Hope

6 months later...the Lord taught me Hope.

This time, Hope came in the form of an Elect que se llama Romi.

I don't deserve a miracle. But the Lord loves my companion and I enough that He blessed us with one anyway... And I can honestly say that there is absolutely nothing more incredible than watching a beautiful daughter of God, dressed all in white, descend into the waters of baptism... And then catch a glimpse of her radiant smile as she comes back up, completely free from sin and embarking on the journey of an eternity with a fresh, clean slate. 

As she so beautifully expressed in her testimony a few moments later:
"I have wanted for so long to be a member of the Church, ever since the elders invited me to pray and ask, and I received my answer...but due to various impediments, was never able to... It is an honor now to be able to call you all "hermanos" and to be able to say, "This is MY church." I want to be a faithful member, and I want to raise my daughter here. We will be here every Sunday, and we will continue faithful until we can be sealed together forever in the temple." 

She cried as she spoke, and I did, too.

I love being able to stand back and see that, really, Heavenly Father allowed us to be instruments in His hands... Romi was converted long before we ever met her, thanks to the diligent efforts of two hardworking missionaries, but I am so grateful for the chance that my Father in Heaven gave me to be able to know her and help her prepare to make sacred covenants with her Father in Heaven.

Romi was confirmed in sacrament meeting yesterday, and she is so incredibly happy. She is so incredibly clean. Her conversion renews my hope that we will find others like her...and reminds me that Heavenly Father is ever aware of and involved in this glorious work of salvation.

Our Savior is the light and the life and the hope of the world. When we invite others to come unto Him--and when we do so ourselves--that is the moment in which our lives will fill with that hope that only He can offer. Our earthly trials and experiences will fill with purpose and with meaning.

I don't want to live a hopeless life. I want to live always with my sights set on my Savior. I want to keep walking toward Him and never look away. As we cling to Jesus Christ--as we rely on His Atonement and allow Him to change us--He will work miracles in our lives. He will work miracles in our hearts. And He will mold us into the disciples that He would have us be. As we increase in our ability to recognize the everyday miracles that take place all around us on a daily basis, we will increase in hope, and ours will grow brighter and brighter until the perfect day.

Two everyday miracles took place in the lives of people I love this week.

We have been working with the Familia Briceño for the entire 6 months that I have been here... They have been members for many years, but have fallen in and out of activity over the course of those years. Recently, they began to attend church sporadically once again, but they only ever stayed for sacrament meeting when they did. 

Because our phone minutes ran out this week, we weren't able to call and remind everyone to come to church, but when we showed up at the chapel, there was Hna Briceño! She loved sacrament meeting and decided to stay for the next two hours (for the first time in years), which she also ended up loving. Waiting for Gospel Principles to start, she told us the following:

She has an alarm set on her phone Monday-Friday at 6:30 am to wake her up in order to help her son get out the door to school. Yesterday morning, an alarm that she had never set went off at 8:00 am, waking her up from a deep sleep. Still half asleep, she turned it off and fell back asleep...when 30 minutes later, an alarm that she had turned off and not snoozed went off again, waking her up for the second time and just in time to get ready to go to church. She took that as a sign that Heavenly Father wanted her to get up and go to the capilla, so she did so, and felt the Spirit while she was there. She committed to bring her entire family to church next week and stay for the entire 3 hours.

Hna Jimena is an angel and is so incredibly faithful and active... She strives in every way possible to keep the commandments and, especially, to keep the Sabbath Day holy.

Yesterday, in the middle of making lunch, her gas ran out, and she wasn't able to finish. She didn't want to break the Sabbath Day, but she desperately needed more... So she called the gas company to bring another one, and when she gave the gas man her credit card in order to pay, it didn't work. He said, "That's okay; I'll just come back tomorrow, and you can pay me then."

A loving Heavenly Father enabled her to keep the Sabbath Day holy, while also providing for her needs at the very same time. It was a miracle.

I know that our Father loves us. As we excercise faith in Him, strive to keep His commandments, and pray for increased hope...He will work miracles in our lives, and He will remind us time and time again how much He loves us.

I hope you all know how much I love you! Keep looking for miracles--I know you will find them, whether that be in the form of your very own Romi, or an alarm that you didn't even set, or a gas man that doesn't charge you on Sunday. I know He is in the details of our lives. Look for Him, and you will find Him. That's what Hope is all about.

Les amo mucho!
Hermana Sanford

Romi and her family at her baptism.

