How to reach Hermana Wright

I've received questions from a few of Sophia's friends regarding how to contact her in Chile. To mail letters for free, you can use "Dear Elder" and type up a letter through their website that will be routed through the mission offices. It will still take 2-3 weeks to reach her, but I know she'll appreciate it!

If you'd like to mail a real letter to Sophia (with stamps and paper and everything!), you may use the following address:

Hermana Sophia Wright

Misión Chile Concepción Sur

O´Higgins 940, Oficina 503

Concepción

Bio-Bio

Chile

 

She has a few minutes each week to email family, and those are the "letters" I post here on her mission blog so everyone can hear what she's up to on a more regular basis.

 

If you have any questions, feel free to comment here and ask, or hit me up on Facebook/email (livytay{at}gmail{dot}com). Thanks so much for all the support you've given my baby sister since she's been in the field!

September 24, 2012

every time we pass by a certain field to get to part of our sector, we get to see the horses! it always makes me super happy. and about 75% of the time there are people there riding! it makes me a little jealous, but i get by...haha



ok, so i had to use basically all of my internet time to copy my photos to a cd, so i´ve got about 5 minutes...ahh!

highlights of my life here in pitru this week:

• personal study about receiving revelation. studied the talk "how to obtain revelation and inspiration for your personal life" for about the 5th time, and was able to receive specific instructions and impressions from heavenly father in what he wants me to improve. it was really helpful.
• also studied moroni 7:45, and was reminded of the kind of person the lord really wants me to be:
•  45 And ^acharity suffereth long, and is ^bkind, and ^cenvieth not, and is not puffed up, seeketh not her own, is not easily ^dprovoked, thinketh no evil, and rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
• i heard that paulo and eduardo got to bless toe sacrament on sunday! woo hoo!
• two of our investigators came to church this week!

we had a ward fireside where we shared testimonies, then had "marchmalos" as the chileans say. it was fun how excited they were for the gringo treat

well, like i said, time is short, but i´ll fill you in on more next week.

love you!

hna wright

September 18, 2012

hna nelson and me at the bus station, waiting for our new companions. 

hna nelson and me with our tongan/chilean friend, claudio. the thing is, he´s not the sligtest bit tongan, but every time hna nelson saw him, we just got that pacific-islander vibe. he´s the owner of a little bakery close to where we used to live, and he´s one of those people that knows everyone in the town, and that always talks and walks with tons of energy (which makes you wonder how he could be so chubby..) we would pass by every day on our way from the house,so we got to say hi all the time if there was any time that we forgot, he was sure to yell "HOLA HERMANAS!" it was fun. for our last p-day in caupolicán, we got empanadas from his bakery, and made sure to get a foto with the famous claudio. he was more than willing, as you can see.

the week in a flash:

• monday
• the machine at the grocery store ate my credit card from the mission, so i no longer have a mission card...oops. made a few phone calls and worked with the secretary, but it looks like they´ll just have to order me a new one, which should take about a month. thank goodness i have my emergency money to be able to buy food over these next few weeks! 
• we had a lesson with a 20-year old girl named shirley, and paulo came with to help. every time i am so impressed by his testimony, and his ability to share it fearlessly with any- and everyone. he´s SUCH an example of what it means to be a member missionary. i hope to be like him when i get back from the mission. he said that he´d be willing any day to come down from temuco (a 45 minute ride in bus) to help out with lessons if we needed! he´s the best. 
• tuesday
• i made it alive to pitrufquen! i spent the whole day wandering around completely lost as my companion tried to help me meet the ward members, recent converts, and investigators, but this town is so confusing! there are a million diagonals, and random fields that you have to cross to get from one neighborhood to another...i´ll probably figure it out the day before i leave...
• my companion´s name is hna del castillo. she´s from peru, and she loves to laugh, so we´re having a lot of fun together!
• wednesday
• met the zone! it´s called nueva toltén, but there´s a tradition of calling ourselves "nueva sión" (new zion). yes, we´re very humble. we are only a little group of 12, those that are on the most southern tip of the mission limits (from loncoche to pitrufquen), and it really does feel like a family here. my district leader is chilean, and he´s been in the mission for a long time and seems to really know what he´s doing, so i look forward to learning a lot from him.
• thursday
• had lunch with a member naed juan, who´s about 75 years old. during lunch he mentioned that he´s been studying a bit lately. he then went to look for his books, and brought out an ancient 7th grade science book, and his little notebook where he´d written out and drawn the process of photosynthesis! the little old man had taught himself, and was SO excited to explain it to us. he also had some sketches of geometry he´d done. it was really adorable. i love his example of continual learning. i hope to have that same enthusiasm when i´m his age. there´s just so much to learn!
• friday
• a little girl in the branch (se´s 8), who´s parents are less-active, decided to be baptized on october 8th! she´ll be a baptism for the branch rather than the missionaries, but we´re excited to help her and her family get prepared.
• saturday
• shared a really great lesson with a less-active family, based on d&c 121:7-9, and "prayer" in the bible dictionary. look them up!
• sunday
• my first day at church in the branch! there was hardly anyone there because all of the children were in the 18 de septiembre parade in the morning, but those who were there were very sweet and welcoming. it was also nice to have paulo there (he was visiting to participate in a special musical number)
• the district president mentioned that he´s good friends with our mission president, and that he´d spoken to him just the night before. he welcomed me to the area, and mentioned that president martinez had said that he was sending two of the best missionaries of the mission to the area, and that he had no doubt the sector would improve over these next few months. what a surprise! even though i´m pretty sure those aren´t the exact words president martinez used, it´s nice to know i have his confidence in taking care of the sector with my companion.
• monday
• yesterday was a normal work-day because of the holiday today




