Ready to hit the pavement again

It was such happiness talking to you all on the phone this week. What a blessing. We had more than one member come up to us on Sunday and say that they could tell we had just talked to our families because we were still just all smiles. It was so good to hear your voices and talk with you all. I love you all so much.

I am very ready to get back to work as normal. The days during Christmas, we had a limited schedule as far as we couldn´t work after 7:30, unless it was a set appointment, and we couldn´t knock doors, or do contacts. If we didn´t have set appointments or they fell through we just had to go home. Yesterday was the only day that we had to go home early, but it was too much for me. I am going to be the most antsy returned missionary ever...just so you know. I get so stressed just sitting around. Que vergüenza...the mission has given me ADD. The one bit of news that is still kind of lame is that at the end of this week we will have New Years, so once again it might be a messed up schedule...I think maybe even more so because everyone will be drinking...so we´ll see what the plans are.

Well not much new to report since I talked to you all last. After I talked to you, we went and taught an investigator of ours. His name is Angel. He is the husband of a member in our ward. They are such a sweet family. They are quiet, but so kind. I just love them. He told us that he couldn´t come to Church the next day because his family was coming into town, but we prayed for him to come anyway, and all of a sudden, Sunday morning came and there he was with his family!!! It was such a blessing for us. We are trying to work on having more faith, and that was definitely a faith building experience. He is struggling accepting the idea of baptism...please pray for him so that he can be at ease and understand why it´s so important.

What else is new.....a ver....Oh I loved the Christmas pictures that you all sent. One thing that called my attention was Scott´s beard...? A donde!? (Dad, translate for him please.) When did he start growing a beard? Girls don´t like facial hair. He he he he .... just playing big bro :) I love you, you know that. The babies look so grown up and cute. I love that they still make the same faces in pictures though. Yay!

Oh, I got a phone call this morning from the Zone Leaders and they said that I am going to have an intercambio with the Hermanas in Magallanes, so that means that I get to go back and work in my old sector for one more day!!!!! Yay! They told me to make some miracles happen....( I know I´m not the one in charge of that, though....) I am excited to go back and check it out for the day, and work with Hermana Neubert there. She´s just great. I ´ll let you know how it goes. I know it´s going to be the best day ever!

Well, like I said, this week I am trying to work on having more faith. I know that if I had more faith I would have the eyes to see more miracles. I know that that promise works for everyone. I feel that in the mission sometimes rejections happen so often, or so many people don´t progress, or people fall through so often, that it becomes so easy to just have a fault of faith. I don´t want that to happen to me. I just need to not stress about it all so much, and just trust that the Lord has a plan and that He is leading us to those that need it most. Those who are prepared. I was talking to my compi about it the other day and she said that her worst nightmare is becoming an old grumpy missionary. It´s so true!!! I have seen it many times, where by the end of the mission, some missionaries are comfortable with themselves, and impatient with others, and so pessimistic that it can kill the ever so fragile element of faith that is left in them. I realized that during these crucial months of my mission I am deciding whether I become a missionary like that or not. Every day is important, and every decision will show if I am choosing to have faith or if I am choosing not to. Faith is a choice. We chose to have it and be happy and be like Christ, or we chose not to have it, and be sad. Faith is everything on the mission, and I want more of it. In myself and in others.

Me and my comp had a great Christmas... we pulled the mattresses off the beds and we put them around our humble little Christmas tree and we slept on the floor for the night. It was cute and fun. I love my little Canadian. And don't worry, she did get to talk to her family just fine...it all worked out great. Thanks so much for your help!

Thank you for everything you do for me. Thank you for making the sacrifices that you make for me and my mission. To give me the opportunities that I have been given. I can´t tell you how happy I am...it´s pure happiness. Not the kind of happiness that comes from good grades, or a cute boyfriend, or fancy clothes and nice hair....it´s so very much more than that. This happiness is just peace. It´s so full. I love what I am doing and I feel so very blessed and special to be doing it. Thank you for making it possible for me.

I love you all tons and tons. (It was hard to hang up the phone...ps. :) LOVE YOU.

-Hermana Bertagnole

Hey there family!

I can´t believe that it is almost Christmas! Less than a week and I´ll be talking to you all on the phone! Cannot wait. I hope that you are all happy and together in these beautiful days of the season. I miss you guys, but I am so happy to be here doing what I am doing. These are once in a lifetime moments, and I am just trying really hard to soak it all in. It´s all coming and going so fast, that I am frantically trying to capture all that I can. I guess that is the way it is in life. I have seen it time and time again, but especially in the mission. Just love every second of every day. The hard ones are the ones that help us grow, but thankfully they aren´t the ones we remember most. I love how Heavenly Father helps us remember all the beauty.

I have been thinking a lot this week about why we celebrate Christmas... we went to the store last week and there was so much madness going on about the shopping and the presents and the candy... and I just got such a sick feeling inside. I am grateful for the opportunity to have a very simple Christmas. It’s so much better this way. It allows us to think about Christ, and what He has done for us. I can´t help but think that while we´re standing in huge lines at stores buying gifts that we can´t afford for people that will love us whether we give gifts or not...I can´t help but think that we lose track somewhere in there about why we even have Christmas. Is Christ pleased with how we chose to celebrate His sacred birth? Don´t go crazy with it. It should be peaceful, not a bit stressful. We can´t forget why we celebrate this sacred time of year. I am so grateful to celebrate by sharing this Gospel. It is so beautiful. The work is a little bit harder during this time of year because everyone is in vacations, or in the mall shopping, or with visits....there are so many distractions that no one really seems to have much time to talk about the Savior, whose name we celebrate, but I know that we are going to see miracles this next week. I know that If we help people understand the importance of this message, I know that hearts will be touched and lives will begin to change...I know mine has.

I am grateful to all those who support me so willingly. I thank you with all my heart. I love you all. I am grateful for your letters, and your love, and prayers. I hope that you all have a very merry Christmas. I hope that you all remember your Savior who was born into this world to make it possible for us, unworthy as we are, to return and live with our Heavenly Father again. I hope that you all recognize, and feel His love for you. I hope you all apply what He teaches us in your lives. If you do you will be happy. If you don´t you will not. It´s very simple. We complicate it all sometimes, but it´s not complicated at all. It is beautiful simplicity.

Well I am going to keep this short, because I am going to talk to you all soon!!!! Yeah! But I´m sending pictures. Love you guys more than you´ll ever know. Seriously though...I know it sounds cliche, but it´s true. :) SMILE AND LAUGH LOTS TOGETHER THIS CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I HUGE, HUGE HUG FOR EVERYBODY!!!!!!!!!!!!

Love you with all that I have.

-Hermanita Bertagnole

Another beautiful week in the mission

Hello there family.

Thank you for the updates, letters, pictures, and videos. They were beautiful. I am glad to hear that Kirk´s funeral went well, (that sounds weird to say, but you know what I mean). I am glad it was a blessed experience, however difficult it may be.

Well, this week was beautiful...not so much weather wise, but it was a beautiful week full of great learning experiences, as usual. I have cried many tears this week. Tears of gratitude more than anything else. Gratitude that I don´t have to be perfect. Gratitude that Jesus Christ takes all that I have and purifies it. He takes our imperfect efforts, struggles, and weaknesses, and in return He us back sanctified, perfected, and pure miracles. I am so grateful for the lessons that I have been learning the last few weeks. It has had a lot to do with a change of mind and attitude, but I can feel myself changing and becoming a little better every day. I am so grateful that that is possible through the Atonement. How blessed we are to know about it and know how to apply it in our lives.

This week we took kind of a blow with some of our investigators. Many are leaving on summer vacations for a couple of months. But with that being said, we are starting to work with a lot of part member families, with is very promising. We had 4 people in the Church this week and all of them were from part member families; 3 husbands of the 3 of the Hermanas, and one of their sons. (I don´t know if that make sense). It was a testimony of the importance of working and focusing more on the family. We are still searching hard for the families that are being prepared to hear this beautiful message.

Ok. Can I just say that I am loving the heck out of my companion? This little Canadian is the best thing since sliced bread. Hermana Byam and I have been talking a lot lately about what we want for this cambio and for our missions in general. We have some great dreams, and visions. We have had some very special moments together, and I know that we support each other well. I feel like we are very compatible. When I´m down, she picks me up, and vice-versa. We work really well and hard together. It´s so great. The Spirit is strong with her. She´s way special. I have been blessed with such great companions in the mission! How did I get so lucky!

Anyway, I´m going to spend more time sending pictures this week, than writing a whole lot. The pictures always do it better justice.

But please know that I LOVE YOU! Thank you for all that you do and have done for me. Thank you a million times over....and I love you a billion times over. I hope that you all are getting as excited for Christmas as I am! I´ll miss you all, but I know that this will be a Christmas that I will remember for my whole life. And don´t worry we have lots of invitations (even from the members in my old ward in Magallanes , such great members.) , so we are well taken care of, so no need to worry about a lonely missionary. :) As for the phone call, we are receiving more details and instructions tomorrow, but I think that we can call the 24, 25, or 26 of December. What would be better for you? I know that we can talk for an hour, and I am pretty sure that we can just go to the house of the members that live in front of us. We´ll double check with all the rules and I´ll send you the details next Monday. CAN¨T WAIT!


LOVE YOU. (Big hugs and kisses)

-Hermana Ricitos de Oro (Goldilocks)....that´s what they finally started calling me in this ward...it´s hilarious because in every ward they have a new nickname for me because they can´t say my name. :) I think this is my fave so far. It´s better than Berta. jajajaja

Beautiful Mission

Hey there family,

Well, here I am. I officially have more of the mission behind me than ahead of me. Strange. I don´t feel like it. I still feel the same, but if I think about it, it blows my mind how fast time flies. Life is too short. Live it the best you can.

