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. 

January 28th Update

Hey family and friends!

I hope everything´s going wonderful for you all! Things are just rolling right along here in Rauquen. Another week done and gone. We had a zone conference and a surprise baptism. Woohoo!

13 year old Guillermo was baptised on Saturday. He is such a goober. It was pretty fun to be able to teach somebody that has the age of like Nick, or Jacob! He was so, so happy to be baptized.  

The Zone Conference was incredible, of course. I love hearing from President and Sister Humphrey. They really do feel like my parents, in a way. It was pretty incredible to hear from all the missionaries that are going home bear their testimonies. To hear them bear their testimonies about how how their missions changad their life. My companion, Hermana Quiroga, bore her testimony, too. She goes home the 9th of April. Not all the missionaries talked about what a life changing experience the mission was. Somebody could think, “These people are living up a year and a half to two years to the Lord and to serve people, how could they not be changed!?” But, like any other experience in life, we always have the choice of what we want to get out of it.

On the same theme, I´ve been thinking more about the obedience issue! About keeping with the missionary schedule and rules, keeping the commandments, serving a mission, are all incredibly wonderful things! But, there is always more that we can do. Why would we want to short change ourselves of even greater blessings we could attain if we just tried a little bit harder? There´s a difference between living life day to day, letting the time pass by, and living life on purpose.

For me, my goal is to be that missionary who gave everything here. I definitely know that I´m not perfect, and I never will be. But I know that if I give everything, my Savior can make up the difference. Always. If we can really feel like we´ve done our part.

But, I love you guys. You´re crazy and wonderful, and you´ll always be my examples! Thank you for everything and all your support.

Love,

Hermana Lovell

January 21st Update

¡Oiga!

Hope everything´s going great with you guys. Things are looking a bit better here in Rauquen. It´s always true that after the trial of faith come the blessings! We had 4 investigators in Church yesterday, and we've got a surprise baptism out of nowhere this Saturday! Guillermo. He´s 13 years old, and he´s just super pumped to be baptized  He was almost baptized, but then he moved away. And now he´s back! So, great. 

Here's what I've been learning this week. Being obedient is always important, right? OF COURSE. And we´ll have plenty of circumstances in life to test if we can be obedient or not. Sometimes it´s like, "Oh......this is my test to be obedient.... dang it, okay.....". And then we´ll stay in that situation. And we'll stay being obedient, of course. But then, I was thinking this week that you know what? Maybe Heavenly Father wants that I learn something else, too. I'm being diligent, I´m being obedient... But am I being happy? Am I enjoying my time with the people I´m with? 

I've learned that week, that it is actually possible to be obedient, diligent AND happy! How many times have we been grudgingly obedient, as to " set the good example"? In reality, if you´re unhappy and you´re obedient, you´re probably not the best "light on the hill" for anybody. There is so much happiness and joy in what we know to be right and true. But it´s always our choice to embrace it, and just be happy! Or not. 

I´m so grateful for my opportunity to be on the mission. Really. I feel so close to my Savior, and He carries me through so much. I know that the Lord is teaching me, and changing me to who I need to be for the rest of my life! More or less. At least a rough sketch of it. He´ll give me the trials and challenges I need, all I've got to do is trust Him, and give Him everything I have. I can do that :)

I love you all! Hope your lives are wonderful.

Hermana Lovell

January 14th Update

I´ve been benched!

I´ve been in the house for a week. Because I broke my arm.

No, actually because I got an ingrown toenail, and that just took out a good piece of my nail. There are lamer things to be in the house for, right? Right??

Ha ha. But, it´s been a bit of a blessing. I´ve been reading all of the conference talks, and reading a looot of scriptures. It was time to get a little bit of a recharge, I guess! Also, Hermana Garcia has acute brochitus, so we kick it in the house together! I hope it´s not contagious. Right now I´m pretty sure I have just the regular cold. 

I don´t really have much time today, but I hope everything´s well with all of you. 

Sometimes, life seems pretty rough. But if we can just focus in the sunshine, and the good things, then we´re going to be 100% A Okay!

Love you all! I´m praying for you.

Hermana Lovell

January 7th Update

Hey Family,

I've had a pretty interesting week! It was a little rough. But thank goodness for the rough times, right? That's the best way that we can grow.

Hey! I think I'll tell you a little bit about the things that I've learned. 

 When there are the rough times in life, you've got some choices about how you're going to move on, or get through them. Sure, you can sit around and cry and feel miserable, but that's not exactly the most comfortable way to pass the time. You CAN focus on the things that bring you happiness. You can focus on the gospel. You can focus on your family. I know you guys thought you sent me too many pictures, but man they sure came in handy! 

I think one awesome thing about mistakes is that we can remember how wonderful and real the atonement is! That we can repent, and we come to know our Savior better.

I've gotten to have a little time with Joan and Gary Wilden! Still continuing this crazy interesting coincidence that I'm serving in Vero's ward right now. They've been like a sub Mom and Dad for just a little second. It's pretty much a tender mercy of the Lord that they are here right as things got a little rough, here. Gary even made me some balloon flowers! Those pretty much cure everything, so I'm doing better.

The hard times in life help us focus on the things that matter most, right? I've been listening to "Come, Come Ye Saints" by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and thinking about the pioneers. When they crossed the plains, they couldn't think about the things that didn't really matter. It wasn't really an option. And when we go through turbulent times, we've got to toss "our useless cares" aside like they did. But really, usually it's better that way. Like the refiner's fire, we can throw off the things that don't really matter, and focus our thoughts on the things that do. We can build our testimonies and our relationships with the Lord. We can build our faith on the Savior. We can remember what is really important, and we can throw all of our energies into heading towards those things, and forgetting about the distractions.

I sure love my Savior. I think the darkest times in our lives are when His love can stand out the brightness, if we can just have the courage to look to Him, and become as He would. Thank you all for your examples. I sure love you, too!

Love,

Hermana Lovell 

January 1st Update

2013!!

Can you believe how fast time passes? I sure can´t. We´re already jumping into January. It feels it was just yesterday that I was starting the mission, and I´ve got 6 months already with the MTC time. Crazy stuff! 

Rauquen is still just lovely. To me it seems a lot like Utah, except with Spanish and some culture differences. But every once in a while something will happen to help me remember a little better there´s a difference. Like yesterday we were walking, and this huge bee/firefly thing would NOT leave us alone! So we just were trying to dodge it, looking pretty ridiculous by a road where a lot of cars pass. And we´ve had some great dog experiences this week, too. Missionaries don´t always look calm and collected. Maybe they SHOULD, but sometimes it´s little bit tricky.

Still learning lots. That a lot of time, we really don´t have much control with a lot of things. Loooots. But the things that we do have control over make all the difference. Attitude, folks! It´s the make it or break it ingredient of our lives! And I´ve always got to keep improving mine :) For my New Year´s Resolutions this year, I´m using the Be attitudes as a framework. I´m pretty excited to be even better this year! Because you know what? The better prepared we are as people to serve Heavenly Father, the more people He´ll put in our way to help. That is what I´m calling a noble cause! Ha ha. 

But really, I love you all. Thanks for all the little things that I´ve learned from you that has made me who I am. You are all top notch.

Happy New Years!!!

Hermana Lovell