April 16, 2012

this week i had an especially entertaining contact...we knocked a door and began talking to the woman who answered, when out came what appeared to be her husband or some other male member of her family. we said hello to him and presented ourselves, and when we asked him his name as he was about to walk inside, he replied, ¨¡josé, pero no esmith!¨ or ¨joseph, but not smith!¨it was seriously so funny. he walked away after that and wouldn´t listen to us, so we just laughed, finished up the contact with the woman, and went on our way. i love the mission.

this week has been totally crazy. i´m pretty sure that´s not the first time i´ve said that on the mission, and i know it won´t be the last...

we are having cristian´s baptism THIS saturday...he had a little problem with the word of wisdom, so we pushed the baptism back, but now he´s doing so much better and we have no doubt he´ll be ready this weekend. at one point during the week he told us straight out that he didn´t want to get baptized; that it was just too hard to be good. man, that broke my heart. he´s had some really negative experiences in his life growing up, and he really hasn´t had that many good examples to follow, so it´s hard for him to recognize his own potential. that was a really sad lesson for us, but we just poured out our hearts and testified of the power of the atonement to heal and be changed through our savior, and he agreed to see us the next day. when we came back, he was completely different. he apologized for what he´d said, and after talking about what we´d left for him to read in the book of mormon, he told us that he really wanted to get baptized. he wants to be forgiven of his past. he wants the holy ghost so he can feel peace and be better able to understand and apply the scriptures. he wants to accept the sacrifice of the savior. we´re so happy for our little cristian. he´ll be entering the army a few days after his baptism, but we´re in the process of getting in contact with his ward there so they can know that he´s coming, and get him the priesthood! things will be hard for him, but he can do it with the lord´s help. 

sorry i don´t have time to share more, but you all should know that i really am seeing miracles here. the lord loves us, and he hears and answers our prayers. i have seen it in my own life, and in those of my investigators. pray to him and you´ll know he´s there. 

love you :)

hna wright

April 9, 2012

yep. the fleas are back. with a vengeance. the other day i counted more than 20 bites on my hands and wrists. it{s pretty gross. but life goes on!

this week was bacan! "the trio" is doing great things! we are going to have a baptism this week! his name is cristian, and he´s 17. he´ll be entering the military in a few weeks, but he wants to get baptized and get the priesthood before he leaves. we´re really excited for him. also, we met with SERGIO! oh man, it was so good to see him again. i really do feel like he´s my little brother. we had a short lesson with him in the plaza/park across from his house, and we talked about ether 12 - faith and miracles. with us he learned that miracles are extraordinary events, and are part of the gospel of jesus christ. i shared with him that it truly was a miraclethat i was there teaching him. i was supposed to stay in victoria, but because of  a last minute change i was able to come to temuco, and of all the places i could go in the mission, i ended up within 15 minutes walking distance from him. NOT a coincidence. the spirit was SO strong, and he said that he would pray and ask what it is that god wants him to do, and that if god tells him to get baptized, he´ll do it. the great thing is, god WILL help him realize that baptism is the only way he can accept the atonement of christ and receive the holy ghost. we{re seeing him again tonight and i´m of course very excited.

bummer, out of time. but at least you´ve got a bunch of photos to look at! i love love love you, and hope that you´ll take time this week to watch a conference talk or two, and make an effort to apply the teaching of our modern profet and his apostles. i know that as i´ve read my notes and prayed about the messages, i´ve received some really special personal revelation. the same can happen for you :)

con mucho amor,

hna wright

April 2, 2012

boo...this computer won´t recognize my camera and i don´t have time to mess with it and figure it out, so i think it´s going to have to wait till next week again...SUCH a bummer because i have a ton of great things to show you (the baptism, my last days in victoria, the victoria house and my new house, my new companions, etc.) next week i guess...

