Janelle's e-mails to her family

Monday, May 24, 2010

Another week in Ancud









Another week has flown by! I can´t believe that it´s Pday again. This week we had a Zone Conference, so that took up 1 day for travel and 1 day for conference, so that´s probably why it´s felt like a super short week. This was a stormy week. I´m trying to figure out what is normal here, because my first week and a half we pretty nice and now it´s pretty stormy...to me it seems more stormy than normal, but what do I know. Everyone here says that this is not out of the ordinary, so I guess it´s "welcome to reality". But it´s all good. I love this work. It is exhausting though! :)

This week was Vanesa´s birthday, and Monday night we went to a member´s house to help us make a cake for her. It was so good. I wrote down the recipe so I can make it for you all when I get back. Eric: you´re assignment is to find somewhere that sells Manjar, that is the key ingredient to everything here. It´s a caramel dulce de leche kind of thing. Pretty yummy. Anyway, so Monday night we made the cake for her birthday on Tuesday. Let me tell you, transporting a huge four layer cake for a mile was quite a difficult task in the middle of a downpour. But it turned out pretty good...and dry. I´ll send pictures. Vanesa was so happy when we surprised her. I don´t think she has ever had a cake like that before. I think it was way special for her. We talked to her later that night, and we were the only ones who even did anything for her birthday. Her pareja (live in boyfriend) didn´t even say happy birthday to her. Fome (lame). This was a really hard week with her. We were hoping that she could get married to Carlos, but the more we think about it the more we think that what she really needs is to leave him. Her life is a mess. I had never really met him before, but this week I did, and to be honest, he´s worthless. He changed his mind about getting married, so she wanted us to come and talk to him. On our way there, her little boy was talking about how hungry he was. When we got to the house they didn´t have any food there either. Carlos came home drunk and smoking. I wanted to yell at him...his child has nothing to eat, and he´s out spending money on beer, cigarettes, and drugs! I was so mad. When he came home that way, we had to leave. You can´t teach someone who is drunk. The more we talked to Vanesa about this situation, we realized that she really only wants to get married so she can get baptized. I don´t think she really loves him, but she has no home and no family around, so if she leaves him, she and Brian (their little boy) have no place to go. Gosh. We don´t know what to do for her. Her life is a mess, but she can´t really progress until she gets herself out of that situation. We are praying a lot to know what to do with Vanesa. This one is a tough one.

So that was one of the more challenging parts of the week. On the bright side, we have two more people with baptismal dates! One girl is 16 years old. Daniela. She lives in the house of our branch president. The missionaries have taught her before, but no one really had much hope for her to progress. During the lesson she acts totally disinterested, and pretty much how teenagers can act during Sunday school or seminary...not that I know from experience or anything ;) Anyway, at the end of the lesson my comp was writing down a reading assignment for her this week, and I felt super prompted to just ask her if she wanted to be baptized. I did, and she said, "Si." and that was that. My comp looked up and said "Si?!", and she said "Si" again. We talked to her a little bit more and we set up a date with her. We´re praying to know how to teach her because she´s the epitome of an apathetic teenager, but at the same time, she has read and prayed and knows it´s true. Oh the adventures of this mission. She´s super though. I´m excited to teach her. The other investigator that we have that has a baptismal date is Susana. She is awesome. She really wants to come closer to God. She has a pareja also, though. So we are going to work with her on getting married and obeying the law of chastity. She has a little boy that is 10 months old and he is SO cute. Love this family. I love teaching these children of God. So rewarding. I can feel a small fraction of His love for these people, and it is the best feeling ever.

As I said above, we had Zone Conference this week. It was so great!! Our mission president is so awesome. He and his wife are such spiritually powerful people. This conference totally pumped me up for this next week. I also love the fact that he´s a fellow Midwesterner. We´re going to get along great.

I´m trying to stay positive and patient at ALL times with my Spanish. I´m learning to laugh at myself and my inability to communicate in the way that I want to. I can communicate mas o menos in basic conversation, but I definitely cannot teach the way I want to. My Spanish just isn´t at the capacity to express myself and my ideas they way I want yet. Clearly, I am not a patient person, and on top of that I´m a perfectionist, so this situation is a tough one for me. I am learning a lot of patience with this one. I´m usually really good at staying positive, but I really have to push myself to speak even when I don´t want to sometimes. I just want to be fluent right now! I know it will come slowly and surely. Until then, I´m just going to keep working as hard as I can with it. I´m reading in Ether 12 right now. I think it is in verse 26 and 27 about how your weaknesses will be made strong. I found a lot of comfort in that this morning as I was studying. The scriptures are awesome. Clearly.

