9 months down, 9 to go-May 19, 2014

Hola Hola, 

  ¿Que tal familiaa? Ahhh I was so excited to hear that Carli had her baby little Kate!!!! She is absolutely beautiful and I can`t wait to meet her! Crazy that I already have 7 nieces and nephews and 2 that I haven`t even met yet! The Romney family continues to keep growing! And as much as I miss you all like crazy, this scripture gives me comfort in Matthew 19:29 - And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.

   How great is it to be serving a mission and doing exactly this!!

     Well as always, the mission is a roller coaster and this week has been full of ups and downs. Luckily the goods as always are much better and make all of the downs worth it! This next week coming up is our branch conference with a few activities this week! That is exciting and we are hoping it will really bring the branch together, because that is what they need. Lots of love and animo! Also since the missionaries basically do everything here in the branch, we have been putting together a choir for Sunday and that has been a hoot. Trying to get everyone to sing the right part while attempting to play the piano is always interesting, but we have had lots of fun with it and I know that Heavenly Father will help us, a lot! 

   Our investigators the family Arellano (Aida, Karen, Nadia, and Ivan) are doing good!!! Only the mom was able to come to church this Sunday since the rest of the family had to go visit their Tia, but she liked it and they are excited for the activities this week! We also have been working a ton on helping less-actives and recent converts to come to church or stay active in the church since this branch has a lot of problems with that. On Sunday it rained and of course that kills assistance and there was only 35 people at church..... so we have LOTS of work to do!! We are excited for Marta (less-active) though who we found the first week we got here to Estacion and now she has gone to church repeatedly 3 times now!! She told us that her weeks have been so much better since she has gone to church and she has a lot more animo now. 

 

     I know that these people here in Estacion NEED the gospel in their lives and I know Hna Oronà and I are here for are a reason. Even President emailed me this past week thanking me for taking on this challenge and that he felt inspired to put us both here. Pray for us and for the branch here! I know that the Lord will bless us, especially as we each contact 10 people a day (140 total in the week) because that is what the Lord has reveled to the area presidency! Hna Orona and I are doing just that and we have no doubt the Lord will bless us!! Thanks for everythign family and I love the mission and life and our Savior sooo much!!! 

Con mucho amor, 

Hermana Romney  

So I hit my 9 month mark and for Hermanas that means the 9 month güata!!!!! Or the mission baby bump!

A Family home evening with a les-active family we have been working with, the familia Landero! 

May 12, 2014

!Hola Hola¡

     Ahhhh family it was sooo good seeing your faces and hearing your voices yesterday! It really was just what I needed to get even more excited to work and to help the people here in Estación. I love how crazy it was having all 18 of us (with the neices and nephews) and everyone! And oh my of course no one can stay still and has to be making faces in the camera the whole time, but I LOVED it!! 

     Well you guys basically know everything from yesterday, so I think today I will mainly just send some pictures. The first one is of the activity that we had this Friday that I told you about. We made food from the different countries where we come from and I had our investigators (Aida, Karen, and Nadia) help me make Lemon Bars!! Ahh I had missed those! And then they came with us to the activity and it was soo great! We are really hoping for them to be able to progress. We watched the Restoration with them this week and I was praying so hard the whole time that they would be able to feel the spirit during the movie. Afterwards we asked them how they felt, and they loved it and felt that they could relate so much! Score! Then Nadia told me that this week she was walking home and that the name Joesph Smith popped into her head and that it came out of nowhere and she feels that God is trying to tell her something. Double score! So we have high hopes for them.

     Next picture is when my comp killed our pet rat... We heard a plastic bag rattiling when my comp screams that there is a rat and then she proceeds to grab the broom and starts wacking it like crazy!! It was intense and then we had to take pictures of course. 

     Then we had a zone conference on Friday which was AWESOME! I love President Arrington and he helped us so much! We got chocolate for our birthdays! 

 Well I absolutely LOVE the mission, I love Chile, I love my family, and overall I love my Savior Jesus Christ. Have a great week everyone!! 

Con mucho amor, 

Hermana Romney

Little towns and lots of Rain- May 5, 2014

Hey everyone!

   Everything is going great here in Cauquenes and since the town is so small we basically know our way around, so that has been much better! We have seen lots of blessings here and hope to be able to keep exciting the members here to go back to church! We have had some powerful lessons with lots of less-actives and have already seen some of them come to church this past week and hope to be able to help even more. Also as I think I said last week, the people are a lot more receptive and we were able to find 11 new investigators this week! Including a family of 4 with two daughters that love basketball and English so that has been fun! We are excited for them. When we got here the teaching pool was basically empty so we have been working hard to find some more people to teach.

