12/25/13

Feliz Navidad!

Today is Christmas and that means that I get to skype with my family!! I am so excited! Although it doesn't feel like Christmas at all to me. It is SOOO HOT HERE! Like I´m talking sweating from every pore hot. I´m really struggling with this heat! ha But on the bright side I am getting pretty tan! So thats great. Also my hair is blonde now... gracias to the sol. But what can you do? I am a Rubio now. Also I´m feeling more and more like a real sister missionary now because I´ve officially ditched all of my cute shoes and now am soley using the "official sister missionary shoes" (super attractive) but I understand the importance of it now. Here it is mom just for you..."YOU WERE RIGHT" It is so not worth it, we are walking all day long and especially in this heat its just much easier to go comfortable over cute. 

So this week we had a super cool experience to do a service project for a woman who was recently baptized. Her name is Rosa and she has the sweetest story ever. She has a disease where her body is literally ditererating. She doesn't have any legs any more and her whole body is probably 3 feet long. She was a referal was baptized within the same month the missionaries came and visited her. She had to be carried into the fount but from looking at the pictures she was smiling the whole way. I was so touched by her story and I was just reassured of how much Heavenly Father truely loves everyone, we are all sons and daughters of God. I was honored to serve her. We painted the outside of her house and helped to relandscape her lawn. It was a very humble experience for me!

My spanish is coming along, its been hard but its been a blessing to have a latina companion who only knows spanish! I am learning so much everyday! And I am becoming more confident with myself and how I can approach people we meet on the street.

So yesterday, Christmas Eve, I had a super incredible experience that I don't want to ever forget! My companion and I, and our two roommates went caroling at the local hospital. In every room we went into everyone ended up in tears. It was such a spiritual experience for everyone. I just felt so much love for each and every one of the people that were in that hospital. You could tell that everyone really appreciated our act of service. I have come to learn the importance of service this week, and how much more power and influence we have as missionaries when we just decided to serve and be more christlike. It humbles you and allows you to feel more love for those you teach!

I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas!! I love you all!

12/16/13

Hola!

So this week has been good! My feet are starting to calice (idk how to spell that) and Im starting to get the hang of the schedule. I've decided that I just already know that I'm gonna be that girl who gains weight on her mission.... its inevidable. The food here is just SO good! And the people are way to friendly, its a bad combination.

Also! I had my FIRST BAPTISM this week! CRAZY! His name is Cristian and he is seriously amazing. He first started investigating the church a couple of weeks before I got here, and he just got baptized this last saturday. We had been working with him everyday, and earlier that morning my companion told me that she wanted me to be the one to invite him to be baptized. You guys should have seen me. I was so nervous, and I'm pretty sure I said everything wrong, but he said yes! It has been such a neat experience to see! The moment he came out of the water was a moment I hope to never forget! It was such an awesome reminder to realize my purpose and why I am doing all of this! It made everything worth it!

I don't have much time to write more but I want you all to know that I love and miss you all! Hope you all had a fantastic week!

Merry Christmas!!

12/9/13

Oh my goodness is this real life??

So I already am in love with Chile! The people here are so sweet and caring its amazing! I already love my companion even though she doesn't speak a single word of English....thats right. She doesn't know ANY English... so this has been interesting for sure. So please pray for me. Ha I literally just got thrown into this Spanish world and there is no turning back. Its crazy how much I just long for a normal conversation where I can understand at least more then 50% of what is happening.. ha but nonetheless everything is possible with God right? (I could just really use the gift of tongues to kick in right about now) but faith in God is faith in God's timing. Her name is Hermana Rodriguez and she is from Spain. Which means she speaks a totally different spanish then the spanish I learned. Only those who know spanish can understand what I am going through right now.... she pronounces her "s and c"s like "th" if that makes any sense... For example I learned that "How are you?" is "Como estas"....she says, "Como ethath" and Chileanos say "Como et-ay-s" :S Now you can sort of see my problem here.... haha but I am trying my best and I can tell my spanish is improving everyday! On top of the different pronounciations Chileanos also speak INCREDIABLY fast...

But besides the language barrier I really do love it here. It is super hot, but I would take it over the cold winter in the US anyday! The food is absolutely amazing...I guarentee that I am going to gain weight here... they eat homemade bread with every meal, and it is sooo good! There are two staples that I have had with every meal so far: Lemon and Mayonese. Every meal. They put mayo on EVERYTHING! In their corn, peas, with bread, hot dogs... you name it, they put mayo on it. Their "salads" are just cut up lettuce drenched in lemon juice and oil. Sounds wierd but I actually love it! You should try it. Anything thats not in mayo, is drenched in lemon juice. Ha so I've been trying to get used to that.

Also, I have never been kissed so much in my life! Ha its just their culture here that whenever you meet someone or great someone you give them a kiss on the cheeck. Man, woman, child... everyone! ha! I think it is the cutest tradition! It took a little bit for me to not be so awkward about it, but I think I got it down now!

I don't have much time to write, we only get 30 min. but just know that I am safe and loving it here! Please keep me in your prayers that I can recieve the gift of tongues! I need all the help I can get!

These are some pictures of me and my companion! We try to do an act of service everyday so this is a picture of us doing an investigators dishes. Also a picture of our cute apartment complex (so ghetto) and us in our "Christmas Conference costume" Its just a show that all of the missionaries participate in for Christmas.

I love and miss you all!!

Con Amor,

Hermana Lamb 

12/2/13

Oh, and that was a picture with Hermana Killpack! She was on the Timpview Girls JV team that I coached in orem!! She is going to Florida!

This is us with our branch presidency and then some pictures of my district. We went on top of the building and had a toast. Our branch President brought us all dr. pepper!!