Week 20-December 15, 2014

Week 20-December 15, 2014

how is everyone?

anyway my week was good. tons of singing christmas hymns to contact and using the video ¨´he is the gift´´ (el es la dadiva- if you guys havent seen it, look it up! its fantastic!).ive never sung so much in my life...haha but tons of new investigators!! still having trouble getting people to church though..

also there is so much fruit in the streets! haha there are trees of cherries, apricots, peaches, and BOYSENBERRYS! in the street. we just walk around eating fresh fruit all day off the trees..its the best!

we also had interviews with the president this week and Hna Flores is a sister leader (like a zone leader but for sisters)  so we had to do divisions, too. so i was in a different sector on thursday but its fun to get to know the other hermanas and their sectors! the hermana i was with is in her second week in the mission and is from brasil.  

also mom can you send me a recipe for cinnamon rolls? hna flores wants to try some :)

also cant wait to talk with you guys for christmas!

love and miss you all and hope all is well!!

i just barely got this and my time is up and i gotta go but i scanned it and sounds like everyone is doing well!!! ill read more and respond more next week! love and miss you all!! we live near Arauco Maipu (a mall) on the street Americo Vespucio in Maipu (pajaritos in particular)

love and miss you all!

Ashley with Hermana Flores (2nd companion)

Mission Christmas Lunch

Week 19-December 8, 2014

Week 19-December 8, 2014

wow sounds like a good week as always, haha tell benjamin i miss him too!!! 

and glad lydia is healthy and natalie is a great teacher for YW and that mandy is still a super star in all her activities :P 

 my week was awesome :) Hermana Flores is fantastic. she seriously is awesome. super fun to be with, we are already friends and she is super funny and super patient with my spanish and the spanish 24/7 thing is awesome for me. i feel like im improving tons.she doesnt speak any english but because she is from honduras her spanish is more clear and slow than chilenos. basically every other spanish is easier than chileno. haha  i can understand everyone now except young men haha and i can say most of the things i want to say, its just still a little choppy in grammar and sounding natural i think lol but its all good.

also funny story for dad, we are doing practicas of interrupting now because hna flores is super good at interrupting chilenos and i am not haha but its completely necessary here and not offensive like in the states haha. these people just talk and talk and talk and if you want to teach you just have to jump in and take control haha but i told hna flores that you had always taught us not to interrupt and we laughed about how when i get home you may have to retrain me not to interrupt...

we may have also contacted a couple of drug dealers this week, one who was named Fu, so that was fun :P

also i am learning that missionaries are very annoying but its a good thing :P its the funniest thing to wake someone up for church and they are mad at you and then a half hour later when they are in the chapel they are teasing you and worried about how they saw you walking with some sketchy guy in the street. its our JOB to be super annoying and not leave people alone. haha hna flores even told off an old man yesterday because he said he didnt have time to share with us but his wife just died so she said that NO this was not just a product we were selling, it was his salvation and that YES we were going to come back and teach him the plan of salvation and if he listens and reads the pamphlet and doesnt feel anything we will ¨´leave him in peace´ but not until he gives us a chance. lol he was like ´then you will leave me in peace?´¨ haha it was super funny but you could see in his eyes that he understood that we cared about him and he wasnt mad. i learned that i need to be persistent because that way the people see how important our message is and know that we care...  anyway all is well and cant wait for christmas! and ya maybe ill be home for the next one! and to answer moms questions..

yes we eat with members every day. our bishop is fantastic and our ward is huge (200 people yesterday in church). the primary is like 30 kids or something and they bless babies every week haha and ya there are members that we know better than others or who work with us the most or who make us pumpkin pie for thanksgiving and we stop by their house all the time to use the bathroom :P i think because there are so many missionaries in the ward and everyone is a convert (the church has only been here for like 50 years), the people know and are connected to the missionaries much more. its totally different than our ward where we sometimes knew who the missionaries were but we never really talked to them and we only ate with them like once a month. but anyway, im doing well :) miss and love you all!! can we skype chirstmas day or is another day better? and no i havent gotten the small package yet..

