4 Months, and No More Training!

WE HAD AN EARTHQUAKE!!!! Oh my gosh it was so awesome! They said it was like 5.9. We were pretty far from the center, but it lasted 8 seconds and it was during our comp study. It felt like there was a big bear in the earth that was sleeping, and decided to roll over because of a scary dream! ;) But yeah, that was fun.

HAPPY BIRHTDAY SCOTTY!! I can´t believe you are going to be 15!! Just don´t steal ALL the girls at the dances, and dont kill anyone when you drive ;) That is my advice. Also, Hna. Hellbusch says, ´´Hope you dont die! Hope you get to live until you are 16!´´ I love my companion.

This week there is not much to report. Long story short our other companion decided to go home this week after some heated events. We didn´t work because we simply did not have the Spirit and I was not going to pretend to be a missionary like that, without my Father´s Spirit with me... :)

I really can´t tell all the details because I still have hope that she can change, but needless to say, I have learned much about the power of the adversary in relation to our agency. Let me say this: The Spirit will NEVER tell you that you need to be mad or angry with someone because they have wronged you. Even if someone did something horrible to you, it will prompt you to turn the other cheek, and repond with love and acceptance, NEVER anger or pride. Also, contention is always two sided, never one sided. Heavenly Father only gets offended when we harden our hearts and refuse to change.

I pray that each of you can recognize the value and importance of YOUR agency to CHANGE, and never stop wanting to change and make yourself better. I love you ALL SO much :) 

Jesus Christ is my best friend, and Heavenly Father is my amazing dad who listens to all my problems, I testify of this to you. Just turn to them in EVERYTHING and you will find peace, love and the assuring witness of the Spirit that you are doing what is right in His eyes.

I love you SO much!! And here is a picture of something funny I found in the scriptures ;) it says they were surrounded by llamas of fire ;D 

Love you guys tons!

Hna. McCubbins

Jessica's District

Elders in Jessica's Zone

"llamas de fuego" or "llamas of fire"

END OF TRAINING!!!

Okay so I am horrible and dont have a lot of time to write.

I officially end my training this next week. I have now had almost 3 months in the mission!! And my cumplimes is the 22nd, so I will be 4 next week!! WOOOOO

The mission is amazing!!

This week I have been learning a lot about el Albedrio, or the Agency. Helman 14: 30 y 31 talks about how we are FREE to choose for ourselves. This is hard as missionaries because we MUST respect the agency of the people, and love them at the same time. 

The biggest thing about the mission, and about life, is that we much CHOOSE freedom and eternal life, in every moment of our lives. If we arent always striving or pushing forward, the gravity of temptation or laziness drags us backwards, against progress to the tree of life. I have been experiencing a lot of what is truly means to not CHOOSE the straight and narrow path.

I hope and pray for you guys everyday. Smile for me, laugh and play for me ;) This life is a time to prepare to meet God! And God is love, and we are that we might have joy! So choose!!! Just choose to do the things you know you are supposed to!

I love you all!!

Here is a Chilean saying for you all: Està dando jugo!

It means you are wasting time ;)

LOVE YOU!!!!!

Hna. McCubbins

Awesome watermelon!!

Where has the time gone?

Dear Mom,

AHHHHHHH!!!!!! Okay, so that letter last week!! (Sorry I dont respond to your letters on the day you send them. We print and read letters in the morning, then write in the afternoon, so if you send them later in the day, I dont read them til night and respond the next week.) I got the goosebumps in 100 degree weather when I read that thing about you envisioning my matrimony in the back yard. (Matrimony?? What is it called?? No sé.) I seriously freaked out, not sure why, perhaps that is the house we need to live in, not sure, but there was definitely a spiritual feeling here in Chile about that house, and I havent even seen it........ So yeah.

