January 11, 2016

First of all last night was so fun because we had exchanges but we did it a little different in the way that both hermana leaders stayed the night for a slumber party and after we planned for the next day we watched the other side of heaven. Today we went to the beach and prosletying starts soon so i dont have a whole lot of time to write today so i will just write a little.

This week has really been a spiritual strengthing week for me. I have really come to love and recognize the hand of god here in the mission and the saving power of the atonement for those that are not yet members but still are loving brothers and sisters.

As i sat outside on a step to our house this week waiting for my comp to finish getting ready i was petting the neighbors dog and looking up to the sky watching the huge clouds just float by and marveling at how our heavenly father created all it when out of no were a beautiful white butterfly came and landed on my lap and just sat there for a minute. i could feel the spirit so strong as i felt the love the savior had for me as a missionary but more importantly as a daughter or our loving heavenly father 

Whenever the adversary cannot persuade imperfect yet striving Saints such as you to abandon your belief in a personal and loving God, he employs a vicious campaign to put as much distance as possible between you and God. The adversary knows that faith in Christ—the kind of faith that produces a steady stream of tender mercies and even mighty miracles—goes hand in hand with a personal confidence that you are striving to choose the right. For that reason he will seek access to your heart to tell you lies—lies that Heavenly Father is disappointed in you, that the Atonement is beyond your reach, that there is no point in even trying, that everyone else is better than you, that you are unworthy, and a thousand variations of that same evil theme.

As long as you allow these voices to chisel away at your soul, you can’t approach the throne of God with real confidence. Whatever you do, whatever you pray for, whatever hopes for a miracle you may have, there will always be just enough self-doubt chipping away at your faith—not only your faith in God but also your confidence in yourself. Living the gospel in this manner is no fun, nor is it very healthy. Above all, it is completely unnecessary! The decision to change is yours—and yours alone.

I loved this part of Elder jorgs talk Aproaching the throne of god with confidence. Satan tries to put so many things in our head that distracts us from the truth and from the spirit. the spirit is the only thing that helps us to feel the love of god and our savior jesus christ. I have tried to put a picture of my savior that i love where i wil always see it. i want to challenge you all to do the same and really work to focus on the things the savior wants for us! focus on the person you can become and not just the person you are right now and do the same for those around you. we are not perfect and we can always change for the better i love you so much 

December 28, 2015

FELIZ NAVIDAD FELIZ NAVIDAD PROSPERO ANO Y FELICIDAD (: I WANT TO WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS.

 

Well I hope you all had a great chirstmas and thought alot about your savior and the significance of his birth (:

Monday was a slow day and we knocked doors trying to find people and ended up visiting a recent convert family that is really struggling right now to come to church and struggling finacially. I shared a story with them of a rich man and a poor man that lived in the street. One day the Rich man was walking in the street and saw the poor man. He had 7 pieces of Gold. So he had mercy on the poor man and thought i have to much gold so the rich man gave the poor man 6 pieces of the most highly pricest gold in the world and then continued his path down the road well this poor man was not satisfied so he followed the rich man and stole the last piece of gold the 7th piece. was it right? how would you feel as the rich man? The same happens with us. When we use all 6 days during the week to work or do the things we want and do not keep the sabbath day holy we are robbing our heavenly father who gave us 6 days. He only asks us for 1 days to not buy things, share time with family and go to church. is it too much to ask for?

Tuesday was a really special day for us. We had been trying to visit investigadors all day and nothing was working out. As we were walking down the street my companion said we need to do contacts we havent done any. so i said YEAH lets do it. so she picked a street and asked what house i said a house here with the dinosaur looking plant that is soo good to eat her and she said i too want to knock the door because of the car so we knock and a lady answers and says COME IN. We both looked at each other and then said okkaaayy. because that IS NOT NORMAL here for people to just tell us to come in. Chileans always answer the door not even half open and ask us what we want. Well after 15 of talking we found out she is a less active member of about 10 years and wants to come back to church but she is orignally from Rancagua so she didnt know who the missionaries were, what time the church started or where it was but that she had been praying that maybe just maybe we would come by and knock here door. After my compy and i were stunned. We had not realized that the spirit was leading us to her house.. we had only had the feeling to do some more contacts.