just a taste of the 18 de septiembre preparations. in pretty much every neighborhood there are flags, banners, and even these little paper flowers (the national flower of chile, copihue  (co-pee-way) )


• tuesday
• today i got to hang out with my new BFF berta. she´s 5. she´s the daughter of one of the members of the branch, and while my companion was doing internet, we had fun singing, drawing, and playing other little-kid games. i LOVED it. 

lesson learned from personal study this week:

CHARITY! 

how do we obtain it?

• obey the commandments, which also shows our love for god (john 14:21)
• give your heart to the lord (helaman 15:35)
• do EVERYTHING you can to serve and help others receive the gospel in their lives
• preach my gospel: "you will develop charity as you look foropportunities to serve others and give of yourself for the well-being of others"



we saw a rainbow! it´s been pretty rainy these last few days, but at least we caught a quick glimpse color in the yucky, cloudy sky.



favotite scripture of the week:

alma 7:23-24

23 And now I would that ye should be ^ahumble, and be^bsubmissive and gentle; easy to be entreated; full of patience and long-suffering; being temperate in all things; being diligent in keeping the commandments of God at all times; asking for whatsoever things ye stand in need, both spiritual and temporal; always returning thanks unto God for whatsoever things ye do receive.

 24 And see that ye have ^afaith, hope, and charity, and then ye will always abound in good works.

i felt like this was a letter written from the lord personally to me - what he wants me to do and who he wants me to be. as i diligently obey and exercise faith, hope, and the pure love of christ, i will be able to do and be the recipient of good works constantly.

time´s up. lots of love from the south.

hermana wright

September 10, 2012

CAMBIOS!!!

during interviews with president this week, he told me my changes early. i literally sad down, he said "how are you" then told me my cambio.....i´m going to pitrufquen! not that that means a whole lot to you, but still.  it´s a really small town a lot like my first sector (victoria), and it´s actually where my mom, hermana miller, started her mission right before she became my companion. the sector is only about 45 minutes south of where i am now in temuco, so it´s pretty likely that i´ll be back here every once in a while for p-day activities, cuase from what i´ve heard there´s not a whole lot to do down there in the boonies of chile...we´ll have to get creative. my new companion will be hna delcastillo, from peru! i´m excited to have another latina companion, and to hopefully tune up my spanish a bit. i´m excited! also, hna nelson´s new companion will be hermana miller! i´m SUPER happy about that because i know they´re giong to work SO well together, and that hnas nelson and miller will take VERY good care of the sector and our recent converts whom i love love love! i feel very at peace in leaving the area knowing that they´ll be here. another way i can see god´s love for me. so weird to think that after 6 months here, i´ll be leaving  at 9 tomorrow, and i have no idea when i´ll be back! crazy!

