Hey hey every one!

So this week I didn´t get to work in my sector as much as I would have liked to because we had to do a lot of things because my compañera is ending her mission tomorrow. BUT we do have two new investigators with baptismal dates in July and I´m super excited for them! We have only taught them one lesson but they are super great and super receptive. They just need to get married and all will be well. 

On Saturday the missionaries in my Rama did an activity about family history. I will be the first one to admit that I´ve alway hated family history and usually I avoid those types of activities BUT something changed. I´ve suddenly started to love it. Planning this activity really helped my testimony grow and I am definitely going to be working more with family history after the mission (if my Grandma Diane hasn´t already found every person that has ever existed after Adam haha). For the activity Herman Aycho and I made a super cool family tree and put old pictures on it and everyone brought old things and pictures and food. Not a lot of people came to the activity because it was raining and when it rains nobody does  anything but its alright. 

On Sunday it was the last day here for Hermana Aycho and Elder Madsen (a elder in my Rama) so we visited all the members to say goodbye. However it also happened to be Elder Madsen´s birthday. So every family gave us cake. Like every single one. I seriously thought I was going to die I´ve never eaten so much cake in my life! It was kind of hilarious. 

We have changes tomorrow and since Hermana Aycho is leaving for Peru I´m going to be recieving a new compañera named Hermana De Los Santos. I havent met her yet so I´ll let you all know more about her next week. Anyways love you all!

Hermana Wittwer 

Hola hola! 

This week we have contacted a lot and set a lot of appointments to come back, so hopefully when I email next week I will have a lot more to say about all our new investigators! One person we contacted is a Jehovas Witness and she accepted a folleto and a date to come back. My companion said thats a first time for her in her mission, so we will see how that goes!

Tuesday was my compañera´s birthday so in the morning we made her breakfast and gave her little gifts and stuff ,so that was fun. In the night we had a little mini party for her, which basically just meant that we ate a bunch of food. Our table consisted of fried bread (called sopapillas, similar to scones), flan, honey, caramel, a can of sweetened condensed milk, salt, oil, butter, and chips. We all took a moment to acknowledge that this is why we are all going to gain 27 lbs on the mission! haha. 

Friday night we had a home evening with the branch in the chapel and it went super well. We went to pick up an investigator named Gabriela to go to the activity with us, but when we got to her house her mom said ´´sorry she can´t go she is busy... but is it ok if I go with you guys instead?´´ Um, YES! So she came to the activity with us, which was my first time having an investigator at an activity. We have a date set to visit her again and are hoping to get her to come to church with us this next week. 

Today for P Day we had an activity as a zone and we took a bus out to an area called puente negro (a area out by the mountains by a river) and had a BBQ. It was a blast, and don´t worry mom, I actually took a lot of pictures for a change and will send them on Wednesday. 

So there is this thing that I hate. A lot of the time when we are talking to people they say something that is super doctrinally incorrect, and afterwords they look at us and say ´´or no?´´ and the answer is ´´NO!´´ but it's awkward to straight up tell peole to their face that their beliefs are wrong. But also we can´t exactly agree with them, so then we just end up in this awkward situation, and I look at my companion and she changes the subject. Haha this happens a LOT. 

Anyways love you all have a fantastic week!

Hermana Wittwer

Happy mothers day to everyone yesterday!!! It was so amazing to talk to my family, they really are the best. And I didn´t even cry at all so props to me (am I allowed to lie on my mission or is that like a really bad sin?). 

Anyways this week everyone and their dog got sick (or maybe just the two hermanas that we live with) so my compañera and I had to do divisions for part of the day Friday and Saturday so that the other companionship could get to their important lessons. It went well and it was cool to work in the other sector but I didn´t like not being able to work in my sector as much as I wanted to this week. Also the mission nurse doesn´t speak Spanish so I get to try and translate a bunch of fun medical terms for the other hermanas which is an adventure!

This week, like all weeks, we walked a lot. We had a lesson planned in the end of our sector which is about a hour walk out and a hour back, but when we got there the lady said that they were busy eating and that we should come back another time. So we went back another time and got rescheduled another time... We will try again in a while haha. 