        Also it rained 3 days non-stop this week so that was fun...kinda... haha. But nothing stops the work of the Lord and our energy either! Okay this is going to be a short one today since we get to talk on Skype on Sunday!! And I have been emailing some converts from my past sectors and so family you will just have to wait for awesome stories when I get home :) However, this sector is so much different than my last one and on Thursday we first taught a drunk man (husband of a recent convet...we didn`t realize it until we started talking...haha) then we taught a Gypsee (I think that`s what Gitano is in English?) who started talking some weird language between themselves and the spirit was not there at all and we got out as fast as we could.... then we taught an angry recent convert who was mad about something that another member said about her... so things are always interesting here haha. But really though I love it!! I had 3 different people tell me that I had an "angel" with me and that I should make sure and take care of it. I am pretty sure they meant the Holy Ghost, but it was super sweet.

   Anyways, I love the mission so much and Hna Oronà is amazing and I feel like we are always busting up laughing. I feel so grateful to be here in Cauquenes and to be serving in la mision Chile Concepcion. I love you so much family and that is so happy to hear that you are doing missionary work there at home with the Gladys Knight fireside! Keep up the good work and talk to you Sunday! And I am soooo excited for you Brad and Carli to welcome in my newest niece into the world hopefully this week! 

Con mucho amor,
Hermana Romney

Anita (our investigator!) at church and Nelly

Pic of the little town from a hill that we ran up to in the morning

My sweet Chilean hoodie!
With our district eating an amazing american breakfast with the senior couple (the Scholes) here!!!!

Cauquenes Estacion!!​!- Apr. 28, 2014

   ¡Hola y saludos de Cauquenes a todos!

   So this week was full of many moments getting lost, meeting lots of new members from the Branch, talking with lots of old people, having great lessons, getting lost, and getting lost some more. Hahah so it wasn`t too bad, but Hermana Oronà and I did have a good time trying to figure everything out. Hermana Oronà is awesome as well! She is a convert of only 2 years as well just like my previous companion and her parents aren`t even members of the church either. Just her sister and her, but she is amazing and has such a strong testimony. She is from Uruguay and is 21 years old and loves sports, so we are doing great together, even if I do miss my baby Hna Lino.

       My new sector Cauquenes Estacion is the exact opposite of my last sector!!! I am in el campo!!! Basically in a little town in the middle of nowhere. There are lots of old people missing lots of teeth haha, but very loving and sweet! Every night as we walk home I feel like I am camping since it is so quiet and really dark in some places where there are no street lights. Although every night the stars are super bright and I absolutely love it. I am pretty sure that we were the "big news" that came into the town when we arrived because we talked to the members who told us that their neighbors were talking about us....hahah so you can tell that there is not too much going on here. Everyone says that back in the day the branch here used to be awesome and full of active members, so we are not sure what has happened, but on Sunday I think we had maybe 55 people if we are lucky. The Branch depends a lot on the missionaries and yesterday I had to give a talk in church and teach the class - of course without any anticipation, but then what`s new? Haha at least I have had to do that before in Mexico when Dad would just tell me from the pulpit that I would be giving my testimony :)

       So there are lots of less-actives and the people just don`t have any desire or ganas to come to church. Everyone has told us that the Branch needs lots of love and energy to get back to how it used to be so we are hoping that we can help! The members have told us that they can tell that we have lots of energy and excitement to help and we are hoping to be able to transmit that to Cauquenes. Actually FAMILY: Could you please find some good scriptures that would be good to share with someone who has not come to church in a long time??? I would appreciate it soooo much!!  The people here however are really receptive and they actually stop to talk to us in the street whereas in Concepcion they would just keep walking and we would have to run along side of them, so that is nice! It`s a change, but a great opportunity to grow!

    Lots of miracles have happened this week as well!! I almost missed the bus with all of my luggage and my companion on it, but Heavenly Father hears our prayers and the bus had to make a big U-turn to come back so as I ran out into the middle of the road it stopped right on time! Then we brought an investigator to church named Osvaldo who stayed for all 3 hours of church. We had taught him on Friday and then in the morning on Sunday we went looking for someone else and didn`t find them so we invited him and he said sure since he didn`t have anything else to do! Haha. And lots of other little things that have just always made me realize that God is in control of His work, not me. I freaking love the mission and the opportunity to become closer to my Savior and help more of my brothers and sisters to do the same!!! I love you all so much as well and hope you have an amazing week!! Also thank you everyone for the birthday wishes, finally 20 years old!

