My Week of Firsts and Milagros!

Hola everyone!

SO GLAD JANE IS IMPROVING!! MY PRAYERS FOR HER HAVE BEEN ANSWERED!

Also, not sure I mentioned this, but one of the rules of our mission is we cant drink Coke! I KNOW IT KILLS ME!!! Man it's like one of the biggest sacrifices cuz coke is EVERYWHERE here!

Also one of the goals in our mission is to read a certain number of chapters in the Libro de Mormon (LDM - Book of Mormon in Spanish) every day. And so I was reading the LDM and the BOM side by side so I could understand it. Then one Elder told me I should read the LDM only with my dictionary for all the words I don't know and then it would help me with my Spanish. So I started doing that and the first day I read 3 verses in one hour... yeah I know, LAME. So that was about 5 days ago. This morning I read 12 verses! I improve with my reading every day and now I can understand the wording in the scriptures SO much better! 

So this week I call my week of firsts because I had a lot of firsts this week, lol. And milagros means miracles. Everyday Hermana Maldanado and I write in our agendas like at least one miracle a day! There´s a lot so here I go:

Firsts:

• Zone conference. There are five Elder companionships and only us Hermanas in my zone. But yeah it was a pretty cool thing and I cited the missionary purpose in Spanish in front of them... good thing they pounded that into our heads in the CCM because my compañera didn't tell me I was reciting it until like 5min before the meeting started... lol. MILAGRO!
• Intercambios. Or splits with the sister training leaders! Oh gosh did I LOVE that! I was with Hermana Page (whose brother also served in Tucson at the same time as Taylor, spanish speaking, and so she is convinced they know each other! So Taylor if you know an Elder Page from your mission it's her brother!) and she is freaking AWESOME! First off it was nice to just speak English a little bit! That day I had SO many milagros from Heavenly Father it was crazy! And her spirit and confidence in me, made me more confident in myself! Which brings me to my next first...
• El Libro de Mormon. Thats right everyone I place my first LDM with only a little help from Hermana Page but it was mainly my doing:) It was pretty great!
• Rain. That wasn't too big of a deal... but the Chileans are like super freaked out by the rain and they like WON'T go outside lol.
• Service project. So it was changed because it was raining so we just helped set up the ward activity for independence day. AND I GOT TO WEAR PANTS OUTSIDE MY HOUSE! WOOOOOOO!
• Ward activity/Fiestas Patrias. So the day of independence isn't until the 18th but they have already started celebrating. Our ward activity was awesome, lol. They had dance competitions, karaoke, and costumes. It was awesome! They take this holiday pretty SERIOUSLY!
• Baptismal service. No not with our investigators, but with the Elders'. But it was still really nice! It was a sister and brother. One 9, the other 11. 

Ok now for my day of MILAGROS:

• On the way to meet the Sister Training Leaders we couldn't get a cab for like 20min and then out of nowhere this totally empty taxi honks at us and so we get in.
• 5min into the ride the taxi gets a flat tire, so the driver pulls over and fixes it. Then when he's done he goes to start the car and it won't start. So I said a prayer in my heart that it would start PLEASE and the next try it started! MILAGRO! 
• Then for Hna Page and my goals for the day we wanted to pass out both of our LDMs. And it was 9pm and she still hadn't passed hers out. And we were going to a less active´s house so there wasn't a chance she was going to. Then as we were talking the women said she wanted a LDM to give to her dad! MILAGRO!
• Then by the time we left her house it was 9:57. We had THREE mins to get home! So we RAN OUR BUTTS OFF and guess what? Made in the door by exactly 10pm! 

The church is freaking true! I love you all SOOOOO much and I know Heavenly Father is watching over you for me! 

You are all forever in my prayers!

The cast of one of the member's hands - he wrote "Me gusta" on his thumb, lol! (Like a Facebook like)

Me and my compañera

Sombreros!

This dog looks just like our old dog, Billy!

Ward activity decorations

Cute little Chilean boy

Week 2 in Chile

Hola everyone!

