Ammon must suffer from low blood pressure; he faints an awful lot.

Carla and Daniela at the Limarí branch with Hnas. Moraga and Sanford 

Among many others--because this is the land of miracles--we saw the hand of the Lord in our lives this week in two miraculous ways. I set the goal a few months ago to make my personal journal the evidence and a record of the Lord's hand in my life... I think I would like my letters home to be the same. I know without a doubt that we saw Him working His work here this week... Ovalle is amazing. There are people so prepared just waiting for us here.

On Thursday, we set off walking. "We're going to Puntilla," we said. We reached a fork in the road. "Where?" she said. "To the right," I said. We started to walk. But then the Spirit said clearly, "No. You have to go to the left." "Let's go to the left, then," I said. We set off to the left.

My companion is amazing and contacts EVERYONE...and this Thursday was not an exception. She contacted the man with a beaded necklace and ruffled messy hair... He gave us his card. He says he has the gift to heal. He's cheaper than any doctor. I believe him... I believe in spiritual gifts. We asked him if we could share a message of Jesus Christ--he invited us in. (Miracle #1, but not really, because there's already been about 5). We pulled chairs outside and sat down, then introduced ourselves and the Church... He pulled out a worn notebook and said, "Hermanas, look. I was reading the Book of Mormon once, and here's all the notes that I took, but the book got left in a whole box of books that I left behind when I moved... I've been looking, but I've never been able to get a hold of another. I was sad to lose it, because I was really excited to read it..."

We just looked at each other with a shocked smile on our faces and responded, "Guillermo, looks like today's your lucky day." We began with a prayer and started in with the Restoration. Miraculously, everything made perfect sense to him, and he committed to read the Book of Mormon that very afternoon and pray to know that it's true. As we almost always do, to close the lesson, we explained how the testimony we receive through the Spirit leads us to make sacred covenants with God like baptism, and we pulled out a picture... As we did, it stopped raining, the sun came out, and Guillermo exclaimed, "Ah! I've been LOOKING for a church to be baptized! I was baptized Catholic as a baby, but I don't even believe in the Catholic church. And I want to be closer to God...I don't want to be afraid when there's earthquakes."

I couldn't contain the grin on my face, and neither could my companion--we invited him, as representatives of Jesus Christ, to be baptized October 17th by someone who holds the authority of God. He accepted with the biggest smile I've ever seen.

It was a miracle...

We closed with a prayer, and walked a ways away to offer our own and thank God for His hand in our lives... Guillermo wasn't able to come to church yesterday for some unforeseen circumstances and things that came up, but we've been in contact with him, and he continues to read and pray every day--he's progressing little by little. Please pray for him... He truly is one of God's elect.


Miracle #27. Manuel. He's amazing. Those birthday pics that I sent a few weeks ago? He's the one blowing out the candles. He turned 26.

Manuel's birthday celebration

Manuel attended a baptism with us two weeks ago, he's been attending church and participating in every branch activity, and has been reading the Book of Mormon and praying to know if he should be baptized. His main concern was being sufficiently prepared with the knowledge necessary to make such a big decision--we gave him a copy of his teaching record so that he can check lessons off as we teach them and his commitments off as he keeps them...so that he can SEE that he's ready when the day arrives to make that big decision.

On Wednesday, we stopped by his house, sat down around the table, and asked him, "Manuel, have you been able to read the Book of Mormon in the past few days since we came?" He got a little serious, and he said, "No, hermanas... But I did have a really incredible experience last night that I wanted to share with you.

"I was in my room praying again, like you said, when all of the sudden, I FELT the presence of God in my room, and I KNEW that He'd heard me. I felt so much joy and peace, and I am so happy... I asked Him to forgive me for all the times that I denied His existed...and I felt that He did. I felt that He forgave me... It was the most beautiful moment. I know now that, even in all the times when I thought He wasn't listening, He really always was."

