The Only thing that Truly Matters

Hey there mi familia....

 

How fun that Mo and the kids got to come up for a little while and visit! I got her picture and the kids look really big. But I think it's been a really long time for me without seeing them. Mo looks really good too! Oh mom thanks for the recipe I just got it today, but I'm gong to buy the ingredients so I can make some goodies for the members here in Linderos. We don't have an oven in our house so we have to use the oven in the restaurant owned by the members that we live with, but I would just rather make something super easy and delicious in our house without having to bother people. So I have a surprise for you mom...I only hope that it works, I'm going to send two letters!! Wow I can't believe that everyone is getting married right now, good luck with all the work! :D

 

So this week was really pretty good. We had some drama with our fechas this week, Orlando, his mom Gloria and her husband Josè. They had fechas and then they fell because they didn't go to church, so we put another fecha and then they told us that they didn't want to get baptized, but still want to have the lessons and then we just put another fecha with them for the 8 of July.  Ok, well remember the story about the woman who hates me and didn't want us to teach her husband? This woman is the neighbor of our fechas. We haven't had another lesson with her family since, but a few days ago she was at the house of our fechas and she stayed to listen to the lesson. She was alot more cooperative in this lesson because she was actually listening, most of the time. But it turns out that she has been telling Josè and Gloria lots of false doctrine about the church.

 

So we show up for our lesson, and Josè tells us that he doesn't want to say the opening prayer because he doesn't want to be a part of our religion. We start to ask him questions and really the only reason was because he believed everything that this woman had told him about the church. We talked with them for a long time and ended up teaching the word of wisdom...which was most of the debate..and in the end told us that wanted to keep working towards their baptismal date. :D YAY!!! 

 

 

Really I think the only thing that we need to help them with is a testimony of Josè Smith. haha I wrote Josè instead of Joseph...Anyways, really so many people tell us that we talk about Joseph Smith way too much, but in the beginning this is the key in knowing if The church of Jesus Christ was restored and is on the earth. This is the only thing that they need to know right now, because if yes, then this baptism is essential because we have the authority of God on the earth. And we can receive modern day revelation like the Word of Wisdom which is essential in keeping the constant companion of the Holy Ghost and receiving more light and knowledge directly from a loving Heavenly Father. 

 

 

This is my struggle with them is trying to help them feel the spirit and recognize the truth. They have lots of opposition in their way, and false doctrine, but I KNOW that when they receive their own witness of the truth it doesn't matter what is said or what questions they still might have. The church is restored and they can receive all the blessings of the Atonement through faith, repentance, baptism, gift of the Holy Ghost, and then persevering until the end. Sometimes I feel like I don't have enough experience in the mission and I'm not doing things right and I'm not teaching my companion anything, but then I think the only thing that truly matters is that they can feel the spirit and that we love them.

 

We have two other investigators who I just LOVE!!! They are absolutely amazing. The only thing is that they aren't married and living together. Their names are Claudio and Yoselyn (Joseline). They are 24 and 25 and are just so open to the gospel. Yoselyn has attended chruch twice with us already and the only reason that Claudio hasn't is because he has had to work the last two Sundays....blah..pero bueno. They are sooo amazing. We just taught them about the Book of Mormon and before we taught them they were asking questions and telling us that the Book of Mormon had to have been written in the same time as the Bible and it's obvious that there were people here in the Americas! It was like, "WHAT!!! No one has ever explained the Book of Mormon to me without me teaching it to them first!" We are soo excited for them and are planning wedding and their baptism...well, without them knowing! We are going to teach the law of chasitiy this next lesson!! But as far as life goes....I love my sector, my companion and my mission!!! I don't think I want to come home....Sorry I do love you all, but you can come visit me in Chile! We can eat empanadas and completos!! :D

 

Les Quiero mucho. I still haven't gotten my packages, but that doesn't mean that they haven't arrived. Tell everyone hi for me and tell Keely that yes I received her letter and she should be getting one form me in the mail some time!!

 

Todo de mi amor

 

Hermana Thacker

 

 

(Recieved June 25, 2012)

Yes it is a Little Bit Difficult. . . AND I LOVE IT!

Hola el mejor familia en todo el mundo!!

Well sounds like everyone is staying busy right now! Mom I almost forgot about wind in Montana until you mentioned it. I have to say that I don't miss that one bit!! Holy COW!! You have 13 weddings this summer! What the..? Is that like a record for you guys? I have to be honest in saying that I'm not going to miss that at all either! :D 

 

 

Anyways, THANK YOU for the money!! I finally got it! I'm going to have to buy water boots first!! Because they don't have very good draining systems and so the water just builds up in the streets like a river! Yesterday after church I was walking too close to the road and a car totally sprayed me! HAHA But it wasn't too bad and we were really close to the house anyways! 

