Courtney's Week #29

First off, I really loved all of your emails for this week. It made me really happy. I can´t believe that Ethan is home already, I kind of just thought that while I was on my mission the world would just stand still until I got back, but apparently not. So before I forget, here is my address of the apartement where we live, it is called Las Torres Condominiums Travesia 6988 Pudahuel, Chile. Oh, and you can also look up the ward where I am assigned to on LDS.org, you just enter Los Mares Ward and it will come up with the our church and you can see my sector and everything. It won´t show you the boundaries so I will just tell you those. Left of the church there is a road called Tte. Cruz follow that down to the road Los Pajaritos (Gladys Marin Marie), follow that road to highway 68, follow that to the left until you hit a little street called Jorge Pratt, from there downward to Laguna Sur, then back to Tte. Cruz.

 

Well, that was a long description of how to find my sector, but I thought it was pretty cool. Now you guys can see where I walk every day.

 

Anyways, so this week was pretty good. President has changed the way that all the Hermanas do intercambios. Now there is only one companionship of Hermanas that does intercambios with all of the Hermanas in the mission. My old companion Hermana Martinez and the Hermana Aguilar are the ones doing them. Also the intercambios last 2 days instead of just one. So this week Hermana Martinez was here with me and Hermana Sampson and Hermana Hadlock left for another sector for a couple days. It was pretty good, mostly I am just really grateful that I had Hermana Martinez as a companion before, because I realized a lot of how I teach is from her and she is pretty awesome. She did tell me that my spanish has gotten a lot worse than since I was with her. Which makes me super super sad, because I have been trying so hard, but my both my companions know less spanish that I do, so my accent and my grammar and everything has gone downhill because I have been listening to their spanish all day. Ugh...I will just try to work even harder.

 

This week we dropped a few of our investigators. And harder than that we had a few of our investigators drop us. That was really hard for me, but you just have to remember that it wasn´t because of you that they didn´t recieve the gospel. We are here to invite people to come unto Christ, but not everyone is going to accept. It reminds me a lot of Conference, they talked a lot about how God wants to bless us, but we have to do our part first by obeying and asking for his help. If we are not obeying and asking we are in the same boat as our investigators, who are just not willing to accept the blessings that God wants for us.

 

Dropping investigators is so hard, because you really grow to care about the people you are teaching, but you just have to trust that God is preparing someone else who is actually ready to accept the gospel.

 

Oh so just a little memo, remember the story about the guy who put the towel over his head to pray? Last night we commited him and his wife to be baptized, and they accepted! It was actually really cool, because when we showed up they were completely different. They read the pamphlet of the restoration like three times and they had read the introduction and the testimonios in the front of the book of mormon. It was so cool. The gospel softens peoples hearts and changes them!!!

 

This week I am going to start forming a list of things that I would like you to send me. I know its really expensive to send boxes to Chile, so I haven´t wanted to ask for anything, but I´m really starting to need a few things. For example, they don´t sell razor heads here in Chile, so I have been using the same one since I left the MTC and it is starting to rust, gross, huh. Also, the Hermana in our ward that washes our clothes is really really good and getting them clean which is better than my other sectors where they come back dirtier than they left, but she really really likes our garments to be spot-free. So she lets them soak in bleach for like a day and then washes them, so needless to say, my garments are being eaten away by bleach. They have lost all of their elastic and they are pretty much transparent. Which is kind of nice now that it is hotter than hot, but I don´t think they are going to last much longer. We tryed using another Hermana in the ward for a week to wash our clothes, but somehow she found out and kind of got offended. So point of the story, I am going to need garments pretty soon. But this week I will make a list of all the things that I would like you to send so you can do it all in one package.

 

Family, I love you!! You are so awesome!

Hermana Evans

 

PS. Mom, good luck with your talk! Sorry I didn´t really put in anything super profound!

 

Also, my health is doing great right now! No se precupe!

