Week 22

Hello friends and family!!

So this Christmas was great! We went over the the Lanskrun Family's house for Christmas Eve (which is really their big day that they celebrate here in Chile and they call it "Noche Buena" and Santa comes that night and they all open their gifts at midnight!  We had Christmas Eve dinner with them and it was pretty funny because we couldn`t eat the salad because it had pig intestines in it and we have a rule that we can't eat pig intestines for safety reasons, so we ate all of the leaves and the outside of a half of an egg for our salad and just pushed the intestine puree to the side of our plate.  Then they brought out the main course which was turkey and guess what? It was completely frozen :) hahaha It was pre-cooked and just had to be heated up but it was frozen through still so they began to cut it up into pieces and heat it up in the microwave little by little haha I got a good laugh out of that.  Then they brought out dessert and it was these cupcakes that they made in a cake pan (because they don't really make cupcakes in Chile so they didn't really know how to do it and they didn't have any cupcake molds to make it so they were pretty funny looking and they had cream on top (the type of cream that they put on Everything here and that really dosn't have any flavor at all.  And ya know what?  Although it seemed like just about everything went wrong with that Christmas dinner, I had the time of my life!! We focused on the reason for the season, our Savior Jesus Christ and we had a live Nativity and laughed a whole bunch.  I cannot think of a better way to pass the Christmas season than focusing on the true reason and finding the Joy that is possible through our Savior, Jesus Christ!!!

We also had a Christmas activity in which we watched "The Testament" and you wanna know who showed up?! About 5 members of our ward and 5 OF OUR INVESTIGATORS!! And they all loved the movie and were amazing about the Idea that Christ came to the Americas! He visited with not only the ancient inhabitants of Jerusalem, but he visited his "other sheep" here in the Americas! There is a whole other part of the story of Jesus Christ written here in the Americas by prophets of old and you can read all about it in the Book of Mormon!!  What an Incredible gift!!

I love you guys!! Hope you all had an amazing Christmas and will have a Happy New Year!! 

--Hermana Harvey

 

We had a live Nativity with the Lanskrun Family on Christmas Eve! :) That was fun!

Hermana Smoot doing her crunches on Christmas morning! Even on Christmas we've gotta be obedient!! :)

Opened our gifts!! I loved all of them Thank YOu!! And the pajamas are super duper comfy!

We made pizza on Chirstmas! It's a tradition in the Smoot house so we upheld the tradition with Hermana Smoot :)

 (WARNING!! DO NOT LOOK AT THESE PICTURES IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH!!!)

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My Papito holding up the skin and head of the lamb right after he had skinned it.  He looks WAY too happy, right?!

My mamita is breaking the jaw of the lamb in this moment... It wasn't a pretty sound...

Yes... that's the head of a lamb that I am holding.  Fun, right?

 

Feliz Navidad!

Week 21

Merry Christmas, Friends and Family!!

So one thing that has been different about this week is that for the holidays, there are a LOT of people on cruises which means lots of people passing through that speak English!! I just helped a lady from Australia with her computer because she didn't know how to work it in Spanish.  And the yesterday we ran into a couple who said, "Hey, Sisters!" And started asking us about what they could do for fun around here.  We had no idea... because we're missionaries so we don't really have time for the fun things here haha but it was interesting talking to someone in English... And really really weird. 

One more funny story very quickly... we were walking to an appointment this week and my skirt likes to ride up to show the bottom of my slip every now and then and we were walking through a busy part of town and I looked down and realized that my skirt had ridden up to the point that you couldn't even see my skirt anymore!! It was under my jacket and I basically was only wearing a slip!!!! AHHHH!! I do not understand how it is possible that I was walking with my slip showing for so long for it to get to that point!! And I have TWO companions!! HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN?? haha So that was fun. :)

Thank you Sister Gardner for you letters!! I love reading them!! :) And it is always really fun to receive letters from home!! 

Love you guys!!! :) 

--Hermana Harvey

We had an activity where we had lunch and sang christmas songs in the center of town with all the missionaries in our area (which was lots of missionaries).  This is us with Hermana Obeso (wife of our mission president) :)

Holding a chick at a member's house!

