Let Christ heal you

well this past week was quite long...haha. Today we ended up switching houses with the Elders so our p-day was spent cleaning and organizing. woohoo! the place is nice, a little smaller, but it will work. Living in a different country has humbled me so much. In the states, we have everything at hand; we have many more opportunities in the USA. We now live super close to menos activos y (less actives and) Monica y Hellen which is cool because we will always be seeing them in the street and can remind them to choose the right! lol

So, Adriana, Josè, y Kiara were at church yeterday and they talked with the bishop....they are getting married!!!!! ahhh, such a huge milagro de verdad (true miracle). wow. The power of the priesthood is real. Kiara is going to be baptized this sunday, the 15th. She is so ready, such a special little girl. She prayed in front of the entire primary yesterday,  she is my little watona. Josè will be baptized once they tie the knot...they will get married in a month or so. Seriously, this family is so prepared to accept the gospel and return to church. They are doing literally everything they can to live in obedience to the gospel. They are such an inspiration to me. Josè is still learning, but he has been sharing his knowledge with his companion de trabajo (his work partner). 

Ayer tuvimos un bautismo de Sebastian (yesterday we had Sebastian's baptism). He is 8, so technically he wasn't our baptism. But he is the son of familia Turedo and we taught him all of the lessons. The family is less active, but they are so great. I feel like I am home at their house, they ALWAYS give us food and for this I am gordita right now. woohoo. haha. Veronica's dad is hilarious too. So much love for this family!

There was another family in the chapel yesterday and wow, miracle. The husband and his wife's  children are less active and have been 'whatever' with the church. They were all in a bad car accident about 2 months ago, the wife's mom died and their daughter was paralyzed, but only temporarily.  They ALL attended church! Ah, I love Sundays!!! We are seeing a lot of miracles in our sector!

We had a reunion con 4 zonas en Melipilla (a 4 zone reunion in Melipilla) and I saw my 'madre' hermana Parks! So great to see her. President and Hermana Barreiros spoke and got us really motivated for the month ahead as it is an important time for our mission with this Plan Piloto. Oh, we also had a reunion de zona el miercoles (zone reunion on wednesday) and wow, so powerful. The spirit was so strong, we talked a lot about the atonement and I am SO grateful for the opportunity I have to testify of Christ every minute I am here. There is seriously nothing like it. I love my Savior. I am so grateful for his life and his sacrifice for me and for you. 

Christ lives. I know it and I know him.

La iglesia (the church) is a hospital and we are all sick; we need Christ to be healed from our sins and illnesses. The bishop is the nurse who assists Christ during our healing process. 

Te amo

Hermana T

PS: did I mention I had fleas?! Ya, that was fun, NOT! But yeah they are gone now... (Rick told her to stop touching the dogs;)

Selfie-Sunday

reunited for the day;)

Bus!

showing off Elder Dimas' gifts he is taking home to his family (he dies in 1 week) 

ya, dogs have fleas!! 

                    

 

Sebastian's baptism

5 meses

Wow. Time is seriously just flying by. Yesterday was my 5 month mark. I seriously cannot believe it. okay, 5 months really isn't that long but I am almost 1/3 of the way done with my mission. weh. I don't want it to end! I just love living and breathing the gospel. A mission is seriously something just so special. I am so grateful for the experiences I am having. 

So, as most of you know yesterday was Fast Sunday. It was so awesome, so many people got up and bore their testimonies. The spirit is so strong when people testify. There were about 10 kids that went up and bore their testimonies. There really is just something so sweet about kids. Their desire to follow Christ is so grand and they just want to share what they know with everyone. A simple testimony goes such a long way. Carsyn and Chris share your testimonies with mom and dad and with emily. All my little (& big) cousins, I want to hear your testimonies...write them down and send them to me:)

This week was great as usual haha. We had divisions with our hermana leader. We had a great day with 6 lessons and we put some fechas and had a nuevo. We also had interviews with president thursday and oh that man is so special. Seriously he is so great! He is so close to the spirit and I can just feel his love when he talks to me. He knows exactly what I need. 

