Soooo! Cool week! It`s so true that when we have a hard day, Heavenly Father makes up for it somehow. This wednesday we went to the house of Julia to really crack down and help her mom get a testimony. We had this cool lesson planned and brought the president of young women and everything, and it was the worst lesson I`ve had thus far. Nilda wouldn`t let any of us talk, she kept interupting us and saying over and over that Julia is too young, she doesn`t know anything, she hasn`t even read the BIBLE for crying out loud. It was awful. She just, honestly, has a super hard heart. I left the lesson crying. But then the next day, I had one of the best days of my mission. We went to Temuco in the morning for medical stuff for my companion (haha that wasn`t super awesome lol) but I bought one of those ugly fanny packs that all the missionaries use, and so my back doesn`t hurt anymore! Sweet! Awesome thing number one. So we get back home and eat lunch in the house (our lunch appointment was visiting family), and as we`re walking, we decided to call Miguel (super epic awesome grandpa) and invite him to come with us to Quitratue. The buses to Quitratue are every 15 minutes or so, and while we`re waiting for miguel at the bus stop one comes and goes. Less than 40 seconds later Miguel shows up haha. So we`re waiting more and more and a bus just isn`t coming. We`ve been waiting now for about half an hour which is super weird. We`re calling our appointments to tell them sorry, and what not, and I`m standing doing nothing when a group of middle school aged girls and this big white guy start talking in front of me. They`re all laughing and giggling and looking at me, but at this point in the mission Ive just accepted that people think I`m weird. After a bit, the guy starts talking to me, and I immediatly realize that he is not from Chile. This guy is from Australia! And he knows English! We start talking, and this guy is super duper cool. I literally have 30 seconds to finish. To be continued next week! Bye everybody!
Sister Ashlee Bowling
♥ from Chile!
Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Monday, April 18, 2016
Soy Floja jaja
Hey! So, not a whole lot to say about this week. Our investigators are having a kind of hard time and we´re just going to have to wait and see if they´ll progress or not.
The mom of Julia was baptized when she was 19, but she doesn´t have a testimony of the church at all. We´re trying really hard to get her to accept the date we have set for this saturday. In one conference we were told that every companionship should be having one baptism every month. I know that was a goal given to us from Heavenly Father and I´m absolutly determined for Julia to get baptized this month, if not this Saturday then the next. I know we can do it!
We have a super awesome couple that we{re working with right now, Leonardo and Mirian. They had been meeting with Missionaries almost a year ago but Leo didn´t want to get married. I guess they stopped progressing or something, but back with Hermana Kleinmen we decided to try and meet with her again. And she´s super cool! She has a really strong testimony of the church and wants to get baptzied really bad. The problem though, like I said is that Leo doesn´t want to. Chile honestly sucks a little bit. There´s all kind of financial pentalties for people who are married, and Chile practically gives away houses to unmarried men and women. Leo is waiting to be able to have a bigger house, I don´t know why he has to wait 100%, but he says in about 5 years, after he gets his house, they´ll get married. We fetl really inspired yesterday to go and visit them, because earlier this week, we extended a date for baptism/marriage on the last Saturday in May. We wanted to talk to them, and we had been talking about how Mirian is the best way for Leo to accept this date. It was so perfect, right as we started talking, someone knocked on the door and Leo went outside to talk to whoever it was. We immediatly started to talk to Mirian about what she wanted, and she said that yes, I am going to ask Leo this week and talk to him about it. The lords timing was perfect that we could have that time alone with Miran.
It´s starting to get pretty rainy down here! I´ve become a fire expert with the fireplace in our house.
Have a great week everybody! Exito! Chao!
Sister Ashlee Bowling
♥ from Chile!
The mom of Julia was baptized when she was 19, but she doesn´t have a testimony of the church at all. We´re trying really hard to get her to accept the date we have set for this saturday. In one conference we were told that every companionship should be having one baptism every month. I know that was a goal given to us from Heavenly Father and I´m absolutly determined for Julia to get baptized this month, if not this Saturday then the next. I know we can do it!
