Hola hola hola, so this week was a little bit different, and we weren`t able to write yesterday, and we only have ten minutes to write today, so this will be rather short, but I`ll try and fit it all in.  

SO Roxana and Miguel:  OH MY GOODNESS, so last Monday, the day before they were going to get married, they called us because Roxana had gone to ask about the issue with the house - whether they were going to lose the house if they got married.  Well, they told us over the phone, rather depressed, that it had not gone well at all and they we should come by the next day.  We stopped by the next day and Roxana told us that she had gone to ask, adn the man there said that, yes, she would probably lose the house if she got married.  She postulated for this house 12 years ago and the due date to give them the house is in ten months.  So they decided that they were just going to have to wait for awhile to get married and baptized.  Ugh it was one of the worst days of my mission.  Roxana said she had been crying the whole day because they both had truly wanted to start this new life together.  I had recently read a talk by elder Scott about making decisions according to eternal truths instead of circumstances and it was an incredible talk.  If we make our decisions based on what we know to be right and are obeying the commandments of the Lord, the Lord will guide us in the way we need to go.  If we make our decisions according to the circumstances we`re in, we will take ourselves away from the path God wants us to follow.  We talked to her a little bit about that, and she said that they almost decided to just go the next day to get married, but then she said she was overcome by fear, that she really didn`t know what she would do if they weren`t able to pay the rent and she didn`t have a house for her four children and told us that she was truly scared of what could happen because of hard things that had happened in her life before.  She had to be the mother for her little brothers at age six and was on the streets alone at age twelve.  It was so difficult.  But then she told us that the man that she asked about the house said that he could possibly give her a different answer in a little bit after the new president of Chile gets settled... It`s a little bit confusing the situation, but I`m still holding out hope that it can happen.  Their family NEEDS the gospel.  She told us that she hopes that her children can go on missions and be like us.  I love them so much and I hope beyond hope that their family can continue in the gospel.

BUT, we also have transfers.  And it turns out, I will be leaving my lovely Patagonia.  HOWEVER, I will still be in Punta Arenas.. I`m actually just moving to the sector right next to where I am.  The ward where I will be going, Magallanes, before only had missionaries, and me and my companion (Hermana Palma, from Chile) will be the first sister missionaries there.  We will be dividing the sector with the elders and opening that sector together, which means that we will be starting completely from zero.  The President of the mission called me the other day to talk to me about the ward, and he said that this ward needs lots and lots of help.  The assistance is really low and almost all the members are over 60 years old.  They also need a different bishop, because the bishop who is there right now became a widower the last year, but there is not one other man in the ward who is fulfilling all his duties as a priesthood holder to receive the calling. President Rappleye told me that we need to really find young families to help the ward.  Sounds like a challenge sector, but I have complete faith in the Lord that he will help us do just that.

ANYWAY, also the reason we didn`t write yesterday was because we went to THE EIGHTH WONDER OF THE WORLD.  REally, it was recently voted that.  the Torres del Paine National Park.  It was the most incredible thing I have seen in my whole entire life, I was absolutely in awe.   We left at three in the morning to get there, and to return in time to get back at six to start working again.  But I`ll have to describe it and send fotos the next time because I have no more time, but I love you all so much!! a more cohesive letter the next time!!!!

WELL WELL WELL, hello dearest everyone, an incredibly INCREDIBLY stressful week this week.  Sometimes I feel like we have to be in ten different places at once doing ten different things, but that´s how you know you have an incredible sector when you wake up in the morning wondering how you´re going to get it all done.  

SO, Roxana and Miguel decided they were going to get married and then baptized and they told us they were just making some arrangements and would let us know when the date was.  Well the end of this transfer is the 27th and I have a feeling that I´m going to be sent to another sector because I´ve already been here three transfers, almost five months.  Somehow Roxana and Miguel found out that I might be leaving soon, so last Monday, Miguel went early to the Registro Civil to ask for an hour in which they could get married and while we were here writing, they called us and told us they were going to get married the 18th.  We were so excited we jumped out of our seats and possibly shouted a bit.  

