Week 17, (Lontue w/ Hmna Rojas)

Unfortunately, all we received from Hmna Davis this week was the following email exchange:

Ynez: "RESPOND ASAP!!!  I'm kinda freaking out.  I keep getting emails saying
           my emails aren't going through!"

Family's reply: "Email received at 6PM.  R things OK now?"

Ynez: "Yeah!  Phew, I was sweating!"

Then, that was it. :(

Mission Change! Week 16, (Lontue w/ Hmna Rojas)

Howdy fam!!! 

Zone leader called at 6:45 this morning, ***"Entones, Hermana, que piensa? va a quedar o se va?"  

"De verdad, elder, no tengo idea! Estamos SUPER nerviousas! Solo se que no quiero ir!" 

"Ahhh yah... hmmm... interesante...  Bueno, ...entoces,  quieren saber?"

"Si po!" 

"Listas?.......SEGURAS????" 

" YA PO! Elder! Diganos ya!!!"   

"Bueno, entonces, Hermana Davis... se va!"

"En serio elder?!!... A donde?!!!"

"Se va a...quedar en Lontué."

 "Ay! Choota, Elder! Me mata!"  

***["Well then, Sister, what do you think?  Are you going to stay where you're at or get moved?"  

"Truthfully, Elder, I have no idea!  But we are SUPER nervous!  I only know that I don't want to go!"

"Ahhh yah... hmmm... interesting...Well, ...then, do you want to know?"

"Well, YES!"

"Are you ready?..........ARE YOU SURE?"

"Come on!  Elder!  Tell us already!!!!"

"Alright then, Sister Davis...is going!

"Seriously, Elder!?! ...To where?!?"

"You are going to...   ...stay in Lontué." 

"Darn it, Elder!  You're killing me!"]

 

Same for my comp too, we are both staying in Lontué, which means we are now officially going to be mission Chile Rancagua (with Elder David Archuleta... or David Enchilada, as Trent likes to call him). That also means that we have another 4 week combio [change] instead of 6 weeks. To be honest, I was SOOOOO relieved because I really thought/feared I was going to leave because the Branch President asked me (on Friday) to give a talk in church Sunday, I thought for sure it was going to be my "farewell Lontue" talk lol.  BUT it wasn't!  I've got at least another 4 weeks!  WOOHOO!  And my talk went pretty well!  According to the members I did well, and they claimed they understood everything I said, that it was"clarito" [really clear].  Then after Sacrament meeting I taught gospel principles again, it was awesome!  I was busy busy busy.  I love it!  Its super fun! 

 

This week has been a fun one!  We found the most amazing investigator last week, sooo soo "escogida" [chosen].  The only problem is that she is going through a series of test and stuff in Curicó and Santiago because she is having problems with her gallbladder, so she is really hard to catch at home.  She never really knows when she is going to have to go and take another test or run to the doctor. ...AND she doesn't have a cell phone because it got wet a month or so ago and she doesn't want to buy a new one and change because she has a plan with the other one. lol   Ohhh the life and challenges of a missionary.  Her name is Elizabeth and she has a daughter that lives with her who's like 5 years old and just the cutest little stink you ever did see.  Her name is Aranza.  Her husband's name is Eduardo but he doesn't really want anything to do with us at this point, but she is such a trooper and she has so much faith that he will come around, it is so sweet!  She wants to get baptized really bad and she LOVES it when we come over, she loves to hear about the gospel and everything,  To her, every little bit of it is "the most beautiful thing she has heard", haha love her!  Saturday she committed to come to church with us but when we passed by to "pick her up", her older son said that she left earlier that morning to take more tests in Curicó.  I try to hope for the best and believe what people say, especially since she is so awesome, but you wouldn't believe how much people lie here!  Children too!  They always answer the door for their parents when they don't want to deal with us and say that they left to go shopping or whatever, when a lot of the time we can see through the curtains that they are there or can hear them in the background.  Most of the time my comp. and I just shake our heads and laugh, but it can be frustrating sometimes. 

Other than that, not much is going on, except that it's FREAKING cold! lol  I bought this cheap fleece sweatshirt in Ropa Europea [a store named European Clothes] today.  Its kind of the coolest sweater I've ever owned, it's kind of ugly but not at the same time! [sorry, not even Dad can translate that].  It's made of that fleece with like this really old fasioned multicolered print, it reminds me of old cabiny & backpacking gear that we have fleece. it´s pretty sweet. [still got nothing]

Big huge thanks to the Loudon family for their letters! It was so sweet of you to take the time to do that for me!   Especially with the new baby (which is gorgeous by the way, nice job aunt kimmy ;))!  hope the family is happy and healthy! Love you all!

Week 15, (Lontue w/ Hmna Rojas)

HEYYYYYY!!!!