Well, I don´t have tons of time to write this week, but I want you to know that I am so incredibly happy. My new companion is just incredible. We work really well together. We both just have so much desire to grow and progress in the mission so that we can be better instruments in the hands of the Lord. We are working really hard together, and we are loving every second. Some of the highlights this week- we are working in a new sector that the missionaries haven´t worked in a long time called Rio Seco. It is a GOLD mine. Almost every door we know they will let us in. Seriously. They are a humble fishing community outside of the city, and there is just a strong spirit there. I love working there. We only get to go a few times a week though because it´s a 20 minute bus ride out of the city, but we see miracles there. I love it. (Sent a picture...the one with the ocean.)

Also we put up our Christmas tree yesterday. Amazing. Also, the ward here is crazy strong. Like a hundred people. Nuts. I almost feel bad being there! :) They are great though, and there is still a lot of work to do there. So I am just so happy. I got dad´s "bishop" letter this week. You´re just one inspired man, dad. I loved it. I read it lots. Thank you. I am a lucky daughter. What else, what else...oh if you can´t tell from the pictures, my new sector is like the Leawood of Punta Arenas. There are lots of really wealthy people here. It´s great though. Sometimes it´s really hard to find anyone home because they are always at work, but we are working really hard to get member referrals. Anyway, that´s all I have time for.

I´ll try and get all the Christmas call stuff worked out, too. Can´t wait to talk with you all! LOVE YOU ALL TONS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for your letters and pictures and video. LOVED THEM!

All the love I have to give,

-Hermana Bertagnole

Hey there family...

I have had a very satisfying week this week. Full of surprises, full of miracles. Well I made a list of the things that I need to tell you all because I don´t have much time, and I don´t want to forget anything....here goes. Wish me luck.

SO first of all, Thanksgiving was great. So great. We started with a zone activity early in the morning---TURKEY BOWL!!! It was way fun...just so you know...threw one touchdown pass and caught two. :) Not to brag or anything...I´m working on developing more humility ;) So that was great. Then for lunch we went to mamita´s house and I ate a seaweed stew of sorts. There´s this thing here that is called Cochalleulleu...it´s seaweed, and they cook it and eat it. This was the first time that I had ever tried it, but they sold it all over the place in Ancud...I´ve heard mixed reports, but it wasn´t that bad...wasn´t that good, but wasn´t that bad...Gratitude right :) But, yeah that was my thanksgiving dinner. :) Oh gotta love the stories to tell on the mission.

Secondly, FELIZ CUMPLEANOS HOY DIA PAPA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love you like crazy. I sent you a postcard, I hope that you have gotten it or will get it soon, but I love you tons, and I hope that this day is awesome for you, I hope that you feel well enough to party it up like crazy :) Do a crazy dance or something...and then send me pictures. :) I love you papa. Thank you for all that you do for me, for all the advice, and all the encouragement. You´re just perfect. Keep up the hard work. I love you. I´m praying for you always.

Also. Yesterday my Zone leader called me and told me that I´m leaving Magallanes and going to Ovejero. I will still be in Punta Arenas, but I´ll be taking Hermana Aponte´s spot in her sector. Big shoes to fill. I´m nervous, but excited. I feel very sad to leave Magallanes though. It is definitely the hardest that I have seen so far in the mission, but I love it so much. It is very tender to me...I think it´s because it has been the hardest, actually. Go figure. But it´s hard to leave because we are starting to see a little progress, but there is still so much to do. I am trusting that Hermana Campos and her new companion Hermana Neubert (I worked with her at BYU before the mission!!!!!! I trained her in processing!!!!! She´s incredible) will keep up the good work and help make the needed changes to progress. I love the work that I am in. I don´t feel prepared to leave yet, but that is just part of the mission, I guess. My new companion will be Hermana Byam. She´s from Canada. She is just awesome. I already love her and know her. We are going to see some miracles together.

This week my companion and I gave talks in Sacrament meeting, and we had many members come up to us and thank us for giving them hope and faith for the great work that lays ahead of them. I spoke on the obra misional and Hermana Campos spoke on baptism. I promised them that if they really have faith and if every one of them is working as hard as they can and praying as hard as they can they will see 100 people attending every week, in one year from now. We invited them to start with their families--activating them and helping them. The biggest problem in the ward is that many are tired and lack faith and hope for change. We are trying to change that point of view. It was a great meeting, and I hope that the members understand how much we care about them, but more than that, how much their Father in Heaven cares about them. It was a great meeting. The Spirit was strong.

Also, this week we passed by and talked to Obispo and we were talking about Christmas...I confessed that I have never tried Pan de Pascua...a bread here that is VERY popular during Christmas...I think it is a lot like fruit cake, but I´m not really sure, as I have never tried that either. Anyway, he was very concerned that I had never tried it. Then on Sunday he came up to me with a HUGE pan de pascua and he told me, with a smile..."para tener una oncesita con su companera en la noche." He´s so great. Love him.

Also, please pray for Hermano Diaz. He´s a 79 year old man that always goes out with us on Thursdays. We call him our other companion. He´s so faithful, and says really funny stuff sometimes. We passed by this Thursday and he wasn´t there. The first time ever that that happened. He´s always excited to go out and be a missionary for a few hours. We passed by a few days later, and his wife told us that he was in the hospital. They think he has cancer. Please pray for him. We went and visited him, and he has all his church books there at the foot of the bed. He´s so great. We just love him. Keep him in your prayers.

Serve the missionaries in our ward. Spoil them. They will love you for the little things. Have Family Home Evenings with them and their investigators. It makes all the difference, the members.

Que mas que mas....OH thank you all so so much for your letters. I loved hearing from you all. I love you all so much. I hope that work, school, family, etc. is and continues to go well for you all. Love you all tons. I´ll be writing letters next week :)

Welp, that is all for now. I love you all. Happy birthday, daddy.

All the love in the world, from your girl down south,

Hermana Bertagnole

The things I'm grateful for...

Hey there family.

Being as this week is Thanksgiving (dia de gracias) and all, I thought that I´m going to do my own little celebrating with this letter this week. (Chileans obviously don´t celebrate this holiday, so I´m going to party it up with my companion...we´re thinking we´ll make french toast...we don´t have time nor money to make a feast...pero es lo que hay. :) Anyway...so this letter is going to be a carta de gracias. :) Que lindo, cierto...

Anyway this week I am was so grateful for the opportunities to work full time in the work of the Lord. I was grateful for the citas that we had, and for the opportunity to learn and grow each day. I was grateful to have an intercambio with my mamma Aponte this Friday and to learn from her incredible Spirit and example...and I am grateful for the hamburger that we bought and shared...it was delicious. :) (see picture)

I am grateful for the opportunity to work in Punta Arenas in the Gran Barrio de Magallanes. I am so grateful for the opportunity to work with them and learn and grow with them during this short time that I get to be a part of their very special ward and family. In answer to Mom´s question, they have on average about 30ish people that attend the ward. They are all very special Saints, we just need more of them...I´m grateful for the opportunity to help some of the menos activos remember what the Lord hopes for them. In answer to Mom´s other question...Claudia is as active as ever. She qualqueir challenge, but she still comes every week. She´s a great example to the ward. I get to sign for her, and I am so grateful to learn more of that language. It has really come in handy too because in the last few days, we contacted two separate people that are deaf and I could speak with them and invite them to hear this beautiful message of the Restoration. I´m sure it wasn´t as pretty as it should be, but they understood what I was saying! Pretty neat.

I´m grateful for my mission. I am so grateful for the blessing that I have to be trusted in this work. I don´t know why I´m trusted with it...sometimes I don´t feel even close to adequate, but I´m grateful for the opportunity to learn to rely on the Lord more. I´m so grateful for His patience and love for me. I´m grateful for His plan and His love for His children here in my sector. I´m grateful for the opportunity to seek those that are prepared to hear this Gospel. I am grateful for every beautiful moment that I have seen in the mission. I am grateful for every opportunity to serve and love these people. I am grateful for their Spirits and their examples to me. I am grateful for what they are teaching me. I am grateful for every challenge that I have ever had in my life, and I am so grateful for the refining process that we get to experience in this life so that we can change and be molded into what the Lord wants us to become. I´m grateful for the change that is taking place in my life, as well as the change that is taking place in the lives of those we work with. I am grateful for a great mission president and first lady :) I am grateful for the companion(s) that I have and that I have had. For all they have taught me through example. So great.

I´m grateful for my beautiful family. I love you all more than I ever thought possible. I´m grateful for the opportunity that I had to be raised in our home. It is sacred to me, and the lessons that I learned there are sacred to me as well. Thank you for your love and support to me. Thank you for making this possible for me. Thank you for it all. There is not enough time in the world to express the gratitude I have for you. Thank you for raising me in a way that would qualify me for this work. It means everything to me. Thank you to my friends and extended family as well. You all are so great at praying for me. Thank you. Thank you for your letters, and your love.

But more than anything I am grateful for the Savior and my Heavenly Father. I am grateful for all that they have blessed me with. I´m grateful for their perfect love and their flawless patience in me and in us. I am so grateful for this opportunity in my life to come to know them better. I am so grateful to know what I know about them, and to have the opportunity to live and learn and share more about them. I am so grateful that I have been blessed to know this flawless Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love learning more about it, and I love sharing it with others. I love seeing the change that this simple knowledge makes in the lives of the Children of God. I am and always will be eternally grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I am grateful that He took upon His perfect self my sins, so that I can have the hope to one day live with Him and all those that I love in this life once again.

How blessed I am. I hope that I never forget the blessings that I have been given. I don´t know why I am so blessed...but I am happy to share these blessings with others. It´s so beautiful.

Well, there´s a very small fraction of the things that I am grateful this Thanksgiving....man, writing that letter felt good. I need to do that every week! ;) I think we would all be a lot better off if we sat down and thought about the blessings that we have been given. It just feels great...there´s not enough time or words to tell it all.


