Halloween! 2011

Hola Hola!

How is everyone doing? How was your week?  It sounds fun. Everything here is going very well. We are still looking for people to teach but the people we have right now are really good. We actually got a really really good reference from my converts this week. They have two cousins that are amazing! We went to their house to check up on them to see how they were doing and to teach a lesson and their cousins were there. They just happened to move into our area a little while ago and live really close to the church. There mom was there too and so we started talking to her first just to see who she was and what kind of things she knew about the church and everything. Come to find our she is a member but inactive so her kids found out about the church because of the their cousins( my converts). She wasn´t to interested in hearing us because as she was leaving she said to her kids, ¨okay if you want to be baptized like your cousins you have to listen to the missionaries really well and understand what it is they are teaching, you have to know what you are doing.¨ My companion and I were just like.. whattt... It was sweet so we are looking forward to helping them and getting their whole family active and baptized into the church. I know that their cousins are huge example to them and I am very proud of them. :)

I have been noticing more how the Lord has been directing us this last week. It has been very humbling to recognize. I think that sometimes as missionaries we don´t always notice the Spirit because it is always with us therefore we can´t distinguish our thoughts from those of the Spirit. One morning this last week we were getting ready to leave to work and at the last minute the thought entered my mind to look for a few more people to visit. I found this page that was from 2009 of people that the Elders had contacted with their directions. So I wrote down like 5 names from this list of like 30. Then latter that day we were working and a couple of our plans had fallen through and we happend to be walking through and area that was close to one of the names. So I said to my companion lets go look for this person she lives close. We found the house very easily and when we approached it I yelled .. ¨aaa-low¨. This lady came out from the door, saw us, and then started walking towards the gait. That was kind of a surprise because usually they make us yell from the gait to them. Then I said, ¨Hi we are the missionaries from the church..., and we are looking for Maria¨. She said I am Maria. So I said, ¨oh great, I while ago you talking to two Elders, those boys that walk around with white shirts and ties.¨ She said, ¨Yeah I remember , but that was a really long time ago because after that I left to go live in the United States. I have been living there for the last two years and I just got back yesterday because my sister died.¨ There was a pause and then I said,¨we are really sorry to hear that, I am sure that must be difficult. As missionaries we share a message about how our families can be together forever and we have this book that testifies of our message. Can we leave you with something to read about the life after this and come back later when the funeral has passed and share this message with you?¨ She said, ¨Yes I would like that because I just got into town late last night and we have to plan the funeral and everything but I would like to read your book and listen to your message.¨ It was the craziest experience. After we finished talking to her my companion and I started to walk away, in silence just thinking about everything that had just happened. It was amazing to look back on everything that had just happened that day that lead us to knock on her door.

But everything is going good. The weather like I said has been getting hot! And no we never got any snow, that would have been horrible since we only have a little space heater to heat our house with. lol I forgot that today was Halloween. But from what I heard Halloween is growing into a big holiday here. The idea here is still pretty new because all of the little kids seem to know about it and are excited about it. It will be fun to see them in there costumes tonight. :)

I am glad you guys got a little vacation this weekend. I am looking forward to seeing all of the pictures. How is everything else going? Are there any new engagements or anything that I don´t know about. lol How is Grandma Norma and Grandpa and Grandma.

Thanks for everything! I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Lichty

One YEAR Down!

One year down......

I can´t believe that I have already hit the one year mark! I am feeling so old right now! But its okay. The day after I celebrated my one year, my companion completed one month in the mission. It is crazy being a trainer. I understand now why it is when you are training the missionary you are training is called your kid. It is because they are just like a baby in the sense that they really don´t know much about what is going on. They follow you and do almost everything that you do. You know how babies just pick up and everything you do really fast, especially the things you don´t want them to pick up on. Yeah it is like that here in the mission too. lol So I am trying to be extra careful so that my ¨daughter¨ doesn´t pick up on any of my bad habits. She reminds me a lot of my first change when everything was new and different. I find it so weird that all the stuff she has is in English. haha Like her lotion, shampoo, body soap, everything and I keep finding myself reading it and then thinking to myself.. hmmm that is so weird to see it in English. But it is good. Sometimes it is tempting to ask her about the outside world because she has only been out a month so she knows everything still, but usually I do pretty good.

The weather here as gotten hot! I am already getting a good tan on my legs, feet, arms, and neck. But I am doing really good remembering about sunscreen so that is good. If you could just send me one more medium bottle of sunscreen that would be really nice and I know it would last me the next 6 months. We have been walking a lot this week contacting and looking for new people to teach. Right now we have a couple good investigators that we are excited about but we could use more. Last change we baptized all of our investigators so we are on the search yet again. :) I really enjoy talking to the people on the street. Although most of them are busy or not too interested, they are for the most part very nice to talk to and we are doing our job giving them a chance to learn about our message.

