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 mybheart pondereth continually upon the things which I have seen and heard.
lots of love and prayers,
hermana wright, the sister missionary (crazy!)
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