I'm losing my "momma" of my mission (first companion)

July 26, 2010
Another Cambio is OVER! I cannot believe how fast the time flies. President called my comp Tuesday and told her that she is being transferred to Punta Arenas. I´m really sad, but it was bound to happen sometime. My new companion will be a Hermana named Hna. Kelly. Obviously she is a gringa. I have heard really good things about her so I´m excited. I am a little nervous as I will have to show her around the 1st week until she gets used to the new sector. I´m a little nervous because I still feel like I got here about a week ago. But all is well. Oh esta, todo bien.

This week was a great week. It´s been a little crazy trying to get Hna Aponte set to leave. We had to run many errands and things and begin the goodbyes, so it´s been a little sad, but good. I think I might be leaving the next transfer, so it´s been sad to know how it´s going to feel. This is the worst part of the mission I think. UGH. Oh well.

Thank you all for all your letters this week!!!! It sounds like things are going so great. Keep up the updates. I loved getting the letters. They were really cool ones this week. Not that they aren´t always cool, but they were especially great this week. Keep em´ coming. In answer to your questions. I am in 2nd Nephi also.....It takes a really long time to read in Spanish. I am trying hard though to have a good balance of Spanish, speed, and significance. Other question, we have a stove that is gas that we burn during the day for 2 hours at a time, and then we have a fireplace kind of stove, but it seals. We burn that at night and in the mornings while we are studying. Just so you know, I´m learning how to build a mean fire, and also how to picar lena....aka chop wood. How quaint, cierto?! We have all sorts of CO2 detectors and fire detectors, and the members make sure that we know what we´re doing, so it´s all pretty fool proof. We´ve had about 5 members come to our house at one point or another to help us and lecture us on the safety factors for all this. It´s sweet. I am going to be pro. Speaking of being pro...crocheting is not going to be something that I will excel at. You asked if I had a project? No. No time. Never enough time for all the missionary stuff we have to do, much less for fun stuff...maybe after the mish.

As far my life goes, we had great success this week and hopefully more to come this next week. Right now most of the students are on vacation, so we lost 2 of the people we were teaching for three weeks. They are in various parts of Chile visiting family, but they come back this week (including Marcelo and Daniela)!! We are teaching a young woman (20) right now who is awesome. We contacted her in the morning, in one part of Ancud, and then we contacted her Mom that night in a totally different part of the city. They were both so great, and eventually we made the connection that they were mother and daughter! It was a miracle. Unfortunately, she goes to school in Puerto Mont, and so we´ll lose her as soon as school starts again, but she says she comes home almost every weekend. Hopefully we´ll still be able to teach her.

We had many activites this week with church, and our investigators Yeni and her mom Susana came to all of them and 2 weeks of church in a row!!!! This is a huge step for them. I´m so proud of them, they are starting to make friends in the church too! Susana is not married to Marcelo (the dad of Yeni and her "husband"), but we taught them the Ley de Castidad last night, and we are setting goals with them to get married and be baptized. I love this family. They are hilarious. They are so so, so great. I love them so much!!!!!! I am going to miss them TONS when I leave. So good.

I taught a lesson to a menos activo this week practically solo---and my comp just sat there and was shocked that I could speak so much and understand so well in Spanish. It was outside and she couldn´t really participate because of how we were standing by the fence...it´s hard to explain, but I basically was the one that had to speak. But I felt great to know that my Spanish was good enough to get my point across, and teach with boldness and power. Yay, success! (But with much room to improve, obvio)

I taught Paola and her kids (our neighbors) how to make smores during a family home evening that we had with them this week. It was great and the kids loved it. I love our neighbors. They are so, so kind to us. We are working to get the kids baptized, they are so great. The little boy Pablo is 10 years old and he is in charge of directing family prayer. He loves saying prayers, it is so awesome.

Well, that is all I really have time for this week. Sorry if this letter is a bit choppy. I was trying to write it all really fast to get it all in.

I am happy. I love this work. I am trying to become the missionary that the Lord wants me to become. I love this Gospel and the truth that it has. It is so, so perfect. Thank you for all your love, support, and prayers. I couldn´t do this without you. Thank you, and I love you all A TON. I miss you and I am praying for you all. Keep up the goodness.

-Con Amor
Hermana Bertagnole