Chile - Pucón - Week 4 - Feliz Navidad !!

Hola y Feliz Navidad!

Hope everyone had a good Christmas this week! 

Christmas eve and Christmas were free days for us so we just hung out at the house and watched church movies in Spanish.....super fun! Christmas eve we went and had a big dinner at one of the members houses! Here in Chile they have a big dinner Christmas eve and then open their presents at midnight! Christmas day they have another big dinner but they don´t do much. New Years is much bigger than Christmas here! Everyone goes to the beach and does fireworks and parties! Sadly New years eve and New years day are regular days for us.....no partying. 

Because of our two free days, this week was a little slow but we still had some great lessons! We had an activity with Ignacia and some of her friends which was really cool! Ignacia invited a few of her friends from school to her house and we watched Mormon messages and had tacos! We taught a little bit about the church and about what we do as missionaries. One of her friends, Vanessa, was really receptive to what we had to say and was asking a lot of questions! Before we left we asked her if we could come visit her and teach her more and she said yes! Good things always come from making tacos! =) 

We had another lesson with Ignacia and her mom yesterday afternoon and we discussed Ignacia's baptism! We set the date for January 31! She was a little bummed that it wasn´t sooner,  but she is excited to learn more before taking this big step in her life! She is so good and so prepared! She is always inviting people and bringing people to church and to our lessons with her! She is going to help this branch so much! Her mom also wants to be baptized, but she isn´t ready to set a date yet. Hopefully we´ll get one set soon!

Magali also came to church again this week with her little girl Izadora! We had an awesome lesson with her this week too! She has been having doubts about why having a religion is important. If we all believe in God, what's the difference? And if religion is important, why the Mormon religion? Hermana Vance and I studied so hard this week for this lesson and I think it went really well! Even better we had Hermana Hodge, one of our recent converts, come with us and bear her testimony of why she joined the church! It was so powerful! Magali is so good, I know she is going to get baptized!! 

We are so blessed with so many good investigators! I know if we keep working hard, Pucón is going to explode and one day we are going to have a ward here! Hermana Vance and I are working hard to teach and strengthen the members here so that everyone will be able to help this miracle happen! Being a missionary is so incredible. The hand of God can be seen in our lives everyday! This is truly the work of the Lord and it is such a blessing to be apart of it. I just hope I´m doing enough.

Don´t be afriad to share your testimony with everyone around you. whether it´s out loud, or by example, people will see and feel the difference. Everyday we get told that there is something different about us. Magali tells us that when she sees us walking on the street, it looks like we are ´walking above the ground´, and there is a different feeling in her home when we are in it. That's not because we are missionaries, it´s because we have the truth and the light. We all have it! We need to share it! We all need to be missionaries! 

This new year, make it a goal to share the gospel with the people you know. Even if they don´t accept it, the seed is still planted and you never know what it will turn into. We have the truth!! Don´t be afraid to share it!!

!!La iglesia es verdadera!!

Hermana Segura

Chile - Pucón - Week 3 - Fleas....?

So......I have fleas.....What the heck right?! There are so many nasty dogs walking around here though, it really doesn´t suprise me. Hermana Vance and I are itching like crazy.....guess it´s just part of the mission experience!

Other than the fleas, this week was pretty great! We had some really awesome lessons and a lot of drama....We´ll get into that later. 

Yesterday at church we had two of our investigators come! I was so excited! One of them was Magali, a lady we have been teaching for about 3 weeks. She was one of the fist people I taught when I got here. She is the first one I invited to be baptized like my 3rd day here in Chile! Her and her little girl both came and she said she really liked it! I´m looking forward to talking her about it more this week!

We also had a hard rejection. We started teaching this woman Pamela just a few weeks ago. We taught her all about the restauracion and the Plan de Salvación because she started talking about her brother that had been killed a few years back. We taught her that she would be able to see her brother again and she could live with him and the rest of her family for eternity! The spirit was so strong! We gave her a Libro de Mormón and invited her to be baptized next month! She was so excited about it! 

A week later, we went back to her house for another lesson. She met us out on the porch and asked if we could come another day because her parents were over and they didn´t like what Pamela had told them about her joining the church. She said that she was going to talk to them about it because it was her decision and she wanted to go through with it. 

Friday we went back to her house and knocked on the door. She opened it and ¨thanked us for our words¨ but she didn´t want to meet with us anymore. I was pretty bummed out about that. How can someone go from feeling the spirit testify so strongly, and then just shut the door on us. We aren´t giving up though. Everytime we pass by her house, we leave her a sticky note just telling her we love her. Hopeully she will remember how she felt someday and invite us back.

