So there is a saying here in Chile that is "Walking more than a mormon" which is what you say to people who walk a lot hahaha. Good news though: This mormon won't be walking anymore because we got bikes again!!! I'm pretty happy, and we are just hoping that they dont get robbed again...

So on Wednesday this super awesome thing happened.  Its called the Census of Chile. What does this mean? That legally everybody HAS to be in their house and nobody is allowed to work or leave until after they get counted in the census. Which basically means that they cannot escape us when we pass by their houses and everyone answers because they think we might be the census people. It was great! We were able to contact a lot of people and find some old investigators and set a lot of appointments to visit them after. 

One thing that our president has been focusing on a lot recently is working with members. We have been striving to do it a lot more and we have been seeing a lot of good turn outs! This week we had 5 new investigators, all references from members and 4 came to church! It's awesome to see how much easier is is being a missionary in a good ward where the members do their part. 

So Saturday we had a BAPTISM!!! Joaquin was baptized, he is 10 years old and is the son of Natalia, a less active who we activated. He is the best and was so excited for his baptism and everything was going really well... until the morning of his baptism. That morning his grandma came to their house to "Invite them to go on a trip" which basically means she was trying to take Joaquin away so he wouldn't be baptized. Well he knew that, so he told her no and the grandma got really mad at Joaquin and Natalia. Basically she told them that if Joaquin got baptized they could forget about being part of the family and that they would never talk to them again. It was a very big test for Natalia because she is only 26 and has always been very close to her mom.  But she told us that she knows that the gospel is true and she feels so strongly that they need to keep strong in the church. They are such an amazing family and such great examples of keeping strong through (huge) trials. The baptism itself turned out great, the spirit was so strong and seeing Joaquin so happy made all the sacrifice worth it! 

Well love you all and hope you all have a great week!

Hermaña Wittwer

Hey everyone! This week has been full of lots of walking, a few fun service activities, and lots of good lessons. 

Last Monday we found some super awesome investigators. After the first lesson Nataly told us that she thinks we are an answer to her prayers and that she really wants help to have a strong family and raise her kids right. We are both super excited to keep teaching her and her son! The only problem is that she isn't married so we can't put a baptismal date with her... (have I ever expressed my frustration that NOBODY gets married in Chile? It's the worst!!!) 

So remember Jaime? He is our investigator who wants to stop smoking before getting married and then baptized. He got a blessing a few weeks ago to help him with that and since then we have called im every day to see how he is doing. And a really cool thing started to happen. Jaime also suffers from some major back pain but ever since he's been trying to stop smoking it has started to go away. It's almost scary how exact it is, but every day he smokes it hurts him and every day he doesn't smoke it is completely fine. He basically said to us "yeah, I think God is trying to tell me something..." He is so great and making so much progress and CAME TO CHURCH this week!!! We are now going to try to work on him getting married so he can be baptized :)

For Easter this year I decided to study the entire week about Jesus Christ. So in my personal studies I looked up every scripture there is under the heading "Jesucristo" and I read The Living Christ and a few other talks about Him. It was a great experience and I was able to learn a lot and feel the spirit. Its amazing, every time I study about Christ I feel so grateful for what He did for me and I am able to realize how truly important it is to share this knowledge with other people. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and its for that that I am a missionary. It's hard work and a LOT of people reject you, but the joy of seeing just one person come to the truth and change their life is worth every single sacrifice. 

Hermaña Wittwer

So this week was a little weird because I had VERY little time to work in my sector on account of interchanges with other missionaries, conferences, and interviews with our mission president, and general conference. But while there was little time, we made the most of it! Here is the update on our progressing investigators:

Solange and Jaime: Solange is great and is in Mosiah in the book of mormon and wants to get baptized BUT her and Jaime aren't married so she can't... however we started teaching Jaime and he is really great and also has desires to get baptized BUT he is smoking and doesn't want to get married until he quits smoking... so we are working on that! This week he asked for a priesthood blessing to stop smoking and it was a pretty spiritual moment when he received it.

Olga and Edgar: They are from Colombia and have been receiving missionaries for a while. They are so great they are basically already members BUT also not married. The difference is that they want to get married soooooooooooooooooo bad but they can't because of problems with their visas in Chile... Pray for them, we are hoping for a miracle!

Jose Canales: Jose is a very interesting investigator. He has received all the lessons and goes to church almost every week and wants to be baptized BUT he doesnt want to live the word of wisdom. We are going to try to teach him a little more about obedience and help him have more desire to live the gospel principles. 

Joaquin: Joaquin is 10 and is the son of a less active member we found contacting (funny thing, you find a LOT of less active members here contacting). They started going to church and he wants to be baptized, his only desafio of that he is 10 haha. We have to strive to teach lessons in really simple, fun ways so he pays attention. It's fun to have to look for creative ways to teach him!

Anyways other than that we have a lot of new people and are looking for more. Hopefully with more time in our sector this week we will be able to find some more! 

