Courtney's Week #60

Hola!

Gustavo Garces (10) 

Se bautizó 27 Mayo, 2012

 

So I have lots of things to say this week. First of all, yesterday we had a baptism!! It was pretty cool how we got to that point though. Gustavo is the son of an inactive member. His mom, Alicia, was baptized when she was 16, but kind of fell away from the church for about 20 years, but she still has nice memories of the church but also had a lot of Catholic ideas about the purpose of baptism. On Thursday we had our weekly planning, and as we were planning we decided that Gustavo needed to have more time before he was baptized so that his mom could understand a little bit better the importance of staying in the church after baptism. So we were going to change the date for July 1. So we decided to go talk to Alicia y Gustavo to change the date. But as we were teaching we asked a lot of questions, and the more we listened to her answers the more we felt like Gustavo needed to get baptized THIS WEEK! So on Friday we decided that we were going to have the baptism Sunday. It was super cool and I know that Gustavo was ready. It was also really cool because Gustavo´s older brother came to his baptism, we had never even met him before, but maybe in a few weeks we can baptize him too. 

 

 

So funny story, it rained for three days straight this week so I have had lots of opportunities to use my super awesome trench coat. So anyways yesterday we left the house to start working for the day. Well when we got to the house of an investigator I bent down to get something that was on the ground and I realized that my skirt was tucked into the 3 pairs of tights that I had on. It was just a good thing that I had my trench coat on so it wasn´t as noticeable, but it was pretty embarrassing. 

Hey, so I got the package that you guys sent, thank you so much! You guys are awesome. 

So now I have a really sad story. Last week we found a super super awesome family. I thought for sure that they were golden and that we would be baptizing them in just a few weeks, but they weren´t home for their appointment the next day and then just a few days afterwards we saw the Jehovah´s Witnesses leaving their house. And then again just yesterday. We passed by to visit them and they were full of excuses as to how busy they were. It was really heartbreaking because they were so awesome. But everyone has the chance to choose for themself. 

Well, I am out of time for today. I hope you guys enjoy the pictures!

 

A saint bernard that we found eating his owner´s water bill.

 

We went to a restaurant and on the menu there was an option that said 2 hamburgers, and it was a really cheap price, my companion decided to get it, but when they said two hamburgers they really meant two hamburger pattys without the actual burger. 

This rice dish is what we lived on for a little while when we didn´t have any money and we our lunch appointment fell through

 

 

Love you all!

Hermana Evans

Walker's Week #66

Hey guys whats up, this week was pretty much amazing. I pretty much love my area. Here when people say there going to do something they actually do it. Its amazing. We had two families come to church this week. We are teaching one family, Henry and Heidy and there kids. They go to church now all by themselves. And probably will be baptized this week, which is awesome. Yep, we also have another person, Magali that will be baptized this week. So pretty much I only have one week until we change Mission Presidents. I'm not really sure how I feel about this but oh well its going to happen no matter what. So I have another family that we're teaching and he is trying to stop drinking, his name is Guillermo. He's pretty awesome. They are the friend of another investigator. She was talking about how she loves when we come and visit so they asked if we could go over there too. So yep its awesome.
Oh, so tell Joe that I am still receiving his emails and I like getting them.

Courtney's Week #59

 

 

Well, I have good news for everyone! We all survived el 20 de Mayo! There was a huge scare here about how the world was going to end or at least there was going to be a huge earthquake, but there was absolutely nothing that happened. I think in about every one of the lessons that we taught in the last few weeks they all asked about May 20th and what was our opinion about what was going to happen. It was a little bit ridiculous how scared everyone was. But, it did motivate my companion and I to put together our 72 hour kits that we are supposed to have. 

