Dec 16, 2013

Okay, this week was a million billion trillion times better than last week. We had so much more success this week! We made a goal to have 8 new investigators, which was huge compared to the zero investigators we had the week before. Amazingly, and by the goodness of Heavenly Father, we found 8 new investigators.  I'm super grateful for the advice from my district leader. He told us that as we contact if we say "por lo menos" which means "at least" we will enter more houses. So when we would contact, if--I mean, WHEN--they tried to reject us we would say, "Can we at least come in a sing a Christmas song with your family, or say a quick prayer?" It worked almost every time! And for that reason, we had 8 new investigators. Also references from members. We were out contacting one day and someone shouted at us from a car. We turned around and the car came toward us. Inside there were no less than 5 youth and a member. One of them, named S, gave us the address of one of her friends and told us to go visit her. We went last night and not only did we have a lesson with her, but with her mom and her sister too. BAM! 3 new investigators. All 3 of them are awesome. I can already see the light of Christ in their eyes and I think that, as long as we teach with the spirit, we will see a baptism of 3 here in a month or so.

Can you say BAPTISM!!! J was baptized on Saturday WOOO!!!  Half our zone came and we got a picture with everyone. The pictures I have with just J suck so this will have to do.

Okay the missionaries who are in the picture from left to right are:

Hna C, Hna U (my companion!) J, me, Hna d and Elder Ae (ZL) (on the ground)

in the back: Elder L (my DL), Elder L Elder J, Elder A (ZL) and Elder O

And I think the kid on the ground is named B

WOO BAPTISM!!! That makes 7.

On Thrusday we did service at an elementary school. It was hot and long and fun. We mowed their lawn and made it look all pretty. 

Wednesday, I did my first splits. The Coordinator of Divisions (splits) came to Manzanal and my companion went to her sector in C. Her name is Hermana N. She. is. AWESOME!!!!!! She's actually going home to Colombia this thursday :( but I learned a ton from her during our splits. It was an awesome day. It was cool to talk to a missionary who's just about to go home and here about her experiences and everything she's learned. I hope I will be like her when I'm about to go home.

So this week, we have a Christmas zone conference. Actually that's tomorrow haha and also tomorrow, the results of the Quantrofusion Gold (haha) test come in so we will know once and for all what's going to happen with all this TB nonsense. Also this Saturday we have a stake Christmas program. At first I just needed to play the piano for my ward, but all of the sudden I'm playing for the whole stake and I'm playing the piano for a special number with the friend of a woman in my ward. He has an amazing voice. We're going to do O Holy Night. One of the Elders in the other Zone is going to conduct all the music. Good thing there are gringos here. I don't know how the Chileans would have Christmas programs without us :) I'll tell you how it goes when we SKYPE!

I hope you all have a great week! LOVE YOU!!!

Hermana Hutchinson

 

 

 

December 9, 2013

Okay, last P day was basically the best p day there ever was. We got up early to do our p day stuff like write our families and buy food and stuff. We then went to the mission office at noon to meet up with President Warne. We left with him and Hermana Warne to Santiago. It was SUPER fun! Not many people can say they spent an entire p day with their mission president. First we stopped by the MTC to pick up Elder J. He is the doctor for all the missions in Chile. He also doesn't speak a word of Spanish so my poor colombian companion was stuck in a car with 4 Americans, but she was a good sport about it. We went to my appointment at IsaMedica and spoke with the Doctor who was super nice! Also he spoke a bit of English so that helped a lot with Elder J.The best part is that he was actually trying to help us with our situation and not prevent us from doing what we need to do. We also found the light at the end of the tunnel. So this is the news:

The chileans all recieve a vaccination for TB. Because of this Vaccination, all of their PPD tests come out positive. So with just a positive PPD test alone, we get a prescripcion for INH, the drug that the church wants us to take. They obviously want to avoid drug abuse and drug resistence to INH. But, there's is a test we can take, a blood test, to find out if we have TB that is more difinitive than the PPD test. It has a weird SciFi name like Introfusion or something like that haha. If this test comes out positive, from my understanding, we can get the okay from the government to take INH. 

So Wednesday, we got the band back together and went to Santiago.....again. I've been out of my mission boundries 4 times within 6 months of being in the mission field. We did the blood test, but we have to wait until December 17th to get the results. Obviously, I will tell you what happens. The best part of this test is it's more difinitive so we will know for sure if we have TB or not (which is better than 12mm...which doesn't mean a blasted thing). There are a lot of problems with the PPD test. For example, Elder J told us that if someone takes the test and it comes out positive, they shouldn't take it again because the sore on their arm will actually get worse and worse every time they take it. So right now we're in limbo, waiting for the test results. 