He was smiling so big; my heart overflowed with gratitude to my Heavenly Father for hearing and answering His prayer--and for letting him know that He had. Manuel is really excited to keep coming to church and to keep learning more, and he has so much support from his family (his dad, Policarpio, is a convert of about a year who is incredibly faithful and active, and who always mentions in his prayers his desire for his son to be baptized)...he attended church again yesterday and stayed for all three hours, loved all the classes, and he's making friends with the members here in our branch. He understands perfectly EVERYTHING we teach...

...And he committed last night to pray and ask Heavenly Father if now is the time to be baptized.

Manuel told us that two months ago he felt the need to come live with his dad in Ovalle...so he packed up his stuff in Iquique and came. He says he knows now that that wasn't coincidence--that nothing's coincidence. He says he knows now that God has a plan for him. I know that that's true. Pray for Manuel. He truly is one of God's elect.

There is no doubt in my mind that this is God´s work...and that He is preparing the hearts of His children. I want my journal to be a record of His hand in my life...and I want my heart to be a record of the same. I know that as we search for it, and as we strive to follow it, we will see Him working in every question, every moment... We will see Him carrying out His picture perfect plan. Pray for Guillermo. Pray for Manuel. Pray for the work here in Ovalle... Because it is God's work, and He is at the helm.

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Con Todo Mi Amor,
Hermana Sanford

Sunset in Ovalle

Supermoon in Ovalle

Happy lunar eclipse!

Aftershocks for Dayzz: The News You've All Been Waiting For (If not...sorry. It's all I've got to say.)

Chilean asado and more asado for 18 de Septiembre celebration

Welp, news from Chile... It's been a CRAZY week. There really isn't any other way to say it.

So we were there on Wednesday evening, about 7:50 pm, in the house of a super active member and teaching his nonmember son. We hadn't yet made it to the part of the lesson that we'd planned to teach, after taking a detour and focusing instead on the importance of a daily study of the Book of Mormon, but we were headed back that way... When all of the sudden...

The ground started shaking.

"A normal baby earthquake," we thought. "No big!"

But then the table started shaking, and all the walls started shaking, and it was like waves beneath our feet, and the whole house was filled with thunder, and the pictures on the walls were falling down and crashing to the ground, and I felt like a boat in a storm in the ocean... The lights exploded and went out. And everyone was praying and crying (but we weren't, cuz we're brave), and my heart started racing, and my companion and I took off running to the front door and grabbed each other by the hand as tight as we possibly could, and everything was happening so fast, but it felt a little like forever, and the whole world was about to crash down all around us...

With every moment, the earth was shaking harder and harder and harder. A thousand volts of adrenaline, and then it all stopped, but I was still shaking, and my body couldn't breathe.

The whole entire world was so afraid. We had all forgotten the power de la tierra.

RESPECT.

"You can't possibly leave," Policarpio's mom said. "You can't go out there right now. You have to stay here until after the aftershocks are over..."

"But we have to go," we said. We feel like we should go... We'll run down to the Familia Erices. They have a car; they'll take us home. Everything will be okay."

We bowed our heads and offered up a prayer right then and there to ask what Heavenly Father would have us do, because the lights had all gone out and the phone lines had all gone down, and that had left us without any sort of contact with ANYONE.

The Spirit confirmed our feelings. We packed up our bags and hurried down the street to the Familia Erices. They were waiting for us there, hoping we would come, with candles on the table because everything was dark, and Hna Marta greeted us with a really big, big hug. I still felt a little high on adrenaline. My hands were still shaking. We sat there with Hna Marta's 80 year old mother and held her hand tight as the aftershocks came rolling in, one after the other, every 15 minutes. We sat there humming hymns in the dark.

Power outage after 8.3 terremoto/earthquake

When Hno Erices finally arrived home from work, he offered to drive us home. We gratefully agreed. Police and people running and crying everywhere... I had a few flash forwards to the way it will certainly be right before the Second Coming... Everything in commotion and a world filled with uproar. It will be one mass disaster, and a whole lot of crying...  "It was an 8.4," Hno Erices informed us. The strongest earthquake that had hit here in Ovalle since 1997.

We arrived home around 8 o'clock, because it was pointless trying to proselyte out there in chaos outside, and were greeted by a poor, devastated house.

