God Loves All the Babies!

This week was a good one. Hard, but good. Lately, our focus has been on the babies. 7,8 and 9 year olds are the best!!! We have been teaching a 7 year old, Emilia, who is getting ready for her baptism. Her mom is a member but her dad is not and he wouldn't give his permission for her to be baptized until she knew all the things. So we are helping her do that! She learns so fast and remembers everything. At 7 years old, she already has a testimony of these things and can't wait to be sealed in the temple someday to her family. She is awesome and I love her.

Then there are Michael and Jose Luis!! They are the little brothers of Ignacio and Cristobal and every time we go to visit them, Michael asks, "So when can I be baptized?" We are teaching them a little bit at a time because they are a little rowdy, but they love to pray and one of them always offers the opening prayer and the other the closing in our lessons.

Also! There's Daniela! She lives in the area of the Elders from our ward. Hermana Navarrete has a real knack for family history and Daniela's papà (also not a member) wanted to learn more about his family, so on Friday we were able to cross over and visit them. While my cute comp was helping with family history, I was talking with Daniela and her mom. Daniela took notes and drew pictures of all the things that the elders have taught her over the past few months, and she was so excited to show me them all. On Sunday, Daniela was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints! 

Fittingly, this week I read a talk by Neil A. Andersen from 2015 that made me cry. it was about welcoming the children and youth and young adults that are following their faith without the support of their families. If you know people like this, reach out to them. Every day, if possible, because every day is a struggle and they need the support of a loving person, family, and ward!!! God loves the children and so should we!

Tammy is a cute mom who has been listening to the missionaries on and off for YEARS. She is pretty closed off and hasn't opened her heart to this message for a looooong time. But this week there was a change. She was really LISTENING! Listening to understand! We have invited her to come to church every week since I have been here, and this week she accepted the invitation! Stay tuned!

WEEKLY I +C UPDATE!!! On Saturday we went to the temple with Ignacio and Cristobal. They were nervous, so we went a little bit before their session began to sit in the gardens and talk about the Temple a little bit more. We were able to share our testimonies about the temple and they felt a lot more peaceful. We entered, and when their recommends were scanned, the temple workers at the front desk welcomed them by name. So special for them!  Knowing someone's name can change everything! They were able to be baptized and confirmed for their brother and one of their grandfathers. What an amazing experience it was!!!

Osnel is a new friend that we found from Haiti. We went to his house and got to know him a little bit and shared a message of the restored gospel. The whole time he was repeating the things we said, analyzing them in his head. At the end of the lesson, we invited him to pray to know if what we had shared with him was true. He said, "Oh I feel like it's true. but I'll pray about it just to know for sure." Way to go Osnel! You're awesome!

In just plain old life-related news, I found my fanny pack, which has been MIA since I left Texas, and it looks quite nice with every outfit that I have here. Rock n roll.

No dog stories sorry:( 

Ciao! I love ya'll! Thank you for making me smile every time I think of you! All of you had some sort of impact in the 20 years of life that I have lived that helped me make it here to Chile and I am grateful!! Hugs and kisses.

Imagine a picture of me smiling here!

Ok, I will :)

Sheepdogs and Second Chances

Hello everyone! You can start praying for me now (please?) if you would like! Transfers are in less than two weeks and I have been informed that there is about a 95% chance that I will be training right away. To be honest I am scared out of my little mind, but I'm tough!

So this week I am back with even more exciting animal stories!!! Really just one, but wow. We were going to visit Esmeralda. Turn the corner and there's the biggest, fluffiest, sheepdog standing in the middle of the road. It's just too cute, there's no way it could EVER be mean. FALSE. We walked past it and it ignored us, but then it pounced on the back of Hermana Navarrete's head! WHAT! RUDE! She's small and also terrified of dogs,and this dog just completely enveloped her. She blocked its mouth with her caja so it couldn't bite her. I had run away a little bit (hehe worst comp award goes to me) but I screamed to get the dog's attention (redemption?). I succeeded in that and he came runnin' at me. I karate chopped him in the head but it didn't phase him at all, dang it. Somehow I was on the ground and the dog was on top of me and by the grace of God (truly!) I was somehow holding back his head?! This whole time I was screaming and Hermana was panicking across the street and someone came and pulled the dog off of me and then we were running away and it was not even real... but it was real! I have road burn to prove it! (all the skin of my left foot is on the pavement, not the first time this has happened, shout out to Robert Palazzo and longboards) but seriously, a miracle that neither of us was bitten. God loves missionaries. And now I am scared of all the dogs in the whole world. Hermana says they can smell fear so every time we see a big one, I sing a hymn to think about something else. Basically I am always singing hymns now. 

