Hola Familia!

 

This week was full of festivitites for all of Chile, i really think this holiday is bigger than Christmas here. People were off of work and no school for practically the whole week! Crazy! it was fun to be here in Chile to celebrate with them though, really really hard to find people to listen, but igual, we had a good week!

So last Monday was the ward activity! we had a blast. Really it was fun to interact with the ward in their prime. Everyone was happy, eating, playing games, dancing Cueca, the typical chilean dance, i learned how :) and it was just fun! Great way to spend my P-day. Sometimes i want to be selfish and spend it doing things for myself, but i realized that honestly, way more fun when there is an activity going on. It´s just like a party, and i think being new to the ward it was good to interact with the members in a more relaxed setting for the first time! We even had a couple investigators come which was good.

Tuesday was the real day, 18 de Septiembre. Honestly it´s just a huge holiday. i can´t believe it! we didn´t have lunch that day so we decided to go celebrate, there was a carnival type thing that had the typical chilean food, lots of meat for this holiday, and we ate lunch there! it was so fun. We have 1 1/2 hrs for lunch so we utilized that time to celebrate. There were tons of little stands, like a flea market, but huge, with cualquier type of stuff that was being sold. Lots of kites being flown (one including ours)! We thought we should have done our own stand that said ¨porque mormones no toman el 18 de Sept, pero igual tienen un buen tiempo!¨ (why mormons don´t drink this day, but still have fun) hahaha. Not really, but it was a joke. I really think we could´ve found some people by doing it though. May have been drunk, but still... they need the Gospel too, right? ha! This day was really hard to find people because everyone was partying with family and friends. Luckily we had a service project for a family in the barrio and we still looked for people and tried our hardest to teach!

Wednesday we had intercambios, I was with Hna Riggs! It was so fun to be with her again. She´s such an example to me of someone who can have lots of fun but is SUCH a good missionary. She loves the people, the people love her, and her knowledge and love for the Gospel is just huge. I really look up to her and can´t wait to be in BYU together after the mission. We taught people in her area that seem to be progressing so thats good! Yay for investigators that are progressing!

This week we´ve taught lots of menos activos. it´s a push in our mission right now to find news, but reactivate the old. Really, my heart hurts for these people. It´s just sad that they don´t get it. they think they do, but they don´t, they´re menos activas and not fullfilling the commandments. I just want them to come to church, and some of them have the strongest testimonies, but still don´t come to church! ahhhh!

We taught this family, Familila Paulaza, menos activas, and they know they are. Hno used to work with the menos activas and go out and find them and help them and now, he is one of them! super sad, his wife, Hna, wow. her testimony is one of the strongest i´ve heard. She has uteran cancer and they cant operate because she has heart problems and she really wants to go to the temple before she dies. She was in tears, i almost was too, talking about her desire to go. But her husband thinks that she´ll heal and then in more time they can go. I really just want to help them, get them to assist so she can go to the temple. This sounds depressing, but the good thing is we are now teaching their granddaughter, 8 years old, not baptized and she is so cute! I think to be able to teach her and them juntos can maybe bring them back to the Gospel. Ojala!

We got rid of the dogs! the pound came, i think it´s not really a pound, i think they just kill them, but maybe not. I´m realived to have them not following us, it was a little sad to see them get driven away in this truck, but within about 7 seconds i was over it. ha! just was a distraction and i was always scared walking in the street and contacting people with them! It was an answer to prayers that they came!

Pedro is progressing well. He told us he doesn´t want to be baptized, but still wants to learn, he is reading, praying, and came to church, so it´s just a matter of time! And his dad, the converso, we taught his Eternal Marriage this week and he has a crush on a lady in the ward but he wont tell us who! I told him we could do a NDH and invite her and him, do a little match making. he was laughing so hard! ha!

All of our fechas fell this week. So sad, it´s just getting people to come to church and this week was just hard to teach people. But this week now were healthy, no festivals, i know it´s gonna be great!

We had others come to church too, one is Fabiola! She´s been taught now for a while and wants to be baptized, comes to church every Domingo, reads LDM and prays, the only thing is shes not married! Shes waiting to be divorced so she can get married, and then she can be baptized. tan fome. The law here is so weird. if people live together and aren´t married they receive more money, its so dumb. Whoever made that law did not understand the plan of God.

I was thinking this week alot about how i can improve as a missionary and i think the thing i really need to focus on this week is what do i have to offer my investigators that can change there life? and i know it´s a lot, and i always think of this. But lots of time we teach investigators just another thing that they have to do, and promise them the blessings, which is great, but i really want to focus on how they can really see these things as a blessing in there lives and that they really WANT to do them and it´s not a burden.

