February 25th Update - Changes are coming!

Hermana Chavez and I are training together!!

So, we all know that there have been some pretty incredible changes in missionary work. The age changes, and now the increase of missions. It's SO incredible, right!? Well, one of the side effects of this is that there are a WHOLE lot of hermanas that are coming. Tomorrow, there is going to be 10 more hermanas coming. The next cambio they'll be 16 more coming. This means, that basically every hermana here is training. Hermana Chavez and I are so pumped to be training together. They're going to be gringas. Which means that most likely they'll be just as I was when I first got here. But I'm so excited to be on the other side of situation, and help them out as best I can. 

Also, our mission is going to get split up. The new Santiago South mission is taking part of Rancagua, and in turn Rancagua is taking part of Concepción. So if I'm still in Constitución in July, I'm heading out to Mission Rancagua! Which is weird, because I didn't really look up anything about that region of Chile. But, I think it's pretty crazy. And it's probably pretty possible. We´ll just wait and see :) 

This has been so incredible, these three weeks here. It's felt like my mission started over. But I bet it feels that way every sector change. Hermana Chavez and I have been figuring stuff out, and trying to better shape what type of missionaries we want to be. We've worked super hard and meeting our goals, and finding. We're still working on a solid focus group, but there's this couple named Alejandra and Alejandro that are so awesome! And they're already married, which is a big plus. :) Also, there's this other couple named Roberto and Marcela. We've only met with Marcela, but we've talked on the phone with Roberto a couple times. A great thing about Chileans, is that they just lay out everything on the table. If they have a problem with something, they'll just say it. If they don't understand you, they'll just say it. And they also like to pick out something to make fun of or compliment you on to start building trust. Maybe that I'm making that up, but anyways. Roberto. He gave me the WORST time about my Spanish. I think it was a bit of a joke, and a bit of he seriously couldn't understand me. I hung up the phone and said "He's going to be my least favorite convert ever!!" But, whatever. 

I don't really write about the funny stuff that happens. But there's a LOT of funny stuff. We've had a sweet time with snakes, (Boys that aren't super interested in the gospel, but at least they give you free stuff), super impressive evangelical prayers, crazy investigators. The works. And it's all so wonderful and hard. But I know that God watches over the smallest details of our lives. I know that the more humble we are, the happier we can be. I know that it's better to travel light, travel humble, and travel happy. To not worry so much. To work hard with everything you've got, but to look for how to be happy while doing it. Like Hermana Humphrey said to me "Of course it's great to strive for perfection, but you didn't come on a mission to get translated!" Life's about making mistakes, and getting messy (Magic School Bus reference), and becoming better while you do it. 

I love you guys! Thank you so much for your support and prayers! I can't believe how fast time is flying. I've got basically half of my mission done and gone! With the MTC and the 3 weeks they took away. It's pretty crazy. Keep being incredible! I pray for you guys, and I hope you're so happy. We've all got mountains to climb, and it's hard. But, it's so so worth it. 

Keep living the dream!

Love,

Hermana Lovell 

February 18th Update

¡Hola hola! 

Wow, this week went by super fast. I had three days in La Florida with Hermana Almeida and Hermana Quiroga while Hermana Chavez was in Concepción for a conference for new missionaries. That was like a crazy dream like we were back in Curicó, and then we just got back to Conti with 3 days missing. 

Hermana Chavez and I are working hard! We're talking to everybody. We're planners and bug killers, although we're still figuring out the fleas. They love gringa blood... I'm still rocking like 50 bites. But! To accompany the eucalyptus leaves I have some dryer sheets. Elder Froher said it works, so... ha ha. And I spray my bed with Off every night. I'm working the system. 

We're teaching this woman named Marta! She's pretty funny. I don't think she super took us seriously until she went to a baptism. Then she said that she felt funny, and something different. We're hoping that she thinks that that's a good thing! 

We are also teaching a woman named Nancy. She still remembers about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon from 20 years back. What a winner! We taught her that when you learn things by the spirit, you really can never forget it. 

Still learning about loving every little second of every day! Well, I usually got it down most of the time, but every once in a while... But that's life, right? There are so many things that could stress us out, or make us feel less than we really are, but that's just silly. Yes, there's an opposition that is very real for our happiness, but we never need to choose to let sadness overcome us. There is always a choice. It's okay when things go bad. That happens. It's a part of life to. But that's why Heavenly Father gives us so many avenues to enjoy life! The sun still shines, we still have families that loves us. And! The gospel is still true. We will ALWAYS have the love of our Savior to give us peace and the resolve we need to become the masterpieces of God we can be! 

Love you all! Thank you for everything!!

Hermana Lovell

PS Still writing letters. Thanks so much for writing me, you crazies! :) 

PPS I've got a little flojera about posting pictures... Just check out Photobucket HERE

PPPS Shout out to the folks from Woods Cross: Mikey, er Elder Carter is my Zone Leader. Yeah, I think it's pretty funny, too. :)

Feb 11th Update

Hey fam and friends!

