Funerals, Baptisms And Choir Practice (Aug. 3)

This week in La Chorrera-

- This week I found a lot of joy in the scriptures.  I am studying the New Testament and the Book of Mormon in spanish (side note- what a miracle that I understand enough now to actually get something out of it spiritually and how weird that I speak spanish right?)  and the BoM is so true, even the bible says so!  Everytime I read in the Bible I find cool references that I will probably never use in a lesson but that strengthen my testimony in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ!

-We had the baptism scheduled for saturday at 1....until this less active sister passed away and they scheduled the funeral for 1 oclock on saturday.  We had a couple inactives in Santiago who were inactive because no one showed up to their mom's funeral so I was a little worried but the whole ward showed up- even a whole bunch of less-actives showed up out of the nowhere.  I played the piano and I did not anticipate how much more pressure there is to play prelude for a funeral than for a normal sunday- it is dead (too soon?) silent so everyone is listening to the mistakes.  I don't have that much experience with funerals but it seemed like a nice one.

- So Vivan got BAPTIZED!  She is seriously the cutest.  She comes from a huge less active family and not a single one showed up for her baptism, not one.  Luckily her ward family was all there to support her!  She shared a sweet testimony and we walked her home.  She is going to the temple tomorrow and she is already asking which days she can go out on visits with us!  She is going to be an AMAZING missionary!

-This coming Saturday and Sunday are stake conference and Chorrera has the awesome priveledge of having Elder Alonzo from the area presidency attend.  And Barrio Biancheri was chosen to be the choir....awesome right?  We don't actually sound that bad but the stake choir director decided we could sing one of the hymns with 4 parts which might have been overestimating our abilities just a little bit.  Basically we spent all of our sunday in a choir practice that never ended and the large majority still don't understand that they cant just sing the melody.  Hopefully the speakers are really good;)

-After the endless choir practice we had time for one family home evening and we taught the family about family prayer and I loved being able to tell them about how my awesome family does family prayers every night!  I love the mission but I am really looking forward to being back around your bed with the whole fam!  

Love you all!  Have fun on all of your adventures!

Katie

Transfer #3 In Biancheri (July 26)

Familia,

Ok so my favorite thing this week was when I learned that the panamanians call speed bumps ¨policia muertos¨ [Dead Police].  The panamanians love it when I know slang words, they think it's hilarious!

Ok so we had changes this week and Hermana Chamul and I are staying for a third change together here in Biancheri and we are so excited because this change we are going to reap all of the baptisms we have been sowing these past 2 transfers!  And it starts this saturday with Vivian!  Vivian comes from a massive family of members (grandparents, 10 aunts and uncles, and her mom)  but they all went innactive before her generation could get baptized.  She is 16 and she is eating up the gospel, it is so awesome to see!  She studies the chapters we leave and then we she finishes she reads the BOM from the beginning.  She is so prepared and I see a future missionary in her, its awesome!

Here in panama they also celebrate Pioneer Day....just not quite as organized as the neighborhood haha.  As missionaries we were in charge of acting out a few scenes from the organization of the church and the arrival in Salt Lake.  It was....interesting.  To say the least.  Each ward had a parade of pioneer children and a part in the activity and, like everything panamanian, it took a really long time!  But it was really fun and it was so cool to see how much work the members put into making the costumes and how much they loved talking about the Pioneers!  

Earlier in the week I was talking with the bishop and I asked him if there was anything we could do to help him.  He told me that he might need one of us to speak in church and because I offered the help I got volunteered to give the talk.  Ok cool, totally fine, I can give a talk in spanish...I think.  They told us in the MTC that we would give a talk the first week in the mission field but that was a lie because I made it a year into the mission without having to talk.  The bishop had given me a general conference talk from President Monson on love to base my talk off of and I spent a really long time prepping super well and I felt totally good about it.  Then as we were leaving the house on sunday morning the first counselor calls me and tells me that he has to speak too and that he likes my topic better so is it ok if I speak on something else.  Are you kidding me?  I got up and spoke for my 15 minutes.   What I said?  I have no idea.   But my comp told me that my Spanish rocked even if my message was a little scrambled....you win some and you lose some :)

Ok best best best part of my week was a lesson we had last night with Carlos and Ana.  Earlier this week we visited them and it was super depressing.  He had had some convulsions the night before and they had to go to the hospital in the middle of the night and if it happens again she is going to have to stop working and they don't have any money and with everything they were going through they couldn't think about marriage or the verses we had left.  When we left that night we really weren't sure what we could do for them and if they were even going to keep progressing.  So we prayed and prayed and prayed for them and we stopped by last night to see how they were doing.

