Loaves and Fishes

This week was actually a modern day story of the loaves and the fishes. Incredible! I started the week with an orange, two servings of pasta, 5 slices of bread, half a box of milk, and a box of oats. And somehow I MADE IT. God is so good. Not joking, He looks out for me all the time here. And always, with all his children! (Note: The Hermanas in the ward feed us lunch almost every day so I've never been starving. Not to fear, mama!)

Chile is beautiful and the people are so kind and loving-- being here is good and it grows on me more and more--a little every day. I'm feeling the difference between visiting a dirty place and living in a dirty place for sure though :)

This week I read an article in the Liahona magazine called The Gospel Path to Happiness by Elder Holland and I think it was written for ME. Joseph Smith said "Happiness is the object and design of our existence; and will be the end thereof if we pursue the path that leads to it." Henry David Thoreau said "Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder." I love those two thoughts together because if we turn our thoughts away from the pursuit of our own joy, and serve others, or more specifically for me, try to invite others to come unto Christ, we will find our happiness. But not if we are looking for it.

Here' s a sad thing: I saw so many miracles this week, but I can't even share them all with you! This week has been loco and I have run out of time! Also, today we want to make cookies for our investigators, but we will need an extra miracle cuz we are working with limited resources here! Anyway, I will tell you all the other miracles next week.

That's so so scary about the hurricane:( I actually knew about it haha. The man across the street in a wheelchair likes to look up USA news and tell me all about it, but he couldn't remember the word hurricane so he just said there was a huge natural disaster in Texas and did a little twisty thing with his arms and I thought it was a tornado and that you might all be dead but then he remembered the word! Woohoo! So after three days of unnecessarily fearing for your lives, I was put at ease. Thank you Sandro.

Know that I love y'all! I hope you're smiling real big! Also, I'll be praying for all the lil' guys affected by the hurricane. So scary, but I'm glad to hear so few lives were lost.

LOVE YOU!

HERMANA SIEBACH

Chile con Grace-O: Now A Reality!!

Hello! ITS ME! Hermana Siebach! In Chile! 

GREAT NEWS: my nails are thriving! My hands feel dirty all the time so there is no way they are comin' within a mile of my mouth. Uh uh, no way. Tender mercies, am i right?

Here are some funny, slightly sad, slightly embarrassing things before I get to the good stuff:

1. I have to shower in the morning. I hate showering in the morning because then I get out and I'm cold and wet and I don't get to hop into a warm bed. Also, i don't think so straight in the morning. I have now gotten into the shower with my slippers on 3 times. In 7 days. Amazing.

2. They actually really don't speak Spanish here! It's wild! For example, Joseph Smith in Spanish is Jose Smith. But here it is Ohtzmi. More or less. Now imagine every word being altered that much. SO HARD! Obviously I don't understand everything, but I feel my understanding grow every day so I have hope for the future! Also, some days are worse than others and luckily I can communicate with all of our investigators quite well! Blessings!

3. Today we went to the temple. It was good and I understood the video because I know Spanish. Then I got to the part where it's my turn to speak. I had this ancient, cute little lady helping me and I kid you not, it took me 30 minutes to get through it, and I was just cryin' in the big room at the end because this is my life at the moment and it's hard, but at the same time it's so spiritual and maybe great, I'm not really sure! All the emotions! 

4. There is a convenient pack of stray dogs that howls outside our window all night. Right now I have rude thoughts about them, but I bet the week I get transferred away from my area it will have finally become like a sweet lil' lullaby. Stay tuned!

The GOOD STUFF: 

Sister Navarette and yours truly

I have a bomb companion. The BEST. Her name is Hermana Navarette. She's 25, Chilean, and half my height, and a lot of the time I don't really know what she's saying! But she is so patient with me and my silly Spanish skills and she always gives me a chance to share the things I know to be true in lessons, even though it takes me about 5 million years to say them.

Our area is Javiera Carerra, and it's one of the slightly rougher areas of my mission, and I love it.

Y'all. let me tell you about Ignacio and Cristobal. They are brothers, 14 and 16, and they are awesome. We are amigos. We have taught them three times since I have been here and as of yesterday they are getting baptized! Aghhh I can't even explain how amazing they are. They love to learn and they remember all the things we share with them and they ask us questions so they can better understand and GET THIS: we teach them outside of their house because all the houses here are teeny and have tons of people in them and it's just a hard environment to teach and feel the spirit in. Yesterday, when we walked up to their house for our appointment, they had set up a little table with chairs and a table cloth and their Book of Mormons in the middle of their little dirt yard. They were out front just waiting to learn more. They're so great. My heart was singing. Still is, quite honestly.

