May 22, 2012

fotos: stick figures on a sign for the mall...not so twiggy. - my companions and i (last cambio) with our mamita and her son, jacob

hola famila!

once again, i have zero time. i had to organize a bunch of photos onto a dvd and that took up a bunch of my internet time. sooo, here come the bullet points:

 

first of all, i don´thave pulgas. we used some flea killer stuff and it finally worked. yay!

my comp an i are teaching recent converts that are mute and deaf, and it´s the coolestexperience. their sister is a member, and she ¨translates¨for us as we try to teach with pictures and our own made-up signs to help them understand. it really is a special experience. raquel surprised us when she pointed to a picture of the golden plates, then went and found her book of mormon, making the connection that the book of mormon came from the plates! it was incredible. i love that the spirit has the power to overcome what otherwise would be obstacles to one´s personal progress!

our ward mission leader, boris, got his mission call! he´s going to be serving in argentina, buenos aires west, and we´re super excited for him. the only bummer is that the ward will be losing him as an EXCELLENT mission leader...so we´ve already started looking for someone who could start coming to the meetings and be ready to replace him. he´s going to be such a good missionary, especially with all of the interaction he´s had with us missionaries for months. oh and the crazy part, he´s a recent convert! he´ll complete a year as a member next month! 

a bunch of students from the universidad católica here in temuco have been showing up at the chapel because the university requires that they investigate a religion, and many have chosen the lds church! it´s been really interesting talking with them and giving them tours of the chapel...i feel like a visitor´s center sister! most of them just want to do an interview and take photos, but we have turned it into tours, finishing in the sacrament room to share our testimonies. it´s been a powerful experience. 

this week was branch conference! i got to sing again with my companion, two sisters from the ward, and one of the hermanos from another ward who has an excellent voice. 

• one thing that the stake president mentioned really struck me. he talked about what it meant to be a true disciple of christ. one of the qualities was that a true disciple lives the gospel in their homes, rather than just go to church every sunday and call it good.in the guide to the scriptures (in the spanish book of mormon) it says that ¨the home should be the center of family activity and of the gospel¨ this made me think of when the savior came to visit his children in the americas. when they were unable to comprehend everything that he´d been teaching them, he told them to meditate it in their homes:
• 2 nephi 17:1-3
• 1 Behold, now it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words he looked round about again on the multitude, and he said unto them: Behold, my ^atime is at hand.
• 2 I ^aperceive that ye are weak, that ye cannot ^bunderstand all my words which I am commanded of the Father to speak unto you at this time.
•  3 Therefore, go ye unto your homes, and ^aponder upon the things which I have said, and ask of the Father, in my name, that ye may understand, and ^bprepare your minds for the ^cmorrow, and I come unto you again.
• our homes should be a refuge from the world, where we can feel safe experience progress personally and as a family. please keep this in mind this week: make your home a haven-a place where the spirit really can dwell.

out of time for this week.  but i´m happy, healthy, and working hard. i love the mission and this gospel. i will return a different person than when i left, and for that i´m very grateful. thank you for your love and support.

con amor,
hna wright 

May 14, 2012

i`m a terrible person. i spent forever writing president today, so i`ve got literally 4 minutes to fill you in on mission life here in chile. this of course, is impossible, so i`m just going to leave  you with a scripture that i came across this week in my study, and make sure to be much much much more thorough next week :)

1 nefi 7:8-13

8 And now I, Nephi, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, therefore I spake unto them, saying, yea, even unto Laman and unto Lemuel: Behold ye are mine elder brethren, and how is it that ye are so hard in your hearts, and so blind in your minds, that ye have need that I, your younger brother, should speak unto you, yea, and set an example for you?
 9 How is it that ye have not hearkened unto the word of the Lord?
 10 How is it that ye have forgotten that ye have seen an angel of the Lord?
 11 Yea, and how is it that ye have forgotten what great things the Lord hath done for us, in delivering us out of the hands of Laban, and also that we should obtain the record?
 12 Yea, and how is it that ye have forgotten that the Lord is able to do all things according to his will, for the children of men, if it so be that they exercise faith in him? Wherefore, let us be faithful to him.
 13 And if it so be that we are faithful to him, we shall obtain the land of promise; and ye shall know at some future period that the word of the Lord shall be fulfilled concerning the destruction of Jerusalem; for all things which the Lord hath spoken concerning the destruction of Jerusalem must be fulfilled.
sometimes we feel overwhelmed with all that we have to do every day, and the responsibility we feel to complete with commitments that we forget that we have GOD as our heavenly father, and he is there to help us in every step of the way. sometimes we (myself included) get frustrated with things we have to do that we don`t feel like are really our responsibility, but the lord is trusting us to step up and do what he asks, even if we are the less-experienced, "younger brothers" of the situation. he is counting on us to be examples of the believers in every moment.

if we are faithful and remember the savior, we will obtain "the land of promise" which really consists of every promise the lord makes to you individually when you do what he asks of you. the blessings he has awaiting each of us are unimaginable, if we simply follow him in faith and always remember his love for us individually as his children.

take care, and know that i love and appreciate every one of you!

que estèn bien!

hna wright

May 7, 2012

we have cambios (transfers) this week! .....i´m staying here in temuco! both of my companions are leaving for other sectors, but i´ll be here for another 6 weeks (at least). i´m super excited to be staying though because i love the area and the ward is excellent. the members are super willing to help, and all have a lot of enthusiasm for missionary work. i feel really blessed to be here and to keep working with them. also, my new companion is CHILEAN! her name is hna alanis, and she´s from santiago. she goes home in september, so she´s one of the oldest sister missionaries in the mission. i´m SO excited to have a latina companion, especially one from chile because i´ll be able to progress a ton in my spanish and learn more about the culture so i don´t accidentally offend anyone...what´s really cool is that she speaks english too! she learned it in school when she was younger, and has practiced a lot here in the mission. i´m really looking forward to getting to know her better and working with her here in temuco. it´ll be sad to see my other companions go though, and to be left with only 1 again will be so weird!

i{m running out of time, so i´ll just share one experience from this week. one of our progressing investigators, eduardo (we´ve been teaching him for the past 2months) had a breakthrough this past week. we had put a fecha with him before, but he kept saying that he just wasn´t ready. we couldn´t figure out what his real doubt was, but we´ve been super patient because we can see that the lord is preparing him, just a little more slowly than others. but the other day in a lesson he understood for the first time in his life that christ is his savior, that he paid for his sins, and because of that, he can know that the savior truly loves and understands him. it was such a special experience this with him. he´s progressing little by little, but that was really a miracle for him to finally understand with his heart the meaning of the atonement for him personally. i love being a missionary!

gotta go!

love you :)