WELL, they told us that, to get married, they first had to go to pre-marriage session thing with a judge where they sign papers and the judge explains the law to them y toda la cuestion.  Anyway, to get married, they also needed two witnesses, so they asked Hermana Marín and I to be their witnesses.  It turns out that if you have your identification (your carnet) that you live in Chile, it doesn´t matter if you´re a foreigner.  The only other requirement is that you are not mentally handicapped, you´re of age and that you understand and speak Spanish.  SO we met all the requirements.  The day of this pre-session we arrived at the Registro Civil and I toold Hermana Marín that I was semi-worried that the judge would ask me a question with a word that I didn´t understand and I would be thrown out for not sufficiently understanding Spanish.  SERIOUSLY STRESSFUL.  I think I was the most stressed of everyone there that day.  ANYWAY Hermana Marín told me that if I didn´t understand something I should start coughing and she would try and divert the attention of the judge.  Have we taken this too far yet?  Anyway, we went in to the office of the judge with the huge desk and the four chairs awaiting us and the big Chile flag behind.  At this point I was RATHER stressed and nervous.  Roxana, Miguel, Hermana Marín and I entered and in a couple minutes the judge came in.  She started the process and I hung on every word, just in case.  At one point she started going on in legal jargon which is where my Mock Trial years came in handy as I semi-recognized the words she was using.  My lovely companion was so worried that I wasn´t going to understand something that, when the judge started telling stories that didn´t have anything to do with the process, Hermana Marín started repeating everything she said in a really loud, animated, slow voice.  "Su HIJO" or "La COCHE... WOW!!!!" 

ANYWAY, the only problem is, the judge started telling Roxana and Miguel a ton of reasons why they shouldn´t get married.  One of these reasons was that, Roxana had postulated for a house from the government, and they had been waiting nine years for this house. (all six of them sleep in one little room together and their is only one other room and then the bathroom).  The judge told them they could possibly lose this house if they get married.  This really worried Roxana and Miguel and they said they´re going to ask about that today.  If it´s true, they´re not going to get married and they´re going to wait a year until they receive their house to get married and baptized.... my companion and I have been praying and fasting a lot so that that won´t happen.  We´ll see what happens.. we should know what´s going to happen in about an hour.  like I said, a very stressful week, still very stressful.

BUT I love it, I know the gospel has changed their lives, we have seen incredible miracles in them, especially Miguel, the photo is of one of the kids, Lydia (age 7).  She said she wanted to be a misionera, so she went and put on a skirt and tights and boots and a backpack.  We gave her a plaque and she went and found the book of mormon they have.  I hope they always stay in the gospel, I can´t imagine how wonderful it would be if their kids served missions.  Truly the gospel is the way to change lives.

I love you all!!!!! 

SO, winter in Punta Arenas has almost set in.  We had about two weeks of lovely summer with sun and less wind y toda la cuestion, PERO, this week we witnessed a torrential rain pour with top speed wind.  It was ABSOLUTELY FREEZING, but thanks to a wonderful family, namely the Smiths, I have a beautiful, warm coat that even says Patagonia, which is what my sector is called.  It was meant to be. But anyway, my companion left in the torrential rainpour and the wind was so strong it pushed us along and I thought, here we are walking around in the freezing cold, nobody´s here to make us do it, and we could really just stay in the house wrapped up in blankets, so why are we out here? And I realized, my true motivation comes purely from my desire to serve my Savior.  I know He has asked me to bring the gospel to His children who don´t have it and the real reason I am outside every day is for the love that I have for Him and for His children.  So bring it on Punta Arenas.

ANYWAY this week was the baptism of Angel.  I don´t think I´ve even mentioned anything about him in my letters because I´ve been talking so much about Roxana and Miguel, but his story is incredible.  He´s been investigating the church for two years and when I got here, he had a testimony of the gospel and a desire to be baptized, but he had to get married first to Joyce, who is a less active member who has been slowing returning to church as the missionaries have been teaching them.  The thing was, many, many missionaries tried to help them to make the decision to get married and Angel wanted to, but Joyce always had a problem, she knew she wanted to, but she had suffered from depression as well as obesity and all of these difficulties pushed her farther away from this decision.  As I said, when I got here, Angel already had a testimony and a desire to be baptized.  Who really needed help was Joyce and after years of missionaries, I think it really helped her that sister missionaries arrived because she could confide in them her problems and difficulties a little bit more.  We helped her start reading the Book of Mormon and we saw a complete change in her, Hermana Letcho and I especially saw a great change in her, she had more energy and she was really committed to changing her life and starting to complete with the covenant she made at baptism.  Well they had set many dates for marriage and baptism, but this last week, they finally finally finally got married and we scheduled the baptism for Angel.  

