¡Hola!
Well, I am happy to report that I am feeling better. To answer your question about the lasagna, I really don´t know what it had in it. They don´t have normal cheese here in Chile, or for that matter normal ground beef or meat in general, so it is really hard to decipher the tastes and what causes them in things like lasagna.
To answer your other question about all the drama in my apartment, well, today my companion and I are in Santiago because my companion needed to talk to Presidente. She was having a lot of issues with the the other Hermanas. But I am happy to report that I am just here, happy as can be just to be a missionary of Jesus Christ. But I´ve found that it is important to make my companion talk about her problems otherwise she will blow up into spurts of crying and shouting. So lesson of the week, open communication is important, even if the problems have nothing to do with you.
So no, it does not really snow in Chile. In Los Andes we are really close to the Andes mountains, (as indicated by the name) and so every time it snows there is snow in the mountains, but the most that happens in the actual town is what my companion calls "water snow" which is just when it is raining it is cold enough that a few droplets will fall a little slower. My companion has never actually seen snow fall, and the other Hermanas in my apartment actually asked permission from president to go to the mountain to see the snow because they had never seen it in their lives. ¡Que Triste! One of the Hermanas was actually almost crying when they recieved permission to go. But no, it is just super cold and rainy here, it usually stays just about freezing though. When I tell people how cold it is in Vernal and how we have snow that stays all year their like oh, so you are used to the cold. This is partly true, but the difference is that the missionaries are in the calle all day, wet and cold, and the houses are not heated by a heating system at all.
Okay, so here is my super super sad story. Here in Los Andes we really only had one family of investigators, se llama Larissa y sus hijos. Larissa is about 35 or so and she has 7 kids. Two are 23 and 18 years old and don´t live with here but the others are 16, 11, 10, 9, and 5. We knew she didn´t have un esposo and that she was not con vive, or living with someone. She is super super poor, I think I told you about their house earlier, but they are super super poor. Their baptismal date is for 28 de August, we had their pre-interviews with them just to make sure everything was okay before their actual interview. Larissa finally confessed that she was still married to her first husband, but had not had contact with him in 20 years. She told us that she didn´t think she could live the law of chastity because su pololo, or boyfriend was the provider for her family. She really wants to get baptized, but just doesn´t see a way that she can. We scheduled an appointed with the bishop, but its super sad. We will probably still baptize her kids, but personally I don´t think its best to baptize kids without a familia. The whole situation was just kind of heart-wrenching.
Well, I don´t really have much more to say. Next week is cambios, because my companion is having problems with the other Hermanas he pretty much promised her a change, so next week I will probably be directing the sector and have a new companion. I´ve decided that this is a good thing. My companion hates doing contacts because she has pretty much talked with everyone in our tiny sector before. I´m excited to kind of start over, I am determined that I am going to find investigators in this sector, I know that there are people here because otherwise there wouldn´t be missionaries.
So, Dad I really loved the pictures of you on the scaffolding. I don´t think in a million years Mom is going to join you at that height. I´m with Walker though, send us more pictures please. I know it is difficult because our family isn´t really a picture-taking family, but this will be a great opportunity to develop a new habit.
So just as a little after thought, so the other day my companion and I had to watch the Preach My Gospel movies during our studies, they are in English with Spanish subtitles. Oh my goodness, after listening to English for 2 hours, it was so so hard to speak in Spanish. It was so hard, my thought process is starting to switch entirely to Spanish. It is really really difficult to speak completely in English and today it even took a few minutes to try to write in English. This is a very good sign! I just can´t watch any more movies in English.
Love You!
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