Courtney's Week #12

Okay, well today has been a little bit crazy. We had an activity with the rama (branch) today. The plan was to just go and play games and then leave at about two, run home and change, and then go to town to get our full hour and a half of email time before 4 (that is the rule of when we have to finish by), but as we were going to leave we realized that our cell phone was gone. Some little kid had taken off with it and we ended up searching for it for 25 minutes. Then we had a 10 minute friendly argument with the members about why it was so important that we left instead of staying for lunch. Anyways, point of the story. We only have an hour to write instead of an hour and a half. And we get a new mission president today. So that rule could be changed anyways.

So I will start off with a little cultural spotlight today, and I´m going to try to add a little tidbit about the culture each week:

It is very rude here to point with your finger, so instead all of the people point with their lips. It is so funny to me, because they are always making pucker faces. Just try to imagine a Chilean, and chileans don´t usually have big lips, making a kissy-face, and talking at the same time. So funny!

Also I thought I better add this as well. I don´t think there are llamas in Chile. I haven´t seen one at all. And Hermana Stevens said that even when she was in the most northern part of the mission up in mountain country she never saw a llama. Sorry mom. But there are dogs EVERYWHERE.

Funny Story that I was reminded of as I am sitting here in the cyber listening to "One Love, One Heart, Let´s get together and feel alright" playing over the speakers. I love when the Chileans listen to American music that they cleary don´t understand. Today we entered the capilla (chaple) for the activity and they had a "Black-eyed Peas" song playing that was really groovy, but not not appropriate for the church. I just started busting up, but then the Chileans wanted to know what the song said. We, however, did not tell them.

I have never been so loved in my life. It is so funny. We had a garbage man confess his undying love to us the other night. It was quite humerous. We had 5 people tell us how beautiful we were that night, and the funny thing is, is that that is totally acceptable in this culture. Also, the day before I had a menos activo (less active) make fun of me because she said that I walk like I am trying to catch attention, and then she mimicked the way she said I walk. I am a little self-concious now. I wanted to tell her that if she wasn´t drunk all the time, then she would be able to walk properly too instead of like a man, but I don´t have enough Spanish to say that.

Our investigator Hector has a hard time getting the motivation to get up in the morning to go to church so we went over there yesterday and cooked him breakfast before church. It was kind of funny, I´m pretty sure they all hate french toast, they just kind of stared at it and poked it with their fork. We had to leave to get to the church a little early and they tried to get us to take the french toast with us. We told them that they could just keep it, they were not thrilled. Anyways, when we saw them later in the day, they all told us how delicious they thought it was, but I´m pretty sure their mom told them they had to say that.

So a couple weeks ago we thought we had 0 investigators at church and we were kind of bummed about that. So after we submitted our numbers for the week we got a call from the zone leaders, (who we share the branch with) and they told us that we really had two investigators at church. We had a little party for ourselves, but we could not track down these investigators until they were pointed out to us the next week. There was a joven (young), about 16, named Marcelo who would come with his friend who is about 13. We finally found out an address and tracked them down this last week. We taught him and his mom, they had never heard from the missionaries, but they just had a desire to have religion be a part of their life, they have a cousin on a mission in Peru, so they decided to try out Mormonism. We were pretty thrilled about this, because it is so hard to find people who already realize the importance of going to church. They are pretty much golden, but they declined the commitment to be baptized, but I fully expect them to be baptized within the next month or so.

Point of the story. So we taught them about the Plan of Salvation, and Marcelo asked after we taught about the kingdoms about what happens to animals. I didn´t want to give him the answer that it doesn´t really matter because I didn´t know if he was a big animal lover and that would be a serious problem. My companion told him that she didn´t know, but he was welcome to ask other people to see if they know. The zone leaders were teaching the Young Men yesterday and they asked if anyone had any questions. Marcelo said, "Where do the animals go after they die, the Hermanas said that you would know" Anyways, the Zone leaders teased us about that afterwards, I guess they spent all of sunday school discussing what was going to happen to the animals. They decided that they are going to the celestial kingdom because they don´t have sins.

