Hola!!
So funny story before I start my email. The keyboard in this ciber started to have problems after like five minutes, the numbers that go along the top of the keyboard and the symbols that go with them and apparently the apostrophe scrambled themselves; so it´s a guessing game to find the question mark and the exclamation point. Anyways, the joys of being in Chile.
This week was really good. Oh I have a request really fast, but it may be a difficult if mom is in Canada still next week, but I really want my Chocolate chip cookie recipe from the Betty crocker cookbook. If you could type that up for me that would be great also any other recipes that are excellent, just as an advisement as to what recipes are best here is a little advisement as to what exists here in Chile as far as cooking ingredients. Brown sugar doesn´t exist, they sell like a brick that is really similar in taste, but if you want to use it you have to like grate it with a cheese grater, not so fun, but sometimes its worth it. Peanut butter exists and I use it on a daily basis, but instead of being a dollar for the little jar it is like eight dollars for the little jar. Oh and if you want chocolate chips, you either have to travel to the only store that has them, or what Hermana Stevens and I did was buy a chocolate bar and chop it up into little pieces.
Oh and just so you know, the pizza here is like cardboard with sauce and other weird substances on it. It´s pretty bad. The cheese here is really weird too. So pizza is not my favorite party food here in Chile.
Hey! I got the package from the ward with the letters from the primary, young women, and I think young men. Thanks! It was awesome! There were a lot of kids who mentioned things like, hey I don´t know if you remember me and stuff like that. Of course I remember them! Maybe it´s just because they don´t remember me. But it was great, it made me so happy. Oh just so you know, in my mission there are two Hermana Evans and also an Elder Evans. So make sure to put my first name on the mail and packages otherwise it goes to the other Hermana until she decides to pass it on to me.
As far as the missionary work here in my new sector, well it is a lot of time in the street searching for new people to teach and being rejected a lot. But we have a family of six that we are teaching and they all have a baptismal date for the 21 of Agosto! It is a mom and her 5 kids, they are the exception to what i said last week about the people here being a lot richer. This family lives in a box. Literally a box. You know the tree house that Aunt Teri has, it is more livable than their house, their house is a little bit bigger but that is it. They don´t have electricity or anything, I´m not even sure they have a bathroom. We have to go to their house early in the day because they live by candlesticks in the night time and during the day they open up the walls of their box to let in the light. There is a little space between the floor and the ground so that their house doesn´t flood when the water runs down the hill right next to their house, but this space also means lots of spiders. Anyways this family is really good and they are excited for their baptism. It just shows though that the humble and the meek really are blessed because they are more willing to accept God into their lives.
This week I realized one of my talents. I can pretty much get along well with almost all types of people and it is really easy for me to forget the judgement of others. The other Hermanas that live with us had lots of problems this week. They ended up calling President and going in for emergency interviews. Because of this we did intercambios with them several times this week. Even though I had heard so many things about how difficult it was to work with one of the Hermanas we were fine and had spiritual experiences. I had heard similar things about my current companion before I was with her. You just have to make sure that you are doing all that you can to be the best you can be and gently pull them along. I´ve determined that companionship study, which I did not particularly enjoy before, is really inspired and it is the only way that you can get two people that are on two different levels to the same level. Our first week together was rough, but the more we study and share experiences together the more I feel we are truly teaching what the people need. My companion goes home in November, and so I think she had kind of just lost her love for the gospel a little bit. When she taught it was almost as if the gospel was an assignment as opposed to a blessing and our mission being an opportunity rather than just something to complete. It is just so cool to see the effect that people can have on each other. You just have to remember that rather than stepping down to where they are, you need to just beckon them to come to you and help them. It´s really cool. I know that I am here to learn Spanish and to find and teach the people that are waiting for me here, but I think that I am also here to help my companion finish things out strong and remind her of what a blessing the gospel is for her and for the world.
So I have decided that the food from Columbia is definitely the weirdest that I´ve seen from my house of Latinas. Hermana Mera cooked some sort of foreign substance with who knows what in it. It pretty much looked like food that had been lost in the refrigerator for a few months. She was offering me some of her food the other night, but I wanted to make sure that it was indeed edible because it looked questionable to me. I asked pointing to the food "¿This is normal?" The other Hermanas started laughing, but she was not amused. I didn´t mean to be offensive, but she has not offered me anymore of her food since.
Oh, but to add to this story. This mysterious substance was in the fridge a few days later and the Member that usually feeds us on Sundays was going to be out of town, so she gave us a lasagna ahead of time. I cleared off a shelf in the refrigerator and went to put the pan of lasagna in apparently the top shelf doesn´t fully snap into place and everything fell. I caught the lasagna, but this mysterious substance spilled all over my pajamas and my foot. It was not a happy moment. It was between my toes and everything. District Leader and his companion called right then too, I tried to explain to him that I was distressed because I had a casserole on my foot and in between my toes, but I don´t know the word for casserole in Spanish. Also they don´t have a single word for toes in Spanish, they call them fingers of the foot which I don´t think has the same effect. So I am trying to teach all the Latinas the word tosies.
The Latinas are all supposed to study English during Language study each day. It´s so cute to help them with their English and listen to them try to speak it. It´s so funny sometimes, but then I remind myself that that is probably what I sound like with my Spanish, then it is not as funny. But one of the Hermanas that I live with, until yesterday she thought I had 4 or 5 months in Chile because of my Spanish. Hooray! I can kind of speak Spanish! But really my Spanish is sky-rocketing, I still have to say things like blankets for the bathroom when trying to describe towels. But this kind of guessing is pretty much a constant game and I am getting pretty good at it.
Out of time! Love you all!!
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