His baptism was one of the most beautiful baptisms I have seen.  He´s very quiet and doesn´t say much, but I could see how happy he was.  During the baptism, I had decided I was going to ask all the elders in our district to sing with me and my companion and ask the five year old daughter of Angel to sing with us.  She´s not his biological daughter but he´s raised and cared for her since she was born.  Anyway, as we were teaching them, we also taught Vania (his daughter) Soy un hijo de Dios.  She would always sing it when we came.  So for the baptism, we all went up to sing and she stood on the little pedestals with all us missionaries around her and we sang Soy un hijo de Dios.  At one point as we were singing, I looked up to see Angel sitting in the front and I saw that he was crying.  I have never seen him cry before or since.  

Well, he was baptized, and then after his baptism, we had a little reception thing in the chapel afterwards to celebrate his baptism and their marriage.  One of the sisters in the ward who had accompanied us to some of the lesson had connected with the missionaries who had taught Angel over the years and who had returned home through Facebook and asked them to send videos.  So many of them sent videos and then during the little reception thing, she had put all the videos together along with a video from us and she asked for everyone´s attention and told Angel that there were some people who wanted to be here with him, but couldn´t, and they she played all the videos with Angel and Joyce standing in front watching, and at this point, Joyce started crying.  After the videos, Joyce came up to me and gave me a big hug and whispered "thank you for everything, it was all worth it."  I think that moment I will always remember.  I know everything she had gone through and I knew how long Angel had waited to be baptized, and to see them all there in this moment was incredibly beautiful.  I have no time to describe how beautiful it all was.  And with their other little son running around laughing his head off.  Ahhhhh this is what life is all about.  The next day Angel was confirmed and after church we went to their house to teach them and they´re already preparing on going to the temple to be sealed as a family.  its very expensive to go from Punta Arenas to the temple and they don´t have a lot of money but I told them if the remained worthy and worked hard to lograr esta meta, the Lord would do the rest.  That´s always how it´s been.

ALSO I HAVE NO TIME BUT ROXANA AND MIGUEL JUST CALLED TO TELL US THEY´RE GOING TO GET MARRIED THIS WEEK AHHHHHHHH!!!!

i LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!

photos of Angel and Joyce and us and also the elder in our ward who baptized him.  best day of my life. i have a lot of them

SO continuing the stories at top speed with the ten minutes I have left! 

So Roxana and Miguel were progressing really well and we knew that we needed to teach them the law of chastity because if a couple is living together without being married, they have to live in different places or get married to be obeying this commandment before baptism.  Bueno.  So we taught them, and they were a bit apprehensive about the whole thing, Miguel especially.  We told them we would leave them to think about it and talk for a couple days.  A couple days later, we taught them the plan of salvation and it was an incredible lesson.  This sector in Patagonia has really become sacred ground for me because I have really found a lot of confidence here.  Here I have really understood the power and authority I have as a representative of Jesus Christ.  I have learned how to listen to the Spirit and testify with the words that the Spirit has given me.  In the blessing I received before I left on my mission, I received the promise that I would find great beauty in the Spanish language and understand the concepts of the gospel and internalize them in this language.  At first I wondered how that would happen, but being here I have really found my style of explaining the gospel.  Because I am speaking Spanish, I have to say the things directly in the way that I know how.  And I have found such beauty in speaking very straightforwardly with the people.  They need to know exactly what they should do, and if you tell them with love, it really touches their heart.  ANYWAY, returning to the story, Roxana told us she wanted to get baptized but that they decided they weren´t going to get married for a while.  Well this week every thought that I have is thinking about them and thinking about how we can help them make this decision.  A couple days ago, we were fasting for them, that they would make this progress, and we went to visit them, and Roxana said that she had been talking to a member who we had brought to some of the lessons and she was showing her pictures of people getting married in the temple.  She said that she wants to be sealed to her family and we were talking a little bit more about that and we were explaining to miguel that, and he told us that he had been thinking a lot about it, and that he had realized that his eyes had really been opened through what we had taught him, and that if Roxana wanted to, he wanted to get married and baptized.  an absolute miracle.  I was so happy.  I love their family so much and I just want to see them happy and united.  We will have to work with them a lot to complete this goal but this was a complete miracle.  When we found them, two months ago, Miguel had abandoned the family two days before.  That´s what I call progress.  The picture that I attached is of all the family at the birthday party of the emely, the little baby, who turned one.  the other is of a service activity we did pulling weeds.  yay!

Oh also we have a baptism this week, another miracle that i´ll have to explain the next time.

love you all!!