Well my first whole week in La Serena is over! Man what a week! All I can say about my Spanish is that it improves every day... and I can understand now a whole lot more than I could my first day, lol. Which I am SUPER grateful for because Heavenly Father knows I need it! I am SO glad that Jane is doing better! I fasted for her yesterday and I pray for her multiple times a day! It really sucks not being able to hold children on your mission! It makes me miss holding Jane and Kieran a lot! But esta bien! 

Ok well I am being tested here. The members here drink this drink that is coffee but it's wheat based, so not exactly coffee, but it tastes super nasty! And we have to eat or drink whatever people give us, right? So I have had three full mugs of the nasty fake coffee, thats right be proud! lol. Oh and the bread! The bread here is fabulous! In fact the food here in general is pretty great! But my companion says that this area is the area with the best food and everywhere else it isn't that good... so I guess I'll find out! Oh and a new thing I tried this week was pasta with avocado as the sauce... it was actually pretty freaking good, you should try it! 

Anyways, so yesterday was fast Sunday and in our district we HAVE to bear our testimonies EVERY fast and testimony meeting... so I bore my testimony. It was short, sweet, and to the point, lol. But on a happier note one of our investigators came to church with us! Her name is Amanda and she is a very old and interesting lady hahahaha. And she smells just like Grandma- smoke and perfume. And one of our other investigators, Luz Maria (who doesn't like to keep commitments!!!) came to church for the last hour... But she said she was late because of the time change (the hour was changed one hour ahead) but who knows? At least she came with her two kids, too! 

Also, there is this old man (less active) who cant hear very well and literally shuffles (like slides his feet two inches forward back and forth to walk) and it's so sad but hilarious! We went to his house to sing and pray, etc, and we were in the middle of the first verse of the hymn when he gets up and shuffles to his bed and just lays down... lol! We couldn't stop laughing! He said we were taking to long and he didn't want to listen to us anymore! Gosh, it was so funny! The people here are pretty strange, lol. 

Oh, and don't worry about my love life- I have had at least three old, drunk men profess their love to me... so I've got plenty of options lol. 

Well there isn't much more to say... I cant send pics because my camera just died:((( 

Things to be grateful for everyone:

• Hot water that doesn't require you to go into another room and turn on a heater, that is run by gas which needs to be replaced when it's empty. 
• Carpet
• Dishwashers
• Dryers- all clothes here are hang dried and they get stiff:(
• Shower heads! Ours doesn't have one, it's just a flexible pipe thing (kind of like hose) and you have to hold it yourself...
• Heaters- our casa is freaking COLD ALL THE TIME I wear a jacket, two pairs of socks, a scarf, and gloves during study time...

Also something spiritual:

Heavenly Father hears our prayers! He is ALWAYS waiting for us to talk with Him and when we do He is overjoyed! He loves us SOOO much! More than we can even comprehend! SOO much that He let His son suffer for our sins and die for our salvation. And through Christ we are all as clean as the day we were born. ALL sins can be forgiven, if we just repent and give our will to Him. Talk with your Father! He IS there and He is ALWAYS listening! 

I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You are ALWAYS in my prayers!!!! Endure to the end, its NOT easy, but it will be worth it! 

Con todo mi amor y corazón,
Hermana Logan

Week One in Chile!

Hola!

Okay wow what a couple of days it has been. So the plane ride from Mexico was 8 and a half hours,but it all went pretty smoothly- one of the Elders in my district gave out two BOM on the plane lol. When we finally made it through customs our Mission Prez was right there and they immediately put us on the bus to Viña- so sorry I didnt get to call or email when we arrived:((( Then when we got to Viña my mission prez said okay we are going to put you in companionships and you need to give out a BOM, write down one contact (get their address, name, and telephone) and have someone give you the directions to this address(the mission home address) and make your way there when you are done! So the first like two hours in Chile I was roaming around the unkown city (luckily with a latina companion who spoke Spanish- and she was from Trijillo, Peru!- and another gringa who knew spanish better than me) trying to get a contact, give out a BOM, and find the mission home. It was intresting lol. But we completed the task! When we finally arrived to the mission home we had a lot of videos and information to watch, etc. The first night us new Hermanas slept in a hotel,  oh and by the way its pretty dang COLD here. I did not bring enough winter clothes! 

