Only one workshop left?

Thursday was a wonderful end to my second to last workshop. I really can´t believe I will only do this one more time and then I will be done...Where has the time gone? I don´t really even know why it was so good, but there was just a good feeling behind it all and everyone ended really pumped and excited about the steps they were going to take to finding work. What I loved the most was that in the phone calls, every single one of them called a reference that had been given them by someone else in the workshop. They were really so great with eachother. After the workshop was over I helped several of them with making email accounts. (It baffles me that people still do n´t have email, but that is why I helped!) I also helped Victor, a recent convert, with a resume and then sending it with a letter of presentation. It was really funny because I could tell how much he had listened because he kept quoting me. I also helped a few women who had come in to the center to make some resumes. This was kind of interesting to me, because I think it is hard for people in general to talk about themselves. Society tells us that talking about our talents is prideful, so when it comes time to do make a resume it is hard for some. Others really don´t even recognize their abilities. I am really greatful for the opportunity to teach this workshop because it has taught me to see my abilities and also the areas that I need to work on. I am also grateful my parents taught me to work at a young age. I look at these fifty something women who come in and have literally NEVER worked in their lives and I am just amazed that women twice my age have no experience in the work force.

Yesterday I had a huge scare because I had misplaced my thumb drive. Since my computer is not currently working, it is the only copy I have of my work from this semester, so it was a little scary for me. I found it, sent in some homework, and worked on a few pending projects. I finished a book yesterday and started another. I still have three I need to read, but I am confident I will get it done before it is due.

Sarah went to Argentina, but because I have a lot of homework to do before my dad gets here next week, I ended up not going. Antonio invited me to an asado (barbeque) that his family was having, so I went. They roasted a lamb and when I say they roasted a lamb, I mean, it was a little lamb body without a head and the hooves cut off and skinned. It was the coolest thing ever! It takes about five hours to do, but oh man was it worth the wait. It was SO good. We watched the Colo Colo game on T.V. while we waited and I had fun visiting with his family. They kept teasing me because they couldn´t pronounce my name. I teased back that I had no problem saying theirs and that they just needed to practice mine. Antonio´s immediate family are members, but his aunt and uncle who´s house we are at aren´t. It was really funny because his cousin was talking to me and asked me how to say my last name. I told him and he repeated it almost perfectly. Then with the straightest face he said, ´Check it out, I have one drink and I can speak english.´ We busted up laughing.

Completely Wednesday

It appears that the processor in my computer is bad, which is why it appears to turn on, but doesn´t do anything. Gregory, the guy from my workshop, took out the memory and messed with it and came to this conclusion. He could be lying for all I know, but he appeared to know what he was doing so I am going to believe him. This means I will have no computer until I get it fixed in the states which = no pictures. I am going to try to find another way, but in the mean time, know that my face doesn´t change much from day to day. :) I have most of my work for this semester saved on a thumb drive, so I am safe for now.

Today´s workshop was great as usual. I lost three from yesterday. Two told me they wouldn´t be there and apparently the other one had some sort of transportation problem. The interviews were really good today and it was kind of neat to see how everyone reacted to certain situations. I am always amazed at who does well and who doesn´t in the interview process and what these blunt latin americans will say in the interview. I have this really funny Argentinian lady that in her interview straight up said she still wasn´t a legal chilean citizen...I told her she should probably not say that. When we got to the weakness part of the workshop, I noticed how well I was able to help them work on that. Normally I tell them that I don´t know them well enough to help them thi nk of a weakness, but today I was able to talk them through the process. Gotta love growing moments.

