Well, Cambios came. I am now back in Agua Santa where i was serving before. Mismo ward and everything, but honestly Im SUPER happy about it. This was the ward where i was with a harder comp, so now i can work with my new comp. Hna Valencia de Peru. I am finishing her training, she has been here for 6 weeks and honestly is just full of love. Shes great. has every desire to be obedient and work, so i know that well see milagros.

I was sad to leave Salamanca because i felt like id JUST gotten there. I really think its been the fastest transfer of my whole mission. but the last day i had there i really just wanted to go say bye to Urbano and Henry. But urbano wasn home and we hadn´t had time to go to where Henry works. So i was just kinda sad, but oh well i thought, i´ll write them a letter. but we were walking to a cita on the main street in Salamanca and i look up and up walks Urbano! I was SO happy to see him. I told him i was leaving and he was super sad, like almost started crying, abut told me that he was gonna keep going to church for us. I told him if he was going for us right now, that was ok, but that he needed to look for God and change that desire to go to Church for Him. He promised me that he would. Then we walked a little more and bam, there´s henry! It was a blessing from God. to be able to see both of them. amazing. but anywho, we talked to henry for a while. he said that he met us right when he needed to most, so I guess that some work was done in Salamanca. Just hope them and the other wonderful people i met there will progress to baptism!

My first 2 days back here in Agua Santa we put 3 fechas. they are all awesome! I really like being here again. I went to the ward yesterday and it felt like i was at home again, super strange. everyone remembered me and seemed happy that i was back! NOW i will work with this ward and help it grow. ITs awesome though this area. Every 20 seconds you can see the  ocean and itś just beautiful. love it. itś colder because the ocean, but worth it! also, lots of hills. :)

Thursday, i got a call from PResident. They now have Leaders in the mission that are Hnas and pres called me to be one. the term is Sister Traning Leaders. Basically what it is is that they want that ALL the Hnas are trained well and know how to work. so we will be doing lots of intercambios with the hnas in the whole mission. There are 4 others. Me, Hna Smith (mi hija) and 2 others. Iḿ really excited to be part of it. Every month we have to go to a council with the Zone Leaders and we had a meeting Friday with all of them Pres and Hna Kahnlein. It was GREAT to be part of this council. Its just pure power, all these liders of the mission and to be able to work with them is a priveledge! plus i get all the insights of whats happening in the mish. It´s cool too because now i will work closer with President Kahnlein. So if there is a problem with the Hnas or the Zone leaders want them to work different or something, they call and we set up an intercambio! should be good. Still new with it, but weĺl see how it goes. Everyone calls me... the Hna Zone leader, but thats not what it is. I'm new to it as well, so iĺl keep updating you once i get the hang of it and know more. we had lunch with all of this council Viernes and i was sitting by Pres and Hna Kahnlein and since he served his mission in AZ i was talking to them about going back and told them that our house is open if they ever decide to go visit... hope thats ok :)
They also told me that at one of the conferences the other week Silvana spoke, and she said that the reason she accepted us to go to her house because she´d never felt such love from someone that she´d just met! made me feel so happy. oh Silvana, i miss her and love her!

We were challenged to ask our parents, mom and dad... what kind of missionary to you think i am? and then when we get the response BE that missionary or better. so please tell me... what kind of missionary do you think i am??

this week we met some great people. some are now in progreso de bautismo. yay! Victor, Luis, Karina, Angelica. We are working with them and one thing i LOVED that karina said one day is that shes been looking for the right religion for a while now. And we related her to Jose Smith and how he found his answer and what she needed to do to get hers. I just KNOW that there are so many people here waiting. Definitely gonna go back for those that i was teaching while i was here the other time.

I just want you all to know that i LOVE being a missionary. there are hard days, long days, tears shed for the people, lots of changes (10th comp), the spirit felt muchisimo, and more than anything, lots to be learned. But honestly, its a priviledge (sp?) to be able to help people return to God. To be able to look at these people on the streets and imagine them in white and look for their potential and maybe not really how they are now. To help people understand the NEED for baptism and how they can feel that same happiness every week to take the Santa Cena is incredible. To see these people in darkness find the light of the Gospel is the best thing that i see while i´m here on the mission. I was reading this morning in Alma 33 and loved versiculos 19-23. go read them and pay attention to if we are the ones looking or the ones who lack faith or are just to lazy to look. or how it is talking here be saved from our Savior Jesus Christ who has made the way for EVERYONE of us. pay attention to the last verse the last 5 words. we have our agency. What a gift. God loves us. read it. i know you´ll love it.