So this week. I have been thinking a lot about a letter that aunt Robin sent me last Lunes. She said she prayed to have spiritual growth, and she got it and more. (It was in the form of trials. I can send it to you if you want.) Hna. Hellbusch and I have a joke that you NEVER pray for more patience or more humility or really any of the Christlike attributes because He will give them to you in the form of the hardest trials of your life. (Its a joke.) But I was seriously thinking about that this week and decided to pray for that spiritual growth. I have yet to see any big trials, but something tells me they may start to come in the changes that are coming up in 2 weeks. I will be an official, full fledged missionary, out of training and ready to take on Chile with my Savior in 2 weeks, and it is kind of scary. We have no idea if I will stay here in Tupahue Rancagua, or if I will transfer, or what will happen. I hope it will be fun though. I have been on a spiritual high lately and am just waiting for that big trial of growth and spiritual awesomeness to hit me. Really, it is awesome :)

We have 6 investigators right now (YEAH!!!! That is a lot for here guys...).

Ana is trying to dejar a fumar ahora, y café. Her date for baptism is the 28th of this month and her two weeks is this week before she cant smoke anymore. We pray for her, but she hasnt been reading because of her work that makes her tired. I hope hope hope she makes it. We made her a cute calendar to mark off everyday she doesnt break the word of wisdom. Sorry I dont have pics this week, the computer doesnt have the program for flash drives.

Tomás and Noemi are an interesting story. They were a reference from one of the couple missionaries here who met them in a taxi. Tomás is 15 and Noemi is his abuela. He is interested in the fact that we are children of God (which is awesome, cuz he just needs love!!) and Noemi pulled us aside the other day to tell us he has had a hard life and thanked us for the work we do for him. (Missionary Work is SO worth it!!) However, when he came to church yesterday, he didnt feel very welcomed... That is one thing we have to work on with the members. (PLEASEEEEEEEE if you see an investigator in church, go be friends with them!! They are already tentative enough, without people not getting to know them. I swear they are real people and just need the love we feel every week at church.) But other than that we are good friends with them and Noemi wants to come to church next week ;) YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

We also have Rosa, Karen y Carola (Chatchi). They are 3 very strong women, especially Chatchi, who were suprised to find out we were mormon!!! When we first visited them, we only used the real name of the church, and they felt the spirit, so invited us back. Then when they found out the were mormons, they said they hated Mormons!!!! It was HILARIOUS because we had already created that bond, so they let us keep teaching them!! I cant wait to go back and talk to them. Chatchi especially is very religious, and all of them LOVE Jesus Christ, they just hate all the churches here in Chile, but have NEVER attended the TRUE church ;) They all have LdMs ahora and Rosa is going to have her 8 year old grandson read it to her because her eyes arent very good. IT IS SO AWESOME!! 

Yesterday we had a baptism!! It wasnt ours, but it was in our ward. One of our ex-comunicados got rebaptized and it was amazing! He had to go through a 15 year process, and now has plans to go to the temple with his amazingly sweet wife in a year. Hno. Sandoval is probably 75 years old, and already has the Spirit so strong with him. I couldnt stop smiling after his baptism because I could see the impact his choice to come back had on his family. His wife couldnt stop smiling or crying and his kids (who are like 50 years and up) were all crying. It was SO AMAZING!! I love the Gospel.

Here in the mission, yes we teach people. However also, a lot of our work has to do with KEEPING PEOPLE ON THE PATH!! I feel like the dad on the Incredibles at the beginning when he is like: I just cleaned up this mess, can we keep it clean FOR 10 MINUTES?? ;) We visit MANY menos activos who have testimonies, but arent doing what is required to build that knowledge, or keep it. What is required? Orar, Leer, Asistir!! We use the acronym OLA (like Hola ;) ). Many of the problems that come up are because people dont think they have to read the scriptures and pray every day, AND go to church every week, and those are just the beginning steps. I have seen MIRACLE changes in people that just do those 3 things for 2 or 3 weeks. It is AMAZING and I wish everyone could see it. These 3 things are essential because they keep us following the GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST. Faith, Repentence, Baptism, Holy Ghost, Endure to the End. Those 5 steps are what we need to make if we want to get to the Celestial Kingdom.

