Magic Missionaries--We Make People Disappear

Okay, but that is not a joke. They flee from us. Rawr.

...............

"Hallo!"

We wait a moment.

Paulina comes to the gate and invites us in with a big smile on her face, motioning us to have a seat while she takes her position standing against the wall--there are only two chairs in the living room. 

She tells us that she's been well, that it's been a busy afternoon, and that she was finally able to sell all her pan after about an hour and a half of trying. Some days are easier than others, she says. 

Did you read your Book of Mormon? we ask. She responds with an embarrassed nod--I read, but not much. Only a page or so...The Introduction. It talked something about an angel...about two civilizations...something like that. I was a little distracted when I read it.

That's okay, Hna. Lopez says. She explains everything that takes place in the Introduction and how the Book of Mormon came to be, and I bear testimony of how reading it really does help me on a DAILY basis.

Why do you want to read the Book of Mormon, Paulina? we ask.

To be honest, she tells us, I'm really curious. I want to know more about this book that you both speak so highly of. I'm going to keep reading it. I'll ask God.

A shout outside the gate, and the front door opens. A man enters. He is carrying a pizza, and his face wears a smile until he sees the two of us sitting there in Paulina's two chairs. That smile disappears, and the Spirit flees from the room. He takes a few steps closer to us, looks us in the eye, and asks,

Are you Mormons?

Yes, 

we respond.

His face fills with disgust and hatred, and he glares at Paulina and then back at us.

We're Evangelicos. We believe in a true God, and not some Joseph Smith. Now, can you get out of my house?


Paulina pronounces his name in a plea for kindness, and we gather up our things, thank him for his time, and leave the way we came in.

..................

I thought a lot that day about the Savior. 
I thought a lot about the prophets and missionaries who have given their lives to live and to serve Him. 

One person let us in their home the entire day. 

How must it have been for my Savior, Jesus Christ, who spent His entire earthly ministry walking among people whom He loved so dearly--with His perfect, pure, selfless love--preaching His glorious gospel, working marvelous miracles, and being rejected and denied at every corner. 

Our feet and bodies were so tired that we literally could not take another step.

How must it have been for the Savior, who fasted 40 days and then was tempted by the devil--who suffered torment and torture an entire night long, and then who carried His cross up the steep hill to Calvary. 

My heart broke for the people who told us they had no desire to hear the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ..that all roads lead to the same God and that, in reality, as long as we believe, we will be saved.

How must it have been for the Savior, who gave His life to atone for the sins of the world, and then was denied by Peter, doubted by Thomas, and continues to be denied and doubted every single day, the entire world over.

I will never know or even begin to fathom how it must have been for my Savior. He suffered pains so exquisite that He bled from every pore--and He did it so that I will not have to suffer if I choose to repent. I am grateful for the opportunity to give a year and a half of my life in His service--to be rejected, exhausted, and heart-broken like He was--in order to have the chance to come to know Him a little bit better and come to know just a little bit better how to utilize His Great Atoning Sacrifice in overcoming my thousands of flaws and imperfections. I am grateful for the opportunity to give a year and a half of my life in His service--to be, also, accepted just as He was accepted and recognized as a messenger of the truth, just as He was recognized as The messenger of truth--in order to come to love Him better, to love His gospel, and to love those among whom I serve. I am grateful that He teaches me a little every day how to love them as He does, and how to give myself in their service as He did. I am grateful for the chance to labor among God's children in this little piece of His vineyard in which I have been called to serve.

This is the Lord's church. This is His gospel, and it has once again been restored to the earth. This is His work, and His glory--and He calls upon us, His disciples, to help Him bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. I know that as we labor in His service with everything we have--when we continue even when we are rejected or exhausted or sad--that He will bless us with miracles a thousand times over, and we will one day be blessed with a happiness that will outweigh every cost of discipleship that we ever experienced.

I love you all, and I love being a missionary! Keep choosing the right, and continue faithful in the path of discipleship.:) He will never leave us alone, and He will continue to bless us every day according to our faithfulness and diligence in serving Him and keeping His commandments. 

I love you! Have a wonderful week!

Con Todo Mi Amor,
Hermana Sanford

Touchdown!