 

 

But I have to say that I completed 7 MONTHS in the mission last Saturday! HOLY COW!! I still can't believe it! Where does the time go? But so far I am absolutely loving it! It is sooooo amazingly nice to be able to talk and have real conversations with people. I still can't understand everything, but at least now I can understand when they explain something to me. Que Bendiciòn!

 

So this week was pretty good. Bueno, it started out really really good. We put 4 fechas for baptism this week in Linderos, which is totally a miracle. 3 with one family, and another with a 9 year old girl! I think I told you about this family last week, but they are all really receptive to the missionaries and our member friend Marcela, has gone way up and over her call of duty as a member missionary. Seriously, I'm going to be like her after my mission!! I have already decided. But she has been taking the Book of Mormon cds over to their house, because the mom and dad can't read, and explaining and teaching them too. Well, we went over to their house on Saturday because it was the sons birthday, but we also had an appointment with them. We started to talk to them and then they told us that they don't want to get baptized. We talked and asked questions and we realized that they don't completely understand the importance of baptism. The dad said that he thought that he was just gong to be baptized and then go on living his life and not have to change anything. Well, it is obvious that we need to teach with more clarity and go much slower in our lessons.

 

But although it was a bummer that they told us this, they still want to take the lessons. It is actually an answer to my prayers, because I have been praying really hard that they would receive their own testimony the gospel. Because I don't just want to baptize people, I want them to understand, have a testimony, and become active members of the church after their baptism. I think that there are so many that get baptized here without knowing how to cultivate their own testimony, and after time they can't keep that burning fire of the Spirit and then they become inactive. 

 

 

I am actually really excited that we have this challenge with them because I think now we are really truly going to help them with their needs. But the best part is that ALL of them were in church yesterday, plus the sister of our investigator!!!!! AND it was raining! (It's like death when it is raining, no one wants to leave their house.) It was really neat. My comp and I and our investigators, all 5 of them, the President, and Marcela were the only ones in the capilla at 9:55. Mormon standard time is the same all over the world...go figure!! :D

 

But it was really cool! We also found two really amazing investigators. A young couple that are living together and not married (welcome to Chile :D) but are so receptive to the gospel. Yoseline went to church with us too and we had an activity in the church Friday and she came then too. The little things like this really keep me going in the mission! One of the hermanas that is in our zone asked me if I wanted to stay in Linderos for another change and I said heck yes!! And the she asked, but Linderos is kind of difficult isn't it? (We had divisions and she came to Linderos for the day with my companion) Yes it is a little bit difficult some days...but it makes the little moments of success that much more sweet!!!! AND I LOVE IT! I think I love it more because I imaging this is what it is like to work in Shelby. It's like my home. We live with members too, but we have our own little house, and they feed us when we don't have lunches. 

 

 

(Received  June 18, 2012)

Tender Mercies

Hola Familia

Well it was super fun to talk to you all. I think that one hour isn´t enough time, but oh well. It was sufficient for the time being....I guess. 

 

 

So this week was a lot more than I told you about yesterday. Each day is filled with things to tell, but there is only so much time and air to tell everything. Even in a journal you can´t capture every moment. I wish I could show a video of my life to you guys. SO, I have to admit that I am siting in the ciber in Rancagua and I forgot my cord to email my pictures...so maybe next week I won´t send a very big letter and I will spend most of my time attaching photos to send. 

 

 

UM...ok JULES..I know you will read this so I´m going to say THANK YOU FOR THE LETTERS! Wow you have no idea how much joy I get receiving and reading your letters. I seriously read them like four or five times and then tell myself I need to put them away so they don´t distract me! But I love them soo much. I am working on getting your letters sent out too so hopefully in a few weeks you can look for my letters!

This week was pretty good and not pretty good. It was kind of a weird week for us and in the middle we went to Santiago. I like going to Santiago because I get to see a little more of Chile when we ride the train but then I also loath it because it takes an entire day and we are soo tired afterwards. We only have so much time to work and teach and when an entire day is taken away the work only doubles and we have to work that much harder to get back our day we lost. 

 

 

This week it was really hard for us to find members to come out with us to our citas. And only one of our investigators came to church this Sunday... I don´t know what happened and maybe now that it is getting colder the people aren´t as willing to sacrifice to leave their warm homes and go to church. Who knows, but we also struggled finding new people to teach. Lots of people listened but either the person didn´t live in our sector or they didn´t have "time" for us to return. Or in other words they really don´t want us to come back. We did talk to a couple of golden contacts and we are really looking forward to our citas with them. Once again yesterday we talked with an older woman who has cancer, and she was so sweet and really wants to have the missionaries teach her, but she was visiting her son and doesn´t live in our sector.....dang...well, we found a golden contact for the other hermanas!