   When we got there they were so much happier, YAY!  They had finally gotten his medication and they have been reading in the book of mormon every night.  We shared the talk on love that I had been assigned for sacrament and it was the sweetest lesson I have ever been in.  She started out telling us that love between people didnt exist, only customs.  Then we asked him and he looks at us and goes ¨I love her, even if she doesnt believe it.¨ And we talked more about the love of Christ and how all love we have comes from the love He gave us first.   As a couple they understand the pure love of Christ.  She has stood by him in every single moment since his first seizure, doing literally everything, and there isn't a trace of regret or bitterness- she does it completely out of love.  By the end she was telling us herself that she loves him.  We were practically in tears listening to them talk about everything they have been through together.  She told us that he is so diligent with his prayers- this coming from the Carlos that wouldn't pray a few weeks ago because he wasn't sure God would understand him- and that she was ready to say the closing prayer- YES!  They just make us so happy and we are so hoping that they will be able to get married and then baptized in these coming weeks!

A few reasons I love my Biancheri ward- the leaders here understand leadership.  The ward has a goal for indexing and on the bulletin is the list of the top indexers in the ward...#1 on the list is our bishop, followed closely by his counselors.  Ward choir- the bishop and his counselors.  It's really awesome to watch the miracles it produces when the leaders lead by example.

Ok well love you all!

Katie

despedida

End Of Transfer 2 In Biancheri (July 20)

Good week in Biancheri!  Not a whole ton of excitement but some good days-

Tuesday- So last week we didn't have time to do weekly planning but wouldn't you know that we had the most productive week we've had in a long time (I still totally have a testimony of planning don't worry).   Tuesday was a beast of a day- in a good way- we left the house feeling good and didnt stop til we got back!  We taught every single one of the lessons we had planned and found some awesome new investigators!  Really it was just a normal missionary day but it felt so good to get home and realize how effectively we worked and taught with the spirit and it set us up for an awesome week!

On Wednesday we were walking from a FHE to our dinner and we decided to take a shortcut on this little dirt road and we got about halfway down the street and the lights went out...everywhere.  It was pitch black and we didn't know whether we should go back or move forward so we held our umbrellas out incase there were any psychos and walked very slowly to the member's house where we ate a romantic candle-light dinner....and then in the middle of the closing prayer the lights came flickering back on.

It rained a ton a ton a ton and somehow we were still without water for saturday, sunday, and monday...will somebody tell me how that works?  The good news is that I can now take a solid hygenic shower out of a 2 liter bottle...one more talent to add to the resume i guess.

We were at dinner last night with a fam that has a grandson the same age as milo (as in jan. 3 birthday) and we were at the dinner table finishing the lesson and eating popsicles and we look over and he is sitting on the floor feeding the dog right off the popsicle stick and I thought of the picture of milo and wilbur on the floor with all the cereal haha

We should find out transfers tonight or tomorrow so pray for me:)  I was thinking deep on the bus from panama today and when I am people watching I like to think about what the jovenes would look like as missionaries and today I realized how most of the poeple I see everyday will never ever get the chance to be a full time missionary and then I pictured the spirit world and how cool it will be to be able to say that I served a full time mission when I was on earth because really there arent very many who will be able to say it!  I am sooo grateful fro the privilege I have to serve the Lord in these 18 months!  Love you all, have an awesome week!

Katie

Katie's Letter (July 13)

A week full of little trials and big miracles- shocker right?

     This week my comp was having a tough time. The miracle was that on the day we were having a hard time we found a ton of new people to teach!  We have our goal of 10 people contacted every day and normally 1 of these 10 will tell us that we can come back and maybe maybe but probably not are in their house when we come back.  But this day I was feeling so crappy so I started to contact houses and 4 right in a row told us to come back and gave us references.  Then the 5th house was this crazy old man that I think is mentally ill because he was locked inside his patio and he told us that he had 65 kids and who knows...maybe I´m one of them!  Doing missionary work and seeing God try and help us out a little reminded us why we are here and helped us laugh it off a little.  It also prepared us for the next hard day.

On Thursday we called Betsy in the morning to confirm our appointment and we were so excited because she had beed reading and the spirit was so strong in our lessons.  She told us how much she wanted to come to church and we had plans to go pick her up.  Well when we called she told us that her husband didn't agree with what we were teaching and that to avoid problems in the marriage it is better that we don't stop by anymore.  Then in the afternoon we had a lesson with Kathy and we watched the restoration video and bore fierce testimonies about the Book of Mormon and the prophet Joseph Smith and she basically told us that since we have been teaching her she has been feeling really confused and that she is comfortable with her own religion.  Boom.  Our favorite investigators both in one day.  That was super tough but we put them in the area book and hope the future missionaries will take the time to find them when they are more prepared.