Feeding a goose in at the same member's house!

 

Week 20

Hello friends and family!!

This week has been amazing!! We have been working super hard because there is Soo much to do and there is just not enough time to do it all!! I want you to know that change is good!! Even though it may be a little hard at first, when things change, that is when you are able to see the biggest of miracles!! Oh!! And guess what!! I spoke in church yesterday!! Gave my first ever real talk in Spanish!! And I don't think it went bad at all.  I think I'm actually a lot more comfortable talking about spiritual things in Spanish than I am in English!! I spoke on the importance of taking upon us the name of Jesus Christ when we are baptized and our responsibility that we have after we take upon us this covenant.  Everyone told me that my talk was "clarito" or ,pretty much, that they could understand me.  Oh! another thing that is funny about Chile, at least Southern Chile... is that everything is "-ito."  They put -ito on the end of everything in order to make it small... even God... A lot of people call him Diosito. haha! I find it pretty hilarious!! I'm already out of time!! But I love you so much!! OH!! And everything's working out with the divorce of the "C" family so they'll probably be able to be married and baptized next month!!! :DDD I am sooo excited!! A long long process but it is all working out.  And I want you to know I LOVE my companions.  I learn so much from Hermana Smoot and Hermana Bretón EVERYDAY!! Wow... this email was all over the place.  I LOVE YOU GUYS!!

--Hermana Harvey

Here is one of our dog pictures! I find this one to be funny.  First of all because there are three dogs at once and second of all because they were all very loving.

Ivonne and her family! She's an investigator that we have and she found out that Hermana Paxman was leaving and that her birthday was coming up and she threw her a surprise party!!

At Volcán Osorno. My nametag and Volcán Calbuco.

our district right before Hermana Paxman and Hermana Figuredo left

In Osorno... we had to go out there to do some tramites... (I don't know how to say that in English...) me, Hermana smoot, and Hermana Bretón. (Side note from Mom- I said "Did you get a new dress? That's cute!" She said "One of the other missionaries left that dress in the house.  The missionaries leave a lot of clothes behind so we find lots of fun stuff :)" I just found that funny.)

In osorno with a Christmas tree :) haha

Here are a couple pictures of our group of missionaries at Volcán Osorno!!

Week 19

Hello Friends and Family!!

So this week has been pretty crazy.  We have a LOT of investigators now because we combined two sectors that already had a lot of investigators in each!! So it is a lot of pressure and, to be honest, it has been a lot of stress for me!  That is one thing that I am going to have to learn pretty quick here is how to manage everything so that we don't have too much stress.  And we have three heads to try to figure everything out that we need to which means lots of ideas!! :) Haha We have been running from appointment to appointment all week in order to get everything done but along the way we have had some really fun times!  We had a competition on Friday to see who could ask for the most references in one day so we had some pretty funny moments of chasing people down to ask to share a quick message with them and ask them for a reference and in doing this we received four references from people on the street!! It was super fun!!  

My companions are Hermana Smoot, who I have been with since the CCM and Hermana Bretón from the Dominican Republic.  Hermana Bretón is amazing :) She is a very hard worker and is VERY obedient :) She is an amazing example to me and it is so much fun to work with her and Hermana Smoot!!

Hermana Smoot is a singer/actress and she is really good at it!! So we had a little fun having a singing class last night with her and it was super duper fun! haha I tried acting and singing the song "These are a few of my favorite things." Haha I'm not an actress... Or a singer... so it was really fun :)  

We have this new family that we are teaching in our sector and they are incredible!! We taught a lesson on the Book of Mormon and what it is and why it is important and they were really interested and are already reading it!! All three of them (mother, 17 year-old daughter, and 6 year-old daughter) came to church on Sunday and it was so great to see them there!! We had testimony meeting so the spirit was super strong in Sacrament meeting and then we had a great class in Gospel Principles (a class that we have on Sundays to learn the basics of the gospel of Jesus Christ for people recently baptized, who are visiting, or who have not gone to church in a long time) about the signs of the second coming.  She said that she had to leave after that because she had to prepare lunch for her family but then they stayed anyway! And she told her daughter that they would prepare lunch ahead of time for NEXT WEEK!!! Ahhh!! That was so exciting to hear because that means that she is really interested in continuing going to church and learning more!! And her daughter didn't want to leave and even went to seminary graduation with the other youth in the ward!! Ahhh!! So exciting!!

