Courtney's Week #35

Well, before I forget, we just got more information about calls for Christmas. For all of the gringos, you guys are supposed to call us. So if anyone needs the calling card its you guys. I´m supposed to send you the number to call, which I do not have yet because I we are not sure which one of the members we are going to be with for Christmas. We can use skype, which is free, or I will try to get the number of whoever we are going to be with for the navidad. We only have 40 minutes to talk, and our calls have to be finished by 5 o´clock Chile time, which I think is 1 o´clock in the afternoon there. Questions? Oh, I really think that skype might be a lot cheaper (free) and easier, so if you guys could make a skype account that would be great, add me as a friend on there, my username is just courtneygraceevans.

So I have been pretty down on myself lately because I haven´t felt as though I am the missionary that I should be and I couldn´t figure out why. I´ve been working hard and being obedient and everything, but I just didn´t really feel like a real missionary. We had intercambios this week with the Hermana Martinez, my old companion, and she was with us for one day and pin-pointed it out for me. She sent me a little note on the back of the chocolate wrapper that I had given her that said, in spanish of course, "Hermana Evans, Thanks for the delicious chocolate, continue working hard and remember, without love we won´t see any miracles." I started getting a little bit teary-eyed, right in the middle of planning. I realized right then and there that that was what I was missing. As I walked through the street that day, I thought to my self, "Do I love these people that are walking all around me?" Nope, not really. Somewhere in my mission I lost the love and charity for the people around me...for the chileans, for my companions, and for myself.

So that is my story of how I realized that I´m not a very good missionary, but this story is going to be a cliff-hanger because I haven´t quite figured out the solution yet. All I know is that I am studying and praying so hard to have that amor again, because it´s true, we´re not going to see any miracles without love.

Hey, I got my package last Tuesday. I was probably the happiest missionary in the world! Thank you so much for everything! You guys are the greatest.

So right now we have a lot of really great investigators, but only one of them has a baptisimal date, Maria Soledad. She is the one who falls asleep in church a little. Funny Story about that really quick, this week we bought her a bar of chocolate and gave it to her to try to help her stay awake, but the funniest part is Hermana Sampson was sitting next to her and fell asleep more than Maria Soledad! It was so funny.

 Oh, so we had an appointment to pass by for Maria Soledad at 7:30 last night. As we were walking to her house, we found her in the street with one of her friends who I´ve seen before and I knew has negative feelings towards the church. Maria Soledad was just telling her friend about Joseph Smith and the whole story of the restoration, and all of the things that we had taught her. It was so cool to see her so excited to share what little she knew with her friend. She would tell her friend something and then she would turn to us to make sure that she was right. It was so cool, but her friend didn´t want to hear anything and they went off to the house of her friend to eat once, which is like a small dinner that they have here. We changed our appointment to 8:30, but then when we got there she wasn´t there, we taught her husband a quick little lesson than we left. We were so worried, because if we didn´t find her that night we were going to see her for like 4 days and her baptism is this week. We said a little prayer in the street and then we decided to walk in the direction of the house of her friend. As we were on our way, Hermana Sampson had a strange impression to knock the door of an old lady. It was kind of out of nowhere, but we did, and as we were there Maria Soledad passed by. We walked with her to her house. She had all sorts of crazy anti-mormon ideas, but we were able to help and teach her, and she is all excited for her baptism this week. It was really intense, but so cool.

Well, I´m out of time. Love you guys.

Hermana Evans

Walker's Week #41

Q. Sawyer asked, How is your Spanish coming along

Okay so pretty much my spanish is super ok, I can understand almost everything. Well I'd like to say I can understand everything but I'm sure there are times when I don't.

On your p-day do you get to do whatever you want? Or is there certain rules about what you can or cannot do.

On p-day I'm sure there are rules like no swimming but I really don't know all of them, and if I have a question I have all the rules with me so it isn't a problem.

So this week we went to the beach it was super awesome. But when we were coming home the police stopped our bus. And there was a gringo that didn't have papers. So I got to translate to the dude why she didn't and why she was sitting there crying and all of that stuff. So this week was super awesome. Here for christmas they have this thing called festival of light. It's like hollydays. But it's this huge parade that everyone goes to. There were like three floats and like thirty bands because every one plays an intrument. So we are teaching this super awesome family (Pablo and Cintia) they are super ready, we are trying to baptize them this month. So yeah oh so um the problem with calling cards from the states is that you have to call the states to use them wich costs money and I don't have money because I'm pretty sure that someone stoll my box. Hey if you try to send another you should put a picture of Jesus on it. So I have no idea what I am going to do. We will all think about that this week and share our ideas next week.

Oh so the one picture is of me with a puffer fish.

Courtney's Week #34

Well, this week has been a really humbling experience for me. I am learning a lot from my new companion Hermana Perez. She has told me that I have problems with ´d´, ´r´, ´rr´, ´m´, ´n´, and ´g´ in my spanish. There are only 26 letters in the alphabet and I have problems with 6 of them, Ugh. She pretty much says that nobody can understand me, but that´s not entirely true. It´s just been a little bit frustrating. Oh, so it is not bad manners in the latino culture to tell someone that they are fat. But Hermana Perez has some sort of sickness where she can´t eat a lot of things. It´s also really hard for her to finish all her food, but we have to finish all our food or else the people get a little offended. And so since she got here I have been eating almost double portions of everything. So yesterday after lunch I was overstuffed as usual and I was lamenting because I am gaining weight. Hermana Perez was nice enough to expand on that thought. She told me that I was gigantic and how when I arrived I was not how I was now and she just went on and on about how fat I am getting. It kind of made me a little bit unhappy because I am the one who has to eat all of her food! Oh well, I will just have to work on that a little bit more.

 

Oh so it is no longer cold down here in Chile, it is actually quite toasty. We pretty much are drenched in sweat all day. But because it so dang hot we are also drinking a lot of water, and all the people that we teach give us coca-cola. I have never drank so much soda in my life.

 

So for Thanksgiving we didn´t do anything, we actually had a very small lunch on Thursday and we didn´t receive any food for the rest of the day either, so I was actually really hungry on Thanksgiving. I did pick Thanksgiving hymns to sing in all our lessons though, but Thanksgiving doesn´t exist at all here. Which I think is weird because they celebrate everything else. During the summer they had Dia de Madre (Mother´s day), dia del Padre (Father´s day), and then they also had Dia del niño (Child´s Day?). Anyways it seems like they are always searching for reasons to celebrate, so why not celebrate Dia de Gracias.

 

Anyways I don´t have a lot to say today, but I will be sending off your package today! You should be excited!

 

Love you all!

Hermana Evans

So just as an afterthought, the temple open house and dedication in Quetzaltanango, Guatamala is the hometown of my companion Hermana Perez. How cool, when she gets home there will be a new temple.