So everything is going well here in San Francisco, it is so funny to think that my ward is called San Francisco, but just so that you guys understand where the name came from--here in South America the Catholic church had a lot a lot of influence over the government and stuff like that for a very very long time, and so usually in just about every sector that I have seen there are usually about 12-15 streets with the names of all of the saints or santos from the Catholic church. So our church meetinghouse is located on a street called San Francisco, Saint Francis. Pretty cool, right?

So as far as the Obra Misional, things are going pretty well right now, this sector is a lot different from other sectors I have had because it is a little bit richer, but not really, it just means that everyone has bigger houses and they have to work a lot more to pay for their bigger houses. Then in reality they are never in their bigger houses. So point of the story, almost all of our appointments are from 8 pm - 10 pm. So it is like 2 hours of super awesome lessons after a day full of just searching for people to teach. But we should have a baptism this week of the son of an inactive member. So that will be really great. 

So I have some super awesome pictures to send you guys. Last week for Preparation day we went to the Catholic Cathedral in Santiago it was super awesome, it was a little bit sad though to see all of the little confession stands that lined the walls though. Well, love you all! 

Hermana Evans!

 

 

Walker's Week #65

So as you can see today is Wednesday which means my p-day got changed again because we went to the Temple, woot take that Courtney!!! Yep so that was awesome. Monday we had interviews and my President pretty much told me that I didn´t know how to plan. So that was pretty intense. Actually that's a pretty good story I´ll tell you it. So pretty much I hate planning. So we have planners that we use as missionaries and mine is pretty much empty. So during these interviews President asked me if he could see my planner. So I gave it to him and he looked at every single one of the pages. Then afterward she asked me what I wanted to do after the mission. So I told him I wanted to study Mechanical Engineering. Then he asked me where I wanted to work so I told him I had no idea. He asked me if I wanted to have a lot of money, I told him it wouldn´t be bad. Then he said, "Elder Evans professionals make money because professionals know how to plan and you do not know how to plan." Then he asked me, "Elder Evans will you start actually planning." So I thought about it for a minute and finally said I guess I could. Then he told me, "are you sure because I don't believe you." So I told him yes again. So pretty much I have to start actually planning at least until we change Mission Presidents, so for about a month. It really sucks.

But I have a family that might get baptized this week, they are not sure still.... but we are trying. They are so ready they just don't have the motivation. So yeah hopefully that will happen if not this week then the next. But I have to go, so yep, bye

Courtney's Week #58

 

¡HOLA!

 

Well, it was fantastic to be able to talk to you guys yesterday, although it was so frustrating that I can´t even talk English anymore. So it made me so happy that as soon as I signed on to the computer you guys were there and ready everybody all gathered together and everything, it just about broke my heart to tell you guys that we had to wait for my companion to go first. You guys are so awesome, I´m going to print off the picture I took of you guys and put it in my scriptures so that I can have an updated one of you guys.

 

So this week was my first week in San Francisco, when we got to the apartment it was absolutely covered in dust because no one had been living there for 5 months. But guess what, I finally figured out why in the pictures of the olden times and everything why they put sheets over all the furniture and stuff when they leave to go to a different house--everything totally gets stained by the dust. Our whole apartment is literally stained from all the dust that built up on it. During the time that no one lived there they had the windows open, and they are doing construction just in front of the house and so there was a lot of dirt and stuff that got let in.

 

It has been really nice to be in a ward that functions a little bit better. Our new ward has an average church attendance of about 120, which a whole lot bigger than the 50 that we had in Primer Crucero. Then again I guess it also helps that there are 7 missionaries in the ward, that will pop the church attendance up by seven, thats like the whole Evans Family!

 

So funny story, there is a new rule about how the Elders and the Hermanas can´t eat lunch together anymore because of some problems that came up recently in the mission. And so usually for lunch the 5 elders eat at the same house and then we will eat in a different house. But it is really funny because yesterday we were at the bishops house to call you guys and they were trying to figure out what they could have for dinner, the elders were there for lunch and ate pretty much everything in the house and so they didn´t have anything left for dinner. I think it is probably a lot easier to feed 2 sister missionaries than 5 Elders, hopefully we can use that to our advantage and get some super tasty meals.