Another amazing thing that happened today was that Ivonne has been having some trouble believing that the Book of Mormon is the word or God and in the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ but we explained again the Restoration and how it is the church of JESUS CHRIST with HIS authority to perform sacred ordinances and that it is only through the authority of Jesus Christ that we can run HIS church.  At the end of the lesson she said "Okay, now I understand the importance of having the authority of Christ." She gets it now!! It is only with and through the authority of Christ given through him to the apostles and prophets which he calls to lead the church today that we can receive all of the blessings that are possible through his teachings!!  Just like Jesus Christ went to someone with the authority to perform sacred ordinances (John the baptist), not just any man, we must go to those who have been called of God to lead his church and perform these ordinances!!

So many miracles are headed our way!!

Pictures aren't working again.... :/ Sorry!!

I love you all so much!!

--Hermana Harvey

Week 18

Hello friends and family!

This week has been pretty gosh darn crazy!!  Don't have time to tell everything but I'll try to give you an idea of what's been going on here :)  So we celebrated Thanksgiving just us four Hermanas when we got back to our house from 10:00 until our bedtime at 11:00! It was very fun :) I cooked a Thanksgiving dinner little by little throughout the week and we surprised Hermana Smoot with having everything prepared to celebrate! Because she wasn't going to celebrate it (so sad...) But it turned out great!! And we even found pie at the store!! Which was delicious! :)  Hermana Paxman and I also decided that it was a great idea to take pictures with every single dog that we walked past in the streets on Thanksgiving day!! Haha we gave up after a while because first of all, there are a LOT of dogs!! And second of all, it started raining so we were afraid for our cameras. But I'll try to send at least one of the pictures :)  

Another think that was insane about this week was that Hermana Paxman had her "final interview" with the mission president (Which they called to inform us about 10 minutes after she was already supposed to be there. That was an adventure all of it's own) and in her interview President told her about what my transfer is!! I am going to be staying here in my sector, but I will also be in the sector of the other missionaries in my house! We're combining the sectors because there aren't enough hermanas!! And not only that but I will be in a trio as of Wednesday! Ahh!! Hermana Smoot, who lived in my house in the CCM and now in my house here in Valle Volcanes and will now be my companion!! :D Our entire missions together so far!! And I don't remember the name of my other companion :/ But she is from the Dominican Republic.  Fun!  Sooo pretty much I'm freaking out a little bit because we are going to have a MOUNTAIN of investigators to teach and a HUGE sector soo lots of walking but I am soooo excited!! I can already feel that this is going to be an amazing cambio and that we are going to be working soo hard!! Ahh!! I can't wait to meet my other companion!! :)

Oh!! And we went to Volcán Osorno today!! :D  Don't have time to send many pictures but it was super fun!! There's hardly any snow this time of year but we missionaries managed to find some and to have a good long war :) Super fun! 

I'm already pretty much out of time but I love you guys soo much!! And I want you to know that I'm working hard over here!  :)

--Hermana Harvey

 

 

Week 17

Hello friends and family!

