LeT's ShAkE tHiNgS uP

-- sChOoL--

2012-01-18T11:32:00.003-07:00

ok guys, i am at utah state--WOOT! i still want to finish reminiscing on all the best things of my mission, but i am hardly on the internet anymore. this once boring blog has just fallen into the "not worth checking much" category..... maybe my life will get more exciting eventually.... if it does i will let you know.
for now i am just living with my aunt and uncle (some of the BEST PEOPLE IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD!) and am going to school. i love school. love it love it love it.
just slowly meeting new people.... learning how to master the bus system of logan..... starting to paint again..... and trying to find people that speak spanish to talk with. tio roberto habla, tengo que visitarlo....
and thas it fur now...
luvs!

best moments, part 2 - baquedano

2011-12-29T18:08:00.005-07:00

My first day in the field! they had my desk all set up cute. the one behind me was my trainer. she was fun and cute. the other two crazies were like my lifeline. my trainer didn't speak english, so these girls helped me out a lot. loved them!

my trainer and her previous companion had been teaching this family, and my third week into the field they were baptized! it was amazing. really great for me to see. even though at this point i was still not catching everything that was going on. just tried to stay in-step with my trainer.

my second companion. she was amazing. so driven. we were runnin and runnin and runnin. came home exhausted every night. what a great, fulfilling feeling. :D

this is one of my favorite families ever!!!!! (plus the two elders who shared the sector and who were also our zone leaders at the time). and yes, that is a papiermache rhinoceros on the wall in the background.

one of the best feelings in the world (on the mission) is looking around you and not feeling culture shock anymore, after you have settled in and you feel it--like you are where you need to be amongst the graffiti and the stray dogs and the tin roofs and the garbage. you just know that you are doing what is right and you feel good about it. that came in about 2 or 3 months out into the field and man, it felt good to finally settle in and start getting lost in it. and a lot of thanks for that goes to my companion. :D

best moments, part 1 -- the mtc

2011-12-22T21:42:00.006-07:00

Best district EVERS.

practicing everyday the spanish verbs from the verb list.
practice pays off. we won the verb challenge game 8 WEEKS STRAIGHT. like i said, best district evers...(on the board it says 'we won again,... with little resistence... because resistence is futile!') we totally won the white tie of victory.

after 24 hours stuck in dallas fort worth, we board the plane to chile....

and for your pleasure and enjoyment, the highlight of the whole trip (well, almost the highlight). we laughed about this page in the safety pamphlet for a good long while..... yeah, it was a loooong 10 hours on that cramped plane. we kept ourselves occupied for sure. games, doodles, goofing around... it was great :D

2011-12-21T22:09:00.003-07:00

it's fur realsies, I AM HOME! can you believe it?

so, i guess mom kinda let go of my blog. thas a'righ. i wanted to re-vamp it anyway. i gots some catching up to do i guess.

i have been home for just over a week now and am settling in. the first few days were slow and lame. i moped around the house and didn't want to do anything. then my mom and i went to the temple in bountiful and it really gave me an extra boost. i love the temple. what a blessing that is to live so dang close. NEVER FORGET HOW BLESSED YOU ARE IN LIFE. ever. random thought of the day.

since going to the temple i have felt better. i still miss chile like crazy, but i know that i can move forward, looking back with joy about my labors, and walking forward with faith.

and it's off to utah state i go! i am going to study animal and dairy sciences. classes start jan. 9. here we go! that will be crazy. and good.

shout out to all those who came to my homecoming. man, that was a great day.
LOVES!
sam

Oh Dearest Family...

2011-09-26T12:45:00.002-06:00

*chuckle chuckle*---"onsies to match dad"---*chuckle chuckle* mmbbbhaaa ma ha ha. (image of dad´s ghost walking around the house). alex, you make me laugh.

WELL. shoot. i never know how to start emails. i read everything super fast and then it is all spinning in my head and the timer on the computer is going and i don´t know how to get it all organized. sorry that my emails are all over the place....

MOM you are playing volleyball?????? i want to play SO BAD so you need to take care of yourself and don´t do anything to injure yourself so we can play together when i get back pleeeaaasse!!!!! ha ha ha. i have been praying that things would smooth out for you and i am glad you are on the down-hill. did you read that scripture in mosiah? i love it. i have to remind myself to read it sometimes.

we have really been running and running. hermana vanpatten is basically AMAZING. she is so driven and she has more charity than i have ever seen. she really loves the people. she only has 4 months in the field, but her spanish is more technically correct than mine and she runs and works like she has 15 months! i love her so much. it is funny though because she and i are BIG. she is taller than me and we have similar builds (i am just a bit heavier than her). she is an athlete and we look pretty intimidating as a pair walking down the streets. i have gotten used to the stares (after my first month in the field), but you should see some of the looks we get. but then vanpatten smiles at them and says hello and their stares turn into surprised smiles as they respond. it´s so great. she is extremely driven. she just goes and goes, but it isn´t the kind of diligence and obedience that drags the companion, it is actually quite contagious. i am catching her drive and i get more excited than i have ever been to get up and get going (and you KNOW that i am not a morning person). we have been getting up to go running in the mornings and i just love it. Graneros is such a peaceful, homey place. and it has a giant nestle factory right in the middle so everyday smells like chocolate or coffee or strawberries. it´s amazing! i have never been so exhausted everyday until i got with hermana vanpatten, but it´s a good exhaustion. we just hit the streets and go go go so that by the time we get home i am out before my head hits the pillow. but in the morning we are ready to go again.

OH! the people here are amazing. hermana has been showing me all the peeps we got, and there is this one family that i have just loved so much ever since my first night. so, there is this recent convert named XXX (26), and he has an insane story. he has had it rough. he has three kids (10, 6 and 4) that live with him. he is seperated from his wife and he lives with his parents and his siblings and their kids (typical latin family, all living together as tios, tias and primos, i love it!!!). he has a heavy past, which i can´t get into detail with, but let´s just say you could make a whole drama series from his life. crazy stuff too like he turned in some gangsters that killed someone and they are getting out of jail so XXX is on the down low so they don´t find him and kill him. :O. it´s intense. but i have never seen such an incredible change. he was baptized a while ago, and he recieved the aaronic priesthood, but he falls so easily back into alcohol and smoking. but he wants to baptize his son, XXX, with whom we have a baptismal date for the 16th. we have been keeping daily contact with XXX to keep his animo up so he doesn´t slip. he and his son are so enthusiastic about the book of mormon. we come by and leave them chapters to read and they just eat it up. and now as we are prepping XXX for baptism, when we go over to teach XXX basically takes over the lesson and teaches his son and it´s just incredible. they are such amazing people and he has a heart of gold. just a kid from the wrong side of the tracks that has a rough life, but a good soul. and his family is so incredible. their kids run down the street to hug us when we walk over to their house and XXX´s parents always invite us in. his parents aren´t baptized, and they don´t want to participate in the church, but they are like our grandparents and care so much for us. i just love them!!! i shared mosiah 27 (alma the younger) with them my first night and it was a very spiritual experience and christian was really touched by it. he read the chapter over and over and marked it up. it was perfect for him and i had such an instant connection with him and his family.

so, there is that. we are so pumped! we set fechas with XXX, the son, and XXX´s prima, XXX who is also 10. they are so excited to get baptized, and it will be amazing! we also have two baptisms set, mother and a daughter, for the same day that was set before i got into the sector. so we are doing great and loving the work!

something crazy that happened this past week,--we were at XXX´s house teaching him, his sister XXX, his friend XXX, and his kids and neices and nephews in an upstairs bedroom, when the power went out. all over chile. it was nuts. it went pitch black. XXX´s mom, brought us candles and we finished our lesson. then XXX, the dad, drove us home. the assistents called around to make sure everyone was ok, but our phone we being whack and we couldn´t get their calls. the pres even tried calling us a few times cuz they were all worried. it is super dangerous walking around without light. but we eventually got a hold of them and told them we were ok. the two other sisters got home ok as well. our neighbors are so sweet. they brought us a flashlight and candles and made sure we were ok (not members, but they all know that 4 sister mormon missionaries live in the white house on the end). so we were well taken care of. it was weird. i was in the shower with a candle in the bathroom when the light came back on. it was weird because it went out all over chile. kind of an adventure. ha ha.

anyway, i am loving it here. i love the three sisters that i live with and we all share the same sector so it is fun to talk together about the goings on in the ward and the work. they are all so driven and there is never a moment of complaint. we all love the work and are so into it, but we have so much fun at the same time! and i love our ward. it isn´t a branch, so it is nice and there are lots of people. they are all so nice too. i was given a minute to present myself in sacrament meeting and it was weird standing in front of such a big group! it´s great and things are really rolling here.

i´m really loving this and i just hope time doesn´t go too fast! just don´t write ANYTHING about countdowns or my homecoming cuz, to be totally honest, i don´t want to think about it or read about it. i just want to enjoy what time i have left! ;D but yes, my date is the 13th of december. so you can tell the stake leaders. sorry i will miss your birthday mom!

oh, and i got the picture just fine. i would love to get more pics from home!!!

i love you all so much and pray for you. thanks for everything!!!!

samsam

RUNNIN, RUNNIN, RUNNIN!!!

2011-08-29T11:56:00.001-06:00

another week like this ZZZRRRRRAAAAUUUUUUUUM! race car fast. ha ha i can just picture you all doing the race car noise while staring at the computer screen. bah ha ha. go ahead, do it and laugh :D
time is moving in hyperspeed. and we keep on chugging along! it has been rainy and cold all week, but we are used to that. just ready for the spring to come in. that will be nice. the only thing is, here the weather is very unstable and changes demasiado rapido. it can be cold and rainy one day, and hot and sunny the next. or both in the same day. it keeps things interesting. it´s almost like there is no middle, no spring, just winter and summer. we will see how it goes this week. heading into september is supposed to be "spring time", so we will see what happens.
what. why i am i wasting my time talking about the weather. "but i digress!".....
SO. miracles miracles miracles. we are seeing more hearts changing than i have ever seen before in my mission. we are consecrating ourselves and going deeper and deeper into the work and we are loving it. I look back and remember what it was like at first, (Megan, i know how you feel!!!!), but with time i slowly started to figure it out. i´m envious of hermana butler, my comp, because she has less than 9 months on her mission, and she has already arrived at this point in which we are both so involved and consecrated to the work, whereas i have 15 months and am just now arriving at this point. (i hit my 15 month mark last friday!!!! ) i wish i would have captured the vision sooner! pucha. but we are doing well.
A menos activo, the father of a family that is very dear to us, came to church yesterday after leaving the church 15 years ago and vowing to never return. Another young mom (a little rebellious) who has left the church stays in the room when we go to visit her active member mom (whereas before she would go to another part of the house when we went by) and even agrees to say the closing prayer with us. An investigator who is a lesbian and her hard-hearted friend that never wanted to speak to us before are inviting us to their home and singing hymns with us and are changing their hearts. they always ask "when can you come back?" when we leave. a young teenager from a family of evangelicos that want nothing to do with the church is coming to ward activities alone and recieved an answer through humble prayer that joseph smith was a true prophet. another teenage kid (a flaite/gangsta punk) is sitting in on discussions with us and learning about the plan of salvation and has desires to go to church. another family of menos activos, the father of which is a smoker, are making goals and have committed to come back to church this sunday. and the list goes on. we are seeing the Lord´s hand in the work that we do, and i really feel like i am just an instrument. i sit back and am amazed at the changes that are taking place in people´s lives, and i know it is all because the Holy Ghost has entered the hearts of the people and is working his magic. it really is incredible.
we were really sad yesterday because we had invited about 12-15 investigators and menos activos to church last week, and they all had commited, but only one investigator and one menos activo came to church. those two coming to church was a miracle, but still, what in the world happened to the others? we have been seeing lots of great things happen, but the only thing we seem to struggle with is church attendance. the peeps here can be suuuuper lazy about going to church. alex, any ideas?? but other than that, we are thrilled with the changes we have seen in people´s lives. we are going to fast this saturday as a companionship to ask for help with the people coming to church. it says in the white handbook, that we aren´t allowed to ask people from home to participate in fasts and such, but if you could send up a prayer sunday morning it would be greatly appreciated! we know Heavenly Father will hear them, and we could use all the help we can get!
anyway, crazy stuff happening in the states, eh? an earthquake??? a hurricane???? what is going on? our investigators and members tell us things they see in the news, unfortunately, and we have been hearing crazy stuff. it makes me worried because hermana retana´s family lives in DC, and then there is sister bell and brother moulton.... i will be praying for them!
well, that´s all i gots for now. there was so much other stuff that i wanted to write about concerning what i read in your emails but i am out of time, sorry i´m so lame.... i love you all so sos sososososoooooooooooooooooo much. take care, until next week!!!
hermana morrisita

ANIMOOOO

2011-08-15T14:44:00.001-06:00

bueno muchachos, muy bueno! animo means something like excitement and energy by da way. AMAZING things are happening in this mission here in chile rancagua. you know how i was talking about the goals we have in this mission and how it had been so difficult in the past? well now, me and hermana butler have captured it, and we are just rippin it up, and, even better, the vision is spreading like wildfire throughout the mission. there are about 5 sectors in this mission that have had baptisms that haven´t had anything for years. and even one sector that was shut down last year because it was just so difficult. but now we are gettin after it and busting out the work. i wish you could understand it and see it. for all i know this doesn´t mean much to you all at home and i´m not that great at explaining it, but just know miracles are happening. this is a more common mission with about 200 missionaries (unlike alex´s which is smaller and more specialized) and our mission president has been trying to light the fire under the tootsies of all the missionaries here to get them going. he has been at it with really high goals and high standards, but we have been lagging. but it seems like things are really busting open. me and my comp, hermana butler, had such a cool experience two weeks ago together, and now we have captured that vision. and it is spreading all throughout the mission.we have this thing called the mensajero that is sent out in the emails every week that is like the mission bulletin and it has lists of the missionaries that have reached the standards and all the baptisms of the past week. it is so legit and cool to see because i always watch for baptisms of my old sectors and it really pumps me up to faces of the people i met in old sectors when they have photos up of baptisms and such. for example, do you remember that story of when i was with hermana hunsaker and we met that creeper that tried to kiss my comp? i can´t remember if i told you, but basically, we were in a house with this guy and his 15 year old son and it was a really freaky experience because there was a bad presence in the room and the guy kept trying to get my comp to leave with him and tried to give her a kiss when we were trying to leave. his poor kid just sat on the couch, and the guy would yell at him to clean up and to get his coat for him. it was heartbreaking to see. obviously, we didn´t stay long and never went back, but we told the elders about it and told them that they HAD TO go back to help out that poor kid. that was months ago in april, and just today i saw photos in the mensajero of the kid´s baptism with the elders in paine!!!!! i wanted to cry! i am so glad that they could help that kid and save him from the dark world he had been trapped in with a horrible father.
THE LORD REALLY IS INVOLVED IN THIS WORK. something i liked that someone said in a fireside while i was in the mtc is that the Lord isn´t sitting behind some desk making phone calls or going over stats, and he isn´t heading this work passively, HE IS INVOLVED and is out amongst us, working with us. MISSIONARY WORK IS SOO INCREDIBLE! GET READY BOYS, IT WILL BE THE RIDE OF YOUR LIFETIME!!!
i don´t have much time left and i want to send some photos, so that´s all i gots for nows...
luvluv
samsam

Countdown? Oh pish posh!

2011-08-08T15:10:00.001-06:00

now now, none of this trunky bizz.... let´s keep a level head now. (i guess if you really want to you can make a little paper chain and do your countdown, just don´t tell me about it har har har ;D).
wow, this has been a BOMB week. ya know how i told you about our breakthrough last week concerning our goals? we totally ripped it up this week! jus shreddin the gnar as al would say ha ha. we almost achieved all of the goals!!!! it was so amazing. it has been a test of faith and diligence for us. hermana butler is so rock solid. she is jsut a rock. ever since we started really working hard it seems that a huge pressure has fallen on us to push us down harder and harder. Satan knows what we are up to. and he is pushing back. but with hermana butler we have not slowed down. we had a rockstar week and it has been amazing. we made big plans and followed through with them. even when it seemed our plans would fall through somedays to have members come out with us or teaching appointments would fall through, we kept at it and it somehow all worked out. we got the 15 lessons with a member, 15 news, 28!!!! other lessons, 10 with menos activos, and 3 in sacrament meeting and an investigator attended a baptismal service we had and and and ... it was soo great!!!!! it is such a test of faith. i am realizing that i need more faith. i always find that i lack a lot of understanding. i am out here, preaching the gospel everyday, but then i sit back and find that i really don´t know that much myself! it is so true that the Spirit is the driving force of all of this. we are just like children that need a hand to hold to guide us. but we do our best and The Lord makes us His instruments to bring about great things. It has been a such a privilege to experience the things we have experienced lately.
not sure that i am getting this across really well. i so wish you could all know personally what it has been like. i just wish all the chilluns at home knew what this felt like. when i get home i will talk more about it and hopefully share the magic with you more effectively. if only you knew! it would make you so much more excited than ever before to serve the Lord in a mission! it´s just indescribable. I have the talk on dvd by elder holland and i would love to have a special family home evening with all the family and grandpa within the week that i return home to show it to you and share a little bit of what i have experienced with you all. i want to help you capture the excitement and vision of it.
ok, so, that´s all i can really say about that. i wish i was more adequate in typing this message to you.
today is the first day of the change, and we are so stoked. it is still really cold and we are still getting rain, but it is fun and exciting to me. lots of rain! but they say the climate is changing. they said just two years ago the norm was to have rain like in washington for the months of late june to early september. but these past few years it has been more dry and much more cold. and in utah you are getting dumped on! and we heard about the crazy sandstorm in arizona and the tornadoes on the east coast in the states. this world really is changing rapidly. it makes me excited because it means the Messiah is really coming back soon! it also makes me so sad because there are so many people who are filled with fear because they notice that the earth is changing and don´t know why. they have no idea that Christ is coming. i want them to know so badly! but there are still many unwilling to let us into their homes, regardless of the questions that fill their hearts about their divine origin and their purpose in life and the life to come. but i have received such faith that i know there are so many anxiously waiting for an answer that are just waiting for us to arrive at their doorstep. and for that we are fighting with all we´ve got.
Well, i don´t have much else to say. keep studying up boys! this will be the ride of your life. but enjoy the moment, like alex says. just live life to the fullest in whatever position you are in!
i love you!!!
samsam

Oh family ambly!

2011-08-01T16:02:00.001-06:00

family, you just blow my mind with awesomeness. that is all i have to say. (ok, maybe a little bit more to say ;D). it is SOOO KEWL to hear about the miracles happening in russia! the name Elder Morris will not be forgotten there. neither will those of the other elders in their service to the Lord. that is something that i have been so impressed by out here in chile. the many converts we have here in chile all talk about their experiences with the missionaries, and they remember it all. they talk about the first elders to teach them and they remember the names and have pictures of their families with the elders that helped them come unto Christ through baptism. they guard their pictures like sacred treasures and love to share them with us and others. your service is rocking the world, lil bro! keep it up!!!!

and to hear about my bwodas kayaking in the wiiilderness and giving talks just makes me smile. miich! i love our family so much.

it was fun to hear from carol too! i liked hearing some of her mission stories in spain. tell her thanks for the email.

well, another transfer come and gone. i only have three left-- YIKES. me and hermana butler have BIG plans for rengo. we are gonna bust it out this next transfer. we had a cool experience on friday during our weekly planning session. here is the scoop:

so, in the chile rancagua message, there are the standards of excellence for our goals wich are (per week):

baptisms 1

baptismal dates planned 5

investigators in church 5

lessons with a member 15

other lessons 15

investigators that are progressing 5

references recieved 5

references contacted 5

new investigators 15

lessons with less actives or recent converts 10

contacts 140

i don´t know if they are the same for alex, but that is what our mission president has given us for goals per companionship per week. it is actually pretty tough. we have never reached them all in one week, and most of us in this mission have fallen into this pattern of thinking that these standards are only for the rockstar diehard missionaries that are destined to be in the quorum of the 12 apostles or something. these goals have just seemed unreachable, and unfortunately, i had fallen into this mindset as well. our averages have been a lot lower and the only things we have been really good at are having the 15 other lessons, investigators that are progressing, recieving references, and new investigators. but it has been really tough getting investigators to commit to coming to church and getting all the contacts in.

well, that is changing.

hermana butler and i were in our planning session and we were looking at these stats and at our past stats to see if we could find a problem area and focus on it to improve. but after talking about it, we realized that the things the mission president are asking us are not hard. in fact, it´s not our pres that is asking it of us, it is THE LORD. we realized that by dividing it up by the days that these goals are achievable, and that we CAN do this. we changed our whole planning process and have revamped our weekly planning. we sent around a sign-up sheet in church for members who can come teach with us and we have all kinds of good things rollin in our plan-making.

and since our cool enlightening moment, we have gone out with lots of enthusiasm and lots of excitement and we have hit the streets with our eyes on the goal to follow these goals set up by our Father in Heaven through our mission president, to HELP GOD´S CHILDREN FIND THE WAY. and it all is so much clearer in our minds.

so, these past few days we went out and started working. hard. and it has been freezing and raining. hard. and satan has dropped a heavy weight on our shoulders to push us down to try and slow us down before we get going in our new plans. hard. and it has been more difficult. but we are dead-set determined to push as hard as we can to have one week at least where we hit each one of these goals on the head. we don´t do it for the numbers, we do it because we have faith and know that it is possible and are excited to see the results as we work our hardest and help our brothers and sisters come to a knowledge of the true gospel of Jesus Christ. so HERE WE GO!!!!!

sorry, i just spent a lot of time talking about that. kinda lame for the fam because it probably doesn´t have much relevance at all to ya all, but hope it gives the boys a feel for mission life and what is expected. hope they can learn with me and alex as we are experiencing the things we are experiencing.

by the way, i have that elder holland talk (about missionary work and peter the apostle) on dvd WOOOOOT! and i am dying to show it to you. mabye we can have a special family home evening the first monday after i get home and i will show it to you. it will change your life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

oh, and i got the package from mom-- THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! the translation was a little whack, but i will just type it up and cut out cards to paste over the top and i will put them in the books of mormon we give out. what a great idea!!! i love it!

i love you all and know your service and your light as individuals CAN reach out and help touch the world! keep me updated on the stake´s progress with their new focus of spreading the gospel throughout the world!

luvluv

samsam

2011-07-26T10:56:00.002-06:00

oh mondays hobey hobedy ho! it´s always fun to read emails.
i really hope the boys have a rockin time. it does sound fun, kayaking and camping. Alex, I love hearing your experiences!!!! that really get me more motivated and more excited about being here out in the feild. it pumps me up everyweek and gives me an extra boost for the upcoming days. i read a really cool scripture that my comp shared with me in comp study that gets me pumped too. i have it up on my wall amongst others. it´s in corinthians 9:24 about running a race. another good one is timothy 6:12 that says "fight the good fight of faith!". awesomeness. and alma 26:22 and 38:12... and and and ok that´s enough for now. i have those all up on the wall in our study room. they get me pysched to go out and work. i love it :D hope your foot heals up nicely so you can really get back into it! tell the mishkonaries in your zone that the missionaries in the chile rancagua mission are cheering for you and are inspired by your stories!!!!
we are really excited here in rengo because things are really starting to pick up. we have a good pool of investigators now that we are starting our 5th week in rengo and we have big plans to poner fechas--meaning we have 15 people we are going to invite to be baptized in august that we feel are prepared enough. we talk about baptism from the beginning so they know we aren´t just there to share a cute little message that makes them feel good. it´s lame sometimes because we always find people that let us in, but they are so used to the evangelico preachers that go through the streets chanting and singing and sharing a message and they think we are the same. they think we are just there to share a message and that´s it. we tell them we are there to help them ACT to recieve their salvation. there are too many people here in chile that have this idea that all the churches are the same and they all preach of christ and that to listen to the preachers and to have faith means salvation. we have to explain that it is not enough to chant and sing and believe to be saved, and that there is only ONE church that has the keys of the priesthood necessary for recieving the saving ordinances. and i need to stop and remember that my focus for studies this week is patience..... bahhhhhhhhhh. ha ha. there goes my ranting for the email! but i digress!!! ha ha. there are so many little backward churches out here. there are random churches with random names in random buildings/houses around every corner, and a lot of churches out in force. the people here are big time believers, but very confused concerning the doctrine of christ. but i have to remember that when we try to explain what the doctrine really is, that it´s not us that help them understand, it´s the spirit. we had a funny little conversation about that the other day in comp study. we were talking about how the Holy Ghost gave up his opportunity to live a human life like us and to experience having a body so he could do what he does. He is a distributor of light. then i said, "We are the truck and the Holy Ghost is like the delivery man!" ha ha ha. we had a good laugh about that. but if you think about it, it´s true. the delivery man delivers light/knowledge to the people. he drives a truck to get around to everyone. and if the truck needs fixing he fixes it and mainains it. just like we are guided by the Holy Ghost and if we hit a bump he rejuvenates and lifts us up. cool eh? funny little analogy. har har. GO HELP THE HOLY GHOST DISTRIBUTE SOME LIGHT BOYS! ;D
anyway. i can´t imagine how things will be so different when i get home in december. i am still not trunky, just anxious about how time keeps speeding up. i just want to make every moment count so i can come home knowing i did everything i could. i am having a lot of growing experiences with my companion. she is really amazing. we get along so well. she is artsy like me because we both studied art and she is quirky. she is a little insecure with speaking the language, but we have goals to speak pure spanish, even in the house after the day is done. i think it will help a lot. she is a good teacher, and i like it when she shares the first vision in our lessons because each word is concentrated and deliberate and she knows how to bring the spirit in by using pauses to let the feeling flood the room and give a chance for the investigator to just sit and feel without recieving input from us or anything else. that moment is crucial and beautiful. hermana recites the first vision, (with a gringo accent so they have to focus and listen carefully), and as the story unfolds they have the words of Joseph Smith, a picture of the event held up (by me), then nothing but a moment of silence and the Spirit working His magic. it´s amazing. then we ask them how they feel, just candidly, and they respond and look around as they think about it. it is legit!!! they usually don´t remember anything that was said, but THEY WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER HOW THEY FELT. and that is the most important. ranting again! i just love it.
hermana butler has really helped me look inside myself and become closer to the person i truly want to be. just the other day we had an interesting moment. backup real quick. during the mission you have to go inside the deepest part of you and change it to align it to the will of the Father and of the Son to truly become the missionary that truly represents the Savior. i´m sure there are a lot of missionaries that never get fully to that point, but i have been trying to go deeper and deeper to change my heart to follow the Lord 100%. there have been moments in the process that have been painful for me because that means facing all my deepest insecurities and worries and fears. I know that He had been waiting for that moment for me to finally open up and turn to him. and and the moment i did, He came in and took it all away. it was a whole new side of the Atonement i never knew before. and now my testimony is just that much greater and i KNOW that His power is ALL--REACHING and heals ALL PAINS. i feel completely free to progress and to be molded by His hands to become who i know i can be. and who i WANT to be. i just leave it up to Him now and let Him work his magic! it has been a life-changing experience, and the process continues! that is what i love about it; that we continue to experience the incredible power of the atonement almost constantly. it´s not just like repenting one time. i have had amazing experiences with repentance in the past, but now i look back and see that those were just the surface of the power and affect the atonement can have on me. now i understand it from a whole different view. IT´S AMAZING. it reminds me something that elder holland said, a quote with which i will close:

if the missionaries can come to love and appreciate it, the atonement will carry them, perhaps even more importantly than it will carry their investigators. you let them know that when they struggle, when they are rejected, when they are spit upon and cast out, and made a hiss and a by-word that THEY ARE STANDING SHOULDER TO SHOULDER WITH THE BEST LIFE THIS WORLD HAS EVER KNOWN; the only pure and perfect missionary that ever lived. THEY HAVE EVERY REASON TO STAND TALL AND TO BE GRATEFUL THAT THE SAVIOR AND REDEEMER OF THE WORLD KNOWS ALL ABOUT THEIR SORROWS AND AFFLICTIONS; and that for a moment or two in their lives, they will understand what he went through for them.

sending all my love!
samsam

Now Now... no digressing! (See Alex's e-mail!)

2011-07-19T14:08:00.002-06:00

ha ha i chuckled sitting here in the ciber cafe after reading "but i digress" the fourth time. bah ha ha. wow, i LOVED the emails today. just loved it. glad to hear the family reunion was a hit and that suff had a good time. man, hearing about harry potter,..... i am stoked to see that when i get home. (no, i am NOT trunky, thanks). ;D harry potter is all over the place here in chile tambien. it´s nuts and it makes me laugh. something random, but funny about mcdonnald´s al, just because you reminded me of it--it´s funny here in chile because mcdonnalds is like the country club or something. only the rich go there. it´s like it´s own subculture, called "los quicos" which basically means rich wannabe american types. har har har. it was weird walking in there the first time when i went with la hermana retana. everyone had american clothes there and looked american, but we were the only real gringas there. ha! but i digress...

SO what is happening here in las nieves... well... good things. yes. very good things. it is cold, but we are used to it now. we are seeing progress, slowly but surely, and we have actually found and started teaching whole families which i am stoked about. usually we find individual investigators, but it can be hard to get the whole family involved. but we have found some really awesome people that i have high hopes for. we just gotta make sure they don´t fall through somehow!

alex, i was soooo excited to hear about all the happy little miracles going for you in your zone. you go, zone lord! you are awesome. (here in the rancagua mission the elders made up gaming names like district master and zone lord bah ha ha. but the assistants are the apes. bar har har.) i just know that you have the real vision of missionary work. you don´t set up numbers and fall short to reach them, you set GOALS to help GOD´S CHILDREN COME UNTO CHRIST and FIGHT like we are in the war of the eternities because WE ARE. i love the hymn in spanish that says "somos los soldados que combaten error" (we are all enlisted) because in spanish it says "we are the soldiers that combat error/sin". kinda a new twist on it, eh? lurv it! and you are right, our time is shooooort. we gots to go go go and fight fight fight. my companion and i just made a goal today to have a week of exact obedience and to reach all the standards of excellence for this mission, meaning the goals are set high. but i think about my lil brother rippin it up in russia while i´m out here in chile and my other brothers are prepping themselves as well, and it gets me motivated. so HERE WE GOOOOO.

wow, i am just all pumped all of a sudden, wooow. thanks for the email, mom. it made me cry. :..) but now i feel so pumped for this coming week, for the rest of this month, and on until december when i finish. i love the mission. i can say as elder holland did once, "my mission means everything to me". (by the way, i got a copy of that amazing talk by elder holland on a cd from the zone leaders! we should have a family home evening night when i get home and i will show it to you. it will dejar la media patada/blow your socks off!)

anyway, so that´s all i gots now. thank you sooo much. de verdad. don´t forget to thank our loving Heavenly Father every day por tantas bendiciones que Él derrama sobre nuestras cabezas diariamente! it´s incredible what we have. we just need to share it with others now.

love you soo very very very much. chao!

samsam

WWWWWWWWWWHHHHHHAAAAAATTTT?

