His Infinite Mercy

Hola my sweet familia! 

What a wonderful day to be talking to you!!! Thank you for all the photos from your backpacking trip and your life! It fills my little heart with joy to read your words and see your cute faces!!!

Thank you for your kind words and for sharing your amazing mission stories. I love them! I love when the spirit speaks truth to the minds and hearts of someone and they just know!!! They know what they have to do and they want to do it. It's an amazing thing:) Also, I really like what you said about how you would never hope that your child made big mistakes in their lives, but that the Lord is capable of making those things points of growth, and then helping people come back. I read in Mosiah 28:3-4 the other day and it talks about that. 

3 Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble.

4 And thus did the Spirit of the Lord work upon them, for they were the very vilest of sinners. And the Lord saw fit in his infinite mercy to spare them; nevertheless they suffered much anguish of soul because of their iniquities, suffering much and fearing that they should be cast off forever.

I really love that scripture! I think about Saul, I think about the sons of Mosiah, and all the many people who completely turn their lives around through Christ and it makes me so happy. We all have such great potential, so many possibilities, no matter where we have been.

That's so exciting about all the missionaries back home coming and going!! So so many!! Also last week your little excerpt from Sarah J's email was CRAZY!!!!! She's so brave!!

Thank you always writing me the happiest most uplifting little bloops! I love reading your emails every week.

I love you!!!

Love, 

Hermana Siebach

PS - We had 2 investigators in la capilla  this week and the members were SUPER at friendshipping them and making them feel comfortable! It was really awesome to see and now they are pumped to come back this week. Go friendshipping!! WOOHOO!!!

Blessed

Hola mama and daddio! I have super poco time today and I've taken most of it to write a few people who I haven't written in a long time.

But I hope you can feel my GRAN love for you and know that you are in my prayers and thoughts everyday. Thank you for everything, I'm your biggest fan. Thank you for sharing your happy weekly experiences with me, it sounds like it was a great week!!!

Dad, I took a picture of your mission stories and you can not imagine how pumped I am to read them!!! I love mission stories!!!! Mama, if you wanna send me some too, I would be a happy lil' clam:) 

Thank you both for everything. I have so much gratitude in my heart for you two and everything you have taught me. I am so blessed

LOVE!!

Lamby

PS - I'm going to eat lunch today with my trainer Hermana Navarette and her boyfriend today!!! I'm pretty excited!

PPS - the ward is struggling, yes, but nothing we cant handle. It's true, they just need a lot of love and encouragement

PPPS - Hermana Andersen (my comp from the CCM) is my STL and it's so happy to see her!

PPPPS - I saw Javier in the street! Happy reunion! He has a calling now in the young mens and is loving it!

PPPPPS - I love y'all!

It All Looks So Familiar...

Hola!

Yesterday we had transfers!!! I cried because I love Las Condes and I love Hermana Briggs and I love all the people that I have gotten to know in the past 6 months, and also I think that mission​s just make people more emotional?

But! I'm also excited because now I'm back in Javiera Carrera, but in a different ward. Enrique Olivares, se llama. This ward has never before seen hermanas, but this week they said "CIAO Elderes" and bloop, here we are! It's a white wash, and by some miracle we found the church today and I am sitting here writing you now. We go to the same supermarket that I went to when I was in Javiera Carrera, so I know a few things at least. We won't starve. My companion is Hermana Ruiz. She's from Bolivia and she's REALLY quiet, but we're gonna be tight by 10:59 tonight, I feel sure of it.

I feel really grateful for the opportunity to learn and love and grow in a new place. I love being a missionary and sharing such happy news with people all across Santiago every day. What a privilege it is.

Love y'all! Do something kind this week!

Love, Hermana Siebach

Saying Ciao! to my best Las Condes friends. 

So many wonderful people, it's astounding!

The sun literally setting on my time in LC jejeje😭😂

Hermana Ruiz!!!

Pure Joy in the Form of a Human

Wow! So happy to get your emails and your pictures and all the news!!! I love you with my whole heart!!! I love that you are happy and smiling and making and maintaining lasting friendships with people.

Unfortunately my watch stopped and I thought I had all the time in the world so I was looking at the pictures and reading a bunch of group emails when I should have been writing Y'ALL! I'm sorry!! Now the elders are on their way and I gotta skedaddle here soon.