I have been learning a lot about what it really means to be a missionary as it comes to the last couple weeks of my training and ya know what I have realized more than anything?  I have a LOT of weaknesses.  I have a LOT of things to learn and I am never going to be able to learn it all.  We are constantly learning new things and finding ways in which we can improve but we always seem to fall short. But ya know what?  We don't have to know everything! We don't have to be perfect!  In the hands of the Lord, it is the most humble and submissive servant that is the most effective tool in the hands of the Lord!  When I think of prophets like Joseph Smith or other prophets in the Book of Mormon and Bible who do not have gifts for speaking or writing and then read the things that they wrote or the things that they spoke unto the people in this time, it is hard to believe that they even had weaknesses! It is hard to think of them as humans! But they all had weaknesses that made them humble and submissive to the will of God.  I have always thought that these weaknesses that these prophets had were just for us to believe more easily that they were prophets because it is obvious that they must have had the help of God to do such great thing, but I have come to realize that it is not just that! Their weaknesses are what make them humble.  Their weaknesses are what make them strong. In Helaman chapter 12, it talks about how we, as human beings, are nothing.  We are even less than the sands of the earth.  I was always a little depressed by this thought.  But upon studying this a little more this morning in my studies, I realized in the verses that followed, it was saying that we are less when we are not submissive to the will of God! The sands of the earth are greater than we because when God commands the sand to move, it moves!  Now imagine how great WE could be! We are a lot more than just sand and if we could let the Lord guide us in the things that he would have us do, just imagine how great we could be! 

I am feeling super nervous right now because in about a week and a half I will be ending my training, getting a new companion, and I will be thrown into the real world of missionary work without my mom (that's what they call our trainers here :)! So I've been pretty nervous because I know that I have so many weaknesses and still have sooo much to learn but this thought that really if we give our will up to God and humble ourselves in his hands, we can be GREAT! So I thank God for the weaknesses that he has blessed me with in order to help me to be humble :)  Tell Brother Chronis that now I understand what it means to Stay Bleu and I am working on that every day!!

I love you so much and thank you for all of the emails!! I LOVE hearing about everything that's going on over there!

No pictures this week... sorry! Next week!

--Hermana Harvey

A great (16th) week, with a visit from Elder Nelson!

Hello friends and family!!

So I realized that I don't usually talk about the little things that happen in my days that are funny... like when we are doing contacting in the streets and something funny happens... so I have a few stories to tell today about those things :)

We were walking to our meeting with the ward mission leader this Saturday and we were almost to the church building, going up this hill to the chapel, and this man stopped us and said "Hello! I'm Jesus Christ!"  I looked over to Hermana Paxman and she was just smiling at him and nodding her head and I thought... "does she understand what he just said?" Then the man continued with "Yes... I am Jesus Christ... and you are spies from the United States."  I though for sure by now Hermana Paxman would say something or at least look at me to let me know what to do but when I looked at her she was still just smiling and nodding her head!  So at this point I thought... okay... she doesn't know what's going on so I said, "no, actually we're here as missionaries to share a message about God and Jesus Christ." (which I now realize probably wasn't the best thing to say to a man who thinks he IS Jesus Christ) and he responded with "No, I am the only man who can preach about Jesus Christ be cause I am he!  The prophets of old testified of my coming and here I am!"  So what is our response to this bold statement? Of course, "Oh! Mucho gusto!" then we said we were sorry, we have to go to a meeting and we walked away.    Funniest thing ever!  And we don't even think he was drunk! He didn't smell like it.  So that was fun! :)

Then we were walking to an appointment the other day and this little boy came up to us (we think he was about 9-10 years old) with his arms high up in the air and said "Hey! Remember me?!"  We responded honestly saying that we didn't (because we know we would have remembered this little character) and said that he had probably talked with other missionaries.  He said yes and asked us if we would come to his house to read from the word of god with him (and that he has a book of mormon) and talk about how our message can bless the family because the family is very important to him.  But he also said he's very busy these days so he gave us a strict schedule of when we could meet with him.  Haha! So cute! Can't wait to go talk with him and share with him how the gospel can bless his family and read the words of God! :)   Oh, and he also said that when he's big, he's going to help us out and become a missionary just like us! Ahh! ¡¡Mi Corazón!!

