Hermana Egbert in Osorno Chile

Yesterday was a huge holiday here in Chile. 18 of September WOO! Its like their 4th of July and Thanksgiving put together. 

It was interesting trying to missionary work because no one let us it but it was a good contacting day. 

Also my comp and I say dolphins and seals. DId you know seals do backflips? I didnt but they keep jumping out of the water doing flips. 

My companion and I have been searching for new people to teach. Until Sunday we did not find any new people. However, Sunday afternoon my companion suggested we go back to a contact done earlier in the week. When we knocked on the door, a little girl invited us in. We were able to share the restoration with a young family. It was such a great experience. The dad had longer hair and was covered in tatoos. Of course that doesnt matter it just made it all the more special to share the message of Jesus Christ with them. The spirit was so strong as this family asked us questions. When we shared the Book of Mormon the Dad, Victor, said He wanted to know more about "that book". He has had questions the bible and other religions could not answer. I am so grateful we could testify with the words of Moroni that as He searched with faith his questions could be answered. 

I know that we were led to this family. I am so grateful for the spirit who is able to lead and guide my companion and I. He leads us to the people and stays with us the whole time if we allow Him to.

This week I have tried to focus on the Savior in my studies. As I have studied who Christ is, I have felt so much peace in the missionary work. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. We can doing litterally nothing with out Him. We will always need Him. As I try to work with Him and truely accept that in all things I need Him, I am able to do what He wants me to do. 

I love you all. Thanks for each thing that you are doing!

Have a wonderful week. Keep finding reasons to smile and if sometimes its hard remember you have a Savior and that will help you:)

Love,Hermana Egbert

Woo! Another week has come and gone! 

Just a fun quick story to start out with.

Every morning we cheerfully(dont know how happy we are some mornings) get out of bed at 7am and do our excersizes. On Saturday while we were doing our exersizes in the house I looked out the window and saw that the sky was so pretty just pinks and oranges. I told my companion to grab the keys and that we were going to go outside to see the sunrise. We put on our nametags and ran down the street The sky was so so pretty, but we could only see a glimpse because all the buildings were in the way. So its 720 am we are outside in the cold and I am in my slippers still. I being the spontaneous person I am ( thats funny if you know me) talk my companion into running down to the ocean to see the sunrise. The only rules now with the new schedule is that you get up at 7 and do 30 minutes of excersize and be ready to plan by 9. So I figured why not. So we run 15 minutes to get to the ocean and it was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen! I will send pics but they dont do justice. I might have ruined my vision in watching the sunrise but it was worth it! We made it back in time and had a great rest of the day. 

I think the funnest thing about that was it was a split second decision but I will remember it forever! 

I thought of how it relates to the Gospel.

When we go to peoples homes with the Restored gospel of Jesus Christ I think for the people it is like a glimpse of a beautiful sunrise. They realize that we are teaching them something really special. As they recognize how incredible the message is and do the work (like us running to the ocean) they can eventually accept and be baptized and confirmed like seeing the beautiful sunrise! 

Its also cool to think that the sun goes down and comes up each day. So if Hermana West and I wanted to see the sunrise again we would need to run to the ocean to see it. That is like us as members partaking of the sacrament each week and renewing our baptismal covenants. It is just as incredible each week. 

The ability to renew our covenants each week is a testimony of Gods love for us. As we promise to take upon ourself the name of His son Jesus Christ he promises us that we will ALWAYS have His spirit to be with us. 

I am so grateful we have a Savior Jesus Christ. There is a quote that I love in PMG. It says that all that is unfair about life will be made right through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. 

I promise that IT will just all work out. Everyones IT is different. But Jesus Christ knows exactly how to succor His people according to their needs. 

The work is progressing each day here and the investigators and so great!

I know this is true. Love you all so much!

Have a great week! Watch a sunrise! 

Love Hermana Egbert

Wow another week has passed and what a week! First off, I will be staying with Hermana West to finish up her training and we are so excited! We both love this sector so much! I am so excited to stay with the investigators and the work that is happening here. This transfer will be 9 weeks instead of 6 because President and Sister Isom have a conference in Argentina. 