With Hna. Blanca, Hna. Lopez, and Hna. Jimena

Querida Familia,
I may not be a football expert, but I grew up watching the occasional BYU game with my dad. I learned by process of inference what was good and what was bad by the way he shouted, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, YEAH--WHOOOO!!!!!!!" or "NOOOO!!!!!!" at the TV at the top of his lungs at various intervals throughout the game. After about 19 years of practice, I eventually got the hang of the game, and now we watch BYU football and shout together at the TV at the top of our lungs. And I may still not be an expert in football, but I can tell from the basement or from outside the house if what is happening is in our favor or not.

As missionaries, it's so easy to fall into the trap of thinking that this great work of salvation is entirely an offensive one. We contact people on the street, give them Books of Mormon, and then give them reasons to invite us back to their homes at various hours of the day so that we can teach them more about this precious gospel message that we share. We do it because we want everyone to discover and make part of their lives the beautiful truths that we have found and made part of our own lives. And although the mission may not literally be a game of football, I can tell we are playing on the offensive when entire groups of people cross the street to avoid talking with us--two fearsome, snarling, people-eating, 20-year-old sister missionaries.:) It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking that we're only playing on the offensive. but our dear zone leaders posed to us a question yesterday that really made me think.

"Hermanas. What are you doing today to protect your sector from Satan?"

Whoa. Talk about a home-run question!

We may just be two young sister missionaries, called to invite others to come unto Christ and then to respect their agency in letting them make their own decision, but are we constantly remembering to run a defensive plan, or are we simply implementing an offensive one?

The game of life--the battle we are waging every day against the adversary---is quite a bit bigger and a LOT more serious than a simple game of football, but the same rules and principles apply. We cannot afford to simply play offensively; that is the way in which we score touchdowns, but it is not enough. We have to keep our adversary at 0. We cannot let him gain yardage nor points. We cannot let him through to score his own touchdowns.

What, then, can we do today to protect ourselves, our homes, and our families from Satan?

I know that as we keep the commandments faithfully--as we are dilligent in doing the small and simple things (daily scripture study and prayer and weekly Family Home Evening and sacrament meeting attendance)--we will be able to maintain a grounded, solid defensive line and will then be enabled in our efforts to run the ball, share the gospel, receive saving ordinances, and score touchdowns--we will win the game, and we will receive the promised blessings. We will receive eternal life.

I am grateful for inspired coaches and priesthood leaders who recognize that there is much more to this game of football than simply running the offensive. If we don't have a strong defense, no matter how strong our offense, we will lose the game. Let us remember, then, that every day we must strive to strengthen our defense--run the drills, hold the practices, and boost the morale--if we are to succeed. Let's be faithful and dilligent in the little things, and I have absolutely no doubt that the Lord will bless us with the touchdowns. The Lord will bless us with the victory.:)

Life may not be a walk in the park...but it is awfully like a game of football.

with Hermana Lopez

By way of other news, I have a new companion! 
Hermana Lopez is from Paraguay. She's an angel, is studying to be a professional flautist, is 20 years old... And I'm beginning to suspect that we're pretty much the same person. We both like classical music, hard boiled eggs, sandwiches, and ice cream...and that's just about all the depth there is to me, so, in all the important things, we're the same! Haha. She really is SO sweet, and I'm very, very excited to learn more about and develop more charity this cambio with her.:) Hermana Lopez has 6 months in the mission, and I'll be training her as a new Hermana Lider! We're so excited to work together, and I am so grateful that Heavenly Father blessed me with a companion who is so easy to get along with.:)

That's about all my news from Illapel! Keep choosing the right and sharing the gospel through your examples and in all you do! I love you all SO much! Have a wonderful week!:)

Con Todo Mi Amor,
Hermana Sanford

Our new Illapel district!

Tomates rellenos:)

Humitas!:)  

with Cata

It's official! I finally got my Carnét!

Birthday Lessons

Birthday package!!

Querida Familia,
On Saturday, I woke up and realized that I'm officially not a teenager anymore. (It took me a day to get there, but I figured it out.) I don't really know how I feel about that, but I do know that Friday was probably the best birthday I have ever had. Heavenly Father took some time to teach me some very important lessons. I wanted to share them with you in my email today.:)

With Hermana Farias!!!

With Elders Rasmussen and Henderson at Consejo!!!
So good to see them!

