SUCCESSFUL WEEK!!

Dear Family,

I LOVED talking to you guys so much. Thanks for the family prayer, I miss those. I hope you LOVED Christmas, because Hna. Ribeiro and I definitely loved it. There is a true spirit during the Christmas time that softens the heart of the people. This week, we invited 9 people to be baptized!! It was SO awesome. Only 2 accepted dates, but that is okay. Our purpose is to invite, and we did that! It was so cool because when we invited them, we felt the love of the Savior there and knew that it was really Him, not us, that was inviting these people to change their lives and follow Him.

The two baptismal dates we have are named Bernarda and Jorge. They are super nice and like to listen to us. They accepted on the condition that they recieve their answer before the 23rd of January. Today we are going to go teach them about the Restauracion and the authority and power of God and what really was the apostasy. It was so cool because this morning, when we did our practices in comp study, I was testifying of the fact that they can pray to God the Father in the name of Jesus Christ and He will answer their prayers. It was SO amazing because when I said ´´en el nombre de Jesucristo´´ I felt the Spirit testify to us the truthfullness of those words, and the true power that come when we use that name in the right way. It surprised me that we could feel the Spirit so strong in just a practice, but I feel like it was God telling us He will be there testifying through us. I LOVE following the Spirit ;D 

So this week I actually have a couple of awesome stories. First, we found a complete family!! Mom, Dad, they are married which is a miracle, and FIVE sons!!! It was SO amazing because when we taught them in the first lesson, the Spirit testified to them that Joseph Smith was a prophet, and now the parents and their two older sons all want to read the book of Mormon. We gave them 5 ;D So each could read. It was cool because Hna. Ribeiro had contacted them before, but now was their time. The bad thing is that they are going to be in Santiago for the rest of January, so we are praying that missionaries knock on their door, and that they read the BoM. As we were filling out their registro for the carpeta, I was writing about their sons, and I suddenly had a feeling ALL FIVE WOULD BE MISSIONARIES one day. I turned to my comp and told her and the Spirit also told her the same thing. I LOVE the Spirit. 

We also taught a new investigator named Alejandra who has the desire to be baptized, but she is living with a man who isn't the most faithful and doesn't want to get married, but she has two daughters and doesn't want them to grow up without a dad. I couldn´t believe the love she has for her daughters!! We testified to her that the power of prayer is real and God would give her the answer she needs. I wanted to tell her to dump the guy, but we followed the Spirit :) 

Now, a couple of funny stories. One morning (the mornings are super hard because hardly anyone wakes up before 12 if they aren´t working) we weren´t finding anyone who wanted to talk to us. I turned to my comp and said, its okay we are going to find un milagro (miracle), and we kept searching. Then, she remembered a future, but had forgotten this woman´s name, but they had given her our phone to call her daughter because she was locked out of the house. When we passed by and I asked the lady her name.... she says, Milagro. D: I just look up to the sky and laugh. I know that God has a sense of humor, while at the same time truly leads us to the people who will listen, because even though she couldn´t receive us then, she told us to come back!

The other funny story is that we were in divisions one day and were contacting at the end of the day to take advantage of every minute we have to serve the Lord. We called at one house and a man came out and started talking to us. I thought he was drunk, but he just talks slow. As we were talking and explaining who we are, he suddenly starts saying he doesn't like churches. Then, he says I don´t believe in Jesus. And at that moment, the wind blew and his door shut behind him!! He didn't have keys and his fence was also locked so he couldn´t leave! It was SO funny because we told him it was a sign he needed to come to church! After a while, my comp realized that he had a side window open, so he could enter and be safe, but it was pretty funny. Be careful what you say. 

Well, anyway, that was my awesome week. I love the mission and the chance to learn every day. I hope everyone had an awesome Christmas and that you found someone to serve :) Have an awesome week!