This week was a lot of opening my mouth and trying to speak with the people, whoever would give us enough time to listen. Contacting this week was actually a lot of fun. My companion and I made a goal to try and discern what the people needed so we could share according to their needs even if it was a 30 sec to 1 min encounter. It was incredible how the work changed. We found that if we were willing to be lead by the spirit He would let us know very quickly what that specific person needed and then gave us the words to say it. Every conversation was tailored to the individual. 

Jesus Christ lives! This is His work. And this work will not be stopped. It will only keep progressing. I have been realizing more and more that when me or my companion are praying that we will be lead to the people who are prepared, its less the peoples hard being changed and more our hearts being changed. Prayer litterally aligns are will and desires, with the will of Our Father in Heaven. 

Last night we had a lesson with Mariana and Diego. They are a young MARRIED! couple 22 years old. ( big deal for Chile). Anyways. We have been teaching Mariana and she has been reading the Book of Mormon. Last night Diego joined the lesson with a lot of interest. He does not believe in God. My companion and I were teaching about the Book of Mormon and invited them to read and pray to know it is true. Diego asked a super key question. He said "why would I go searching for more knowledge when I feel like my life is going well and I am happy?" 

He was sincerely asking to know why were inviting with such conviction. He wanted to know the why. I had to stop and think for a second or a minute. I wasnt sure how to answer the question in the way He needed to hear. So as I pondered and prayed in my heart to know, it came that we needed to teach about eternal families. I asked him if his family was important to him. He answered yes. I asked if his marriage was only for this life and he said yes. I asked if he knew for sure that he could be with his wife and future children in the next life and he said no. My companion then explained that this was the peace and happiness the gospel of Jesus Christ could bring him. It will bring him knowledge and surity that he can be with his family not only for this life but on into the next. 

We talked about Alma 32 and invited him to experiment. To take this quesiton to Heavenly Father in prayer and to read the Book of Mormon. He accepted.

When we were ending we invited them to a kneeling prayer. Mariana looked at her husband a little  hesitant and he just shrugged his shoulders and said "well I am willing to give this a try"

The spirit was very present and I am grateful to have been there to experience it. I felt so strongly in my heart that as long as I have the spirit with me,  I can invite any one at anytime to read the Book of Mormon because it is litterally impossible to read the Book of Mormon with an intent to know of its truthfullness and not recieve and answer.

Thats a long one but I felt I wanted to share this experience with you. When we are called to do something from our Heavenly Father, He makes us enough and gives us the spirit so we can complete with what He sends us to do. I am not a super bold person and being in random homes teaching or talking in the streets in spanish is not something I thought I could do. Yet Heavenly Father qualifies those He calls. It is the same for each of you in your certain callings whether it be a calling in the church or in the home. Have confidence in your Heavenly Father, Savior Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit because they have all the confidence in you!

Love you all and have a great week!

Love Hermana Egbert

Hermana West and I making over 50 completos! the hot dogs here and yesterday Zone conference with Elder Bragg from the Area Presidency. 

Woo! How is everyone!? I love that your summer is coming to an end while the long winter here in Punta Arenas is finally ending. 

This week was a proselyting week. Straight knocking doors and contacting in the streets. It was a really good week:) 

We have been working a ton on following the spirit when we recieve a prompting to contact someone. Sometimes we are bit late in reacting. Like we will be walking down the street and feel "contact that person" we keep walking a couple steps look at each other and turn around hoping we have enough time to still talk with them. We are getting better at acting on it quicker:)

So everyone knows what the book Preach my Gospel is right? So it comes from a scripture in D and C. the Full phrase is to "preach my gospel by the spirit". How incredible is that. And honestly how comforting. We are being invited and lovingly commanded to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ but we do not and should not do it alone. Missionary work is like a sales job until the spirit gets involved, then it is the lords work. If as missionaries we just go door to door hoping they let us in, we take a fifty fifty chance they will be kind and allow us to come in from the cold. However as the searching, teaching, and serving is done with the spirit than the work is so much more. I know that when the spirit is involved its more about Quality than Quantity. The person becomes important and I stop thinking about the numbers. 

