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.

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.

12 August, 2013

Heyyy.

 Waat up family.  I'm shocked to hear about Justin(*), but i'm glad he is okay so far.  I'm praying for yall every night.  It helps knowing that God tests us in life and whatever happens, it will help you be stronger if you put your trust in Him. Im grateful also for the knowledge of the Plan of salvation and that we can be strengthened through the atonement.  a blessing of being a missionary is teaching other people these things, you really teach yourself too.  I know God loves us individually and has planned out everything exactly accordingly.  

 This week in Chile was good.  Its crazy to think that i've been out for six months in a week and a half.  And Recreo for 3 transfers.  Transfers are this wednesday and to be honest, i have no idea what on earth will happen.  So i'm just going to work and wait and see.  

 We taught Hermano Rave this week again.  He is a little hard of hearing, and we were reading the scriptures, practically yelling so he could hear.  Then, he said, "can i be honest with you?" we said, of course.  he said," don't be mad, but you guys talk really quietly."  Lol.  we got a good laugh out of that afterwards...hahaha. so cute.

 We had ward conference yesterday.  ward conference in chile is a much bigger deal because everybody pins little papers to their shirt that the relief society gives them, and then after bishops meeting, we all got cookies and hot chocolate, etc.  sweet.  so theres some ideas america...for the future...lol.  

  Hermana schrader, me, and leo all sang in sacrament meeting.  it was pretty cool because we sang a childs prayer-we sang the first verse in english and leo sang the second in spanish ,because we didn't have the hymnbook.  we also sang i'm trying to be like Jesus, and a lot of people complimented us saying, " the choir was beautiful!" or "i felt the spirit the most when you sang."  sooo that was pretty cool.  

 We taught Juan again this week.  He really likes what we have taught him and i gave him the invitation to be baptized but he wants to learn more first.  still though, pretty sure he will get baptized in the near future.

 We had our encounters of drunk guys for the week. Lol grandma's letter made me laugh!  as for that, one of the latina hermanas says, "if you put a dress on a broom, guys would whistle at it here."  haha.  One drunk ran up to us and said, "hey!  look at my poodle!" and picked up his dog and told us to feel it.  Um...great guy...hahahahahhaha.  Another guy at the bus stop said he was a member and we asked if he assisted a lot.  He said,"totos los domingos." which means, every sunday...hahahaha as he has trouble keeping his feet.  so that was fun.

 okay..well this week, we probably had the best day ever!  not even kidding you.  it started about by studying some really awesome stuff.  Our minds were both blown and we were pumped for getting out and sharing the gospel.  We also have a neighbor who was playing imagine dragons above us...so that was cool too. (i love imagine dragons).  We visited a menos activo, did NOT feel overly filled after almuerzo, and we contacted a ton of people, including a guy who is an investigator from santiago and wants to come to our ward.  the best part goes like this=

  We visited the family, rojas family.  they're the ones with 4 kids and the parents are married (miracle!)  we entered into their house which is super far away up a big hill, and we asked how they were.  It  was a little tense and Francisco, the husband, said, "not too good. "  He then explained to us that they are having troubles financially because he can't find a job, they are looking desperately for a different house too because the house they are in just has a bad feeling about it and a weight.  I could see the worry in that mans eyes for the sake of his family.  

   We started teaching about the plan of salvacion after this to help get their minds off that.  Part way thru, I could see Carolina was crying and the kids had sort of calmed down.  Francisco told us that before we had come, they had been fighting about something and that we had arrived at the perfect timing, it couldn't be more perfect he said.  They both listened so well.  They said they don't have many friends because they live so far away and they have just been pretty unhappy the last two months.  

  Carolina said she feels good when she reads the book of mormon. I told her that was the Spirit. We invited them to be baptized and they both accepted!!!!! Francisco said, "all of us?? the whole family??" we then explained that only 8 and above, but he looked at us and shook our hands saying he accepts.  Soooo there ya have it =) they said of all the people that could have helped us from whom they knew or prayed to, we were the ones who showed up.  praying praying praying all will go thru and be well with them!!!!!!

 after the closing prayer, caroline and francisco looked at us.  carolina said," can you feel the weight being lifted?" or something like that to francico and he nodded.  i felt relief too and the atmosphere had changed.  by far the coolest thing EVER.  