Love, Hna. McCubbins

SAN JAVIER, THE BEST SECTOR IN THE WORLD

Dear Family, 

So this week has basically been the best week of my life!! I LOVE San Javier, which is my new sector. It is close to the big city of Talca, but more in the campo, or countryside. We have bikes because it is GINORMOUS. We have about 17 poblaciones, and to put it into perspective, my last sector had 2 poblaciones... It is huge. My new companion Hna. Ribeiro doesn´t even know the whole area, so we get lost a lot and just end up contacting ;D It is awesome. She is from BRASIL!!! I have to say, she is my fourth companion from Brasil, and I have fallen in love with that country and I LOVE being companions with Brazilenians. They work super hard and are SUPER funny. Also, I am learning Portugese a little bit, and we have little conversations in Portugese now, like To com fome. That means I´m hungry ;D But don´t worry mom, we don´t get hungry a lot. They feed us well here. We just like to say things like that. However, I am seriously thinking of learning Portugese after the mission. Maybe uncle John can help me ;D 

Anyway, I LOVED this week. I have a couple of stories to tell, so just hold on. First, we were contacting one day in the night because we had passed by everyone that was in our plans and we decided to just let the Lord take us where He wanted. So we contacted a couple of people, gave them some of the little cards that have the christmas video link and laughed a lot (because that is what me and Hna. Ribeiro do, we laugh and smile). Then, Hna. Ribeiro felt that we shouild talk to a joven of about 14 years, so we did! His name is Vicente and he had just come from a pool with his family, but had left before them to get home, and they were on the way. It was a normal contact, nothing too special. We gave him a Christmas video card and left, and saw his family on bikes as we were leaving. To not be awkward, we just waved and smiled at them, thinking in our heads we would just pass by another day. But THEN, we were eating lunch yesterday in the house of a member named Eduardo (his story I will tell after) and as we were finishing lunch, IN WALKS VICENTE!!!! I looks over at us and we at him and Hna. Ribeiro and I (both at the same time because we are connected already) say, Hey are you named Vicente. His grandpa, Eduardo looks at us and asks how we knew!!! We explained it all and in walks Vicente´s parents, Eduardo´s son and his wife. WE WERE SO BLOWN AWAY!! We talked a little bit and then they had to leave, but they said we would see them later!!! IT WAS A MIRACLE!! It is SO cool what happens when we follow the Spirit. The world is SO small. After that Eduardo told us that the mom of Vicente came to Eduardo´s baptism and said she felt like one day she would join the church. We feel now is her time!! But only the Lord knows. It was SO cool!! 

Anyway, so Eduardo is about 70 years old and was baptized 2 years ago!! He is married to a SUPER Catholic woman, who is SUPER nice, but I think that fact that her husband changed religions made her be more catholic because there are SO many saints (they call them santitos) in her house!! As if to say to us, the missionaries, I am Catholic and won´t change, so don´t even try. But she is SUPER nice and makes lunch for us every Sunday, and she cooks SO good, and super healthy. It was so cool to talk to Eduardo about why he decided to get baptized. He got to the point in the catholic religion where he was going to be sacerdote, priest I think? But he said this religion really helped him come to know Jesus because the catholic church doesn´t force anyone to keep the commandments, so really anyone can be catholic. He loves the Book of Mormon and is truly converted. I love when we meet people like that :) I think that is what lacks a lot in a society where there are a lot of mormons, conversion. Where someone lives the religion because they have come to know Jesus, truly. If you haven´t found your conversion yet, I invite you to read the book of mormon, pray with your heart, and go to church to learn what God would have you change in your life, not to just listen and continue on with your life the rest of the week. It is SO cool what happens when we actually live the gospel of Jesus Christ. Everyday, I am trying to ask myself in my personal study, what would God have me learn here, or change, to become more like Him? Try it, it is SUPER cool what happens ;D

So, that was our week, I love serving here. It is a little branch where about 60 people come to church every week. And they are humble countryside people, which is even cooler, because God doesn´t judge us by the statuses of man, but by our potencial to become like Him. Our branch president has the biggest smile I´ve ever seen in my life. I think his face has frozen with that smile because he has it even when he is serious. I am excited to work here, and I actually am praying that I finish my mission here. I don´t want to go anywhere else, but I will go where the Lord sends me. 