 No matter how much we get rejected, I still love being a missionary! Everyday is just full of miracles!

!Feliz Navidad¡

Hermana Segura

Chile - Pucón - Week 2

Hola from Chile!!!

Wow I love it here! This week has been so good! We started off this week with a zone meeting and we learned about the new video the church put out "El es la Dádiva". What an awesome video! we have been sharing it with everyone we see on the street. Its an awesome way to get contacts! Hope you guys are sharing it on Facebook! (here in Chile they call facebook "face" =)

We have so many awsome investigators, 5 of them with baptism dates! We are teaching a girl who is 15 named Ignacia. She really wants to be baptized but is having a hard time getting to church. Her mom is also listening to our lessons but she isn´t sure if she wants to be baptized or not because her husband dosen´t really want anything to do with it. Hopefully we will be able to baptize her and Ignacia soon! Ignacia reminds me of Gabby so much! Totally a free spirit. She gets in trouble with her mom a lot because she just leaves the house all the time and she is always with her friends or texting. Her mom was talking about all of this with us yesterday and I was like "oh yeah that sounds familiar!" (no offense Gabby =) I love Ignacia though, she is awesome! 

We are also teaching a young family, Yesica, Damian, and their little baby Taylor. They are so special! They have such strong testimonies and want to get baptized, but they aren´t married, and they can´t get married until Damian does his legal papers. He is from Argentina. He has to go to another city called Tamuco to get them done. It costs money they don´t have and its really hard for Damian to get work off, but miracles happen!! Last Sunday Hermana Vance and I fasted that Damian would be able to go to Tamuco to get his papers done. On Tuesday we got a call from Yesica saying that Damian was able to get work off and that he had a ticket to go to Tamuco the next day!! We were so excited!! But.......The lady that does all the legal papers and the office he went to, was sick that day.....so she wasn´t there.....big disappointment, but yesterday we found out that he is going back this Wednesday! What a blessing! Hopfully they will be able to get baptized by next month!

We are trying really hard to work with the members here, but everytime we get an appointment set up, either the member bails, or the investigator does. We have had an appointment with a member everyday this week and none of them worked out.....Its hard, but we aren´t giving up!

Saturday we got invited to go to Los Lagos to have a special Christmas dinner with the Mission President and his wife! It was about a 3 hour bus ride there. We left at 8:00 that morning and didn´t get home util 11:00 that night! We were so tired, but we had so much fun! There were about 24 missionaries there from 2 zones. We played games and wrapped up Libros de Mormon with our testimonies in them like Christmas presents and handed them out to people on the street! We also went around singing Christmas Hyms to random people! It was so fun! I love being a missionary! President Obeso dressed up in a Santa outfit that some of the Elders brought! He walked around in it for like 10 minutes just saying " HO HO HO!" Hes so awesome!

My spanish is getting better. I´m understanding people a little bit better now and I´m not as afraid to speak it. Its frustrating because I know like a lot of words, but I´m still working on trying to put them together and in the right tense and stuff......but it´s coming!

Chile is so awesome! I love it here and I love the people! I´m so excited to see the church grow here in Pucón!

¡¡CHAO!! 

Hermana Segura

My comp and I at "Los Lagos".

Chile - Pucón - Week 1

Wow! What a crazy week!! So much to tell you!

First of all I am serving in a little town called Pucón in the sector Villarica! I am about 4 hours north of Osorno! It is a huge tourist town in the summer so we are about to see a lot of people coming through here! It reminds me a lot of  Yellowstone. Everyone in the town lives in these little cabins and we are surrounded by mountains and trees and I feel like we are camping! Its so beautiful though!

I experienced the crazy rain for the first time on Saturday! SO MUCH RAIN!!! My dress was soaked in 20 minutes and we had 6 hours of work to do. outside. It was so fun though! We walk everywhere unless its far and then we take a taxi. We get a lot of weird looks when we are out walking. We also get a lot of honks.......and whistles......not my favorite part of the work but anyway.....I love it here!

My companion is the coolest! We get along so well and she is so patient with me and my lack of Spanish abilities. She's been here for 4 months and is already such an incredible missionary. Once I get the hang of things around here I know we are going to do some great things together here in Pucón! I cant wait!

Church yesterday was cool! We just have a little branch of like 35 people and we have church in this old house that has been remodeled to kinda look like a church inside. Its really small but it works!

We have so many investigators here its amazing! there is so much work to be done! I gave my first baptism invitation on Thursday and the investigator accepted! She is preparing to be baptized in January! Missionary work is so incredible!