This week we focused a lot on caridad y amor. the first and great commandment is to Love God with everything that we have. When we complete this everything else is so much easier to fulfill. 

Ether 1: 35, 37, 39 cry unto the Lord. 3 times he does this. cry unto the Lord. I want to testify as to what Cole was saying about the importance of prayer. There is no prayer that is unheard. No, not one! He is ALWAYS listening, pour out your heart unto him. Make every prayer meaningful. 

Actitud (I can't think of the word in english...) is such an important characteristic. our actitud (attitude) leads to desires which leads to thoughts to actions to habits to who we are. It also starts with our actitud. if you want to change, change your actitud. 

We had a lesson with Marcelo this week and he is so interested. He has so many questions, it is wonderful !

We did a ton of service for the members this week. I love helping people. I love sharing the gospel!

I know Christ lives. I know this is the true church of Christ. I know my family is eternal. I know we have a living prophet on the earth today. I know the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know.

much love,

Hermana T

just clowning around

yes, we are confident hermanas;)

i am still crazy

a house at the end of our sector

boon-docks

breathtaking sunsets

Eek!

Baptism!

yeah so last night Monica and Hellen were baptized!!!!!!! freaking milagro, de verdad, and Ariel blessed the sacrament! ah. it was such a great sunday!

This week hermana Selk and I did divisions to do our visa in Santiago. We were pretty much there all day Martes and didn't even finish. for one part we literally waited for 2 1/2 hours! I talked to this man from Colombia for a while. It was cool to see so many people from different countries doing there visas. Well like I said we didn't finish Martes so we went Viernes tambien and finally finished. that was a little hectic and we also got sick this week... weh. Martes we ate lunch at this little chinese restaurant despues nuestras visas. yeah the next day we were throwing up. super fun. but nonetheless we still had a successful week!

So like I said yesterday was so great! I literally got teary eyed durante la sacramental because it was seriously so awesome to see Ariel bless the sacrament for the first time. such a blessing. wow. the spirit was so strong and the spirit was just testifying to me so strong of the truth and the importance of the santa cena. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to remember la expiacion de jesucristo por medio de la santa cena cada domingo perseverar hasta cada domingo. Adriana and José were at church yesterday with Kiara. Adriana is a menos active and José es su parade. He was inactive but we do not have his register ... entonces we are teaching him and their daughter Kiara she has 10 years. José is seriously so great. He has such a desire to learn all he can and do the right things. Hermana Selk and I taught them Saturday night mosiah 13 and he was so excited he could mark his scriptures  he ran upstairs to get a notebook to take notes. ah. He is just seriously so great., such a desire to follow Christ and change his life around. I love being a missionary and helping others come to Christ. It is such a blessing to see Christ enter people's lives and see the hope in their eyes grow. 

The baptism last night was tan bakan. Monica y Hellen were my first lesson in the field and I had the privilege to witness them make the first covenant with padre celestial and be baptized! They were both so nervous before haha, they're adorable. Monica was so afraid to go under the water, but she was a champ and did it twice! haha and the water was cold... poor ladies... we have had issues with the baptismal font but it all worked out! The president of the socsoc made them hot chocolate after. There faces despise were so priceless; so clean and pure and perfect. The happiest moment in my mission so far... I was skipping and singing hymns all the way home haha. it was so great! Oh yeah, and I had to give a talk too! wah. 2 minutes antes, pero I preach the gospel everyday so I just talked about the importance of baptism and how happy I was for them, such a blessing. 