This has been a crazy week! We are actually in the mission office right now in Concepcion. We found out on Friday that we had to travel to Concepcion today because Hna Rojas needed to come here to work on some of her visa stuff. Not going to lie, I'm a little disappointed to be stuck here in the city while the rest of my zone is enjoying the fresh air in the mountains up north... choota!  But that kind of thing happens some times.  I feel blessed to have the opportunity to visit the mission office and visit with some of the missionaries that are down here in Conce[pcion] for the last time. 

Oh! getting here was fun too!  We took a bus from Curicó at like 8:30 last night and arrived here at almost one in the morning. The Elders that work here in the office took us to the nearest house where sisters live and Hmna Rojas and I slept on the floor in their front room.  It was kind of a cool moment though, one of those times when you are able to take a step back and realize, holy cow! I'm ACTUALLY here! I am living in CHILE... I'm IN South America! sleeping on the floor in the front room of this nasty run down little house! HOW COOL IS THIS?!?!?!  How many people can say that they've been where I am or experienced what I am experiencing? 

 

Hermana Rojas and I are learning a lot together!  Every week is a little different with new adventures and new challenges. This week we felt our burdens were weighing pretty heavy, feeling like we are doing the very best we know how, but also feeling like our efforts weren't cutting it, weren't good enough - beating ourselves up a bit. We had an interview with the AP [Assistant to the President] that is over the mission change (he's from Conce but they're sending him to work as an AP in Rancagua when the mission changes) and we were expressing our concerns with him and he pretty much just came out and told us that we were being TOO hard on ourselves and that we need to pray and ask the Lord how He feels about us, not rely on other people or numbers or anything else to tell us, because Heavenly Father knows us and understands our situations individually and He knows our hearts and exactly what we are doing and what we are trying to do. He said that Heavenly Father wants us to enjoy every minute of our mission and that if we aren't enjoying absolutely every minute we should help each other to cheer up. The Lord knows our hearts and our sacrifice, he doesn't expect perfection RIGHT now.  He understands we are new, we are human, and we are trying.   Hearing that was exactly, exactly what I needed to hear and was such a blessing!  I really think I was focusing too much on the little stuff and beating myself for not being a Perfect missionary 3 months into my mission.  The AP reminded us that all the Lord requires is our best effort, and as long as we give our all, day by day, and learn to LOVE the people, we will be happy and enjoy every day of our mission - our sorrows will be swallowed up in the joy of Christ. 

 

The baptism this week was SUPER awesome! Shania was confirmed yesterday and her MA Grandma who hadn't been to church in who knows how long came! AND she was talking to me after sacrament meeting and telling me that as she was getting ready to leave for church, her husband asked her "Por que no seguimos adelante?... Pienso que debemos seguir adelante.  [Why don't we continue forward?...I think we should just continue on]."  I almost jumped out of my skin for excitement!  She said that they both will be there the next week at church, and also, in Shania's blessing (when she was being confirmed) she was blessed that if she continued to be an example, her family would follow and return to the church and become strong together and better their situation as a family!  SO, we made sure and visit them after church yesterday and we made an appointment with them to have a FHE [Family Home Evening] along with a family that they were friends with way back when they attended church.  We are super excited to see what will happen!

Sorry, but once again I don't have the stuff I need to send photos, but the next week, si o si, voy a mandar por lo MENOS un foto [I am going to send AT LEAST one picture]. 

I love you! Congrats Trent, Zoe and Lucien on your awards!  Be good for mom and don't drive her nuts just yet, summer is just starting!  I LOVE YOU ALL soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much! We find out cambios [changes...this next change could mean a companionship change &/or an area change which will also determine if she will be changing to the Chile, Rancagua Mission or staying in the Concepcion Mission] a week from today!  WOAH! Vamos a ver que pasa! Caul mision? caul mision??? :) Que eten super bien! Les amo muchisimo!!!! chaou!  [We'll see what happens!  Which mission?  Which mission? I hope everything is super good!  I love you all so much!!!!  bye!]

Week 14 (Lontué w/ Hmna. Rojas)

halo!