We spent the entire morning in Viña for Consejo de Lideres de la Misión--I got to see Hna. Farias, Elder Rassmussen and Elder Henderson from my MTC District, and Pte and Hna. Kähnlein. It was the best.:) Afterwards, I received a package from my FAMILY!!! and just about cried. I have the best family in the whole entire WORLD... And all the elders were super excited about that cotton candy, Mom.;) Haha. Thank you SO much. Thank you thank you thank you.:) After receiving our mail, we loaded up our stuff in the assistants' truck and headed to the bus terminal! Our bus always leaves for Illapel at 6 o'clock, so when 6:00 arrived, we boarded the bus and found our seats...only to discover that there was already people there sitting in them, and, upon further inspection of our tickets, that the Assistants had accidentally bought us tickets for the 4:00 bus. Oops. Our ZLs ran to the ticket counter to try to fix the situation and get us back to Illapel that night, but, alas, there would not be another bus to Illapel with available seats until the next morning at 7:30. Long story short, the assistants made arrangements for us to stay the night in Viña with another companionship of hermanas and then head back to Illapel in the morning. 

Hermana Oliva served at the beginning of her mission in Viña and really wanted to be able to spend the last few hours of the day visiting her converts in Agua Santa, but the asistants told us no--that Presidente had said that we needed to work in Chorrillos, and "hay que hacer lo que dice." Of course, we agreed and went merrily on our way to Chorrillos. The hermanas weren't answering their phone when we arrived, so we left our stuff outside their pension, covered with a tarp, and went out to work!

Our stuff covered with a tarp

Chorrillos, Viña del Mar

Chorrillos, Viña del Mar

The very first people we saw in the street were 3 little girls walking and laughing together. We stopped to talk to them and ended up teaching them how to pray and then praying with them right then and there to practice, and then we asked if we could share a message for a few minutes with their families. Sophia led us to the house of her grandma, Maria, who came out to tell us she was busy and to come back another day. We ended up talking with her for a little while, however, and found out that she was a less-active member who hadn't come to church in about 4 years---and that Sophia is 10 years old and wants to be baptized! 

THEN down the street came walking Pablo, Maria's 16 year old grandson, who has gone to EFY (and loved it), received the priesthood, and was attending church alone for quite a while, until he just gave up and stopped going altogether. He expressed a desire to serve a mission and to return to church and to seminary, and we bore testimony from the depths of our hearts that we KNEW without a doubt that Heavenly Father wanted us there that night to tell him that He wants him to serve a mission and be the example that helps his family return to the church. He had tears in his eyes as we spoke, and it was clear he was very touched to know that God had sent us there to Chorrillos that evening specifically for him--he committed to begin to read the Book of Mormon again and to attend church this Sunday. We almost committed Sophia to baptism on the 28th of February and gave her a Book of Mormon to begin reading, and Maria agreed to do her best to come to church this week as well.

City lights of Viña del Mar

We walked away marveling at the miracle of it all, then placed another Book of Mormon and enjoyed the beautiful valley lights for a few moments before heading back to the house. The hermanas were there to receive us with big hugs, and we explained to them what had happened--they could hardly contain themselves. Turns out...

They had been searching the ENTIRE cambio for this family and hadn't been able to find them ANYWHERE. Mariás correct address doesn't appear in any membership directory, and Sophia had a cedula de bautismo in the area book from a year ago, but then had disappeared a few days before her baptism day arrived and no one had been able to find her since. The elders who had prepared her for baptism wrote a note on her teaching record that said, "Search for her!"

The note on Sophia's baptism form.

I have NO doubt that Heavenly Father knows perfectly each of His children and is perfectly aware of where they are and what they are doing--if it took sending us to Chorrillos instead of back to Illapel in order to find this "lost" family, then I am SO glad I got to be part of such a beautiful miracle. And to be honest, I had been getting a teensy bit downhearted in Illapel the last few weeks--we've worked so hard, but we haven't seen all that much success. I let Satan get to me a little bit and was feeling a little bit down about that... But as we were praying to express our gratitude, the distinct thought came to my mind, "Tranquila, hijita. See? I can work miracles when I see fit. Trust in my timing. Everything will be okay." He reminded me that I don't have to worry--I just have to work as hard as I can and do everything possible to find people to teach and baptize so that He can, according to His timing, work the miracles that He sees fit to work.

I am so grateful for a loving Father in Heaven that knows me and each of His children. He blessed me with a birthday miracle, and, even more than that, reminded me that He is completely in control. His will will come to pass here, and all I have to do is trust Him and give Him all I have.

I love you all! Have an absolutely wonderful week, and keep choosing the right! Until next week!

Con Todo Mi Amor,
Hermana Sanford

Quote of the Week:
"Why aren't you paying attention?"
"Sorry. I got water in my ear."

"I'm going to pray that something bad happens right now!"