Well, that´s about all I have for now. I hope everyone is doing well back home. Thank you for your letters everybody! It´s sounding like things are hectic but good. Keep on keepin´on. I miss you guys, but I know what I am here for. I am learning that more and more every day.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

rainy monday...and every other day for the most part :)



May 17, 2010 (Ancud)

Hola familia y amigos! Well, week two is coming to a close. Such a great week.

Well, the past two days have been amazing! The work has really picked up Saturday and Sunday. We now have a full plate of new investigators. We got 7 new investigators in 2 days, and they are all really solid. They all had really solid commitments to read the BOM and pray. I´m so excited for this upcoming week. Also, some great news on Sunday--Vanesa spoke with her live in boyfriend about getting married, again. We told her to speak with the Spirit and bear her testimony of the blessings to him, and he´s now open to the idea! We were so excited! She told us in the bathroom in the church on Sunday, and we were all hugging and whisper-screaming. Ridiculo, but so great. I hope that this happens pronto, because she really wants to get baptized, and she has so much faith. We´re praying for her lots.

This week on Saturday I got to teach my first English class. The books from the MTC really helped out a lot with that, being as I can´t really speak Spanish yet. But we also got to teach in Primary. During my turn to teach we sang songs...I told the kids that I didn´t speak Spanish well yet and they needed to help me. They were all so cute while we were singing. They´d help me with the words. It was great.

Some general stuff that I´ve learned this week:

-Every Tuesday I need to eat nothing until lunch because we have a lunch appointment with a family, and the lady feeds us so much. SO much. I left this week so sick becauase I had to eat a big bowl of soup, two heaped plates of meat and rice, and a big cup of fruit. Whooooo....it was good, but when they say you can´t have too much of a good thing, they were lying. The other missionaries that we were eating with were all laughing at me...no one gave me a heads up. Lame. I guess I learned my lesson to never quite finish your plate until everyone else is done.

-It´s starting to get cold and rainy, but it´s also so green and beautiful here...you win some and lose some. I think it´s worth it though. Every day, we see something new that you could just stare at for hours because it is so beautiful. When it´s clear in the sky at night, the sunsets and the stars are unreal. I have never seen them so beautiful in my life. I´m going to try and take a picture of one of the sunsets sometime this week to send. So gorgeous.

-There are phases of culture shock. It started out all really cool and adventurous. Then it turned into a little bit of homesickness Thursday morning, but then I realized that this work really has nothing to do with me. Forget yourself and go to work. After that I was fine. Now it´s becoming a lot more everyday normal. I´m getting used to things quickly, thankfully. Still working on the Spanish, clearly. That´s an extended project, but I´m going to set specific goals daily so that I am not overwhelmed. I´m beginning to understand it a lot better though. That´s coming quicker than the speaking, but I think that´s normal. I love it, though. Lots of work, but it´s perfect.

-Being sick on the mission stinks. I have a little bit of a cold right now, and that stinks because you still work in spite of it. But my compi and I are sick together so we laugh about how we will cough while we´re teaching. A lot of people are sick around here now, I think it´s because the weather is getting colder now, but it´s no big deal. It only gets really bad when someone has a smoky house. Everyone here has a wood burning stove for a heater, so when their stove is smoky, it gets me coughing, but other than that it´s all good.

Ok funny story for the week really quick: So last Monday night after Pday was over, my comp and I were walking on our way to an appointment. By this time it´s dark already and it was really foggy that night, so in general it was a rather creepy setting. We walk past this fence and these three huge dogs all of a sudden start going crazy barking at us. It took us both by such surprise that we screamed and grabbed each other like a bunch of ditsy girls. Just as this happened, these two guys walked around the corner just in time to see this whole show...it was so so funny! We were so embarrassed, but we were laughing so hard about it. There are dogs everywhere here. In all the streets, for pets, the whole nine yards. We have never had problems with dogs in the streets, they follow us sometimes, but they are friendly. The ones in the fences are the ones we have to worry about. Before we go in someone’s fence to knock the door, we have to make sure that they don´t have a dog. It´s an adventure :)

Anywho, that´s all I´ve got this week. Next week I´ll send pictures of the apt. This week´s picture was taken right before I wrote this. We were going to spend some time today walking around taking pictures, but as you can see the weather did not permit this. So maybe next week we´ll get to see more of Ancud.

