Week 25

I'M A MOM!!! 

Hola from MACHALÍ!!!!

Holy cow, I LOVE IT HERE!! It's so awesome - mountains surrounding us on every side, crazy huge ward, amazing people, lots of support from the other missionaries. There's sooooo much that happened this week so let's get into it!

 Scripture of the week 

"Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest." Joshua 1:9

Now for my week!

Lunes - young, dumb, and broke

~ Last pday in La Florida! We just spent the day packing and cleaning. We also went into centro to pick up my new glasses 

~ Hna Vargas and I accidentally spent ALL our money  we ended the night super worried with what we were gonna do in the morning, because we have to pay for all the viajes for cambios. BUT God literally came in CLUTCH because as soon as we walked into our apartment complex, our bishop pulled in and told us that he can take us tomorrow morning, and then the Machalí Hermanas messaged us saying that an Hermano from the barrio is going to pick us up at the mission office. And that left us with literally NOTHING to pay for viajes. Long story short, God is merciful and I've learned my lesson 

Martes - Get me off this bus bruh

~ CAMBIO DAYYY

Woke up bright and early, and the bishop brought us to the church in Piduco. At around 7:30 we headed off in the transfer bus!! Hermana Vargas is also training, so she came with me on the bus to pick up our trainees tomorrow. It was bittersweet saying goodbye to some of the other missionaries, but I'm excited!  

We basically spent the whole day in the bus haha. Once we got to Rancagua, a family from the Machalí barrio picked us up and brought us their house for lunch - they have the COOLEST house!! It's this big dome ceiling with windows at the top you can see the stars through. They have the prettiest view of the mountains too. AND we had tacos for lunch. It was a win all around haha!

~ Hna Vargas and I spent the night cleaning and buying stuff for the house. We also found a couple people on the way to the store, which was pretty cool!

Miércoles - IM A MOM

~ MY HIJA IS FINALLY HERE!!!!!

Drum roll please...    

It's HERMANA MARTIN!!! She's awesome! She's from Panama and just the cutest thing you'll ever meet. She's 18 & straight out of high school. I'm so excited to be her trainer!

~ We had lunch with the trainers and after all the new missionaries got here, Presidente and Hermana Crump took us home. Then we got right to work! We did a little comp study first, went to visit a few people, and then we had a noche de juegos at the church!

Jueves -  Panama  

~ District council and devotional this morning!! I love my district so much haha. They're so fun 

~ Had a really good lesson with one of our friends tonight, and she's considering baptism! She has a roggh situation with her pareja right now though, so we'll see what happens. But Hermana Martin was BALLER in the lesson! She's gonna be such a good missionary!

Viernes - Even when I don't see it  

~ Good day! It started off with doing referencias and Hna Martin had English Connect  

~ Miracle today: We were knocking doors and nobodyyy was answering, but then we found two high schoolers in the street and asked if we could share a scripture with them. We shared a scripture from the Book of Mormon, and as soon as this girl read it, she started crying. With tears rolling down her face, she told us that she is going through a hard time in her life right now and was wondering if God still cared about her. She said that this scripture meant everything to her and made her belive that God sees her. He is preparing His people!! And He never ever abandons us 

Sábado - "Harrah for Israel" - P. Crump

~ More referencias this morning!!

~ Today we had lunch with a young couple who are both converts, and it was so good! We had some really good conversations and it was sweet to see the impact that my story had on them. I really feel like this area is where I'm meant to be 

~ Found a lady tonight who was in teaching with her husband for over a year in another part of Chile, but recently moved to Machalí a couple months ago and lost contact with the church. She told us that she has a Book of Mormon and asked if we could help her to start studying it again 

Domingo - By the grace of God

~ First Sunday in Machalí!!! It was crazy. There are so many members here. They fill every pew and all the chairs all the way to the back!

~ Since we have 5 new missionaries in the barrio, we all got to go up and give our testimonies! It was really powerful actually. I'm so excited to serve here!

~ We had correlación after church and it was kinda crazy  I've never seen a correlation meeting so big before haha. It also really made me feel the responsibility of whitewash training haha 

~ Spent the evening working on street contacting with Hna Martin - she's been afraid to talk to people but I got her out of her comfort zone a little bit and it ended up being really fun!! We found some more people too, which was awesome!

 Spiritual Thought 

This week, I've been thinking a lot about the truth of what I teach as a missionary. Because it is so amazing to be in a different country, speaking a new language, meeting new people, and it's amazing that I get to update you all on it every week. But honestly, if what I teach isn't true, my mission won't add up to be much more than that. It'll be a cool memory, a good trip, a nice way to uplift others and make friends.

But if what I teach as a missionary is true - if this church really is Jesus Christ's church, if the Book of Mormon really is the word of God...then what I do here has an eternal impact. What I do here will not only uplift someone for a few weeks, months, years, or decades - it will literally change their whole life, from eternity to eternity, and that of all their ancestors and children. If what I teach is true, than my mission is not just for a mere 18 months. Its impact is forever, changing the trajectory of eternity for generations. And every sacrifice made for me to be able to serve here in Chile, both on my part and on yours, is well worth it.

I am here to tell you today that I know what I teach is true. I know it, and I know that God knows it, and I just cannot deny it.

And you can know too. 

I invite you to watch this video of Jeffrey R Holland, when he gave his testimony of the Book of Mormon and the truthfulness of this church. I am not asking you to rely on my words nor on his, but I am inviting you to pay attention to the Spirit as you listen, and invite Him to speak to you. And I promise, as an authorized representative of Jesus Christ, that as you listen to this testimony with real intent and faith in Christ, you will feel and receive your very own witness from the Spirit, telling you that this is true. You will realize that there is more hope and more light available to you than you have ever before thought.

English

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/video/additional-videos/2010-03-08-testimony-of-the-book-of-mormon?lang=eng

Español

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/video/additional-videos/2010-03-0008-testimony-of-the-book-of-mormon-spa?lang=spa

I love you all. I know that this is true, and that's why I'm here. I leave this testimony with you, along with my heart, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. 

You all are AMAZING!!! Thank you for all the support and all the updates! Write me if you get the chance - especially those of you who have served a mission and have trained before, I'll take all the advice I can get haha  

Praying for you all every day! Have a great week! 

All my heart, 

Hermana Geary