 We left and under my breath i said, "wait wait wait...." until we were out of earshot.  then we hit the main street and again and were like screaming with excitement. hahahaha.  it was the best!  and they're a family!!!!

  Right after that lesson, we tried contacting a guy.  He said," i have my own beliefs.  people here are catholic and evangecos. you  won't convince anybody.  "  but that was the last thing that could get our spirits down!!!!  sorry to see that guy reject the gospel, but it so happens that people do listen to us.  

  so that was so cool.  I don't know if i will be here for the baptism, but i was so glad to be in that lesson.  so cool.  

  k thats all i got. les quiero.

hermana emily hanks

*Emily’s brother Justin was recently diagnosed with cancer and will start Chemotherapy on August 19th. Please keep him in your prayers!

1. chile public bathrooms!!! dont you wanna go use one right now? lol. gross.

2. hahahahahahahhahaha. translate this. made me laugh. 

3. okay...found some underfed puppies and they were so cute.  dont worry, street dogs are smart, so im confident they will find some supper.  so flippin adorbs.  totes had fleas, but i couldnt resist!

4. chile.

5 August, 2013

sooo....just while its fresh in my brain....I CAN'T BELIEVE THEY ARE PUTTING IN A THRIFT STORE RIGHT NEAR MY HOUSE!!!!!! i can't believe this good luck!  Man, adding that to my list of stuff to do when i get home.  i'm keeping my fingers crossed for a nice savers or d.i.  that is so very exciting!

lol.

also, lets give a shout to harry potter whose birthday was last wednesday.  crazy how the kids grow up so fast.

Well this week was awesome!  A lot of stuff happened.  I can't believe how quickly the weeks pass.  Maybe emailing once a week seems very little to some people, but the time flies like crazy.  This saturday i'll have been in chile for like 4 months.  crazyyy!!! and this month will be my 6 month mark.  its crazy.  BUT AWESOME!!!   i'm so stoked.

Ok. so for starters, crazy stuff that happens in viña.  we were going to the registro civil or something and on our way to the collectivos and buses, we passed this guy who was all burned up.  he was asking for money and just sitting in the middle of the sidewalk....kinda sad.  then, we were walking in calle valparaiso and this crazy clown guy came up to hermana schrader and i as hna schrader was putting a little bit of money in her coin sack.  i kinda laughed and he was asking hna schrader to give him the money.  we both just laughed then he pulled a toy gun on us both. hahahahaha twas entertaining.  don't worry it was calle valpairaiso its loaded with people.  entertainment...lol.  he then walked away and said, "hermosas."  which is "beautifuls."

   we were greeted by dear rosaria again this morning!  hahaha. she is so crazy.  "hola hola mi hitas como estan como estan?"  hahaha. everytime we see her, she asks how hermana ortega, my old comp is, and then i always ask, "you gonna come to church this week!!??" and she says," ah no tengo tiempo!" lame. hahaha. but still a funny crazy lil lady.  we were also greeted by a crazy guy wearing a hollywood shirt on the corner saying we were pretty. (shes nuts!  -finding nemo.)

I ate hard boiled quail eggs this week. they really tasted the same as chicken, but they're a lot smaller. still...i think i prefer chicken eggs.

This morning i was kinda just spending my last few minutes in personal study looking for something in the bible dictionary, when i see the words,"lost books." OK definitely caught my interest.  so mysterious right??? makes me think of like the lost city of atlantis or something epic like that.  turns out hermana schrader came across the same thing and we were both like, "Whoa what are these lost books!!!!???"  

