False Alarm

So, it's transfer week. The week you all (or at least we all in the mission) have been waiting for. Turns out, our entire district is staying the same. I'm so relieved to be staying in Cauquenes! Yesterday I felt really strongly that I was leaving. In Sacrament meeting I bore my testimony and it came out more like a goodbye-speech without even meaning to. Then in the closing hymn I started crying uncontrollably, thinking about all that I have been through and learned here in Cauquenes. I wasn't even thinking about leaving, I was just really emotional. But all the members were like "aw, Hermana Glazier is leaving!" And I was like "hey, we don't even know that until tomorrow! Stop it!". To top it all off the ward mission leader made me take a goodbye-picture with him and his wife "just in case". Now I have to face the ridicule of everyone seeing that I'm actually still here for 6 more weeks, how embarrassing. All that emotion for basically nothing. I will never make a transfer-prediction again, no matter how I feel at church! 

This week was interesting. For the first time ever, I had to stay in one day for health - related issues. Don't worry mom, I'm not dying. 'Twas my dear companion. She's had some health issues and one day she just couldn't work. I cleaned the whole house while she rested, and then when she didn't feel any better I decided to try to find a sister in the ward that could be my companion for a while to at least work part of the day. Turns out, our phone was out of minutes and the office elders were out working so no one could get us more minutes on our phone for another hour. Then I never found anyone that could go out so we ended up going to a member's house and I did some computer work (with the list of members). It was the weirdest day. As tiring or cold as it may be, I feel so much better being outside. 

We also had a great conference with all the sisters in the mission! It was fantastic and it was great to see all the sisters. Being in Cauquenes for a long time means not knowing that many other missionaries. The good thing is that made me less nervous for the solo I sang - "Hija de un Rey" (Daughter of a King). I was shaking a ton from the nerves. Everyone probably thought it was the vibrato in my voice, like, professional or something. Yes, hermanas, go on and think that. The point is, that song is great because it reminds us who we are. If we just remember who we are, we won't get down on ourselves so much. We are doing a lot of great things and we just have to keep going!

Love you all, remember who you are and keep moving forward. 

Love, Hermana Glazier

                                                                                            Hermana Glazier & Hermana Oldroyd  (cousin)

                                          Hermana Glazier and Hermana Amayo with President's wife

p.s. please enjoy the pictures of our matching Chile t-shirts! We'll see how the work goes around here for the World Cup...

Week of Wonder

This week I would like to send you all a photo of me with one of the most eventful things that has ever happened to me. I was preparing cookie dough for a FHE and 4 eggs in a row came out with double yolks. 4 IN A ROW!!! I took a picture when the 2nd one came out... I don't know exactly what that means, but I feel like things are looking up for Cauquenes. 

This week we taught very few investigators. But we are starting to see some great progress in the Branch in Cauquenes. We had a training with all the leaders on Friday which went great. Most importantly, they liked the food that we prepared. And, best of all, there are 4 different less-active people that we've been teaching that kind of come and go for these last 3 months, and ALL OF THEM came to church on Sunday and are getting really excited! It's so beautiful seeing that. So beautiful.

I don't have much to say this week, so I'm sending another photo of me with homemade coffee! Ha. False alarm. Not really coffee. But, yes, homemade, by one of the members. They call it "wheat coffee." It's basically burnt wheat that you boil and then make it into a "coffee". Tastes like Postum. (Or Ecco, that literally all of the members here drink).

Well, love y'all, have a great week!

Hermana Glazier

P.s. I apologize for the lameness of this email. I still love you!

Cold Winds

Cold wintery winds are begging to blow around here. I've been drinking a whole lot of hot chocolate and herbal tea. I also have a pretty consistent pattern of dress. I rotate through about 3 or 4 skirts, gray, black, or blue leggings, and 3 different sweaters. The jacket on top can vary, because my companion has a lot and I can borrow one from her. I don't plan to break this pattern until about September, when spring starts. This is why I laughed when one of the sisters in the ward here asked us if we dressed like this at home. No, my dear Hermana, I will probably burn all of this clothing one day, if it even makes it into my suitcase to go home. As I told my family last Sunday...I'm getting to the point of real-life mission-weirdness. It's something that I always feared. But now I'm starting to accept it. I am, after all, a missionary. Why not enjoy it?

I was very excited to receive some mail last week - packages and letters that people have asked me about. All you who have asked me recently - yes, I got it! (traveling 5.5 hours round trip to Concepción for your companion's doctor appointment has its perks). 