so much to say! first of all, i´m in my new sector, and it´s HUGE! we´re really right in the center of the city, and it´s 100% different from my last sector. it´s so weird because there are a bunch of universities and big companies and huge buildings everywhere, and i just feel so small, but strangely enough, i really like it. i like the excitement of it all, and the fact that there is always someone around to talk to, and so much work to be done. my two companions, hna hamblin and hna mccleeve are both great, and we´re figuring out how to make this whole trio thing work. it´s a little tricky with making sure that our lessons are balanced, and that we really make sure that everyone´s voice is heard, but it´s getting better and i´m really loving it. i like that i have this chance to learn from two companions at once, both of which have more experience than i do in the mission and are helping me see things from a different perspective.

one thing that´s been a little crazy though is that we have to look for a new house, because the three of us don´t really fit in the one we have! the apartment is SO tiny. seriously, smaller than any studio apartment i´ve ever seen. i´ll send fotos next time for sure, cause it´s pretty incredible that we haven´t already gone crazy in such a small space...haha. it´s an adventure. but house hunting just means that we have less time to do "real" missionary work, but we´re doing our best and know that the lord will accept our efforts.

wasn´t general conference SO inspiring?! i watched all but one of the sessions in english (i saw the sunday am session in spanish because we had an investigator with us) in a little room in the chapel with the other english-speaking missionaries. i learned so much that i don´t even know where to start...but one thing i did notice were the themes of refraining from judgement, the importance of forgiving, the necessity of trials in our eternal progression, the importance of raising children through righteous example, and of course, the savior´s infinite love and saving atonement. one thing i really loved that elder cook said was that our active study of the scriptures will determine our ability to narrow the distance among ourselves and the heavens. how cool is that?! i completely agree though. i have felt closer to my heavenly father than ever before as i´ve devoted time to an active study of the scriptures. heavenly father is just waiting to pour out blessings, and when we study the scriptures we show our willingness to obey and our desire to receive them. i love the scriptures :)

almost forgot! we found sergio! we met with him in a park by his house last night, and we have another cita with him tonight! we´re going to talk to him about the importance of having a testimony of the book of mormon, and challenge him again to be prepare to be baptized! i can´t believe that i get to teach sergio again. SUCH a miracle. but i´m out of time so i´ll have to tell you how it goes next week!

sorry, gotta go, but i think of you every day (but not too much...don´t want to get trunky! haha) and pray for you always. my greatest hope is that you are dedicating time to the lord every day, so you can recognize and feel  the influence of his arm that is always lovingly extended toward you. ¡que estèn bien!

hna wright

also, sorry i haven´t had time for individual letters...with cambios and all of the things that go on in mission life, i´m struggling to make time for it, but it´s a goal for this cambio so i´ll be sure to send some more out in the next couple months! woo hoo!