Walker's Week #35

Okay, so first off, I started to eat again. I think I just had to get a break from the rice or something but yea. My poop is hard now and everything. So my area its called Cañas, it is the south half of the city of Cañas and anything that is within 14 kilometers it so yea. My companion is from El Salvador, he is pretty cool and thinks way to much, but I think I have gotten over that. So this week pretty much was not so cool. The gringo dude with the Latina wife decided they needed more time witch pretty much means no.

Oh so we are teaching this family, they have two kids. One is 4 and the other is four months. Okay so we are there teaching them and we ask them if they are married. They tell us no, just like every one else in this country. So I ask them if they would get married, and they told me they didn't want to. They have been living together for 7 years and they don't want to get married. So I asked them why not and they said that they were only living together for the kids. So I asked them what there plans were after there kids moved out, and guess what, they plan on going and finding someone else. Isn't that awesome. And guess what, that's okay here.

So other family, they have a kid that is 11. They have been living together for 13-14 years. And they don't want to get married because they are worried it will change their relationship. Every one is so afraid of commitment here.

So Courtney just to let you know underwear is super cheap here, like a dollar a piece. So do you ever go to the temple?

Oh and their is very little candy here. All they have is chocolate, which is by far not my favorite. My favorite varies between gummies, and taffy, Just in case you were wondering.

Oh so I am very much not sure about Halloween. They really don't celebrate anything here, okay that's a lie. They celebrate everything they can because its just an excuse to go drinking.

Courtney's Week #28

So, guess what! You know those cultural celebrations that they always show in between the sessions of general conference where all the people dance and the prophet comes and stuff like that, I was in one!! Here in Chile they have been planning a huge celebration to celebrate 50 years since the Chile Mission was created. It was so cool, it was in a huge soccer stadium in our mission and all the missionaries from the missions Santiago West, Santiago East, and Viña del Mar and then of course my mission too. It was so cool and the whole stadium was full of people and like the whole historical department from SLC was there, which I thought was funny because they didn´t speak Spanish. They did a whole bunch of dances from the culture here and everything, it was so cool. The only downside was that the prophet didn´t come. All the Chileans were pretty bumbed about that. But as missionaries we had a part in the program and everything.

 

So my companion's and I are still trying to adjust to the whole trio thing. I wasn´t happy about the whole trio thing in the first place, but then President called the day after cambios and asked if I would be willing to serve as senior companion so after that I kind of had to change my attitude about things and try to pull our companionship together. Hermana Hadlock is kind of having a hard time, I feel so bad for her, but it has been pretty hard on her to be in a trio too, she started to withdraw almost completely, but now we are working on that too. But yeah, how cool is that, Hermana Sampson is Stephanie McKeachnie´s cousin, how weird.

 

One thing that I have really noticed this last week is that the Lord really is helping me with my Spanish. For a while now I have been able to understand pretty much everything, even the people who talk super fast, and I can also say pretty much everything I want as well, but I was having serious problems with the accent. A lot of people had a really hard time understanding me. Especially because of my ´r´s. They roll all of their r´s and they also have double ´r´ that you are supposed to roll even more and I had pretty much come to the conclusion that my tongue was just not made to roll, but I have noticed lately more and more than I can do it, but its really weird because its like I don´t feel that I am actually doing the talking; I feel as though Heavenly Father is helping my silly tongue. It´s been pretty cool.

 

Well, I am out of time for this week, but I love you all.

Walker's Week #34

So this week was okay. First I was super excited this morning because we were going to go to the zoo. Mainly cause I have never been. But then it looked like it was going to rain, as in there were clouds in the sky, and my companion didn't want to go because he would get wet and sick. So I told him it didn't matter because we walk around in the rain wet all day every day. Its very normal but he still didn't want to go. So the plan he came up with was to go to the church and watch movies, but the only movies we can watch are the ones by the church witch are the Joseph Smith one Legacy and I think one more. I am not so thrilled but oh well. So this week was pretty cool we have this super awesome river in our area with a little rope bridge going over it its super cool. So my area is super big and it sucks because there aren't buses so we have to walk every where. We probably spend about 6 or 7 hours a day just walking. so yea but I love it here we are really close to Nicaragua so there are a lot of people here that talk funny

So the one picture is of my last church and the other is about how much rice i eat every meal.