Sounds like everyone is doing great: the house got sold, the baby is on the way, Dad´s going to feel better, sound great. Love you mom and dad! Love you Scott, Eric, Michael, Chris! Love you rest of the fam! Take care. Be good.


LOVE YOU ALL!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

My first week in Chile!












Sorry if this email has typos...the keyboard is different here. Haha! Lots to get used to, but I love it here so much. Hmmm. What else is there to say... This morning was awesome! Our district president (President Pinto) took us all on a hike in a place in Chiloe called Ahui. It´s a historic place where there was a battle fought. It´s right on the coast and it is sooo pretty! I will send some pictures. Not too shabby for my first Pday!

Right now we have one investigator (the one I was telling you about that has nothing, Vanesa) and she has a batismal date for May 29, but she has to marry her boyfriend who she is living with first. He´s not as receptive to missionaries, but she absolutely loves us. She is one of the people here that´s really hard for me to understand, but she is so patient with me and my Spanish. We laugh a lot, because we can´t really understand each other, but when it comes to important stuff about the Gospel, I think that we both are given the gift of tongues, because it becomes much easier She is so so kind. I love her so much!

That is one thing I have noticed here though, is that I understand what is necessary for me to understand. I understand with much clarity that, but the extra stuff, I have to work to understand. But I know that Heavenly Father is looking out for me. I feel like I am learning so much everyday. I love it. My "compi" is super buena. She is from Argentina, but she has studied English, so she is such a help to me! I love her tons. We laugh a lot. There are a lot of funny moments, when I don´t know how to say something in Spanish, so I describe it, and it winds up being completely ridiculous. It´s pretty funny sometimes! Oh good times.

Oh one thing that I didn´t talk about last night that´s new for me to get used to is besos. Haha. Everyone kisses everyone on the cheek here. Everyone. It´s definitely an adjustment, and it´s super awkward when men try to do it and in my broken Spanish I have to explain that I can´t because I´m a missionary...it can be pretty awkward then, but it´s always something I laugh about after! But yeah, I love it. It took awhile to remember to do it, but I think I´m getting the hang of it. :) Gosh, everyone is so nice here. It blows my mind. I was talking to Hna. Aponte about it and she was shocked that in the US you wouldn´t just give your address to a stranger you met on the street, and tell them what time you´re home and not home for a meeting. It´s way different, but I like it. They all just trust each other. It´s cool. (Don´t worry though, we´re still very careful about things)

I did get to teach once in English! There was an Australian that we contacted on the street. This part of Chile is a little bit touristy, so I was excited to talk to him in English. Also, they play English music here. It´s funny that everything is in Spanish, but sometimes when I walk into a store you can here Michael Buble-"Just haven´t met you yet"! Super funny. (Speaking of this song, Scott...look it up :) I thought of you).

Also, something else that is funny is there are Latin versions of people from back home. Por ejemplo: the daughter of one of our new converts is names Maria, and she’s about 4 years old. She reminds me exactly of a Chilean version of Audrey Sweeney. She was dancing around the house singing "Soy una princesa". She has long dark hair and she always flips it...oh man...so much is alike, except she speaks Spanish :) Super linda!

Thursday, May 6, 2010

SENDING PACKAGES TO CHILE

This is a note from Janelle's mom:

Packages from home are wonderful, but they are expensive for both the sender and receiver. What missionaries really like to receive are e-mails or letters. Here is info from Janelle's mission president:

If sending a package,do NOT use Fed-Ex, UPS or DHL unless you want to incur the additional $150 fee in Chile to get it from their local contractor. The best way to send packages is the US Mail Priority Mail Box. Your package should arrive safely in 2-3 weeks. During holidays there can be some delays, but as noted above, we have had very few problems.