2011-07-11T18:53:00.001-06:00

alex broke a leg? then got HIT BY A CAR?! ha ha ha i read that and almost died walking on the street, until i read the part that said "JOKE". whew! good to hear that he isn´t hurt too bad. but that still is such a bummer. hope you have a quick recovery lil bro!
ok, foist tings foist.....
HAPPY BIRFFFDAY SEFFF! how old is this kid now? like, 13??? like, WHAT??? ha ha ha. woaooow. que bakan po! you gotta sing happy birffday en español!
well, we had a pretty good week. just chugging along. we found 17 new investigators, and they are pretty legit! we had some cool experiences teaching in the street with some teens. i used to be so scared of approaching teens because i thought they would just laugh at us or not take anything seriously. but, in my mind, some of our best lessons were with people from 14 to 20 years old this past week! we have been trying to focus more on young kids or families lately. it has been awesome.
wanna know something legit? our sector las nieves is huge. so huge in fact, that it goes up into the mountains and touches argentina. LEGIT. (this is the part when you go, WHOA). we actually had lunch with an awesome member family a few days ago, and we had to take a colectivo up into the hills, and it was way cool. it had winding roads, people going around on horseback, small homes made of adobe with animals in the yard, big feilds and lots of green--just the way i pictured all of chile to be like. i wish i had a camera to take some pics! i am going to send pics from hermana butler´s camera.
so, we are doing just dandy. things are good and we are having a lot of fun together. sometimes when it gets cold and we are out knocking doors we just jump up and down or dance in the street to keep warm. it does a lot more than keep us warm, because we are always laughing and joking around. people see us out wandering around laughing and wonder what is so funny and we start talking to them. it is great! ha ha ha.
the elders had a baptism yesterday. it wasn´t planned very well, but the girl getting baptized was so stoked about it she didn´t care. it actually turned our really nice so we were all happy about that. (NOTE to self and Al, PLAN BAPTISM SERVICES OUT WELL. no calling on the sister missionaries at the very last minute to give a short talk and to sing a random hymn. nope nope nope, none of that. be on top of it!!!!) it was ok, i didn´t mind doing giving a talk and singing (we ended up having the four of us missionaries singing Teach Me to Walk together and it was ok), but i would just hope that if i was taking an important step like that in my life that those in charge would have high standards and reach high expectations.
hey, random thought, if i went to utah state, what do you think about my chances of living with jill when i start school would be? hope my application and everything goes through ok.
anyway, i have spent all my time talking about random stuff and i have to go. hope all the family is well and happy. i pray for you and think about you all daily!!!! stay cool and enjoy the ride, because it is short!!!!
samsam

2011-07-05T00:29:00.000-06:00

¡¡¡FELIZ DÍA DE INDEPENDENCÍA!!!
i so hope you are all having a rip-roaring blast right now for the 4th of july. just soak up the sun and have fun!!!
man, we have such an amazing familia!!! i am just TICKLED to hear how awesome our family is doing. patrick will be such an amazing missionary. caleb and seth are going to be comin up on that fast too! and lil hopey wants a sister... reminds me of how i was years ago... ha ha. that would be cool to adopt.
i really hope everything goes well when mecy goes. her family needs to pull together for her. but i am so glad that our family has grown closer. i like how mom said it has become a sweet experience. it is true! with the gospel, it really is sweet because we know that death is just part of the plan and that it is not the end. there is so much comfort in that. comfort comes for the knowledge that we have. i have learned a lot about the importance of knowledge and how important it is to gain knowledge in our lives. there is a scripture in 2 Nephi 30:15-16 that talks about the millenium, and how it will be such a better place because the world will be filled with the knowledge of the lord. how cool is that? knowledge is light and power. those who do not have knowledge cannot replace the darkness with the light and become as things acted upon, instead of acting for themselves. i love this topic of light and dark! i have just been diving into it and have a HUGE chain of scriptures and thoughts and quotes about it. and it is still going! me and my last three comps have been talking a lot about it in our studies. it is so cool how much you learn and how much light is gained on the mission! and it is available to everyone whether they are on a mission or not! just like dad and mom and their crazy scripture chases. i just got a letter from dad about his studies and all these scriptures he looked up. ¡LEGITMO!
--and now a bit of randomness--hielo means ice, (pronounced as yellow) and i put it in the subject box because it has been quite the topic around here. there is ice everywhere because it has been more cold than usual. when we get up in the morning everything is white because it is covered with ice. hmmm.... a change in the weather? and when i say weather i mean, climate?.....¡¡¡¡¡¡ :S !!!!!!!! it has been nuts! i have never been so cold in my life. good thing we are going shopping today so i can finally get some socks and leggings. i have been sooo cold. it was so cold this weekend that the water in our lines froze and we couldn´t take showers sunday morning. i went to church with slightly greasy hair.... yuck... when we get up in the morning we can see our breath. it´s bad. last night we left the electric heater on all night even though we aren´t supposed to because we just couldn´t stand the cold. but no worries, i just wear lots and lots of layers (i feel like i go out to the sector wearing my entire wardrobe!) and i have a hot-water baggy thingy i tuck in my sheets and we stay nice and toasty. ;D it´s just weird and everyone is saying that it is a lot colder than usual. burr! i guess i am getting a taste of what alex went through in russia for winter! ha ha ha. but in chile!!!! it is quite the adventure! but me and la hermana butler keep our spirits high. we were even out knocking doors in the streets at 9 pm last night in the freezing cold, but we were laughing and having a great time... and maybe some dancing... and laughing.... and jumping up and down to stay warm... and laughing some more. :D so we are doing fantastic! actually, yesterday was quite a day. we taught some good lessons, and one of them was a family whose mother is a jehovah´s witness. they are so hard core and they never ever let missionaries into their home and never listen to any other religion, not NOTHIN. but we went in and started out with small talk, and she busied herself in the kitchen acting like she didn´t want to listen while we taught her kids and her daughter´s boyfriend, but before too long, she was standing in the room watching, then pulled up a chair and started really paying attention. everyone listened with rapt attention. i don´t know what happened, but they were all so quiet and hanging on every word. we presented the first lesson and hermana butler recited the first vision... then silence... and the spirit FLOODED the place. it was so legit! we presented the book of mormon and they seemed excited to read it and had a lot of questions. then the mom started to speak and it was so amazing! by the end we gave a book of mormon to her kids and asked to set up another time that we could visit. it was funny because we said a time and the mom spoke up as if to say, "wait, that won´t work because i want to be here" and we looked at her and she stopped talking and waved her hands at her kids and said, "ah, nevermind. you two will be here right?" it´s like she wants to so bad, but it is so against her religion to listen to anything from other religions. so we will be teaching the 22 year old daughter and her boyfriend and her two siblings, and try --wink wink--- to be there when the mom is home so that she can listen without breaking the rules of her church.... we are just going to see what we can do to bend them.... muah ah ah!
so we are doing pretty good! i just don´t have any legit pics to send. sorry. my camera is officially out of commission. i have had it for 4+ years, and i knew it wouldn´t last, but i thought it would last till the end of the mish. dang. the battery has been going out on me because i would charge it and it only lasted for about 10--20 minutes each time. but it took a blow when it was set up on a table for zone pics for our last meeting in my last zone, and an elder was late getting into the pic so he dove over the table to get in just before all the cameras started going off and just knicked my camera at the end of the table and it crashed on the floor. :( it´s all glichy know and it´s just not even worth trying to mess with. so i´m out of luck. but cameras here are a lot cheaper than the states so i am going to see what i can do....
man, rengo is awesome. it is big, and we gots a lots of work to do. we share the sector with elders (again) kimbal (from utah) and torres (dominican republic). they are way cool. torres is outgoing and cheerful, a negro with really tight curls, and kimbal is a tall skinny kid who has more charity and love for people than i have EVER seen in a missionary. the two are just inspiring. just amazing. hey, side-note, you know a family with the last name spawn? kimball´s grandparents live in west jordan and he spends his summers with them. not sure where in west jordan... but he has connections there.
anyway, we have had quite the welcome here. apperently there haven´t been hermanas in rengo for some 20 years mas o menos. how crazy is that? and it´s a WARD. woot! my first time in a ward in the mission. they usually have just over 100 in attendance, usually 115. we had about 90 yesterday. that is crazy good for this mission. (sorry, al, just had to brag...) they have some really great members and they are all soooo excited to have sisters. almost over enthusiastic like they were swarming us during church. the hermanas from the relief society were just all over us. it was kind fun he he he. they love us and all of them want us to visit because they are all dying to work with us and give us references. it will be so great! the R.S. president, hermana gatica, actually went out with us on thursday and showed us around. we visited 15 families of members, inactives, and part member families. it was so legit. we have really good bearings in our new ward thanks to the elders and the awesome sisters in the ward. we have a new ward mission leader and he is really cool. for our first coralation meeting we made all these goals for missionary work in the ward with him and we are so pumped to just "shred the gnar" as alex would say. har har! AND my last hija, hermana hunsaker is in my new zone! i am in the rancagua zone, which was my first zone a year ago. it brings back so many memories. we have to travel for about 45 minutes by bus (crammed in there like sardines...) every wednesday for district meeting into the city of rancagua, and the church is by the centro where we always went for pday in my first sector. going back into the centro in rancagau just brings a flood of memories of my first few months as a newb. i can´t believe it was a year ago! that is just so wierd. i love it!
we are sthuper sthoked to be working. hermana butler is such an observant and caring person. she is very obedient but not pushy. just a chugger and a plugger! she is still learning spanish and sometimes turns to me during lessons to ask for help, but she is doing great. she came to the field in january, but she is fully adjusted and doing great.
MOM, thank you sooo much for helping me out with all the school stuff. i didn´t realize how important having a plan for after the mission would be until a few months ago. actually, every time we have had a special conference or something, the speakers (including elder richard g. scott when he came to santiago back in august) have always taken time to talk about life after the misison. i just have brushed it off until now, but the spirit has been nudging and prodding lately and i have been praying a lot about it because it has really been on my mind a lot. i finally have a plan after months of praying and thinking over it over time and i finally know what i need to and want to do. i know i need to go to school. that just always comes up when i pray. i know i need to study. i don´t have any money whatsoever, but i have recieved from the spirit and have made the decision to go to utah state. i don´t know how in the world it will work because i have no money and it will be difficult to plan everything while out here, but i just know and feel that it is what i need to do. so i am going for it. just everytime i think about it the promise i recieved before coming out on the mission comes up in my mind. i remember praying right before leaving SUU to ask if serving a mission was the right thing for me to do. i prayed for a long time before i recieved my answer. the answer was that the spirit was not going to tell me yes, i should serve, or no, i shouldn´t. i remember specifically recieving my answer that for me to serve a mission was a personal decision that i had to make, but i remember recieving a specific promise from the spirit that if i did choose to serve a mission that i would recieve great blessings that would be in no other way available to me and that when i finished the misison that all my personal affairs would just fall into place for my life after. i am sticking to that. i am taking a step in the dark with these plans i am forming for after the mission, but i don´t feel worried at all. i am 100% confident that i am heading in the right direction. i want to study part time, get a job, and live on campus. with time i can get a horse and keep it with uncle george and go over to care for it regularly. i want to get a cheap 4 or 5,000 dollar truck and work on up from there to start building a future for my dream of having my own little country home that i can add to and make it my own with my own land for gardening and horses. that is my dream. don´t know how i will get there, but from where i am i just know that things are already falling into place. and i´m still not even close to finishing my mission yet! wow. cool how that works, huh?
ok, this is getting to long, but i just wanted to that you, Mom, for being so willing to jump in and help whenever i have needed something. i hope i never ask too much. i love you so very much and am so grateful to you for helping me get all the school stuff ready and for the money to buy some warm clothes. you are the greatest. fur realz! i love you so much!
i love you all mi lil familia linda!!!!!!! take care!!!!!!
samsam
p.s. could you send me bishop wadley´s email address? we need it for our emergency info in the mish...

Craziest week EVERRR

2011-06-14T10:16:00.002-06:00

this will be short because i don´t have a lot of time. basically we didn´t work at all this week. had another trip to the hospital for my comp and i have been super sick. but looks like we are coming out of all the crazy drama and are going to be able to start fresh this week.
i love hearing from home. it was fun to read your emails this week! we have a baptism coming up this sunday and we are stoked for it. it will be great.
sorry this is the lamest email yet, but that´s all i got for now.
LOVE!!!! samsam
PS
Sam has had a rough couple of weeks. She has been so fired up about the work and there have been some bumps in the road with her companion's health... and now she has gotten sick as well. Please offer a prayer for her the next time you are on your knees! Thanks, Marianne

2011-06-07T14:19:00.002-06:00

I LOVE NEWS! wow, explosion in russia? produce ban? VOLCANO IN SOUTHERN CHILE? yup, i heard that. we were in a member´s home this week preparing to have a family home evening with some investigators and the elders and a news report came up during the showing of a flinestones movie about a huge volcanic erruption in the south. it looked big and nasty, but the members told us it is probably too far away for it to have any affect here in rancagua which is central chile. so we are good. OH, i also heard that there were some huge tornado issues in the states. saw that during lunch at a member´s home as well. there were two tornadoes in massachussetts?? what??? wow. crazy world we live in, and it just keeps getting crazier! but i am glad to hear that my broda and famiwy ambiwy is doing ok. hearing about the army dudes and tanks around the local streets kinda blew my mind though.... wha....oooaaaaowwww.......
my turn for news-- we just had probably the craziest week in my mission. basically we have spent two nights away from our home in paine now this week. we have lost a lot of time with working. our numbers for last week were in the pits. we are doing what we can, but i know it is ultimately up to the lord. and i trust him. i love hermana larson. we do quite well as companions we get along well and have a good relationship as companions.
so i really actually don´t have much news other than that because we have been out of work for the past 5 days. the most exciting thing i have to say is that i jumped a fence while we were in santiago because it was 11:30 ish in the middle of the night and it was freezing and my comp and i weren´t sure what to do, so i jumped the fence to get into the mtc in santiago to find someone to help us out. QUITE the adventure, but i wrote it all out in detail in a letter home so you can read it later. just know that the Lord really does watch out for us in every moment. He has provided for us multiple times in our trials. just so many happy little miracles/tender mercies. HE IS THERE. and he knows, so i´m not worried. just keep juggin and keep on keepin on!!! (love that btw al, it is quite catchy...hope you don´t mind if i copy you ha ha ha ).
no need to worry about my diet, mom and dad. i take some vitamins i got in the mtc every morning, an egg with a slice of ham and chilean bread and a banana or oatmeal every morning, and whatever they give us for lunch (usually meat with a side of mashed potatoes or rice, sometimes pasta, sometimes papas fritas, or fish just basically lots of meat and lots and lots of veggies) then during the afternoon i always eat an apple out walking in the sector. i have come to really love apples. but we eat late lunches and always eat a lot for lunch, so i usually just snack in the afternoon and never really eat at night when we get home. so i´m good! i have become addicted to this one drink though, it´s fake coffee with apple cinnamon flavor and it is BOMB. i love it. we just boil water and pour it in with this stuff, it is called ECCO, and drink it before bed and in the morning to warm us up because we are in winter season now. it is cooold. we don´t have central heating, just a tiny electric heater kinda like an oversize toaster laid on it´s side that blows hot air. and i use a huatero (spelling? it´s the spanish word for it, i have no idea what it is called in english) it is a big rubber baggy thingy that i fill with boiling water and put in my sheets. it is so nice and toasty. and we have lots of blankets. so i am good and set for the winter! yep yep, bring it on. let´s do this!
if you have some time, mom, that would be great if you could apply for me for usu and weber. i would sooo love to go back to suu but i wouldn´t have a car down there and finding a job down there is a nightmare. but we will see how it goes. i just need to get a good job, and i might have to live at home for a while to get my bearings, so i was even thinking u of u. but lets just try usu and weber and suu. and then i will get the all clear to use the internet for an hour every week on pday to search for grants and scholarships. so let me know how that goes. i`m really thinking usu is my top pick right now because it is closer to home and has good job options. i would only go to weber if i had to live at home. if i had all the money in the world and transportation i would be happy as punch to go back to suu, but for now i am aiming for usu. i just want to work full time, and take 2 or 3 evening classes aimed in agriculture and art. yes, i want to try art again. i got so burned out hard core with the art classes at suu, but being out here on the mission has changed so many things for me. i am not giving up on art yet, and i want to keep going deeper into agriculture and see where that takes me. it´s all on the drawing board, but i know the Lord will make clear my paths and direct me as i take a shot in the dark and just try to plan for my future.
and with these last 5-6 months out here in chile, i am just going to RIP IT UP. i am just so into it and i love being here. it is like alex said though, there is always something to work on and you never really do get there. but that is part of the journey, just keep pushing to get there. that is what make the boys that go out on missions turn into men and what makes the girls find themselves as they find the Lord first. i have changed so much and become more of the person i have wanted to be for this mission. it is amazing. i love it so much. patrick, caleb, seth, and even hope, this is sooo worth it. get ready and get set, because the mission is the ride of your life. take it and don´t let it slip through your fingers. make it mean everything to you. it means everything to me.
i love you all so much! so so so so so much! take care out there, and keep the most important things first!!!
samsam

WHAAAOW

2011-05-31T11:50:00.002-06:00

that is how they say whoa here, "WHAAAAOW". i just soaked up those emails like a sponge this week. bomb--dot--com.
YAY more missionaries! that just rocks my socks! megan and kimi way to go!!!! tell kimi que ojala que te vaya super bien con tus papeles para la mision. pero, espero que nos vemos antes que te vaya po! quiero hablarte antes en enspañol! chuta, deben mandarte a la mejor mision en todo el mundo aqui en chile rancagua! que BAKAN seria!
tell those elders at home (and rm's in arizona) HOLA for me! tell them to work their little tootsies into the ground. i don't wanna be hearin no whinin from loosing drivin priveleges. that's not a real mission are you kidding me? ha ha ha we don't even have bikes. man we be out here hand-washing our clothes, living in the winter time without central heating, walking everywhere on the road and dirt--need i go on? elder kay has got it cush. so he better work hard! Where much is given, much is expected!
man, i can't hear cedar city without thinking about college. i want to go back SO BAD after da mish. and i want to art it up SO BAD. the longer i have been away from art classes and painting and entering shows the more i am dying to get back into it. it's so funny because all those things i took for granted just kill ya on the mission. like alex was saying about piano and how he wants to take classes from richard marshall again. (BOYS--and hope-- don't let things slip through your fingers! take advantage of the opportunities and blessings you have!) i am kicking myself for not really developing the talents i have like piano and singing and art. in the branch i am in right now they don't have anyone that can play the piano. they have just been singing without any music every sunday. so i got a hold of a book of simplified hymns in spanish and started practicing and i played for sacrament meeting a few times. but when hermana larson came in she saved us because she plays like alex or amanda stephens, she is pro. but the relief society has asked that we teach hymns so they can know and sing more than the more popular hymns. so we have been singing and teaching some cool ones. i LOVE the hymns in spanish. there are some that we have always sung in english before that never meant much to me before, but now we sing them in spanish and during our lessons in peoples homes and it hits me so much harder. "divina luz", and "paz calmense" and "señor, te necesito" y "acompañame" are some of my favs. it's awesome! i have learned to direct music out here too. i did that almost every sunday the last change in my old sector and here i do it for relief society. i love it. but i just think to myself, "WHY wasn't i doing this before???" BAH. and painting. oh I MISS ART. so much.
SO, here is what i am thinking. i have been throwing this around in the back of my mind for some time. i know i still have 6 months left of the mission, (and NO i am NOT trunky in the least, believe you me!) but if i want to go to school when i get home i have to start that whole process now. i have prayed about it and thought about it and talked to my comps and i want to go to utah state or weber when i get home. somewhere close where i can take maybe 3 or 4 classes and work and study. i am going to ask pres. macarthur for permission to look online for grants and scholarships (he gives missionaries applying for school an hour a week to go to a ciber to do all that). i figure i have nothing to lose. i can only go if i can find some grants and scholarships, but i might as while try. i hope it works out! i have been dying to go back to study agriculture and art so i can get some skillths in horsemanship and livestock. i'm afraid la hermana hunsaker has talked me into livestock keeping as well. i am sold! ha ha. don't worry hope, i will have cows and chickens and ducks and cats and dogs and horses gallore! har har har. and a garden....
ok, enough of that. just life-changing decisions....
oh MAN i am so happy jill and terry have been so comforted by that song. it is my favorite. it comes from 3 nephi 22:7-11 and DandC 121 i think. that scripture passage from 3 nephi is one of my top favs. i have used it a lot in the mission. i have that song on a cd that is a sunday music mix. hey mom, have you sent that yet? i can't believe i didn't bring it. i have a prince of egypt soundtrack too that i would love to listen to. if you could find those two and send them, that would be great.
this past week has been great. some highlights:
did service on thursday with the two elders in our sector. we helped this part-member family at their house. they live in a makeshift home they put together, and they took it all apart piece by piece to move it and make it bigger. the just took out all the nails and had a huge pile of wood on their land. we helped them move all this wood and other random material like foam board around to clear up the yard while they were nail wooden boards to the house to complete it. it's amazing how they work here. it reminds me so much of grandpa actually. nothing goes to waste. even when they tear down a house they don't throw anything out.
we had completos (big hotdogs) thursday night as well to celebrate my year mark. we went after the end of the day. me and hermana larson were headed to the completo joint when all the power went out over the whole street all of a sudden. we were passing a bar when it happened and we could hear all these peole talking and coming out and we started to run. we ran all the way up the street trying not to trip on things because we couldn't see a thing. we got up to where the elders were and they were about to walk us home when the power came back on. whew. it scared me so bad though. argh!
we also had a lot of visits with members this week. i have thought a lot about what you said, dad, about how it isn't always bad to visit members. from my experience with hermana bonilla i didn't want to be a slacker missionary and we hadn't been visiting members at all. but this week we decided to get to know them more and be there for them and to build relationships with them so that they can help us as well. we actually received 10 references because of it and we have 3 days this coming week where we have scheduled to go out and do visits with the members we visited. WOOOOT! there have been a lot of members that we have found that actually really need our visits and our love. it's been an eye-opening experience! and we still did really well with everything else too.
well, i have to go. i will send some pics.
thanks for everything. i love you MORE THAN YOU KNOW!!!!!!!!!
samsam

2011-05-24T12:52:00.001-06:00

oh familia linda mia! mondays are such awesome days! i love reading the emails and hearing about the miracles in the work from russia and from home. (it's like pres. uchtdorf said in the last conference, "preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words."). Alex, i love reading your emails because i just smile and nod my head when i read things like the way your old life just fades away, but the family stuff, the things that are really important come upfront and in bright colors as if amplified by the work we are doing. i LURV IT. time really does fly. what the heckers, I AM COMPLETING ONE WHOLE YEAR IN THE MISSION IN THREE DAYS..... WHAAAAA. wow. that blows my mind. i only have 6 months left! what! that really just makes me want to work work work. i feel just like alex; kind of looking back at things and realizing how time has flown and how things have changed and i look back and see how far i have come. i but i do know there are some things i know i could have done better with in the past. i have been giving this everything i have got, but there have been times in the past on this mission that i could have done better but i didn't know it at the time. it comes in waves for me, i get in one wave or phase, and learn somethings and come out on the other side thinking i have improved enough. but then the next wave has even more things i find that i can improve and more challenges. but i come out of that one thinking, ok, now i really am ready. but you never do stand still. always progressing or always deteriorating. i have come so far, but i feel like i am finally to the point where i can really work and really really do a lot of good. but knowing that it took a whole year to get where i am makes me feel like i really have to push these last 6 months to utilize everything i have learned and really make a difference. i haven't slacked off before and have always been trying to work hard, but back even 3 or 4 months i thought i was doing so great, and i see that there is still so much i can do. it is really awesome though and it just pumps me up to really make this last stretch of the mission something amazing and i am really excited. i feel like i am becoming the fourth missionary. i have been a pretty good 3 for a while, but i want to be a 4. a good solid 4! ha ha. so hobey ho, here we go!
oh, big shout out --HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!!!!!! i thought about him all day. i wondered what you were doing all day and how your birthday was going. everytime we see huasos going down the streets in their outfits and big boots on their horses i think about you and getting horses after the mish. it is on my list, and i am totally going for it after i get home. ;)
so.... here in paine with hermana larson... things are going really good. i finally feel like i am unreservedly throwing everything into this work. like i said before, i thought i was doing that in the past, but now that everything i want to do has faded, i have real desires to get out and work and teach and it is awesome. but the harder you work the more time speeds up! its nuts. but soo cool. we have been really getting to know the people here in paine and its been great. we have a lot of investigators now, and we have a lot of people to visit. little happy things just fall in our path that remind us that Heavenly Father really does know His children and that this really is His work.
Alex, BELIEVE in miracles. they are right around the corner, when you least expect it! literally! ha ha ha. i loved hearing about your miracle, because it reminds me that there really are people out there that are willing and waiting for the relief the gospel brings. legiiiit!
man chile is nuts. i love it so much. last saturday night we had to be home early by 6 because the president of chile was going to give his anual address and apperently, sometimes there are some nasty protests. nothing happened here in lil ol paine, so we were just in our little house writing in our journals, listening to some disney music, and hermana larson went to town cooking in the kitchen. she made popcorn, lemon bars, and brownies (and boiled eggs....?). it was awesome. our neighbor came over. her name is Linda and she has become our friend. she is a menos activo and she came over to tell us that she wants to come back to church. WOOOOOT! she is a menos activo, but has wanted to come back. it is a hard step because there is a history there, but we were so excited. and she did come yesterday. hope she keeps coming!
another crazy thing, there was this false prophet guy in santiago leading a cult and somehow spread it around that the world was going to end on saturday night at 6 o clock. oh pleeeeez! so we were walking down the street friday evening and this group of kids called out to us and we started talking to us. they asked us if it was true that the world was going to end saturday night. they looked kinda scared and said they saw it on the news. we told them, of course, that it wasn't going to end and talked to them a bit about Jesus Christ. We gave them pass along cards and everything and it was cool. poor kids! sitting on the street curb in the ghetto of our sector worrying about stupid rumors spread by some maniac about the world ending. oh boy....
anyway, i hope things are going well at home. mom, how are you doing? i am glad you followed the Spirit on the job thing. that is definitely the right and only thing to do in a situation like that. if they are going to be shady, i would say walk away. but i hope you aren't sad because you aren't working anymore. are you going to look for another job? whatcha doing with your time now? i hope dad's work is going well too. its so crazy that school is getting out soon. don't have too much fun without me and luximous!
alrighty, i better go, but i love you all to pieces and think of you everyday! be good, read your scriptures, and NEVER underappreciate your life! if you do just wait till you hear some of the stories that me and alex will have to tell. man, we have it good in centerville. i have been so impacted by my experiences here. i will never take my life for granted again. we got it cushy. enjoy it! and pray! and read your scriptures! and have family home evening! and do visiting/home teaching! and all that jazz!
I LOVE YOUUUUUUU!
samsam

AH, MONDAYS!

2011-05-16T16:14:00.001-06:00

mom always says she loves mondays, and i have to say that I DO TOO! :D reading your experiences and how things are going at home and how alex is rippin it up in russia just lifts my spirit. i get quite the boost hearing from home and the family and da bro.
Well, big changes. again. suprise surprise. hermana hunsaker got transfered out at the last minute. they usually have trainer and hija together for at least 2 changes, but they did some special arrangements this time. it was so sad. we were really having a lot of fun together and really getting settled with this sector. especially after a whitewash we were so happy to be feeling like a real part of the ward and the community after working so hard to deserve that acceptance and to see the fruits of our labors with new investigators (har har of the 10 we get everyweek HA. nah, jk alex! the trick is getting them to stick! that is what we struggle with). the mission pres had to switch hermana larsen out so hermana hunsaker and her are switching places. hermana hunsaker was super bummed when we heard about the changes because we have some really good investigators that have baptismal dates for next month. and they are people that we found together and have been teaching from the beginning.
it is really special to walk with an investigator along the path of finding the truth of the gospel of Christ from the very first moment they come out of their house to see why these too young, foreign women with skirts and tags are knocking at their door, to when they step slowly into a font full of water dressed in white. in fact it is not something that happens very usually from what i have seen so far, to be there for the process in its entirety. i have never quite made it yet in my mission. for example, i have found really good people who accept the discussions and set a baptismal date but then i was transferred before their baptism. or for example, when i arrived in my first sector the baptisms that happened there were thanks to the work of my comp and her previous comp. but it looks like a sure thing that i will get to experience that here in paine. hermana hunsaker was so excited for it too, but she will do great where she is going. she is going to baquedano, my first sector! WOOT!
we have two people with baptismal dates set, a single man that lives alone that approached us in the street and asked us to teach him. he is legit. he is the rich guy from ecuador. he has the look of a future bishop! very well organized and thurough, never likes to be rushed and does things promptly and slowly.
the other is a young girl of 19 who's dad is dying of cancer. she used to be a big time punk, but is soaking up everything we leave her to read. she smokes, but she wants to quit. and the things we are teaching her are what she has been looking for for some time. the Lord has just set things up for us so perfectly!
anyway, so i am here with hermana larsen, and we don't know much about each other but she seems cool. she is from the states, a cute blondie, and i am pysched to work with her. but it was sad to see hermana hunsaker go. my old hija, hermana retana, was transferred into our zone too, so i get to see her again! wooooot!
we had a zone conference last tuesday, and it was AMAZING. they did it a lot differently this time around.usually. we have a testimony meeting, classes, break, more classes, and lunch. but this time, after the newbs and the vets all gave testimonies (my little hermana hunsaker did a bomb job with her spanish!), we all watched a talk by elder holland that he gave in the mtc in january of this year. it was so incredible. it was so powerful and there was not a dry eye there. it really just hit me hard.
he talked about why they created preach my gospel and how it was made to convert the missionary. he said that for years and years before they just had the missionaries memorize the discussions, but then they would go out and just repeat the memorized material--it would come from their head and out of their mouths, but never reached their hearts. he said a lot of good was still done and that it worked at the time, but the first presidency sat down to figure out what was happening when they realized the sad reality of the fact that far far too many missionaries would return home and go inactive. and that is why preach my gospel was borne. to convert the missionary first, to change and convert them first so they can go out and help the investigators. he talked about how it has to be in our hearts first.
he then shared the story in the bible of after Christ's death. he explained that these men were new to the church, and after Christ was gone, they weren't sure what to do so they returned to what they had always done. they went out and went fishing. then, at dawn, after a long night of laboring and catching nothing, a man calls out to them from the shore and tells them to let down the nets from the other side. they do so, and it almost overcomes the entire boat with the amount of fish that is caught and brought in. they turn back to look at the man on the shore, and John says, "It's Him." Peter, upon realizing it was the Lord, launches himself out of the boat and swims to shore as fast as he can. the others arrive and they sit with Christ. He serves them a meal of cooked fish as he had so thoughtfully and lovingly prepared some food for these exhausted men. Then asks Peter, three times, if he loves him. When Peter responds with "yea Lord " all three times, Christ commands him, "then FEED MY SHEEP."
at this point elder holland repeated that. "FEED MY SHEEP". and he says "in that moment, Peter strode into the eternities". from that point on, Peter became the man that people would lay out in the street for just the opportunity of having his shadow pass over them. it was from that moment that he became the Peter that was such a powerful apostle of the Lamb. and it was because he was motivated for his love of the Savior and followed his commandments.
he said that Christ came back to explain to them, lovingly and patiently, that when he called them to the discipleship he meant it forever. He explained and taught them that it was not over. that it would never be over. elder holland said the same for us. he said we can never go back becuase it would break our Lord's heart. He asked, in that voice of his that rocks the pulpit, "DO YOU LOVE HIM?" and said "THEN FEED HIS SHEEP".
it is like what dad was saying over the phone on mother's day, it all goes back to love. if we truly love our Saviour, we will not hesitate to do what so little he asks of us.
That talk changed my life. it changed everything. i want to be and do everything i can FOR HIM. because I LOVE HIM.
and i just wanted to share that with you. i hope you can look up that talk somehow. i don't know if it is available to everyone, because the pres. had it on a dvd disc that the mtc sent out to the missions so it might just be some special video that is copyrighted, but if you can, find it and watch it. it is from january 11 of 2011 i think.
anyway, i love you so much. and i love our Lord. thanks for everything!
samsam

wowzers!!!