Oh so I think I have something in my stomach. I can only eat like three bites before i can't eat any more so I am going to go poop in a cup today and see whats up.

Courtney's Week #27

Hola Familia!

 

Well, I guess the first news is, that we had cambios (transfers) again, and for the first time I did not switch sectors or companion, we just had an addition. Hermana Hadlock and I are now with Hermana Sampson. She got here six weeks after I did and just finished her training. So here we are, tres gringas (three Americans). I don´t know why, but President has started doing like a segregation in the mission. All of the latinos are together and all of the norte americanos are together with very few exceptions. How are we ever supposed to learn Spanish? Oh well, hopefully things will go well, I am not exactly thrilled about being in a trio, it was hard enough in the MTC, but I´ve decided that we are going to make the best of the situation.

 

Oh, so this week was actually the primary program for my ward here in Chile. It was pretty good, there are a lot less primary children so all of the kids had fairly big parts. But for the program they went all out, they made little trinkets for the whole ward and all the kids were even dressed the same. It was quite the ordeal.

 

So, miracle of the week. We have an investigator that came to church!! We only taught her about the restoration the night before and invited her to church. She told us that she was lazy, but to write down the direction of the church. We left her house at about 9 o´clock in the night and she said that it would be a miracle if she went. We were a little bit insistent and told her that we were going to pray for a miracle then, she laughed but still wouldn´t commit to go. Which for latinos pretty much means definitely not. But guess what we turned around after Sacrament meeting and there she was, in one of the back rows comfortably seated with one of the counselors of the Relief Society who she had briefly met before because they are neighbors. She told us she was going to leave to go eat lunch but that she liked Sacrament Meeting. We were really happy that she even came and went to our class. Two minutes later the Relief Society counselor herded her into the Gospel Principles class. She had gone and found our investigator and committed her to stay. I Love this Ward!! Anyways, our investigator, Cynthia, had read the chapter that we gave her, but also read all of the scriptures in the back of the restoration pamphlet and took notes. It was just so awesome.

 

I am really content to be able to stay here for another cambio. Our investigators are just starting to progress and it makes me so happy. I just hope that everything continues to go well! Things are going to be quite cozy in our little apartment with three people, and I also think its really intimidating and awkward for people to have three people, but hopefully all will go well.

 

Well, family, I love you!!

Hermana Evans

Walker's Week #33

Hey you guys whats up, so guess what, I had changes and guess where I am, Guanacaste. Yep I´m in Cañas. So you might have noticed that I am writing you on the wrong day this week. This is because of a few problems. So I had changes yesterday woot woot. Actually I didn't want changes but oh well. I loved my last area. So I found out I was going to Cañas, okay no problem right 4 hour bus ride, and we're there right. Nope I was wrong. We left at 12:45 and got here at 6:30 want to know why, because it had rained so much that the road had fallen. So after the bus finally decided to go four wheeling through it (I love buses here) we were off again, but guess what else happened they were fixing a bridge. Yep so six hours in a bus raining the whole way. woot woot. So my new area is super hot. luckily it is the rainy season so I'm soaked all the time in stead of dying, yep. Oh so in this area we have a family that the dude doesn't speak Spanish and the girl doesn't speak Ingles. I have no idea how they work, but they have been married for 6 years, well been together for 6 years, but we will see how that goes. Oh so I baptized a family last Saturday it was super cool. I guess he has been going to church for like 5 years but didn't want to read the Book of Mormon or be baptized. So one day his wife came up to us and said that he had read a ton because she is a member. Yep that was super sweet and guess what I get to go to the Templo con ellos (with them).
But got to go adios

Courtney's Week #26

I´m so happy that you all went on a picnic this week. That sounds like a lot of fun, even without bread. Mom, I hope you are doing okay. I love you!

