I AM IN CHILE!!!

Hellooo all!!

I know it's a little crazy, but I have these moments of INSANE happiness, and right now is one of those moments. So bear with me. :) And I know I've been in Chile for a whileee now, but I just get so excited that I'm here and that life is so great and that the work is EXPLODING. More or less. :D It's just such an exciting time to be alive, and we all have SOOO much to be grateful for. Honestly, please take a moment to think about all that you have been blessed with. Because at the end of the day, we have two choices: We can be miserable and think of all the things that went wrong that day, or we can turn the table around, and look at all the GOOD! Because the good will always exceed the bad. ALWAYS. Just think of all the movies where it seems like the villian will win, but in the last 5ish minutes the tables turn and there's the hero on top. That is YOU. But you have to just keep pushing through and trying your hardest. :)

ANYWHO. So this week has been absolutely incredible. We have been so very blessed once again here in Zapahuira. I have a couple stories to share and questions to answer so I will get started!

We have been working a lot with the church records("Simil") to find all the inactive members. I think I mentioned that last week, but that's been filling our "spare time" :) this week. :) It's so great because most of the members have been inactive for years (that part isn't so great) BUT they now have families that we can share the gospel with and that means they can work towards the temple! That is the great part. :) So I will keep you posted with that. ALSO we have a new goal in our mission to find at least 1 person/family per day. The goal is to have an "investigator pool" of 10 or more progressing investigators constantly. That's a high goal to set, but it's possible. So that's what we've been working towards. :)

This week we found a new investigator named Carla. She's 16 and has a 2 month old baby, and lives at home with her mom and her sister. This story of finding her was a miracle in and of itself. We had just gotten out of a lesson before lunch, and because we split the sector it takes about 10 or 15 minutes to walk back to the house. It was 1:10 and lunch is at 1:30. So we were walking back and we turned onto a random little street (called pasaje's here) and let's get something straight: I hate knocking doors. I don't know a missionary that likes it, but I definitely hate it. I feel like it does little good most of the time, but for some reason I walked up to a door, knocked suddenly, turned to Hna Matias and said, "Vamos hacer contactos por 5 minutos." And right then Carla opened the door with a huge smile on her face! That for one caught me by surprise, so I was a little stunned and said hi we're missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and can we share a short message with you? She got excited and said of course, but to come back at 4. So we went back and shared the restoration with her, and asked her to offer the closing prayer and I kid you not she literally bore testimony of the restoration in her prayer. It was the most sincere, heart-felt prayer. So that was Saturday and she said she wanted to come to church with us so we went to pick her up on Sunday morning and....her mom came out and told us Carla couldn't go because they are all Catholic and don't want another religion in their lives, especially us.... So that was a bit of a shocker and a downer BUT we will keep praying for her and go back sometime this week hopefully. :) One thing I've learned is to NEVER give up on anyone. :)

And that leads to my other story! Remember Fabiola and Jorge? Fabiola and Julieta are sisters and we've been sharing with them for about a month or a little more. Jorge and Fabiola are living together, but have plans to get married next year.... They always say they will come to church, but never can when Sunday rolls around... So this week we invited them to be baptized on the 24th of August, and they said they want to be baptized, but they don't feel ready. They said they would pray about it and we could talk about it next time. So we went back and their dad was there and we shared with him too! He has a lottt of questions, but they are all questions that this gospel has answers to...another person that has been prepared... Anywho they said they would come to church with us on Sunday, and we called Julieta on Sunday morning and she said she couldn't go. But then we called Fabiola and she said she was ready! So that was great! She and Jorge came with us!! After Sunday School is of course Relief Society and Priesthood, and Jorge seemed a little leery to go without Fabiola, but he went with Elders Hotvedt and Pizzaro. We met up with them afterwards, and Jorge said to Hna Matias and I that he wanted to talk really quick with us. My heart sank cause I just thought, "Kay this is it, he's going to tell us that he doesn't want to meet with us anymore, etc, etc." He has been leery during this whole process of teaching them. But we went out of the church and he told us his thoughts. He said that before we come he thinks how much he doesn't want to listen, but when we're there he feels so peaceful and wants to learn so much more every time. He said he felt the same thing in the church today, and that he has never felt that before in other churches that he has been to. He said he wasn't sure if he was receiving his answer, or if we could help him know what was going on. I WAS SO HAPPY!!! He talked to us about all of this without any pauses for about 5 minutes, which is huge for him to talk that much anyway. It was such a miracle. We talked about opposition in all things and how he was feeling the spirit, and encouraged him to keep praying and reading, because yes he was receiving his answer.

That was a huge testimony builder for me about patience. Answers don't all come at once. We receive pieces of truth little by little, line upon line, precept upon precept. We have another lesson with them tomorrow, so I am very excited for that.

