Week 50 - " Tamara pulled me and Hermana Jerez to the side of the cultural salon and told us to guess what her mama had just finished telling her. I didn't say anything, but immediately knew from the feeling of my stomach being pulled by gravity toward the center of the earth, as Monica told us she is ready. She started to tear up as she told us how she felt and how she wants to be a part of the Church."

July 14, 2014

You know, when you are on the mision, you discover many new things. If you don't believe me, serve a mision, I tell you. It is incredible the amount of things you realize, who you come to admire and love and what changes about yourself and the people around you as you become a servant and disciple of Jesus Christ. You come to appreciate the love and TLC that goes into every meal cooked by your mother. You appreciate your country and all the customs that come in that special package. You realize the importance and reality of your eternal family. You come to see your investigadores, menos activos and other members as your children and family. Things you didn't care for or didn't have importance before become the most important in life. The people you find and teach, although they may reject and hate and dispise you, you find a special way to love and cherish them (even the crazy drunks in the street that yell at you and hit sticks together and follow you around). The true and esential love that Christ demonstrated is not easy to find and apply, but it is possible. And many other crazy things that would never cross your mind as important or significative.

I don't remember mentioning in my earlier reports about Monica, the mama of Tamara, but something really incredible happened with her so I must tell. She told us around a month ago that she was thinking about baptism, but wasn't going to seriously consider it until she received her answer. Well, we've been teaching Tamara more than anything while we go to their house and letting her sit and stew with her emotions and thoughts for a bit. And God works in very interesting and mysterious ways. Yesterday, we had a wonderful Ward Conference where the bishop taught of Apressuring the Work of Salvacion. He compared it beautifully to bees and a beehive. It was really very beautiful and we each received a little glass bottle of fake honey. A little girl called Antonia opened it up to taste it and we all laughed when we heard her groan of disgust. Well, usually after the sacrament, Monica leaves to her house and sometimes sticks around for the Principles of the Gospel. But today she decided to stay for all of the three hours. And the class today in the Soc Soc was on the subject of Baptism. Imagine that. Cool how the Spirit works, right? Toward the middle of the class, I was sitting in the back and looked toward the front, I saw Tami take Monica around the shoulders. The teacher of the class is a professor and she explained the essentials very clearly. I felt that if she didn't receive her answer for baptism in this class, she wasn't going to recognize her answer in any time soon. When the class ended, we all met to eat cake. While we waited, while I impatiently bounced on my toes like the Primary child I am, Tamara pulled me and Hermana Jerez to the side of the cultural salon and told us to guess what her mama had just finished telling her. I didn't say anything, but immediately knew from the feeling of my stomach being pulled by gravity toward the center of the earth, as Monica told us she is ready. She started to tear up as she told us how she felt and how she wants to be a part of the Church. She told us that we were right because as a little infant she didn't have the choice to be baptized in the Catholic church. I had been praying so hard that she would feel the necesity to be baptized because hers wasn't valid all this week and God finally answered our prayers in the class in the Soc Soc. Mish! I am animated to be able to be part of the conversion process of their entire family. All we need next is Jaime, the older brother, to listen to our lessons. It is incredible the feeling of love I have for the people here that become the extended part of my eternal family as they accept the principles of the gospel. I feel absolutely aliviated and truly very proud that we didn't need to take any part in her process, but she was completely ready and willing to listen and receive the answer she searched. (the cake was absolutely divine, for those of you curious people. Whipped cream, manjar - basically liquiddy caramel - and spongy cake. Who can ask for more on a wonderful day like that?)

Also, you have never experienced a downpour of rain until you have visited Santiago, Chile in Julio. It is incredible looking out the window of the internet place and seeing the streets literally filling with rain water. People have to invent bridges to cross the streets. It isn't too cold, but maybe it really is and we are just accustomed. The rain drops I believe are the size of my fingertips and they are heavy. The sky is dark and gray and heavy-laden with water. The rain came out of nowhere and it hasn't stopped for 5 hours now. It is a blessing because the last few weeks have been hot and without rain.

Today we celebrated as all the Hermanas of the mision our birthdays. It was fun and entertaining to group together as all the hermanas. All of us in our group got all trunky and happy about the fact that we are going to complete a year in the mision. Sitting on the stage, lying down on our backs and staring up at the ceiling, we remarked on how we have all changed, how we all have gotten fatter but don't realize it because we have all progressed at the same rate, what we were doing exactly a year ago from today. It was very strange to think as I walked around the supermarket that I had been living on my own in Chile, living in my mision, for a year. I feel like I arrived two months ago. It is surreal how time disceptions us. I don't want to grow up so fast. I want time to slow down just enough that I can complete everything I was sent here to accomplish. And for me to be able to breathe a bit before I am sent home.

Before I finish, I must tell you never to let the chapels get dirty. I have never appreciated so much a calendar organized and that works to have families clean the church. It is one of the only things that I really dislike about Chile. Their lack of cleanliness. It is a shame that they are given a church the size they have and they don't respect it or God enough to clean it every once and a while. We, the four misioneries, got sick of the disorden and came this Saturday to clean it after the bishop announced it. Well, out of the almost 90 active members, one showed up to help us four. And it took 4 hours to clean it up. It was very sad and very disgusting. There was a layer of I don't want to know what on the tops of the toilets, ants crawling around the walls of the kitchen, crumbs from what year I'm not sure sitting on the benches in the sacramental. It was a nightmare. I wanted to scream at the members and ask how they could live with the church in that condicion like that for months. So don't let the church get dirty. Take the time every week to clean it and let the spirit of God dwell with you in His house.

I love you all and hope your week is wonderful. I hope that you enjoy your time in the sun.

Hermana Castleton