 

the week:

• tuesday
• one of our investigators, nicolas, who´s 34 and a very accomplished lawyer, got all excited because he can feel that god is answering his prayers by giving him much success, and helping him uncover some very interesting hidden talents. for example, during the lesson, he insisted on showing us that all of a sudden he could play pet-shop boys on his keyboard (yes, he played us a song), and that he can do a handstand push-up (also demonstrated right there in the room during the lesson!) it was SOOOO funny. i really had to bite my tongue not to laugh too much with that one. just another testimony to me that god answers the prayers of his children in a way that they can understand. nicolas now is 100% willing to come to church and be baptized, because he can see that god is trying to tell him something, and he wants to follow him.
• wednesday
• today we had interviews with president, which was especially uplifting because he shared his gratitude for having me in the mission, and that he trusts me to take care of my new sector. i feel very grateful to have done something to deserve his confidence, just by working hard and being obedient with all i´ve got. 
• thursday
• paulo accompanied us for a few hours to visit some investigators, and it was so much fun! i love that he is so comfortable sharing his testimony and experiences of conversion with others, and that he is so focused on helping others recieve the same gospel that´s brought him so much joy in these few short weeks. he also shared with us one of his favorite scriptures that teaches that every trial that we go through is for our own learning and experience, and only makes us stronger (doctrine and covenants 122:7)
• we had a family home evening with a less-active family, inviting two neighboring active families to join us. we had a really powerful lesson about temples, and showed a slide-show of fotos to music that invited the spirit so strong. half-way through the lesson, the 12-year old son asked, "what do i have to do to be able to go to the temple?" we talked about the importance of going to church, paying tithing, and receiving the priesthood, and he committed to do everything it takes to be worthy to go on the ward trip in november! his mom was also very motivated, and wants to take the whole family on the trip. i was so happy on sunday to see the mom with her 2 sons at church this week, putting into practice what they´d learned and felt. this experience helped me see the power of focusing on the eternal perspective, and WHY we keep the commandments every day - to have eternal life with our families through the ordinances and covenants of the temple! very memorable lesson for me.
• saturday
• we had my last lesson with yasna today, and it was AMAZING to see the changes in her since she got baptized last week! she´s been studying in her scriptures every day, and even studied in her gospel principles book, highlighting it and taking notes and everything. she said she´s felt such a difference as she´s taken the time to really study and pray, and that she just feels hungryfor more every time she does it. at one point in the lesson i held up the bible and the book of mormon, to show that they go hand-in.hand, when she said, "i think those two books right there hold all the secrets to true happiness..." WOW! that really hit me, because it´s so true! what a blessing to have the scriptures in our lives.
• sunday 
• sunday was a beautiful day, but also difficult because of all of the goodbyes. one thing that was really special was that yasna bore her testimony for the first time, and shared gratitude for all of the love and support she´s received during the process of her conversion, and that she´s just HAPPY to be a member of this church and feel the love of her heavenly father through those around her. 
• one of the most memorable experiences of the day was when the bishop took hna nelson and i aside to be able to say goodbye, and he said that he wanted to thank me for the love i showed to others. he said that i have the gift of love, and that it impacts all of my interactions with my companions, with the ward, and with my investigators. he thanked me for my dedication and for doing my part to show the  love of god, and for being such an asset to his ward. he looked me in the eyes, shook my hand, and thanked me, and i really felt it! that moment was so precious to me. i feel so blessed to have left a positive impression with the bishop, and that through simply doing my best to be a good missionary, i was able to transmit the love that heavenly father has for these people. now on to the next sector! 

so that´s the summary of the week! today hna nelson and i are going to do a little last-minute shopping, and we have the goal to eat some mexican food that we´ve been coveting for the past 12 weeks! we´ll see how that goes.

much love and prayers - keep being GOOD!

hermana wright

September 3, 2012

i truly am happy. the only thing that brings me anxiety or stress is not having enough hours in the day to do all the work i´d like to, hna nelson and i are working on not only working hard, but effectively as well, and we´ve seen success in the last few weeks. the crazy thing to think about is that we have CAMBIOS next week, so this saturday i´ll find out if i stay in temuco for another 6 weeks (making it over 6 months overall), or if i finally have to leave the sector (and my recent converts :( ) whatever happens though, i know it will be because it´s where the lord needs me most, and where i can learn and grow individually.

AH! how does the time go so fast! much love and prayers. know that i´m serving with all that i am, and that the blesses me more than i can even begin to explain. look for the ways he blesses you too, and write it down. it´s amazing the difference it makes.

con cariño,

hermana wright (who recently completed TEN months in the mission! CRAZY!)

