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