So I want to end on a slightly more spiritual note, we have an investigator name Jovita. She has two kids, Nicolas who is 9 and a baby that is like 3 months old. She is pretty golden as well, but she said something the other day that was kind of cool. We met Jovita while we were knocking doors (well, yelling at gates really) and as I was trying to communicate her husband just said that he didn´t understand English. My companion piped up and said that we spoke spanish, anyways Jovita came out to talk to us, and just said immediately before we could say anything, "hey, can you come another day". Jovita is one of those people that it you can just see how cool it is that we really did know all of this in the preexistence, and all the missionaries are doing is just reminding people of it. Jovita told us the other day how she had turned down the missionaries so many times, but for some reason when she saw me struggling so hard to speak spanish she thought that if I would come so far from home into a country where I don´t speak the language, than I must have something to share that is really important to me. It was just so cool to hear because, Jovita was waiting for me. A missionary who does not blend in with the Chileans and cannot speak spanish. And not just for those traits, but I think that I must have some trait that is so critical for me to be able to teach her. It was really cool to see how true it really is that people here are being prepared just for me.

So I have been meaning to tell you about the Familia Gonzales for the past few weeks. They are so cool and such a great example, they cook Almuerzo (lunch) for us and the zone leaders Tuesday thru Friday. She also does all of our laundry and will come with us if we need an escort to teach a man. They will do anything for the missionaries or the ward. They are so strong. This family does not have very much though, but they give everything they have for us and they still seem to have enough. Hermana Jenny only got baptized a year ago, she got baptized two days after they got married. And their son Maxi, who is 11, got baptized like a month later. Now they are working so hard to get to the temple because they realize that it is so important. They also are a huge testimony of tithing, Hermano Manuel was out of work for a while, but they said that they were better off then than they were before because they were paying their tithing and feeding the missionaries, and the blessings would pour in. Its just really cool to see how strong a family can be, and how precious the gospel is to them in their lives, because sometimes I take it so forgranted.

Anyways, I am out of time. I did not get a chance to read everyones emails, but I am going to print them off and respond next week.

Love you all!
I miss you Family!!
Hermana Evans

Walker's Week #18

So it has not rained in like 24 hours its a record but today I went and played soccer and got very very sunburned.
So yesterday we went to an investigators house. And I smelt poop. So I was thinking oh shoot I hope its my comp please be my comp. But I looked at my shoe and there it was, this big piece of crap. So I told my comp hey I have crap on my shoe. but he didn´t want to tell our investigators and told me to say it and this is mas o menos (more or less) what i said "yo tengo pupa en mi zapato" (I have poop in my shoe) and they just looked at me like I was crazy. My comp just started laughing and explained it to them. So I went out side and tried to wipe it off but it wouldn´t rub off on the cement so i just took of my shoes off and taught the lesson.

Courtney's Week #11

So this week was not very eventful. But there were a lot of funnier things that happenned this week that I want to tell you about. So first off, I had to wash my clothes this week, but we do not actually wash our own clothes, the Familia Gonzales (I will tell you about them later) washes our clothes for us, which you think would be nice but it is definitely not ideal, at least in my opinion. They don´t have dryers here in Chile, so after the wash cycle they just hang things up to dry. But because my companion and I had so many clothes, she ended up draping things over the wall and stuff, so most of my clothes came back dirtier than they went. Not fun. But the funniest one was my shirt that came back with a huge glob of bird poo. She also washed all my clothes inside out so that she would be able to tell which clothes were mine and which ones were my companions. So the whole week I kept putting on my garments inside out. But on the bright side, I´m glad that she does them because we don´t have a washing machine so it is much better than washing all our clothes by hand.

The beginning of this last week and the week before that my companion had a cold and lost her voice. This was absolutely not the most ideal situation, because I can´t speak spanish and she couldn´t talk at all. It was just kind of those situations that you have to laugh at. 

