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!

cookies with MIRACLES

"It is impossible for us to fail when we do our best when we are on the Lord's errand" Elder M Russell Ballard

This week this quote has helped me so much!

Well to start I wanted to do something nice and make cookies to get more people to come to our "Clases de Ingles" so I made cookies but it was my first time cooking something in CHILE and they don't have any numbers here on the oven it is either really high or really low so I burned my cookies that I was baking for the class. BUT we had 5 people come to our class plus the Elders were there so we ended up having ALOT of sucess and it was a BLAST! We were able to get people excited about coming to the chapel...even if it was for my burnt cookies! They were AMERICAN chocolate cookies so everyone loved them! haha. 

This week we also had Intercambios so Hermana Aquino went with another sister and I stayed in our area with another sister for a day. It was difficult because I had to be the leader and show her around but I am still learning. It was good though, it made me get out of my shell and lead her around. I LOVED IT! I was with Hermana Pierce.She is from San Diego, CA. She is super good at spanish as well...of course. She is SO EXCITED about everything. We made up dances and she showed me that you can really enjoy being a missionary. I am so thankful for her. She also told me she made bucket list of things she wants to do on her mission before she "dies" as a missionary. So I decided I want to start a 

 BUCKET LIST for my mission. Things I want to do before I "die" as a missionary. To try to make my life more fun, haha. Help me come up with cool things. Maybe google somethings random. I think it would be fun. Here is my list so far:

Hug a penguin (obviously) 

Eat ice cream in the POURING RAIN 

Take a picture with Santa Clause (did that!) 

Go to the bottom of the world (I hope I get set to that area!) 

I need help with other cool things to do. What do you think?? 

As for our investigators it is getting hard because their baptisms are in 2 weeks and we are really seeing the opposition starting to play a role. We have been having a hard time with Diego just to make sure that he is getting baptized for himself and not for his girlfriend! YIKES! I taught him the Law of Chasity and that was pretty awkward. I taught him and his girlfriend the law of chasity and in Spanish. It was just awkward all around. But we have another appointment with him today and we are going to talk to him without his girlfriend there so we can find out everything. He has a testimony of this gospel and he is so righteous! We just want to make sure he is ready!

Same with Daniela, she is having a hard time with her parents. They are not 100% excited for her to get baptized. But I know she will make a good choice. 

Anyways CONFERENCE is this week! Make sure to watch it! 

I will be watching it at the bottom of the world! 

love you all.

xoxoxo

Hermana McClary 

¡FIESTAS! VIVA Chile!

This week has been one for the books. I have never talked with so many drunk people in Español before! It was really entertaining but really hard to work because the streets were dead during the day but at night we could hear all the parties! I have never had so much CARNE! Here they just eat carne all day on Sept 18 and 19th. It is like Thanksgiving where all you do is eat food. But they also have their traditional dances. It was very entertaining.

I saw Hermana Davis this week and it was such a tender mercy. She was my first companion in the CCM. She is doing really well. It was fun to see her for a minute! 

Today I made Mac and Cheese! Can I say that I don't like mac and cheese from Chile. It is not my favorite. But it was a fun memory! haha, probably won't do it again! 

I made my companion grilled cheese this week too! She was so happy! She has never had grilled cheese. So crazy! It was just like the grilled cheese I love from ZUPAS...except it wasn't the same. It was still really good though. 

We didn't have a lot of work to do this week because of the fiestas! But it was fun to enjoy the members! 

Here is a picture of me in my pancho! The bishop let me wear his pancho to take some pictures! VIVA CHILE!! 

Also here is a picture of me and Hermana Eva. She is my favorite person. She is wearing the traditional Chilean outfit. She is so cute. And is the most friendly, loving person I have met her. She has a HUGE heart and she really just wants to help everyone even though she doesn't have much she is willing to give what she has for others. 

I had LOTS of time to study this week and I realized that when we are exact obedient we are ALWAYS promised blessings. Read D&C 63:23 because it promises blessings when we are obedient! 

Exact obedience brings blessing! I know the church is true and I love this gospel.

xoxoxo

Hermana McClary 

Macaroni and Cheese in Chile

Also here is a picture of me and Hermana Eva.

"FIRSTS" with Sister McClary

This week I have had alot of "FIRSTS"

First time 4 of our investigators come to church yesterday! IT was awesome! And we moved into our new house. It is so cute. I love it! It is new and super modern! I love it!

We didn't have hot water for the first few days so I made my companion wash my hair with the warm water we boiled. haha, she hated it but I LOVED the warm water. First time I have had my hair washed by my companion!

Today was fun I had to go to the ER for my foot. I have been having lots of pain in my ankle and it's getting worse. But I am okay! It was just so weird to go to the doctors and not understand ANYTHING they are saying. I need to rest and I am taking some medicine so I will be okay! First time at the ER in a different country! 

A member's husband in our ward this week pasted away so we went to his funeral. It was the FIRST time I attented a funeral in a different country. It was super interesting. I was able to teach lots of people about the Plan of Salvation. It was awesome! I know that families can really be together forever. I am so grateful for the knowledge of eternal families!

Update on Diego! He came to church alone yesterday and we have some members in the ward that have "become his friend" and it is awesome! He wants to move his baptism date up! So we moved it a day earlier. haha, he is so anxious to be baptized it is awesome and he wants to SERVE A MISSION! Golden!! I am so so happy! ! YES! We are having alots of sucess!! 

This week is the big FIESTA so it will be crazy. We cannot work for 2 days because everyone is just drunk and it isn't safe. So we have to stay inside. It should be interesting. I will keep you updated and post pictures next week! 

CHOW 

Hermana McClary