Letter #67: April 29, 2013

Sorry family,

No time today!!  But I have some quick things to say.

•  I got a package from the boy scouts of our ward!!  I absolutely LOVED it!!!  Tell them thanks!!! 
• We have interviews this Wednesday with the President.  I’m looking forward to them.
• Mamita sends little kisses (besitos).
• How was your b-day, mom???  56, right?
• Skype-ing preferred time will be 5 o’clock (PM) Chile time.  Let me know!!  Next week is our last chance to coordinate.
• Highlight of the week…It was earth day last week....so obviously I had to hug a tree (actual footage below).

I love you guys.  Have a good week!

Love,

Me

Letter #66: April 22, 2013

Hey FAM!

I love you guys!  So, I’m in a funny mood, so I will do my best to write and answer questions.  First, I have no idea what the time difference is or will be… we are going to have daylight savings next week and I’m so excited.  I can’t even explain how excited I am that we get to sleep for one more hour.  Let’s see right now it is 4:30 in the afternoon.  I believe there will be a 2 or 3 hours difference for Mother’s Day.  

BTW, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MUM, this Wednesday!!!!!!!! Woot!  The big 5-6...oh wait,... I mean 2-5...! Hehe!  :)  So, it’s definitely fall here.  Starting to get pretty cold actually.....

We are on the same time-zone as Santiago.  I don’t know what time we will be able to Skype.  I think we just have to coordinate with you guys and Hermana Call’s family.  We will be Skype-ing from our Mamita’s house.   

I’m still in the same area as Christmas, but it will be from a different house.  Our mamita’s :) Where we live-ish.  (We live behind her house) BTW, she says to tell everyone “Hi” and she sends hugs and kisses and says to tell you not to worry about me because she’s my mamita as long as I’m in the mission and she will take good care of me.

My companion and I are getting along just great!  We laugh all the time and get along just fine!   More money would be nice I guess, just in case I need it.  I do need to buy a coat actually, but I’ll just get a cheap one at the second-hand store.  

Courtney sends me a little hilarious message every other week or so.  They always make my day because they are always real funny.  We can write friends now BTW.  I’ve gotten week number 4 from Lyndsie and she finally sent me a little note today.  OH!!!

So this is cool.  The other day at lunch I was telling the member guy how dad likes rocks and how he said I need to come home with some copper because of all the copper mines here in Chile and the dad (he’s actually the first counselor), gives me this pure naturally combusted copper rock that he found in a river.  Cool huh???  I was way grateful!  The people here are so loving and giving!  They’re teaching me a lot.

Anyway, I have to ask you guys a question and you ALL (especially mom) have to give me a good thought out response.  In our last zone meeting they told us to do this.   So here we go. What kind/class/type of missionary do you think I am?  That’s all. 

Here are some pictures.

Picture 1=  Last night, searching for a reference whose address doesn’t exist.  Good thing we climbed all the way to the TOP of the hill before finding that out...

Picture 2= Mamita Jenny (p.s. she totally came to church yesterday!... and my companion and I gave talks...)

Picture 3= It was Jean’s b-day so I gave  him a b-day crown that mom sent.  He loved it as you can tell by his face.  That’s his little brother; we want to teach him now.  Heheheh (evil laugh). Also, Jean received the Holy Ghost yesterday.  Best b-day gift ever.

Picture 4= Carlos (our investigator) got married last Friday!  Now he just has to quit smoking and he can get baptized.  Woot!

Picture 5= Compy comp and me

Well that’s all for now!  LOVE YOU GUYS!!  Have a good one!!

-Hermana Hermansen

Letter #65: April 15, 2013

Family,

So this week was such a rollercoaster!!!  As you know and mentioned, I am training again.  My companions name is Hermana Lonni Call and she is from Colorado Springs, Colorado.  She is super nice and we get along great!  There is a picture of her and our mamita included (taken this morning)... .

This week I have learned that everything happens for a reason.  Jean Ramos, an investigator that I’ve been working with since January (who was basically atheist or agnostic before and has had at least 6 sets of missionaries over the past 5 or so years), got baptized yesterday!!!  Woot!  A million prayers, fasts, and lessons later.  :)  His baptism way super special!  He had a ton of friends there (almost all his friends are YSA) and the spirit was way strong.  I included a picture of us.  By the way, I’m totally still in the same area (This is my 5th transfer here!! That never happens!!)  But I’m not complaining because I LOVE the ward and the area, even though it’s kind of a hard area as far as work goes.  

After this change I’ll only have 3 more.  Weird.  I just love being a missionary!!!  This work is sooo awesome!  I honestly have no other desires or goals in life than to just help people.  Make a difference.  Even if it’s just a little one.  I only want to help other people feel good and know that God loves them and help them obtain eternal life... That is what drives me.  I honestly don’t feel much of anything else than simply wanting to help people.  Sometimes it makes me sad when I feel like all my efforts go to waste because people don’t accept the gospel or when people are selfish, but that’s just kind of how it goes...

