Walker's Week #93

Hey whats up so this week was pretty good. We taught more lessons this week than any other week in my time here. I was pretty happy, but no one came to church. So yep we´re not progressing that much, but still at least I´m not in the street looking for people that much.

So changes are this week. We don´t know who has changes until tomorrow and then changes are Wednesday. So they asked me to which airport I wanted to go to this week. So I asked if I could go to Vernal and they told me that I could. So I will be flying in to Vernal Utah, I think.

So Christmas is coming. They don´t really do anything for Christmas except eat tamales, and I don´t even like them that much.

So I really hope I don´t have changes.

Walker's Week #92

 

Hey whats up, this week was pretty good. We had two people come to church this week. (Q. Does anyone do anything for Thanksgiving there?) No, nobody does anything for Thanksgiving here, but they have Black Friday which is really just people buying stuff online from the states. I know at least two people that bought laptops. So my Thanksgiving was not the most exiting thing. So things are getting better in my area. The members at least notice us when were in church and if we tell them we are going to pass by they don´t give us days when they know they won´t be there. So we have been able to teach the members a little which is awesome, because if we´re teaching members we aren´t in the street. (Q. Do you know your release date yet?) But yeah I still don´t know the day when I'm going to leave but it should be around the 28th of February. They don´t tell us that stuff because they don´t want us thinking about it.

Walker's Week #91

 

Hey guys whats up so this week was pretty awesome. First off Tuesday we had a conference almost all day it was super awesome. Then Wednesday we went to the Temple. So guess what underwear is super cheap here. I can buy it for a dollar a piece which is allot better than the two to three dollars that it is there. Then it was a normal week from Thurday to Sunday. So in the Temple I did baptisms it was pretty sweet I liked it allot. So you guys know my bags are pretty much trashed and there is know way that I will be able to get home with them. I would really like to buy some knew ones so I can take some stuff home.

La Paz Zone Conference 13 Nov 2012

Mom, Dad and Family of Missionary,

This is Hermana Wilkinson - I want you to know how much we Love your son/daughter.  Each one is unique and individual and brings something special and so important to the San Jose Costa Rica mission. 

All of them are working so hard and are great missionaries for the Lord - you have every reason to be proud. 

Tuesday they were learning about working with members, helping members/investigators make and keep commitments, how to effectively Teach and setting Goals.   

Please remember to write, keep letters positive and uplifting.  

Pray for all the missionaries daily.  Pray for the people of Costa Rica that they will be prepared to hear the message the missionaries have and want to share with them - pray that the hearts of the members will be open - that they will help the missionaries find and teach.  That the Word of God will sink into investigators hearts and they will want to be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Please pray for the members who are not currently attending church that they will have the desire to return.

Everyone of them looked healthy and happy.  Most of them ate their vegetables (carrots) for lunch with Chips, Chocolate Chip/Oatmeal Cookies and Sloppy Joes.

We Thank you for raising such Amazing, Worthy, Hardworking, Honest, Happy and Teachable Sons / Daughters.  We have the BEST MISSIONARIES in the San Jose Costa Rica Mission and it is because of YOU!  Thank you 

We Love your Missionary -  we are Thankful everyday to be able to spend time with him / her here in Costa Rica.

With all our Love,

Hermana & President Wilkinson

Walker's Week #90

Hey guys whats up. So this week we were able to find some people that want to listen to us.

We have Katia, who about two years ago was listening to misioneros. She was reading and praying and stuff like that, but she found a job and she had to work a lot so they stopped visiting her. She is pretty cool.

Then there is Yorleni, she has a lot of problems with her kid. Last week he was arrested and he is only thirteen years old. He has a lot of friends that aren´t so good, but her daughter is super cool, she is studying English in the universidad and is trying to get a scholarship to go to study in the states.

Yea I´m pretty good. My comp too.Well talk to ya next week.

Walker's Week #89

Hey whats up, this week was good. So today we had a super big soccer game between my zone La Paz, and the other witch is Cartago. We won but I love playing because all the Latinos always get super mad when there losing. Actually when there winning to. I don´t understand they are just always mad.

So my companion is super awesome. So for Halloween we had to be in our houses at five.which just kind of sucked allot. Because I live in a house with my companion, so after like three hours we ran out of stuff to do. So I went to sleep and my companion was a little bit motivated and read the Book of Mormon.

Courtney's Home

Saterday October 27th 2012, Salt Lake City Airport

Walker's Week #88

Hey whats up, so this week was a lot better than some of the earlier weeks. So like four or five weeks ago they joined our ward with another so since then our attendance has been falling like crazy. So we have been visiting a whole lot of members telling them that they need to start reading and praying again.

So we have an investigator, his name is Mario, he has been going to church for like 4 or 5 months now but can't be baptized because he is living with someone. So he is super awesome. We were talking with him the other day and he asked us if he should keep on asking if the Book of Mormon is true. He told us that he had received his answer like three times and he didn't know if he should keep on asking.'

So it is still raining and I guess November is one of the worst months. Last week my companion got sick because we're always getting wet and its pretty cold here. Well not cold but Costa Rica cold. yep I'm going to die when I get home, cold dry air woot woot.

Courtney's Week #81, Final Letter!!

Bahhhh!!! Tan Loco! 

Well, guess what? I have a new companion. Cambios were today, but since my group "extended" for a week we also had some really crazy changes. I am now with Hermana Arias de Honduras. The craziest part is that she also goes home this week. We are closing my sector, which is a little sad. Instead of having four missionaries in the ward there will only be two after we leave. Hermana Hernandez was changed to another sector. So basically we have 5 days to close everything up, the house, the area book, and make a good transition for our investigators. Its kind of sad, but I also had a good idea that it was going to happen. This ward is actually pretty dangerous for sister missionaries, for example the other night there was a shooting really close to our apartment. So the most likely possibility is that they are going to put Elders here in a few months. So basically we are here just to close everything up the apartment, the area book, and make a good transition for our investiagors as well. 

It´s so crazy to think that I will be home soon. Bahh! So this last week I went to the temple with the missionaries that are leaving. There are only 9 of us--2 norte americanas, 3 norte americanos, y 4 latinas. It was really awesome. While I was there I just felt good, I was peaceful and  content for the work that I have done and I know that God feels that same way. 

Also, this last week we had our training meeting for life after the mission. President told us that we would not be able to spiritually progress more until we got married. So we learned about how to persuade someone to get married. Woot Woot!

Elder Bednar came on Saturday, I thought that we would be in the back because we got there only 45 minutes early, but it turns out that all of the sisters were supposed to sit in the front. And so I was on the 4th row. It was a little uncomfortable because there wasn´t actually room for all of us to sit we were wedged in there pretty tight, but it was worth it. Elder Bednar is pretty awesome. He and his wife are pretty strict, but but really funny at the same time. Elder Bednar told us that we have weak faith, but he told us how to change that--it was pretty awesome. I am glad I was able to be there. 

Veronica is doing great! She is pretty much our only investigator who is making progress. She was a little worried when she found out on Sunday that Hermana Hernandez and I are leaving, she told the other missionaries that she doesn´t want to be abandoned. Veronica is super excited for her baptism and is trying her best to have her kids to share with the missionaries as well. And it is working, her 19 year old daughter, Laura, joined us for one of our lessons and is now reading the book of mormon. I love teaching Veronica because she is so excited about the gospel. When we teach her there is a light in her eyes and she is so eager to learn more. She keeps all of her commitments and is loving it. She is going to be a great member of the church. She already has a few friends that she has made. 

This week is going to be absolutely crazy. Hermana Arias has to go the dentist before she leaves Chile, we have District Class, a "secret" going away party from the ward, Hermana Arias´s English certification test, Exit Interviews, and then we leave. Hermana Arias and the other latinas leave at like 6 in the morning on Friday, and I then I need to be in the Office at 4. So pretty much super crazy. But I am excited to see you all! 