Sorry I kind of went off right there, but I almost feel like Elder Holland when he gets going in the Spirit, I LOVE people so much, I want to force them to follow the path, but I cant. I can only help.

I love you guys SO much. FOLLOW THE PATH.!!!!

Hna. McCubbins

Picture from before her mission, since there are no pictures today.

SEMANA DE NUEVOS!

Dear Family of Mine,

There is much to tell you. First, yes I have received every little yellow note you hid in my stuff ;) And today I received all the pouch letters from back in December and everything. Our nice district leader called us this morning and was like... So Hna. McCubbins has like 8 letters... I was super excited!! Thank you! 

So we found 6 new people this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 3 of them were a family, all strong, Christ loving women who love Jesus!! AND THEY HAVE NEVER EVEN HEARD OF US MORMONS!!! Its amazing cuz now all we have to do is tell them this is His church and they already want to come attend the church to test it out. I CANT WAIT!! They are named Rosa, Carolina y Karen.

Also, my testimony in the Lord putting us where we need to be is super strong. We met a lady in the street while running a tad late, but she was in distress. We stopped, having faith in the Lord and asked what was wrong. She said she felt ugly, and all we did was hug her and she started to cry. You guys, LOVE IS ALWAYS THE ANSWER, because God is love, and He is everything ;) Her name is Nancy and we are going to visit her this next week.

Also, we met Thomas, a young boy at around 16 years old, with TONS of questions about who God is and what He means for us. It is AWESOME but he lives super far away, and we cant always find him at home, so that is a little frustrating, but we have faith he will be in our path when Heavenly Father has him ready.

Also, we found out 2 of our investigadors are friends!! CRAZY! We are thinking of teaching them together so they can learn and grow in the gospel juntos! Their names are Lissett y Gloria.

Also, one of our menos activas had her baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She and her fiancè named him Joaquin and plan to get married soon!! They are doing awesome and we cant wait for everything awesome to happen to them. They are beaming with happiness and I cant believe the change in her fiance after becoming a dad, its like he is an actual man now ;) 

And the last I wish to share with you guys is an amazing spiritual experience we had this week with Ana Castilla, nuestra menos activa. She is having some super serious health problems and cant work to get the money for her medical bills. The day we visited her, we were in divisions, yo, hna. Rodriguez, y una hermana that has like 3 weeks in the mission, ALMOST no help, but excited to work nonetheless. We called the elders for a blessing, but they didnt answer, neither did the bishop. Finally we just kneeled down and prayed with our hearts for her to be strengthened to work or anything that would help. The Spirit was so strong!!! And she is doing way better! Women have power in prayer guys :)

I love ya tons. Hope all is well. Send more pics of you guys!! I love pictures!!

LOVE,

Hna. McCubbins

In front of the church with an investigator

Companions Rodriguez and Hellbusch

The mouth open picture is spreading to her poor companion.

YUMMY Empanada

Eating the YUMMY Empanada

Breakfast and planning all in one

CRAZY HARD WEEK!

¿Porque la cucaracha no puede caminar?

Porque le falta una pata!!!!!! 

Sorry for the lame or funny joke. That was one of the things we said this week en la calle para keep up our animo. I dont know why, but this week was especially hard for me. One day the enfermera just told me to go rest in the house and work later in the day. I am completely fine now, but it was super annoying to have to stop working to take care of my body. And now I have some amazing sisterly missionary advice for you Derek!!

