August 26, 2013

Hiiiii.

  So. Happy day today!  I’ve been a missionary for exactly six months.  At about 7 o’clock tonight. Crazy.  And yesterday, I am 19.5 years old.  Everyone here really considers me the baby because I’m the first 19 year old that’s been in Recreo. 

  Sounds like things went relatively well for Justin’s chemo.  Glad to hear that...so far.  I’m praying for yall everyday don’t forget that.  it sounds like he’s keeping really positive too and I wanna hear some of these jokes!  It’s still crazy to me and doesn’t really sink in until I see the pictures.  But I know that this will only make him stronger!

  As for the mission...last week on pday, we played soccer in Con con.  IT WAS AWESOME.  I got a gnarly bruise shaped really weird, so that was pretty cool.  Love playing soccer with those elders.  Our district leader is crazy good too.  We also read our patriarchal blessings in a park and I enjoyed it because it was really peaceful, and I actually felt like I could breathe and have time to myself.  That doesn’t happen much as a missionary (except unless you dream well. haha.).  also, of all places, Chile has dunkin donuts!  we ate some of those too.  oh my goodness how I have forgotten the reality of how delicious a donut is.  Most of the pastries here are deceiving.  they look like heaven and then it turns out to be bread with chocolate, or bread with manjar.  surprise!  lol. not the same. but it’s all good.

  We kicked the ball over the fence and into the street, but luckily, the crazy guy from the coca cola decided to risk his life and jump out of his truck to save our ball from certain death.  what a gem.  a few cars were backed up behind him, honking their horns at him to go too. took him a few tries but he kicked that ball over the fence!  gotta love Chile.

  The next day I woke up and was super sore from playing soccer.  It was funny because in district meeting, all the elders said they were sore too and I seriously had to waddle Tuesday morning to work. 

  We went to Jumbo.  It’s like Wal-Mart but a little bit less walmartish and more like a giant grocery store.  when we were walking last week, I said to my companion, " remember when we used to have sams club and Safeway?" hehehe. you would never see that in recreo.  jumbo has the best granola on this planet!  ok...I can probably make granola better than it, but..... (message here. I eat granola for breakfast.). people at jumbo are nice too. the lady bagging our groceries before we left said, "why is it that you girls are always pretty?".  cute little ladies here make me smile.

  LOL!!!! okay so we went to hermano Raves and helped iron a few shirts for him.  guess what was on TV???? he was watching nacho libre...lol. aight I didn’t watch it don’t worry, but I did over hear a little bit of it.  let’s just say nacho libre in Spanish is probably hilarious and it’s all we quoted in the mtc. (that and pitch perfect).  

  I was wearing my csu sweatshirt in vina after we played soccer and some random guy came up and said, "no way you go to csu?" I said, "no I’m just from fort Collins. we are missionaries."  he said, "whoa cuz I go to cu!". it was super random. and his name was Jason.  nice guy.  (baddddd judge of character! lol lol quote from the Grinch.)

   We’ve been speaking in Spanish like almost always lately.  it’s awesome and helping us a lot.  it kinda started with intercambios with latinas.  we were so used to it; we just decided to keep speaking it.  yay!  I can understand other accents, but Chileans are so dang fast. hard to keep up there my friends. 

  aight....so again. familia rojas didn’t come to church! hardest thing here for us is getting people to come. like seriously just come! you tell us you’re coming and we have a ride for you and everything come come come!!! ok overreaction, but really.  just come to church.  we taught them the plan of salvation when we were on intercambios and they understood it really well I think.  still working with them though.  

  Ooo our lights went out this week. one night we were walking up the stairs to our apartment and a lady said, "no hay luz." so the electricity was out or something and it was time to pull out the emergency flashlights. sweeeeet. 

  abuelita martita wants me to tell you all that we are in good hands and that we have a Chilean grandmother.  I love that woman.  she also sends you her love.

  Milena returned!  our investigador from before.  She wants to come to church and we are going to continue working with her.  

  we went on Saturday to a less active member named Nancy.  she’s an older woman, has about 80 years or so and hasn’t been to church in a long time. we talked to her about the temple. we invited her to church and offered to accompany her.  she said she would go alone, and the next day, we looked down the street and saw her and Hermana doris coming to church!  it made me happy. we had some menos activos there yesterday and maybe the family didn’t come, but menos activos there was an awesome sight!

  During intercambios, we visited a man named jose.  we found out that his mom had died 15 days before and he was really sad.  We taught him the plan of salvation and were about to close with a prayer when we asked if there was anything we could pray for him for.  he immediately started crying and shaking and it was really sad.  like he was holding it all in.  He wanted us to come back next week which we are going to do for sure.  he can’t walk very well, and his sister doesn’t really like the missionaries.  but it was a cool experience to meet him. 

  ooo! ok this was exciting...sorta...we went with Doris to teach la familia rojas.  outside we saw this short little drunk guy just kinda stalling in front of their house.  I asked him, “do you want to be happy?" and we started conversing with him about the gospel.  he said he feels alone and needs help and wants to be better.  he was holding a beer can and swaying on the spot, and got so frustrated with himself that his face twisted up and he threw the beer as hard as he could into a nearby field.  lol. thought it was coming for me at first.  then we invited him to church and he said he would come about 40 times.  on our way down, we saw him on the stairs...sure enough he remembered 10 minutes later. haha but I guess it was hard to remember that till the next morning because he didn’t come. sad day. haha. love those drunks. 

I’m trying to use more visuals in my teaching because it’s easier to explain and it’s easier to learn with them I think.  I made a few this week.  

language is good. I like speaking Spanish! 

love you all. keep me posted with Justin. 

also....GROUNDBREAKING ALRREADY??? ok flipping awesome. psyched!

Hermana Emily Hanks

we live on camino real. 

story. our mamita put some jeans that werent ours in our laundry and i just had to try them on. it was all too tempting. oh...and may the wolves be with you. wolfiest wishes from chile.

 schrader and i at church. our lovely little piano.

intercambios

this is recreo.