You all are super awesome. I hope you find someone to serve this Christmas season. Our branch president, on Sunday, talked about how we aren´t celebrating our birthday, we are celebrating the Savior´s birthday, and we need to find a worthy gift to give Him. In the Liahona for December, Pres. Monson talked about visiting people in hospitals, who (a lo mejor) wouldn´t recieve visits from their families. Find someone this week who needs to feel the Savior´s love, and pray to be the tool in His hands to uplift them and share the spirit of Christmas. It is SO amazing to give to others and know that He is proud of us when we serve our fellow men who truly need it. I love you guys so much. I can´t wait to talk to you guys this week! It will be awesome!

Love ya, 

Hermana McCubbins

Beach Blonde

Dear Family,

We saw SO many miracles this week. We have been mostly contacting and we found like 7 new or future investigators that are SUPER awesome! Sadly, I am changing my sector to Talca, San Javier. I only stayed here for one change!! Hey, but I have to go!! Sorry, ran out of time! Just love life!!

Hna. McCubbins

 

Hot, but Awesome Weeks

Dear Family,

This week was super hot, and I loved it!!

We worked super hard, and I loved it!!

We felt the spirit tons, and I loved it!!

We testified of our Savior, and I loved it!!

This week we had a lesson with a less active named Rodrigo. He was the one I said would go on a mission. Well, he didn´t come to church because he stayed out until 6 in the morning partying!! We were SO disappointed. And he hadn´t read nor prayed. We started the lesson with the new christmas video about how the world would be without our Savior. We asked him if he believed Jesus was his Salvador, and honestly, he told us he wasn´t so sure. But then he asked the golden question of the century: ¿Qué puedo hacer para saber que Él es my Salvador? or in other words, What can I do to know that He is my Savior? En serio, that was my FAVORITE part of the lesson. I recognized that he was lacking in faith and all we had to do was testify of Jesus and the power of prayer and the Book of Mormon. He promised to read and pray that night. When we called to follow up on his tarea, he said he read and read a little more!!! And, this is my favorite part also, he said he felt something different!! HE FELT THE SPIRIT!! To be completely honest, after we hang up the phone, we started jumping up and down completely happy and excited for him!! It was SO awesome!! I can´t even to begin to describe how happy we are when the people complete their committments and feel the Spirit. He is going to serve a mission and change LIVES!! 

The other awesome thing that happened was that a less active hermana, who I thought was never going to progress, started reading the book of mormon all by herself!! We saw her in the street one day and she was more than happy to tell us that this time when she started reading, she actually understood what it was saying!! We were SO happy!!

The other other awesome thing that happened was that we had a family home evening with our convert family and a family of less actives because they are friends. We showed the videos of Christmas and talked about how the world would be without Christ. It was SUPER spiritual and the games we played after were SUPER fun, but that isn´t all. The next day in testimony meeting, the hermano of the less active family got up and bore his testimony about how much that fhe helped him!! It was a tender mercy for me and my comp. Then the convert family, both of the parents, got up and bore their testimonies, also tender mercy!! I ALMOST cried. ;) 

So that was my week. I hope you guys had a week full of miracles too. And if you didn´t, go out and make your life in such a way that there are miracles everyday. You just have to open your eyes and they are there. Love you!!

Hna. McCubbins

Unidad en TODO!!

Dear Family, 

To start off, read Mosiah 18:21. It basically blew my mind this morning. I love this because I have set a goal to ask myself a lot more: What would Jesus do? whenever I come up with a difficult situation. I think LOVE is always the answer. If a decision divides us, it is a bad decision. Search for unity in everything! 

This week Francisco our investigator was going to get baptized this Saturday, but he still hadn´t received his answer about Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity. When we went back to invite him to baptism again, he didn´t accept, but he is going to pray and ask God for a specific time to get baptized and call us when he receives it. In the mean time, we are going to let the Lord work on him a bit more and keep searching for new investigators. Also, we have a man named Miguel who is a Mason. He loves to search for knowledge and ask weird, difficult questions that sometimes tienen nada que ver. 

