Mission Calls, Fotos, y Besitos!

Hi! I love you all! This week, and probably next week as well, I have very little time!! We are spending Hermana K's last two p-days visiting her old areas to say goodbye to everyone and it leaves very little time for anything else!! But I promise that in two weeks, maybe one if we're lucky, I'll write real emails again!! 

How exciting about all the babies back home and their mission calls!!! What are the chances of having two Southlake girlies in the Phillipines at once?!? WILD! I guess it's the same as two in Chile and two in Spain!  Ahhhh!! I lived with a Filipina when I first got here and she was awesome. Cute Eric A is a freshman in high school and CANNOT go on a mission yet. WHERE IS THE TIME GOING?!?

Wooohoooo I found a way to send pictures!!! Some of these are from years and years ago, but it's been a while so I'm sending them all!!!!

Love y'all with todo mi corazon!! Everybody looks happy and healthy! I'm praying for you! Besitos!!!!!

Hermana Siebach

Weehoo! Go Javier!!!

We're all just here in Chile sharing the same amazing message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ!!!

Cute missionary friends!

Too much cuteness!

Flor!! My heart hurts <3

Welcome to the old apartment, this is where we used to live

We traveled to rome one p-day, because why not?

It's Hermana Martinez' first transfer in the mission, but she's already a BOMB missionary. So much love!

Visit From an Apostle!!!

Hola Amigos!!

I can't wait to tell you the best part of the week so I'm just going to start with it! Elder Christofferson came to visit our mission on Thursday. An Apostle! Called of God! Here in the cute little Santiago Chile East mission! What a blessing to shake his hand and listen to his counsel. At the end, he opened it up for questions from the audience. Someone asked how we can get rid of any fear we have to share the gospel. He shared a lot of ways to shed this fear, but something that he said really stuck with me. He said something like, "You have the greatest gift that there is to share. If you aren't sharing it because you are scared, you are thinking more of yourself than of the other person or of God. You are worried about what other people might think, or maybe you don't want to feel rejected. You are not thinking of the great blessing that the gospel of Jesus Christ would be in the life of this person, or the love that God has for him and the yearning he feels for this specific person to be able to return to him." Yeah, sometimes it's scary! We don't know exactly what to say maybe. But how sad would it be for this person to miss out on the great blessings awaiting them that come from the Gospel? So sad! I think this applies to everyone, not just missionaries. I get upset with my old self a lot. This week it was because I did not share the gospel with the people around me more. I was scared. I was thinking about myself. No no no. no mas!

Another thing that happened this week was a mission fireside!! President Morgan puts on firesides every month in different zones and invites all the recent converts and people learning about the church and the missionaries to come. Converts are able to share their testimonies and there is a lot of singing and President shares a message as well. Hermana K and I sang "I Know That My Redeemer Lives". I don't really love singing in front of tons of people if I'm being honest, but I love this song and we wanted to share it. I like it in Spanish. Here it is!

1. 1. Yo sé que vive mi Señor;
   consuelo es poder saber
   que vive aunque muerto fue
   y siempre Su amor tendré.
   Él vive para bendecir,
   y ante Dios por mí pedir.
   Él vive para sustentar
   y a mi alma alentar.

   
   

   2. Él vive para sostener 

   y con Su mano proteger. 

   Él vive para escuchar 

   y oídos a mis quejas dar. 

   Él vive para alentar 

   y mis angustias sosegar. 

   Él vive para ayudar 

   y a mi alma consolar.

   
   

   3. Él vive, mi amigo fiel; 

   me ama para siempre Él. 

   Él vive ̮y siempre cantaré: 

   Él vive, mi Señor y Rey. 

   Por Él la vida yo tendré; 

   la muerte yo conquistaré. 

   Mi gran mansión preparará, 

   y viviré con Él allá.

   
   

   4. Él vive, ̮y yo lo honraré. 

   A Cristo siempre alabaré. 

   Gozoso, canto con fervor: 

   Yo sé que vive mi Señor. 

   Él vive, ̮y yo lo honraré. 

   A Cristo siempre ̮alabaré. 

   Gozoso, canto con fervor: 

   Yo sé que vive mi Señor.

You asked me how I gained my testimony of the Book of Mormon. You know, that’s been something that I’ve thought about and my answer is not very clear. Some people can name a specific event of how and when and where they gained their testimony, but mine is all over the place! It comes from so many sources and experiences. BUT! I was thinking about how I gained my testimony that the Book of Mormon is true, and I think it started when we would all sit on your bed in Japan, reading all together, and I would circle all the places where it said "Lord" or "God". I don't think I understood a whole lot of what was being read at 3 years old, but I knew that it was a book that brought us together as a family every night. And since then it has been growing slowly but surely. I think the pivotal point, when I really yearned to read it, happened in the CCM (Missionary Training Center). We had an hour of personal study time but I wanted MORE!! I was learning so much from reading the Book of Mormon, and I wanted to learn it all! I still do! That is a part of my testimony. It has come with time and continuous prayer and searching. I'm very grateful for my testimony and also for the knowledge that it will always continue to grow. There's no plateau-ing when it comes to testimonies!