Okay, but other things happened this week too!

So I lied when I said last week was the worst week of my mission. THIS week was the worst week of my mission. We did not have very much success this week. It was super hard, but we're pressing foward because there isn't really anything else that we can do.

So we had two really stupid moments this week. The first one was on Wednesday in the afternoon. This woman stopped us and told that she needed our help. She then started telling us that she was pregnant and something about her son and something about how she needed to go to the doctor for her mental health and something about how she wanted to go see her mom. We finally asked her what she needed and she told us she needed money for bus tickets to go see her mom. We offered to call a member and have them take her to the bus station and buy her tickets for her, but she said all she wanted was money. She started telling us something about how her daughter was sexually abused as a child and wouldn't get in a vehicle with a man. We said his wife could take her, but she said her daughter wouldn't do that either. Yet her daughter was perfectly okay with getting into a bus-ful of strange men. When she realized we weren't going to give her money she started saying that she had been thinking about investigating the church but now she didn't want to. Then she asked to use our phone to call someone to give her a ride. When she got off the phone she said the guy didn't have money and wouldn't come get her. We gave her money for a taxi and left. When we looked at the recent calls on our phone, there wasn't anything except the last call we'd made to our District leader. 

The second stupid moment was last night. We have a list of members that we're updating. We went to an address and asked the woman if the members lived there. She told us no and then started telling us that we were wasting our time as missionaries of a church of lies and that we invented names just to get into peoples houses. And that the only reason we were missionaries was to see the world. I really really wanted to say that if I was a missionary just to get to know the world, I wouldn't have come to Chile. But I held my tounge. It was actually really funny. After we left, my companion was kinda mad, but I was just laughing.

Okay, baptisms!! M is not getting baptized unfortunately. He doesn't want to keep the Word of Wisdom. But J is still getting baptized! She is super excited about it. I haven't seen such a big change in anyone before. She has seriously experienced a change of heart. It makes contacting all day in 90° plus weather completely worth it.

My companion and I are super excited for Christmas! We're excited to talk with our families :)

I love you all!!!! Keep being awesome!

Hermana Hutchinson

December 2, 2013

This week was officially the worst week of my mission. This sector is a difficult one. Despite have a hard time, my companion and I are pushing forward and trying to have faith to find new investigators. But it was definitely a hard week. It's been super duper hot here. I can say that before this sector, I really did not understand Celcius. 34 degrees for me is cold. But in Celcius it's SUPER HOT!!!!!!!!! Like, 98 degrees. The last few days have all been above 90 degrees. The sucky thing is walking in the bright sun all day gives me a headache. But that's the life of the missionary.

Okay, TB news. This is a super long and complicated process. Right now we have to get permission from the Chilean government to take these medications. so today my companion and I are off to Santiago with President and Hermana Warne. I'm the pilot test apparently. If we can get permission for me to take the meds, we can get permission for all the other missionaries too. It has something to do with how the Church and American government deal with TB. The standard is higher in the US (and the church has the same standard) so if a US citizen can get permission, the latinas can too. Or something like that..... the really unfortunate thing about this whole process is it has nothing to do with the meds. It's all politics. It doesn't matter if we're dying, if the i's aren't dotted and the t's crossed, we can take the meds. So that's where we're at right now. I'm really not sure what my function will be today, but I kind of feel like I'm on some crazy secret mission to infiltrate the Chilean government.

This week with M and J was almost scary. Okay, with J we're fine. That girl has experience a change of heart. I'm slightly bummed that I didn't know her before. My companion was telling me that at first she didn't want anything to do with the church (her dad was recently re-activated. the sisters were meeting with him for a while before working with J and M) but now she is studying and learning every day. I feel like it would be better if she taught US the lessons.
M however is being a bit of a punk. This kid is crazy. He's 13, the same age as Jake, but he acts like he's 18 or 20. He has a group of really sketchy friends that all drink and smoke. He is doing really great, but when he hangs out with his friends, he falls. Last week he had problems with the Word of Wisdom and we almost dropped him. He came to church yesterday and after we asked him was his final say was and he said he wanted to be baptized! So we're going to keep working with him. We need to take a different approach though because he has the attention span of a 2 year old. He doesn't remember any of the lessons we've had with him so we're going to have to go over them again. He's a funny kid though. We're hoping that he'll be able to be strong and find new friends that won't be a bad influence on him.