Walker's Week #40

So pretty much here they don't do anything for thanksgiving so we were trying our hardest to find someone from the states to eat with. But I have come to the conclusion that there aren't any gringos in Cañas. But I like it allot here. Everything is starting to turn around. My branch is starting to give us referrals and the members actually want to do stuff with us. I am super excited for this next month. So we have this family that we are teaching that are super awesome. They are super prepared and everything but when we found them  they didn't have jobs. But now yes, so its a lot harder to find them, especially when its a half an hour to walk to there house. But yea adios.

Courtney's Week #33

Here I am! So today we had cambios, and guess what, I am in a trio again. Hermana Sampson and I are staying in the same sector, but we now have Hermana Perez from Guatamala with us. Its going to be really great. She has 6 more weeks in the mission than I do, but we will be going home at the same time because I was in the MTC for longer. I am so excited because we are going to baptize the world! We have a lot of really great investigators, we just have to get them to come to church, but we are working on that.

 

Ugh, so speaking of church, this Sunday we finally got one of our investigators, Maria Soledad, to go to church. She is a little bit older and she started to fall asleep during sacrament meeting and she started to snore a little bit. My companion and I were trying so hard to keep her awake nicely by moving around, making small noises, and even occasionally nudging her gently, but to no avail she would just keep falling back asleep. I think some people when they feel the peaceful feelings of the spirit it just puts them right to sleep. Anyways, one of the members in front of us, leaned over to me and said, "Hey, wake up your investigator so they don´t snore!" Anyways, I think Maria Soledad heard that because she didn´t fall asleep again during sacrament meeting. Then in Gospel Principles, our lesson was on the milenium and the teacher made up her own lesson. I have a strong testimony that the manual is there for a reason, there is just some stuff that is not exactly perfect to teach someone who is just getting to know the church. I also don´t think its good to tell an investigator that if they reject the message of the missionaries they will be condemned, but that´s kind of what happenned. Sometimes I feel that the investigators would be better off if they didn´t come to church. Hopefully Maria Soledad wasn´t offended, but she wasn´t there for our appointment later on that night.

 

Oh, so we found out that we can skype for Christmas! I don´t exactly know how or when, but I do know that there is a four hour difference between Chile and Utah right now. So here as I am writing my email at 5 in the afternoon you guys are just getting done with lunch! I will try to figure out what´s going on more, but we just barely figured out that we will be in this sector for Christmas.

 

This week was so good! We passed by a couple of our investigators, se llama Miriam y Geraldo. They are a couple that are probably the same age as you, mom and dad. They have 2 kids that are like 13 and 11. When we passed by only she was there because her husband had to work last minute. It was so cool though, she told us how they can feel a huge difference in their lives. She is very involved in the Catholic church, she actually prepares the kids for their confirmation, and so she is not quite ready to get baptized and everytime we talk about it she kind of takes a few steps backward as far as progress, but she has noticed the Spirit acting in her life and the difference that it can make which I think is a huge step. Her husband is pretty much willing to accept anything, the only problem is that we can only teach him on weekends, but no importa, I´ve decided we´re going to baptize their whole family!

 

I am just so happy, we have so many great investigators, and the thing that makes me happiest is that it´s not like they were golden investigators or anything, but through our study and prayer we were able to find them and teach to their needs and remove their doubts and they are starting to progress. I am just so happy.

 

I love you all!

Hermana Evans

Walker's Week #39

Bueno, so it is Tuesday today. So yesterday was changes so I was in a bus for 8 hours yesterday. Still haven't got that package, but lets just hope it takes forever. So this week was good we should be baptizing someone this week. So my area is super hard, everyone we talk to in the street is like super excited and give us there address and we go and look for them and it doesn't exist. its pretty awesome and then also no one has telephones here so we can't call them either. But we don't have one either so I guess its okay. I think I'm going to start asking contacts if they really want us to come and if the address is a lie, but oh well.

So my lider misional (mission leader) is super awesome, last week he came up and told us he has some one that wants to be baptized so we are going to baptize him this week. Okay it wasn't that easy.

So sorry I didn't write much, in the last 3 days I have only slept for about 9 hours I am super tired.

So the other day my companion was showering and a scorpion started climbing out of the drain so he killed it but the other day there was one in our room so i got a picture

Courtney's Week #32

So this week was pretty good. This week we had 9 investigators who we talked to on Saturday and they all said that they were for sure going to go to church, and we even called them on Sunday morning and everything, but guess what, none of them went. I was so angry! I was so excited and then nobody came! Ughh!

 

I guess the biggest thing that happened this week is that Hermana Hadlock my companion that I have had for the last three months was reassigned to another mission in the states. It was really sad, just because I feel like maybe I could have done more to try to help her. But anyways, point of the story, I am no longer in a trio, it is just Hermana Sampson and I, but then again cambios are this week anyways so who knows what is going to happen.

 

This week Hermana Sampson and I went to the foot doctor because she has problems with her foot. The doctor didn´t speak any English and was not very patient, and he also had a tendency to mumble so it was really hard for Hermana Sampson to understand so the doctor ended up talking to me the whole time. It was really funny because he asked us why we walk so much and if there was a chance that we could walk less. I told him that we have to walk so that we can go teach the people about Jesus. He said that all we needed to do was set up a little stand with pictures of our faces and all the people would come to us instead of us having to walk to them. He didn´t seem to really understand our purpose as missionaries, but it was kind of fun.

 

Well, I don´t really have much else to say, but this week I will try to do better at writing down all the funny stories that happen. Oh and I also wrote a few letters and sent them off last Monday, so hopefully you guys will get them soon. Love you!

Hermana Evans

Walker's Week #38

So this week was pretty eventful, my companion ended up getting sick so I got to chill in the house for two days while he slept. It was terrible, there is nothing to do. But its okay because today being pday one of the people in the other companion went on divisions with us and we went to the beach. It was super awesome.

So last week we went to the Temple but we kind of live 4 hours from the Temple so we had to wake up at three in the morning to get there. So I tried to sleep on the bus but that didn't work because the buses here are made for little people and my legs don't fit. So we went to the Temple, went to San Jose, bought everything we needed for the next month and a half and here I am again in the middle of no ware trying to teach people the most important thing they will ever hear in there life's, and they don't want to listen. Bueno adios.

Courtney's Week #31

How´s it going? So yeah if you guys have stuff that you would like from Chile just let me know. Thanks mom for trying with all of my requests, you´re awesome.

 

So this week was really really good. We are finding a lot of really good investigators, the only problem is that they are only home on the weekends, so its really hard to teach them as often as we would like. So this week all the missionaries from my mission and the mission Santiago East had a conference with...Elder Cook! The apostle! It was really cool and we all got to shake his hand. And then yesterday we had a special stake conference and guess who showed up, Elder Cook again! And, we had four investigators at the conference, which is really good because it is a lot harder to get people to travel to the Stake Center. But one of our investigators that we have been working really hard with totally went up and met Elder Cook. Yeah! It was pretty cool, but then that night she went to the doctor because her knee was hurting a lot, probably because we dragged her to the conference in the subway and then in a make-shift mini-bus, but she met an apostle!