Oh, Friday the assistantes called us! and whenever we can see their names its like... ¨uh-oh, what did I do wrong?¨ even though i know nothing is bad. But they called and the asked me to be part of the Choir for when Elder Oaks comes!!!! (did i tell you he is coming in Oct?) I was so excited. there are 5 Hnas and then some Elders, we´re singing Creo en Cristo, we had practice and i´m so excited to participate. I´ve had some incredible experiences singing for apostles in my mission! it´s just crazy. I love it!

also i am reading the Bible more steady and love it because it´s ALL about Christ! i feel like i´m learning lots from His life just from reading. He lives, He is our Salvador, our brother, our friend, who really cares for us, who sacrificed His life for us. He is amazing.

well family, I am doing good here in Limache! I really feel like this week to come is just gonna be successful. Nothing stopping us now and I am feeling more comfortable with the people, the ward, the area, ect. Know that I love you lots! Thanks for the letters and love. I love reading them even though i don´t respond to everything!

The Church is True. Keep Going and share the Gospel. We can´t be shy about it, it´s who we are!

LOVE YOU ALL. xoxoxoxoxoxoxx

Keep Smiling,

Hna. Sargent







Happy Birthday to my little gus gus this week! 19... what what. big year ahead. Hope you eat lots of yummy food because who knows what you´ll be eating the next birthday! ha!

 

This week has been good here in Limahce, minus that every single person en our house was sick. Started with Hna Gatica, then Hna Riggs, then me, and now Hna Mamani. So bad. and not just a little sick. We all had fevers of 101-103... no fun. and when we have fevers we aren´t permitted to leave because it can make others real sick. no fun. I just feel bad, all i want to do it go work and when i can hardly get out of bed there is no way i can walk miles a day. but today i am feeling better. not 100% but better. Still gonna take my meds and vitamins and lots and lots of water, as if i don´t drink enough already! ha! but this week to lots and lots of work to catch up for what we missed.

ok, Limache, it´s totally campo here. way diferente than Viña. I miss Viña but i like it her alot. It´s more humble and I honestly like that part of it. more people are willing to listen and try to figure out how they feel. The house we live in is good. there is just lots of disorder and the hnas i live with aren´t the cleanest which drives me crazy at times. Maybe why we´re all sick? but i´m trying to order it up everyday and they know that we need to, when we have time and everyone feels good we´ll do it good. the bad thing is that there are these dogs that are ALWAYS outside of our house. and they follow us in the day all day long sometimes. I HATE IT. seriously i have no heart for these dogs. they aren´t bad or bite or anything, just annoying. and they have an owner, but she lives in Santiago in the week and is never home so they just decided to stay with us. I think it was because before there were hermanas that gave them food and everything, but now NO WAY. we´ve tried to call the pound, but they never came, so i think we´ll just have to keep calling. ugh. but oh well. life goes on!

Lots of investigators here in Limache. We have 5 con fecha. thats awesome. our zone on Thursday had 24 con fecha. super bueno. recap of those that we´re teaching!

Matéas. 15 years old. Drug problem. (here lots of people have drugs problems) He told us the other day that ever since he´s been praying and reading that his life is different. He doesnt have the desire for drugs like he has had, his mom is better with alcohol, ect ect. it was so great to hear that he is really recognizing it! At first, he didn´t accept a fecha, said.. no sé, but then we explained the proposito de bautismo y he accepted and if he feels that its what he needs to do, he´ll be baptized! yay. i can just see him in a few years on a mission!

Silvana- also has fecha. she´s super smart, dating a RM, but inactivo. I just don´t get that. RM and inactivo. So sad. but she´s really really smart, and just always wants to know. she likes to read, but doesn´t want to ask in prayer. ugh. the other day she was like... ¨define perfecto¨ I honestly have never thought of it before, but she is just in depth, at times hard to teach people like her, but it´s all good.

Sandra and Javier- sandra is the mom of javier and her husband doesn´t do anything to help her. Seriously just treats her bad. pobrecita. he just wants her to do everything and he is lazy. but the problem with ella es she doesn´t have a steady work so every sunday is a huge faria (farmers market) and she goes to sell at that to have work and to have money. we passed along to her some jobs from the church so hopefully on of those works out, because she wants to be a member, but can´t just be baptized because, she needs to really understand the imprtancia de dia de reposo!