Well family, here I am. about 2 minutes from the ocean and can literally hear the seagulls chirping. love it here. i am happy! Let me know if you guys need anything from my part. I always pray for each and every one of you, but if there is more i can do, let me know! LOVE YOU!

Keep smiling,

Hna Sargent

 

Hna Smith and I :)

some views from my new area

mi comp.

urbano

henry!

 

Wasn´t conferencia just wonderful. I know I´m getting a stronger testimony of the gospel when I feel super sad when it ends! I just remember before the mish I would sometimes just take a little snoozer and zone out, but now, its the MOST important thing that we could be doing that whole weekend. I´ll get to some of my favorite speakers later on! 

 

This week was harder than usual. Not gonna lie. I just feel like all these people that we´ve been teaching aren´t progressing anymore. They just are all caught up in other things and aren´t taking this as important that they should, but I guess that’s the mission for us, right? Just happens, but honestly just feels with everyone and not just one person. But we´ve still seen miracles. There always are... just have to look for them!

 

Well, remember Fransisco, sad news... we find out that he isn´t really married to this Hna in the ward, they are living together. ya, crazy, right? But he needs to get divorced and then get married which here in Chile honestly takes at least a year. But the thing is he wants it, just can´t at this time. It’s just crazy that we found out because we asked him straight up and he said yes and then this week asked him again, and then he told us with his ¨wife¨ (women he lives with) I feel bad for him because he needs to get everything in order to receive those blessings. Talked about him moving out, but that wasn´t an option for him. Just crazy because the lady in an active member. Don´t really get it, but that’s how it is.

 

We had the first Branch council in over a year here this week, kinda crazy! But we get a good statistic. The average attendance in the branch in Jan was 33, in Feb 34, and then in March- 48! It´s a HUGE jump. Lots of menos activos, (less actives) visitors, and investigators have made it jump up, but they totally just thanked Hna Paicely and I for it. I really don´t think it was us all the way, we´ve tried to do our best here and really help, but others too have been included. But good to see that it´s improving!

 

My eye has been irritated all week, just like really red, this is nowhere near Robbies kidney stones, I need to read his email more, but the Branch President came up to me and was like ¨hna, I´ve seen lots of missionaries pass through here, I know when they are sad or something happened and I know you feel like this because your eye is all red, have you been crying?¨ I was like, NO!! I´m good presidente, just so funny. I have these drops but they aren´t really working, I´ll give it one more day and then call the mission nurse again. ha! But he was super nice to be conserned for me I suppose :)

 

For our district meeting this week we did a cool activity you could all use in one way or another. We each had to find our fav scripture about Baptism and then stand up one by one in front of the baptismal font, read the scripture, bear testimony of the blessing that baptism brings, and then invite the room to be baptized. It was just really cool to see everyone do their own invitation solo and the spirit was super strong. Then our District leader testified that baptism is why we´re here. We need to talk about it everyday, every lesson, with every person, because it´s the only way that they´ll reach full happinesss. Thought you could maybe use that idea somehow with YM or mission prep, or Rob for you mish if you are DL one day!

 

John Henry- meh, he just likes to listen I decided but isn´t acting on anything, but is coming to church, so confusing! He just needs to read the BOM! I KNOW with my whole heart that his life would change. Now he isn´t scared, just is busy, so he says. He also expressed his love for Hna Paicely. Like serioulsy, not just the ¨I LOVE YOU¨ yells that we hear all the time here from men, but he openly told me that he likes her, but knows she’s a missionary and he would never act.  I had to relay this all to Hna Paicely and she was just like  ¨WHAT?¨ no, he just needs to get baptized.  But Henry, hopefully we see a change in him this week cause if not.. chau.

 

Urbano- he bought us earrings. so nice of him! He is just really confused with the gospel and we´re helping him, but his wife who is ALWAYS there talks WAY too much, so we´re gonna try to have lessons with just him or something. We need to. He is awesome, just needs to understand better so he can be a LIDER!

 

Funniest line of the whole mission maybe... ¨soy ateo, gracias a Dios¨ (i´m atheist, thanks to God) I heard it and just started laughing instantly. Couldn´t hold it in. Makes no sense! Seriously. But so funny. Still laugh about it.

 

ok, so conferenica! oh. Loved it so much.

some of my favorites...