For my birthday yesterday we went to church and a lot of the members remembered it was my birthday and wished me happy birthday. A couple of them brought gifts. The family with Santiago gave me a present on Saturday night and Sunday morning in church. Then that night they had a cake for me with candles and sang happy birthday. I just love them. It was so nice to be able to celebrate with them. They are the family that we reactivated like 2 months ago. Yesterday they both got set apart for callings and gave classes that went along with the callings. It is so rewarding to see how far they are coming. Also Ignacio has started to prepare and pass the sacerment so I have really enjoyed watching his family progress too.

The area that I am in right now is a little smaller than Belloto is and the people have a little bit more money then those in Belloto so it is different but I love it. The pension that we are living in now is SO much better then the Belloto pension but it is actually in a different sector then Villa Norte. So we have to cross an underpass everyday to get to our area, but I like it. We live with another set of missionaries and they are both Latina. We sometimes talk to them but not too much. It is a little strange but we are here to work so its okay. Our pension is about 30 minutes walking distance from our Church and takes about an hour to walk to our farthest investigator from our pension. SO we do a lot of walking but I really don´t notice it that much any more. It is just normal for us to walk long distances. I am sure my companion notices but she is holding up very well. :)

We live pretty close to stores, that is really nice. As far as clothes go.. I am doing pretty good. I bought like 3 summer shirts a couple weeks ago and some new shoes because mine are slowly wearning out so I am hoping the two pairs that I have right now will last this last 6 months. If you see any cute knee length skirts that would be kind of nice to have but if not its okay. Did you know they changed the dress standards for the sisters so we can wear knee length skirts. It is really nice! And remember those two shirts you sent me in the MTC the blue and red one from Maurice's that were the same shirt but different colors? If you find one or two of those they were really good for the summer. One of them got lost and the other is getting worn out.

I am sorry to hear about Stacy.  That is sad but a least she doesn´t have to suffer anymore. How is Zach doing with that? I am glad you are going to hang out with Steph tomorrow. Tell her I said hi. Try and take a picture together so I can see you two. I haven´t seen her in a really long time. How is your work going? How is dad? Have him and Zach found anymore projects to work on? Is Zach still working on the weekends? Anyway I gotta run! Love you mom! Thank you for all the updates on everything!

Love,

Hermana Lichty

Happy Birthday!

Oh how the time flys!

Can you believe that I will be a year in 3 days! It is so crazy to me and that my birthday is this week. In someways it feels like I have only been out here for a couple of months. But I am officially old in the mission now. lol

My new companions name is Hermana Garcia and she is from Texas. Her first language is Spanish which is sweet but it is a Mexican Spanish. It makes me laugh because Mexican Spanish and Chilean Spanish are very different. During lessons she says words that I have never heard before and I know it is because they are Mexican. I just have to keep my laughter inside though. lol The Mexican accent is so different though! I like listening to her speak in Spanish. But she is learning very quickly because Chile has A LOT of its own words. It is funny because sometimes we will be in a lesson and she will say how do you say this or that.. and usually I know, but its funny because Spanish is her first language. But I need to take advantage of that so I can better my Spanish with her. Training is fun and it reminds me of my first change here. I remember being so lost about what was going on and what we were doing. But I am trying to help her feel more relaxed about everything and letting her know how well she is doing.

On Saturday we went to Santiago for the 50 years of missionary work celebration. It was so good! Latins love to dance and so they had youth from all over Chile dance the dances of all the Latin countries. They all had different costumes from the countries and dances for a good 2 hours. It was cool. They had all the missionaries that could come from the 4 missions in Santiago and then us from the Viña mission. We all sat together and sang I´ll go were you want me to go. It was really good. The Area Presidency from Chile came too and gave three talks about the missionary work. 

Oh and guess who I saw there.... Elder Croft. What a small world. He was pretty excited to see me there so we took a picture together. 

It weather is starting to get hot. It has been a nice change. I am slowly putting all my winter stuff away. Probably I need to think about giving it away because it is going to be hot here until I go home. It is crazy to think about.

But our area is doing really good. We have a couple people that we are working with and we are on the search for more. But I am not worried because I know there are people here that are waiting for us. We just have to find them. One thing that I love about training is that we have more study time so that my companion can feel more comfortable and have the knowledge needed to teach. It has really been helping me too. I am so happy to be training :)

It looks like you guys had a very successful trip. I loved all the pictures! I am excited to hear more about it when I get back. How is Stephanie doing? What is she doing for her Birthday? I need to write her a letter or two. Will you tell her happy birthday for me and I will have a present for her someday. lol Most likely when I get back. lol  How is dad doing? Have they started any new projects. It is still really weird to me that Zach has a girlfriend. How is all of that going?

