Chi-Chi-Chi-Le-Le-Le!!! Viva Chile!!!!!

Hola familia!

Well, Chile plays Brazil today, and to be honest you are lucky that you´ll be getting a letter this week. I think the internet place is the only place that is open right now in Ancud. It is silence right now...we´ll see how long that lasts. :) (And the only reason the internet place is open is the man that is working right now isn´t from Chile...I think he´s from Dominican Republic or something...he´s black...y eso.)

Anyway, I am so glad to hear that everything back home is going well. I have tried hard this week to look for the miracles in my life and in this work. And every day there are more. I think that the letters I read just now were miracles, too. Full of good news. Thank you to everyone that wrote. You all are the bomb.com. :)

Tuesday was a day for miracles. We had a rather rough day starting out, but in the night we had time for one more appointment. We had been praying that we could find someone prepared to receive us, and we remembered a contact that we had with a bus driver that Sunday. We found his house and knocked on the door. He wasn´t home, but his wife was. She had just suffered some very serious and sudden heart problems, and she felt like her life had been spared for a purpose....needless to say she let us in. Her name is Elizabeth. Eventually Patricio, her husband that we contacted, came home too, and they were both really receptive. They said that they felt like our message was true. We are really excited about them. They are being prepared. The only problem is that they aren´t married (no one is here) and he works a ton, so we will have to try really hard to make our schedules work together so we can teach while he´s there, too. But yes, a miracle.

This week was busy, busy with conferences. Wednesday we had our normal conference in Castro, which takes up half the day, and then we had our Zone Conference with President in Puerto Montt on Friday; but we had to leave for it on Thursday night so we lost a lot of teaching time this week, but the conference was worth it. We talked about the Book of Mormon. It was incredible. The Spirit that was there was amazing. We are having a mission goal to read it in 8 weeks. I was praying the night before that I could have a stronger testimony and be able to testify with more conviction about this book. My prayers were answered. I want to invite you all to read it with me. In Spanish you have to read 12 pages every day, and in English you have to read 10 pages every day to finish in 2 months. I know I´m going to see miracles through this goal. I want you all to see miracles too. :) There is a power that comes when we read and study this Book. I am trying to read it in Spanish, but in reality it´s reading in English and Spanish. I have both open while I read so I can understand everything. I need your prayers. I am a super slow reader and even slower in Spanish, but I´m going to try and get up 1/2 hour early to have more time to work on it every day. I am excited, though. It´s so great.

We are trying to work with the Rama here to help make it stronger. There are a ton of inactive people here, so we´re trying to help that situation. It´s a big problem. Let me just say, Dad, that I appreciate all the work that you do in our ward back home to keep it strong. We need about 20 of you here in this ward. I love them, and they need this strength and power that comes with a strong branch. I am learning a lot of patience and a lot of appreciation for the strength that the Gospel has in our ward back home. I am also learning that people don´t think like I do, all the time :) Enough said on that. We are trying to come up with a plan to give the member and leaders of this branch a vision of the potential that it could have. Pray that hearts can be softened. I love the people in this Branch, they are very faithful in spite of big challenges.

Our investigator Daniela was going to be baptized this upcoming week, but she still needs to have her parents’ mail permission (she is 16 and lives in a pension while she attends school.) Her parents live outside of the island in the country, and so it´s kind of a slow process. It´s probably for the better anyway, without much support, she needs to have a stronger testimony with more conviction, and more friends at Church, before she get´s baptized. She has a desire and we´re really excited about helping her prepare more. We are working to help her get more support from the branch members. She needs a family in the Church. But an incredible step is that she prayed in front of us for the first time this week!!!!! That sounds small, but she´s so timid it was a huge step. I think it was probably one of the most beautiful prayers I have ever heard.

Sunday morning I got out of the shower and my companion told me "Hermana, yo tengo una mala noticia para ust.".....she told me that the Elders called and said that they forgot to tell me that the branch president wanted me to talk in Sacrament meeting.....gracias, Elders. I had one hour to get ready and prepare a 15 minute talk in Spanish. I hurried to get ready and then said a quick prayer and began to prepare. I chose to speak on the love that God has for us, His Children. I could feel the Spirit very strong as I prepared it and I think it went well. People were crying....so I guess that was a good sign :) But I was grateful that it went OK, given the short notice.