Anyway, there is not a lot to talk about this week, but I love you all a ton! Have an amazing week and follow your heart!

Hna. McCubbins

Look at the beautiful weather and beautiful sister missionaries.

Me pasó lo mismo que cuando fue la Hna KiniKini con usted en divisiones!, es usted una misionera muy Bkn! Aunque sí me da vergüenza :x, es muy graciosa :). Espero poder verla otra vez! Y prepare chistes ^^.

Que tenga una muy buena semana!

Nicol Escárate Vásquez :)

This was an investigator I was working with in Alameda. 

We helped her to drop coffee and now she got baptized!!! They are so awesome!

Awesome Zone!!!

There's a bit of a height difference.

Thanksgiving, American style!!!

The Most Unlucky Number in the World

Dear Family,

This week was AWESOME!! I don´t know what it is, but I have a TON of energy and just want to talk to EVERYONE. I think it may be bothering my companion a little bit, because sometimes I cant sleep, I am just thinking about all the people in our sector and how they are progressing and want to find new people and the ward is awesome, I just LOVE it!! Can I just be a missionary for forever?? 

This week, we found a less active who was baptized two years ago and then moved to Santiago where is was studying and never went back to church. But then he moved back here to Rauquen with his mom and sister and dad (all less actives) and when we passed by to help out his family, we met him. He is awesome!! He has a ton of animo to return to church and do things right. We shared Mosíah 2:41 and shared about how working towards heaven is like climbing a mountain. He was paying attention and participating while his mom and sister were a little distracted. I had the distinct feeling that he his going to be a missionary!! (Has 23 years). And right after the lesson, we practically FLEW to a members house of a return missionary who came back maybe 5 months ago to tell him he needs to be Rodrigo´s friend!! I was SO excited I could barely contain it!! I KNOW he is going to serve a mission, and change the lives of a TON of people. He said he is going to come to church and the YSA activity this Friday. I CANT WAIT!!

(Sorry, I got super excited and accidentally sent the email without finishing. But yeah, that was cool.) 

I think this sector mostly excites me because there are new families moving in everyday and they are young families. It is a LOT easier to help young, willing hearts change than old, stuck in their ways catholic hearts. I just want to talk to everyone and help them experience all the blessings that Heavenly Father has for them!! Hey, you guys need to go share the gospel with someone this week, you could change a life!!! ;D

So... I just had a revelation, and I think my energy that I have has been coming from reading the book of mormon again. We need to read it before the end of January and I, being a book of mormon nerd, am ahead of schedule and LOVING what I learn everyday. I just want to read my whole personal study, but I cant do that. Have to prepare for investigators too. So, if you want a ton of energy, so much that you can barely contain it, read the Book of Mormon, Ok?? I PROMISE that the Spirit will be poured out into you life more than you could EVER imagine!! 

You guys are awesome. Eat lots of turkey and mashed potatos and stuffing for me. Get this, there is a family here in the ward where the dad is gringo and they lived in Utah for 7 years!! So they know how to Thanksgiving, and they invited us to a Thanksgiving lunch (since lunch is the biggest meal here) and they are going to do it American style!!! I am SO excited I can´t even contain it. 

I love you all a TON!! Read Jacob 7 and pay attention to when it says their lives where like dreams. I had a mind blown this morning!! This life goes by SO fast, so enjoy EVERY MOMENT!! And laugh more than you cry or get mad, it is the best therapy.

Love,

Hna. McCubbins ;D

Hna. Sandra. It was her birthday. Her husband is SO funny and they have the cutest little boy named Oscarito. I accidentally said Oscarcito one time and they laughed a ton.... ;D Oh, and here is my companion too. Hna. Révolo de Peru ;D She is AWESOME!!

Our apartment complex, just to show you guys how protected we are. ;) 

Our crazy Zone. This is probably one of the best zones I have been in. We are SUPER united.