 

Another really cool thing that happened this week. So we had a couple that we taught only one time. The son of the lady was baptized when he was 8, but then never went and now he is 21 and drinks, and smokes, and pretty much breaks any of the commandments that you can think of. But his parents really wanted him to get back into church because they are sick of everything and kind of what him to have purpose to his life. So they contacted us on the street about two months ago and we taught them a little tiny lesson, but then we could never really find them again. So we called the dad, his name is Jorge, a few days ago and set up an appointment, but when we showed up no one was home, but we called his phone and he said that he was coming around the corner. So when he showed up he was in pretty bad shape. He started telling us a little about all that had been going on with his life and how everything is going wrong, he didn´t give a lot of details, but he was weeping the whole time. He had written notes to his family and he was thinking about commiting suicide. We sang and prayed and talked about the atonement and in the end of the lesson he said that he felt peaceful. We talked a lot about the love that God has for him and how he knows what he is going through. I didn´t really fully understand that he was thinking about suicide until after the lesson when the member (one of the young men) that we had with us was totally in awe.

 

I think what really stood out to me about the whole situation is that God knows his children and guides us as missionaries. As we have been dropping all of our investigators the last few weeks, for some reason we didn´t with this family. We kept calling and trying to pass by. And more than that, our schedule was jam-packed for that day, but because we got out of our conference with Elder Cook early, we were able to help this man. And more than that, usually the sister missionaries cannot enter with just a man unless there is another woman present, but because we are in a trio we were able to enter and to really help this man. It was just really cool to see the way the God prepares the way for us to help his children. I know that we are here as missionaries to help God with his work, it is His work, not ours; we are just instruments in his hands. God knows every one of his children and what they need and when.

 

 Well, I am out of time. I just ordered new garments online, so you don´t have to worry about that. Oh, and before I forget, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! And just so you know, Bridger and Dad, I did not forget your birthdays, I just never remembered when I was doing internet, but I love you guys and was thinking about you all day on your birthdays! I am working on sending you guys a letter from Chile it should get there soon. Love you all!

Hermana Evans

Walker's Week #37

Hello, so this week was pretty crazy. So me and my comp have been having a pretty hard time with our area. This last week we were lucky if we taught a lesson a day. Actually this hasn´t just been this week, this has been since I got here. So like the Zone Leaders decided that they needed to do divisions with us to make sure we were actually working, which we are no worries. So we had a zone conference, which was awesome. And then one of the Zone Leaders came to our house on divisions with the other area. Oh because there are two areas that split Cañas. But then the AP's called to find the Zone Leaders and he found out he has a changes. So now we don´t have divisions and also the other area is a trio. So now there are five living in our house.

But about my area, I will take a picture and send it to you next week. But pretty much if you can find Guanacaste its every thing from Cañas south to Punterenas.

So still haven´t got any packages. So next week I'll let you no how that's going. But i´m really short on time because we went to the Temple which I had to wake up at three to do, but I need to get back to my area. Love you all, adios.

Courtney's Week #30

So just to let you guys know, I had to buy floss a few weeks ago here, and it is four dollars for a little thing of floss! I couldn´t believe it. Also pads and tampons cost a fortune here. They sell the pads in packs of five! And the latinas don´t usually even know what a tampon is. Its crazy!! Also the deodorant sticks are like the little travel ones that you find in the travel aisle and they are more expensive then the double packs would be in the States. Uugh! Sometimes I think the Chileans just don´t take care of their body and thats why all of the hygenic things are so expensive.

 

Anyways, thanks so much for the pictures!! You guys are awesome.

 

So I forgot to answer last week, but about your question about Halloween. So they do celebrate Halloween here, but its just kind of started up within the last few years, so its not really a big thing. Nobody really decorates and well, I´m not entirely sure yet, but I don´t even think they will go trick or treating. Also funny little fact, they can´t celebrate Halloween today because it is on the records as Dia de los Evangelicos or Evangelists Day, so they made tomorrow as Dia de los muertos or Halloween. I just think it is funny, because they don´t even really celebrate anything, everybody just wants to get more days off work to go to the beach. I do think its funny though they that they have a holiday for the Evangelicists, and its even funnier because people ask us what we will be doing for the holiday; why would LDS missionaries celebrate the Evangelicist religion? But I will definitely work even harder today and maybe we can baptize a whole congregation of evangelicos to celebrate.

 

This week was pretty good, well actually our numbers went down a lot this week and I´m still trying to figure out why. We dropped a few more of our investigators, so now we´re pretty much starting over. Also I´m a little a bit ticked off because we taught a lesson to an old man a couple weeks ago and I accidentally left my extra hymn book, but we haven´t been able to find him since. He´s not really a golden investigator, so normally it wouldn´t be a big issue if we couldn´t find him again because he didn´t really have a ton of interest, but I really want my hymn book back, so everytime we are close we stop by and never opens the door. Funny though--It kind of reminds me a little bit of when Nephi broke his bow and his family all complained though, because ever since I lost my hymn book my companions have been complaining about how hard it is to share, but they lost their extra ones too. I just think its funny, but the problem is I don´t know how to make a new hymn book like Nephi made a new bow. I´ll ponder that this week.

 

So that´s about all that I have for this week.

Love you all!

Hermana Evans

Walker's Week #36

Okay so first off about Jesse, who really cares if she bit someone. I mean like really, I get bit by dogs all the time and this week some little four year old kid bit me. That was pretty intense, it left a little red mark from his teeth for like three days. And really you always have a choice just tell him to leave the dog alone and next time it won't bite. Second thing, they don't have razor blades here either so in your next package to me if you send me some that would be awesome. Oh and other thing Mike-n-Ikes don't work here the humidity and the heat just kills them. Third how am I supposed to tell you what I think about the surgery, I mean it doesn't hurt me.

So yeah, hey guess what it is Halloween. They do celebrate just a little and today I am in Liberia in divisions. So yeah, really it's just an excuse to go and get drunk, yep. So in my new area is super hard, we teach like one lesson a day because the houses are so far apart. But we are trying to fix that. Oh so thanks for the pictures I forgot how sweet Sawyer looked. But now I know. And also I really like the Christmas lights, who ever put those up must have been pretty awesome.

Oh so question, do you guys want me to try and send you something for Christmas slash if you do what would you like?

So this week was pretty long, I walked a whole lot. So nothing has really changed from last week. We didn't have anyone come to church, so yeah. So I really don't feel like time is actually moving. It still feels like the middle of summer here. I never realized how much of a difference it makes having seasons other than the wet season and the not so wet season. So yeah sorry its really hard to write stuff because I do the same thing every day.

