Diego's Baptism!

Hola,

So this week  I had my first baptism! It was AWESOME!! Saturday was so crazy, so we had the bishop come to the baptism and one of his counselors but our ward mission leader couldn't come and he didn't help us with anything! It was so stressful. Just because Hermana Vega was new to the area too so I had to pretend that I knew what was going on. But she helped me a lot! We were able to have our last lesson with Diego outside the church "in public" because none of the members could teach with us. It was so hard! But we made it work. We spent all Saturday just sitting at the stake center watching the water of the baptism font. We had to babysit the water just in case something happened! So crazy. But the baptism turned out to be amazing! 

I feel like I cannot take credit for anything though, Diego was so prepared and I just invited him to be baptized. He was so happy. It was so awesome to see his face after he came out of the water. HE WAS CLEAN! It was so cool to see the atonement work in his life. Diego is 19 years old and he is now working to serve a mission. He is a Golden investigator! Seriously Heavenly Father has been blessing me. I was so happy to be able to teach him and help him progress.

DIEGO'S BAPTISM

HAPPY BAPTISM DAY

I also have my new companion Hermana VEGA! She is from LAS VEGAS! So cool. I love her so much and it hasn't even been a week that we have been together. She is Mexican and she speaks really good spanish. She has 5 siblings and she has cool hipster glasses. One of the first things Hermana Vega said to me was "This cambio (exchange) you are going to gain weight" She LOVES food. hahah. So we get along great. But I told her that if we eat lots of food she has to run with me. haha, so that's a fair trade off. We are going to start running this week! I hope she is ready! She has been out on her mission for 10 months. She is really good at teaching and she has a really strong testimony. She shows me that you can enjoy your mission but still work hard! We are planning on starting BAKING CLASSES so that we can get more people excited to come to the church and get more people interested in Mormons. haha. I am so excited to start to work hard with her.
Also this week we had another sister with us on Thursday. She said with us for the day because her companion was sick so we were in a trio for a day. It was very interesting to say the least...let's just say there is a reason that we are suppose 

"two by two" like the scriptures say. It was really hard to teach with 3 people but it was fun to learn more from Hermana Ramos. She is from Bolivia!

HERMANA MCCLARY, HERMANA RAMOS, AND HERMANA VEGA

My memory card isn't uploading any of the pictures of the baptism but Hermana Ramos just gave me this picture so I will try to figure out what is wrong with the pictures and I will send you more pictures next week. But here is one of me, Hermana Ramos (in the middle) and Hermana Vega on the end. We had a pizza party the night Hermana Ramos came and we ordered pizza after a long day of working. 

It has been really humbling to be flexible. Everyday on a mission is so different. And when we get calls and people ask us if we have another bed and if we can have another sister with us for the day I have realized that you just have to say YES! I like my routine but this week was so crazy and I wasn't able to have the same normal schedule but I realized that I LOVED it. I loved being able to be flexible and I really grew to love Hermana Ramos.

She is back in her area now and her companion is doing so much better! 

Thank you for your prayers. The spanish is still really hard but I can really tell that I have grown so much in my Spanish. I just need to focus on working harder and really focus on being obedient on the time. You know me...I also had problems with being ready on time. So that is something that I am trying to focus on.

I know that Heavenly Father has blessed our family so much. I love you so much. 

More than you could ever know!! 

I am glad you got my letter! :) There will be another one coming soon! 

Until next week! 

Chow!

Hermana McClary 

4 Months

Hola,

Well I hit my 4 MONTH mark being on my mission! It has been super crazy but I am glad I am done with training because I now realize that time is passing! 

I have been so humbled this week. Our water heater broke and we had to get it replaced but everyone here in Chile takes forever to fix ANYTHING. So we didn't have hot water for a week! I have taken LOTS of cold showers. I will never get used to the FREEZING water. But I have been trying to focus on why this is happening and what I can learn from this. Also our baptism with Diego didn't happen. He had to work so TWO days before his baptism he called us to tell us he couldn't be there! I had sooooo much anxiety! Like no, I just want him to be happy. But this experience has really helped me be humbled. Everything happens for a reason! 

I had a talk yesterday in church and I was so nervous I couldn't SPEAK in Spanish I was stumbling for words and everyone in the chapel just looked at me like I was SO dumb! When I finished I just hurried off the stand and went to go sit with our investigator and just started BAILING! I couldn't hold it in. I was so embarrassed but I felt so horrible. I have been here for 3 months and I still feel like I don't know any spanish. But people tell me I am sounding alot better but I really think they just feel bad for me so they say that. 

This week I have been studying humility and in Mosiah 4:11 it says "humble yourselves even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come." I have been reflecting on that alot because I feel so selfish sometimes. I have been blessed with so much and all Heavenly Father askes of me is to "invite others to come unto Him"

And I know I need to get over myself and just focus on being the Lord's servant. Missions are so hard. But I really do love it! 

We have the baptism scheduled for this Saturday now! Pray that everything goes smoothly. I know that everything will be okay but it is nice to get some extra support from my family and friends. I love you all so much. Thanks for your prayers. 

