Well folks, September is the weirdest here. Some days it's so super hot that I think Im going to die. And some days it decides to be rainy and windy and freezing. And some days it decides to be all of them. Luckily I live in my sector for a change, so if we are dying because the weather has changed drastically, we can always go home and change super quick! 

This week we have been working a lot with our investigators to decide who we should keep teaching and who we need to drop. I hate dropping investigators but there are a lot of people here who will let us in their house to teach them but who aren't willing to change or cumplir with their compromisos. (mom put those words in google translate because i don't know what they are in English). My method is that I will never drop an investigator unless I feel like I have done absolutely everything I can to help them, but after all is said and done it is really all up to them...

Miracle of the week: a member of the Rama here said to us "Hey i have a reference for you guys. I don't know who it is but I passed a house the other day and I felt super strongly that the missionaries need to visit there. Go contact the house some time after 7 this week." Ummm... yeah ok sure. So we went. And we found Carolina. She is so  super great! She invited us into her house al tiro and really liked what we taught. We left her with a Book of Mormon and she was pretty excited to read it. My companion and I both felt super strongly that she is special. I'm so grateful that the members here are in tune with the spirit and ready to act on the impressions they receive, however random they might be sometimes!

Also there was a activity with the stake here for Independence Day and it was AWESOME. All the wards had a part of Chile to represent and had to do a dance about their region and luckily we got Easter Island. As missionaries we couldn't dance, but we still dressed up. We got to help do everyones hair and make flower necklaces and all kinds of fun stuff. Basically Chile is just the second best country in the world... (don't worry, I still know where my loyalties lie, USA!).

Anyways love you all and hope you're all as excited for General Conference as we are! Until next week!

Hermana Wittwer

(Ky has been out for 8 months as of today!)

 So there is a story in the Bible where are the Israelites had to put blood on their door so their first born child wouldn't die. Similarly here in Chile there is a law for the 18 de Septiembre (Independence day!) that everyone has to have a flag of Chile visible in their window or outside their house. I think the punishment for not doing it is immediate death but Im not sure.

Anyways yeah this Sunday was Independence Day here in Chile! What does that mean you might ask? It means that every one is partying and nobody want to talk to the missionaries. All week. But hey its alright we still managed to find plenty of people to visit!

One person we found this week was Mariela. We were walking down the road when a car pulled up next to us and a man shouted "Hey are you guys missionaries?? You need to visit my house! I live around the corner and my wife is there, go visit her right now if you can!" You bet we practically ran there. Turns out they are new here in the city. They are members of the church but haven't gone in years, and Mariela actually served a misión. We talked to her for a long time and she told us about how even though she doesn't go to church she still knows its true and still wants to be part of it. She told us that she has done lots of things she shouldn't and just doesn't feel ready to go back. We testified of the love that God has for her and of the reality of Jesús Christ and repentance. This is my favorite part about being a missionary, being able to testify of truths and seeing it change people. And the greatest part, Sunday she came to church!! And the didn't come alone, she came with her two kids. It was so special to see how happy she was in the church.

There are a surprising number of return missionaries here who have fallen away from the church. They make me more sad than anything else here I think. In the misión I have honestly grown so much in my testimony and I absolutely KNOW that the things I am teaching are true. I know that after an experience like this there is nothing that can ever pull me away.

So the 18 itself was a Sunday and because it was a little super dangerous outside we had to be in the house unless we had an appointment. And all our appointments fell through so we had to be inside the house. All day. With absolutely nothing to do. And the worst part? We ran out of gas in the morning so we couldn't even cook! Not that that stopped us, we just made a lot of experiments in the microwave. Some turned out good and some we fed to the stray dogs haha.

Anyways now that the festivals are over its time to get back to work! I am loving being a missionary and I am really truly happy to be where I am right now :)

Hermana Wittwer

This week we had the baptism of Yuyunis!! She is an angel. Her mom Catalina was inactive in the church but is now going regularly and stopped working Sundays! Her baptism went really great, there was about 20 people who came to support her from the ward which was awesome. There was a scary moment when we couldn't find the keys to open the doors to see into the baptismal font but after about 10 minutes of looking and trying every key that has ever existed we finally found the right one. She was super happy after the baptism and really loves being part of the church. 

HOWEVER something very unfortunate did happen this week. Hermana Barreiro and I did service and cut someones grass with our weed wacker thing and afterwards we took the machine with us to lend to the elders of Donihue. We flagged down a colectivo (a taxi like thing) and put the machine in the trunk and happily headed out to the church. When we got there we got out of the colectivo and walked about 20 ft when I suddenly realized that we were missing the grass cutter. And at that point our colective was long gone... We asked a few people what we could do to get it back and they told us we need to call the line and ask. However, if we had been paying enough attention to know what line it was we wouldn't have forgotten our machine... We know it was orange and there are about 9 orange lines with about 200 colectivos each so we will see what happens there. Oops!