As for the primary song.. there is a primary song that the kids her are practicing that talks about a heart or something.. do do do do en el corazón. lol But they have not done a program yet. I think they are practicing for one. lol  The plugas are okay. Still am using that lotion that you sent me and I can buy other lotion here so no worries. I think I am good.

Thank you for all the updates and everything!

Love you!

Hermana Lichty

Hi -Villa Norte

Changes....
So we just found out about the changes and I am............... training! I am really excited about that because that means that I will most likely have another two changes here in Villa Norte. I won´t know who I am training until tomorrow afternoon but I do know that there are only two new Hermanas coming in and they are both coming from the Provo MTC. Our pension has been kind of crazy the last couple of nights because one of the other Hermanas is ending her mission today and Hermana Ellsworth is trying to pack all of her stuff up. I totally feel their pain because packing is the worst! It is crazy because you start packing and think.. wow I don´t have that much stuff but then as you continue all of that little stuff adds up and all of the sudden you don´t have any more room in your suitcases and still a ton of stuff. It is a little rough. lol
Anyway this week was a little rough for us. My straightener broke and I was really bummed about that. I had to take a minute to mourn about that. I am just going to have to wait until I get back to buy another one. And then the next day my mirror broke. Remember the mirror that we bought right before we left. It was like a dollar mirror from walmart but I used it so much. They don´t have any mirrors like that here. So if you could look for one like that to send me I would really appreciate it. Pedro finally had his baptism but it was horrible. He got into the water and then couldn´t bend far enough down to go completely under. The bishop and our dirstrict leader tried like 3 different things and nothing worked. And then he started choking on the water. It was so bad. Hermana Ellsworth and I cried and cried. We just walked back to the pension and cried. But Pedro is doing okay, we have been visiting him and is back to normal but I don´t know what we are going to do. It was bad and I don´t know if he can do it again.
But I am still really excited for this change because you never know what will happen. I am happy for a lot of different reasons. I am glad to have had two changes with Hermana Ellsworth because I learned a lot. I learned more about Jesus Christ and my testimony has really grown. I am really grateful to be here learning about all of the things that are the most important.
I am glad that you had a good weekend with Ramona. Tell her I said hi. Also how is Stephanie doing? Does she have a new boyfriend or the same one with the dread locks? Who does she live with right now?
The pulgas are okay.. I am getting bites still but I think I have learned how to cope with it better so it is not such a huge deal. lol The weather is starting to get nice. We had two cold nights this week but it was kind of random. Also we had a little earthquake again this week. It is so funny how that is become normal too.
I hope that you have a really good time with Grandpa this week and that you guys take some pictures!
I love you!
Hermana Lichty

October 3rd

Hey....

I am glad everything is going well for everyone! It is fun to hear all the news. That trip with Ramona sounds like it will be fun. Is it only on Saturday- Sorry I don´t think the question mark on my computer works or if it does I don´t know how to use it. lol Sometimes I have problems with technology. Today has been a bit of a cold day which is weird because it has been pretty hot this week. Yesterday it was so hot outside but it was alright because we were inside watching conference all day. That is sweet they are building a temple in Wyoming. I was pretty excited yesterday when I heard them announce it on Saturday. Did you know that I am the only one in the mission from Wyoming- Kind of crazy and whenever any of the people here ask me where I am from they always think that I say Miami. This computer keyboard is really hard to write on so I don´t think this letter is going to be very long... sorry!

But this last week was really good. We are working on getting Pedro baptized this week. That last baptism kind of wiped out our pool of investigators (which we are really excited about), so we are in the finding phase again. I actually like contacting and talking to people so it is good. We found a really good couple last night that we are really excited about and we are finally getting references from the ward. I think it took a little while to win their trust but we have it now and the members are calling on us to teach their friends. It is great. I am learning a lot about love and how important it is in this work. And if we love people we will call them to repentance even though it is hard and they might get upset. If we love them and are not thinking about ourselves we will ask them the hard questions and help them to feel the peace and love that we feel. This last week on Thursday we had a lesson with this family that I just love but they are not all members because the parents aren´t married. They started talking to us about being frustrated in the church because they felt that they could not progress. My companion tried to make them feel better by telling them they could still have ¨asignments¨ and be of help. I was quiet for awhile just listening to them but I could not stop thinking about their situation. So finally I spoke up and started telling them very bluntly but with love that they were right and they can not progress if they are not living the commandments of God. God is a God of order and He gives us laws and commandments to help us to learn and grow and to be able to return to His presence. They are for our benefit and because He loves us, and never will He give us a commandment or law that we can not keep. He will always provide a way. It was quiet afterwords and they didn´t have much to say but I feel good about it because I told them something they needed to hear. Even if it was very uncomfortable to say. BUT we don´t come on the mission to be comfortable so its okay.

How is everyone else doing-  Are you and grandpa excited for your upcoming trip-

Tell everyone I love them and miss them

Hermana Lichty