It was also great, because they were there for Pia's baptism, and also for her confirmation yesterday at church. It was so great because her mom and mom's boyfriend came with her! Her family is opening up more and is more receptive and welcoming when we come over, so YEA!! :)

This week has been so great, and I love it here more and more every day. :D And the great thing is that I'm learning exponentially it feels like....so that is great as well! :) (Spiritually learning, as well as language....) I can understand about 80 or 90% mas o menos and I can speak....less than that BUT I can get my point across for 90% of the time. It's a process, but I feel so blessed. :)

That's all for this week! SUPER long today with stories, but I really wanted to share. :) I love you all and I just want you all to know how much I know this church is true. I know we have living prophets today, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that the complete fullness of the gospel was restored through Joseph Smith, and it all started with an open, faith-filled heart and a prayer. I know that Jesus Christ lives, and I know that he loves us. I know we are children of our Heavenly Father and he is so very aware of our thoughts and desires, but we have to turn it all over to Him. He knows you better than you know yourself. :)

TONS of love from Chile,
Hermana Tuft
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Hello Family!!

Wow that was such a long letter! I loved hearing about your weeks and everything going on at home!! :) I'm also glad to hear that things are cooling down a littlleee bit. Meanwhile here in the desert it is definitely getting hotter. :) And that is a sarcastic happy smiley face, just for the record. :P **IlovethesunIlovethesunIlovethesun.** But in all reality **IhatethesunIhatethesunIhatethesun.** :P It's not super hot yet, but the temperatures seem to be rising. :) Winter here consisted of chilly nights, and hot days. :)

To answer a couple questions! In our church building we only have the one ward, but there is 1 chapel here in Arica that has 2. The mission has about 5 or 6 cities, with 3 or 4 zones each. There are a lot of different little towns in between, but there aren't regular missionaries there, nor chapels, nor branches for the most part that I'm aware of.... Yuta is one of those towns, but it's close enough that there are members that live there that come to our ward. Our ward is the most northern ward in Chile... About 10 or 15 minutes from the Peruvian border... :) We have 10 sisters here in Arica, and 6 in our district. For the most part, each ward in the mission has 4 missionaries, sometimes 6 or sometimes 2. We have Elders working with us in this ward, but for the most part in the mission it's either all sisters or all elders in a ward. We work with the ward mission leader every week, but we don't have ward missionaries yet. We go on splits sometimes with members, but just Sunday mornings to get investigators. And the youth LOVE coming with us to lessons, so that is so great! :)

As for the food, we eat TONS of rice and chicken. TONSSS. Tom told me the exact same thing before I left, but I never realized how much I would be eating it... :) It's all super delicious though! We have a salad every lunch, and breakfast is usually bread with a drink and I usually sneak in a fruit. Dinner is "Once" (pronounced 'own-say') and I love once. It's bread with herbal tea or something called ecco. I love once. :)

I'm so glad to hear that ward conference went well! I've got to go for this week, but I love you all so much and be safe this week and have fun and take lots of pictures!! :D

All my love,
Kristen
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Mom and Dad! I hope I answered all the questions! :) I loved hearing about the new temple video and can't wait to go when I get back! I am either going to the temple the day I get back, or the day after. I honestly miss it so much. And I would love for you both to come with me if it works out that way... :) Really quick! Dad! I think you should go to New Mexico once more. It is a lot of work to get it all put together, but I think you will regret it if you don't and I honestly think there is more to this story that you need... That's just me thinking out loud, but I think there is more, that one more visit could help uncover... Not that you want moreee uncovered, cause it seems like this Peter Shirts story will never end...but I think it will be good. :) Let me know what you work out and such. And I can't remember the story about the keys, so I would love a copy of that if you get a chance... Also! Glad to hear that the Sutterfield wedding went well.  Happy for Nathan! Didn't know that Dixie was retiring! Mom! You're painting my room?! What color?? Pictures are always great so please send lots! :) And what are you doing in the bathroom?? Tell Mrs. Crockett hi for me, and have a great couple days with Singers! Also, Taylor Williamson wrote me a quick note, but thank you for keeping me posted on that! :) If you remember, she is going on a mission to Canada speaking Spanish. :) And Kenna did too so that was fun to hear from her! She sounds so great! How's Megan Walker feeling these days?? Getting ready these last couple weeks?! I'm so darn excited for her. :D I've got to run, but I love you both soooo very much and I think of you often, and I look at myself in the mirror for each of you every day, with a smile. :) I'm sending a HUGE hug in this email too, just so you know. :) Thank you for being my parents, and thank you for your emails and prayers and constant support. :D
All my love,
Kristen