Here in Chile they are all super paranoid about their health. For example, the branch president´s son had a tiny sore throat two weeks ago; he has stayed home from school and church ever since. This past week it has gotten a lot colder and the rain has finally started. Everyone is really grateful for the rain because Chile´s economy revolves mainly around the produce, but most of the Chileans won´t even go outside when it is cold, which I find funny because it is just as cold inside the houses as it is outside. But because of this it was a lot harder to find people to teach and to get everyone to go to church. Yesterday we had only 37 people in sacrament meeting, whereas the week before we had 72. Chilean´s are just really paranoid about getting sick. When my companion lost her voice there would be people who would back up as soon as they heard her because they didn´t want to get anywhere near something that was sickly, I thought it was super funny.

So I am going to attatch a picture of my first day of rain here in Chile. My companion and I were going to do before and after pictures, but after we got home we thought that it would be too horrific, not to mention that we were dead tired and frozen. But on this first day of rain, I realized very fast that my shoes were not rain-proof. I had puddles on the inside of my shoes. It was absolutely awful. We had a menos activo (less active)who we were trying to find her house because we promised we would come, but she was drunk at the time she gave us the directions to her house so we couldn´t find it, which is really sad, because she´s already called us liars once. Anyways, as we were looking for this house we spent an hour just searching, trudging through the mud and huge puddles. My feet were so wet and cold, but I am happy to report that my super-duper raincoat is indeed wonderful. So after the hour of searching for this house we went back to our house because my companion had some rainboots that another missionary had left her. So I changed into these rainboots, changed into a dryer pair of wool tights, and we went on our way. These rainboots were awful, first off, they had a hole in them, so they weren´t truly waterproof, secondly the soles had gone out on them so I felt like I was walking on waffle-irons. It was absolutely awful. Needless to say, I will be buying my own boots today.

But this is not the end of this sad story, the next day was sunday and we ended up having to run to pick up an investigator (who ended up not being there) and then running back to the church. My poor feet hurt so bad, they were all sore and tender from the previous day´s waffle boots, and my shins hurt so bad just because they are not used to all of the running and walking in church shoes. I was not a happy missionary. I really just did not want to be a missionary for most of the day. My feet were swollen and my shin muscles (which i didn´t even know existed) kept cramping. I kept falling asleep in Church, because I really didn´t have much of an idea of what was going on (we were talking about signs of the second coming, I sure didn´t know all of the words that that entails in spanish). Later on that night we were walking to an appointment, when I just had a feeling that I needed to stop and talk to a person, but I didn´t at first, just because I didn´t want to. But the feeling stayed and I kind of chased after him and we just did a brief contact and gave him a pamphlet.

Anyways, this whole experience just made me think about how many people I could be missing because of my grumpiness. So I took a fair amount of ibuprofen to make the swelling in my legs and feet go down, and we went to work. Nothing super profound happenned, but I think I caught a glimpse of the saying "Forget yourself and go to work." I know that sounds lame, but it really did make me realize that although I just wanted to crawl into bed and watch a movie, that is not what a missionary does. A missionary is here for other people. So that is my new goal, to focus more on other people.

So back to funny stories for the week, my companion likes to cook, but she still hasn´t quite gotten used to cooking in Chile. My first week she made brownies for one of our investigators in a noche de hogar (Family Home Evening), we compared Christ to the recipe and how through Christ we can have salvation, and through a recipe we can have delicious brownies. Brownies don´t really exist in Chile. Anyways the cocoa here isn´t quite the same as in the states, or at least the kind that she used is not. The brownies were awful, but we didn´t tell her that, we just finished our lesson and told her how delicious they were and left.

The next week she decided to make cookies for our zone, they turned out quite similair to rocks. But all of the elders ate them. My prediction as to why this is, is because everyone is just so used to the rule of eating everything that is put in front of you and saying it is delicious afterwards, which is pretty much exactly what happenned. I just think it is so funny. I am glad that we don´t actually have a stove in our apartment, otherwise I might have to eat more of her cooking.