Derek: You are the bomb!! First off you need to know that. Second, I love you!! Okay, now third, THE MISSION IS THE HARDEST THING YOU WILL EVER GO THROUGH!! I have to say that because some people come out into the mission field without that knowledge, and end up going home because they feel they can´t handle it. I need you to know that, so you come into this knowing full well that you will be tried in ALL aspects of your life. But, there is a fourth; YOU CAN DO ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING WITH YOUR BEST FRIEND JESUS CHRIST. :) Because He really is your best friend. Derek, I know you have a testimony, and I look up to you SO much for your desire to serve a mission and work hard for our Savior. I just want you to succeed in your desires and go into the mission knowing full well that Satan is out there to get you. I have a committment for you ;) Read 1 Nephi 17 and especially focus on your desire to serve. I promise you that the mission is the BEST THING IN THE ENTIRE WORLD, because it teaches us how to be disciples of Christ for our entire lives, just know that He also needs you to be strong, and that sometimes means taking you to your breaking point. So read that chapter, and I will verify if you read it next week ;) Because that is what we missionaries do, we invite, you committ, and we follow up ;) Love you tons!! And laugh at the part in verse 52 where his brothers wont go near him ;) It made me laugh!

Okay, now for this week. I got to do divisions with another Hermana named Hna. Dana!! She is a taller than me Argentiniana who is leaving to go home this week! She is basically awesome.com and I learned tons from her about having faith in the Savior in all aspects of the work, and where the line is between working hard ourselves and leaning on the Savior to tell us where to go. We worked with one of her ward missionaries, and I am not kidding, we had tons of miracles from that sweet 60 year old lady!! She walked with us for like 4 hours and we had tons of amazing things happen!! We were contacted (like someone came up to us) and she wanted to hear our message! That like NEVER happens. She was so sweet and I just wanted to hug her! Also, we entered into a house of someone whose family is menos activo, and her daughter´s pololo (boyfriend) was a hard set Catholic!! It was so cool to hear what his ideas were and I got to testify about Jesus Christ!! (Who is my favorite) When I testified of our Savior, I got goosebumps, and the guy smiled when I said He was my best friend ;) 

Anyway, I have now run out of time, but I love you all! And hope you know that: He ALWAYS gives us things we cant handle.... alone ;)

Love,

Hna. McCubbins

Hermana Dana and Hermana McCubbins: She found someone who is taller than her!!

She loves to stick out her tongue!!

It's Christmas, AGAIN!!!

Mi Querido Familia,

I GOT YOUR CHRISTMAS PRESENT!! I felt like is was Navidad all over again and absolutely LOVED hearing all of your guyseseses (how do you say that again?) voices. Brynn and Emmi and Jenna were SO cute. Coachie almost made me cry cuz his soothing voice is definitely missed in my ears. I feel like that was a weird thing to say, but oh well. Grandpa y grandma made me laugh tons. I might just listen to that over and over because of his accent. Robin and Nate sound like newly weds..... which is good!! ;) Kind of grossed us out, cuz we are missionaries and we dont think of boys like that, but it is amazing!! I am so glad that Robin is super happy. DAD I UNDERSTOOD ALL OF YOUR WORDS!! That was SO cool. Feel free to write en cualquier manera que quiere. Les amo!! I also loved all the little things in the packet. The big stickers that you didnt know are for my daily planner, which is SO cute!! I will start using them next change cuz I already decorated my planner for this change. I also LOVE the BYU socks!! They are SO soft! I might never wash them cuz I dont want the hard water to ruin their amazing softness. Thank you thank you thank you!! The best is to hear about how you guys are doing and progressing in your lives. Here I see so many sad things in families and trials that people go through. I know that those are necessary and that your guysessesese lives arent perfectly easy, but I have the faith that as long as you guys are still praying, reading the scriptures and attending church, you will all be amazingly fine. :)

I laughed so hard when I read that Derek wants to cut me off since I cut off my hair. I promise you guys I wont cut it again. But it is a TON easier and cooler to manage now.