Irma- ha. this lady is so funny, but is solid. She´ll be baptized one day. She´s been looking for a church her whole life, and really likes to read and listen, whenever we ask her questions she asks the same back to us, she´s just funny. I think there is something more with her that she´s not telling us but is hard to get to open up! She sells perfume and i bought some because i needed some. super yummy!

Pedro, yes another pedro. He is a SOG. He is the son of a converso and slowly but surely we´re teaching him! ha. It´s hard because its always in his negocio with his dad and sometimes people come and they need to help their customers and such, but it´s good. he has a real interest in the Priesthood so i know that he has questions and the desire to learn!

This week we were teaching a man named Ricardo and we invited him to come to church with us and were explaining to him all about church and he goes, ya, i want to go, but i don´t want to go in a white shirt and tie, i want to go in a tunic (dress) because that´s how Jesus Christ dressed. SO funny. who thinks of things like this... i love chileans.

Lots of fiestas this week because 18 de Septiembre. today is a ward activity and tomorrow is just a huge party for everyone. i think it might be hard to find people willing to listen tomorrow, because it´s just a day to be with family and friends, drink, eat, and be merry! but it´s fun to see all the traditions here. everyone has a flag up in there house and is so excited. there is a huge carnival here in Limache tambien . it´s like 4th of july times 10!

We had a conferencia with Elder Viñas who is in the presidency de Chile. It was super good. President Kanhlien spoke first on really working with the menos activas to reactivate them and help them understand the importancia de la iglesia. it really got me excited to meet the menos activas here in Limache.

Then Elder Viñas spoke on the Atonement and the Sacrament and how the fruits of repentance is baptism and that people need to understand that. but for us as members that have already been baptized, for us the frutas de arrepentimiento es the sacrament! it was so good. He said a quote I really liked ¨ Faith in Jesucristo is the confidence that leads us to obey¨ (that was hard to translate into enlgish ha) but it´s so true. If we didn´t have faith is Jesucristo, we wouldn´t obey one commandment. It´s really our way to show our faith!

Hna Gatica is great. we get along really well. Honestly, i´m learning tons from her. She is an incredible missionary and it´s only her 3rd cambio! She just really wants to work and find those people and that i love about her! We get along well with personality as well. Also laughing and stuff! it´s good.

cant believe that is the 17th of septiembre. super fast this month. Augosto was a little long, this month, tan rapido! crazy!

Well Family, I am happy here in the campo de Limache! This week i hope to recoporate and that i can have all my strength to work work and work. I really know that people are here waiting for us and it´s just a matter of practicing our faith to find them! The mission is great. So much to learn and to preach to other people! The gopsel is true. Brings us so much happiness. and i just know people are waiting for it!

Love you lots think and pray for you always!

Keep Smiling,

Hna. Sargent

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Hna Mamani, Gatica, Riggs, y yo en la conferencia!

Hna Tamayo y yo. Love her!  

hna Gatica y yo en la conferencia con Elder Viñas  

 

18 de Septiembre. our street is filled with flags. actually, every street! I love it! 











 

First off.. happy birthday to the best mom in the whole world tomorrow! I wish that i could be there to celebrate with you, but know that i´ll be thinking lots and lots of you and that i love you more than you know! :)

and also, happy birthday to Ryder on Sunday! give him a big kiss for me :)

well, transfers came and i got transfered. I was very very surprised to say the least. Sad too because i just felt lots for Agua Santa, loved the area, felt like people were waiting for me, but i was there for a short while and enjoyed it lots. I told the R.S. to pray that i´ll return one day! its great there. But I am now in Limache, it´s the interior of Vina, about an hour away in micro. It´s definitely more campo here. reminds me of Paraguay a little bit. I have only had about half a day here... not even, but i love it already. It seems that the people are more receptive, more humble, ect. My comp is Hna Gatica from Santiago, Chile. She has one transfer LESS than i do. So we´re both new in this. But honestly, i´m SO excited to work with her. She has the desire, the attitude to work and i love that about her. She´s a convert of 3-4 years and has a solid testimony! Talvez, no sabemos todo. but we´ll learn together. Also, Hna Riggs lives in the same house as i do as well, so it´s WAY fun to be with her again :)

well, recap of the week with the investigators in Agua Santa.

Hna Parada was sick a little bit again (i think that´s why she stayed in Viña, closer to medical, but one day, i knew that she could leave if it was just for 2 hours because the pills she was talking were helping and she seemed just fine. I asked her, Hna, can we leave for a couple hours, bring the pills and if you don´t feel good, we´ll come back, she didn´t want to and i was talking that we have citas and that these people are waiting for us and i started to cry. Felt so dumb, i was just frustrated more than anything and wanted to work and help people. We didn´t end up leaving that day, I think she felt bad because she apoligized for not being able to do it, but we still got some work done this week so that was good!

