English!

My dear family and friends,

 

Hey, Mom. Remember how I cried and threw a fit every year right before walking out the door to girl’s camp, including this last year when I was a leader? Well, I am proud to say that I have decided to never do that again. 5 days is nothing compared to 24 weeks. The mission is a lot like girls camp. Girls, gospel, giggling, living out of luggage, and always feeling tired and hot. When I go home, I will willingly volunteer to go to girls camp. And THAT is how you know that I am maturing. haha.

 

Here in Chile everyone (or so it seems) can speak pretty basic English. The majority of men know how to say ¨Hello sexy woman¨ or ¨Hello baby beautiful¨ (I have no idea where they get that one...?) but, they other day, it was confirmed to me that some do not know English as well as I thought. I saw a biggggg tall man, not fat, but pretty muscular, wearing a camouflage shirt that said, in brown bold letters, ¨Army Mom¨.

I couldn´t breathe for about 5 minutes whilst laughing at the irony of it all.

 

Another awkward language story took place as we walked through a Feria (big street sale thing). A man spoke yelled to us in Spanish, but I wish it was in English so that everyone else wouldn´t have been able to understand. He yelled, as we walked in the direction of his booth ¨Why do you refuse men? Why do you refuse marriage? You are so beautiful, you would be doing the world a favor by making more beautiful babies!¨ We nearly died. As we walked past, we just smiled and said, ¨Our goal is to have families after the mission!¨ WE AREN´T NUNS. I know our lifestyle and our no flirting rules make us seem like it, but look at us...We wear way cuter clothes! jk. We had no idea what to say really, but we just want people to always know that the gospel is all about families!

 

Another funny - Our ward mission leader and his wife are hilarious persons. They never give me a break, and if I am still in my sector after this next Monday you guys can meet them when we Skype for Christmas! The other day, before our ward activity, we were looking for a church video to show on the projector. The Hermano remembered a movie that he saw a long time ago, and searched it on YouTube. Turns out that it wasn´t a movie, but a voice over and pictures. Every time there was a ¨Beep!¨ the picture changed, like someone was turning the film or something. So every five seconds in the movie it goes BEEP...and his wife starts to laugh at how old school it is. My companion and I joined in, and now it is a little inside joke we have with the ward mission leader and his wife: we say BEEP when we aren´t understanding eachother or when we are just messing around.

 

So, our ward mission leader shows up to our meeting this last Thursday and starts telling me a story. It was hard to understand because 1, it was in Spanish, and 2, he was laughing so hard that his words weren´t coming out very clearly. What happened was this: His wife, the jokestress, answered their phone the other day. The girl she was talking to was confirming something, and Hermana started going BEEP randomly because she thought it was ME calling confirming our lunch. So, she beeps the lady, makes some joke about MY nose (psh, like always.), and then passes the phone to her husband. Hermano gets the phone and the girls says... ¨Um, hi. I am just calling to confirm your dentist appointment tomorrow at 1...¨ hahahahahha. They were mortified. The poor girl probably thinks that they are insane, but that´s ok. They are. But we still love them very much!

Yesterday we got to sing in the Young Women and Excellence for our ward, and President and Hermana Wright were asked to speak in it. We sang ¨Firm in the Faith¨, or ¨Firme en la Fe¨. The Mexicana played guitar and we all sang. I always have to include a part about the Mexicana, because she is key in everything we do. Also, her name is Hermana Resendiz and she wants me to let you all know that THAT is her name. Not ¨The Mexicana¨.

 

Today we are going to go bowling...it is Hermana Skabelund´s last Pday! BAH. I am going to cry for weeks. She is such an awesome missionary. I am going to miss her muchismo.

 

Oh, here is something fun. So, ya know how it is vurrrrry hot here? Well, I drink A LOT of water. Which, ya know, has its side affects. So, the funnest part about this week has been when my bladder says it needs to go and nobody is in their houses. We sprint from member to members house, and then usually end up at Liders (walmart) for a pit stop. Miserable. But, don’t worry. The work goes on.

 

We found a few families last week to teach when I was here in divisions with an Hermana from Peru. I hope something works out...it is so nice to teach full families! We have return appointments with them this week, so hopefully I will have some cooler stories to share.

 

Well. I love you all. Be good. Remember who you are and what you stand for.

Love always,

 

Hermana VanCott