you family and friends for all your love and support.
Till next week!
Hermana Danielle Anderton
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