Week 59

Paola's baptism!:D

Queridos amigos!

Paola was baptized on Saturday! It was the most amazing baptism I have been able to be a part of. I love her so much! Today is her birthday and I will make her a bracelet that will officially forge the unbreakable bond we have together... :D I'm grateful for eternal friendships! But just like every other baptism it was pretty stressful....We couldn't find keys to the Family History Center to use the computers and make the program and it took us a whole week to try to find white pants. When the day came the water was too low, her name was misspelled on the program, our first prayer and the first speaker showed up late to the baptism and our first speaker didn't have a talk ready, our ward mission leader never showed up, and we never did find the white pants...BUT... Miracles happen! Paola only had to be baptized once, she didn't mention the misspelled name and also I had written it write on the chalk board note I had written her. There were substitutes for the prayer and Elder Roundy offered to do a last minute baptism talk, our amazing Presidente Reyes conducted, no white pants but we miraculously found a big enough jumpsuits for Paola's husband. Paola was happy and thanked us openly when her time came to say a couple of words at the end of the program. It was a total success! Even the confirmation was tricky because she hadn't chosen anyone to confirm her and she showed up late but it all turned out and her blessing was amazing. We took a million and one photos. I cried because I was so stressed and I didn't get to enjoy it like I wanted to, but then as I waited for her to get dressed I realized all the blessings waiting for her. I imagined her with her family in the Celestial Kingdom dresses in white and I was happy, so happy. I love this so much! This is the best feeling in the whole world. 

So that's that:) on to some other business. We went on exchanges on Wednesday and I brought sister Schenk with me to Spanish the side #thebestside #españolis#1... Well we had a pretty amazing day. Found awesome new investigators and got Paola ready and all. And then at like 7 we get a phone call and our companions had gotten in a car accident! They were at a red light and a crazy old man slammed into them from behind. Sister Gus had back pain and my compa had whiplash. Other than that though they were okay. Their car even worked and everything. On Thursday though out mission nurse made us all go up to the ER to get them. Necked out and get X-rays so that the church would t be liable if there was a health issue down the road. That took ALL day! Seriously we just got to the church on time to go to institute and learn about the first chapter of Genesis... Which by the way was the best lesson of my life! Let's just say that matter has intelligence.... And the scriptures talked about scientific things that no one could have know about back then... The church is true! Take that atheists! 

On to more happy news!:D my brother is in the MTC! He is doing so well:) he was made zone leader and is getting along good with his companion. Oh happy day! Life is good:) life is good!

I love you all! 

Hasta las pasta!

Hermana Orellana 

Week 58

Oh Sweet miracles!

Querida familia<3

Paola has a date!!!!!!! The 23 of May:D. So this was what happened. We were over in her area on Tuesday and we had already set a time to see her on Wednesday. We knew before hand that a baptismal invitation was due but we didn't know how to go about doing it. So we go see her neighbor on Tuesday and we see her outside with her niños, so we stop to say hello and she talked to us and she shows me a picture of her sister who looks a lot like me... Anyways we leave our little visit feeling motivated for the next day. As we are walking and talked about what we should do Hna Gamble suggests we should fast. So we did. It was around 7 and we thought we might as well fast until we saw her on Wednesday at 3. We pulled over to the side and offered a prayer to start. We prayed for her and thought about her the whole time. The next morning as we were staying we thought of some scriptures for her and finally before finishing our studies I ask Hna Gamble about a date. Should we just have her pick a date or have us suggest one? We didn't know but all of a sudden Hna Gamble goes, "I feel good about the 23" and as soon as she said that I felt so happy I wanted to cry!! So we go on with our day and we get to Paola's. We talked about the Book of Mormon and finally I ask Pao, " Paola, do you want to be a dry Mormon?" And she goes on about how she had thought about how she never wanted to be a member of this church and about how recently she had thought about baptism and as soon as she had thought about it all these bad things had started happening that had gotten her questioning. This whole time my faith was fighting to stay strong. We gave her some scriptures and then she asks us how she would know if she was ready so we give her more scriptures and finally I just say, "Paola, I know that you are ready" and she goes, "okay, so let's make a deal, I will get baptized on the 23, but you guys can't say anything until I it gets close to the date".... At that point I'm freaking out because we had never even mentioned a date to her! She didn't even know the 23 was a Saturday! She just randomly chose a date and it was the same date we had chosen! Eventually though she couldn't keep her own deal and now her husband and whole entire family knows, hence why I am able to tell y'all now:D