Hermaña Wittwer

Ok this week was just full of funny stories so I'm going to share a few of the best ones with you all.

Funny story:

So remember how last week I was super excited to have bikes? Yeah so my first day with bikes was awesome and I LOVED it! However, my second day we had to go to Rancagua for a meeting so we were gone all day. We got back to the house that night at like 9:30 and I looked around and said "Hey... where are our bikes?" Yep, they totally robbed our bikes. My second day. It was pretty sad... The thing is that they were locked up with a really thick metal thing inside a gated apartment complex so we assumed they would be ok, buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut looks like we forgot we are in Chile. We did find the metal bike lock after, looks like they cut it with something huge!   

Later that week the elders called us and said "Hey hermañas what do your bikes look like?" We described them and they were like "We think this guy has your bike!" So they ran down the street and chased down this guy on a bike! hahaha. Totally wasn't our bike, but it's the thought that counts I guess.... 

Cute story: one thing thats always been really sad for me is that my last name is very hard for people to say. So nobody remembers my name. Well the other day we were walking and we ran into our ward mission leader and his little 3 year old kid and the dad asked "Son, what is that missionaries name?" He was embarrassed and hid behind his dad and his dad says "No, but we practiced this morning!" it was pretty cute. 

Gross story: As missionaries we aren't allowed to have pets, but every sector I've been in we have had "friends" that are animals. So in my new sector there is this dead dog that lives outside our apatment building. I say lives there, because he has been there for like a month. My companion named him Maggots. He smells really bad and it's super gross but he seems to be our pet for the change... I think I'll actually be sad when someone gets rid of him. If someone ever gets the guts to do it haha. 

Weird story: We we knocking doors and we came across some lady who is actually an inactive. We taked to her for a bit and she was... interesting. She asked me where I was from and I said St George Utah, and she said "oh where they tested out the atomic bombs?" I was like um, I think you're thinking of a different St George? She said "No it's there, did you not know? Thats why 70% of the people there have cancer." I was like um, I don't actually know very many people with cancer, to which she replied "That's because everybody keeps it a secret. I read it on Google,  and Google never lies. I know a lot of things." I was so trying not to laugh, but also super weirded out hahaha. Maybe we will visit her again some other day. (Mom note: the crazy lady was mostly correct....the government  did test nuclear bombs in the deserts of Utah. And a lot of people did die from cancer because of it. John Wayne shot a movie in that desert about 10 years after the  nuclear testing, and eventually out of the 220 people working on the film, 91 of them died from cancer. John Wayne, the director,  and every leading and supporting cast member died from cancer. Even John Wayne's son got cancer after visiting him on the set. Marc was quite disgusted  that Ky didn't know this. He has taught all of the kids the story.)    :)

Spiritual story: We had a lesson with Thiare, a new investigator who is 15, and it was the best. We taught the restoration and asked her how she felt after and she said "Wow, I've never felt like this. I didn't know this kind of emotion is posible! I feel so... peacful. And happy. I don't know, it's weird. I really want to know if this is the truth." My comp and I were dying. It was so perfect. So we explained about the Holy Ghost and how she can pray to ask God and she said she would do it. She is golden!!!

So since I'm in a new sector I now have new investigators, but I've been in my sector like 4 days so I don't know everyone. Next week I'm going to talk more about the people we are teaching and what's going down with them. love you all bye!

Hermaña Wittwer

(Another mom note: Ky's English has gotten TERRIBLE!  She's asked me to correct her spelling before I send her emails out, and it is becoming more and more work.   Haha.) 

Hey there everyone! So anther week in the misson has gone flying by.
Time seriously passes so fast!!! Here are a few things that have happened this week:

One HUGE miracle that we saw this week was with the Miranda family (a less active family). We have been visiting this family for a long time and its amazing to see how they have changed. When I got here, they were about to be separated and their kids always hid in their rooms when we went to visit them. They didn't really want to go to church or anything and they were, frankly, bad off. However they have had a complete turn about. Andres (the dad) said that they wanted to have an interview with the mission president to be able to start all the things he needs to do to come back to the church, and his son said that he wanted to serve a misson. They promised to go to church this Sunday and THEY WENT!! It was amazing to see how much more peace there is in
their house and how they really truly are a lot more happy now.

Another miracle that we saw this week was with our investigator Diego. Diego is 11 and his parents were inactive, but we have been working with them and they have changed a ton. This Sunday we had planned to
visit them and we decided that we were going to put his baptism date in the lesson. Well we got there and his mom says "So we were talking the other day, and Diego told me that he feels ready and wants to be baptized on April 14. Is that a good day for you guys?" We were both just like "uuuuum yeah!" They are such a special family, and they have plans to be sealed in the temple this year. I know I probably wont be able to be there with them, but I am so happy for them. There is
really nothing better than seeing people you work with and visit go to the temple :)

Our other really great investigator, Juana Salas, wasnt able to go to church this week because she was really sick. We visited her too
Sunday and she had read what we left her to read and said she is really excited for her baptism, but we have a few doubts. Namely she told us that she isnt smoking anymore, but we are 87% positive that she definitley is. Pray for her so she can be able to stop smoking!

