Birthday Week

Hi everyone! 

This week was actually really, really good. I don’t really know why it went so well, but hey no complaints :) It started off with my birthday. I thought about my birthday and realized that it was probably just gonna be lame no matter what I do, and I realized that these 18 months aren’t mine! And I only have one birthday to give to the Lord, so I decided to ask for my birthday to be able to find four new investigators. And we DID!!! And all of them are so good, they all have a lot of potential!!! Especially a little old lady who name is Gloria. When went in to her house and found and even older, littler lady. It was her mom, who had Alzheimer’s. Gloria told us that she really hasn’t felt very happy in her life, and she’s not sure what she needs to do to be happy!! 

By the end of the week, we found 17 new investigators, which is A LOT. And we had six people that went to church with us! This week in Chile, we had a special conference with all of Chile, and the First Presidency. It was really good!! They put a lot of focus on the family because it’s a big weakness in Chile. I really liked that they invited all of the families in Chile (and so I’m inviting my own family) to pray as a family every day. But they were really specific, every morning to start the day and every night to end it!! I loved it!! Also the other big weakness of Chile is tithing, so they talked a lot about it. Maybe you guys can look it up on the internet and read it, it was really good. We brought five Haitians to the conference, and an investigator who needs to get married!! The best part was that it was kind of far, in Peñaflor, and we are in a little town between Maipú y Peñaflor, called Padre Hurtado. So our ward contracted a bus. As we were going home, my comp and I got up top get off, but I went to go talk to an investigator first. Well, my comp didn’t see that I hadn’t gotten off, so she got off, and the bus rolls out. I didn’t realize either, so the elders start saying "Hermana, Hermana, Hermana!!!" I was like "what???" they’re like "your comp?" I was like "Bishop!!!!!!! I don’t have my companion!!!!" It was funny but it also almost killed me too, ha-ha. 

Today as a zone we went and played volleyball!! It was fun, my team won :) 

Well, sorry I’m a little scattered this week, hopefully next week will be better. 

Have a great week! 

Hna Stanley

Padre Hurtado a El Quisco - a 15 hour trip

HI everybody, this is your favorite birthday girl writing 😄 heehee. Everyone’s making a big deal out of it, which is great :) ha-ha. This was a great week. Let me start at the beginning. 

On Monday, last pday, my companion tried her first empanada de queso, 100% as good as it sounds- and CHEAP!  Then we changed into our grubbies and we went ham on the house, ha-ha. Our house was really, really dirty. To all you missionaries out there - When you leave a house, don’t leave it dirty!! Then on Tuesday we were headed around visiting some really great people!! In the evening we went to visit one of our two progressing investigators, Tanya. I think I talked a little bit about her last week. Anyway, she sat down and told us that she hadn’t read the BoM because she had heard of a couple places in which the BoM contradicts the bible. She had a list of questions. It was interesting, because it really wasn’t with the intention of fighting with us, she really wanted to know. I remember during that lesson thinking "If there was ever a moment in my mission in which I need the Spirit, this is it Lord." My sweet companion didn’t know much what to do or say, but she did a great job of testifying of the Book of Mormon. One of the good questions was that the Bible says that we are born as sinners, but the BoM says that little children are innocent. So we were able to use the scripture that says that the natural man is an enemy to God, because of his fallen state, and for that we need to become submissive like a child. I think it really helped her to understand how the book of Mormon doesn’t just go along with the Bible, but how necessary it is, because with only the Bible, we lack information! Some of her other doubts included the Lamanite curse of the skin, also about if the fall was necessary or not. Why the BoM says that many plain and precious things would be taken from the bible, and of course that of apocalypse. It was a hard lesson, but I was so touched! I was able to see how the BoM really does have the answers, because we were able to answer every single one of her questions using the same Book of Mormon!! Then on Wednesday, we had a ward activity! It was a completada, which means we make completos: Tanya came!! My companion and I gave a message about Emma Smith. All of you go watch the video una dama elegida (I don’t know how it would be in English) you will all cry!!! But yah the activity was great! By this point I had already lost my voice pretty good, but I was feeling okay. Then on Thursday morning, my comp and I got up at 4 in the morning, to get on a bus with a couple of elders and go to our multi zone conference. The cool part was that they decided to have it on the coast, one of the church buildings that’s just right on the beach, a pueblito called El Quisco. So we got on a bus with four elders, until we got to Melipìlla, which was about an hour. Then in Melipilla we headed over to San Antonio which was like 2 hours in bus, and literally about 50 missionaries hahaha!!! The poor elders had to stand almost the whole time!! Then from San Antonio to El Quisco, which was another 45 minutes, a teeny little bus and the same amount of missionaries. IT WAS SO FUN!! 