Courtney's Week #29

First off, I really loved all of your emails for this week. It made me really happy. I can´t believe that Ethan is home already, I kind of just thought that while I was on my mission the world would just stand still until I got back, but apparently not. So before I forget, here is my address of the apartement where we live, it is called Las Torres Condominiums Travesia 6988 Pudahuel, Chile. Oh, and you can also look up the ward where I am assigned to on LDS.org, you just enter Los Mares Ward and it will come up with the our church and you can see my sector and everything. It won´t show you the boundaries so I will just tell you those. Left of the church there is a road called Tte. Cruz follow that down to the road Los Pajaritos (Gladys Marin Marie), follow that road to highway 68, follow that to the left until you hit a little street called Jorge Pratt, from there downward to Laguna Sur, then back to Tte. Cruz.

 

Well, that was a long description of how to find my sector, but I thought it was pretty cool. Now you guys can see where I walk every day.

 

Anyways, so this week was pretty good. President has changed the way that all the Hermanas do intercambios. Now there is only one companionship of Hermanas that does intercambios with all of the Hermanas in the mission. My old companion Hermana Martinez and the Hermana Aguilar are the ones doing them. Also the intercambios last 2 days instead of just one. So this week Hermana Martinez was here with me and Hermana Sampson and Hermana Hadlock left for another sector for a couple days. It was pretty good, mostly I am just really grateful that I had Hermana Martinez as a companion before, because I realized a lot of how I teach is from her and she is pretty awesome. She did tell me that my spanish has gotten a lot worse than since I was with her. Which makes me super super sad, because I have been trying so hard, but my both my companions know less spanish that I do, so my accent and my grammar and everything has gone downhill because I have been listening to their spanish all day. Ugh...I will just try to work even harder.

 

This week we dropped a few of our investigators. And harder than that we had a few of our investigators drop us. That was really hard for me, but you just have to remember that it wasn´t because of you that they didn´t recieve the gospel. We are here to invite people to come unto Christ, but not everyone is going to accept. It reminds me a lot of Conference, they talked a lot about how God wants to bless us, but we have to do our part first by obeying and asking for his help. If we are not obeying and asking we are in the same boat as our investigators, who are just not willing to accept the blessings that God wants for us.

 

Dropping investigators is so hard, because you really grow to care about the people you are teaching, but you just have to trust that God is preparing someone else who is actually ready to accept the gospel.

 

Oh so just a little memo, remember the story about the guy who put the towel over his head to pray? Last night we commited him and his wife to be baptized, and they accepted! It was actually really cool, because when we showed up they were completely different. They read the pamphlet of the restoration like three times and they had read the introduction and the testimonios in the front of the book of mormon. It was so cool. The gospel softens peoples hearts and changes them!!!

 

This week I am going to start forming a list of things that I would like you to send me. I know its really expensive to send boxes to Chile, so I haven´t wanted to ask for anything, but I´m really starting to need a few things. For example, they don´t sell razor heads here in Chile, so I have been using the same one since I left the MTC and it is starting to rust, gross, huh. Also, the Hermana in our ward that washes our clothes is really really good and getting them clean which is better than my other sectors where they come back dirtier than they left, but she really really likes our garments to be spot-free. So she lets them soak in bleach for like a day and then washes them, so needless to say, my garments are being eaten away by bleach. They have lost all of their elastic and they are pretty much transparent. Which is kind of nice now that it is hotter than hot, but I don´t think they are going to last much longer. We tryed using another Hermana in the ward for a week to wash our clothes, but somehow she found out and kind of got offended. So point of the story, I am going to need garments pretty soon. But this week I will make a list of all the things that I would like you to send so you can do it all in one package.

 

Family, I love you!! You are so awesome!

Hermana Evans

 

PS. Mom, good luck with your talk! Sorry I didn´t really put in anything super profound!

 

Also, my health is doing great right now! No se precupe!

Walker's Week #35

Okay, so first off, I started to eat again. I think I just had to get a break from the rice or something but yea. My poop is hard now and everything. So my area its called Cañas, it is the south half of the city of Cañas and anything that is within 14 kilometers it so yea. My companion is from El Salvador, he is pretty cool and thinks way to much, but I think I have gotten over that. So this week pretty much was not so cool. The gringo dude with the Latina wife decided they needed more time witch pretty much means no.

Oh so we are teaching this family, they have two kids. One is 4 and the other is four months. Okay so we are there teaching them and we ask them if they are married. They tell us no, just like every one else in this country. So I ask them if they would get married, and they told me they didn't want to. They have been living together for 7 years and they don't want to get married. So I asked them why not and they said that they were only living together for the kids. So I asked them what there plans were after there kids moved out, and guess what, they plan on going and finding someone else. Isn't that awesome. And guess what, that's okay here.

So other family, they have a kid that is 11. They have been living together for 13-14 years. And they don't want to get married because they are worried it will change their relationship. Every one is so afraid of commitment here.

So Courtney just to let you know underwear is super cheap here, like a dollar a piece. So do you ever go to the temple?

Oh and their is very little candy here. All they have is chocolate, which is by far not my favorite. My favorite varies between gummies, and taffy, Just in case you were wondering.

Oh so I am very much not sure about Halloween. They really don't celebrate anything here, okay that's a lie. They celebrate everything they can because its just an excuse to go drinking.

Courtney's Week #28

So, guess what! You know those cultural celebrations that they always show in between the sessions of general conference where all the people dance and the prophet comes and stuff like that, I was in one!! Here in Chile they have been planning a huge celebration to celebrate 50 years since the Chile Mission was created. It was so cool, it was in a huge soccer stadium in our mission and all the missionaries from the missions Santiago West, Santiago East, and Viña del Mar and then of course my mission too. It was so cool and the whole stadium was full of people and like the whole historical department from SLC was there, which I thought was funny because they didn´t speak Spanish. They did a whole bunch of dances from the culture here and everything, it was so cool. The only downside was that the prophet didn´t come. All the Chileans were pretty bumbed about that. But as missionaries we had a part in the program and everything.

 

So my companion's and I are still trying to adjust to the whole trio thing. I wasn´t happy about the whole trio thing in the first place, but then President called the day after cambios and asked if I would be willing to serve as senior companion so after that I kind of had to change my attitude about things and try to pull our companionship together. Hermana Hadlock is kind of having a hard time, I feel so bad for her, but it has been pretty hard on her to be in a trio too, she started to withdraw almost completely, but now we are working on that too. But yeah, how cool is that, Hermana Sampson is Stephanie McKeachnie´s cousin, how weird.

 

One thing that I have really noticed this last week is that the Lord really is helping me with my Spanish. For a while now I have been able to understand pretty much everything, even the people who talk super fast, and I can also say pretty much everything I want as well, but I was having serious problems with the accent. A lot of people had a really hard time understanding me. Especially because of my ´r´s. They roll all of their r´s and they also have double ´r´ that you are supposed to roll even more and I had pretty much come to the conclusion that my tongue was just not made to roll, but I have noticed lately more and more than I can do it, but its really weird because its like I don´t feel that I am actually doing the talking; I feel as though Heavenly Father is helping my silly tongue. It´s been pretty cool.

 

Well, I am out of time for this week, but I love you all.