love,

ashley

haha i still have a stocking! haha and you have pictures up of me?? haha also i really wanted to send you guys a nativity from here, there are some really pretty ones here and hna osterloh bought a couple for her family, but i will have to bring one home next year..

soooo we recorded a video this morning singing for you in spanish and everything but the computer wont let my camera work so we cant send it :( and now i have like no time left..but know that i love you and will be thinking of you and hope you have a fantastic birthday!! thanks for all your love and support always and your fantastic example for me all my life..you are amazing. love you tons!!!

Week 18-December 1, 2014

Week 18-December 1, 2014

wow sounds like a busy and fun week!!! lots of thanksgiving stuff and more soccer and taylor being home :) glad to hear it was so good for everyone :)

this week was crazy for us, it was hna osterlohs last week so she had to go do stuff for her visa, classes to get a job when she gets back, her farewells and such, so basically the week was a blur of divisiones and such. but i got to go with her to visit her former sectors saturday, which i was super excited about because we got to visit the coast!!! it was raining so basically we just drove to the beach, took a picture, visited one family and left , but i was thrilled to see the beach!! ill try to send pics next week..

friday we said goodbye to people in our sector and basically everyone gave us food lol they say if you come home fat its because the people loved you :P but it could be true because we got a lunch of all of hna osterlohs favorite chilean foods from Sara (our investigator) and then pizza from a menos activo family and then Hno Borquez, our other recently reactivated member, made us french toast because i guess some gringo elders taught him how and nobody makes it here :P it was a lot of food but was fun to feel the love from so many people here. i think that really is a huge blessing of a mission, you get to personally get to know so many people and the people here are so loving..its the best :) then sunday the 8 yr old daughter of our menos activo family that we have been working with got baptized :) it was a great way to end hna osterlohs mission ..

but today we had the change meeting and i was super nervous about hna osterloh leaving but my new companion seems super nice, so we will see what happens .we were just really happy our sector didnt get white-washed (when both missionaries get replaced by new missionaries). her name is Hermana Flores from Honduras. i will send pictures when hna osterloh emails me them ...anyway, it was a good week, just kind of crazy, so it will be good to get back into the regular groove of things this week..

love you all and miss you tons!!!

also i got your package!!! the big one! should i open it or wait for christmas?! :)

Week 17--November 24, 2014

Week 17--November 24, 2014

sounds like everyone is doing well ! :) glad to hear it!!!

and sounds like lydia is going to be a professional singer! congrats ! :P

and congrats to BJ on the reflections contest and what is IGC gymnastics?
and wow dad that sounds like a super successful conference! so glad it went well! and interesting point with the scripture..i think that is something i struggle with. i need more love for the people and need to think less about the numbers (which is hard when the mission is CONSTANTLY asking about the numbers and such). sometimes when i get frustrated i just go into contacting mode and contact everyone so that i feel like at least we will have done a lot of contacts, but they arent very meaningful at that point because they are just numbers in my mind. but im working on it and praying for love..also its hard to stay focused on our purpose and why people actually need our message in particular when everyone is already so religious. the biggest challenge is to help people actually understand why our church is different and that we arent just there to talk for hours about God. but its all good :) i think its a good learning experience for me haha

and congrats to hilary miller, is emily engaged yet? and to Cindy too!! thats exciting!

and we have a member that promised to make us pumpkin pie for thanksgiving so we are excited for that! this week is going to be kind of crazy since hna osterloh is leaving, we have to do lots of divisions for her to go to the temple and such and do visa stuff all day tomorrow. this last week was better, we had another investigator at church so that was awesome! hopefully something more will happen with her!! we also helped a new inactive family come to church sunday which was exciting! all is well and i will send pics this week :) love and miss you all!

