Family!So I am in Copiapó! For mom and dad who want to google map it (maybe), our sector limit is Yernas Buenas and everything to the... I have no idea. I think it´s the west. We´ve got a little part on the beach but we never go there because like no one lives there aparently.
Copiapó is WAY pretty! It´s so green! I feel like I´m in California. Even more so because my sector is pretty cuico (rich). The neighborhoods around the house are so similar to the US. SEPERATE HOUSES people! They still have gates around them though. We live in a GINORMOUS house. Seriously, it is huge. I can´t believe they only had two sisters living there before. The story of the house is that they used to rent an aparment in the middle of the sector above a store but then the store turned into a strip club! So President gave the hermanas at the time 7 days to find something new and this one was the only one available.
The bus ride down here was really good. It was long but I was actually able to sleep for most of it! When we started to go through the farm crop things outside of the city my mouth was open wide because there was so much green! Seriously, I can´t even describe to you how different it is- people have grass in their yards!
To answer some questions- yes, TONS of sectors are opening. I think 15 opened this last transfer. Crazy. And I heard the same rumor about gringos going to the SA MTCs. I think it´s true but I´m not sure. The weather here is good but super frustrating. When we leave in the morning it is cold but then it gets hot. When we leave in the afternoon it is super hot but then it gets suuuuper cold. So we are always having to carry around jackets but even with little sweaters we are cold. I will definitely need to buy a coat.
My companion is great. She´s from Mar del Plata, Argentina and has been a member her whole life. She doesn´t speak any english so I am having to learn a lot faster than I was. Sheá an awesome teacher and so it has been great to learn from her. And I have been learning a ton of new teaching skills!
This week we WORKED! It was super hard. The list of members in Iquique was 47 pages long so we had a ton to work with althopugh we were opening the sector. Here though the list is only 7 pages long and so we have almost nothing to work with. So we walked and walked. It was a little rough at the beginning. On Friday we found a man at the end of a really poor street. We´re going to go teach him right after this so hopefully next week I´ll have pictures of where he lives. It´s in the middle of nowhere! But we found him friday at 5, took him to a baptism at 6, and put a fecha with him on Saturday. It was TRULY a miracle. Normally miracle stories don´t actually turn into baptisms, but he really is so, so prepared. It has been such a cool experience!
And for Kaity and whoever else might want to know- watching a person get baptized is a truly great feeling. But even more it´s watching them progress and watching the gospel change their lives. We who have been members our whole lives can´t understand how investigators feel when they go to church because we went through those teenage years when church was boring. It´s incredible how much they feel the spirit at church. And when they are truly receptive and we teach them something new, they are so happy and content. Not all are exactly like that- but the truly prepared ones can´t wait for us to come back so they can learn something new. And there is always a worry that they will go inactive, but no matter what you do, you can´t force them to stay in the church. I have talked to a lot of missionaries who were baptized when they were little, went inactive and then got reactivated. You can´t just teach the people who you know for sure are going to stay in the church because all need to be baptized to enter the kingdom of God. You have to have faith that God is going to help them. I mean, the people need to be prepared to be baptized, but we have to have faith that if we have prepared them and they have desires to be baptized, that the gift of the Holy Ghost will help them.
Anyway, this month we have to read the Book of Mormon in the opposite language in one month! It´s super hard but I feel sorry for the Latins who have to read it in English!
GENERAL CONFERENCE IS THIS WEEKEND! I´VE NEVER BEEN MORE EXCITED IN MY LIFE!!!!!!!
Copiapó is WAY pretty! It´s so green! I feel like I´m in California. Even more so because my sector is pretty cuico (rich). The neighborhoods around the house are so similar to the US. SEPERATE HOUSES people! They still have gates around them though. We live in a GINORMOUS house. Seriously, it is huge. I can´t believe they only had two sisters living there before. The story of the house is that they used to rent an aparment in the middle of the sector above a store but then the store turned into a strip club! So President gave the hermanas at the time 7 days to find something new and this one was the only one available.
The bus ride down here was really good. It was long but I was actually able to sleep for most of it! When we started to go through the farm crop things outside of the city my mouth was open wide because there was so much green! Seriously, I can´t even describe to you how different it is- people have grass in their yards!
To answer some questions- yes, TONS of sectors are opening. I think 15 opened this last transfer. Crazy. And I heard the same rumor about gringos going to the SA MTCs. I think it´s true but I´m not sure. The weather here is good but super frustrating. When we leave in the morning it is cold but then it gets hot. When we leave in the afternoon it is super hot but then it gets suuuuper cold. So we are always having to carry around jackets but even with little sweaters we are cold. I will definitely need to buy a coat.
My companion is great. She´s from Mar del Plata, Argentina and has been a member her whole life. She doesn´t speak any english so I am having to learn a lot faster than I was. Sheá an awesome teacher and so it has been great to learn from her. And I have been learning a ton of new teaching skills!
This week we WORKED! It was super hard. The list of members in Iquique was 47 pages long so we had a ton to work with althopugh we were opening the sector. Here though the list is only 7 pages long and so we have almost nothing to work with. So we walked and walked. It was a little rough at the beginning. On Friday we found a man at the end of a really poor street. We´re going to go teach him right after this so hopefully next week I´ll have pictures of where he lives. It´s in the middle of nowhere! But we found him friday at 5, took him to a baptism at 6, and put a fecha with him on Saturday. It was TRULY a miracle. Normally miracle stories don´t actually turn into baptisms, but he really is so, so prepared. It has been such a cool experience!
And for Kaity and whoever else might want to know- watching a person get baptized is a truly great feeling. But even more it´s watching them progress and watching the gospel change their lives. We who have been members our whole lives can´t understand how investigators feel when they go to church because we went through those teenage years when church was boring. It´s incredible how much they feel the spirit at church. And when they are truly receptive and we teach them something new, they are so happy and content. Not all are exactly like that- but the truly prepared ones can´t wait for us to come back so they can learn something new. And there is always a worry that they will go inactive, but no matter what you do, you can´t force them to stay in the church. I have talked to a lot of missionaries who were baptized when they were little, went inactive and then got reactivated. You can´t just teach the people who you know for sure are going to stay in the church because all need to be baptized to enter the kingdom of God. You have to have faith that God is going to help them. I mean, the people need to be prepared to be baptized, but we have to have faith that if we have prepared them and they have desires to be baptized, that the gift of the Holy Ghost will help them.
Anyway, this month we have to read the Book of Mormon in the opposite language in one month! It´s super hard but I feel sorry for the Latins who have to read it in English!
GENERAL CONFERENCE IS THIS WEEKEND! I´VE NEVER BEEN MORE EXCITED IN MY LIFE!!!!!!!