So now to answer some of your questions, yes my sector does have bikes, but we have not yet used them, we are not exactly sure how big our sector is, but we think that we have the part where we do all of our work which can all be reached by foot, and then we think that we have a little village that is like half-hour away by car. One of the members took us out there to their house and vineyard out there (so yes it is a vineyard behind us) for lunch one time. But the collectivos (like taxi) and buses don´t really go out there, so those people may have to wait a little bit for their salvation because it is too far for us to bike. It would take the entire day just to get there.
Q. Sawyer asked, if you bring your on toilet paper can you use the tiolet for free?
I don´t think the rule of bringing your own toilet paper would work, although I did have to use a tissue that I had in my bag last week because there wasn´t anyone selling toilet paper that day.

Family! Can you find out if Katie got her mission call! And if so tell her to email me pronto! As of right now we can email anyone we want, so tell Uncle Joe that as well, because he was wondering, but we get a new mission president next week so a lot of the rules could change. Right now we get an hour and a half of email time, I really hope that doesn´t change because it is quite nice.

Thank you for the email today, it was nice to hear from everybody but Hunter. Hunter, you slacker, are you still alive?!?! I haven´t heard from you since before I left home, this is not acceptable, you are my brother and are under obligation to write your sister when she is living halfway accross the world. So I expect at least a paragraph next week. A joint email is fine with me. I usually do get to read Walker´s emails because he replies to something and so I can usually find them, but not always. I always send my email to him as well, I´m not sure if he has time to read it though, do you Walker?

Well I love you all and miss you a lot!
Hermana Evans

Just as a little side note that I thought the boys would enjoy, I saw a mural on my way into town today of Mario and the other Mario characters, but Mario had brown skin!!

Second side note that kind of goes along with that. A lot of the culture and stuff is from the States, so you hear a lot of music in English and t-shirts and stuff in English even though no one here actually speaks english. It was funny though, one of our investigators (a like 23 year old guy) was wearing a shirt one day that said "I´M THE MOM" in English. I thought about telling him what his shirt said, but it was just too funny.

Third side note, all of the movies and stuff are just voiced-over into Spanish. It is quite comical and it actually makes movies not really appealing to me at all, because it is so dang funny some of the voices that they choose for the actors and it totally loses it´s affect.

Love you!!

Walker's Week #17

Mi and Ernesto

Q. Sawyer asked, Walker do you ride a bike at all?
No I don't have a bike. I wish, but no.
Q. Dad asked, About how many lesions do you get to teach a day?
So the avarage before I got here for lessons in my area was maybe one but I didn't know this. I was getting really upset with our numbers and told my comp we should be teaching more. So now we are teaching like 3 or 4 a day which is better. But I would like more. I had my first baptism this week it was pretty exciting. It is the first in my area in a long time.
So this week it rained again, and by rain I mean really rain. It rains the hardest it has ever rained in Vernal at least once a day.
It is really a pretty funny story, so we were in the same place as last time but we had an appointment with the Bishop so he gave us a ride. It was nice. So we were up there teaching and it was a great lesson then we had another appointment further up, actually the top. So the bishop left and we went further up. Which means we didn't have a car. So we are teaching this other family and it starts to rain. Oh other really important thing is that we had a baptismal interview at 6:30 so at like 6:25 we end the lesson and its raining outside. So I look at my comp and he is like "We have to hurry" so we take off running. And umbrellas don't work when your running so I was soaked. So we get down the hill to the bus stop and I realize that I didn't have any money. So I asked my comp and he didn't have any either. So there we are a 45 minute walk away from where we were supposed to be without money, soaked, and all that good stuff. So we start walking, and when your walking you have to watch out for cars cause they send nice little wakes at you. There was so much water it was coming up through the manholes. It was great, you could step on them and they would slowly sink back down. Oh so the rain gutter things for the road are like two foot by two foot so you have to be careful not to step in them or you sink up to your waist, I found out. I was wet that day!
Well I don't have any more time.

Courtney's Week #10

  

My first week in Chile! So I have to tell you a story really fast before I start off. My sector is in a town called Colina, which is about an hour north of Santiago. We went to the centro of Colina to do our email and it turns out the the entire town didn´t have internet today, entonces, we ended up coming to Santiago to do our email time today. So funny, only in Chile can you have an entire town without internet.

 

So I want to tell you a little bit about Chile and its differences and then I will end on a spiritual note, I hope. We have an hour and a half for internet, but we also had to email president and stuff in that time.