Yesterday my companion and I were able to do a really fun contact. At about 9 at night a man and his wife were walking down the street towards us. I felt so strongly we needed to talk with them. So I just smiled big and Said "Hola! Como esta?" They were really friendly and they said "just so you know we are Adventistas" I felt to ask them about their beliefs so I honestly said "I know very little about your religion, what do you believe" He basically told me the entire plan of Salvation. After he sincerley asked what we believed. My companion and I were able to clearly give  a brief lesson about the Restoration. As I testified  that because God love us He called a prophet to restore His church upon the earth, I just knew that this was true. I pulled out a Book of Mormon and explained how this is the fruit of the Restoration. That because Gods loves us He has given us the exact way to return back to Him. My companion bore a simple yet powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon. The man and his wife accepted to keep being taught by the missionaries and accepted a Book of Mormon. I am so grateful for moments like these when I am able to feel the Holy Ghost testify to me and to the people that the church is true. I am so grateful for these short 18 months to be involved in this work in this unique way. I know with all I am that God lives. God has a plan for each of us. We will pass through hard things but in the hard things we come to know personally of that love. There is power in the Book of Mormon. Read it every day it will help you be happy:) 

Thanks for everything! Sure love each of you!

Keep up the great work and Keep Smiling!!!

Love Hermana Egbert

Oh yeah I also ate Alpaca/llama this week. Sick. I felt bad since we had llamas growing up. Poor Margarita. 

Wow what a week! It went by so fast. Time just keeps speeding up. Hermana West and I are both getting better at spanish and teaching which is good! 

So this week I think I have been thinking about how can we know when we are really giving everything to the Lord. Its a tough question at least for me. I saw a Bible video about the widows might and it touched my heart. 

Here it is in Mark 12:41-44

Woo! It was really cold! The wind was so strong! I was standing on the side of the road and the wind pushed me so hard my comp had to grab to hold my backpack to keep me from going to be blown into traffic. You might be laughing right now. Thats okay we laugh about it all the time. 

Wow! I love this area. So many good things are happening. Lots of working with Less active members and helping them get involved in the missionary work! Its so fun. Missionary work is a lot more than teaching investigators ( it is a whole bunch of that) but mostly it is about building up wherever you are. It could be investigators, less actives, members, and even your companion. Its just about making things a little bit better than when you found it.

My companion and I have been trying to get creative with contacting because I have about had it with  " Podemos regalarle una tarjeta?" Can we give you a card? 

So we are going at it a few different aproaches. One is the question game. Who can think of the best question to ask in a contact. Offering service as the first way to contact them and others. We made a goal to talk with 15 people in one hour. We did it and it actually wasnt very successful. We talked to the people but they werent that interested. Then we decided for the next hour we would walk slow and only contact those we felt we should contact. Only 3 people but they were really great contacts. 

We asked ourselves "How would Jesus Christ do contacts" When we thought about it my companion said " He would contact to the one" or rather to the individual. 

It is so true. He would figure out their needs through listening to them and being very attentive. He would not talk to them for a number but rather because He knew they needed help. 

I have really been working on giving my all in whatever I am doing. If I am doing a contact, give all I have to the contact, listen to them and try to discern what Heavenly Father wants His child to know. If I am teaching, be completely in the lesson and focused on that person. Etc.For sure not easy but I am grateful for the oppurtunity to try. But it really has helped me to remember what this is all about.  

Well I love you all! Have a very good week! 

Love Hermana Egbert

So I just heard about Curt. I just wanted to write my letter about trials today. 

1 Peter 1:7

6.Where in ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.

7. That the trial of you faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. 

I love this scripture so much. In the foot note "temptations" translates to trial or opposition. So we are being INVITED to greatly rejoice even in the "seasons" or times we pass through trials. 

Why should we rejoice when we feel we have every reason to feel sorrowful or angry?

Verse 7 says that the trials we face are much more precious than gold because they change our faith. The trials we face have the ability to change our hearts and increase our faith. It says in verse 7 "be found unto praise and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ". When Jesus Christ comes again we will need to recognize Him. Trials and challenges give us an incredible oppurtunity to turn to the Savior and Know Him better. 