Miracle!!!! We had 4 investigators in church on Sunday!! And one of them says he doesn't believe in God! But I think he just hasn't quite come to the realization that he believes in God because he came to church, is reading the Book of Mormon, and praying....hmmmmm. Haha his name is Francisco and he is 22 and he is awesome and i want him to have all the joy:)

There is a man across the street from our casa who's name is Sandro. He is in a wheelchair and he fixes shoes. He can see us walking past from his little shop and we're always pumped to see each other. He likes to give us Coca Cola. He's actually taking the lessons! He's so kind and full of charity and love and I want him to have all the joy also.

In other news, I have so many dog friends! There are 245,348,957 stray dogs here and some of them are quite scary, but if they are wearing clothes, you know they're nice. Everyone here puts clothes on their dogs--it's funny.

Okay, I love you! I'm praying for you! Keep smiling and hugging and doing all the kind things!

So much love,

Hermana Siebach

Guess What They Don't Speak Spanish Aqui

Straight off the plane with President and Sister Morgan--Love them already. Actually.

Hola! Today is my p-day because I just got here and have no food so they give us the first day as a one-time Wednesday p-day! Normally my p days will be Tuesdays! Kinda funky, but they want us to be able to go to the temple on p-days, but it's closed on Mondays, so alas. Today, however, about 1,793 things went wrong so I have only 10 minutes to write. I'lll have a lot more time next week! You can try to salvage this email if you want to, but just know it will be short and the spac ebar and the a don't really actully work, so good luck* :) 

(*that's the only unedited sentence--she's right, they don't work!)

My companeras name is Hermana Navarette. She's from Chile, and she's 25, and she makes me look like a giant. She's so so awesome and nice, but I think she's already a little annoyed with me. Every time someone talks to me she says, "Oh she doesn't know Spanish." Ok, so...valid point, but how am I supposed to learn if people don't talk to me?!? No se. This morning we (she) gave our taxi driver a Book of Mormon! Exciting! He seemed really interested actually. 

Last night--my first night out--we had about 8 people we were planning to see. I was muy nerviosa. We ended up going to four of them, and they do not speak Spanish here, I will tell you that. They conveniently cut out all their consonants so it is a never ending slur of vowels so who really knows where one word ends and another one starts? Not me. My companion does though! She's good at Chilean. I just sit and cheer her on.

That is all true mostly, but I was able to share a scripture and my testimony twice! And they wanted me to pray! Big stuff. Also I can already find my way to our casa from the bus stop. It's the little things :´-)

Also, Dad listen to this! The day I left the CCM, I was feeling a little scared. I was in the little store they have there and the man who is always helping me at the check out said, "Bueno suerte Hermana Siebach. You will find so much success. BE GOOD!" DAD SAYS THAT: ALL THE TIME. It was exactly what I needed and so I started crying right there in the middle of the tienda because it made me so happy. Nice one.

I love you guys! Thanks for always cheerin' me on. Tell everyone I love them because I'm not gonna be able to tell them myself this week.

Okay bye I love you!

xoxo kisses!

Hermana Siebach

One last shot in Mexico City with cute Sister Andersen

Off to the aeropuerto

All the cute little newbies together with President and Sister Morgan

Hermana Navarette and I (El grande)

11/12th Birthdays and Callouses on my Knees

My orange sticker to tell everyone I'm OLD!!

Hola!!!
I'm living in the middle of beautiful Mexico, I'm surrounded by palm trees and parrots and so many friends, I'm studying the things that I love for hours every day, AND I'm moving to stinkin' CHILE in less than a week! Plus, it's been dumpin' buckets for the past 24 hours and I just smile and turn my face to the sky because I love it. I probably look wild but who cares! Ya gotta appreciate fully the things that bring you joy. I cannot think of anything better.

6:30 is pretty early to wake up every morning. I'd say. On Saturday, the girls in my room and I decided to get up an hour earlier and go do yoga with Hermana Bennett, the CCM president´s wife. We're all terrible and we were falling over the whole time, but it was such a lovely way to start the day! On the walk back to our casa, I said, "Wow I kinda like waking up early!" Then everyone laughed at me because we wake up early every. single. day. I don't know how we do it, but we're doin' it so it's good.

This week I got my sticker on my nametag which means I'm OLD. Everyone here assumes that when you've been here 6 weeks and have received your sticker, you are sooooo wise and know everything about being a missionary, but holy nuts I still have sooooo much to learn. I'm so excited!!