sunsets are the best here, also sunrises..the view from our apt again..

last pday at the park for a bbq with our zone. our fanny packs :P

Week 16-November 17, 2014

Week 16-November 17, 2014

haha it was fun to read everyones emails :)

also THANK YOU for the package!!!! super fun to get!!!! also tell benjamin i did his puzzles and loved them! i took pictures but cant send them :/

my week was good, although a little frustrating too. tuesday we found 5 new investigators (three of which was a family who seemed super awesome) but then the rest of the week wasnt as great... on sunday after calling and visitng tons of poeple and doing everything we could think of to get people to church, everyone canceled on us. it was tough and we were both on the verge of a breakdown basically the entire time during church but we had a recently reactivated man there who bore his testimony in sundayschool about how he could feel the Spirit every time we passed by and so that helped me feel better because preach my gospel says a successful misionary is one who through whom others can feel the Spirit, so as long as someone can feel the Spirit through us, we cant be complete failures..lol its just hard because the elders are finding all knds of people and it makes us feel like we are doing something wrong. but we decided we just need to keep being obedient and patient and have faith and keep working hard :) so all is well

anyway funny fact of the week, ¨"whats up" is literally a verb here! lol i cant even take people seriously when they say it. they use it as a spanish verb to describe using social media (any kind) basically. lol so they will say things like "esta wassupando?" or "ustedes tienen wassup?" lol super funny..

oh also we found boysenberry trees in our sector the other day! super yummy ! haha

anyway yes i finished the book of mormon in time :) and i was thinking the other day about my experience with missionary for a day and was thinking how it wasnt that fun and i was terrified of tracting and how actually being a missionary is completely different. i have absolutely no fear of knocking doors and its totally different when you are teaching and contacting people you are actually going to see again and when its your life. missionary for a day and accompaning the missionaries is nothing like the real thing,...

but love and miss you all! have a great week!

Week 15--November 10, 2014

Week 15--November 10, 2014

sounds like everyone is doing well!! congrats mandy on her medals at state!!! and good job at all the soccer games everyone :)

and dad, i get 1 hr and 15 min to email on pday and ya taylor and taylor and emily and some other people write every week too. its great to feel loved :) haha we will see how long it lasts..

and mom, yes im super tan  i get burnt every day i have tan lines everywear and i wear 60 spf sunscreen on my face and still every day at least one person tells me i look burnt ..this week i also got asked if im chilean and someone joked that i almost look Haitian (there are lots of them here haha).

no i havent gotten the papers you sent yet, maybe this wed  we only get mail every other wed

ya christie is doing well :) working and doing BYUI online

This week the biggest news was that we had a conference on sat with Elder Nelson!! super cool. He shook hands with every one of the 500 missionaries there and his talk and his wifes talk and the other couples that were there were amazing!! i felt the Spirit super strong as soon as he walked in the room and he talked about our role in gathering the house of Israel in the last days and such with a ton of interesting facts and knowledge about the topic....super interesting..

haha funny story. while contacting thursday we knocked on a door and a woman answered and we introduced ourselves as always and talked about our beliefs and such and asked her if she had shared with missionaries before (tons of people have) and she immediately said that No and that she didnt like our church.(usually people just say they are already Catholic and therefore already have faith in Chirst and all religions are really the same) We asked why and was there something in particular that she didnt like? She responded ¨"ustedes son extranjeros, no puedo entenderles¨" lol of all the things to turn down salvation for lol just because the missionaries have accents...lol we died of laughter afterwards. my plan is to go back next month when i have a latina companion and see what she says :P we meet the funniest people contacting sometimes..its the best lol

anyway, it wasnt the most successful week ever but next week will be better and i refuse to wear the 100 dollar ecco shoes i bought anymore (i spent an entire day in them walking around and got so many blisters and my feet were so sore...it was the worst) haha ...oh well. it was a good week though :)

love and miss you all! was going to send pictures but we are on a diff comp this week and so i cant figure out how to work it...next week i will

love love love,

ashley

Week 14-November 3, 2014

Week 14-November 3, 2014

hey everyone!