Even though this week was kind of.....I don´t know the word..a little difficult...I think what I learned is that everyday Heavenly Father gives us little miracles and tender mercies. One day this week we had lots of time to knock and contact people. Well, we received a list of references so we decided to go and find them. The first person we were looking for lived in a house that didn´t exist on this street. So in the process of finding the house we found two really amazing contacts that have great potential to be great investigators and then great members of the church. We didn´t actually contact any of our references, but the Lord placed people in our way that needed to hear the gospel and that were prepared in this moment to listen to us.

Our investigators are at a stand still right now and I´m not really sure what we can do for them. Ivan, our fecha, is doing amazing and we had a really amazing lesson with him about the Atonement and he was in church on Sunday and is just eating the gospel up like peaches and cream.... :) But then we have other investigators that want to be baptized, and tell us they want to be baptized but then won´t come to church..or read the Book of Mormón..ugh...The hardest part is that I don´t want to drop any of them. Anyways we have some good plans for this week and hopefully with our plans and faith we are going to see a lot of little miracles take place!!

Well, sorry about the pictures again...I really am going to send them next week....sorry mom I know you are rolling your eyes at me right now... :)

LOVE YOU ALL SOOO MUCH!!
Hermana Thacker

LIST OF THINGS TO SEND
Maybelline Dream matte mousse pressed powder
Beef jerky--a cd of the primary songs in English (if you can find one, this is for my companion for her birthday..she really wants these songs in English but I want to surprise her with a cd (if you can, if not it's totally fine!).
Olay original face lotion
Neutrogena face make-up remover (in a blue bottle)

 

(Received May 14, 2012)

More Pictures!

Pictures!

Ok here are more...so i cant remember which ones are which but there are some of my companion and I in Santiago, when she cut my hair, and also of a chicken and a little girl. This house was always so crazy to teach in and we almost always had the chicken with us...poor chicken I just know it is going to die soon!!!! But I love this family and I hope that I get to be there some day during the baptism of the mom Paola because she is awesome!

 

 

 

 

 

(Received May 28, 2012)

New Area: Linderos

FAMILIA!!!


So my new sector is totally amazing!!! I love it here in Linderos and my companion is really amazing as well. I was really nervous about being her companion because she only has 6 weeks in the mission and I only have 4 months here in chile, but I know that we are going to learn lots from each other and we are going to see lots of tender mercies here in Linderos. Dad I dont know what you saw on google earth but I am pretty sure that they weren't swimming pools, this I know for sure.  But the town is super small, like Shelby. We only had 47 in Church on Sunday and when I got up to introduce myself to the branch I had already met most of them the week before. haha. But it reminds me a lot of home and I understand a little bit of what it feels like to be a missionary in Shelby! I don't want to say that this sector is difficult because it really isn't. It's just that we are going to have to be more creative in teaching and finding people. In the beginning I was a little desanimada because I felt like  no one wanted to talk to us. NO ONE. It is still like that, but now I know what to expect. This is what happens in a normal day of work.

 

We have about 5 lessons scheduled for the day and we plan to do a little bit of knocking to find new investigators. Well 90% of the time our lessons fall through and we have to do a lot of knocking. Which is fine, now I love knocking doors and talking with people, but what really makes me laugh is that we know that people are in their houses but they don't want to leave because they know it's the missionaries!!! haha But we haven't knocked all of Linderos yet, maybe this week we might run out of houses! :) But there is a lot of work to do with the in-actives here because there are a lot of in-actives!! But really I love this sector with all of my heart already! We live in a little house that is rented out by members who also own the ciber that we send our emails. They are like our parents here in Linderos. They also own a little restaurant so maybe I can get on their good side and get a few recipes for you mom. Ok, on the side be expecting letters in the future, I'm not sure how long it will take to get you guys!

Well, this week we set a fecha with a woman named Gloria! I have been told that it is difficult to set fechas with the people here in LInderos and I believe it, but we are going to work really hard with Gloria. Right now she is pregnant and this means that she is not smoking or drinking. 2 problems down. She is also married which is usually the hardest part for people here in Chile. So, it should be easy right? She told us she is going to pray and that she wants to know that truth. But her husband is really controlling and she told us that he wont let her leave the house without his permission. Well, now our job is to soften the old man! :) No problem, who can deny two sister missionaries!! :D