March 26, 2012

so, here i am again with zero time to write, and WAY to much to say (our zone activity went long again today). so here are a few highlights to hold you over till next week:
-zone activity: we had a mexican fiesta! ok so sort of...we ate some mexican food at least! we cooked tortillas with chicken, guacamole, salsa, and tomatoes. it was sooooo delicious. it was funny how much it reminded me of home, because i´m not even mexican, but still...it was a taste that i haven´t had at all since i´ve been here. then we had homemade cookies (with peanut butter m&ms!!!) and ice cream. i was very happy. the bummer is that this was our last zone activity together! we´ve really become a family, so it´ll be really hard to leave and start over in another zone, but i´m sure it´ll be great too.
-changes: i´m leaving my sector for temuco, a sector about an hour to the south! i´ll be in the center of a big city (it really does remind me of boston in how busy it is with all of the cars and the noise and tons of university students). also, i´ll be in a TRIO! there´s an odd number of hermanas for now, so there´ll be 3 of us in one tiny, tiny house in the city (i´ll have to send photos next week, cause it´s seriously SO small) this was all VERY unexpected, because my companion had found out she was leaving, which typically means that the other one stays, but NOPE! we are both leaving the sector so another hermana can train her new companion here in tolhuaca. which also means that we have to leave tons of notes and instructions and make sure everything in the house is ready for the new hermanas because everything will be new to them (like it was for my comp and i when we opened the secor 3 months ago!) super uncommon, but that seems to be how things go so far in my mission experience, so it works for me. it is sad though because i just hadn´t been preparing myself emotionally to be leaving, so it´s all really abrupt. but the baptism really was the best way to leave the sector.
-interesting side-note: the sector that i´m going to just happens to be where SERGIO is going to university!! yep, i´m following my very first investigator to college! i´m super excited to be able to contact him again and help him continue to progress.
-oh yeah, so...I HAD MY FIRST BAPTISM YESTERDAY!!! actually, we baptized TWO jovenes (youth? young ones? haha don´t know how to translate). john and carlos were baptized and confirmed right after church today, and it was so so so so so great. the service went really well, with lots of participation from the members, and i got to sing too! hna miller and i were a little nervous because we are both leaving right after they got baptized, but with all of the help and support we saw from the members, we know that they will be well taken care of. one of the best parts of the baptism was when the grandma (who was sealed in the temple, but has been inactive for several years) got up unexpectedly at the end and started balling as she bore her testimony that her and her husband were going to return to the church because they were able to feel the spirit so strong at the baptism of their grandkids, and were reminded of why they were baptized in the first place. it was a really sweet experience. i was so proud of the work that hna miller and i did to prepare these boys for baptism, but even more that we were able to help reactivate an entire family! such a blessing from heavenly father. (my companion has my camera right now with the photos of the baptism, and i´ve got to get off the computer, so the photos will have to wait till next week. sorry!)

lots of love :)
hna wright

March 19, 2012

so, i´m having camera issues and accidentally deleted some of the photos that i was going to send today....not too happy about that. for some reason my memory card is filling up with only like 6 pictures and a video on it and i don´t know how to fix it. any ideas?

anyway, hello familia and friends!

life is good! we are going to have a baptism this sunday! it´s seriously such a miracle. we found carlos (14) and john (10) through their grandparents who are less-active members that we visited regularly for about the first month that i was here in chile, but the grandparents weren´t progressing, so we had to stop visiting them as frequently. one of the times we were there though, we met their daughter maria (also a less-active member), and grandkids john and carlos (non-members), and we had a short lesson with them about the restoration and the book of mormon, and gave carlos a book of mormon to begin reading on his own. they were pretty receptive, but every time we went back to try and find them, they weren´t there! long story short, they showed up at church with their mom a couple weeks ago, and she wants to completely reactivate in the church and have her sons baptized! naturally, we were pretty excited to hear that! we´ve been teaching both of them pretty much every day since, and it´s so exciting to see not only carlos and john learn about the gospel, but also that their mom can have this opportunity to remember why she got baptized, and why it´s so important that she return to the church and be the faithful example that her family needs. this baptism is seriously SUCH a miracle, especially since it is the last chance hna miller and i will have to baptize together because cambios (changes - this word has become completely integrated into my vocab...it took me a second to realize that i should probably translate it just in case...haha) coming up on the 27th!! we´re not completely sure of what will happen with hna miller and i this cambio, but since i´ve finished my training it´s likely that i´ll stay here for at least another 6 weeks, and she´ll go to another sector. BUT, we never know. we get the call on saturday though so i´ll be able to write about it next week! it´s just so weird not to know where i´ll be living next week....that´s the mission for you!

i got to do an intercambio (divisions, splits? not really sure in english) this week with another hermana further south! it was a really great experience because i got to see how another hermana works and learn from her example. i also learned a valuable lesson while i was with her: BE BOLD! even though i was in an unfamiliar sector with a companion that i didn´t know all that well, i felt comfortable because i know that the message we´re sharing is true, and because i´ve learned a lot in the last 12 weeks about how to be an effective missionary, and i felt prepared to go out and teach and love and invite people to christ! overall i came away from the experience with a renewed motivation to make my presence known as a representative of christ and his church, because this is his time, i can´t waste it by being timid. as my training wraps up, i´ve had to take more of the initiative in pretty much all aspects of the companionship: in teaching, managing the phone, guiding us from appointment to appointment, making daily and weekly plans, and interacting with the members. so yeah, basically everything...haha. it was a little overwhelming to have to take a step up this week and take more of the initiative, but it really helped me rely on and my companion, but more importantly, on  the lord as a support, and realize that i really can do anything with his help.i may be one small little sister missionary wandering the streets of a tiny town in chile, but i carry with me a message that has changed the world, and that is changing the people that interact with on a daily basis. these chileans are depending on me, whether they know it or not! so although at times i feel a little overwhelmed and inadequate, i know that the lord is qualifying me more and more every day as i make my best effort to be obedient, diligent, and faithful, trusting in him completely.

