Tuesday, February 24, 2015

A Sprouted Seed!

This week went alright. We didnt get as much work done as I would have liked, but the bright side is that this is the last week of summer here. That means that everyone is going to be returning from their stays on the beach and we can have a normal attendence and a lot of our supposed invesitgators will be here. Every missionary in this mission celebrates when summer ends. We can work normally again!

"J" had a baptismal date for the 28th, but that would mean that she would have had to have had her interview on Saturday. She doesnt feel that she is ready yet though. However, I think she just doesn't realize it. She sees the changes; she is friends with the branch, and has such a sweet willing spirit. Hoepfully this week we can help a little more to find out her concerns. She is super great and progressing really well still though. 
 
Well, I have felt that much of my mission has been "planting seeds" as they say, and to be honest that can get a little lame. However, one special seed has sprouted!............................... "J" from my last area is going to be baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!! All of those months of falls and struggles and work and she had her interview last week with the misison president. Hna Crum is super excited for her and they hope that she continues on strong. I was so filled with joy to hear that she is making those changes and that now finally she is ready for this great step. I am so happy for her. Her testimony will be a great addition to the church. 

Well, I hope you guys have a great week. Love you guys!

Hna Biggs

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Putting God First!

This week went pretty well. We are continuing to work with "J"and things are great. This week she went to a branch family home evening in addition to church and loved it. She was also super bummed that she couldn't come to our Valentines activity because she was working. She loves coming to church. She feels a lot of peace and happiness there. Today we spent our p day with her on the boardwalk. We finished up by going out to lunch! It was delicious and super fun! This week we have to really see that she receives an answer and wants to be baptized on the 28th. We are super excited. 

"M" is another story. She started attending another church and is really struggling with her depression. We watched a Mormon Message "The hearts of men are failing" and she was crying by the end. It was a great lesson, but I think that her depression is really interfering with the spirit. She has an appointment at the end of the month with the psychologist and is on break from work until then. Hopefully they will be able to help her get herself back. Until then we are doing what we can to keep her happy and knowing that she has a purpose here on earth. 

This week my companion and I were talking about different attributes that we want to develop in ourselves. She talked about a lesson that her mission prep teacher gave before her mission. She said that he had everyone write a list of the most important people in their lives. Many people listed family, friends, God, boyfriends, leaders etc.  He had a few people share their list and the order of importance that each of these people had. He then taught that God always has to be number one. In all of our decisions and actions, Heavenly Father has to be the first one that we think of. What would He want us to do. The other people on the list may lead us astray or even just have us make a good decision, but God always inspires to do the best thing. He has to be number one. 

I really liked that lesson. We have to trust so much in Him that we are always willing to do His will. I don't know that I had really thought of that before. I mean to some extent obviously yes, but if we examined every grand decision that we have taken and ranked who had the greatest influence, I think for myself at least, God wouldn't always be the first on the list. I thought that that would be a good attribute to work on developing, really being able to let Heavenly Father take the reins in everything. Hopefully, I can develop that especially with all of the random decisions I will be facing here in a few months. Yikes! Hahah jk. 

I love you guys and always have you all in my prayers. Put God first in all of your decisions!

Hna Biggs
 Getting my shoes shined in Copiapo.  It felt like a mini foot massage and I desperately needed that!
My companion and I at the mission office for Leadership counsel. Love the hair? Apparently thats my natural hair now..... yikes
 The end of the boardwalk. 

Eating fish on the pier! Hna. Arenas with "J" and typical Chilean dishes of fried fish with french fries, sauteed onions and a fried egg, and rice. Pure health!

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Tell Me What You Did This Week In Five Minutes Or Less... Go!

Hey,  I dont have much time today. 
This week went by pretty quickly. We did a lot of traveling and I went to my first leadership counsel. It was a lot fun, plus I got to see like all the sisters that I started out with at the MTC. The day was a little long, but we learned lots of fun stuff. Today we had our zone meeting and Hna. Arenas and I had to share part of the conference with the zone. 

This week hopefully we will be able to put a baptismal date with "J" and "M". We are going to be doing exchanges with the sisters in our zone, so that will be exciting as well. I love you guys and hope you have a great week. Good luck at Schepfs!

Hna. Biggs



Family home evening that we did last night.

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Johnny Lingo!

Well, just so you know, the mission office called me today to ask me which airport I would like to arrive to when I go home. Talk about a crazy call. Both my companion and I had a good yell to tell him that we still have a lot of time and that he shouldn't be calling so soon. It appears he gets that a bunch. I should be home on the 15th of July,  although I haven't received my itinerary or anything (they postpone that for a bit, so we don't get too distracted) but that's just how the mission works. 

Transfer Saturday is on July 11th. I go to Antofagasta for final interviews with the President on Sunday night. Monday night, we all fly to Santiago; we enter in the temple for the first time in forever and then Tuesday afternoon we are taken to the airport and all of the gringos get home on Wednesday. That's the long dying process that the mission has planned for us:)

This week was awesome. Hna Arenas anad I are getting along super well and are meeting so many people. Again, I come to a sector where we only have 4 investigators and nobody is progressing, but this week we found 5! We were super excited. We met one investigator and she is seriously amazing. Her name is "J" and she's an immigrant from Bolivia and 21. She had gone to a few church activities in Bolivia with a friend and liked the atmosphere. Luckily, we had an activity this week, so we invited her. We were able to visit with her almost everyday, which was great. She came to the activity and then on Sunday came to church alone. She really felt the spirit in the classes and says she is going to start coming every week. The members even welcomed her really well. One hermano gave her work for a few days (since she was looking) and the relief society invited her to their weekly activities. "J' is so great and fun. We hope to continue to see her progress toward her baptismal date. We are excited!

The activity we had was also super great. We did a Hawaiian night. It basically consisted of us playing games, watching Johnny Lingo, and then it was finished off with a BBQ. It was a ton of fun. About 30 people came out ( not bad for being a smaller town and summer) so we were pleased. Even some of our less actives came, and to be honest I think more nonmembers came then members. It was a ton of fun! 

I am super excited for this sector. Its so pretty and again there are so many people that need to hear the gospel here. Plus we have a great group of 6 missionaries all working for one branch, so its going to be great!

I love you guys. Keep up all of the house renovations hahaha!