Craig Cardon- ¨the Lord looks at our Desires and Acciones (actions) of our hearts and then forgives us¨

just liked his whole talk really, God loves us, so of course he forgives us when we mess up and then repent.

 

Elder Cook: Peace. How could I not like it right? But serioulsy, where do we find peace? In our Savior Jesus Christ. Peace is not only desirable, but a gift from God.

 

Elder Anderson- Go missionary work! He hit it RIGHT on the mark. Seriously. Loved when he said, go find your missionary badge and put it where you can see it. Also, when he said that ¨our desire to take the gospel to someone should take us to our knees¨

 

Elder Holland- how does he do it? EVERYTIME. He is a true discípulo (disciple) of Christ.

 

They were just all awesome, but those are some that I can remember of my head! The song I enjoyed so much was, ¨Where Love Is¨ haven´t heard that song in forever, but loved it.

 

Well, this week are changes, I think we´ll know tonight or tomorrow what happens. Lots of Hnas coming again so it´ll be good to see if there are lots of changes! Don´t want to leave, but I´ll do what the Lord wants me to do and do it happily :)

 

Love you all SO much. So thankful that we could hear the profeta and apostles this weekend and now we can start applying what they said in our lives TODAY!

Hope you´re all happy! Happy Birthday Jac and Skye this week! Party hard.

 

Keep smiling,

 

Hna Sargent

 

 

 

 

my district! 

conferencia en ingles! ha! ward clerk office :)

What in the world. It’s April. Seriously? I thought about playing an April jokes fool on you guys, telling you I tore my ACL or something again, but then I thought, well if the connection doesn’t go through well or something, they’d KILL me. So I decided not too. But I sure hope that Grandpa called and told you there was a spider on your back mom! 

 

Well this week was good! I mean, it can´t be bad while your on the mish, can it? There are weeks that are for sure slower, and not as successful, but even with weeks like that you really just remember the good things. Here are some of the great things that happened this week:

 

Fransisco: he is the husband of a hna in the branch here and he just started coming to church randomly with her and her daughter, so we’ve been working with him and he keeps coming, but he is like SUPER hard to find in the house with work and such so we haven´t been able to teach him as much as we´ve wanted to. But this week we could, we taught him and he had questions, one of them that I loved was... ¨how do you know that there is a profeta (prophet) today in the world, who is this Jose Smith guy? Insert Restauración! (Restoration) He totally understood too. Then we talked about the LDM (Book of Mormon) and how he NEEDED to read it to know and he says he wants to know so of course he´ll read it. Then we invited him to be baptized and at first I was like nervous to invite him, which I´m usually not. This is the best inivation anyone can offer, but I said, it´s satan that is making you nervous, just invite him! The worst he´ll say is no, so we did, and he accepted! He said, ¨me gustaría entrar las aguas¨ (id like to enter the waters) it was just cool to see him accept. Obviously, if he is coming to church it´s for a reason, not just to dink around, right? So he was great!  We’re now working with him more regularly! yay.

 

John Henry: he is progressing, he just has fear to read the BOM, because of all the things that he´s heard and what the bible says, ect ect. but he is coming to ALL of our citas, (appointments) comes to church. He is awesome. I just KNOW that once he opens the LDM for himself that he won´t be able to stop. but he feels good when he is with us, he loves the church, ect ect. just want to see him in WHITE! He listens better than any other investigator that I´ve taught I think. He is really just looking, and needs to feel love from God again, but he´ll get there. We’re working on him!

 

Irene: this girl we just found randomly, we set an cita(appt) to go back and teach her. Went there and taught her the restauración. When we read Santiago 1:5, she just started bawling, and said that she’s been asking for knowledge for a long time from God and that this scripture just spoke to her. We asked how she was feeling and she explains that she just thought she´d practice English with us and that she never accepts religious things in her house, but then she got this little message from us. After she explains all of that she just goes ¨bakanpo!¨ these are very typical words from Chile, bakan, is like sweet, cool, and po, well, who knows, just a Chilean thing that I Iove! ha! But she obviously felt something, but we just have to help her get more Faith in God!

But mom, how do you do your hummingbird water. We were talking about it and she thought it was SO cool, but she wants to know. Is it just water and sugar??