Thank you. Enjoy your Thanksgiving Holiday. Save some for me.

All the love in the world. Les amo hasta los cielos...y aun mas.

Remember I said there were penguins on my mission.... I wasn't lying.

Nov 15, 2010
I cannot believe that this is the last full week of this cambio. Time is flying by so fast it really scares me. But we are happy here in el gran sector Magallanes. We are learning a lot. A lot of patience and gratitude. I feel like I have grown more in this cambio than any other. I think it´s because it has been the hardest cambio yet for me, but I know that there is a purpose for it all. I have seen it time and time again this cambio. It´s turning into a sacred treasure for me--these experiences and challenges.

We are finding a lot of nuevos, and we are working on trying to prepare them to become real investigators who can feel the Spirit of the message, and who can progress. I have faith that the Lord has already, or is preparing many of them to receive this. I am noticing that we are seeing a lot of small miracles recently. They are tender mercies for me. I feel that sometimes we aren´t seeing much progress with some investigators and with some of the members, but I am learning to have patience in the Lord`s timing and plan. I just hope that I am learning and helping others learn what the Lord has planned. Sometimes it does scare me that I am not accomplishing what needs to be done, or I am not doing it effectively enough. I am learning a lot of patience with myself. I want so badly to just be an effective missionary, but I have to accept the fact that I´m not perfect either. I am learning and growing just like those that we teach. I just pray that the Lord is content with my efforts. I can feel His patience with my imperfections. I know that He loves me. I am trying to do better for Him and His children. There is always more to improve. Patience....patience....

This week was a good one. We found some great people. We still haven´t been able to find a previous contact that we are looking for, and that kills me, but I hope that one day we will find them again, or that some other lucky missionaries will. I hope that if that´s the case, that we have left them better prepared to receive more. We are trying to work more with the members. Every week fewer and fewer people come to church. We missionaries can only do so many visits every week. We are trying to get support to do more activities here with the members to help them build unity. We are trying to work with the members more so that we can begin to see progress as a ward. BUT WE ARE HAPPY!!!. I am learning to just say it like it is...I probably don´t sugar coat things as much as I should anymore. There´s just no time for sugar coating :) Hahaha...one thing I have learned.

I am so, so glad that everyone is doing so well at home. Que bakan. I love you all so much. I am so grateful for your prayers and support. They mean the world to me. I just can´t believe that it has been a year since I got my mission call. How crazy is that! It is funny, Mom wrote and said, “ Just saw your October 2009 mission call video on the computer and we got to relive the exciting moment when you opened your mission call and were speechless with excitement. Hope it has been every bit as exciting as what you had anticipated over a year ago." I just sat here and thought about it and shed a few tears here in internet...this has all just been a dream. It´s all been so perfect. I had no idea a year ago what serving a mission means...I´m still learning. It just really means everything to me. I can´t express it. But it is just all so beautiful. Especially the hard parts...the refiner´s fires. They are so perfect. So planned. So exactly what we need. I know that this Church is true, and I know that I am so exceptionally blessed to be trusted to share it with others. I know that the Lord is in the smallest details of our lives. I am so grateful for that knowledge. I am so grateful for you all. I hope you all know how much I love you....well, I don´t think you really know how much, but it´s a heck of a lot. Thank you for making this possible for me. I am forever in your debt. I love you all tons. I hope everyone continues to progress...in health and happiness.

Sorry there wasn´t a lot of details in this letter...just a lot about what I am learning. Just a lot of the themes of my heart. Umm....I have a talk that I want you all to read. It´s called "Crying with the Saints" by Glenn L. Pace. If someone could send it to me in Spanish that would be very much appreciated. Thank you...and read it. So inspired.

Also....side note to all friends and family: You can email church and Christmas music to my email account here. Do it :) No but really...

Abrazos all around.

Su hija, hermanita, y amiga,

-Hermana Bertagnole

I'm at the 8th month in the mission

Nov 8, 2010


How is everybody. Thank you so much for all the letters. I love you guys, and from what it sounds like everyone is doing pretty well. That makes me so happy. You all have no idea.

This week we had Zone conference and because we are so far away, we had capacitation the next day. It was so great. Many things that we need to work on. I am excited to make these changes in teaching. We are trying to focus more on teaching people rather than lessons. It´s hard sometimes, but it is so much more inspired and effective. Sometimes it´s hard to know what people need, and teach to that need. But it´s just a matter of trying to pay more attention to the Spirit.

We had a great week this week. We found a lot of new people to teach which is so great. We are still hurting with the fact that a lot of citas fall through every day, but we are learning to just work around that and make the miracles happen. I know that we are directed by the Lord. I need to develop more faith in that. I LOVE the learning and growing experiences in the mission. This cambio I have been learning a lot of patience. I never really thought that I was an impatient person, but I am learning that I am. Also I am learning that I need to have more pure charity for others. Oh, so much to work on. The beauty of the mission, I think, is the fact that we are all trying so hard to be perfect, that it just kills us when we aren´t. That leads to growth, repentance, forgiveness, and miracles. I love it. It´s so hard, but I love it. I think I love it because it´s hard. It means more to me.

One tough thing that happened this week was we haven´t been able to find one of our contacts. She is our most promising investigator right now. She is, de verdad, incredible. We don´t know what happened. She has kind of a rough life, so we are really worried about her. We pass by almost everyday, and she´s never home. Please pray for her. She needs the presence of the Spirit so badly in her life. I´ll let you know what happens this next week with her.

What else happened this week....OH!!!! Well, I am officially a legitimate missionary. On my 8th month mark, I got bit by a dog. Yeah, it hurt, but I´m good. It looks a lot uglier now because it´s all bruised and what not, but I´m sending you a picture of it. Actually, it doesn´t hurt at all anymore, but it looks like it hurts a lot. Don´t worry, it doesn´t. And don´t worry, the dog doesn´t have rabies. So,. yeah. Just thought I would let you know, because I think it´s pretty funny, and cliche. I HATE DOGS.

Oh, the other picture is with president. We (the elders) had an ugly tie contest...they were very fea corbatas.

Gosh, I love you guys tons and tons. I hope you have a great week.

Abrazos all around! I miss you guys lots.

-Hermana Bertagnole

Happy all saints day!

Hey there everybody,

I hope that this letter finds you all very happy and healthy. Thanks for all your letters that you all sent. I love you all tons. Oh, just so you know, Scott...they are playing Muse in the Internet cafe that I am at right now...:) Just thought I would let you know that I´m jamming to it as much as I can as a missionary. A tender Babalonian mercy.

Well, as far as news this week. Again, it was a really tough week as far as numbers go. I think we broke the record for the lowest numbers in the history of the mission Chile Osorno... (not really, but I feel like it.) I know that the numbers are not important, but for me it´s the idea that there are children of God, and Spirit-filled lessons behind everyone of those numbers. That´s what kills me. But you know I am satisfied with our effort this week. We had members, we had citas, we worked hard, it´s just when we got to the doors, no one let us in. But don´t worry, we are keeping our animo up, we rescheduled a lot of the citas for this week, and I know that we are going to see miracles this week. I hope that we are learning what the Lord has prepared for us to learn. I feel that I am learning a lot of patience this cambio. I am trying to develop more faith and sensitivity to the Spirit. I really am putting into practice what Mom always taught us, "you can chose to pout and feel bad for yourself, or you can chose to get up, get to work, put a smile on your face, and get to work." I am choosing the latter, and it´s made all the difference. Obviously, I am going to try and do even better this week to improve, but I am excited and hopeful that all will be wonderful.

Not a whole lot else to report. Mom asked for my direction: Manuel Aguilar 310 interior. Look it up on Google Earth for now, I´ll try and send pictures next week. The pictures I sent this week are from our activity this morning that we did. All Saints Day is when everyone goes to the cemetery and does the flowers on the grave thing. We went and did contacts there with the stake youth group. It was cool. It was neat to go to the famous cemetery on such a cool day (you can see in the pictures, that I am beginning to not care so much about my hair, make-up, or clothes...que verguenza).

Anyway, don´t have much time to write more. I promise to write more next week. I LOVE YOU ALL TONS AND TONS AND TONS. Take care this week. Love you.

---Hermana Bertagnole

First week of my fifth cambio in the mission... que rapido el tiempo!

Hey beautiful family of mine,


We are off to kind of a slow start for the cambio. But that is to be expected as we didn´t really get to start a full day of work until Thursday, but still it was a little frustrating. But it´s all good. As all the Chileans say "es lo que hay". I am excited to start the week fresh and new. I am trying to learn a lot these next two cambios. I think it is going to be a huge learning experience. Learning a lot of Spanish, humility, and patience. The Lord blesses us when we try our best. I know that already, I just have to have a prayer in my heart that He will help me remember that always. I am learning a lot, as I try and keep my attitude right. I keep reminding myself what mom always taught us that your life turns out just like your attitude. I am trying to just love every second of it. Even the tough ones. :)


It´s a blessing to work with Hermana Campos. I am learning a lot. Sometimes, it can be hard to change companions, and adjust to a new one, but I am learning a lot. She has a lot of animo, and she´ll be good for the ward here. I am realizing how little Spanish I actually know. I am trying to keep my confidence up and be patient with myself. I know that I am growing closer to my Heavenly Father as I try my best to complete the work that He has prepared for me.

We are still trying to focus on working with the members here to strengthen the ward. We were in Ward Council yesterday, and it seems everyone is kind of down on the animo, as assistance is gradually going down and down. We are really trying to work hard to help everyone have more animo. The leaders need a lot of support.