Okay, so some things to tell you. We had someone die this week. Her name was Alisia and she was like 85 years old and in a bad family situation, so we are both super sad, and relieved at the same time. I dont know if this is bad, but when we were visiting her, I had a feeling that I almost WANTED her to die because it would be so much better for her in heaven than here. (Did I accidentaly kill someone with my thoughts??) :( 

But overall we are happy to know that she is safe now and in the arms of Heavenly Father, resting and learning more of the gospel :)

So funnies ahora, I have two admirers. I feel like I might have more, but there are two that stand out. One is a man that has a mental problem and has now given me a red rose and a llama toy.... I gave the rose to one of the conversos de los elderes y tengo el llama... The other man keeps talking to me and now one of the elders in our barrio has to talk to him. Why do I have to have this face!!! :`(

Ana came to church this week!!! She is our investigadora que su hijo killed himself. She said she felt peaceful and smiled tons in all the classes. We have a cita with her this week, so hopefully she still likes us by then.

This week I have learned a LOT about being agents. Elder Bednar is probably my favorite. Out here in the mission field, you really dont have anyone but you and the Lord. Once I realized that, I felt like this work all changed!! I feel like a real missionary now! I know where people live and really plan the lessons for them. Not that I didnt do that before, but now I am taking charge (mostly cuz Hna. Hellbusch is pushing me) and really trusting in the Lord to guide us to where we need to go.

I CANT WAIT TILL I CAN GO WORK AGAIN!! We are on pday now...

Love you guys!!

Hna. mcCubbins

Humongous Banana!

Hermana Hellbusch with her very belated Christmas stocking from the McCubbins.

The contents of Hermana Jessica's "Christmas" stocking.

If you put Christian stickers on the package it gets there better........it only took seven weeks.

From the Surface Del Sol!

So this week...... It has been a roller coaster ride ,) We have changes this Tuesday, however, en mi casa, we had special changes a week ago, en Martes. Hna. Mendez went to Curico, and her old companion Hna. Rodriguez came here. We get to be in a trio for 6 more weeks ;) Even more, Hna. Hellbusch es una coordinadora ahora, so she has a lot more meetings and divisions with other missionaries. That means I get to lead the sector when she is gone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! D: I have to memorize where everyone lives, use the phone, and various other things while she is gone. All Hna. Rodriguez can do is speak the language, but I have to help her with everything else D: Its okay though, I know we can do it! 

So this year there a lot of changes. The key indicators got changed! We dont count contacts anymore, only new investigators. Also, any lesson counts, not just ones with investigators. This has put a new focus on teaching less actives and recent converts. This is super awesome because the church really does need strengthening here and we would rather have missionaries teach 3 lessons a day with menos activos that are progressing, than proselyte for 6 hours and find 1 new person out of 100 contacts. We are really focusing on the barrios and working with members, and I love it!!! We probs wont have any baptisms for a while, but we will have MANY reactivations! We had one this week with Benita, because along with lessons, we can give assignments to menos activos, which means if they complete them and have an interview with the bishop they can be reactivated!! Whoooohoooo!!

We also found 2 nuevos this week.

Marta is super old and Catolica. But she was super nice and let us sing her a song right off the bat. However, EVERYTIME I tried to talk to her, she pretended to not understand.... Hna. Hellbusch says that happens a lot with Gringos... Voy a mejorar mi accento...

For some reason I cant remember our other new inv... Sorry :(

OH!! Juanita ;) But she isnt an inv. She is menos activo and super cute. She actually came to church herself and wanted us to start meeting with her so she can get to the temple!! The only thing is she has questions and doubts about the Millenium, and we arent exactly allowed to study deep doctrine, like how she is wanting to know. We will see what happens though...

We have been working a lot with our MAs Karina y Diego. They are a couple living together that have a date for matrimonio and a bebe on the way se llama Juaquin!! Before we were struggling with Diego a little bit because he once said he doesnt want to be married. However, we challenged them to start having oraciones con each other y reading el LdM (which is the bomb!!) and seriously, it is NIGHT AND DAY!! Yesterday when we went to visit them, they were like a new couple! Super cute, laughing, holding hands, everything! It was awesome! Diego even shared his vision of eternal life (like what it will be like) and he said he imagined holding hands with Karina and having like 10 kids running around them in a green grass field. It was SO cute!! And we are so proud of him!! Enserio, the book of Mormon is the most powerful thing EVER!! I think it was Elder Bednar that said if you seriously study it every day, you will never fall off the path.

