Week 66 Capilla Abierta and Interviews

Another week has passed by faster than I could look at it. I feel like I´m driving on the highway, and everything is passing by too fast to concentrate on them. So I'm just starting at the mountains in the background so I don't get sick. Only in this case, the mountains are appointments and things on my To Do List.

I hope that this week has treated you all well. I know that a few of you wrote that you had a hard week. Just remember that for every hard week there are always two good ones waiting.

We had a good week here in Cerro Moreno. We´ve been working hard and we are seeing the fruits of our work. The problem is that this week was a week of vacations and a ton of people were out of town. Including the majority of our teaching pool. But the good news is that they should all be getting back sometime today or tomorrow. So our numbers should be on the way back up again. 

The Women's conference was something very special. We brought an investigator, and she was taking notes the whole time. It was such a fun experience to see the progress that she is making in the gospel. She told us that she knows that these things are true. And after experiencing a bunch of different churches, she said that she has found something that she WANTS to participate in. She WANTS to be a part of this. I love the gospel. 

This weekend we weren't able to do a bunch of proselyting. Basically we were in the Visitors Center. I cant remember if I have explained the ¨Capilla Abierta¨ before. But basically what it is, is we bring the temple visitors center to different chapels. We have banners, and we have sister missionaries leading the tours of the chapel and explaining things. And then two Elders dressed in white in front of the baptismal font explaining baptism and the Holy Ghost. And all of the other Elders leave to bring and invite people to the church to come and see. :) It is a great program. And we did two different ones this weekend. One Saturday morning, and the other Sunday Night. And the one on Sunday was wonderfully attended. It was fun, spiritual, and enlightening. 

But that was basically the week. And now we are heading into the middle of the transfer. I cannot believe that I am almost done training my companion. She is more and more able to do things without me now. Every so often she still looks at me with questions, but more often than not she participates and does everything just like a super missionary. I am so proud of her. :) 

I hope that this next week is wonderful for each of you and that you are all able to accomplish various tasks and goals. Keep the Lord in mind and you will be able to do everything that you need to do. Just keep in mind something that President Uchtdorf said on Saturday, ¨Faith cannot change two things. The agency of other people, and the will of God.¨ So pray with everything you have for the things that are necessary. And then remember that if they don't happen, then they really weren't that necessary for your progress. He will always give us the things that we need to progress spiritually, sometimes the spiritual things need to come before the physical comforts of life. 

I love you all! Have a wonderful week, enjoy another day of life, and I hope to hear from you all next week!

Love, 

Hermana Randall

Week 65 ¡¡¡Feliz Cumpleaños Chile!!!

Hello from Chile!

Yesterday and today are the independence days of Chile! So we are just filled to busting with barbecue, empanadas, and chilean folk music. It was such a cool week! The new sisters that are living with us are sure nice, one I met before because I was her Hermana Leader last transfer, but Hna MacDonald is super fun. It is an enthusiasm boost to live with two other sisters. And they are clean as well, so that always helps. 

But the week went by rather normally here, but Wednesday was a little different. We had a visit from Elder Brag of the 70 and a member of the Area Presidency. Maybe the President. Not sure. And he had a special meeting with all of the leaders in the mission right before as well. We talked about obedience and how we, as leaders, help to set the ``Culture`` of the mission. It was very spirit filled. And the meeting that followed was also really cool. He speaks Spanish and his wife speaks a bit as well, so they were able to communicate with everyone that was really fun. 

And then on Saturday we had the ward party for Independence Day. It was filled with typical Chilean food and dancing. And we also played a good number of typical Chilean games. I will proudly tell you all that I won the sack race! I did however face plant it after touching the finish line. It wouldn't have been so bad if I were on grass. But cement is a different story.... My hands and knees were all bleeding and such. Ouch.... I managed to make it to the bathroom before I cried though. Haha. 

And a member made us typical dresses to wear! I got to pick the colors and she made it. It was so nice of her. :) And blue is my favorite. 

