June 13, 2015- Auntie Meli

hola familia y amigos,

Well the first piece of business that I want to address is that I'M AN AUNT!!!!!! I have a brand new nephew and he is the cutest thing ever!!!!  I wanted to cry I was so happy. He looks so perfect. I wish I could hold him in my arms but only 6 months more. Please send me photos every week! Evan and Lizzie, you did a very good job :) 

This week was a lot of getting lost, exploring, finding, contacting, studying (lots of studying) and working really really hard. we`re just starting to feel comfortable here in this part of Puerto Varas and I don't feel as stressed as before which is really good. 

We`re starting to work more and more with the investigators the other elders left us, it was hard the first week to find them or earn their confidence. but yesterday hna B. did her first baptism invitation and she rocked it. Our investigator P accepted a baptism date for 1 de agosto and she is really excited!!! We feel very blessed. 

We also have another investigator, A who´s girlfriend is member but it was a secret because there were some problems with her family and him. but this week the problems were fixed and now A feels a lot more welcome to come to church and sit with his girlfriend and we`re really excited because he can really start progressing now. We have a lesson planned with him tonight and we`re going to invite him to be baptized. 

This week we were walking past a street of houses and we both looked in the kitchen window of one of the houses and there was a woman there washing dishes, we waved to her just to be nice and friendly and she got really excited and motioned for us to come inside.... so we were like okay! Her name is P and it turns out shes a less active member of the church. She just moved to Puerto Varas a couple months ago with her non member husband and this whole time she`s been wanting to come back to church but hadn't been able to find missionaries and we just happened to walk past her house! We taught her last night and she´s really excited to come back to church.  She also wants to set an example for her husband to help him stop drinking and smoking. her goal, and our goal is that he can be baptized and they can get sealed in the temple. She told us to come back on Tuesday so we can teach the both of them! We are suuuuper excited. 

We`ve been working hard with our ward mission leader to plan activities for the ward to help more investigators come and receive references. he`s the best, and his wife is awesome, She`s like our best friend and they treat us like we are their daughters its the best. I feel a lot of love in the ward- I've lost count how many times a member has told us "if you need anything at all, lunch, once, food, wash laundry, whatever, just come on over or give us a call" it's the best. 

This week I saw hna C!! Did I already tell you that? Well she`s here in our zone and its super fun to chat about the mission. 

yesterday hna veronica silva, a member from my ward in valdivia, showed up in our church meetings. she sometimes visits here in puerto varas for her family and she just showed up and it was the best. it was great to see her again and reminded me of valdivia. i miss valdivia but i am still very happy here. 

hna Braithwaite is doing very well. she`s the perfect"daughter". very chill and easy to live and work with. she has a lot of desire to work hard and baptise families. She is honestly one of the most selfless people I've ever met. She is always thinking about how she can help someone else, and usually that someone is me. She saves her own needs for last, and shes a great example for me. I learn more from her. She does get frustrated with the language, which is normal. And she`s learning to be patient with herself, which she`s told me is very hard for her, but we`re working on it. She`s honestly the best though, I'm really glad to have her. 

I feel unbelievably blessed this week. to be in this beautiful area, to be in this ward, to be training and to have a companion so Christ like and now to have a new member of the family. I feel like I dont deserve any of it. I know that God is our Heavenly Father and he loves each and every one of us through our obedience to his commandments. I feel so grateful to be a missionary and to be able to help other people recieve the blessings that come from this restored gospel. 

thanks for all the emails and photos, have a great week!