peace and love

Well, this week has been super awesome and has gone very fast and very slow at the same time but there have been so many things that have happened

it is starting to get cold

i am here wearing a jacket and a scarf and things because it is cold

also it rains sometimes

also we are seeing more and more advertisments for the new avengers movie

or captain america movie whatever the heck it is we keep seeing more advertisements

and we're dying

i've missed like

400000000000 MARVEL MOVIES

but it's fine it doesnt matter i'm not affected by it at all it doesnt drive me to do stupid things with my companion like paint our faces like iron man and captain america and do laundry

but anyway

to more important things

this week was great and i had exchanges on wednesday, so i went and spent the day in Simon Bolivar and we hung out and did some missionary work and ate some spicy mexican food because one of my hermana leaders is also mexican

View in Simon Bolivar
(an area - not the military leader)

and then on thursday we did some things as well and i told a really funny joke that nobody got 

it was so good

why didnt they get it

and then on friday we worked and worked and worked 

and then on saturday we were teaching a little boy and we asked him 'where did you live before this life?' and he goes 

'me?' and we say 'yes' and he says 'oh, i lived in conce' which is the abbreviation of concepcion which is another city in chile and it was just really funny and i think i've just told the second joke that people arent going to think is funny for this week

dangit jim i'm a missionary not a comedian 

Dangit, Jim! I'm a missionary, not a comedian.

and then on sunday guess what happened

just guess

I GOT TO SSIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNGGGGGGGG ayayayay que extraño TANTO CANTAR [i miss SO MUCH TO SING]

we sang in sacrament meeting 'A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief' and also i had to direct the hymns in sacrament because the chorister didnt show up and it all just felt so much like being at home that it made me feel weird

but it was great :) it's been a great week

i have learned a lot of things and even though maybe nothing super big and special happened, we did a lot of missionary work and i enjoyed the week and we also goofed off and also made food and also just are always running so it was really good.

Empanadas

Makin' empanadas

it's always ALWAYS ALWAYS important to find happiness in everything that we do and the easiest way to do that is by living the gospel. If we live the gospel; if we live the principles we teach, we will be able to find peace and happiness in every single moment, whether you're eating bolivian posole (EXQUISITO) or running around with water sloshing in your boots; laughing with your companion or running up 7 flights of stairs, you can find peace in every moment of every day. Maybe not always happiness, but always always peace. I testify of this gospel and the blessings it brings to families and to individuals and I testify of the healing power of the Atonement. I testify of our Savior´s great sacrifice and I testify of God's plan for us and our divine identity as children of Him. I testify that if we live the principles we know, we will find all that we are looking for. Whether it be through our trials or our triumphs, the Lord is always with us and that i leave with you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Have a wonderful week, enjoy the premier of the avengers movie for us, dont forget to pray and read your scriptures and go to church and remember

AMP

ACTITUD MENTAL POSITIVA [positive mental attitude]

hut hut

HIKE

lots of love from the country that is shaped like a chile

and is called chile

hahahaha

haha

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[sometimes the photos come with no explanation :) And see below for updated mailing information. ]

Dear Missionaries and Families,

We have decided that we only need to have one address for delivery of both letters and packages for our mission.  We will be using the building address for delivery of all mail for the mission and the missionaries. 

Starting immediately, please ONLY use the following address for sending any and all letters, mail and packages.   If you have already mailed packages to the other address (Patronato post office box), we will still be receiving them for a while.  However please do not mail any further letters or packages to that address.

The current and correct address is:

Mission Chile Santiago North

Maria Graham 312

8420164 Recoleta

Región Metropolitana Santiago

Chile

Please note this address for any future correspondences and/or packages.

Thank you,

Hermana Harrison

:)

Hna Schomburg and Hna Molina
It's a very blurry photo, but she said it was her favorite.

Welp, this week was another week of being a missionary! We missionaried all the week long! In the rain and with the sick and always and forever; missionarying because WE'RE MISSIONARIES

so yeah

i just barely a couple of days ago got my voice back and just yesterday i was able to sing again

I DIDNT REALIZE HOW MUCH I MISSED SINGING

I LOVE SINGING SO MUCH

and well also we missionaried

just 

we have been doing a lot of missionarying. I love being companions with Hna Molina; she is such a consecrated missionary and i feel like i am learning so much every single day. 

Every single day i feel the spirit stronger in my life and every day i feel like i understand better the principles of the gospel. I am finding more and more love for the Savior and more and more love for all of mankind. I am so grateful to be here and I am grateful for the chance to talk and testify and wear the name of Christ over my heart. It really is a great blessing and privilege and the longer i'm here, the more i realize that. 