So in chile....i'm not really a fan of the dairy.  I don't remember if i mentioned that...but not a fan!  Their ice cream tastes like foam to me...i try to keep the image of the ice cream from byu creamery and all out of my mind on hotter days...sniff sniff.  The milk too.  what i would do for a glass of fresh cold milk.  the milk here is in cardboard cartons, sealed, and probably on the shelf for months...maybe years. =/  not a fan.  i look forward to the day when we shall be reunited, girl and her cold glass of milk recently extracted from the cow.  

you remember that guy named gonzalo who was making fun of our spanish and saying how we are so wrong about everything?? (cough...diablo...)well he crossed the street to come talk to us again and said, "do you remember me?? yeah she don't remember me!" pointing to me.  hm.....well....sad to see people like that. it'd be cool to see a guy like that change.

yesterday during our principios de evangelio (gospel principles) glass, milo, once again was the teacher. milo ROCKS at teaching. i learn too much from him.  our class consisted of alejandro, pablo (missionary), us missionaries, and to our surprise, a guy named robinson who came to church, invited by a member.  (MEMBERS ARE KEY IN MISSIONARY WORK SO GO DO IT!!!!!)  we were talking about the sacrament, and alejandro got on a ramble about "quemando los cuerpos."  aight. this is to say, "burning bodies."  hermana schrader i could see was covering her face with her hair trying not to laugh.  I was in the position where everyone could see my face, so i immediately looked at my lap because i could see milo holding back a laugh, as well as pablo. alejandro is so funny and awesome!!!!   if there is an example of perseverance if i've ever seen one, its alejandro.  I love that guy!

Now for the investigators: to explain. a TON of couples you run into, and families, are conviviendo...aka they're living together.  BOO.  caroline has a husband, the lady i mentioned we found last week.  THEY ARE MARRIED!!!!!! hallelujah!!!!!!!! we felt like flying after we found out about that. what's better, is they have 4 kids all under the age of 10.  we taught them last week.  the kids were a little crazy, but carolina and her husband francisco are both interested and want us to come back.  they said they believe God sent us there...it was cool to hear that.  Shes been reading the book of mormon, and my goal this week is to get all of them to church.  They are really poor and said they have been really sad because he is out of work and her mom is on the hospital and all.  They need the gospel so bad!! Hoping.

We did teach Juan again this week!!! oh such a silly old man.  We love Juan.  He wants to get baptized, but really, he hasn't really read the book of mormon, and hermana jacqueline wants him to have an answer of his own.  It was funny because she was trying to explain prayer to him and she said for example, she prayed to see if juan was the one for her...(ooop there it is!).  then juan was like, " well am i the one for you?" lol. so that was fun. hopefully he prays about the book of mormon too and joseph smith...hahaha.

we found a part member family pretty receptive.  the wife isn't a member they are living together unmarried...unfortunately. but working with that!

We met contacted some drunk guys.  One last night was especially interesting because he said he wanted to change his life and his life was so messed up. felt bad for the guy.  I told him to leave the alcohol, and he started crying and all....it sort of reminded me of winky in harry potter 4 when she gets super drunk and is crying.  Yep. but he lives in con con which is north of viña and we gave the contact info to the elders there.  

the guy who came to church, robinson, we had contacted before. we couldn't find him afterwards, but then a member invited him and he came.  he has problems with memory because he had an accident a few months ago from drinking. he said he needs friends and stuff. hes a lil crazy, but we have a cita this week. he forgets stuff the next day, so i guess we will see how that goes. hopefully he will remember we wrote him a note  about it too.....

another encounter with a drunk. we pass. he says, " hey! how are you!  hey i live down there!  come teach me the bible sometime!" hahaha. crazies.

  Last night, I said,"my hair smells like beer and cigs." weekend drunks outside. but boy do they need help.

  Aight, now for something a little more serious.  Hermana Doris, the one i mentioned last week i think who ROCKS at ward missionary work and talks to everybody she knows about the church (best example ever!!!) her neighbors father was in bed, and had been sick for quite some time.  Doris wanted us to come sing to him a hymn, so we did.  She said that he had taken the missionary discussions a few years ago and had accepted the baptismal challenge, but the caretaker lady didn't let him because he was too sick or something like that.  sad.  His son is catholic, and his grandson{s mother was a member, but the grandson no.  They were all there, including the caretaker.  Cute little old man in his bed.  We couldn't understand what he was saying because his words were few, but doris was telling him we were going to sing for him.  He wasn't really all there obviously, but i don't really know.    We sang "Mas cerca Dios de Ti." nearer my God to Thee.  and then we shared a scripture with Marco, the grandson and gave him a book of mormon.  I think people in that room were touched.