The only thing I'm really having a hard time with is my Spanish. It is so hard to understand the Chileans.....they talk really fast.....I'm getting better though. Speaking it is a whole other thing. I feel like I don't know how to say anything and its super frustrating. There are also a lot of phrases and words that are only used in Chile so I feel like I have to hurry and learn another new language. I feel so bad for Hermana Vance because she has to do almost all the lessons by herself because I have no idea what's going on. Oh well. It will come.

Lets see.....what else....I´ve been having a good  time with the food here! mostly the sweet stuff! I tried ALFAJORES my first day, no worries! they are good! Hermana Vance loves food as much as I do so we are gonna have a good time today trying a bunch of stuff! I'm excited!  We also might be taking a trip to the beach to have lunch after this so that should be exciting!

Well I need to email the mission president and such before my time is up so I´ll hurry and post a few pics before I go. I can´t wait to talk to you in a few weeks! It doesn´t feel like Christmas here, but Hermana Vance said we are gonna do something crazy Christmas day do I´m looking forward to that as well! Also we are 4 hours ahead of you guys here in Chile, so remember that when you are planning to Skype.

Talk to you guys soon! Pray for Pucón!! We need miracles!

Love you!

Hermana Segura

PUCON y Hermana Vance

My house for the next few months!! It's cute!

The view from my house!! Volcan Villarica!!
Yes, it smokes out the top!!

Week 7 - Chile - Mission President's letter

Dear Family of Sister Segura,

We are pleased to inform that your daughter has arrived safe and sound and smiling to the Chile Osorno Mission.  It was a pleasure for us to greet your daughter upon her arrival and feel her desire to serve.  Enclosed is a picture that we took with her shortly after her arrival.  After a short period of orientation regarding mission procedures, customs of the country, etc., we assigned Sister Segura to
work in the city of Villarica with Sister Vance as her companion.  Your daughter's address during her time in the mission will be:
                                     
Sister Samantha Segura
Casilla 7-0
Osorno, Chile

Sister Obeso and I love our missionaries and are truly happy to have the opportunity to work with Sister Segura.  We appreciate your willingness to share her with us as she works as a missionary and ambassador for the Lord in Chile.  Sharing the gospel with these deserving children of our Father in Heaven will certainly bring great joy and satisfaction to her, and to you as well.  Thank you so much for helping her get to this point.

President and Sister Obeso.

Week 6 - Adios Mexico !!

Hola,

I don't have much time to email today, I gotta go pack!

Today has been one of the hardest days here. I don't want to leave, but I know I'm ready for Chile. We sent Hermana Gauger off to Bolivia at 5'00 this morning and that was rough. I have grown so close to these people these past six weeks. We have been through so much together, its hard to imagine that we won't be together anymore.

I am nervous for the transition from the MTC into the field. I'm really praying that I have a good trainer. I think that's my biggest fear at the moment besides teaching actual investigators.

Yesterday was an awesome day though! Because it was our last Sunday here, we had the opportunity to bear our testimonies. Our branch president said we could share them in English if we wanted to, but then the MTC president walked into our meeting with his wife, ( He is a very intimidating man...) and the Branch President gave us this look of 'your testimony better be in Spanish' Our whole district went up there and bore very powerful testimonies, in the most amazing Spanish I have ever heard any of them speak. I can't believe how far we have come in the last 6 weeks. Later that day, my companion and I were walking out of a devotional and the MTC president came up to us and said "You Hermanas are amazing!", we literally almost died. If you only knew how bad this man scares us and how rare it is to get a compliment from him, you would die to. We were feeling pretty good after that!

These next few days are gonna be hard. But I know I will be okay. Please pray for my district and I. Pray that we will be able to transition into Chile well, that we will be blessed with the gift of tongues and understanding. We are gonna need it.

Well that's all I have time for today. I'm off to the airport in less than 3 hours! Wish us luck! Next email will be from CHILE!!!!

Love you guys!

Hermana Segura

District 7B

Found me a fellow Syracuse Titan!! It was fun to be with my friend Trisha for a few days!

I'm gonna miss it here....

Me and my Comp!

These girls are my best friends. I am gonna miss them so much!

Our district and Branch presidency.

The best volleyball team the CCM has ever had!!

Hermana Cheadle, Hermano Carranza and I.

Las Hermanas y Hermano Carranza.

I love my district!! My teacher Hermano Carranza is on the Left. He is the coolest!

WE GOT A THANKSGIVING MEAL!!!  Best Day ever !!