This was a week of "let's get serious and do all this stuff we've been throwing around as ideas for like 3 transfers". We're going to head into a strong, focused effort to get this branch excited. Nothing happens in missionary work if the members aren't involved. We're planning a training for all the leaders and a bunch of activities (English and music class included woohoo!). Most of al we're going to keep being obedient, studying hard, talking to everyone around us about the Gospel, and doing service. I know that's our job as missionaries, but I invite everyone at home to do the same! This work is being hastened, my friends. I know this hasn't been the most exciting weekly update, but it's basically all that's happening. Like I said, I'm turning all mission-weird. Keep working hard in all you're doing at home, love you guys!

Much love,

Hermana Glazier

Photos: disapproval at my inability to open the package sent by my family. Level of difficulty: probably spent more money on packing tape than what was inside.

Disapproval at our messy study room. Cleaning time!

Random walking shots. Woohoo the mission!

More Than Words

I feel like I got all my words out yesterday...so this letter's just going to be mostly photos and a little bit of description. This week was one of the most...interesting of my mission and my mind's a little exhausted! It was great getting to talk to everyone. I didn't think I was going to have anything to say but it ended up being just what I needed at the time. Loved seeing my fam and just talking about whatever we wanted. Love you all!

Next we have the best and the worst: pass-a-long card version.

                                                Then, what happens when you have a "sports activity" and no one shows up?

And we have our highlight of the week, Hernan was baptized! He will be a great member of the church. Some members had told us about him and we had tried to visit him several times without any luck, when we met him in the middle of downtown one day. It was a miracle and it made me realize that the Lord has His own timing in all things. 

And last of all, we had a great, very American lunch today. My companion had to go to the doctor so we're in Conce today. We figured we would take advantage of being here while we were just waiting around and eat at a sit-down restaurant. Something I've done like 1.5 times in the mission. It was really good but there's still nothing like home-made burgers!

Love you all, stay strong, enjoy your week, hug your moms, and choose the right! 

Love, Hermana Glazier

¡La más bonita de todo el país!

(that is a song written and performed by some kids in our branch. It's a song dedicated to their mom. I will sing it for you all one day). 

That's right. This week is mother's day. Woohoo! I know I've said this before, but the mission really does make you thankful for your parents. You just see a lot of examples and say wow good thing my parents weren't like that. I'm really grateful for my childhood. 

Anyway this week was full of unexpected twists and turns that wouldn't be all that exciting for you guys. Like for example, obedience. I've been improving on my goal to be right on time instead of like 3 minutes late (to bed, getting up, to start studying, to go out and work, whatever). And many other just-as-exciting details. Or having an "activity" that no one came to cause it was raining. But! At the end, one person came. And we actually really needed to talk to that person. Or like when showed up at our lunch appointment and the sister wasn't home (what? what could be more important than giving the missionaries lunch?). When she showed up she told us it was because she went to buy a guitar for her boyfriend who was visiting from Santiago for his birthday and then she left it in the taxi and spent the whole morning trying to get it back. She was freaking out because she hadn't found it, so we cooked lunch with her and sang hymns and she calmed down. It ended up being a great b-day lunch for everyone. And to top it off, they even found the guitar later! Or when in Sacrament meeting a recent convert shared with everyone his revelation that there would be an earthquake next week. I can't help but be a little bit nervous for fast and testimony meeting - especially when it's an investigator's first time. But you know what? I learned something important this week. 

 

making pizzas with the hermanas

You know how everyone jokes about how if the church wasn't true, the missionaries would have destroyed it a long time ago? I see that being more and more true all the time. If this wasn't true there's no way it would still be standing. We're so imperfect. And the Lord is the one who is really running this show. He knows so much more than us and we just need to trust Him more. 

                                                                    With the Iturra family (mission leader, RS pres)

                                              

    First time eating grilled cheese in my whole mission!

Love you all, have a great week!

Hermana Glazier

Different World

This week I was thinking a lot about how missionaries are kind of in a different world from everyone else. It's great because it's easier to focus in on the things that are the most important, but it also creates challenges because we have to respect that everyone else is in the "real world". When we're working with the members here, when we're inviting people to church or to meet with us, it's like "oh yeah they have other things to do too besides talk about the Gospel". It's hard to find that balance sometimes but it's possible. And most of all it makes me really grateful to be a missionary. It makes me realize what things are actually worth my time. I'm really thankful for all of my experiences I've had so far (I have a lot more work to do still!) and I'm enjoying the whole being separated from the world thing. 

