February 27, 2012

hola mi querida familia! and everyone else that cares enough about me to read this email :)

first of all, HAPPY BIRTHDAY GAIL! i forgot that i only get to write once a week, and that if i wanted to wish you a happy birthday last wednesday, i would have had to do it the monday BEFORE, not after. sorry about that! but i want you to know that my companion and i celebrated it all the same! it just so happens that her brother was getting married on the 22nd also, so we bought a special treat and celebrated that night after planning! i hope you had as much fun on your birthday as we did!

on to news of this week. how to describe it...emotional maybe? i feel like such a girl saying that, but it´s true. the life of a missionary is filled with SO many emotions: excitement at the thought of someone getting baptized, discouragement and sorrow when they make the decision not to or don´t keep their commitments with the Lord to read the scriptures or attend church or pray, frustration with the language and with one´s own inability to help others understand the message of the gospel, hopeful with the knowledge that the Lord will always fulfill his promises to the faithful, preoccupied with thoughts of the welfare of those contacted in the streets or in their homes, joyful when an investigator prays to their Heavenly Father for the very first time, grateful when a 70 year old man starts tearing up during the film on the Restoration because he can feel the spirit testifying to him that it´s true, overwhelmed at the thought of trying to help an entire town/sector receive the gospel in their lives and be baptized so they can receive eternal life in the presence of God, peaceful knowing that anything is possible with the help of the Lord (Luke 1:27 - at least i think tha´ts the reference)

so there´s a little summary of some of my feelings this week. always something new! more than anything though, i´m feeling grateful. grateful that i´m here, that the Lord trusts me enough to have called me to this work, and that each day he is at my side, helping me feel his love as i help others know their Savior and come unto him. i know that he´s qualifying me just a little bit more every day to be a more loving, obedient, and effective missionary. the process is just a little rough...but i wouldn´t have it any other way.

some updates:
-we met with sergio again this week and he told us he doesn´t want to get baptized. he doesn´t agree with the commandments of "the church" (he doesn´t understand that they´re not from the church, they´re from GOD) and that he doesn´t want to be a member of any church; that he can accept christ in his heart and try to live his teachings that are found in the bible. we did EVERYTHING to help him understand our love for him, and that this is the plan has for him, but ultimately it came down to his own agency, and he chose to stand by his decision to not be baptized into the church. hna miller and i were totally devastated because we just have SO much love for him, and know that he has SUCH great potential, but we know that he will be baptized somewhere down the road. he is SO close, and someday he will recognize that this is gospel is what will help fill the hole/space (can´t figure out how to translate "vacio" into english...haha) that he feels in his life. we´re sad, but still full of hope that this wasn´t sergio´s last chance to be baptized, and that when he is presented with the opportunity down the road, he´ll accept it, and tell hna miller and i all about it :)
-i sang a solo at a baptism! the zone leaders were holding a baptism for someone in another district, and asked me if i´d be willing to sing a special musical number. oh man. it was terrifying. i stood there in a room full of chileans (my comp said she´s personally never seen so many people at a baptism of someone in such a small branch) and sang "i need thee every hour" in spanish, a cappella. so scary, but i´m really glad i was able to help them out. i really do love singing, but that was still hard! a good experience though.
-the photo attached is from our "fun friday" with hot cocoa and crackers and jam, all ready to watch some mormon messages! i´m still trying to wrap my head around the fact that this is how i spend my friday nights now, but i´m totally loving it! haha

-i also wanted to share a really great talk with all of you. it´s from Elder Corbridge, one of the members of our mission area presidency (i´m forwarding it in another message). it talks about becoming the best missionary you can so that you can be a true disciple of Christ for the rest of your life, not just the 2 years (or 18 months!) you´re called to be a representative of the church. please read it and ponder what he says and read the scriptures that he refers to. it´s amazing. i love that the principles that he talks about refer to me as a person, not just as a missionary. for example, he talks about completely surrendering yourself to the lord; your WHOLE self, holding nothing back. in omni 1:26 it says "come unto (christ), and offer your whole souls as an offering to him...and endure to the end, and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved"

what a promise! give yourself to the lord and you will be saved! there´s no time to talk about everything i learned and felt when i studied this, but most of all i just felt the need to give the lord my heart. this means my desires, my thoughts, my everything. turn over my will to the lord, so he can bless me with the experiences i´ll need to be the kind of disciple he needs  me to be.

well, that´s all for this week. i love you. i think of you often and feel so blessed to have so much support from friends and family. you´re the greatest :) have a great week and remember to put the lord first!