The huge front window had shattered and left glass all over the floor, the bathroom sink had detached itself from the wall, a handful of shower tiles were lying in a pool of shampoo in the tub, the shelves in our study room had emptied all their books and contents out onto the floor, the fridge had slid away from the wall to block the kitchen door and giant water bottles were rolling around on the floor, and the wall trim in the back room had fallen down from the roof in a few places and covered all of our clothes in a thin layer of white, chalk-like dust. That layer of dust and small chunks of plaster of paris covered just about everything in the house.

We just looked at each other and got right to work. The power was out, but by some miracle, we still had running water, so while Hno Erices covered the broken window with a door that no one was using, we got to work doing what we really should have already done a long time ago. We chose THEN to follow the prophet. We replaced all the old water storage, and we gathered up the necessary supplies and replenished our emergency kits so that we could leave them by the door. I packed with my important documents—my journals and my scriptures...the only things that I would carry out with me if the house began to fall down around our ears. We worried that it might...

We wrote in our journals by flashlight, aftershocks rolling through and pounding down the house every 15 minutes or so...growing in intensity but not quite as strong as the first one. Only once or twice did we tear out of bed to go running to the front door, when a 7.0 strong one rumbled out of the ground beneath us.

It was a little hard to sleep very much that night, but I was taught by the Spirit in those hours impossible to sleep, and I learned a few important lessons that I felt prompted to share in this week's email.

As we come closer and closer to the day of the Savior's second coming, the amount of destruction and the number of natural disasters the whole world over will increase. But Heavenly Father loves us so much that He would NEVER leave us alone... Fear will overcome the hearts of e[veryone], and their courage will fail them all, but our courage need not fail us. He has called a living prophet to guide us in these often frightening and difficult latter days. I felt prompted last Monday to study the importance of following the prophet. I learned that when he speaks, he will always say what God himself would say if He were here, speaking to us.,, But nothing teaches like experience, and there's nothing like a terremoto to teach you that when the prophet speaks and says, "keep a well-stocked food storage... maintain your personal finances... be prepared for an emergency," he really means it. He says it because God wants us to be ready. He wants us to be prepared. If we wait to prepare well until after we've taken the first hit, it may be entirely too late. That is why he asks us to prepare ourselves NOW.

It is the same with spiritual matters. When the prophet reminds us to read our scriptures daily and say our family prayers, to keep the Sabbath Day holy and to go to the temple often...he's trying to protect us from the whirlwind. God wants to keep us safe. I know that when we follow him, we will all be okay. I want to live a life that follows the prophet... Here in Chile, we can't wait for General Conference next Saturday. Let us listen to God's words spoken by mortal mouthpieces, and then get to work and DO them. I know He speaks. I know He loves us.

Wednesday night at 11:05, I was on my knees closing my day with a prayer. As I do every night, I went back over my day with the Savior, and I asked for forgiveness for all the things that I'd done wrong--I asked Him for help in doing better tomorrow. And then I climbed into bed.  A few minutes later, the strongest aftershock yet tore its way through our house. But over me washed the strongest wave of peace... The knowing that no matter what happened, I was clean, and I think that's what matters most in this whole entire world. That is the joy that the gospel provides. I know that when we live it, we will never have to fear..because cleanliness can fill our lives with peace. We are VERY imperfect children, but we can be at peace with God.

By way of other news, el 18 here in Chile was awesome--we ate a lot of meat and empanadas--and Manuel (the investigator we were teaching when the earthquake hit) is progressing really well and wants to prepare to be baptized October 10th. He is so sincere and all he wants in the world is to follow the example of Jesus Christ and come to know the truth. Please keep him in your prayers so that he can be protected from the spiritual storm that will begin to fill his life and that everything can turn out the way that Heavenly Father would like it to.

Ovalle is a land of miracles, and I am doing my best to keep sprinting and sprinting and sprinting to the finish. I love being a missionary. I have never been happier. Please pray for the people of Chile, those who had lost their homes or lost love ones. The devastation es MUCHO in many parts of the country. Keep them in your prayers... I know that God will keep them safe.