 

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Romney

With Hna Orona my new comp!!

Then using my height to an advantage to help pick grapes in one of the many vineyards here in Chile.

With hna Richards from Dallas! Remember her Cath? 
I`ll send more picks of my sector next week!

Bringing the World His Truth- Apr. 14, 2014

¡'Buenos Dias!

 

        I hope this week was just as great for everyone at home as it was here. First off, Javier finally got baptized!!! The first time that we taught him was in December of 2013, but his mom, Maribel, was less-active in the church and it didn`t look like she was too excited to come back. However, their family was in a little bit of a crisis and needed help and so we arrived just at the right time. Well finally after she has become active again and we have taught her son Javier, he was able to enter the waters of baptism and make eternal covenants. His father, Carlos, who has been somewhat receptive also was able to attend and so we are hoping that we can help him follow the example of his son and be baptized as well so that they can become an eternal family and get sealed in the temple for time and all eternity!! Javier was grinning from ear to ear after his baptism and both Hna Lino and I noted that he had a new light to him afterwards and just looked so happy. Also Maribel came up to us after the baptism with tears in her eyes and just expressed her gratitude towards us for all that we have been able to help them do. As well as Javier, it has been amazing to see how Maribel has changed by coming back to church. The first time we were able to teach her she was just so negative about everything and now even she herself says that she sees things in a new light and is smiling so much more. I love seeing REAL change in others when they accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives!! 

        The rest of this week was also great. On Tuesday our District Leader asked us if we would teach the class to everyone, so Hna Lino and I got to teach everyone how to invite people to baptism with a date all in the first lesson! It went great and it probably helped us more than anyone else, but it went good. :) Then the Elders in our ward (who are crazy) decided to invent an activity at the last moment and of course wanted Hna Lino and I to teach the spiritual part so we had an object lesson on Lehi`s Dream and that was fun! Haha. Also we had some crazy fuerte lessons this week with new investigators that we found. Including two people who told us that they did not want to live in this moment and the thing they wanted most was to pass onto the next life. It really is incredible how many people out there need help and need to know that we have a Father in Heaven who loves us so much that he sent His son to the earth to pay the price for our sins so that we can return to live with Him in eternal happiness. I have no doubt that there are so many people out there that need our help and need YOUR help. I encourage all of you to lend out a hand this week to someone who needs help, whether it is physically or emotionally. It will bless your life and bless the life of someone else. 

    Well we have to go since I am going to be the first client of Alejandra (new convert of about 2 months now) who just opened up a massage room in her house. I am excited, yet a little bit nervous about it, but I hope it will at least be relaxing. Haha. Bryce congrats on your new Vocal Point CD release and for reaching #35 on Itunes!!! Daddy thank you so much for always going out with the missionaries there at home and for sharing your study of Preach My Gospel with me. Mom, thank you a million for the birthday package that I couldn`t wait to open up! It was perfect and you always know exactly what I need! Hope everyone is well and I love you all so much! 

Hermana Romney 

Pics from the baptism and our Noche de Hogar

Spirituall​y Fed- Apr. 7, 2014

¡Hola Hola!

        Did everyone just absolutely love General Conference this weekend?? It really was so great and just what I needed and I hope what our investigators needed to be spiritually fed. This week our whole focus was on getting investigators, new converts, and less-actives to come to church to see conference. It involved lots of running around to try and pick up as many as we could and getting members to drive them there, but it was so worth it! We wanted each of them to bring 3 dudas or doubts with them that they had about the church or what they should do in their lives and I am excited to meet with them later this week and see how that went. I as well decided to bring 3 doubts and questions with me and all 3 of them were perfectly answered! I really felt like the leaders of the church were talking directly to me. It is incredible how Heavenly Father can answer our prayers! I know that He really wants to answer them and as long as we are listening, we will receive answers to them!

      I have some new goals from conference that I want to work on and one of those is to really build up each of my companions that I am with. I loved the talks on gratitude, communication, the Atonement, loving others, and of course about missionary work!! I haven`t had anyone throw food or spit on me yet like in Elder Holland`s talk, but I can sure relate to that Sister Missionary! There were so many great messages and I wish that we could have another conference next weekend and every weekend after that! During almost every talk that I heard, one of our investigators or a member popped into my head that they need this message or something that would help them. I love the opportunity we have as missionaries to be able to concentrate all of our time and efforts on helping others to be happy and have Eternal Life!