Well, I will see you all this Saturday! Don´t be late, please! One of the sisters who went home a few months ago arrived at the airport and her family hadn´t gotten there yet, how sad is that? So I will expecting to see your bright smiling faces on Saturday!!! Love you all!

Hermana Evans

Mision Chile Santiago Norte

6 Abril 2011-27 Octubre 2012

Walker's Week #87

No letter yet

Courtney's Week #80

This week was awesome!!

Well, after four weeks without having a single investigator soul attend church...we had an investigator go to church!!! It was so awesome. Her name is Veronica. Veronica was a reference from the office. It turns out her boyfriend is an inactive member and he had an appointment with the missionaries; Veronica begged that she could come along. She received 2 lessons in the house of her boyfriend and then they passed the reference to us with the comment "Sure Baptism". When we passed by on Thursday she was so excited to have us in her house and to learn. She had already started to read the Book of Mormon and really really wanted to go to church. She even had plans to go to general conference last week, but her boyfriend forgot to make her a map to make her way to the stake center so she wasn´t able to go. We passed by on Saturday to make sure everything was good for Sunday and she had already looked up the address in mormon.org and lds.org. We had a member pass by to walk with her to the church at 9:30 and when the member arrived Veronica was already outside waiting. But guess what, it gets even better. So the classes yesterday were on Diezmo (tithing) in Gospel Principles and The word of Wisdom in Relief Society, but it didn´t even phase her, she was so excited and she even asked questions in Relief Society if a wheat substitute for coffee, Ecco, is okay (which it is). She is super excited. The other missionaries had a baptism yesterday and she even stayed for an extra hour and half to see the baptism. After the baptism she had a light in her eyes, she said "How awesome, it´s like how Jesus got baptized. My baptism wasn´t anything like that they just put a little bit of water on my forehead. But that was the real thing." I am so excited for her, just a little bit sad that I won´t be her for her baptism, but that´s okay.

Another milagro (miracle) that we had this week, we have had great success in reactivating an inactive member. His name is Guillermo Olivares, his whole family are members but they have been inactive for a long time. We passed by three weeks ago because one of the members told us to pass by because a few of the grand kids haven´t been baptized even though they are 9 or 10. When we got there Guillermo came to the gate, we asked if he was a member he said, "Yes, but inactive" We passed by in their house and taught him and his mom who is pretty old and withered. I asked Guillermo if he had any fond memories of when he went to church and he couldn´t think of any. We invited him to go to church and he told us that that week he couldn´t but the next week he would. We thought to ourselves, well okay, that pretty much means no, but nope, he really went to church. When we passed by again to talk to him he told us that when he was in the church he felt something, he also told us about how the night before he went to church he woke and he couldn´t breathe and so he woke up and started to pray, something that he hadn´t done in a long time and the feeling went away. He was really anxious to ask us about these two experiences, he was looking for reassurance that he wasn´t crazy and also he wanted to know what these feelings meant. I felt a little bit like Joseph in Egypt interpreting dreams, but it was so natural. We helped Guillermo recognize that the good feeling was the Spirit and the bad feeling was Satan trying to keep him from being happy. We also found out that since we had passed by he had quit smoking--we didn´t even know he smoked! He said that that simple visit that we made and that simple question about having fond memories made him realize that he didn´t have any and that that was something that he wanted to change. He went to church again this week and he also fasted for the first time in his whole life. He is really excited to continue as well. It is really cool to see the change in him in just a few short weeks, with very little effort on our part. The Spirit did it all! The church is true!

Well, I am excited to see you all soon! I have started to have panic attacks lately, like the ones that I used to have when I was in high school. I think it is just because I am starting to realize that my life is going to have an abrupt change very soon and I really have no idea what I am going to do next. You said it well mom, regroup. I have dedicated my whole self to the mission for so long that it really scares me to think that soon I will not be a servant of the Christ and that I will have to do things for myself again instead of relying completely on the Lord. But I until that point gets here, I am just going to have to rely on the Lord a little bit longer. I know that he will take care of me and take care of everything. 

Love you all!

Hermana Evans

PS. Elder Bednar is coming to Chile this Saturday! Woot Woot!

Walker's Week #86

Hey guys whats up, so I just played paintball its super awesome. So changes are next week, pretty sure that I'm not going to have changes. So I am district leader right and don't know if I told you but everyone in my district are sisters. So I have officially decided that I have no idea what to do with girls. But my companion is super awesome. I love Mexicans. I really have nothing to write I am so tired of doing nothing. I really need to find someone that I can teach. I feel like I don't have motivation to go and walk around in the rain when I have nothing to do. Just walk maybe knock a few doors. But nobody wants two soaked teenagers to go in there house. But I'm still trying. So good luck Courtney going home, chau

Courtney's Week #79

The Evans Family is...Called to Serve Him! Woot woot! Hunter David Evans are you ready? Mom and Dad are you ready for 4 consecutive years of missionaries? In this family we serve missions!!

Well, this week was pretty good. I loved general conference, but I was also really happy because this week we were able to teach a little bit more. We found lots of new investigators, but something that I thought was really weird is that almost every single one of the new investigators that we found this week had someone who had recently died. So we taught a lot about the plan of salvation this week. 

The downside about this week is that we still haven´t been able to get a single investigator to go to church. I haven´t been able to figure out why that is such a problem in this sector, but it is really starting to irritate me. Just come to church! 

Well, once again, I am out of time! 

I love you all!

Hermana Evans

Hey, so just a question, what time is church at? When am I going to be released? What time is Rebecca´s reception? Also, I would really like to go to the temple on the 27th, I feel that is where I need to be. 

Walker's Week #85

Hey guys whats up, so conference was pretty awesome. I hate watching them in español, it losses so much in the translation. So it is so much harder to get people to go to church when I was in Santa Ana everyone when they said they were going to go, went. Here they don´t. So my area is the smallest in all of Latin America cool huh. Well not really, I feel like there is nothing. But going to keep trying. So Courtney is going home thats cool I really am not teaching anyone yet. I´m trying to find someone but Idon´t know how.

Courtney's Week #78

Hola! 

Como están? Well, I don´t have a lot of time today because I really wanted to make little invitations and a map for General Conference. I really really want people to go, since I have been in this sector there hasn´t been a single investigator who has gone to church. Which pretty much rules out the possibility of having a baptism before I leave, but that´s okay, we´ll just set things up for the next missionaries who come. 

So yesterday was pretty cool, we have a new investigator that we found, she is pretty awesome. We taught her about how Joseph Smith was a prophet and how we have a prophet today as well, she was pretty impressed with that. So we took the opportunity to talk about General Conference and what a grand priviledge it is because we get to hear the words of the prophet as if Moses was talking. We invited her to pray and when she did she prayed that she would be able to go to conference so that she could meet the prophet and she was really excited. I think we may have forgotten to say that it is by way of satelite, but we will explain that later so that she isn´t actually expecting to meet him in person. 

Love you all!

Hermana Evans

Hey, tell Rebecca I am really sorry about missing her wedding, I was really hoping that I would be there, but I am glad that we will be there that night. 

Walker's Week #84

Walker did not write this week

Courtney's Week #77

Hola Familia!

Well, here I am in my new sector with my new companion. It is actually kind of a bummer to be training again. My new companion is great but she is also a little bit stubborn as well, but I guess I am as well so we will see how that goes. So my new sector isn´t really that far from where I was before, but it is extremely different. A couple weeks ago a lady was killed in my sector as she was just walking down the street. There are two gangs here that had a fight and she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Another thing that I thought was really weird is that there is a neighborhood full of communists-how weird is that? There are a ton of drugs here as well. It has been a great experience of listening to the spirit. There have been a few times this week when I cancelled our plans or when we took the long route to get to our appointments just because the Spirit has warned us of danger.