August 27, 2012

 

hermanas, getting ready for the hike up cerro ñielol (a hiking trail about a 15 minute walk from my area)





drinking from the "holy waters" - we followed a trail to what we thought would be some pretty fountain (given the name) but instead, we found this pipe stiking out of the side of the mountain...slightly disappointed when we got there, but we took advantage of a free beverage! 



enjoying nature along the trail...



reunited with hermana miller!



the zone at one of the lookouts



with baby nelson - and some giant chilean totems! 



mama miller and i having a little too much fun

so as you can see, we had a zone trip to hike a nearby hill, and we absolutely LOVED it! it was super simple, but REALLY nice to be outside in the sun! 

ok so i have no time, but here are my primary thoughts:

• yasna (23 yrs old, has been investigating with me for 3 months) is going to get baptized this sunday! she attended paulo´s baptism and said it made all the difference. they´ve become really good friends, and she even asked him to baptize her! she´s so excited, and i love to see her so happy.
• we taught paulo about temples, and he´s already preparing himself to go with the ward to do baptisms in november. he got the priesthood on sunday, and is going to be the bishop´s companion to visit members this week. every time we see him he talks about how excited he is to serve a mission!

soooo much more to say, but i´ve run out of time. lots of love. live the gospel, please. it´s the best :)

hermana (fifi) wright

August 20, 2012

hna nelson and i had a FANTASTIC week. on monday we learned how to make empanadas (supposedly), but they weren`t just any empanadas, they were made from salmon, and another was made from something called cochayuyo (that`s not how you spell it, but how it sounds) which is a type of seaweed thing that people eat here. it`s not super common, but hna lina (our recent convert`s mom) insisted that we try it to be considered true chileans. the thing is, i`d tried it once before, and it was super gross. i wish i could say it nicer, but i really really didn´t like it, because as you know, i´m not a huge fan of basically anything that has ever touched the ocean. but as my family also knows, i´m good to try anything, so i gave it a shot. and it wasn´t bad! i actually liked them more than the salmon ones! but apparently it was because she´d left the seaweed soaking in water for a bit so a lot of the flavor faded out. thank goodness! it was really fun cooking them with her though and see how the pros do it!

speaking of food adventures, as a result of getting bored with the same things i eat for breakfast and when i get in at night, i´ve been experimenting with some pretty interesting combinations. the most recent being to open up a can of tuna, put in som ketchup, and eat it with crackers. yep, i´ve officially started to get creative. and it really wasn´t bad! 

another exciting experience of the week is that paulo, our recent convert came out to accompany us for a visit (he´s so great!) but we ended up getting a little lost...we eventually found the apartment building, but couldn´t get into the building, and the guy that normally works there was no-where to be found. a nice lady let us in though, and we began to search all over for the apartment. it finally occured to us that we had to leave the building to a little fenced-in plaza, and there we found the apartment of a new investigator named waldo. we knocked and knocked on his door, and he never answered...major bummer. we left him a note and turned to leave for our next appointment, when all of a sudden it occurred to us...we were locked in. we´d come through a door to the plaza, which was the entrance to a few more apartments, but you have to have a key to get back into the building, as well as to unlock the gate to get out to the street. i felt like a trapped dog! it was super funny, but a little stressful at the same time because paulo was going to have to jump the 6-foot-tall fence to go and find someone that could let us out, because not even the neighbors were answering their doors! eventually we saw someone inside and she let us out, but not before we´d paniced at least a little bit. we told paulo not to tell his mom, and he agreed...haha. oh the life of missionaries...

speaking of paulo, he got baptiszed and confirmed yesterday!!! it was seriously the BEST baptismal service i´ve been to here in chile (and i don´t just say that becuase hna nelson and i organized it, but beacuse the spirit was SO strong!).because it was right after the church services, we were able to have more participation from the members, and i think that made all the difference. there´s a lot more to say, but i´m out of time, so i´ll write more about it next week. 

here´s my favorite scripture for the week:

D &C 84:106

 And if any man among you be ^astrong in the Spirit, let him take with him him that is ^bweak, that he may be ^cedified in all^dmeekness, that he may become strong also.

this is the work of all of us as children of god, to lift up all those around us and help them become strong through the blessings of the gospel.