oh, funny story real quick: we were walking down a small street of houses the other day with a member who had accompanied us to a visit, when we walked past a group of younger boys (pre-teenish) outside their house. my companion was talking to the member so she didn´t really hear, but they started shouting to us after we walked by, "HELLO!...YES! RED!" clearly, the expanse of their english vocabulary is a little less than impressive, but it was still really entertaining.

finally, since i´m a missionary and can´t end without a scripture, i was really hit this week by d&c 101:16
"therefore, let your hearts be comforted concerning zion; for all flesh is in mine hands; be still and know that i am god"

when times are crazy, when you´re stressed out, when you think you can´t do it, be still. trust in god and  his plan for you. you´re in you´re heavenly father´s hands.

love,
hermanita wright

March 12, 2012

our activity went a little long today, so i only have a few minutes left to write, and no time to attach photos :( but i will for sure next week. we were invited to another disco at a member´s house across the railroad tracks, and we ended up teaching a really great lesson about how god is our loving heavenly father, and it was super powerful because there was a young man who is going through some seriouss struggles, and we were able to pray together and bring him some comfort.

other than that, i have fleas. actually, i´ve had fleas for weeks. NOT a fun experience, but apparently it´s super common, at least among all of the sister missionaries. every time i see a dog scratching themself in the street now, i just say to them in spanish, "i feel your pain". it´s embarrassing, yes, but such is the life of a missionary...haha. actually, i´ve come to the point where pride really just has to go out the window. there´s no room for it in the mission, and really no room for it in life in general!

something i learned in my personal study this week (i´ve been reading the talk "beware of pride" by president ezra taft benson - it´s excellent!)
-pride is putting your will against god´s, hardening your heart and refusing (whether consciously or not)his guidance and direction
-some manifestations of pride:
--to compare yourself to another - distances us from being able to love others as god would want us to in order to be happy
--withholding gratitude or praise for others (denying the promptings of the spirit that)
--withholding forgiveness and justifying yourself in your actions
--defensiveness - withholding your heart, making it difficult for you to recognize and feel  the love of others, including the lord
-pride is UGLY, and overall just a waste of time and energy!
-love god, fear HIS judgement (not that of others), and do HIS will (not your own)!

these are only a few of the things that i felt were important to me, and i´m still not done with the talk becuase i´ve been studying all of the scriptures that he cites as well. i really want you all to search for the talk on www.lds .org and read it for yourself. i´ve really learned a lot about the need to be humble, and  recognized a lot of things within myself that i´m going to change becuase of the personal revelation i received while studying this talk.

yikes, time to go, but i´ll have more time next week to fill you in on more details of a day in the life of hna wright :)

¡me voy! (people say this to us all the time. it literally means "i´m going" so we´ll be talking to someone and they´ll just say in the middle of the conversation "yeah,í´m leaving" and walk away. it´s so funny, but super common! haha i love chileans. so honest...)

lots of love,
hna wright

March 5, 2012

photo explanations: (they were all from the two-ward activity we had on friday. it was a talent show, then tour of the chapel, wrapped up with a dessert contest. it was a HUGE success! except for the fact that we forgot to buy spoons or bowls, so we had to run out to a party store in the middle of the talent show to buy them so people would be able to actually EAT the postres (desserts)...haha sometimes the details slip through the cracks...)