Then the next morning I found out that I am going all the way to La Serena which is a 7 hour bus ride from Viña and is the most northern part of our mission. My new companion is Hma Maldonado. So I arrived in my first area at around 2 in the morning and arrived at my house with my companion and was in bed by lik,e 3:30. So it was quite a lot of traveling for awhile, lol. My first day I just wanted to die. I could NOT understand ANYONE! Oh, gosh the people here talk SO fast. And my companion is Argentinian. She knows quite a bit of english which I am SO grateful for. Oh,sidenote: all the latinas in our mission have to learn English, too and take a test on it. She only has six weeks left in her mission and so I have to learn our area and the people here really well in the next six weeks! My companion is pretty awesome, she is super patient with me and will tranlate the best she can things I dont understand. But still we both carry around our dictionaries to communicate, lol.
But so far our lessons have all been great. I love the people here! And with girls you always kiss cheeks when you say hi and bye(which is Chau here). I love it! Plus the Bishop and some people know English (in fact I get to teach them English- which is a nice break for me lol.) And two of the Elders in my district are grngos so we can talk in English:)
So this week has been both great and crazy hard! There have been times where I  just want to break down and times where I want to jump for joy! Each day I can understand more and more of the spanish here and I know that the Lord is blessing me in all my efforts to improve in the language. 

Funny stories:

My companion told me my feet were on fire... found out later she was trying to say they were tan, lol. 

I told our bishop that I have 19 siblings cuz I thought he was asking me how old I was...

Well I love you all so much! Cant wait to hear from you next week!!!!
Con Dios!
chau!

Hermana Logan

My Last Day in the CCM! Off to Chile!

Hola mi amorosos!

I cant believe I am leaving here in just 3 and half hours for the airport! It still hasn't totally hit me yet! But I am so excited to see Chile and start teaching real investigators! Soy muy agradacido por todo aprendo en el CCM y todo español aprendo aqui. Although I am not quite sure if I am ready to speak spanish with all the people in Chile... I have a funny story that I want to share about my spanish:

So yesterday I was called to give a talk in Sacrament Meeting (I dont know if I have mentioned this, but every sunday they call on people right then and there to speak without letting them know ahead of time. So you just sit there sweating your skin off, anxiously awaiting your name to be called). So I get up and I give my talk and afterward the Zone president told me he was very impressed with my spanish and the spanish of our whole district. So there I was feeling good about myself and my spanish and all was well with the world. Then, we were eating lunch with the zone presidency and our zone president´s family, and I, being the overconfident person I was, tried to tell his little boys that they were very handsome. Then his youngest boy tells his dad he thought I was speaking french... So yeah now I am not feeling so great about my spanish lol. But I learned something pretty great via the Spirit this week. We were reading in Ether 12 (Quite the coincidence ha Mom?) and we were discussing how Heavenly Father gives us weaknesses that we may be humble. So I realized that Heavenly Father has missionaries learn a new language so that they might be humble. And so when I am bearing my testimony in broken spanish, I can bear it humbly and simply. That allows us to have the Spirit better than anything else. And just like the experience with Brigham Young: a simple and humble testimony is the most powerful. So I know that Heavenly Father will bless me and qualify me for this work and for Chile!

I am sooooooo excited to go teach the people in Viña and to bring the world His truth. I know this gospel is true. I KNOW it, God KNOWS it, and I CANNOT DENY IT! I love this Gospel and I all of you. I pray for all of you EVERYDAY and like 10 times a day! And guess what? Heavenly Father answers our prayers! 

Well, goodbye for now! I'm off to Chile!!!!!!

Adios! Con amor,

Hermana Logan

La Ultima Semana

Hola mi humanos,

Como estan??!! I can't believe its my last week here!! its gone SO fast and I feel like I still have a LOT to learn before I go out to Chile! But its fine because I'm STOKED to see Chile and teach real people! So my flight is on Monday at 11:55 pm which means we are probably leaving the CCM at 7:45ish. The flight is 8 and a half hours-which isn't that bad. I honestly am super nervous because apparently in Chile they speak REALLY fast, drop word endings, and half their vocab is different than the Spanish here...so yay...on a happier note I'm pretty sure I'll get to email again on Sunday or Monday before I leave!