We are teaching a woman named Alejandra and her little boy Pablo. They are miracles for me. Pablo is 9 years old and he told us the other day that he wants to be a missionary. He wants to be an angel to other people and teach them about Jesus. They both really want to get baptized. He told us that since we have been teaching him, he is doing better in school and behaving better too. He told his teacher that he has two tias (aunts literally, but that is what they all call us here...well they call everyone that they are semi close with aunt and uncle) that come to his house and teach him about Jesus. He is so sweet. His mom came to Church this week and really liked it. I really hope everything works out well so that they can enter the waters of baptism. I know that the Lord is and has prepared them both. It is so cool to see them grasp on to the Gospel. Their lives are changing. It´s neat to see it first-hand.


Gosh I just love being a missionary. I love learning these lessons and I love seeing these miracles.


Yesterday we contacted a girl from Canada named Michelle. She was SO great. She´s teaching English as a volunteer down here. I was talking to her in English...and I ended up just apologizing to her about how bad my English is! Hahahahah, she just laughed. I can´t speak well in English anymore. I have to think about it so much. It was the weirdest feeling ever. She was great though, so cool.


Welp, that´s all I have time for. I love you all more than you´ll ever know. Tell everyone thanks for their emails. It´s always so great to hear from you all. LOVE YOU ALL TONS.


ABRAZOS

--Hermana Bertagnole

Not running faster than I have strength...but enough that my lungs are burning

Hey Ya´ll

Well, we had a pretty good week this week, under the circumstances. Hermana McMaster was way sick this week. I felt really bad for her, being that sick, much less being that sick during her last week in the mission. She was a trooper, though. We worked every day. We did go home early two nights, but I was just amazed that she was working at all. She was sick, sick. But she´s feeling better now. Mom, I already know you are going to ask if I took Echinacea….yes…and many other vitamins : ) I feel fine. I think I got lucky, usually when one is sick we´re both sick.

Well, we had a really good week, but unfortunately it was raining Sunday morning so hardly anyone came to church. I thought a lot about you guys while we were walking to church. It reminded me of taking summer morning walks with Momma back at home. So peaceful. It was a beautiful experience. Trunky as it may be. Jajaja.

I found out this morning that my new companion will be Hermana Campos. She is from Santiago. I think I´ll probably be with her for two cambios, so my Spanish should be amazing by the end of this companionship. I don´t think that she speaks near as much English as Hermana Aponte, so I can´t even cheat : ) It´s going to be solid Spanish for 3 months. That´s good stuff. Just this morning I was praying and asking that Heavenly Father will help me learn the language better, and to help me have the discipline to only speak Spanish to my companions…well, prayers are answered. He must have known I don´t have the discipline strong enough so he just took away the other option : ) Hahaha. I am excited to work with her. I think I am going to learn a lot. I think that she is still pretty new in the mission too, so it will be good to learn from each other.

The Spanish is really coming along well. I mean, I think I am to the point right now where I know how to speak pretty decently, but I get hard on myself when my mind doesn´t think fast enough. I need to count my blessings though, everyone says my Spanish is really good, but I think maybe they’re just being nice. I am excited to learn a lot the next few months. I am starting to pick up the subjunctive a little bit more. That one is always the hardest, but I like it. It´s fun to learn and listen to.

We had a really great Noche de Hogar with the ward this week. I think it inspired the members to take more part in the work. We had some very powerful testimonies shared, including the testimony of a friend of Claudia (our recent convert who is deaf), Christina (who is also deaf). She shared that because of Claudia, she has began sharing with us, and she told everyone that she would really like to be baptized as well! It was neat to hear her testimony, as it was the first time that we had heard her share it. I think it was good for the members to see that people are prepared, we just have to invite them. Please, I am begging you all. Be member missionaries. Give the missionaries in the ward one referral a month. Just think of the people that you know that could be prepared and then pray about it. I know that we know so many people that are or have been prepared to hear the good word. Share it!!!! Don´t be selfish. Help the missionaries. The work would be so much more effective if the members took the counsel of the Prophet and became missionaries too. That is where the work is successful. That is where the members are retained. Please do it. If you don´t I´m going to chew you all out a lot when I get home : ) …but seriously. Also, please pamper the Elders in the ward. Just spoil them. Do anything for them. Their lives can be hard sometimes. DO IT! They will love you more than you think for it.

I love you guys more than I can say. You all are the best. Thank you for the emails.

That´s about all the news I have for this week. I resent the pictures from last week. Pretty cool experiences right there. Oh, the adventures of the mission. I remember that when I started to think about going on a mission, Mom said, “Well, I can´t imagine that she´ll turn back now…she can´t live without adventure.” Let´s just say I am so very glad that the Lord gave me the opportunity to have this adventure. I know that I will never ever regret this. It’s such a tender mercy in my life. How undeserving I am of such a great thing! Gosh. Love this.

I love you all tons.

-Hermana Bertagnole

Learning to see the miracles

Hey familia mia,

I just want to say that I am sorry that I wrote kind of a downer letter last week. I was just having a little bit of a lapse of faith. But I want you all to know that I really appreciate your letters and your pump up. It helps a ton. I really can´t thank you all enough for your support and faith in me.

I am glad to hear that things are really going alright back at home. I am pumped to hear about all the missionaries going out from our stake. That is AWESOME! I need all the company I can get up on that bulletin board .

Well, this week was such a great blessing in my life. I think that I really learned some great lessons this week. Remember how last week was just hard? This week was too....we didn´t really see much difference until Saturday. I decided to just buck up and buckle down. We worked really hard this week. We tried to plan really well, and make sure that we had people planned out to back up our goals. Every night I was just wiped out. It felt so good. The week was really not looking that great, but Saturday it took an incredible turn. We went out with the Zone Leaders to a cita. And one of them fell through so we were knocking doors. We split up. We found a mom, daughter, and granddaughter that are AWESOME. The mom´s grandmother used to read from "this book" about Jesus. I asked her what book it was, and she didn´t know (I don´t think her Grandma was Mormon...but just had a Book of Mormon). I pulled out the Book of Mormon to show her and she lit up...she said "eso es!!!" That was the book! It was neat. We are really excited to go back and teach. They are named Bernarda and Daniela. Pray for them. They are prepared. The zone leaders found some people, too, that may or may not be promising...we went to teach some of them and they weren´t hugely receptive, but maybe it was just bad timing. We´re going back to try and teach again this week.

Then yesterday, everything in the afternoon fell through again. But it led us to someone that was a miracle. A young mother named Alejandra and her 9 year old son Pablo. We started the lesson, and I just told her...you know, we are going to ask you to be baptized, but really we want you to understand why. I don´t know why I started the lesson like that. I never have before, and initially we were just going to teach about the Book of Mormon. She began to talk about her life and how it´s been very difficult. The father of Pablo was abusive to her and so she left him when Pablo was 3 and began working in a job that, as she explained, "no woman should ever work...if you understand what I´m saying." She said that she soon quit, and just felt so ashamed. She said that every day since then she has pleaded with the Lord to forgive her. She told us that she just doesn´t know what she can do to be forgiven. My heart broke for her and the pain that she has felt for that sin. She said that all she really wants is to be an example for her son and raise him well. Needless to say, we taught baptism and the remission of sin. We invited her and her son to be baptized together. She seemed so excited. I can´t wait to go back and teach. She seems very happy to learn more. She thanked us so much for being missionaries and teaching her. It was neat.

Later last night we taught Claudia´s friend Cristina. Awesome. Between the two of them, I am picking up a lot of signs...I signed for her during Sunday school the other day, and I surprised myself that I knew so much Gospel words in signs! (OH! Parenthesis: So yesterday during testimony meeting Claudia stood up and bore her testimony. That was a miracle. She spoke and signed at the same time. She has such a powerful testimony, and we were all (us and the members) were just in awe...crying and so impressed with her and her spirit. SO rewarding to see that.) Anyway...yeah, so last night we taught Christina. She is living with her boyfriend right now (and actually he was baptized when he was a boy, but has never really gone to church), but we invited her to get baptized on Christmas day! How cool is that!? We figured that that would give us enough time to teach them all that they need to know and also get married, or move out...whichever. But it was a neat lesson. We invited her to be baptized in sign language....who´d have thunk!? :)

It was a good week. Many lessons learned. Many miracles seen. We are so blessed to know what we know. Fight for it. Fight to keep the Spirit and the Faith. Never let it go for anything. Para nada.

Well, that pretty much sums up my week. Good stuff. I love the mission. Full of good stuff.

I love you all tons. Thank you for it all. Miss you. Keep up the good work. Don´t for get to be member missionaries!!!!! Help the missionaries. They need it. Happily serve them, because they are happily trying their best to serve you! LOVE YOU ALL.

-Hermana Bertagnole

Conference Week

Thank you so much for your letters this week. I love you all so much. You all have no idea how important you all are to me, and how grateful I was to receive your letters this week. They mean the world to me. I am so glad to hear that all is going well and that you all enjoyed conference. I just love you all so much. I think of you often, and it makes me smile. I thought of you all so much during conference. It just makes me feel so great knowing that I have the family that I do. I know that I was sent to a purpose to you all, and I just really don´t know what I did up there to deserve it. I just can´t say thank you enough for all that you have done and sacrificed for me growing up and now, so that I can serve this mission. I know this is what I am supposed to be doing right now. I know it. I love you all so much. I can´t tell you all enough.

Well, this week´s letter will have to be a short one, without pictures. We have a Zone activity that we are going to have to meet up for so I don´t have time to write a lot. But I´ll write what I can with the time that I have.

To be honest this week was kind of a rough one. We lost quite a bit of ground with numbers...I´m not really sure why. Everything just kept kind of falling through. The hardest blow came yesterday when only one of our investigators ended up coming to conference. There were four opportunities for people to come and only one did. Few of the members and recent converts came either. It was so great to hear the words of the Prophet, but it was hard to hear them knowing that people that really needed it weren´t there. I cannot pin point why this week was so difficult, but I am learning to have faith in the great principle of agency. I am learning that even though I want to with all my heart, I can´t make anyone do what they deep down don´t want to do. I could love these people to death, but if they don´t love their Savior enough to keep His commandments, and receive His blessings, I can´t make them. I think the realization of that this week is what was the hardest. I think that´s why they say the mission is so hard. Before all we really had to worry about (or thought we had to worry about) was ourselves...now we worry about the salvation of souls. It is a big charge, but I am so grateful to be trusted to do this. I am really focusing on just loving the people more, having more faith in them, and not judging people. We were a little beat up this week, but we have toughened up and we´re going back for more. I have faith that we will have a great week this week. We are happy and ready to do what the Lord has planned.