Have a wonderful week! I love you all so much!

Con Todo Me Amor,
Hermana Sanford

Hnas. Sanford, Moraga, Aranda, and Hughes with the
branch president and branch mission leader at the
Rama de Limarí 18 de Septiembre Celebration

Chilean Asado

Gigantic empanada...mmmm! :)

Empanadas

mmm.....Chilean bread

Hna. Moraga with Matias, branch mission leader,
at the 18 de Septiembre celebration

Hna. Moraga's got sweet meat eating skills ;)

Kite flying for 18 de Septiembre

Intercambio with Hna Hughes

Hna Hughes

Ovalle--The Cache Valley of Chile  ;)

We Survived! :D

Hermanas Sanford and Moraga--safe and sound and visiting members of the
Limarí branch in Ovalle, the day after the big 8.3 terremoto of 2015

Hey, family! Greetings from Chile!
I don't know if the news made it to the states about the earthquake Wednesday night, but President gave us permission to go and write home to let you know that everything's okay.:)

I'll write more details in my email on Monday, but in short, we were in a lesson on Wednesday with an investigator around 7:50 PM, when all the sudden the ground started shaking... Which is fairly normal, but then it continued to increase and increase and INCREASE in intensity, until all the pictures started falling off the walls and everything was tipping over... We ran to the front door and stood in the door frame until the earthquake finally stopped about 2 minutes later. It was a long one.

The aftershocks continued to come after the initial earthquake (which ended up being an 8.4 on the Richter scale) at an intensity of between 5 and 7, depending on which one we're talking about, for the next four hours, and even now, they come rolling through every half an hour or so. They say it could be that way for MONTHS. It was crazy.

We came home to find our house an absolute disaster; the front window was completely destroyed, and all our stuff was on the floor and covered in a thick layer of dust... The sink in the bathroom got detached from the wall... But everything's fine now! We've been in the process of clean-up, and a couple of hermanos from our branch came and helped us replace the window! It's been a memorable 18 de Septiembre.:) Happy 18 today, by the way!

But yeah, just wanted to let you know not to worry--everything's fine, we're all just fine, and Ovalle is just fine! It was quite the adventure: We Survived the Terremoto de 2015.:) I love you all! Have a wonderful rest of the week; more info to follow on Monday!:)

We Played Soccer in Skirts with some Kids in the Street. Aka...We both love Negritas

Well, I was kind of hoping I would [stay], but I promised Heavenly Father on Monday that I would go where He wants me to go and be where He needs me to be, and that I would be happy about it. So the call came on Wednesday.

"Hermana Kessler...se queda. Hermana Sanford...se va."

I'm leaving.

We hugged each other and cried a few little weepy tears... She is like my sister... And I packed up all my bags. I've got a lot of stuff. After a heartbreaking goodbye with Herminia, Nora, Perla, Franco, and Diego, Mauricio, the angel colectivero, took us down to Viña for the transfer.

Everyone was there! We saw them in the hallway. We saw them in the chapel. We saw them in the bathroom. (Okay, not really. I just felt like exaggerating for a second.) They asked me to play the piano, so I did...with my whole entire heart. Chorrillos stole my heart... I may have struggled against myself there, but I gave EVERYTHING I had. I gave everything I had in me. I love those people...

It was hard saying goodbye...but change is good. I hugged my companion as tight as I could... I'm going to Coquimbo. I'm sure of it.


"Hermana Sanford...se va a Ovalle con Hermana Moraga."


Whoooo! We are going to Ovalle!


They say that Ovalle is the promised land. I think I believe them.