Walker's Week #34

So this week was okay. First I was super excited this morning because we were going to go to the zoo. Mainly cause I have never been. But then it looked like it was going to rain, as in there were clouds in the sky, and my companion didn't want to go because he would get wet and sick. So I told him it didn't matter because we walk around in the rain wet all day every day. Its very normal but he still didn't want to go. So the plan he came up with was to go to the church and watch movies, but the only movies we can watch are the ones by the church witch are the Joseph Smith one Legacy and I think one more. I am not so thrilled but oh well. So this week was pretty cool we have this super awesome river in our area with a little rope bridge going over it its super cool. So my area is super big and it sucks because there aren't buses so we have to walk every where. We probably spend about 6 or 7 hours a day just walking. so yea but I love it here we are really close to Nicaragua so there are a lot of people here that talk funny

So the one picture is of my last church and the other is about how much rice i eat every meal.

Oh so I think I have something in my stomach. I can only eat like three bites before i can't eat any more so I am going to go poop in a cup today and see whats up.

Courtney's Week #27

Hola Familia!

 

Well, I guess the first news is, that we had cambios (transfers) again, and for the first time I did not switch sectors or companion, we just had an addition. Hermana Hadlock and I are now with Hermana Sampson. She got here six weeks after I did and just finished her training. So here we are, tres gringas (three Americans). I don´t know why, but President has started doing like a segregation in the mission. All of the latinos are together and all of the norte americanos are together with very few exceptions. How are we ever supposed to learn Spanish? Oh well, hopefully things will go well, I am not exactly thrilled about being in a trio, it was hard enough in the MTC, but I´ve decided that we are going to make the best of the situation.

 

Oh, so this week was actually the primary program for my ward here in Chile. It was pretty good, there are a lot less primary children so all of the kids had fairly big parts. But for the program they went all out, they made little trinkets for the whole ward and all the kids were even dressed the same. It was quite the ordeal.

 

So, miracle of the week. We have an investigator that came to church!! We only taught her about the restoration the night before and invited her to church. She told us that she was lazy, but to write down the direction of the church. We left her house at about 9 o´clock in the night and she said that it would be a miracle if she went. We were a little bit insistent and told her that we were going to pray for a miracle then, she laughed but still wouldn´t commit to go. Which for latinos pretty much means definitely not. But guess what we turned around after Sacrament meeting and there she was, in one of the back rows comfortably seated with one of the counselors of the Relief Society who she had briefly met before because they are neighbors. She told us she was going to leave to go eat lunch but that she liked Sacrament Meeting. We were really happy that she even came and went to our class. Two minutes later the Relief Society counselor herded her into the Gospel Principles class. She had gone and found our investigator and committed her to stay. I Love this Ward!! Anyways, our investigator, Cynthia, had read the chapter that we gave her, but also read all of the scriptures in the back of the restoration pamphlet and took notes. It was just so awesome.

 

I am really content to be able to stay here for another cambio. Our investigators are just starting to progress and it makes me so happy. I just hope that everything continues to go well! Things are going to be quite cozy in our little apartment with three people, and I also think its really intimidating and awkward for people to have three people, but hopefully all will go well.

 

Well, family, I love you!!

Hermana Evans

Walker's Week #33

Hey you guys whats up, so guess what, I had changes and guess where I am, Guanacaste. Yep I´m in Cañas. So you might have noticed that I am writing you on the wrong day this week. This is because of a few problems. So I had changes yesterday woot woot. Actually I didn't want changes but oh well. I loved my last area. So I found out I was going to Cañas, okay no problem right 4 hour bus ride, and we're there right. Nope I was wrong. We left at 12:45 and got here at 6:30 want to know why, because it had rained so much that the road had fallen. So after the bus finally decided to go four wheeling through it (I love buses here) we were off again, but guess what else happened they were fixing a bridge. Yep so six hours in a bus raining the whole way. woot woot. So my new area is super hot. luckily it is the rainy season so I'm soaked all the time in stead of dying, yep. Oh so in this area we have a family that the dude doesn't speak Spanish and the girl doesn't speak Ingles. I have no idea how they work, but they have been married for 6 years, well been together for 6 years, but we will see how that goes. Oh so I baptized a family last Saturday it was super cool. I guess he has been going to church for like 5 years but didn't want to read the Book of Mormon or be baptized. So one day his wife came up to us and said that he had read a ton because she is a member. Yep that was super sweet and guess what I get to go to the Templo con ellos (with them).
But got to go adios

Courtney's Week #26

I´m so happy that you all went on a picnic this week. That sounds like a lot of fun, even without bread. Mom, I hope you are doing okay. I love you!

 

So the way conference works here is that everyone has to go to the Stake Centers, because I´m pretty sure only the stake centers have the technology to receive the satellite transmission. It starts at 1 here, and I kind of lost track of the time difference, so I am not sure if that is live or not, I´m pretty sure not because it was already translated into Spanish at that time. All of the norte americano missionaries in our stake watched conference on the second floor in English, which I was very grateful for. A lot of the emotion and effectiveness of the messages gets lost in translation in my opinion, and so I was very grateful for the opportunity to watch the sessions in English. They also retransmitted the General Relief Society meeting Saturday morning so that was pretty cool, Mom if you did not go to the Relief Society you missed out, you should definitely look up Pres. Uchtdorf´s talk.

 

This week we had interviews with President Essig. I was really grateful for my interview. Sometimes I feel like I am working so hard but nothing is happening, I was starting to feel discouraged. But it felt really good to be told that I am a great missionary, and though even though sometimes I don´t feel like I am making much difference at least God knows I am trying my very best. He also told me that I am doing exceptionally well with the situation that I have been given. I am just really grateful because I think I just needed words of affirmation.

 

On that same topic, so one of the changes that President has made to the mission is that our districts are bigger, instead of just having 2 companionship's in a district there are 4 companionship's. This would be fine, but there were also rumors in the mission that the District leaders should only call the Hermanas in their district twice a week to see how they are doing. Also, my District Leader is one of the Elders who seems to be afraid to have any association with the Hermanas. I felt like I could have died in the mission and no one would even know for like a week and a half. Anyways, I mentioned this while just casually talking to Hermana Essig, the mission presidents wife, and a group of Elders who were also waiting for their interviews with president, including the zone leaders. Since that conversation our District Leader has been calling us every night. I didn´t mean to cause more work or trouble for our poor District Leader who is trying his very best to keep track of 4 different companionship's, but it does make me feel better knowing that if I died it might at lease raise a little bit of suspicion.

 

One thing that really stuck out to me during conference is the importance of asking for the help of the Lord. This was the message that I kept hearing during conference. God loves us and wants to bless us, but he can not bless us until we ask for his help. One thing that I noticed is that a lot of the messages had silly stories of things that they asked for, and I always kind of thought that sometimes these small answers to prayer are just small coincidences, and perhaps they are, but that does not mean that we shouldn´t ask for all the little small things that we desire in our lives. God loves us and wants to bless us.