Yesterday to prevent all of the missionaries from just wasting time eating things with members or investigators, President called the whole mission and said that the Zone that had the most lessons with a member yesterday in the afternoon would win something. So we called our ward mission leader and he set everything up with his mother running us from place to place in the car, and members going for a couple hours with each of us. We taught 4 lessons in the afternoon all with members. And the other sisters as well! We had 8 altogether, and we destroyed the competition! We also found a really great investigator, new people to teach, and had a ton of fun! I love being a missionary!

Basically it was a great week filled with empanadas, fun, and miracles. A member can really make a difference in the enthusiasm and progress of the work!

Love you all! Do a missionary a favor and go spend an hour with them. They will love you for forever! Just like I do!

¡LES AMO! ¡FELIZ 18!

Hna Randall

Week 64 Nothing Like a Suprise!

Well world, we have reached a milestone this week along with a few other miracles!

Today I write you as I begin my last 12 Weeks in the field. I say this not to be trunky, but because the office is officially doing all of the paperwork to send me home, and BYU is starting to bug me with registering again and etc.... I have a lot of mixed emotions about it to be honest, happy to see everyone at home again. But more of the truth is that I have really grown to be Chilena. This is my country now. I also am not sure if I can remember to speak English. I know that my grammar skills have lowered considerably. So I´ll have to relearn how to do some things. Haha. 

But this week was AMAZING. We have a couple investigators who are younger and they were going to be baptized on the 17th of September, but they changed the date and they were baptized on Saturday!!!!!!!!! M. and her little brother A., it was one of the most spiritual experiences that I have participated in in my mission. It was amazing. Their parents bore their testimonies and the spirit hit us like bricks. I was crying and the ward mission leader was crying, and we were all super emotional and filled with love. It was beyond words, I truly felt my Savior in the room with us that afternoon. 

The Elder that baptized A. (9 years old) is 6´4, and A. couldn't stop looking at him. He´s like a super hero, when he came to their house to to the interview A. left and brought a friend to show him how tall Elder Court is. It was hilarious to see him looking up at him. And during the baptismal service he bore his little 9 year old testimony to tell us all that he felt just like a Super Sayian (from Dragon Ball Z, don't know how to spell it in English) with a new level of power. And that he was grateful for the tall Elder and the small one too. It was hilarious. 

All the rest bore wonderful, short, powerful testimonies of the gospel as well. And how they know that the church is true. I know that their mother ( a non member) is not too far behind them now. She told us so. :)

We also were able to spend the weekend with the President´s daughter Gina. She is 18 years old, and she is super cool. We had some great lessons together and really bonded. It was nice to have here there. I really feel like all of these young women remind me of my little sisters, and it is nice to have someone like that with me after so long. (Hear that Cassidy and Emma? I LOVE YOU!) 

It was just an amazing week. I am without words. I love the mission. I love my companion. I love my calling as an Hermana Leader, I love my eternal friends, I love everything. Everything is amazing. I hope you all know that.

I love you all! Have a fabulous week!!!!!!!!!!

Hna Randall

PS. We are having 2 new sisters move into our apartment and I am their Hna Leader, they are going to be opening a new sector in the other side of our sector, which before was my sector. So if they need help I am going to be living with them. That is going to help them not get lost I think! Haha.

Week 63 Smile That Frown Away!

I would like to honestly confess that I don't know where the week went. I do believe that I lost it. I tried to find it. I looked everywhere. But I believe that I have possibly dropped this week in the street somewhere with one of my sweaters, and it is irreplaceably lost. So here I sit, writing once again.

This was a phenomenal week. We have set some goals as a companionship to be more focused and such, like leaving lessons faster, setting baptismal goals in the first lesson, etc. And we have really seen the difference. We had a bunch of lessons with a member this week. We are focusing on training the Ward Missionaries on how to really fulfill their callings.  And with that we are releasing and calling new ones. The ward missionaries that we have right now, aren't really much help. They don't do much, or don't follow through on the promises that they make. Which is sad, but we are picking up and moving on. 

