Week 18: Graduation, Transfers and an Earthquake!!

Hola Familia!!!

I FINISHED MY TRAINING!! 12 WEEKS!! For cambios, I'm staying in my sector and Hermana Wurdel is leaving. Its a little bittersweet. I'm gonna miss her but I'm excited to see who is my new companion!! Now I have to lead the sector, so let's see how that goes.

So this week I got a call from Salt Lake inviting me and my companion and some other missionaries from our zone for an interview about the church and missionary work in Chile. We went with another pair of sisters and 4 other elders. We went to this fancy hotel in Viña where they served us a super fancy lunch and asked us questions about missionaries and what we think we can improve. The coolest part was that in the middle of the interview there was an earthquake and we were on the 13th floor of the building. It lasted for like 30 seconds and all the pictures on the walls were shaking and the glasses and it was actually super cool.

This week we met a really interesting guy named Cristian. When we first met him, he said he didn't believe in God or anything that he can't see but he invited us to stop by the next day anyway. We taught him and gave him a book of Mormon and he said he would read the whole book to know if it was true! The next appointment he had read 5 chapters and told us he prayed every single day since the first visit. He told us he believes in God now and he seems to really be searching for the truth. He didn't come to church which was sad and later told us it was because he was just tired. Also, he smokes marijuana for "medical purposes." He's gonna take a lot of work, but I think he has some intention.

Marcela (Anggie andCamila's mom) accepted to be baptized!! Her boyfriend from Concepcion broke up with her and even though she is sad about that she told us she wants to be baptized for herself and not for him. We aren't sure when, but she is going to be baptized hopefully this week or next week!!

We had a family home evening/ going away party for Hermana Wurdel with all of her converts! All of the kids in the picture are converts from this year and 5 of them are from Hermana Wurdel!! We decorated Christmas cookies and watched all the light the world videos it was so fun.

None of our investigators or recent converts came to church last Sunday and at first, I was so frustrated and discouraged but its fine because Anggie was confirmed that Sunday! There is always something good to look for in each day!

The mission is so hard and so frustrating sometimes, but there are little miracles every single day! I love my ward and all the people I've met!

Things that are just things:

The Christmas tree in the church here makes the tree in our chapel look like a twig. It is HUGE and so beautiful!
Chileans love love love Christmas (who doesn't) and its basically the same here as at home. The same decorations, same songs, everyone makes Christmas cookies.
The shower in our house is either 23,439 degrees or frozen. there is no in between
I can almost understand everything our ward mission leader says!!

I love you all so so so much and miss you guys a lot and a year and a half still seems like a really long time to me. It's so hard not to think about how much time I have left because I know that's not going to help me. But I'm going to keep going!! I already have 4 months!

I'm so excited that Christmas is so close. I can't wait to Skype!!! 2 semanas!

Love,

Hermana Snyder