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!
No comments:
Post a Comment