Week 49-July 6, 2015

Week 49-July 6, 2015

wow so now im learning i really dont have time to read all the emails when taylor is also writing a bunch :P so now i will just write and print out your emails to read afterwards. but congrats mandy in nationals!!!! wow!!!! 

also im doing to sacrifice a lot of time on this complicated computer to send pics so sorry if i cant write a ton.-..hopefully youll enjoy the pics ..haha

anyway this week was the final of the Copa America so we had to be in the house a ton saturday because all of chile had a party all day until sunday in the morning ...haha but it was super fun. lots of bbqs and honking and such. and lots of things that make the noise of fireworks but not the fire..haha on the fourth of july. that part was a bummer, but at least it sounded like fireworks haha we have had to be in the house early every time chile played..even people who dont like football would watch it. pretty awesome haha

but even after partying all night, lots of people came to church sunday and we had an awesome meeting with all the ward councils and pres barreiros in the evening and it turned out super well. sometimes it feels like there is so much to do and we are the only ones working, but the meeting really showed how determined the leaders are too and that we are really all working together, so that was great. 

also we got confirmed again that God answers prayers. so much that we should be careful what we pray for :P we fasted with basically all of chile sunday for rain and when we left lunch of sunday after ending the fast, guess what?..it started to rain.. haha its crazy how good prayer and fasting workes sometimes. ive just learned we have to be specific and grateful in our prayers and God answers, sometimes IMMEDIATELY. haha

also this week we found two new investigators but it was super funny because we went looking for one, taught her, and then she told us her mom wanted us to come over (when her mom told her that during the lesson we have no idea..haha) so we went next door and taught her mom who turns out is a member and her sister, who is awesome and accepted a baptism date and everything! her name is connie. we are excited to see where things go with her :)

also this week i got sick again. not sure from what but spent another night vomiting all night. the nurse thinks its food poisoning again or something. i hope so. i know i said i wanted salmonella or something in the mission to loose weight but im rethinking it now..:P (another prayer God probably is answering...i gotta be more careful :P)

anyway, love you all!! have a great week!

also its crazy to be a missionary and watch how the Spirit works through us to make grown men cry. sometimes we dont even realize it but the Spirit can be there talking to the person or someone listening on the side and helping them feel what God wants them to feel...its crazy. that was another thing i learned this week....

Toddy...my addiction

the sky in the morning..

victoria and her family :) 

he familia Lisana perez. they are the best. they are the ones that make us fried sushi :P

zone activity today

AREPAS. DELICIOUS COLUMBIAN FOOD :) 

he night of the final of the copa america!!! party in the pension with our chile hats :P

Week 48-June 29, 2015

Week 48-June 29, 2015

hey everyone!

sounds like everyone is doing well this week!! sounds like the movie was good and that everyone is enjoying technology and everyone has cell phones now :P thats fun. i learned a lot this week and lots of cool stuff happened here. changes meeting was today but president let us stay together another change and didnt take me out of el manzano :))) super happy about that! also they are putting alarms in our houses now..haha  and the mission is getting alot smaller so they are combining lots of sectors and this change not a single hermana arrived...kinda sad to have less hermanas but the mission is still big. we are super excited to go to the temple this change with victoria and fernanda and jorge, we just are trying to find names for them to baptize...

this week i learned about the chains of Satan a little and why our mission is different from lots of others, especially in south america. we visited a inactive brother who knows TONS of doctrine and i learn from him everytime we go. basically he doesnt go to church because of some stuff that happened to his wife and he chose to stay home with her when she stopped going because they are sealed in the temple and he sees it as a loyalty to her. but anyway, he told us that recently he has started feeling what the BoM describes as the chains of Satan when it talks abou t the feeling of "everythings good in Zion" and a lack of feeling among members. like when it talks about the nephites who rebeled and afterwards were even harder in their hearts than the lamanites becasue they had had so much knowledge before. anyway, he said he has started to not feel anything. things that were important to him before have started to not be important and such. conclusion, he realized that is exactly what Satan does and decided he has to come back and take the sacrament. it was a really interesting lesson becasue its true. our misison here involves a LOT of looking for people who inactivated and who now are even harder hearted than investigators towards the gospel. after making covenants and leaving them, its even harder to return and to feel the Spirit sometimes.also if you made the covenant without even knowing what you were doing.. but anyway, its was an interesting lesson. 