Okay but let me tell you about Monica!! Monica was a reference that we received. We changed our plan for that day and went looking for her right away. On the way to her house, we saw an elderly woman weeding the green space outside her house. We offered to help her, and she said Yes! That was the first success. Hardly anyone ever accepts our offers to help. We started talking and she said her name was Monica! We found her without even knowing it! After weeding, she invited us in to wash our hands. When we left the bathroom, she was waiting for us with CHOCOLATE ALMOND ICE CREAM. She said, "20 years ago, two girls like you passed by and offered to help me and I turned them down. I feel like this is my second chance to hear what you have to say and I'm gonna take it!" Whaaat!?! Is my life a movie? This is actually the missionary dream, thank you Monica. We shared a message about a loving Heavenly Father and his plan for us. She loved it and we are meeting with her again tomorrow!

On Sunday, Ignacio and Cristobal received the priesthood!!!! It has been such an amazing experience to watch them in their whole journey to this point. They have overcome a lot of things to get here and God is definitely blessing them for their faith and diligence. This Gospel is amazing.

I love y'all! You make me smile! Keep being the awesome people that you are!

LOVE, HERMANA SIEBACH

PS: Pictures! Finally!

This is what we look like on a Tuesday morning

Again!

Feliz cumpleaños Ignacio!!!!

We started teaching Michael and Jose Luis this week! They're awesome and I love them.

Sharing the Light

i dont have quite so many funny stories this week, it was a bit of a snoozer with animals and such and for that I am sorry. But! I'm gonna share all the things that I have!!!

We are trying to visit all the less active members here because the list of members in the ward needs to be updated. This is a big huge task because there are over 600 menos activos (!!!!!!!!!) Yesterday, we went to visit one named Carlos. We were yelling and yelling outside of his house trying to get him to come out, but his neighbor came out instead. Picture latino Santa Claus without the beard. The happiest, jolliest man. He saw us and said "Ah! Hermanas! Como estan?" We were a little confused because he was talking to us like we were old friends and we had no idea who he was. But! He's a menos activo! Not Carlos, but one of the other 600. He invited us into his home and we were able to share a message with him and his wife. They love the gospel, but stopped attending church because they both work long hours all week and need the weekend to rest. We assured them that if they set aside some of that time for the Lord, they will see miracles happen in their lives. And it's true!!! I know it is! The spirit was so strong and I feel confident that we will be seeing them in the chapel this upcoming Sunday.

Luis! Luis is a man that we found this week when we yelled at his house. He believes in everything! All the things! God, Jesus Christ is our Savior, the Big Bang, reincarnation, the stars have spirits too (? I've never heard this one before) and he is great. We're gonna go ahead and help him focus all his faith and beliefs into the Gospel of JesuCristo! 

I was reading a conference talk this week and want to share a lil' tidbit. In Thomas S. Monson's talk from 2015, "Be an Example and a Light", he quotes a poem. it goes like this:

I met a stranger in the night whose lamp had ceased to shine.

I paused and let him light his lamp from mine.

A tempest sprang up later on and shook the world about,

and when the wind was gone my lamp was out!

But back the stranger came - his lamp was glowing fine!

He held the precious flame and lighted mine!

I love that this poem uses the word stranger. I think that sometimes we fear to share our light and love until we know a person super well, but that is just not right! We need to share our light and love with everyone! Let it shine from your fingertips and your smile and your eyeballs! The light of Christ that we have is a gift from God and it is not ours to withhold from the people we might not know so well. I also would like to point out that the speaker was the first to help, yes, but later on he needed that exact same service. And back the stranger came! What would have happened if he had not shared his light in the beginning? They would both be sad and lost and alone in the darkness. Share your light always!

Another thing that I learned this week is that the prophets' plea for all members to have food storage is scripturally backed! Read 3 Nefi 4:4,18-19 if you don't believe me.

i love y'all. You make me smile. Keep being awesome. Hug each other and say nice things.

i took an awesome picture this morning to send, but guess what! Can't send it! AGAIN! Sorry. Stay tuned. Maybe next week!

Rat in Mi Kitchen

All my cute little casa mates--we have a new Hermana!

