March 23, 2015

I hope you all had an awesome "Dia de Felicidad" the 20th :D

Also, it's a week late, but I hope your Pi Day was well celebrated, because 3/14/15 (Pi = 3.1415) only comes around once every thousand years.  Hermana Espinoza and I celebrated with Pie de Limon, even though she didn't know Pi Day was a thing.

This week was a super awesome week.  We saw a lot of small miracles and we're seeing a lot of progress in the Branch.  We're visiting some really awesome people who are super interested :)

Hermana Espinoza and I have been practicing English in the house during this week, and I am now pleased to report that I don't sound like someone who is learning English.  Haha, we even taught a lesson in English this week, and it went really well :)

The Volcano is acting up again, and everyone says it'll probably explode again (but it won't do anything to us here in Villarrica).  Hermana Espinoza and I have our fingers crossed that if it explodes we'll be able to see it this time.  Haha, lots of the members have said that they'll call us if anything happens so we don't miss it this time.

The funniest part of the week was when Max, a member, did his impressions of the missionaries in the Branch :D  Haha, he nailed them all!  It probably won't be funny to you all because you don't know him, or the other missionaries, but trust me, it was funny.  Haha, we were all crying we were laughing so hard :D

Appreciate the small things in life.  Laugh everyday.  And as an apostle once said, "Come what may and love it."

Stay sweet,

Hermana Coombs

March 16, 2015

Well things have calmed down here, and pretty much everything has returned to normality.

Yesterday in church there was a couple visiting from the States.  He served his mission in Villarrica 35 years ago, and said that things have changed a ton!  Haha, I talked to his wife in English for a bit, but when I try to talk in English it's a disaster.  I'll be talking in English (or trying to at least) and then suddenly I'll through in a few words in Spanish or start talking in Spanish.  It's pretty funny.  

We're still working hard, talking with everyone we can, and enjoying the heat while it lasts :)

¡Que les vaya bien!

Hermana Coombs

Villarrica Volcano erupts

Haha, this week has been LOCO.  

Tuesday morning Hna Espinoza and I went running in the morning along the coast, and we passed by a bunch of people taking pictures of the volcano, which looked a little different, but we didn't really pay much attention because we were half asleep and we see the volcano every day.  A little later in the morning we had a meeting with Presidente Obeso and the other missionaries in Villarrica and Pucón, and when we got there the Elders in our rama asked us if we'd heard about the volcano.  Haha, Hna Espinoza and I said, "well people have been talking about it a lot the past few weeks....." and then they told us, "No, it exploded last night!!"  Apparently while everyone in Villarrica and Pucón were watching the volcano and taking photos Hna Espinoza and I were happily sleeping in our house without the slightest idea of what was happening...... I was so sad that no one woke us up to see it :(  

The Elders y Hermanas in Pucón had to evacuate around 3:30 am and they couldn't go back to Pucón until the red alert changed to yellow alert, so for a few days Hermana Segura y Hermana Wyatt were living with us in our casa.  Haha, it was quite the fiesta in our house.  I haven't laughed as hard as I did this week in a long time.  Hna Segura and I were compañeras for the week, and Hna Espinoza and Hna Wyatt were compañeras for the week, and the four of us had a ton of fun.

My story of el volcán isn't too exciting, so I'll tell Hermana Segura's story instead because it's cooler.  Around 3:15 she heard her neighbors talking and saying "grab the backpacks", but she was too tired to see what was going on, but a few minutes later the elders called and said, "look at the volcano!"  She and her companion opened their front door (because they live 12 miles from the volcano) and saw it exploding, and she said it was like she was in a movie or something.  They had to pack their backpacks superfast and go to the house of a member who lived in a more secure part of the city until they could evacuate to Villarrica.  They said it was super crazy and pure adrenaline when they saw the volcano exploding. Loco!

Long story short it was a super fun, super crazy week, but I missed all the initial excitement.  We're all safe and the Hermanas de Pucón are back in Pucón.  

Keep on keeping on,

Hermana Coombs 

The following is the email we received from the Mission President Tuesday morning:

Dear family,

Overnight there was a volcano eruption of the Villarrica volcano in northern Chile.  All missionaries are accounted for and safe.  The missionaries who were serving in Pucon closest to the volcano have been pulled out to a safer location until further notice.  We are monitoring the situation.  Please rest assured that your missionaries are safe and protected.

Con las Hermanas de Pucón

El volcán after it exploded.  The black lines are where the lava was

March 2, 2015

Buenas Tardes a todos!

