Hermana Catie Freedman Antofogasta Chile Mission 2015 - 2016: November 23rd

Hey Everyone!

Great first week here in Tocopilla!!! A little background info on Tocopilla. It's a little coastal town, about 3 hours from Antofagasta and it's one big hill. Holy cow. I have never been more tired in my life. The streets are kinda like roller coasters. Up and down, up and down, but I love it. Its fairly nice, because in 2007 there was an earthquake that destroyed everything so all the construction is new, also after the floods (this is the city that flooded with all the mudslides in the news a while back) there have been some updates to the city. I also thought there were lots of dogs in Arica but I was wrong. Never in my life will I see more dogs. They are everywhere. EVERYWHERE. The branch here is fantastic and the people are the greatest.

I am still getting to know the people here but we were able to make a lot of contacts this week which was great and hopefully we will have some new investigators this coming week. We had one progressing investigator this week, Elena, who had a baptism date for next Saturday but it ended up falling through. She is 9 and her family is less actives, so really it's probably a good things we wait to baptize her. As of now we are really going to focus our efforts on reactivating her family and helping them create a home with more love.

Hermana San Martin is a dream and we get along so well. She definitely speaks Chilean Spanish and I thought I was used to it but I was wrong. I can't count the number of times I have to ask her to repeat things, but hopefully after her I will be able to understand everything. She is the spunkyest person, loves to dance, and loves to move the furniture around. Haha. Last night we spent 45 minutes moving everything around. We spent the whole time laughing together.

Hermana San Martin and Catie in Tocopilla

The highlight of this week was definitely the conference we had in Antofagasta with Elder Cook!!! Our bus to Antofagasta left at 4:30 on Saturday morning and we arrived at about 8:30. It was so fun to be with the whole mission and see some of the missionaries from Arica, and especialy Hermana Jacobson from the CCM!!! It was a little weird that neither of my previous companions were there but that will never happen again, considering that Hna. SM has less time in the mission.

The conference was incredible and I received mountains of revelation. We were able to hear from Elder Gonzalez (President of South America South Area), Elder Soares from the presidency of the 70, and Elder Cook as well as their wives. Elder Cook had us write down 4 things and I have really been pondering them.

1. We are ward and branch builders.

-He talked a lot about how we need to continually be building the youth of the church because ultimately they are the future leaders of the church.

2. We succeed when we invite, regardless of the outcome.

- We can never have fear of sharing the gospel. We don't know the impact we can have!

3. If we are disciples of the savior, WE are the message.

- Our examples are everything, and people should be able to know what we believe by how we act.

4. Foucs your spiritual power on your teaching, planning, and purpose.

- For those of you who aren't in the mission maybe teaching and planning don't apply as much but really we need to always have our focus on our spiritual goals and focus our spiritual power on accomplishing our goals!

The conference was incredible and he bore such strong testimony. But...it was a little bit of a bummer because at the end there was a special musical number by some elders. they sang Praise to the Man, but there was a problem with the piano and speakers and I think they were oblivious to what was going on, but it was a rock concert. Holy cow. I'm surprised they didn't blow out the speakers. Elder Cook was painfully smiling on the stand. Always adventures in the mission.

I hope you all have the greatest week! Love you all so much!

Hermana Freedman