I was reading this week a lot about faith and for good reason. But I learned a really amazing lesson in Helaman 10:4-5. Wow the scriptures have a brand new light to them as a missionary and I love it. But I know that we are going to see miracles here in Linderos because we are obedient and dedicated to the work we are going to see the Lord's hand in all things. There is never a difficult sector only different people with different needs and all of their needs can be taken care of by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Ok, so a funny story this week. We stopped by one of our investigators that I hadn't met yet and they let us in for a while. Well, it turns out that only the husband is taking the discussions and the wife wants nothing to do with the missionaries.  I had no idea and thought that the whole family was open to the missionaries and I was trying to talk with everyone especially the wife. Then she looked at my companion and our friend who came with us and said, "She doesn't know anything about me does she?" And they both looked at me like...uh oh...and said, "Nope. Ella es tan pesada."  (Look it up, I don't know how to express this in English.) Well the whole night she was trying her hardest to put down every word that I said. And she almost didn't let us have a lesson with her husband. I actually felt spiritually beaten up. It turns out that it was just a joke, but she didn't tell me. My comp did after the lesson. It was such a strange feeling. I have never been in a situation that my very presence angered somebody...I HATED IT!!!! But I don't have any fear, I'm going to go to the next lesson with a white flag of surrender. I hope at least she laughs or something!!!

But everything is great. It is getting colder...but I don't think that I need anything from home. Thanks for the money I haven't gotten it yet but I will look for a place to pick it up. I love you all. I thought about how blessed I am this week to have parents that raised me in the gospel and taught me the principles that I need to have a life centered in Jesus Christ. Mom and Dad you are the best!! Thanks for choosing to raise in the true Gospel of Jesus Christ!! I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!

mucho cariño

Hermana Thacker

(Recieved June 4, 2012)

A Talk with My Mission President

¡Mi querida familia!

Wow! A lot has gone on this week for everyone! We went to Santiago this week and then had interviews with President and yesterday we spoke in a JAS (young single adults) activity in Rancagua!

Ok, so I have my camera cord today to send pictures, but my battery is dead.....go figure. I have so many to send home too. But today we had a birthday party for President in the mission home and I used my camera a lot, so I think if had we not gone I could have sent them home. Oh well. I guess you just have to wait one more week. It's not really that big of a deal because the weeks go by so fast!

This week was a busy one. First of all we had some pretty good lessons this week, but then also we had some disappointing things happen as well. Our fecha Ivan is doing amazing. He is eating up the gospel and now we are helping him quit smoking! He actually told us a week ago that he wasn´t ready for baptism because he smokes and drinks and we hadn´t taught him the Word of Wisdom yet! So we got on that this week and he was already committed him before we started to teach him. ¡BACÁN poh! He came with us to a baptism this week as well and thought it was pretty neat. We gave him a Liahona...which is like the Ensign...the conference addition and left him one of the talks to read about repentance. He read the whole thing and even took like two pages of notes. WHO DOES THAT!?! He is awesome...enough said. 

Well, that was part of the good that came out of this week. One of our other fechas Margarita kind of fell off the face of the planet. She was all excited about getting baptized and we were getting excited for her date and then we saw her smoking with her friends one day in the street. Dang it.  But we taught her the Word of Wisdom and she accepted the challenge to quit. The lesson after that we talked to her about setting a date that she could work up and completely stop smoking. We wanted her to pray about it and choose a date to be her goal. After this lesson she disappeared for a while. All of a sudden she wasn´t home for our lessons and then she lost her phone and we couldn´t get a hold of her for almost a week and a half. We thought for sure that she was avoiding us. Finally we set another cita with her daughter and she was there. We talked about her goals and she knows that it is going to be difficult to quit but that she still wants to! YES! It was a little touch and go for a while there! But the key is to stay in touch with her throughout the week...not seeing your investigator for like a week and a half is like death! 

This week we had interviews with President. I love talking with President! He is so cool. My interview went a little like this: "So Hermana Thacker how is it going?" I talked to him for like 30 seconds about me and he said, "Yup, I know what to do you are leaving Graneros and going to Linderos with a newbie from Argentina......"  "......WHAT!?", was my response.  I told him that I take everything back that I had just told him. SO I am leaving Graneros in a week and going to Linderos in the north. I have heard that Linderos is a little more difficult of an area, but that it is amazing. Next week I will let you know exactly where I end up. I am also farther away from Rancagua which is kind of a bummer but oh well, it will only take a little bit longer to get your letters and packages. 

I was talking to my companion this week about how blessed I truly am to have the most amazing people put into my life. My companion is amazing....amazing and I knew the moment I wished I could have another change with her it wasn´t going to happen. But I am so grateful for the time I got to have with her. I don´t know why I am soo blessed I just know that I am. For one, my parents raised me in the gospel of Jesus Christ and gave me a chance at a young age to come to know my Savior and Heavenly Father. Two, there are so many people in my life that love and support me on my mission, those in my branch, my friends, my family! I wish I could put more that just thank you because those words are so lame in comparison to how I truly feel! Ruth and Dan I hope all is well and that things will get better real soon! Grandmas and Grandpas I love and miss you!!!!

Les amo muchisimo, más que muchisimo pero no sé una palabra que es mucho mejor. :)

Hermana Thacker

(Recieved May 21, 2012)