 

This is something that I have really been thinking a lot about lately. We have an investigator named Abraham who does not like to pray because he doesn´t like to trouble God with all his problems. He feels unworthy to receive blessings because he feels that there are other people who need the blessings so much more. We have been working really hard with him to be able to understand why we pray. One thing that I really like from the Bible Dictionary on Prayer says that when we understand that God is literally our Father prayer becomes natural. This is so true, when we fully comprehend that we are sons and daughters of Heavenly Father we will have a natural desire to talk to him and to ask him for the true desires of our heart. God loves us and wants to bless us, but sometimes he is just waiting for us to ask him for his help.

 

Well that is all for this week, I love and miss you all.

Hermana Evans

Walker's Week #32

Hello people

 

So the way conference is here is about the same as Courtney except the Stake Center is a half hour bus ride from where I live and about 45 minutes from where my Branch is so it was hard. On Saturday we went and maybe saw 5 people from my branch. but after the Priesthood Session we got a ride back to our house in the only car that is in our Branch. It was cool, it's a truck about the size of the little Toyota that did have a back seat. we fit five people in. So that was Saturday. On Sunday the first session we had in our Chapel. The Branch President hooked it up to his computer. So there were like 30 people that watched that one. Then the second one we watched at my Branch Presidents house. Yep conference is very hard to watch here and nobody is really even expected to watch it. But in the stake center there is a English room so I saw Saturday in English. Sunday I will say that I am not sure if I got the message.

 

Anyway this week was pretty good, I think we will have another baptism this next week. So we will hope for that. He has been investigating the Church for about 5 years. He was having a huge problem with the Book of Mormon. He loved every thing else except so this week on Tuesday he started reading and now he is in Mosiah. Yep he´s awesome. Yep that's about all that has happened. So adios love you all

Courtney's Week #25

 

Well, I went to the zoo last week and I was so excited, but it was kind of a let down it was about a fifth of the size of Hogle Zoo and all the animals cages were super super small so they didn´t look too happy either. But I will send you pictures of it, they didn´t really have any super cool animals either. But I have encountered several insects in the last few weeks that are really wierd and I will send you pictures of them too. Oh, because the zoo was on a hill I got a really cool picture of me with Santiago in the background too.

 

 

So the most important news of this week is that we had a baptism!! Barbara was baptized yesterday and it was really cool, it was also really really nice because the ward and especially the ward mission leader did everything. The only thing that we had to do was find the baptismal clothing for Barbara and that was quite a chore, but considering everything else was taken care of it was pretty acceptable.

 

 

Not really a whole lot happenned this week. We only found two new investigators and that was last Monday, the guy with the towel on his head and I already told you about him. Other than that nothing really cool happenned. I am going to send a ton of pictures this week. This week I had intercambios with Hermana Taggart, my companion in the MTC. I went to her sector in Lampa, and it was good we had 6 lessons in 5 hours, but they do a lot of lessons in the street and they work a lot with the really poor people in their sector. It was really good though. She told me though how her camera was stolen during a lesson with one of their best investigators. It kind of made me a little bit paranoid because now she doesn´t have any of her pictures, but I don´t usually carry my camera with me, only on certain days. But I want to send home a few pictures so that you can see them, and so that I can have a back up of everything too.

 

Well, I hope all is well. Love you all!

Hermana Evans

Walker's Week #31

So this week was pretty much awesome. We had someone come up to us and tell us he wanted to be baptized. He is like70ish. That was pretty cool.

Have ever told you guys I have never been to the zoo.

So my area is fairly cold compared to my last area. So cool thing did you know it only takes three months for your body to get used to the temperature. So in Alajuela it was a lot hotter than here. But anyways I went and played soccer in a little bit hotter area today and I´m pretty sure I got heat stroke. But oh well, so you didn´t buy any cars this time that's kind of depressing. So I really have no idea what to write so I am going to try to send pictures. And its super hard because I can´t see the letters on the keyboard because the paint is gone.

Courtney's Week #24

Well, as you probably noticed, once again it is Tuesday and not Monday. What happenned is the 18th of September is the independence day of Chile, but the people here celebrate for three days instead of just one, I thought that it was only because the 18th was a Sunday, but I heard that its just like that all the time. And so because nothing was open yesterday, President changed our p-day to today. It was really fun here though. Presidente gave all the missionaries permission to go to the ward and stake activities for the 18, but it was so sad, our ward told us that the Stake activity fell through and that there would only be a dancing activity for the Primary later in the day. We were so so sad, because everyone says that the 18 is awesome, but because we didn´t have an activity we thought we would just be in the street all day trying to talk to people who are too busy celebrating. But guess what! We found a nuevo (new) investigador, un milagro (a miracel). There is a line in Preach my Gospel that says that Holidays are great opportunities to find people, I really wonder about that, because personally if the missionaries tried to teach me on the Christmas or the 4th of July I would be a little bit put out, and thats kind of what I think other people feel when we try to set up appointments for the holidays. But we found a nuevo! After that we decided to go to the activity of the Primary just because this is pretty much the only activity of the year that we have permission to go to, and guess what the stake activity did not fall through. There were tons of people that had been there since the morning and all of the other missionaries in our stake were there too. It was a lot of fun. The Chileans have lots of cultural dances and stuff, and it was really fun to watch.

 

Oh, other news for the week. People in the city are crazy! They are definitely not as amable as the people out in the campo (country). I had two people yell at me this week, and both were in the same day. One of them was a crazy lady that I thought for sure was going to hit me. It was really discouraging, but it was really cool, afterwards I still had to contact three more people to meet our daily goal, and I just really really didn´t want to, I really don´t like when people yell at me and I was tired of everyone just thinking that we want something from them. But my last contact of the day was a lady who really actually wanted to hear the gospel, we set up an appointment, and we taught her and her husband last night. It was just really cool just to see that the Lord knows our limits, and that this is his work, and if we do what we are supposed to be doing he will bless us.

 

Funny story though, the husband of this lady is a little bit crazy. Not crazy, he just spent a long time with the Testigos de Jehovah (Jehovah's Witnesses). It was really funny, we sang and said the opening prayer, and then he decided that he wanted to show us the true way to pray so he went to the bathroom and came back with a towel. He put the towel over his head and then directed his wife to say the prayer. His wife just looked at him like he had lost all his marbles. The guy said that this was how Moses prayed and that it was a way to show respect, and he went off on that and then remembered that it was actually the women that had to cover their faces with a towel not the men, but then he realized that he didn´t have three towels and so he gave up. The whole situation was just really funny, but we explained how we can all show reverence during the prayer and how prayer is just communication with our Heavenly Father and so it is not neccesary to go to drastic measures just to talk to God.

 

Guess what! My companion and I are going to the Zoo today!! I am so excited. We usually can´t go to the zoo because it is never open on Mondays, but today is a Tuesday and the zoo is open!! I am so excited!! I wonder if the zoos here have the same animals, I don´t think so because we are half-way across the world! Woot woot! I am so dang excited, and hopefully I will have pictures to show you next week!

 

Well, I am actually kind of out of things to say. So I guess that is all for this week. I love you all, thanks for your emails!