"I showered on Thursday, and I still feel clean..."

The Familia Rentería Velasco!
We finally found them together at home and had an awesome lesson with them yesterday

I arrived at sacrament meeting yesterday spiritually on my knees... I didn't even have the strength to walk in standing up. 

I fell apart this week. I couldn't do it anymore. I didn't even want to study my scriptures for the first time in almost 11 months. I dreamt about my family, and all I wanted was to see them. I felt more exhausted than I ever have before, so much so that it was all I could do just to keep walking. I got frustrated with myself because, in exerting my everything just to put one foot in front of the other, I didn't give the 110% that I always try to give. I felt unmotivated and frustrated with myself. 

In such a state, I arrived at sacrament meeting, dragging myself in with the last ounce of strength in my body. 

I fell apart at the sacrament table, and I offered up the broken pieces of me to my Savior as I partook of the broken bread--the body that was broken for me.

I wept bitterly as I partook of the water--the blood that was shed for me as He took upon Him my sins...as He wept for the weight of them.

I offered him my weak and broken heart. I don't want to fight anymore. 
I don't want to do this for me, and I don't even want to do this for my family. I want to do this for Him. I love Him.

The Gardener cut me down this week, but I know that He will build me up. I know He loves me. I felt it as I cried, as I felt my mistakes washed away...as I felt my body flooded with a strength that is not my own...as I felt Him forgive me, hug me, chastise me, and remind me that He doesn't expect perfection, but He does expect me to try. He will magnify my 110%, and He will make it enough. He wept with me, and then He gently held out His hand and helped me to my feet.

For the first time in my life, the sacrament became a moment truly sacred for me. My Savior broke and humbled me, and then He healed me as I offered Him my heart and pled with Him for forgiveness...as I took a moment to remember the eternal atoning sacrifice that He so lovingly made for me.

I love my Savior. It is thanks to Him that I have the gospel in my life...It is thanks to Him that I am here in Chile, and it is Him that I serve as a missionary. It is thanks to Him that I will have my family forever, and it is thanks to Him that so many others will, too. It is thanks to Him that I will not give up, and it is because of Him that I cannot. 

I love Him, and I testify of Him. I know He lives. I know He gave His life for each and every one of us, and I know that as we ponder that sacrifice--as we strive to make partaking of the sacrament each Sunday a truly sacred, spiritual experience--that He will fill us with His love, forgive us of our sins, sanctify us with His Spirit, and fight alongside us una semana más. 

As my best friend Megan once told me, "If you can make it 'til Sunday, you'll be okay."

Her words are as true now as they were when she first spoke them.

Make it 'til Sunday. Make it 'til Sunday, partake of the Sacrament, and everything will be okay.

I Love You!
Hermana Sanford

RUBÉN CAME TO CHURCH
ALL BY HIMSELF YESTERDAY!
I have never been so happy in my whole
entire life. It was a MIRACLE.

The Eiffel Tower!

Welcome to Illapel!
There's cows in the road.

"I'm looking for a boyfriend between
14 and 15 years old. Call this number:"

New sector that we split with the ZLs (Illapel Centro)

Panorama of our new sector (Illapel Centro)

Hna Jimena is reading the story of Adam and Eve. She's a hoot; we were cracking up. :)

"Ahhh, no importa. En la guerra es peor."

At church with Romi!!!!!

Hola, Familia!

Ready for a miracle?

...Good, because I am so ready to tell one.

Guillermo and Romi have been investigators of the elders for the past 2 years. They attended church often, read the Book of Mormon and prayed daily, accepted the Word of Wisdom and began living many of the commandments; and when they prayed to know whether or not this church was true, they received an answer. The two of them, little by little, began to be truly converted to the gospel, but because they lived together and were hesitant to get married, they were never able to get baptized.

Two weeks ago, when the boundaries of our area changed, we found out that Guillermo and Romi would be part of our sector, and we undertook the 40-minute journey this Tuesday to go visit them and get to know them a little better. Upon our arrival, we were greeted by a smiling Romi who informed us that she and Guillermo had decided to end things and that he had left her, but it was all right, because "Now I can get baptized!"

...I have never before heard those words escape the mouth of anyone.

We got to know her a little bit, explored the depth of her testimony and asked about her experience with the missionaries, and then invited her to make sacred promises with God through baptism. She was thrilled, and excitedly accepted our invitation to be baptized on April 25th.

