Ay ay ay Elderes

Alright, just to answer the question I know you all have_ yes I have made my companion check for my lice every single day, and no she hasn’t found any yet. So were going good!

This week we started off with the fiestas patrias (Chilean Independence Day), so that was fun. It’s just about impossible to get any work done because everybody’s drunk, ha-ha! So we honestly spent almost all day on Tuesday with a member family. We were gonna go with the elders from our ward and the two elders from the other ward. On Monday, there were cambios (transfers), but my comp and I didn’t have cambios since we are in the middle of training! But on Tuesday morning we found out that they were going to have two more elders in the other ward. The two elders in the other ward are both going to be training, so they had to go get their brand new comps. So on Tuesday we are in the member’s house, and all of a sudden enter six elders. As the pass by, I’m like "gringo...gringo...gringo...gringo...gringo...gringo..." ha-ha SIX GRINGOS Y UNA GRINGA. I’m dying! The new elder in our ward is Elder Rasbold, he has like 21 months in the mission and he’s hilarious. I always kind of wonder if he’s high but he’s super funny. On Tuesday we made brownies in the member’s house while the elders grilled the meat. We ate so much meat. That’s the 18 (Chilean Independence Day) tradition, lots of meat!! It was pretty fun, ha-ha. On Tuesday night, we went to the church building to have clase de canto (Singing class), and we got there early so it wasn’t open yet. We decided to explore a little bit and we found some train tracks. So we were taking some pics when a few drunk guys come out and start asking us where were from. I’m thinking "kay, I can’t say the US while they’re this drunk, but I also can’t say anywhere from South America cause they’re not gonna believe me. So I’m like "...... somos de .... por aqui cerca (we’re from around here).......... but ya know we gotta go BYE!" And we start walking away really fast. But one of them follows us. Luckily we were really close to the church and it was already open so we get in the door basically running, and the elders are like "what happened???" and were like "there’s a drunk guy following us!!!" But they got him to go away :) relax people, we are always so protected. On Wednesday, our zls announced that we were going to be doing an activity on Monday called the Field Day Olympics. They picked three team captains, one of which was me, and we picked out teams and we spent the week picking a name, planning it out and all that. It was pretty fun! My team was the “Black Mambas" ha-ha. We took second place!! We had a few different activities. One was the marshmallow toss where you have to catch a marshmallow with your mouth. Another was where you have your team in a line, and there’s a bucket of water and a sponge, and you have to fill the sponge with water rand run to the other end of the court and try to fill a bowl with water. Another was like beer pong, but with vinagre. And then we played human bowling with water balloons. The people are the pins, so we just got soaked, ha-ha! And then a relay race. It was really, really fun!! Honestly one of the funnest days I’ve ever had in my mission. I mean I’m excited but hahah. 

On a more serious note, we found a new investigator this week named Kernizan, from Haiti who came to church with us yesterday, He’s really neat, He has a lot of faith but he’s never felt that called to a church. So he turns up at church on Sunday with his Book of Mormon in his hand (which we had just given him) so excited to learn about god! He’s really neat, we are really hoping we can get a fecha (baptismal date) with him this week, so you’ll find out soon! We also found a few Venezuelans who are the BOMB. They’re so cool. There was four of them in this lesson, and the thing about Venezuelans is that they are very passionate about everything, it gets intense. These four people are all completely different. You’ve got Juan Carlos, an older guy with a lot a lot of faith, and very conservative. Then you’ve got Ander, a younger guy who’s pretty conservative but doesn’t believe in anything. Then there is Daniel, who is also young, has a whole bunch of piercings and tattoos, but also has a lot of faith, just not in a church. And then you’ve got Yolimar, a lady maybe 25 years old who is like super loud, really direct and super funny. They were all talking about God, and the conversation got pretty intense, so much so that my comp and I couldn’t even get a word in, ha-ha. They were obviously confused and they couldn’t come to a conclusion about few things, an finally one of them says "what do you guys think?" to us. There was a pause, and then I just started to testify of Jesus Christ. I testified that He lives, that everything we experience in this life serves the purpose of helping us to be more like Him, and that only He can forgive of us everything we have done. Then my comp jumped in and taught that there are lots of things in this life that we don’t understand, but Heavenly Father does, and that we can learn about His plan in the scriptures. So I explained the Book of Mormon and we only had two, but we said we wanted to give it to them and come back to give them more. As I held it here in my hand, I realized that everything had gone quiet. No one was talking, everyone was intently focused on us, even more people in the house had come out to listen to us. The spirit was just potent in that lesson. I learned that in the storm, that is the world right, Christ is where we find the peace. He LITERALLY calms the storm because he has provided the way for us to go home to live with Him again. It reminds me of a line from one of my favorite hymns "Be still my soul, the waves and winds still know His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below." The things in our lives that seem the most uncontrollable, like even nature, are under God’s control. He has a plan- and it’s a plan so that you- YES YOU and your family can be happy.  A quote by Joseph Smith I like that I don’t know how it is in English is "pase lo que pase, el Señor es parte de ello." 