With this new sector and everything there are a lot of weird theories and things that I have never really had a problem with. For example, 7 different people have had sincere doubts about extra-terrestriales or aliens. One guy who I talked with yesterday had a firm belief that their were masters who come from the moon and that they are coming to prepare the earth to become a second moon and that afterwards is when Christ is going to come to the earth. 

Another man that I talked with yesterday had another theory that was really weird. He was really concerned because of all the wickedness in the world. So we started telling him about Prophets and how God has always called Prophets. He interrupted me and said, "You know what we lack these days, a couple, like Adam and Eve. Why don´t we have a great couple like them these days. The world needs a couple." It was really funny, after that he started talking about square watermelons. 

So we don´t really have investigators for right now. We found a girl called Melissa the other day and I wasn´t really excited for her. She talked to missionaries one day when she was lost and they helped her find her way. They passed us the referral. She has a lot of real intent. She is 16 years old and pretty much living in a house full of sin, but she was really really excited to go to church. When we passed by yesterday to bring her to church she wasn´t home. We were a little discouraged then last night she found us on the street and explained that she couldn´t go to church because she got really sick, went to the doctor and found out she was pregnant. It was really sad she is only 16 and her boyfriend is not exactly a winner, but hopefully the gospel can help her out a little bit. 

Hey, so something super awesome this week I found a random guy on the street wearing a Utah State Aggie game day shirt, how weird is that? It made my whole week. I went up and asked him if I could take a picture with him. He was absolutely tickled, but the sad news is that I forgot my adapter today, so you are going to have to wait until next week to see it. 

I got my travel plans, I told the office that they needed to let you guys know what was going on, so they should have sent you an email or something, but just in case I will forward them to you. 

Much love, 

Hermana Evans

Walker's Week #83

Hay guys whats up, this week was pretty good we started to find people. So this week they joined our ward with another ward that was kind of having a hard time. So they decided that we could help them out. So now we have a ward of about 150 people, which is super hard because I´m kind of used to the branches when everyone is happy if we get 90. So here I am trying to learn everybodys names. Which is not really the easiest thing in the world but I´ve started to find members that I can take to lessons and every thing so I think we´re doing better.

Courtney's Week #76

Hola!

So, I will not be flying to Vernal, I will be flying to Salt Lake, supposedly on the 27th of October. But I will talk to the Office and make sure that they send you something, at least an email or something. 

Hey, so guess what? I have emergency changes, but don´t worry. What happened is that in a different sector a convert fell in love with a misionera, actually it is one of my old companions Hermana Sampson. And so, well, today I am going to go replace Hermana Sampson and finish training her companion too. I was a little bit excited to have a rest from training, but I guess God has different plans for me. So I will be finishing the last 5 and half weeks training in a new sector. I am a little bit sad, Hermana Anderson is a super awesome companion so I am a little sad that I only had 1 week with her. Also the saddest part is that Guillermo is going to be baptized this Sunday and I won´t be able to be there for it. But, oh well, I guess it is just part of the mission--having my will swallowed up in the will of the Father. 

 

 

So a lof of the Chileans don´t really know how to smile or how to act in pictures, but this is Guillermo. 

On a brighter note, tomorrow is independence day in Chile. It is really cool because they dance and eat and celebrate for 5 days and it is really cool. It is also a little hard to find people to teach.

Hey, so we had a really cool experience this week. Guillermo, our investigator called me on Monday night and asked if we could come over to house to teach his son who was visiting for a couple of days. Unfortunately it was 11:00 at night and so we were already in our house for the night, but we passed by the next day. Guillermo was so excited. His son is 21-years old, he didn´t really have a lot of interest, he was mainly worried about missing the soccer game that would come on in half an hour, but it was really cool to watch Guillermo be so excited to share his testimony with his son. Before we had gotten there he had pretty much shared everything he had learned, the restoration, the Word of Wisdom, and also about baptism. It was a great experience and it warmed my heart a little bit to see how much Guillermo has grown and to see the testimony that he has acquired and is nourishing. 

Hey, Bridger, I am really sorry I forgot your birthday. I have been lamenting that all week. I love you lots, what did you do for your birthday party? I sent you an email to your other email. I hope you got it. 

Well, I love you all!

Hermana Evans

Grandma (Sonia y su nieta Antonella) who got baptized a few weeks ago, the one who had to wait until she was free from jail. She doesn´t really look like a criminal right?

Walker's Week #82

Hey whats up, So this week was okay, a whole lot of walking. My area is so small I can walk from one end to the other in 15 minutes. Which isn´t so cool because that means a lot less people. So, yeah, we don´t really have anyone that we´re teaching so looks like I´ll be starting over, again. My companion is Elder Blanquet. He is super awesome. He is from Mexico city, Mexico. He was in my last district so I already new him. Yep I am always making Mexican jokes which probably isn´t very good but at least I´m having fun. So in Mexico there are a lot of really bad words that are normal here. So I try to use those words as much as I can and when he tells me that I can´t use them I just tell him I didn´t know and keep on using them. He´s awesome. So Joe your car is super awesome but you already knew that. Well talk to you all next week.

Courtney's Week #75

Hola Familia!

Hey, so I am still not really sure, but it could be that my return date has changed again. Elder Bednar is going to come on the 20th, and so I think that they have changed our date to the 26th of October, but I am not really sure. The office is still trying to work things out. 

Second update, ¡CAMBIOS! So I didn´t change sector. I think I am going to be here in San Francisco for the rest of my mission which is great, I really love this sector, and I do not want to move my suitcases again until I have to go home. I don´t really mind changing sectors, but I hate moving my broken suitcases in the subway and the buses and walking as well, it is awful. This morning as I was carrying Hermana Ruiz´s suitcase down the stairs in the subway the handle broke and her suitcase went rolling down the stairs. 

Oh, so I forgot to tell you, so my new companion is Hermana Anderson from Draper, Utah. She has about 6 months in her mission and is full of energy. I am so excited, this change is going to be really great. We´re going to baptize the world!

Guess what, the Athelete´s foot cream is working! So it seems that I have Athelete´s armpit, but it is getting much better. Mom, you were inspired when you made me bring that stuff. 

So, just a few milagros (miracles) that happened this week. First off, I found out today that a family that I found and taught in Los Mares almost a year ago got baptized yesterday! The familia Ortega Cuevas. It makes me super happy. They are going to make great members. 

I am pretty sure that I have told you about Nestor y Karen. This week we had a super awesome lesson with them, we watched the movie from the church that is super old, Together Forever. Then we taught about how we could have eternal families, but it is only if we do our part here on earth. We found out that the only reason that they are not married is because Karen is already married, but they have already done all of the papers for the divorce and everything, but for some reason the government hasn´t approved the divorce. We talked about fasting and we fasted with them this weekend. In the end of the lesson Karen prayed for the first time in a group. She started crying during her prayer and Nestor cried too, and okay I´ll admit it I was a little teary as well. It was just one of those experiences when my heart was full.

Nestor y Karen y su hija

Also, Guillermo commited to live the Law of Chastity. He has already talked to his girlfriend about it and even though she doesn´t like it and doesn´t really believe him he is completely happy living the law of chastity now. He is now ready for baptism, he will be baptized on the 23rd of September. He has to wait until the 23rd just because he has to work this Sunday.