This is the view from our apartment. It is awesome!!

Sunburns and Bloceador

Dear Family,

This week was SO hot, and just from the sun ;D Here in Rauquen, the work is super good. We have 8 recent converts that we are working with to help them get involved with the ward, and there is a HUGE attack from Satan right now. I dont have a lot of time, but just remember, family is the MOST important, especially your heavenly family, like Heavenly Father and your big brother Jesus Christ. Do EVERYTHING you can to keep family unity and strong in the church TOGETHER. Family prayer, family scriptures, family home evening EVERY week, going to church and even going to the temple, ALL are ways to win the battle against Satan. It is SO much fun to have a happy family, and especially as a missionary, it makes me SO happy to see a strong, complete family, sealed together in the temple and with their eyes fixed on the celestial goal, willing to do EVERYTHING they can to get there together. There is no room in the Celestial Kingdom for selfish people who only help themselves to get there. If we are not helping our brothers and sisters, especially in our direct families get back to God, I am convinced we will not be found worthy to enter into His presence. God put us into families for a reason. :D I love you all. Give your family a HUGE hug this week, or  a mind hug if you are far away from them. I love you family!!

Hna. McCubbins

EXTRA MESSAGE: Right now, I am not really concerned at all right now. Maybe just helping my companion to not flirt with the elders because she is new and doesnt completely understand where the line is yet between good relationship and flirty relationship with the elders. But it is good. I am also starting to realize that after this change, I will only have 3 more changes left in the mission and that makes me super sad, but super energetic and I want to be out working ALL the time!! I have a saying right now that we work hard, rest hard, eat hard and play hard. We do everything to the max and just love it all! I LOVE contacting, I LOVE inviting people to baptism, and I LOVE reading the scriptures, I LOVE going to church. I gave a talk this last Sunday about the Book of Mormon and I LOVED the spirit that I felt as I talked about how it changes our lives, this amazing book. So that is really what is going on.

These lovely ladies at Jessica's farewell. They helped to make he who she is.

No se ponga Trunky

Dear Family,

I forgot to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Baby Kate!! Love ya girl!! I didn´t forget about you, I just didn´t remember in the moment. But I remembered that day ;) And we actually saw a miracle that day! My new companion Hna. Révolo and I went to visit some old investigators and they were super receptive!! So we had a lesson with them and invited them to get baptized the 28 of November. They accepted! They just need to get married and then they can get baptized. So we are super excited for them. I think it was a miracle just because it was your birthday, Kate ;D I hope you had an amazing day. I can´t exactly remember how old you are.... but it can´t be older than 5 years right?? ;D (Love ya mom).
And also, I have to say Happy Birthday to Dad too. I DO remember how old you are, but don´t worry, you aren´t that old. People always ask me here how old you and mom are when they see our family fotos and I tell them and they are surprised. Its because here, the pattern is that people wait to have kids, then have only two or three, with a lot of years in between their kids, because it is SUPER expensive to have kids here for some reason... So don´t worry, you are super young for a dad that has a 20 year old daughter ;D I hope you have an amazing day and that all your dreams come true ;)

This was an awesome week! I LOVE being back in Curicó. I have been seeing some people in my old sector Alameda and once the word spreads that I am super close, I am sure lots of people are going to come visit. It is an awesome city and I am super excited to work with Hna. Révolo. My Spanish gets better every single day and now we are going to try and teach her English.... if I can remember it... But anyway...

I love you guys tons!! Hey, if you have a missionary experience this week, write me about it!! Just read the quote down below... That is all I have to say ;D

Love, Hna. McCubbins

This is my new companion Hna. Revolo from Peru. She has 3 months in the mission,
straight out of training, and SUPER amazing. 

We went up the big hill in Curico like we did last time I was here in the city. It was AWESOME!