So this week we had the chance to go to Osorno and hear from Elder Nelson!!! He was here!! In Chile Osorno!! I couldn't believe that I got to meet him right before I left for the mission and then got to hear from him again here in Chile!  I wanted to tell him that I was in the Lancaster stake when he went there when we went up to shake his hand but I lost my nerve because no one was saying anything other than "Hello, how are you?" and I didn't want to take up too much of his precious time.  But it was awesome!! And his wife was there too and she spoke.  Just want to let you all know that she is amazing!! I absolutely LOVED her talk!  She talked about how every second of our lives here is important and one of my favorite quotes from her talk was "The Savior is coming tomorrow. We just don't know which tomorrow.  So what are you going to do today to prepare for tomorrow?"  I love it because it is so true! Another thing that was interesting was that I was able to understand Elder Nelson and his wife while they were talking and also the translator!! It was pretty interesting but a little confusing at times because I was having a little bit of a hard time focusing on just one of them! But it was useful when I missed something that he said and I could just listen to the Spanish version :) 

So, más que nada, this week has been a huge spiritual high with lots of fun moments!!

I love you all so much and loving hearing from you!! Thank all for writing!! It really means a lot to a missionary!! :)

An awesome head-dress thingy that our ward mission leader had from a wedding he went to :)

Out of the window of the bus on the way to Osorno to hear from Elder Nelson!

My first baptisms!

Hola Familia y Amigos!

      This week has definitely been a roller coaster of emotions but more than anything, I have learned this week that the Lord is always part of this work.  I had great faith in this fact before but now it is even more obvious.  At times it may feel as though there is no possible way to do all the things that the Lord requires of us but I find comfort in the scriptures in knowing that "the Lord giveth no commandment unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the things which he hath given them."  This is so true.  There are Many times in life that we just feel as if the Lord has given us too much.  That we have received just too hard of a task and that it is just simply impossible.  I have felt that way multiple times this week but as I have read in the holy scriptures and turned to my Heavenly Father in prayer, I have found that he can strengthen us in those moments that we do not think that we can continue and if we are focused on the joyous moments that we can bring into the lives of others and the way that we can be of help to those who are in need, he will lift us up and give us strength beyond that which is possible for any human being.  The Lord is with us at all times and in all things and this gives me the motivation that I need to make sure that I am with him, that I am working on His side, at all times and in all things. Having the opportunity to be a part of this work in bringing others to the knowledge of the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ is a huge blessing and although it may be hard at times, I am receiving many more blessings than difficulties.

     We had intercambios (I think the word is exchanges in English...) this week and I had the opportunity to stay in our sector and guide the way to all of our appointments and lead the discussions and más que nada take the lead.  And if you know me, you know that I am AWFUL with directions and get lost at the drop of a hat so this was quite a challenge for me.  Just have to say that this was another way that my faith was strengthened in the fact that the Lord helps us in every moment of this work because we never got lost! I was able to guide us through our sector and lead the discussions and everything! And we had no problems!  It was amazing! And I also had the practically perfect example of Hermana McNeil who is one of our hermana leaders for our zone.   She is pretty much the perfect missionary and I was strengthened so much by her example!  I learned how to have much better contacts in the streets and how to make sure that each and every person that I talk to understands the purpose of why we are here and the joy that we can bring into their lives.  It was so great!  I want to be an example to each and every one of my companions in the way that Hermana McNeil was to me! 

      Javi and Coni were baptized yesterday!  After lots of things going wrong and the chance to work very closely with our ward (which was a true miracle!) and talk more to their parents, we were blessed to be part of this amazing moment in their lives to make this covenant with God!  It was so great! And Dad will be happy to hear that I have been practicing singing and us four hermanas in the ward performed a special musical number in the baptism. ;) This is the beginning of an amazing new life for these girls!!

      I love you all so much!!!!

--Hermana Harvey

We made books for the girls to record special events in their lives in relation with their new lives in the gospel! We have moments such as their baptism all the way to their sealing in the temple with their husbands! ;) So exciting!

Week 14

Hello Friends and Family!!