 

We are trying more to talk about Fam History in contacts, and we did practices with it in studies and were so excited to talk to people about it, the spirit of Elijah is starting to trabajar (work) in me! (and by starting, i mean, centimeter por cenimeter) but we get out on the street and the first person we talk to about family history just says, ¨nope, don’t really care¨ it was just SO funny to us, we tried so hard to be all positvas about it and then just shot us down. Just hilarious for some reason, but were still doing it! More luck will come if we keep doing it!

 

Yesterday at church was great! Sacrament meeting was ALL on the Savior, I had to talk about the Expiación, (Atonement) which I remembered when I was 12 I remember I was asked to talk about the Atonement and I remember asking dad, what is the atonement? I didn’t even know! and the changed the topic for me, but now, 10 years later, I couldnt imagine my life without it! It was great to study it and  really remembers everything that the atonement entails. It’s a ton! I’m sure I don’t even understand all of it, or not even close to all of it, but I am SO grateful for it in my life. To be able to repent, to be clean, and to really feel that love and forgiveness from God! The atonement in itself just shows that love that God has for every single one of us. To send His Son for us, wow. Talk about true 100% love and for Christ to bring it to pass for us, another 100% love. Can’t wait to be able to give them a big ol´ hug and say thank you!

 

On another note, while we were in sunday school a drunk, well, plastered man walks in to the church, and sat down and just kept interrupting, but what’s a whole room full of mormoms gonna do, kick him out? No, so he just keeps getting up moving around the room, yelling out things, looks at me and Hna Paicely and just expresses his love for us, ect ect... but one thing that to me was just hilarious that he said was ¨Soy profeta¨ (im a prophet) ¨soy enviado de Dios¨ (im sent from God) I just started laughing, this poor man. I just feel bad for people like that but hope that they can be better! But soon after he was escorted out by un Hermano en la rama! (a brother in the branch) maybe we’ll meet him when he is more sober and he´ll be a miracle bautismo! There is always hope, right??

 

Well family, everything is going here in Salamanca. We´re working hard to find those who are ready now to accept the gospel, trying to get those pepole married and learning lots! I love this work, I love being here serving these people I truly love so much. Couldn´t imagine my life with these Chileans!

 

Glad to know that you´re all doing well, know I love you all and pray for you!

 

Keep smiling,

Hna Sargent

 

 

 

 

the cutest bunny i saw all week :)

hna Paicely and I, Happy EASTER!

im still huge! really, just never gets old, does it??

 

 

mi familia! espero que sepan que les quiero muchísimo! (family! i hope you all know how much i love you!)

 

this week passed so fast. like it was just monday to me. i still think this whole new area and all is why it´s flying by! can´t believe it. but it´s all good.

 

I´m just really grateful for the Spirit this week and the little promptings we get everyday from the Spirit and if we follow them how we can really receive more and more... this week we felt the little promptings lots, just want to share some experiences with you all...

 

Viviana and Ruben- we were walking on the street, on a way to a cita (appointment) and we passed a mom, dad, and 2 kids, with tons of groceries. we passed and then i just knew i needed to turn and talk to them. We talked to them for a while, got there address and had a cita with them. it was great. they have 3 kids, 7 year old twins (boy and girl) and then a 11 year old, Jordan. We taught them and they had met and heard from missionaries before, but nothing happened. taught them a great lesson and then invited them to be baptized. well, viviana accepts baptism, but can´t because they aren´t REALLY married (EVERYONE HERE- it´s crazy) but then her son, Jordan (11) goes... ¨but me, si!¨ and i asked him why he wanted to be baptized and he just looks at me and goes, ¨to be with Jesus¨ how precious is that. I know that this family is ready. they need it, they want it, Ruben just needs to put a ring on it!

 

John Henry- we were walking through the plaza to head to lunch, we are walking, get the the crosswalk and have to wait. it turns green, but i see this black man walking towards us. hna Paicely says... lets go, and i say, wait, i want to contact this man. So we wait on the other side of the street and we stop him, start talking, end up teaching him a lesson in the plaza, and at the end Hna Paicely asked him why he is here in Chile, because he is from Colombia. He answers saying, i don´t really know, and we testify that we know why and that he needs to hear our message. We invite him to church and he says he´ll try. Well call him sunday and wake him up and he was like.. we´ll see. The opening hymn is being sung and he hasn´t showed up yet. i felt to turn around, so i did and there is Henry, waiting to come in uncomfortably. but he came! stayed for church and is VERY intelligent in the bible, waas a missionary in the evangelical church for a while, and then got far from it. During the sacrament i gave him a folleto (pamphlet)  to read about the sacrament and repentance and baptism, ect... he reads a quote on Repetance and turns to me and says.. ¨i need this, this is how i feel¨ He is awesome. just like REALLY smart. beleives that God, Christ, and the Holy Ghost are one, but hey, we have the restored gospel and that trumps everything else, right? oh henry. he is great!