hna wright

February 20, 2012

so that phrase really hit me this week...hna miller and i were talking about who knows what, when i just looked at her and said,"hermana, WE´RE sister missionaries! THE sister missionaries (in this area)!" it was so weird because that name just brings up a very specific imagery. like the whole button-up and floor-length skirt with the hair, and the shoes, and maybe some glasses thrown in there. oh man. so maybe i´m not really dressed like that, but the assimilation was a little scary in the moment. just thought i´d share.


annnyway...hola! not a TON to talk about this week. except maybe for the fact that we almost LOST one of (slash basically our only) progressing investigators! yep, it´s sergio. he came to church with us on sunday and everything seemed fine, and we set an appointment for the upcoming tuesday. when the cita came around and we were about to leave to go see him, he called us to cancel because he was "with a friend" or something lame. it was super weird cause it´s not like him to do something like that so last minute, but he was super friendly and apologized a million times, so we didn´t really think anything of it. we did tell him we´d be calling him over the next few days though to check in with him and see how he´s doing since it´d be another few days before we´d see him. BUT, every time we called him, it went straight to voicemail! major bummer! we were a little worried, because he ALWAYS answers our calls, but we still planned on seeing him at our cita saturday. annnnd, he didn´t show. here´s when a bit of the panic set in. we hadn´t seen him since sunday, or talked to him since tuesday, which is no bueno. to make a long story short(er), he didn´t come to church, and his member friend told us that he´d decided he didn´t want to get baptized, but he was afraid to tell us, so he was avoiding us! ¡que fome! while we were talking with his friend hna miller and i got all hermana on him and started to cry. the poor kid didn´t know what to do, but for some reason had tissues in his bag so he was able to help us out. it was just so sad to hear that someone we had come to love like our little brother had said he didn´t want to get baptized, and that he was avoiding us because he didn´t want to talk about it! we were a little bugged, but he said he´d talk to sergio and see what he could do to help. after mopping ourselves up, we went on with the rest of our day. but don´t worry...that´s not the end of the story!! we knew we needed to call him at least one more time, so we did, and he ANSWERED! he gave us a few lame excuses, but agreed to make another cita for this week! we´re still a little apprehensive because of everything we heard from his friend, but there´s no way we´re giving up on him. he is incredible, and he needs the gospel in his life! also, we were walking by his house on our way to another appointment, and he walked out right as we went by...miracle! we got to talk to him for a few minutes and he seemed like his usual happy self, so that was a good sign. we´ll be seeing him on wednesday, and have a lot of faith that he will continue to progress. we just love him too much for him not too :)


also, that reminds me of something i thought of this week and told to hna miller. remember that terrible enrique iglesias song that´s all stalkery: "you can run, you can hide, but you can´t escape my love"...that´s totally my companion and i. these people can try and run away from us and hide in their houses or try and escape to the campo, but we love them way too much for them to get away that easy. and yes, i´m fully aware of how creepy that sounds. but what i mean is that i really do feel the love that god has for these people, and there´s no way that i´m going to let them slip away from their chance to learn of the gospel of christ and be baptized in the only church that has the authority to allow them to be cleansed from sin and live with god again. the blessings are way too special and have too much of an eternal impact for me to give up that easily. so that´s my strage connection to the stalker song. you´re welcome.


other news from this week:
gave a talk on the holy ghost at a baptism (of a CHILEAN! are you hearing this!! i am giving talks at chilean baptisms!!! so weird...)
directed the music at church, in SPANISH, which is basically a solo cause almost nobody else sings
started a tradition of "fun fridays" with my comp (yep, it´s just as silly as it sounds)
starts with a special breakfast of some sort that we´ll eat together (we usually eat separate so one can eat while the other showers)
in the morning we have to come up with a weird phrase to slip into our conversations throughout the day
at night after planning we watch mormon messages and share stories (we´re still trying to get to know each other better because our first cambio we never really had time to talk about ourselves because there´s so much work to do!) and of course, we eat a yummy treat (we´re thinking hot cocoa and crackers with jam will be a regular)
basically, we had to plan a night to force ourselves to have fun and be friends...haha. we realized we´re feeling a bit like co-workers, which is no fun! so this is what we´ve come up with for now...haha
had an AWESOME scripture study of 2 nephi 31. SUCH an incredible chapter. to everyone out there: please read 2 nephi 31:19-20, 32:3,5 and expect to receive personal revelation! there´s no time left to explain, but basically it talks about the importance of continuing on with faith in christ, feasting upon his words, which are those of the profetas and in the scriptures. it just made me think about how much our heavenly father loves us that he gave us these scriptures to study and learn from, and to receive answers to our prayers. he is helping us know how to return to live with him, but we have to search, and study and apply the principles to reach that goal. SO good. wish i had more time to share what i learned, but maaybe next week!



