week by week

Am posting emails from Maddie over the last month!  We miss her!


February 4, 2015

Woohoo! I'm in the field! I feel like I've been here way longer than a week. I have so many pictures to send but the computers we go to won't let us send pictures so as soon as I get that worked out I will send them! Here, everyone has a gate surrounding their house for security so we have to yell ''ALLO'' Its like a doorbell. I like it. :) The people here are so wonderful. My very first day we taught a lesson with an older man named Marcario. He is so genuine. He went to buy us ice cream and when I say buy us ice cream I mean 2 cartons of ice cream. The people here are incredibly generous with their food. So he served us 2 very large portions of ice cream. So kind of him but needless to say, I'm excited for winter when no one wants to serve ice cream. ;) Here, we only have breakfast and lunch. The people feed us a large lunch everyday and we don't have dinner. They have something called 'onces' (elevensies) for you Lord of the Rings fans ;) But generally we are teaching lessons at that time so we dont eat onces. I'm usually still super full from lunch so I don't eat anything more. The other day, a sister gave us each a quarter of a watermelon, a spoon and a knife. I've never eaten so much watermelon at one time. But the fruit here is amazing! Ok, enough about food. We are teaching a sister named Silvana. She is such a gem. Everyone greets each other with a kiss on the cheek (a handshake with men and young men) not to worry, dad ;) So whenever we see Silvana she greets us and says mi amor to both of us. We have seen so many changes in her life. She has invited Christ and Heavenly Father into her life and always shares with us how grateful she is to them. I want to share also how grateful I am for the Savior and our loving Father in Heaven. What a blessing is is to have this knowledge and be able to share it with others. Thank you for all of your prayers and individual emails and pictures. If I don't respond to your individual emails, please dont feel bad, I will respond when I get the chance! I hope you all are in good health and taking care. Love, Hermana Walker


February 18, 2015

Just pictures this week!

February 25, 2015

First of all, I apologize for being awful at sending emails. Some of you (missionaries) have super long, wonderfully detailed emails! How?? So, I'm going to try to be better!

The first miracle was on Saturday. We were "ALLO-ing" at doors, as always, and entered a Pasaje (kind of like a little culdesac) that we'd never been in before. At the end of the road we knocked on the door and a little old man (Armando) came out and invited us in. We could only talk with him outside but we talked for an hour! We taught him how to pray and invited him to church the next day. Usually when we invite people to church, it's hard to get them to actually come especially at this time of the year because it's summer. Lo and behold he came! In Sunday School we had a lesson on prayer and this sweet ol guy said that we were his "angelitas" sent to him. He wants to come again next week and is so excited to learn more. :)

The second miracle. Our ward here is struggling a little bit. We have great members but we have a lot of people that are baptized that don't come to church. For the 5 weeks I've been here, we've had one person come to church that we've invited. This past Sunday, we had 6. Seriously a miracle. We had Armando, a less active member named Pamela, a less active member named Veronica and a less active member named Juan who brought his girlfriend Carmen and her daughter. 

The third miracle happened yesterday. We had a lesson fall through so we had an hour before our other lesson. We had two choices. Visit Pamela (our less active who usually isn't at her house at this time in the day) or contact. We decided to contact in another pasaje that we'd never been in before. We decided to start at the end and work our way forward but stopped in front of a house with their door open. A 13 year youngin came out and we asked if we could talk to him and someone a little bit older. His sister came out with an intersting expression on her face and I wasn't sure what she was going to say. She looked at us and said "which house did you knock on before mine" we said that she was the first and she didn't say anything and then said "come in" When we got in her house (which rarely happens when we're contacting) she said "my uncle just had a serious accident with his heart and I've been praying that someone would come" It took all I had to not burst into tears of gratitude for this experience. We stayed and taught her a lesson about our loving Heavenly Father and are going to help her with some service tomorrow. :) Her name is Valenzca and is so special to me even in this short time of knowing her and her family. 

This is the Lord's work. To bring people to Him and to gain hope not only in this life but in the life to come. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be here in Chile and know these wonderful people. :) I hope you all are doing well and good luck to the basketball team! Woohoo! :)

Love, Hermana Walker

The photo is me and my companion at the temple today. :)

March 4, 2015 

This week is the last week of this transfer! Woo 6 weeks down in the mission! It's sad to see so many people leave but we're happy that they get to see their families so soon!

On Thursday we did service for Valeska. She's a trapeze artist and has a trapeze in her backyard but wants to start teaching lessons and needs her yard cleaned up a bit. We helped her dig up cement and brick and put it all in bags. It was an interesting project. ;) Afterwards, she fed us lunch-noodles, beans and pumpkin soup with cabbage. Typical Chilean, Bishop Hatch! 

Armando came to church again on Sunday along with another member of our ward that has been inactive for awhile. The day before, we had a lesson with Armando that lasted 2 hours. Longest lesson I think we'll ever have!. He's super smart but asks us to repeat everything twice and tells 30 min. stories. ;) I'm excited to see his progression. :)

We have a couple investigators named Angelica and Hector who we teach every week. This past week we had divisions and I went with another sister in our ward to this lesson. Angelica told us that we had a really hard day. Her sister, with 36 years, just found out she has cancer. We read Alma 7:11-13 with them. These verses talk about the Atonement of our Savior and that he not only suffered for our sins but for our afflictions, our sadness, our weaknesses, everything we feel, He felt. When we need comfort, peace, a calm mind and heart, it's so importnat to remember that we have our Savior and loving Heavenly Father who are so willing to help us. 

This week, I hope you all are able to find something small in your life that helps remind you that Jesus Christ knows every situation and every feeling. Have a great week everyone! Take care!

Congratulations to Weiser basketball!! WOOHOO! Finally beat those Grizzlies! 

Sorry for not having pictures this week! I'll have more next week. :)

Love, Hermana Walker