So there is a family in our ward called the Familia Peña, they are both return missionaries and have two young daughters. Well Sister Peña´s dad is from Uruguay and came to visit for a few months. He has shared with the missionaries before when he was in Uruguay and had a dream that he got baptized. So now he is here living with his daughter. His daughter told him that while he is here he is not going to smoke, drink, or drink coffee and he accepted. He has gone to church twice and he really likes it, it is really funny because when we teach him he says things like "If I change to this church, I need to start doing this..." and things like that. He is really funny, this week in Gospel Principles class the lesson was on Family Responsabilities, after the class he leaned over and asked, "And what to I have to do to get married again?" Then the teacher announced that next week´s class is on Eternal Marriage. We told him that he could find the answer to his question in the next class. 

 

Familia Peña y su papa de Uruaguay

Next week is indepence day, 18 de Septiembre. But because the Chileans have decided that it super lame to celebrate on a Tuesday, they have announced that September 15-19 are all holidays. How funny is that? But it should be super awesome. 

Love you all!

Hermana Evans

Walker's Week #81

Hey guys whats up. So I had changes, I completely agree with Courtney about how much it sucks to change houses, I really hope I'm in my last one. So I am now in Porvenir. I guess its the smallest area in Central America, yep I've walked all the way across it three times already and I only have one day here. So my compnion is elder Blanquet which is cool because I was his District Leader when I was in Santa Ana and now were campanions.

So other significnt news there was a huge earth quake here last week. It ws amazing, I've never felt anything like it.

Other news Elder Ballard, Elder Christofferson, and President Eyring came to Costa Rica and had a meeting with us. It was pretty cool, yeah I got to shake hands with them all woot woot. So this meeting was so secret that after changes we all had to get on a bus with our bags and everything. And went to a place that nobody knew about. After that we got off the bus and went in to a Chaple and waited. So it was super awesome but after they just kind of said well find your own ways home. So here I am in the middle of nowhere with my three suitcases that are broken and have to find my way home. 

Well tell you more about my area next week.

Courtney's Week #74

Hola!

Just a question before I get started, Hunter, who is Evangeline? 

And Yes Dad, I would be happy to talk on the 21st. Are we going to have a huge party the night before with lots of Chilean food or something? That would be really cool...hint hint. Hermana Wilcock will be there!

So just an update on my armpit, it is not that bad. It doesn´t really pus that much or anything. But it is getting bigger. The doctor for the mission couldn´t figure out what it is so he wants to send me to another dermatoligist to get a shave biopsy and a culture done. They can´t figure out if it is bacteria or fungus. But, the problem is the mission can´t find a dermatologist available until the 26th of September. That is a very long time away, but oh well. I did have a thought though. So last night I was sorting through the bag of medicines and stuff that I brought with me from Utah and I found Athlete´s foot cream. I have never used it and so it was still sealed and everything, but I thought to myself, if I have a fungus this is bound to help. So, now I am putting Athlete´s foot cream on my armpit--we will see what happens with that. 

So, this week has been pretty good, Guillermo did not get baptized yesterday. He had to work, but he is still struggling a little bit to have the faith to drop his girlfriend. But we have set a new goal for this week. 

So we have an investigator called Karen, she is really receptive. She is living with a return missionary, Nestor, who went inactive for a little bit, they have a six month old daughter and now Nestor is trying to put his life in back in order. The first time that we passed by Karen told us that she likes what she has seen of the church because she had noted that when they say their prayers together as a family that there is a big differnce. Well, that was a couple weeks ago, and this week we invited her to pray and we found out that she has never ever prayed before. She told us that when they pray as a family that Nestor always offers the prayer. We were so shocked and surprised and we also felt a little bit silly that we didn´t even realize that she had never ever prayed before. But we are excited so that she can open this communication with her Heavenly Father. 

This next week we are going to have cambios. I am a little sad, but a little bit relieved also. I love Hermana Ruiz and I have learned a lot from this experience of training her, but I am excited to have a companion that is not so emotionally and physically exhuasting for me. But it has been a fantastic experience and a great opportunity to learn and grow, and also to help Hermana Ruiz in the best way that I can. This last week she ate pepperoni pizza for the first time in her life. She has had a ton of "first times" here in Chile and it has been great to help her with that. 

Love you all!

Hermana Evans

Walker's Week #80

Hey guys whats up. So first off, I would really like Joes email address. So this week was pretty lame. It involved a whole lot of walking and looking for people to teach. So me and my companion were contacting a lot and my companion contacted three families in a row that said. "yeah you guys could pass by but we´re already saved so you would kind of be wasting you time". Crazy people that think that all you have to do is believe in Christ and you´ll be saved. It really isn´t that easy. So next week are changes I´m pretty sure I´m going to leave, its pretty sad but oh well. So my companion is Elder Brindies, he is from Mexico. He reminds me alot of some one that is in the amry. He is always so stiff  and serios. Which isn´t so awesome because it is really hard for me to be serios. But he is super awesome. Courtney did you know that you only have 49 days tell you go home how do you feel about that. Are you scared. anyways love you all chou

Courtney's Week #73

Well, just a few small notices that are super crazy to start off with.

My release date has been changed, instead of leaving October 22 I will be leaving October 18 and arriving on the 19th. Presidente has some sort of meeting the 22nd and so they had to change our release date. Crazy, I feel as though I am being jipped 5 days of the best experience of my life, but I do as I´m told. 

Second super crazy change, my first trainee, Hermana Wilcock is going home this week. She has been having serious problems with her back and has been going to therapy 3 times a week, but I guess President decided that it would be better for her to go home. It is really sad because she is an awesome missionary--much better than I am sometimes, but I guess it just goes to show that sometimes God has a different plan for us than what we have for ourselves. We´re going to get together and have lunch today before she leaves, it will be good to see her and just know that she is okay. 

So I have got a funny story for you guys. So as you all know I have really sensitive skin, and so somehow I developed an infection in my armpit--it is super gross and it hurts too. So anyways it developed over a month ago, but the medicine that the chilean doctor gave me didn´t work, so this last week the mission sent me to the gringo doctor for the mission and guess what...He took a picture of my armpit and said that he was going to send it to the general offices of the church! So dad if you see a picture of a really gross armpit in your email its probably mine. 

So more on the spiritual side of things. This week we have been working a lot with Guillermo, he has been progressing really fast and we are really excited for him, he should be ready to be baptized this Sunday, but there may be a little hang up with the Law of Chastity. Guillermo is married and has three kids but his family fell apart a few years ago, so now he lives alone, but has a girlfriend who visits on the weekends. 

So, the other day we were teaching the 10 commandments to Guillermo and we made it to the Sabbath Day. So we were talking about things that we should and shouldn´t do on the sabbath day. When we told him that it is against the commandments to go shopping on Sunday he pretty much died because right after church last week he went to buy everything for the week and he felt pretty bad about it. Then he asked a pretty funny question, but he was actually serious when he said it, dijó: (he said) "Also on the sabbath day the chastity is also important, right? You can´t sleep with a woman on Sunday, right?" It was probably the funniest interpretation of the 10 commandments that I have heard. When we explained what the Law of Chastity really meant he was a little troubled and told us, "Chiquillas (little girls), I am adultery-ing". We commited him to live the law of chastity, he told us that it was super difficult, but if it is a commandment from God that´s how it would be. It is also really funny because he now asks every male member that we have brought with us to the lessons since then "Do you live this Chastity thing? How do you do it?" It is really funny, but really cool because he is really humble and willing to repent. If he commits solidly to live the law of chastity this week he will be baptized September 2nd. 

Well, I am out of time. Love you all!

Hermana Evans

Su fecha de salir original es el 22 de Octubre, 2012. Parece que esta fecha cambiará porque hay un reunión de presidentes de misión que Presidente Essig tiene que asistir aquí en Santiago. Por eso, su fecha nueva de salir será el 18 de Octubre. Favor de avisar sus padres para que puedan planificar bien. Me avisa con cualquier pregunta. Gracias!