Wednesday we stopped by a less active members house and they had huge bags of gifts for me and my companion. We just had our mouths open like wow we cant believe this. The best part was they came to church yesterday and we spent the day with their daughter Camilia that is 17 and really rebelious. She reminds me a lot of who i used to be and so my comp is convinced i can help her and get her to serve a mission so we will see how it goes and if she will listen to us she wants to spend more time with us.

Thursday and Friday we spent time visiting people. Here in chile the navidad is celebrated at 12 midnight because they believe thats realy when christ was born and should be celebrated they have a feast of whatever food you can think of thats mostly meat at like 10 or 11 then eat treats sweets and then at 12 open gifts visit and then sleep alllllll day the 25. When me and my companion woke up we usually hear cars outside of our house but this time we heard absolutely nothing. NO ONE was out side the hosue before 12 or 1 that day and everyone was not about to open the door to visit with us.

Saturday was a great day we had lunch with a member that is a return missionary and we spend an hour talking about the book of mormon and the things we can learn from it. he also gave us some really good scriptures to use with investigators. at 10:30 at night during our verifications with our district leader he says oh hermana kogianes you have a talk tomorrow aobut the atonement good night click. i was dying because we need to be in bed at 11 soooo

Sunday  I gave my talk and winged it the best i could and thankfully my words touched the hearts of some members struggling right now and they were really grateful.

A spiritual message from this week is about prayers.  I honestly think on of the biggest things my mission has taught me is how to pray. Before the mission i said my prayers but it was out of routine with the same things and the fastest way possible. I can not lie and say my prayers are perfect and that i am always 100 percent focused in my prayers sometimes at night i am so exhausted that i fall asleep on my knees praying or in the morning but recently this week i have tried to really focus on having deeper prayers. Real conversations with my heavenly father. This week we have had THE WORST TIME WITH FLEAS i literally have bites on my face, neck, arms, feet and legs. i am dying and i am constantly iching i try not to but it doesnt work at times i cant sleep because i am itching. So i decided during one of my prayers to ask heavenly father to please just help me help me with my fleas so i prayed and nothing happened the fact of the matter is they got even worst and i found some new bites. the few nights after i decided to just solamently pray for everyone else but me so i prayed and prayed i also have struggled to feel the spirit to help and investigadors in this moment something marvelous happened. My legs began to tingle almost. My desire to scratch my legs went away and i have since decreased the scratching. I can truly testify that heavenly father answers prayers. Shirley the less active got an answer to here prayers when we knocked her door. I got my prayer answered when i focused less on myslef. I also had a problem skyíng my family on the 25th the internet would not work and the computer kept having problems so my comp and i decided to pray after i had a feeling to check the router but didnt do it. later when the internet still wouldnt work a brother of the church called and said to check the router so i did and we fixed it! the internet began to work. i was kicking myself in the butt because i should have followed the spirit and answer to my prayer. i know we recieve answers but we need to be willing to answer even if htey seem dumb or someting we dont want. heavenly father wants to help us and knows the bst path i know it is true i love you so much! 

P.S no photos again! im sorry the computers have been dumb

December 21, 2015

I want to wish all of you a very Merry Chistmas this week (: Enjoy the snow for me because all we have is intense heat and but right now ALOT of rain so just know that im still cold hahaha

Well i got transfered to A BEAUTIFUL part of the mission VALDIVIA. it really is so beautiful here i am adjusting slowly because it is a huge city! it has a ton of people and my sectors before were of fields for farming and really really small but i love it here i am able to talk to more people and have a lot more interesting conversations. My companion is from SPANISH FORK how small is the world again! she is a year older then me and we might have known eachother before because she played soccer for a few years! her name is Natalie Parkinson. Hermana parkinson. we get along SO WELL and really have a lot to do here! i was really worried about having another gringa for a companion because i have the history to just speak english but we only speak spanish so it is awesome! it really is a blessing to work with here and our many investigators here! i am still trying to get to know everyone here so give me some more time before i tell you who everyone is because we do not have anyone with a date for baptism but we are close (: they are so awesome and really progressing fast and i get along with all of them so well and i love them so much already! this will be a VERY FUN last transfer for my comp i am determined to help her finish so strong! It is so sad that i will be ¨killing¨ another companion in the mission but very happy i get the chance to help my compy finish with some great experiences (:

HMM this last week i have really taken a step back to focus a lot on the things that christ wants of me as well as what my family thinks of me as a missionary. For the past few months everyday i sit down on the floor and really ponder ALL that has passed in the day and write down a few miralces or blessings from the day. I have managed to fill a lot of pages and am really pleased that sometimes the blessing at the end of the day is ...... ¨i didnt get bit my a dog or a flea today so i think we are getting somewhere¨ hahahah no but really to sit and ponder the day and see the lords hand in his work is amazing. My comp had a great idea to make a sign and do a questionaire type of contacting that worked really well we went around showing people this sign asking them what the first thing in their mind when they think of chirstmas and a lot of answers where love, family, god and we then asked what they wanted from this christmas and when they gave an answer i would write it down on a card with the page for the new christmas video and then take a picture of them with it and they would walk off with a huge smile. I have thought a lot of christ this week and all that has gone on. A Few times in my mission i have recieved news from family, friends, members, companions or investigators that makes me feel like my whole world has gotten turned upside down. that my heart has fallen to my stomach and that i want to lie down and cry cry cry but this week has really helped me to see that my savior is here for me. That he too feels in his heart what i am feeling and that he wants to help me for this reason he was born, for this reason he suffered for me and took everything upon him. How many of us for christmas really think of him? other then when its christmas sacrament or our family nights? A lot of time we get caught up in the gifts, the plans of where we should go or not go who we should buy gifts for and who we havent. where is our savior?...... have you thought to look around in the ward at someone that may just need a little note for christmas or a little card? Here in chile i have recently started to make little notes. i sneak them in the bags of the members or just hand it to them and walk off and the next day they are so happy. i want to challenge you all to sit by the fire, look at a temple, a picture of christ or a picture of your family and think of all your miracles of the day, week, month, year. where was the savior? i can promise you in every thought you will see him or feel that he ws there for you when you thought no. also challenge you to write a note to someone or bake some cookies and without them knowing give it to them. do not look for the recognicion. just make them happy give them something they can not give themselfs at times (: i love my savior and i know he lives. i love everyone of you and i pray for you all sometimes i even fall asleep praying but i always wake up with a smile and a laugh and crawl into bed (: this christmas is so beautiful because we recieved a redentor a savior. i know all of these things are true in the name of jesus christ amen

Much love Hermana Kogianes

ELDER TEIXEIRA - BYE BYE SPIDERS Closed the sector December 14, 2015

everyone ready for christmas?? 

ohhh how sad is the day today. This whole week i have had the impressions to 1 go through my luggage and organize it and get rid of things i dont want or will not be using and give them to my comp or members who need it 2 clean the house but deep clean it because its a desastor thanks to the missionaries in the past 3 get our area book all up to date every little thing and have everything in alphabetic order and in order with dates and numbers. I had no idea why i was doing what i was doing because my companion was the one that was leaving and preparing to go back home because she has completed her year and a half and i knew i would be staying here. well yesterday in the night i got really anxious that i need to have the house clean but clean and i knew it was not my OCD to clean ( like my mother and my second mother angela richins (; ) We have transfers wednesday and they called today! my companion goes home, they close my sector and give it to the elders that are in the other half of Rio Bueno and i leave for Valdivia that is 2 hours more north close to Concepcion. I could hardly believe it. We have only told our Mamita and she is really sad we have yet to tell the other members but i know they will have a cow.

This week we had A TON of success finding new investigators and we have a lot of them with dates for baptism or praying to know if baptism is important for them. it will be really hard to leave them because they have gotten really close to us and really want to learn more but i have a lot of faith and confidence in the elders here and know they will be baptised and i cant wait to hear about it. 

BUT the big news of the week was we had the oportunity to have a big conference with Elder Teixeira of the 70 who is in the Presidency of the area south america south. He is so wonderful and it was something else to be so close to a 70. His spirit was so strong and you could see the love he had for us and the way the light of our savior shone through him. He talked with us alot of focusing now in our missions and leaving everything else behind. That the savior wants us right now to be uttlerly focused in the work. He showed the Video ¨the will of god¨ and how heavenly father will cut us down over and over agian until we grow into what he needs. I really loved this video and really started to cry because it finally hit me that heavenly father wanted me to learn that he is the ¨garderner¨and i am the plant that he knows what he wants me to be and that i need to focus in the work here and i will learn ang grow. So this week i have put everything i have had in the sector and we now have 6 families we are teaching that will now be the elders. i have loved my time here in Rio Bueno and do not want to leave them. I have learned so much in this sector. I have learned to really count on my savior and come unto him. 