I'm sitting here trying to think of things that i could tell you all that happened in the week (as usual) but i just feel like there's nothing more important that i could say than to make sure you all know that this gospel is true and that Jesus Christ lives and that he loves you all. 

I simply cannot imagine my life without the gospel; i cannot imagine what my family would be. I have been reflecting a lot on my family this week and our story of how we came back to church and all that and i have been realizing more and more as i see more and more miracles here and realize that the Lord's hand is everywhere that none of this has happened just by chance. God really did make a plan before we came here; we really did live before as spirits in one big old family and we are all here with the same purpose; learn and progress and get back to our father! Everything that I have been through; everything that my family has been through, has been with an eternal purpose.

And not only that, but every single person; every single family; every single being has an eternal purpose. We were all called before this life to do something great; something wonderful. We are so special :) WE ARE SPECIAL CHILDREN OF GOD AND HE LOVES US

i cant say it enough

he loves us so much

so

what are we going to do to show him we love him back and appreciate his love?

Keep his commandments. Every single one. I was thinking the other day about how hard it is sometimes to remember and follow every rule in the mission and that after the mission it would be so much easier

when it dawned upon me

that all of this is preparation for life after the mission (duh)

but i mean 

all of it

i cant just only be exactly obedient as a missionary; exact obedience is a life principle and we need to all be doing it. We must all be exactly obedient to all the commandments; there are (almost) no exceptions. 

I say almost because, well, sometimes you've gotta kill Laban; sometimes you have to eat the forbidden fruit; but FOR THE MOST PART, there are no exceptions. And when we make exceptions for ourselves, we are only making ourselves a roadblock to more blessings. 

Dont be your own roadblock! 

Keep the commandments; every single one! And find that the blessings are worth it. Elder Nelson said in a conference we had a few months ago that keeping the commandments is more important than literally anything else that we have to do. Keeping the sabbath day holy and buying pancito for once (not that a lot of people here do that HAHA *sarcasm intended*) is the difference between obeying the commandments and disobeying and that is the difference between salvation and

the other thing. 

So, choose wisely what you do! Follow the commandments and the Lord will make sure that everything else you do works out fine; he loves us and the ONLY thing that he asks of us is to obey the commandments. 

So just do it!

I love you all; I love the gospel, I love Jesus! In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

SEE YA ALL LATER

oh my gosh wait

holy cannoli

mothers day is in like

not a lot of time :O the last call home holy cannoli

yeah okay I'M NOT TRUNKY

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Milanesas Napolitanas and Fajitas Mexicanas

I LOVE THE TEMPLE
I LOVE THE NIGHT
I LOVE THE RAIN
I LOVE MY COMPANION

Santiago Chile Temple
Holiness to the Lord - The House of the Lord

who pressed the mute button

well

i heard that

my house flooded this week

literally what

ok

I'M NOT SAYING I'M FREAKING OUT BUT I'M NOT SAYING I'M CALM EITHER

[No need to freak out, but indeed, the house did flood: kitchen, dining room, and basement.  We're looking at several weeks for mitigation and remediation as they dry everything out, replace the hardwood on the main level, and replace the carpet, walls, and ceiling in the basement.  This too shall pass...]

but okay anyway, let's talk about this week

this week we had zone conference and it was super awesome and also i got the chance to go to church here in my new ward for the first time and meet everybody! But a whole bunch of people werent there actually because Peruvian elections were on Sunday and all the Peruvians had to go vote and stuff and there are a lot of people from Peru in my ward, so I didnt meet everybody, but I met a lot of people and it was great! 

What else happened... 

haha, i always think of so many things that i have to tell you guys during the week and then when it comes time to write i have NO CLUE WHAT HAPPENED DURING THE WEEK. 

but i do know ONE thing that happened this week

well, on Saturday night i started to feel a little bit of a scratch in my throat and i thought, 'better start cuidándome [taking care of me] more so i dont get sick' but hahaha I WAS TOO LATE so on sunday i was feeling REAL NOT GOOD and then

yesterday

we started the day and it was all good but then i had a prophetic revelation (no apostasy intended) 

i stopped on the sidewalk and said to hna molina 'i'm going to lose my voice today' 

and by the end of the day i could no longer speak even though my throat didnt hurt or anything, just i couldnt speak

and actually

hahaha

i still cant speak

i feel like the little mermaid or something, but oh well. these things happen. Hna Videla said she's going to get me some antibiotics because she thinks i might have

