There are NO promises on the mission! ;)

Do you know the power of modern day revelation? Do you understand how big of a blessing personal communication with the Spirit, with Heavenly Father is for us? 

This week we received a call from President Warne that he felt very strongly that both Hna. Hall and I needed to be changed to Machali immediately. We had 24 hours to pack and left Tuesday at 4 pm. Long story short we were doing a whitewash here in Machali for a full week. Then, last night, Pres. Warne called us again and informed us that we needed to be changed again, a week before actual changes, but this time NOT together. Hna. Hall will be staying here in Machali, while I go to Talca, way down south. Needless to say, I have learned to just trust President because I have faith in the Lord and know there is a reason for everything ;)

So, this week I learned a lot about ward strength also. The ward here in Machali is stronger than a lot of wards here in Chile. There is an average 195 members every Sunday, and we have heard TONS of stories of converts to the church who said the main reason they were baptized was because many people were helping them learn and grow and have spiritual experiences. The Relief Society President is a conversa de 3 años, and she was baptized by David Archuleta!! (CRAZYYYYYY!) Needless to say, she has been a member for 3 years, and is already Relief Society Pres. and her husband who was baptized with her and the rest of their family also now has a calling in the stake. Their 16 year old daughter already wants to go on a mission, and goes to seminary more than a lot of the other youth here in the ward ;) 

We also heard another story of a usedtobe Atheist man who met the missionaries, was converted, and now has gone crazy with reading EVERYTHING about the church, from church doctrine, to now he can read AntiMormon books and prove them wrong with scriptures and everything!! It is awesome! I wanted to meet him and ask him tons of questions, but now I don´t have the time :(

We also heard a story of a lady who met the missionaries, and they gave her a book of Mormon, and she loved it SO much, she read it in one night!!!!!! CRAZY!! Now she is baptized and fully active. 

With all of these awesome conversion stories, I sometimes ask myself how converted I am to the gospel. Do I love the scriptures so much that I would read them in one night if I had the time? Do I actually like reading Church doctrine all day? (That man, one missionary told us, has probably over a million pages of church doctrine and talks by prophets in his house.) I am growing in my love for the book of mormon everyday, but I don´t know if my love for it is THAT deep. I need to work on that more. 

Speaking of reading the Book of Mormon, I WISH I COULD READ IT ALL THE TIME!! I have noticed (because I only read it in Spanish now, with a dictionary at hand in case I can´t find the meaning of a word through the context) that my Spanish is like 10000% better when I read the BoM tons. Also, I am learning tons about Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost and the pride cycle, and Satan (who is probably my least favorite person EVER). Alma 5 is officially my favorite chapter as of right now. Its when Alma decides to stop being a judge (juez) and go preach to his people because they are being evil and liking the things of the world too much (dumb butts). But pretty much I imagine he is talking like Elder Holland when he starts giving palo (like condemning them. I don´t know if there is a translation for palo into english...) and telling them they will go to hell if they don´t repent... ;) verse 33 is probably my favorite. It is pretty much my favorite whenever they talk about Jesus Christ and mercy ;D 48 is also awesome, because he says, ´´sé que Jesucristo vendrá´´ BOOM!!

That chapter is amazing. So here is my invitation to you guys. I invite you all to renew your love of the scriptures. There is nothing better than losing yourself in the words of God and finding out you only have 5 minutes left of Personal Study because the Spirit just took you away to another world of thought and meditation. It is an amazing experience, and truly converts me more and more everyday.

I love you all!! And I hope your guy´s weeks are amazing and full of awesome spiritual experiences. He is always there by your side, you just need to turn your head and you´ll see Him ;)

Love, 

Hermana McCubbins

PS I CAN´T WAIT FOR GENERAL CONFERENCE!!! They are all my favorites!

5 Months!!!!! Check Out My Shoes!!!!!

Dear Family,

So this morning we had a ginormous activity with all 4 zones in Rancagua and played fútbol in a huge field of grass! It was so beautiful and tons of fun! I actually got to run and be quirky and roll around on the ground! However, then I met Hna. Chapman. She is from Herriman Utah, and at first, I thought she had 10 months in the mission and started talking to her and being nice, and she asked me a Spanish word question. I was confused and asked her how much times she has. These were her words: almost 3 months! D: I AM SO OLD! But I got over it by running and stealing the ball from one of the Brazilian elders who talks like a gringo in English. 