2011-05-03T16:17:00.000-06:00

ok i haven't cried during our hour of internet for a while, but ya got me today! reading everyone's emails was such a sweet moment for me. i could see your faces and hear your voices in my head as i read all the little messages from everyone. the spanish from tio threw me off though, haven't really heard him speak in castillano yet, but i will be excited to when i get home! digalo que voy a recordar siempre la roca de abrazos! har har har. the hugging rock!
time is short today, so let me just say, i am so grateful for a family like the one we share. it truly is amazing to be out in the world, to see how families are falling apart from the "fiery darts" of the adversary, and to see how extended families never stay close, but to know that back home in happy little utah, i have a family waiting and praying and staying close together through the hard times and to celebrate together the good times. wow. that is worth more than anything in this world. and it is all thanks to the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. I KNOW that He has opened the heavens for us and has restored the truths that were lost for so many years of apostacy. He returned to the Earth, and spoke to a boy of only 14 years old to start what is known as the Restoration of the Fullness of Times. I know Christ lives and that He did that for us so we can have the gospel on the earth again, so that we can be happy and united and safe from the so many obstacles that befront us. Tio Brad said it beautifully--there are missionaries all over the world so that families like ours can have sacred, blessed, beautiful moments like what my family had together this past weekend when a little baby who was brought recently into this world was blessed by a father who has the priesthood power. Family gathered, angels stood in reverence, and the heavens sang.
GOD HAS OPENED THE HEAVENS FOR HIS CHILDREN ONCE MORE. HE LIVES AND HE LOVES US. WE ARE HIS CHILDREN. HE HAS SPOKEN TO US THROUGH HIS PROPHETS OF OLD, AND SPEAKS TO US KNOW. IF ONLY YOU KNOW HOW TO LISTEN, HE IS THERE. HIS POWER RESIDES ON THE FACE OF THIS EARTH, AND IT IS THE ONLY THING THAT CAN SEAL OUR FAMILIES TOGETHER FOREVER.
and THAT is why i am here in Chile, fighting the good fight. and THAT is why my brother is in Russia, doing the same. and IT IS WONDERFUL! :D
I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH! thank you for your messages! that was so fun to read, and really lifted me up!
samsam

another great e-mail from surampta

2011-04-26T17:09:00.001-06:00

how are ya alls? it was so great to read your emails this week. i really loved it! i love hearing about all the details of the goings on at home. about levi and his scooter, chris, the people that pass by, caleb and seth's haircuts ha ha, the elders that visit and the easter holiday. good ol potatoes and carrots and ham... yum.... ha ha. actually, i have changed quite a bit out here. we eat giant portions of meat everyday and i have learned the ways of the chileans. i might just surprise you when i get back. i can pick bones (almost) clean now, and i have become quite the meat eater heh heh.
i always have grandpa in my prayers, and i hope that he knows that. i think about him alot. i should get back on letter writing. i have been so bad about it, and even when i do have a little extra time to write letters i am usually trying to catch up in my journals or doing some more studying in Jesus the Christ by Talmage. BTW-- that book is so amazing it blows my mind. i love it!!!!! there is just such limited spare time on the mission! even on pdays we are cleaning the house and doing laundry and getting groceries and such. it is nuts. but i am going to write today. i have a goal to make it work.
glad to hear about christopher. happy little miracles! the tender mercies of the Lord really do exist and they can happen everyday! i am a witness to that on this mission. you find little miracles every day if you look for them. it's like what dad said in a letter i just got last week, that those who truly humble themselves as servants of the Lord will be more full of gratitude and be able to recognize the little mercies that fill our lives. there are so many that are blind to it, but we really do have so much given us from the Lord.
mom, thank you for your insights about the Savior and His Atonement. you said it so beautifully and i read it over and over. I can just imagine us watching from the other side of the veil like you said. i can imagine that i would just want to charge down to the earth and stop it. i won't lie, i don't think i could have handled watching it. i would have wanted to hault the pain and the torture, even though the very plan of salvation of our loving Heavenly Father hung in the balance as our Brother and Savior Jesus Christ carried out the Father's will. But i love how we celebrate in His VICTORY, and NOT His pain. We know He is Risen, and that He lives again. We know He is there and that He offers us peace and safety and love and forgiveness with open arms. I just love how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints portrays the Savior as loving and kind and happy, and that we don't just focus on His agony on the cross. That was especially at the front of my mind this past week. it was la semana santa here in chile for easter (they call it "la pascua") and with the celebrations there was a lot of things i saw that just kinda made me sad. ok not kinda sad, it was downright depressing! There are so many little churches made out of houses with handpainted signs overhead, and they all have their signs and posters, and unfortunately we saw a lot of sad images of the Savior this past week. We passed this one tent that was set up by a church in a park where they were singing with guitars and tamberines and all kinds of instruments and clapping their hands and singing as loudly as they could, and as we passed i saw that they had a poster at the entrance of Christ carrying the cross. it was horrid. it was like something from a horror movie. i couldn't believe it. it was just so sad and it didn't have respect. it was bloody and depressing because in the image he was crying out and there was blood and it was really dark. YUCK. that is NOT Christ to me. He did suffer, but there is no reason to cover the streets with such awful images as that, WE FOCUS ON THE LIVING CHRIST. I am so glad we focus on the life He gives, not the suffering. Through Him we enjoy peace and our lives are happy as we stive to live our lives in this short time on the Earth to prepare for the eternities to come. THIS IS THE TRUE CHURCH OF THE LORD. I KNOW IT IS AND I AM SO GRATEFUL THAT WE HAVE THE RESTORED TRUTH ON THE EARTH TODAY.
oh tell brad and carrie congrats! i love the name gracie. what a cute name! she has got to be a dang cute little baby, just look at olivia and tagen! cute cute cute. happy to hear they are doing well :D
Alex, did you get my letters yet? ha ha prolly not... it will probably get there in like a year. when i was at the counter in the post office the guy just stared at the address on the envelope and was like, "eehhhh,..... RUSSIA??" it took him forever to run it through the computer and told me it would take up to three weeks to arrive. good ol convenient and reliant foreign mail services.... ugh...
by the way, i was thinking the same thing this past weekend, people getting drunk to celebrate Easter? WHA. i think it is ridiculous how everyone gets drunk anytime they get work off for a holiday. it's just a free day for people to throw responsibility out the window and get stupid. we had a few run-ins with drunks as well. there was this one guy that tried to kiss my comp and we had to push him away. it was really bad.... he invited us into his home because he said he wanted to hear our message and said his mother and son were there. but as soon as we walked in we realized it was just his 15 yr. old son and him, and it was dark and rank. i could feel the spirit leave and little red flags were going off in my head. we tried to teach him about the savior, but it became apparent that he didn't want to hear a message, and i realized that he was drunk. so we promptly left. it was really scary because he had this look in his countenance like he was going to do something and we were in a tight spot. but we were protected, and i really felt like he was held back by something. we walked away from that counting our blessings! we are so protected. who knows what that creeper had running through his head! but there have been many times when i feel the protection that comes from unseen hands. and really, NO WORRIES. the Lord is there, in every moment and so are His servants, fighting together from both sides of the veil. i just hate to think what kind of world his poor son lives in. his son seemed like a good kid in a bad life. we passed their reference to the elders, and i told them that they had to somehow help that kid. his name is Felipe and i told them, "whatever happens, just help that poor kid! please!" He seemed to actually listen and his eyes had a flicker of light, unlike his dad who reeked with darkness and was completely detached from any light of Christ or the Spirit.
Paine is pretty small, and there are some really ghetto places so we are trying to go to the shady areas only when we have a priesthood holder with us. and we are trying to schedule all our teaching appointments at night so we are left wandering around in the dark at night. winter is coming on and it is getting darker earlier. but we are finding more and more investigators that we can teach so we aren't spending all our time out knocking doors and trying to do street contacts.
It's not bad though, it is very rural. it has some businesses right up against the freeway and the where the train passes multiple times a day, but past all that is is farms and small communities. we live in a really nice neighborhood though with lots of young families and kids everywhere so we love it. and the house that we live in is really nice and it is all only about 2 or 3 years old. we did have an epic battle with ants that had infested the corners and cracks in the cement surrounding the foundation of our house. we took a garden hose to the holes where they were coming out and the water was black with ants and they just came out for hours. it was incredible. and we have flees again (DANG IT!!!!!) because we were with someone that had flees and they got into our house. i have some funny pics of me sleeping with my sweat pants and sweatshirt sleaves tucked into knee-high socks that i wore on my feet and hands so no flees could get into my clothing. it is awful getting bit! i have bites all over my legs and arms and they are big and red. BUT we carry on! and we are happy as can be. we are having some great experiences here and we love our companionship. Hermana hunsaker is hilarious and coming right along with learning spanish. i am extremely greatful for her because she is very level headed and never freaks out about anything. i love it!
anyway, i love you so much family amily! i pray for you and can't wait to see you! just imagine how fast these next 7 months will fly! i have already completed 11 months on the mish!!! what! crazy!!! I LOVE YOU ALLLLL!

shout out to hermana retana (for the blog)-- hija de mi corazon! i love you! go knock them friggin doors down! baptize baptize baptize and divatize divatize divatize!!!
loves!

samsam

CAMBIOS (transfers)

2011-04-05T09:42:00.001-06:00

aw, my lil brotha is learning how to type fast! that last email was legit becuase it was nice and long. miich. i'm so proud! keep it coming bro. glad to hear that things are going great. itsn't funny, the connections we have in this small world? enserio, it's nuts. someone once said, that through the church we can go anywhere in the world and somehow find a connection. LEGIT. i love hearing about your success and progress. you are such an on point missionary. never do it to move up the ranks, just dig in and keep doin whatcha be doin, senior comp (hyuk hyuk--totally made me laugh btw). the Lord has lined everything up for his servants, and THERE ARE PEOPLE WAITING TO BE BAPTIZED. that is something that really is just hitting me. we come out into the mission to help people have faith in christ and to baptize, but sometimes it really is hard to believe that there are actually people ready. i have been stuck with this mind set that we are the ones that get people ready, but i am finding that this is not necessarily true--the Lord knows his children and HE prepares them so that we can find them and guide them. just some thoughts...
mom, thanks for the package of little goodies. it was perfectamundo! (btw that is not a real spanish word). i am eating the twix right now. mi favoritito! (neither was that). i just got the box today.
glad to hear the fam is all doin ok. hope the chippings are alright. what a bummer to have to go through that on your birthday! that is really scary. can't wait to see all the babies comin into the fam! wendy is prego too, so i will be seeing her baby, and babies in the family, and brittany's baby and lots of others for the first time when i get home. WHAAAA. crazy. sauce.
well, i gots some news...... SO i am now up north in Buin. Went from San Fernando in the south to Buin in the north. MIICH. I got the call on thursday from the assistants that i will be training again. and i'm opening a new sector. oiye. that's... big.... and mind blowing.... i am pretty stoked though. we kinda thought i would be transferred. but i was sad to leave the guadalupe sector in san fernando. hermana retana and i had some real good times and my time in guadalupe with hermana ayala and hermana retana has been the best time of the mission. i am going to really miss it, especially because in this new sector we are opening, me and my new hija will be living in a house solo, whereas in sanfernando we were with two other sisters, hermana powell (from bountiful utah baby!) and hermana whitehead (from sandy utah) and we had so much fun together in that apartment. it was basically BOMB. cambios son locos! i am on divisions right now with another hermana who will also be training this change, so tomorrow we will travel into rancagua to the mission home to go pick up our hijitas nuevitas.
we had a great time watching general conference too. that was such a treat. just the icing on the cake of my 3 transfers in san fernando in that zone. we watched it in the english room in the stake center as a zone and it was really awesome. i LOVED elder scott's talk about marriage. that was funny to watch with a room full of missionaries, especially because one of the elders is on a plane home now because he just finished his mission with that last change. har har har. we all gave him a hard time and joked with him about that. tee hee.
also loved hearing about the rome temple ground dedication. that just gave me chills. i would love to go there when it gets done. i want to travel to so many temples! i just want to work my fanny off when i get home so i can have money to travel and for horses and schooling. i have been thinking a lot about that lately, and i am playing with the idea of jumping back into suu when i get home for the spring semester in january, 2012. i heard missionaries can get somewhere around 5,000 in grants. that would be great. i would love to work and be a part-timer goin to school and taking a few classes, and i would like to take art classes again (very slowly, like one class at a time). we will see....
anyway, i hope retana and her new comp bust it out in guadalupe. she is such a fiesty fireball, and she is amazing. i heard her new comp is full of "vim and vigor" too. ;D they better take care of our converts and get the investigators we had baptized. we had some that seemed really promising, one especially.
We had our last lesson with karin and marcos last night. we had once (a light dinner) with them and shared from the scriptures. i read 2 nefi 31 and shared my testimony and told them to follow the path they are on. i promised i would do everything i could to be there when they go through the temple to be sealed in a year. we all took turns sharing and they said "don't worry we are in this 100 % and we know it is true". they understood why there are changes in the mission and said that there are more people that don't know. they were very grateful to us for teaching them and for what they know now about god's plan for them. they are amazing! i hope mom and dad can come with me when i come back to chile for their sealing! (start savin!) it was hard though because we all cried hard. it is not fun to leave a sector after you have come so close and have come to love the people. but i trust the lord. with all my heart.
bueno, i will keep ya updated and let you know about my new comp when she comes in! i hope it is another latina!
SENDING ALL MY LOVE AND KISSES AND HUGS!
samsam
p.s. mom, seguis leyendo el libro de mormon en espanol! porque vamos a viajar y tu lo necesitas! ;D

2011-03-28T18:06:00.002-06:00

SO. so so so so sos osooooooooooooooooooooooo...........

it was fun reading your emails this week. i THUROUGHLY enjoyed them. very much. like a whole lot. yeah. i'm just rambling. but really i loved it. i'm glad your st. george trip was bomb. cute lil hopers. how did her dance group do? how was the jazz half-time show? man, there is so much awesome stuff goin on at home it blows my mind. ha ha. caleb is turning into a killer ninja, seth is a longboard pro, patrick is poning in lacross, mom is working, hope is dancing, and dad is sending amazing letters about all the stuff that is going on and i just love it. (caleb, just so you know, COFFEE IS GROOOOOOOSSSSSSSS). they have this stuff called echo here and it is basically coffee without all the bad stuff in it. i tried it and it is so nasty. they are really big on hot drinks here. they all drink tea and coffee and mate and herbal tea and warm milk with sugar and grain stuff and echo aaaaaand such. but the members stick to herbal tea and echo and warm milk. yay! i will bring you some stuff becuase they have this bomb drink that is made with warm milk and sugar and this grain stuff. it tastes like hot cocoa but it is much richer and not so much chocolate. it is my favorite thing to drink. i will bring you some mate too. it will blow your mind. it's just a bunch of dried herbs and plants ground up and put in a gourd and you pour hot sugar water in it and drink it with a special straw that has small holes in the bottom. you will love it. :)

i'm glad you enjoyed mine and alex's music ;D ha ha ha. i can just see that. i can't even remember what i had on SAWEET. but i'm guessing it was SAWEET. har har har.

still no word from alex this week. looks like we are going back to what we did while he was in the mtc? am i getting his emails a week late again? bummer. i just hope to hear from him soon.

this week was full of a lot of traveling. we went up to rancuagua twice and then up to santiago. the first time we took an hour train ride up to rancuagua for an activity there for pday last monday. it was awesome and we got to see a lot of people from the mish like old companions and old buddies from my first zone and districts. ya know what is sad? all of my comps have died (mission lingo) except for la hermana ayalita. i got to see her and she cried when we hugged. i have missed her guts! hermana retana got to see her old comp from the mtc and they got emotional too. we gung out with them for the whole day and ate out at the mall in the center in rancagua (which i didn't even know existed!) and ate KFC. what? KFC in chile? yes. it does exist. and it was tasty :D.

during the week we did a lot of contacting. it was slow this week though and some people are so cold to us. this one time we went up to 2 ladies and a little girl that were standing on the sidewalk talking and started talking to them, and they were really rude. we introduced ourselves and said that we had a message that we would like to share about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. they all just stared, then turned to each other and picked right back up with their conversation and completely ignored us. WHAT. i just looked at my companion and she was like, "HEY. we have an important message to share with you." but they just said they didn´t have time and wouldn´t listen. it was super frustrating. as a missionary part of our calling is to love the people. but in that moment, i wasn't feeling any love at all. i was angry. .. patience patience patience...... love love love....... work work work...... but the more crummy stuff like that happens the more you just gotta pray pray pray. buckle down, strap in, grin and bear it. JUST DON'T LET GO. don´t count the days, MAKE THE DAYS COUNT.

ya know what i am saying? you just have to enter the mission with that firm anchor so that even when the winds blow and your boat is getting beat up bad, that the anchor still holds firm and doesn't budge. then the seas calm again and you continue onward.

we had a cool sister's training meeting in rancagua this week. it was last friday at the mission home in rancagua. it was really cool. it was so fun to see all the sisters and we had so much fun. the sisters going home shared what they have learned from the mission and it was interesting to hear. they talked about the importance of loving your companion and the people and never slacking in personal and comp study and how we must constantly focus on others and the investigators and how we must love the people. it helped me see from a different perspective of how i can improve and keep in the right mind set. i want to go home knowing that i did all i could during my extremely short time to help God's children come unto Christ through faith in Him and His atonement, and of course, repentance, baptism, recieving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end.

We had a great Saturday--we were in Santiago all day with Karin and Marcos to go to the temple with them! it was awesome. we got permission from Pres. McArthur and spent all day with them. We left early too, at about 6:30 in the morning to take the 2 hour bus ride up north into santiago. we went and Karin and Marcos did baptisms. Hermana Retana and i used dresses from the endowment so we could enter where the font was and helped out the temple workers in getting towels for people when they came out of the water. It was really special for Karin, because she didn't know we would be doing that. They went in alone and we didn't realize we couldn't be in there with them. so Karin and Marcos went into the baptistry alone. We went and got the white dresses on so we could enter, and Hermana Retana was there at the top of the steps with the towel when Karin exited the font. it was cool. :D

we went to the distribution center afterwards and showed them around. they are going to save up money to buy the really nice set of leatherbound scriptures with the gold trim.

we went to pizza hut for lunch. we asked them how they felt. they said the temple workers seemed a little unfriendly and acted like they were running a business, which was sad to see, but they said that it was still a good experience and they really felt the importance of temple work. they have information about their grandparents and want to go back to do the work for them. they had a lot of questions about what else goes on in the temple and why they couldn't see the rest of the temple. we explained everything to them and they took it all very well and understand. so that was cool. :D they are amazing. they just love to learn and soak up everything we teach them like a sponge. saweet!

so yeah, that is basically all i gots from chile. lil ol chile! ha ha. tell tyson hi and all the fam hi.

MANDO MI AMOR Y BESOS GIGANTE

samsam

MORE PHOTOS!

2011-03-21T19:20:00.003-06:00

Sam sent her camera card home so the next posts should be fun to see!
Here is her last e-mail...

heyo familia mia tan bello, tan precioso, tan perfecto y tan amoroso! cuentenme, que tal? me parece que todo esta bien y que ustedes estan bien, cierto? mama, pueden traducirlo, este primero parte porfavor? yo quiero ver si se puede. hay que practicar continuamente. tu tienes que hablar bien por cuando llego, si o si! ;D te confio y se si puede tu. porque mi mami es bakanisima!

bueno, how ya alls doins chillins? another week gone by. this week has been, as usual, up and down, good and bad.

i got three letters from home (mom) today and a flood of emails (from last week and this week), so i am happy! :D glad to hear that everyone is staying engaged and busy. that is the way to roll. idleness and laying around just invites problems and temptation. it´s best to stay busy in my opinion. even if i was never like that in the past, i´m a big believer in that now! i like always being busy.

mom, did you get my letters yet? one of them should have my camera card in it.... i hope it arrives all safe and sound! it is fully loaded with pics to be loaded on the comp. so send it back when you get the chance. thanks i really do appreciate it!

i will send you fransisco´s address as soon as we see him and i can ask him for it. i don´t know if i have it on me....

so the tyman is back in town eh? saweeet! i can´t wait to hear from him in person and see who he has become. i´m sure he will have a girl by the time i get back. marriage is the next step! har har. send him a nice big, warm, chilean greeting from lil hermanita morris! he will love that ha.

tell pat WAY TO GO PMAN! i knew he was always such a jock, but i am so happy that he is doing so well in LX. and da cabuh, doin his kay-ra-te! that is awesome. lil suff? wraslin? go get em kid! he can still beat em. tell hopey to practice up. i am excited to see how she has progressed in dancing this december!!!!

MOM--- i just remembered that i had a crazy dream the other day about you and dad. i was at this university in rancagua and i was standing in a lunch line with christa coffman. then she walked off to find a table, all of a sudden i heard dad`s voice behind me. i turned around and he was standing there with arms outstretched. i gave him a great big old hug and we both teared up. i asked what he was doing here and i can´t remember what he said. but i asked about the family, and he said that you had quit working for kent months ago and was buying houses and renovating them and was renting a few as well for a new job. it was awesome. he was just there out of nowhere with his hat on, and his pale green, longsleeved shirt and shorts and work shoes. cool eh? i thought so. random...

OK.

so this past weekend we got thrown for a loop. the son of one of my favorite families on the face of this planet died last saturday morning. this family is incredible. it is an old couple that has 7 children (all grown and with families of their own). they have all stayed close like a regular ol latino family so there house is full of their kids and grandkids. we love going over there because it is so fun. it actually reminds me a lot of home because i have always thought of our home as an open--doored, big family type of place that people like to be around. the family was taught by missionaries years ago and all of the family was baptized except for one son, named alberto. he has been sick with brain cancer for some time and hermana sonia, the mom, has been caring for him and his sons in her house. their family is known and loved by all, and we have a lot of connections and friendships through their family. we have come to know and love a lot of them and their extended family which are not all members or church-friendly. but when we heard that alberto died, we went over to visit right away. when we arrived they had the body in the casket and had it set up in their home. it was a sombering sight with so many people there that there were a lot of people outside the house standing in the street. we kind of stood outside waiting to see if there was a chance we could go in and trying to decide if maybe we should even visit. they were having a group prayer, offered by the stake pres. of the neighboring branch. at the end of the prayer we were welcomed in and we greeted and hugged the hermana and her husband whose son had died. they were tearful, but gave us warm, big, heartfelt hugs. we asked if there was anything we could do and they asked they we lead in singing hymns. they told us their favorites, and we sat with them around the casket and sang. we had to leave a little while later for an appointment, but returned that night. we sang hymns for a good long while and it was amazing to see the support they had. they had a full house of people all day. it was really touching to see so many people from the branch come and show support in their time of need.

just before we left, hermano penaloza, the father, approached us and asked if we could help program the funeral service. he asked that hermana retana give a talk and that i coordinate the music to which, of course, we agreed.

so we made the arrangements, and the next day, yesterday, we had the service. it was a very touching experience for me that i will never forget. the service was held at 3 in the afternoon. the chapel was filled completely with easily 300 people. neighbors, ward members, family, friends. many of whom we knew and had met before, but not half were members. i directed the music and an hermana from the branch played the piano for us. hermana retana gave a talk touching on doctrines from the plan of salvation. it was perfect and she emphazised the hope that comes from the savior and his sacrifice for us. there were two other talks and an intermediate hymn during as well. it was all so well done and so well put together for having been planned just the night before.

for the last hymn i felt impressed to ask the congregation stand for the final hymn. so i just went with it and approached the pulpit for a second to ask the audience to stand for the last hymn before we began. we sang "para siempre dios este con vos" (till we meet again). it had just so much more power and emotion to it with all of us standing together, 300 strong in honoring the life of this man.

we followed the prosession and walked to the cementary nearby. during, the district pres. thanked us for what we did as part of the service. but the first (or second) counselor gave me crap for not asking the district pres. permission before asking everyone to stand. he is that way, and he was joking, and i kind of knew he would give me a hard time about it, but in the moment i really didn´t care if it was against the rules or not, i wanted us to stand. hope that isn´t wrong of me, that is just how i felt. the father and mother were very appreciative to us for helping, and they gave us big hugs after. we cried with them and it was a tender moment.

at the cementary the dedication was done and the final words were spoken as the casket was put into it´s little spot among the rows and rows of graves in the chilean cementary. there was a lot of mourning, but it was amazing because the mother and father were actually consoling their family as they wept together. it was something i will never forget and had such an impression on me.

i am so grateful that they would allow us to have such a part in something so important and so special. they had tons of support and could have asked a family member to give the talks or to take over the program of the service, but when they asked us to help of course we agreed. i was so impressed that they really appreciate our support and connection with them. hermana retana was honored to have spoken and did such a wonderful job. we love them so much! they stand as a light because they are strong in the faith and serve as such a firm foundation for everyone else.

ok, i have spent all my time.

i love you all and want you to know that i will ALWAYS love and pray for you. no matter what!

samsam

fotos

2011-03-14T12:33:00.005-06:00

la familia arriagada -- noche de hogar (family home evening)
jimena y raul (investigators)

eduardo y ian lopez

the weekly street market (la feria)

marcela vera (recent convert) and our investigator, eduardo duarte, that has a baptismal date set!

walkin,... searching....strange fruit!

la familia valenzuela (menos activos)

chilean cemetery

hermano fransisco´s amazing garden

graaaaaaapies. CHILEAN. yum

best district EVERRRRR

ok, looks like my blog is lacking in photos... so i thought i would take a sec to ad some....

luvs!

hermana morrisita

WWWEEEELLLLLLLLLLL

2011-03-07T23:39:00.001-07:00

Where do I start....I have been meaning to ask, how are Jessica and Adam doing? I haven´t heard a word from them since I left. And Beckie? How is she doing with her health? Oh I had a strange dream the other night about Auntie Kay. I was walking down the street with my companion to go visit Kay`s old house but everything was like a Chilean neighborhood with the type of houses and fences and everything. We went to the house (a yellow and wood house) and visited with Mark and Kay and they started watching a movie. It was weeeiiiirrd.... I haven´t been having many dreams in the mission. I sleep like a rock because we come home whiped out everynight so even when I do dream I don´t remember....

I also wanted to ask for Alex`s mailing address. I thought I had it because I remember him saying he was sending a letter, but I don´t think I ever got a letter. I was just going to wait to get a letter to get his address so I could write him. I have a letter to send but no address. Send it with your next email porfa!

I have been reading "Jesus the Christ" lately, and i have to say, IT IS AMAZING. Everyone should read it. It is expanding my knowledge and understanding of the life of The Savior so much and I love it. It has been great. I especially loved what it says on page 158 about when Christ cleansed the temple. I had never fully understood that story of Him in the Bible. I always thought it was so rash and ungodly-like because it was a show of force to get the merchandizers (spelling?) out. But now I understand it perfectly. It is beautifully explained and described in that book. I have so much more appreciation for that story now. The notes in the back of the chapter about it are really neat too about how when Christ was throwing everyone out, none of them put up a fight, because they knew, somewhere in the back of their minds and hearts, that turning the temple grounds into a marketplace was wrong. So even though they grumbled and complained, they gathered their things and left. And it actually reminds me of Moroni, one of my favorite men from the Book of Mormon. He was so bold and full of righteous fury, and as I read about Christ cleansing the temple it reminded me of Moroni and his bravery and boldness. Moroni for sure wasn´t quiet and gentle, he was a fighter, and sometimes that is necessary. So it was with the Savior. But only in the right moment. I just always thought he was gentle and inviting and loving at all times, because even on the cross and even with all the mocking He endured He didn´t lift a finger to retaliate. It was part of the Atonement, the ultimate show of control and love. But let us not forget, that He too fought for what is right, even with force. But never out of hatred, always with "righteous fury" let`s say. I LOVE that! But I´m probably just botching it up, so go read James` take on it in "Jesus the Christ".

I also have a question for all you doctrinally deep-minded scriptorians back home. Ready? Ok, my random thought from my studies lately, or rather my question, has been: Why were none of the scriptures written by Christ himself? I know he has prophets to guide the church and to speak for Him, but why not at least write a little bit in the Bible or other scripture? I also noticed from my reading of "Jesus the Christ" that it says that Christ and His disciples went about teaching and baptizing, but that Christ never did any of the baptisms.... Explainations...? I don´t point this out to discredit anything of Christ´s ministry, not at all. But it was just a question that came to mind.

This past week was great. Karin and Marcos were confirmed yesterday. They looked so dang cute and happy as a young couple, glowing with a new-found Spirit about their countenances, approaching the front of the congregation hand-in-hand. The blessings were beautiful and it was just perfect. I was sitting with a new investigator (we have only been meeting with him for about a week!) That is the son of a menos activo that we just helped reactivate. This kid is 33 and he looks 21! AND, he accepted the invitation to be baptized in our last lesson! EVEN BETTER THAN LOOKING 10 YEARS YOUNGER. Lol! I taught him how to follow the hymns as we sang because he kept getting lost ha ha. Hermana Retana sat and held Sebastian while his parents went up to get confirmed.

We had a good lesson yesterday in sunday school about the gathering of Israel. It was especially cool because the class was the biggest I have ever seen it. We had about 10 people! And two were investigators, and almost everyone else were recent converts like Karin and Marcos. It was awesome because after the lesson Marcos approached me and asked how he could find out what tribe of Israel he belongs to, and we explained a little about patriarchal blessings and the requirements to get one. He said he is excited to do that a little further on as he and his wife learn more. WOOT. They are so excited whenever they learn new things. They just soak it up! I never thought I would ever see people so willing to learn and accept what is taught from the gospel. But that is a lack of faith on my part. I have come to realize that I lack the faith to find people who are truly prepared like Karin and Marcos. But they really are out there! As is evident by Alex`s stories and mine as well. :D

We have been doin pretty good. Dang, we have been doin way good actually. I´m not trying to brag, let me explain. I´m saying my comp and I are progressing so much as missionaries because we are learning to sacrifice willingly and we are trying different things to help our investigators. Like fasting, and giving more Books of Mormon out to investigators and even members to give out to friends, and coordinating our efforts and activities with the members better. We planned a special mutual this past saturday with all the youth in the branch, and we actually had 5 nonmembers come! it was sweet. We played soccer at the church and it was great.

Sadly, there is always some disappointment. We haven´t been able to find Raymon, the old 43 yr. old that lives in the shack again. Everytime we go by there is an old crazy lady that barks at us for coming and looking for Raymon so much. She said, "What do you ladies have to do with him? And why do you keep coming here?" Bummer. We just told her we are trying to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ and that the message we are sharing is very important, but she doesn´t want to hear it.

