Hermana Ashlee Bowling: woop

There`s a blog for the mission called CHILE SOJOURN where you guys can see what the mission Chile Concepción Sur is up to.

Alright! I finally remembered to bring the cable to my camera! So I have at least a couple of pictures.

Monday: A relaxing p-day. We spent almost the entire afternoon in the house playing card games and writing in my journal. We also made an agenda for an Elder in our zone who is going to end his mission in April. Elders for their last transfer ask Hermanas to make them an "agenda trunky" full of pictures of couples and cheesy things like "wow, you`re ending your mission! Go home and get married." It`s super fun. So we spent the day cutting out pictures of Elder Fetters and pasting his head with photos of pretty girls and stuff like that. Hahaha it`s really dumb actually, but kind of a tradition in our mission. I don`t remember anything else.

Tuesday: INTERCAMBIOSSS!! I went to hermana Bazaes` part of Arauco, and we had a dandy time contacting and teaching. She really is an incredible missionary. I love her to pieces! When we got home, Hermana Abalos with Hermana Custodio found a family of 5! So overall, epic day.

Wednesday: We had a full day of citas and people to visit! The highlight of it all was Miguel Briceño. He. Is. Awesome. We taught the restoration of the gospel and he had all kinds of questions, and was really listening. I love it when people ask questions, it shows they actually are trying to learn and understand. He shares his point of view and is very teachable. Really awesome dude.

Thursday: We climbed up the STEEPEST HILL I HAVE EVER WALKED. We found a little grandma who`s the sweetest thing, but VERY evangelical. It`s kind of hard to teach them because they`re so caught up in the idea that all roads lead to Jesus and stuff like that. We teach them and they say that`s great for you! Yeah, I`ll bet Jospeh Smith was a prophet! But you know what, I feel good in my church and that`s where I`m staying. I guess you could say they`re a little stubborn. But hey, I`m stubborn too, so that makes two of us. We also taught our little Golden family, Guierrmo and Natalia. She kind of has the same attitude, like, " well it would be interesting to know if Jospeh Smith was a prophet." But the true intentions aren´t quite there. Hahaha she even said she would get baptized, but never ever wants to come to church. So today we`re going back to visit them, and the plan is to explain D&C 20:37 and WHY baptism is important, and what we need to do to be worthy. Something that Jhonny said in his email from the Netherlands is that people are suprised when we don`t obligate people to do anything. We only invite and persuade. I`m trying to work on my persuassivness. (spelling? Who needs spelling?) But they`re a special bunch of folks. Being in a mission really is a once in a lifetime opportunity to learn to love unconditionally a group of people. I really do love the Chilenos with all of my heart. They`re very kind and very loving, and even with all their faults they`re still incredibly important and loved.

The weekend was pretty great, and yesterday we visited Miguel again, and explained a bit about the book of Mormon. He is beginning to change and it`s so cool how we have the privilage to be a part of an eternal change in the hearts of God´s children. He promised to read it so we`ll find out how it went on Friday.

This Wednesday we`re going to have a conference with Elder Packer from the 70, the son of President Packer! It`s going to be awesome and we`re going to spend the night in San Pedro! Woo!

Wish you all a great week! Bye bye!

Sister Ashlee Bowling
♥ from Chile!

Note from Karen: I couldn't find the blog Ash was talking about but when I do I'll be sure to link to it.