I love you all and I know that God has a plan for you! 

Love, Hermana Stanley

Piojos y Patria

VIVA CHILE!! 

We are in the middle of the biggest party time of the year here, el 18 de
Septiembre! They’ve already been partying for dayyyyyyyyys and it will
keep going almost all next week, at least until Thursday. ITS SO FUN! But
let me start at the beginning of the week... 


On Tuesday, we got up early and went and did a service project with the
elders from PH (Padre Hurtado) It was fun! It was kind of sad, because we
picked up garbage in a park for little kids and a futbol cancha. The sad
part was that it smelled like marijuana really bad, and all of the garbage
was broken glass bottles ;( , but don’t worry, I only cut myself on the
broken glass once, ha-ha. 
So almost two weeks ago, I started scratching my head a lot.... I was just
joking around and I told my comp, "ha-ha with my luck I probably have
lice”. After a few days, I got actually worried about it, so I made my
comp check me. She didn’t find anything. On Tuesday afternoon, we were
saying a prayer, and I scratched my head. As I pulled my hand out, I look
down and see that there was a little bug on my hand. So I’m like "OKAY I
HAVE LICE." My companion gets digging around and immediately finds another
one. So ya... that happened this week... On Tuesday night we went and
visited a member who cuts hair, and she checked me and informed me that I
did indeed have lice. If you know me at all, you know that I’m not good
with bugs, actually hate them with all of my force.... so knowing that I
had a bunch in my hair and that they were laying eggs pretty much almost
killed me. But I laughed it off. The elders are literally never gonna let
me live it down. I had to call one of them because the day before hand he
had loaned me his hat, so I had to tell him "hey I have lice so wash your
hat in bleach" and he says "hna, do you shower?'"  Freaking elders. But
ya, on Wednesday we went to a conference for all of the new missionaries
and their trainers, it was good! And then Hna Woodward gave me instruction
on how to kill lice. So on Thursday morning, we had a really importance
meeting with the president of the municipalidad here in PH with the six
missionaries here. I had to go with lice........ ha-ha but it was a good
meeting, and now the community will be helping us advertise for our
activities so we can find more people!! It’s going to be great!! Then on
Thursday, we went home and Hna Vilches had to put some gross medication
stuff we bought in my hair layer by layer, and start to pick out all of
the lice and eggs she could find (oy even just writing this makes my head
start to itch!). And then and after we picked everything we could find, I
washed my hair. Then we had to put mayonnaise (YES MAYONAISE) in my hair
and leave it there for 8 HOURS!! So during that time, I made six batches
of brownies, cleaned the whole house, read the whole book of Helaman,
shaved my legs and many more things. Ha-ha, I was so bored; I’m not used
to having free time. Meanwhile, everyone I know received a plate of
brownies on Friday. After the mayo, I washed my hair with shampoo, then
put vinegar in my hair, left it there for fifteen minutes, then washed my
hair again, dried it, and straightened it. It was an ORDEAL to put it in
one word, but now I am LICE FREEE! Thank HF for the blessings you have,
even as simple as not having lice you guys. On Saturday we had a ward
activity for the 18th (Chilean Independence Day)! It was so fun, we ate
typical food like choripan (which is a grilled sausage, inside the typical
Chilean bread, marraqueta). It’s my favorite!! And mote con huesillo,
which is n a kind of juice, with mote which is like seed from tiigo, and a
dried peach in the juice. It’s my favorite Chilean drink, it’s so goooood!
And then we watched people dance la cueca, the typical Chilean dance! It’s
really pretty I took a video!! Then obviously we played soccer, and the
elders said I couldn’t play because I was a girl, so I jumped in there and
started playing. I gotta say, not too bad. I made two goals ;) by pure
luck, but hey I’ll take it!! I later figured out that they said that just
to get me to play, ha-ha. We were also going with some other missionaries
to go contact in the feria. Not much else happened this week... 