A quick explanation of a few pictures: We like to do Family Home Evenings with less actives here which consists in a short lesson, food, and a game. My favorite game is la papa se quema which basically ends up with all of us looking like clowns with face paint. So if you see a lot of pictures where we all look ridiculous thats why!

This week we had a LOT of appointments planned and we had a LOT of appointments fall through. But its ok because it gave us an opportunity to look for more people and we found 6 new investigators this week! I love that even when things seem like they are going bad, they are actually going good, just in a different direction. 

Anyways love you all! Bye until next week!(unless I don't survive the 18 of September...) 
*editors note-Sept 18 is Chile's independence day*

Hermana Wittwer 

PS shoutout to my mom and awesome family for sending me the BIGGEST CARD IN THE ENTIRE WORLD!

Well this week has been full of lots of interesting events! Here are a few:

Awkward story: we were outside of a house of a less active yelling "Halo!" and waiting for them to open the door. They were obviously home but nobody was answering. I was talking to my companion about how in Centinela (my old sector) there was a recent convert who NEVER answered the door when we came by (to this day I still have never seen him) but it had become a tradicion to pass by his house once or twice a week to see if he was home. So for 6 months I passed by this house who knows how many times in hope that he would one day answer. A few seconds after I had finished telling my companion this the man walked around the corner of his house and said "oh hi sorry I was piling wood so I couldn't answer." Which means that he heard everything we said. Haha Im pretty sure he just answered us because he was afraid we would pass by every night for 6 months until they came out to talk to us! We set a date to come back and visit him and his family. Hopefully he answers the door faster next time haha. 

Weird story: Well our Indi investigador Cecilia (the crazy lady) is progressing slowly but is progressing! We decided that the best course of action for her would be to watch a movie about the life of Christ to help her understand more his role (also to help her stop talking and listen a little bit haha). In the opening there is the scene where Jesus calms the storm and an apostle says "What manner of man is this?" At this point in the movie Cecilia turns to us and says "Oh wow this is probably what you guys say about me!" Uuuuummmmmmmmm... not quite. At the end of the film Cecilia turned to her 6 year old daughter and asked her what she had learned from the movie. The daughter innocently replied "That Jesus died for us and then was resurrected?" Cecilia then said "No you understood it wrong. What the movie was about is this: (insert crazy explanation that has nothing to do with Jesus Christ)". HOWEVER at the end of the lesson we asked her to pray and she prayed! Progressing slowly but progressing :) 

Sad story: We found an old investigator named Daniela. She is about 25 and has a son and is super amazing! She was meeting with the missionaries about 3 years ago and she loved the gospel. She received almost all the lessons and had a date to be baptized and was looking forward to it when the missionaries suddenly stopped visiting her. When she talked to us she told us how she really had had the desire to join the church and she believe in it all (she even told us the history of Joseph Smith) but that when the missionaries never came back she felt really abandoned and deceived. She told us that she would still love to be part of the church and would like to receive us but that she had since been baptized in the Evangelist church and that she didn´t want to be baptized again. She also told us that the other missionaries had bought clothes from her mom but never came back to pay for them either... Ah it made me want to hunt down the old missionaries and slap them in the face! We set a date to come back and visit Daniela another day and I think that as she goes learning more she will start to have more trust in us and will be able to progress mucho.

Awesome story: YUYUNIS CAME TO CHURCH AGAIN AND WILL BE BAPTIZED THIS SATURDAY! She is the daughter of Catalina, who was baptized as a kid with her family but stopped going to church right after. They are both so great and have so much desire to be part of the church. We had a family home evening with them and a family that lives super close to them and it was fantastic. They became fast friends and Yuyunis became best friends with the daughter of the family Gomez. However the next time we came around to teach Yuyunis she wasn't home because she was out playing with her new friend so that backfired a little haha. However (if everything goes good this week) next week I will be sending you all pictures of the newest member of the Rama Baquedano :)

Anyways love you all more stories to come next week!

Hermana Wittwer 

Miracle week...

Well this week has been great! To start off I want to tell you all about a few miracles we have been seeing here. The first Sunday of this month we fasted together as a mission that we would be able to find people who were prepared and who wanted to hear our message. And there have been soooooooooooooooo many results throughout the mission! One big miracle that we saw happened Tuesday. All of our appointments fell through so we were contacting and we found a family. Turns out that 2 years ago they were meeting with the missionaries a lot and they loved the church! They had been going through a lot of problems when the missionaries got there, but all their problems were resolved through what they learned from the missionaries. They have a testimony of the gospel and they only weren't baptized because they were working a lot and lost contact with the missionaries. So in our first lesson with them we committed them to talk together and set a goal to get married and then after to be baptized. They are GOLDEN! 

We also found a lady who is a little bit crazy and super hippie. She talked a lot to us about the earth and energy and meditating and spirits and past lives and things like that. We have only had one lesson with her but today we are going to teach her again so we will see how that goes! She is super happy to receive us and when we gave her a Book of Mormon she was really grateful and said she was going to read it even if it took her 5 years (but we are hoping it wont take quite that long haha). She is really great and has a lot of potential. 