This week Hna. Hall was a little sick :( So our sector is going a little slow, but we have esperanza y fe en el futuro! We did a lot of finding this week because we want to get those elegidos on the right path! And with this finding comes new people. With new people comes new criticisms (is that how you spell it?). And with new criticisms comes funny experiences ;) This week I told a lady I liked her pelo (hair). She stopped with a confused look on her face and said she didn't understand. When I repeated, she started laughing and told us she thought I had said pedo (fart)....... Needless to say we laughed for about 2 minutes about how gringos don´t know Spanish ;) but she was super nice, and was asking about the church and everything, but then had to leave before we could get her dirección. Hopefully we will find her again ;)

WE ALMOST GOT ONE OF INVESTIGADORAS TO CHURCH THIS SUNDAY!! We were so excited, but she ended up not showing up, and we still don´t know why. So now we are just praying that she is reading the Book of Mormon still.

This week Hna. Hall and I were talking about how Chile is a very unique mission. There are many people (whether they mean to or not) who judge your success as a missionary on the number of baptisms you have. Let´s just say if that was the way we were supposed to judge success, I would be failing as a missionary ;) So, I don´t judge myself in that way. We judge whether we are amazing missionaries on our dedication to the work in every aspect: in reading el Libro de Mormón, estudios, practicas con su compañero, encontrando, lecciones con miembro, y animo en todo. I love this work. I am not perfect by a long shot. But I look for the good in every day.

love you guys!

Hna. McCubbins

Sister Missionary Shoes: A Symbol of Devotion
I cleaned one of my shoes for our conference with Elder Zeballos, who will be speaking in General Conference!!! He talked to us about a lot of cool things, but my favorite was that if we know how to speak English and Spanish, we can communicate with 80% of the members of the church! ;D AWESOME.

We ALMOST kept a baby cat that decided it liked us, but there´s this thing called the white bible that tells us we can't keep pets.... :( So we fed it and let it loose!!

Hermana Hall feeding the cat we almost adopted.

This is Hna. Nena. She is from the south of Chile, where they feed you 4 courses in one meal, plus a humongous dessert. Hna. Hall almost died and I had a pregnant belly of food ;)

Hna. Hellbusch visited us this week!! I love that girl so much! She left this on our mirror. 

Hna. Hellbusch found another green Spanish study book for me and gave it to me! :D I was a little jealous of hers, so she was nice enough to find one in one of the houses and give it to me ;)

I have a gift for art ;) Not really cuz I suck.... But this was what I put in the libro de recuerdos de Hna. Hellbusch. She will love it ;)

¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡ I love the Gospel!!!!!!!!!!

I don´t know why, but every day, my love for the work, the people, the scriptures and you guys grows every single day. This week I realized that Mom´s birthday is next week, and that she will be at the grand age of....... 20 ;) Just kidding, but not. I have been thinking a lot about all that you and dad have done for me, and don´t think I could every express my eternal gratitude to you guys. Here I see not the best examples of parenting (if there is any) and have come to realize that your simple examples of a Christ centered life and going to church every week, and providing a roof over my head are the biggest blessings I could ever ask for. Not to mention being my best friends in this hard life and giving me all your awesome life skills advice. We have been reading the Book of Mormon like two on top of the world hermanas that feast on the words of Christ and study hard for our sector. And as we have been working and meditating and practicing for these people, I always in the back of my head am thankful for how you 2 raised me and put me on the straight and narrow path so that I could help other people on the path too. Every reactivation and baptism and contact that I do here in Chile, counts for you guys too, because you converted me, and that is a blessing for the people here in Chile. I hope all of you guys can meet either in this life, or in the gathering of Israel, or en el Reino Celestial, because it is gonna be a party ;) 

This week we reactivated un hermano se llama Alejandro! He has a calling en los hombres jóvenes and is super excited about all things church. He works in the church, managing all the buildings, and often comes home from el campo and brings us pan de campo! Oh my goodness there will be Pan de Chile in Heaven, I promise you guys.

Also, we are having our two menos activos Karina y Diego teach us all the lessons like we are investigators, because they are both return missionaries and we want them to study they scriptures together, so they will now start teaching us ;) Not sure if we should count these lessons as lessons in our numbers, but oh well!

