1/27/14

When this super friendly black guy walks by and just smiles and waves at us. Immediately my companion and I look at each other and just felt the same thing, that we needed to talk to him. But he was already a couple of yards ahead of us, it was a little bit of an awkward distance. We probably seemed really creepy. It got to the point where he was looking over his shoulder and could totally tell we were following him so I just yelled "excuse me!" (in spanish of course) and we started talking to him. Turns out he speaks English! I was sooo happy I literally screamed! FINALLY! I told him that I have been teaching an English class every saturday and that he should come and help me teach it (cuz to be honest half of the time I dont know what I'm teaching anyway) So he agreed to meet us at the supermarket an hour before the class on Saturday. A couple of days past and we hadnt heard from him, (his name is Jules) so when saturday rolled around we waited for him at the Supermarket but he never showed up. I was sooo disappointed! But as we got to the church a car pulled over next to us and Jules yelled, "Hey! Ive been looking for you two all over the place! I figured this was your church!" ha so he is basically amazing. He helped me with my class, we invited him to church on Sunday. He came. IN A SUIT. Like can he just be baptized already? ha then after church we invited him to a Family Home evening with another family in our ward and it was absolutely amazing. The testimonies of the members was exactly what he needed to hear. I felt so strongly to ask if he would be baptized in Feburary and he said YES!! So moral of the story is don't be afraid to creepily stalk people down the street because they might end up being the perfect investigadors! Also I learned the power that members have. I seriously encourage all of you to work with the missionaries and be available to help them teach an investigador! It brings such a stronger spirit then you could ever imagine!

Well, thats all....Oh! Also I experinced my first Chile rainstorm. And it was nothing like I have ever experienced in my entire life! When it rains here... it pours. literally. Buckets! It was sooo fun! I loved it! Also it was an excuse to wear my super cute rain boots so my day was made!

I love and miss you all!

Ciao!

Hermana Lamb

1/20/14

Hola Hola!

This week has been good! And EXTREMELY hot! This last week I luckily got to be here for the breaking record in Chile of 42 degrees.... which is over 100 degrees in the states. So that was fun. I'm really working on my tan. Also there has been a bunch of fires here, I guess, (somewhere far don't worry) so the sun and the moon have been a super bright red color! It kind of freaked me out at first, not gonna lie thoughts of the second coming came to my mind...but its from all of the fires I guess. Its been pretty cool to see though.

This cambio all of the hermanas in the house decided that we are going to excercise every morning (for real) and so far we have been doing pretty good. But we will see how long that keeps up.

This is a picture of my last district. They were great! Two of them are gone now, and the rest are here for the next cambio ultra vez! 

Also. They sell lambs here. Everywhere. And they aren't for pets....

This week my testimony has been tried and strengthened(sorry I don't know how to spell that in English) It started out with me complaining alot to my Heavenly Father and by the end of this week I have literally been thanking Him for this opportunity. I sort of came to a glimps of understanding that trials are Gods way of complimenting us. And how only the "truely favored" of God are tried first. (1Ne1:1) If we truely trust in His Perfect love for us, then we have no reason to doubt or ever feel abandoned! I absolutely LOVE this gospel! And I feel so honored to be able to share it with the people here in Chile! I am learning so much everyday!

I love and miss you all!

Ciao!

Hermana Lamb

1/6/13

Hola! Feliz Año! For New Years we all had to stay in our casas since it gets a little dangerous out in the streets. So we were confined to our little apartment from 6-midnight! ha but we made the most of it. We planned out a really fun dinner, with "completos" which is basically your glorified hot dogs (which everyone needs to try! I absolutely love completos! just make a regular hot dog and put mayo and guacomole and tomatoes and mustard on it.... sounds gross but just try it! Everyone in Chile loves it) with homemade brownies and cute drinks with sugar on the rim! ha we got to stay up tillmidnight, danced to Disney music and then went to bed. Año Nuevo here is bigger then Christmas, which also means new years day is a little dangerous to be out and about as well, so we all had to stay in our chapel with our whole district for the whole day. It ended up being a lot of fun, we just played games, at food and watch Dispicable Me in spanish.

These last few weeks I haven't really felt like we have done a ton of work because of all of the holidays and what not. So I'm excited to get back to work and rededicate myself! I have a couple of New Years Resolutions that I want to share with all of you so that you can help me hold to them!

1. Come to know Christ. I want to know Him better then I know him. Which is more then just knowing about Him. In the Book of Mormon it is said over and over again plain and simple, that if we just have enough faith and act on that faith, having NO FEAR or doubts, that he will literally show us miracles. I want to come to know Him better then I know Him. I want to be more like Him. 

2. Don't get fat. This is going to be a rough one. The food here is SUPER RICO! Every meal. I haven't had a meal that I didn't like. And our only time to excersise is in the mornings. (Which I could be better at utilizing.) So please. Hold me to it. 

3. I want to read the Book of Mormon every cambio. Which is about every 6 weeks. I just finished it and it took me a little less then 5 so I feel that it is a totally do-able goal!

4. Never deny a prompting from the Holy Ghost. This year I want to be so intuned with the Spirit so that I can help my Heavenly Father in anyway possible! I want to be an "instrument in His hands"

I hope you all had a wonderful New Years as well!

I love and miss you all!!

Ciao!

Hermana Lamb!

12/30/13

I don't really have alot of time this week to email so I just decided to email you guys:) Can I just first start off by saying how incredibly awesome it was to skype with all of you! Ah! Def the highlight of my Christmas. I wish I could have stayed longer... but I've got work to do!

This week I got to make some homemade doughnuts with a family in our bairo. Which was super sweet... and actually pretty easy! ha But besides that we have been working alot with the menos activos in our sector. Which is just visting people who aren't active and trying to get them to come back to church.

Oh, Shawn! There is this girl in our ward, her name is Barbara. I told her to add you on facebook. So make sure to accept her! She is AMAZING! She comes with us to teach all the time (more then a regular teenager should if you ask me...but I'm not in charge my comp is) anyways. She LOVES the United States and is trying to learn English. And I told her to teach you spanish! ha so get to work!

And mom, Barbaras mom is going to add you. She likes to add the moms of the missionaries to keep them in the loop and let you know that we are safe! So add her! She doesnt know English so you will have to use google translate to communicate but her name is Marlin Tolosa. And she has been SOO sweet to me here! So be nice to her!

I hope that you all had an amazing Christmas! I love and miss you all!

Ciao!

Hermana Lamb

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