It Was Like The Indiana Jones Ride At Disneyland - NO JOKE!

December 8^th, 2014

Hello family! Feliz Navidad! Thanks for your emails!!! Thanks for sending Madison’s email too jaja. I love her so much, and her pictures are presh. Still not sure about the whole Christmas skype things...but guess what??? CHRISTMAS IS P DAY!!!!!! We had a zone class this past week, and we got the calendar for Diciembre, and on the 25th it says P Day. Que genial!!! We are so excited. We don’t really know what we will do, but t’will be a lovely time. 

So this week passed by so fast! Wow! Yesterday while we were walking to the casa de un converso reciente, a woman who was sitting in her doorway (well, the doorway of her fence, everyone here has a fence around their house) called us over. She smelled like alcohol, and told us she wanted us to help her. Her name is Laura. She invited us into her house, and we told her about her worth in the sight of God. It all happened so fast jaja. She has various images of Jesus in her room, and she likes to kiss them. She told us she is an alcoholic, and wants to stop drinking. We are going back tomorrow to teach her. Hopefully she remembers us jaja! But really, God loves everyone, and we will do our best to help her realize her potential to become like Heavenly Father. 

We had an activity in la feria on Saturday. La feria is like an outdoor market where people sell EVERYTHING. They put out blankets and sheets and place used shoes, batteries, clothes, dolls, games, ANYTHING YOU CAN THINK OF, YOU CAN FIND IT EN LA FERIA. It was a zone activity, so all the missionaries in our zone, aka in our stake, were there. The elders had a place in la feria with a table full of cards, pamphlets, copies of the Book of Mormon, etc. And then the hermanas had a table farther down too. We went contacting through the feria too. I got sooooooo burned! It was foggy and cold in the morning, and there was even water on the cars! But later the sun came out, and it was awful jajaja. 

This week we went to the apartment of the twins, Katherine y Barbara. But they were at a birthday party for a friend!!!! Bummer! But we talked with their mom, Militza. Militza is great. She was baptized muchos anos ago, and in August came back for the first time in years. We talked with her, and learned more about her past with the church. It was fun.

Funny thing that happened this week: on Saturday after our almuerzo we went to a little bakery and bought bread, ham, and cheese to take to Ana Maria y Marquitos. Marquitos is a converso reciente who is blind and has the mental capacity of a jovencito. We visit them every week and teach them. They are amazing. Anyways, so we had gone straight to our lunch after the feria so we were tired and sunburned (well I was sunburned, not hna gomez jaja), and so after lunch our tummies were full and we were tired. But we bought the stuff then walked to the house of Ana Maria and Marquitos. We were hot and tired, and when we got there Ana Maria wasn’t home!!!!! So we couldn’t enter!!! We had a little cart thing full of our bags and all the books and pamphlets so we just decided to go home to drop it off and then study. We also had a bag of cherries and strawberries a member gave us because we went to help her in la feria near her house after the activity with our zone. We always help her buy fruit for the week. So with all of this in our cart, we board a bus. And this bus is CRAZY. It’s a smaller bus, and it’s packed. It was like the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland - NO JOKE. The driver was crazy and the ride was bumpy, and I decided to take the strawberries out of the cart because we didn’t want them to get smashed. But after a few second I realize the bag is LEAKING all over the cart and all over the floor. It was awful jajaja. Hermana Gomez and I were just laughing. Gooooood times.

Yesterday there was a baby blessing during sacrament meeting. It was tan tierna!!!! The father who gave the blessing said something that really struck me. Addressing his little boy, he said that the Lord would bless him according to his diligence and obedience. It was so simple, and a principle I was already well famiilar with, but it just really struck me. How true it is!!!! We need to work hard every day, missionary, or no, to be worthy of the Lord’s blessings. Only through diligence and obedience can we truly enjoy the blessings our Heavenly Father and Jesus have for us. I was tearing up during the Sacrament because I could just FEEL close to my Savior. I know Christ lives, and I am sure of His atoning sacrifice. Through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can receive the strength we need to overcome temptation, and strengthen our weaknesses. 

So excited it’s close to la Navidad. People here make pan de pascua, or Christmas bread. It’s good. It has little pieces of fruit and nuts in it. 

It’s getting so hot here jajaja. Love it. Love Chile. Love you all! 

Hermana Mittleman

I Love Being A Missionary!

December 1^st, 2014

 SO IT IS DICIEMBRE.... SINCE WHEN???? 

Ok, seriously this week went by sooo fast. Anyways, i have like no time, but hey, it’s all good! Loved Madison’s letter!!! She’s finishing training!!! Jajaja that is so great. She is sooo funny. I showed her picture to Hermana Huber, one of the other hermanas who lives with us, and she freaked out jaja. Love my twin, love my fam bam. muah muah.

So this week was cool. Literally did not do anything special for Thanksgiving jajaja. I read that talk by President Uchtorf from the April conference! Mom, that was fun that you sent that to me this week! Coincidence jaja. The highlight of my week was Sunday night. Hermana Gomez, myself, Hermana Huber and Hermana Alcantara (aka our best friends who live with us and share the ward) had a Capill Abierta: Venid y Ved. It’s like an open house at a church building. We did it with a ward that lives in the next stake over (I think). It’s like a free tour of the capilla and the hermanas teach the very very basics of what we believe. So fun! There were big poster type things on tables in the cultural hall with information like the mission of Jesus, the Restoration, Temples, the Book of Mormon, etc. I was nervous because it was my first one, but it went well! Elders came too and helped. The tour starts in the chapel with a life size Christus (spelling??) and we welcome the people and then listen to a recording of Jesus Christ quoting scriptures and it’s really spiritual and lovely! Then we take the people to the cultural hall and lead them to table to table teaching our basic beliefs. Then we take them to the baptismal fount where there are two elders dressed in baptism clothes who talk about baptism. It was fun! When we were not giving tours we were on the streets inviting people to come and see. lolz, good times. 

It rained one day this week which was random!!!! We were walking around like little lost sheep jajaja. Not really! We actually found a new investigator! Her name is Carmen. She believes in God, but has no definite religion. We shared with her the restoration, and we are going back on Wednesday. We’ll see how it goes. 

One hard thing that happened this week.... I tried contacting this one elderly looking man and he totally started to contend with us!!!!! It was lame.... I had already cried a little that morning and so it was just bad. He was trying to tell us that if extra terrestrial beings came to the earth they would think our god was the economy...for the record I did not understand that part! Hermana gomez told me most of what he said afterwards, but she said I did well with him. 

I love being a missionary. Love it, love it, love it. It is hard sometimes. It really is. But life is so good here. Jesus is our Savior. REALLY. He loves us!!! Have a great week. Love you all. xoxo

Love, Hermana Mittleman