I. Love. Constitución. It´s incredible here. I see just a little piece of the coast from my window. The people are super nice! My first thought is that to me it seems like Washington, or Oregon, but everybody speaks Spanish. And we should all just run around and hug trees, because the forests are so beautiful. But we haven´t yet, no worries J The ward is incredible, too. It has its problems like any ward, but the bishop is SO great! This is one the cities that was most affected by the earthquake and tsunami of 2010. A lot of people lost their homes and part of their family. It makes for some pretty great teaching experiences. We taught a mom and a daughter who lost their dad/husband about the Plan of Salvation. That was pretty great.

Hermana  Chavez is SO awesome! She´s got 2 months in the mission, and I’ve got 6 here in Chile. We work and teach super great together, we´re crazy goal setters, and we´re planning maniacs. Oh my friends. It is the perfect storm. We share the ward with 2 sets of Elders, and that’s our district. Elder Falcón and Elder Frohrer, and Elder Holt and Elder Vasquez. We take a 2 hour bus ride every week for our district and zone classes. Everything really, is VERY different than Curicó.

But! This week there are going to be some good times with some old favorites! Hermana Almeida, my Brazilian BFF, opened up a sector while training in our zone. Because of a Conferencia de Nuevos in the mission, me, Hermana Almeida, and Hermana Quiroga will be in a trio for Tuesday until Thursday. Hna Quiroga is my old comp! So. That will be just dandy.

We´re a bit in the finding mode here, so that´s great. There are a lot of times to set goals and build your faith! It seems like Hna Chavez and I are together to prep us to train. We´re both relatively new, so we figure out a lot of things together! I still don´t 100% grasp my responsibilities as senior comp, because Hna Chavez is super awesome, too. But, it´ll all come with time. Wiiiith time. J I played soccer for 3 hours today or so with the ward at a ward vacation. Loook out. They think I’m pretty funny. The fleas love me, but I have been told put Eucalyptus leaves under my bed, so we’ll see how that goes. It smells just lovely in our room now.

Hope everything is well with you guys! I know that the Lord listens to our prayers, and He wants to answer them. We´ve just got to ask so that we can receive J I love you!

Hermana Lovell

February 4th Update - So long, Curicó!

The time has come. I´m heading out of Curico! I´ve been here for 6 months. Can you believe how fast the time has gone? Time sure is a crazy thing. I´m off to Constitución. It´s the coast! I´m pretty sure it was more or less the epicenter of the earthquake in 2010. Hermana Quiroga, my comp now, was there for her first sector. She said it was a strong ward with a lot of RMs. I´ll be with Hermana Chavez....from California!!! Her parents are from Mexico, but she grew up in the US. I´m pretty pumped because 1)She´s still great at Spanish and 2)She´ll get all my American jokes! We´ll be sharing the ward with 2 sets of Elders. So, we´ll see how that goes.

This cambio has been iiiiinterestante! At the end of a cambio, I usually try to sum up a few things about what I´ve learned. This one´s tricky to sum up, because I´ve learned a lot. But, here are some of the things.

-People have got to do the very best they can, and you´ve got to be okay with that! Even if their very best isn´t your very best. If you´re together with somebody, it seems like you should set your goals together  so that you can grow in faith together. 

-Just because people have different talents than you do, doesn´t make them any less or any more of a person than you are.

-It´s great to have goals! But it´s super great to have plans to back up the goals. Otherwise you don´t have goals, you just have wishes, no más.

-Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing!!! I´m pretty sure that´s from pinterest (And I´m sure a very famous philosipher or something, but it´s true. We can be worried and depressed and scared our whole lives because we´ll always have hard things happen, and they´ll keep happening, OR we can look for the adventure in everything! If we can just have faith, hope, and charity, we can face every challenge we´ve got with both eyes wide open. Life is incredible!!

-The miracle of forgiveness lets us control our own lives, and lets us be full of the love of God.

Of course we´re not capable of doing all the things in life by ourselves. We are meant to draw upon the Lord to strengthen in hard times. He promises us that we won´t be given more than we can handle, but that´s because His strength and power is infinite. The more we can humble ourselves and draw near to Him in our hearts, the more He can strengthen us, and give us the courage when we have mountains to climb. 

Curicó has been wonderful. I´ve gotten to learn a lot here. And I know that Constitución is going to be wonderful, too. Because you know what? The work of the Lord is the same. And life is the same. We´ve always got the chance to choose happiness or not. So do it! And remember that the Lord loves you and can help you through anything! And remember that I love you, too.

Hermana Lovell

PS I got some of your letters! Thank you so much for writing me! I´ll be writing you back soonish :) And! If you having a hard time, and you wrote me, know that I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!  And I´m praying for you! And I will for sure write you back ASAP.