We have a super awesome couple that we{re working with right now, Leonardo and Mirian. They had been meeting with Missionaries almost a year ago but Leo didn´t want to get married. I guess they stopped progressing or something, but back with Hermana Kleinmen we decided to try and meet with her again. And she´s super cool! She has a really strong testimony of the church and wants to get baptzied really bad. The problem though, like I said is that Leo doesn´t want to. Chile honestly sucks a little bit. There´s all kind of financial pentalties for people who are married, and Chile practically gives away houses to unmarried men and women. Leo is waiting to be able to have a bigger house, I don´t know why he has to wait 100%, but he says in about 5 years, after he gets his house, they´ll get married. We fetl really inspired yesterday to go and visit them, because earlier this week, we extended a date for baptism/marriage on the last Saturday in May. We wanted to talk to them, and we had been talking about how Mirian is the best way for Leo to accept this date. It was so perfect, right as we started talking, someone knocked on the door and Leo went outside to talk to whoever it was. We immediatly started to talk to Mirian about what she wanted, and she said that yes, I am going to ask Leo this week and talk to him about it. The lords timing was perfect that we could have that time alone with Miran.
It´s starting to get pretty rainy down here! I´ve become a fire expert with the fireplace in our house.
Have a great week everybody! Exito! Chao!
Sister Ashlee Bowling
♥ from Chile!
Monday, April 11, 2016
Getting Colder
Hello everybody! This week in the life of Ashlee down south, we´ll watch as she struggles to fight the absolutly freezing temperatures that are starting to plague her, teach with the spirit when she still has no idea whats going on, and all around just have an honestly awesome time.
This week for me was definatly a week of diligence. At first I thought my problem was a lack of more patience. I hate being told what to do. Haha mom and dad, you guys know this very well. Most of the time I have great intentions. I want to be exactly obedient. But sometimes I get a little chueca (disobidient). One day I quit excersizing 10 minutes early, and was sitting in our room eatting cereal with yogurt (delicious!) when my companion came in and told me that I should be excersizing the full 30 minutes. Not gonna lie, this rubbed me the wrong way. Hermana Flores is very unafraid to say exactly what she´s thinking. My problem is that when someone tells me what I should be doing, even if I know its good and I should be doing it, I immediatly get rebelious. You can´t tell me what to do! Haha it´s a problem for sure. Things like this were happening the whole week and I was getting pretty annoyed, when finally I heard my companion talking with our district leader. He asked, what christlike characteristic would discribe this week? She answered, diligence. And as I thought about it, yeah, that´s really what my problem is. It´s not that I need more patience to do deal with my companion. I need more obedience! Why get annoyed, when all she´s trying to do is help me. Really, she is so awesome and teaches with such a powerful spirit. I want to be able to teach like that, and the secret is living worthily of having the spirit constantly. Her and I really do get along really good, and even better now that I´ve figured out this problem. Haha, a great week!
We didn´t find Pablo, which was disapointing, but we saw a ton of other miracles too. Everything, every little contact and moment in our missions is a part of God´s plan, and I know that even if Pablo doesn´t progress or get baptized while I´m here, I played my part in God´s plan for Pablo, and I did what the Lord wanted me to do.
We have an awesome investigator named Julia. She is the sweetest! She´s 12, but she has an awesome testimony and is coming to church and activities and reading and praying on her own! The only problem was her mom. When her mom was 19, she already had two kids, but was taught by elders and made the decision to be baptized. However, she has no testimony or understanding of the church, and was super apprehensive to accept a date for baptism for Julia. Finally, this past week, we had a super intense lesson with her, explaining that Julia needs her mom´s example to really be able to make this actual change in her life. We pleaded with her to go to church, learn more about the gospel, and accept a baptismal date for Julia. And she did!! Julia is getting baptized the 23rd of April!!!! Can´t wait to see whats going to happen!
We also are teaching a super cool family. They´re some of the most well of people I´ve seen in Gorbea. Their house is huge, and Gorge has a ps3 that he´s playing Minecraft on. It was the best day of my life to walk in and see minecraft again. I´m feeling deja vu. Did I already tell you guys about them? Maybe, but they´re so cool it´s worth writing about twice. We´re working with them to get them to attend church. They have a car and so it makes it waaaaay easier.
Have a great week everybody!!! I love you all and your letters! Even if you´ve got nothing to say, just write something! It lifts my spirits so much to see your emails every week =) Love you!!
