Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Merry Christmas from Chile! - Sister Hannah Avery

Written by Sister Hannah Avery, serving in the Chile Vina del Mar Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking Spanish.

(**Note to reader: Clicking on highlighted words will link to additional information. Clicking on photos will enlarge them. Some names are omitted to protect privacy.)

Hey family and friends!!

What a CRAZY week we have had! AH! To start, I am still here in Ovalle with Hermana Puertas! WOOHOO!!!! We have soooo much work to do here and are cramming to get ready for the baptisms of C** and I** (NACHO!!! HAHAHA!!) They will be baptized on the 29th (Sunday) at 7 PM. We are so excited!!

So, we will be spending Christmas with Sofia and Catalina! We have computers all ready to go with Skype so that we can call you guys! Any news from Jake yet?? I hope that I can talk to him too!

We found another family this week! M** (Mom) and J** (daughter) both have baptism dates for January 11th! Hermana Puertas and I are super busy, and I think this transfer will be full of baptisms! WOOHOO!!!

I think that I am getting tendonitis. My left foot KILLS!! UGH! We walk all day everyday, so my foot is getting really bad. It's been bad for about 4 or 5 days now, and it's not getting better. If it is not better after Christmas, I am going to call the mission nurse and see what she thinks I need to do.

An Elder in our district was sent to the Emergency Room this week because he got appendicitis! Super bad…. He will be back here in Ovalle on Wednesday, but he had his operation yesterday. He is from the United States. Poor kid. What is up with missionaries and appendicitis?!? I think it’s the stress and all of the changes….

We had a stake activity yesterday… and it was a rip off…. Lo siento (sorry), but seriously. Only about 15 people in the ENTIRE stake came. And then all of the 25 missionaries or so that are in our zone. All of us missionaries sang carols in Spanish. That part was good. But it was sad to see that no one came when people have known about this activity for weeks…. It's hard because people don’t come to church activities unless it's really “fun”. Well, hopefully next time we will see more faces there!

Here is a weird thing that happened this week! A lady that we contacted about a week ago ran us down in the street yesterday. She had told us previously not to come to her house anymore because she “doesn't believe in God”. So, that was that, and we thought nothing of it and moved on to the next house. So, she ran us down yesterday and said, “Sisters, I am so sorry for telling you now to come over. I do believe in God, I just didn't want to talk to you because I don’t want to listen. But I do believe in God. And I wanted to tell you that because after you left my house, lots of bad things happened everyday. So I want the bad things to stop. Sorry.” UMMM WOW! Poor thing. That kind of thing happens though when you deny something that is true. Hopefully one day someone will be able to teach her the gospel!

Well guys, I love you SOOO MUCH! I cant wait to talk to you all at Christmas! Two more days!!!! I pray for you all every week. I miss you like crazy! Have a great week, and remember that this time of year is crazy, but it’s a time for family and to remember the Savior. I love you!!!!

xoxoxoxo Hermana Avery

Traffic and Another Earthquake (December 17, 2013)

Happy New Year from Chile (December 30, 2013)

Hermana Avery, Hermana Puertas and the two brothers
who will be baptized this week in their area.

One of the lovely ladies we are teaching in Ovalle.

The Sister missionaries in my Zone.

We missionaries who sang carols for the stake
Christmas activity this week.