  We got a call from Hermana Doris the next day, saying Aurelio, the old man whom we had sang to, had died that morning.  We went to the funeral at the "madre de Dios" church behind our apartments and it was definitely one of the more interesting experiences i've had.  We saw him at the viewing and i thought to myself, he has the opportunity to accept the gospel on the other side.  We almost wonder if he was holding on just a little longer to hear that song sung to him.  cool stuff.

Love you all!  have a good week.

hermana emily hanks.

1. coloradoans chillin in chile.  

2. rollin on the bus to con con with our pday clothes. yeahhhhh dog.

3. remains of my glass bottle after it shattered in my face. note the wet shirt too. hehehehehehe. 

4. yeah dunkin donuts live here too!!!!

5. i ate quail eggs....

6. abuelita martita!  oh she is so adorbs

7. pretty refreshing to see your first name on something sometimes when your a missionary and leave it behind. ha. 

8. REAL LIFE. our chapel at 9:51. haha. where are the people??

9. DREAM TEAM!!!! obra misional!!! happy dia de hipster

10. forgot about them dang membrillos for a few weeks....pobrecito.

29 July, 2013

Alo!!

Diggin the pictures.  Lake Chelan looks awesome and i love the sunglasses on Erika. lol.  Sounds like super fun.  I remember the apple cup!  It makes me think of good ol american breakfast.  We were talking the other day about how good bacon sounded with pepper.  Delicious.

 GUESS WHO FINISHED THE BOOK OF MORMON TODAY.  This girl.  Okay....Moroni is freaking awesome!  Chapter 9 though is super sad though.  I like though how Mormon knows it will grieve Moroni to hear about all the horrible deeds the Nephites and Lamanites are doing to each other, but he tells him he is praying for him and to go forward with hope and do what God commands him to do.   

 For my studies, I usually study Preach my gospel the majority of the time, but for the last 15 minutes or so some days, I read my own personal study.  I don't think there are enough hours in a day because theres so much to study and so much to do!   

 Transfers are in two weeks...so we won't know.  People are saying that I'm going to leave Recreo =(  which makes me sad!  I've been here 3 transfers, so i wouldnt surprise me either way.

 

 Sorry i'm lame about answering your questions.  The spanish is coming along.  Somedays i can say stuff and not even think about it, it just comes out.  but only some days.. haha.  its coming along though!  i've been reading the libro de mormon aloud in spanish and i'm in helaman 7.  Soo.....its comin along.  

   For almuerzos, we usually eat rice, lentils, some sort of meat occasionally, fried potatoes, vegetables, eggs, etc.  I'm not a fan of the chicken here to be honest.  its kinda slimy and the smell and seeing of the carnicerias is enough to make me never buy my own meat.  bleh.  I think my favorite is rice and lentils and the vegetables.  There really isn't any flavor in the food a lot of the time, unless you are lucky and find some aji (chilean hot sauce).  Usually they give you soup, then a platter of food, and veggies, and then bread in the middle of the table to grab and take as you please.  not too much cheese around here, but plenty of frying stuff sometimes.  

 Whenever it rains, people make sopapillas.  oh dang are they delicious.      They make them with like a syrup dulce kind of thing with cinnamon.  I don't know how to describe the flavor, but its like the best thing ever.  on top of a nice crispy sopaipilla.  Its winter so its not uncommon to eat them here.  Martita la abuelita dropped a container of them off for us last week.  then hermana sonia did too.  yummy yum.

   Someone served us fried fish eggs this week.  Its not that it tasted bad, but when you see the guy selling fish in a shopping cart on the street, it makes you very glad that you bless the food before you eat it.  

    We had a zone activity that was super fun!  We played frisbee and we both scored some goals.  so much fun!  pday activities are the best.  we also ate pizza, then wrote letters to ourselves in a year.  i thought it was a cool idea!

  So story time.  we were walking back from an almuerzo that was really far away.  We had to go down a big hill, when a collectivo (cheaper taxis we take to vina)  came up and offered us a ride down to the bottom.  After almuerzos, we usually feel like we might tumble down the hill anyways, so we accepted.  he dropped us off and before we could pay him, he said,"just a little thing for the Lord."  it was cool.  