Ivana, went to mutual with us, and met the mujeres jovenes. She enjoyed it. She´s so great. We taught her on saturday as well and really focused on church attendance. She told us she didn´t want to go to church so we asked her why, she said, she doesn´t want to go solo, we told her we´d pass for her, ect ect... but she just didn´t want to go. I think it´s because NO ONE in her family asiste so why would she? Her grandpa was there too and was just like, we can´t go! I wanted to say.. YOU hermano can walk just fine, maybe not your wife but you can take your granddaughter to church!! but i refrained and said it in a nicer way! ha! I think with Ivanna it´ll take time, she understands and wants to learn, but just time she needs.

Pedro came to church! oh, i was SO happy. we went to talk to the Bishop and then entered in the Chapel and he was sitting there with his mom! My smile i think was so huge. but my heart just felt so happy that he was there. As for his drinking, still doing it, but for him to actually come to church and sober was HUGE! oh, i hope he sobers up and really understands the importancia de the gospel.

Elizabeth. i can´t get over how solid she is. She is a golden investigator. We weren´t really sure if she´d come to chuch, and we walked outside to see if we could see her walking and right at the moment she walked up the stairs. SHE CAME! She stayed all 3 hours (which is also hard for chileans because they all think they need to prepare lunch) and took notes the whole time, asked questions, ect. Later that afternoon we taught her and she had lots of questions about baptism for niños so we left her with Moroni 8 a leer and i know she´ll read it. She is amazing. Understands everything, wants to learn, just needs to accept a fecha.I think it´ll help to have more friends in the church too. lots of mujeres su edad.

Omar- he didn´t come. that little stink. but i love that his wife is so open about the gospel with him. We passed by to say chau to him and his wife was saying, when they get sealed, they want to go to salt lake and that i´ll come to their sellamiento. I´m gonna write him a letter and really really invite him to read the book of mormom and be open to change. thats one thing i´ve learned here on the mission. If people don´t want to change, they´ll never recieve their answer. but if they have a heart open to change and recognize that they can be happier, thats when the change happens. and it´s SO fome (lame but a little stonger) because we can preach and teach but we can´t force them to do anything! I just wish we could sometimes but everyone has their agency.

Here in Chile September is a huge party. 18 de septiembre is just a grand festival and everyone is off of work and school and stuff. lots of Chilean flags up this month, i love it. the typical dance, called Cueca (i think). It´s fun. The ward here has a big party next monday and it´s good because it´s our pday so we´ll go to that after studies and internet and todo! also this area, it´s only one ward, but the area is so big that there are two sets of missionaries in different parts! kinda interesting, but it´s fun because we have lunch together and everything!

we had a noche de hogar last week and the little girl with the fam was conducting. and she goes, ¨la primera oracion por... no las misioneras porque siempre son largas, entonces..you lo hago¨ (la first prayer by... not the missionaries because they´re always long, so i´ll say it) it was SO funny. it was Laura, the pic i sent. her and lexi need to be penpals. Laura to practice her english and lex to learn spanish. if you want to jac, get on my facebook and can do it from there.. she added me, just have to accept her! ha!

Also, my new comp, like to run! oh, i am STOKED. and there is this little park super close to our house and it has exercise equipment. it´ll be go great. seriously to leave in the morning for exercise make all the difference in the day!

This morning during studies we were talking about the difference between the word Preach and Teach. To teach is just to talk, people can learn, but to Preach is to put committments and really help them change. I thought it was interesting that the word Preach is used so often in D&C and not teach, and also Preach my Gospel, not Teach my Gospel. food for thought.

Well family, next week i´ll know more about the people here! I´m excited to meet them all and start working with them. Right now there are 3 fechas and we´re gonna put more! I love you all, think of you often and am so thankful for this knowledge that we have of this gospel. It´s true.

Keep Smiling,

Hna. Sargent



 

 

 

 

 

 



hna parada and i en el micro

Laura en agua santa.. she was like my little Alexa!  

this street had two different names... hard to find the house for sure!

Omar and his wife. i´ll miss them...  

 

 

Hna Gatica and I

Can´t beleive it´s September this week. This week I will hit my 6 month mark in the mission. Crazy!

 

This week was good, Hna Parada was sick again, some ovary infection, they thought it was appendisitis at first, but luckily it wasn´t and now she is feeling much better, however we weren´t able to work for a couple days so that was a bummer, but igual tuvimos buenas citas!