loves,

hna sophia wright

August 13, 2012

hello. i´m hermana wright. i live in temuco, chile. i speak spanish...all the time. the only books i read have to do with the gospel of jesus christ. i spend every day in a skirt. i haven´t watched tv or a movie in 9 months. some of my best friends at this point are from another country, and don´t speak a single word of english - there´s a very good chance that in another 9 months, i´ll never see them again. i dream in spanish, and most of the time i am teaching lessons or making contact with people in the streets. my "full-time (un-paid) job" is to help people come to know jesus christ and god the father, and be right by their side as they make the changes necessary in their lives in order to be with their families for eternity. i am 100% dedicated to loving and serving others. i´m a sister missionary. this is my life, and i LOVE it. i couldn´t be happier.

every once in a while, as you´ve probably seen throughout the course of my letters, it hits me just exactly what i´m doing here, and the amazing privilege it is to spend every moment of every day in the service of my heavenly father. i take a step back and think about who i am and what i´m diong here, and it just amazes me. i´m such a small, seemingly insignificant gringita here in the eyes of the world, but knowing that i´ve been called by a prophet and set apart by priesthood power to bring the gospel to my brothers and sisters here in chile gives me a sense of hope and exitement day after day. i know god loves me because of this opportunity he´s given me to stretch and be refined as i work with all my heart, might, mind, and strength, making all kinds of mistakes as i go along, but learning from every one of them. 

some of my experiences lately:

• my comp and i take turns every other day in choosing which hymn we sing before starting comp study, and 60% of the time i choose a christmas hymn...yep, i´m a little obsessed.
• our landlords have a puppy named tambor ("drum") that has recently taken a liking to ATTACKING us every time we leave or come in the house - he manages to get us all dirty and really tests our patience as we try to keep him from escaping through the gate. being here in chile is really changing my opinion of dogs...we´ll see what happens when i get back to the states.
• hna nelson and i got invited to a catholic retreat. seriously. we knocked on a woman´s door and when she answered she explained that she didn´t have time to chat because she was getting ready for a trip to the campo (out in the boonies of chile) with her church, but that we could come along if we wanted! we explained that we were not in fact catholic, and that we were sharing a message of christ´s restored church, but she said that it didn´t matter, that everyone was invited!! when we asked her what exactly it is that they do at these activities, she simply replied, "we don´t talk about what goes on at the retreat. you have to experience it to understand!" we tried to explain to her that we couldn´t actually leave the area, and that we had someone expecting us in a couple of hours, but she couldn´t give up the idea of us going with her! we finally got off the hook by telling them to look for the missionaries in the area where they were going to be, and to invite them to participate with them...finally satisfied. i feel a little bad that those missionaries are going to be mauled by a few very motivated and extremely friendly catholics, but at least they will have a story to tell their parents...
• we met a less-active member this week named christian, and had a lesson with him to get to know him better and figure out how we could help him come back to the gospel. he´s 25, and living ehre in temuco as he finishes studying in the universtiy. we had a great conversation, and were able to give him a book of mormon, because he´d left his at his parents house a few hours away. we invited him to start reading, and to come to church the following sunday. he wasn´t sure if he´d be in town, but he said he´d probably be able to. we left not feeling very sure of his level of commitment, so we were that much happier when HE CAME on sunday, with his book of mormon in hand. he hadn´t attended church in 6 years. SUCH a miracle. i´m excited to keep working with him
• our investigator, paulo, has decided he wants to go on a mission, and will start going to mission prep classes this week, the week of his BAPTISM! he will be baptized on friday, and we are all VERY excited. it´s been such a great experience teaching him.
• another investigator surprised me with a birthday cake the other day because she wasn´t in town for my birthday, and she´d promised to do something special. i wasn´t expecting anything, so it was all the more exciting to be surprised almost a month later!
• i also got my birthday card from grandma carolyn and the package of sticky notes, etc. (THANK YOU!) so it really was like celebrating my birthday all over again!
• later today i will be learning how to make empanadas! i´ll let you know how they turn out!

i´m out of time, but one last scripture to sum up how i´m feeling:

• 2 nephi 4:16
• Behold, my ^asoul delighteth in the things of the Lord; and my^bheart pondereth continually upon the things which I have seen and heard.

lots of love and prayers,

hermana wright, the sister missionary (crazy!)