I know this is true. Some things on the mission have been hard. I have had to completley turn all I had to the Savior as if  my life depended on Him,which it does. I know with all my heart that one of the most prominent ways our Heavenly Father shows His love for us as His Children is through allowing us to pass through trials. He loves us so much. He sent His son Jesus Christ to die and suffer for all that we pass through in this life and then he ressurected on the third day. I know that God has a plan. He knows Curt. He has a plan for him. 

" The Will of God" - Elder Christopherson

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2012-01-014-the-will-of-god?lang=eng&_r=1&cid=HP_FR_21-10-2016_dPFD_fMLIB_xLIDyI-1_#d

I am so grateful for all of you!

This has been a good week full of miracles here in Estrecho. Miracles will start coming your way. I know it! I love you all! I am here in Punta arenas Chile praying hard for all of you. 

Have a really good week! 

It will ALL work out. 

Love Hermana Egbert

Good ole family and friends! 

On Tuesday my companion Hermana Rojas left to her new sector the legendary Los Lagos! I am not sure it is legendary but I loved my time in that sector;).

Okay. On wednesday I recieved my new comp fresh from the Mexico MTC. She is so sweet and ready to get to work. I am so grateful to have a new missionary as my companion. Even though the language is a challenge for her she adds so much to the work and companionship. She is excited about being in the mission and just so kind. Its strange speaking in English again after almost 2 months of pure spanish. 

We have been searching for new people to teach and teaching the investigators in this sector. Sometimes I really dont feel cut out for training. I still struggle to communicate sometimes but I have found myself relying a whole bunch on the spirit. 

Yesterday a woman named Claudia who hasnt come to church in years came with her daughter who is now investigating the church. Claudia served a mission about 30 years ago. Her daughter is 13 and really excited to keep learning. 

Last night my comp and I had the special oppurtunity to teach a lesson in English. It was a mini miracle for my companion. It was incredible and we will be going back on Thursday!

I think this week was about remembering that this is not the work of Hermana Egbert and Hermana West. Missionary work is about inviting other to Come unto JesusChrist. So who better to direct this work than the Savior Himself. I know that as we all focus on Christ we are walking in the right paths. This week we have planned each day and at about 3 our plans are over because the people havent been home or the appointments fall through. As we prayed and kept going we always ended up in a home of someone else and in the exact place The Lord needed us to be. I have thought a lot about the story in the New Testament about the young Father that went to Christ with his sick son and asked for him to be healed. Christ said anything is possible for those with faith. The young Father said "Lord, I believe help thou my unbelief". I feel like that father sometimes who is asking for a miracle but needs help with his Faith. We need to have faith in Jesus Christ but he will help us in our times of doubt. He is the "author and finisher of our faith". 

Thank you all for everything you are doing. I know with all my heart this is the true church upon the earth. Jesus Christ is our Savior. 

Love You! 

Sister Egbert

This past week was the close of another transfer. I have grown to love Punta Arenas! It is such a special place with a very special spirit. We have seen a lot of progress in the investigators. After 4 or 5 weeks of searching for investigadores and getting the area moving we are finding people and teaching. We found a family! They are incredible! I am sooo excited to keep teaching them. They are so excited about what we are teaching them. I love teaching the people and inviting them to find out for themselves. 

Last night we recieved a call from President Isom about the transfers. Hermana Rojas will be going to LOS LAGOS to finish her mission. My first area! That is so fun! 

I will be staying in El Estrecho and will be training a new Hermana who arrives on Wednesday from the MTC. She is from the United states and her name is Hermana West. We are going to learn Spanish together!! Woohoo! Haha it will be great! I was not expecting to be asked to train yet but I know that it will be fun. I feel so so grateful to be staying in this area. I love the people we are teaching as well as the ward. I feel so at home and like I am in the right place for my life right now. 

I had the oppurtunity to learn a little more about the phrase "thy will be done" this past transfer. It is about asking not for circumstances to be changed but for eyes to see why Heavenly Father is asking you to pass through it and that you can learn what He has for you to learn. 

I am excited for the coming changes and experiences that are coming. I am sure I will learn much more than Hermana West this coming transfer.