Week 14

Hola!

This week has been crazy!  For starters, Elder C----- got switch mid change to be an office elder to help his knee heel, so he's gone.  Elder S----- joined us in Departamental, and he is great! He will bring a lot of energy to the ward!

We had 3 earthquakes in 3 days.  The first I was laying in bed super late and everything started to shake.  When it finished i asked an Hermana that lives with us and no one else felt it. The second was on Sunday during lunch at the bishops house, little stronger, but still just a little shake. During the third we were visiting a less active 86 year old who lives alone.  We found him while doing the "Kiefer" 5 Minute Visit list.  This one was a lot stronger, America said it was a 7.1 on the rictor scale.  I was way too excited about it, but funny thing is, here all the locals freak out about a tiny shake.  I'm sure its because they have lived through a really big one, but the poor guy was a little scared.  I think we found him in just the right moment that he wasn't alone, I think it made him feel a little better.

The nursing side of things has picked up a ton! I'm currently helping 17 missionaries, which isn't a ton, but its hard to keep track of everything.  The office elders finally got my iphone, so that will make communication and setting up appointments so much easier.  But I love being the nurse and getting to know all the different missionaries. One missionary got chickenpox and because not many people in Chile are vaccinated for chicken pox, he has to stay in his house until they are totally gone. We wouldn't want to start an outbreak, bad PR for the church...anyways he is going a little crazy at home, its been 5 days already and he still has a couple more, so my comp and I decided we are going to take them some treats tomorrow.

Also, our mission, health wise, if having a lot of issues because people aren't eating enough fiber....So I created a competition for increasing fiber.  It's zone vs zone and the winning zone gets brownies and popcorn, and a movie on pday with the projector.  But the results are great!  One elder came to me and said, "Hermana Sullivan, I bought wheat pasta and crackers with lots of seeds in them!" Another hermana was eating an apple and i told her that i liked her snack choice and she said, "Gotta Increase that fiber".  The missionaries all have a list of basic food that they get points for eating, all super healthy options.  And on Sunday the first round of scores came in, every zone is within 100 point average of each other.  The WHOLE mission is participating!  Anyways its been fun.

Last night we were visiting a very less active family, and one of the sons who is struggling with church and connecting with people pulled out his guitar, and we messed around on it for a little bit.  We played "Im Yours", and he was so happy.  I by all means cannot play the guitar, but the three songs i can play we had fun with. The family is in the Elders sector but they respond a lot better to us, so we decided it would be best for us to work on them, and i think we had enough fun that when i asked if they would come to church, at least the one said yes, but we will see on sunday!

Today for Pday we went to the stake center and had an activity with a bunch of different missionaries. We played basketball for 2 hours and it was basically the best day of my life!  Also my team played 7 games....and we never lost. So that was also fun.  Then we mae hawaiian leis out of candy and watched the movie Moana....SUCH A CUTE MOVIE! The office elders brought the movie for us and one said, "Sister Sullivan i brought the movie in english for you."   YAY FOR ENGLISH!!

Spanish....well my spanish sucks, but its fine, life goes on and learning is increasing....

We have had a really hard time finding investigators, so this last week we decided to try strengthening the ward and gaining their trust.  So we passed around a sign up paper on Sunday, and for the members that sign up we went to their house and shared a 15 minute message including a 5 minute Mormon message and a few thoughts. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and we have had great response from the members.  Still no investigators, but we are definitely building trust with members.

Well that's it for this week!

As my mother would always say, "Be Good, Have fun, Remember who you are, and Return with honor"

Hermana Sullivan