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