also we had divisions this week and i got to go back to my old sector for a day. it was awesome to see the people there :))) made me feel super lucky to have gotten to be part of the peoples lives there.

also we had a concert sunday that the mission did and lots of the missionaries sang. we had almost a thousand people there and the Spirit was so strong, both Felipe and Jorge who came with us cried :P but Jorge was so excited, he asked me as soon as we left, whens the next one?! unfortunately the next one is for christmas :P but it was awesome. i also got to see more members from my last sector there and that was super fun. we are still helping felipe quit smoking and understand and remember the things we teach, but he is super receptive to the Spirit, so anything can happen. :)

its pretty cold here now and i finally got to buy new tights today so im happy about that :)

anyway, here is my fav scripture for the week. 3 nephi 9:20. what are we willing to sacrifice for the Lord? how are we showing our love for Him and our gratitude for the sacrifice He already did for us? 

but ya, hope everyone has a fantastic week and love and miss you all!!!

btw i dont have rabies so thats good :) and i dont know what i had last week, probably just food poisoning.  we are also having a drought here, so its not just california. also i heard about the supreme court ruling...dang it...

Week 47-June 22, 2015

Week 47-June 22, 2015

haha i feel like now  ill probably write even less because i want to read taylors emails :P 

anyway, sorry i didnt write much last week. i was dying basically. finally my companion made me call the mission nurse after a few days and she got pretty worried because basically the hermana who died in argentina died from dehydration from the same thing so that kind of freaked me out. but its all better now. lots of gatorade and imodium later :P also a dog bit me this week but it was my own fault. its super tiny so we chose not to get the 5 shots you are supposed to get and hopefully i wont get rabies :P haha no but im doing great again. this morning i said i wanted my favorite cookies again (they are literally my addiction here) and hermana arango got excited because it means im back to normal :P it was a crazy week but good. funny story: we NEVER go without food. literallyi feel like Gods pet dog or something because if we are hungry, suddenly food appears. its the funniest thing but one of the blessings of being a missionary i guess, at least in chile :) but anyway, this has happened lots of times with food just appearing and such but the other night we were walking around at night going to a appt and a man who was smoking outside his house all of a sudden said, ay niñas!! ven! . we were pretty startled and we were in the more sketchy part so we both hesitated for a sec but then we  went over to him and he asked if we had eaten anything that night. we said no and he asked if he could give us bread. we said sure, of course and a few minutes later he cam out with sandwiches and apples for us. haha and that was it. then the other night we got to the house and while we were getting ready for bed Beatriz¨s son maxi called outside our house and had freshmade sopaipillas for us. haha they were delicious. being a missionary is the best food wise  :P 

anyway, Felipe is doing well but we are trying to help him move on from concentrating on his past so that he can quit smoking. he is kind of like a little kid in that he forgets things and such but he really wants to do the right thing and has TONS of faith, so we have lots of hope for him. Beatriz is doing well but she  is still waiting on a miracle that marcelo decides he wants to get married someday...men are the worst... we havent gone to the temple yet because we want Jorge to come too and they are still looking for names to bring. Fernanda is doing great and we are pretty sure she is now goiing to get married to our mission leader instead of go on a mission but we will see :P 

also recently our entire ward has been having a lot of problems and everyone in inactivating so now we are visiting lots of ¨flotantes¨or people who dont come to church for a couple weeks or such and we need to go remotivate them. but we have been having lots of success with that and have gotten closer to the members, so thats cool :)

favorite scripture of the week. D&C 18:10-13

HAPPY FATHERS DAY Dad!!!!! you are seriously the best and i dont know who i would be or where i would be without you. i love you TONS hope you had a fantastic day :)