Ojala que hayan tenido una semana excelente!

This week in Villarrica things were pretty chill.  We have some new missionaries in the zone, but for the most part things stayed pretty much the same.  We're still working hard and finding new people, so that's the good news.

This week the Branch President's son had his ninth birthday, and he invited us to his birthday party, but we couldn't go.  Haha he was pretty bummed when we said we wouldn't be able to make it, but we promised him we would visit him earlier in the day to bring him a present.  He really likes cereal, so we bought a box of "Chocopic" for him, and his reaction was priceless :)  Haha, he was REALLY excited about his cereal.

Fun fact for the week: The Volcán Villarrica is the third most active volcano in the world, and the number one most studied.  ¡Que genial!

Things are going swell here in Villarrica :)  ¡Que les vaya muy bien! 

Keep on keeping on,

Hermana Coombs

Villarrica

Walking down the street and found this fellow

Cambios -- February 23, 2015

Cambios have arrived, and Hermana Espinoza and I'll be staying in Villarrica :)

This week we've been working hard to help our investigators progress and to find new investigators.  We were finally able to find and meet with a really awesome contact we had a few weeks back, we taught him three times this week, and he's progressing a ton!  He's 17 years old, super interested in the Book of Mormon, living prophets, and the church as a whole.  Before we taught him about the Book of Mormon we asked him to read the introduction, and when we met again he said even though he really wanted to read more he only read the introduction because that's the part we asked him to read.  Haha we explained to him that he can always read more if he wants to, and he was pretty happy about that :)  

The tourist season here is starting to come to an end, so hopefully we'll be able to start visiting people more regularly because their work schedules will be more normal.

As for other happenings in Villarrica this week, I ate pastel de choclo y umitas (at least I think that's how it's spelled).  They're typical foods of the Mapuche.  Also the volcano has been pretty active and there is almost always smoke leaving from the top.  A few people say they think it'll erupt in March, but others say no, so only time will tell.  Late at night people have said that it glows red at the top, but I like to sleep so I can't say if that's actually true or not.  But don't worry, if it does erupt the only thing that'll get to Villarrica is some ash and possibly some smoke.

A scripture for the week from the Book of Mormon in Ether 12:4

Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God.

The faith can help us no matter what difficulties we are passing through.  God loves you and knows you personally and is always willing to help you.  Trust in him and have faith in his purposes.

Les quiero mucho!

Hermana Coombs

February 16, 2013

Marri Marri!! (at least I think that's how it's spelled)

It means "Hola" en Mapuche.  We met someone this week who is Mapuche and speaks the language fluently.  She taught us a few things but the only thing I can remember is "marri marri".

So this week was a week of adventures.  We had our Zone Conference in Los Lagos, so we got to travel to that part of the mission.  It's always super awesome when we can talk with Presidente Obeso!  The spirit is always super strong in our Zone Conferences and we learned a ton of new things that we can improve so we can keep becoming better missionaries.

We've been seeing lots of miracles in our area as well.  The members are super excited and really want to help the missionaries in our area, and we've been working a lot with them recently.  

Most of the pics from this week are from our trip we took today to see some waterfalls near Pucón.  It was SUPER pretty, but we got pretty wet too.  oh well.

We're still working hard, finding new people, and staying enthusiastic :)

Until next time,

Hermana Coombs

Visiting en Los Lagos

El volcán

El volcán -- it's smoking

Chile es desmasiado bello

6th month mark!

This week has involved a lot of walking, a lot of talking, and a lot of small miracles.

We're still walking a ton and talking with everyone and their mother in the streets, but it's super helpful that for the most part everyone here in Chile is really nice and friendly.  Haha it's pretty funny being a gringa here because on multiple occasions I've been called "Barbie" and in my head all I can think is "kids these days" haha.  

Small miracles of the week:

1. I haven't died of dehydration

2. The people who refill our water bottles and give us a snack (for real, bless their souls)

3. We almost ran out of food and couldn't buy more until today, but we had just enough to make it. whew!  Our fridge and cupboards are completely empty

4. We found/met some really awesome people who are interested in listening!

5. The members here want to work with the missionaries.  Members make all the difference in missionary work.  The people view us kind of weird, but when they see that normal people (aka the members) have a testimony of these things too it totally changes their perspective.

Keep on being awesome and looking for the small miracles that happen every day.  Make the habit to think of what your miracle of the day was and even really hard days won't seem too bad.  Life is too good to waste being negative :)

Over and out,

Hermana Coombs

Muriendo de calor

Villarrica

Volcán at sunset