Funny story, yesterday, we went to see if we could find him, and after being interrogated by the old lady again, we were heading out to go visit some menos activos. Right in front of his home, there was a horse all saddled up and tied to a large tin barn. Just standing there. Hermana wanted a photo but was to afraid to approach it. So I approached it and petted it so she could come up with me. Hermano Arriagada, the branch mission leader was with us, took some pics. Then the owner came out, and let us get on the horse for pics. It was a beautiful horse, and very mild. Just the kind i want for after the mish! not too big either. So we took pics. woot! It was funny cuz the guy was all ready to help me get in the saddle and i just pulled myself up all easy and he was a little surprised. ha ha. It was sooo nice to be in the saddle on the back of a horse. if even for a minute. I want to ride so bad!

anyway, times up. I LOVE YOUUUUUUUU!

chao chao

sam

"Nothing kills the spirit like poverty"

2011-02-28T18:25:00.002-07:00

This line came to mind this week. It´s a line from a movie ("Becoming Jane"). We had a heart-wrenching experience this past week.
We had contacted a man in the street about two weeks ago, and he gave us his address to come to his house to share our message with him. We had tried finding his house later on during that week, but we were walking along a dirt road and had a hard time finding it because the houses were makeshift shacks that didn´t have numbers. So we kinda gave up. But this past week we were in the same area and had some extra time and my companion suggested that we give it another shot. Lo and behold, as we were walking, we passed the very guy we had been looking for. I didn´t notice him at first, but caught his face out of the corner of my eye and the light clicked. Apparently, it clicked with him too because he said, "Yo les conozco," ("I know you"). He showed us to his house which happened to be the smallest, most saddest looking shack on the corner. Our visit with him was one of the saddest experiences. He is a 43 old man, but work and sun and malnutrition give him the appearance of a 65 to 70-year old. He kept apologizing to us for how unacommadating his little living space was. He had nothing but a table and an old mattress on the floor with some random pictures on the walls and some clothes and other random things. No electricity, no running water, no nothing. It was just so sad. He was very emotional and sat and listened as we sang him a hymn--he just listened because he can`t read. He just kept talking about how he loved the word of God and how God had made him humble through his life`s circumstances. We read in Alma when he preached to the poor and talked about the part when Alma rejoiced when he saw that the people were humble because it meant that they were open to hear the word. He was truly a humble man and just loved everything we said and read to him from the Book of Mormon. He has come to rely and depend on the Lord because to him it is a triumph to make it through another day. He has toiled and worked all his life, but he just wants peace and rest. We told him he could find it through the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. He was very grateful for our visit, and we have set up goals to help him come to church and be baptized. I want so badly for him to recieve the rest he deserves.
As we were leaving I just stared off and said to my companion, "I will never complain about my living circumstances or feel sorry for my life again." She felt the same.
We have no idea how good we have it. Just no idea. And to think that just the other day I was complaining because I had to sew up another hole in my favorite skirt that had ripped for the 4th time! I complain too much. I complain that my clothes are getting ripped up from the mission, that my skin is getting damaged from the sun, that we walk out in the heat and sweat all day, that my feet ache and that I´m getting spider veins in my legs, that my bag is heavy with my scriptures and pamphlets and Books of Mormon, and blah blah me me me. But this man has nothing. NOTHING but his faith in God and his gratitude to God for granting him one more day, and one more meal. For his job that pays so little. Kinda opens your eyes and your heart, doesn´t it?
Ok, sorry. Hope that doesn´t depress you too much. On a lighter note.....
I am so glad to hear that things are rollin at home. Way to go CALEB!!!! How did his talk go? I can imagine that he is growing up so much. Hope he keeps fighting the good fight. He is a valued soldier in the army of God, and I pray for him by name as I do for each of you. I see your faces when I pray and ask that Heavenly Father grants you tender mercies to remind us of the possibilities of eternity, and of the deep rooted connection that our family has, even though we have been spread across the world. I know He is there and aware and gives us gentle reminders and happy little gifts daily to show His love. ¡Hay que prestar atencion no mas! HE IS THERE.
We have been working a lot with young teenage boys lately. It´s been amazing, and it´s all just falling into our path. We have met and talked with various youth, all of which remind me of my brothers. I want to fight for them as if I were fighting for you, Alex, Patrick, Caleb, and Seth. It has been a strange coincidence that we have had a greater part of our contacts and lessons with youth. They are out playing soccer, sitting on corners smoking with friends, listening to music. I used to be terrified to talk to teenagers and focused all my contacting on old people because they tend to be nicer and listen with a smile and a nod. But my companion is teaching me courage and we have been focusing on the youth. It has been surprising how well they have been willing to listen. We are getting good at having more of a conversation with them and it has been fun. We have a goal this week to have a big mutual activity and to get all these kids we are meeting to come so they can meet new people and make friends in the church. My companion is amazing. She connects so well with people. Everyone knows who we are as the Mormon missionaries, and especially in some of the shady areas they are all out in the streets smoking or sitting around in the shade and they just stare at us like we are aliens, especially because I am a gringa. But then we go up and just start talking and laughing and joking with us and when we ask if they would like to come to the activity they are open to the idea and say they would like to come. It has definitely been interesting. I AM JUST SO GREATFUL FOR MY COMP. She is amazing and just hits it off so well with people. She accepts them and loves them and breaks the barrier. We could be standing there in the street, two sister missionaries talking to a group of punks but then nobody cares. We are actually getting to the point where even when we walk through the ghetto parts of our sector we pass people that have met us before and shout hello to us out in the street. I used to avoid such places, but now we have the "in" and are making connections. not to mention the fact that we just baptized a military man, are teaching a woman whose husband is a policeman, and are teaching all the gangsters--dang we gots connections! IT IS SO AWWWWWESOOOOOME. LEGIT.
Ok, my time is almost up. But I want you all to know that I love you all so much. Thank you for the emails, the letters, the love and support. I truly do appreciate it. It has been helping a lot especially since lately i have felt a little down and tired. I am getting my animo back and my comp helps keep me going when it is hard to leave to go out to the sector even in the energy-killing heatwave out under the sun. EVERY PRAYER HAS IMPACT. so thank you!
mando mi amor con todo mi corazon y oro que Dios les cuide.
con besos y un brazo gigante!
samsam
p.s. mom, i should be fine on money now. it dipped when i got the christmas package together and we had some money troubles lately but they fixed the errors with our accounts and are sending money again. it is best not to put a lot of money on my account though, so i won´t be tempted to use it on souvenirs! just leave the minimum emergency amount. later on as we get closer to the end if you want to put some more on so i can get you guys souvenirs to bring home you can. but i don´t want to be spending all your money in the meantime.....
there is one thing i ask from home... could you send me my jeans? i wish i would have brought them. and mabye one of my old tshirts like an suu shirt please? other than that i am doing dandy. :D thanks a million!

SHE MADE HER MOMMY CRY!

SAMSAM

2011-02-21T18:17:00.003-07:00

This week, in five days, i will hit my nine-month mark. I will have finished half of my mission! Can you believe that?! WOW.

Alex, how much time do you have again? Isn`t it like 6 months? HOLY MOO. That`s legit ^^

SO, glad to hear from home and that things aren`t too crazy ha ha. But who am I kidding, there is always something fun or crazy happenin, right? But that is why I love my home in good ol`Centrveeel, Yotah.

Hey Mom, tell Elder Kay HOLA for me, will ya? Hey, there is an Elder Flake here in Rancagua, and his cousin, Hermana Flake from Idaho just finished serving in this mission a few months back too. Relation to the Flake in our area? I asked Elder Flake about it, (he is from Washington state) and he said he did have another cousin serving. It is crazy how many connections there are in the church! Through the church, I am convinced you can find connections in any part of the world. That is how connected and tight we are through the Church of Jesus Christ. It is just crazy. Ask my companion. We should just make a huge list of all the connections we have fun or run into or that have fallen right in front of us during this last change. It BLOWS MY SOCKS RIGHT OFF MY LITTLE TOOTSIES. But more of that later...

How are Carrie and Brad? I have been thinkin about them lately. And Aunt Becky. And the whole kit and kaboodle fambam. How is erybody doin? I hope the RAM fam doesn´t drift apart while me and Al are gone. I pray for everyone all the time. And I love them all!!!

When I read "snow" in your email I almost did a double take. I have almost forgotten what that white, beautiful, cold stuff is! ha ha.

OK down to some real BIZ.

We did have a cool experience last friday. It was a really strange, sad, slow day. We went to Alicia`s, an investigator who has had the missionaries comin to teach her for about 2 years. We have been going over to read the Book of Mormon with her because she loves that. But she has never been to church and will never commit to anything past reading and praying. But Hermana Retana and I thought we would give it an ultimatum. We planned on inviting her to get baptized and if she refused, we would have to leave her. We arrived for our teaching appointment and read 3 Nephi 11 with her. She had questions about who Nephi was (the Nephi to whom Jesus Christ gave the authority to baptize) and about the priesthood. We talked about it and about the importance of this authority on the Earth. We talked about the blessings of it and of baptism. Then, we laid it all out on the table. We explained that our purpose as missionaries is to bring people unto Christ through faith in Jesus Christ, baptism, recieving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. Then we invited her to be baptized... and we held our breath. She looked at us, at the table, and at us and said, "I can`t". BAM. just like that. We were crushed. Just devasted. We knew that that would be the end. We had gone over to visit, to teach, and to help her feel better because she is lonely with just her husband who has alzheimers. She has always been so kind and makes us chilean food for us to take home and we just love her. She has been like our grandma. But when she said those two little words, it all came crumbling down. I lost it. I just started to cry. I didn´t want to have to leave her. But we had to explain that if she wasn´t willing to come to church and to take that step of baptism, that there was nothing that we could do. We told her that we have to leave her and go out to find those that are willing and waiting. Pretty soon we were all crying. We just lost it. She is a lonely old lady who needs the gospel and needs the blessings so bad, but for some reason, she is just not ready. So we had to do what was necessary. She understands that we can`t come by anymore because we have more people to find. And as much as I hate it, we have to move on because we can´t spend time like that with someone when there are others waiting and ready to hear the message of the restored gospel and to be baptized.

She said she understood completely, and that she would never forget us and the time we spent with her. We told her all she has to do is come to church and get baptized so she can be a part of the church and she could find more friends like us and find peace and happiness, but all we can do is wait for her to come to us now. We all cried and cried saying goodbye. But we still pray for her and have hope that someday, she will have the courage and strength to come to church and take hold of the rod.

After that we were so depressed. I just wanted to go home and sleep the rest of the day. But we walked down a dirt street looking for a reference, and after searching for some time gave up. We heard some people playing the guitar on their front porch and just kind of stopped to listen. Then Hermana Retana went up to the gate and asked if we could come in just to listen. They invited us in and we just sat and listened to them play. It was a young teenage man, and an older man practicing for a church music group of the 7th day adventist church. They were actually really good, and their porch was so beautiful because it was completely covered overhead by grapevines. they asked if we would like some grapes and just plucked some off the vine and gave it to us. Pretty soon we had our hymnbooks out and were showing them hymns from the LDS church and they played as we sang. Then the whole family came out. It was about 10 people, and the were all hard core 7th Day Adventists. And the dad was like the pastor or preacher of their church..... but we just didn´t worry about it. We weren´t there to teach, we were just there to sing hymns with them. The dad did try to spark a conversation about why the true sabbath day is saturday not sunday, but even his son didn´t want to get into that. so we didn´t. we just enjoyed the moment with them and it was nice. we really needed it too. it was great. Someday we might go back, but for that moment it was just great just to sit and enjoy their company and sing hymns from our church and theirs without tension or cares. It didn´t matter that we were missionaries from another church, and they were so kind to us. I will be forever greatful for them. They even loaded us down with bags and bags of fruit on our way out to take home with us. NOTHING beats chilean fruit. They were our little angels. :D

Anyway, I am out of time. But hope all is well at home. I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! and no worries. the Lord knows His sheep, and he watches out for them.

samsam

HOLA

2011-02-21T06:22:00.002-07:00

Hermana Morris here takin a quick peaks at mi bloggie here.....
if you want to see more from the incredible adventures of Hermana Retana and Hermana Morris in lil ol`CHILE, check this blog out (it`s Hermana Retana`s sister who upkeeps her blog and she has a ton of pics): www.yoursavingshelper.blogspot.com
¡Cuidense! CHAO

Pictures as requested by Carrie!

2011-02-15T17:00:00.004-07:00

1-So poor Sam has fleas. I guess they are everywhere and they hop on her poor legs whenever she goes into the poorer homes there. They love her sweetness. Someone said to put tomatoes on them to make them go away but it was a STINGER!
(sam here......sorry, i had to get that off here..... ¡què fea! i couldn`t delete it so i just minimized it.....)

2-with a family at a baptism in San Fernando
3-cleaning the apartment with a cleaner called "ALEX"!
4- At the home of the branch president.

Late getting this post up!

2011-02-13T23:51:00.001-07:00

Wipeout!
I just had to put that in the subject box because my district leader can do the wipeout shout perfectly and it is hilarious. So, we are in da whybwaywie (library) and I´m all wet. Ha ha we had a water fight at the church today and it was so dang fun. We had waterballons going and everything, then I was sitting out in the sun with Hermana Retana to dry off and all of the sudden the elders show up with a fire water hose coming out of one of the windows in the church and just bombed us. It was so fun. We cleaned everything up and went out for icecream and now we are doing our internet hour. I LOVE DA MISH! We work like crazy all week, have lessons and cool experiences and are constantly delving into the gospel and just live the gospel in every aspect, and we have so much fun too. CALEB, SETH, AND PATCH, DIS IS BOMB. You will love being missionaries. Just get ready now and it will be easy and you will scootch right on in when your time comes. I can´t wait for you all to serve. Mom and Dad too, you guys are gonna rock the house when you serve.

OTAY, so I basically loved the emails this week. It is weird to hear things like Mom being home alone a lot more and Hope is groing up and the boys following all their different pursuits. Things are always changing! But it is so fun to hear. It will be awesome to see you all again and see how much you have changed. Glad to hear Grandpa is still active and staying busy and that the family is always staying busy and living it up. Man, everyone just keeps gettin hitched! I am going to be the only one my age that won´t be married when I get home. That stinks... But can´t hold em back that´s for sure. Send me wedding announcements porfa! (porfavor!) And Michelle was bound to be married within this year. Cute thang!

Alex, you blow my mind. You are just doing BOMB. (My comp always says that and I love it :P). I love hearing about the people and how they are changing during their time learning about the gospel. You picked up on things real quick out in the field and are really on a roll. I can tell you are an obedient, sincere and humble missionary and that you truly are the hands of the Savior. WAY TO BE! Tu eres mas que un misionero, mas que un amigo, tu eres el mensaje en acción! y por sus esfuerzos, la gente vienen a Cristo y recibirán la mas grandes de todo los dones de Dios, que es la vida eterna. ¡Qúe bendición a servir en la mismo tiempo de tí! You are the message; you duty is to share a message, to bring good tidings of great joy as the angels did to a small group of sheperds. But more than that, you ARE THE MESSAGE. Think about that. You have your own personal experiences and your personal testimony to share that is more than just passing out cards and pamphlets. When you bear testimony and speak with your heart, the Spirit connects and makes things happen. He wouldn´t be able to do that through a worldwide internet missionary program or a campaign with pass along cards in every mailbox. There is a reason we are out here talking to people about these things face to face, because WE ARE THE MESSAGE.

And that´s my soapbox for the day!

This week we brought our golden family of investigators to church. Their names are Karin and Marco, and their son Sebastian who is 3 1/2. Karin is our age, and Marco is 26 and they are so great. We accompanied them to church for their first time yesterday. It seemed to go really well and during the last hour for the fifth sunday we had the relief society and elders quorum together for a special lesson. It was such a great lesson about covenants and how our Heavenly Father wants to help us and Karin and my comp were crying because the Spirit was so strong. It was legit! I just know they will be baptized soon!

Still teaching English class every Saturday, and this week we had an investigator come. That was actually really fun.

We have had a lot of menos activos coming to church. More than half our work here in this mission is with menos activos. That is the biggest problem we have in the church. There are over 500 members in our branch, but only about 100 come to church which keeps us from becoming a ward. So we spend a lot of time tracking down members who have fallen away from the church to help them come back. Even out in the street everyday when we do contacts or knock doors we find people that tell us they were baptized and everything but don´t go to church. It´s sad. A lot of them say it´s because of problems with the members, but it´s just excuses. We just teach them with patience and try to help them understand that we don´t go to church for the people, we go to church for God and for the Savior and for our covenants with them. --Sigh-- we have a lot of work to do. Love and patience, love and patience, love and patience....

My comp is awesome. She has settled in so well to mission life and she is just fearless. We have a lot of fun too, and we are comfortable talking with each other so there are never hidden feelings that could cause problems. We joke all the time and have fun, and we have also had really cool conversations about what we learn in our studies. We keep each other going when we don´t want to work. I am learning from her and she is learning from me. It is awesome. She does a lot for me. She is a professional hair stylist (studied in the Paul Michell school n evrthang) so she has cut my hair and dyed it and all that shnazz. I´m so lucky to have her! She has a love for the gospel and a unique testimony from her experiences that make her a valuable force in this work that we do. She gets it, and even though there are days when we just want to go home and sleep with the fan on the highest setting rather than be out in the choking heat with aching feet and sweat running down our backs we find a way to keep our animo up and we keep going.

One thing we had a conversation about the other day is that with our calling comes added strength and protection to give us what we need to do what we do. For example, back in Utah it gets pretty hot in the summer time, and I would never go out in the blazing heat on a hot summer´s day. Here in Chile it is hotter and the heat is much more concentrated (we all swear there is no ozone over our heads. It just BEARS DOWN ON YOU LIKE LAZER BEAMS) but we are out doing it everyday. I don´t understand it, but we just somehow do it. I am pretty sure that after this mission I won´t ever be able to do what we are doing ever again. It just comes with the calling! It´s cool to be set apart (literally) from the world as a missionary. The angels walk with us and the Lord watches out for us. It´s just a cool feeling, and the things we do here are so different from anything else we will experience in our lives.

ok pikcha time!

gotta go, but I LOVE YOU SOOO MUCH!!!!!

samsam (yup yup)

2011-01-18T10:07:00.000-07:00

The new companion!

2011-01-18T09:56:00.002-07:00

Yesterday was a little crazy, so we didn´t have time to hit the ciber to do our hour of email. We actually went into Rancagua because Hermana Powell had to see the doc for a hip problem, and we wanted to get our mail and had to fix a problem with money (Hermana Retana never recieved her charge card to use from the church, so they were trying to wire some extra into my account to use for her and it was a big ol´ mess because there were numbers that weren´t adding up right and we don´t have the money that was supposed to go through). It was so great to pick up our mail from the office. It was like Christmas!!!! We haven´t recieved mail for about more than a month since before Christmas because the assistants haven´t gotten it to us yet down in San Fernanado. So when we checked out the bin that has our mail we were delighted to see that it was full of mail that has been waiting for us. I got a christmas box from Grandma Marilyn. She is so dang cute! It had a Christmas card and beef jerky and salted nuts and gummybears. I also got a large envelope with all the notes people wrote at the ward Christmas party and a Christmas card from the Vanwagoner family and letters from Mom and Dad and my teacher in the MTC---OH! and guess what Mom? The missing package that had my cord for my camera and clothes showed up! it was there with all the other stuff. WOOOOOT! I was thrilled about that. THANK YOU SO MUCH IT IS PERFECT! And now I can send pics with my emails too!

So it was a great day. We also had the chance to go to McDonald´s and Dunkin´Donuts in Rancagua while we were there. Good ol´ American junk food! That was really a lot of fun. It ended awesome too because after we got back to our sector that evening we had a lesson with an investigator that Hermana Ayala and her old companion found. Her name is Sandra and she has had it real rough since her son died four years ago. He was in his twenties when we was stabbed in the heart on his way home one night (some trouble with the gangs around here and drugs and whatnot). She just broke apart since he died. She has severe depression and shakes a lot and cries in every lesson because she still talks about her son. We went in to her house for our appointment and during the lesson she started crying again. She has a hard time listening because she will randomly change topics or just start talking about her son. But her husband was there and we invited him to listen. He was reluctant at first, but eventually sat down with us and we started talking to him. He had engaging questions and with him there it lead to a really good lesson. We talked about the Plan of Salvation and the Restoration and it went really well. Sandra hasn´t ever kept up on commitments and isn´t progressing, so we had planned that lesson to be our last. But now our hopes are revived and we will see if she and her husband will come to church.

So my new comp is awesome. She is exactly the right person, she got here at exactly the right time, and she is in exactly the right place. I was worried about training because I didn´t feel prepared and I was so sad to have to part with Hermana Ayala. But Hermana Retana came ready for the challenge so I don´t really need to teach her much at all. She follows my lead, but I am trying to keep it more like a team. She already speaks spanish, and has an incredible testimony that is unique and perfect for the people that we teach, so she is here with all the gear and equipment. No assembly required. It´s awesome. We have had some cool lessons and experiences and we have had cool conversations in our studies and have learned from each other´s insights. It´s fun to talk to her about the blog too, ha ha. I asked her how it is to switch from knowing me from the blog, and knowing me in real life, and she told me that she can definitely see that I have changed a lot in the past 7 months. She said she could tell the culture shock was heavy for me, but now out working together she says she sees a different person that is living the mission life. I hadn´t thought much about it, but since that conversation I look back and see how much I really have changed. It´s happening! I´m so immersed in the mission world and the outside world has faded away. All that´s left is my family, front and center as always, and this mission. But when I say that my family is front and center it doesn´t mean that I am always thinking about home and that I am trunky and miss all the things about my home and my family, on the contrary, I relish the fact that we can be together forever and that we are still connected through sacred covenants even though we are so far away from each other. It puts everything eternal into sharp perspective, this whole mission thang. It rocks my socks! ;D

Ok, I want to spend the last 20 min. or so attaching photos. ¡POR FIN!

Just know that I love you so much and that you and the Savior are the most important things to me. Everything else, the other important things like the rest of the gospel, the temple, the scriptures, my personal destiny and talents follows (and follows closely at that). But YOU and OUR SAVIOR are front and center. I LOVE YOU SOOOOOOO MUCH!

Mando mi amor y besos gigantes!

samsam

WOW WHAT A SMALL WORLD!

2011-01-17T09:01:00.000-07:00

Hello hello hello! i am here with my new companion, my hija! she was born today into the mission feild here in the Rancagua Chile Misiòn! El mejor misiòn en todo el mundo! (Alex`s too ha ha of course). SHE IS AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!! i will send pics this monday.

A STORY THAT WILL BLOW YOUR MIND: when i got to the mission home she knew who i was from the minute i walked into the room. after talking to her during the lunch they had prepared i found out that she had found my blog and had been following it since july! WOW! i had no idea. after recieving her mission call she did a search on google of rancagua chile and an entry from my blog showed up so she did some looking around and started reading it. she has been reading it and checking it everyweek without fail up until she left for the mtc. i am happy to hear that Mom is keeping it up so well. THANK YOU! she said she would got on to check every tuesday or wednesday and asked about Alex and how he is in russia and everything. how funny! this world is small, especially with technologic connections!

Hermana Retana is amazing, i just love her already. She is from the DC area (Washington DC that is). She was born in El Salvador i think, or some other southern american country, and lived there for about 6 years but has lived in the states until now. so she speaks spanish very well, just has a bit of a different accent. she mentioned that she fell away from the church for a time and it was the lowest part of her life. but she is back and rolling and has such a desire to serve. she has some tattoos and has that DC streetbangin slang, but i just love her. just LOVE HER! :D i´m so excited to work with her!

ok, that´s all for now. i will send pics soon.

I LOVE YOU ALL SOOO MUCH! i hope you are all well!

samsam

2011-01-11T10:42:00.001-07:00

She types on a computer with spanish accents and upside down question marks so there are a bunch of funny marks in this post but I just left em because I think it's KEWL (as Sam would say)
｡｡｡TENGO BUENAS NOTICIAS｡｡｡｡｡｡｡｡｡

ｿListos? Bueno....... estoy....... embarasada. ｿSabe que significa? Significa que ｡voy a entrenar!

Ready? Ok.... I am...... pregnant. Know what that means? That means Iｴm going to train!!!! BA HA HA HA. (You can breathe again, Iｴm not REALLY prego. ｡Q apostacia! Una misionera prego. ｡Jamas!) Gotta love mission lingo. Out on da mish, there exists a widdle sumtink called mission lingo. So when someone trains a newbie, itｴs referred to as a father and his son or mother and daughter. We have a lot of fun with stuff like that.

(AN IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE FOR DA BOYZ: we are in a ciber cafe or internet shop and right now, in this very instant, playing on the radio is Smashmouth. Good ol` days listenin` to Smash ha ha).

So, I got the call this past thursday that Hermana Ayala would be transferred to Graneros sector, and that a newbie straight out of the MTC in Provo would arrive this week and that I would be a trainer. NUTS. I was kinda sad at first. Ok, really sad. Hermana Ayala and I cried a lot last night. My transfer with her here in Guadalupe has been the best time of my mission so far. The BOMB DIGGIDY. We had so much fun and acted like me and lil Hopeydo. En serio, we worked so well together. We had great lessons and had a lot of success finding new people to teach and have worked a lot with menos activos and recent converts. We have 4 baptismal dates planned for the end of this month and we are stoked for them. WOOT. So right now I am on special divisions because Hermana Ayala is traveling to Graneros up north and Hermana Bonilla is spending the day with me here in my sector until tomorrow. (Hermana Bonilla, my mamamita de Baquedano!). It was so sad to see Hermana Ayala go. But it has been fun to see Hermana Bonilla. we are having fun talking about the goings on of these past 2 transfers.

SO, iｴm babbling, what`s new.....

actually, not much is new.

ALEXS!!!!!!! Do you know, DO YOU KNOW, how awesome it is to hear from you and to be serving the same time as you!? Nay, I say, nay. You DON`T know. Tee hee. ;D Just wanted to tell ya that. It is so cool to hear your experiences. Reading your emails has helped me more than you know, bro. I can sense how amazing of a missionary you are. You`ve kept your feet on the ground and your head in the game. I`m thinking you adjusted to life in the field much easier than I did. But isnｴt being a missionary just THE KEWLEST THANG EN THE WHOLE DANG PLANETO? Yes, I say, yes. I love how you said in one of your recent emails that the mission gives us subtle little blessings everyday that mean so much to us out here and to our family back home in Centerville. It`s so true. Happy little miracles everyday. I have made a goal to have more faith to see miracles, to look for them everyday, and to share with my companion everyday. I know there are a lot and there is plenty more to find if we pay attention.

I feel your pain with the drunkies! Henooooooooo! (As Elder Crazyhorse Dictter says). Itｴs sad to see. BUT we know that Heavenly Father knows His children more than we do and that He watches out for them. I have such a testimony of the power of prayer and know that even in times when we can`t do anything other than pray, like for that man you saw staggering in the street, I know that prayer is powerful and has impact. I am praying for you, for your comp, for your investigators and for your sector. GO GET EM BRO!

I`m so impressed with what I am reading about how you are working with your companion to improve how you plan for the people you teach. You are learning things that I am just barely figuring out.It`s awesome becausewe are learning things that are heavy duty skills that will bless those we come in contact with in the mission, and just imagine how useful these skills will be in our careers and homes after the mission! It`s just incredible. Just follow the spirit with your planning and He will place the people, the moments, the experiences in your path, as He already has! ;D

Mom, it`s incredible to hear from home and all the missionary work that is going down there too. YOU ARE AMAZING. Just increible. I love hearing about your efforts to help those around you come unto Christ. You are true disciples and I am so amazingly blessed to be a part of the family we have. Just incredibly blessed. It really blows my mind. Thanks for always writing and for being such a good example with your steadiness in the faith and your excitement to share the gospel, even if itｴs through "corny" letters. They work!

I wish the best for the family and for Brad and Carrie. Thanks for the news and the updates. I want to write them. I am excited to hear about Gracie Pearl! What a cute name!

Keep rocking my socks!



LOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVELOVE

mando mi amor y besos y abrazos grandes

samsam

No Shakin' in my neck of the woods!

2011-01-06T17:51:00.001-07:00

So SAM barely felt the earthquake. I told her that Heavenly Father wanted her to have a shakin' good time on her birthday so there you go! Here is her last e-mail...

wow wow wutsie! wutsie wutsie wow wow! ha ha ask me later....

SO, this cambio (transfer) is coming to a close. we aren´t sure if Hermana Ayala will be transferred or not. but it´s best not to think about the coming transfers so we can focus on the work! too many missionaries think they can slack off in the last week of the transfers because they think they will be transferred. but that is why they don´t tell us the changes until the 2 days before the changes. so we can keep our heads in the game. it´s been a bit of a disappointing problem in the rancagua mission. but i am soooo blessed with these sisters i am with here in san fernando. hermana garcia, hermana ashley powell (from kaysville utah!!!!), and hermana ayala are all very obedient and firm and we have so much fun together! it´s been the BEST time of my whole mission so far and i just love it. we live in a cute little pink house with lots of spiders and leaky pipes and old wooden floors and tacky green paint, but we just love it. i am so glad christmas and new years passed with these hermanas! they are mis favoritas. i just love hermana ayala. we work so well together and we have such a good thing going. in our comitee meeting with the branch presidency this past week, hermano castillo, the second counselor said, "yo nunca había visto una mexicana y una gringa llevarse tan bien," which basically means he has never seen a mexican and an american work so well and have so much fun together. i will be very sad if hermana ayala is transferred, and there is a possibility that i will be training this next change, which i am terrified to think about so i just won´t think about it. ok yeah no more about that.

new years was great! we returned to the house early at 6 pm instead of 10 pm and did our weekly planning after that we went two doors down to where the stake patriarch lives and sang hymns out at his gate. he invited us in and we visited with him and his wife for a while. we sang another hymn for them and returned to our house. we all waited up for midnight to come and hermanas ayala and garcia showed us traditional dances from peru and mexico. we went to bed at about 12:30 and got up to go running together at 8 am. it was fun! there was no one in the streets and there was some fog so it was cool. we had pday for the first and had a nice big lunch with a members family. it was great. and now here we are continuing in the work of the Lord. :D

this week was a little sad. we had some investigators who are the "investigadores eternas" because they have been meeting with the missionaries for waaaaaaay too long. some of them have more than one year visiting with the missionaries without progressing. they won´t commit to come to church or a baptismal date. we prayed about it and decided we needed to leave them and continue. we had a lesson with one woman named adelaida who has been meeting with the missionaries for months without progressing. she is learning english and loves it when we come by but only wants to learn english. she is reading the book of mormon in english to help learn, but she really isn´t interested in the church at all. we had to explain that we are here to help people come unto christ through faith, repentence, baptism, recieving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end, and that we can´t continue passing by her house if she is not willing to commit to these things. it was so hard. she began to cry and we started to cry too. we gave it one last push and extended the baptismal invitation to her, but she told us it is impossible for her right now. she is evangelist and is very invovled in her church and doesn´t want to change. but it was sad to say goodbye. she was very understanding though. she told us, "si no van a continuar a enseñarme, es mejor que no pasan en mi casa mas. siguen en paz, y saben que mi puerta estará abierta para los misioneros siempre." which means, if you aren´t going to continue to teach me, it´s better that you don´t come by my house anymore. Continue in peace and know that my door will always be open to missionaries if they want to come back some day." and that was it. but we have planted the seed and have hope that she will remember what we taught her and someday come to the church.

there are others that we are going to have to do the same with. it´s sad, but we are here to help people come to the waters of baptism, and while it is good to pass by and teach from the scriptures and to be friends with people like adelaida, we as missionaries have a specific purpose and need to follow the promptings of the spirit. the time spent in the houses of people who are unwilling to progress is time we could be using to find people who are waiting and ready to hear the gospel, but don´t know where to find it. we have to seek them out and let the Holy Ghost guide us. it is hard, but it takes more courage than most people think to do this work. it took a lot of courage to explain to adelaida that we have a work to do and that she needed to keep commitments or we can´t continue. we just do our best to do everything with the guidance of the Spirit, with boldness, but with the love of the Savior at the same time. it´s hard stuff! but we know it´s right and we are learning so much as we go about this work.

mom, thank you for sharing your insight about the power of the savior. you may not know this, but i use your insites and alex´s all the time. in lessons, in contacting, and in church all the time. it´s saweeeet to be learning from you and the family as we are all studying the gospel together. different countries, different worlds, but it´s the same truths! we actually had a really cool lesson about the atonement with a convert and we talked about the power of the Savior and i shared what you had shared with me. and i always tell them, "that´s what my mom taught me" or "my dad" or whomever. it´s awesome, and i love it!

ok, better go. i love you all sooo much. so so so much. hope all is well, and i will hear from you later!

con mucho cariño, amor, y besos gigantes!

samsam

Este semana de cosas locisimas

2010-12-20T21:29:00.001-07:00

FAMILIA MIA!!!!!!! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE YOU!!!!!????? I LOVE YOU THIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i just wanted to say that because this week a lot has happened to remind me how blessed i am to have such an AMAZING family. wanna know what else i am grateful for? ok i will tell you (para que mama puede ponerlo en el libro de gracias ja ja):

i am grateful for my AMAZING, BEAUTIFUL, CRAZY FUNNY, STRONG, FAITHFUL, LOVING, INCREDIBLE, CLOSE, SUPPORTIVE, AWESOME SO TOTALLY SICK TIGHT FAMILY! i love you sooo sosososoo much. i just can´t even tell you how much i love you. i am grateful for interenet to email you, for phones to call you, dearelder, handwritten letters, for hilarious pictures of my family that i got in the mail today (that made my day, and my comp and i had fun looking at them and laughing together after a rough night), for a bed to sleep in (even though it has flees), for a healthy body, for grass and trees, for sunscreen and aloe lotion for sunburns, for bug spray and spider killer, my sanity, showers, toilet paper, clothes washers, a fridge, ginger christmas cookies, the motab choir, my giant watch that everyone comments on and that is holding up in mission life, my mission pres and his wife, cardboard and masking tape, white out and highlighters, inside jokes, the hymbook, my companion who is my sister and best companion ever, for fruit stands with blueberries and peaches for me to put in my oatmeal for breakfast, matè, papas fritas and emanadas napolitanas, for grocery stores and cars, for chile, for this ward, for a church to meet in, for members and the branch pres here, and for those who listen to us. AND MOST OF ALL I AM GRATEFUL FOR MY FATHER IN HEAVEN, MY BROTHER AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT WHO WORKS WITH US AS OUR PARTNER AND COMPANION IN THE BATTLE TO SAVE SOULS. i love the gospel, the scritpures, the prophets, the ensign magazines, general conference, and I LOVE THIS CHURCH. i know it is true. i love it and i know it.

so how the heckers are ya? i got the shoes you sent and the photos and dearelder. thank you thank you thank you thank you. i noticed that you said you sent two boxes of clothes, and i got one about a month ago, but the other one with undershirts never came. sad! but i really am ok. i have sufficient. no worries!

alex, i love hearing about how you are doing and i seriously thought this was only your second week in russia. i am losing all sense of time. aaahhh! ha ha ha. it is fun to hear about your adventures in russia. it really is a "rich" experience! i hope your mission will be the best experience and hardest of your life.

something about that last statement--we learned something very interesting this week in a conference with the area authority of the church. pres. amado spoke with us about sacrifice and talked about the Holy Ghost. did you know that it is an unpardonable sin to deny the Holy Spirit? know why? becuase of his sacred sacrifice. He gave up the chance to have a mortal experience and doesn´t have a body so that he could dwell with us as it says in DandC 130:22 to testify of the Father and the Son. i was hit with a thought when i heard that: did you ever realize that the three most powerful and glorious beings in the whole universe, God the Father, Christ the Savior, and the Holy Ghost, are also the ones who have the most power and glory and wisdom, but have also given and sacrificed the most. it definititely puts into view the significance of sacrifice. the more we struggle and sacrifice, the more we grow. we cannot become like our Father in Heaven without struggle and without sacrifice. to ask to never have to struggle for something is to ask to never progress. it is a necessary part of our existence. and each sacrifice or test is a blessing and opportunity to grow. it really is. cool huh!

ok so.