Food. I don´t think I´ve ever eaten as much food in my life as I did on Friday. Literally every one we talked to fed us cake or bread and we can´t really refuse it. And then I did divisions in the night in the other sector and we were given more food. I seriously almost puked but I managed to eat everything which is what's important haha. 

We still haven't had any investigators come to church which is a little disappointing but we are working hard and praying lots! We have a few new investigators that we are working with so hopefully we will start to see more progress with them.

Anyways adios for now talk to you all next week!

Hermana Wittwer 

Heeeelllllloooooooo! 

So this last Wednesday I had my 3 month birthday which is CRAZY! I can´t believe it's been that long, time sure passes fast. One of the hermanas that I live with had her 6 month birthday so we had a little party in the apartment which was fun. 

This week we discovered a new area in our sector. We had always thought our sector ended at a point but turns out there is another villa we didn´t know about that is way out in the country. It's a pretty far walk so we only can go out there about one day in the week which is too bad because I want to go there every day, it's gorgeous in the country! 

Wednesday we started teaching English classes in the church. I´m making my compañera teach them to help her English but I help her out when she needs it. We also taught a Family Home Evening with the ward on Friday and it went really well, I love the families here, they are so fun! 

We had divisions on Friday, so I led my sector for the day. It was a little scary but I realized that I know my sector a lot better than I thought. Now I just got to perfect my Spanish and I will be set! 

We still don´t have any investigators that are really progressing so we are contacting a lot still and searching for new people. Its hard work at times and a lot of walking but I´m enjoying it!

Anyways love you all, hope this week goes great!

Hermana Wittwer 

Hola!

We had cambios this week and I was pretty scared of them but good news: Hna Aycho and I are both staying in Centinela!!! Unfortunately this means that I´m going to be killing my trainer but hey what can ya do. My zona is now a cemetery, this cambio is the last one for literally a third of the missionaries in my zone, so its going to be fun... 

So this week it was super rainy Wednesday until Sunday and I loved it. Unfortunately I learned a few lessons the hard way: 1. My boots are not waterproof. Going to buy some rain boots today haha. 2. If you don´t use your umbrella in the morning because you want to enjoy the rain you´re going to be very wet and cold all day. and 3. Sometimes your mom loves you and leaves nice notes in your shoes, but you don´t know that until you start finding bits of wet paper all over your socks. Haha thanks Mom love you! 

Wednesday the Elders in our Rama and us planned an activity for the District and it was awesome. We got the movie theater here in centro to play the movie ¨Meet the Mormons¨ and we made invitations and everything and it went great! We had a lot of people come! Unfortunately it was a little rainy so there were less people than we would have liked, but it was still a really good turnout. Thursday night I woke up to my very first earthquake. It was just a small little one and everyone else was like ¨that was cool, now back to bed¨ but I was all like ¨That was awesome!!!¨ 

Anyways things here are going good. We have a lot of new investigators still that we are working with but we are still struggling to find people who will progress. Nobody attended church again but part of that was because it was raining and when it rains everyone shuts down. This week we have a lot of lessons planned so hopefully next week I´ll have more to say about investigators. 

Anyways love you all hope life is going good. Adios until next week!

Hermana Wittwer 

Hola hola! 

This week we encountered a lot of new investigators. None of our investigators assisted church this week which was sad, but the Elders in our Rama have a baptism this week which is exciting. We don´t have any who are really progressing but we are working on that and we have citas with them to fix that! 

I had my first division in my area this week which I was super super nervous for but it went good! My compañera went to San Vincente and Hermana Muñoz came here to be with me, which meant that I had to lead my area. I managed to find all the houses (which is a feat if you know my sense of direction!) and Hermana Muñoz helped me with the lessons (because my Spanish is still in progress) so it all went really well! We have changes this week and I really hope I stay here because I love my area... 