Well, that´s about all for now. Oh, one last thing. Yesterday during Relief Society, my companion told me that we had to go to the bathroom....she was hungry! She had cookies in her bag and she was having a hunger attack and HAD to eat. It reminded me of Kristie! :) Don´t worry, one of the daughters of one of investigators walked in while we were eating cookies. We laughed and we gave her a cookie so she would keep it "our secret".

Oh, and mom asked that I talk a little bit about my comp. SHE IS AMAZING!!!!!! This will probably be our last transfer together which breaks my heart. We think so much alike...I think the only difference is that she thinks in Spanish. I am getting to that point, slowly but surely :) She is so sincere and such a hard worker. We are both really trying to be better missionaries. We both have this vision of how we want to be....(studs)....and so we are trying to help each other get a little bit closer to that point. But yes, she´s from Argentina, and she comes from a convert family. Let´s just say, her family is every missionary´s dream. There are 5 kids in her family and they have all gone on missions (well, her little bro is filling out his papers right now...so almost.) But she has such a knowledge of the Gospel, it´s amazing. I am so, so lucky to have her. I am scared for her to leave. But I´m not going to think about that right now. It´s too sad. :)

But anywho...that´s that for this week.

---LOVE YOU ALL MORE THAN WORDS CAN SAY.

Miss you all, but my prayers are with you and I know yours are with me. Thank you.

Be safe, be happy, be good.

-Hermana Berta

The pics are from the boat on our way to Puerto Montt. :)

I am officially in my second cambio...que loco!!!

Well family! I am glad glad glad to hear that all is going well. Geeze...Mom, I´m so glad that all went well with your surgery. PLEASE keep me posted. I love you, and am praying for you tons. And please tell Sis. Sweeney that I´m praying for her and she is in my thoughts often. Also, please let Sis. Cobourn know that I´m thinking of her and her family and saying some prayers for them. It sounds like this week was a crazy busy week. But I am also glad to hear that everything went ok. I love you all so much. Thank you for your letters. They are so great to read on p days!

We have many new investigators this week that we are beginning to teach. We have so many right now it´s difficult to teach them all as often as we should. We are trying to use the Lord´s time very wisely to make sure that no one is missed. It´s a good work. We are trying to help everyone understand the importance of keeping their commitments to read and pray. That is really the key. We can´t gain their testimony for them. But we are teaching this lady that works at a bakery that we always stop by on Pdays. She asked us one day when we were going to come by and visit her! We went this week twice and she came to church yesterday, and she is so great!!!! Her name is Gladis. She is 53 years old and her is so so sweet. She always calls us "mi amor". She is so perfect. And she loves reading! We stop by the bakery more often now to see her, and she always gives us treats...it´s so stinking cute! I love her so much. AND we set a goal for her baptism with her for 17 De Julio!!

Chile won two games this week in La Mudial....it´s pretty much a huge deal. The second victory was this morning, and the roar in the streets let us know that they won. It was pretty funny. They were going nuts. "Algaravia!" A new vocab word I learned this week. I don´t know exactly how to translate it in English, but I know it´s a word for the champions :)

Other news this week that´s pretty great is our branch had a "chow de talentos" for Dia de Papa, and I participated twice! One was the missionaries (the four of us) sang a song. And my own personal talent was telling a joke....Yes it was legit. It went a little something like this "Como se llama un oso que le gusta decir chistes?....CHISTOSO!!!!" Bahahaha. They loved it...the crowd went wild :) I won a prize for it, don´t worry :) We were all cracking up at how ridiculous it was...Way funny.

All my clothes are working great. Also the mission gives us impermeables (water proof jacket and skirt), but I´m still waiting for my size to come in. But still I manage to stay very dry and warm. I think I am going to use some of my birthday money to buy another pair of boots. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my boots. They are water proof and warm, but I am scared that if I wear them everyday I´m going to wear them out before the mission is over, so I think I´m going to buy another pair so I can alternate them everyother day. But yeah, the weather isn´t a huge issue, only when people decided not to come to church because it is raining. Boo. No one really has cars. We walk pretty much everywhere. There are 2 people with cars in our rama. I get a good work out every day :) Lots of hills, too.