I don´t mean for this letter to be a complainy letter in anyway...I just say it like it is. It was a hard week, but I am so ready for more. I am glad to have a fresh start this next week, and I am so grateful for the Conference to boost my faith. I know that I am just where I need to be doing what I need to be doing. Even though I can´t see that I am making a difference, I have faith that I am. I know that there are many very special lessons to be learned in the trials of life. That is what I wanted to share with you in this letter. Sometimes life isn´t a fairy tale. Sometimes it just downright stinks, but really that is when we learn. That is when we get to figure out who we really are, and what we need to improve. The Lord gives us weaknesses to make us stronger. To humble ourselves and to have a clear, untainted vision of who we are and what we want to become. I am so grateful for every challenge that we have had this week, and all the challenges that we will have. There is a purpose, and with them we can see clearer than without them.

I love you all so much. No saben cuanto. I pray for you all always. Thank you for all your love and support. I hope that this wasn´t too much of a downer letter. I didn´t mean it to be. I just want you all to know that I love this work more because it´s hard. Easy come easy go. I loved the quote in conference "You get what you pay for". It´s so true. I gotta give it all, cause this is a once in a lifetime chance for me to do that. I am happy, and I am so grateful to be trusted with this work. I love my Savior Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice for me. What would we do without that knowledge. Be grateful and act grateful.

Love you all tons.

BIG HUGE HUGS COMING YOUR WAY!!!!!!!! :D

Hermana Bertagnole

Another week

I can´t write very much this week, because we are going to the cemetery here in Punta Arenas…sounds exciting huh? But really though apparently it´s world famous, and BEAUTIFUL….you all should google it today and check out what I´ll be standing in. Be jealous. Just kidding…but seriously google it.

GUESS WHAT?! Another baptism. It was awesome. Claudia and Boris got married Friday morning and then she got baptized on Saturday. It was such a special weekend. I am pretty sure that she understands better than anyone I have taught so far in my mission. I feel like it is because she really just has to pay so much attention to understand anything. At first I was really worried about the ward here more or less ignoring her because they didn´t know how to communicate, but I was proven to have faith insufficient. The ward has welcomed her with open arms. Many people try to talk to her and everyone just gives her big hugs. All the primary kids there learned how to say congratulations on your baptism in signs, and they all told her one by one…so cute. I hope that this endures as she becomes a faithful member in the ward. We are going to try and set up sign language classes for the members to come to while we do English classes. There is one young man here that knows sign language and so hopefully we can help him help others. I think he would be very willing. He baptized her, and he loves her family. I am trying to learn signs to teach her better. She can read lips really well, so she can understand what I don´t know how to say with my hands. She is just so special. This was a very special weekend for her and her family. For us, too.

I am really starting to get to know the ward here better. I am excited to work with them. We ate lunch with Hermano Ayancan yesterday (he was the old Stake president here). He was telling us that the ward is really struggling. We want to help them. When it is my time to leave Magallanes, I just really want to leave it in better shape than when I got here. I know that change takes time to become reality, but I just really feel like we need to really focus on the members here, and their families. I want to really work closely with Bishop Muñoz to help figure out what his goals and visions are for the ward here, so that we can help him. He does so much by himself here. He doesn´t have a bishopric, and I can´t help but think that it would be overwhelming without one.

This next week we have a lot of members signed up to go with us, so I am really excited about that. I really think that we need to find a lot of nuevos this week. We are still praying to find a family that will be a strength in this ward. We have a few couples that might be great potential, but we need to work more with them still. But the Lord knew what we needed, and the next meeting we had, we was with a woman named Karin and we watched the Restoration video with her, and she told us that she got piel de gallina (goosebumps) during the 1st Vision. It was neat. She has lots of progress to make before baptism, but I am really willing and ready to help her through it.

I am happy. I am focusing on trying to have a great attitude all day long. There are times when I just have to remind myself that I am on a mission, and though things may not be going as I would always like them to, I am still a missionary! And that is something that always brings a smile to my face. I feel very blessed to be trusted with this magnificent work.

So far this has been a mas o menos harder sector, but I am really excited for the challenges that I´ll have here to help me progress and develop as a person and a missionary. I hope that I can help in anyway possible here. I am excited to work hard and love the people. I know that is when I have the most happiness in the mission. Gosh, I am very happy right now, I hope that I can learn a ton this cambio, and that I can just love every second of it. Even the hard ones.

Anyway, that is about it for today. Tell everybody that has to get hand written letters that I am sorry that it´ll take longer to get to them now because I am at the tip of the world…and I live pretty far away from the post office. But they are written and will be on their way soon.

I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!! Thank you for all your love and support. You are all the very greatest. Thank you for being in my life.

-Hermana Bertagnole

Glad dieciocho is over...now back to work!

Hola Familia bonita!
Sounds like things are going pretty well back in the casa. Dad, thank you so much for your advice about the ward in your last letter. That was really exactly what I needed this week. It is a little hard to make the adjustment to a new ward, but I am trying to focus and all the good things that they do, instead of all the different things. I am very blessed to be in this ward. There is lots of work to do, and I am just trying to help in any way I can. You gave me some good ideas of how to help the Bishop here. He has a very big calling…no counselors to help either. Bless his heart. Mom, I really loved your message about being grateful. That is so true. I am really trying to work on that. Sometimes when I find myself complaining, I just have to stop and think about what I´m saying and just remind myself that I am a missionary. That is the biggest privilege that I have ever had in my life. I need to be willing to do anything that it takes to call myself a disciple of Jesus Christ. When life is hard…welcome to the Savior´s life. The best lives ever lived were not easy ones…they wouldn´t be fulfilling if they were. We have to be grateful for the trials we are given. They are only opportunities to improve and grow, and become closer to our Savior.

Things are really pretty much the same old thing here. We couldn´t work very much since the last time I wrote you all on Thursday, so to be honest not very much has changed. This week we didn´t have many appointments, and we couldn´t leave the house without set appointments…to say the least, I got pretty bored the last four days, but today is the last day of the holiday, and tomorrow all is back to normal. Thank goodness. I am really ready to get back to business.

We did get to go to the ward activity for Dieciocho. That was way fun. I got to see the Cueica for the first time…it´s pretty sweet. The Cueica is the national dance of Chile…everyone knows how to do it here. A little girl in the ward tried to teach me…I got it on video…I´ll show you when I get home. To say the least…it was clear that I am a gringa…I wasn´t the best Cueica dancer there.  Oh well.

We are going to be having another baptism this Saturday! This will be Claudia…the woman that is deaf. She is such an amazing person to me. This ward is not an easy ward to be deaf in either. Mostly it is made up of very elderly people, and I worry about her being able to communicate with people very well, but she can read lips very well. I can communicate just fine with her, but then again, I do speak much slower than most in Chile. But we are going to work with the Bishop here to assign some people to help her understand, whether it is learning signs, talking slow to help her read their lips, or taking notes with good old pin and paper. Hermana McMaster can speak/sign pretty well in American, and there are some that are different, but she can understand pretty well. I am nervous that when she leaves it will be difficult for me, but I am trying to learn as much as I can and help the ward do the same so that she can get the most out of meetings as possible. She is so smart and so faithful. I am pretty sure she would come even if no one was helping her understand. She´s really pretty independent, which is good. There are a couple of inactive people that can sign fluently, so that actually might be something to get them motivated to come back and serve. Pray for us to come up with a solution. I know that she is doing her part; we just have to figure out how to best help her…we have to do our part now.

Well, also this week we had interviews and capacitacion with Presidente. It was awesome. I told him that I am a bit worried that soon I am really not going to be the new sister in the mission. He told me that I really need to be focused on progressing and growing up as fast as I can, because we have a lot of sisters leaving soon, and he´s going to need me as a leader. I am a little worried about this, to be honest. But I am going to really try and push myself really hard this cambio to learn as much as I can fit in my head, just so I can be a better servant and be available to do whatever the Lord requires of me. I am scared, though…I´m not going to lie, but President expressed his confidence in me, and that helped a lot. Now I just can´t let anything get in the way of my progress. I think this is the point in my mission that it is beginning to change from just a really cool experience to a whole lot of responsibility. But I am really grateful for the opportunity to become the missionary that the Lord has in mind. Yesterday was a hard day, just because I realized that this is not going to be easy to do, but really I know that I am going to grow so much. I am grateful for the opportunity. Here I go. Thanks for your prayers.

Well, because I don´t have much new news this week, I´ll tell you all a little bit more about Punta Arenas. It is a lot colder and really pretty windy, BUT the houses here are heated with gas stoves instead of wood stoves…and we are very blessed to have one in the kitchen and one in the bedroom, so when it is cold we turn them both on and we are roasting in no time! We have the warmest house in the mission I think.  Unlike in Ancud, we don´t get to walk by the beach everyday to citas, BUT you can see the Magellan Strait from our house…pretty legit. I think one P-day we are going to get up early and go watch the sunrise over it…and touch the point of the world where the Pacific and Atlantic meet…who knew!? The food here is pretty much the same. Although the mamita here lets us serve ourselves, so we don´t have to eat as much food as we did in Ancud…thank goodness. Hopefully I can drop a few pounds here.  Oh man, gotta love the fact that everyone is shoving food in your face. I love Chileans! Que mas…It´s warming up a little bit now. I got lucky to be here in the Spring and Summer…I hear it gets pretty bad snow in the winter. Also the Spring and Summer is when the penguins come!!!! So before too long, ya´ll will be getting pictures of me and the birdies!  Get excited…I am.