August 6, 2012

things i love lately:

• it´s SPRING in chile! ok so not really...we still have a lot of cold days, and spring doesn´t officially start for another couple of months i think, but the flowers have started to bud, and the rain is a LOT less frequent, which makes me quite happy
• i hit my 9 month mark! ok so i don´t really love that all that much becuase it means that the time is going by WAY too fast, but it also helps me look back and see how much i´ve learned and the changes i´ve been able to make as i try and better myself every day
• every time one of our investigators mentions joseph smith, he refers to him as "señor smith" which is kind of strange and makes me giggle a little every time
• our recent convert, eduardo, received the priesthood this sunday! that was SUCH a fulfilling experience. he´s now a priest and will be able to help bless the sacrament! super excited for him
• our newest investigator, paulo (17 year old nephew of a member), is progressing VERy well. he loves coming to church, he loves when we come and teach him, he quit drinking coffee the day we taught him about the word of wisdom, and he expressed how much he´s come to love reading the book of mormon, becuase of the calm, warm feeling it gives him when he reads. as we talked about the story of joseph smith, we asked him if he believed it was true, and he said that he´d prayed to know, and that he´d received his answer that it was. he is so grateful to have found the truth, and expressed to us that he wants to be like us and share with others what he has learned and what has brought him so much joy. we read with him alma 29:9-10, and he said that was EXACTLY how he felt. HE SAID THAT HE WANTS TO BE A MISSIONARY once he gets baptized and has the holy ghost!!! sooooo exciting. also, he bore his testimony on sunday (yes, 2 weeks BEFORE his baptism) and it was one of the most sincere, powerful testimonies that i have heard from anyone his age. it really has been such a miracle to find someone truly prepared to accept the gospel.
• paulo´s fav scripture:
•  9 I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do ^anot ^bglory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy.
   10 And behold, when I see many of my brethren truly penitent, and coming to the Lord their God, then is my soul filled with joy; then do I remember ^awhat the Lord has done for me, yea, even that he hath heard my prayer; yea, then do I remember his merciful arm which he extended towards me.
• our mission leader leaves this week for his mission!

things i don´t love quite so much:

• our mission leader leaves this week...not sure how we´ll get by without him!
• i lost one of my nametags! that one was a major bummer because i had some stickers from the mtc and that some chilean friends had given me, so it was kind of sad to lose, but i´ve ordered a replacement at least and i should get it in a few weeks
• i´ve probably eaten about 8 hot dogs in the last week. i definitely didn´t picture hot dogs when i imagined how the food in south america would be! they chop them up and put them in spaghetti, serve them plain with mashed potatoes, and make them into completos...aparently they´re a staple to the diet! who knew!
• while hna and i were doind a street contact, we literally watched a cat die in the middle of the street. apparently it had just been hit by a car, and we were there to see it take it´s last breaths. for those of you who know me well, as one who can´t even watch the nature channel because i get sad when i see animals chasing other animals to eat them, you understand just how traumatizing this experience was. blech. not fun. especially because we had to just keep talking and stay focused on what we were doing.

that´s all i have time for today, but know that i´m happy and healthy, and learning like crazy every day. something that´s stood out to me is the importance of obedience. it really makes all the difference in whether or not we succeed in life: whether or not we obey god´s commandments so he can bless us with what HE knows we really need to be happy. also, of the importance of the family. i get more and more excited to have my own as i meet and help other families to grow in the gospel. also, i am reminded of the family that i have now, and how blessed i am to have a family that loves and supports me, and that is so firm in the gospel. thank you for being such great examples. i love you! 

take care!

la guagua ("the baby")

July 30, 2012

hello world! (slash the 4 people that actually read about my missionary adventures here in south america... :)

to start with a few fun experiences from the week:

• so remember how i told you hna nelson and i have had to jump the fence a few times early in the morning because no one had woken up to open it, and we still don´t have any keys? well, we talked to the owners the other day, and come to find out, she leaves the chain on, but keeps it UNLOCKED because she knows sometimes we leave early...it was OPEN the whole time! we definitely got some good laughs out of that one...
• today in the grocery store we found some german salad dressings and other german products in one of the aisles. there was someone there working to re-stock right next to where we were looking, when hna nelson and i began to converse for a good 3 or 4 minutes in "german" to see if we could get him to think we were authentic...i dunno, but i think maybe our "schpraken duken malken bochken" just wasn´t convincing enough. we definitely enjoyed it though.

