Hip Hop Missionary Discussions?

Sounds like another busy week, and I assume that this week will be the same with Braxton by your side. I cant wait to hear how the birth goes of little baby Jett! I can already imagine that he is going to be super cute! I loved the pictures of Aspen, how cute, I can still tell she has her sass. I am sure the Hiphop will just add to that. 

Speaking of hiphop, this past Friday there was a hiphop/karoke type thing happening in one of the feilds by our house all night. It was super hilarious and I got into it by hiphoping the lessons. We presented our hiphop to a member family and they thought it was great. I think I am on to something hahah. Maybe it will bring more investigators lol. 

We had a great miracle this week. We had planned to attend some appointments with a member, but the two appointments that we had fell through. She agreed to do some walking though, and we went with our backup plans. Again no success. We went to give out some of the pictures of Jesus that people had asked for in the feria, and still limited success. We had walked for two hours and with the member with us, we began to feel bad because things werent looking so good. However, we always try to stay positive and I told my comapnion"theres always a reason when things go bad and no body lets us in". We were racking our brains trying to think of who lived close to visit, when one of our investigators pulled up in a taxi with her daughter and two granddaughters. We had visited the investigator in that same morning, so we didnt think much about her letting us in again, but to our surprise, she said that we could enter! Even better was that her daughter wanted to listen to the lesson too and the two granddaughters! Plus they invited two of the other grandchildren ( who live on the same street) to come and listen. It was awesome. We taught the restoration to them and they were excited for us to return. I was so happy. I think that is my first lesson with investigaters where we could get all of the family together at the same time and have a powerful lesson. It felt great to be teaching a family. We have an appointment with them again this coming week, so we are excited to see how it goes. Overall, I hope that we can find more complete families that are interested in learning about Christ. We are going to try to focus on that. 

This week was really interesting. We did a lot of walking... A LOT of walking, and we had difficulties several days in finding people in their homes. However, I felt the spirit really strongly so many times. In part, I felt like this week was for me. I had many inpressions for things that I need to do now in the mission and further along in life. I felt like the scriptures spoke to me and that I learned and received answers for the things I had asked for. It was interesting overall because I wanted to have more lessons and teach more people and work more efficiently, yet I learned a lot in the time that we were walking and studying. It was a good week

We also had an excellent activity this past Wednesday. It was one of our weekly activities that we are trying to do, and we had a great attendance of about 25 people. The best part was that many of them were investigators and less actives. Three of our investigators came and had a great time! I was so surprised! The first activity had been small and just members, so this was great. We played games in rotations. There was pingpong, Uno, Monopoly, and Jenga. Everyone seemed to have fun and "L"came!!! We gave her a church tour at the end and she got really teary when we entered the chapel. We could tell that the spirit was working strongly with her. We cant wait to see her progress!

I hope all goes well tomorrow with Jett! I love you guys and am always keeping you in my prayers. 

Love 

Hermana Biggs

I Love To See The Temple

Hey everyone. This letter is going to be short because today is my companion's birthday and we are running late on everything hahaha. Today we started out by going to Bahia Inglesa on bikes. It was a great idea, but I think I am going to be walking wrong for the next week seeing as the seat was so dang hard. Plus the gears didnt work, so it made the trip a bit more difficult. Luckily, Bahia Inglesa is just five kilometers away from Caldera, so not too much suffering hahah. I think I sent pictures last time we went to Bahia Inglesa. Its the beach with white sand and blue water where I found a little baby crab:) I will attach more photos too.

 

This week we had a lot of fun doing lots of service. One of our investigators, M, returned from a trip to Santiago and had bought a ton of American clothing to sell in the ferria here. We spent like 5 hours ironing and ironing away all the clothes, so that they would look good for the ferria. On Saturday,  we decided to  publicize our free English classes again in the ferria with her. Luckily there was an open spot in front of her clothes stand. Again we had to yell "Free English Classes, Learn English for Free!" We had a lot of success though and handed out over 200 pass a long cards and some pamphlets. It was awesome. 

  

This week the branch also made a quick trip to the temple. Obviously, I wasnt able to go being a missionary, but I got to see lots of people make a lot of preparations and sacrifices so that they could spend just a few hours in the temple. It is about a 9 hour bus ride from here to Santiago and they only spent one day there. However, the experiences that they had were amazing. Sacrament meeting on Sunday was dedicated to testimonies of the people who were able to go. They had such a great spirit. I was thinking about how many temples are in a 9 hour reach from our house. We have Mesa, Gilbert, Staffard, Snowflake, soon Phoenix and Tucson, and I think St. George Utah too. Plus there maybe one in Mexico or something close. Either way we are surrounded by temples, the closest being 5 five minutes away.  I hope that we can dedicate as much effort in going to the temple as these members did this week. They'll recieved such great blessings. I cant wait until I will be able to enter the temple again after the mission!

 

Bueno, I have many things to write but we already have to be going to our next birthday celebration and lesson. We have a great new investigoator from Colombia. His name is L and his wife M. They are both really great! This week we are going to have a lot of success, I just know it.

 

Have an awesome week. I loved the photos from Tawny's shower. It looked so cute!  I hope everything goes well with dance, and room mom! Love you all!

 

Hna. Biggs

The Lighthouse

This week was pretty fun! I got to do some wedding decorations of my own for a family in my branch that is going to be sealed in the Santiago temple this Friday. They are one of our favorite families and we are always visiting them. The parents are converts from 2003 and recently their 11 year old daughter got baptized, so the three of them are going to be sealed. The husband, M wanted to have a little reception and everything to celebrate. They are about to celebrate 25 years of being married as well, so it was a grand celebration. The Latin receptions are a little different seeing as their first concern for decorations were the colors of the balloons, but in the end it was a great little party. We had a little ceremony to start in the sacrament room and the couple were able to share their testimonies. Then the four of us missionaries sang "When Theres Love at Home". We sang in english and spanish to try to disguise our voices, but I think overall it turned out well. Then we went into the cultural hall to eat and dance. 