 Earlier this week, our district leader received revelation that we're were going to find one of God's elect this week. We searched and searched and searched. We have a lot of possiblities, but we didn't officially find them. Until last night. It might be too soon to say, but I think we might have found our golden investigator. Her name is  and she lives really close to us. It was the frist time I've taught the Restoration and actually had someone really understand the significance of it. When we recited the first vision, the spirit was really strong. She still has a few doubts, but she's willing to pray and ask Heavenly Father if our message is true. It was a good lesson.

I'm glad you're all doing well and that you got to see the family! Tell everyone I love them! 

So now I'm off on my secret mission to infiltrate the government! I'll let you know how it goes next week :)

I LOVE YOU ALL!!! LES AMO MUCHISIMO
Hermana Hutchinson

November 25, 2013

Okay so last Monday night, Hna M and I left for Talca and spent the night there. Tuesday we got up early and made for the train station. We met up with the rest of the missionaries who were getting transfered from Talca and we put all of our luggage on the train and left. It's a bit stressfull because the train doesn't stop for very long so we had to move everything really fast. The trains are like metros and have doors on both sides. In the train car I was in we had all of our luggage on one side of the train because the train lady told us that all of the platforms would be on the other side. So we went on our merry way. I enjoyed talking with the other Hermanas and such. We were about 10 minutes away from San Fernando when I had a sudden realization that there was a very good chance that the zone leaders in San Fernanado would be on the platfom to help everyone getting off and on the train. When we got to the platform in San Fernanado the doors opened on the side all of our luggage was on (and of course one of MY suitcases had to fall out.) So all the missionaries on the train had a frantic moment of moving all the luggage to the other side of the train so people could get on and off. Suddenly a bunch of missionaries from San Fernando came over with more luggage. Sure enough, the zone leaders were there. I don't remember the other one's name, but one of the is called Elder Archuleta. They helped an Hermana get off the train and another Hermana get on the train. I said good-bye to the Hermana getting off (Hermana B) because we've been in the same zone since I got to Chile and we were off to Rancagua.

So I'm now in Rancagua. Holy crap, it's hot here. We've been at a steady 90 degrees all week...I think. They measure temperature in Celcius so I'm actually not sure. 30 degrees C. So far I'm really enjoying Rancagua. The only thing is that my sector, Manzanal is really huge so we are walking a TON. The first few days were brutal. I'm starting to get used to it, but it's still exhausting. We also don't have very many investigators so we are doing even more walking and contacting. But the good news is that I'm enjoying myself. My companion, Hermana U is also really awesome. We get along really well.

We do have two investigators preparing for baptism on the 14 of December. Their names are M and J. M is 13 and drinks and smokes. J is 16, almost 17, and pregnant. But they are both AWESOME. It's crazy that they're so young and already have problems with the commandments, but that just goes to show the times we're living in. We've taught them both the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. Last night was our lesson on the Law of Chastity. We first did a short lesson on the Plan of Salvation. When we got to the Law of Chastity, both me and my companion were super nervous. We didn't want J to feel bad, but we also wanted to be direct with her. We had spent the whole day trying to figure out how to teach the lesson. Luckily we had the spirit and that helped infinitely. At first she looked like she was going to cry. She had her head down the whole time and her face was a little red. When my companion asked if she would keep the law of chastity she looked up and said she can't because she's already broken it. I felt prompted to tell her about about the Lotus flower. It's a flower that grows in the worst of conditions, but it's a really beautiful flower. I told her that even though she's broken the law of chastity she has something beautiful: her child. And now she has the chance to repent and keep the law of chastity from the point on. She said she would do it! It was probably one of the best lessons I've been in. We were both able to feel and follow the spirit.

The ward here is super small. There's about 40-50 people that go every sunday. Most of the members are old, but they're all super loving. I love the ward so far! Of course, there's no one here to play the piano, so you can guess who's the new pianist. This sunday my companion and I helped in the Primary. There's a girl in the primary named E. She's 3 almost 4 and adorable. Apparently she's hasn't really liked any of the missionaries in the past, but for some reason she's in love with me. During sacrament meeting she kept walking over to me to pet my hair and try to say my name...everyone has a hard time saying Hutchinson. She's super cute.

We also taught a CTR (in Spanish it's HLJ) class about fasting. My companion made same money out of paper to illustrate the point of fast offerings. At the end of the lesson when we asked them what fast offering is, one of the little boys said "uhh...when you have fake money?" hahahah it was really funny.

So that's what's going on with me. I'm really enjoying Rancagua!

President Warne called me to tell me that I will start taking medicine soon. I'll have to take it for 4 months and get a blood test every month to make sure I don't have any reactions to the medicine. I have a feeling I'll be here in Manzanal for all of those 4 months. So I will hit my half-way mark in my second sector......eh, could be worse.

Hermana Hutchinson