we had a training conference this week, so president and the assistants came down to visit the zone! they spoke again about "crecimiento real" or "real/authentic growth", which has to do with developing your own testimony, experiencing a change of heart, and always following the impressions of the holy ghost. what stood out to me was the necessity to experience our own conversion process (like what i talked about last week). i shouldn´t come back the same as when i left. 

a scripture i particurlaly liked:

mosiah 5:2 - in response to king benjamin´s address:

 2 And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty ^achange in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do ^bevil, but to do good continually.

time to go, but i hope we can all get to the point where we´ve given our hearts over to the lord, and let him change us so we no longer have the desire to judge others, slack in our callings or other responsibilities, treat others with disrespect, be impatient, etc. i am determined to LET HIM CHANGE ME. even if it hurts, because he knows what´s best for me, and what i can become through the "refinement" process.

i love this gospel. i love being a missionary. i love YOU, familia :)

take care, and don´t forget that i exist. thanks!

hermana wright

July 23, 2012

hola familia!

wow, what a week. it went by so fast! first of all, the fotos:

1. hna  miller posing as a maupuche (native chilean) in the museum we visited last week. we were the only ones in the exhibit, so we got a little creative...
2. a saddle they had on display that the chilean cowboys have used in recent history. looks pretty comfy!
3. all 4 of us that went to the museum: hna miller ("mami"), hna ortiz (from honduras), me, hna nelson
4. hna nelson and i with one of the hnas we stayed the night with in concepcion before return and report on thursday 

to answer mommy´s questions:

• how many hours do we spend on the streets: we leave the house at 12, and have until lunch at 1:30, then we start again at 3 until we need to be in the house at 9:30. the ideal would be to have lots of lessons, and therefore very little actual time walking around on the streets, but every once in a while we end up doing street contacts/knocking doors for a couple of hours
• how´s my companion: she´s GREAT! she´s a really hard worker, she has excellent spanish, and she constantly wants us to improve and be better missionaries. she helps push me and together we work really effectively. she also has a great sense of humor, so we have a lot of fun together throughout the day.

on wednesday afternoon, hna nelson and i had a FIVE HOUR LONG bus ride to concepción for "return and report", which happens during training to check up and see how things are going, and to see if any changes need to be made. it was definitely a long trip, but we took advantage of it by writing letters, writing in our journals, and reading. a TON! it was really nice to have some extra uninterrupted study time. well, the only distraction really was the incessant 70´s disco music that was blasting the whole way there. it was so strange...people in the STATES hardly even listen to that stuff...needless to say i was surprised to be hearing it here in chile. we spent the night with my former (chilean) companion, hna alanis, and her new comp, hna garcia (her parents are mexican, but she´s from california). hna garcia made us some salsa and we ate potato chips and salsa (tortilla chips are hard to find) before going to bed. the next day we met at the mission home with the other misisonaries in training, and had an intimate meeting before having lunch and making the long trip home. i say intimate because hna nelson is one of only 4 missionaries in the beginning of their training in this cambio, so we were only 8 missionaries, the assistants, and president and his wife. it was a great opportunity to hear from president and be able to interact with him. one thing that especially stood out to me from what he shared was the necessity that each one of us, missionaries or members, have our own CONVERSION, or change from the natural man to a spiritual man. this process can also be known as a change of heart. 

helaman 15:7-8

7 And behold, ye do know of yourselves, for ye have witnessed it, that as many of them as are brought to the knowledge of the truth, and to know of the wicked and abominable traditions of their fathers, and are led to believe the holy scriptures, yea, the prophecies of the holy prophets, which are written, which leadeth them to faith on the Lord, and unto repentance, which faith and repentance bringeth a ^achange of heart unto them—

 8 Therefore, as many as have come to this, ye know of yourselves are ^afirm and steadfast in the faith, and in the thing wherewith they have been made free.

once we´ve experienced this change of heart, a change in our desires, which in turn brings a change in our actions, allows us to be firm and steadfast in the faith, never to fall away. i challenge you, my deares little family to do a little self-analysizing (forgetting english...) and evaluate your own conversion. are you firm and steadfast in the faith? and it not, how can you be? 

i love you all, and pray for you often. be good and love others. there are lots of lonely people around you that need to feel the love of our heavenly father. help them find it

chao chao! besitos!

hermana wright.