THIS WEEK IS NUTS. HAS BEEN NUTS. IS NUTS. NUTS NUTS NUTS. but i have come to like nuts, so i guess that´s ok...

WOW where do i staaaaaaaaaaaaart?????????????

we have just been running and running and running all over the place. we had so many appointments scheduled and so many things to do to plan for events coming up. but in the end our numbers for the week turned out pitiful. we had a lot of lessons scheduled with members, but almost all of them pooped out on us. we would show up at the place we agreed to meet with the members and wait, and they would never show. this happened about 5 times. so we would just go to the appointment without the members. we haven´t found any new investigators and are teaching a lot of people, but almost all of them are really progressing. (as tyson says) HEHNOOOOOOO!

BUT we are grateful because we do have a married couple that is GOLDEN, and another family that had a breakthrough with us this past week. first the young married couple: Hna Ayala found them with Hna David before i got here. It´s a young married couple with a 4 year old son. they are only a few years older than us. We have had 3 lessons with them since i arrived in the sector and they have been awesome. it is absolutely golden because it is a rarity to find a matrimonio with both the husband and the wife participating together and having lessons together. usually we teach mostly women, and the husbands never want to listen or if they do they have to work. everyone works here and it makes it extremely difficult to plan for teaching appointments with the whole family together. but we have been teaching them and they are just soaking it all in. they take it all very seriously. with each new concept they get all excited and say "that makes so much more sense than what i was learning in the catholic church!" they want to get baptized and have a date set for the 30th of january. WOO HOO!!!!!!

we also have another family that we have been struggling to contact because of work and because the wife is very much catholic and very much against the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. only the husband was interested and the wife was very closed off to us. but we hit jackpot when we went to their home this week. it was quite a surprise because we had a lesson with the husband and the wife stayed in the room and sat with us for the whole thing. i think we broke through the ice with her because as we were leaving she was very friendly and hugged us goodbye and everything! they didn´t come to church, but we have high hopes for them. and the lesson was FANTASTIC because the husband asked a lot of questions and was very enthusiastic and involved in what we were teaching. the wife didn´t say much, but she listened with interest. YAY!

yesterday none of our investigators came to church. zero. dang. we try so hard! BUT we did have a district christmas devotional that was really good and we got a new convert who is struggling to come with us. that was a huge breakthrough. and i took part in the musical presentation because i was asked to lead the congregation for the final number. we sang silent night and i conducted the music for the congregation as the choir sang a different part. it was pretty kewl. :D i had been practicing all week ha ha. but it all worked out just dandy.

Guadalupe

2010-12-08T21:48:00.000-07:00

hey fam! hey brotha! how´s it going? i was sad to see i didnt have an email from alex, but i bet it´s because of the time difference. right now here in chile it´s about 3:30 pm. wait, that shouldn´t matter because russia is hours ahead of chile, right? well, whatever the case may be, i´m hoping to get an email from alex next monday and hope and pray that all is well in the motherland ha ha.

mom, you said you sent two emails, but i only got the one from this week... not sure what happened there. did you ever find my camera card? i really didn´t think this card i have now would fill up so fast, but it´s full! bah! ha ha. not sure what i will do... maybe i will just make cd´s and keep them with me so i can free up space on the card to take more pics.

so how is everyone? wow, so many weddings! and AMANDA CARTER IS GETTING MARRIED? sarah hadlock was no surprise, but wow, i´m so excited for amanda! do you know how megan is doing? i wouldn´t be suprised at all if her wedding was just around the corner as well.

alex, how are you in russia? i been thinking a lot about you. i really really hope things are going ok. i remember my first few weeks in the field were tough. actually, my whole first two changes were a rollercoaster ride with my emotions up and down and all over the place. homesickness was a bugger too. everything was so different and i thought about nice warm, clean, familiar, safe centerville and our family back home a lot. it was difficult because it´s hard to get used to everything while trying to learn a language and staying on top of all the work that is at hand, but somehow it just all smoothes itself out. i didn´t write home much about how hard it was because i didn´t want to sound whiny or to worry anyone, but everyone knows it´s just rough going. i know you will have different challenges than me, and maybe you are doing a lot better than i did. but i just hope everything is going great and if it is hard right now, just now and have the faith and hope. one day you won´t even be thinking about it but all of a sudden everything will just feel right, like it is all how it should be. it may come sooner or it may come later, but it comes. for me, it came slowly, but i am here in guadalupe with my amazing companion and i am loving every minute of every day. i´m not afraid or homesick anymore, and even though i still can´t speak as fluently as i would like to, i am comfortable with the language and i have been blessed with that pure love for the people like it says in moroni 7:48. that is something i learned. i felt depressed and felt like i wasn´t a good missionary for the first while because i didn´t feel that love for the people. but what i have learned is the kind of pure love of christ that comes with missionary work, that is the base and the motive of the work of the lord, comes as a gift through the spirit. that´s why in this scripture it says to ask the lord with all the energy of your heart for this love, becuase it´s something that is GIVEN to us. the love i have now in my heart for my companion, for the people here in chile, and even the love i have now for my family, is more than i ever have had before. and i know it´s not something i have just developed on my own. it has come from the spirit.

the language too--it comes with the spirit! put the LORD first, and it will come. in the mtc, i tried to use some of my personal study time to study the language, but our teachers taught us that the Lord and the people we teach come FIRST. if we do that first, the language will just come. and it does come. trust me. and TRUST THE LORD.

i wanted to share my favorite scriptures that have really helped me out in my mission so far: doctrine and covenants 98:1-3, kings 6 (the story of the prophet and his servant seeing an army of angels surrounding them to protect them, i can´t remember the verses), proverbs 3:5-6, and alma 26:27-31, and 3 Nephi 22. there is a ton more that i really like, but those are the top favs.

anyway, dunno if any of that helps, maybe i´m just blabbering. but there ya go.

things are awesome here in guadalupe. my companion is from mexico and her name is Belén Ayala (Belén is Bethlehem in spanish. miich!) she is so dang cute. she doesn´t speak english, but she wants me to teach her. she is a perfect mix of fun and cute but hardworking. she is so fun i just love her! sometimes i forget she isn´t american because she has some manerisms like americans and she dresses american.

i LOVE this branch! there are so many awesome families and the presidency is awesome and fun and organized. the church building is big and beautiful almost like the one back home. it´s not as hot here either. we live in a cute little pink house (ha ha) that has a washing machine--WOOOO HOOOO EJALE! no more washing garments by hand or carrying big bags of laundry to members (at least for as long as i´m here). the centro reminds me a lot of downtown logan, and it´s really nice. a lot more trees and parks with green grass. for the most part it´s neighborhoods.

funny story-- my first day here we were in a lesson with an older lady and a middle-aged man that share rent in a house. they were new people that hermana ayala and her previous companion found the week before. we were teaching the first lesson about the restoration and they had a lot of doubts. they kept trying to shut us down with teachings from their churches (catholic and evangelica) but we answered their questions with doctrines of the gospel of jesus christ and testified. then near the end, rosa, the woman, told us that she had a dream about me the night before. we had never met before that lesson, but she told me she had a dream that i entered her house armed with a bow and arrow and talked of God and the Son. that took me by surprise. hhmmm, miich! thas right, here i come! you better listen to me and hermana ayala because we have the truth and are armed with the power of God! ha ha. but seriously, it made me think about missionaries and the impact they have as they preach.

ok, i better end. but i really hope things are going well at home. i miss the snow and think of how it must be at home with the christmas decorations and the snow, and i hope you are enjoying the days as we are approaching christmas. it´s hot here, but we found a christmas tree in a shed behind the house and put it up in our front room today, so we are rolling and ready for the holidays, and we still have the spirit of christmas (and missionary work) !

i love you all SSSOOOOOOOOOOO much!

hasta la proxima lunes!

mando mi amor y besos!

samsam

Transfer time!

2010-11-30T08:04:00.001-07:00

well, we had cambios (transfers). i am now in san fernando, which is about a half hour´s drive south of the city of rancagua where i was in my last sector in baquedano. it was a little unexpected because i thought i had at least one more cambio en baquedano with hermana pastrana. But she is going to train and her hija (daughter as we say in mission lingo) will arrive tomorrow directly from the provo mtc--a gringa like me! poor hermana pastrana. she is really stressed about it. we were sad to be split up.

yesterday was my last day in baquedano. sad! it was good but hard. after church i took lots of pictures with the mujeres jovenes (young women) and families from the ward. we had 7 investigators come to church and it was awesome! i took pictures with all of them and gave them cards to say goodbye. luis, the old man that was going to be baptized last week but fell through, came up to me after church with a giant bouquette of flowers. he gave them to me and started to cry. he thanked me for what we had taught him and asked me to come visit the next time i am in baquedano. that was a hard goodbye! i really hope he chooses to be baptised someday. i think with hermana pastrana he will.

later after our teaching appointments and contacting, we stopped by some houses so i could say goodbye to the families that i was really close with. that was hard. our ward mission leader miguel--i will never forget him or his family. he and his wife luz do sooo much for the missionaries, and luz doesnt even like the church. but she gives us anything and everything. miguel was like our papa. i shared proverbs 3, verses 5 and 6 with them and bore testimony. it was the same scripture i shared with them my very first night in chile when we came to their house and found out that miguel´s father had died (remember that story?). i thought i would end with the same scripture, but this time with MUCH better spanish.

we also went by the house of carmen and marco for a family home evening with the elders. they are such good people. carmen always fed us when we went by, even when they had so little. they are trying to save money to pay for marco´s divorce so they can get married and get baptised. they are living together, but have been keeping all the commandments so they can get baptised (carmen and marco sleep in different parts of the house to keep the law of chastity and carmen quit smoking and everything. they are amazing!!!) their 14 yr. old daughter, javiera gave me a hug and started to cry when we said goodbye. then that got me going and me and javiera and carmen turned into hugs of puddles! ha ha ha. man, i´m going to miss them so much. but i will definitely be there when carmen and marco get baptised. they have been waiting so long, and i know it will happen soon.

san fernando is pretty sweet! i just arrived this morning, but i love what i have seen so far. the center reminds me a lot of downtown logan. it´s really cute! there is a lot more damage from the quake here. we passed an old church that looked like it was about to fall to peices on our way to the internet shop becuase it has lots of cracks from the quake.

my companion is from mexico and she is soo dang cute! and it is such a HUGE blessing to have 3 latin companions in a row! it is really helping me with spanish. it´s just so nice.

ok funny story, yesterday we were with hermana rohr on splits and we passed these two men outside. they asked her, "tiene fuego?" (or "do you have a light" like for cigarettes) and she whipped out a pass along card and said, "quiere fuego eterno?" BAH HA HA HA it was soo awesome! it actually sparked a cool conversation with these two guys. they weren´t real scary and we talked to them for a while. they were really nice to us too.

Alex, i hope you have fun with contacting. don´t feel like it has to be the same thing everytime. i was starting to get like that, "buenas tardes, nosotros somos misioneras de la iglesia de jesucristo y compartimos un mensaje de jesucristo. nos encontaria pasar a su casa y compartir con usted y su familia....." i got into a routine and started saying the same thing everytime. it got really boring. but with hermana pastrana we started shaking things up a bit. we would play games like pick some random word that we had to use for each contact like the word "arbol" (tree). it was really fun and it really helped me improve my spanish. we decided to make each contact different and we got really good at it. i hope you can do the same!

so alex, esta en la tierra de madre! the motherland! man, reading about your experiences so far reminded me so much of my experiences. i´m not going to lie, it was really hard those first few weeks. i kept thinking about home and everything was so different. it was hard to get used to. but here i am and i love chile and i love the mission! it will take a while to get used to everything, just don´t lose your head. just stick to the work and let the rest come. it´s hard because centerville is so... right. it´s peaceful and happy and safe and it´s home. being away from that is hard. but remember the promise from the prophet in preach my gospel that is on the first page where it says that as missionaries we will experience the greatest happiness as we labor among the children of our Father. and it´s true. i am excited to hear more about your adventures and our experiences in russia. you can do it! and you know you have our prayers with you.

PHOTOS FROM CHILE!!!

2010-11-16T08:13:00.002-07:00

Her new companion, Hermana Pastrano
The city of Rancagua with downtown in the background
"The GRINGO room" during general conference
Her study area in her apartment

The stolen wardrobe

2010-11-16T07:49:00.003-07:00

¡Hello familia mia! How goes it?
Mom, thanks for the long email. I was glad to hear so much news from home. but hey, ¿Por que no hay un mensaje de mi querido hermano Elder Morris? How come no message from Al? Hope you are doing well in the MTC bro!
I hope you didn´t spend a lot on clothes Mom! i just needed some undershirts... And we really are ok. We just wash what we have more often ha ha. Some of the other hermanas in the mission that are going home gave us some clothes that they aren´t taking home too, so we have sufficient. it´s so expensive to send things too. i will consider it a combo of christmas and birthday so you are all clear ha ha. i don´t want anything coming for my birthday other than those clothes you sent! And i hope that you used that money in my account! i really do appreciate it though. thank you so much! i just don´t want it to be a burden on you...
i had NO IDEA that uncle Kurt gave money to go towards our missions! how nice of him to do that for us. i will definitely be writing him. i don´t have his address.... could you email it to me?
i´m glad you liked the photos. isn´t hermana pastrana so cute? she is way pretty. we get a lot of cat calls. but she is awesome because she doesn´t take that kind of crap. ha ha it makes me laugh. when the men holler as we walk by she glares them down and they shut up. ha! she is so kewl.
oh i miss volleyball! i love hearing about it. officiating eh? bakan! you keep em rollin straight, mom. are you playing too? it would be so fun to play in a league with you again.
wow, what is happening to chris and levi? i hope they are doing ok. you know they love seeing you, mom. you and alex--you are both such good anchors for them and i know you are helping them a lot with your love and understanding. same with wendy and brittany. wendy relies a lot on you mom. how is she by the way? i wrote her last week. she sent me the cutest pics of her and caden. cute lil squirt! he is going to be so much bigger when i get back. he probably won´t remember me at all. :( but that´s ok. I just hope they are living close enough that i can see them a lot when i get back. i hope brittany is doing ok. she doesn´t write me (probably because she doesn´t want me to write and preach to her with my letters) but i am writing her. wendy says she is loving being a mom. i just hope things work out and that she can be a good provider and teacher for her son!
ha ha of course julie liked my bed! is da bomb diggidy fo sho. it was fun to hear about the late night Risk brawl with dad and justin ~ good times!
i´m happy to hear jess and adam found a place. let´s hope the neighbors don´t turn out to be too much of a problem!
tell pat way to be for trying with the basketball team. i´m surprised he didn´t make it, but i hope that he isn´t disappointed! he is an awesome athlete, and i know he will do well in other sports.
tell hope i wish the best for her dance routine in the refletions contest! that is awesome that she is competing. is it a solo that she made up herself? that is soo kewl! reminds me of alex´s piano piece that he did when he was about 8. saweeet!
may 2021? (We announced our projected date for serving a mission) consider it DONE. i´m putting it down in my "book". didn´t know i had one just like dad didja? well i do. and that date is down in bold on my pages. do it to it mom. i know you and dad will be amazing servants of the lord. you have always done so much to follow christ and have been such amazing examples and teachers to your family and all those around you (as is evident by the so many that come to you for support like levi, chris, wendy, megan, and countless others). i am confident that you will have the chance to serve. i will keep that goal in mind and pray for you. and--I CALL DIBBS ON THE HOUSE! neener neener boys. cuz i´m the oldest and i´m a lady. can´t be that. ha ha ha. don´t worry, i won´t have more than 2 cats and 3 dogs and maybe some chickens. bah ha ha ha chiste no mas!
Well, things are going great here. we have 7 progressing investigators, menos activos are coming back to church, and we have a baptism scheduled for this coming sunday. woot! it´s really rolling now!
it´s been interesting. the other night we were woken with a start. at about 3:30 am the other night i heard someone yelling in the street and it really made me jump. i woke with a start and the four of us sisters looked out our front window to a depressing sight. some drunk guy was out in the street screaming and crying "te amooooo!" and stuff. he was messed up. three policeman tackled him to the ground and had to beat him to keep him from fighting back. he just gave up and laid on the ground sobbing. it was really sad. they wrestled him into a van and drove away. it scared me pretty bad. i was singing hymns in my bed to get back to sleep. the other hermanas are more used to things like that so it didn´t bother them as much. but now worries, i´m ok!
the other day we found an old man in his wife. he invited us into his home and we tried to teach them, but he just blabbered about random stuff and told us strange things like him seeing the holy ghost walk around his front room... yeah, we were so outta there. but before we left he offered a prayer and it was the strangest prayer i have ever heard. he prayed for 10 minutes at the least, and at one point he started "speaking in tongues". it was just jibberish, like babytalk. a lot of evangelicos here do that. it´s wierd...
ok, gotta go. but i hope everyone is doing well! i love you all sooo much i can´t even tell ya!!!!
mandando mi amor!
samsam

2010-11-08T16:34:00.001-07:00

Helooooooo out there in UUUUUtah!

Well, our third week of this change has come to an end. WOW. we are already halfway through this change! i have a hunch that i might be transferred this upcoming change. not sure how i feel about that. i love my companion and i have really come to love the baquedano sector. there are some people that it is going to be hard to say goodbye to. but i just can´t think of that now. just keep moving forward and onward. to infinity, and beyond! har har har.

i love hearing about the mtc and how alex is doing. i remember those devotionals and i remember how in the beginning i used to not like them at all. in fact, i would fall asleep quite often during them. i thought,"oh boy, another long devotional. do they have to be every tuesday and sunday? why not just once a week or once a month?" but by the end i had my notes out and rather than spend the whole time drawing or sleeping i would be writing so fast and the spirit would come rushing in and my head and heart would fill with personal revelation--it came to be such a neat experience for me. after about the second or third week i really came to take advantage of the opportunity to hear from some of the leaders of the church and others. i just soaked it up like a sponge. i´m glad alex is taking full advantage of those experiences too!

thank you for sending me pics of alex in the mtc, mom. i put some of them up on my wall above my desk. i lurv pics! my wall is covered with pics of home and a bunch that wendy has sent me of caden and the ones of alex and clippings from the liahona. that´s another thing that has changed--i love the church magazines! before i used to not like to read them, but now i get so excited everytime we get the latest ones from the mission office! i love it love it love it. we utilize those magazines a lot for our lessons and family home evenings that we plan with different families in the ward. it´s great!

thank you also for the missionary newsletter from the ward. i loved reading it. it´s fun to hear the stories and the special experiences.

hermana pastrana and i had some cool experiences this past week. we were out knocking doors and we found this old man named filiberto and his wife. he told us that he was a member of the church. then he really surprised us by saying that he used to be the branch president, but that he has fallen away and has been inactive for years. that blew my mind. how can someone hold a position like that and fall away?!?!?! i don´t get it. but we talked with them and they shared their testimonies. we talked about prophets and how this church is true. they began to open up about why they dont attend church. filiberto shared that he had some painful memories that he didn´t want to face in the church. he related to us the long hours he spent in the office in the church working for the branch and said he felt alone. it was really sad. he said he wasn´t treated well by the members and they kind of just ignored him when they passed him in the street and such. but i shared Isaiah 41:10 and testified. i told them that their testimonies were strong and that by sharing they had helped fortify my testimony. but i told them that because they don´t attend church they are missing so many blessings and that those in the church are missing out too because filiberto and his wife could really help a lot of our investigators and members that are struggling. i told them to fear not what happens with man. i told them that it doesn´t matter what the men do in the church, we don´t go for man we go for God. it was a bold move, but i had to say it. the prompting came too strongly for me to ignore. i was afraid they would be upset with me telling them that they need to start going again. and after our discussion i was afraid that was it--that we would walk out and they would be the same as before. it was looking that way because no one had much else to say and he thanked us for coming as if to show us the door. but as we were putting our scriptures away and preparing to get up and go, he asked us if they still held sacrament meeting at ten every sunday. we said yes, and watched him, holding our breath.... he clasped his hands out in front of him and stared down at the table.... then said, "i believe it´s time that we return to church." i shot a glance at hermana pastrana, then we both jumped out of our seats and began to applaud. i was shocked, but thrilled. filiberto and his wife were beaming and stood to applaud as well. we all sat back down but filiberto remained standing and bore testimony. it was amazing. it´s one of those experiences no one would understand unless they were there. the spirit was soo strong it was amazing. i felt like we had just won a world war or something. it was a joyous moment. as we were headed out the door, filiberto went back into the kitchen and came out with giant pastries for the two of us. he was so grateful that we had come. and yesterday, sunday, he came! he came and was sitting in the chapel when we entered. he seemed a bit nervous, but that melted away as he was greeted with warm hugs from the members. there were so many who were surprised and thrilled to see him again. everyone welcomed him back. a small victory in the battle!

anyway, that´s all i will say for now. i love you all sooo much. hope you know that.

alex--i´m so stoked for you. YOU´RE GOING TO RUSSIA!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAJHHHHHHH!

you´re going to have so many amazing experiences, i can hardly wait!

¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡LES AMOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mandando mi amor, besos, y abrazos de osos,

samsam

HOLA!

2010-10-26T17:08:00.000-06:00

HOOOOOLAAAA! MI QUERIDO HERMANITO Y MI AMOROSAS Y MARAVILLOSAS PAPAS!
¡Que montaña de rusia es la misión! Ariba y bajo otra y otra vez. Wow, ¡hay tantos cosas contarles! No se donde empezar....
(what a rollercoaster ride is the mission! up and down over and over. wow, there are so many things to tell! i don´t know where to start....) (isn´t funny that "rollercoaster" is "montaña de rusia" en español? "montaña de rusia" means "russian mountain". ja ja ja ja :D)
SO. Caleb is now a teacher eh? ¡Bakan! that really rocks my socks. Can´t wait to read the blessing. How was his birthday? cute kid, i hope it was awesome. sounds like he got some cool stuff! tell him i got him a little something from chile, but it´s super crazy expensive to send anything via mail. sorry dude! i am sending everything together for christmas. i was going to send you a bunch of chilean treats that you won´t find in the states too, but alas, i found out that they changed the rules and we can´t send any food via mail. pucha che. i will just bring a suitcase full when i come home next year.
ya all excited fur halloweeners? i guess they have halloween here too because all the stores have costumes for sale and such. It´s apparently not as big a deal here as it is in the states, but all the same we are planning on loading up on candy for the kiddies in our sector. i heard thanksgiving isn´t that big either. one elder told me last thanksgiving he forgot all about it because no one really participates in that holiday. he said it felt like just any other thursday. hmmm....
otay, so lil bro, how are things? isn´t it nuts in the mtc? ejale, the whole mission is nuts! it keeps you on your toes. i´m so glad to hear that you are having such amazing experiences. that experience you and mom shared about gratitude--keep that! what a strength to your testimony! i liked when you said that as you focused on what you had to be grateful it made your worries seem to disappear. it was good for me to hear, and i want to try what you did and go a whole day expressing gratitude. i definitely need it sometimes! especialy at the end of the week. domingos (sundays) are horrrrrrible for work. we walked. all. day. long. crazay. we are working sooo hard to find people to teach! it´s different now with hermana bonilla gone and we are really digging in and getting to work. but we are basically starting from square one. explanation:
so with hermana bonilla we had a lot of baptisms my first month. but after that everything fizzled out and we spent the rest of those first 3 months visiting and spending a lot of time in member´s homes (aka, the homes of all the buddies of hermana bonilla). that was really frustrating because they would all speak spanish and i would sit in the corner and twiddle my thumbs and wonder why i was so homesick and miserable. so when my new comp came in i was thrilled and we jumped right into the work. but because we hadn´t worked much before we hardly have any work now. we had almost no appointments set up for the week when hermana pastrana came in and only 1 progressing investigator. so we have hit the streets to find new investigators. it´s been hard because we are just out walking all day. hermana pastrana had 15 investigators in her sector before this one, so she and her companion always had teaching appointments and were always in people´s homes teaching. we have no one! pucha che. it´s like opening a brand new sector. it stinks. but we have been working soo hard and we have been praying like crazy. the tender mercies of the lord have come pouring in. we have the faith to find those who are willing and waiting to hear the message, we just need the patience now.
so, alex, remember this. it´s ok to visit members, but ALWAYS LEAVE SOMETHING BEHIND. if you want to visit a member, don´t leave without having at least a spiritual thought. always teach and uplift. but remember that we are not going out to make best friends or to be the favorite. we are here to work. the only reasons we should be visiting members are for meals that are assigned, to lend a helping hand, to teach, or to ask for help in the missionary work. never go just to have a place to chill and chitchat. members are extremely valuable in this work, and we as fulltime missionaries need the help of those in the ward, but the missionaries should never get too comfortable just hanging around member´s houses. also, ALWAYS BE LOOKING FOR NEW INVESTIGATORS. that is why we need members, to help us find and teach. if you ever slack off in this you will be left with no work. and when you have no work and nothin in your daily planner satan can really get under your skin. idleness is satan´s delight. i was miserable near the end with hermana bonilla, and now we are paying the price for the lack of work. but i trust Heavenly Father with all my heart and soul. we are out working as hard as we can now, and i know He will provide.
and He already has! it´s been amazing to see the changes. because we have been working so hard we have seen happy little miracles. an investigator hermana bonilla and i found weeks and weeks ago is starting to progress! we have been teaching him for a long time and he never wanted anything but us to visit because he is a lonely old man. he didn´t like us telling him that he needs to go to church. but! it was a miracle to walk up to the church yesterday and see him standing there in the street in front of the church with his best suit and a big old smile! amazing! absolute miracle.
we have found a lot of menos activos out walking, and we have been inviting them to church. this one woman, elcira, had stopped attending last february because there was a dispute with the women in the relief society and she didn´t feel welcome. but we talked her into coming. we picked her up before church and she sat with us the whole time in church in the back. she was nervous. but then out of the blue, a member from the relief society came right up and gaver her a big hug and said "welcome back". i almost felt like crying. it was a happy little tender moment.
oh! and mario! mario is the dad and husband of daniela and vilma, who are two of our converts. he is abusive and drinks, but we have been teaching him in his home. he hasn´t ever wanted the church, be he is changing! and yesterday, he came to church! his daughter and son came and sat before the meeting started, and we didn´t expect him to come. but halfway through the sacrament hymn, he walked in slowly and took a seat. WOW. i was beaming with joy and excitement.
ok, i´m sorry this is jigantic! hope alex reads faster than he types! i love you all sooo much and i want you to know
THIS WORK IS THE MOST AMAZING WORK TO EVER GRACE THE FACE OF THE PLANET. i feel like the missionaries in the book of mormon sometimes whose only desire was to be an angel to spread the word. it´s absolutely amazing.
ok, i love you! besos! y un abrazo de oso!
mandando mi amor de chile,
samsam

Companera Neuva

2010-10-19T10:52:00.002-06:00

hello mi familia dearest!
it was fun reading alex´s last email with all that´s going on in the mtc. one of the greatest things about the mtc is the running jokes you make with the district and the funny little moments in class. i can´t believe alex has already been in the mtc for 6 weeks! sounds like he is having fun and doing well. good good! i´m glad to hear that he is doing well with russian. it´s weird how it works when you learn a language like that in the mtc. they really push you to speak the language, even if you feel you don´t know how, but the words just show up and pop out your mouth and it´s soo kewl!
i wonder if alex is sick of the food yet ha ha ha. i was soo done with it after 6 weeks and i was ready to go. it made me so antsy to see the other missionaries all heading out to the field and i wanted to go soo bad. but it helps move things along and keeps you working hard when you have newbies to watch after. it´s fun to help them get used to the mtc and all and i hope alex watches out for the new ones comin in.
can´t wait to get everyone´s mail! i am glad grandpa got his letter. i wrote to say happy birthday, and i wrote caleb too for his birthday. i hope he has an awesome birthday! tell grandpa and caleb i have gifts for them but i´m going to send them with a christmas box i am making for the fam. so tell them i´m sorry they didn´t get anything from me for their birthday, but it´s way expensive to send any boxes so i want to put it all together in one big box instead of sending a bunch out year round.
hope did a dance for reflections eh? bakan! you should make a video and email it! i would love to see it. what a cute stink! i hope she keeps up with dance. sounds like everyone else is doing well and having fun and i´m glad. kudos to seff with football! oh, and i have been praying everynight for aunt mecy. i hope she is making it through ok!
things are great here! today is the first day of my third change here in the rancagua chile mision. WOOT! that means i have completed 20 weeks of the mission and i have been here in chile for 3 whole months. WOW. and the end of my second change means the end of training so i have a new companion!!!!!!!! her name is hermana pastrana and she is AMAZING. i have heard really really good things about hermana pastrana, and already in the very short time we have been companions she has come into the baquedano sector running full speed ahead. she is dedicated and has a plan and goals and she doesn´t fool around. with hermana pastrana i have a good feeling that we are really going to change our sector and work really hard to get things rolling. it´s good for everyone! hermana pastrana is from columbia so she already speaks spanish. i am good enough now with spanish that i wasn´t really worried about that. i still have a ways to go before i can really speak with confidence though, and i am sure my new comp is going to help me a lot to progress. and she is learning english so it´s perfect because we can help each other. she is extremely dedicated and you can tell she loves being a missionary and is very dilligent, but very funny too. i´m sooo excited for the next change! hermana pastrana finishes her mission after these next two changes, so i´m guessing she and i will be in baquedano for the next two changes. saweet! that´s a good amount of time to really get things going in the ward and light the fire! we have a lot of work to do because right now in our sector we only have one progressing investigator who is waiting for a divorce to go through so she can get married and get baptized (she has to get married because she is living with a guy), and two other investigators we have had for weeks that aren´t progressing. and that´s it.
ok, i better go, but I LOVE YOU SOOO MUUUUUUUUUUUUUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
te kiero, ojala todo esta bien en el ccm por alex, y en centerville con la familia de mi corazon! chao chao, muchos besos y abrazos de osos!!!!!!!!!!!!! (bear hugs!)
mandando me amor de chile,
samsam

VVVVRRRROOOOOOOOOM!