This week I realized that I have CALLOUSES ON MY KNEES: That is wild! Y'all, prayer is so good. I pray probably 30 times a day and sometimes I feel like that's a little excessive but then I think about what prayer is and I say SHOOT I GOTTA PRAY MORE. You're literally talking to God! And he's listening to you! And he's answering you! Sometimes you just have to look harder! I love prayer. Everyone should do it. It's changin' my life.

I had a prayer answered so so strongly this week. I was struggling big time just being scared of the unknown and maybe not being up to the task that I'm asked to perform. But on Tuesday, we had an amazing devotional. It was by Paul Peipere. First of all, I could feel his love for me the moment I saw him. He just has that face and that light about him. He talked about keeping commitments. The whole devotional was incredible, but what really touched me is this: he said, "We don't ever fully know what we need to do in order to keep our commitments. It isn't clearly lined out for us. But we need to try with all our might to find out... and God will help us know what we need to do in order to succeed." THAT WAS EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED TO HEAR! How did he know? i don't need to know everything! i just need to have faith and try my very best. Ahhhh!! :)

Tuesday was my 11/12 birthday and I made an announcement in class. We celebrated by bringing all our food together and they let me read the first scripture in our Book of Mormon district discussion. So kind. It actually really was. There's not a whole lot that we can do to celebrate here and I was expecting them to go, "Ah cool! Happy 11/12 birthday," but we celebrated and it was tasty. Then that night my roommates and I had a mini spa night (thanks for the masques Mama!) to celebrate and it was allllright!!! Life is good!!

Also, if you want to send me letters THAT I CAN HOLD IN MY HAND, today and tomorrow are your last days to do it! www.missionarypackagemx.com Chop chop! Hehehe :)

I love you guys and I hope that you are happy and smiling and finding the good things in life. Tu sabes que te amo! Hugs! Kisses! 

HERMANA SIEBACH

Spa night with my home girls on my 11/12th birthday--woohoo!

Already Out For a Month, WHAAAAT?!?

Hermanas Stevenson, Berglund and I, shining with the light of the sun and hopefully a little bit of the Light of Christ too:)
So much love! 

Here are two of our cute little babies who we are Sister Training Leaders for. They are the greatest and I love them. Hermana Hopkins and Hermana Anderson. not to be confused with my compañera, Hermana Andersen:)

This is wild you guys! A month! I kinda feel like I'm cheating the Chileans out of a month of my time, but I guess this way, I will be able to talk with them when I actually get there. That's a good thing!

My comp and I have started sitting with the native missionaries during most meals and GUESS WHAT! I can understand everything that they say!! Its a miracle! and they are so patient and listen to us as we struggle to respond to the things that we say. I met a hermano from Peru and I was reminiscing, in Spanish (!!!) about when we went there. It was wild! I surprise myself everyday. None of this would be possible in any other situation--I love it.

Here's a fun thing! The elders have finally come to consider me as athletically acceptable, so Hermana and I get invited to gym time with them!! Haha--it's not quite that bad; we could have gone with them before, but now we actually get the invite! My 8th grade basketball days really come in handy in almost daily games of knockout or lightning or whatever you want to call it. Also, we've started challenging other districts to kickball, and since we aren't supposed to keep score, whoever has the most fun, wins. We win every time

This week, my favorite scripture is Alma 5:7-9. That's more than one scripture, but don't stress :)

7 Behold, he changed their hearts; yea, he awakened them out of a deep sleep, and they awoke unto God. Behold, they were in the midst of darkness; nevertheless, their souls were illuminated by the light of the everlasting word; yea, they were encircled about by the bands of death, and the chains of hell, and an everlasting destruction did await them.

8 And now I ask of you, my brethren, were they destroyed? Behold, I say unto you, Nay, they were not.

9 And again I ask, were the bands of death broken, and the chains of hell which encircled them about, were they loosed? I say unto you, yea, they were loosed, and their souls did expand, and they did sing redeeming love. And I say unto you that they are saved.

So beautiful; so hopeful. I LOVE it. This is what the gospel can do in people's lives! They awake, and they awake unto God! Y'all know, I've been a member my whole life, but for the people who have never had the joy of the gospel in their lives, and then to be AWAKED UNTO GOD? And to have your SOUL SING THE SONG OF REDEEMING LOVE? It's a dream! It's a miracle! It's life changing! I cant wait for more people to be able to feel exactly what these verses say. Whatever it is that is encircling them with the chains of hell, can be washed away. AGH. I love it. I love the Gospel. I love Jesus Christ. I love it all.

Okidokee, well I gotta go but I love y'all and I hope you're happy and smiling!

Love y'all, 

Hermana Siebach

PS: Mom don't edit it too much! And for sure don't take out the love because I love everybody!

(from Mom: no editing occurred!)