We returned Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday to continue reviewing the lessons with her in order to prepare her for her baptism--Romi is so smart. She understands everything immediately and is able to teach it back to us without hesitation. She keeps her commitments, accepts the commandments with faith, is reading the Book of Mormon for the SECOND time, prays every single night with her 1 1/2 year old daughter, Emilia, and loves attending church. She attended again yesterday and enjoyed sacrament meeting, accepting with faith our invitation to honor the Sabbath Day and really keep it holy. (She informed us that she has to go out of town next weekend to do paperwork, but came up with the idea on her own of attending church in the city where she'll be staying.) When we share scriptures with her, she understands them, and she already understands what it means to receive personal revelation, to find answers in the scriptures, and to receive guidance from the Spirit. She knows the Church is true. Her heart's desire is to be baptized and to be part of it, por fin.

Romi is ready. She is the result of two years of visits from faithful missionaries, who trusted in the Lord's perfect timing. She is the result of the diligent search for truth of a heart who just wants to know. She is the result of her own day-to-day choices that led to her own personal conversion. She trusts in the Lord's plan for her and in His timing. 

Romi is the evidence for me that our Heavenly Father is aware of the details of the lives of ALL His children. Had Guillermo left while the elders had still been here, they would never have been able to enter her home alone to teach her. So the Lord changed the boundaries and placed her in the care of two hermanas who really don't deserve such an incredible miracle...and gave Romi leave from work so that she can meet with those hermanas every day and attend church every Sunday in order to prepare for her baptism. He prepared everything so that, when the time was right--when the seed was planted and the conversion complete--she could finally enter the waters of baptism and make sacred covenants with her Savior that will unlock the path of eternal life.

Romi is manna in the wilderness.

She is a miracle.

We will be honored with the opportunity to see a baptism on my last weekend in Illapel, after 6 long months of toil, sorrow, and tears. 

He truly is a God of miracles.

It's easy to see and recognize the miracle of Romi because it is taking place right before our eyes. But how many of our ancestors are, in this very moment, listening to the missionaries on the other side of the veil, experiencing their own conversions, and waiting anxiously and desperately for the moment in which they, too, can accept the invitation of their Savior to be baptized--to make sacred covenants with Him that will unlock the path to eternal life.

How many of them are ready?

How many of them are waiting?

The Lord asks each of us to participate in the work of salvation so that each of His precious children can make it back to Him again someday. Full-time missionaries wear name tags and help to further that work here on earth, but the Lord has also placed temples in locations across the entire earth in which we can enter and offer the promise of eternal life and eternal families to those who, in this life, never had the opportunity to accept it.

They are many. And they are waiting.

Take the time to go to the temple. Find the miracle, the manna in the wilderness. Set free an imprisoned soul.

You may not see them all dressed in white here in mortality, but someday you will. And they will throw their arms around you and thank you through their tears for performing for them a work that they never could have performed for themselves.

Let's go to the temple. It's time to get to work.

Con Todo Mi Amor,
Hermana Sanford

Illapel Zone

Hna. Lopez and the Eiffel Tower....
too cool, huh? :)

Lunch with Hna Jimena and Cata
She made a pie. :)

We helped make empanadas! 

Chilean Cinderella :)
(I almost died. Haha.)

"Grass Sold Here"

"Take Care of the Nature"... Haha.
Hooray for good translators.

The first and last mammoth statue I will
ever see in my lifetime, probably.

"2 Nefi 6 y cuarto"--Rubén
(2 Nephi 6:30 pm)

God Gave us Families...

Happy Birthday, Hna Kahnlein!
We left an anonymous gift bag of birthday party supplies on her chair and called it Birthday in a Bag; 
she was SO touched, and demanded to know who had done it. When we finally confessed, she gave us 
the biggest hug and told us thank you so profusely... and then asked to take a picture with us after 
Consejo. She said it was the best surprise ever, and that we made her day. Ahhhh.:)

Querida Familia,
Having just wrapped up an absolutely incredible weekend in the which almost all of God's chosen servants felt inspired to speak about the family...I wanted to take advantage of this cloudy Monday morning and chance to email home by expressing my gratitude and love for those I love most.:)

It's kind of hard being far away from your family while listening to everyone talk about all the things we can do in our homes now to serve them and to show them that we love them...to strengthen our relationship with them... But as my own family found its way into my thoughts, I realized again and again just how lucky I truly am to have them--and to have God's promise that I will have them forever.