a thing

and i couldnt tell ya what the thing is that she thinks i have because lol it's a spanish medical term and i understand almost 100% of spanish but medical terms

i dont even know english medical terms how do you expect me to remember a spanish one

but anyway so there's that

it's been really entertaining

we had a lesson with a slightly drunk man yesterday (it's a long story) and he kept insisting that i talk but all that came out were like man-bear sounds hahaha but yeah

it's quite frustrating actually. you all know how much i like to talk and also it's kind of in the job description, but it's kind of IMPOSSIBLE for me right now so yeah that's a struggle but hey, it cant all be rainbows and butterflies; sometimes it has to be floods and mute-ness so that we can learn to appreciate more what we have while we have it and so that we can recognize more fully the hand of God in our lives. Opposition is vital in our lives and the more i go along learning things here in the mission the more that i appreciate the role that opposition has in my life. If we all stayed in the same place all the time doing the same things without any problems or loses or wins, we would never learn anything and we would all just be robots with skin

dont be a robot with skin

learn from mistakes! use the atonement and repent! find the joy in every moment, even the bad ones! be happy! or be sad! i dont know, but pick one! and learn from it! and realize that it's better to be happy and then just keep being happy! 

I love the gospel; I love the Lord; I love the mission; I love my family (like a ton). Keep on keeping on everybody, no matter what situation you're in in this moment. It'll all be okay; say a prayer and get to work! The Lord will be working at your side. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK EVERYBODY LOVE YOU ALL 

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Such a nerd - self-professed even!

shut up, drunk

Hna Schomburg and Hna Molina

i think probably my favorite thing about having a latina companion is the language barrier because it just

is so fun

i  mean, sometimes it's really frustrating, but i'm at a point now that it doesnt frustrate me so much and it's more just all learning and teaching and i really especially like the language barrier when funny things happen

for example

the other day we were walking along and a drunk man started yelling things at us and so we ignored him and he just kept yelling and yelling until we were around the corner, and Hna Molina, who knows quite a bit of english, a little bit later asked me

'tendría sentido decir (would it make sense to say), 'shut up, drunk'' and then i laughed for a long time and told her it makes sense but it would be a little harsh but just

oh man

i didnt tell that story very well but it was HILARIOUS let me just tell you

BUT ANYWAY

so 

let me tell you a story about my sector

once upon a time i was in a sector that was SO LARGE and that had SO MANY THINGS in it

like La Moneda, Cerro Santa Lucia, Plaza de Armas, el Teatro Municipal de Santiago, also the Registro Civil which is a big deal, also like 6 metro stations actually, i think i mentioned a number that was lower last time but i was mistaken, but anyway, MY SECTOR IS HUGE AND I HAS A LOT OF STUFF. And it is SO FUN i love it so much

and

i

love

hermana

molina

she is my Mexican twin. 

Basically, we've had AN AMAZING WEEK. We have done TONS of things and I have met TONS of people, but seeing as we had general conference, i havent met all of the ward yet. But the people that i have met i already love as well as the people i havent met because i just have a lot of love in my heart right now and i just LOVE EVERYTHING. 

We had our first district class this week and it was awesome; i'm excited to get to know a new zone as well. I was always afraid before to get to know Zone Huelén and i dont really know why but i've gotten over it now because it's AWESOME here and just

I JUST LOVE THE MISSION

IT'S HARD AND IT'S TIRING AND USUALLY YOU DO EMBARRASSING THINGS ON A DAILY BASIS BUT 

I

LOVE

IT

SO

MUCH

and that's all there is to it.

Also

let's talk about general conference for a second

holy cannoli general conference was probably the BEST THING that has happened to me in a long time and if you didnt get a chance to watch it, FIND A CHANCE TO WATCH IT BECAUSE YOU NEED TO WATCH IT

I loved loved LOVED everything that they talked about, especially that we need to remember who we are. That meaning, that our first identity is as a child of God, and after that comes the rest. We really need to start prioritizing our lives, putting the things that matter most at the top and doing them because we are not just preparing ourselves for our entire lives to die; we are preparing to meet our Father in Heaven again and we cannot wait to start. 

I dont have a lot of time today, but I want to encourage you all to watch the conference if you didnt, and if you did, watch it again! We have a living prophet and I testify of him and of the truth of his words; I testify of this church, it is the only true church on the earth today and it is the restored church of Jesus Christ; he is at the head of this church and leads and guides us. I love the gospel! I love my Savior! and I love all of you too :) and that is my testimony this week in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK I WILL TRY TO SEND SOME LETTERS OUT TO THE HOMELAND SOON I LOVE YOU ALLLLLLLLL 

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