Well, that´s about all that I have time for, Familia mia. I love you all tons. Thanks friends for your emails. Love you guys. Sent off some letters to you all this week.

Abrazos!!!!!!
-Hermana Bertagnole

Una carta de su Magallanica

Hola familia mia:.

Well, I am no longer Chilota, I am Magallanica...but considering that I was born (in the mission) in Chiloe, I might always consider myself Chilota...we´ll see. So yes, Magallanes is my sector here in Punta Arenas. This whole area in the southern part of Chile is technically called Magallanes...You´ll have to do some research to find out all the reasons, as I am still not exactly sure. From what I understand, supposedly it is an "independent republic" but I am pretty sure that it is still very much part of Chile. They do have their own flag though...but I think that is kind of like the Confederate flag in the United States. :)

Anyway, my new compañera is Hna. McMaster. She´s awesome. This is her last cambio in the mission, so it´s kind of sad, but she´s a really hard worker, and I am learning a lot from her. She´ll be way fun to work with. My first Saturday here we had another baptism! It was a young man, Miguel, who´s mom and step-dad are recent converts from May, and he has been working with the sisters for awhile now. His step-dad got to baptize him! He is awesome. He´s 17 years old and just a really good kid. It was neat to see their family get completed. Sandra and and Amador (his parents) also have another little girl who is 4, and she is adorable. They want to go to the temple so badly so they can be sealed. They are just a great family that is going to be such a strength in the ward here. I am sending pictures!!! It was a great start to the cambio.

Also we will be having another baptism the 25th of September. She has been working with the missionaries for a little while now, and she has been coming to church as well. Her only problem was she was living with a menos activo member and they are not married, but they are going to get married the 24th so we challenged her to be baptized the 25th and she eagerly accepted. Claudia and her future husband, Boris, are deaf...so I am learning a new language now too. I am learning how to sign now! It´s so fun. It´s different than sign language in the US, so sometimes I get confused from what little I remembered from those classes that the sister missionaries used to teach, but it´s way neat. Claudia can read lips really well, and to be perfectly honest, she understands the concepts way better than almost any other investigator. She is so smart. It is such an inspiration to me. We are trying to get the members to at least try their best to communicate with her at church. There is one young man that can sign, so we are enlisting his help to teach a sign class to the members. I want to take it too. I can pray in signs now though! It´s fun and she is so sweet about it.

As far as the transfer goes, I have learned that it´s kind of like starting all over again...I am learning and praying for a love for the people all over again, just like I did when I first got into the mission. I hope that it comes sooner now that I can understand them, and communicate with them more now. I know that it will come. I am learning to work with different members, different leaders, different investigators, etc. but they are all great, so I think the love is coming quickly. I already just love Hna. McMaster. She´s great. I feel blessed to have her as my comp. Also I am SO happy because I get to see my Mama Aponte about 3-4 times every week. It is so so great!

My focus this cambio will be the same as last cambio. The family. I just have realized very quickly that that is where success is on the mission. I realized it with Miguel´s family. I am realizing that it is so much easier to become inactive when you´re family is not there to support you. I don´t worry at all about Miguel being inactive, because right now it is easy for him and his family to have the goal of the temple. It is within their reach, they are so close they can almost touch it. And that is driving them. Without that it is so easy to lose sight of what the real goal is. I really want to help the members activate or complete their families and GET TO THE TEMPLE! I learned this week just how important and crucial those covenants are. They too are necessary for our Salvation! We are praying hard to find a family that is prepared and ready to here this glorious message. I just love having that as the focus. And I feel even more strongly about it this cambio than the last. I know that there is at least one prepared and waiting in this sector.

As far as the weather goes here, it´s cold and windy, but it isn´t as bad as everyone makes it sound...but granted I am here during spring. ... but I hear the wind will get really bad. That´s ok... I´m tough. :)

Also, the reason that the Pday is Thursday is because of their Independence Day. It´s the 18th of Sept. and this year is the 200th birthday, so it´s going to be nuts. Lots of borrachos, so we are only allowed to work on set meetings for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. It´s taking a hit on the work, but I know it´s for our safety...I´m going to get so bored in the house though. Oh well, supposedly this holiday is bigger than Christmas. And people just party for 4 days straight...I´ll send pictures of the Ward activity (it´ll be calm compared to the others, hahaha).

Well, that is all I have time to write for now....

OH funny thing: The law here for the 18th of September is that everyone has to have a flag waving outside their house for the entire month of Sept. or else you get a ticket...Luckily our house owner took care of ours. We have the Chilean flag and the Magallanes flags hanging. I figured Scott would get a kick out of that law.

LOVE YOU ALL TONS!!!!!!!!!

-Hermana Bertagnole

(HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHELSEA!!!!!! Love you!)

Me voy al parte mas sur del mundo…para ensenar los penguinos

Me voy al parte mas sur del mundo…para ensenar los penguinos J
The next time you´ll be hearing from me I will be writing you from a snow bank. I am getting transferred to Punta Arenas. Goodbyes are the very worst thing in the world.

Right now it is very bitter sweet news. I am sad to leave this magical place, Chiloe, but at the same time I am very excited to meet the people of Punta Arenas, see Hermana Aponte (!!!!!!!!), and meet my new companion. I am really grateful for the opportunity to serve there. It´s hard to say goodbye to these people here in Ancud though, they are so very special to me. It´ll be hard saying goodbye to Hermana Kelley, too. She is so special, and I really enjoyed working with her. I am grateful for change and the opportunity to improve through it. I hope that I live up to this calling as I should. I am trying to do so. Sometimes I feel like I don´t do it exceptionally, but I am grateful for the Savior and the opportunity to improve through Him. I am grateful for this opportunity to serve Him. How blessed we are to see miracles happen every day. They exist.

I am halfway packed...I still have to pack my clothes, but that should be pretty easy. This is when it really starts to set in that we are only missionaries. We are just the herramientos en los manos del Señor. I am really excited to get transferred there, though. I knew I had to leave, and if I could have picked that is where I wanted to go and at the time I wanted to go. I have always just felt like there is something special there that I need to be there for. From the beginning of this cambio, I have felt like I might go there next. I feel like my time down there is going to be a full of special miracles. I know that the Lord´s hands are guiding this work and people are called to different areas for a reason. It´s hard to know that my work in Ancud is done...it seems in so many ways that it has just begun, and that there is so much left to do...but that will have to be the work of those to come.

I can´t believe I completed one-third of my mission this week. THAT IS CRAZY! Time is going so quickly that it is frightening me.

In answer to your questions, Mom, I did give Karen the skirt, but the shoes I am packing. Karen looked so cute in the skirt I had to let her have it.) As far as souvenirs went, I stayed pretty cheap and little. I did invest in the lana (wool) here in Chiloe. Wool stuff here is so cheap....like 6 bucks for a wool scarf cheap. I bought a few wool things to bring home and also some wood work done by a friend of ours...se llama Domingo...he´s awesome. But that´s about it. I figure I can´t carry much around with me right now...especially a Punta Arenas. Also, you´re right...I need to polish my boots...I´ll get on that ASAP...the boots have been the least of my concerns, but I need to take better care of them. Spit shine, here we come! ;) As far as food. Lunch is HUGE here... at least when you´re feeding the missionaries. I usually just have a little snack for breakfast and dinner, although I think this next cambio I´ll just have tea (herbal....it´s huge down here...and they have some delicious flavors...mmm mmm) and a few crackers. Word has in down south they eat a ridiculous amount of meat...ugh. Oh well. It´s cheap down there.

Well, I am out of time this week. I´ll write with new adventures next week. Love you all tons!!!!!!! Miss you and am praying for you! Thank you for everything!

LOVE YOU.
----Hermana Bertagnole

PS: Well, also it sounds like everyone is getting hitched! Congrats everybody!

Una Semana Hermosa

I just have to let you know I loved your letters this week. I am so excited to write you all and tell you about the great, great week that just happened. I know the Lord loves me. He has blessed us so very much this week.

Well, as you know, we had Elder Scott come and talk to us. It was a 6 hour conference...it felt like 30 min. It was so great. He is hilarious, by the way. I know that you all would be looking at the picture on the blog, so when we lined up for the picture, I made sure I got to stand in the middle....my height really helped too (thanks, momma). It was so neat. We got to shake his hand and talk to him for a little bit. And then we had a 20 minute break during the middle, and during it I noticed that he was just sitting on the stage by himself, while all the missionaries were talking amongst themselves and what not. I grabbed Hna Kelley, and I told her, "An apostle of God should not be sitting by himself talking to no one." So we went up there and we welcomed him to Chile and we thanked him for coming, and he talked to us about how special it is that we are sister missionaries. He said that there is no better place to prepare for being a mother and wife. It was so neat to talk to him for a little bit. He´s so, so nice. He was telling us that his wife served a mission, and he said she always told him it was the best thing she ever did. Not really mentioning the fact that she married him :) It was a very great special day.

READY......THE VERY BEST PART OF THE WEEK: KAREN GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes that´s right, we had our first baptism! It was such a testimony to me that the Lord´s hand is so very much in our lives. Karen was prepared before we met her to hear and receive this world changing message. She latched on to it, even when it didn´t make sense to her, and I am telling you there was such a great change in her after it happened. I could literally tell that she was a different person. She was so happy. She´s a happy person anyway, but I am telling you she was SO happy. Gosh. I really can´t do this justice in an email. It was just so powerful. Also, her mom was there--who has been menos activa for most of her grown life, but she was there and she was crying. Before she left, she pulled Karen, and us aside and asked to say a prayer with us. We were all in the chapel standing in a circle (holding hands...some people like to do that here) and her mom thanked our Father in Heaven for letting us find her daughter and showing her this path of happiness. She prayed for the work, and she prayed that Karen would seguir adelante en este camino and that she would maintain her heart clean and pure like it is right now. It was so neat to hear her mom pray and remember how she felt many, many years ago when she was baptized. We are going to work hard with her family to help them come back to church.