love you all muchisimo,
hna wright

February 13, 2012

mi querida familia y amigos,

HOLA! i can´t believe a week has passed already. not sure if i mentioned this already, but time is suuuuper weird here on the mission. one day can feel like an eternity of walking all over the place and knocking on doors and entering strangers´ homes and testifying everywhere we go, but then i look back on the week and it feels like just yesterday that i was writing you! so strange.

the first 2 photos are of my first completo here in chile! it looks like a hot-dog with a bunch of junk on it, because that´s pretty much all it is. BUT, it´s so so delicious. the hot-dog is pretty wimpy, but it tastes good, and then they pile on guacamole, ketchup, mayo and tomato slices, all wrapped up in come tasty chilean bread (sort of crunchy on the outside, but softer on the inside) mmmmm. loved it. there´s no going back to regular american hot-dogs. they´re super lame in comparison.

after that is the photo of my companion and i at girls cam this week! it was in the campo (which basically just means out in the middle of no-where with fields and trees and a river-SO pretty and reminds me a lot of rural maine actually) we were invited to camp and got special permission from the mission president to attend for a day and give a devotional on virtue and the importance of modest dress to show respect for the gift of our bodies. we focused on the fact that we (as women) are daughters of god!

we are literally heiresses of a king, and we have been given divine qualities that must be maintained to show our respect, love, and appreciation to our heavenly father. we talked about the importance of caring for our bodies so we can have the holy ghost with us always, and the importance of our obedience to the lord´s commandments that´s he´s established to help protect us and make us happy in this life. overall it went really great, and i think the young women really appreciated that we were there to get to know them better and help them realize their worth and potential as daughters of god. of course, i can´´t forget to mention that we were also there for another amazing asado (bbq)! i´ve attached a pic for you so you can get a glimpse of the process and the mounds of meat that were easily consumed by a bunch of little girls :) it was GREAT.

the last photo is from when my companion and i made crepes in our apartment, because two other hermanas are leaving the mission to go home this week, and we wanted to send them off right. surprisingly, despite the fact that we weren´t following a recipe or anything, the food turned out really well, and i was reminded of all of my arch house girls back in utah because they were the ones i would always have crepes with! it was a lot of fun, and i think the other hermanas really appreciated a special breakfast!

ok now to get down to business. so everyone knows, i just barely got all of the letters (including the dearelders) that were sent at the beginning of january, and i probably wont be able to pick up any more until the next conference in temuco, which happen basically once every six weeks. (you all can email me, i just might not be able to respond right away) so yeah, it might be a while. don´t feel bad if it takes me over a month to respond by mail. major bummer. but i promise i´m trying to catch up, because i really do love hearing from you all and want to be able to write back individually. slow and steady...

but first of all, gail, why haven´t you said hardly anything about your BROKEN ARM!?!?! i just saw that in a letter you sent at the beginning of last month, but you ha´ven´t said anything about it in your emails!! how are you doing? hopefully it´s healing well by now. that´s so crazy. what´s up with the horses lately? getting bucked off is never fun...hopefully it´s not becoming a norm.

now, on to some highlights from the week:
-we were talking with one of our (few) progressing investigators in his home the other day, teaching about the restoration and the importance of going to church when he mentioned casually, "actually, i was baptized in your church about 20 years ago...i just haven´t gone in a while" WHAT? you´re a MEMBER already! ughh. we couldn´t believe it. we were all excited about his progress and that we would be able to help him get baptized, and then we find out that one of his evangelical friends told him that it was wrong to lie to the missionaries, and that he had to fess up, so he did. haha it was crazy. and surprisingly, this happens quite a bit. we´ll contact someone on the street or knock a door and have a conversation about the message of the gospel, and like 5 minutes in they finally say "oh yeah, i´m a member of that church!" it´s so funny, but so sad at the same time. these people have been baptized and made covenants with god, and then they stop going to church and being obedient to his commandments! i don´t completely understand what it is that leads them to fall away, but a lot of our time as missionaries here in chile is helping to remind these members of the things they once felt and the commitments they made, and help bring them back to church.
-we had a lesson with a less-active member this week, who had a child who was completely out of control, and it was almost impossible to focus on reading the scriptures with her. we were trying to read the story from alma 36, but every 1.5 seconds her 2 year old son was terrorizing us in one way or another. he would grab our books, slap us, scream at us, and he even threw rocks at us! it was completely ridiculous! the mom was tired and she just didn´t even know what to do, so this went on for several minutes. my companion and i tried to ignore it as much as we could, but it got to the point where we all just broke down laughing because this little kid was THROWING ROCKS AT THE SISTER MISSIONARIES!!! haha it was crazy. BUT, the best part: his name was jesus, so we kept saying "jesus, that´s not nice!" and "jesus, you shouldn´t do tha¨t" and "jesus, be nice to the missionaries!" oh man. it was a very entertaining lesson. definitely one to remember.
-update on sergio: he came to church again this week! he has a lot of really good questions, but he´s progressing well and we´re really proud of him for the changing he´s making in his life. he´s super sweet and friendly, and is always so patient with my spanish. we´ve got a fecha to baptize him this week, but he´s expressed that he´s still not sure, and we won´t get to see him till wednesday, but we´re still hopeful that he´ll get his answer and be baptized on saturday! i´ll let you know how it goes!