We had a really great lesson this week with a young woman that we have shared with one before. We shared the Plan of Salvation that our Heavenly Father has planned for us now and through eternity. And what we need to do here to make it to the eternities. She absolutely lit up when we talked about baptism. How she could erase her past and start all over again. She could show God that she wants to follow him and all that. She started crying and told us that she wants to be baptized because she knows that it is something that she needs to do in order to be saved, and something that she wants to do in order to FEEL saved. We all cried at that moment, and she gave us a hug and told us that we are the sisters that she never had. It was an amazing lesson that was just filled with the Spirit, She told us that we answered all of the questions that she had always had about life. And when we asked her mother what she thought about her daughter getting baptized, she said ^Well, I now that it is something good. Something right. And I know that it will help her with all of the bad things that are going on in the world. I think that it is a goal that we are going to work for!^  So we set a date for the 10th of September and we are steadily working towards that goal. :) 

Let`s see, what else. 

Honestly this week went by so quickly that I cant really write much more. I just hope you all know how much I love being a missionary. I know that I am not the same person that went on a mission. Now I am the better version. And here I am at the part of the race where I start to sprint to finish the best of all because you can see the finish line. 

So I love you all, and I hope that you are letting God to change you one day at a time. That you take inventory and say, ^What am I doing well? What can I improve?^ And then you act on the impressions that you receive. 

You are all the best of the best of the best (sir). (Brownies to those who get the movie quote.)

LES AMO!

Hermana Randall

PS. We played soccer with our mission president today...... He really knows what he is doing. I can tell that the way to his heart is through soccer. I'm

going to remember that. Haha.

Week 62 When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going

Hello Family and Friends!

Hope that you all had a great week watching the Olympics and enjoying the last week of summer before school starts. 

We had an interesting week here in Cerro Moreno. We worked hard, and we saw very little success. It happens sometimes, but it is always hard when it does. We had to travel a lot this week to doing things in downtown Antofagasta, so we also lost a lot of precious time where we could have been working. I realized this week that I am going to be so bored to have to work in an office again for the first little while after I get home. I was a couple hours without proselyting and I about died from the anxiety of it all.

But we did have a few fun things happen this week. We had one of the first ¨Capilla Abierta¨ here in the South America South Area of the church. That means that we had an Open House in our chapel. We had the entire Zone in our chapel, and we basically turned the entire chapel into a Visitors Center. The problem is that sometimes members are so eager to help that they scare everyone away. We had to get after a couple members for taking a lot of photos like they were in a circus and explaining doctrine that not even a member of 100 years understands. But we did contact a good number of people and the refreshment at the end were good. 

We were in charge of receiving the people that came. So they came and sat in the Sacrament Hall and we gave them a brief Welcome to the Church, please turn off your cellphones deal. We did all of this in front of a big banner of the statue of Christ that is in the North Visitors Center at Temple Square in Salt Lake. And then we listened to the audio of Jesus speaking and we bore testimonies as missionaries. 

Afterwards we directed them to the Cultural Hall where there were two other sisters with 6 other banners. They explained the 6 banners very basically with testimony, themes such as, The plan of Happiness, Jesus our Savior, The Great Apostasy, The Restoration, The Book of Mormon, and Modern-Day Prophets. 

From there the group is lead into the room which contained the Baptismal Font. There they are received by two Elders in white, where they explain the ordinances of Baptism and Confirmation by the Gift of the Holy Ghost. And testify of this sacred experience. 

Then they are lead to a table filled with copies of the Book of Mormon, pamphlets, cards, etc... And are invited to fill out an information card if they or someone they know would like to learn more about the church from the missionaries. 

From there they were able to visit each of the rooms and meet the organizations (this is where, instead of letting them look and ask questions, the members had presentations of about 10 minutes each..... Some people got so bored that they were unable to make it to the dessert at the end....) And then there was dessert.

It is a pretty cool idea, and it was very fun to participate in, I felt a little like it was opening night of a show and I wasn't ready for it...... But it all worked out rather well. :) We are going to do another one in another chapel on Friday.