2010-10-11T17:33:00.000-06:00

Ha, that is supposed to be the sound of a race car speeding past. didn´t really work, but i tried :P that is time on da mish!
I loved reading the emails this week! Lots of updates--good! I also got some letters this week and last week. saweeeet. i got the photo book and i LURV it! also got the letters from pat, mom, and dad. thanks guys, you really don´t know what it means to me.
ha ha, why the heckers did you put the photo of the greesy, ugly, hairy man with the cigarette butt hangin out of his mouth in the photo book, mom? ha ha ha. we were in the mission office with a big group and everyone wanted to see. let´s just say there were a lot of laughs about it (and maybe a raised eyebrow or two from the senior couple serving in the office. har har har). but no worries. we all got a kick out of it. and thank you sooo much for sending me that book! i absolutemente love it! it´s kinda sad though because i might have to take the photo of our home out. the people living here in chile wouldn´t understand it if they saw it. it´s just complicated. one investigator actually asked me last week, "why are all the homes in the states all so big? is everyone in the states rich? is your family rich?" all the homes here are small and dingy and really cramped, but that´s just how it is. people can´t understand how we have garages and cars and more than one bathroom. i really never knew what i had growing up in utah! being here has really opened my eyes to a lot of things.
loved reading alex´s last letter! it reminded me of the quote that says that the best missionaries are the converted ones. and it´s true al, you really do experience the same conversion process as you walk with the people you teach during the conversion process. and as missionaries, we are representatives of Jesus Christ, which means we are to invite people to walk in the gospel as Christ invited his disciples to walk with him when he was on the earth. It´s so cool! i love how you said that the church doesn´t just run a general program and that we don´t call down to investigators from a high pedistal we walk and talk and experience it all with them. it´s LEGIT! i´m amazed by what i have seen so far, and i don´t even have that much experience! seriously, i have yet to actually find a brand new investigator and teach them all the way up to baptism. i have caught the tail end of it and it´s amazing.
sounds like there are a lot of new changes at home. bakan! but no more doggie? that´s a real bummer.... tell hope no worries, she can come see my dogs any time! mom said she had high hopes for me when i get back, and i´m not planning on disappointing her! ha ha. dogs, horses, all that jazz. i just need to find a good job first ha ha. i won´t have much plata (money) when i get home.
i´m glad to hear that grandpa is doing well. his garden sounds like it is doing great! i hope patrick is still helping him with it, even though i know how busy he is with high school and dating. and wow, patman sounds like he has become quite the stud! i wrote him a letter today, but the post office is closed because of a holiday. i will have to wait till next week to send it.
mom? you have reading glasses? wow! ha ha ha. when you said you had glasses hanging on the end of your nose and dad was sitting at his desk with a magnifying glass i just had to laugh. i just love you guys! no matter how time changes things!!!! such is life with all it´s happy little details :D
Things are pretty good here. This is the last week of the change and then hermana bonilla will be transferred to a new sector. I will be getting a new companion! i am pretty sure it´s going to be hermana postrana, from columbia. she is cute and i´m excited.
The work is pretty slow right now. we are just doing a lot of contacting in the street and knocking doors. we are visiting a lot of menos activos and our recent converts a lot too. the test of faith that always follows baptism is callin in it´s dues with our converts, but they are holding strong to the faith and are nourishing their newly planted testimonies. It´s been hard because vilma had to get a night job and with the lack of sleep and the long hours and all the other stressful things she has in her life she has gotten very sick. we went to visit her while she was in bed and called the elders over. they gave her a preisthood blessing and it was a tender moment. i could feel the spirit very strongly. since then, vilma has been doing so much better. she is working in the days now and things are ok. our other converts have had trials financially and are worried about their baby that is due in december. but they are holding on to their faith in christ and have hope that things will pan out. wilfredo, one of the recent converts, gave an amazing testimony yesterday too. he talked about when the missionaries first came to their door and how the gospel has blessed his life during his conversion process. he talked about how a new light and peace has entered his home since he and his wife were converted and baptized. it was sooo cool to hear!
we had a picnic with a menos activo family this week. that was a lot of fun. they have the cutest little kids! it´s soo funny too because everytime their little kids see us they shout "misioneras! hemama binisha! hemama mowis!" ha ha it´s sooo dang cute! it was so funny yesterday because they got to church late and entered the chapel after the sacrament and everyone could hear vicente shout "hemama binisha!" as he ran to give her a hug. presidente navia who was making an anouncement was trying not to laugh from the pulpit.
so yeah, things are good. the weather is really starting to heat up. it was way hot yesterday, and it´s not even summertime yet! i´m going to die in the summer heat... ha ha.
well, i am out of time. i love you all soo much and hope all is well! i love you more than words can describe!
mandando mi amor!
samsam

The CONFERENCE e-mail

2010-10-05T12:51:00.001-06:00

hola alex and mom! how are yas? oh my gosh CONFERENCE WAS AMAZIIIIIIIING! i don´t think i have ever enjoyed it more in my entire life. i just soaked it all up like a sponge! what a delicious spiritual feast! and we also watched a rerun of the general relief society meeting saturday morning before conference. oh my, i love our prophet! i loved hearing him talk about the widows he visited and his memories. i love how he said "i am a man of memories" and shared some of his most precious memories. it was really moving. i consider myself a real memory keeper too, and to hear some of this wise seer´s most treasured memories was really cool. i would love to take a look into his memory bank!
I´m bummed that i didn´t get to see alex though. i was hoping the mtc choir would sing for one of the general sessions, and i was watching for him. i didn´t know he would be in the priesthood session. that is sooo cool though! i hope it was an amazing experience for ya bro. and i have to say i´m a bit jealous that you got to see the fam! ja ja ja
i loved elder holland´s talk. it really hit home for me because he talked about his mission and what his parents sacrificed for him to be out serving. it choked me up to think about the sacrifices that you, mom, and dad have made for our family. you have devoted so much to us. i want to repay you by making this mission the best that it can be. i never ever want to simply take advantage of the strength and support you give. i want to earn it. and i want to thank you for being apart of this opportunity for me and alex to go out into the world. it is hard, but it is a work we ALL take part in. at times the task seems daunting, to try and teach the world of christ and ask them to change their lives, but how can we turn down the opportunity? like president monson said during his talk in the general relief society meeting about visiting the poor widow in the rest home after she waited late into the night for him, "how could i not come?" how can we not participate, knowing our lord has graciously given us sooo much and knowing that his beloved children don´t know about their father who waits above, patiently waiting with arms outstretched for them to recieve him. i love this work! it´s real and it´s worth whatever comforts and luxuries i gave up from home. and it´s not even for that long! it´s only for a short 18 months that i will be devoting my entire life to the lord out here in chile.
oh there were so many good talks! i could go on and on... but i won´t for poor alex´s sake. i will just say that i love our prophet and know he leads us and tells us EXACTLY what we need to know. and i love how one of the speakers mentioned chile! we all cheered ha ha.
anyway, things are going good here. we only have this week and next week before the next cambio (transfer). i will be staying in the baquedano sector and getting a new comp most probably. i can´t believe my second change is starting to close!
our progressing investigator, lorena, has set a date to get married, and after that, she can get baptized!!!! woooo hooooo!! she and her fiance have been waiting for her to get her last marriage cleared so she can join the church. and they asked me and hermana bonilla to be their two witnesses for the civil marriage! cool! we just need permission from the mish pres. to go. here in chile people usually have two marriages, a civil one for the country legal records, and then whatever they want, like in the catholic church or lds temple.
oh, and we are working towards a temple trip with our recent converts! the branch pres. has been conducting meetings to get everyone recommends and we are trying to plan a stake temple trip. i hope the missionaries will have permission to go! i miss the temple!
ha ha ha hello helder is a game we played for zone conference. just think of it in a really thick latin accent with the h´s sounding really gutteral. bah hah ha. i love activities with the zone and the district. that´s one thing that is really different from the mtc. in the mtc you are with your zone and your district basically 24/7, but out in the field it is just you and your comp in your sector. but they have activities all the time as a zone or a district or with other zones in the mission. they are really good activities to get to know the other missionaries in your zone and it´s way fun because the zone leaders can plan different things. for example, today me and my comp and our zone leaders in rancagua traveled by bus an hour south to meet up with some other elders in our zone. we took 2 buses and a taxi out to the middle of nowhere. we went out to a really rural area that is all fruit farms and cattle lands. it was beautiful and we met early in the morning so there was mist in the mountains and everything. true blue chilean countrysides! nothin beats that. it´s amazing. we walked into the canyon through herds of cows and horses grazing in green fields with a chilean man that one of the elders invited. he grew up there and knows the land. he was so cool and reminded me of bear grills because he was showing us plants and things and telling us some random cool nature facts. like "and this tree is used to make shampoo" and "this plant has water pods that you can drink from", and showed us strange little insect creatures like caterpillars with poisonous spines. it was like a fieldtrip for school. it was legit! we bushwacked our way to a beautiful little waterfall hidden in some rock. the water was crystal clear and our "tourguide man" told us it was filtered in the mountain rock so we could all drink from it. he showed us the way to climb through the rock to get to the little cave place. it was so awesome. we just got back in rancagua and are using an internet shop in the bus station building for emails. i am stinky and dirty from our adventures in the mountains to the south, but heck it was worth it. and i heard the zone leaders are trying to plan an activity to go paintballing.... it´s awesome! i love getting to know the other missionaries of the rancagua mission.
ok, enough about that, how the heckers are ya all?
i love hearing how everyone is doing at home. tell hope i "hope" she is feeling better! and pat--way to be! his goals sound great and i´m so stoked for him. i hope he is loving highschool and taking advantage of the opportunities there. tell caleb and seth i hope they are loving junior high too, and i can´t wait to hear seth play the trumpet when i get back or hear caleb sing (if he joins choir. but really? choir over chinese? que fome! lamesauce. ja ja ja jk lil bro. you do what you love to do!)
tell dad, still waiting on a letter with some stories from his mission!!!!
mom, alex, i love you both sooooo much!!! i feel like me and alex being away only makes our family ties tighten and more rooted in gospel soil. i love you and pray for you every night.
let me know how reading the book of mormon in spanish goes!!!!
and al, send me some pics pweese!
mandando mi amor de chile,
samsam

E-mail news!

2010-09-27T16:03:00.000-06:00

MI QUERIDO HERMANO Y MI MOROSA MAMA
i am sending this to both of you to save time--good idea, mom. it will be good for both of us to just send one message out. poor alex has a stupid timer looming over his head whenever he does email! and only having 30 minutes to email--that bites. out in the feild we have an hour and we just time ourselves. neener neener alex ja ja ja.
i just got mom´s latest dearelder via pouchmail today right before we came to the internet shop. i don´t know if it is faster than regular mail or not though because dearelders aren´t dated. so next time you send one put the date at the top with the salutation por favor :D. it was the one mom wrote on a friday and she talked about dad working late and her job with kent.... remember? was that this past friday, the 24th? if so it only took 3 days. WOOOOOOT! that would be sooo nice to get dearelder letters that fast.
i haven´t heard from brad or carrie at all since i came to the field. brad wrote to me via dearelder while i was in the mtc and i got some from carrie too, but since i got here i haven´t. how are they doing? so carrie is prego? aw!!! anoder liddle bun en da oven! que lindo!!!! i hope they are doing ok. i miss brad´s letters because he told me stories from his mission and it was way cool to read. i hope they are doing awesome.
I never knew that about Papaw´s sister!!!!! why didn´t you tell me before!? i will have to visit Pat after da mish. maybe i can help her out if she still keeps the ranch when i get back. that would be so cool to work with her and help her out.
so how is the rest of the fam, mom? i LOVE getting letters from home! it´s like alex says, sometimes that´s the only thing that gets you through the day. and it´s NEVER bothersome to hear from you. yo le prometo! i promise! so keep them coming! tell dad he needs to send a little somin somin tambien. just a widdle bitty message everyweek. it´s fun to hear how everyone is doing, no matter how thrown-together or little the message may be.
i´m soo glad you f
wow i LOVED alex´s most recent email. LOVED IT LOVED IT LOVED IT. just soaked it right up (as i do with every letter from alex or home! :D) makes me miss the mtc just a titch. i´m glad he is settling in and starting to enjoy things. that first week really is quite a dewser (ja ja remember little payton thompson saying "dewser?"). but after that it´s all downhill for the rest of the time. it´s like a toilet paper roll--it just goes faster and faster the closer you get to the middle. the field is a like a double double hefty roll, and looks humungous when you first start, but now that i have been here for 2 months (GASP! EGAD i can´t believe it´s really been 2 MESAAAAAAAS!) i am starting to see just how fast time is in da mish. whenever i think back on my time so far i realize that 18 months (or 24 months) really isn´t that long at all! time is SO PRECIOUS. remember that al!
and
OOOOOHHHH MYYYYYY HHHEEEEEECKEEERS! I CAN´T BEWEEVE DAT MY WIDDLE BRODA ES GONNA BE EN TEH CHOIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TA PRODUCE TEH MUZIKS FOR TEH CHURCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ja ja ja que chistoso. i love how he put that in his last email. WOWOWOWOWOWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW! that is an opportunity of a lifetime! heh, and i thought i was all high and mighty for bein in the 4th of july program in the mtc..... wow, alex, that is sooo legit! too legit to quit! i am sooo excited for you!!!!!!!! i will be watching! i hope we see you so i get to point and cheer and say "lookie everyone! that´s my widdle broda!" ja ja though i probably won´t be able to. here we are going to watch conference via satellite. it will be a live feed so we will meet in the stake center as a stake from 12 to 6 with the 2 hour lunch break at the same stake center in between the two sessions. i will be sitting in an overflow with the greenies to watch it in english. i´m soooooo stoooooooked!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ok this email is already too long and i have just started! things are much better than when i sent my last email. i was so bummed because we didn´t have a lot of work to do because of the holidays. but the work really picked up this week. we found 20 new investigators!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that was so awesome sick tight amazing kewl!
the language is still coming. it just keeps coming and it really picks up with time. a lot of members have told me they are impressed by how quickly i have been picking it up. but it´s just like alex said--it´s the gift of tongues! there is NO WAY i could be speaking a language like this in 4 months without the spirit. you can definitely feel the difference when you don´t have the spirit because your abilities decrease without Him. it´s incredible!
i´m so glad alex loves the language of russia. i don´t even know how to begin to pronounce the name for that language! ja ja ja. what the tutor says is true about the book of mormon, alex. i have had many people tell me the same thing too. in fact the server at the salad bar in the mtc who made a wrap for me once told me ¨just read from cover to cover in your mission language, and even if it doesn´t make sense what you read at first, you will know how to speak fluently by the end." i have made a goal to read the entire book of mormon in spanish before my mission ends. everyday for part of my study i read verse by verse in english, then spanish so i can understand what it is saying. it really illuminates the stories too. just reading the first part about getting the plates from jerusalem and about lehi´s vision was really cool. i wasn´t just reading it plainly and each word had a sense of delibarateness (is that a word??) and it is much slower so that i can really take in each word and each phrase. it penetrates on a deeper level that way and the stories are so much more real in my mind. and it´s really helping me with spanish!
mom and alex, i challenge you to do the same. read the book of mormon in a different language side by side with the english version and see what happens. it is so cool i can´t even describe it!
oh and mom, you HAVE to see errand of angels. it´s a church film about a sister missionary who serves in austria. we watched it in a members home the other night and i was surprised at how many parallels there have been with my mission! just watch it and picture me in her situation and you will know how it has been, minus a few details here and there. she had such a rough companion, but what she learned from it is almost the exact same as what i learned from my experiences with hermana herbert! it´s hillarious how closely my mission is paralleled in that movie. you gotta watch it.
oh, and both of you need to look up the video on the church website about the man who lost half of his family from a drunk driver. it really brings new light to the atonement. just have a box of tissues handy when you watch it!
ok sorry, i will stop. hope this doesn´t take up too much of alex´s time!
i love you sooooooooooooooooooo much!
as always-- CONFIE EN EL SEÑOR Y VIVE SIN EXCUSES! those are my two mottos! trust in the lord and live with no regrets!/excuses! (in spanish excuses is the same as regrets, funny huh?)
alex, write me your mission motto/s!
manando mi amor de chile,
samsam

More news from Chile!

2010-09-20T08:47:00.001-06:00

things are going great with the people in our sector. our recent converts, cristina and wilfredo, are starting family history work. we took them to the family history center of our stake and hermana navia gave them a quick tour and showed them some micro film of a joural of her ancestors. it was really cool. i shared with them the story of when me and alex and pat did the work for that one man and his two sons and his daughter (if i remember right.... can´t remember the names though). i just told them we did work for my ancestors and it was one of the most special experiences i have had in the temple and we all knew that this man and his children had accepted the work and were celebrating on the other side. i´m super excited for wilfredo y cristina because they are working towards temple marriage and if i´m lucky i will get to go with them next august!
we still don´t have many new investigators, but the work is moving along. we are working with a lot of members that have problems. divorce is such a huge problem because the process is long. there is a family that the missionaries found 10 months ago that is waiting for a divorce to be completed. i think it´s the mom that is trying to get a divorce from her last husband. she is living with a man and her 3 kids, and they are trying to earn money to pay the lawyer. if they can get the money they can have the divorce done in one week. but it´s difficult. they want to be baptised, but can´t until they can get married. so it´s a huge setback. same thing with our investigator, lorena. she is waiting for divorce papers to go through and can´t marry or get baptised till november or december. so there is a lot of work to do in the ward too. it´s good though, and things are going well.
oh man, crazy week though. the other day when hermana ortiz and hermana black left our apartment after lunch, they found a woman floating unconcious in the water in the canal next to our building! a man came and pulled her out and people gathered to help. how strange! she was just floating. we aren´t sure what happened, but they pulled her out and she had a pulse. the ambulancia came and took her away. kudos to the hermanas, they saved that woman´s life! no one else noticed.
a few days before that we were in a colectivo headed back to our apartment for the night (me and my comp) and all of the sudden the driver stopped. i looked ahead and saw a girl laying in the middle of the road! the driver just weaved around the people that started gathering around the girl and drove on. we asked what happened and he said he couldn´t tell if she jumped in the road or got hit, but she fell to the ground and just laid there. there wasn´t any blood, but it kind of freaked me out. and the driver just said "no importa" enserio! not important? but aparently stuff like that happens a lot.
last saturday was interesting too. we had to return to our apartments for the night at 6 (it was a rule for the whole mission) because it was dia de rebelion. aparently it´s a day once a year that teens go out and reak havoc. it has to do with the history. i guess at one time there was an unjust dictator that ruled, and the people started a huge rebelion, killed the dictator, and replaced him with a new leader. i think it´s stupid that they have dia de rebelion, i have no idea why they have it. but aparently in santiago people were starting fires and throwing little handmade bombs and such. nothing happened here in baquedano, but it´s a problem in santiago. stupid! i guess they just like to go out and cause trouble....
i´m excited for this week though. the 18th is chile´s independence day. think of july 4th times 5. it´s huge! they celebrate for the entire week from what i have heard. and it´s a law that every house has to put a flag up for a certain amount of time, like a week or something. there are flags on all the buildings, in all the windows, all the cars--everything. and they have dances like the traditional cueca and such. it´s going to be big. we are going to have pday on saturday, dieziocho for this, and friday we only work till like 6 because it will be hard to do much with everyone celebrating. we still have work to do, and the celebrations don´t stop what we are doing. it´s exciting, but we still have a work to do and we are staying focused.
i´m really coming to love this place. the people we know and teach, the members, and everyone. i love them! it´s fun to go out and meet new people and share our message with them.
so, things are going good and the work is rolling forth like the stone cut out of the mountain without hands. i´m excited for cristina and wilfredo and vilma and daniela and emilio (all our recently baptized converts) because they are still learning. i have never known what it´s like to not know the things they have never heard before. it´s soo cool to see their eyes and their faces when we teach them something new. and they just soak it up. they want to go to the temple and so we are working towards that. it´s awesome!!!!
anway, i have to go, but i love you and the fam soooo much! i think of you everyday and hope all is well! keep up with your commitments. i know you are a strong woman with righteous desires. ¨fear not little flock, it is the Lord´s good pleasure to give you the kingdom" luke 12 i think... it´s one of my new favorites. ;D I LOVE YOU!!!!!!! TE QUIERO!!!!!!!!!!!! TE AMO!!!!!!!!!! AND ALWAYS, CONFIE EN EL SEÑOR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
sending my love from chile!!!
samsam

2010-09-08T19:33:00.002-06:00

Even in Chile she finds puppies to love! Here is her address for Elizabeth (thanks for asking...YOU ROCK) Hermana Samantha Morris, Chile Rancagua Mission,
German Riesco 230 Suite 703, Rancagua, CHILE
and now another e-mail to peruse...
i am communicating a lot better than i did when i first got here. the members say i am speaking spanish very well (i hope they aren´t just being nice!). i was asked to give a 3 min. talk last sunday and i was also asked to teach the sunday school class yesterday. wow. talk about a nerveracking experience! for my talk i was asked to share the reason i am serving a mission and a brief testimony. that went well. then yesterday, i gave a lesson about honradez -- "honesty". i was really nervous, but it worked out really well actually. everyone was really excited to hear me give the lesson and elder haws, from utah as well, was there to help me when i got stuck on a word. some of the members even helped me because a lot of them are studying english. it is a decently sized class, about 10 people, but they are all investigators or members that we visit a lot so i know them all. they were very encouraging, and we had a good discussion during the class. so it was great! i won´t have to teach again because they just called a new teacher for that class, the principios del evangelio. before, the 4 missionaries would rotate and take turns teaching. i´m just glad i did what i was asked and it´s over. whew.
other than that things are kind of slow... we only have one progressing investigator. lorena is her name. she is golden, and she keeps all her commitments. we had a lot of investigators poop out on us this past week. we have done everything we could to teach them and get them to come to church, but there is only so much we can do. they just stopped keeping commitments to read the material we give them or come to church or they never answer the door. so we have to drop them. in missionary lingo it´s called dying --- we had like 3 investigators die this week, which is a lot. i´m not worried though. the lord is involved and is preparing his children to hear our message. we just have to find them and let the spirit work his magic as we teach and search.
we have been tracting a lot. we find lots of people that listen to us as we share a brief summary of the lesson of the restauracion, and they invite us to come to their house or to come another time, but when we go the appointments we set up with them it falls through because they are busy or aren´t home. meh. we just keep working at it. that´s just how we find new investigators.
oh! so i experienced my first teremoto aqui en chile. (earthquake). it wasn´t even really an earthquake, just a temblor (tremor). it was funny because we were visiting a recent convert who was one of the 4 who was baptized august 15th. we taught her about temples and the spirit world and missionary work. she is absolutely fantastic, just absolutely golden. after the lesson we asked who she would like to pray, and she offered to pray. as she began to pray in her little front room at about 10 minutes to 8 last wednesday, there was the tiniest bit of movement and low rumble. i didn´t even think it was an earthquake, i just thought a micro or a big truck went by. but she stopped the prayer and said "ah did you feel that!?" the house made some noise for just a second and we all just kind of looked at each other. ha, it was kind of funny. apparently that happens a lot here. after a minute she finished the prayer ha ha. she is really cool. her name is cristina, and she is prego and is married to wilfredo who was also baptized the same day she was. they are working towards temple marriage for next august. WOOOOOOT! i will still be in chile next august, and i hope i can go with them when they get sealed!!! that would be sooo LEGIT!!!!! cristina bore her testimony yesterday in fast and testimony meeting too. it is so cool to see the work here and to see the changes being made in people´s lives.
Also, another first -- i ate something strange again. i had.... pig tongue. ha ha ha. i didn´t even know until after we had gone back to our apartment for the night! we stopped in at a home of some menos activos in the ward to see how they were doing. they were having once, and invited us to join. we had sandwiches with meat and mayonesa and coffee (don´t worry! it´s made of 100% cereal so it´s noncaffeinated. it tastes and looks just like coffee. YUCK.) anyway, we had the sandwiches and i thought nothing of it. the meat looked like beef to me, just like the roast we have every sunday at home. it tasted good too. it was a little different, but i couldn´t even tell. but after we got to the aparmtent, my comp asked me if i like the lengua de chancho and i said "i just ate the tongue of WHAT?" ha ha ha. it was pig tongue!!!!! ha ha ha ha muy chistoso.
there is always something new to see or to eat or to do. we explored a part of our sector that we have never been to before this past week. it´s a bit peligroso (dangerous), but mostly at night so we were ok because we tracted that part during the day.

Samantha's first mission transfer

2010-08-31T14:49:00.003-06:00

so sounds like there is a lot going down at home! bakan!
i would love to hear alex´s farewell address. i would need to get a tape player to listen to it, but i have been thinking about getting one that records to so i could record myself talking to send home and we could send it back and forth and talk to each other.
wow, i can´t believe delon martin is back. weird! cute kid. was it just him and alex that spoke? wow, alex doesn´t tear up much, that must have been quite a talk! i would have cried too. :D hope the gathering after his farewell went well. jill is golden! always has been, always is. good thing she was there when the dog made a mess! ha ha ha. how are things with the dog btw? cali, right? i can´t wait to see her when i get home next year. i´m so excited to see pics!!!!!
i wish Alex's friends would serve. They could be such a force for good. being a missionary isn´t easy like a vacation, it´s challenging. but the outcomes and the service given to the lord and to His children and the things that happen when missionaries give of themselves and work in this glorious work are indescribable. it´s already changing my life, and i´m not even that far in to my mission! heck, the mtc alone was life changing! i know alex will change alot during his time in the mtc too. it´s so amazing, i know he is going to love it!!!!
i hope becky and her family are doing good can you email me her address so i can write her? i just want to say hi and see how she is doing. i wonder how devan and jennifer are doing too.
that´s totally fine if you put all that stuff in the closet. it´s not really up to me anyway ha ha. i´m not living there for a while. is hope still in that room or is it the spare again?
ha luis. what a cool dude. tell him mi espanol es no super bueno, pero estoy aprendiendo. en la proxima dos mesas ojala que estare mas mejor para que yo pueda hablar con el despues mi mision cuando miro el en la gimasia! that was probably horible espanol tambien.... but it´s getting there.... one of the members told me that when i call home in december my voice will be different. he said that happened to him on his mission. he said that you will be suprized and said that i might have a bit of an accent. ha ha ha. cool!
i feel the same as tyson. i am taking mental notes about what to do and how to help the missionaries when i have my own place and such. i will want to always welcome them and offer to help a lot. there is a member family in the alpes sector that i really admire. when investigators of the missionaries don´t show to acitivities or to church, this family goes over to see if they are doing well and they are always out talking to people in their ward boundaries or going on splits with the missionaries. they always invite the missionaries in and feed them and do a lot for them all the time. it seems like they are taken advantage of sometimes, but that is not the case because they ask to do things and they like to do them. it´s really cool to see and i want my future family to be like that too.
i love it because i can look back and see that our home in centerville is the same. i loved how the missionaries always came over and how our family was always really tight with them. you and dad have set such a good example for your children. they notice! i notice, and i am drawing on the things i learned from home a lot in this mission to serve the Lord.
i still haven´t recieved packages yet. chuta. i´ve only gotten 2 letters from you, one from brittany, and one from alex (with notes from gpa and mitch). i´m anxiously waiting to get the packages you have sent. i hope they make it to the mission office ok... i´m starting to get worried... it´s been over a month for the first package. i hope it´s not lost... but everyon tells me it usually takes a long time.
anyway, things are going well here. it has slowed down a bit since all the baptisms. we have had 6 baptisms so far in this sector in the past month. that is phenomenal!!! we share this sector with two elders, elder haws and elder urra, and they had a baptism 2 sundays ago. so that along with our 5 is 6 for this month. mich! that is more than a lot of missionaries have for an entire mission! but really it is a result of my companion and her last companion who taught these investigators over a period of many weeks.
we have only 1 progressing investigator right now and she is doing well. other than that we are working on reactivating less active members and other investigators who are struggling to follow through with commitments. not many people like to open up when we go tracting, but meh, we try.
we had divisiones (splits) last thursday. i went to the alpes sector which is downtown in rancagua city. i loved it!!!! i was with hermana brook in that sector for all of thursday from 9 am thursday morning till 9 am friday. she had a lot of appointments set up but they all fell through so we just went tracting. a recent convert came with us in the evening and she was awesome. we had a really good time and i just loved it! they have a really nice apartment too, way nicer than our crappy little dumpy place in san rafael 10 minutes out of the main city of rancagua. so that was cool. hermana brook´s comp was with my comp for divisiones and they loved it too. divisiones are always fun!
i cannot believe it, but we are already at the end of my first change. each change is 6 weeks, and this is week 6. so this sunday everything is getting switched around. we have 4 missionaries i think going home (they call it "dying" ja ja ja) our zone leader, elder marlor, and elder morgan and i can´t remember who else, they are dying. so sad. me and my comp will still be together for another change because i´m a newbie. but after the next change i will still be in baquedano but hermana bonilla will go and i will get a new comp. i´m excited for that, it will be good.
anyway... what else to say....the weather is still cold, but spring is coming so that´s good. and i can´t think of anything else interesting to write about...
keep me updated on everything, i love hearing from home!!!
i love you sooo much!
sending my love from chile!
samsam