well, that´s all the time i have. thank you for your support. don´t forget that to hope for things is not to just hope for the best and see what happens, but to have faith that the lord will fulfill his promises, and that as we pray, repent, and study and apply the teachings of the scriptures, the lord will bless us with what we need. he´s promised us that as we have hope, we can have peace in this life, and eternal life in the world to come. what a promise! i love this gospel, and i hope that all of you are doing ALL you can to do your part so the lord can bless you.

talk to you next week!
hna wright

¡Hola familia y amigos!

first of all, i need addresses from the following people:

• kristen stasinowsky
• megan leifson
• josh zuniga
• hilary wilkins
• arch house/connection friends
• matt stone (i wrote you back immediately when i was in the mtc, but my letter was returned saying it was the wrong address!)

if you don´t have time to write me, that´s fine, i just want your addresses so i can write YOU! if you want you can email my missionary email account and i´ll get your addresses from there. my email address is sophia.wright@myldsmail.net.

second of all, i have no time to write. big surprise, right? i don´t know what my problem is. let´s see how much of my life i can spill out in the next few minutes...

sergio, one of our (only) progressing investigators, came to church again this week! it was seriously a miracle because he had told us that he feels like you can worship on your own without having to go to a church all the time. he respected that we thought it was important, but just didn´t think it was for him. we asked him to pray about it, and to ask the lord specifically if he should go. we also used the scriptures to help him make the connection between the atonement, baptism, and church attendance. In our scripture study in the morning, hna miller and i had studied Mosiah 15:8-9 with D&C 20:71-77 which makes clear these HUGE connections. in studying these scriptures and applying them individually, it is clear that the atonement is personal, and that baptism is when we accept the sacrifice of Christ in a covenant that can be renewed every week when we attend church and partake of the sacrament. so in going to church, we remember and show our appreciation for christ´s atonement for us personally and individually, and we renew our covenants that we make at baptism to always remember him and be worthy representatives of him in the way we live our lives. in return, we are promised to have the holy ghost with us always, which will help us better follow christ´s example and return to live with our father in heaven. in the lesson after we shared that with him, sergio said that he´d never thought of it that way, and that he wanted to come to church with us. MIRACLES! not to mention the miracle that he´s even able to understand my spanish. sometimes i get so excited about the gospel and sharing it with people that i literally cannot get the words out, but apparently it just doesn´t matter because the spirit is helping these people understand what it is that god wants them to know. no silly little gringa missionary is going to get in the way of their progress! i love it.

also, some random facts about recent mission life:

1. i listen to christmas music every day. yes, this DOES break my strict rule about only listening to it between thanksgiving and christmas, but i decided i don´t care! gasp! it´s just so nice to have some familiar, comforting christmas music throughout the day as i get ready in the morning or right before bed. and i love focusing on the birth of christ all year round! it´s the best!
2. i sang a solo at a funeral this week. in spanish. in front of a bunch of chileans...it was great! my companion and i had been singing hymns to the old woman that passed away for a few weeks before the funeral, and the daughter asked me the night before if i´d be willing to sing a hymn for them. it was terrifying, but i am glad i was able to help in some way. (it also was nice that most chileans can´t really sing at all....takes some of the pressure off! haha)
3. a woman told me that joseph smith couldn´t have been a prophet because he had 2 names (joseph and smith), while the rest of the prophets only had one (moses, adam, abraham, etc.). it was kind of ridiculous...but great¨.
4. "salad" here consists of tomatoes and onions, neither of which i like, with oil and some salt. you´re offered and expected to eat it with almost every lunch every day, so i´m learning to like it! those who know me and my eating habits will be very proud!

time to go...bummer. love you all and pray for you often! don´t forget to remember the lord in everything you do. he really is blessing us so much every day.

LOVE,
hna fifi (hermana wright)