With that being said i have focused alot this week in Helaman chapter 12. the first and second verse really hit me right in the face and touched my heart. 

1 And thus we can behold how false, and also the unsteadiness of the hearts of the children of men; yea, we can see that the Lord in his great infinite goodness doth bless and prosper those who put their trust in him.

 2 Yea, and we may see at the very time when he dothprosper his people, yea, in the increase of their fields, their flocks and their herds, and in gold, and in silver, and in all manner of precious things of every kind and art; sparing their lives, and delivering them out of the hands of their enemies; softening the hearts of their enemies that they should not declare wars against them; yea, and in fine, doing all things for the welfare and happiness of his people; yea, then is the time that they do harden their hearts, and do forget the Lord their God, and do trampleunder their feet the Holy One—yea, and this because of their ease, and their exceedingly great prosperity

I realized that i was not having much success in my sector because i was not putting my trust in my father in heaven. i wanted to find people in my own way and do everything in my way and not really his. i was not listening to what the spirit was trying to tell me i was more frustrated with WHY DO I NOT HAVE INVESTIGADORS? WHY THIS AND WHY THAT. i was failing to realize that he wanted me to come unto him first and focus on him and the way he can change my heart that can change my investigators. i want you all to read this chapter and marvel at the world our savior and father in heaven has given us and let us remember that when things dont seem to be working the way we want or just seem dumb its because 1 we are not doing the will of our father or 2 its because he wnats us to have faith in him and come unto him knowing he has an end more glorious then our own mind can imagine.

i bought a hat for a baby of a inv and bought a cake for our mission leader for his birthday

I FOUND HERMANA BRAITHWAITE MY COMPY FROM THE CCM

My Beautiful Voice

I tried something a little different this week so you can all hear my voice (: let me know how you like it and listen to them in order so it all makes sense you can also get to know my companion a little more because she talked to you! i gave my testimony in espanol i love you all so much and want you to know how much this work means to me. i really do not want to leave the work its so amazing here. We have had a lot of problems with the ward but i think they will now help us alot more with the work and our new investigators we didnt find a lot of new people this week and might actually will have to drop the family oporto yarzo because when we went to visit them last i had a really bad feeling and the spirit told me to leave and we left. i am really praying right now for them and the guidance on what to do but we will see alot more miracles this week (: i love you and all hope you have a great thanksgiving and eat extra food for me because they do not celebrate thanksgiving here it doesnt exist (: 

 

A loud voice and house of spiders strikes again

WOW what an amazing week it has been i love my mission so very much you guys and it actually makes me sad when i think i would have to go home at the end... 

hmm i will start off first with the fact that the elders are now begging us to take some of there investigators that they stole from us the transfer before ha ha ha. it turns out that they now have too  many investigators and they are all woman which means they need a member that is a man to come to the visits with them and there is not enough that are willing to go with them so needless to say i gladly with a huge smile accepted to teach Anna Castro and her daughter Daniela. We had a rocky lesson with them because the elders let alot of time go between visiting with them so they dont really remember a lot or understand the reason to be baptised and when we asked them to be baptised they said we have been baptised in the catholic church and cant do it agian. i began to explain that baptism need a certain power of god and before i could finish my very shy compy comes out with a scripture in acts that says that baptism is for immersion and anyother baptism is not vaild and then told her that her baptism was not vaild and anna didnt say anything and daniela almost smiled i just sat there with my mouth open because i couldnt believe she did that she has NEVER done that its usually me i was in heaven after the lesson but my comp felt bad but i know it was what they needed and i can feel that they will be baptised.

We also made a contact this week with a man that is catholic that yelled at us saying  COCAINE, MARIJUANA AND ALCOHOL IS GOOD FOR YOU! YOU MORMONS HAVE IT ALL WRONG. I can truly say he was not all right in the head because he then said i hate members of my church that is better then you church and then told us some sad sob story then walked off into his house saing BYE BYE. i just walked off laughing.