Sister Ashlee Bowling
♥ from Chile!
Note from Karen: I'm not correcting her spelling because I think it's fun to see how spelling devolves as her spanish gets stronger.
This week for me was definatly a week of diligence. At first I thought my problem was a lack of more patience. I hate being told what to do. Haha mom and dad, you guys know this very well. Most of the time I have great intentions. I want to be exactly obedient. But sometimes I get a little chueca (disobidient). One day I quit excersizing 10 minutes early, and was sitting in our room eatting cereal with yogurt (delicious!) when my companion came in and told me that I should be excersizing the full 30 minutes. Not gonna lie, this rubbed me the wrong way. Hermana Flores is very unafraid to say exactly what she´s thinking. My problem is that when someone tells me what I should be doing, even if I know its good and I should be doing it, I immediatly get rebelious. You can´t tell me what to do! Haha it´s a problem for sure. Things like this were happening the whole week and I was getting pretty annoyed, when finally I heard my companion talking with our district leader. He asked, what christlike characteristic would discribe this week? She answered, diligence. And as I thought about it, yeah, that´s really what my problem is. It´s not that I need more patience to do deal with my companion. I need more obedience! Why get annoyed, when all she´s trying to do is help me. Really, she is so awesome and teaches with such a powerful spirit. I want to be able to teach like that, and the secret is living worthily of having the spirit constantly. Her and I really do get along really good, and even better now that I´ve figured out this problem. Haha, a great week!
We didn´t find Pablo, which was disapointing, but we saw a ton of other miracles too. Everything, every little contact and moment in our missions is a part of God´s plan, and I know that even if Pablo doesn´t progress or get baptized while I´m here, I played my part in God´s plan for Pablo, and I did what the Lord wanted me to do.
We have an awesome investigator named Julia. She is the sweetest! She´s 12, but she has an awesome testimony and is coming to church and activities and reading and praying on her own! The only problem was her mom. When her mom was 19, she already had two kids, but was taught by elders and made the decision to be baptized. However, she has no testimony or understanding of the church, and was super apprehensive to accept a date for baptism for Julia. Finally, this past week, we had a super intense lesson with her, explaining that Julia needs her mom´s example to really be able to make this actual change in her life. We pleaded with her to go to church, learn more about the gospel, and accept a baptismal date for Julia. And she did!! Julia is getting baptized the 23rd of April!!!! Can´t wait to see whats going to happen!
We also are teaching a super cool family. They´re some of the most well of people I´ve seen in Gorbea. Their house is huge, and Gorge has a ps3 that he´s playing Minecraft on. It was the best day of my life to walk in and see minecraft again. I´m feeling deja vu. Did I already tell you guys about them? Maybe, but they´re so cool it´s worth writing about twice. We´re working with them to get them to attend church. They have a car and so it makes it waaaaay easier.
Have a great week everybody!!! I love you all and your letters! Even if you´ve got nothing to say, just write something! It lifts my spirits so much to see your emails every week =) Love you!!
Sister Ashlee Bowling
♥ from Chile!
Note from Karen: I'm not correcting her spelling because I think it's fun to see how spelling devolves as her spanish gets stronger.
Monday, April 4, 2016
Milagros!
Soooo!!! Hello everybody! I have just been reprimanded by my sister to write more detailed letters, so here we go haha.
This week was my first with my new trainer! Hermana Flores! She is super awesome, in a lot more ways than one. First off, she doesn´t know English!! haha my Spanish is going to have to improve now! It´s cool becuase only hearing Spanish all day has really switched my brain over. In just a few days I started being able to understand so much more. It helps a lot becuase even if I can´t speak perfectly, I can at least understand what they´re problem is and offer the words that I can. I have absolutly no fear to speak or make mistakes in my speech, and so I´m learning at the speed of lightning now. It´s good becuase we´re all thinking that, if not the next cambio, then the one after that, I will be training a new missionary. We´re getting over 30 in 5 weeks and there´s barely enough sisters to train them all. So pray for me! Hermana Flores is also really cool becuase she doesn´t have any fear to speak her mind either. She knows exactly what this person needs to do to progress more and if they´re not doing it shes not afraid to tell them they could do better! She´s like the sister missionary version of Elder Holland. I´m learning a ton about how to teach better, how to work better with the members, how to manage time, and it´s exactly what I need. Hermana Kleinmen and I were super awesome friends. She´s the most giving, happy, christlike person I have ever met, and she helped me get aclamated to Chile and helped me learn to love it. Now it´s time for me to really get down to business haha. Also, sorry for all the spelling errors. I don´t have a spell check and spanish has ruined the tiny amount of ability I had to speak properly. My mother will be so dissapointed.