Take the Heat

Dear Family,

Thanks for all the pictures! I love to see your faces! I received changes and I will be going back to Curico!! But to a different barrio called Rauquen that is right next door. It was super hard to say bye to everyone in Centinela, but I also am super used to changing now. This will be my sixth sector and 14th companion ;D It is awesome and hard at the same time. 

This week was super cool. In sacrament yesterday I was writing people in my agenda who didn´t come to church so we could go visit them later. I wrote down Hno. Silva who is super awesome and I was super sad he didn´t come. But then, right before the sacrament, HE WALKED IN!! I was SO happy, and then without wanting to, I started crying because I had just been praying that he would come. His family is so awesome and his wife especially wants to get sealed, but he needs to come and recieve a testimony first. I just had tears in my eyes when he walked in and couldn´t hold back my joy! That is the mission life, you get super happy if you see even a little progress in someone! I know they are gonna get sealed one day! 

I am going to miss Hna. Darrington and Hna. Silberman. They are probably the only two hermanas that could have made a trio work in the mission. This was one of my favorite changes and I grew SO much. We might have to go visit Brazil... ;)

Anyway. I love you all. I hope you guys uplift someone with loving words this week and just give them a big hug! Fill the world with Christ´s love!! 

Hna. McCubbins

This is my second family here in San Fernando. Fernanda just got back from a mission in Colombia and is trunky for the mission (when you miss it really bad). 

We are helping the hermano get back to church by reading the book of mormon every day!
They are so cute!

These are two menos activos that we are helping to get re activated. Marcia, the mujer, is preparing family names for the temple and Mariela, the joven, is preparing to go to the temple! They are super awesome!

Awesome family too. Hermana Elizabeth is one of the most consecrated members I have met. She leads the music in sacrament, Pres of Mujeres Jovenes, teaches seminario, and used to be in charge of the Liahona. AND she, unlike a lot of people, finds time to go to the temple every month, despite having a full time job and being the mom of two kids with her husband less active. She needs a medal!

We went to Santiago!!! Hna. Silberman had some health problems so we went to the doctor up there. We got to visit the temple a little!! It was so awesome. Go to the temple this week!! All of you! ;D
There are some that don´t get to go for a year and a half...

Oldie but Goodie

Dear Family,

Just so you know, your body has a clock inside and knows when you complete a year in the mission. I don´t know how it knows, but everyone says you kind of go through a crisis when you complete a year in the mission, and it is true!! I just got hit with a wall of fatigue and it felt like a bunch of bricks just fell on me! We not only age 10 years spiritually, but 10 years physically also. But its all good. I am fine now ;D 

This week we have been working a lot with our little branch to get them excited about mission work. They are having some difficulties and we have a strong testimony that sharing the gospel is what can help them the most. If you want to keep your testimony, you gotta share it right?? ;D So we have been giving Books of Mormon to all the members and inviting them to share it with someone, and that we would be checking on them to see if they did it. There are actually a lot of members that get excited when we give them a book of mormon and they say, I know exactly who I am going to give it too!! It is so awesome! We are hoping that this will help us to get references because, igual, we have been finding a lot of new people, but it is even more awesome when members find and we teach because then the new investigators have a friend and everything! 

Also this week, the reality that I only have six months left just hit me and I have been thanking god for everyday and every chance I have to be in the mission. I have grown a big testimony in enjoying the time the Lord gives us to live, to go through hard things, to grow, and especially be in a mission. I invite you all to just enjoy your life because it will never be the same again! Things will always be changing and you will never get some things back. You guys are awesome. Go give a book of mormon out this week to someone you can introduce to the missionaries! 

Love ya!

Hna. McCubbins

This is what happens when you have time in the mission. A LOT of time.

We went and got hair massages last Monday. My hair is SUPER soft.

After results.