The next day i found anothe old catholic man that i bible bashed with for a minute then just walked off all irritated because i proved his point wrong but he didnt want to listen but one day (:

A less active member here Hermana Nelly told me that if she dies while i am here she wants me to dress here for her cascet in her temple clothes. i almost started to cry because she is really close to my comp and i, a grandma to us and she has surgery tomorrow and is talking about dying. she does have a lot of health issues and her daughter married and ex misisonary of this mission and moved to utah some odd years ago. so we will see what happens tomorrow.

Sunday was an eventful day for me because i got in an arugment with our mission leader. he was teaching the gospel princples class about the resurrection and the millenium. he was saying that when we are resurrected we will have the body of a 33 year old like chirst and all the children or anyone younger will too have the same body of 33 year old like chirst i immediatly said no we will have the body as when we were most perfect here in the earth and the parents of babies or children lost before they could raise them have the promise to raise them. he got all mad and changed the lesson and during sarament tried to prove me wrong and when he re read the book realized he was wrong but just said AY and nothing else so i just went back to listening to the speakers.

This week was a quite a challenging week for me spiritually because a lot of members including our mamita and papita that feed us everyday got mad at me and argued with me this week about them helping us as missionaries i told them i was grateful for all they did for us washing our clothes and feeding us but that i only wanted them to come out with us for 30 min to a lesson they began to tell me i was not humble and not a good missionary and other awful things i tried to stand up for myself but they cut me off so i raised my voice and felt so bad after. things have since gotten a little better. alot of other members are still not happy with me but a lot are because we had the change of 2 coming out with us and they saw that in rain and with people horrible to us we still knock doors and try to contact people they were really humbiled by the experience and have been sharing that with other members (:

Spirutally part of this week has been my scripture study. i read in Alma 44:4. This chapter really does have a lot of spiritually things mixed in with the wars and blood shed. When i read verse 4 i really used it to our time when people try to start a ¨war¨ with us about our religion and values. Its not just non members but members as well as missionaries. I used it that if we truly have faith in christ and follow his commandments we have the promise that he will help us and perserve us and keep us protected from all the bad in this world. Because i am a straight forward person and have such high values for the members, inv, and less actives here i recieve a lot of critism. they make fun of my spanish, make fun of the fact i am from utah the factory of the righteous un humble missionaries and that i am a youngin that doesnt know here bible stories or know what live is. i hav realized that with religion age does not matter. we all ahve things that are difficult for us we all have our personal challenges and spiritually experiences that possiblly a person with 80 years has not gone through but we are here to testify of chirst and move along with faith in him. i for the first time in my mission this week fell to my knees after a lunch of listening to such awful things from members that i loved. i fell down to my knees in my bedroom and prayed. i cried and cired sobbed and sobbed i wanted to go home. i want to be done. i promised myself before my mission i would never feel that way and here it was the breaking point. i didnt want to continue with this mission but as i prayed i can truly testify that i felt the saviors love for me. i remembered the talk from elder holland when he said that we are to taste not even a token of what the savior drank but that it was necessary to ahve a little to testify of him. i felt my heart being healed. i felt that i was truly loved and that he was there with me after i read my p blessing and things that didnt really get my attention did and i then wnated nothing more than to stay hre for ever to testiy of my savior and help those around me. i love this quote and see it everday 

¨Just think of it: You´re known and remembered by the most majestic, powerful and glorious being in the universe!! You are LOVED by the king of INFINITE SPACE AND EVER LASTING TIME!!¨ pres. dieter f uchtdorf

we are loved by the most perfect being and he is here for us i can truly testify. my dear loved ones in missions or at home dont give up  and dont allow satan to make you feel like you need ot go home or give up on standing up for whats right. the world is changing we cant have one foot in the world an one foot in the gospel we need to choose what side we want and i can say after this week i want the winning side that has the blessings more glorious then i can imagine because my savior is shaping me to more glorious ends then i can imagine in the name of jesus christ amen

my favorite member family here has a pet bird that loves me he climbs my skirt then my shirt to sit on my shoulder and he talks and then when i knod my head he knods his

this is pichangas!! for thanksgiving!!



the sign says we have food colder then the heart of your ex!

 

 

Madisyn's 1st Birthday away from home