Your original release date is October 22, 2012. It seems like this date is going to change because of a mission president’s seminar that President Essig has to attend here in Santiago. This will pull back your release date to October 18. Please let your parents know so that you can all plan accordingly. With any questions let me know. Thanks!

Elder Beeson

Secretario Ejecutivo

Misión Chile Santiago Norte

Walker's Week #79

hey guys whats up so this week was pretty good first of all my dueños (Land Lords) came to church they are not members. But the problem is is that I want to change houses so we´ll see how that goes. So my companion is elder Brindies and is from Mexico. So I guess that the spanish isn´t very good here. There are a lot of times when we´re talking to some one and he just gets super affended. Yep actually super funny. So Mom you want a picture of me like what kind of picture do you want. So this last week in church we had so many people in church. my branch is growing so fast. We had 110 people in church this week. which is super awesome when I came here we had about 70 it is super awesome to see it grow. Sergio and Vanessa are still doing awesome they are reading every night which is super awesome he is almost in Mosiah so thats cool.

Courtney'sWeek #72

Hola!

Well, this week was pretty great. We have been working hard and we are starting to see the fruits of our labors. We still have been kind of low in the number of lessons we have been teaching, but we have been doing a ton of street contacting, knocking doors, and working with the members to get references. Things were still going a little slow unil sunday, we had an investigator come to church, Guillermo. We have been working with Guillermo for a few weeks but he hasn't been able to come to church because he has worked every sunday, but finally he came to church, he stayed for the 3 hours and even stayed after for the baptism that the elders had. The members were all really great about introducing themselves and everything. 

Oh, exciting news, so I already mentioned that the elders had a baptism this week. The lady who got baptized is old lady who is about 70 years old, she had to wait a few months before she got baptized because...she had to wait until she was off probation from jail. It was super funny actually because she a just a sweet grandma, but she says that she found God while she was in jail. When the elders found her she was still sleeping in the jailhouse, but she was released during the day for good behavior. Super funny, but she is now an active member of the ward and she loves reading the Book of Mormon. 

Another thing that happened to us this week. So this Sunday a guy approached us after Sacrament Meeting, I thought he was a member of the stake leadership or something when I first saw him and so I didn't ask him at first who he was, but he introduced himself said that he was reactivating himself and that his wife isn't a member and wants us to visit her. We went and visited them the same night. They are super awesome. They aren't actually married, but they just bought a house about a month ago, so they are brand new to the area. They have a 6 month old little girl and told us that they are trying to put their lives in order. His wife, Karen (that isn't actually his wife, yet), has never listened to the missionaries before but she believes that it is true because since she has been praying and watching movies of the church that her husband shows her she has noticed a change in her life. They are really really awesome and I am really excited to see their progress. 

Well, I love you all. Thanks for everything!

Hermana Evans

Oh, I got Sam's wedding invitation last Tuesday, Thanks!

Walker's Week #78

Hey guys whats up, so this last week we had a baptism. Her name is Darlin she is like thirteen years old, and her family has super big problems. So yeah she has a super strong testimony because she is always praying for her family. So this week it has been raining alot. Like alot alot, so yeah that normally isn´t a river. But the best part is is that when it rains it floods our house, so every night we come home and heve to clean up. So can you guys send me Joes e-mail adress thanks. Sorry I didn´t write much I tried to send a video but I couldn´t so yeah don´t have time, chou.

Courtney'sWeek #71

Hola Familia!

Thanks for the picture and for the email, that is so awesome. So I showed my companion the picture of you guys with President Uchtdorf, she was pretty impressed. She asked where you guys were in the foto, and guess what, it took me a while to find Hunter because I didn´t even recognize you, Looking good Hunter, but you are growing up too fast. Also my companion told me that my mom is beautiful. Yep yep. The only thing that she said about you dad is that you were going bald, but thats okay Dad, I think you´re still beautiful too. 

Thanks for showing my support for the bridal shower Mom, it was a great gift. Be sure to send photos this next week of Sam´s wedding. 

So, I´m not really sure exactly what the plans are still, but what I usually happens is something like this: I will be leaving Chile on the October 22nd, but because it is a very long trip I will be arriving in Utah on the 23rd. I think to the Salt Lake Airport, I wasn´t planning on having them fly me straight to Vernal, I guess I could, but probably just to Salt Lake. I would arrive at like 9 in the morning or something like that. 

Well, so this week was not that exciting. We were outside working, but we only taught 4 lessons to investigators this week. We had a lot of time just walking and talking to people in the street. My companion is still here and is doing a lot better, but we are still trying to work things out. We pretty much don´t really have investigators right now, but it seems as though my biggest investigator is my companion so I´m working really hard on that right now. 

Well, thats all for this week. I love you all!

Hermana Evans

Walker's Week #77

hey whats up, so this week was pretty cool, we found three new families to teach. So we were teaching this family that is super poor, they have dirt floors and that metal stuff that is on top of our cow shed for walls and roof its pretty bad. We were talking with them and I asked were they worked. He is working in constuction but not just that he is a boss there to. And she is working to. So I guess what he does is he works all week so he can go spend it all in beer on Saturday it was pretty sad. So other story, me and my companion were looking for a house that was in the mountains, so we walking on a dirt road and we see a car in the middle of no where. So I thought to my self thats pretty wierd and didn´t think anything of it. So when we were coming back down I looked a little closer because there was no reason for it to be there and there were two people having sex in it. It was a little akward.

Courtney's Week #70

Hola!

So this has been quite the week. My companion fell into depression this week really really bad. She has been having problems with her feet, so after a few long conversations with President Essig we decided to rest for a couple of days. Hermana Ruiz also talked to her family the same day and found out that her mom is sick and that her uncle is in the hospital. My companion started to show signs of depression and she started to complain about her back, we went to urgent care because it got to the point that she couldn´t sit. The doctors gave her an IV for the pain but said that there really isn´t anything wrong with her, she just had a muscle contraction and sent her home. Her mental state of depression was affecting her health. We went home I talked to her for a little bit and the she went to take a nap. After about an hour and a half she started bawling in her sleep and repeated over and over, "My mom misses me", "My mom misses me". I tried to wake her up, but she wouldn´t wake no matter how hard I tried. She just kept bawling and bawling. I called Hermana Essig, she said that my companion was giving into the depression and that I needed to get help and a blessing. I called the bishop and his wife from the ward where we are serving. After about half an hour we were able to get her to wake up. It was a little bit frightening. 

Anyways, so we went to the mission psychologist this morning. My companion is suffering for severe Seperation Anxiety. She was really really close to her mom, to the point that while she was at home she even slept in the same bed as her mom. Her mom did her hair for her and everything, so now she is suffering really bad from that. Basically how the mission psychologist described it that it is pretty much the same thing that happens with the nursery kids. When their mom leaves the room, they get really upset because they believe that their mom is gone and is never going to come back, and as much as you try to tell the nursery child that their mom is going to come back in an hour they don´t believe it. That is pretty much the same thing that is happening with my companion, a part of her seems to believe that she will never be able to see her mom again. 

So needless to say, this has been quite the week. I am not able to leave my companion alone without something to do, even while I am in the shower, until I can get all of the medications out of the apartment. The other day, I went to shower, but it turns out that we were out of gas so I got out of the shower, but I left the water running so that I could figure out the gas situation and I found her looking through my suitcase that has all of the medicines and stuff that I brought and that I have accumulated. When I asked her what she was looking for she acted guilty and just left the room. So now I am on suicide watch also. Crazy!

So on the bright side of things I think we may be very close to baptizing a Dry Mormon. He has been going to church for over a year now, but refuses to get baptized, but he has shown some really good progress this week. 

