Week 16: Caterpillar Soup

Here are some of the highlights of my week! Oh and here is an attached photo of my schedule. I know you guys asked what my schedule was like, so here it is! :)

Monday was p-day. Yay! I just did the normal. I woke with a migraine, so I slept for a couple hours first. Then we went to Concepcion and emailed, bought food, and visited the mission office. Then we went home and worked on letters and got ready to leave to work from 6:30 to 10pm. We had a Noche de Hogar with some members and recent converts from 8 to 10, so that was fun! :) I always enjoy family home evenings! They make the day so much faster and give us something to look forward to in the night.

Tuesday, we had district class in the morning. Every Tuesday we have district classes. We gather together as a zone and hear announcements and such. Next we split into district classes for about two hours to learn and do practices. Then we went to lunch and then started another normal day! We found a woman who was very kind and friendly, and she let us teach her even though she is already Catholic. She even invited us to come back, so that was good! :) We also visited a less active couple, and taught them about genealogy and the blessings of the temple and such, and they were very excited about it. They hadn’t heard about that yet, and they were very excited to start. Hopefully they keep up that energy and will start coming to church so they can go to the temple too! My comp and I are trying to get people to start family history here in our ward now. :)

Wednesday, we taught a lesson to an older woman who has been progressing slowly. We taught her about the gospel and the five main steps - faith, repentance, baptism, confirmation/receiving of the Holy Ghost, and persevering to the end. It went really well! AND I actually finally felt kind of a little confident teaching. I felt like I had an idea of what to really say to teach in a simple and strong manner, and in Spanish! lol! Later that day we had lunch. We ate a vegetable soup that was made with all homegrown vegetables. It was good, but the vegetables all looked not very clean and tasted a little like dirt. I also found a little caterpillar/worm thing that had probably been in the vegetables and just didn’t get cleaned out well, floating in my soup. I just casually pulled it out and snuck it into my napkin and kept eating, hoping I wasn’t eating more of them. lol! Later my companion, one of the other hermanas and myself all started feeling really queasy and kind of dizzy. The other hermana ended up throwing up. I felt like it for a while too. My comp and I ended up cutting our day short at 8pm because she was feeling really sick and her feet have major blisters, that are from some sort of foot fungus – it looks really painful. I slowly got better during the day. I was better off then the other hermanas I think, and the 4th hermana just has a stomach of steel. lol! We think it is because she eats many spicy foods in Guatemala, so her stomach was already tough. haha! .

Thursday, we all still felt a bit queasy, but since the other two hermanas were feeling blah, and I was pretty decent, I went and worked with the Guatemalan sister. We went to lunch alone while the other hermanas slept. We were late because of many reasons we couldn’t control, and the other hermanas forgot to call the lady and tell her they weren’t coming since they were sick. When we arrived, the lady was quite mad. It was a tense lunch, and the hermana with me didn’t say almost anything at the start of the lunch because she was uncomfortable. So I was left to try and talk with the lady in my bad Spanish and she had a hard time understanding me at first. lol! It was interesting. But by the end it was all good. The lady was happy and sharing experiences, and the other hermana started talking. We left on a good note. :) Then the day was pretty normal after that and we all were working again.

Me & My Companion 

Hermanas Outside the Concepcion Mission Office

Missionary Schedule

Week 15: Out of Time

 Unfortunately, this week, I have seriously like no time to write you guys much because there is a member of the 70 coming to visit us soon here in the mission and we all had to take a survey for it. It ended up taking me like 30 minutes, so that was a huge chunk of my time. :(

P-day Travels

Me

One Heck of a View

Hermanas

Rocky Coast

Just Outside the Sea Cave

Inside the Sea Cave

Hermanas

A Pack of Hounds

Relaxing on the Beach

Week 14: Three Months Out

This week actually was a pretty good week! My comp and I get along quite well - she’s really funny. And this week we did a lot better with finding people to teach and having some of them actually show interest, and we got some in-actives who haven't been at church for months to come this Sunday (and an investigator), which was cool. One of them had a pretty neat experience/realization that helped her decide to come back to church this Sunday after like seven or eight months of inactivity! 

Oh, I forgot to tell you guys, but when I went to the beach, I also got to hold a wild tarantula! I was the first girl brave enough to hold it too! haha!