I am working hard! 

con MUCHO amor,

Hermana McClary 

FAKE it until you MAKE IT

HOLA! This week I found the best scripture this week! "exercise a particle of faith, yea than desire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words"

Alma 32:27

Sometimes in life we want to just change and be perfect that we give up trying to progress ourselves. It is overwhelming to change all at once and I have learned that this week we cannot change all at once. We have to focus on one thing that we want to improve and little by little we will grow.This week I really had to apply that. I just want to be good at everything. Contacting, leading the discussions, explaining a scripture to someone, teaching by the spirit and so much more but I realized that Heavenly Father doesn't expect us to be good at everything all at once. If we just focus on improving on one thing at a time we can really develop and grow. 

So my moto this week was "Fake it until you MAKE it" 

This week Hermana Aquino and I got locked out of our house for the 2nd time! We have a new house so we don't have any spare keys yet so we locked ourselves out and then we were late to our appointment and then it starting to down pour. We just started laughing. We had to call the married Elder and Sister to come drill a hole through the door knob so we could get into our house! Here is a picture of that fun event. It made my bucket list for sure! 

We had an AMAZING miracle with Ignesia, we met Ignesia the first day that both Hermana Aquino and I were in Ovejeria. She is 21 years old and she speaks English so of course I love her! But she has been so hard to schedule a lesson with. She seems so interested but she just is so busy. She is an event planner and works with her dad planning birthday parties! (btw my birthday is in less than a month, just a side note for those of you that want to send me a letter. haha, you better get to it! jkjk) anyways we always get so close to teaching her. And everytime we see her we always get a step closer to teach her a REAL lesson. Well this time our appointments had fallen through and we were right by her house and I felt like we should go see if she was home! So we knocked on her door and she was HOME! she was sick so she wasn't working (lucky for US) so we were able to go inside her house and talk with her. Well we started asking her questions and right after we said a prayer with her and we were about to start to teach her there was a knock on the door. Her friends came over to surprise her. We just started to pull out the Resturation pamphlet and she had to go! We said a prayer with her and next time I know we will teach her. She is going to read the pamphlet! I cannot wait to teach her for reals! She is amazing! 

ALSO this week is Diego's baptism! He gets baptized on October 18th! He is so ready! I am so excited!! My first baptism and this week is my last week of my 12 WEEK TRAINING!! Hollah!! I will have pictures next week of him at his baptism! Yesterday we ate with a Sister in the ward and she fed us Roast Beef and potatoes! It felt like I was at home! It was AMAZING! I am so glad. But I have one more Pday with my companion until we have transfers and she goes home. I am so scared who my next companion will be but I know whoever it is I will learn so much from them too. 

I love my mission! The weather is warming up and now the bugs are out! I have 6 bug bites on one of my legs! I guess I just have SWEET BLOOD because I cannot seem to get them away from me. But I love this work. I am so grateful for all of your support.

Until next week! 

Hermana McClary 

We got locked OUT!

Volcano

Volcano

Osorno Chile

Thermas de Payehue

Thermas de Puyehue National Park

This week was really FAST! We worked really hard with the members this week so that way we could encourage them to watch General Conference. It is so funny the people here don't understand what conference is. So I had to tell so many members about the power of listening to the Prophet! It was so amazing because I was able to strengthen my testimony of the Prophet. I know that Thomas S. Monson is called of God and all his apsotles are called of God. 

I had many of my questions answered and I wanted to share some of my insights. What were your favorite talks??

 I LOVED Elder Dieter F Uchtdorft's talk because he talked alot about gaining personal light. I have been struggling with the fact that I don't know Spanish really well and I feel like my knowledge of the gospel is so small because it is so hard to teach people about the gospel and in a different language. BUT during his talk he talked about how there are some members with strong testiomies and some with developing testimonies. And how the process of gaining spiritual knowledge is during your lifetime. And it might not come as quickly as you desire but he said "I promise you it will come! And when it comes you will be spiritually uplifted and it will gradually be reveiled to you"

That talk was written for me. I have been seeking my mission president and trying to get help because I just want to be good at everything right now. But I have been really trying to take it a day at a time. I realize I am developing having LOTS of patience for others but I am not patient with myself so that was something that I have been trying to work on. 

I also really loved Elder Goday's talk. I loved how he talked about our patriarchal blessings and if we continue to live as we are living will the blessings of our patriarchal blessings be fulfilled. That hit me so hard. Because I haven't read my patriarchal blessing in awhile and I know that that is something that I need to be applying more in my life. If you haven't read yours in awhile you should read it. I promise that you can quailfy for the blessings. 

We made it up the hike of Thermas de Payehue!

Also went hiking up the Thermas de Puyehue National Park. It is here in Aguas Calientes! I saw the 3 volcanos! 

Punti Agudo (here is a picture of that volcano) I also saw Volcano Osorno and Volcano Puyehue! It is SO beautiful here! And the weather is starting to warm up so that is always nice!

Well I love you all and I know this church is true. 

Hermana McClary 

Big Big trees!