Well, thats about all that is going on here. Just doing my best to try to save my companion and her mission. It is not an easy task. 

Well, love you all!

Hermana Evans

Hey Dad, can you please update the blog. Uncle Joe complains to me every week. 

Good Luck with Youth conference, Shut Down, and Sam´s wedding. Be sure to send me a picture. Tell sam I am quite put out, I still haven´t recieved an invitation to the wedding. Actually I haven´t recieved any form of real mail in a while, but I think that may be due to the blog not being updated. 

Hey just a fact. The Chile Santiago temple is actually in shut down the next two weeks as well, how crazy is that!

Love you, 

Hermana Evans

Walker's Week #76

Hey family, whats up. So this week was pretty good. So there was a holiday this week, Virgin day, woot woot. I think that's something to do with Mary or something I don´t really know, but no one was working. But no one was in there houses either. I´m pretty sure its only on holidays that there are so many Catholics here. There not Catholics till there's a party. So I´m getting super tan and super white at the same time. Every wear that sees the sun every day is super tan and every were else is the whitest its ever been, but I got a pretty sweet Farmer's tan. So I don't got anything else to write, chou.

Courtney's Week #69

Happy Birthday Dad!

Well, things have been an adventure here. We have had a long week, or at least it seemed really long. We had urgent interviews with President this week because my companion told me that she was thinking about going home. It has been a tremendous struggle. Changes were today, but we didn´t change. President told me that I am doing a good job and that I am doing all that I can. He told me that after another six weeks I will have a break. I know that sounds bad but I am kind of wearing down emotionally and mentally. I thought that I was a pretty patient person before, but I am learning a new definition of the word patience. 

So anyways on the bright side, we had a miracle this week. Last monday we decided to knock an apartment building that was fairly close to our own apartment. We climbed to the top and the first door that we knocked let us in after just stating that we were missionaries. It was a lady of about 55 or something and just after she let us in she went off to the other room and returned promptly with a book in her hand saying "I have something I wanted to show you girls." I thought for sure that it was a bible and that we were in for a session of bible bashing, but now when she put the the book on the table guess what, it was a really old-style Book of Mormon. I was in awe. She took an old picture out of the pages and showed me the inscription on the back from an elder that taught this lady 27 years ago. The lady, Catalina is her name, told us that this elder visited her when she was pregnant and that she went to church quite a few times, but she never got baptized. But in the years since then, when she was sad or discouraged she would take up the book and read it and it helped her to feel better. WOW! We talked about the restoration and the importance that the Book of Mormon has. The spirit was super strong and she started to cry. It was super awesome. Just goes to show, as missionaries we are always planting seeds, even if it is to be harvested 27 years in the future. 

Well, that is about all that I have to say this week. I love you all, and hey, you should tell Rebecca that October is fine as long as it is after the 23rd. 

Love you, 

Hermana Evans

Waalker's Week #75

So first off happy birthday dad. So yes I did recieve my package a long time ago no worries ther . So my computer to day is probably going to be super small. Okay so today was changes and I din´t have changes but my companion did. My new companion is elder Brindis, he is from Mexico. Which is good because I have become really racist against people from Honduras. So sorry but I haven´t tried my card, I´m trying not to use it because I really don´t have money to spend. Thats cool you´re building a patio you know if you got really motivated you could maybe build a house. Just a thought though. So this week was very uneventful. So just so you guys know I am planning on doing the Demolition Derby next year. I really can´t think of anything to write and this computer is super slow so I´mjust going to stop now.

Courtney's Week #68

Hola!!!

Well, I guess the most exciting news. Yesterday we invited Juan Pablo y Helen to get married, and they said yes!!! I feel a little bit like a matchmaker or something, but I just felt so happy. We talked about baptism and invited Helen to be baptized, she said that she would like to get baptized so then we were like perfect, well in order to get baptized you guys have to get married. Will you get married? And they said yes! Okay, so it was a little bit more spiritual and based on the scriptures than that, but you get the point. 

Also this week we started teaching a guy named Guillermo, he lives alone so it is a little bit more difficult because we have to find members that are willing to go with us, but he is great. He is pretty much one of those people who was just waiting for the gospel, but didn't know it. He was going to go to church this week, but he had to work until 8 in the morning and so I think he couldn't manage to go to church at 10, but he really wanted to. 

So I wanted to tell you a little bit more about my companion Hermana Ruiz. She is from THE AMAZON!!!! How cool is that? She said that around where she lives the Indians go around without shirts--the men AND the women--and they paint themselves and everything. How crazy is that? Anyways, but something a little funny, I had to teach my companion how to use a computer and more unbelievable...the microwave. I saw her about two weeks after she got here just staring at the microwave, not knowing how to heat up her milk. It was pretty sad actually, I also felt bad because I didn't realize it sooner, but we're both learning I guess. 

I'm glad that you all are doing well, especially grandma. Send her my love!

Well, I have to go for today, but I love you all!!!

Hermana Evans

Walker's Week #74

Well first off we had another baptism this week, Dennis the husband of Magaly. I really never thought I would see him get baptised. I invited him every time I saw him after his wife got baptized. And his answer was always no, until last week in church. A returned missionary bore her testimony in church. He felt something and had to tell someone. So he waited all of church waiting until after when he could talk with our Branch President. So after church we were at his house to eat lunch, and when he showed up he started telling me how bad my lesson was in church that day and how I should have prayed more for help. I didn´t know I was teaching until like 30 seconds before. So after he told me how bad my lesson was. I asked him like normal when he was going to baptized, and he told us he had to talk to us about that. Saturday he had to work from 6 in the afternoon to 6 in the morning. he got home at like 7:30 showered and got ready for church he went to church from 9 to 12 had the baptism at three. But because we don´t have a chapel we have to catch two buses to get to where we do the baptisms. So we left took the first bus but missed the second one. So we found a way to pay a taxi. And we got there and no one was there. So we waited until my Branch President found keys. So it was like 4 when we finally got in. The Bishop decided to forget to fill up the font so another hour and a half waiting. So at like 6 we had the baptism. So many things went wrong that day but he really wanted to get baptized so we did it.

and there is also a picture of my shoes

Courtney's Week #67

 

¡Hola!

Well, how are things going up there? So things are going pretty well down here in Chile. So guess what I now have only 98 days left in my mission! They sent me my papers just checking all of my information so that they can book my flight home. Oh, I guess I should ask, Mom and Dad, would you like to come down to get me? If not, I will be coming home on October 23, leaving Chile on the 22nd. Crazy, right? This week I did a paper chain with 100 links representing the 100 days and each one has a motivational scripture about missionary work. So each day I can become refocused. Super Awesome.

So funny story, this week we had a conference with the Mission President. This time the psychiatrist for all the missionaries from Chile came to give a presentation about stress. It was a really good presentation actually and afterwards there was a time for questions. My companion raised her hand and asked, "Why would a grown person talk in their sleep?" It was really funny because my companion doesn´t talk in her sleep, but I talk quite a lot in my sleep and I guess it really seems to bother her. So as the psychiatrist started giving ways that you can try to minimize the amount of talking that you do in your sleep she just looked at me with a look that seemed to say "Are you listening?" or "Write this down and use it, I´m tired of hearing you talk in your sleep"

Anyways another thing that I found really funny. This week we found a mural on the wall in front of a catholic school that had a huge tree and underneath it said "The tree of life", I thought it was pretty funny. 

So more on the spiritual side of things, this week we had a whole family go to church. Their names are Juan Pablo, Helen, and their kids Martin (10), Rocio (7), Sarai (2), and Alfonso (8 months). It was so awesome. They arrived about 45 minutes late, but they came and they stayed for all the classes. It was so cool, I felt so warm and fuzzy inside. I think that what will bring them to church again is that Martin and Rocio loved the primary! 