Entrevista with Presidente Kähnlein

Our district!
(and Hna. Huaccha--we were on intercambios)

Intercambios with Hnas. Huaccha and Alvarez

I ate Tuna!
It's a little fruit that grows on cactus and tastes
like honeydew. Super good! :)

We celebrated with the Familia Briceño because
Jorge and Maicol also had their birthdays this week

A birthday hug from Hna. Kähnlein

Earthquake Lessons

With Hna Jimena and Cata

Querida Familia,
This morning, we had another earthquake! (Earthquakes are dangerous business, but to be honest, I think I'm going to miss them a little bit when I have to go home. Talk about the coolest adrenaline rush ever.:)) I was on the second floor, washing my face in the bathroom, when all of a sudden the floor started to shake, almost imperceptibly at first and then growing gradually in intensity. I thought it was just a big truck driving past outside, but the shaking continued, and I realized that all the dogs in the WORLD were barking. All of a sudden, the house really began to shake, and I grabbed hold of the sink in order to stabilize myself against the shaking beneath my feet. The entire experience lasted about 15 seconds, but standing there clutching the little white sink, my mind started to race...

It's easy to be happy when those around us are happy. It's easy to be happy when things are going well, when life is good, when we have everything that we need. It's easy to be happy when people like us, when we have success, and when the world keeps turning smoothly. But sometimes the ground starts shaking. Sometimes our world falls apart. How can we find happiness when the earthquakes come? How can we find happiness in the midst of the storm? 

In my personal study today, I began to study President Uchtdorf's talk from April 2014, "Grateful in Any Circumstances." In his own words, "Sooner or later, I believe that all of us experience times when the very fabric of our world tears at the seams, leaving us feeling alone, frustrated, and adrift. ...Nevertheless, I have learned that there is something that would take away the bitterness that may come into our lives. There is one thing we can do to make life sweeter, more joyful, even glorious. We can be grateful!"

I have spent a lot of time pondering the last few weeks over self-generated happiness. How can we develop a happiness that endures even when circumstances around us get rough? How can we continue to be happy even when things go wrong? How can we obtain a happiness that is self-sufficient and doesn't depend on others to continue functioning? In the midst of my pondering again this morning, Heavenly Father blessed me to understand what I have been searching for for weeks.

The key to self-generated happiness is gratitude.

President Uchtdorf promises us that as we choose to develop a spirit of gratitude, our life will be filled with true joy and great happiness. As we turn to God with a spirit of humility, willing to accept every joy and challenge and test with which He desires to bless us, and with a grateful heart, we will be granted eyes to see more clearly His plan for us, and we will be blessed with the capacity to accept in all things His will. 

I know without a doubt that the key to true happiness is gratitude. We can manifest that gratitude in service to others, in obedience to the commandments, in expressing gratitude in prayer to our Heavenly Father, in acknowledging His hand in all things... In working to develop an attitude of gratitude. I know that as we do so, we will develop this self-generated happiness that burns brightly even when the darkness of trial and tribulation descend upon us. We will have the capacity to continue fueling our flame of contentment even in the midst of famine or drought, and when the earthquakes rumble... We will have a cute little ceramic sink to grab onto with all our might, and we will not fall. 

Gratitude is our anchor in the storm. It is our strong foundation. Let's build our fundamento en Cristo, and I know that we will not fall. Let us accept all our circumstances with gratitude in our hearts, trusting in God to see us through, with faith that His plan for us is greater than anything we could ever imagine. I'm so excited to study gratitude this week, and invite you all to do so with me! My challenge is that we can each take a few minutes every day to write a small list of the blessings and miracles we have been blessed to see, and then kneel and offer up a prayer of gratitude to Heavenly Father for those specific blessings that we have written down. I know that as we do so, we will begin to develop our own Happiness Generator, and we will have a sink to hold on to when the earthquakes come and the ground begins to tremble beneath our feet.

I love my Savior! I am SO grateful for Him and for all that He has done for me, all that He does for me, and all that He will continue to do for me as I serve Him as a missionary and then for the rest of my life. This is His work. This is His gospel. This is His church. If we build our homes and our testimonies upon Him, we cannot fall.

Have a wonderful week! The church is true! Don't forget to be grateful, and be sure to write to me all about your experiences!:) Love you all!

Con Todo Mi Amor,
Hermana Sanford

Almuerzo with Familia Jimenez

Our district with watermelon

my mugshot

Birthday wishes to Morgan on the mission blog