What! Life is crazy! We fixed the bathroom problem. It was lovely. Every time we flushed, water spurted out of the sink drain and the molding under the toilet and the tub. We called the guys who fix things, and they found out that the sewage tube had been cemented shut? Someone smart did that I think. They also found that we have a rat problem possibly! Probably! They were fiddling around in the little washing machine room out back and found a mountain of rat droppings. Good news, the washing machine room is connected to the patio is connected to the kitchen and none of them have fully functioning doors. Our food is DOOMED! We are thinking about getting a cat to fix the problem. According to the white handbook, we technically aren't allowed to have pets, but since we already kinda have a rat, is it really breaking the rules? (((jokes!)))

UB40: Rat in Mi Kitchen 😉

Speaking of animals I almost DIED this week! A crazy dog--seriously probably had rabies (we've been told a lot of them do)--appeared out of nowhere and tried to chew off my legs, but I kicked it into high gear (thank you Karl) and barely escaped with my life. He stopped and was just fuming there in the street, angry and in between Hermana and me. We had to separate for two whole minutes while we circled around and met on a different street. So wild. The same day, a bird pooped on Hermana's head. We are having bad luck with the animals here.

Here are some great things though! 

1. The Book of Mormon - the greatest thing! Our investigators were having a rough go of keeping their reading commitments. So with almost all of them we decided to have a lesson completely focused on the importance of the Book of Mormon (some of them for a second time) and they are all doing great now! The Book of Mormon changes lives. It changed mine.

2. The temple - another one of the greatest things! Ignacio and Cristobal are so pumped to go. They wanted to go the second they got baptized, but life happens! So we have plans to go with them this upcoming week.

I have been thinking about Alma 5:26 a lot this week. It talks about the change of heart that we have when we are converted to the gospel of jesus christ. We have so many things goin' on in our lives and I think sometimes it's hard to retain the remembrance of what caused that change in heart. But! if we can remember and grow in the things that we know to be true throughout our lives, how great will be our joy! 

I love y'all. I hope you're smiling and happy and dancing and reading your scriptures. Keep your eyes peeled for the guys that are lonely and need some love.

Ciao! 

Love Hermana Siebach

Some of the Good Things

This week it RAINED like crazy! For one day: Saturday. There is about -7 drainage here so the streets literally turned into rivers. Little men with little carts offer to shuttle people across the streets, but only for money. Ugh. We didn't have any on us because we are silly. We were standing on the corner, searching for a good place to cross, and a car came along and DRENCHED US. Classic! This was in between conference sessions so we were working with limited time, and since the roads were just not roads, we missed 2 lessons and almuerzo. One happy thing about the rain is that I got to whip out my rain boots! Sad thing about the rain is that from all the walking, my calves make it so my cute new boots are uncomfortably snug. Que Loco! Here I am, oblivious to the fact that I'm growing my very own pair of Uncle Karl calves. But all is well, I cut my boots almost in half with a kitchen knife and now they fit just right (sorry mama).

This week was HARD. Holy cow. No one wanted to listen and people can open their curtains to see who is there, but they can't open their doors. Everyone is Catolica or Evangelico or Testigo Jehovah or Ateo. We're just trying to share a happy little somethin somethin with you! Let us in! Almost all our lessons were cancelled, and our toilet doesn't work. But through all the hard things. WHAM! There's good! 

Here's a list of some of the good things

1. GENERAL CONFERENCE. Wow, do I love the prophets and apostles and leaders of this church! I've never received so many answers to questions and prayers as I did this weekend. I loved the great focus on service. In your home, in your neighborhood, in your state, in the world! All the places! I've been feeling the need to serve more, and I feel like this focus was a little push for me to actually do it. I need to act on inspiration immediately, so you can bet your bottom dollar I'm gonna go on and do that! I've got all sorts of plans.

2. FAMILIA PIZARRO. The sweetest little old couple in my ward. I didn't know them very well before, but they invited us to have almuerzo with them and they just radiate pure love.

3. ICE CREAM. Si!

4. IGNACIO AND CRISTOBAL. When are they not a highlight of my week? They're like my family here in Chile. I'm so glad that I get to be a little part of their journey toward Christ. Their futures are too bright

5. RAIN. It was cold but I love the rain no matter what. Watch the video about blessings with a voice over by President Uchtdorf on mormonchannel.com. That is ME!!! Cristobal was laughing at me because I was jumping in the puddles with my ghetto rainboots, but I was so happy!!!

6. REINAR AND SONEL. "MIS HERMANAS! COMO ESTAN?" That's how they always answer the phone. With their deep voices and Haitian accents; so much joy, every time. This week we shared with them about temples and eternal families. Two of some of my favorite things!

I love y'all with my whole heart! Hugs! 

LOVE HERMANA SIEBACH