I am so blessed to have grandparents who supported me in every concert, who called "just because" to see how I was doing, who sent me a card for my birthday each year and then showed me they loved me every other day of it. I am so lucky to have grandparents willing to sacrifice everything to serve the Lord, and who do, because they love Him, and because they know He loves us.

I am so blessed to have aunts and uncles who live the gospel--that tease me, and help me, and teach me simply because they love me... The kind that will ALWAYS be there to tell me that Crisco is frosting or to tease me about the boyfriend I don't have--and be concerned about the one I do. They teach me by example the importance of LIVING the gospel--that serving a faithful mission and being married in the temple are not enough...that there is a lifetime of service left to give, and we are only just beginning.

I am so blessed to have cousins who are always the first volunteers to participate in crazy shenanigans or talk about sports or sneak from the cookie jar... That have served missions and have been married in the temple, or who will serve missions, and will get married in the temple... And with all our focus on missions and on the temple, we move forward toward the right goals, together. They inspire me, and they support me, and I will be forever grateful for the amazing cousins--the amazing friends--with which God has blessed me.

I am so blessed to have two sisters and a brother who are pretty much my best friends... We fight sometimes, but man, we sure do love each other. My two sisters and a brother who write to me every single week, and who pray for me, and who root for me, and who support me in everything I do... I think I took them for granted before, but I know better now... And I hope I can remind them for the rest of my life just how grateful I truly am for everything they are and do. Tay, Ave, and Bai...Love you tons. I can't wait to spend eternity laughing and hugging and goofing off with you three crazy-heads.:)

I am so blessed...and I know that my Heavenly Father must love me very, very much...to have blessed me with the two most amazing parents in the whole entire world. Everything I am, I owe to them...and everything I do or have done or ever will do, too. They don't just teach the gospel with words, but they live it...in the way they magnify their callings, in the way they encourage us to do our best and BE our best, in the way all they have ever wanted is just to pack up and go serve a mission...in the way they give up just about everything to make us their second priority, and in the way they give up EVERYTHING in order to make God their first priority. I know that I took them for granted before...but I know better now. And I will do whatever it takes for the rest of my life to show them the depth of my gratitude for the dedicated, sanc

tified lives they have lived, and their often-times unappreciated efforts and attempts to teach us the gospel and how to truly love our Heavenly Father. I never knew how to love them until I left them, and I am so grateful for the knowledge that, in the big scheme of things, I am never going to have to leave them.

There is no testimony sweeter--no knowledge more precious--than the knowledge that we will be a forever family. Together with my grandparents, with my aunts and uncles, with my cousins...with my brothers and sisters, with my parents...with our great-grandparents and great-great-grandparents...and with our children, and our children's children, and all the generations to come... That together, if we live our lives right and keep the sacred promises we have made with a loving Father in Heaven, we will return to the presence of Him who knows all, and we will receive a place TOGETHER in His kingdom, to dwell with Him and those we love for the rest of eternity. There is no happiness greater than this.

To my sweet family--I hope you know how much I love you. I hope you know how much I appreciate you, how much I pray for you, and how much I miss you... And how hard I am working so that others here in Chile can have the families that they too love so much for the rest of forever, just like I will have mine.

"God gave us families to help us become who He wants us to be...
This is how He shares His love...
For the family is of God."

Have a wonderful week, lovelies! Go hug your mom, or take time to talk sports or play a game of chess with your dad... Do the dishes for your sister, or leave a little note and some flowers for your grandma, or let your little brother beat you, just this once. Tell them how much you love them for everything they have done for you. There is nothing more precious than our families, and they will be the ones with which we will spend eternity. Start now to make yours a happy one.:)

I love you!
Hermana Sanford

Hna. Alvarez got bit by a dog
in intercambios. What.

Some members made us SUSHI!
Hna. Lopez's first time trying sushi. :)
She liked it!

Beautiful foggy morning.

PANCAKES!
The first time I had eaten pancakes since
the MTC! Hna. Forste made them for us
in Achupallas :)

 

April Consejo de Lideres de la Misíon

 

Training with Hna. Lopez

Training with Hnas. Watt and Morris

Training from Presidente Kähnlein

THREE GENERATIONS!!!!!! :)
Abuela, Mamá, and Hija
(You'll never guess who Hna. Farias' new companion is...)

Consejo with Hna. McKenna

Consejo with Hna. McBride

Conference with Consuelo--
one of the young women in the
Illapel Branch

Conference with Familia Jimenez--
my Illapel family

Conference and caramel corn :)