This week we saw some success with menos activos. Really, my heart just hurts for these people that they don´t have the knowledge or understanding, but at the same time i just love them. I really do just love these chileans and want the best for them!

Familia Astudillo, we´ve been visiting them for a few weeks now and teaching there granddaughter, Ivana off and on when she´s there! good news, they can´t go to church because her leg is bad, can´t really walk (the grandma, not Ivana) but we talked to the ward and they decided to bring them the Sacrament every week. So they are now able to take the Sacrament! ah, it made me so so happy to hear that. They have such strong testimonies and I was so happy to hear that they can take the Sacrament. They will reach there goal for an eternal family, i just hope all there family can be reactivated.

Ivana is solid, she always reads when we leave her something and is praying. The other day we asked her why she wants to listen and what she expects to get from us teaching her. She said, to know that todo es verdadero! Que Bueno! She wants to know and this week shes gonna come to mutual with the mujeres jovenes. She´s great, i think she´ll accept a fecha soon, just paciencia y fe with her! :)

The other menos activa family is the Familia Tapia (reminds me of the fish that we eat sometime, Talapia?)

We passed by last monday night to visit them and they accepted us right in there house!

We shared something short with them and really just wanted to get to know them better, they have a large family, live in a humble home, and just kinda lost there animo to go to church, and they live seriously, 30 seconds from it! but we had another cita with them this week as well and the mom told us, ¨quiero y necesito regresar, este Domingo! ¨(i need and want to return, this sunday) but she didn´t come... bummer. Her Husband did though so i know its just with time and she´ll come too. they are so willing to let us visit them and really enjoy it!

Silvia and Pedro, Siliva is menos activa that came to church sunday! We put a fecha with her son, Pedro (yes dad, i thought of you and my bracelet). The only thing is, he is an alcoholic, so its just harder to find him sober, he didn´t come to church because he was drunk, but everyone can change! and we have a cita to teach him this week.

Elizabeth, she read 14 chapters of el LDM in one week. 14 CHAPTERS! I honestly just couldn´t believe it! I was like... what? Shes not ready to accept a baptism date yet, not sure why because she beleives it, but that´s our goal is to find her need and then resolve it with baptism. She´s also a physical therapist and works with the respiratory system lots with niños. She just soaks everything up when we teach her. I just am not sure if she really understands why we´re there or if she likes to hear the word of God. Either way, shes good. Told us that she´s gonna come to church, so i really really hope that happens! Gonna pass by for her!

oh, este semana we met a lady in the street named Rosa, she is almost 90 but seems like 75... she was talking to us for a while, kinda crazy, but she was so pleasant and kind to me and then she turned to my companion and goes ¨tiene un alma terrible¨ she then goes off how she needs to learn to be more humble and that she´s worked with lots of people in her life and knows when she´s met someone who has Satan in them and that she´s gonna pray that satan can leave her soul... it was SO weird. Hna Parada and I were both just trying not to laugh because she was just loca! ha. needless to say, not going to return to her... Hna Parada felt a little sad, but mostly just was funny!

I was studying Mosiah 2 this morning Rey de Benjamin! i loved verses 25 and 26, 25 says something like... Can ye say more of youself? No. and then says that we´re created by God and everything. Then vs 26 Rey Benjamin dijo, Not even I, your king is more than you. I just loved it because these chapters are tan poderoso and really he is speaking the word of God so strongly but in vs 26 shows how humble he is ahd knows that really we´re all the same and all hijos de Dios. I loved it. Just a reminder to really be more humble and not think that I´m better than anyone!

oh, here in Viña there is a chucky cheese.. how funny is that! I want to have a zone activity there the next change. it´d be hilarious! and a starbucks.. big surprise, huh? Everyweek i find something that makes me feel right at home!

dad, i was in a members house for lunch and i went to the bathroom and they had perfume and cologne, I almost always smell them in every house, not sure why but i do! ha! But i smelt a cologne and it was the same as dads! made me think of him and i told the Hermana and she was so pleased to know that people in USA have the same cologne. yes, her husband is....¨Classy"

Well, that was about this week. Lots of good. This week i´m really hoping and praying for lots of work. Fill the week with investigators for the next change. Transfers are next week so P-day should be on Tuesday, I think. If neither of us gets changed i think it´s still Monday though. not sure what will happen, but either of those two days! The church is true family. Jesus Christ Lives. God loves us. It´s simple. I love this Gospel and this opprotunity I have to serve a mission and the things that I´m learning!

I love you all, miss you, and pray for you always!

Keep Smiling,

Hna Sargent

p.s. oh...michael buble just came on the radio over the internet place... love!