 

Sergio- this joven (young man) of 25 años (years). found him contacted one day and he doesn´t believe in God much, well he does, but i think he is trying to be more like artsy and not wanting to believe in God. but, we taught him and asked him to say the pray at the end. he accepted and we asked him who he prays to when he prays and he said ¨algo¨(something) ¨las estrellas¨ (the stars) but we taught him how to pray and WHO is was praying to and he says this prayer... no joke 10 minutes. prays for everything from kids in africa, to politics, to chile, to basketball. he really just expressed what he was feeling. afterwards it was funny cause he just said all these chilean words, but he was sincere and thats what really matters. who cares what he prays for, he prayed to God and i know that God was just SO happy that he was able to do it correctly.

 

Urbano. un menos activo (less active) went to his house but he wasn´t home but used the bathroom of his wife and while we were there, got home! taught him and told him that in church i´lm gonna have a post it with your name on it so you can´t miss church. and guess who showed up in this white shirt and tie and sat in the seat with his name on it! Urbano :) He told me that he saved the little paper in his suit coat to remind him everytime he wears it why he came back to church. now he says he will be there next week, and after, and after, and forever! just gotta get him to the temple to be sealed with his wife!

 

This week i guess in Salamanca is like crazy for Semana Santa (Holy week/easter week). it´s like one of the biggest fairias (holidays) in Chile. people come from everywhere to sell there goods and buy things that they probsies don´t even need, but i´m excited. i know there are tons of gatherings in the plaza, right by the catholic church with like celebrations of Chirst and stuff... i think it´ll be interesting. just sad to me that these Catholics celebrate the death of Christ and not his birth. He LIVES! i know it and thats what we should be celebrating. not the death. but i hope you all have a HAPPY EASTER. hope the easter bunny visits and that you can dye some easter eggs.

 

Plans for today... gonna go eat at this chinese food place that looks bomb. haven´t had chinese food in over a year, but it´s chinese people who work there. why they are in chile, beats me, but hey, everyone needs a taste of there culture! 

 

Know that i love you all mucho and am working hard to get these milagros (miracles) here in Salamanca. People are progressing, people are acercando a Cristo!(coming closer to Christ) that´s my purpose. So glad that we have the Espíritu (spirit) to help us and lead us to know what we need to do in our lives. live worthy everyday to be able to have a little bit more of the Spirit in your lives. Study it, pray for it, and recibirán! (receive)

 

Love you all.

 

Keep Smiling,

 

Hna Sargent

 

still a giant

this is a live parrot on my head!! 

 

Hola Familia-

 

Another week that just flew by! Seriously, so fast. And sometimes I just don´tt know how I can keep doing this schedule, at times I feel beyond exhausted, but with a little pray and water I seem to find my way!

 

This week was great. We had to travel 2 hours in bus to go to a conference with a couple other zones. It was awesome. Just love to meet as a whole group of missionaries, president and hna Kahnlein! It´s just fun. We talked a lot about helping the members, how our prayers need to be better and how to act on the Spirit and have Faith. It was very good. Some of the things or quotes that I liked and want to share with you :

Pres told a story of a 90 year old lady who just recently got baptized and just received her patriarchal blessing and in the blessing it said that she should have had the chance to accept the gospel when she was younger but the missionaries who were gonna teach her decided not to serve or couldn´t. then Pres thanked us all for being there and being able to find those people NOW who need the gospel and not have them wait years. Just crazy how the plan all works out but how every detail counts.

 

Also this quote: experience is what you get when you don´t get what you want

I also really enjoyed talking to Hna Kahnlein this time. We were the only other hnas there so it was just fun to talk to her and to get to know her better. She´s awesome. Can´t imagine how she does it with her kiddos.

 

These week we´ve found some great people and seen progress with others. They seriously ALL just need to get married. I don´t know why it´s so hard for people here in Chile. Like, they´re basically married just with out the paperwork. Just go sign at the registro civil and listo!