And our district took our district picture and they make these really cool power points with all the districts leaving. I am having them send that to you guys with all our pictures as well. Our district was pretty cool-we dressed up in the Chilean flag colors (red, whit, and blue), held up a Chilean flag, and us girls held a sign saying, "Those Viña Kids," because that's what the Elders always call our district, lol.

Oh and Hma Hones and I taught  a lesson on Sunday about the Book of Mormon. It was pretty awesome, we put all these cards around the room with the "questions of the soul" from PMG pg. 107 and then all the matching scriptures from the Book of Mormon and they had to find all the question with the corresponding scripture. We had them split up into 3 groups and it got pretty competitive, lol. Then we had two people share experiences they've had where the Book of Mormon has answered a question in they had. I thought that I went really well and the spirit was definitely there!

Our notes around the room for our lesson

More notes around the room

Some elders corrected the grammar of a note some hermanas left 

The title of our lesson

I was really reminded of you guys this week because we watched the devotional Elder Holland gave with the Peter and Christ analogy-"Do you love me?" X 3, "Then FEED MY SHEEP," and the Joseph Smith video where Lucy Smith is narrating what we saw at the St. George temple visitor center right before I left. Elder Holland's talk hit me hard! It's So different now that I AM a missionary I LOVED it. Here are a few things that impacted me:

• Listen to investigators with your HEART
• Yes you are "called to serve" but SO WHAT? SO WHEN? FOR HOW LONG??
• NO LESSON YOU GIVE IS GIVEN ALONE
• We are the HOPE OF ISRAEL
• DO YOU LOVE ME?? THEN FEED MY SHEEP! 
• We are called follow HIM FOREVER
• If you serve you mission and then come home and go astray YOU WILL BREAK THE HEART OF GOD HIMSELF
• HOW CAN YOU GO OUT AND TEACH PEOPLE THE IMPORTANCE OF ENDURING TO THE END/OBEDIENCE JUST TO COME HOME AND DO THE VERY OPPOSITE??!!

Have I mentioned that I LOVE Elder Holland??

Also, one of our teachers had us all think of an impactful scripture/chapter/story/experience we've had with the Book of Mormon and we all sat in a circle and shared ours. We were ALL crying, ALL bearing awesome testimonies of how this Book has changed our lives and "pricked our hearts" enough to change. I know that the Book of Mormon has ALL the answers to ALL of our questions! There is NO truer or greater Book in ALL the world! READ IT. PONDER IT. and PRAY -with REAL intent- to know if it's true and it WILL be made known unto you. If any of you have an experience with the Book of Mormon please let me know- our teacher asked us to ask our families for one:)

Also, while reading in PMG this week I came across this quote by Brigham Young about his conversion that I'd love for you guys to read—its on pg 199 (last paragraph) which I just fell in Love with! I know this gospel is true with EVERY cell in my body! And because I have been given much, I too must give! That's why I'm here. To share this message of hope, love, forgiveness, and total joy with the world! I love this gospel and I love each and every one of you, just like Heavenly Father does! 

Con todo mi amor,

Hermana Logan

A Mexican in a sombrero

Me and my friend from college, Elder Bean

4th Week Down!

Hola mis amorosos!

Man, do I love all y'all! I pray for all of you EVERYDAY and hope you feel my love for everyone of you! I have been truly blessed with the best humans in my life! Thank you for all you've done for me and helped me to become the person I am today! Also, thank you for writing me! It always makes my week!

So this week has been kinda crazy! I may or may not have gotten sick... there was-as people are calling it- a huge plague that hit here this past week! There were only 3 out of our 7 Elders who didn't get hit. I was hit with a fever and I couldn't keep anything down for like a solid two days. It make me pretty homesick, too. Missing my amazing, nurturing family and the pleasures of America, but I was so grateful for the Hmas here that took care of me and dealt with my miserable self. Plus my sickness only lasted two days and I am so grateful that I was able to recover so quickly!

But no worries, I am all good:) 

So the sounds of Mexico City are pretty dandy! We got the Hunger Games canon which goes off like 10 times a day at least. They say its the Catholic churches surrounding us-but i don't know what for,. Then of course, there's the blaring horns of traffic/some kind of train/bus horn that crazy long. Lastly, there are fireworks that go off during broad daylight, lol. Oh, and Ron will love this- every Saturday night the hill of houses surrounding us have an ALL NIGHT FIESTA that is still going on when we wake up in morning! 