But don't get me wrong, it also has its disadvantages. For example this week there was a city-wide water shut-off for one night at we didn't know about it until we were already out working for the day. There's a picture of me with all the water we had for the whole night. We survived. BARELY. Nah we basically just brush our teeth and go straight to bed at night. Too tired to do anything else, so it wasn't really a big crisis. That's another reason we're different in the mission...we don't really care about things that used to worry us. (Especially what colors match...let's not even talk about how I'm dressing these days).

The truth is, anyone who knows about the Gospel of Jesus Christ should also be different from the rest of the world. We need to be examples of the happiness it can bring. We have to be different! I know I've said this before but I just want to say it again. It's so easy to get distracted and forget who we really are. But I would like to be able to look back on my life and say that I was faithful to what I knew. That matters so much more that what someone else thinks or whatever other justification I can make. Keep going strong!!! The Lord is hastening His work and it's so exciting to participate!

This week was full of interesting experiences - a disastrous family home evening, a strange man trying to talk to me in English and showing us his dog that is the only one of its kind in Cauquenes, heart-attacking a member family, having a 5-minute surprise b-day party for Hna Vieda (one of the other hermanas in our house) because we all finished our planning really late and had to go to bed right after, eating lots of fried things, helping a sister make sopaipillas (kinda like scones) and completely ruining them, getting a "new" (it's pretty old) washer, and trying to entertain kids in Sacrament meeting with the connect-the-dots game I used to always play with my siblings. I've learned in the mission that I actually have no idea how to handle kids. When I was younger I used to just tackle my brother when he was bugging me. But we 10000000% can NOT do that as missionaries. Being able to work with them is really important, too. We normally are teaching adults, but if their kids are running around they won't be able to pay attention. And Jesus always said that we need to be more like children! That's my tip for anyone preparing for the mission - learn how to work with kids. And also be humble like a child. I'm still working on that one too. 

I love this work and I'm so grateful to be here in Chile. This is the only place I want to be! 

Love you all, thanks for supporting me and doing all that you're doing at home. 

Hermana Glazier

Las Mini-Misioneras = Semana de Milagros

Aubrey Glazier	11:03 AM (40 minutes ago)
to me, Richard, Tosha

This week we had mini-missionaries! 2 young women from other parts of the mission were here for 4 days. It added a lot of stress in some ways, but we also saw tons of miracles. This whole weekend we have been suddenly finding people that we've looked for and never found. I know that the Lord is directing this work and that things will work out in His time.

It was also District Conference (I still have trouble remembering to say district/branch and not stake/ward). It was excellent. Our branch provided the choir and it was fun to sing in a choir again. It wasn't exactly like choir at BYU but it was still fun. 

Today we have transfers! Except actually we don't have transfers. The 4 of us in our ward are staying the same. We basically just had transfers early and knew that nothing was going to change right now. We're excited to be here and work hard! Woohoo!

Some great moments of the week (with photos!):

A couple times a week we eat lunch in our house. This week I made Dad's famous rice. One of the few things from home that all of the ingredients are found here easily! 

An awesome view of the moon. The sunsets have been AWESOME lately. The sky never ceases to amaze me. 

Normally we are the ones that start a conversation with people in the street. But this week we got to experience what every one else feels every day...a Jehovah's Witness started talking to us in front of his meetinghouse, inviting us to attend their special Easter-week service. I actually wanted to go see what it was like, just out of curiosity. Obviously we can't do that during proselyting time. But it was a super weird feeling being the person receiving the invitation. 

First time on the upper-part of a double decker bus! We were super late to the conference and we had to take an expensive bus that goes on long trips. We thought there was one at the right time but to our surprise, when we got to the terminal, we found out that there were less buses for the holiday weekend.We were super late to the conference, but at least we got to go in the fancy bus...

Our great district!

With mini-missionaries

Other great moment of the week. I left my journal in the chapel in Parral (like an hour away) in the Saturday session of conference. I thought it was lost and I was dying. My whole life (okay like the last 3 months) is in there! I prayed so hard that it wouldn't be lost. Luckily when they were cleaning, someone found it and saw my name in it and gave it to me. I was freaking out so much because my time here in Cauquenes has been the time in my life when I have progressed the most as a person and have grown so much closer to the Lord. I couldn't bear the thought of losing the written account of all that progress. I hope you people at home are keeping journals as well! It's so important. 

Well, love you all. Keep in mind what's most important in your life and dedicate your time to those things. Work hard and do your best! 

Herrrrrrmana Glazier