loved hearing about everyones week :)

sounds like everybody is killing it in all their activities..

how did state go for gymnastics?!

here goes for moms questions..

for breakfast this week we have made eggs with spinach and onion every morning, or yogurt.

for Pday we go to the mall to use internet and get groceries and meet up with other sisters sometimes, or we have zone activities, or today we are at estacion central  (a lot like down town LA or something) to buy souveniers for Hna osterloh and a fanny pack for me :P theyre all the style here and a lot better than a big backpack ;)

yes there are tons of little kids,. we blessed two babies this sunday. but i dont think they have as many kids as american morman families because they think our families (6 kids and 8 kids) are huge..most have like 2_4

i like both, i have more time to read and respond to real letters but i can only get them every two weeks and sometimes i cant always go send letters back on Pday, so emails are the best for hearing from everyone every week. but letters are fun too :) 

haah ill have to send another spanish one for you to work on ;)

as for dad´s questions, 

the cold water is extra motivation to run every morning, so we usually are at least a little warm when we get in :P

and ya i think the divorce process can be long and complicated, so they are both still in that process..

i literally busted up and told my companion about your laser pointer idea..lol im sure you at least scared all the neighbors by convincing them that you are crazy ;) lol just kidding, its actually a fantastic idea haha if we have a tree house in the front now we might as well use it right? 

haha taylor emails me every week like he promised :P maybe i get to hear more from him than you guys! haha does he call you guys every sunday or anything? is he still using my phone?

My week:

this week was good. even better with new investigators! we found 9!! but we fasted yesterday to find a family to baptize before Hna Osterloh leaves..we will see what happens.

monday we found the daughters of one of our investigators and they both grew up in new jersey for a few years so they speak english and so we tried to speak in english with them but as soon as we started teaching and testifying, we had to give up lol its so hard to teach in english what i only learned to teach in spanish! and i havent talked about the gospel in english in a while! haha Hna osterloh is worried about her homecoming talk because she has forgotten all the gospel terms in english :P

We learned how to make Chilean bread on wednesday with one of our menos activos and it was super fun. its basically the same as regular bread but in a different shape.. but made me think about how you only get to have experiences like that on a mission. tourists dont get to speak spanish and have someone teach them how to make bread and listen to spanish music. i was grateful to get to be here on a mission :) 

Halloween was fun also! they just barely started celebrating it here, so its not very big yet but the glowsticks mom sent in my first package were perfect to give out and contact with!

saturday one of our menos activos families who we had been trying to track down and visit with the mom´s visiting teacher (we have visited them before and their kids just got baptized in the last year) texted us and said they didnt want us to come or call anymore. that we were bugging them. it was just the mom, im pretty sure the kids still like us, but it was out of nowhere and it kind of ruined out morning. rejection from contacts is one thing but rejection from someone you know well and such is a lot harder..the rest of the morning we had investigators who told us they didnt really want more and such and so it was a hard morning. but we are good now:)  we also realized why missionaries study for so many hours every morning.. we talk to so many people every day with questions and doubts and who tell us we have been tricked by the bishop or such into believing that we need strong testimonies to not be shaken by it all. but my testimony has definitely only grown. 

also we had an investigator in church yesterday who smokes and he smelled super strongly of smoke in the chapel and it made me think of the quote by a general authority or someone who said that the best smell at church is cigarette smoke because it means someone is trying to change/repent ..haha  unfortunately he still has a lot of doubts and questions to overcome so i dont know if he will be baptized anytime soon but he listening, so we will see what happens.

anyway, it was a good week. love and miss you all!!!

"Halloween with the glow bracelets you sent-we gave them out while contacting"