 

So a few differences. They don´t believe in insulation here, all of the houses are just brick and tile. And there is usually gaps around the doorways and even in the walls, so all of the houses are just as cold or even colder than the outside world. And! They don´t believe in actually heating your house and so we just have like the little space heaters to try and warm things up at night and in the morning, but we are not allowed to sleep with them on, so needless to say. I am really glad I brought a whole quilt to Chile.

 

Another difference, they have really really crappy toilet paper, and because the houses are so cold the toilet seat is super cold too. And the first few days we had to put our hand into the water tank to be able to flush the toilet. I never ever wanted to go to the bathroom again. But something crazy, you have to pay to use public restrooms here! Crazy! If you don´t pay, you don´t get any toilet paper!

 

All of the drivers here are super crazy, there aren´t really speed limits and I don´t think that you can get pulled over really either. Anyway, it is usually a little bit scary. We use taxis to get around a lot, and none of the taxis have seat belts! So it is even more scary.

 

The culture here is kind of weird, the Chileans are night people and so our schedule is adjusted to fit that. We wake up at 7:30 instead of 6:30 and we go to bed at 11:30, which is an hour later. The people are always out and about and just hanging out in the street, even with all the crazy drivers.

 

So I have to tell you another story. We had to take a taxi somewhere, the driver was probably in his late 20s but anyways, he just kept staring at me and winking in his rear-view mirror. It was so weird! I told my companion and she just said that I should just get used to it, I guess the Chileans aren´t afraid to let people know if they think you´re pretty. So we get whistled at about once a day, some cars even have a special horn that sounds like a cat call. Anyways, that is my weird story of the day.

 

As you would probably guess a lot of the Chileans are brown, but there are some that really throw me off. The Relief Society President in our branch has red hair. I kept expecting her to break out in English, but she is a real Chilean. There are only a few like that though. We have had a lot of people accept our contacts, and I think it is because I don´t look Chilean at all. My companion has black hair and kind of olive colored skin so she blends in more, but I don´t really blend in at all. So people are a little bit more intrigued because it seems less like a solicitor visit.

 

So my trainer, her name is Hermana Stevens she is from Payson, Utah. She is pretty much awesome through and through. I thought that I would really like to have a native companion so that I would be forced to learn Spanish, but I really love having Hermana Stevens because if I get stuck I can turn to her and get the Spanish translation for what I want to say. And I can find out later what actually went on in a lesson. She has been on her mission for nine months, she just barely hit her half-way point. We get along great and it is really fun.

 

So I don´t understand a whole lot, but I am getting used to it. I definitely understand more than I can speak though. I have decided that I need to develop a new "listening-intently face." My current one makes my eyebrows and my forehead super tired. Funny story though. I was feeling sorry for myself about not understanding anyone, but then as we were doing contacts yesterday there was a guy, probably about 18 who put on his "listening-intently face," but after I was done just looked at me and said, half-laughing, "No entendí nada," or "I didn´t understand a thing." Anyways it just goes to show that the people having a hard time understanding what I am saying as well.

 

So I want to tell you some of the spiritual things that have happened here on my mission thus far, because there really have been a lot. Yesterday was absolutely crazy. There was a soccer game between the two biggest rivals of chile. And so there were a lot more drunk people than usual. We were just going on our way doing contacts and we met this lady who when we asked her how she was doing she just started crying. She let us in her house. I didn´t know most of the whole story until my companion told me later, but I could kind of tell what was going on. Her husband beats her everyday because he is a drunk. He was actually in the house when we were there but too drunk to get out of bed but we would yell things from his bed. Anyways this lady is obviously having a hard time, but she won´t leave her husband because she loves him. She told us she prays everyday that her husband will become a huge smoker if only he wouldn´t drink. Because he always beats her more when he is drunk. Anyways we gave her a book of mormon and a little message and my companion and me pray for her. I didn´t know most of what was going on so the whole time I was just saying a silent prayer pleading for help to be able to say the things that she needed to hear and to bring peace into her life. During my prayer her husband stopped yelling and my prayer at least brought peace to the poor lady. She was able to stop bawling and she said she felt peaceful. She said she would read the book of mormon everyday. My companion and I are going to help her, we just have to figure out how.