 

I love being a missionary!

Hermana Evans

Walker's Week #30

So as you all probably know today is Wednesday, and guess what I got to go to the Temple, woot woot. So my companion is Elder Sierra, and he is going home in three weeks. So he decided that he would start packing. Yep he is giving away a ton of stuff, and guess who gets it. Yep I do.

 

But this week my companions back started hurting him allot. Well it actually started when we climbed the mountain 2 or 3 weeks ago. but this week has been really bad. As in he has been on drugs all the time, and he is trying really hard to get it looked at because if its a problem that has happened while he was in the mission then the mission pays for it. But if he waits till he gets home he has to, so yep. But on the brite side this week was my Country's Independence Day to. As in there were just a ton of drunks in the streets.

 

So I found out why I don´t talk about missionary stuff. Its because I have to right home on p-day and i´m thinking so much about what I just did.

 

But anyways, I went to the Temple today. It was good, I understood allot more. Yep.

 

So we have these teenagers that are always at one of our recent converts houses. So we go over there all the time and read the Book of Mormon with them, they love it. But there is a problem called, I don´t like just baptizing teenagers without a friend or there family because they have a really hard time staying in the church. So we are trying really really hard to get them to invite there mom but they are scared. So yep that is our best investigators.

 

Well love you all, adios

Courtney's Week #23

Well, oh my goodness you all had really good questions this week, so I am going to answer those first.


Sawyer asked, are there any weird animals down there and is there any peanut butter, chocolate or pizza down there?
Surprisingly enough, the animals are the same here in Chile as in Los Estados, I haven´t really seen anything that is different, but I think that may be because I am in the city and there aren´t really any animals except for dogs, and lots of them. In my first sector there were huge Warthogs!! But thats about all that I´ve seen. It´s kind of cool also, in the campo there are people who use horse and buggy as their main form of transportation still.

Yes there is chocolate here, but not all of the candy bars and stuff from the Estados exist, also, chocolate chips do not exist here! Peanut Butter is kind of a funny subject, it exists here , but all of the Chileans don´t like it, they always say that they just don´t know what to do with it. It´s really funny though, because I think Mondays are the only day that the supermarkets sell their peanut butter. You have to go early on P-day, because all of the gringos want the 10 jars of peanut butter.

I was wondering if most of the people you teach are old or young?
Well, most of the people that I teach have like 40 years or around that area, I´m not really a fan of teaching just kids because the kids need a strong support from their parents if they are going to stay in the church, but in Chile in general we baptize more kids and teenagers than anything else. This is mainly because the majority of people here are con vive or living together, or they are still married and living with another person. To get a divorce here it takes almost a full year, and then to marry someone else you have to wait like another two years. For this, the majority of people have serious problems with the law of Chastity. It´s really sad, but if you can help them recieve a testimony of the importance of the mandamientos and more importantly baptism, their are people that make it through this process.

Are there any weird foods down there that we don't have?
They have lots of weird things that the Chileans eat, but I am starting to really like most of them. The Chileans eat a lot, a lot of bread. And they don´t even put anything on it, its just bread, but it is so good! They have several different types, but they are delicious and it is all pretty cheap too. But as far as weird things, there are several things that I hated when I first got here, but I am starting to really like all of them. Like their fake coffee, a dessert called Flan which is pretty much the texture of a sponge, oh and they use olives a lot, but their olives still have the pit in them and so you have to be careful not to break a tooth. But all of these things I really really like now, they were just really gross in el principio. One thing that I am still not accostumed to is the cheese. Their cheese is awful. And Seafood, I don´t know about Walker, but we are not allowed to eat seafood in our mission because that is a sure way to get sick.
You play soccer are there any other sports you play?
One thing that I find interesting is that soccer or fútbol, is referred to here as para jugar la palota, or to play the ball. It kind of suggests that there is only one sport in the world, soccer. So no, the other sports don´t really exist.
Is there weird music, is the music all in Spanish or do they have English music?
They have some of their own music here, but a good portion of all their music is from the states and is completely in English.

Have you seen cool cars?
One thing about the cars here, automatic cars don´t exist. Really weird, but even the buses are manual. Everything is stickshift, but there are still people who are really bad at it, people stall in intersections all the time and it is really funny. Oh they also have these weird volkswagon van type things like the hippy van in Cars. I thought that those only existed in the 70s, but they are quite common here.
How often so you eat at members houses? Is it mainly for lunch or dinner? What kind of food do they serve and can they afford to feed you or are they doing more than they should? Are you grateful for it?
In my previous areas we ate with the members everyday except for P-day, but in this sector we actually eat in our house twice a week. Dinner pretty much doesn´t exist here, they have almuerzo, or lunch at like 2 in the afternoon, and it is a huge meal with dessert afterwards and everything and this is what we eat with the members. Then the chileans will usually eat what is called once, or direct traslation 11. Which is pretty much where they just eat bread and fake coffee late in the evening (at about 11 o´clock, thus the name once). But as missionaries, we are advised not to make a habit of eating once con the members or investigators, but sometimes it is unavoidable. The chileans get really offended if you don´t eat their food. The main dishes that we recieve is chicken and rice, which is the typical food of Chile, but it is pretty good. I am starting to really love the food here. I still haven´t been able to determine the financial status of my new sector, but I think to feed us its kind of like they couldn´t financially support it everyday, but once a month isn´t a problem. I love eating with the members, it is really great, otherwise I would just be eating cereal. I am very grateful for the members!

How do you get around the most; bike, bus, taxis, walking? How do most missionaries get around in you mission? How far do you live from your area (sector)? How large is your, the average area in your mission?
Well, I had a bike in Los Andes, but for the general rule we just walk. We use taxis, buses, and the subway a lot if we have to leave our sector, but for everyday use it is just walking. My new sector is fairly big. To walk the perimeter it would probably take only like 4 hours, but we have quite a few really big apartment buildings, so that means more people. But I think this new sector is pretty much the average for my mission at least for the sectors in Santiago.

So would you say that this was the best years of your life? If so would you stay longer than the two years expected?
These past few months I have definitely grown a ton and learn many many things. I love being a missionary, there isn´t another time when you have the opportunity to preach the gospel with power and authority like in your mission. It is amazing just because random people in the street really recognize you as representatives of Jesus Christ. I have never been as close to the spirit as I have been here in my mission. You can really feel when it leaves. I had a really cool experience my companion and I were in a collectivo to return to our sector and their was a really bad song on the radio, I felt the spirit leave it was sudden and it was a drastic change, then after the song ended their was a really good song that came on (in English) and I felt the Spirit return and again it was a drastic change. I have never felt or por lo menos, notice that drastic of a change before, but the Holy Ghost really is our constant companion, and it is really sad when he is not with us.

Although I love being a missionary, I don´t think my body can handle more than a year and a half. My cuerpo is slowly dying, I have huge bags under my eyes, my feet are one huge calice, my hair is starting to fall out, my body has learned to eat whatever is put in front of me, and I am tired all the time. There is definitely an inspired reason why the mission is only for a couple years, if not I think it would definitely lead to an early death. But all of the pain is definitely worth it.