Scarey

Spider Woman

A funny thing that happened Tuesday ... My comp and I saw and talked to a guy, who we had met drunk the other day. (he had come up to us to tell us we were beautiful and he doesn’t care what others say about the Mormons, we’re great. Then he kissed my comps hand. lol) When we talked to him on Tues, he seemed to not remember that at all, or if he did, he was acting like he didn’t, but what was funny, was when we asked him if he would like to hear more about the church, he said he didn’t have time b/c he was only a passerby through town. (Obviously lying) Then we ended up seeing him walk into his house later, then much later that same day sitting outside just talking with some person. He looked embarrassed to see us again. lol. Either way, it was funny to us. It probably doesn’t sound funny to you guys, but it was. lol) BUT I wish ppl would just be honest and tell us they’re not interested. So many Chileans try not to offend us by telling us fake addresses, or telling us to return another day. Then they say they’re too busy and return again. Or they just don’t answer the door even though they are obviously home. :P It wastes our precious time and energy! lol!

This week, we also got to celebrate our cumplemeses too! Mine (3 months) and another Hermana in my group (8 months) shared our cumplemes day and ate yummy baked goods! Then my companion’s cumplemes was yesterday, and it was her big half way mark! (9 months) So we had cake & had some fun with that. That night, we borrowed a homeless guy’s fire so she could burn a skirt (like the elders burn a shirt!) lol! It was really funny. :)

Cumplemes

Yesterday during lunch, the family we ate with had the Olympics on, so we got to watch some of the figure skating, my favorite part of the Olympics!  (even thought technically were not supposed to watch stuff. lol! it was fun) We got to watch the USA team skaters. That was fun to all watch and talk and see the winning teams and such. I love the Olympics. :)

Oh, and I almost forgot to tell you guys - I also teach English classes every Friday now for one hr. I actually enjoy it! Its pretty low stress, and a nice change in schedule.

Also, random, but it makes me feel good b/c a lot of ppl have acted very surprised at how well I can speak Spanish and a lot have said I have very good pronunciation! Yay!

So far I am really liking this area! I like all the trees, and the members are great. Really this has been a good week, and now that I have written some, I feel a lot better. :) 

Week 13: Ups & Downs

I’m in my sector! And yes, it is pretty different than Coihueco.

Last week, after emailing you guys and such, and working for the last hours of the evening & night, I said goodbyes to different members and such. (mainly ppl one of the other hermanas knew well since she was leaving also and had been there for 6 months) I packed like crazy!! I have decided there is one benefit to sheer material - its great for packing! It is lightweight, and takes up almost no room! So sheer material is good for that! haha! Lauren, If you get some, just get 2 and count it as one. lol!

Then, I got up extra early and we had to rush to get ready, and get all our stuff onto the bus to Chillan. The real challenge came in trying to fit all of our stuff in one taxi! We were late for our bus so we had to buy a ticket for the next bus - which was a little frustrating since I was seriously out of money and had been ready on time. (yes. shocker I know. lol!) Then I met up with my new companion in the bus terminal in Concepcion and a kind member took us in his car to our apartment with all my stuff. Then I had like 30 min to quickly unpack as much as I could, and we went out and started working!

I have to say, this week has definitely been draining what with all the change, and all the Spanish (which has been going a lot better than I had actually hoped for, so that’s good) and having a completely normal schedule now. I really appreciate that my 1st six weeks were almost a transition zone for me. I think it was good. So I’ve been feeling definitely up and down, often times many times in one day. It’s depressing to go out and feel like everyone finds you annoying and won’t give you the time of day except for the creepy drunk guys (which are many) who just think we’re pretty. :P It makes you feel like your time is being wasted. But these past 2 days have been really good. I really enjoyed church, even though I had to introduce and bear my testimony again. (I had less fear than normal, so that’s good) The ward is bigger this time! I’d say my 90ish ppl? The members are all great. I’ve gotten to do a couple Noche de Hogars (FHE) with families, and have loved them. So far, I am feeling more at home in this ward. It feels more right for me, which is interesting since I only ended up staying in Coihueco for six weeks, and I will probably be here for the next couple months. Also, today has been good since I got to go the BEACH and hike for a couple hrs through the hills, and play ultimate frisbee and volleyball! :) 

Outside Chillancito Apartment

P-day Bus

Beach Near Concepcion

Beach Near Concepcion

Me & My Companion

Chilean Flag