These last four have been whirlwind days.--Hermana Moraga is the hardest worker I have ever met, and we have just been going, going, going, going; there are never enough hours in the day, and we go so fast and so hard that [when] it's over, we go home, and all we can do is collapse into bed. I love it, because there's THAT much work to do. This area is on fire. And she's gonna be one of my best friends.:)

Hna Moraga, my new compañera

My companion was born in Chile, in Valdivia en el sur, but she was raised and lived the rest of her life in Corrientes, Argentina, close to the Brazilian border. She's a dancer and probably the nicest, most perfect person I've ever met. Haha.:) I don't know how she does it.:) She's very detail-oriented and remembers everyone's birthday...and she is so full of charity, love, and patience hacia TODOS. Preach My Gospel says that one of the very best ways to learn knowledge is by example--and I have a feeling I'm going to be doing an awful lot of that this transfer with Hermana Moraga. She's incredible. She's got 13 months in the mission, and she was here in Limarí these past 3 transfers with Hna Eastman, (P.S. Also, she is the spitting image of Hna Vargas, my dear, sweet MTC teacher. Sometimes I look at her and am sure that that's exactly what it would be like to have her as a mission companion.)

But, arriving here and pondering a lot on this theme of Knowledge that I've undertaken for the next six weeks of my life, if I had to sum up what I've learned this week in just one sentence... It would have to be that I've changed a lot on my mission.

In intercambios on Friday, Hna Mariscal, (who accompanied me here to Ovalle to train for her last transfer) and I played soccer with some random kids in the street. Then we taught them about the Book of Mormon.

amigos del fútbol

You haven't really been a missionary until you've played soccer with kids in the street.:) I never would have played soccer with kids in the street before my mission.... I never would have played soccer PERIOD. Heavenly Father has helped me overcome my fear of sports. He didn't necessarily make me GOOD at them...but He helped me overcome my fear to try new things and made me brave enough to venture out of my comfort zone. I fell in love with adventure and just hiking out through the desert. I learned that it's fun to try new things. He changed that in me. That was one of my goals for my mission.

When I put on my plaque a year ago in June...change really stressed me out. This time, I chose to stay calm. He taught me how to take things as they come... To problem solve instead of freaking out. To take it a day at a time. That change is part of life--but it's not the end of the world. That was one of my goals for my mission.

I learned how to give correction... I learned how to receive it.

I learned how to listen.

And I learned how to love...

Every goal I felt prompted to set in my very first transfer is coming true now.  He helped me to reach every one.

I think the rest of my life will be like that. I'm coming to realize that Heavenly Father is a God of growth and learning...He is a God of progress. And He WANTS us to progress. When we have a desire to learn and to grow, He will always be there--to help us recognize our weaknesses, and to help us overcome them. He will send us experiences that will do just that. I am so excited for the rest of a LIFETIME of progress... A bunch of years more to let Him help me be better. Because I've still got a thousand more weaknesses, and a thousand more chinks in my armor... But I know that He'll be there to fix me. This life is for learning. And it's a beautiful life.

It was sad to leave Chorrillos, but the future is as bright as the sun here in Ovalle. It's hot, hot, hot...and the work is, too. There's an awful lot to do. And we are gonna sprint as fast as we can to the finish.

...That's coming from the girl who won last place in her seventh grade track meet. See you at the finish.;)

Love you all! Pray for us here in Ovalle! And don't forget the sunscreen!

Con Todo Mi Amor,
Hermana Sanford

Waiting to meet the newest Hermana
of the Viña del Mar Mission at the
Reloj de Flores in Viña del Mar

Last day as compañeras

but always sisters and friends

Only one new Hermana joined the mission this transfer, so Morgan and Hna Kessler were given the unique opportunity to be her companions until the transfer meeting the next day. When she arrived at the Reloj de Flores with the other new Elders, they accompanied her on her first "ice-breaker" experience of giving out a Libro de Mormon, getting a referral, and getting back to the mission home safely on her own, for training and orientation.

Avenida La Marina

Avenida España

A view of Viña del Mar from the corner of
Av. La Marina and Av. España

Saying chau to Diego, my chilean brother,
who reminds me so much of Aves :)

Juan and Javier

Farewell to Nora, mi amiga de Chorrillos

Ovalle looks like LOGAN... And that is not even a joke.
It's so green here...

Maybe Ovalle can help diminsh her homesickness
for Cache Valley for the next 3 months... :)

Dog on a roof....  #onlyinchile  :)

Cocoa Puffs in Chile.  What?! :)

Limari Branch in Ovalle