Also, this week we get to watch Meet the Mormons on Wednesday! When we read that in our president´s weekly email, we did a big high five, and my hand is still hurting from that.... Hna. Hall is sometimes a man. ;) 

Also, DEREK AAHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHA, I AM SO EXCITED THAT YOU ARE STARTING YOUR MISSION PAPERS!! Here is some advice: Enjoy every moment of every day of your life. If you are not smiling, there is something wrong, and you should either pray, read the scriptures, or do something dumb that will make you laugh. That is what I do ;) Also, read 1 Nephi!! Nephi is my hero.

Ok love you guys! Bye,

Hna. McCubbins

Hermana Jessica and Hermana Hall--making cinnamon rolls!!

Cinnamon Rolls all ready to bake!! YUMMY!!

We had a noche de hogar con nuestro barrio y Ricardo and Yannette are siblings, and were pretending to be a family with problems that the missionaries had to teach. It was funny because they had experience fighting (cuz they grew up together) so it was super real ;)

This is our super cute miembro se llama Benita. We go and do service at her house once in a while, and she is a 85 year old ball of energy! She is so funny and I swear she is as young as we are, just stuck in an old body. We love her SO MUCH, and I wish we could visit her everyday.

LIBRO DE MORMÓN! Changing the world, one soul at a time.

Oh my beautiful family, I love you tons!

This week has been super amazing. We have been working super hard with el Libro de Mormón, inviting EVERYONE to read this amazing book! And let me tell you why.....

This week we had a cita con our investigadora Elena. She is the sister of one of the elder´s menos activos, se llama Hno. Guerra. At the very start, she received us, but told us up front that she would listen to us, but NEVER change her religion. After that lesson Hna. Hall and I looked at each other and were like: She is getting baptized ;) We gave her un LdM and just invited her to read it. She is a little older, so her eyesight isn't too good, but she reads it whenever she has the chance. 

This week when we went to go teach her, she had TONS of questions. Who is Nefi? What are the four different plates? Stuff like that. We explained super clear, and she got it super quick after that. Then, something prompted us to watch the video La Restauracion. (Actually is wasn´t something, it was the Spirit ;) ). So we asked if she had something for DVD. She didn´t, so we asked if they had internet. They did. Then the computer didnt have very loud sound, so they connected it to the tv. Then the connection wasnt working, but they found a new cord. Then the video on lds.org didn't have sound, so we said they could go to youtube. Then EVERYTIME something awesome was coming up in the video, a pop up would pop up ;) and try to block the super awesome part. But we always closed it right before the awesome thing happened. One time it was right before the first vision, another time before Jose Smith revealed the plates in the ground, and (my favorite part) another time when his dad is reading el LdM and knows that the book is true. I was almost getting frustrated in each of these times, but then I said to Heavenly Father, ´´It is your hands. Whatever happens is your will, and I trust You.´´ After that, the lesson just melted into perfectness. She felt the Spirit SO strong. She LOVED the Joseph went straight to God to find his answer instead of through a pastor. And after some explanation from us, she understood that she needs to seek like Joseph to know if this church is the church that God wants her to follow. And then (and this is my favorite part) the Spirit just started talking out of my mouth I swear, because the next thing I new, I was inviting her to be baptized. I don´t even remember what was said or anything, but she ended up saying........ YES!!!! She told us she loves the book of mormon and Joseph Smith´s story, but she wants to understand the Book of Mormon clearly and sincerely make the choice to follow Jesus Christ. She understands this is a big step and she wants to make 100 percent sure it is the right path. 

OH MY GOODNESS I LOVE THE SPIRIT!! I know with out a doubt if she hadn´t started reading el LdM, that lesson wouldn´t have been near as successful, and she wouldn´t have felt the love that Heavenly Father has for each of us. Ella es de oro!! Enserio! If I accomplished nothing else in my mission, that one lesson with Elena still would make it all worth it. The whole time I was thinking, you NEVER know where you are going to find los elegidos. You NEVER know who is ready to hear the gospel. All you can do is follow the spirit, give all to the Lord and hang on for the ride. There is a reason the Book of Mormon is the clave de nuestro religion. It is the most correct book of any on earth, and, in my 4 months of mission experience, is the book that will show us the most that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love us beyond anything. I encourage each of you to read this book, DEVOUR it and pray to Heavenly Father if the words therein are true, because they are. It is changing me, it is changing our investigators and members, and it is changing the world, one soul at a time. 

I love you guys SO much. I hope my email wasn´t too boring. You guys are awesome and I can´t wait to write you next week!

Love,

Hermana McCubbins

Chachi is Rosa's sister and a golden investigator.