sergio! we had a ward activity this week, and sergio came because he was leaving for college the next day and wanted to be able to say goodbye! it was SO nice to be able to see him and spend a little time with him activity, but SUPER sad when we finally had to say goodbye, not knowing if we´ll ever see him again...not the  funnest. but, overall i´m really happy that we got to know him in the first place, and the fact that he and hermana miller and i were able to become like family in such a short time, because we were always sharing about the gospel, the closest thing to our hearts.

denisse, one of the less-active recent converts that we´ve been visiting and helping to get back to church

me and a bunch of chileans...haha ok so technically my companion is gringa, but it really does look like a pic of me with all of my chilean friends! i love it.

a photo of the stage-to get a better idea of what the talent part looked like

the postres. yum. the elders made waffles with manjar (kind of a thick, caramel-like sauce that people always put on bread and things) and they were super popular cause people here never have waffles cause the machine is expensive. it was so funny because there were a ton of people there who had never had waffles before! and they say it like"wafflays" they´re so great haha (the waffles and the chileans!)

you guys, i´m such a missionary. every p-day i´m reminded how much i live and breath the gospel, because we take a break from our normal study/teaching schedule during the day to be able to take care of ourselves a little bit and prepare ourselves to work the rest of the week. but this means that i have one day a week to feel a little bit more like a "normal" person, and it´s so weird! i find that i´d be much more comfortable knocking on random people´s doors and pretty much inviting myself in to be able to teach them about christ. i can´t stop thinking about my investigators and how much i want to share with them the things i´m learning from the scriptures as i´ve studied for them. it´s not like the purpose of pday is to ignore your regular responsibilities, i just mean that having a different schedule that involves taking care of ME for a few hours has been more of an adjustment than i would have anticipated, because i just want to get out there and SERVE god´s children! man, being a missionary is so great.

other than the ward activity, nothing too exciting happened this week. we did travel up to concepcion for return and report with the mission president, which meant spending the night with 4 other hermanas the night before to be able to make it to the meeting on time in the morning, but the trip overall went really quick because the meeting itself was so short. it was nice to see president, as always, and i also got to see one of the elders from my district who is also in training further north in the mission. it was very reassuring to see a familiar face, and to know that things are going well for him in his sector.

i´m out of time for updates on daily life, but i did want to share with you something i learned this week. i was reading in the liahona from february, and i came across the talk "tender mercies of the lord" by elder bednar. IT IS SO GREAT! here´s a summary of the scriptures/quotes that stood out the most to me:
-juan 14:18, 21
"i will not leave you comfortless: i will come to you" - in the spanish translation, the word "comfortless" says  instead "orphaned" which i actually like better because it reminds us of our relationship with the father, that he is our parent and will never leave us
"he that loveth me shall be loved of my father, and i will love him, and will manifest myself unto him"
-elder bednar "one of the ways whereby the savior comes to each of s is through his abundant and tender mercies"
-salmos 145:9
"the lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works"
-elder bednar "tender mercies are the very personal and individual blessings, strength, protection, assurance, guidance, loving-kindness, consolation, support, and gifts which we receive from and because of and through the lord jesus christ. truly, the lord suits his mercies according to the conditions of the children of men"
-back to juan 14:21
"he that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me."
-doctrine and covenants 11:20
"behold, this is your work, to keep my commandments, yea, with all  your might, mind, and strength."
-elder bednar "the father´s work is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of his children (moses 1:39). our 2work is to keep his commandments with all of our heart, mind, and strength- and we thereby become chosen and, through the holy ghost, receive and recognize the tender mercies of the lord in our daily lives. may our hearts always be filled with the gratitude for his abundant and tender mercies."
-i love tender mercies! i can see that the lord has such a powerful influence in my life right now, and that he has his hand in everything i do. even in the moments when he is stretching and pulling me to help me change for the better, he´s always there, loving me unconditionally

out of time! love you all mucho mucho. so be good so we can all live in heaven together! haha i told you i´m totally a missionary...

-hermana wright