Well I am out of time, but this week was really good. We are starting to find really great investigators, we found a really great family a few days ago, but it turns out that the dad is still married to his previous wife. So that is a little bit of a road block, but we are going to work on that. Things are going great. I am learning a lot from my companion and we are starting to become pretty good friends.

Love you all!
Courtney

Walker's Week #29

Sawyer asked, is there any weird animals down there and is there any peanut butter, chocolate or pizza down there?
Yes weird animals, yes peanut butter, chocolate, and pizza. I actually ate pizza today.
Sawyer, I was wondering if most of the people you teach are old or young?
Most of the people we teach are family's, as in we are very focused in families. Because they have a lot more support. But we have the same problems here as in Chile called it takes forever to get divorced.
Sawyer, is there any weird food down there that we don't have, do you eat seafood because your right by the ocean?
Yes there are lots of weird foods but I have been able to eat everything except for beans. No mater how hard I try I can´t eat them. They have this thing called mondungo, it is cow intestines. Yea its not so good but I can eat it. Another is pigs feet. This one I am not so good at because you are supposed to suck off all the fat and crap, its nasty. Oh and sea food its not all the time, but we are advised not to eat raw meat, that's about it.
Sawyer, Walker you play soccer are there any other sports you play?
Soccer is the only sport.
Sawyer, is there weird music, is the music all in Spanish or do they have English music? 
There is some Spanish music that is coming from all the cars and it is really really bad music. But for the most part it's just English.
Sawyer, have you seen cool cars?
The cars here are small cars, they are all for the little civics with turbos and stuff. As in no cool cars.
Dad,How often so you eat at members houses? Is it mainly for lunch or dinner? What kind of food do they serve and can they afford to feed you or are they doing more than they should? Are you grateful for it?
So we have a cocinera which is a cook that cooks for us lunch every day. And here you eat every where you go if they like you, so obviously I eat every where. Yesterday I ate like four times and I thought I was going to explode after the first. And its a lot of rice
Dad, How do you get around the most; bike, bus, taxis, walking? How do most missionaries get around in you mission?
We usually take a bus to our area then walk around all day then take a bus home. We never take taxis because we don´t have enough money. And we don´t have bikes because they would be stolen. The buses are so awesome, they pretty much never tell some one they can´t get on so there is always people hanging out the doors. And on some there are ladders on the back so you can climb on the roof and you just pound on the roof when you want to get off. the best part is is they drive like crap, they are always racing each other because the first one there gets all the people.
Hunter, So would you say that this was the best years of your life?
Obviously it's the best to years, I mean like really, did you really have to ask!
Bridger, did you guys get in trouble for the wrestling match cause it looked like you destroyed everything?
Nope, didn´t get in trouble.
So I have to go, I will be emailing on Wednesday next week because I'm going to the Templo, love all

Courtney's Week #22

I am going to start off by answering the question for the primary before I forget: How has your life or the lives of others been blessed by missionary work?

 

As a missionary, I have the opportunity to see a variety of different people and one thing that I have really noticed is the power that the gospel can have in our lives and the joy that it can bring. The gospel can change the lives of people, and as a missionary I have the opportunity to help other people to change. When people feel the Holy Ghost they feel the presence of God, they feel that God loves them and that they really are children of God. When they understand they have a purpose in this life and in the next life, they begin to enjoy life and the presence of the Holy Ghost, not only just to survive.

 

I love being a missionary, I consider it to be a very special opportunity to be able to share the gospel with other people. I have a nametag with my name right next to the name of our Saviour Jesus Christ! I am a full-time representative of Jesus Christ and I have the power and responsibility to bring other people the same happiness that I have felt!

 

Okay, so my week. Well, nothing super spectacular happened this week. I really realized how grateful I am to be here though. I love to be a missionary, but this week I discovered that not everyone has that same excitement... It is my personal goal this week to try to share that with other people (my companion...cough cough), because really, we have a message about our Lord and Redeemer Jesucristo and how people can feel his presence in their lives and have eternal life in the next life. Who wouldn´t want to share a message like this that can bless and change the lives of others? My companion really is great, she just lacks a little bit of animó. So I am working on that, its just a little discouraging, because I really can´t do anything without a companion to support me. There is a reason why we are teaching the gospel two by two, because if we are not unified as a companionship, really I am teaching the gospel of Courtney Grace Evans, not the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So I am working on that. We don´t really have problems, we just don´t have the success that I know we could have.

 

So my new area is like the suburbs of the city. We have the subway in the edge of our sector that makes it super fast to get to the actual centro (center) of Santiago and so that is pretty much what everyone does is they go to the centro to work and then come back in the evening. It´s absolutely crazy to me, but all of the neighborhoods here are the same. In my other sectors the neighborhoods divided the people into their classes, and it showed from the appearance of the neighborhood, but here everywhere is the same, but I haven´t actually figured out where they actually fit into the scale as far as income, I just know that they are all pretty much the same.

 

Oh! So this has to be a culture thing from chile, but it is the same in all three of my sectors so far. The people here are super pasado, or I guess a good translation would be that a little bit extremist when it comes to the gospel. For example, in gospel principles class yesterday the teacher pretty much said that her own daughter was lost because she didn´t marry in the temple. While it is super sad that she didn´t marry in the temple, in my opinion you should not preach this with exceeding force to a class full of recent converts and investigators who are not married in the temple. I feel like sometimes as missionaries we go around repairing all the damage. But not nearly as many people get offended as you would expect, so apparently this type of exceeding force is normal in Chile. I don´t know, I just know that it is definitely not the Spirit teaching the lesson the majority of Sundays or at least I have a hard time feeling the presence of the Spirit.

 

Hey, my luggage is really really broken. My wheels are pretty much nonexistent and the handle on my carry-on is about to fall off. If you are feeling ambitious could you please ask K-mart what they mean by a 5 year warranty and see if that includes dragging your luggage along the streets of Chile, because if so, I need new wheels, por lo menos. (at least)

 

I miss you Family!! I am glad to hear that everything is going well.

 

Love you!

Courtney

Walker's Week #28

 

Well first off to answer the question. Courntey's answer was pretty good. so we´ll go with that. (See Courtney's week 22)

 

So I am in the Verbena which is super small. It is about right by Aljuelita yep I think. Anyway my companions name is Elder Sierra. He is from Honduras. And this is his last change as in he goes home in October. Yep so his Spanish is pretty good and he is an awesome teacher. So today we hiked up to La Cruz which is pretty much the highest place in Costa Rica that some one decided to put a cross on. Yep ther are a few picutures so in the one with a bunch of people my companion is the one on the right of me.

 

So my house is super okey on the inside but on the outside it looks like a military building. I´ll try to remeber to take a picture this week. So nothing really awesome happened this week so I think I am going to do a cool Hunter email and say adios.