2010-08-24T11:36:00.002-06:00

HOLA DE RANCAGUA CHILE!!!!!
hola mama y papa! como estan? WOW i can´t believe that school has started!!!! that is so crazy. summer is already gone. what´s even crazier is that the first buds of spring are popping up here in chile, which means spring is almost here. ja ja ja (ha ha ha). and it´s going to be scorching hot or christmas. that is so weird!!!!
i have heard about the miners. por su puesto! of course! EVERYONE talks about it. when they found out yesterday that all 33 miners are still alive there was a huge celebration in down town santiago and everyone was putting up chilean flags. it´s good to hear they are all alive and well. but it will take 3 months to get them out. yikes! but it´s awesome when people come together to help in disasters like this.
it´s been so crazy here, but i´m loving it! i´m finishing my 4th week out here in the field. can you believe that? i know i keep saying this, but time really does fly. i feel like i have only been here a few days.
the first few weeks were hard -- a lot of things to get used to and a lot of changes -- but the hardest part is over. it took 3 1/2 weeks, but i´m feeling like i have finally settled in. the homesickness kind of came in waves and hit hard, but it´s over and i´m really enjoying this work. and i would say that i am used to everything, but i could also say that i still see something new every week (almost everyday!) that you wouldn´t see in the states. a lot of little observations like:
--latinos point by cocking their heads and pointing with their lips puckered. it´s funny ja ja.
--the people also tell it like it is. in america, people are more sensitive and don´t like to say things straight up. but latinos--if they have an issue they say it. there is no such thing as beating around the bush. it´s kind of refreshing though. it hasn´t ever created tension really, it just clarifies things. no one holds anything back.
--there are a lot of crazy houses made up of extra pieces of metal and wood
--the houses are all painted crazy colors too. it´s all mismatched and crazy ja ja ja.
--there are dogs everywhere in the street, and a lot of them with messed up legs, and every once in a while you will see a dead dog or cat here and there.
--there are horse drawn somethings that drive down the road with the cars. i say "somethings" because it´s like giant tractor wheels and a makeshift carriage box thingy.
--no one has clothes-dryers, so you will always see clothes hanging up in yards
--all the houses have gates in front
--there are big shopping stores like cougat and lider, but other than that everyone goes to little stores for groceries. it´s usually just a part of the house that has been turned into a little bazar- type store with boxes of raw produce and meat and junk food stuff.
--they don´t have a very good garbage system, so there is garbage everywhere. there is a canal right by our apartment complex, and it is really just a river of garbage and brown water. gross!
--the traffic is nuts. we take micros and collectivos a lot, and it´s amazing to see these people squeeze the automobiles through some crazy spaces. it´s all over the place
--the word "linda/o" means "cute" but everyone uses it, even old men. and they use it for everything. they also like to add "ito" to the end of everything like "chicitito" meaning small (but very small) and "hermanita" (like little hermana) and "perito" for little dog.
--i have seen little shacks for houses that have pimped out stereos and all the family has really nice cell phones.
it´s crazy and very different from home, but i´m really coming to love being here in chile.
we went to santiago on saturday for a special conference with elder richard g. scott. legit! it was cool. we got up at 5 am, got on a charter bus (the whole bus was just elders and hermanas) and got to santiago at about 8 or 8:30 am. it was saweet because the hermanas got to sit in the front. me and my comp were on the very first bench in the chapel of the stake center we were in--literally just a few feet away from the pulpit! we had 2 whole missions in attendence: the rancagua mission and the santiago west mission. (i got to see elder morgan and the elders from my district in the mtc! woot! i took pics with them) the meeting was great, although it was a little frustrating for me because elder scott spoke spanish. i missed all the jokes! i understood very general ideas, but i missed out on a lot of it. everyone would start laughing and i would just sit there and look around because i didn´t catch what was said. chuta!!! he talked about how to teach about the book of mormon using the intro and the first vision. he also talked about life after the mission. they passed around microphones and he had the hermanas share suggestions or the elders to be good spouses. there were a lot of jokes and elder scott was fun. i just wish i could understand! but my spanish is getting there... little by little...
santiago is so cool. it´s a big city, and much better than the ghetto suburbs of our sector. after the conference we took the subway to the train station (my first time!). one of the elders said, "it´s just like herding cattle. i will show you" so we were standing there and the doors to the subway opened and he said "ok go!" and pushed us all in. he is this tall latino with long limbs and he just spread out his arms and hustled us in. it was funny ja ja. we were all squished in there.
the train station was SO COOL. it was like a mall and it had cool little shops everywhere. we ate at burger king (a lot of amercian restaurants like pizza hut, burgerking, mcdonald´s and such) and had some fun before getting on the train (first time on a train too!). man, a lot of firsts for me! first time on a micro, in a collectivo, subway, and train (unless you count trax in utah i guess.)
the train ride was cool and i got to see some cool landscapes of the farmland between rancagua and santiago. beautiful! a lot of third-world villages with tiny houses made up of random stuff and a lot of ghetto places with graffiti everywhere too. some nice places here and there as well.
let´s see... what else...
yesterday the 4 investigators that were baptized last week were confirmed. it is soo cool to see the changes that faith in christ, repentence, and baptism make! you can see the light come into their eyes. i hope they know that what they have taken part of is forever. and what a blessing! 5 baptisms in my first month! it has been such a great opportunity for me to see what this work is really all about. and we have had some cool experiences teaching. families are coming together in the gospel and people´s lives are changing.
my companion had a tragic accident take place in her family only a few weeks before i arrived, but it has changed her testimony about families. it really comes out when we teach and has an impact on the people we talk to. she has 5 siblings, most of them all older than her, and the wife of her husband was killed in a car accident. she was riding a motorcycle to work when a young driver drove past and knicked the handlebars. she swirved and lost control and fell into the lane next to her. a truck (i think) ran her over and she died instantly. it was so hard for hermana bonilla. they called her to the mission office where her dad called and talked to her on the phone. she talked to her brother, and her brother bore testimony about families. what a strong brother she has! her brother actually comforted her, and it was his wife that died. incredible strength in her family. she has shared that experience a few times in our lessons, and the people earnestly listen. the spirit is strong, and it´s always a tender moment.
we have some new investigators and things are going well. we have one woman who is really doing well with progressing. she reads everything we give her and asks lots of questions. she lives with an RM, but they aren´t married because they can´t marry until november (trying to get over another marriage and it´s a long difficult process). they are both in their 30s and have two boys. they have been coming to church and her boys love primary. it´s great too because alberto, the rm, helps us answer her questions. there are a lot of inactive members we are working with too. a lot of them are coming back to church. our ward church attendance stats are huge and it´s awesome!
the food is, as always, amazing and interesting. but they feed us soo much food! i am trying not to eat too much because i don´t want to gain back the weight i lost while in the mtc.
anyway, it´s soo good to hear about the goings-on at home! how is alex? excited for the mtc? he is going to love it! i LOVED it, it´s such an awesome time of a mission. it´s a constant spiritual feast! and if he can really bond with his district it will be amazing. i really bonded with the elders and hermanas in my district, and they became family to me. even when i saw elder merrell and elder jones on saturday in the conference i wanted to hug them and it felt like i was seeing my brothers. oh, and tell hermano sanders, sheide, and hermana forsyth "hi" for me. tell them i love them!!!!! they are amazazing. all the teachers are, of course, but these are extra awesome!
i am praying for chris. i hope he makes it out on a mission. it would be hard for him, it´s hard for everyone, and there are a lot of challenges involved in being a missionary. it´s not an easy life. but if a person can serve a mission, they should. nough said. it is life changing. i guarantee the person you said goodbye to last may is not going to be the same person that will return home to centerville utah next december! i am changing, and i know the things i am experiencing here will impact me for the rest of my life, and hopefully the people we teach as well. this work is amazing! i hope alex is excited. he is probably nervous too, which is normal, but i just hope he doesn´t let the nerves go from butterflies to panic. no need to panic at all, just let things come as they come, enjoy the moment, and live the life. he should read (or watching would be even better) elder bednar´s talk about the spirit. he says to just not worry about it! don´t try too hard to figure out what the spirit is saying, just do what comes and let whatever comes happen. also, the talk by elder holland about his mission. he says "my mission meant everything to me" and it is my most favorite talk ever. it´s amazing. those two talks! alex really needs to watch them. i am sure he is ready for the journey. :D
wow, seth is in junior high!!!!!!! aaaaaa! nada que ver!!! wow. wow. wow. wow. am i going to know these kids when i get home? wow. that is just wow. tell all the chillin´s i love them and hope school is awesome! what classes are the boys in? how is pat with sports? digame! tell me por favor!
how is papaw? i have been thinking about him. i want to write him but i haven´t had much time. i hope he is well.
how are things with calli? does dad take her running? how is dad´s business? how are you mom? i want to know everything :D going to the temple sounds way cool. and how cool that you got to see the brother that sealed you! que bakan! we all need to go to the temple when alex get´s home. i wanted to go with him soo bad before i left, but i will have to wait jaja. i hope you are having fun and loving life! i think about you all and grandpa everynight as i pray and as i fall asleep, and i wonder how things are going. ;D
i love you all SSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOO MUUUUUUUUCH!!!! i can´t stand it! ja ja ja. you are in my prayers always!
sending my love from chile,
samsam

Baptisms and Lunch (Chilean style!)

2010-08-16T17:57:00.003-06:00

Her companion is Hermana Bonilla from Argentina. She is the pretty dark haired girl next to Samantha! Here is a bit from her last e-mail!

I am finally starting to get mail... YEAH!
everything else is good. i have warm clothes and we buy our food from the grocery stores here that are much like dick´s. (a ghetto version, but i´m grateful nonetheless!!! ;D)

we had 4 BAUTISMOS AYER!!!!! yup! yesterday vilma, daniela, cristina, and wilfredo were baptized yesterday! what an amazing experience!!!! especially for me, a greenie that has only been here for less than 3 weeks! these people are amazing, and they have come to know that this church is true. Watching them be baptized reminded me what this work is all about. It is sooo cool! the church is strong and growing here, and there are so many more amazing people for us to find! we find new people every week. we are always out working. my companion is awesome because we always have a plan. we are never out just wandering around or sitting being lazy in our apartment. we are out all day talking and meeting with people.

we are still teaching zunilda, we just try to be there while her husband is gone. we met with her once since her husband flipped out, and he wasn´t there so we were able to talk with her. she wants us to visit but i´m not sure how interested she actually is in the things we teach. but she appreciates how we are helping her. she is sick and has an issue with her stomach that has lasted the past few years. she is in bed a lot and we sing hymns for her and visit with her. it´s good.

the weather is bitter, but we are doing fine. the members and investigators take good care of us. the food we have for lunch is always good. yesterday though, i ate more than i ever have in my entire life. it was sooo much food!!! a nonmember fed us a ton! they usually have 2 or three courses. she started us with soup, and it was a giant bowl, like bigger than the yellow bowl dad uses. then a plate of mashed potatoes and meat. the mashed potatoes looked like mountains, it was twice as much as pat takes for sunday dinners! and then a huge bowl of icecream. we were dying at the end. i was sooo full. it´s usually like that. their portions are way bigger than at home. we just don´t eat much for breakfast because we have lunch at 1:30 everyday and it´s always a lot. WOOT. i hope the walking we do balances out the weight i am gaining! no worries though, i´m actually staying pretty consistent with my weight right now.

anyway... my comp is awesome. we struggle to communicate sometimes and it can be frustrating, but we are doing ok. she is a lot of fun and she has a way with people. they just love her and everyone is very welcoming to us.

i´m kinda jealous you have a dog again! she sounds awesome! hope things are going well at home. tell brad and carrie congrats!!!!!! that is soo kewl!!!!! you will have to tell me as soon as you find out the gender. i think it will be another girl if you ask me. no se por que, but i see a household of girls for them ;D. loved the pic of alex. the russian spy!!!!!! ha ha ha love it. love hearing news from home so keep me updated!

thanks again for your letters. you don´t know how precious they are!!!!!! i love you all!!!!!!!

sending my love from chile!

samsam

Week 2 in Chile

2010-08-09T13:57:00.002-06:00

I just got on Sam's Blog to post her most recent e-mail and found a little some'um some'um on here from her. So read the post right after this one to see what she said....
Here is the e-mail she sent to the family....

Just polishing off week numero dos and comin up with week numero tres! wow. wow. wow wow wow wow. and there you have it. that is how it has been. meaning, crazy, fun, challenging, cold, tiring, inspiring, confusing, and exciting. wow.
So,.... the spanish is coming along... slowly.... but surely nonetheless. i´m understanding a bit more each day. but i gotta say, THIS IS NOT THE LANGUAGE THEY TAUGHT ME IN THE MTC!!! this is CHILEAN spanish, not MEXICAN spanish (my teachers taught us mexican spanish). ayai! ha ha ha. lot´s of differences. but i am learning. it has been frustrating, because there are so many moments when i want to say so much and i don´t know how! and other times when i want to understand what is going on and i feel like an idiot. patience, patience,... patience... i just have to have faith that it will come and that i am doing good here. though sometimes i wonder. i hate to say it, but when the doubts come, you really do wonder if you are doing any good. yesterday was hard. we walked for hours in the cold and no one would listen to us. ha, one guy even said, "no quiero escuchar. futbol es mas improtante que la iglesia". EN SERIO??? it made us laugh, but come on, really? soccer is more important than the lord? than the truth? we just said "buena noche, gracias" and walked away. there isn´t much we can do much of the time. we just share what we can, pray constantly in our hearts, and let the rest come as it may. we can´t force anyone to listen. i am learning to have faith that God is preparing His children to hear our message, and that we just have to find those who are prepared as it talks about in PMG chapter 9. and we just keep working!
we have 4 baptisms coming up next sunday. WOOT! it´s exciting. the people we are teaching are so amazing. and we have new investigators that we found as well. although, we have had some interesting experiences.... zunilda, one of our new investigators, is this old woman we met tocando puertas (knocking doors). her husband didn´t want to let us in because he doesn´t like the mormon church, but agreed when hermana bonilla asked him if we could sing a hymn to his wife whom he told us was sick and in bed. we went in and sang some hymns and shared a bit about the church with her. her husband stayed away from us and went to another part of the house. she was very sweet and listened. she invited us to come back. so this past week, we went back to her house and were teaching her the first lesson in her front room. we got up to joseph smith in the first lesson, and i was reciting the first vision when her husband came walking through raving something about americans. i didn´t understand any of it, but hermana bonilla´s eyes got real big. he came through and left the room. we just kinda went, "ok...." and continued. i finished reciting the first vision and tried to talk about joseph smith when he came back with one of his friends. again, he just went off about something. he was not happy. zunilda just kind of sat there and after he left she apologized. but we had to leave. later hermana bonilla told me about it (with the help of the other hermanas who could translate for us) and said that zunilda´s husband said americans were beasts. he said things about "your stupid american religion" and how all the people who suffer in the world are suffering because of the americans. WOW. he just doesn´t understand. i wish i knew, cuz i would have told him this church is the gospel of Jesus Christ, given since the time of Adam and Eve, and that it´s not just something the americans invented. i wanted to tell him that it doesn´t matter where i am from. i am here in chile because everyone needs to know the message we have to share, be it in america, chile, russia, or anywhere. and besides, hermana bonilla is argentinian!!!! he obviously is all messed up and blinded by prejudice. i don´t know if we will be able to go back... chute!!!! zunilda is awesome, i hope we can see her again.
anyway, no worries. such things are expected in missions. it just comes with the whole experience! you get attacked for your beliefs, and the adversary really picks up it´s activity when the missionaries show up at the door. it seems like every time we talk about joseph smith and the first vision or the book of mormon, something always happens. there is always an interruption. we kind of almost expect something to happen everytime. it´s always distractions or something. it just testifies that what we are doing is sooo important and that there are forces trying desperately to stop this work. but we do everything we can to overcome them to share the message, even though at times we feel helpless or feel like we aren´t doing any good. but Our Father knows what He is doing. no worries! i trust him.
it´s been difficult this week, and i have felt more discouragement than ever since leaving home, but i´m fine. it comes with your first weeks. everyone tells me it was the same for them the first 3 weeks or so. it´s just something you have to work through. and for me, it isn´t even that bad. one of the hermanas told me she cried every night for the first 2 weeks. i have had a bad day or two, but it hasn´t been horrible. i´m not crying all the time, and i´m just working harder everytime i get discouraged. i´m still trying to get used to everything, but i really am grateful to be here. it´s all good! and we do have a lot of fun :D the hermanas and other missionaries are really looking out for me! and our investigators are kind and welcoming. i LOVE THE LORDS WORK!!!!
anyway, i hope all is well at home! how are things with a dog in the house again? how exciting!!!! i hope all is well and that everyone is happy, healthy, and doing alright. i think of you all everyday and i miss you!!!!!!
remember: CONFIAR EN EL SEÑOR!!!!!!! VIVE CON NO EXCUSES!!!!! NO REGRETS!!!!!!
sending my love from chile!
samsam

oh snap!

2010-08-09T13:04:00.002-06:00

hey everyone! it´s me, sam! not quite sure if this is against the rules, but i´m taking a quick peek at my blog. looks like mom is keeping it updated well. que bakan! thanks mom!
hopefully she will also have some more pics if i can figure out how to best get them to her. sorry my emails are so fetchin long. i didn´t realize mom was putting up everything! i just went through and read some of the stuff i have sent home. wow, ignore my attempts at spanish so far. they are all horribly incorrect. soy gringa! ha ha don´t get too bored reading.
anways... better go. love you all!
THE CHURCH IS TRUE! CHILE RULES!!!!! CONFIAR EN EL SEÑOR!

THE LONGEST E-MAIL YET!

2010-08-03T09:42:00.001-06:00

so we are back in the internet shop.... so i am writing again!
not many people have their own computers so there are little shops all around where you pay to use the internet, and it´s where we go for email.
my first week has been me walking around with eyes bigger than dinner plates. it´s been a real eye opener! our sector is called baquedano, but we live in a sector called tupahue with 2 other sisters (tupahue is their sector). we have to walk 20 minutes to half hour to get to our sector everyday, and we use the autobus and collectivos (taxis) which are both super cheap. we walk a lot though, and it´s fun for me to see all there is to see. i like walking anyway, so it works for me! ;D all the autobuses and collectivos drive like maniacs, and all the automobiles look like they are falling apart. there are no lines on the roads so people just drive wherever and it´s all over the place. kinda scary, but no wrecks yet! there are also a LOT of perros aqui. muchos perros en todos calles! there are dogs everywhere. they are all strays and they just wander around eating garbage and sleeping in the roads. the people just don´t pay attention to them and the dogs leave the people alone. it´s kinda sad. but enough about that!
wow, the people... wow. i have met some amazing people. my first day i met a man named miguel and his family. he is probably dad´s age, and he is a recent convert. he has older kids and none of them are members. he is like our papa because he does everything for us and comes with us at night so we are safe in areas that are questionable. we visited his house my first night and he told us his father in santiago had just been beat to death in a street in santiago. his family was watching the news about it. it was so sad. but i opened the scriptures and shared proverbs 3:5-6 with him and gave a brief testimony in spanish. it was a tender moment. i let him read the verses out loud, and afterwards he closed my scriptures and just kind of cradled them and admired them (my brand new ones from the mtc). he handled them like gold, like the most precious gift. you have to understand, these people don´t have much at all. they have just enough. but the way he looked at my brand new scriptures tugged at my heart strings. i knew he didn´t have brand new scriptures like that with the gold trimmed pages and you could see it in his eyes that he knows how precious they are. me, i have like 3 sets of scriptures! and he has one old one! i wanted to just give them to him so bad....
it´s funny because these people have clothes like us, but their houses are all old and grungy. all their things are like DI things. but they are always happy and they are always giving us food. the food is SO GOOD. these people know how to make meat! and the pan (bread) is muy delicioso! ha ha so we have lunch with a family everyday (instead of dinner because lunch is the big meal of the day here) and the other day miguel´s wife made us food. she made these SAWEET mashed potatoes and......the meat was.... guess....... have you guessed yet?..... ok it was.... RABBIT. yes, i had rabbit! ha ha ha. it was intereso... it tasted like chicken, but it was more tough and there was a lot more tissue and cartilege and stuff that you had to work around. it was super funny too because she asked elder urro if he wanted more, and he said yes, so she brought out another plate--it was like the whole rabbit or something. it was so funny, you should have seen his face when she put it down! we always have almuerzo (lunch) with elder urro and haws--urro is from concepcion and haws is from morgan, utah. but yeah, he had like a whole rabbit! it was funny. all the meat they serve is usually cooked in wine and served with bones and all. it´s funny cause they can tell i don´t know how to eat meat with bones. they don´t believe me when i say my family only has packaged meat with no huesos (bones). but i am learning fast! yesterday we had ribbs and i picked those bones clean. that meat was soooo good. the outside was like beef jerky and the inside was perfect and moist. i am turning into a real meat eater! lunch is always a big deal. the women of the households have the table set and go through all this work to make a huge meal for us but they always eat before we come. so we eat with the man of the household and the wife sits with us or stands by the table and serves everyone. it´s different. but they are sooo kind and fun to talk to. there is never a silent moment because they love to talk.
oh! and mate! mate (like maw-tey) is a kind of herbal tea that is popular in south america. it´s non cafinated, it´s just this stuff that looks like soil in a cup with a straw, and hot water poured into it and you drink the water in the bottom with the straw in a special mate cup. once (on-say) is between 7 and 10 ish in the evenings and people have mate during once. it´s not as popular here as it is in argentina, but we have it because my companion is argentinian and she loves mate. it tastes a lot like the stuff chris makes with pine needles and it´s supposed to be super good for you. it´s basically just straight herbs in a cup.
anyway, the people here are amazing. they are so open, love to talk, love to laugh, and the humor is different here than in america. everyone loves to laugh--like the polynesians i guess. we have a goal of 20 contacts a day, and it´s awesome. we talk with tons of people. we just walk around and talk. there are always loads of people out walking around in the streets and they are all very friendly. we avoid groups of men though (no brainer as to why). it´s funny too because apparently it´s SUPER obvious that i´m american, and all the men and boys like to show off to their friends so they do crazy things when they see americans. people always honk when they see american girls or whistle. this one guy came up to my companion and i once and said "que linta, que precioso americana!" i had no idea what he said, and we just kept walking... my comp told me he said what cute and precious american! or something like that. it was funny i thought. the otras hermanas said they even had teenage boys come up to them and say "marry me!" to show off and such. it´s hilarious. they just do it to annoy and to joke. it kinda embarrasses me though...
wow so much to tell! we had a baptism yesterday!!!!!! emelio is this old fellow who has been taught by my comp and her previous comp. i feel stupid cuz i´m just reaping the rewards of her hard work. she has 4 more baptisms scheduled!!!!!! i have met them all and they are absolutely amazing. we have around 8 nuevos investigadores (i was part of half of those just in the past few days) and we have a lot of progressing investigators as well. we contacted 106 people this past week. we really just talk and walk and visit in peoples homes. we work work work and it´s so great! i have contacted and taught in spanish already. not much, but it´s a way good start. and i´m learning fast because i have to and i want to. i love this! it´s nerveracking because i don´t understand much, but i talk as much as i can. everyone is very kind and they understand that i am learning.
not going to lie though, it´s been tough adjusting. it´s cold. it´s basically the same as utah for all the seasons (just at different times) so right now we are in the 40s and 50s. it´s always in the low 60s in our apartments too. no indoor heating! yup, que triste! it´s freezing! i always have regular garments, thermal garments, leggings, and like 3 pairs of socks 24/7! i sleep with my yellow and red jacket on with the hood up. all we have are two little space heaters. it´s so cold! none of the houses have heating either, just space heaters or little gas stoves. so when we visit members or investigators houses we don´t even take off our coats. i have a pic of what i wear everyday, you will see the pics when i send my card home. everyone comments on my rain boots. the hermanas think they are cute and funny.... ha ha but cold. i wore so many socks two days ago that it squished my toes together and my nails rubbed and my toes bled. ha ha not much though, so no worries! we just wear lots of layers and drink/eat hot foods and such. at least we have warm(ish) water! we have to light the hot water heater with a match every morning though, and the water just barely gets a little warmer than luke-warm. but we can shower! :D and we have a flushing toilet! most of the houses are grungy and crappy with cracks in the walls and such. some of the doors don´t fit in their frames too. a lot that is damage from the quake. our doors are a little scewed because of the quake too. but it works!
it´s been different, and there is a lot to get used to. but seriously, i am ok. i have missed home a lot more now that i am here, but i´m ok. not tears! my body and my head want so badly to be back in utah where things are familiar and comfortable, but my heart and my spirit want to be here and know how important it is for me to be here. my heart and my spirit win! no way i´m leaving. so when the doubts come and the discouragement tries to find a way in i put my foot down and say "nope, i am staying. i can do this!!" it´s just something you have to face in the field--doubts do come and things are hard, and you do miss your family, but you cling to the WHY you are here and you hold fast to your testimony and you know you are ok. and it´s nice to know that they that be with us are greater than they that be with them!!!! (kings 6:16-17 i think). there have been numerous times when i could feel people around me to guard us as we walk or to bear us up. we walked past a group of shady men who were hollering things because they were drunk and i started to get nervous because i heard them talk about me "de estados unidos", but the veil thinnned for a split second and i could sense the group with us that was greater than the group of drunken men. and i felt better. alex, this will happen with you too. check out dandc 84:87-88 also. there are people with us from the other side!
this work is amazing. it must be carried to all people, and it is a privelege to take part in that responsibility. and i´m having fun! the hermanas i live with are SO MUCH FUN!!! we ate out together today and we just have a blast. we laugh and joke and talk and it´s awesome. i´m not scared, i love this, and i´m excited for the rest of my mission. it comes and goes sooo fast too. so i just make the best out of every moment!
i love you all. keep writing! it will come late, but not hearing from home is like death for a missionary. i will write every chance i get as well!!!!
seriously, don´t worry about me. i am good. my father in heaven is aware of me and he is aware of you. prometo!
I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!! XOXOXOXO
sending my love from chile,
samsam

The Mission Home in Chile

2010-08-02T10:38:00.000-06:00

i only have a few minutes before we have to go. i am going to print your email and respond to it later.
i haven´t recieved any mail yet, but the mail here isn´t reliable. pouch is the fastest, but no one uses it. if you send packages you have to write what´s in it or they will open it. but if you fib and just say books are in it (or something like that) it´s easier. putting pics of christ on the box would help too to prevent unwanted hands opening it and taking its contents.
anyway, my first week has come and gone in a flash--time is faster than lightening while you are on your mission! it´s been crazy. i keep feeling like i´m walking in a dream. like i could wake up any minute and be home in bed having a crazy dream. i´m here! in chile! it´s like a completely different planet. when i was being driven to my apartment, they said, "if you feel like you are on mars right now, don´t worry, that feeling will wear off in time." it really is so different. you have no idea what you have in centerville. you have no idea. you can´t know how these people live unless you are here. there are people here that have so little, but their spirits shine so brightly.
i have to go, but i will write you later and give you all the details.
sending my love from chile!!!!!
samsam

SAM IS IN CHILE!!!

2010-07-30T18:34:00.001-06:00

hola mi familia! i am here in chile. FINALMENTE!!!!!!! after being delayed for over 24 hours in dallas fort worth, we have finally arrived. we got here today, wednesday, at 6 in the morning. the ap´s of our zone came and picked us up from the chilean airport after arriving at 230 and waiting in ridiculously long lines to get through customs and such. then we had the hour long drive to the mission home in rancagua from the santiago airport an hour out. we drove through some crazy fog and we were all dead tired because we didn´t sleep at all and didn´t have enough sleep from the night before when we were delayed. but today has been excellent! i got to sleep in a nice warm bed, got to shower after about 2 days of wearing the same thing, and got new clothes from my suitcases. the mission pres and his wife really took good care of us. and their house is so nice! it´s called the mansion home by the missionaries. i met my trainer, hermana bonilla, and she is muy que bakan!!!!!! she is from argetina and she doesn´t know english but it is perfect because it will help me learn spanish muy rapido. and we live with 2 other sisters de los estatdos unidos. we live in a tiny little apartment, but i´m lovin it. when they dropped us off at our aparment after we left the mission home i walked in and they had my desk decorated and threw balloons on me. ha! they are sooooo cool!

it´s so strange to be here, i feel like i´m in a dream. we are finally here!!!! the mountains are beautiful, and they remind me of the ones in utah county. i will tell you more later, we have things to do! you should be getting pics from the mission pres. i will send you some as well. i love you all and will write more later on my p-days which are now on mondays. just wanted to let you know i am safe and sound and in good hands! I LOVE YOU!!!!!

samsam

Leaving the MTC soon!

2010-07-23T13:10:00.002-06:00

we are doing laundry right now. i am finishing up gettin my package to send home ready to go. i hope you get that before the week is over so you can send me back my camera card before i leave on monday. if not that is ok, just send it to my address in chile--it's in the booklet that came with my call. oh by the way, could you dearelder me my mission feild address? i want to give my address to some of my friends here before we depart but i don't have it written down. also, could you send me becky mclain's address and jana thompson's too? i want to write them. don't worry, i won't bombard becky with gospel stuff... i just want her to know that i love her and think of her.

well, i'm very happy to say, that with our departure nearing my companion is in a very cheery mood. no outbursts or anything today or yesterday. it's so nice to have her be happy! more happy than usual. these past two days have been good. we have a lot to do to prepare to leave, and she is very excited to go to chile. YAY! and we will be leaving on good terms, so i am happy. i just hope she really gets motivated and gets to work in the field! that's the way to stay happy. there is a quote in pmg (preach my gospel) by pres. benson i think, that says the secret to staying happy is work! if we work we will have the spirit, if we have the spirit we will help people come unto christ and we will be happy. there will be no homesickness or complaints. work work work. that is the secret. and ya know, i like this work. it is awesome! how could we not be happy if we are really doing what we should and working?

oh, dad~ questions: tell me about the parable of the unrighteous steward in luke 16:1-8.... it's got me all confused. we had a discussion about it in class, but we couldn't come up with a real good explanation of the moral of that story. also in mark, as julius escariot comes with the men to take jesus, it talks about a strange man who runs away from them or something. and when i tried to look up the jst there wasn't one. it's confusing.... anyway.... i love the questions we come up with in class and discuss. we were discussing the line of priesthood authority in the book of mormon yesterday. it was very interesting. so, in the book of mormon, did they only have the aronic priesthood? and what did they do in the temples they built? and how did alma (from king laman's court) have the authority to baptize? very interesting conversation... we concluded that alma had the priesthood because it had been passed down by tradition, even though king laman was wicked. but then as alma was converted he was able to use that priesthood worthily to baptize. correct?

also, can i just say I LOVE THE BOOK "JESUS THE CHRIST". it's AMAZING.

whoops, anyway, as i was saying.... yeah, that book is amazing. i have only read the first 5 chapters (i bought it for really cheap from the bookstore) and it is so cool to read. i usually struggle reading, especially with nonfiction books, but this is so good!

things with our progressive investigator are good. we have taught him the restoration, the character of god, the godhead, and little things here and there that he had concerns about. he isn't sure he can accept the book of mormon yet, and he still thinks the godhead are all one person (the trinity) be we have been researching it with him in the book of mormon and the bible. we gave him a good list of scriptures that say the godhead is composed of three seperate people and that God has a body of flesh and bone as does His Son, Jesus Christ. it was a really cool lesson with him.

i'm not sure if he is a legit investigator or not. anyone can volunteer to be an investigator for our practice in the tec, but we never know if they are members or not. they all just act like they don't know about the church and we teach them. but with daniel limon,... he seems pretty legit to me. he is being taught by others as well, and he has been here for 6 months. he is awesome. and we are gaining so much valuable experience from him for the field.

ALEX~ SIGN UP FOR A PROGRESSIVE INVESTIGATOR IN THE TEC. it will improve your experience here A LOT. it is so cool. also, sign up for appointments with the teachers in the tec to go in and practice contacting with them and learning how to make a lesson plan with them. it is a great opportunity.

ok sorry, i ramble... a lot.... but i have so much i want to tell you! i love you all!!!!!! siempre!!!!!!!!! send me dearelders and tell me more about the ram reunion!!!!!! por favor!!!!!!!!

samsam

p.s. mom~ i'm so glad you had a cool experience with trek! i just looked at the last email you sent (again). can't wait to get those pics of you and hope!!!!!!!