That was basically the week. Running around doing things without seeing much progress. But the important thing is that we did our best. Success comes when we are faithful even if we aren't succeeding. 

We are ready and willing to work even harder this week to prove it. 

I love my companion, I love my Savior, and I love my family. My real family, and my Chilean family. I hope you are all well and having success in your various walks of life. I love you!

Hermana Randall

Week 61 No Time? Or End of Times?

Hello there everyone! I know the title sounds a bit dark, but in reality nothing super huge happened this week. It was a good week. We taught some lessons and found some people and we did missionary work!

Our little sister, L. who got baptized last week is doing amazing. She is so thrilled to be a member, she has put the names of all the missionaries that she knows up on her wall behind her bed saying that she loves us. She is studying her scriptures and is so happy with having the Holy Ghost. It is something very special to be a part of. 

We are also teaching many people who are also progressing towards baptism. Although many have their own difficulites, one of our investigators has a particularly sad story, that has lightened considerably in the weeks that we have known her. She is reading the Book of Mormon, and has prayed. She says that she knows that the Book of Mormon is true, and she knows that we are sent from God because of how she feels when she is with us, or when she merely sees or hears us. I am so privleged to be a messanger for this gospel. ;)

I had something else that I wanted to write about, but I dont remember what it is. Just know that this is the best thing I have ever done in my life. I had a pretty good idea about what I was going to do, or what I was going to be before the mission. And now I know what I need to do, or what I need to be. Because the Lord has told me, has shaped me, and the refining process continues. 

The time is running out here in my mision. I noticed it more this week because my companion is just starting her mission. Her mission stories until now are all about the MTC. And I realize that it has been a long time since I was in the MTC. Time is something that is running out on all of us though. We dont really ever seem to stop and think about it though. I see so many people running around with their busy lives that they dont have time to stop and think about the meaning of it all. Are we all just like busy ants running around getting things done? Or is there a higher purpose to what we do? I know that there is a higher purpose. And that sometimes to accomplish that purpose, we need to stop. Pause everything, Take a deep breath and get some persepective. Pray. Read the scriptures. Go to church. Go to the temple. I invite all of you to find some time every week. Or better yet once a day to breath. There is always a dead moment in the day. Brushing your hair, putting on  your shoes. Eating food. Whatever. Use that time to talk to your Heavenly Father, to memorize a scripture, etc... Use it for something more than just brushing your hair, or putting on shoes. We are here for more than brushing our hair.

I have a wonderful friend who sent me a poem this week that I would like to share with you: 

No Time to Pray

“I knelt to pray but not for long,I had too much to do.

I had to hurry and get to work for bills would soon be due.

So I knelt and said a hurried prayer; and jumped up off my knees.

My Christian duty was now done my soul could rest at ease.

All day long I had no time to spread a word of cheer.

Not time to speak of Christ to friends, they’d laugh at me I’d fear.

No time, no time, too much to do,

That was my constant cry.

No time to give to souls in need but at last the time, the time to die.

I went before the Lord, I came, I stood with downcast eyes.

For in his hands God held a book; it was the book of life.

Good looked into his book and said, “Your name I cannot find.

I once was going to write it down … But never found the time.”

Read this. Think about it. I love you all!

Have a wonderful week. 

Hermana Randall

Week 60 It´s a Girl!

Well hello there followers! I would like to announce to you all that I officially have my Hijita :) (My daughter)

Her name is Hermana Rebeca Guzman, she is from Nicaragua, she is 24 years old and she speaks English surprisingly well. And she is amazing.

This week was filled with many different things and I know that I will not be able to describe all of it. So like Mormon, there are some things that I am just going to leave out because they would take to long and writing just a little bit would not be sufficient.

Monday -- I spent the day with a member who is super awesome (also named Rebeca, interesting), we had an amazing lesson and set a baptismal date. I made brownies, and a giant sign for my Greenie.

