There and Back Again, a Sister Missionary's Tale : September 2, 2013

WOOOOOOo dang. 6 months flies by when you’re having fun being a missionary. Even if it’s hard and seems long some days, I can’t believe I’ll be home in less than a year. That is nutty. And happy September!

lol. So mom asked if Hermana Schrader and I are planning on having a lotr marathon or harry potter marathon when we get back. My answer to that? Most definitely! That times 100. Add spiderman, batman, superman, star trek, and everything awesome about Colorado summertime. Oh and a goofy movie with the playing of some Barbie’s too. This vision helps us get thru those hard moments! haha. Joke. And she goes to byu.

So.....most happy thing on my mind right now...or at least one of them.

GUESS WHO CAME TO CHURCH YESTERDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

familia rojas. POR FIN! it was so epic. I’ll just give you the run down. On Saturday, we received a call from Francisco, the dad. he asked what time the ward fhe activity was and what time church was the next day. this was new because usually we remind them. then, the next morning, we called Monica, whose husband could take the family to church, and she said he is at the church and to go confirm plans with him. time was ticking because he had to pick someone else up too and we might miss him. we sprinted to the main road and saw someone honk their horn at us. luckily it was Juan guillarmo-monicas husband. he said he would go get them. then we got a call from Francisco, saying they were waiting for us!

Hermana Schrader and I were waiting out from of the church to greet people, when all of the sudden, we see Vicente, come in at a full run towards us. oh love that little kid! (he’s one of the little rojas boys). then we see Martina and Francesca, the two little girls, and finally, Francisco. Carolina was home with Lincoln, the other little boy, but hopefully next week. So that was probably the highlight of my day yesterday. Plus, we saw Nancy-the menos activo who came last week, come again, along with another named eliana! so many people there yesterday it was awesome!

It was cool too because it was fast Sunday and people bore really good testimonies. People were so excited and kind to see a new family at church too.

We had one crazy guy at church whom nobody had ever seen. he bore his testimony and said he had been baptized 12 years ago. He came to principios del evangelio with us after sacrament mtg, with milo as the teacher. milo taught a freaking awesome restoration lesson and the crazy guy kinda started interrupting-with his doubts, like questioning how we knew this was true and all. so that was fun. milo just firmly said, if you really have these doubts, you need to ask God and receive an answer for yourself. he handled it really well.

So. I love Chile! people here are hilarious, even if I don’t understand every word. one guy in our ward is a really goofy guy named hermano Gonzalez. for example, the other day he was like, Hermana hanks I didn’t recognize you because you cleaned your hair! lol. Chileans are super blunt. (no worries, I promise I wash my hair!) Chileans also talk a ton and change subjects every five seconds from one topic to the next, but at least that helps us learn the language right?

We contacted a mailman named Rodrigo. I’ve kinda been trying to ask more questions, even if they’re simple, like, " hey wanna be happy forever?" that kinda thing. we did that to Rodrigo, and we ended up talking for like 2 hours about the book of Mormon and the whole time he was like, " wow never knew that! whoa never knew that either!" he gladly took a book of Mormon. he was then looking in the index in the back and saw Lucifer. then asked us, “oh is there a book of Lucifer?" lol. book of Lucifer.

Hermana Alejandra, a member in our ward, does our laundry now. She is so sweet and went to all the effort to make us comfortable laundry bags. she says, " when you go back home, you can remember Hermana Alejandra!" well I think yes! If there is an example of a Christ like person, it’s her. She loves the Savior so much. She is in very humble circumstances, but I’ve never once heard her complain. She shared us her testimony this week and it was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard. What a great example she is to me. so dedicated to the gospel and the Savior. she always offers to fix our clothes if they rip or have holes, and she found one in my comps skirt, so kept it and said she would give it back on Sunday. yesterday, my companion and I were talking to somebody and out of the corner of my eye; I see Alejandra put the skirt in my companions backpack, unnoticed. She’s amazing, she is.

I found Chloe (doggy) hairs in my scriptures this week. lol. I knew it was Chloe because it was my English scriptures and those never leave the pension. it brought me joy as you can imagine. hahahaha.

Milo goes to Colombia this week. we are sad! he was an awesome ward mission leader. but I’m happy that he gets to go see his family at least. nonetheless...buen amigo that milo.

I studied a lot about the priesthood this week because I really don’t know that much. It’s super interesting to me, and there’s so much to study about it! I want to study it because hopefully it can help Francisco and the rojas family sees that they can have the blessings of the priesthood in their home too.

With that said, ummm can I just say how awesome is joseph smith???? can you say probably one of the coolest guys ever??? I was reading the obituary in doctrine and convenios-i think written by john Taylor. my mind was blown. This guy we are talking has done more, than any other man, save the Savior. there have been so pretty amazing people who have lived on the earth. So much sacrifice there and learning for him.

I found a cat in my room this morning. I sent a picture. super random...lol

OH. our bishop’s son Diego is seriously the coolest little kid ever. he is like kinda sassy and loves ninja turtles and star wars. obviously we all get along. my comp has a ninja turtles shirt that she wore once to an activity, and Diego came up to her once in a low quiet voice and said," I know you have a ninja turtles shirt." and the trust all started there.

Last night, we took a small shortcut and I got to practice some old Colorado trailblazing. it was kiiiinnnnddddaaaa awesome. Chile has lots of hills in certain parts and it’s pretty exciting.

I feel like haven’t said much about the culture here, so I’ll try and give a little bit. the food here is not spicy at all. I prefer spicy, but at least it’s edible. not too bad. sometimes I would do anything to eat some homemade Chile or buffalo chicken though. lol.

people here don’t really use too many cars. we mostly use collectivos or buses and depending on the driver, we really feel like we are in harry potter because it’s like the night bus on a highway next to the coast! so epic.

we get lots of weird looks for being gringas saying hola to everybody. a lot of people kinda point or whisper sometimes, and when that happens, we will pretend one of us is telling a really funny and joke and just start laughing like we are having a good time. lol. we’ve gotten really good at it...hahahahaha.

we played telephone at the ward activity. aight I’m not bad at that game in English, but Spanish? I was the downfall of the team for that matter. hahahahaha.

there are empanada shops on every corner and completos and chorillana. completos are bread, palta, tomato, hot sauce (for Chile), and a hot dog. chorillana is French fries, eggs, chorizo, meat...delish. delish.

we use gas here to heat everything. so of course, there are little gas trucks that run around playing different songs. last week we heard some Christmas music so that really got us in the season! oh wait, not for 3 more months. so deceiving those gas trucks.

okay well that’s it for this week!

love you chao chao.

-Hermana Emily hanks

1.hermanas de recreo

2. aight diego is the coolest kid ever. he is the bishops 6 year old son and he wants to be a missionary too. what really brings us all together is our love for star wars and other cool stuff like that