Week 46-June 15, 2015

Week 46-June 15, 2015

hey everyone!  hope everyone else is doing well. this week was good for us, lots of people came to church and we are going to the temple this week with two of our menos activos to do baptisms! i also learned how to make arepas this week (columbian food) so that was awesome. basically im pretty without energy today becasue i spent the whole night throwing up becasue of some ribs someone gave us for lunch yesterday. on e of my worst nightmares was that i would have to throw up in someones house that we were visiting and it happened last night. haha at leaast i was super lucky and no one heard :) but i am  better now. also it is freezing cold here now. hope you guys have a fantastic first week of summer!! love you all!

Week 45-June 8, 2015

Week 45-June 8, 2015

wow sounds like everyone is doing well :) fun to hear about blake. so sorry for kylie :( dont give up on helping her! even if she gets sick of you, keep going! :P also congrats lydia on getting elected VP of chanteurs! and dont worry Natalie, just means you can get even better at everything else, too :P you have so many talents, you dont have time for just one! :P 

anyway, one of the things ive learned here is how to recognize when im feeling the Spirit. also that little kids feel the Spirit way more than everyone else..examples

Antonio (12) ¨me siento libre¨

Javier (6) ¨como Dios estuviera aqui¨¨relajado, casi dormido!¨haha 

Millari (11) ¨me siento protegido¨

Connie (14) ¨siento algo caliente aqui¨(pointing to her heart)

haha one of my favorite parts of being a missionary is when kids tell you things like that without even knowing why they feel that way when we are at their house or at church.

by the way Dad, thanks for your scriptures about the love of God. unfortunately two of them are talking about Christ. the best one was the one in John... :)

also mom, you would love the fruit here. i thought of you sunday when some guy in the street came up to us and just randomly gave us a bunch of fresh, huge, beautiful grapes. also we passed the ferria and turns out a couple investigators were working selling fruit (fresh fresh fresh from the farms) and i got to try pepino (cucumbers but smaller and orange inside and sweet). they were delicious!

also a menos activo this week said he had a gift for reading peoples handwriting, so he read ours and said that my mom is worried, along with other things. haha hope thats not true...

also if mom could do my a quick favor, it would be AWESOME. i just want to make sure my netflix account doesnt still work. could you just try logging onto netflix with my username (ashleyjeanjensen at gmail.com) and password (iluv2dance) and see if it works? thanks..

anyway, this week was great! at church yesterday we had tons of people come! Victoria is going strong to go to the temple (menos activo who FINALLY came to church-miracle) and bore her testimony yesterday, as well as Felipe, the boy we are teaching and who is preparing to get baptized. He talked about how he got thrown out of the house by his dad and then hit by a bus and in a coma and the doctors all thought he would die but he is still here! he has so much faith. also a man the elders contacted and then taught during divisions in our sector (we didnt even know him yet!) came to church. his name is manuel. he is golden...but we think he has to get married so hopefully we can help him with that. Beatriz came to church again. we hadnt been able to find her in weeks because she started working and works until late. when we finally found her, she told us she had been sad because she thought we had abandoned her. she is way stressed out about work and her husband but not husband is being a jerk. 

anyway, it was a good week :) 

love and miss you all!!

have a fantastic last week of school and such!!!

Week 44-June 1, 2015

Week 44-June 1, 2015

wow sounds like taylor leaving was quite the adventure!!! also it is obvious that he will be a lot better at writing than me :P haha but hopefully you guys can forgive me. glad he got to england safely and is doing great!