Sunshine and Butterflies

Dear Family,

This week was a week full of miracles! We ended up finding 5 new investigators and 2 new families to teach and begin working with. The people here are so humble and receptive. They just need a little help keeping their committments. We also found a menos activa that is really receptive, but commitment is a desafío for her also. However, she felt the Spirit when we read 3 Nefi 13 with her and now she needs to put God first more in her life. She is super sweet and I feel like she is going to progress a lot. We are also working really hard to help the branch here. I feel like we aren´t progressing as much as we could be because of basic problems like reading the scriptures personally and praying, then doing that with the family also. So, we have a plan to visit the members in our sector and invite them to share the gospel with the people around them. This helped a lot when we invited our other menos activa to do it and it has helped her have more of a desire to share and be active in the church. Marcela our recent convert didn´t come to church because her WHOLE family came to stay this weekend. It made us worried so we went and visited her. She is ok and felt really bad that she didn´t go to church. In fact she gave us cake to make up for it... However, in the two weeks since we invited her to read the book of mormon in six months, she has read all the way to 2 Nefi 25!! She loves to read and it is a huge testimony to me that this book has divine power to change lives and our nature. Since she didn´t come to church, she wasn´t able to have an interview for the temple, but we are going to try to get her an interview this next week. She has a son in Santiago so it will be super easy for her to find excuses to go to the temple and do ALL her family history work. She is staying strong and told us that this week, when she had a little thought to not read the book of mormon, she was reminded of when we told her that Satan would try to get to her, so she just said a prayer and kept reading and felt a ton better. It is amazing how the armor of God works! It is also super amazing because now her husband is interested as well. He won´t accept us to come teach him yet, but he has a book of mormon and read the beginning and listens to Marcela talk about what she learns. I have faith that the Lord will lead him to listen to us when it is the correct time. He is super nice and repects Marcela a lot for her decision to be baptized and told us that he has seen a huge change in her. They are super in love and have almost 35 years of marriage. It is super cute. 

So hey, something super cool. Last night at about 11.45, we had a little earthquake (temblor is little, terremoto is huge) of about 4.5 and the epicenter was in a little pueblo about 30 minutes away from San Fernando, where I am. It was super cool because we woke up and it lasted for a while, about 15 seconds. It was a little scary because it was building, or getting stronger for a good 7 seconds, then started dropping after that, but Hna. Hellbusch told me that if an earthquake builds for longer than 8 seconds we need to seek shelter, so when I was counting and it wasn´t dropping, I thought the world was going to end!! It was super awesome. If you want to know what an earthquake feels like, just go on a roller coaster and its about the same, but not as extreme. Earthquakes are only scarier than roller coasters because they aren´t planned and cause damage. :) It is also cool because the weather changes whenever there is an earthquake. I don´t know why but lately we have been getting sunburns from the tons of sunshine and there have been a ton of orange butterflies everywhere. But today, there is nothing but rain and clouds!! I think all the butterflies died... :(

So I know that you maybe are a little sick to hear this, but READ THE BOOK OF MORMON EVERYDAY!! And don´t just read it, but study it, absorb it, dive into it, eat it!! (maybe not that last one). Because I am never happier in life than when I read the book of mormon and feel the Spirit testify to me of truth. Life has meaning and makes sense and I get super excited to do what is required of me when I read this amazing book. Make a promise to read it everyday. One of the speakers in general conference talked about ponderizing a scripture every week, and I can testify that he understands the importance of scriptures. Can you imagine how good of an impact it would be if everyone read the scriptures everyday and applied them to their lives?? Our less active Susanna, after we read 3 Nephi 13 with her, made an awesome comment when she said, El creer in Jesucristo es demasiado bueno. Su vida va a ser demasiada buena. It is super funny because she basically saying that it will make too much of a good life to live the gospel. It is just TOO GOOD. And why not want that? :) The challenge for this week? Make your life TOO GOOD and TOO HAPPY by reading and praying and going to church. :) Just fill your life with Jesus and be happy ;) 

I love you all. Have an amazing week!

Hna. McCubbins

Jessica will have been on her mission for one year this Thursday, October 22, 2015. These pictures look back at the starting points of her mission. She has grown and learned so much this year. It's been an amazing journey for her.

This picture was taken when Jessica first got to the mission field.

This is the first picture of Jessica with her missionary name tag on.