Hermana Hall: New companion.

Awesome moon!!

A flower that opens like a dog mouth.

Hna. Hall never smiles, but has a huge heart ;)

Rosa is a golden investigator.

MARZO DE MORMONES!! ;)

I don´t think I can say this enough, but I love you all SO much. I LOVE to hear all about your lives and the things going on, ESPECIALLY  your testimonies and things youre doing in the church and scripture study. If everyone here in Chile would do that, we would have to put the elders in the hospital from hypothermia of the baptismal font, from being in there so much ;) But as of yet, Barrio Tupahue Rancagua has not seen one convert since Diciembre.... Chile is hard ;) But we WILL find those chosen souls here, if I have any say in it ;)

I HAVE A NEW COMPANION!! Her name is Hna. Hall from Oregon, and she was companions with Hna. Squires last change!! :D It is SO awesome cuz we just want to work and do all we can to find those elegidos que estén en este sector. Though somos gringas, hablamos Español todo el día, pero a veces, tenemos palabras extrañes porque todavia somos gringas.... ;) Anyway, we have been working hard this week, and have hit our pillows everynight, DEAD tired. We are doing a lot of work with finding new people to teach, and cleaning out our teaching pool by either reactivating the menos activos or praying to know if we need to drop any investigators. PLEASE pray for us, because we really just want to find the people that are ready to follow the gospel, and not just talk to us for 2 hours about there problems and do nothing about them... ;) We love all the people, but if I have learned anything about this gospel, we are children of God that work ;)

Menos Activos:

Karina and Diego are going to get a date to get married en Martes!!!! I can´t wait! We were so worried they were going to separate and Karina would be a single mom with Joaquin, but they are certain this time and a member testified to them, and it was just BEAUTIFUL!! The gospel can do amazing things for you when you actually follow it ;)

ANA CASTILLO IS NOT EXCOMMUNICATED!!! That was probably my favorite news we recieved this week. I forgot to tell her until after church, and at first she didn´t think she heard me right because my Spanish is only 4 months old, but then a member explained to her and all she could do was look at me, start crying and grab me to give me a big hug!! It was one of those sweet tender mercies from Heavenly Father for me. I don´t even care if I have no baptisms for my whole mission, because that one moment made it all worth it. 

We also have found an AMAZING couple that is inactive. Se llaman Herran y Manuela. They are so cool, but something happened in their past, so they decided to drop the church, but we know they have testimonies still, and loved the temple. We just need to remind them of that ;)

We have been recieving TONS of references from people!! It is super fun and I can´t wait to get out there again, but I guess I can still write you guys for a little bit ;)

I fell SUPER hard earlier today. Next week I will send a picture of my scrape, it is awesome. I think we were looking at some intestines of some pigs, and I just wasnt looking, so I biffed it big time. It was super funny ;)

I LOVE long letters!! Send whatever crazy thought or story you want. Cuz I LOVE to read them all. Tell Dad to start writiting in Spanish, cuz I understand it tons now ;) 

This week we also had a splits activity with the young women! I had about 3 girls come with me and 3 went with Hna. Hall. We went and visited two menos activo families and they bore their testimonies. Do not doubt the power of a 12 year old testimony, because I swear they know more than I do ;) If you want mom, that might be a cool idea for the ward. 

This week we recieved the news that the whole mission is going to read the book of Mormon in 2 months!! :D We have to start at the beginning and read 10 pages a day to finish before April 30. Hna. Hall and I have been reading out loud everyday because we like to make the passages fun and be dramatic when Nefi is giving chastisment (palo is what we say here) to his brothers. It also gives us a chance to talk about how these scriptures relate to our sector and the people we loves tons. Also, we are super close now and are super animated everyday to get out and work! I bear testimony that there is REAL power in the book of Mormon. That one verse can change your whole day and bring you closer to Heavenly Father. 

I love you ALL!! Keep your faith strong!

Hna. McCubbins

PS Love ya.

Two beautiful Sister missionaries. Hermana Hellbush and Hermana McCubbins.

Hermana McCubbins trying to teach Hermana Hellbush her open mouth picture technique
before they're not companions anymore.

Hermana Hellbusch is still in training on the open mouth picture technique.

Hermana McCubbins with a member of her ward.

Empanandas with Hermana Hall in her new area Barrio Tapahue Rancagua. 

American candy in Chile. Is there anything better than a Reese's???