That single moment at her house when she finally agreed to be baptized has got to be one of the most amazing moments of my life. Just when hope was almost lost and faith had been fighting to stay strong, a miracle!! Paola has gone though such an unbelievable change since I got here. I love her so much! She is amazing! She is so smart and loving and an amazing mother! She motivates me to do better, she gives me hope and makes my heart feel likes it's going to explode with so much love. I am so thankful for this amazing opportunity to be a part of her life right now. 

My week consisted of trying to keep her decision on the DL until Sunday day:) Also though, this week was sister Schenk's birthday:D we had so much fun getting her funny birthday card and blowing up balloons and going to Chilli's for lunch! We also had Zone conference on Friday and I got to be reunited with some of my old friends:) Hermana Eastwood, sister Richerson, Sister Bybee, E Harris, E Peterson, E Hernandes, and E Paey. Such fun, such fun!!:D 

I hope y'all were there for my brothers farewell! I hope y'all gave him hugs in my behalf:,) I just wanted to say that I am so proud of him. He is my biggest hero and my bestest friend. Go Elder Orellana!! Hurray to the best future missionary!:) I promise to cheer you on every single day where ever I am at until we can be together again... And then I will keep cheering you on in person;). I love you more than life. 

Love,

Hermana Orellana

Hna Daysi, Natalie, & Hno Rene.... Waiting for our investigator

Our Zone, the APs and President and Sister Anderson

Hna Daysi and Natalie it was also poring rain..

"Shelfie" -Hno Lux

My baby Daniel<3

Week 57

Mother's Day!

Queridos amigos y familia, 

Another transfer meeting come and gone, and we start of the first week of the transfer with some good new goals and biking our little hearts out in 90 degree weather! I hardly even felt it though because it is so worth it. We had a busy week with Mother's Day activities and biking in the middle of the week always makes it tough to get lessons in but we were able to meet a lot of our goals and even exceed a couple of them! :D Anyways!!! So the other day we were at the church after correlation meeting and Presidente Reyes pulls us into his office and tells us that Paola (out part-member investigator) should be " challenged" to baptism. I had felt the prompting as I thought about who would be a good person to focus on this transfer and her name just kept coming to my mind a couple weeks ago. People kept telling me that it was going to be really hard because she was so anti and I just never really believed it. She has always been sweet to me and I know she's going to be baptized this transfer! I am so exited! I am so thankful and a little scared but mostly hopeful... :) prayers please!

So this week we had out Mother's Day fiesta:D it was way fun. Hno Ramon had volunteered us to sing at the activity and so I offered to play the piano, since my singing skills have been going down hill since Hna Winder left me.... Anyways so this part got moved last minute because when we showed up to get everything ready to set up on Thursday the gym was already extravagantly decorated for Mormon prom. Hey had taken every inch of the building except for the sacrament room and we were forced to move our fiesta to one of the members restaurants down in Nashville. So on Thursday night we called and communicated the news and the party took place on Friday night. Even after the late notice a lot of people showed up! Including David Archuleta. And guess who didn't want to sing? He didn't... and I also really didn't want to sing but guess who was forced into it since there was no piano?.... Yup this has got to be one of the most embarrassing moments of my life. Anyways, he was going around heading all the moms in the branch their food and topping off everyone's dish with left over rice. Unforgettable moments for sure! :) we had to go home around pumpkin time so we missed the dancing but it was still a great activity. We had three investigators go! AND the food was good ;D

I got to talk to my mommy and my broskie yesterday:D it was great! I feel really really grateful for my family and I love that I will be able to have them forever. 