We found Pablo!! Almost 3 weeks ago we extended the invitation to him to obey the word of wisdom, which he accepted. But since that lesson we hadn´t been able to find him again. We knocked and called and knocked and searched, but there´s a fine line of worrying about a person you care about and accepting their agency/not wanting to over do it and be an annoyance. Pablos brother is always super rude to us when we stop by and I was thinking that maybe he was telling Pablo to stop meeting with us. BUT! I called Pablo last night in one final attempt to contact him and he answered the phone!! We have an appointment with him on Wednesday and I´m praying with all my heart that we can see him again and talk. We called right before it was time to pray for bed and I couldn´t talk, I was crying so hard with joy that we had finally reached him. He really is an amazing person and I know Heavenly Father wants him to be a part of this church, a church he knows is true and has a testimony of. WOO!!! Milagros!!!!
Also, conference was flipping awesome. Elder Hollands talk was exactly what I needed. What a great opportunity we all have to be able to listen to a prophets voice, to hear the words of God and to know exactly what it is that our heavenly family want us to do. I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week! Chao!!
Sister Ashlee Bowling
♥ from Chile
This week was my first with my new trainer! Hermana Flores! She is super awesome, in a lot more ways than one. First off, she doesn´t know English!! haha my Spanish is going to have to improve now! It´s cool becuase only hearing Spanish all day has really switched my brain over. In just a few days I started being able to understand so much more. It helps a lot becuase even if I can´t speak perfectly, I can at least understand what they´re problem is and offer the words that I can. I have absolutly no fear to speak or make mistakes in my speech, and so I´m learning at the speed of lightning now. It´s good becuase we´re all thinking that, if not the next cambio, then the one after that, I will be training a new missionary. We´re getting over 30 in 5 weeks and there´s barely enough sisters to train them all. So pray for me! Hermana Flores is also really cool becuase she doesn´t have any fear to speak her mind either. She knows exactly what this person needs to do to progress more and if they´re not doing it shes not afraid to tell them they could do better! She´s like the sister missionary version of Elder Holland. I´m learning a ton about how to teach better, how to work better with the members, how to manage time, and it´s exactly what I need. Hermana Kleinmen and I were super awesome friends. She´s the most giving, happy, christlike person I have ever met, and she helped me get aclamated to Chile and helped me learn to love it. Now it´s time for me to really get down to business haha. Also, sorry for all the spelling errors. I don´t have a spell check and spanish has ruined the tiny amount of ability I had to speak properly. My mother will be so dissapointed.
We found Pablo!! Almost 3 weeks ago we extended the invitation to him to obey the word of wisdom, which he accepted. But since that lesson we hadn´t been able to find him again. We knocked and called and knocked and searched, but there´s a fine line of worrying about a person you care about and accepting their agency/not wanting to over do it and be an annoyance. Pablos brother is always super rude to us when we stop by and I was thinking that maybe he was telling Pablo to stop meeting with us. BUT! I called Pablo last night in one final attempt to contact him and he answered the phone!! We have an appointment with him on Wednesday and I´m praying with all my heart that we can see him again and talk. We called right before it was time to pray for bed and I couldn´t talk, I was crying so hard with joy that we had finally reached him. He really is an amazing person and I know Heavenly Father wants him to be a part of this church, a church he knows is true and has a testimony of. WOO!!! Milagros!!!!
Also, conference was flipping awesome. Elder Hollands talk was exactly what I needed. What a great opportunity we all have to be able to listen to a prophets voice, to hear the words of God and to know exactly what it is that our heavenly family want us to do. I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week! Chao!!
Sister Ashlee Bowling
♥ from Chile
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