This week has been really good!  SUPER busy, I almost feel like we were running to and from appointments more often than walking.  This week in the consejo de lideres [leader's council] they changed the standards for edificadores de rama [branch builders] back to the normal mission standards, which means we spend less time working with menos activos [less active members] and conversos recientes [recent converts] and more time looking for nuevos investigadores [new investigators] and teaching them. I like it but at the same time I was a little sad because, although many of the menos activos [less active members] are SUPER duros y tienen orejas sordas [hard and have deaf ears], some of them are really awesome too, and for some reason I really enjoyed working with them.  But now we are still edificadores de rama [branch builders], it's just that we cut back time hunting down and teaching menos activos [less active members] and have to look more for new people, however we are also still supposed to hold 2 activities weekly (ie clase de ingles y noche de deportes [english classes and sports night] ) and monthly activities for the wards/branches. Also it's tough because we are only supposed to visit like 3 conversos [converts] and 3 menos activos [less active members] weekly so it feels like we are leaving a ton of them behind because we have to choose super carefully who we will visit, but we are working with our lider misional de rama [branch mission leader] and figuring out how we can best divide the work so that we don't leave a bunch of people behind. Sometimes it really feels like we don't have enough time in the day or in the week to visit all the people and do all the things we need to do, we just can't run fast enough sometimes! lol ...but honestly, I like it better busy than if it were slow, because I really feel like we get a lot more done and like I'm fulfilling my purpose as a missionary.  Also, our lider misional [branch mission leader] has continued to be a huge help!  Sometimes I honestly feel like we are more of a trio than just my companion and I!  It's awesome!  This week we have a super cool activity planned to encourage the branch and get them excited about sharing the gospel and what not.  Also we have a baptism planned this Thursday for an investigator named Shania. She is 13 and super awesome! She has attended church like 5 times now, her mom and grandparents are menos activos [less active] and we finally got her mom's permission on paper to baptize her.  She was the Elder's investigator before they left.

The work here in Lontué is actually pretty slow.  Aside from our baptism this week we don't really have anything solid.  We have just been searching and searching and searching for new investigators, and we have found a lot, the hard thing is that it seems like none of them ever progress, even the ones that seems SUPER ready and SUPER awesome. Something always happens (who knows what) and they end up losing animo [enthusiasm] and not keeping up with their commitments or not wanting us to come by so much, even though they like us a lot, they just don't want to hear the gospel or be pressured to do anything. Hmna. Rojas and I were talking to the Branch President about it.  The adversary has got a strong hold here in Lontué, and he is fighting extra hard right now to keep it.  We have a lot of opposition, but we don't let it get us down much because we know that the adversary wouldn't be fighting so hard right now if there weren't some SUPER awesome things and super awesome PEOPLE waiting to be found here in Lontué. I really feel like, although it may not look like much (and although every one says it's a really tough sector), and although we have more conversos recientes [recent converts] that are menos activos [less active] than we do conversos recientes activos [active converts], Lontué is a really special sector, and we can only begin to imagine it's potential.  I wouldn't be surprised in the least if I found out, 10-20 years from now, that there was a full sized stake here in Lontué.  We just have to keep on pushing on, little by little, day by day, and in the Lord's due time, we will see the fruits of what is being sown.  And we, as a companionship, WILL find those "escogidos" [chosen] FAMILIAS! who are ready and waiting to accept the gospel. 

OH! next P-day I think we are taking our zone activity to the... MOUNTAINS!!! WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!  que frio! [how cold]  lol

FAMBAM Davis clan:

Mom: your emails are never boring and even the most mundane things aren't boring for me to hear, anything about home and what's going on in the lives of those I care about is interesting to me!  I love you to the moon and back a bajillion times a bajillion times a bajillion! you are so wonderful serving and helping Gabby so much!  you're charity is amazing!  Thank you for your example to me.  Good luck having the kids home for the first week of summer }:) have fun!!! 

Daddy!!!!!!!: HI! I LOVE YOU! You're my hero! de verdad [truly]! Are you so proud of me because I'm learning Spanish soooooooooooooo good?   I know, I bet you are just tickled pink!  I want to go mountain biking in 15 months... OK?   I thought about you a lot yesterday while we were at the Branch Presidents house.  In ways you two are "iguales" [equals].  Por eso [For that] , I love to be around him and his family, but at the same time it's bitter sweet.  While we were eating and talking, matters in the branch came up and he got the same EXACT look that you get when you start think about branch stuff (e.g.: zoning out into BP land) the same concern/worry, he even ran his hand through his hair without thinking and left it a little disheveled just like you do.  I love you so much daddy!  You really are my hero, I think you are so amazing and practically perfect in every way. You really serve the Lord with all your heart.  I was reading an address the other day about how we only benefit from our service and sacrifice to the Lord when we move from an attitude of grinning and bearing or biting the bullet and holding onto ourselves, into an attitude of complete submission to the Lord's will and giving our WHOLE hearts to the Lord.  I have so much desire to be able to do that as a missionary and I know that it only comes from seeing you and watching you in your great service and sacrifice to the Lord. You are a true and worthy EXAMPLE of a how a leader and Priesthood holder should be.  Honorable in every sense of the word.  What a privilege I have of calling you my daddy (same to you mommy)!  You and mom are the best parents and the best EXAMPLES I could EVER ask for. Thank you SO much! I love you!!!!!!