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! 

Hola!

This week has been a good one for sure! Lots of contacting because our lessons fall through a lot, but hey that's the mission life. 

So even though it was my third Sunday in the field, the first two were broadcasts for the whole district so this Sunday was my first with my rama. Because it was my first President Orsua introduced me to the rama and I got to introduce myself and share a short thought or scripture with the ward. It went pretty well but I was super nervous because both the mission President and the District President were there for some reason. Talk about pressure! Anyways the second hour of church we have a gospel doctrines class for new converts and investigators but the teacher didn't show up so President Warne asked me and my compañera to teach it. Aaaaahhhhhhh! So Hna Aycho and I just winged it and whenever it was my turn to teach I just asked questions and made the Elders (there are two Elders in our rama too) and President Warne and his wife answer them haha. Overall it went pretty well though.

However, none of our investigators attended church this Sunday which was really sad because the baptism dates we had fell through. We don`t have any progressing investigatory right now but we are working with a lot of new people and I think a lot of them have a lot of potential so I`m excited for them! 

I`ve seen a noticeable difference in my Spanish this week. Don't get me wrong I still can't talk well and still don't understand a lot, but I`m definitely starting to understand more, and I can feel God helping me through each day. The mission life is crazy but its a great one and I`m loving it! Guys the church is true and we are so blessed to have it. Don't take it for granted and make sure to enjoy general conference this week (I feel like general conference is like missionary Christmas. Everyone here is counting down the days and I`m getting excited for it haha). Love you all! Have a great week! 

Hermana Wittwer 

More mama answers:

Ok:

My companion is hna Aycho de Peru. She has one more cambio in the mission and then she is out of here (crazy!). She is about half my height and a mix between a mother hen and a 7 year old but I love her.  She is also very touchy which, you know, I love, lol. I am learning a lot from her about how to love the people though, so she is great for me in that way. 

I'm in San Fernando working in the Centenila sector. Try google mapping villa independencia and see what happens. 

The people are all very different. We have a lot of new investigators but not a lot of progressing so we are working on that. For the most part every one here is really nice but also every one here is catholic I swear! 

The food is amazing. Members feed us lunch every day and it is usually about 2 hours. People here eat very small breakfast and dinner but lunch is huge. I'm a little scared I'm going to gain like 27 lbs to be honest.

Hasn't rained yet.

I forgot it was Easter for most the day, it was pretty normal. We live with two other sister missionaries (gringas) though and one of them shared her peeps with us! Your package still hasn't come yet but hopefully this week is the week. 

Answers to some of the mama's questions....

ANSWERS:

The best treat is empanadas. Not a dessert but amazing!

Just send my letters to the mission home because I think that's the right place. We get our letters and packages once a weekish but I haven't gotten yours yet. My roommates got some packages so I ate their food, which was nice.

Yes members make me lunch every day and its heavenly! It also lasts about two hours and they feed us sooooooo much food.

My potential baptisms didn't come to church and I'm so so so sad about it. Also I don't think Robert is obeying the word of wisdom...

So on Saturday we had a district conference and I sat next to Elizabeth, a member of our rama, and she gave me candy during it which reminded me of you. I think you guys would be friends, but she is kind of controlling and bossy so you wouldn´t be best friends haha.

There is a family here that I love (the Aedo family) and they are so so great. I want to be able to speak Spanish so bad because I want to be able to teach and make friends on a deeper level than my Spanish allows, but I know it will take time so I'm being patient and trusting in God.

You have two minutes to ask more questions. LOVE YOU!

 hermana wittwer

Hola everyone!

I`ll start out with the funny story so you guys can read it and quit if you want. This week we had a zone conference and while we were walking to it my compañera turns to me and says: oh hey by the way we are singing a special musical number, what should we sing? WHAT?!? So yeah we sang (I can`t remember which hymn) in front of everyone (!) and if you have heard me sing before you can imagine how that went. Good thing my compañera at least has a good voice haha.

So wow week two flew by! My spanish isn`t great but its better and better every day. I think my sign language gets better and better every day too. People weren`t lying when they said that people in Chile talk fast and cut lots of words short! A lot of times old people are really hard to understand and when talking to them my goal is just to have the right facial expressions haha.

We have a few really promising investigadors right now and are working a lot with menos activos as well. One investigador we have is Samuel.

He is 27ish and evangelist and has a lot, a lot, a lot of questions about weird obscure details that are hard to answer, so I`m grateful at times like that that I can pretend not to understand the question and just let my compañera answer it haha.

Anyways I`m loving the work- thank you all for your support! I love you all have a fantastic week!

Love Hermana Wittwer

A letter for mom...just had to share. Nobody tell her.

Ok mom, so here are your details: the mission is hard. Sometimes I get really discouraged with the language barrier because honestly I can't understand anyone, and I expect way too much of myself- more than I probably should. But every time I get discouraged God provides a way to help me and I go to bed happy every single night. The mission is a rollercoaster, but hey, who doesn't love a good roller coaster right? I have noticed a change in myself. I'm still Kyleigh and still me, but I'm also different. I think I'm becoming a missionary or something. Not in an awkward way, but in a good, I want to share the gospel with everyone and have no shame, kind of way. Mom the gospel really is amazing. It's crazy all the things I took for granted before I came out here! I recognize it more now-  how blessed we are with the knowledge we have, and with everything really.

So my house is pretty nice. It's  an apartment we share with two others hermanas and they are great! Every day we eat a small breakfast and then lunch is at 1:30, and wow its huge!!! It's  hard to eat it all sometimes but you gotta do what you gotta do. God has helped me a lot with the food I think because I can eat almost everything I used to hate, and have even started liking tomatoes! (don't tell dad that though.  I don't want it to go to his head).

There are a lot of stray dogs and it takes a lot of self restraint not to pet them, but I really don't want fleas, so I'm refraining. Hey guess what? I LOVE YOU!!!!! Sorry I'm so bad at words and pictures but I will send some next week for sure.

Anyways, I love you tons and miss you and pray for you and the fam every night! Thanks for all the support you've always given me.   You're really the best!!

Love Hermana Wittwer