So one cool little miracle of the week: we were walking down the street and it randomly started raining. It made no sense because there were no clouds or anything, so I turned to my companion and said ¨where is this rain coming from??¨ and we heard a voice coming from the house next to us say ¨From the One and Only up above.¨ This is basically like begging the missionaries to come talk to you haha. So we walked towards the voice and found a man working in a yard and we stared up a conversation with him. It turned out he was really cool and really interested so we now have a cita to visit him this week. And it stopped raining literally the second we walked over to talk to him, it only rained long enough for him to say that and get our attention. As we walked away we passed a house playing Bon Jovi ¨Living on a prayer¨. Pretty perfect if you ask me! 

Thursday night the other Hermanas who live with us found Root Beer on the black market so we had root beer floats and it was heavenly. I don´t even like root beer floats that much but it was nice to have that bit of home! 

Also, one day we were looking for a house number 265 and there was 263 and 267 but no 265, and I thought that maybe it was like Sirius Black's house, but I didn't have my wand with me so I can't be sure... 

 Anyways hope everything is going good. Until next week!

Hermana Wittwer 

Hello hello from Chile! Its been another (short) but really great week. 

Ok my Mom keeps getting mad at me for not sending more details about my life, so here is a quick run down of my days: At 7 we get up and exercise and eat and shower and get ready, and at 8:30 we start personal study. At 9:30 we start companion study and (because I`m training) we do another hour of study at 10:30 in a booklet called ¨12 semanas¨. At 11:30 we have half an hour of language study and at 12 it's off to the sector! Our sector is about a 30 minute walk from where we live so we do a lot of walking every day. At 1:30 we have lunch with a member in the Rama and lunch is HUGE here! Like the other meals? Not a thing. Lunch ends around 3:00 and we go back to the house after to do stuff and leave again to work at 3:30. From then on it's work, work, work until 9:30 when we have to be back in the house. Often we get back closer to 10:00 because if we are in a lesson we are allowed to be out until 10. Then its planning (usually about 30 or 40 minutes) and getting ready and we are in bed at 11:00. And then back up at 7:00 for another day in the mission!

We do a lot of contacting when we don't have appointments, but here instead of knocking on doors, we stand outside their gate and yell ¨hallo!¨until they answer. Sometimes they look out the window and see who we are and then don´t answer, which I find kind of funny and a little sad. They're missing out!

For Pdays we get together as a zone and play games, usually soccer. It's awesome and I love it. I have officially become first pick for teams because the rule is that Elders have to be within a boundary to score while Hermanas don't. Buuuuut I can actually shoot so I have a huge advantage. It's great! The rest of the day we eat empanadas and helado and buy groceries. 

So Conference this week! Wow it was amazing! Everyone met to watch it in the iglesia in Guatalupe and all the gringo missionaries got to watch it in English. I´ll be honest, it was nice to understand everything for a change! haha. However, so many of our investigators said they would come and I was so excited for them and NOT A SINGLE ONE CAME. Ug seriously that made me so sad because so many of the messages could have helped them so much. We are still working to try to help our investigators progress but assisting church is a huge stumbling block for most of them. But its ok I have a lot of hope that some of them will assist this week. 

Anyways love you all and pray for you all and hope you have the best week ever!

Hermana Wittwer 

Story time: I've been a bit discouraged with the language and kind of feeling super useless in the work, and it was hard, but then the other night we visited the familia Bustamante (my favorite) and the dad is the ward mission leader and the mom was inactive but we've been working with her. They've been going through some hard times so my comp and I shared some thoughts from conference to help them. As we went to leave Marisel (the mom) asked  if I was always like I am. The word she used was tranquile which means basically calm. I said it depends on the time and my language ability haha. She told me that every time I come into her house her house feels more tranquile and happier. It was such a small thing to say to me but it changed my entire perspective and I think my entire mission. I realize now it's ok if I can't speak Spanish super well because all I need is the spirit. They need to understand with their hearts more than with their brains and if all I can do is bring a spirit into a home with me, that's good enough for me. 

Anyways the mission life is a rollercoaster but I think I'm starting to be more and more adjusted and I'm starting to step up more and take more initiative and have less fear. I really have changed so much already and know I will continue to be humbled and I am so grateful for that!