Mini-Cambio, Guard Dogs, and a Monthiversary

This week was a pretty exciting one, as usual.  On Tuesday we had our first "real" mini-cambio, and as predicted by Hermana Miskin, it was a little merry-go-round of companionship swapping.  Hermana Miskin went to Coihueco to be with Hermana Chavez, and since Hermana Chavez´s companion, Hermana Taylor and Hermana Phelps both arrived in Chile this cambio and are still working on the Spanish thing, they couldn´t just be each other´s companions, so Hermana Morán and I split up as well.  I worked with Hermana Taylor in our sector and Hermana Morán went to work in the other sector in Libertador with Hermana Phelps.

Hermana Taylor is pretty awesome.  She´s from Salt Lake and our mini-cambio just happened to land on her 20th birthday!  We had a good old time together with many interesting adventures.  For example, we were in the middle of teaching one lesson when suddenly the little three-year-old daughter throws up all over the floor.  The parents quickly cleaned up the mess and since I didn´t really know what else to do or say we just kept on going with the lesson.  I don´t know if that is a cultural faux pas or not, because I´m not Latin.  I don´t know what we would have done if Hermana Morán had been with me, except that I know she would at least have known what to say and not just sat there awkwardly trying to continue to teach about the restoration while they cleaned up puke.  Oh well.  But the highlight of my mini-cambio with Hermana Taylor was definitely when we were followed by about ten friendly neighborhood street dogs for about two miles.  It was a little annoying, but mostly humorous, having ten dogs follow us as we walked to our next appointment.  Someone even pulled their car over to ask us if everything was okay.  Hermana Taylor, not having much experience yet with Chilean street dogs, was totally exhilarated by it and kept taking pictures.  It was great.

In keeping with family tradition, I decided that I wanted to run a 5K on the Saturday before Mother´s Day in honor of the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure that always takes place in Salt Lake City that weekend.  Hermana Morán was kind enough to agree to get up a little early and go with me on a longer run Saturday morning.  She even made us runner´s numbers with the number of days we had been in the mission.  We had a great time, and one of our friendly neighboorhood guard dogs decided to accompany us on the run.  He had a great time too, and though we made pretty good time, at least for me (9'16" per mile), he didn´t even seem to be running at all, just trotting along beside us with this grin on his face.  I´m sure he wants to find a cure for breast cancer too.

Yesterday marked eight months since I went into the MTC.  Crazy!  I wouldn´t say that the time has necessarily flown by, but it is strange to think that all that time is already gone!  I have been in Chile now for six months - half a year!  Totally absurd.

Also, yesterday was MOTHER´S DAY!  It was great because I got to talk with my family, but it was also great because I got to think about how awesome my moms are!  Thank you, moms, for everything you have done for me.  My Mom, Danielle, my Grandmas, Yvonne and Joan, Mom Cannon, "From" Larsen, and all you friends of mine who are incredible mothers and examples to me of raising Zion families.  I love you all and look up to you all so much.  Thank you for your examples, your love, your support, and for the sacrifices you have made on my behalf and on behalf of your other children.  Someday I want to be like you!

Remember last week how your commitment was to make a list of all those people you know and start praying for inspiration?  Well, this week your commitment is to select those names from off that list that have called your attention and DO SOMETHING about sharing the gospel with those people.  Invite them over for a Family Home Evening or a family dinner, invite them to church or a church activity, or invite them to hear a missionary lesson in your home.  If you need help or ideas for how best to go about this, call the local missionaries and they will help you!  And something else that you can do if you are nervous about it is PRACTICE!  Practice what you will say and how you will approach them with the invitation.  Do a role play with your spouse or your kids or a friend and smooth out all those wrinkles beforehand so that you feel comfortable and prepared when it comes time to invite your friends to hear about the gospel.  I promise that practicing helps - we do practices all the time and our lessons always go better because of it.

Also, if you want to read the Book of Mormon along with us, today we finished 2 Nephi.  I forgot the schedule again, but we have been reading an average of 3-4 chapters per day (we are scheduled to finish on June 28), so that should help keep y´all on track for this next week!

Gotta go now.  Love you all.  Be safe and happy and keep reading and praying.

Lovelovelove,

Hermana Burgess