I went to the temple today after work. I had kind of an interesting experience and I have no clue what it means, but it almost felt like the first time I went to the temple. I called my older sister and we talked about it and I realized that I have not been this spiritually strong since I got home from my mission. This experience has helped me to get back into those good habits I made as a missionary and look for opportunities to serve and what not. I´m still not sure what to make of my feelings, but I am grateful none the less that the Lord still knows me. :)

All Smiles

My computer is on the fritz again so I don´t have any pictures to post still because I can´t get them off of my camera...but as soon as it gets fixed (and I am hoping that happens tomorrow) I will be throwing some pictures up on here. I can´t believe I am almost done here...BUT MY DAD IS COMING NEXT WEEK! And I am so excited about that. It has been kinda crazy trying to get everything in order, but I am gettin er done as they say.

Today was a great start to a workshop. Sarah and I are split up again this week because we had quite a few signed up in both centers. I have a group of 12 which is a pretty good sized group and they are a lot of fun. I have quite a few Perpetual Education students and today I started off a little different by explaining to them that even though they aren´t specifically looking for a job and they have to be in the workshop as one of the prerequisits for the PEF, I hoped that they would really internalize the principles and realize that one day they WILL be looking for a job and that it was really important to learn the techniques now. They were all really good about it and made some jokes later, but for the most part were really on the ball and working hard which I was appriciative of. I really love this week´s group. They are all willing to help each other and stepped out of their comfort zone fairly quickly. During lunch they all sat around talking together about life and the mission and then they started teasing me saying that all Americans were rich and all sorts of funny stuff like that. I explained that my internship wasn´t paid so they should be buying me food since I am currently making no money. It was awesome.

I was pretty proud of myself too because I did a contact within my workshop. ha ha, one of my students works with computers and when I saw that I asked him if there was any way he could look at my lap top to see what was up. He messed with it and then told me he was going to bring a tool tomorrow to hopefully fix it. If not I can´t wait to get back to the states and get that thing figured out because having a lap top that doesn´t work is the most frustrating thing in the world.

I was thinking today about how much I have grown and changed in the last three months. My first workshop was very interesting...and now I feel like I can teach this thing with my eyes shut. I wonder if that will be how it is for me once I graduate. I truly hope so. The Lord has really blessed me with a lot of confidence while I have been here and I have learned so many things about life and what I want to do with mine. When I decided to come down here, I wasn´t really sure why, but I knew it was the right thing and I think looking at who I am now I can see just why Heavenly Father saw it fit to send me here...again :) This has been a mini mission like experience and it has brought to my rememberance all of the good that one person can do if they just love the people enough and put forth the effort. I will always remember that, and I will always do my best to love the people I work with and put forth an honest effort to help.

One Great Weekend

Friday I read all morning and finished another of the many books I have to read for my classes. It feels good to see that little stack of books I have finished get bigger and bigger and I am really enjoying most of what I have to read. The spanish poetry has been great because it has really broadened my vocabulary which has been fun. The other day in our workshop I used the word exponentially in spanish and Sarah commented on how impressed she was. I thought that was pretty funny.

Friday afternoon was amazingly wonderful. My friend Gustavo, who is awesome and really thoughtful, and I went on a tour of the inside of La Moneda (the Chilean white house, kind of). We had gone out to lunch on Monday and I had mentioned to him that I had been there several times and never gotten to actually get inside so he worked it out so that we were able to take a tour. What a stud. It was really interesting, a lot more to do with the art and what not of the inside than the actual building, but it was still really cool to be inside and to imagine all of these presidents I have read about walking the halls. They have a replica room set up to be like the office of Salbador Allende, the president who died in the military take over in 1973. It was pretty sweet. (pictures will be posted tomorrow, don't you worry)

Then Sarah and I went salsa dancing with two of our friends who served in my mission but that I pretty much met here. One of them, Antonio, took our workshop a few weeks back. We went to this really nice salsa club and it was so much fun to watch all of these people dancing. I think Latin dancing is just amazing and so much fun to do. Alexis our other friend that was there with us was really good and was teaching us moves (and by teaching I mean I just kept the rythm and let him throw me around the dance floor and look good). Antonio wasn't as good but we had a lot of fun laughing the whole time because I kept messing up and stepping on him or hitting other people...Woops!

