Lots of experiences with the.... Evangelics?

Hola familia y amigos!!

We found Hugo again!! We passed by his house yesterday and it was raining a LOT and we were soaking wet but he still let us in! :) He had even more questions for us and, honestly, the gospel of Jesus Christ has the answer to EVERY ONE of his questions!! I know that when people are really prepared to receive the gospel, God puts the right questions in their minds.  He read the pamphlet that we left with him and he also invited his mom (Who is VERY Evangelic to read it) and she said that she would! Wow!! But it was funny because when we met his mom, we were ending our lesson and were going to end with a prayer.  So I explained how we pray in the church of Jesus Christ, and emphasized that when we pray, only one person prays at a time and all of the other people listen and at the end, we say amen.  But I don't think she understood very well because she said "okay, you can guide the prayer then." and when I started to pray, she started praying too.  and when I finished praying, she said, "ohh! that was short!" Now I'll give my prayer and we all had to stop in our path as we were already packing up our backpacks to leave and listen to the surprise-prayer that she gave.  It was really funny. Even Hugo was smiling at us like " I know. My mom's funny. 

There are a lot of "Evangelics" (¿? I don't really know what they're called in the US) here so we teach a lot of crazy lessons haha another example of this is a lesson that we had this week with an investigator named Patricia.  Everything was going well until her husband got home.  haha He is VERY religious and when he saw us there, he went straight for his guitar! He sat down on the couch and, in the middle of us explaining the plan of Salvation, he began to play the guitar and sing very loudly about his love for God.  And, to our surprise, the rest of his family of 6 shortly joined in and our lesson about the plan that God has for us shortly turned into an evangelic worship service.  haha So that was fun :) We just ended with a prayer and left.  But it was fun!  There are about 2-3 "Evangelic temples" on every street here in Llanquihue soo we're going to have a lot of investigators like these :)

I love you guys so much!! Have a great week!!

Hermana Harvey

Sorry... no pictures because I had to write in another place today and I don't want to viruses on my SD card. 

Week 64 - The Weeks Are Flying By!!

Hello Friends and Family!!

The weeks are FLYING by!! Seriously! I feel like every time I close my eyes another week has gone by!!  Our branch is already getting ready for Christmas! The branch choir already started practicing!! The director of the choir isn't a member so we can participate too as we teach the director :)  We are singing a song called "Arrurru." It is so hard to sing!! Even the Chileans have difficulty because of all of the RR´s involved haha but it's super fun :)

This week, we decided that we were going to mix it up a bit and play a game as we knocked doors.  We played "Guess who lives in that house."  So we look at a house and, from the things that we could see about the house, we chose a name to ask if ___ lived there :)  It was fun!! At one house, we decided to ask for Juán and the man who opened the door said..."You don't know his last name?" And when we said that we didn't know, he told us that he asks because there is one Juán that lives right in front of his house and another who lives about 3 houses down! haha! So we received 2 referrals :P haha But this man's name was Hugo and he told us that he doesn't believe in religion because they are all just in it for the money. He questioned why there would not be just one answer to everything if there is only one God.  He also said that the "pastors" now-a-days just decide one day that they want to start a church and they do it... he asked "Who calls them to be a pastor?"  These are all questions that we as missionaries LOVE to hear!! We explained to him that he is exactly right! That the people on this earth today have changed what is now known as religion.  Jesus Christ had established his church on the earth when he was here and after his death, the human race began to change his teachings according to what they wanted instead of what God wanted for them.  That is why there are so many churches on the earth today.  People have been trying to get as close as possible to the truth, but can't do it without the authorization of God! So we shared with him what we know about the Restoration of the Gospel! We shared our testimonies with him that the church of Jesus Christ, the same one that he established when he was here on the earth, is here again! And that we can receive so many blessings from this gospel!!  I know that it is true!! Because I have felt these blessings in my life!  I don't know if we will be able to see Hugo again because it was a miracle that we found him at home when we did because he works outside of the city but I know that he felt the truthfulness of our words.

We are going to have an activity in our branch to help the members feel more comfortable going out to teach with us.  We made a funny video about all of the things not to do when you go to a lesson with the missionaries.  Things like fall asleep in the lesson, play on your phone while we are teaching, teach false doctrine, talk waaaay too much, cry every 3 seconds...etc.  The members that helped us in the video did such a good job!! It is going to be hilarious!! :) I'm so excited to see it in the activity! :)

I love you guys so much!!

Hermana Harvey

Look! Giant people in Puerto Montt!

We went walking in Puerto Varas and it was beautiful! We also saw some pretty interesting things :P

Week 63

Hello Friends and Family!!