So on these many busy trips, I had less and less voice. Little by little I started to cough and feel worse and worse. But it was SO FUN I was having the time of my life. The conference was good. We got to walk down in front of the beach to take pics!! We took of the zone, my comp with Hna Sandall, my group from the CCM, it was so fun!!!! But yah, on Friday, we didn’t leave the house, I was dying in bed. I coughed and coughed all night. We left at night to get a blessing from elder Dickson an Elder Rindlisbacher (its funny because elder R is the elder who gave me a blessing last time I was sick ha-ha). On Saturday, we also didn’t leave, still dying in bed, I watched every single movie that we had in the house, and now I have seen every movie we are allowed to see! It was painful because I wanted to go work, but I kind of couldn’t breathe. Not much happened on Sunday either, I coughed through the whole Sacrament meeting, so the little ladies sent me home to get in bed, and they made me a drink a really awful tea of lemons and honey. Bad bad bad bad bad.... But I did feel a lot better by the end of yesterday so today, we went to play volleyball with the zone!!! IT WAS SO FUN, I love spending time with lots of missionaries, so fun!! We are doing great here in Manzano!! Thanks for the birthday wishes, it’s weird to know that I’m leaving the teens but I’m A-okay with it. A family invited me to take once with them tomorrow so it’ll be good :) I’ll send pics of my house next week, now that it’s all clean :) 

LOVE YOU ALL AND I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY

(almost 20-year-old) Hermana Stanley

Completos! 

 The Coast!

 Hermanas

Missionary Shoes

El Manzano

Hi everybody!! Okay, you all heard the big news last week, so now for the follow up! 

So basically all last cambio I was feeling like I was going to be going and opening up a new sector, but then the last week of the cambio, I started feeling a little like maybe I was going to train. So I was confused. When they told me that I was going to be training in white wash it was just like.........

....."what?"

Ha-ha I never imagined I’d have to do the both of them! But this is how the week went down! On Tuesday afternoon, Hna Marques and I went to the office together to get our new companions! We waited upstairs, together with Hna Pugmire, Hna Lopez, Hna Arcos y Hna Cumpa. WE WERE ALL SO NERVOUS. OH, and there were 14 elders or something there, ha-ha. Always lots of elders. but ya, it was so fun!! Then the assistentes came and said "already, time to go get them." So we go in in a single file line (I had to go first!!). The newbies were seated in the seats of the congregation, and the trainers were seated on the stand. President started from the coast, going sector by sector, listing the trainer, and then the comp. I walked in and right away I noticed an hna who was a little bit different from the rest of them. I don’t know how, just different vibes as they say in Chile. She ended up being my companion, mi hija!!!! SHE’S FROM SPAIN!!!! AHHHHHHHH SHE  TALKS WITH A LISP AND SAYS VOSOTROS. ITS SOOOO COOL!!  Her name is Hna Vilches, she’s 25 and she’s the bomb. We have a really good time. It’s cool because president actually served his mission in Spain, and he served in the mission where she lives. She’s from Analucia, Sevilla. So president was pretty excited about her. Then a few hours later we got to our sector. I really wanted to work right away, especially because they gave us a big long list of things you have to do on the first day with your new comp, which includes 1. meet the bishop 2. talk with 20 people in the street 3. invite someone to be baptized. I wasn’t sure how to do all of that, because the bishop wasn’t available, we didn’t know any investigators, and we didn’t even have a map. I remember thinking "Hermana Stanley, how are you going to do this? you’re lost here!" So I said a prayer in my heart and asked for help. Then the thought came to my mind "you might not know anybody here, or where you are, but you know how to talk to everybody in front of you, and you know how to knock doors." So we plunged in. In the first contact, we immediately put an appointment with her, and now we have already taught her and her whole family. I realized that the only way we are going to make it work here in this sector is just really hard work, being diligent and obedient. It’s gonna be great! This week, we’ve already found a lot of cool people that we are going to be working with to help them come to church. Lots of Haitians, language study is now creole, ha-ha. It’ll be good. Lots of pics to come. I love you all, and I want you all to know that Heavenly Father sees you for the potential that you are. That is why he trusts us to be in charge of ministering to our brothers and sisters. Let’s all take our call to minister to our brothers and sisters as an opportunity to be more like Christ. 

Hermana Stanley

Saying goodbye

Getting trained

Hna Stanley
Hna Vilches
new Hna
Hna Marques