Don't let the bedbugs bite!!!

Good Morning world!

I heard its pretty cold right now in the states. Maybe you should all come visit Chile for a bit. We for sure have some heat and sun to share!

I will be honest. This week was probably the hardest yet on my mission. I thought nothing could beat my first few weeks here in Chile, but apparently there are harder things than first week culture and food shock, exhaustion and no communication skills. haha But that will have to be a story for another time. 

First of all...Happy Birthday Caleb!! I cant believe my little munchkin is 9 years old! I remember going to the hospital to pick you up- like two days ago. I arrived mad. Mad that you were a boy (and not the 3rd sister I wanted) and that dad had named you Caleb...completely disregarding that I had already picked out two very fine names for you (Lancer and Dasher). I held you and you looked like a little red monkey. But then you opened your eyes and they were so blue and big and clear. And I fell in love. So in love that I willingly changed every diaper of yours and held you in the middle of the night when mom just wanted to let you cry. And now that you are nine years old you can accompnay the missionaries every day! And read the whole Bible and Book of Mormon. Go ahead and start War and Peace too! 

Okay..enough about that. One day my companion pulled out a primary hymn book she had kept hidden for way too long. We were all so excited to sing a primary song...it felt just like Christmas!! At first we all just sang one..but then we each had to sing our favorite and then our second and third and fourth favorites. 50 favorites later we had finished the whole book! 

Just dont take your primary hymn books for granted. Those things are gold! 

So I didnt write about our beach activity last week. I will go ahead and mention a few things about that now. We went to this really precious coastal little town and hiked for about two hours to this hidden beach. On the way we saw some...I`m not going to spell this write....tarantulas? However you spell it...they were in all the bushes and crawling everywhere. The elders were all catching them and holding them and I was just trying to breathe and not faint. Then I looked behind me and who was holding one of those awful awful things? MY COMPANION!! I felt so betrayed. I also couldnt touch her for a few days. 

Eventually we came to a part in the trail where we had to walk through this huge dark tunnel. It went on for about 20 mins and was pitch black. It was pretty silent except for the elders who kept trying to scare us....and for the sound of huge spiders crawling all over the walls. It was like a nightmare. But...I survived! I survived one of my worst nightmares! I was very proud. 

A few nights ago we had a little scare. I will only tell this story if mom promises to stay calm. 

So we were in our apartment about ready to get into bed..when we had a knock at our door. We were a little surprised as to who would be knocking at our door at 11:30 at night (very few know where we live too). So we looked out our peephole and saw a nice strong man with some sort of mask on or something. I wont go into too many details....but we were all pretty scared. There was some yelling. More knocking...and banging. And bla bla bla. Long story short we piled our heavy metal bunkbeds against our front door and went and slept in the back room. Well...kind of slept haha. Eventually the police and others came and gathered the man. We happen to live across the street from the largest jail in Chile and sometimes things happen. Luckily since we are missionaries we are always protected!! Right mom? 

This last week we had some big cumplemeses in our house. Or monthly anniversaries. We celebrated in the best way possible...with food! (No that is not just your imagination in the pictures...my face really IS that much more chubbier). Anyways, since Hermana Tejerina celebrated 9 months she had to do the tradition of burning a skirt. But where does one burn something as large as a skirt? Not in the microwave? Not on the stove? Not with matches in the bathtub? No...there are some men that love to start fires in the field next to us. Just bonfires. So one night as we are trying to contact one of these men..out of no where comes Hermana Tejerina with a skirt and interupts our lesson with questions of how she can burn her skirt in his fire. A couple indian chants later her skirt was ashes. 

Our cute little family finally came to church this sunday! It was fast sunday and both Alejandro and Patricia surprised us by getting up and talking about their love of the church all ready....and all the changes they have experienced in the last month. And it was so sweet and sincere and wonderful...and me and my companion just sat there and tried to not completely lose it. Even their little 3 year old said something! Pray for my little family! They need prayers!

I have been thinking....there are few things that are worse than losing your respect and confidence in those you respect and love most. This mission thing is millions of miles away from anything I expected it would be. It is a billion times better....yet there are also things that have happened that I really never thought I would have to deal with here. Some of these things have kind of slapped me in the face this week. But I have learned some very important things. The first is that Satan will do everything he can do to stop this work. And we must be so strong. So very very strong. Any weakness has to be fortified. We are all fighting in this war together. Whether we want to be involved or not..we are on a team. And we fight and drag others with us one way or the other every day. We have so much influence, we have so much responsibility and we have so much power. And we HAVE to realize that and we HAVE to use that for good. And when we think our actions (even the tiny secret ones) dont matter....the results are devastating. The grerat ploy of Satan is to display such blatant evil that one could almost believe ones own secret sins dont matter. But they do! And as our world gets darker...we must move in the COMPLETE opposite direction and get lighter! EVERY thought and action of ours affects others for miles and miles. 

I know agency is essential...and I am so grateful for it. But sometimes I just want to take it away from people! Its truly heartbreaking to see others use their agency unwisely. 

God loves His children. Every one. And he wants all of them to return to Him. Help others find their way back to Him. We cant just stand here. We have to move forward or we will move backward. 

"There must be commitment. There must be devotion. We are winning. We will continue to win if we will be faithful and true. We CAN do it. We MUST do it. We WILL do it. There is nothing our Lord has asked of us in faith we cannot accomplish. Shall we not also in faith move forward? May we be faithful. May we be valient. May we have the courage to be true to the trust God has placed in each of us. May we be unafraid." Gordon Hinckley. 

If only we could all realize our potential. It is so great. 

Love you all! I promise next weeks letter will only be happy happy happy!

Oh....does anyone know how to get rid of bedbugs? I guess my blood is irresistible. 

Pictures..me and my companion with a sign for mi papi (her boyfriend)

Have a wonderful week!!

Hermana Orchard

I gave Hermana Tejerina a poster of Justin Bieber for her cumplemes. She really loves it.