So sad news... we have changes this week and I'm leaving Guadalupe. I'll be going to Curicó (as an hermana leader again), and while I'm sad to be leaving San Fernando, I'm excited to know a new city! My companion is going
to be Hermana Cook, MY FIRST GRINGA COMPANION, who was also one of my MTC
comanions so thats going to be a blast! I'm also really excited because I'm
going to have a bike!!!! Whoooooooooooooooo finally! Wish me luck in my new sector!

The worst part about changing sectors is saying goodbye to everyone. I
don't ever cry (because I never cry) but a lot of the people we visit do. And it's always really sad. And I don't like seeing people sad. But
I guess it's part of the mission. I really have developed a lot of love for the people of San Fernando and am going to miss it here and I
wouldn't change my time here for anything.

Hermana Wittwer

Mom insert-Ky sent me this story in my email:

We went to say goodbye to one of my favorite families here and we were
talking to them and the mom says "hey my son said the other day that he is going to go to the mission and then in 2 years he is going to
marry you." I was like hahaha um what? it was pretty funny. He was a little embarrassed but didnt deny it. oops thats the awkwardest
thing ever. And they kept talking about it! They were like "oh wait, it will have to be 3 years because he will have to work to save money
to go visit you... or you could come here, that might be better..." I was all like hahaha ok we have to go now bye!  :)

On Tuesday we had a conference with Presidente Harris. The conference was about 7 hours (with lunch) and for 4 HOURS STRAIGHT President talked about repentence. And you know what? I wasn't even bored. I think repentence has become one of my favorite topics here in the mission. I love teaching it and I love studying it. I feel like the more I study it, the more I realize how much more there is to study and learn! 

So last Sunday the elders invited a guy from the street to come to church and, suprisingly, he came. His name is Nesley and he is from Haiti and he is awesome. He only has 3 months here in Chile but he lived in the Dominican Republic for a while so he knows a little Spanish. We set an appointment to teach him in the Church this Friday and he showed up with 3 friends he lives with- all from Haiti and all with very limitted spanish! We weren't sure if they wanted to learn Spanish or the Gospel, so we went with both and taught them to pray in Spanish. Looks like from now on we will be teaching Spanish classes every Monday morning hahaha. 

(Funny story: We asked Nesley how he learned spanish so fast here and he told us that he learned in the Dominican Republic. He said "There they say "si" and here they say "si po" so it's not all that different." We about died laughing. I dont know if you guys knew that but here everyone says "po" after everything. It doesn't mean anything, it just gives it emphasis and has become a very basic part of my vocabulary.) 

This Saturday we had a miracle. Every single companionship in my district had a baptism!!!  Nicolas is our investigator who was baptised. He is 16 and his mom is a member but hadn't been to church in about 20 years. When we first started teaching him he was there but not that interested and seemed to listen only because he had nothing better to do. But now it's amazing to see the changes and the affects the gospel has on people. He hasn't missed a week in church since we started teaching him and he has been able to find something to fill the hole he has in his life. The thing that impacted him the most was the Plan of Salvation. When he learned about the plan God has for us, he started relating everything we teach to the plan and has expressed his desire to get to the Celestial kingdom. We are now going to keep working with him to help him get ready to go on the mission in a few years!

This Saturday there are cambios... I dont think I'm going to change. Let's pray that I don't!! Things are going great in my sector and Im very happy and humbled for having the opportunity to serve here in Chile :)

Hermana Wittwer

So we had interchanges with Centinela this thursday and it was awesome to be in my old sector! I was with Hna Herrera (from Chile) and we found some really good new people to teach and were able to visit a few people I knew from before. 

However, meanwhile my companion was with hna Santana (the companion of hna Herrera who is in her first change in the mission) and they happened to walk down a street with a dog that always tries to bite us. I'm used to taking out my scriptures every time I pass to hit the dog if it wants to bite us but Hna Reynoso didn't know about the dog... right as the were leaving the street the dog ran out and bit Hna Santana in the leg. It bled a little and they had to go to the hospital to get shots but she is alright now! To be honest I'm a little bummed out that it went down when I wasn't there... being bit by a dog is one of my secret goals for the mission... 

Saturday we had a "capilla abierta" (like an open house of the church) in Chimbarongo. All the missionaries in the zone went to help  present the church and invite people to come in. It was funny because we were all just trying to get people to come however we could, and we even started stopping people passing by on bikes to try to get them to come in! We actually had some good success and a lot of people came. 

So Carla, our investgator who was going to get baptized this week, suddenly dissapeared... turns out that she was just going to get baptized for her boyfriend who is a member, but she doesnt have any real desire in following in the church... It was pretty disapointing for us but we are recovering and working a lot with other people. Also this week we did find a lot of new people so we are excited to see if they will progress! 

Love you all, 

Hermana Wittwer