The ward gave us a list of menos active families to visit. We heard that this one family, la familia melipil, doesn't want anything to do with the church and all this stuff but when we visited them, they received us! milagro. the husband wants to come back to church! We are not supposed to prepare lessons for menos actives anymore so we just rely completely on the spirit, it is so awesome! the spirit really tells us exactly what they need. Most menos actives need love and attention; they need to know someone cares and is thinking about them and reaching out. I am learning so much here. Most of all, I have learned how to be a better member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

We had another milagro ayer. We felt like we needed to go visit this family, but we weren't quite sure why because when we had talked to them, they had said they wouldn't be at their house. well we went anyway and on our way, a member flagged us down and said he had a referencia for us so we decided to call him and see when we could meet. He asked where we were and we just happened to LITERALLY be right outside of his house. He is the neighbor of the family we were going to visit! He walked outside and we taught him! He is so golden, seriously so ready to accept the gospel. Marcelo. His family is evangelico but he is really interested to learn more about this religion. seriously he is so prepared. 

Well, like always, I witnessed many miracles during this week, I know this church is true. I know Christ lives and through him we can live with god and our families again. I know that you nor I are never alone! Christ feels our pains. He is the perfect consolador. 

Hasta la próxima semana

Stay strong!

Hermana T

There is always hope

Well this week was a little slow... we had a lot of citas fall through. Pero that is the life of a missionary! 

Monica and Hellen have their fecha for this Sunday! They were at church yesterday and everything looks good to go!! They have such a grand desire to do the right thing. They know the truth. So awesome! Seriously, they are such a blessing in my life. I have so much love for them. It's really cool too becuase they were my first lesson in the field! 

Nothing really big happened this week. Oh, I did have my first talk yesterday! I talked about esperanza. I think it went well. I was sooo nervous though haha. I love the esperanza we have through the gospel. I shared 1 peter 3:15. The hope that is in us is seen by others. We have a different view about life. Ether 12:32 esperanza is a necessity in order to live with heavenly father again. With the gospel in our lives we can feel peace during times of war. A lady that was visiting our ward came up to me after the sacrament meeting and thanked me for my discurso. A veces we don't know why we do things but I have come to realize that it is becuase the Lord needs us to be his hands. We can be the answer to peoples prayers. By being an answer to this womans prayers, I found an answer to my own. It is amazing what the spirit can do. I love it! 

Because of our fallen citas we did a lot of contacts and tried knocking on doors with not a whole lot of success, but we have a lot of citas lined up this week! We found a contact, Patricia, el viernes y tuvimos una cita con ella el sabado. Ella es super buena! Her mom falleció en diciembre, so super recent. We taught her the plan of salvation and she loved it. There is so much peace in the plan. De verdad I would be so lost if I didn't know that there was something after this life. whew. 

El Sabado tuvimos un servicio de la zona en nuestro sector, we planted arbols. It was actually a lot of fun. haha I was definitely sore the next day though! We met some great people though because we had our SUD aprons on lol

Well, I think that is about it for this week. 

I know this church is true!

The gospel isn't about doing...but becoming

fe es creer, actuar, y poder

chou 

Hermana Thompson

Feliz día de la Mamá

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother´s Day! It was so great to see and talk to my family. I just want to take a second and "thank" my mom, grandmas, aunts, and all of the women who have been such great examples to me throughout my life, always serving and showing me the correct way. Women of such strength and faith. You Rock!!

Well this week was wow, milagros everywhere. First off, we had 3 menos activos en la capilla ayer! Two of the families have not been to church in YEARS!!!! Holy cow I was smiling so hard. Leyla was there with her whole family of 6...her husband and his son aren't members. Adriana was also there with José, her spouse who is a member, and their daughter Kiara who is our investigador. ah! People can change, it is never too late to follow the light in your life. No test in life is big enough to not overcome. The gospel is always here and Heavenly Father is just waiting to pour blessings upon you. I love the picture of Christ in his red robe knocking on the door. I love how the door has no handle. We need to open the door to let Christ in. Let him in.

This week in zone conference someone shared the story of the little train that could. At times we feel inadequate, especially for me being on a mission. I have not felt ready to be here preaching the gospel. But I promise you if I can be here in Chile teaching the gospel, you can do anything! Have the faith in yourself to say "yes I can, yes I can." Faith. 