Anyway, that´s all I have time to write this week, we have to go buy food before pday is over... wa wa wa

Oh, but I have to explain the photos: One is with this old man in our rama...his name is Pasqual and he is hilarious....he sings hymns while he mops the floors of the church...He always tells us to stop drinking and smoking. :) I love him. The other is a picture of my bracelet. All the cool kids here have this bracelet. :) They are about 25 cents each and they are leather cord. I am sending the cord home for friends and family so they can be like all of us cool kids here in Chile :) but I sent a picture so you can see how it´s done. They come in all sorts of colors so I hope you all enjoy :) Yay Chile :)

I LOVE YOU ALL SOOOO MUCH!!!!!!!!! Take care and be happy. I am learning lots. Lots of patience. This is a beautiful, beautiful experience. I love you all. Thank you for the letters.

ABRAZOS!!!!!!

-Hermana Bertagnole

My first set of cambios!

Wow. Pretty soon I won´t be the new kid on the block anymore! 6 weeks has flown by. My District Leader...the other gringo, is getting transferred and we´re getting a new DL, but I don´t know who it is yet.

Business to take care of:
-Gracias for the birthday package and money mom and pop! Also, Grandma GRACIAS!!!!! I´ll have to take my compi out and do something fun this Pday! :)
-I just got the first round of “dear elders”...so yeah, they take about 2 months to get here. For all those Dear Elder-ers out there, it´s probably much easier and certainly much faster to email me. And it´s allowed for me to receive emails, but not send them to qualquier persona...entonces...email me, but BE SURE TO SEND ME YOUR STREET ADDRESS SO THAT I CAN WRITE YOU BACK!!!!! Muchisimo gracias.
-Marla, thank you for your letter! It was great to hear from you! I am glad to know that all is well. Mom is excited to get to visit you this summer. Say hello to St. Augustine for me...one of my favorite places ever. :)


Well, the birthday was a great one! Pretty much a normal day, but still oh so good. The day before, Tuesday, we had a zone meeting and the Elders in our zone bought me a cake...I think it was an excuse to eat, but nonetheless, it was delicious! Unfortunately there is a tradition here called "Mordar la Torta"....basically you have to take a big bite out of the cake before they cut it. Que verguenza! Also the elders in this zone have this tradition of singing happy birthday in Chinese...? Chileans singing in Chinese is priceless. Hahah. Also at this zone conference I got my birthday package...perfect timing! Thank you!!!

For my actual birthday, it was a beautiful day outside! But it´s kind of random, when the sun is shining it is the coldest, so I was really bundled up :) The lady that owns the convenient store on the corner of my street and who also happens to be the owner of the house we live in gave me ice cream as a present. The ice cream here is super yummy, so that was a great treat. Also the best present I could have asked for on my birthday--for the first time in the mission, I felt semi-comfortable talking is Spanish!!! I can tell you that that feeling is not a permanent one, but some days are good Spanish days and others aren´t...but I am learning that the bolder I am with the Spanish, the better I speak. Que bueno! I am trying to make that a habit. Pray for me :)

The day after my bday...the Mundial started (the World Cup). It´s something everyone is talking about...and if we´re lucky we get to ride in a Collectivo (cheap taxi) that has a personal TV thing hanging from the ceiling (more for the benefit of the driver than the passengers...that tells you how they drive here as well :) hahah. But yeah, Chile plays on Wednesday, but at 6:30 in the morning; therefore I don´t think it will be a big deal while we´re proselyting, but I still don´t know. Chileans don´t get up early in the morning for anything but the Mundial.... ahahah (I´m not judging...a Chilean told me that :) But it is so true.

Funny story, the other day I was walking down the street and this young kid probably 13-ish years old yelled at me in English "Hey, what´s up, Man!?" Hilarious. My native companion began speaking English slang with him and I started talking in Spanish with him. That phrase is clearly all he knows in English, but it was a super funny situation...maybe you had to be there to appreciate it like we did. But so funny.

Anyway, I have to run...LOVE YOU ALL SO SO SO SO MUCH!!!!!! Thank you for all your letters and support LOVE YOU!

One month in Chile and three months in the mission

Wow. I cannot believe that in three days I will have been in Chile for one whole month. In some ways it seems like I got here yesterday, and in other ways it seems like I have been here forever...I love it here. It has certainly stolen my heart. I was reading a church talk about Chile this week and it said something like the beauty of Chile is enough to break your heart and the people are so nice that they can put your heart back together again--so true. :)