But Evelyn- we found here and she wants the gospel for her family! We taught her the restoration because she had questions about the sacerdocio and everything after the new pope was named, but we taught her and we get to the BOM and are explaining it and she goes, ¨no normal man could write all of this, so it has to be from God!¨  WHO SAYS A QUOTE THAT ELDER HOLLAND SAID ONCE? Seriously, it´s like she was listening to Elder Holland right  before we came. But it´s so true. The LDM is powerful, anyone who reads it will change there life to follow what it teaches us. And if they don´t, they aren´t really reading it!

 

Oracio- he wanted us to speak to him in Ingles because he lived in the USA for years. Lets just say, I can´t speak English very well. Especially the gospel terms. So sad, but it was funny. Just all laughed about it. But he is great too. Soaked up the lesson like a spounge and said, you guys have a church here in Salamanca? We answered, yes! And he said. ¨I will go¨. He also talked about how the world is just confused with the religions and everyone should try to find the write one. Think he´ll be getting his answer here quickly.

 

Karina. Is still great, but doesn´t want to get married, so we are helping her with that, also she is moving soon too, hopefully she´ll stay in our area, if not, sad.

 

Oh my gosh, time is going way to fast today! But I want to send pics so i´m gonna send this off. I have so much more I want to say, but oh well. Life goes on.

Just know that i´m happy and that I love the mission. Like always. 

hna paicely is doing well. gets very very stressed about the language, just pray for her! even though she´´s doing great! just lack of confidence! 

Love you all,

keep smiling,

Hna Sargent

 

yes, i am a giant in chile. hope you get a laugh at these ones! 

one of Hna Paicely and i at the conference. right in a beach town if you can see it atras! so beautiful :) 

 

well, this week sure just seemed to fly by, not sure about you guys, but really, it´s monday again. 

ok, Q looks so cute and seems happy! glad you´re treating her well. Be her family until hers gets home! 

Happy Birthday to Makenna and Byron this week! whoo-who! can´t beleive that you´re all growing up and getting so big. hope you all eat some yummy cake for me :) know that i love you and will be thinking of you that day!  

REally this week was just WAY fast. really can´t beleive it. We´ve found some great people, some interesting, and some from all over the world. 

First off because there are NO hermana missionaries in this whole zone it´s about 4 hours north and 4 hours south until you´ll see another everyone is just so happy to see us. many people let us in and teach them, but then they don´t want to really progress. not all, just some. but at least we have the chance to teach and tesify and thats whats most important. Especially with Hna Paicely in training. she´s doing SO good. she gets frustrated with the language lots, but she´ll get it. and her work ethic and diligence is awesome, so this gives her oportunidades to teach and testificar. but we have some great ones! 

Karina. ok, this girl, we just randomly knocked her door our second day here and we went back but she wasn´t there... so we passed by again and she let us in. she is looking for this gospel. She has a notebook and is writing the answers down to the questions of the folletos and is awesome. i think the best lesson 1- the restauración from my whole mission has been with her. she just understood everything. Asked us.. ¨so all the churches in the world now are wrong?¨ when we were talking about the Apostasía and loved hearing about Jose Smith. just loved it. The unica cosa is that shes convivo. living with her BF. blah, but we are working with her. Fam proclamation to the Workd, ect. She loves it. I just hope that she´ll get married, or leave that house so she can be baptized because she wants it. 

Perla and Glenny- these people, i with i was teaching with Melissa Marshall. i just know she´d love them and there accents. they are from the Domincan Republic (i know you all just thought of In The Heights) and they are HILARIOUS. like seriously. During one of the prayers this week Hna Paicely was saying it and right in the middle Glenny yells out. ¨Oiga, no te escucho, habla mas fuertepo¨ (wait, i don´t hear you, talk louder) Talk about the spirit leaving for a second. But they are good. they both have hard lives, are working here but have kids in the DR and are just spunky and full of life. have lots of faith in God and just need the gospel NOW in there lives. They are doing good, praying that they´ll progress. 