Tuesday -- Proselyted some more, taught a few really good lessons about the 10 commandments and other such things. Switched member companions during lunch (we had subway :) and they gave me a free cookie) , and we proselyted some more. And we were able to confirm a baptismal goal for Saturday.

Wednesday -- I was dropped off at the mission office and was temporary companions with Hna Carabine (Utah). We were the only two sisters training this whole transfer. We helped set everything up, and talked with President and Sister Ferriera until the newbies arrived. There were two sisters, mi hijita, and Hna Sorenson from Draper Utah. We all talked and had a great time together. Then the meeting began. We talked about what it really means to be a successful missionary. How we can always be the best missionary that we can be. We don't just have to evaluate ourselves at the end of our missions. But that we can evaluate, repent, and be better, EVERY SINGLE DAY. (That goes for our lives outside of the mission as well. Then we (the trainers) had a meeting with President. We talked about who really is a disciple of Christ. How Christ trained his disciples and how we can use his example to be the best missionaries that we can be, and train the best missionaries. It was a moving experience.

Finally we all got together and began finding out who would be companions. Finally it came time for the sisters. They sat together in front of the room, and read their letters of fate. And Hna Guzman read my name! It was so special! I knew that it was going to be her when I saw her!

We had another little training after we had received our companions, basically President telling all of us that we are the best of the best that he has in this mission. That he trusts us with this monumental task of training, and more importantly, the Lord trusts us. We got all jazzed up. Then we came home she saw all of the decorations that I put up, and we had a nice bonding moment. taught a few lessons that night, then we came home and went to bed.

Thursday -- Today was the first meeting that I officially had as a Sister Training Leader. It was all day long with a lunch. And we talked about the new things that we are going to do as a mission, and what things that we need to improve on as a mission. At this time I would also like to invite all of you to go on Facebook and like the page ¨Mision Chile Antofagasta¨ or maybe it is ¨Chile Antofagasta Mission¨ It is one of the two. It is a new page, and it is going to be filled with wonderful things! We came home from the meeting and had another appointment with R. and L.  L. is the little girl with a baptismal date for Saturday. It was a good day.

Friday -- We had our weekly planning, and I am teaching Hna Guzman how the mission works. (No pressure right). I am learning right along with her as well. It is pretty exciting. And that night we talked to L. again to make sure that everything was set for her baptism. Our District Leader came to the house with us, and did the interview and set everything up . it was a great experience for her. She didn't feel ready before, but afterwards she was so excited for the next day. Her mom was pretty set on no baptism until she was sure that her daughter was ready. But L. actually started crying because she was afraid that her mom didnt want her to be baptized, and tears sometimes melt hearts a lot quicker than other things. The spirit filled the room, and they began making plans for the baptism.

Saturday -- I am the leader of the sisters in Mejillones, and they have been kind of sad this last week because they haven't been able to find or teach people. They feel like they are just walking around. It is sad because they are both relatively new missionaries as well. 7 months and 5 months. So we all as the leaders (District, Zone, and Sister Training) hopped on a bus and went to Mejillones. We contacted whatever person in the street, taught lessons, extended baptismal dates, etc. And we left the Sisters full of hope. I love being a leader so far. Basically it gives me a better opportunity to help others. And that is something that I have always loved doing.

We came home, and studied a little bit and then immediately went to the chapel for L´s baptism! She was there with a bunch of members of her family and friends that are not members. (Some of them are actually opposed to the church, but they were there and they supported her. So we were really excited!) The service went really well and the spirit was there pretty strongly. It was a great day.

Sunday -- And to end the week, L. received the Gift of the Holy Ghost. Her nonmember friends and family were not there. But her Step´Father who is not a member came and he brought his sister as well. It was a beautiful experience. We had 10 investigators in Sacrament Meeting! And then later that night. We were able to set 2 baptismal dates! This sector really is progressing. And we are seeing many many miracles. :)

So in conclusion. I love my sector. I love my companion. I love Chile. And I LOVE my mission!

Hope you are all well!

LOVE YOU!

Hermana Randall