 

So we have an investigator who we are teaching called Gustavo. He is a little boy of 10 years. His mom is an inactive member, but has got it stuck in her head that if her son doesn´t get baptized he is going to go to hell, which I guess is true more or less, but she gets really panicky about it and she has got her poor Gustavo scared into getting baptized. The worst part of the whole situation is that they are so focused on that part that is really hard to teach anything hopeful. We really want to make sure that he gets baptized to stay in the church not just to save his soul type thing, but it is really hard to keep his mom peaceful. But I will let you guys know how that goes.

 

Well, I love you all!

Hermana Evans

Walker's Week #64

Hey whats up, 

So it was pretty nice to talk to you guys. I really don´t have that much to say because really I talked to you guys yesterday but just so you all know I would like a recent picture of the family as in not when I was home.

 

So yeah hers a picture of me in front of the national stadion

Courtney's Week #57

So, today is cambios and well, I left Los Andes. My trainee and I left together and we are now in the outskirts of Santiago really close to where I was the last time I was in Santiago. In our sector in Los
Andes there are now Elderes instead of Hermanas. So just a little bit about our new sector, it is brand spanking new, before there were two sets of missionaries in this ward, but now there are 3 and we are the
third. The house that we are in has been empty for about 5 months so it is a little bit dirty to say the least. But we found out that the Bishop lives in the apartment building right next door, so hopefully we can figure out what is going on. Right now I am not even sure if we can find our way back to the apartment. We found some Elderes here in the internet ciber and they told us they we are super far away from our sector, but oh well, its and an adventure.

Oh, also, we totally had a baptism Saturday! Sergio Covarrubias, he is actually the 1 counselors son, but the family have had several things that have happened this last year and they kind went a little bit inactive, so we tracked them down, found out that Sergio is now 9 years old and not baptized, so we taught him all the lessons, re-activated the family and baptized little Sergito. It was so awesome. Sergio is a lot like Sawyer. The whole time we were teaching him I thought a lot about sawyer. He is really smart and I love the way he came up with really random questions that were really deep concerns that he had about gospel. It was super cool.

So we also had an excellent ward activity last night. It was all planned by us and it went really well. There weren´t very many members that came, but it was still super awesome. It was so hard to say goodbye to the members there.

Well, I think I am going to try to send some pictures, but I love you all!
Hermana Evans

Just in case you can´t tell, we are spelling "Los Andes"

Picture of when we climbed the Cerro de la Virgen a few weeks ago. Los Andes is so Awesome!

 

Walker's Week #63

Hello everybody, whats up. So last Monday was the Leaders Meeting so I got changed I am now in a place called Santa Ana. Its right next door to Escasu or where all the Gringos are. It is the most like the states that it gets here. So us being buy there means that every thing is really really expensive. But the areas in my district are very very spread out. They are Ciudad Colon and Puriscal. So if you want to google. I´m not really sure if my ward is really awesome or just so much better than my other wards. So because my area is super rich almost half the people in my ward have cars which is awesome because its very spread out.

So the other day it rained hard, like really hard so our house leaks so we had to pick every thing up that can´t get wet and put it on something because our house was pretty much a lake, but also it rained so hard yesterday that it took out the bridge by our house so we coudn´t leave and then took out the water too so we haven´t had water since yesterday about noon day, yep I didn´t shower today.

But right now I´m someones second companion again. So either we weren´t left with anyone or my companion can´t remember who they are. So I´m pretty much starting over again. But next Sunday on Mother's Day I get to talk to you, but the thing is is I don´t have money. So you guys have to call so pretty much the same as the last time. So if you could call at like 5 on Sunday that would be awesome and if not 5 at like10.30 at night but the better is at 5 after church. So that's about it so goodbye.