2010-07-09T13:27:00.000-06:00

hola mi familia! como se va? espero todos las cosas es muy bien por ustedes. las cosas aqui en el mtc estan muy bien por mi. La obra se obrado mucho. so! how the heckers are ya all! haven't heard much but i hope things are muy fantastico por todos ustedes! i forgot to tell you about some stuff~ so, during a devotional or fireside, we had one of the bretheren that works with the church media come and speak to us. he told us about the new mormon website they have just developed. i think it's just mormon.org still, but it's awesome! they have created profiles for people of members and converts from all over the world. it's SO COOL. he said from studies and such that most people don't care about the doctrine, they are more curious about the mormons as people and what they are like. but by knowing the people and hearing their stories, investigators will be led to the doctrine if they hear the stories of converts and people who have had the same questions. i'm so stoked for it, it's coming out this month. you should check it out for family home evening. we got to see some of the profiles and it's so amazing. you can make a profile too and share your story about your testimony and experiences with the gospel. i would encourage you to do so! also, i have been called as the new coordinating sister in my zone. there are only two sisters in my zone: me and hermana herbert. ha ha. most other zones have at least 4 (some have up to 10 or 11) so it's going to be different for me in my calling. but it's helping my situation with my companion because of my official leadership position. don't worry, i'm not being abusive of this authority, but i have used this calling as an opportunity to resolve some problems. we had a zone sisters meeting with just the two of us, and i was able to share some counsel that i learned from some of my leadership meetings and in acting as the coordinating sister she was more open to my counsel. i addressed the issue of being on time and getting to bed and getting up on time and following other rules. it was great and we have done so much better at following the rules. i used to be so afraid of saying anything to her about these things because she has a very short temper, but i have learned that sometimes you just have to be brave and say things that sometimes they won't want to hear. it's good though, and now we can address issues better. so, how is alex doing? i hope he is ok! i have been praying for him to heal quickly and that he won't be in too much pain. ok, this computer is funky. the enter key isn't working and the period key is being weird. anyway, oh guess what! so one of our teachers, hermano sheide, just got back from his trip with his wife to harry potter land in florida and he was telling us all about it. he said that harry potter land had just barely opened over a week ago, and that a new technology was revealed when it opened. they have now released holograms. can you believe that!!!!!! he said they had holograms all over the place! he said it would scare him because they were so realistic he would go to shake hands or something and his hand would go right through it. how crazay is that?!?!?! i really can't get over that. it is just so weird to me! wow. anyway. i have a really cool experience i want to share with you about the trc appointment last night, but i don't have time so i will tell you about it in a letter. oh, and mom, a few things: can you send me some pics? i would like family pics and some of the ones you took of when you dropped me off on the curb at the mtc. i am going to put them in my missionary memories book that jill gave me for my birthday. also, i have a blue and brown notebook somewhere in my room that i would like. i just filled up my first notebook, and am working on the other one you sent, but i would like to have the blue and brown one for after i fill this one up. thank you so much! i love you!!!!!!!!!!! i will be watching the mail for dearelder notes! samsam

HALFWAY THROUGH THE MTC!

2010-06-30T13:12:00.004-06:00

Photos: Y on the mountain (her view from MTC classroom), "Ah yes, the infamous map photo", Elder Mora from Chile (middle guy), All the sisters in her zone (until this week), Cute sam with her Chile T-shirt! Now for exerpts from her last e-mail...
MOM!!!!! do you really know how much i love you? cuz I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!! (ok this computer is dumb and the enter key won't work and it's doing weird things but i hope this email gets to you ok.) trek sounds fantabuloso! that is so kewl! i knew you would do just fine. i am not surprised at all that your back held up. the Lord looks out for you! let's hope it was a permanent healing ;D I can just see you two out on trek with a bunch of teenage kids. what fun eh? ha ha ha. your girls sound a lot like my sisters on trek--so liddle! but we made it somehow, and you did too! tell me, what was your favorite part? the funniest moment? the hardest moment? i would love to hear! i bet dad just loved it, and how could he not have done well with the boys! he is good that way, and i am 100% sure he was an awesome pa because he is my pa! same with my ma! i'm sad and kinda jealous that i missed out on alex's endowments. what an awesome experience that must have been. it is smart to do that before his surgery. i am praying that all goes well with that (but then again, i pray for you and the fam at least 3 times a day! ;D). no worries mom, i am good and healthy. i have already been down and out for a day due to being sick, but i bounced back from that. i just slept till 10 and was miserable the rest of the day, but i only missed breakfast and gym time while i slept in, and made it through class and everything else, and i was fine the next day. it's a bug that swings around. if anyone gets sick, EVERYONE gets sick cuz we are all around each other 24/7. luckily for me i was only sick for a day, everyone else had it for 3 days at least and it was no fun. and the chest pain is gone, so i am just fine. that was probably a one time thing too! ;D ha, well, we are plowing into week 5 (can you believe it?!?) here in the mtc. everyone settles in and is comfortable with the schedule by now, and everything seems normal and routine. however, it's also the time that discouragement likes to sneak in, along with getting lazy and tired. i gotta say, it's been putting up a good fight with me! brad warned me about the discouragement attack during weeks 4 and 5, and i have prepped myself and am fighting back with all i've got. i still LOVE the mtc, i really really do. but as far as things go with my companion, i am tired. the lord is carrying me right now. i have changed myself from the inside out and have done all i can. hermana Herbert's results came back showing that everything is "normal". there was not one thing in the MRI or the blood work that would suggest that something is off. i truly believe it is simply a matter of the heart. i wish i could change her but i can't. all i can do is work on areas where i can improve and hope that she comes around. i don't know how things are going to work. i still know that it's ok that i don't know, because i trust the lord, but i'm worried that she won't make it. i truly want her to progress and succeed, and i still have that sister-like love for her, but i'm getting tired. all i can do is be diligent and patient. ok, enough of that. sorry, i had to vent. we have been so blessed despite all this drama. hermana clayton moved into our bedroom becuase she was in a trio and her companions were sent to the field. she has been such a blessing, and is really helping us. it's awesome! our district is so amazing i love them! the devotionals are incredible too. i wish i had more time to write! i will say all the other stuff in my letter. so sorry you get all the sad stuff in this email, but my letter i will write to you later today will have all the awesome stuff that is going on. ha ha ha how is that? anyway, i love you so much! tell alex and hope i missed their email this week, so send it to me via dearelder if you can or i will just catch it next week. argh, i hate this timer! it's ticking down into my last two minutes so i better go.. tell the fam if they want to email, do dearelder instead because i only have time to email immediate family during email time, but i have plenty of time to write letters on wednesdays. gotta go! i LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!! watch the mail for letters! ;D from samsam (hermana morris)

2010-06-27T22:09:00.002-06:00

TREK ES MANANA? SERIOUSO? es que bkn! soy muy excited por usted! that will be so wicked sick sweet tight! i wish i could go. heck, i would go every year if that were posible. things are...... mas y menos with my companion. details will be in my letter i will write later today because i don't have much time for emailing. i sent you home a little card with some info on it that i found from my envelope that we got on our first day. it has some info about my departure date and stuff. aparently my departure date is july 26? 27? or something. tenemos cuatros semanas aqui, y cinco semanas mas. 5 weeks left! other info about travel time will come the week before we leave. tell brad i would love to have him dearelder me! i have gotten some emails from him before and i loved it. tell him he can definitely do that! i have gotten mail from brittany price, deann memmott, brad, jill, jana (thanks btw! it was awesome to get some advice from her), and brittany leighter and wendy. i miss not talking to her (besides me familia, but i get so much mail that i don't miss you as much and for that i am grateful!) and she is trying so hard to be a good mom. wow, russia is that bad eh? One of Alex's friends came back from a trip to Europe and was bad mouthing Russia and saying how bad it was and then Alex said, "Hey, that's where I'm going on my mission. (that is what Sam was responding to) por alex, penso es no problema. that was horrible grammar but you get the gist right? yeah, i know it will be rough for him, but it's like you said; it just fits! ;D you will def have to fill me in on the soccer games! tho we have already been talking about it in our zone. ha ha.. my time is almost out........ tell caleb i will write him today! so be watching the mail! i'm sad i missed christa's wedding, but i'm glad to hear she and her family and her hubby are doing great. i just love that familia! and I LOVE YOU!!!!!! gotta go.. hermana sam sam

First Photos from the MTC!

2010-06-14T11:13:00.004-06:00

Photo 1- HER ROOM! She stays there with her companion and a threesome companionship.
Photo 2- Her companion... Hermana Herbert (and Sam Sam)
Photo 3- Her roomies...(missionary lingo for "HOMIES")
Photo 4- Her district (District 40C to be exact)
Photo 5- STORYTIME!

So...Mi companera wrote a story in Spanish about a squirrel named Capitan Kirkito and drew a pic of him on the board. Every Friday for zone teaching, each district competes in a game against other disctricts in the zone. We get in groups and each person takes turns acting out a verb and their group has to say the verb en Espanol correctly. We have 50 verbs on slips of paper in an envelope and whoever gets done the fastest wins the "blanco corbata"- the white tie. We, the newbies, beat districts that have been here 4-5 weeks! They never gave us the tie so my district asked me to draw one on the board. I drew the tie and shirt and pocket stuff and then an elder from one of the districts that lost drew the head as a joke. ha ha ha!

Now from her latest letter (it is more beefy than the last e-mail!)...
We met some native Chileans here and talked to them about Chile. Elder Mora is from Rancagua and he knows my mission pres. He says he and his family always has the missionaries down there over for dinner and that Pres. Resek always called his family if he needed help with anything. He said the food is fantastic, the meat is great ("the meat down in Chile is REAL meat! The food here is no good. Too much oil and salt and fat and sweet... NO GOOD! Chilean meat- oh it is SO good!" he says) and it is beautiful. He taught me, "always say Que bkn! It means 'cool' Don't say chevere or they will think you are weird" so... Que BKN (pronounced kay bah-kaun)
It's awesome because we are meeting so many different people from different cultures. Just on our floor in the dorms we have people from all over the USA, from the Phillipines, Japan, Mexico, and European countries. The Phillipinos are so kind, and it's funny because they wash their hair and feet in the sinks every night ha ha. Because everyone is practicing their different languages, we meet lots of people all the time that stop us to practice contacting in their language. We do the same: during our free MDT time we walk around and find people to talk to. We share a brief message, get to know the people we contact by asking general questions, andbear testimony- all en Espanol. It's hard at first, but after solamente dos semanas (2 weeks) we can do all that. And we are way ahead of the other districts at 2 weeks. I was talking to some sisters in our zone who will be leaving soon after 8 weeks in TC de M and they asked how the language was coming. I told them it was hard because we were getting into gerrunds and subjunctives and "ser" and "Estar" verbs and they just stared at me like, "WHAT?" They told me they only learned gerrunds last week. Yea, it's nuts. But we have to move fast because the hermanas in our district have to know as much as possible before they go to Guatemala and Madrid next week! I would be terrified to leave so soon! BTW I heard Guatemala is experiencing some nasty natural disasters like volcanoes erupting and sink holes and mudslides and all kinds of stuff. It seems like all our missions are getting slammed. But, Elder Priest from our Branch Presidency says, "they are getting ready for you!" and we all agree- It's a SIGN OF THE TIMES!
as President Greenwood says," Progression is the key! If you're comfortable, your not progressing. It's okay to struggle."
ANYWAY... sorry this has been like a novel...
I LOVE YOU! Sam

Wednesday again!

2010-06-09T14:30:00.000-06:00

Querido Familia,

HOLY HANNAH! WHAT? wow, alex rolling an atv eh? way to go seff! that must have been terrifying!

as far as the language thing goes, the best way to learn i think is to memorize and use at least one saying or one grammar concept a day. and use it a ton! so for a testimony, write down phrases you want to be able to say in english, and translate them one at a time and memorize them one at a time. that's basically what we are doing here. (times 100. har har har).

oh funny story-- i was talking to mitch yesterday while we were waiting in line to get into the tuesday night devotional and he said he had gotten some letters from alex. i asked him what alex had said and he said something along the lines of "he just talks about longboarding all the time and it's making me hate him. it's torture! maybe when i get home i will do the same for him and it will be harder for him because he will be so close to coming home. HA." his japanese is coming along really well, and he practiced contacting with me and mi companera, and we practiced our spanish with him and his companero.

guess who came to devotional yesterday??!?!?! it was EDLER ROBERT D. HALES AND HIS WIFE! muy fantastico! his wife talked about how amazing it is to live today becuase we have so many tools to teach with and we have the gospel in it's fullness. she said over 1000 people were martyred during the process of getting the bible translated and released in english. and that was it. that was the only thing anyone had. but now we have it all! and Elder Hales gave a really compelling address about the light of christ, and he started touching on the subject you and dad were talking about in the days before i came to the mtc about the seperation of light and dark. he stressed that light and dark cannot be in the same place at the same time. he said that we as missionaries are "wandering through a vinyard" and that we need to pray for discernment to know the people that can recognize the light we have as disciples of christ. when we can discern who notices it, we will find the right people to teach. cool huh!

btw~ letters from home are more precious than gold or rubies or anything!!!!!! please keep them coming!

se amo mucho! el evangelio is verdad! jesucristo y dios ama sus ijos!

hermana morris ;D

FIRST CONTACT!

2010-06-02T16:19:00.003-06:00

ok right now.... this very instant.... i'm blubbering like a baby! doggonit! i have done SO well not getting all emotional, but as soon as i opened this email it came. I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH! thank you for your email. keep them coming please! i can only check every wednesday which is our p-day, but it is SO GREAT to open my inbox and see mulitple emails. :D

ok, so far it's been,.... interesting, overwhelming, crazy fast (like babies out of canons as elder mckay would say tee hee), and very much like a roller-coster ride. but i'm lovin it! no worries mates, i am here, i'm doing great and i don't plan to come home until they tell me i absolutely have to leave.

the first day was such a whirl. everything happened so fast we were all unpacked, introduced and all settled in before we could even blink. and classes started as soon as we got there. that is the secret here: work! just work and pray and work--no time for homesickness, no time for distractions, just the lord's work. it is fantabuloso! i'm liking the every-minute-planned-out schedule a lot more than i thought. it just works so brilliantly.

the spanish is coming at a break-neck speed. we already know how to pray, have a conversation, introduce ourselves as missionaries, and bear our testimonies en espanol! after one week! can you believe that? it's crazay cool.

alex- SEND ME A LETTER THE INSTANT YOU GET YOUR CALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BIEN? BEIN! HACA QUE POR FAVOR!

and i have some tips for you but i will send them with the mail.

a few observations about the mtc i thought were funny:

-everyone is constantly smiling

-the little animals and creatures around campus are not at all warry of the peolple for example, yesterday during companion study outside a cute little bird hopped under the table right around our feet! the spirit is so strong and all the people are so kind and good the animals don't feel afraid.

-the air smells sweeter and the weather always seems perfect (everything seems so great anyways)

anyway my time is almost up. i wish they didn't time us for writing emails! but i want to close with my testimonio:

yo quiero compartir mi testimonio con ustedes: yo se que la iglesia es verdadera, y jose smith es un profeta, y el libro do mormon es verdadero. yo se que Dios le ama, y tambien sus ejios, Jesucristo. yo se que jesucristo es nuestros salvador y sus amamos. yo se que vive mi Senior. en el nombre de jesucristo amen.

so there you have it!

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!! THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!!!!!!

P.S. mom, i challenge you to learn how to bear your testimony in chinese by next wednesday and email it to me in the morning. that way we can learn at the same pace! it will help you a lot!

The DROP-OFF

2010-05-27T07:56:00.007-06:00

The MTC drop-off was exciting but hard!
When she hugged her dad I finally saw her tear up... She has waited so long that her strongest feeling is excitement to get out there.

AND... this is our last shot of all the ramjrs together until after Alex gets home from his mission. The mom cried pretty much all day and the ride home was pretty quiet. Alex tried to provide comic relief but that just made the mom think about him leaving soon and so ... you know!
This last photo is her escort at the MTC taking her bag. She had TWO and they were both the 50lb weight limit! This girl does not pack light ;)

off to the MTC i go!

2010-05-24T18:43:00.013-06:00

hey all! it is FINALLY time for me to go! i can hardly wait (but i've been waiting for 4 months, so i guess a few more hours doesn't hurt right?).

i gotta say, the past few months have been superberful, splendid, awesome, fantastical, and all that implies. what with my moving back home in december after a fahriggin rad time at college with my two favorite fools (and when i say "fool" i mean "awesome and funny and most amazazing peoples ever"),

receiving my endowment in the bountiful temple,what an AWESOME experience that was!

finishing up working at dick's market (hopefully never to return! i will only go back if i'm desperate!),

lots of shopping for da mish,at target with my lil sis hopey-do

at the gateway
forever 21! to buy or not to buy.....does actually being 21 give you a discount?

fun little artsy fartsy projects,

GUHNAR long boards. made by my dear brother alex, painted by moi.

a sheild for seth's school project... ..... a drawing of caleb... schnazzay.......

a painting for someone....

fun wit da family,avatar! in 3D! with some of my favoritest cousins!in st. george with my mom (she is the best!)

st. george (again) with hope and dad. waiting to get into texas rodehouse.
just chillin with the dinosaurs at thanksgiving point
at the museum with mom, alex, and mei xhaohan

social events (aw man! my social life was just being reborn with all the college kids back in town and now i have to leave!), stoppin by in cedar to hang with some of my awesome college buddies! i miss you guys!

the new tradition of applebee's with kimba, kimmi, and wendy
wanna do the 2 for 20 with me?
hangin with my besties before i leave. already missin you!
bbq at megans!!!! sthuper fun ;D

and my farewell last sunday, life has been just grand! ;D

and now it's off to a new adventure! i will be in the provo mtc till late july. this will be my address during that time:
Sister Samantha Morris ---(you could put "Hermana" instead of "Sister" if you really want to. ya know, make me feel all legit and stuff.... just sayin....)
MTC Mailbox #193
CHI-RAN 0727
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604

so drop a line if you have the time. i would love to hear from ya'alls! 18 months seems long, but i'm ready for it. i will be a new woman when i get back around christmas time next year. ;D yessir!

and while i'm gone mi madre will be managing this here blog. she will post everything that i email to her -- pics, stories, cheesy inspirational messages that all amazing missionaries have the grace of bestowing upon all their admirers and all that junk (ok, maybe not that har har har) -- so be watching! i know you are all DYING to know how my adventure goes. don't worry, you won't miss a beat. lucky you. tee hee.

ADIOS AMIGOS! (hey looky at dat, i actually DO know some spanish.) it's been fun! and real! and real fun! catch ya on the flip side XOXOXOXOXO

the salt lake temple

2010-05-01T14:44:00.003-06:00

is GORGEOUS!

it was wonderful to have recieved my endowment in the bountiful temple (i forgot to blog about it, but yes, i did recieve my endowment april 17th), and it was a great experience. but to participate in an endowment session in the salt lake temple was something special. my mom and i have been trying to find time to go do a session at that particular temple, and today we finally made it. my dad came too, which made it even better. that place is just incredible. from the moment i walked in each room i just stared in amazement at all the decorations, the paintings, murals, intricate designs, and the tiniest details of the place, and just soaked it all in. it was breathtaking. and the history of it makes it all the more significant. all the original pieces that have been in place since the temple was built in the late 1800s are stunning. it's just B-E-A-UTIFUL.

anyone who is endowed or anyone who will be, i hope they get they chance to go the salt lake temple at least once in their lifetime. it's a great privelage and opportunity!

preperation and spring fever

2010-04-27T14:45:00.003-06:00

that's all it is these days. prep for my mission (in one month!!!!). and going absolutely bonkers with spring fever.

i'm pretty close to getting all the things for "da mish" as some of my friends call it. the list is long, but one whole paycheck later (yikes) and i've almost got it all.

4-5 outfits - check
8-10 sets of underclothing - check
2 pairs of shoes - check
1 pair tennis shoes - check
1 pair winter boots - check
20 pairs of nylons or knee-highs - check
3-4 dark tights - check
winter coat - check
scarves, gloves, winter hats - check
2-3 sweaters - check
pajamas (sweatpants for me) - check
slippers - check
gym clothes (hoodie and sweats) - check
1 set of clothing for prep days and service activities - check
1 umbrella - check
twin-size bedding - check

whew, i'm almost there! all i have left to get is:

first aid kit
mesh bag for laundry
wool socks
bathrobe
1-2 blazers/jackets
thermals

holy hannah, i didn't even think of some of these things until i looked over the booklet that came with my mission call. and not to mention, all the fun stuff like paperwork: copy of driving record, drivers license, passport, immunizations record, payment plans, and other things they ask you to bring to the mtc like stories of ancestors and geneology record for 4 generations back (? hmm...).

i'm just glad the wait is almost over!!!! may 26th could not come soon enough after waiting since february 3! i'm going crazy with anticipation and excitement, and the fabulous spring weather doesn't help to ease that much, but i'm not complaining ;D

did i mention that i go through 'blog swings'?

2010-04-05T21:04:00.002-06:00

wow, it's been a while.

so.... i got lazy, and felt like i didn't want to get on and blog,... then days passed,... then weeks passed.... then i forgot all about it.... oops.

anyway, so my dear brother alex started a secret, family society of the frankites. it was just us 6 kids of the morris family, and we met secretly each night for a month. our parents and zhao ning didn't know what we were up to. we had created frank's list; a list of things we promised to do each day without our parents knowing:

FRANK'S LIST

1. scripture study before school every morning
2. no video games or tv until after 7pm on sundays
3. no fighting in general
4. family jobs done immediately after school
5. make bed every morning and keep room clean
6. homework done right after family job
7. showers everymorning (hope every other day)
8. brush teeth twice a day
9. in bed by 10pm every night. remind mom and dad about family scripture study everynight by 9:30 pm
10. prayers every morning and night
11. journal writing every sunday
12. never ask mom and dad for anything until all homework and jobs are done
13. report back everynight to the lead administrator of the frankites (alex) at frank conference meetings (in alex's bedroom in the basement) after family scripture study. if any rules were broken, apologize to whomever it may concern and fix it.

follow the rules everyday for one month FOR FRANK. if any of the rules are broken and you didn't fix it by the end of the day by apologizing and doing the work, then we have to start back at day one. thirty days straight, FOR FRANK.

so, me and my siblings carried on with frank's list for our dear frank for 30 days straight. we worked extremely hard and stuck to the plan like dirt on little boy's fingers.
so who is frank? frank. is..... a dog. we did all this for a dog. we want a dog again. that's it. ha ha ha. but the affects of our secret society of the frankites was amazing. there was hardly any fighting, everything worked properly, we all helped each other and looked out for one another. all the rooms were straight and clean, mom and dad didn't have to nag and beg for the boys to take showers or brush their teeth or make their beds. we just did it. all of it. without any trouble.
i was more of a bystander with this, but i stuck to frank's list too, more to help out my little sister hope and my little brothers seth and caleb.
it was truly amazing. we had family scripture study, we prayed together as a family daily, and the Spirit was so strong in our home. we were all happy and it was great. my parents were shocked, and they had no idea what was going on. it was actually really fun to be a part of something with just me and my younger siblings, working in secret. it was great.
so, after my last blog post, we had a family gathering and alex and i revealed the basic objective of the frank's list and the frankites. we explained to mom and dad that we as their children had strived to learn to be more responsible, more amicable, and more cooperative with each other as a family. we told them about our frank conferences, and told them we did it to prove that we, as a family, were willing and capable of taking care of a dog.
it was really rather funny. mom and dad sat there and stared with half smiles, like they weren't sure what to make of it. then we finished speaking and waited anxiously for their reply....
"well, sounds good to me," was my dad's response, but mom...
".... i'll have to think about it."
it has been over 2 years since we had a pet. chance was our last pet, and he was my dog, and i was the one who cared for him and kept him. but because he was my dog, when i went to college and my parents had trouble with him because he kept running away after i left, they gave him away to another family. i was heartbroken, but there wasn't much i could do. since he has been gone, my siblings have wanted to get another pet that could be everyone's dog, especially since i will be leaving soon.
here we are weeks later, and still no dog. well, we tried. but even if we knew we never would get a family pet, frank's list was a brilliantly concocted plan, and it was amazing to see how dramatically it changed our home for the better. there was just such a spirit of happiness and contentment, and everyone worked so well with each other.
we are continuing with frank's list, and still trying to conivince mom. it is more for the little kids than for me and alex who are leaving on missions, but it was sure fun!

frank

2010-02-23T12:15:00.001-07:00

at the end of this week something crazy will be revealed amongst my family... something awesome.... it has to do with our dearest frank.... of whom we have been working exta hard for....
details will be coming soon....

the year of the tiger

2010-02-15T14:23:00.002-07:00

well folks, yesterday (also single's awareness day aka valentine's day) was the CHINESE NEW YEAR. yay! zhao ning has been telling us about all the traditions they have in china for their new year. they celebrate for a whopping 15 days! and last night for dinner, she shared with us the tradition involving lucky money.

at dinner each child of our family rehearsed a saying in chinese to show honor and respect for our parents, and they gave us red envelopes with some money in it. i really like that tradition ha ha ha.

we also went to the park and played some games that zhao ning showed us. one of them is also known here in the states as missionary tag.

and today is ZHAO NING'S 31ST BIRTHDAY! so we are having a big party at our house soon. we are trying to help her not feel so homesick, because i know she is having a hard time being away from home during this time of celebration in her home country. but as we have been preparing and cleaning and cooking for her party, she said "it's just like chinese new year!" so that's good. i hope she can feel more at home with us :D

oh and guess what! i have been getting up at 7 am or earlier all week! ha! i didn't think i would do that well. i have been so worried about that for the mission, but it's easier than i thought. especially because it's not like getting up for work or high school... ugh... now i just need to find a way to learn spanish! ha ha.

random

2010-02-09T16:23:00.002-07:00

dontcha think it would be so cool to do some work in the humanitarian efforts around the world?

ok that was random.

i just have been thinking a lot about haiti. i posted a while ago about it, you may recall. i have tried to think of ways that i could help, but all i have done so far is donate a what i could to the church humanitarian fund and pray. i will continue to do so, but i just wish i could do more. especially after watching all the news coverage on tv and reading all the articles in the paper about the men and women who have flown in to haiti to help and rescue and give food. and i wish i could be a part of that. i just think it would be so cool.
anway, i hope everyone out there is still praying and doing what they can to help. every little bit adds up to a lot!

may 26th...

2010-02-09T15:20:00.013-07:00

.... seems like it is forever away! blast! i'm just so dern excited and geared up! i'm ready to go to chile! looks like i'm here for a while though. don't get me wrong, i'm not complaining about living here at home in any way, but waiting so long can be killer.
so what will i do with all this time?

work. ~ ah dick's market. "where family values count!" and all that cheese. gag.

maybe find a second job? ~ "sorry, we are on a hiring freeze," and "we are currently not accepting applications," and the terrifying "we have to let people go, so i can't hire any new workers." yikes! what's going on in my poor little home town of centerville?

learn spanish ~ can't be that hard can it? i just gotta find the right method... internet? friends? books? hmm.... donde esta el teacher....

work my butt off at the gym ~ which at the moment has proven to be quite difficult. i was on SUCH a roll! i was on fire! for... about a week. one little week. i was going every morning with my mom before breakfast, and doing extra workouts at night. weights, elipticals, all that jazz. i felt like i was finally on to something! like the weight-losing magic was right around the corner.... and then i hurt my foot. B-L-A-S-T! (or as my dear cedar city friends would say: BEAST IN THE NIGHT!) that means no running, no extended walking, no eliptical, none of my usual cardio. so i tried swimming this morning. tsh, yeah, if you can call sloshing and kicking and floundering around in the water "swimming". man, old grandma ladies with caps and goggles were flying past me in the swimming lanes on either side with perfect technique. hmpf! that's NOT happening for this girl. guess i will just stick with the weight machines till this retarded foot starts working properly again.... :/

practice getting up at 6:30 ~ that is actually going quite well! if you count this morning i'm up to one day! ha ha let's see how long i can keep that up.

study study study ~ the scriptures and "preach my gospel" i mean. lots of study. it's good, and i love it ;D

temple visits ~ temple tuesdays with my brother for baptisms. always a good experience!

and most likely some random other little tid-bits like fun projects with me madre. oh yeah! like this dragon i helped make.

purdy kewl eh?

me and me madre whipped this up for zhao ning's kindergarten class performance for the chinese new year celebration at the elementary school. mom used newspaper to make shapes for the eyes and nose and horns, and i decorated the whole thing with construction paper.
needless to say, it was lot of work. i probably cut out a good 300 hundred+ of those scales. luckily, i had some good music going on my i-pizzle (i named "gecko"). and i also had my favorite treat: raisinets. yum! and lots of hot glue. lots and lots and lots of glue from a hot glue gun. and maybe some small burns on my fingers...

this is mom sitting at the sewing machine putting together the body and tail. we made it so the whole class of kindergarteners could fit underneath. it looked awesome!

oh and dincha know? chinese new years is on valentine's day this year. feb 14th! so,

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!

mission call

2010-02-06T15:41:00.002-07:00

ok, so i have been lazy and haven't wanted to get on my blog to post. but the call FINALLY came last wednesday!!!!

so, last wednesday, i got up at 5:55 am, pulled on some sweats and my slippers, and anxiously paced the kitchen, waiting for the phone to ring. my neighbors had all told me that the post office in my town calls people at 6 am the morning their call arrives so they don't have to wait for it to be delivered to their homes. the phone rang at about 6:05 and i snatched it up. a man on the other line said he had a package for a sister samantha morris. after speaking with him i hung up the phone and rushed upstairs to wake my parents. me and my mom drove down main street to the post office. i dashed inside, rang the bell in the fouyer, and a woman opened a side door and gave me the large envelope. "thanks!" and i ran back outside. i finally had it in my hands!!!!!

(please excuse my appearance in this pic. no make-up and no shower, yuck.)
we drove back home and woke the family. all the siblings and my dad crawled out of bed and curled up on the couch in blankets with their eyes half-open. i carefully tore open the envelope and read:

"you have been called to serve in the RANCAGUA CHILE MISSION!"

i report to the provo mtc on may 26th. that is quite a ways away. but it's more time for me to work and save up money, so it's fine.
chile! can you believe it?! rancagua is located just south of chile's capital which is santiago. that's around where my uncle grew up! and i found out later that this kid in my ward who is my age has been serving there. he is coming home in august. i plan to email him and ask him for advice.

it's gonna be G-R-8!

today is wednesday!!!!!

2010-01-27T13:01:00.005-07:00

DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS???????

it means that today my parents and i rushed to the mailbox to see what we could see....

we collected the little pile of mail....

brought it in the house....

anxiously leafed through.....

and found.....

no call. bummer.
but then again, this is a good thing on several levels!
1. this means my call will be more likely to be foreign. i really really REALLY hope it's foreign. elder kay, one of the missionaries of our area, said usually if a call is state-side it will come in the mail on a wednesday, and if it's foreign it will come thursday. i think my aunt jill also noted that same thing.

2. it means that everything is working out as planned. if you think about it, everything happens at exactly the right time it needs to, and everything that happens happens for a reason. so really, this time of waiting doesn't bother me so much. i am willing to be patient and wait because i know the lord will put me EXACTLY where i need to be, and the call will come at EXACTLY the right time. so no worries!

my mom on the other hand~"i CAN'T STAND waiting!!!!" says she. she is more nervous then me!

i will keep ya'all updated fo sho! :D

never forget

2010-01-25T15:48:00.002-07:00

this is just a little post to remind myself more than anyone how lucky we all are to be alive.
no worries, i had not life threatening experiences, no nasty trials, no mind-blowing turn of events (recently anyway) that is behind these thoughts, it's just me thinking.
i read the nie-nie dialogues today, and everytime i do it gives me courage and a new appreciation for life. just look at poor stephanie. she just had another operation, and is now stuck in pain. yet she had listed some things she is grateful for on her blog. she is hanging in there.
if you haven't checked that out yet, i would encourage you to. there is a link to her blog under my blog list to the right ------> just take a minute, and picture yourself in her situation.
and don't forget to pray. pray and express gratitude for all you have been given. and pray for people like stephanie and her husband, who need an extra boost.
to end, here is my list of gratitude:

my healthy body - i complain about my weight sometimes, but i have been blessed with great strength and health :)

the scriptures

a savior - our Lord Jesus Christ

my family

the opportunity i will have to serve a mission

the neighborhood i live in

my job (however much i hate it sometimes)

a warm bed

clothing

food

a home

so, what are you grateful for today? think about it. :D