 

After we left, only ten minutes later we found another lady who was just bawling in the street. She said her husband and her were seperated and he had just tried to kill her, and she showed us her bruises. Anyways, it was absolutely crazy! Dad could you please put these two ladies on the prayer roll, they could really use the help. Their names are Merriam and Claudia. Thanks.

 

That same night (this all happenned yesterday) we ended up escorting a drunk guy home, that part was just funny.

 

It has been really cool to be able to feel the spirit helping me with everything, there have been times where I thought I was just digging myself into a hole with my awful spanish and then afterwards my companion will tell me what the person actually said and it turns out that I said exactly what they needed to hear. I t has been so cool to feel the spirit guiding every decision and every conversation.

 

I want to assure you mom that I really am safe. We share our branch with the our zone leaders and they have all of the more dangerous parts, like the apartment buildings and such. Although I am in a poorer area, and it is quite getto and normally I would be scared out of my witts. I can feel the comfort and protection that comes from being a missionary of the Lord and being prayed for constantly. So thank you for your prayers, prayer is awesome.

 

Well I am out of time, but I love you all and miss you!

Walker's Week #16

So guess what Chile is just like Costa Rica except it's hot here and rains every day instead, isn´t that great.
Hey I would like some recipies this week please. I don´t have any thing to cook with except a stove that is broken, but we should get a new one soon.
So can you send me a recipi for a cheesecake that you don´t have to cook if there is such a thing and for no bake cookies.
So this week was stake conferance, it was great I´m pretty sure that I caught up on like an hour and a half of sleep in the 2 hours that I was sitting there not understanding. Oh I bought a Pricemart card which is pretty much the central america Costco. But I had to do it with my money. But that means I get to buy stuff cheaper. I have deceded that they give misionarys so little money so they can learn to servive on nothing. I have lived off cereal with fake milk the last 2 weeks because I didn´t have any money.
This week has been very un-eventful. I contacted 2 people by myself though. They were very patiant people. So that means they understand something I said. But I am now out of time so I guess I will email you next week
adios

Courtney's Week #9

Familia!
I am here! I made it through my first plane ride and everything! We are currently at the mission home for a breif orientation and then we are going to meet our trainers! I am so nervous, it  has been such a long day and it is only noon. We will be brought back for more training in two weeks, after we have a chance to develop questions.
Chile seems great, I haven't really seen much of it yet. One thing is for sure though, the driving situation is crazy! There seem to be some poorer areas, but for the most part it seems the same as other big cities.
I am so excited to get to work, but I am tired and hungry. And my brain is going to explode from too much Spanish at once

I love you all!
Hermana Evans

P.S. (from Dad) when Courtney called form the airport she told me to add to the blog "a cool story" Courtney often talks in her sleep and her companion said that the other day she was talking in Spanish.

Walker's Week #15

How everything going? 
Everything is great.
Q. (Sawyer) Mom was thinking you slept on the floor with cockroaches all over you.
No I do notsleepon the floor, I have a mattress with more holes than not between me and it.
Q. (Mom) How long does it take to get a letter here from Costa Rica (snail mail way).
I have know idea how long it takes mail.
We recieved a letter from your Mission Presidents wife. (I think) Sister Galvez. It was a nice letter. I would like to write her back. But I do not know if she can translate my english to spanish.
Every single missionary here speaks both spanish and english so I'am sure she could figure out some way. And I think she would love that.
Q (Sawyer) How is the spanish coming along? Can you have a conversation in spanish yet?
Nope no conversation in spanish yet I am okay at speaking but I can´t understand them. So when I am teaching I just don´t ask very many questions. Its great.
Do you like rice and beans yet? Do you eat a lot of meat or none?
Yes, I eat a lot of rice but I can´t eat beans unless they are mashed up, the texture kills me. The meat depends on a lot of stuff, actually how much money I want to spend. 