In other news...Hermana Ence, my last companion, and I had one progressing investigator the entire time we were in Javiera Carrera and he's getting baptized on Saturday! Of course right after we have both left haha. His name is Javier. I think I only mentioned him one time because I was scared to jinx anything hehe. Pero si!!! He's getting baptized and he's a changin' his life! Woohoo!!!

This week we had an ant infestation! And we talked to hundreds of people! And we laughed a lot! All signs of an amazing week in the mission life 

Love y'all. Besitos!!!

Hermana Siebach

PS There was a Gold rush in Santiago this weekend!! Such a great surprise to see old friends from Massachusetts!

Annie and Gracie all grown up!

Surprised by the Golds!!!

Yo Tengo Mi Mama!!

Zona Activity Day--my fave!

Hola!!!

Wowow what a happy thing!! I was not expecting letters this week! I thought you'd be out in the middle of Timbuktoo, but here you are! Thank you for writing me! 

I LOVE Las Condes. It's so big, I feel like there's so much to discover (aka people who are ready and WAITING for the gospel in their lives heheh. Gonna find ya!!) Everything here is awesome! Hermana K is awesome. Fabulosa. Bella. Humilda. Maravilllosa. Gordita y peluda. Finito (she came up with all those attributes fyi). Really, though, she is amazing. I love her so much. I feel like crying that there is no chance of having more than this transfer with her since she's going home:( But it's okay because my next one will be great too. Plus, she's from Viña del Mar, which is an hour and a half away from here, so she's planning on coming back often!! The apartment is tiny--bien chicitito, but it makes it easy to clean!!!! It's nice and cozy and perfect for missionaries. 

You ask what it means to be an STL so here it is: my new responsibilities are to visit the hermanas in my zone and also do exchanges with them. We've already visited two companionships and they're both training companionships with a few little problems, but nothing too big. My Spanish is good, except for when I'm trying to talk to people on the phone. I don't understand anything! I think a lot of how I understand is by watching people's mouths, but I can't do that over the phone, dangit! Other than that, it's coming along!! People are a little shocked when I speak decently in Spanish because my hair is blonder than ever and I'm about as gringa as you can get, hehe. Gotcha!!! Sneaky, eh?!?

I see my zone every week, but only because we have our district reunions all in the same chapel. We have one zone conference and one zone activity (it was today!) every transfer (6 weeks). Something that I really love about President Morgan is his testimony of the Book of Mormon. And he loves to talk about it. He can apply it to everything and everyone. And that is such an example to me because I am trying to do the same!! I want to be able to find the answers for myself and for those who I am teaching, and I can feel my ability to do that growing here on the mission. I'm very grateful to him for that. 

I really like the list you are making of how to be a good leader. Just look at all the things we learn from the hard things that we go through!!! I love looking at hard experiences in that light. It makes them less of a sad memory and sometimes it even changes them into funny or happy ones!! MILAGROS!!

Not much else to report! Just know that I'm happy and always smiling!!

Love you all!

Hermana Siebach

PS- someone tried to adopt me this week, but I said, "Yo tengo mi mama, pero gracias!" Silly Carol! I'm faithful, mama, don't worry!

FABULOSA LAS CONDES!

Saying Adios in Javiera Carerra :'(

Wowee! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!! So happy that you were born, you make the whole world so bright! What a wonderful week! So many reasons why! This week I had my testimony strengthened that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I have known and believed that for a long time, but I love to have my conviction of it all strengthened. Another reason to be happy is that it's been hot but the smog covers the sun quite nicely a lot of the time so not tooooo hot. Another happy thing is that we found a family!! Since I got here I have wanted to be able to share the gospel - so centered in families - with a family. We prayed to be able to find one and BAM! The next day! The Tapia Parker family. Love them already.

Other news!!

~I met a dog named Martha.

~A man told me that I am the perfect evolution of a microbe years and years ago. Falso. He went off on us about how he was raised to believe in God but with time came to know that Darwin is "el hombre" (the man) and God doesn't exist; we are just evolution. So sad. He wouldn't let us say anything, he just talked over us. So we finally had to just leave eventually, but not before Hermana K had a few things to say: 'Who is to say what a day is in the eyes of God? How could something as beautiful as human life not be divinely designed by a loving Heavenly Father?? It just can't be. Darwin was not even sure about his own evolution theory. But we know the truth!! How happy to be made in the image of God.'

~I shared my testimony in church and when I came back down I had a baby panic and asked Hermana K if I had ended it "in the name of Jesus Christ amen" or if I had just walked away. Turns out I said it. Everything is well.

~I walk probably 124 miles a day.

~I'm happy and smiling all the time.

~I am sharing the. happiest. message. that there is! 

~This morning we went to a museum that we thought was a science-y interactive one. Not. Ancient Rome in clay-mation and also in Spanish. I don't know very many ancient Roman vocabulary words in Spanish, but what better way to learn, yeah?

~We went to the supermarket and took a taxi home. We invited Andres, the taxi driver, to come to church and he said he would love to! WOOHOO ANDRES!

I love y'all and hope that you're doing well! Everyone has dropped off the face of the planet except mom and dad, oops!! Where'd y'all go?

Hugs! Smiles! Squeezes!

Besitos, 

Hermana Siebach