I gave Karen my red skirt to use for her baptism and to wear to Church (she hates the fact that she has to wear a skirt). But I am telling you she looked just like a missionary. We even put our name tags on her just to make sure it fit right. She really could be a missionary...and a very excellent one. We are going to tell her to pray about it. She´s kind of dropped hints that she has been thinking about it. She´s 20 years old, but she has been going to tons of citas with us just because she wants to learn more and more. We told her now that she is baptized, we are going to teach her how to teach little parts of the lessons so that she can practice "just in case you should decide to go on a mission" :) She just smiles at us. I would love to see her serve. I think part of her really wants to. Whenever we slip it into the conversation, she just smiles. She so, so great. I am really going to have a hard time saying goodbye to her. She really wants to go to the temple. Gosh, she´s just so perfect. It´s so great. I just love her so much. It was neat, yesterday we went to a cita with her and without us even asking, she just started teaching and explaining things, and then she´d turn to us and say, "Cierto?" It was fun. She´s so great.

Side note: also this week I might have gone swimming...it wasn´t my fault. There was the worst storm that I have ever seen in Ancud, and we had to walk along Costanera to a cita (the street that is right next to the ocean.) and the waves were so big that they were splashing up over the wall onto the sidewalk that we had to walk on...we got a little soaked that day. But now I can say that I have been surfing. :) It was pretty funny. I am sure that anyone that drove past just thought to themselves, "Man those missionaries, they must get paid a lot to work in conditions like this." It was pretty funny. I took a video of it, I´ll have to send it to you or show you when I get home. Funny stuff.


Well, I love you all so very much. Thank you to infinity for all your love and support. I really couldn´t do this without you all. Thank you for being such a blessing in my life. Tell the brothers that I love them so very much. I miss you all. I pray for you all often. Mom and Dad: you are so so, so wonderful. I can´t express how much I love you both. Gracias por todo que han heco en mi vida. LOVE YOU!!!!!!!



Les AMO,

Hermana Bertagnole


P:S. oh answers to questions: It is hard learning Spanish with a gringa. :)

Almost six months in the mission. No puedo creerlo!

Hola familia mia. Hey ya´ll, Hermana Kelley and I (apparently) are the two Hermanas in the missions with accents. I think President (being from Oklahoma and all) thought it would be a good thing to put us together to enhance each other´s accents...nice....I say ya´ll a lot more now...it´s kind of dangerous. Who knew I would pick that up in Chile, hahahah... I hope all is well back in the good old United States. It sounds like from the letters things are going pretty good.

Well, I have the most amazing news EVER!!!!!! KAREN IS GETTING BAPTIZED! She is a miracle in my life. If you´re wondering why you haven´t heard tons about her...well it´s because she had her baptismal interview exactly only one month after we contacted her in the street. She was so utterly prepared, it blows my mind. She is such a sweet girl. She is 20 years old, but looks like she is about 15 years old just because she is so tiny. She is a spit fire though, and she is always correcting our Spanish...it´s pretty funny. But she is so, so smart. She is very intellectual, and she told us the other day that she can´t believe she is doing this because it all doesn´t make perfect sense to her yet, but I just laughed and told her...well, everything doesn´t make perfect sense to me either yet, but that´s the Lord´s way of showing us that we have to work with faith more than intellect. I love her so much, and I am so grateful to get to see her change and evolve and understand more and more the past month. She is amazing. She just gets it. It´s so beautiful. She´ll be baptized the 28 of August. Please, please pray for her and her family. She means so very much to me. I think I am just as nervous as she is for this, but I didn´t tell her so. She is so, so ready and prepared. It´s so cool!

Also this week, we talked to Marcelo about baptism again and he really wants to get baptized. We found out that he is attending seminary and basically any other church activity he can get his hands on. He knows so much already that we haven´t even taught him. He´s going to get baptized the 11th of September. The only problem is that he has to get his parents’ permission to do it, obviously. We have taught his mom and his sister, and they are awesome. I think his mom doesn´t have any problem with it...she´s just happy he´s so happy, but I have yet to meet his father. Marcelo tells me he is very active in another church and is not happy at all that he is attending all these Church things. So please pray for him that his heart will be softened and that we will be able to teach his whole family these things.

What else is new....OH. Some really cool news: Tonight we travel to Puerto Montt (on the continent) and then in the morning we will head to Osorno to have a Mission Conference with Elder Richard G. Scott! We are so so, so excited. (I´m going to try and take a picture with my arm around him like Eric and Steve Young....just kidding....about the arm around him...I´m a missionary). Hahah. But anyway, we won´t get back to work until Wednesday, so that will be a little hard on our goals next week, but I´m not complaining at all :) I´m so, so excited. I am pretty sure he can speak Spanish too, so that will be neat to hear him speak in Spanish. Yay!

Oh mom, in reference to my little black jacket...it is getting pretty worn out just from being wet all the time, so I have been thinking about finding something else here to wear underneath my rain jacket. They have some really nice jackets here that are really warm, but still thin enough to layer under rain coats and great in the rain. I´m thinking I am going to try and find one of those. They are pretty pricey...I think like 80-100 dollars or something, but let me know what you think. A lot of the Elders have them and they say they are the best thing since sliced bread....a very good investment. Anyway...let me know your thoughts. I´m thinking I could probably get a month or two more out of mine, but I need to start looking for another that looks a little nicer. I am so glad that I brought my black jacket though...it´s like having two rain coats on at one time....HEAVEN. Eventually with all the rain..."waterproof" isn´t as waterproof as you might like...so it´s nice to have a double layer.

Anyway I love you all tons. Tons and tons. Thank you for everything. Dad, thank you for the pep talk at the end of your last letter...I needed that today. You are so great

Oh and momma, after the mish you and I need to road trip it to Alabama and hang out with Hna Kelley and her momma. We are making plans. From what she´s told me ya´ll (hahaha) will get along great. It´s going to be great.

Oh and Hna Aponte called me on Hna Lovell´s cell phone the other day during a conference and she told me that she is using cualquier ropa; hahaha pobresita! (I have a feeling that I might go there next....ummm yeah.)

Welp. Love you all tons!!!!

My rain jacket smells like feet, but I'm still smiling!

Well it´s starting to rain everyday again...everything that I own is beginning to just smell mildewy...but all is well. So is the mission.


Another great week of letters. Thank you for all your cartas. They were great, and I am glad to hear that things are going well. Eric....I have the coolest story to tell you. So the world is so small. We brought pictures of our families to a zone meeting this week, and one of the Elders in my zone is from Constitucion...as he was looking at my pictures, I mentioned that you served in Concepcion, and he took a closer look and yelled "No!! Elder Perez!!" and I was shocked that he knew you!!! He began to tell me how awesome you are and that you were so great and on and on and on. His name is Elder Cisternas. He must have been about 9 years old when you were there, but he totally remembers who you are and says that he has a picture of you in his house. He said that one time you came to his house with a big ‘ol hole right in the front of your rain pants. I´m going to try and send a picture with him next time so you can see him and his family. It was pretty neat to know that my big bro was such a great missionary that a 9 year old boy would remember him and serve with his sister 10 years later. Pretty neat!


Anywho, this week was AMAZING. It started out really pretty difficult. On Wednesday, we had a grand total of only 3 citas for the entire week. We were really frustrated, because all of our meetings were just falling through left and right. We came home on Wednesday night without entering a single house to teach. We reported our numbers, and pretty soon our Zone Leader called us and he gave us a really big pep talk, which helped, but he gave us some great advice. We applied it the next day and we went home Thursday with 5 citas and 2 new investigators. The rest of the week went the exact same way. We were so blessed. We found 14 new people this week and a really, really great family---in fact you know who it is--the family of MARCELO!!!!!! He´s back from vacation now and we went and taught his mom and little sister and they are just as ready as he is to receive this great message. They are the family that we have been praying for. We are hoping the next time that we teach his dad will be home to teach as well. Also, this next Saturday, Karen is going to be having her baptismal interview. We have been seeing her progress so much every time we talk to her. She still has a few little things that she is not sure about, but we taught her a lesson on faith and obedience, and she said that she received a testimony very strong of that that very night. Gosh. She is a miracle. So are Marcelo and his family. We have been so, so very blessed this week.


I really hope I don´t get transferred this at the end of this cambio. I don´t want to leave this place. The work is so strong here right now. And everyone is really starting to progress like crazy. I love working with Hna. Kelley. We teach really well together. We are really working hard to keep our Spanish up. We also want to get really good at asking questions so that the people that we teach can teach themselves through their answers. I like asking questions a lot, but I still struggle with the wording in Spanish a little bit, so that is something that I´m working on. Good stuff though. I just want to dominate teaching, but I´m learning more and more that the key is to teach with the Spirit. Hecho.


I just feel so blessed to be trusted enough to serve this mission. I am not even close to a perfect missionary or teacher or anything, but I am just so grateful that the Lord gave me this opportunity to serve in the Chile Osorno Mission, and to wear a name badge everyday that has my name and His name on the same plaque...sometimes I really don´t feel like a missionary...missionaries are supposed to be perfect...they are the people that are basically like the Bishop. (Dad, we both know now that neither of the two parties are perfect, huh) But we just try our best to do what the Lord will have us do and to remain worthy of the call. Gosh. I love this work. I am so humbled by the lessons I learn every day. Sometimes I just really can´t figure out what I did to deserve such a grand blessing in my life....actually most of the time I wonder that. I do love this. I have never been happier. Thank you family and friends for your love and support. One thing that I have realized so strong is that I am so blessed to have a family that is faithful and strong in the Church. There are so many here that do it all by themselves. Some struggle outwardly and many struggle inwardly, but they are faithful and trying, just like all of us. We are blessed. Don´t ever forget to share your blessings with people that need them too. Share the Gospel. It is our sacred duty. Help the missionaries. Offer to bring people to Church for them. Offer to be their "last minute" person...our lives are crazy...don´t get upset if they call you at the last minute. Offer it. Offer to help them teach. Offer to share your conversion story to their investigators. Be a missionary. The only reason that missionaries have the Spirit with them more often is because they share the Gospel with everyone they see every day. They have to have the Spirit...it´s a requirement of sharing the message. That´s the only thing that makes them different than anyone else in the Church. This is such a beautiful and exciting message. Please share it.