We had a ward activity on saturday night about family history and all of the members made familysearch accounts and tried to start their family trees.  The problem was that none of the family history consultants (basically the 3 youth that know how to work a laptop) showed up so they roped me in to 3 hours helping people make accounts and input names and let me tell you- that website is just as frustrating in spanish.  But the cool part is that most of the members are the only ones doing family history so all of the names they were putting in we were able to print out and they are all going to the temple this week!!  Today I am going to help one of the hermanas who has more than 60 names to put in!

Sunday was just a full on miracle.  We only had 3 lessons but in every one we had awesome members and in every one we were able to put a baptismal date.    

This transfer flew by and we are praying for one more transfer here togehter becuase we know there are some amazing miracles coming our way!  I love it here in Biancheri and could spend the rest of my mission here!  Who knows what God has planned for me but I am going to enjoy this last week of the transfer just in case:)!   

Love you!

Katie

Packages, Drunks, And Lots And Lots Of Walking (July 6)

Familia,

I spent all of my email time looking at all the pictures from flaming gorge so here are some miracles we saw this week:

*we walked a ton and no one was home...no one.  So God gave us some awesome miracles along the way to help us keep walking.

-I got my packages!!!

- We went to go visit a huge less active family who were baptized and went less active about 15 years ago.  The hermana and her kids arent ready to come back yet but we met 3 of the grandkids who were never baptized and who are super prepared.  We left a book of mormon with the oldest and when we picked her up for church on sunday she explained everthing she had learned in alma 32 and then went on to tell me that she wanted to see what else she could understand so she read the next 5 chapters as well!  I am always so amazed at how God prepares people, especially youth, to recieve the gospel.  I love meeting these kids that just have this natural desire to know more about God.

- We were walking from one appointment to the next when this couple called us over to where they were standing on the street.  The girl goes ¨I´m a member in another area, here's a reference for you¨.  So this week we have an appointment to teach her boyfriend the gospel!

-Remember the huge family of 12?  We have been working so hard on softening up the mom because when we started she was so seemingly unresponsive and cold.  Yesterday we walked into church (we had 13 investigators at church yesterday, whatup!)  and she was there with a few of her kids and we were shocked!  We went to visit them after church and we taught them about the word of wisdom and law of chastity.  We challenged her husband to stop drinking and he basically told us no and blamed her.  She totally opened up to us and told us that all she wants is a happy family and that if she dies tomorrow she wants to know that her family is going to be ok.  She talked about how grateful she is that we are visiting and teaching them and how grateful she is for her son's example (her oldest son is one of our recent converts).  This coming from a woman we thought hated us!  She still has a long way to go before she is ready to be baptized but yesterday was a huge step!  It also means that we can start preparing the rest of the family to get baptized!  

- Ana and Carlos came to church again yesterday and we had some awesome lessons with them this week.  At first Ana told us flat out that she wasnt really that interested but if he went, she would go.  But we had a lesson with just her and it was amazing to hear from her all of the good that has happened in their lives since they started investigating the church and how much she sincerely wants to learn more about the gospel.  She told us that she had lost all faith so we are going to have to start from ground zero but she has the desire which is all that matters! 

Turns out everyone knew it was the 4th of July and decided to party so we found a ton of drunks on Saturday.  I also turns out that every drunk has the gift of tongues and thinks they can speak perfect english.  I had so many conversations without any sentido.

My favorite of all of the unforgettable quotes was this ¨when I want to learn about God, I go straight to the internet¨ 

Love you all!!   Have a great week! Say hi to all the family for me!

Katie

This Week In La Chorrera (June 29)

  I haven't done miracles in a while so here it goes.  The miracles we saw this week in Biancheri-

- One of the members bought a horse.  Literally the most random thing ever because there are no horses around here but they felt like buying a horse so they did.  Most of the time it is just chillin in the backyard but they also tie it up in other places when it runs out of grass to eat in their backyard.  The miracle is that when I am feeling tired or hot or thinking about trunky things...boom there's the horse tied up in the most unexpected places!  I feed it some grass and my companion practices contacting him in english and suddenly we feel a lot better:)

- Yesterday we were walking past a house and I yelled `buenas!`  and three huge dogs come running out of the house and started chasing me and I just closed my eyes and forced myself to walk slowly, praying so hard and just telling myself `dont run dont run dont run maybe they will leave you alone` I opened my eyes and there are all three of them right around me barking and growling and my comp is on the other side of the street just staring at me and I`m yelling `ayudame!` and all the people on the street are just standing there laughing at me.  I seriously thought I was going to die but I kept walking slowly past the house and my comp threw a rock and they went away.  So far my legs are super covered in scars from mosquitos but miraculously I dont have a single dog bite!

