February 6, 2012

Hola!

Cultural Tidbits:

Chileans do this funny thing that they point with their mouth. For example if they are saying, 'Hey can you pass me that book, over there on the table' they will point with their lips (kind of like a kissy face, but not) in the direction of the book on the table. Its kind of funny, but now I do it too!

And Mayonnaise. It's big here. They put mayonnaise on everything. On potatoes, rice, corn, other vegetables, bread. It's like the butter of Chile.

Frazadas and Disfraces

And here is a funny story for the week. All four of us hermanas sleep in the same bedroom, we have two sets of bunkbeds. I'm sure you can imagine that we talk a bit before we fall asleep...we're women, remember! One of the hermanas said, 'are you guys hot? I'm hot!' (its still fairly warm in the evening, but starts to get a little cold. its actually chilly enough in the middle of the night that I sleep with a fleece blanket and a wool blanket) So I respond, ' No, I've got two blankets!' But in spanish the word for blankets - frazadas and the word for costumes - disfraces always get confused in my head. So what I said was 'No, I've got two costumes!' The hermanas died laughing. And now we always chuckle when we talk about blankets. And I still confuse frazada and disfraces:0

A trial of our faith

These past two weeks have been a little bit of a trial of our faith (me and my companion). One day we walked all over the place, knocking on doors and trying to visit people, and we did not enter into one house to teach! Not one! From 3:30p to 10:00p we walked around knocking doors in 95 degree weather. At the end of the day, we just laughed...did that really just happen? That's not normal for us. Usually we are able to teach at least 3 or 4 people, at least, during the day. So we have been evaluating, maybe we need to do  something different...and we've been plugging forward. We will not be deterred by our seemingly unproductive days! For me when everything seems to be going wrong, and all of our appointments fall through, and no one wants to talk to us, I always think that something good is on the horizon.

In Mosiah 23:21-22 it says 'Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea, he trieth their patience and their faith. Nevertheless—whosoever putteth his trust in him the same shall be lifted up at the last day. Yea, and thus it was with this people.'

And thus it is with us here in the mission.

And in our lives in general. We will always have a trial of our faith and if we remain faithful, patient, and diligent, we will see miracles and great blessings.

For me it is so much easier to perserver in the face of trials when I know that it is a test. For example, when it is 6:30pm, 90 degrees outside, all of our plans have gone kaput and we are knocking door after door hoping someone will want to hear our message we could say, 'Why is this happening? What did we do to deserve this?' or we could say, 'This day was destined to be an unproductive day, there's nothing we can do about it.' But when we look at the bigger picture and realize that this is a trial of our faith and diligence it is easier to say, 'yeah lets go, lets show how strong is our faith. where will we go next? let's dominate this test. we won't be deterred from our purpose!'

The next time you get that feeling like the whole world is crumbling, or all of your best laid plans are falling apart, look for the ways in which you can show your faithfullness, because most likely it's a test! And we were sent here to succeed, we were sent here to pass the tests of life! And the thing is that if we respond to these tests or our faith and patience remaining stedfast and immovable in our faith in Christ, we will be stronger and wiser because of it!

I love you! Thank you for all your love and support and prayers!

Hermana Bowns