So the picture is for Joe. I was walking down the street and saw a guy washing his car and Joe popped into my mind. So I went over and talked to him about his car and I realized everything about cars is different in Spanish. And my comp does't know anything about cars. So I asked him if I could get a picture and here it is. Then we talked about the gospel and stuff he told us no and we left. But he owns lots of cars I guess. along with this Corvette he has a 63 Ford Falcon sitting on a lift outside his house. It was pretty exciting.

So Joe I would also like your street address so I can send you letters too.

Courtney's Week #8

Hola Familia!

 

Well I will start off by answering your questions from your emails. Sister Taggart is completely well for travel it turns out that all her problems were just a whole lot of not too big of deals. I have only sent one package home thus far, but I will be sending a rather large one on Monday morning. Yes we do have a scale her to weigh our luggage. I just really hope it is accurate, the other day I threw all of my stuff into my suitcases and they weighed 44 and 42 pounds, I just really hope that they stay that way, I am a little worried just because I was so much over on weight when I came.

 

The four apostles that we have been blessed to hear from are Elders Oaks, Nelson, Scott, and Anderson. It's pretty cool that out of our 8 devotionals we were able to have 4 apostles.

 

Mom and Dad! I loved, loved, loved the package! It was the happiest package ever. And I loved your little note Mom, it was like a little piece of you, and it made me so happy!

 

Just as a little hint, if you would like to send me DearElders before I leave they all have to be in by noon on Friday, because DearElders don't print on Saturday and I will be gone before they get here on Monday. So I fully expect many DearElders tomorrow! (Hint, Hint!) Especially from you Hunter! I haven't heard from you at all since I've been here! But I would love to have one from all of my lovely brothers!

 

So as far as my week, I guess my perfect health couldn't last throughout my whole MTC experience. I cold a pretty severe cold last Thursday night that Then Monday night I had a pretty high fever. And I have been fevering on and off ever since. Oh and I had a hacking cought too as the cold migrated into my chest. I went to the doctor yesterday, she said that my cold is turning into a sinus infection so she gave me a couple perscriptions. I expressed my concern that I didn't want my already pressured ears to blow up on my first plane ride, but she assured me that I should be all better by then. Even after just a day of being on these perscriptions I feel much better!

 

I want to share a couple of experiences that are connected to my sickness but I think I only have time for one. On Sunday I asked the Elders in my district for a blessing because I was having a really hard time. It was so cool because you could tell that they were nervous because they have never really given blessings by themselves before, but I knew that they said exactly what Heavenly Father wanted to tell me, it was such a cool experience to just see they power that the priesthood can have in worthy holders, even if they are scared and nervous.

 

So my companions and I got three roommates last night. It is a huge adjustment. 6 Sisters in one room is too many! We are all stepping on top of each other and getting ready in the morning is so hard! And, they are not even Spanish speaking! Its amazing, I didn't think we really spoke that much Spanish in our room, but every time we talk in Spanish the new Sisters get all defensive like we are talking in some secret language. It is quite hard, just because I really love spanish, especially when I know what is going on. But we leave in four days so I guess I just have to put up with it until then.

 

Since I have been here I have started saying really weird things that I never used to say. It is kind of weird because it makes me feel much more awkward as a person and I don't even realize before I say them. Such phrases include "Let's bust a move", "crimping your style",  and other really weird things. I'm a little worried about what I will say after 18 months.

 

Dad, I can't believe you will be on the mountain during my phone call. I was so excited to be able to talk to my whole family. I really hope you can find service somewhere. I will try to call while in Atlanta. Speaking of which I think the times that I sent our all the local time of wherever I will be.

 

I had something else I really wanted to say, but I forgot to write it on my little page of notes, so I can't remember. Aaugh! The countdown clock is ticking so I guess I will just have to tell you at a later time.

 

Oh I remember so my companionship was chosen to demonstrate "how to begin teaching" for the new missionaries that came in. It was a really cool experience and kind of humbling to think that out of all the missionaries in the MTC we were recommended and chosen. It was really cool and we did a great job. My companionship has come a long we and we have really grown together.

 

Out of time!

Love you all!

 

Hermana Evans