Potential is something I've learned a lot about in the mission. I've learned how much potential everyone has and how much worth everyone really has. It makes me want to talk to every one and it really makes me love every one here! 

We are also teaching a girl named Yuyunis. She is 10 and her mom is inactive, but she is GREAT! She really wants to be baptized and has already stopped drinking tea and has attended church 4 times. She has a baptism date in two weeks and we are all super excited for her!

This Wednesday we had divisions so I went to Rengo with Hermaña Gardiner and I FINALLY got to use bikes!!!! I was pretty stoked. The bikes were purple and super girlie and the brakes don't work, but hey, better than nothing. Hermaña Gardiner has 5 months in the mission. It's weird because suddenly I'm not the new missionary, there are a lot of people with less time than me... also I can't use the excuse of not understanding Spanish anymore if I don't want to answer a question, because I've got a good amount of time here and I can totally understand now haha. 

Anyways things here are going great, I feel like I have learned so much and grown so much these past weeks and although its hard changing sectors, I know I'm where I need to be right now. Love you all bye!

Hermaña Wittwer
 

Well folks, this has been the craziest week of my mission. Why? Well let me answer that in two words: Special changes. What does "special changes" mean? Well it means that President called us at 8:30 Wednesday morning to tell me that today I wouldn´t be going to work in my sector but that I would be staying home to pack up my suitcases and at 6:00 the assistants would come pick me up in their car and take me to my new sector in Rancagua. 

So yeah anyways I am no longer in San Fernanado but in Rancagua! My new sector is Baquedano. Its super different than Centinela (my old sector). There are houses. Neighborhoods. Cars. Streets. Building with more than two stories. Its going to take some getting used to haha. But the good thing is that Baquedano is a sector on the uprise and has a lot of really good potential! We have a lot of new investigators and although I haven't met all of them, I am excited to work with the ones we have. 

I was super sad to leave Hermana Alvarez but my new companion is sweet! Her name is Hermana Barreiro. She is from Argentina and this is her second change in the mission which means I will be finishing her training for 2 weeks and then its probable that we will be together this coming change too. Its always a little weird getting used to new companions but thats the mission for ya!

Good things about Rancagua: 
1. I found Peanut butter-WOOT!!
2. It's not as cold (and I think we are FINALLY leaving winter)
3. The branch here is super cool and huge compared to my old one!
4. Our house has a cat named Lenny (ssshhhhhh don't tell my Mission President)

Anyways with all the crazy things going on there wasn´t a lot of time to work in my sector so I´m going to leave things here. Guys I know this is God´s work and I have seriously learned so much in the mission. Love you all see ya in a year!

Hermana Wittwer 

Saying goodbye to Hermaña AlvarezAdios AmigasHola Hermaña Barriero

Hey folks sorry for not sending an email last week! I´m sorry I really don't have a good excuse... 

This week has been great. First off I´m going to tell you about a few funny contacts we´ve had. We always say we are missionaries de La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Días and they say "Oh wow how great to see new missionaries, the mormons are always passing through here!" haha uuuuuuuummmmm about that... 

Saturday we had an activity with the District of San Fernando and it was awesome. We created the Plan of Salvation with different rooms for all the steps and everything, and we then walked everyone through the plan. We had a family of investigators come and it was great! They have a little boy who has 5 years, and when we went to "spirit prison" he turned to his dad and said "Why are we in the carcel? Dad, we aren't robbers!" It was so cute. 

Anyways about this family: They are the Family Cancino and they are fantastic. They know the church is true but they are afraid to act on it. We had a super great lesson with them. We talked about the talk of Pres. Monson this conference about decisions and how we need to know where we want to go to make good decisions. Then we decided to set some goals with them. So my companion says to them in this lesson "So I was talking to my compañera this morning and we were talking about you guys and I said to her ¨lets invite the family Cancino to be Mormons." What do you guys think?" It was hilarious! But they said yes they want to be mormons so it totally worked hahaha. We just need to work out some problems with the word of wisdom with Sergio and they need to start attending church and we will be good to go!

On Wednesday we had divisions. Intercambios? Exchanges? I don't know what it's called in English, sorry. We switched companions for a day! Anyways some weird things went down and my house ended up with 4 gringas for the night. So we had gringa night! We sang the Star Spangled Banner. We said the Pledge of Allegiance (mom please help me with the spelling there). We ate peanut butter sandwiches and cereal with milk. We talked in English. It was fantastic. 

Anyways TODAY I FINISHED THE BOOK OF MORMON IN SPANISH!!!! Guys I seriously can´t describe how I feel about the Book of Mormon. I know without a doubt that it is true. We are so ridiculously blessed to have it. I have learned so much from reading it and I know that there really is a power in the book. If you're not reading it every day START NOW!!!  

The mission really is amazing. I´ve been so humbled and seen so many miracles and I know I´m right where I need to be right now. Love you all!

Hermana Wittwer