anyway this week here in chile all kinds of crazy things happenes! haha basically i found out my entire ward is crazy and we also found lots of people with mental problems contacting this week, but they are awesome. one of them, a 20 year old guy who had an accident and as such has a few challenges mentally, mostly just with his memory, is super awesome and came to church this week!! he is totally going to get baptized, we just have to help him remember the stuff he needs to know and help him keep quitting smoking. we have another investigator we found that has a lot of potential but he wont stop making jokes about marrying us during the lessons so we might have to leave him until someday the elders find him or something.. also another investigator whose daughter just got interned for drugs and bipolarism but she is awesome and her mom is super receptive and acepted a baptism date. we finally figured out how to teach the first lesson more simply because literally nobody understands. ever. so now we just talk about the power of God that Christ had to heal people. we dont even mention prophets haha and it worked!  the Spirit was there and she understood what we were saying. 

also this week Jorges mom taught us how to make sopiapillas!! so that was fun :) she is super nice to us even though she is super catholic. i think she really respects her son and the progress he has made. its awesome :)

also they took out two of the elders from our ward so now we have part of their old sector, so we have been getting to know it this week. super evangelical. there are literally at least 20 churches in our sector alone. every block has an evangelical church in someones house or something. crazy. also there is a part that is super poor. the poeple can just go and build a house there with what they have. its crazy to see. but the people there are super humble. its true what they say about the more humble people being more receptive. 

also we found a menos activo this week (finally) we basically told us that there is ALL KINDS of drama in our ward and things the people have done or are going through secretly that seriously challenged our faith in families and marriage. but hopefully we will get over it. but i wont go into detail because its not necessary. long story short, some of the people here have literally gone through the inimaginable in their marriages or lives and have lived to tell the tale. some of the people here are stronger than i could ever be and have TONS of faith.i learn every day from their examples...

anyway, love you all and have a fantastic week!

pretty part of our sector but not very successful because its richer. so basically we knocked some doors, took some pictures, found pomegranates and left. haha

Week 43-May 25, 2015

Week 43-May 25, 2015

wow sounds like taylors farewell was a success!! its crazy to think he leaves this week...doesnt seem real for me.. but he will be awesome.

also sounds like backpacking was fun!! and allie came! bet it was fun to get to know her finally :P 

anyway, i am doing well, sent some pictures this week :P

tried a new food this week that is absolutely divine. Sushi frito. fried sushi. literally delicious. and so chileno because they literally fry everything. but they put cheese and avocado and fish or chicken in the sushi and deep fry it. we have a family of menos activos who sell sushi and now its an addiction.. haha if you find it there, try it.

also this week we found a puppy (1 month old) in the street and ended up knocking doors looking for a home for it. it was so cute haha it was such a tentation to take it home... but anyway we finally found a member whose little dog had just died and they took it in. ill send a picture the next time we see it. 

also we got in the middle of a marital fight the other day with a family we found knocking doors. basically the wife was super jealous and tryed to argue with us about everything we taught and in the end told us "of course my husband let you in, he talks to and lets in all the women and young girls here" oh my goodness it was so awkward. the husband is actually really good, he just listened. so that was an interesting experience. 

also this week i learned a lot about how hard salvation really is and how real the devil really is. lots of weird experiences with stuff like that and stories about spirits in other pensions and from the people. basically one of the things i have gained a testimony of here is that is God is real, Satan is too. and that there really is another world of people without bodies, good and bad. anyway, that has also been interesting. i have decided latinos are especially sensitive to these things, so im grateful to be a gringo :P haha  oh and a challenge for dad: can you find a scripture that says that God the Father loves us (in the present, not that "God so lovED the world..")? it has been our search recently. basically it turns out maybe God already did everything He was going to do with this world..interesting to think about.

love and miss you all! have a great week!

BYE TAYLOR!! you are going to be awesome! read your email before you go! love you tons.

our house..the land of desolation​

This morning in the city in a McDonalds bathroom at 8am

Freezing in the cold street :p

noche de talentos. this is estephania. she got baptized in january before i got to this sector :)

when your clothes are super limited and its freezing outside and you just dont even really care if things match... had to take a picture it was so bad :P  hermana espinoza says we have to be careful because if we wear enough ugly or weird clothes we might start thinking they look good...my sense of style is seriously in danger haha