This week was a good one. I am learning a lot. Also it seems like the more Spanish I am able to understand, the easier it is for me to love these people and what they are going through in the individual lives. I am learning to push myself with the Spanish. I am trying to stay relaxed when I speak, because sometimes when I worry that I don´t know how to say something perfectly, my mind freezes and I don´t remember how to say anything at all... oh the life of a new missionary! But I am learning that people (most anyway) really appreciate my efforts of learning and are more than willing to help. I am trying really hard to learn how to speak in past form--it´s hard to teach about the story of Joseph Smith and the Plan of Salvation when I struggle saying things in the past form. I told my compi that everyday I´m going to write a short story in Spanish and she´s going to correct it for me. I´m so glad that she speaks English as well as she does. She is way smart, and has been such a blessing to me. I couldn´t have asked for a better trainer. A Latin to help push me to learn Spanish, but a Latin that is studying to be an English teacher, to help me in tight situations. I am one blessed Hermanita.

Remember the story I told you about my first door knock my first day in the field. The woman´s name was Barbara and she let us in right away, and we got to teach her a lesson? Well, we had a hard time finding her after that. She was sick. We went back again this week to try and teach her, and we found her. She told us that she was sick because she had a miscarriage. We had no idea that she was even pregnant. We talked to her and served her. She and her family are moving to another part of Chile, and so we won´t be able to teach them anymore. I don´t even think that it is in our mission anymore, but we got to teach her and help her move. She and her family are so great. I love them tons. I hope that they will get to meet with the missionaries again. I know that they are prepared to hear this gospel. I am sending a picture of her and her 2 sons and us at her son’s birthday party. They´re super cute, her sons. Barbara speaks English pretty well, so I gave her a English BOM to read side by side with her Spanish BOM, and I told her the promise about learning a language by reading the scriptures in that language. I hope that she does it. She seemed pretty excited. I miss her already--my first door knock, lesson, and investigator...I wish she was my first baptism too, but some other lucky missionary will get that opportunity soon I hope.

Excitement for the Mundial (World Cup) is starting already. I think it starts June 10...I am excited to get to be here for it. I can already tell it´s way bigger than the Super Bowl. My compi told me that in Argentina, grown men cry when their team loses. She confessed that she cries too. But I´m excited.

Also, I received another testimony that prayers are answered. On Friday, Hna Aponte and I were walking from our house to an appointment and she reached into her pocket and her agenda was no longer there. She was sure she brought it. And for those that have served missions, you know how important that is...she has the phone numbers and addresses of all our investigators, members, contacts, etc. We backtracked and couldn´t find it, so we went to go see if it was in the house. It wasn´t. Before we left we said a prayer that we would find it fast so that we could get back to work. We said amen, and headed out the door. When we walked out of our fence our neighbor called for us and said that she found the agenda outside the fence right after we left... We have a Heavenly Father that loves us, and if something is important to us, it is important to Him, no matter how small.

We have a lot of great investigators right now, but we are working on getting them to keep commitments. I have been studying this for a few days now, and we are deciding to try and study Preach My Gospel better as we give commitments. I can tell studying HR before is helping me out. We made a plan of action that hopefully will work. Commitments are everything for these people...they are our Salvation. You have to start small before you can make the big ones. I think the people are interested and want to learn the Gospel, but they either don´t fully understand the importance of reading, praying, and attending, or they just forget to actually do it. To some degree that is our fault as the missionaries, so we are going to try and improve in that regard. Pray for us.

Well, that´s about all I have as far as news goes...one last funny story: My languages are super confused right now...hahah. I was talking to a member that is about our age, and I was teaching her in an English class on Saturday. When the conversation was over, we kissed cheeks and I turned around and said to her and her friend "Chau ya´ll!" ...... WHAT? It was way funny for me...but pretty much only for me because I am the only person there that knew what ya´ll is... anywho, I thought I would share, because you all can appreciate it a little bit more than Chileans.

Oh, Mom...I will move the curtains behind the stove, but just as a word of comfort, there is no need to worry. We haven´t used the stove or oven once since I have been here. We pretty much eat cereal and bread at night for dinner. We have way too much to do to cook. Somethings never change...

Thank you thank you for all your letters. I love hearing from you all. I love you all so much, and I miss you but I heard a quote that I really liked: A missionary is someone who leaves their family for a little while to help others live with their families for eternity. I love this work. I am trying to be better and work harder at it. Thank you for your support and for making this possible for me.

Friends: Thanks for emailing and writing! I can only send emails to family, so I will write you all via snail mail :) but don´t worry the letters will come in a few weeks :)

LOVE,

Hermana Berta (That´s what they call me here...they think my name is too long :)

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.

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!

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!