Another miracle that we had this week, we have been teaching another super large family called the familia Martin, but we decided to drop them because they really weren´t progressing by themselves it was just when we right along side pushing and prodding. So we haven´t passed by for more than a week, but guess what, Catalina, who is 15, came to church yesterday, by herself! So anyways, we´re going to see if we can baptize her next week!

Well, I think that is all that I have for this week. We have to go to the mission office to make a phone call to Peru today, my companion hasn´t received any mail since she came to her mission so President told us to see if we can go track down her family and tell them to write. 

Love you all, 

Hermana Evans

PS. Mom, I love you!

Walker's Week #73

Hey guys whats up. So guess what this week we had interviews it was pretty intense, because I met my new Mission President. His name is President Wilkinson. I guess he is the person that invited Joe to go down to Texas. So he told me to tell him hi. So my Mission President is pretty much awesome. So this week was pretty awesome Dennis the husband of Magally decided that he wanted to get baptized this next Saturday, so we´ll see how that goes. I really, really like my area. The members are so awesome.

Courtney's Week #66

Hola!

So this week was pretty eventful, I guess the most exciting news is that this week I was sent to the emergency room in hospital. But calm down, here in Chile that is just what the use for anything that is super urgent. But it was pretty cool, I even got one of those wrist bands with my name and everything. It was kind of cool, it had my exact age. 22 years, 4 months, 6 days. Who knew?

Anyways so I guess I should tell you guys why I went to the hospital, I got bit by a dog on Wednesday. But not just any dog. It was one of the dogs on the street that is missing hair and has like welts and open-sores all over its body. He put a hole the the two pairs of wool tights that I had on and drew a little blood. It really wasn´t that bad, it would have been way worse if I wasn´t wearing so many layers of clothes. But because I had so many clothes on he couldn´t really get his teeth into my leg very well. So it turned out to be more of a bruise. But anyways, so I called the Mission President´s wife and they sent me to the hospital to get a rabies shot and for some reason the hospital also gave me a tetanus shot too, and gave me a perscription for antibiotics. And I have to go back four more times in the next few weeks to finish the series of rabies shots. Wow, all of that just from a dog bite! Whew!

 

 

So another thing that happened this week, my companion and I went to the zoo. Hermana Ruiz has never been to a zoo in her life, so last Monday, because it was a holiday (I´m not sure what we were celebrating, but oh well, everyone likes holidays, right), the zoo was open so we went. I was talking to my companion as we were on the way telling her all of the things that we were going to be able to see like hippopatamus, tiger, lion, and monkeys. She said "monkeys, who wants to see monkeys, in Peru people have monkeys for pets." And so, Hermana Ruiz was not very impressed with the wide selection of monkeys that the zoo had. Imagine, having a monkey as a pet! Also I thought it was funny that they have llamas in the zoo! They also had emus as well. 

 

Well, there were a lot of other things that happenned, but I ran out of time. 

Love you all!

Hermana Evans

Hermana Ruiz and the President and his wife

 

I paid two dollars for a taco with practically nothing in it!

Walker's Week #72

Hey guys whats up so this week was pretty eventful. My branch changed houses. The one we were in was way to small for us and they don´t want to build a chapel so the told us to find a new house and really I think this new house is way better than a chapel. But the best part is is that it is on a Coffee Plantation.

So Magali and her two kids went to the Temple to do baptisms for the dead this last week. I was pretty happy for that.

Nothing really happened here for the Forth of July which I thought was kind of weird because there are so many gringos here. But got to go chow.

Courtney's Week #65

 

Hola!

Well, this week has been super awesome. I have been working really really really hard this week on loving my companion and trying to find constructive ways to help her learn. It has been a little bit of a struggle but things are starting to progress. 

So this week was so awesome, oh, I already said that. But de verdad, it was full of ,miracles! So yesterday was the most awesome. So we are teaching this family called the Familia Martín. It is a super super big family that we have been teaching for a while, but the problem is that the adults that live in the house aren´t really commited, but there are lots of kids that live there too. Catalina (15), Javiera (14), Carolina (10), y Benjamin (8). Really the kids have a strong desire to get baptized but it is kind of hard since their parents don´t have that desire, but this week Catalina y Javiera went to church and they brought one of their cousins with them. It was super super awesome. 

Then a few hours later we were a little bit late for an appointment but for some reason I felt like we needed to pass by a few houses of old investigators that we had records of from like two years ago. There was one lady on our list called Bernarda, we went to the house and there were people leaving we talked to them and said that we were looking for Bernarda, they acted a little bit surprised, but went to go look for Bernarda. Bernarda came to the gate and she actually didn´t even live there, but she was visiting her daughter for a few hours because she just had her hair done in the salon accross the street. Bernarda just had heart surgery and is super ready to hear a message about God. My heart was full of gratitude, only God could have put so many circumstances like that together. 

So my companion had a really bad experience while trying to do our street contacts a couple days ago and it scared her a little bit and became super reluctant to do her contacts. So anyways, yesterday I encouraged her to talk with a lady in the street and this is mas o menos how the conversation went:

Hermana Ruiz: But they´re catholic.

Yo: It´s okay, our message is for everyone.

Very scared look from Hermana Ruiz, a nudge from me and she started talking to the lady. 

Hermana Ruiz: What´s your name?

Lady: Why do you want to know my name?

Hermana Ruiz: We´re missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Lady: Oh yeah. I´m a Jehovah´s Witness. 

Hermana Ruiz (very timidly): Our message is for everyone.

Lady: Yes I´ve studied a lot about your religion. You guys focus on the The Book of Mormon instead of the bible. But it says in Galations that anything that isn´t in the bible is maldito, so your religion and the book of mormon are maldito.

 

Note-I will let you guys translate the word maldito to English. But needless to say, Hermana Ruiz was dumbfounded and I was not exactly rejoicing.  

I started talking to the lady after trying my best not to be super defensive and angry which is how I felt, but in the end as it says in the Book of Mormon when the anti-christs tried to argue with the prophets, she was confounded in her words. Oh Yeah! That´s what happens when you argue with a representative of Jesus Christ, so I guess that´s a little cocky. But really it was a cool experience to see how God will put the correct words in your mouth if we are righteous and we have studied. 

Well, I am out of time. 

Love you all!

Hermana Evans

Walker's Week #71

So this week wasn´t so good, so we are teaching this awesome family (Guillermo and Angelica). They are so awesome but this week one of Guillermo's nephews died so they took off to Nicaragua. So this week we went up to some cross on top of a mountain. So of coarse I had to get to the top. Yeah I was the only one. And then we have a nice view of San Jose.

So it is freezing in here, I´m just going to go, adios.

Courtney's Week #64

Hola!

Well, how are things going. So my new trainee is...Hermana Ruiz. She is from Peru. This change there were 4 hermanas that arrived, 3 were from Peru and 1 from Nicoragua. I was kind of a little disappointed just because I haven´t really had the best luck with Latina compañeras during my mission. I think I must have just a very strong Gringa culture, so anyways it is definitely going to be a challenge trying to train poor Hermana Ruiz. I´m still working on trying to overcome the little things that don´t really matter but that kind of drive me crazy, for example she has a tendency to pet my tummy, especially right after meals and when we are taking photos. It kind of drives me crazy super fast, but anyways, just the little things that don´t really matter. 

So Hermana Ruiz is super super shy, so that has been a struggle, even though she already speaks the language I think that Hermana Ruiz will be 10 times more difficult than Hermana Wilcock. Poor Hermana Ruiz pretty much breaks out in tears every time I give her suggestions to improve. Bah! Well, no one said that things were going to be easy, right? I am sure that in the end, with muchisimo pacience, love, and help she will be a great missionary. But one thing that is super funny when we do street contacts if the person doesn´t stop instead of walking calmly beside them she kind of hops along sideways. It is really funny to watch and every time I just give thanks that at least she had the nerve to talk to someone. 