Oh, and in case you thought mt getting sick was bad luck: NOPE, WRONG AGAIN! (Just for you Andrew:)) I got bleach on my plain black skirt-right on the front where everyone can see! So if you know of anyway I  can fix it, please let me know! 

Ok, now for all things spiritual:

This week we talked a lot about how to know whether you're teaching by the spirit or not. Which I have been struggling with because I know hen I bear my testimony/pray during lessons that its supposed to bring the spirit-but I just wasn't sure if it was truly happening because sometimes you just answer questions and strain to have them understand you and afterwards you wonder if that is impeding the presence of the spirit... son one of our maestras showed us a video from Elder Bednar and I really loved what he had to say:

•  Many of you wonder,"How do I know if what I'm saying or doing is what the spirit would have me say or do. Heres your answer:

QUIT WORRYING ABOUT IT!

• Be obedient, be the best missionary you can and press forward. Everything you need to know is to just DO. Do everything you can- sometimes without really knowing why. And you may not know it at the exact moment it happens- but it IS a spiritual prompting.

And then this morning I came across 2 Nephi Chapter 33 during personal study and I FELL in love with it! Its Nephis last words and I just replaced my name with his throughout the chapter. It was AWESOME! It was EXACTLY how I feel! I want all of you to PLEASE go and read it and then know that is what I want to share with the world! Believe in Christ! Believe in His words-Believe this Book is His word, for he will tell you that these words are His and that they ARE TRUE!

Man I cant believe I only have 13 more days here! THE WEEKS HAVE JUST FLOWN! But Im so grateful for all that I have learned here that I KNOW will help me in the field, for HE SHALL prepare a way for me! 

I LOVE YOU ALL SO SO SO SO SO SO MUCH!!!! 

Con todos mi amor,

Hermana Logan

Love the Lord!

HOLA everyone!!!!

So I'm going to try to make this short cuz I have a lot of pics to send and they take forever! Plus I can only send two at a time. So I'll start off by answering a few questions and some funny things that happened this week:

• The food here is actually not that bad. Today we had one of those rare occasions of American food, fried chicken! But usually its like some kind of meat or taquitos or something. Its definitely NOT as good as Ron´s cooking- NOT EVEN CLOSE, but its typical cafeteria food. And there is always cereal and a salad bar.
• So it POURS here like every few days! I mean it FLOODS the walkways and grass EVERY TIME it rains. lol. 
• Found out my companion talks in her sleep! Like you can have full on conversations with her! She even sings when asked! Lol. It literally was the funniest thing! 
• So my first investigator turned out to be our new 2nd teacher. So, our investigators are played by our teachers, but they play REAL people(like friends of theirs or something). So now we are teaching two different "investigators" played by our teachers.
• Spanish is coming along, I can understand the majority of what is said, but I don´t speak it too well yet. I sound pretty much like a caveman but I know with a lot of effort it will come!

Okay now for the spiritual stuff from our devotionals this week:

• The apostles spent HOURS upon HOURS upon YEARS to make PMG, so we need to spend at least HOURS studying all that they made for us. 
• in Relief society we talked about the patters on the lord (D&C 52:14) and how we usually follow the pattern of Adam and Eve. We are in the Garden of Eden and then thrust out into the lone and dreary world. Like the MTC was the lone and dreary world but will come a garden of Eden until we are cast out to the lone and dreary world of our mission, etc. Yet the Lord will ALWAYS prepare and provide a way for us to accomplish all we are asked to do and get out of our comfort zones.
• And in another devotional we learned that we need to obey the Lord because we LOVE him. And we must love him BECAUSE HE LOVED US FIRST! BEING HIS REPRESENTATIVE IS A PRIVILEGE SO DON'T WAIST A SINGLE SECOND, FOR HE NEVER DID!

Okay also, this morning we got to go to the temple (visitors center cuz the temple is closed) and it was BEAUTIFUL!!!! 

I LOVE THIS GOSPEL AND ALL OF YOU WITH ALL MY HEART! I have learned SO much in such a small amount of time and I am excited for all that I will learn still. 

con todos mi amor,

Hermana Logan