August 19, 2013

Heyyyyyyy. 

  First of all, I’m glad everything with Justin sounds like its going ok so far.  I love the pictures too!  That is awesome.  I’ve been praying and will continue to pray for Justin.  (In the words of matt: big boy.) 

  Second off.  I did not get transferred!! Everybody said, "Oh Hermana hanks you’ve been here, you’ll probably get transferred." but nope!  We were both surprised hearing we were both staying one more.  People were happy to hear and see that we are sticking around another 6 weeks so that’s good!  We are stoked because we will be here for Independence Day on 18 de septiembre.  

  Hermana Schrader and I are super excited for this cambio!  Every day is a learning experience.  Even every transfer.  I kind of have goals in mind for each transfer.  For example, I really wanted to get better with the language last transfer.  I feel like it improved a lot and I tried to work at it a lot more.  I’ve almost finished the book of Mormon reading out loud!  About 90 pages to go.  Sweeeeet.  

   I’ve been thinking about goals for this transfer, and I want to learn to love people the way the Savior did.  Wave figured a lot out, how to make good use of our time, speaking, teaching, etc., but actually listening and loving people is something I’m going to try and be better at.  I read in about it in PME this morning.  It’s awesome!  1 Corinthians 13.  Super good. 

  So stories for this week.  Haha.  We have decided living in a small town like Recreo is like a video game. We see some of the same people every day.  For example, the friendly guy from the gas station who always says, "como esta!"  and is super enthusiastic. We love that guy!  He says we make his day whenever we see him.  And he’s not a snake either so that’s a plus.  We also see Rosario each day almost.  Trigger: we see a purple jacket and white hat.  Rosario.  I sent a picture with her.  We see like the same people in the spot where we expect to see them each day if you know what I mean.  

  One thing we are sad about is that our district leader got transferred to the north at transfers.  He’s a zone leader now so that’s pretty sweet!  He was so cool though and we will miss him!  He taught us a lot and got us really animated for the work.   He told us cool stories like how he got rocks thrown at him one night for example.  He will be missed.

  I got to see my mommy (in the mission world) last week!  Hermana Ortega and Hermana Schrader’s trainer, Hermana Garcia came and saw us before they went home.  So good to see them!  Crazy they’re back home.  Dang. 

  Funny story. That crazy drunk with the poodle, he wears swoosh pants.  (the pants that like make a swoosh noise when you walk. lol).  He’s nuts.  He ran across the street and I said, "you said you were going to come to church last week!  why didn’t you come!?" and he was like, "well..uh. my brother was in town!". then I said, "hm...but this week right??" he was like,"yes of course."  crazy guy.  guess he forgot. again. hahaha. He asked what our first names were, and just to mess with him (super drunk), when he asked me, I told him my name was, "shaneequa."  hard to hold back a laugh because he believed me and all. lol. 

   We visited cute little blanca this week.  Blanca is the little old lady I sent a picture of a few weeks ago I think.  She has Alzheimer’s, and her daughter Irma takes care of her.  Irma is in our ward.  Every time we are there, Blanca repeats every few minutes, "just whenever you want!  come to our house!  you both are so pretty!" and it’s so adorable.  then when we leave, she watches us until we are out of site, walking down the stare and waves to us as we walk back onto the main street.  it’s cool because Irma said Blanca doesn’t like it when other visitors come and usually asks, "why are you here?" to others. cute little lady.

  haha. so everyone here thinks Adele is a really good singer.  why? well, you hear Adele everywhere.  I’m not saying she’s bad, but not such a fan after hearing her all the time.  sometimes we will accidentally catch ourselves singing some Adele and its bad!  I think the worst was yesterday in church, somebody’s phone went off playing Adele during the closing prayer.  I was trying to hold back laughter and could tell Hermana Schrader was doing the same. lol.

  We had zone conference this week.  I could actually understand it!! it was awesome.  Wave been trying to get people to progress...we can find people, but it’s getting them to church that’s the problem here.  I’ve been praying a lot about how we can get people to progress here and the zone conference talked a lot about it.  It was really good!

  Rojas family. DIDNT COME TO CHURCH yesterday.  it was sad.  apparently somebody was sick, but we are still going to work with them.  it was a bummer!  but we will go see them tomorrow and hopefully some more this week. they need to go.  Francisco found a job, and they’ve been reading the book of Mormon, so they’ve received some blessings and it’s been cool to see.  

   We have a date for baptism with Francisco, the 14 year old....sort of. but I’ll write more about that next week!

  saw abuelita martita last night.  we were talking a little bit about the stars and planets before and then shared alma 30:44 about the planets and the stars (alma proving to korihor that he has all the proof there is a God before him).  she squealed in delight how cool that was because we had just been talking planets and all.  she wanted to finish the entire chapter.  Her husband is super active, but abuelita martita is not.  she smokes too. haha. but she’s coming little by little I think!  

 Well love you all. keep me updated on Justin!

Chao. 

Hermana Emily Hanks

aight this is our friend rosario.  those apartments are similar to the ones we live in.  Rosario, everytime we see her walking around (which is at least once a day haha) she says, "hola hola mijita como estan como estan??" Lol.  we had to get a picture with her. 

our chilean mothah.  hermana sonia!!!! oh how i love her.  and her purple pants!

 bought some purple pants for the cold.

the restaurant we go to a lot of the time in recreo has a new chef.  he just got baptized and gave us a ton of free food. this is some of the samples we had.  delicious.

had zone conference in con con. nice ride along the coast of chile.  ITS SO FREAKING SWEET. 

more beach.