First!! I found a scripture that I LOVE and I wanna share it with y'all:

Psalms 19:14

"Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord , my strength , and my redeemer." 

Here in Chile I have really been trying to align myself with God. I'm a little bit mad at myself that I didn't try to do that earlier in my life but hey, can't do anything about that now. I think I have really started getting my priorities in order and I love the way I feel! I want to always live this scripture. I don't want to say anything, or think anything, or do anything that wouldn't be acceptable in the Lord's sight. I know that is hard, maybe even impossible right now as I am still learning and becoming, but I love this humble plea: recognize that the Lord is our strength and our redeemer, and reach out to Him to help us become better, to help us purify or thoughts and our actions, and to help us become true disciples. 

We are working with a cute Japanese couple who made Japanese curry for us! Familia Kazama. He was bishop, but has been inactive for 20ish years I think. He's just starting to come back to church and wow! The change in him has been amazing!! He's so much happier (even though he doesn't show it in this picture hahahahaha) and sweet Hermana Kazama's prayers have been answered!!!

This week we found an old lady from Prague who is just pure joy in the form of a human. Her name is Yarmela and we're gonna share some nice herbal tea and the gospel with her. Another wild thing is that I love so many people I don't even really know!! I don't know if you have felt that way, but it's like I say 'Hola!' to someone and they say 'Hola!' back and BAM. Love. I've been working on charity and I think it's on its way! 

I really love y'all. Thank you for all your love and support! Sometimes I have days, or parts of days, where I feel a little alone in the world. It's Hermana Briggs and I vs thousands of people in our area and all their disbelief. BUT! I can always remember that I have at LEAST a few people on my side. My loving Heavenly Father, and all you lovelies back home. Thank you for always being there and always lifting me up. I am so grateful.

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Besitos!

Hermana Siebach

¡HABLO PORTUGUES! ¿QUIEN SABIA?

Reunited! With Sister Jacobsen who I coulda-shoulda known at BYU!

What a super week! Another one!

Yesterday we met our new president and he is awesome. His name is President Brotherson and he has a 17 year old daughter named Grace! Good name choice I’d say. Something that I really loved about President Morgan and that I think will continue with President Brotherson is that he was and is soooo so loving, and at the same time expects exact obedience. And because I love him, and more importantly I love my Heavenly Father, I want to be obedient.

I have really learned how important that is. I have seen miracles happen when I or others are obedient to the commandments, and I have also seen lives fall apart a little bit when someone decides that the commandments are more like vague suggestions rather than tools that God promises will help us and make us happy if we use them. Rather than feeling obligated to be obedient to the Lord, and as a missionary, the mission rules, obedient has become something I really want to be! And I am seeing miracles and blessings brought to pass before my own two eyes :)

We got a reference of a woman named Juliana probably 4 months ago and we have tried to contact her about 32,459,357 times, and this week we finally did! She’s from Brazil, so we asked a Brazilian member, Simone, to go with us and help us in a lesson. They clicked right away and just went flyin’ off talking about who knows what in Portuguese. Hermana Briggs and I were lost for a sec, but then I really started listening and found out that I understand! WHAT?! Shout out Mama for teaching me little portu things when I was little. It all paid off😊 After they talked about Brazil and Juliana offered the hermana a job (?!?), we talked about how God is our loving Heavenly Father and the Church of Jesus Christ has been restored. Juliana loved it and is excited to learn more!!

We had intercambios this week and I was with Hermana Jacobsen!! Crazy story: we lived in the same building on the same floor at BYU and we never met each other. WILD eh? She’s really awesome and I learned a lot about pure love and diligence from her. Love love love!!

Other fun things: I shared my testimony in sacrament meeting and thought I was going to die. I thought after sharing my testimony everyday and speaking Spanish for a year I’d be good to go, but nope! Another fun thing: there is an inactive young woman in our ward who’s in a band. She’s gonna help us write a hymn for the new and revised hymnals that I think are happening, and we’re gonna help her come back to church! Woohoo!

Okay I love y’all to Pluto and back! Hope it’s the best week and you tell the people you love how much they mean to you! 

Besitos!

Love, Hermana Siebach