 

So the way conference works here is that everyone has to go to the Stake Centers, because I´m pretty sure only the stake centers have the technology to receive the satellite transmission. It starts at 1 here, and I kind of lost track of the time difference, so I am not sure if that is live or not, I´m pretty sure not because it was already translated into Spanish at that time. All of the norte americano missionaries in our stake watched conference on the second floor in English, which I was very grateful for. A lot of the emotion and effectiveness of the messages gets lost in translation in my opinion, and so I was very grateful for the opportunity to watch the sessions in English. They also retransmitted the General Relief Society meeting Saturday morning so that was pretty cool, Mom if you did not go to the Relief Society you missed out, you should definitely look up Pres. Uchtdorf´s talk.

 

This week we had interviews with President Essig. I was really grateful for my interview. Sometimes I feel like I am working so hard but nothing is happening, I was starting to feel discouraged. But it felt really good to be told that I am a great missionary, and though even though sometimes I don´t feel like I am making much difference at least God knows I am trying my very best. He also told me that I am doing exceptionally well with the situation that I have been given. I am just really grateful because I think I just needed words of affirmation.

 

On that same topic, so one of the changes that President has made to the mission is that our districts are bigger, instead of just having 2 companionship's in a district there are 4 companionship's. This would be fine, but there were also rumors in the mission that the District leaders should only call the Hermanas in their district twice a week to see how they are doing. Also, my District Leader is one of the Elders who seems to be afraid to have any association with the Hermanas. I felt like I could have died in the mission and no one would even know for like a week and a half. Anyways, I mentioned this while just casually talking to Hermana Essig, the mission presidents wife, and a group of Elders who were also waiting for their interviews with president, including the zone leaders. Since that conversation our District Leader has been calling us every night. I didn´t mean to cause more work or trouble for our poor District Leader who is trying his very best to keep track of 4 different companionship's, but it does make me feel better knowing that if I died it might at lease raise a little bit of suspicion.

 

One thing that really stuck out to me during conference is the importance of asking for the help of the Lord. This was the message that I kept hearing during conference. God loves us and wants to bless us, but he can not bless us until we ask for his help. One thing that I noticed is that a lot of the messages had silly stories of things that they asked for, and I always kind of thought that sometimes these small answers to prayer are just small coincidences, and perhaps they are, but that does not mean that we shouldn´t ask for all the little small things that we desire in our lives. God loves us and wants to bless us.

 

This is something that I have really been thinking a lot about lately. We have an investigator named Abraham who does not like to pray because he doesn´t like to trouble God with all his problems. He feels unworthy to receive blessings because he feels that there are other people who need the blessings so much more. We have been working really hard with him to be able to understand why we pray. One thing that I really like from the Bible Dictionary on Prayer says that when we understand that God is literally our Father prayer becomes natural. This is so true, when we fully comprehend that we are sons and daughters of Heavenly Father we will have a natural desire to talk to him and to ask him for the true desires of our heart. God loves us and wants to bless us, but sometimes he is just waiting for us to ask him for his help.

 

Well that is all for this week, I love and miss you all.

Hermana Evans

Walker's Week #32

Hello people

 

So the way conference is here is about the same as Courtney except the Stake Center is a half hour bus ride from where I live and about 45 minutes from where my Branch is so it was hard. On Saturday we went and maybe saw 5 people from my branch. but after the Priesthood Session we got a ride back to our house in the only car that is in our Branch. It was cool, it's a truck about the size of the little Toyota that did have a back seat. we fit five people in. So that was Saturday. On Sunday the first session we had in our Chapel. The Branch President hooked it up to his computer. So there were like 30 people that watched that one. Then the second one we watched at my Branch Presidents house. Yep conference is very hard to watch here and nobody is really even expected to watch it. But in the stake center there is a English room so I saw Saturday in English. Sunday I will say that I am not sure if I got the message.

 

Anyway this week was pretty good, I think we will have another baptism this next week. So we will hope for that. He has been investigating the Church for about 5 years. He was having a huge problem with the Book of Mormon. He loved every thing else except so this week on Tuesday he started reading and now he is in Mosiah. Yep he´s awesome. Yep that's about all that has happened. So adios love you all