One hermana shared a story about when she went to the temple, not all of her siblings were able to make it for various reasons. She said it was one of the most happy and yet also the worst feeling to be in the celestial room because not all of her family was there. Can you imagine getting to the celstial kingdom and not being with all of your family? It hurst my heart to think about not being with Cole, or Chris, or Carsyn forever. NO EMPTY CHAIRS! We need to do all we can to help our family stay strong and keep growing in the gospel. The atonement is real and we can help others come to know their savior. I know that the power of the atonement is real and we have the power to change and be forgiven. 

We met a lot with less actives this week. We are working really hard on the 'plan piloto'. Our zone has a lot of animo right now! We are hitting the ground running. Hermana Velazquez and I had 2 lessons this week and 7 nuevos. 

Since I talked to you guys two days ago, I don't really have much to say lol. But this week was great, I love the work! I miss you, but there is no where else I would rather be right now. I am doing great.

Love Hermana Thompson 

Change 4-Transfer Day

I have a new comp pero (but) am still in the same area. We have a lot of work to do, so we are hitting the ground running. President says this is the most important change The Mission has had in years because of the plan pilot (pilot plan). VAMOS (let's go)!!! Hermana Velazquez is my new comp from the north of Argentina, she has once meses en la misión (11 months in the mission). Todavía en El Manzano (still in el manzano ward), but I love it here.

We had another Conferencia con un 70 este semana Elder Di Giovani (conference with an area 70 this week).  Such a pump up. The work here is about to start soaring. We need to be more obedient, more humble, than ever before. Si dios está con nosotros, quien contra nosotros (if god is with us, then who can be against us)?! I love that quote. God is all we need; he is our strength, with Him ALL things are possible. We all have challenges in life; some are bigger than others, but we all need to be strong and trust in the Lord. He is the only one who can carry us through a storm. The most important thing I have learned while being here is the need to devlop complete faith. Fe (faith) in what's to come, fe in the lessons of the past, fe that we are in the hands of god, fe that miracles can and do happen. DyC 42:14 oracion con fe (prayer of faith)

We had a cita con Katy ayer (an appointment with Kay yesterday). Ella accepted an invitation baptismal pero no una fecha (baptismal invitation but no date). She said she believes José Smith fue un profeta(was a prophet)!!! wow. first lesson, she is golden... seriously so awesome. Tambien (also) we met with Jennifer y Manuel and the lesson went really well. We really went into depth about the importance of the book of mormon because, well, it is the key to our religion! All of the answers we need are in our hand! I have truly developed such a love for the book of mormon.

We are working really hard with Menos actives (less actives) right now.  Monica y Hellen have a fecha for the 25 of mayo. We met with 'G' y Soni, she smokes 20 cigarettes each day...says she wants to stop but she has been smoking for 40 years so its a little difficult. poco a poco con ella (little by little with her). Pero she doesn't feel prepared to listen. She thinks she needs to stop smoking before learning, but it is just the opposite, when you learn about the gospel you will have more of a desire and the strength to stop. agh, a little frustrating. We just need to be dilligent and persistent. 

Thank you for all of your examples, I am doing just dandy here :)

Trust in the lord with all of your heart and he will give you what you need. He has not forgotten you, he my be waiting for you to come to him. 

Hermana Thompson

Transfer Day...what in the world is she wearing?!

Electric Blanket, YES! 

My new comp Hermana Velazquez

our new comps

Hermana Rosita Rivas y Arnold

Elder Maldonado y Elder Echevarria

Selfie;)

Taco Bell=happy!

Marcel, Patricio, Patito y Amaro

The day my back hurt

YES, I rock the fanny pack here

Zone Peñaflor

Rodrigo y Arlene (she is the one from the Philippines who speaks english) 

the sunsets here are the best for sure!

sociedad socorro

last day with these housemates

mi madre

el obispo

Leyla y su familia

Flores Figueroa Familia