One more story. We met the sweetest 85 year old lady the other day. She is named Maxi and right off the bat she told us she was catolica and didnt want another religion, but then when she saw that we were just 3 sweet 20 year old girls, she proceeded to tell us that we should not drop our panties for just any guy...... enserio, that is what she said. The only word I have for her is Spunky ;) She invited us back anytime and I really want to just go talk to her cuz she is SO funny! I want to be like that when I have 85 years.

Hey! If you want, could you send some pictures of our ancestors, like great grandparents, and aunts and uncles that are great too, and any stories you guys know? My next story will tell you why I want them.

So this morning I was studying 1 Nefi 15. It struck me how faithful Nephi was, and how centered he was on the Savior. So I decided to also study in PMG about Faith in Christ (which btw EVERYONE in the church should have a PMG, because we should all strive to be member missionaries). Nothing really was out of the ordinary, until I got on my knees and started praying. I started to thank Heavenly Father for the example Nephi set for us in his unwavering faith in Jesus Christ. Then my thoughts turned to yesterday when I kind of had a break down because I felt I didn´t have a lot of confidence in myself. I had an overwhelming feeling that Nephi must have had confidence issues too. After all he was always having to battle the doubts of his brothers. I am not kidding when I say this: I felt like Nefi was right there with me, along with all of heaven, including my family up there, and Nefi especially was thanking me for trying to follow his example. The feeling was overwhelming and the tears started to flow. All I could do was tell Heavenly Father that I didn´t know if I had faith like Nephi, but I am here in Chile because He called me to come, and I wanted to become as faithful as Nephi was. It was so extraordinary, I really mean it. I have never experienced that, where me and an ancient prophet have connected across the veil. My dear family, the people in the scriptures were real and they are watching over us even now. They had the same trialsl, or similar ones, as we have. But Nephi knew what to do. He ALWAYS turned to the Savior, Jesus Christ in the face of doubt, and trial. But along with Nephi, I also felt my family that is up there watching over me. I felt them all rooting for me and cheering me on through this tough missionary life. I know I am supposed to be here, if anything I hope I came in Faith because of my Savior, Jesus Christ. He is my Savior, and I could NOT do this without HIM. Please please PLEASE!!! Learn more about the great Redeemer. He loves you SO much and He just on the other side of that door knocking, waiting for you to open it wide and seek Him out!! I don´t know if I can shout through email or not but here you go: HE LOVES YOU!!! And that is all that really matters :)

Thank you for all of the stories of your guys´ lives!! I LOVED hearing about Derek and Scotty and Lindsey and Kate.

Derek, YOU CAN CONQUER THE MONSTER CALLED CALCULUS AND AP ENGLISH!! If anything, say to yourself that you are stronger than the subject and just kick it in the butt. Here, I am making you a missionary promise: If you read one chapter from the Book of Mormon everyday before you study or do homework, and I mean actually read and ponder it, and think of the people as real people, because seriously they are super awesome and real!!, and then sincerely ask Heavenly Father for help to focus and learn the material, and then go to work in those classes, Derek, I promise you that you will conquer those subjects, you will conquer your senior year, and you will go into the big world as a missionary, strong in the faith and ready to defeat anything Satan throws at you. :) I know it is hard, but you can do it!!

I love you guys!

Hna. McCubbins

Hermana McCubbins, Hermana Mendes, Hermana Hellbush

Graffiti 

Hermana McCubbins, Hermana Hellbush, Hermana Rodriguez

BEFORE!!!

DURING!!!

AFTER!!!

Such a cute sister missionary!