 I was in charge of the table decorations and found some sticks while prosyleting. Not sure the rustic sticks go with balloons, but whatever hahaha. 

 The four missionaries with the couple!

First dance? Probably not, but it was cute:)

It was fun to be able to do lots of service and the M's were so happy. They have made a lot of progress since first getting to know the missionaries in 2003 and it was exciting seeing their joy at the thought of being married for time and all eternity. Thursday night the branch is driving down to Santiago for a branch temple day and the M family will be sealed! Its amazing

We still havent been able to visit E. She had to do some paperwork in Copiapo and should return tomorrow. We have been calling her to see how she has been, so we havent lost contact. Y and Mand E are doing great! They continue to read the book of mormon and want to attend church. This past week of course the little boy got sick and again they werent able to attend. (I dont like oppostition!!!!) However, we are being patient and they are very receptive. E returns from his work shift tomorrow, so we are going to go and teach the whole family again this week. We also found a really great new investigator, "I". Her neice is a member in Copiapo and she has attended church a few times there. We had our first lesson and one of her cousins was there with her. The lesson of the restoration went really well and the spirit was very strong. We invited them both to be baptized, and they are going to pray for an answer. We are meeting so many great people here.  

Oh by the way transfers were Saturday and my companion and I are staying together here in Caldera! We have dedicated this transfer to be a transfer of change. We are going to be missionaries on fire! Talking with everyone, teaching with power and authority, and developing those attributes that we want to see in ourselves. I am thrilled with the idea of growth. I was thinking about the time I have been in the mission. Everything is flying by so fast and I still have various things that I want to see, in myself and others. Caldera may be a hard sector for baptisms, but I can still be progressing personally. We are putting all that we have into this transfer!

  Today we decided to go on an adventure and walk to the Caldera´s light house. We have never seen the lighthouse because its in a little hidden cove, but some members gave us vague instructions and we took off. It was quite the adventure walking more or less aimless next to the highway. We kept thinking that maybe the lighthouse doesnt exist since we have never seen it, but the few times we asked people along the way they affirmed that if we keep going we would find it. At last, probably 4 or 5 miles from our house the lighthouse came into view.

After walking for about two hours passing barking dogs, heat, and angry workers,  this little bity thing was on the horizon.

 When I saw I shouted with joy, " there it is!". My companion, obviously tired from walking said irritatedly, "Thats it!!! Uhhh I thought it was going to be something important". She had never seen a lighthouse before, and even I had imagined something a bit bigger. But we had walked so long that I wasnt going to turn around. 

We finally arrived and had a good laugh. It was a cute little lighthouse and had a great view of the ocean and part of Caldera. 

In the end we had a good adventure and a long walk home, but at least we know that the lighthouse does exist! Hahah

I love you guys and hope you enjoy Bailee´s birthday!

Hermana Biggs

Sometimes Life Is Hard

This week went well. We weren't able to get a hold of "E". She had gone to her beach house for the week, and forgot about our appointment. It was really disappointing to hear and even more disappointing that she couldn't come to church with us on Sunday because she was still out of town. However, we have been praying for her and know that she will be able to progress when she returns. We have another awesome family of four. E, Y, M and D. E and Y are not married, but they have been reading the Book of Mormon together. M is 10 and also is reading, but D is only three. They are a super sweet family that we have started to visit, and we are really excited for them. The only obstacle is that E and Y´s relationship is relatively new and they both have children with different partners (Mand D are Y children), so they want to make sure that the children are comfortable and accepting. E has already asked to marry Y ten times, she says, but they are working on getting to know the children and everything. This week, they too went out of town for the weekend, and couldn't attend church, but we have had some great lessons with members and they are too sweet. 

Wednesday was a great day. We were on fire. We had tons of visits and contacts and references and even new investigators. It was awesome and really got us pumped to finish the week with great success. However, after all of Wednesday´s success, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were difficult. We had two lessons each day and every reference that we tried to contact wasn't home. We walked for hours and hours and then decided to visit members. 

I always joke that when we have to work in the street all day and our appointments fall through that Heavenly Father is just telling us that we need to do extra exercise because we are getting fat, but it is hard to have several of those days in a row. I was getting more and more disappointed as Sunday rolled around and then found out that none of our investigators were going to come to church. I'ts hard to work day after day like that. I wish I could say that Sunday was all better and that an invesitgator showed up unexpectedly or that we had great success, but sometimes that's just not what the week has planned for us. Somedays things are just bad; My companion drives me crazy, an investigator doesnt want to listen anymore, no street contact is receptive. And then it doesn't just get better all of a sudden, and everything is sunshine and roses. 

I think, what I have learned more than anything in this transfer in Caldera is that life is tough. Whether your'e a missionary, a mom, a single, young, old whoever you are, life is tough. We are given challenges that we dont expect, dont want, and sometimes cant handle. But I know that what Mormon wrote is true, ¨God has not ceased to be a God of miracles¨. In all of the difficult days I still have not stopped seeing the miracles that Heavenly Father performs for me and those around me. I see His hand everyday, and I know that some of my weakest moments are when I am closest to Him. I know He loves me; I know He loves you. Never stop seeing His hand in your lives. 

I love you guys. 

Hermana Biggs