We got home...very late and then woke up a few hours later to head on a hiking trip we had planned with some of the YSA from our ward. The hike itself was so beautiful and it was about 8k one way up to this glacier. (pictures to come tomorrow) The glacier itself wasn't that impressive since I am from Alaska and all, but it was so fun to be with friends out doing something sporty. I realized while I was hiking that I had met another one of the goals I had set for myself while I was here. A year ago if we had gone hiking I would have been the girl in the back struggling to get up the hill without dying of exhaustion, but since I have been working so hard at getting in shape while I was here, I was in the front. I felt pretty good about this. We all got a little sunburned (okay a lot sunburned) but we had such a fun time. On the way home, I sat next two this american girl on the bus/van ride and we talked a lot about the south. She is heading down south around areas of my mission teaching english so we talked about the south and a little about mormonism. She studied spanish in college but was shocked she couldn't understand the chileans here...I told her it wasn't spanish and that was her problem. :) It was cool talking to her and we exchanged emails so she could write me because she really wants to get hooked up with the YSA programs down there so she can have friends and what not. I am excited for the missionary opportunity. I also think she needs to marry my brother...

I can´t believe I will only do this two more times...

Today I think it really hit me that in two more weeks this will all be over. I think this time leaving Chile will be harder than it was in the mission...I have been there for more low points and helped more people reach high points. I really can´t believe its almost over.

The last day of class was good. We had two people land jobs, one of them actually had several job offers and had to decide which one was going to be better for her. Several others had interviews and it just seemed to be a very successful day. I don´t know how to explain how great it feels to have our workshop attendees just throw their arms around me and thank me for the workshop. I am going to miss that more than anything.

Tonight I went to the temple for the first time in a few weeks. I think with all my planning for Peru I got caught up and I wasn´t on the ball, so it felt good to get there. I am always amazed as I sit through the session that different things stand out to me as if I had never seen or heard them before. What stood out to me most this time was the principle of being obediente as it pertains to the specific blessings we are seeking. It amazes me how sometimes I will pray and pray for something, only to realize that Heavenly Father can´t bless me with what I want because I am slacking in that exact area. As I make those small yet important changes I can always see that specific area opening up in my life. I read President Monson´s talk this afternoon about Joy in the Journey and one part really stood out to me that was also along these lines. He said that there are two parts to our lives, the things we have and the things we lack. If we focus on what we have and not what we don´t, it minimizes the feelings of inadequacy and maximizes the happiness and love we feel and show for others. What an amazing concept.

We stopped by the institute building on our way home since it is on the way and hung out with our buddies. It seems like just in the last few weeks we have been making more and more friends. What luck! Ha ha no matter, we are still grateful for the friends we have and the things we have been planning with them. It will be so strange to be gone...

Second verse same as the first little bit louder and a little bit worse

Day two of this week´s workshop was a little frustrating today. We started almost twenty minutes late because no one was there until then, so we had no one to start teaching at the appointed starting time. Because we waited, we didn´t have as much time to do a lot of the activities and were kind of rushed. This coupled with the fact that they had a hard time with the power statements and actually writing things down instead of telling me that it was ´in their head´ made for a long day. By the time we got to the finishing time I was ready for a break! We didn´t get as far as we would have liked, but we still got a lot done.

The interviews today were interesting. We have two professionals and then a room full of not so experienced workers. It was almost a struggle to keep them on task because they would analize things to the point that the conversation would go in all sorts of crazy directions. The joys of being a teacher. On a good note, two of our alumnos have job interviews tomorrow. This means they won´t be in class, but they promised to stop by afterwards and let us know how it went, so we are excited to hear about it.