So Funny story, we had just finished the meeting for all the trainers and the new missionaries where we had just met our new companions and then everyone went down to the subway with all of the suitcases and everything to go to our individual sectors. So we got on and so did some other elders, well the door started to close and one of the brand new missionaries got stuck outside without his trainer. The elders tried prying open the door, but in the end the brand new missionary was left behind and the subway took off. It was so sad, the new missionary was pretty much in tears. There were other elders that didn´t make it on the train either and so they all just met back up in the next station, but it was super sad. His trainer didn´t even have his companion for 10 minutes and already lost him. 

Last week I was in intercambios while I was waiting for my companion to arrive and I taught a lesson with one of the other trainers in her sector. The investigators were kids and in the middle of the lesson they started to lose attention a little bit, so immediately I pulled out my nursery leader skills and had them put their hands on their head, on their shoulders, and then fold their arms. The other trainer was in shock, she was amazed at how well it worked and said she was definitely going to use that trick again. It was kind of funny to see how much I had learned in the nursery and how it helps me in my mission in funny ways. 

Well, that´s all for this week!

Love you all!

Hermana Evans

Walker's Week #70

Hey what's up, so this week was pretty uneventful. Just lots of rain. Saturday it rained a lot all day and the mountain started coming down on a members house. Well not really the mountain just a lot of water it was pretty sweet for me not so much for them, but I thought it was cool. So I tried to use my debit card the other day and it didn´t work so yea that was exciting. So my companion is from Honduras "go figure that one" he is pretty cool. He is kind of shy but we´re working on that. So I don´t really have anything to say so adios

Courtney's Week #63

Hola!

Well, so I guess I will start out with the cambios. Hermana Wilcock finished her training yesterday and today she was sent to a different part of the mission with a missionary from Argentina. She will be great! Training is difficult, I feel as though I learned so much in the last two changes. I have never cried with cambios of companions, but I sure cried today. Hermana Wilcock is so awesome, I am very grateful for the opportunity that I had to be with her and to be her trainer. 

So, may seem hard to believe after I just talked about how hard it was to train, but tomorrow I will recieve my new companion and I will be training again. I am kind of a little reluctant, but excited at the same time. 

A little funny story, I guess its not really that funny, but still. So the secretary in the office changed recently to a different Elder. I called this morning to find out who I would be with and where until my new companion arrives tomorrow and he told me that I would be with two other missionaries but in my own sector, so I went to the office to drop off Hermana Wilcock with her new companion and found out that the secretary didn't call the other missionaries at all. So the new plan I am going to Lampa to spend the night and I did not bring anything with me. So I will be using the same clothes tomorrow and everything and maybe sleeping in them as well. As far as hygiene products I haven't quite figured that part out yet. Oh well, it will be a great first impression for my new companion, right?

So now I really do have a funny story, this week we were walking in the part of our sector that is super countryish and this guy passed us in the street and was like "Hey, be careful of the wizards over there." It was probably the most random thing to say, but it was super funny. 

Other thing, this actually happened two weeks ago, but I forgot to tell you guys. So the member who usually conducts the music in Sacrament meeting was late to arrive, and so they asked me if I could do it. So here in Chile there aren't a whole lot of people who know how to play the piano, and so in a lot of wards what you do is the person who is conducting sings like the first line of the song so that everyone knows the tone and then everyone sings acapella. The opening song was "I know that my redeemer lives," but just like in English there are two different songs that start like that and they are on the same page. Well, being super excited because one of our investigators just showed up and not really paying attention, I gave the tone for the wrong song, and started everyone singing. People started singing the two different songs, it was pretty much a disaster. I had to stop the music and start over. It was pretty funny, but a little embarrassing too. 

Well, that's all I have for this week. I will let you guys know how things go with my new companion. I do not even know if it is a Latina or una Norte Americana, but I will know by tomorrow. Cuidense mucho!

Love you all!

Hermana Evans

Walkers's Week #69

Hey, whats up
So guess what I didn´t have changes, woot woot. And neither did my companion. This last week we had another baptism two of the kids of Magali. Their names are Jackson age of 16 and Dixon who is like 13. And their sister or the daughter of Magali wants to be baptized this Saturday. So we are trying and see if we can baptize the dad too.
So we are changing Mission Presidents. Our president pretty much told us good bye today. So today when we were all shaking his hand and telling him bye he shook my hand and told me I was doing a good job in Santa Ana. That is probably the best I have felt in all my mission. So I´m kind of late today because there was an accident on the highway. So its going to be kind of short, but good bye.

Courtney's Week #62

Well, this week was super awesome. But I guess before I get started I should probably let you guys know about what is going on with my neck. So my headaches have gotten super strong and so I talked to the Mission President's Wife about it. Turns out that they can't find a chiropractor here in Chile, But Hermana Eulitt one of the couple missionaries that fixes all the doctor appointments for the mission knows an old lady that used to have a little business type thing fixing people, but she retired a while ago. So they suggested that I give it a try. Well, the good news and the bad news is that the grandma didn't even pop my neck. That is good news because I'm am almost positive she is not licensed to do that. She had a lot of little diplomas on her wall, but I started reading them they were for things like cosmetology and things like that. The bad news is that I am positive that the vertebrates in my neck are the source of the problem. 

But funny story about that, so we went with the Hermana Eullit to this old lady's house. I told my companion ahead of time that there was no way she was going to leave me alone in some old lady's house. But when we got there the old lady wanted Hermana Eulitt to come in too because they are friends or something. Anyways so I told her about the problem that I have with headaches and how I treated it in the past and she was like "okay, well I like to treat things for the whole body because the whole body is connected, so lets get started, take off your clothes." I was like "what in the world--I do not want to take all my clothes off, that doesn't sound very fun." So then she was like "oh well it appears as though you have lots of layers on so I guess you can leave a few layers on" So in the end of things I had my garments, my black tights, my bra, and a long sleeve undershirt that I had on, but I still felt very naked, especially for a missionary. She gave me pretty much a full body massage which I feel was very much needed after over a year of walking and proselyting in a foreign country, but I am not really sure it did any good for my neck or my headaches. My companion told me she was well-tempted to take a picture as I was sitting there, the thing is the lady kept telling me to relax, how am I supposed to relax when I don't have very many clothes on?

Anyways, other news so my companion got a "Dear John letter" this week from her ex-boyfriend that she dated for five years, but she is actually okay with that. After discussing for a while she decided "I guess that is just God's way to show me a big sign that I have something else in store for me" it was pretty cool. But I have to say, her "Dear John" was about the worse that I have ever heard. It said in the very first line. "Well, I guess I will jump right to the point. I am engaged and getting married in August." But then after that he pretty much confessed that he was still in love with her. It was pathetic. 

Also this week, my companion through a little surprise celebration for my one year anniversary in Chile. Well, almost surprise, it is kind of hard to do anything surprise when you are together all of the time, but nonetheless it was still awesome, and I was a little bit surprised. 

So as far as missionary things, this week we focused a lot on helping our investigators to actually read The Book of Mormon, the result was pretty awesome, we would read with them for a little bit and afterwards they didn't want to stop reading. It was really cool to see also the change that it make in our investigators in their countenance and everything. The Book of Mormon is True!! It can change your life, just put forth the effort to read it! 

So we had interviews with President this week, it was actually a little weird because I didn't really have anything to say because everything is going great. Changes are next week though, I really really hope that we stay the same, I love my companion and this is a really awesome sector. 

Well, I am out of time. I love you all!

Hermana Evans