We have had another great week here in Llanquihue!!  Osme has been doing great!! He is so excited about his baptism on the 31st! He's really committed to this day and we're already getting everything ready so that we won't be running around like chickens with our heads cut off at the last minute.  We have been teaching him ALL of the lessons to prepare him for baptism this week! Which are a lot of lessons! So it has been really fun to get to know him and his family better this week!! They live on a cow farm just outside of town and we love going there!! We get to cross the farm and talk to the cows every time we go to visit them :) It's rather amusing.  And it is GORGEOUS up there!!  One funny thing that happened up there is that Osme decided that he needed to cut his grass so he went and opened up the gate so all of the pregnant cows came onto into his yard and they ate his grass and left it perfect! As if he had worked for hours with a lawn mower.  And her wife, Mariluz told us that it works great because not only do they cut the grass perfectly but they also fertilize it at the same time! :) How convenient!  Then we had the great experience of watching as Osme did his job... he killed a baby calf...  and we watched the whole process. It was so sad!! But it was really interesting to see how it all works!

Yesterday in church, the primary asked us to come to help teach the kids about how to be a missionary and specifically how to talk to people in the street.  So we told them that, first of all, when you are a missionary, you have to say hello to EVERYONE that you see in the street.  Second, you can either offer them a pass-along card or you can offer your service if they need it.   (obviously, this was a very short version of what we do when we talk to people in the street).  Then, we gave each kid a pass-along card and went to work! :) We walked down the street with about 10 primary children all yelling "HOLA!! HOLA!!!" to every single person that they saw, no matter how far away they were or if they were inside of a bus or car :) They even yelled Hola at all of the dogs that they saw in the street :) And each and every one of them gave their pass-along card to someone! :) It was great!! THAT is how to do missionary work! :)

I love you guys lots!! :) Have a great week!! 

Hermana Harvey

The laguna that's about 2 minutes from our house (walking, as always).

I taught my companion how to chop wood :)

Walking to an appointment.... Ya know... just an every-day stroll through the cow farm.  Haha Osme, our investigator who is going to get baptized on October 31st lives on a cow farm in the country soo we get to come here often and it's gorgeous!

and this is the view from his house.  I looove the volcanos. Gorgeous! There are two volcanoes there... Osorno and Calbuco.  Calbuco is the one that looks more broken up because it errupted a couple months ago.

The city below from the cow farm

This is Osme's house.

He put up a good fight little guy...  but by this point, he already knew what was coming

Aaaand we looked away when he committed the crime.  

Mhmmm...

And he ended up here. Being smoked.

I know... I'm awful

Milagros en Llanquihue!

Hello Friends and Family!

So this week we set the goal as a zone that we were going to write down all of the little miracles that happen every day to be able to recognize them and feel more excited about our missions.  So we have been! And it is amazing how miracles just come out of the wood-works when you are really looking for them! We saw miracles all the way from dogs leaping out of their yards and NOT biting Hermana Alvarez's leg off to little old ladies working in their gardens who are interested in listening to our message.  (which you would be amazed how many there are here in Llanquihue)

One thing that happened this week that was super funny was that Hermana Alvarez is still learning how to contact people in the streets... So I decided that I was going to stop contacting every person and let her have a chance to do it for herself. Sooo we walked past a man who was sitting on his bike waiting for another man to leave his house and Hermana Alvarez stopped in front of him and just looked at him for a while (obviously waiting for me to say something) and then, not being able to think of anything else to say, she said, "¿Cómo se llama?" Haha I found it sooo funny that I almost couldn't control myself.  I couldn't even talk so I just waited and let her talk to him.  He smiled and told her his name then Hermana Alvarez invited him to General Conference and he said he might go. haha It was probably one of the most awkward contacts that I have seen but I am so proud of Hermana Alvarez and she was super happy with herself :)  So that was super fun!

We have been teaching a man named Juán and he has been progressing a lot!! We had a lesson with him and a sister named Hermana María and it went really well!! He is scared to be baptized because his family doesn't like the "mormons" and they all seem to be turning against him because he has been listening to us and coming to church with us... soo that makes it hard for him.  He also lost his wife a few years ago and she was Evangelic so he doesn't know how she would feel about him getting baptized in another church.  So we shared with him about the simple truth that families can be together forever and that it is only through the sacred covenants or promises of baptism that we can get to that point.  Hermana María then shared an experience of when her husband passed away a little over a year ago and she met the missionaries a couple of weeks after he passed away.  She explained that as soon as she heard the message, she knew that it was true and that when she was baptized and received the Holy Ghost, she was filled with a joy that she can't even explain.  She still missed her husband a lot because she loved him so much but she felt that the Holy Ghost was holding her up when she couldn't for herself.  That is what this gospel offers us.  We can have the strength to withstand the trials of this world.  And that is exactly what Juán needed to hear at this point in his life. 

We also had a lesson with Osme, our investigator who is going to be baptized on October 31st.  He is soo prepared! He told us that he wrote down the date of his baptism and put it on his door to remind him that he has to do all of the things that we ask him to do so that he can be prepared for that day so that someday he can be sealed in the temple with his family for eternity!! I am so excited for him!! His wife and two kids are already members. They got baptized a year ago in December and the time has now come for Osme also.

I love you guys so much!

Hermana Harvey

We bought firewood! Whoo!!

And we had to bring it all in ourselves.

It was a lot of firewood.