- Ok so this week my real miracle is Carlos and Ana.  We contacted Carlos while he was walking to the chino a few weeks ago and he is the greatest.  A little over a year ago he had a pretty serious seizure that left him completely immobile.  He did some rehabilitation and now he can walk mas o menos with a cane and talk but it's hard to understand.  They couldn't afford more therapy, even with Ana working all day, everyday so he hasn't progressed much in the past year.  We have been visiting and teaching them about the plan of salvation and the atonement.  I don't know if I have ever taught someone who needed it as much as this family needs the peace and the healing that the gospel of Jesus Christ provides. 

   Easily one of the coolest lessons I have ever been a part of was talking to Carlos about prayer.  We asked him if he had prayed about the Book of Mormon and he told us no.  He insists on prayers with Ana at night and in the mornings but he had never actually offered the prayer.  He said that he's embarrassed about the way he speaks and that he wasn't sure if God would understand him.  Also that because of past sins that he wasn't sure if God would want to hear him.  We were able to teach him about our loving Heavenly Father who is always anxious to hear our prayers and that our prayers don't have to be formal and out loud.  God knows every thought and every feeling and His arms are always outstretched to receive us.  Always.  

  There is a girl in the ward who is preparing to leave on her mission and we took her with us to a lesson.  That was inspired.  She has taken on Carlos and Ana and now the whole ward is involved!  We have a member who is a physical therapist and he met with Carlos and Ana to evaluate and create an exercise plan.  All of the young single adults signed up for days in the week to help him with the rehab and read in the scriptures!  

   The best miracle is that they live close enough to the church that he can walk there without getting too tired and they were able to come yesterday!  I am so so so grateful for prepared people, amazing members, and this amazing message of hope and healing that I get to share!  

Katie

Katie's Letter (June 24)

quick recap of our week-

The zls bribed us with ice cream to reach some of our hardest goals and surprise- it worked!

  We have been learning and working on inviting to baptism in the first lesson and every lesson afterward with power and authority.  It can be intimidating but it is really important that everyone understands exactly what our purpose is.  We have even been contacting with this line ¨ buenas!  we are representatives of Jesus Christ and we would like to teach you and your family the restored gospel and prepare you to be baptized in the only true church!¨  We get a lot of  ¨ummm.. no¨ but we have had some really awesome experiences of people who have let us in and listened to our message!  

   Our goal to invite helped us to reach our goal of investigators with baptismal dates.  We have been teaching Betsy for a long time and she is reading and praying and she is ready!  Last week we shared the family proclamation with her and challenged her to share what she has been learning with her husband and 2 kids.  So when we came to teach on Friday we were able to teach her 14 year old daughter as well and she is super shy but she has a desire to learn and she accepted the fecha immediately and didn't hesitate at all when we invited her to say the closing prayer!

  This week we taught Kathy about baptism and the priesthood.  She has been evangelica all of her life and feels very attached to her church.  She wants so badly for there to be exceptions- maybe God can give other people the authority outside of the church if they are faithful or maybe any baptism can be valid if you have enough faith.  It can be tough to teach without offending her but it is pretty incredible at the same time!  She knows and LOVES the bible and she reads and studies all of the chapters we leave in the BOM.  She really likes it and I know that her testimony and answer is going to come first from the BOM.  My favorite moment in the whole week was when she told us (after reading 2 Nephi 32)  that the Book of Mormon is really beautiful and clear and teaches her things in a different way than the bible.  What?!  I know she is so torn because she wants her church to be true so badly but she also recognizes that we have something different, something really really good.  We pray constantly that we can help her find the answer that helps her make the change.  The Book of Mormon is so powerful and so  so so true!

So good/awful experience of the week-  We have this inactive that cuts hair in her house.  Everytime we pass by she hides and locks the door but yesterday when we stopped by her son let us in the house and she tried to kick us out by telling us that she had to work and she had people coming for haircuts.  I wanted so bad to talk to her so without thinking I asked if she could cut my hair.  1st mistake.  Then I asked her to just take off the tippy tippy tips and give me a tiny bit of layers.  2nd mistake.  She went nuts and cut off all the hair I have worked so hard to grow out since the mtc and gave me the worst layers ever!  Buuuuuutttt we schmoozed her up and we have a return appointment so it just might be worth it!

Hermana Smith