On a happy note, one of our investigators is getting married this week!!  Woot.  Then he just has to quit smoking and then he can get baptized!  I’m excited for him. :)  His name is Carlos and he is like 45 and his future wife is a member and they have one kid together, plus other kids from past marriages.  They are getting married this Friday! Woot.  I really am super happy, but I can also feel Satan working hard to get me down. There are so many good things that are happening with our investigators, but sometimes I find myself getting down, or being hard on myself, or feeling sad for things.  I know that these things come from Satan, but boy are they strong sometimes....

Anyway, I’m getting way excited to Skype for Mother’s Day!!!  Glad to hear that everyone is doing well!!  Going to St. George should be fun!  How’s everyone else doing?  I miss you guys, but I’m also loving Chile and being a missionary soooo much too... I think coming home is going to be one of the hardest things I’ll do.... My eyes are starting to water and cry just thinking about it.... sigh... oh, the mission...

I love this gospel with all my heart and I love our Savior, Jesus Christ more than that and more I will ever be able to fully express.  What a wonderful time it is to be a part of His great work... Keep moving forward, family. :)  I love you all sooo much!!

XOXOXOXOXO

-Hermana Hermansen

Letter #64: April 8, 2013

Dearest Family,

How are you all?  Didn’t you just LOVE conference???  I don’t know how they do it, but I feel like it gets better every time!  I’m so stoked to study the talks!  (Mom- you’re going to send me that Ensign ASAP, right?)  Can you believe that that was my last General Conference in the mission??  Crazy, right?  Time is going by WAY too fast!  

Anyway, this week was ok.  Not the best week, but not the worst week either. (Note: an observation of life, things can always be better, but the can also always be worse).  A lot of our investigators fell through this week.  It was discouraging, but I know that good things are to come.  Weeks are so weird in the mission.  They go by SO fast!  When you take a step to look back, you really do realize that weeks feel like days and days feel like weeks.... Days can be sooo long sometimes, but weeks just seem to fly by!  It’s an interesting concept.  

Things that happened this past week:  I made legit home-made apple pie for a family home evening, we received a reference, named Cinderella Bernal, from Salt Lake City (which never happens and is super cool and exciting)... it turned out to be our 2nd Counselor.. he wanted to see how long the internet references take.... it was about 2 weeks.... my hopes = shattered.... Ha!  Ha! Ha!  I was seriously SO excited!, General Conference, Jean didn’t get baptized, we lost one of our investigators, we had 4 lessons planned with members present in which our members (different ones) faithfully came through and which all of our investigators fell through.  Our area literally looks like a ghost town sometimes because there is literally no one in the streets!  We´ve been spending the week studying and remembering the scripture Alma 32:42 to help keep us going, and we’ve been studying a lot about Adam and Eve and the Fall = sooooo cool!

Anyway, we have changes this week, but we still don´t know what they will be like. We find out Wednesday in the morning, and then they happen Wednesday afternoon.   I am hoping to stay put and with my companion, but we’ll see what the Lord wants. 

Quick notes—

-I get letters from Alec every so often.  I’m awful at responding.

-Spencer sends me e-mails every so often.  It used to be almost every week.  I sent him a letter this morning.

-Courtney’s letter today made me LOL sooooo hard.  She emails me like every other week.  I’ll have more to say in regards to her letter next week.  

-Mal.  Sometimes I receive letters.

-Made me sooooooooooooooo happy to hear about Lyndsie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I loved her e-mail!!  But there was only one….week 4, I think.

Well, must be off!!

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXO

-Hermana Hermansen

Picture 1— Leaving the pension to go to conference yesterday.

Picture 2— Apple pie.

Picture 3— Go Chile!

Picture 4— A cool tall, skinny tree.  We call him Stanley Delgado. 

Letter #63: April 1, 2013

Family,

Well, no one has written me today, but that’s cool.... I totally understand that you’ve all forgotten me by now...  So, I’ll just ramble like usual and send some fun pics!  But first, Happy Fools Day!!!! .... And Happy Easter yesterday!

And now....

Pic number one —

This is from Easter yesterday! A cute little old member guy gave us roses at church.  It was cute! It’s nice to remember that at least someone remembers me and loves me......

Pic number two... (No! Not that number two!...) —

I finally got around to making my birthday cake!  Woot.  It was soooo good.  So, I put the frosting on while the cake was still hot, and it totally just melted and got everywhere... 

Pic number three —

Our oven.

Pic number 4 —

Me and my companion with the cake.  Precious.

Anyway, that’s all I really have to say for now.  I still haven’t heard anything from or about Lyndsie.... It’s been 5 weeks now and no one has told me anything... I hope everything is going ok... I keep having dreams with pregnant people... and with Courtney and Steve....I hope you guys will tell if anything big happens.... like if anyone gets pregnant... or married.  Anyway, I love you guys! Peace.

XOXOXOXO

-Hermana Hermansen