    This week has been great! Especially Halloween! First of all, it was super fun to see that the kids actually go out and do Trick or Treating here!! Or Dulce o basura ;) soo fun! So as we were out working there were a bunch of little kids in costumes banging on fences for candy" ! ;) so cute!  So that was super fun! And also this day we just had the spirit so strong in our lessons! I don´t know what was different about Halloween but we just were able to teach with more power and conviction and we had a member couple in one of our lessons and we invited our investigator to be baptized and he said that he was not ready yet and that he had a lot he needed to do to get ready before he would commit to anything and we were talking about the importance of acting on the things that he knows to be true and how if we do not act on our responses that we receive from the Lord, he will not continue to give us more knowledge and answers to our questions and as we were talking about this, this man that we had with us (who converted to the church about 5 years ago and now is a very strong and active member) bore his testimony on the importance of acting on the responses through sharing his experience with converting to the church and the spirit was so strong when he was speaking!  Still he said that he is not prepared to make this change in his life right now but I could feel that his heart was softened at least a little bit more through the testimony of this member! There are so many blessings that come when you have a member in your lessons! It is incredible! So family, friends, if you have the chance, I would like to invite you to go out with the missionaries! They NEED your help! Trust me... We as missionaries can Not do it alone! 

      We've been doing a lot of preparing this week because two of our investigators are being baptized on Thursday!  Javiera y Constanza! I am sooo excited for them!! Their parents are less-active members and they are 11 and 9 years old! The missionaries have been teaching them for quite a while and now if finally the time!! They are so ready and soo excited for their baptisms!  Whenever we ask them any questions at all about the gospel their response is ALWAYS to go to church on Sundays and be baptized so that they can be "limpiasita" or clean (in a cute way) . haha I love it! AHHH! So exciting!!  I hope you all have a great week!

--Hermana Harvey

Our district right before our last transfers!

Had lunch with Familia Canales and this was our "ensalada" a tomato stuffed with ground beef

Javi and Coni! the two girls who are going to be baptized on Thursday (sooo exciting!) with pictures of the world that they drew because we were talking about the creation!

Chile at sunset in our sector!

I made the cinnamon rolls! They were delicious!!

My companion and I pretty view from up en el campo.  We went up here for a lunch appointment and the member who we ate with took the picture for us!

Week 13

Hello friends and Family!!

This week has been great!! I have buried myself in the work this week and it just flew right by! But Spanish is a LOT better now.  We have had more time to study lately and it has really been helping! We are going to start English classes in the chapel every Saturday because there are soo many people that have been coming up and asking us if we can teach English. I am surprised by how many people here want to learn English. It's actually really funny.  So I've also been studying English!! Okay... Rather I've been studying how to teach English by studying Hermana Figeredo's (Another hermana who lives in our house) books to learn Spanish. It's actually pretty entertaining to see how they learn English and has been helping me a lot to understand not only how to teach but I have also learned things about Spanish in studying a English textbook for Spanish speakers :) It's pretty great haha

So pictures aren't working on this computer... Sorry! Next week!

Another thing that was great about this week was Ivonne!  She has so many great questions and honestly, if you were just listening to the questions that she has, you would think that she is trying to argue with what we believe but as we were teaching by the spirit, we could tell that she truly wanted to understand what it is that we are teaching her.  I also found that my favorite questions for people to ask are those that I do not have the answers to.  Strange right? Never would have thought it would be this way but the amazing thing about these questions is that it forces me to teach by the spirit and to bear testimony of the things that I do know.  I have found that when I don't know the answer to a question is often-times when I can feel the spirit guiding me and testifying through me the strongest! It is so great!! And all in Spanish!! I never would have though that with just six weeks in Chile I would be able to teach and testify with the power that we have as a companionship.  I have learned a lot of humility over the past few weeks because i know that when the spirit is testifying through me, and not when I am just trying to teach a lesson, is when the people can feel of the truthfulness of this gospel.  I LOVE being a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints!!

I love you all sooo much!!

--Hermana Harvey

Week 12 (Week 6 in Chile)

Hello friends and family!!

My Spanish is getting better!! Wanna know how I know? I can barter prices (or however you would say talk people down in price...) in Spanish now! :) Which takes a lot of talking and understanding what is going on and the money system and everything. So it's pretty exciting! :) We went to these shops that they have here with a bunch of memorabilia types of things and I had lots of fun bartering :) It's called Angelmo if you want to search it on google to see where I have been :) Oh and my sector that I work in is Valle Volcanes if you want to look that up and see the streets that I walk on a daily basis :) We also go down to Pichi Pelluco at times to visit a few investigators down there who are women who live alone so the Elders can't visit them.  We have to go down the "questa" in order to get to Pichi and that isn't all that bad but getting back... It's a little tough haha  We also have to go down and back this... hill (i guess the questa is just called a hill in English) to get to church each Sunday.  So we probably go up and down this questa about 5 times a week sometimes more. 