OH YA. Today, I saved a puppy. We went to go get together with the zone to
find out the cambios (transfers), and there was a front yard next to the
church full of puppies. When we left, I saw that one of the puppies had
come out of the fence, but wasn’t sure how to get back in!! So I won his
love, convinced him to come to me, then picked him up and gave him back to
his mom. They got it on camera, so it should be coming out in the Chilean
news pretty soon, keep your eyes open! Ha-ha! Well, it looks like the
computer isn’t gonna let me send pics so I’ll see if a member can let me
use their computer tomorrow or something! I love you all lots, I hope you
all have a great Chilean Independence Day!! 

Love Hermana Stanley!

Happy Missionary

HI EVERYBODY! We had such a good week this week!!! I’ll start from the beginning. On Tuesday, we went and had interviews with President. Mine was really good. Together we thought up the idea to attempt a family history class for the public to find new people! We also talked about the role of women in this gospel. He told me I’m always a happy missionary and its true! I love being happy! On Tuesday night, I taught my singing class! So somehow, out of the four elders that serve here in Padre Hurtado with us, two of them decided to come, I don’t know why. So the other two got all offended that I didn’t invite them and also decided to come! So that was fun, and by fun I mean a disaster.... they could not keep it together, ha-ha. I was trying to take it seriously there and they’re over there just laughing their heads off!  It was fun but it was a disaster. On Tuesday night, I figured out that our cell phone stopped making calls, and every night we have to call our DL to let him know that we got home safe. So I thought that when we didn’t call, he would call us but he never called. I was like "okay, Hna Vilches, if someone kills us at night, they’ll never know." But at about 8:30 the next morning, they turned up at our door. Just to mess with them I went out and said "what do you want?" they said "oh, just to know you’re alive!!” I said “why didn’t you just call?" they’re like, "we called like 1000 times, we thought somebody killed the hnas!" It was so sweet, they were so worried for us!! So on Tuesday night I had made homemade brownies to take to the district meeting. The two elders in our district ate more than half the pan in like 20 minutes, and then the other two elders asked if they could have the rest. I don’t even cook that well, they were just dying for something gringo. On Wednesday we had to go the mission office in Maipú to fix our phone. On the way home, I got off when they had already passed our stop, and my comp and I found ourselves lost in the middle of the other sector, which is really big by the way. But we walked and walked and walked and we found our way home. I’m not really sure why Pres put me in charge of taking care of another missionary, ha-ha. On Saturday, we decided to fast. We were really struggling to find people that week. As we fasted, we found 7 new investigators in a day! And we also were able to identify a big spiritual need of our progressing investigator. It was such a miralce! On Sunday we went to stake conference and it was really good. One guy spoke about the family, and how important the role of parents is! I really liked it a lot!! On Sunday we also had a lesson with just the best investigator we have. She’s Haitian, her name is Kattia. She’s pregnant and for some reason she hasn’t wanted to commit to going to church. We have not been able to figure out why, because the Haitians sometimes don’t want to go because they don’t have nice enough clothes, or they say they are sinners and they need to fix their life first. They are VERY respectful of God’s house. So this Sunday, after we invited her to pray about it, we said to her "Kattie, what’s stopping you from going to church?" and she said "nothing! I’m going to go next Sunday with you guys!" We were SO HAPPY!!!!!!! We read Mosiah 18 with her!! And today was definitely a highlight of the week also. We decided to go on a picnic, and the elders invited themselves, ha-ha. So the six of us got on a bus to a spot with lots of open fields, beautiful. But then we passed it, and we ended up having picnic on the side of the road. But still fun, I made apple crisp, it turned out really good!! 

This next Tuesday is Chilean independence day! It’s gonna be so fun!! I don’t know when our pday will be, but we’ll find out!! 

Love you lots! 

Hna Stanley

We walked and walked and walked!

 Hard working missionary feet!

Beautiful Chile!

Hermanas on a picnic