Sister Michelle Christine North: Let the Magic Happen

Thanks for all of your letters and saludos this week! It sounds like there are a lot of changes going on back at home. But you know what? Change is a good. Something that I learned once was “Our life happens where our comfort zone ends.” Change may be scary sometimes (or all of the time for me), but that’s where we have the opportunity to grow, learn and progress. Whether the change is a mission (I am so excited for all of you to get out there), or marriage (congratulation!!), or moving to a new part of town, starting a new adventure or any other gem that life brings us, just remember to love every little or BIG experience.

Come what may and Love it.

I celebrated 3 months as a missionary this week and have been blessed with some of the best, funniest and scariest experiences. All in the same week! It started off on Tuesday, April 30th. One of the young adults in our stake, Daphne, came tracking and taught lessons with us. It was so awesome being able to see how excited she was to teach and knock on doors (one of my favorite things to do my first week here in Chile). Also, this past weekend, I went on divisions with Hermana McCarty (one of the Hermanas that was in my travel group). I had so much fun with her and we also saw so many miracles in our day- Greenie power. One of which, I will never forget. We were walking down a neighborhood, to find someone in the street to teach, and we ran into a man named Jorge. He was outside of his house raking leafs and after seeing that we were missionaries, he all of a sudden got really busy and told us that he couldn’t talk. Hermana McCarty told him. “Well, before you go, could we sing you a song?” (I totally love her for this, even though we were in the middle of the street and people were walking by…but as missionaries, we can get away with weird things like that). Jorge said yes and after we sang to him, his entire EVERYTHING changed. And all of a sudden he was asking us questions, telling us about his family, practically inviting us over for Thanksgiving dinner! It was a little miracle for Hermana and me because we didn’t have any set appointments for the day and just wanted to find someone to teach. Hermana McCarty and her companion are going to go back and teach him and his family in the coming week, but how awesome is that?? Music is a powerful thing, it can change hearts, even if you can’t sing…and heaven knows that I was not blessed with that gift.

As you know, Spanish is my new language here in Chile. It speak it 24/7, but the problem is, I am still not fluent…at all! Sometimes I talk and I know that I don’t make sense so I just smile really big hoping that at least they can feel my love. Anyway, being here learning the language with everyone around me listening to every word I say, I’ve had some interesting experiences that I just can’t help but laugh at. One happened when we were with Lalo. He bought us sopaipillas to try (one of the yummy foods you have to try here in Chile) and of course, before we ate, we said a prayer. “We” being me. As I was praying, I said, “Padre Celestial, te damos gracias por estas almas que vamosa a comer…” translation, “Heavenly Father, we give thee thanks for these souls that we are about to eat…” Oooh No! I think that word I was looking for was alimientos…close, but not really! I didn’t even get to say another word after that because everyone broke out laughing. I had to laugh at myself too. It’s all good though, because thanks to moments like these, I can really memorize vocab.

One last story, I telling you, this week was just so good! The other night, Hermana Fuentes and I were sitting on Lalo’s porch waiting for him to get home to teach him a lesson. All of a sudden we heard someone say, “Hola Chiquititas.” And when we looked over we saw a man walking towards us doing the drunk walk. When I realized that it was Lalo, my heart literally dropped and I felt completely confused! (aka: mini heart attack) First off, Lalo never drinks and secondly, all I thought in those couple of seconds was “What are we supposed to do, teaching drunk Lalo?” But no worries guys, it was a terrible joke that our hilarious investigator played on us. The minute he realized that we believed him, he broke out into laughter. Fue una broma. Ha ha. I told him that I don’t like his jokes, but now looking back at it, it was really funny. I am just so glad that drunken Lalo doesn’t exist. Phew, that was scary.

This coming week we get to go to the temple! I can always use a trip to that place. It makes my heart happy! I hope that you guys have a lovely week! I get my first phone call on Sunday. Talk to you soon family! I’ll be sending all of my love to everyone else through my Daddy-O and Mama.

Xox, Hermana North

picture 1: My sweet companion always leaves me surprises!

picture 2: Chocolate makes the world go around, but Super 8 makes the Heavens go around. My favorite candy here!!

picture 3: "Chi! Chi! Le! Le! Viva Chile!!"

picture 4: Antoinetta one of our investigators

picture 5: Sometimes you just have to laugh at your self. (disclaimer: one second before this was taken I almost tripped and fell on my face! I'm always just so graceful)