This past week has been a lot of walking in a LOT of rain! I haven't been bringing my camera around with me because it has been raining so much that even with a covering for my backpack I am scared that it would get wet! So I don't have any great pictures for you this week.  It's funny because at times there isn't really all that much rain but we will be walking in it for hours so we are COMPLETELY soaked.  I actually find it pretty fun.  I love the rain!  Oh!! We saw a double complete rainbow when we were walking the other day!!  It was beautiful!! Wish I had had my camera to take a picture but now you're just going to have to believe me that it was beautiful :) 

We got a... referencia... from a girl about our age who was baptized just a couple months ago and is starting her papers to go on a mission!! She is so awesome and super sweet and I can tell she is going to make an AMAZING missionary!  The reference (I think that's the word in English... or referral? Yeah... that sounds right... referral) that she gave us is her older sister who is I think 23 and she is amazing as well! And she is really receptive to the things that we are teaching her and she told us that she has seen how happy the church has made her sister and that her sister told her about her experience with how she prayed and asked if these things were true and she received an answer that everything the missionaries had been teaching her was true! And Paula (that's our investigator's name) said that when she heard this all she could think was "wow!" Even when she was telling us about her sister´s testimony it was really powerful! So pretty much we have lots of investigadores de oro ahora!! (golden investigators right now) 

I am sooo happy out here!! Just a little scared because today we find out if we are being transferred... AHH! But most likely I will be in this sector for a good 6 months because Presidente Obeso is making a lot of changes and one of them is that we will be in our sectors for a lot more time.  Which is great! But also means it will be a lot harder to leave the sectors because I already LOVE our investigators and I don't know how I am going to be able to leave them! But I am so thankful that I have been able to meet so many amazing people and feel the spirit so strongly from each and every one of them!! I am so thankful that I am here because I am having so many wonderful experiences and really learning and growing every day.  I have learned soo much about myself while I have been here and I am just really learning how to grow in my faith and to be a much better person.. The mission is truly a humbling experience but in a great way! In the mission, it is easy to see all of your strengths and weaknesses so that you can build upon your strengths and strengthen your weaknesses.  It's great! :) I have never been so close to the spirit in my life. Now I truly understand that the Holy Ghost can truly be our CONSTANT COMPANION! It makes sense now! I can feel it! He is with me in every moment to lead me and to guide me and I now cannot picture my life without this gift. I am so thankful that I was raised in this gospel so that I can know of the blessings that we can receive and the peace and the joy that comes with the knowledge of this gospel!

I love you all so much!!

--Hermana Harvey

Week 5 in Chile

Hello friends and family!! 

This was a big learning week for me.  I learned a lot about what it really means to be a missionary.  Ya know how before my mission I was really sensitive and had lots of emotions?  Yeah... there is something about being a missionary, my companion says that it is a gift that comes along with the responsibility of being a missionary, but you just feel things differently!  I can love someone after spending just one hour talking to them, and even before that! And really love them!  Not just want what is best for them but have a deep desire or even a need to help them to understand the happiness that they could feel.  There is no way to describe the feelings that a misisonary has during these two years or year and a half for us ladies, but just to say that we love more deeply than I have ever felt in my life.  And at time it hurts.  It physically hurts how many emotions we can have all at one time but at the same time we can feel more joy than we have ever felt in our lives!  This is what I learned this week.  We have lots of amazing investigators who really want to learn the truth and it is great!! But I would ask all my friends and family to pray for a few of them that are in need right now.

Here`s a list of names that you might include in your prayers if you could:

Cecilia and Christan

Javiera and Constanza 

Hermana Cecilia

Ivonne

Carla

Thank you guys so much!  

