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.