I love you all so so so so so much. Never ever forget that. I pray for you all every day.


LOVE YOU ALL TONS:


BESOS and ABRAZOS!!!!!!!!

I am just loving the heck out of this...

Thank you all so much for your letters this week. They were just awesome. And as a sidenote to friends, I am getting really bad a writing and then not going to the post office....so just so you know you´ll all be getting letters soon. I just always forget to send them. Lo siento! :)

I am so glad to hear about your experiences this week. I loved hearing about your spiritual experiences, and also about the fact that you all get to house the missionaries for a few days! YAY! What a blessing. Also, Dad, when I heard about the fact that you were not sure you had enough people for them to teach, I thought to myself that you need to invite the neighbors over to the house and invite the missionaries over and have a Noche de Hogar (FHE). Seriously though, do it. :) If you can´t do it this week do it sometimes. I am learning that we cannot be the ones to hinder the work. The members are so so so very crucial in this work. The missionaries really are the worst friends ever to the investigators, because in the end we all leave them. They have to have trust in the members. You have to invite people to your house and have the missionaries come teach them in the house. That is where the success is. The Spirit is different in the houses of members, we all know that, we just have to take advantage of that. We learned something this week that amazed me: if every member brought one friend into the Gospel every year, the entire world would be members in 9 years. Why should we wait? There is no time to wait. There is work to be done. I promise that if the entire ward´s focus was on missionary work, the entire ward would have more success (more active, happier, less family problems, whatever the case may be). The only thing that makes missionaries different that regular members is the fact that they are baring their testimony all the time. Because we are doing that we have the Spirit with us all the time...and we are so so so happy all the time! Gosh, I just am learning so much. I told President in my letter to him this week, that I really just feel like I am getting the behind the scenes of success in life and in the Gospel. It´s living what we are teaching...but really we gain an undeniable testimony of these things by teaching them. I am begging anyone who reads this letter to please please please pray about your friends and family and pick someone, invite them to your house, and invite the missionaries to come over and have a Family Home Evening with them. This is important, and you will see miracles in your life and theirs. BE A MEMBER MISSIONARY. Those are the best missionaries that exist. Missionaries like us are not able to do this work without members...it is so very impossible without you.

Well, enough of my preaching. Can you tell I am working on trying to be more bold when I teach? This was my goal for this week, and I finally feel like my Spanish is to the point that I can carry on pretty well in conversation, and so I am using that in my teaching. I am trying to testify and teach with more boldness. It has been really cool this week. I am realizing that there has to be boldness in this message...it is a message that will change lives. It is different because Jesus Christ was different...and so is His message. We can´t treat it like it is just some book on a shelf. The Book of Mormon is the journal of Prophets who saw and touched the hands of Jesus Christ Himself. We can know how that is to see His face; we have all this at such easy access...why would we keep that to ourselves?

Well, some really great things happened this week. I don´t know if I told you all about Karen, but she is getting baptized at the end of this month! I really feel so so good about her. She was prepared, and she had so many perfect questions. We are so excited about her.

Also, I got to eat McDonalds this week! We were in Puerto Montt for our Zone Conference on Wednesday so we went to the mall food court...I got a Cajita Feliz (Happy Meal). It´s pretty legit.

Conference was spectacular, as always....so good that I don´t have time to write all my notes or feelings, but it was about working harder and having faith that we can meet our goals.

Also the coolest part of this week is that our investigators are really starting to progress. This is really the first time that I can see people really changing...a lot. Gosh. The best part is that it is happening with a lot of our families that we are working with. We are so so blessed right now. I am in love with this. I don´t remember if I have talked to you all about Jose and Cecilia but Cecilia joined the church maybe 6 or 7 years ago, and was inactive for much of the time...her husband never joined, and now they have 3 little girls. Cecilia is starting to come back to church, and Jose is showing great progress. So we are pumped about them. Also we are going to try and start working with the husband of the RS president who has been working with the missionaries on and off for a really long time, but is afraid that a year after he is baptized he will be branch president (yeah he is that great...I would believe it too.). Also the COOLEST thing that happened this week is that we have been working with a family that is the family of the District President´s daughter´s boyfriend (if that makes any sense). We found them knocking doors, and they let us in and then we found out who they were, but we have been working with them for about 2-3 months now...Erna and Roly. Roly has been really sick with a tumor in his brain, and we went over last night with President Pinto (the district president), and he gave him a blessing. Roly and his family have changed completely. Roly offered to say the closing prayer...in all these months I have never heard him pray. His pray was of gratitude for the Spirit he felt when the hands were on his head. It was the most beautiful and sincere prayer I have every heard. It was so powerful. We are going to see lots of progress with them, and they are going to be a great strength in the Church.

Well this is all I have time for. I wish I could write more...I always do. But you´ll just have to read my journal when I get back! Love you all so so so so so very much. Take care..

Tengo 5 meses in la mision...

I feel so unable to express how blessed I feel right now. I know that the Lord had a plan for this in our lives, but I´m so grateful for the power of prayer and the comfort and blessings we receive through it. I know that our Heavenly Father will never leave us alone. He´s right beside us always. I am learning a great lesson on this mission. I hope that it´s not my last mission. I love being a missionary--it has completely stolen my heart--I have never been so happy in my life...and I just keep getting happier. It´s pretty cool.

Well, the big news this week is that I got a new companion. LOVE HER! Her name is Hermana Kelley. She has been in the mission 9 months. She has great ideas and is a really hard worker. We had such a great week this week. We were talking and we have decided that we really want to find a family...a whole family...that is prepared to hear this message. We are praying hard and we are knocking a lot of doors and having a lot of faith that there is at least one family that we are going to find this cambio. Pray for us, too, please. They are here...I know it. We just have to be obedient and follow the Spirit. We are going to find them. Oh, and she knows Elise Sherwood and Jessica Bertagnole! Jessie was her RS president in BYU Idaho

One really great thing that I found out this week pumped me up so, so much. Remember Vanesa? The woman that we taught who was living with her pareja and was in a really bad situation? Well, a few weeks ago, she told us that she was going to take the bus to Osorno and visit her mom. As much as we loved her, obviously we were hoping that she would just stay there and make a new life for herself. We didn´t know if she would end up staying or not, but we got her in contact with the missionaries there so she could meet with them, too, and we haven´t really had news since. Well, Hermana Kelley was the missionary that she has been working with, and she told us that she is getting baptized at the end of the month. She doesn´t want to come back to Ancud. She loves the branch there. And the really cool part is before she left we told her to do the Book of Mormon challenge with us...she´s through ALMA!!!!! She remembers all of it too! This is such a miracle for me. I KNOW that the Lord would make a way for her to be baptized, because that is what she really wanted more than anything. I am so so, so excited for her. I love that woman. She is so prepared to be baptized she knows so much, and studies so, so much. It´s amazing.

I have been so tired this week. Even though I´m not older in the mission, I have been kind of the lead comp for the week, only because I know the sector and the people. It´s exhausting, but it has been such a good week. I have been praying so hard that the Lord would direct me. I had tried to line up a lot of members to go with us, too, so that if we got lost, we had a crutch...luckily, we never got lost though. I am so grateful that the Lord has helped us keep up the productivity in the sector. We are so blessed.

Something really great that happened yesterday was that one of the inactive, but really strong members that we have been working with, came back to church, and he bore a very powerful testimony of the importance of keeping the covenants we make, and the blessing that we miss out on when we don´t. I am always so amazed that the Lord is ready and waiting for us to change. He knows we can...He is the one that made it possible. He knows that all we have to do is try...He is waiting for us to try and then He´ll step in, give us His hand and help us stand back up. The theme of our Zone for this cambio is change. I am so grateful for this opportunity in this life to progress and change. I think sometimes we get comfortable with ourselves and where we are at, but I realized our purpose in this life is to push ourselves to progress and grow...if we aren´t doing that everything else we are doing is for nothing because we aren´t fulfilling our purpose. All the pain, all the tears, all the happiness, all the love, all the studying...everything is for nothing if we are not progressing and becoming more like our Brother Jesus Christ. Period. That has to be and remain the priority always in our lives. Everything else will take care of itself...or should I say our Heavenly Father will take care of.

One really great thing about focusing on the family (thanks Scott for your email and advice...it was awesome!) is that we are going to start working with the family of Marcelo and a lot of incomplete menos activos families to get them baptized and get them to the temple. I know we are going to see some great success. I just have a whole new energy for the work right now. I´m so excited and happy.

Thank you for everything. I can´t write much more, because I´m running out of time here, but a funny thing that happened this week is this Thursday we were contacting in centro. And after we finished the contact and were walking away, I realized that I forgot my name tag at the house, so I was looking down and I ran straight into an electrical box on a pole with my head. It made the same sound as those big tambourine drums and it nearly took me out. I was fine because I had padding from my hat, but it was hilarious and sooo loud. Everyone turned, and Hna Kelley and I were just cracking up. It was so embarrassing, but so, so hilarious. It´s times like that when I´m grateful to have a companion to laugh with. So great.

LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for everything. I am loving you all more and more every day. I´m realizing how very blessed I am to be in this family. I feel unspeakably blessed. Thank you for everything. En serio. :) I love you.

Take care. Be missionaries. Love you.