  The people in chile really are nice and good people.  I really like them, but they are definitely crazy!  For example, we had ward council yesterday. Ooo man lots of chilean gibberish that i could mostly understand!  people aren't afraid to speak their mind here. or tell you about their entire life after 5 minutes of knowing them. haha.  

  We don't have a good heater in our apartment, so we tried putting water in water bottles and in the microwave.  its proven to work because it keeps us warm, but the other day, mine was making these crazy noises after i look it out.  Yes yes...i should have NOT kept the cap on during the microwaving.  I tried to take it off with a towel and ka BAM. idiot moment of the day.  the bottle flew against the wall and shattered and got me all well.  we had a good laugh about that.  bahahahahahhahahaha

 JUAN!!!!! okay remember juan from like my first week here??(probably not but maybe)  he's the boyfriend of hermana jacqueline who does our laundry.  Okay Juan is cool.  He is blind and like 85 years old.  maybe more.  We stopped teaching him because jacqueline went to the hospital, she has cancer on her eye.  Then she told us this weekend he wants to take the lessons again.  SO PSYCHED!!!!! We need to get him to read though, so we're trying to get an audio player for him to listen to the book of mormon.  Hopefully we can keep it animated!  He fell asleep last time. hahahaha.  Hes a silly old man.  He came to church yesterday with jacqueline and he was wearing her purple gloves.  hermana schrader said,"son bonitas!" like theyre pretty.  Then he said," ohhh yeah.  Ella es bonita."  referring to jacquline i think.  then he said "no veo."

lol.  aka he can't see.

  So you know you're in a spanish mission, when you're looking up "holy spirit" in your bible dictionary, and you're looking in the "e" section. Lol.  Espiritu in spanish....  happened this morning.  Took me about 3 minutes longer to find that page?

  We found 5 new investigadores this week!!!  They're pretty cool too.  Se llaman Felix, Carolina, Ricardo, y Guadalupe.  Felix and Ricardo.  Felix we found my first transfer.  He is awesome!  He one day randomly sent us a text, apologizing for not saying hi after we had said hi to him.  We then called and he seemed interesting in hearing our message.  He had awesome questions!  He wasn't really set in his ways, but rather really wanted to know.  The thing is,l hes going out of town for a month. Pucha.  

 Next is Carolina.  We were just contacting near the overview of vina and i asked her if we could share.  She opened the door and she let us in.  She told us she usually doesn't let people like us or testigos de jehova in her house, but her mom is dying and in the hospital, so she agreed.  she has four children and is MARRIED!  YES. okay but seriously...sometimes families with married parents is a rarity down here.  sad but true.  anyways, she said we could come back.  I almost invited her to baptism, but her kids started getting rowdy at the end so maybe next time.  

  Ricardo is cool too. Another guy with awesome questions and curiosity.  It seemed to make sense in his head about the book of mormon and all!  yayyy.

  Guadalupe is another old lady.  I invited her to baptism, but she said she wants to know for herself first.  Her daughter is a member in esperanza.  

  Yesterday at church, alejandro (always makes us laugh. always!)  was mumbling something about the folleto about the gospel of jesus christ.  He then pointed to repentance and said something.  Then was like, "arrepentimiento yo!"  Like..."i repent!" ok maybe not that funny, but if you know alejandro, you would be laughing too. hahaha.  

  I'm psyched for this next week!  always, we are reminded to keep animated and happy. It really does make all the difference if you're excited about your message or not.  People really are more likely to listen to you.   

  We had intercambios and i went to renaca, vina centro for friday and saturday.  I was with a hermana from colombia.  She is an awesome missionary!  She really is good with words and it was cool because she was a really good listener.  I'm trying to work on my patience because its definitely something i struggle with as a missionary.  

  haha. we met a drunk named locorafa.  his name is rafael, but that's his nickname. he was a nice fella.  super crazzyyyyyy

  Ok well thats pretty much sums it up for this week.  love you!

  Chao.

Hermana Emily Hanks