We found this lady yesterday who just opened her door, i felt super strongly when she answered that i had to testify of families and how our message helps us progress and ser mas unida. she let us right in, and it came down to that she wants her 3 hijos to know more about God and learn about Him and she likes how our church has classes for them. also liked hearing about Soc soc and how she can learn how to be a better mother. She said it was hard to be living with her BF, another one not married, but i told her that i´d bring her a copy of the Fam Proc to read and she was SO happy about it. i want to meet her bf too and see how he is! maybe this is my family! :)

The other day we had lunch with the presidenta de Soc soc and she gave us this yummy pasta with pesto. side note... EVERYONE gives us food, drinks, ect ect ect. it´s ridiculous. if we say no, they still give it to us. i´ve never been in an area like this. good think i exercise in the mornings. but anywho, this pasta was bomb but way too much. Hna Paicely was like dying, every 3 seconds i´d hear a small sigh and i knew she was about to give in. but she diligintely ate all of her food and then the hna brings out 8 peaches, 4 for each for dessert and hna paicely just belts out ¨CUATRO¨ i lost it, i was so full, i understood exactly how she felt and i was like... no way 4 peaches are fitting in my stomach right now, but after laughter i explained to the hna that we´d be happy to take them for later on when we´re hngry again. we left the house and just were SO full. ridiculosly full. but funny.  

There are lots of menos activvas here. we are working with them. We went and visited one and he said that he´d never let the elders in, but the hermanas always because he was baptized by hnas and just loves them. Reminds me lots of Hna Apablaza so i know that he´ll come back with time. Another hna Irma, she came back to church sunday for the first time in years. it´s just crazy what one small visit can do for others and how they just need a little reminder maybe. but sad story, when we were with Hna she fell in her house, shes like 80ish and is unstable, but she fell, i felt so bad but i was like 2 seconds too late to catch her, but i just dropped my stuff and sprinted over to help her. luckily she didn´t get too badly injured, just a bruise i think. but so sad. don´t want to get old. KEEP EXERCISING G&G, it´ll help you! everyone for that matter :) 

This rama is chico. but it´s good. lots of love, not a ton of support in the obra misional but we´re helping them. We are now teaching YW and also Seminary to the youth. it´s good to do, and i´m happy to do it. it´s just prep time that we could be using for investigators but i know that God will bless us for helping the ward. i just know that there are lots of people who are capable of doing it. sometimes i feel like the brach pres saw missionaries and says.. oh ya, they´ll do it, but there isn´t really revelation for these callings. It´s a small branch but i honestly think to give people callings, they´d be better members and more supportive, but it´s ok! I am happy to help. just gonna look for the liders still. 

well, I am happy here in Salamanca. the sun is still shining and i just hope winter doesn´t come too soon. need to mentally prepare myself for that. but i love this work. I just cant seem to do everything i want to do in one day. they just seem to go quickly. but know that i love you all. know that i have a testimonio of this gospel. i love it. I am so grateful for it. we are blessed. don´t know how many times i´ve said that this past year in emails, but i hope you all understand how blessed we are. 

hasta lunes. Keep Smiling, 

hna Sargent

 

 

 

fam apablaza before i left Limahce!

Hna PAz and Hna Contreras! 

this dog was hilarious... not really sure why. 

EVERYONE serves us sandía and it´s a forth of the whole thing... can´t complain though, i love it. 

Hna Paicely and I :) shes half somoan and half black!

nahhhhh.

activad today... completos. lets just say if hnas weren´t there it wouldn´t have looked this good.

last one and NOT for the BLOG!! 

sometimes this is just how i feel at the end of the day and my hair has to just be put up!! 

Well, thanks for reminding me everyone, that my year mark hits this week... seriously, SO WEIRD. I don´t like it. I feel like I have like 6 months in the mish. just want to be a missionary forever! Lets just stick with Robbies countdown, not mine :) 

Well, this week was just SOOOO fast. Did anyone feel that? Seriously, maybe it was the transfers, leaving Limahce, or a new area, but it´s just SO fast. Anywho, it was still great.

 

Let’s just say it was sad to say bye to Limahce... after 6 months, lots of Love for the people there. I really didn´t feel like I was leaving, but when it was time to leave, I was sad. I remember someone told me once ¨when you leave an area it should feel like your heart is breaking, and when it breaks, it means that you´ve given your all.¨ But the last day there we moved houses and I had to help get that one ready for the next hnas that come, then Silvanas family took us to Viña! Silvana just cried when I had to say bye to her. So sad, it´s crazy the relaciones (relations) that are formed on the mish, but I know I´ll see her again and we´ll skype mucho despues la mision! (Skype much after the mission) I really loved Limache, but now it´s time for a new adventure and new milagros (miracles)!

