Sunny Days!

 

Hermana Skablunds Companion

 

Untitled

 

Ward Young Women in Excellence

 

Haircuts

 

I died my hair so I wouldn't get cat calls anymore!

 

Our Christmas Tree!

 

Hello Family and Friends,

I love you all. And I hope you know that. Please write me and tell me all about fun things going on in your lives! It helps get my mind off of the heat a bit :) Thanks.

So, to begin, I have some ¨You know you are a missionary in Chile Santiago Este whennnnnn¨ moments. Ready? Set, go!

The song ¨How do you solve a problem like Maria¨ applies to 4 of your investigators. It might be sung in my head more than any other hymn.

A new planner every six weeks is kind of like the sacrament. We get the chance to start over clean and try to be better.

Your companion tells you whilst eating an empanada dipped in ranch at the end of a long, hard day...¨It´s a mix of cultures¨....and you think...¨No, it´s stress.¨

You sleep with a fan and have dreams that you are on a helicopter heading home. Then you wake up and realize you are just in heli-heat instead.

You get blisters in places where no band aid has ever stuck before...

Your family changes the name of your brother when you are in the mission. As if a new state and a new house weren´t enough, now I don´t even know my brother! P.s. Happy Birthday TRUMAN Maxwell VanCott! I hope you loved the Hobbit and Cafe Rio! I will sing you Happy Birthday in Spanish on Christmas. :) oooh, what a treat.

When you go to someone´s house...and they aren´t there.

When you have an appointment with someone....and they aren´t there.

When you confirm the appointment you have with someone an hour before the appointment...and they aren´t there.

They´re there...but they aren´t. Just their shadow in the window, frozen in place trying to pass as a statue.

Or, they are there! But...mentally...not so there.

You realize that you have made it to the Celestial kingdom because you are in the Glory of the Sun all day, every day! Yippee.

You don´t remember a life before the mission, but it vaguely comes to you when people ask about it...and you wonder if there will be a life after...

 

You wake up speaking Spanish.

You think your purse weighed a lot before the mission....HA.

There you have ´em. Now, onto the news! My companion, Hermana Tibbitts and I, will have to survive another 6 weeks together! We have now been together 3 transfers, and this will be our 4th. It is great, because we make a good team. I hope she still likes me this transfer. It´s funny, because I thought it would be hard to have roommates in College, so I lived with Gma and Gpa instead (because they are the best roommates ever!), but now I realize that I have been with my companion (so far) 126 days, 3024 hours. 42 more days to go (at least!).

We have so much work to do in the ward here. We are working hard to involve and excite the members! We are starting to see some great results, and hope they just keep coming this next transfer! Summer is going to be hard (oh yeah, everyone says we aren´t even in Summer yet...I’m gonna die!) because everyone goes to the beach and vacations...so...keep praying for us! :)

Here is the creepy man story from this week. We were coming home at about 6 o´clock to grab some papers before a meeting with our Ward Mission Leader. We had worked the whole afternoon, out in the sun, sweating and gross. I literally looked worse than I think I have ever looked in my life. We walked the mile back to our apartment, and right before turning into our gate we had a man cat call and wolf whistle at us. As he drove off, I saw that he had those adorable car stickers that show the world who lives in their household. Well, to my comp´s surprise, and just fast enough that she was able to glimpse the stickers for herself... I blurted out, frustrated and ticked at the lack of respect, ¨GROSS, you have a wife and three cats!¨ True story. This world is wicked.

Yesterday a stupid teenager shot me with a BB gun in the arm as I walked by. I might have called him a jerk...really Christ like, I know. Christian, it reminded me of Texas when the mean kids in the neighborhood would shoot us with their BB guns...remember?

So, despite all the really nice people here, I am loving the work! We had Zone Conference this week, and we learned a technique that has changed the way people accept commitments. We ask them, after we extend the commit, what the blessings will be. So, for example.

US: ¨Let´s suppose you DO pray and read this chapter in the Book of Mormon tonight...what do you think will happen? or how do you think you will feel?¨

THEM: ¨I will understand, I will feel peace, I will get my own answers, I will know what to do....etc.¨

 

They pretty much teach themselves.
THEN we ask them...
US: ¨And what is going to happen if you get busy and forget and you don´t read and pray?¨

THEM: ¨I won´t receive my answers...I won´t know if what you are saying is true.¨

Then we promise the blessings of what they committed to do, and testify! Shabang. It has been our secret weapon these last few days. I am sure you are all better missionaries than me and use that anyways, but hey, I thought it was worth sharing! It applies for ourselves, too! I have found myself thinking more about consequences of my actions lately, and it is helping me to get a bigger picture.

Hope you all are enjoying the holiday season! Be happy and grateful for the cooler temperatures!

Love,

Hermana VanCott