Love, 

Hermana Orellana

Ps Here is a shout out to my bestie Ludo! Happy Birthday sweet girl!:D I sure love you! I don't know what I would do without you. I'm so glad life allowed us to meet and be a part of each others life. I hope you have a wonderful day<3 we will celebrate soon enough;)

Week 56

May the 4th be with You!

I'm staying in Goodlettsville! :D and I'm also staying with my companion! Transfer calls days are always the strangest... The sisters played a mean prank on us! We had gotten up to run that morning and while we were out running they had changed their name on our phone to President Andersen. Then around the middle of our comp studies we get a call from "President Andersen" and we start freaking out! I almost start crying because I absolutely dread going to transfer meetings and my companion is jumping up and down the room and the SISTERS are just hanging around the door laughing!... Then before we get the chance to answer the phone the phone stops ringing and sister Gus goes, "Don't call him back! wait and see if he calls you first.." and my companions is going, "this is not funny! Maybe president called the wrong sisters..." THEN! A couple minutes later the phone rings again and we freak out all over again but this time I answer the phone and on the other side I hear the girliest-trying-to-be-manly voice say, "hello, this is President Andersen" and I go".................... Hello?? President Andersen??" Anyways! The sisters did not hear the end of it... I think my companion tackled Sister Gus to the floor. 

What a day! That day we had also biked all over town and had taught really good lesson and met awesome new people who were supper GOLDEN! For transfers only sister Brown (the sister that came in half the transfer to be a trio with the STLs) is out, but the four "originals" stay the same. We were pretty sad even though we all knew sister Brown was leaving. I'm sure going to miss her! These have defiantly been the most adventurous moments of my mission. Living with four other sisters has been a blast! So I have a whole 6 more months in this amazing area! 

Also, just to set things straight I still have four months! I'm not done yet! I have time okay! I have just moved a lot on my mission and I am hoping president keeps me here in this area for the last 6 months. 

On to some happier news! Paola, my favorite golden/part-member/most stubborn investigator is doing great! This last Sunday I was just praying to know who was ready this transfer and I just keep think about her. It's so up and down with her because I never know what she is thinking. I'm sure she knows that we are planning on ways to get her into the baptismal font but she still loves us! :) I choose to take that as a good sign! On Sunday she had her two children blessed and while we were sitting in Relief Society she brought up the fact that she knows shes a "dry Mormon". The sisters joked about how she needs the spirit and she AGREED that she did! I'm almost positive she will be baptized by the end of this transfer:) Pray for her! This Sunday I also shared my testimony of prayer. We have been praying to find people that are prepared and so far its working:D

Some more random things that happened...

On Tuesday after finding hour we were pulling out of an apartment complex and saw a car stranded in the middle of of the entrance so naturally we stop to see what was wrong. Well it turned out that the lady driving was having, what we thought was a seizure and the side driver had noticed and turned off the car right in the middle of the entrance. At first we thought they just needed help with pushing their car and then we realized what had happened and we offered to call some help but the guys told us that it was common and that it would be okay. so we start heading over to our car but we have this really strong feeling to go over and offer help again so we do and we ended up calling 911. During the time that we are waiting we watched her have two other seizures. The ambulance eventually came and everything was alright and we got to help because they couldn't speak English very well so I got to translate for them. 

Today on our way to the church to email we saw another car that was stranded we pulled over and this girl had run out of gas we got her over to the nearest gas station (this was approved!) and helped her get her car off of the middle of the road. :) I love being able to help people like that. Its a good feeling you get when you can be an instrument in helping answer prayers. The cool thing is that you don't have to be a missionary to do things like this! You can choose to pull over and help someone who is having car troubles talk to the girl on the corner that looks likes shes having a rough day. Everyone can do that:)

I want to give a shout out to all the mommies in the world! We sure love you! Being a mom is hard and we are thankful for all the things you do that go by unnoticed. Moms are the best! Te amo con todo mi corazonsito mama!

Love, 

Hermana Orellana