Another thing that is weird about Chile is that everyone is called by their first names in the church because the women don't change their names or something like that... I don't really understand it. But we call them Hermana Cecilia, Hermana Nuri, Hermano Christian, Hermana Camila y so on.  It's weird.  And harder to remember people's names because at home it's just remember the family's name but here there's more to remember!! Ahh! But I'll eventually get good with names :) None of them can remember my name anyway because it is sooo hard to pronounce let alone remember :) haha

I love you all so much!! 

Our Casa is beautiful :) And we have a space heater if we are dying of the cold :) But we also have blankets.  Warm blankets :)  We are definitely blessed to have this beautiful house considering the other houses we see.

Quiero vivir en una de estas casas!

Tunnel that we found on our hike :)

The little waterfall at the end of the tunnel!

pretty much, our mission is GORGEOUS.  We went on a little hike last monday and this was at the head of the trail.  This is a daily view for us.

The sunsets here are gorgeous.

Another sunset picture.  I think the clouds that we ALWAYS have make them more beautiful.

We did a little service by painting a house number for a family in our ward.  With the help of an Hermana in our ward.

Week 4 in Chile

Hola mi familia y mis amigos!

Well, I took pretty much all my time sending pictures this week but I have a couple things to say still!! :) 

I have actually had a couple of pretty hard times this week.  Not even full days but hard times.  The hardest was this week when I was sitting in the Sunday Morning session of conference and I could understand absolutely nothing that the prophet was saying and I just got really frustrated and mad and homesick and wondered for a short moment what in the world I was doing all the way in Southern Chile where I don't understand the language and I thought... What good can I do here? What is the point? 

So pretty much I was just feeling really sorry for myself and wanting to be able to just watch my prophet speak in ENGLISH!  But after the session was over our bishop let us watch a few of the talks in the chapel in English!! I was so happy!! And while we were watching conference, I forget which talk it was but they were talking about personal revelation and how we can receive knowledge and help from God at all times in our lives and I just got an overwhelming feeling of gratitude for this gospel and for the many blessings that I have received from it.  I know that I am here for a reason and that God will direct me in the things that I need to know and do.  Although I CANNOT do this on my own, I know that the Lord is always here for me helping me every step of the way!

This was made clear to me during the second session on Sunday. We had the most amazing investigator in the world (Ivonne) with us and every single talk was perfect for her! The spirit was so strong and the most amazing thing of all during this session... I COULD UNDERSTAND!! Just earlier that morning when I was feeling bad for myself and feeling homesick I was able to understand nothing at all from conference but when I had the spirit back and was feeling happy and concentrating more on our investigator than on my own needs, I could understand!! I know that the Lord blesses us in our times of need and he knows each and every one of us individually!! It's funny how in the times when you are feeling the lowest you can learn so much more!  This experience as a missionary is definitely humbling... and I am so happy that I made the choice to come out here! Even in the hard times! :)

I love you guys so much!  Thank you for all your emails and your support! It really does mean a lot!!

The lake with more of our sector... or section in English?

More of our sector at sunset

This one is for mom cuz I know you're interested :) this is a typical meal here.  French fries (EVERYTHING seems to be fried here... they really like fried foods) and chicken with some veggies and we always have some sort of fresh veggie with lemon juice, olive oil, and salt.  We also eat white rice a LOT rice and chicken.

Fiestas Patrias BBQ

Campo! I think this word is like... the country in English.

Chickens!  There were also sheep.

FUN! A zipline thingy in their backyard. (Note from Mom: I think she sent the wrong picture because I don't see a zipline in this picture.) :)

Puppies!! They were so cute!! But the dogs here eat EVERYTHING and when I say everything.. I mean everything :/

Part of our sector with volcano Osorno in the backround.

In front of a lake in our area

Volcano Osorno in the background

check out the TV in the background.  Yeah.  They live in pretty much just a shack but they have this TV!  Oh and this guy was really good at playing accordian.  He and his wife are investigating the church.

He let us try!  It was very difficult...

We made these for a couple of our investigators (9 and 11 years old) and they didn't even come because their mom told them they would be bored :( We were very sad.