      So turns out Fernanda`s baptism will have to be postponed a little bit. Her grandmother is the one who is a member and supports her, but apparently her Father is second guessing if she should get baptized or not. We had a lesson with all 3 of them this week and we were able to help her Father understand a little bit better the why of baptism and he is committed to read 2 Nephi 31 and pray about it. Hopefully he will come around soon and maybe we will even be able to have 2 baptisms instead of 1! However, Javier is set to go this weekend for his baptism. His mom this week wanted to push back his baptism again until the end of April because they wanted to buy him a big cake and wouldn`t have money until the end of the month to do that... dumbest reason ever haha. If a cake is what is impeding someone to have the opportunity to enter into the Celestial Kingdom someday, then I would gladly use my own money to buy a giant cake to be able to help them to have Eternal Happiness!!! But we cleared that all up and Hna Lino and I will be making a sweet cake for him! :) Evelyn went to conference with her 3 doubts and so we have Faith that conference was able to help her as well! Everyone else is doing good too, sometimes progressing slower than we want, but sure and steady!

       Today Roxana (our convert in December) took my comp and I today to go see the Huascar (a Peruvian boat that Chile captured) so my comp could see something from her country! But of course with our luck it was closed today...hahah but we got to see it from a distance at least and spent all morning with Roxana. Mom I felt like I was back at home going around with my mom again running errands and looking for clothes! It was so nice and I love that family so much.

      Well I love all of you my family so much and I hope that all of you were spiritually fed this weekend with conference and if you didn`t get to see all 4 sessions, I invite you to watch all of them online! Our leaders receive revelation from God for us in our day! How incredible is that! I hope especially that you all can take Elder Ballard`s advice and follow up on talking with others about the gospel and to study Preach My Gospel as well. I would love to hear how your study has been going in PMG as well! Hope you all have a fantastic week and stay strong in the Faith!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Romney

Opps... forgot the pics:

With Roxana, the boats in Talcahuano, and an old Texas sweatshirt in the Ropa Americana.

And the Rain Begins- March 31, 2014

 ¡Hola Hola mis seres queridos!

 

   I hope this week has been great for everyone and Happy Birthday Brielle!! So now here in Chile we have entered into Fall and we had the first big rain storm of the year and it was pouring!! It was also the first time my comp had even seen rain in real life! She is from Lima Peru and it never rains there and so this was the first time she has ever been in rain! She told me she has never even seen lightening in real life either! Crazy! But she was so cute and I thought she was going to melt in the rain at first haha but she`s a trooper and now we just need to go get some good rain boots and we will be ready to go! Also it has gotten colder here so far, but not near as cold as it will be in winter!  

   This week we got two new Elders in our ward who came from the mission in Venezuela since all of the foreigners got kicked out, so we are back to 6 missionaries in the ward again! So this week was really good and we were able to work really well with the members. It is kind of nice to stay in a sector for a while because you get to know everyone really well! 

    Okay so I really don`t have much time to write this week, but Fernanda is progressing so much and so is Javier and we are still set for their baptisms on the 12th. Also Fernanda drew a picture of me which I will attach in the email! She calls me Hermana Robney.... but close enough!! Haha she says I am a Rock Star because I played my Ukelele for them one time and she really liked it haha. 

   This week I had to give a talk in church too about baptism and the Holy Ghost and it turns out that I think I talked for about 15 minutes or maybe longer.... I didn`t even realize that the time had gone by so fast and then the Bishop had to put a note up on the pulpit to tell me it was time and I needed to finish... hahaha. I realized that I am really used to teaching lessons and not giving talks..... but it turned out well in the end!! I mean when you ask a missionary to talk about Baptism and the Holy Ghost, I have a lot to say!!! Hahah. But I wanted more than anything to invite all of the members to invite at least one person to General Conference this weekend! Ahhh by the way I am soooo pumped for Conference! Mom and Dad I am jealous that you are going to witness it in person, but I am so glad that we will be able to bring a lot of investigators to see it as well. That is my invitation as well to all of you this week, that you can invite a friend who isn`t a member or perhaps a less-active to the conference so that they can hear from a Prophet of God. I love you all so much and stay strong always in the Gospel!! 

Con mucho amor, 

Hermana Romney 

Pics: The drawing, celebrating Hna Skirvin`s birthday with Chinese food, and our converts taught us how to make Chilean Sopaipillas!!! Soo Good!