 

This new swarm of missionaries came in this week. 33 in total. 17 hnas! It was a very spiritual change meeting. It was just powerful to think of this work moving on, growing more. Hna Riggs and her mom were there mom! I saw her and she gave me a huge hug from you, and she was crying! They gave me the package from you guys, and also they had brought me one too, with a shirt and earrings, so nice! Thank you for the package! Loved it. It was fun to see her and talk to her and hna Riggs before she leaves. Can´t believe that she´s gone. Strange.

 

But I got my new comp and this meeting. Hna Paicely from St. George! She’s great. She just wants to be perfect in the language now and it´s hard. I honestly feel SO blessed though with the language that I had and was able to communicate when I got here. It wasn´t perfect by any means, but I never had a melt down about it, and she’s had a few, but she honestly speaks good and just needs to have more confidence, so we´re working hard on that. She just wants to be a great missionary, has a strong testimony and a huge desire to work which is great. Reminds me of Brooke Foster sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes I just start laughing cause it´s something Brooke would do!

 

My new area: its called Salamanca. It´s about 6 hours in bus from Viña going north, close to Illapel. It´s a small community, with farms and desert, just google it! ha!  We didn´t get here until about 1;30 in the morning Thursday and it´s a new area. There hasn´t been hnas here in this Branch for about 15 years! Everyone is SO shocked that there are hermanas here. The branch is small... like 30 people, I think it´s struggling a little bit, but it´s all good. They really just need help, lideres (leaders), and more Fe (faith).

Presidente came up to me after the change meeting and told me that he felt very strongly that I needed to be in this area and open it. Said it´ll be hard, but I want you to look for people who could be liders (leaders) in the church and teach them.  Pray for that specifically.  Then Hna Kahnlein came up to me after and said to Hna Paicely that she was lucky to have me as a trainer and that President trusts in me alot with this new place. So right now we are trying our best to know the area. We have seen lots of people open their doors and are just trying to find new investigators and work with the menos activas (less actives) cause there is like 300.

 

We have had at least 5 people tell us that we´ll convince everyone to come to church and be baptized because we´re way prettier than the Elders. ha! So funny. Skye always taught me flirt to convert, but that does NOT work on the mission nor do I want it to work here on the mission! Truly converted is my goal :)

 

Since we only have about 4 days here we are still finding lots of people. But yesterday there was this man named Oscar.  He has 92 years old and he understands EVERYTHING. I thought he was like 75, but we were talking to him and he told us that he is sick and it´s because of his pecados ( sins). He honestly feels bad for his sins and we talked to him about Baptism and repentance and he said I´d pay to live these last parts of my life with a path to God. It was just awesome. The only thing that will impide (is that a word?) is his health and getting to church.  But it´s Marzo de Milagros (March of Miracles) so it´s possible. It´d be so cute to see this little old man get baptized and know God before he moves on from this life! We´ll see what happens with him.

 

Lots of people here live together, like LOTS. But just gotta get them married and listo (ready).

 

Dad asked me some questions I´m gonna answer:

 Tell about your church time.  Do you ever have to teach? Which classes do you go to? How is leadership?

Well, this ward is way different than the others I´ve been in... we are in charge here to teach YW and every other week the Gospel Principios class so ya, we teach lots. My other wards, just once in a while. There were teachers for those. But the leadership is goodish, it´s just different than the states. This branch doesn´t have too many that are leaders, but the other wards there were good leaders. It’s just new still here I think to Chile! But they´re good. Just haven´t learned what the leadership entails. Does that help?

Do you ever get to the beach areas for Zone or other meetings?

When I was in Viña, yes. And we only go to Viña if there is a whole mission conference or changes. We went to the acutal beach once for an actividad (activity). But now I´m about 2-3 hours away from a beach, that’s what people say. So don´t think I´ll be seeing the ocean for a while :)

Well, I don´t even know if this email makes sense... just feel like it´s all over the place. But I am happy and that’s what matters. I´ve decided it doesn´t matter where I go to serve because it´s the same gospel in every place and everyone needs it! Love the mission. Glad I´m training again. It makes me a better missionary!

Also, one of the nuevos (new missionaries) came up to me and goes. Hna, I´ve been blog stalking you for about 4 months! Thanks for everything! ha. Glad my blog is helping someone :)

Glad to hear you´re all doing well. This week we want to find 3 people that can be baptized in March! Pray for us please :)

Love you all muchísimo!!

Keep Smiling,

Hna Sargent

p.s. Our house is HM. It´s seriously huge. and we step out and we´re in the main plaza here. I love it!