After work Sarah and I did divisions with the sisters and for the first time, we actually had lessons to teach with them. Ha ha, we usually do the temple grouds tours with them or walk around doing contacts, so it was exciting. The first lesson was to some investigators that I had met in the church. They come every once in a while and have been investigating for quite a long time. We sang Joseph Smith´s 1st Prayer (Hermana Webber has an amazing voice and we have plans to start a studio and do music in spanish together :) I love the power that hymns have. After that we did a new member lesson with their most recent convert a man named Manuel about the priesthood. He is really an amazing man and as we talked about him soon receiving the preisthood, he kept asking questions and essentially said, ´Are you sure I am ready for that big of a responsibility?´ I shared with him what President Monson said a few years back about callings, ´Whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies.´ and explained to him that even though we may not know everything, the Lord calls us and then gives us the attributes needed to complete with the calling if we are willing to do our part and trust in him. After that we taught a peruvian couple Andres and Janet about the Plan of Salvation. They have a little baby, and when we got there the baby was kind of fussy and so I was worried about the lesson, but as we taught, the baby sat quietly, giggled and smiled the whole time. Little children are sometimes so much closer to the spirit then we think.

Its been a few days...

This is us at the dance on Friday. Sarah, Natali, Gustavo, girl I don´t know, Alan, me and Elder Quezada from my mission.

I have been slacking off with my blogging, so here is a catch up update.

Sunday I had a really amazing time at church. We happened to sit down next to some investigators in church and so I spent most of sacrament meeting teaching the guy I was sitting next to about our church. He had so many questions and I was so grateful the Lord had put me there to answer them. I felt like a missionary again and it brought back a lot of really tender memories for me. He is a really smart guy and was quite shocked about the word of wisdom, but he was impressed by it. He came to the YSA class with us and the lesson was on missionary work so myself and another return missionary talked to him more about the service that we give in the church as missionaries. He said he really liked church and that he was going to come back next week, so I am excited about that.

Sunday night we of course had FHE and the lesson was really awesome. Victor played this video of a graduation that Steve Jobs (the owner\creator of Pixar) gave that was amazing about goal setting and never giving up. I set a few long term and short term goals that I am really excited to complete. One of them is my upcoming marathon challenge in September. I doubt I will be ready for it, but each week I am putting in a few more miles so I am excited to actually complete it. The other two were kind of random, but ones that I have been thinking about a lot lately. I really want to start some sort of scholarship program to bring latin americans to the U.S. to study english. I don´t know why, but one day Sarah and I talked about it, and ever since then I have been thinking about how much that would help them, just to be able to learn english and then take it back to t heir country and use it. I am sure this won´t happen for many many years, but it is something that I really want to do. The other goal I have is to write at least one song in my life time that makes it to an EFY CD. That would mean a lot to me.

Monday I went running. It almost killed me but I did it and I am glad I did. I cleaned the house and then met up with my friend Gustavo for lunch. He took me all around and I had a really good time chatting with him. I feel like I have been really blessed in my time here to come in contact with some amazing people. Monday night was of course our FHE with the senior missionaries which was really interesting and about the Mountain Medow Massacre. I had never really heard anything about it so it was pretty interesting to me. Then of course we watched 24 with Todd and went to bed.

Yesterday´s workshop was AMAZING! We have a group of nine and they are all really energetic which makes it so much fun. Sarah and I were at our best (we are stoked to be teaching together again) and it just flowed so well. We had a few that were a bit skeptical of our methods, but over all they were just thrilled with what we were teaching them and were just feeling so good. They love us, we love them, life couldn´t get any better.

After the workshop I seriously put the pedal to the metal and I wrote three papers yesterday. Yeah, I am that cool. I am feeling good about what I am doing and I think I will be able to get everything done well before their deadlines. This is a good thing.

I also started calling people down south to let them know I am going to be down there. I am so excited and I really can´t believe this is going to happen. I am so excited to be there with my dad and show him the most beautiful places on earth!!

I met up with Sarah after her shift in the temple and we were going to go grocery shopping, but we ended up going out to eat with our ward that had just gotten out of Institute. It was fun and we laughed a ton which is always good...My time is going by too fast!!