March 24th 2014

 

Dear Family, 
 

Supposedly it´s fall now, but I don´t feel a difference. The other day, my companion said two magical words that put us into a 5 minute trance- ¨Ceiling Fans¨. Some day, some day. 
 

I am one week away from my halfway point! I can´t decide if I am up for round 2 or not, but I think I signed up to stay the whole time. Hoping I catch a second wind soon! :) Just kidding. I love the work. I just have inner battles between the few really great families I love here, and my opinion that Chile is a country nicely positioned to fall into the ocean at the time of the second coming. I´m working on having Charity. Charity for Chileans, that is my new slogan. I just made it up. 
 

Our district class is in English, because me, my comp, the Zone Leaders and my district leader and his comp are all greeeeeeengos. I consider it a blessing to hear the doctrine taught in my own language...or, better said, my own language in a southern accent because our District Leader is from Georgia. He sometimes gets the Revolutionary and Civil Wars mixed up ¨The yankees are coming!¨ but we appreciate the effort he puts into our classes and the practices. Having good leaders really makes a difference in the attitude of the mission. 
 

Well, the week took an interesting turn on Wednesday after lunch. My poor companion hadn´t been feeling good, but she assured me she was up to working. Post-lunch we took a pit stop in a park, where my companion promptly began dry heaving and having bad stomach pain. I told her to drink her water, which made the pain worse but also helped to liquefy her lunch and she promptly vomited. I might have sympathy vomited a little, too. Good news is, we were in the farthest away street possible from our house. That made for a fun, hot, pukey walk home. And yes, it was just as pleasant as it sounds. 
 

While my companion was knocked out cold with her flu bug, I pondered my place in the eternities whilst memorizing ¨The Living Christ¨ in Spanish. It may sound like a big accomplishment, but the life of a missionary revolves around work...and without work...well...there is a lot of ¨study¨ time. So, now I get to think of that lovely testimony of modern day apostles and prophets of our Savior while I am walking around the streets. 

Naturally, having to be with a sick companion 24/7 meant that I got my turn with the bug, too. I´ll spare you the details. 
 

In between resting and trying to work when we had strength, we saw some great things happen! Our lovely family that has 3 investigators and one less active that hasn´t come to church for at least 20 years is progressing! They showed up at church yesterday, and we nearly did a jig! (then we remembered that missionaries don´t dance).  They looked so great. We had to take a picture. I will attach it in this email. 
 

Thanks for all the great emails! Sorry, I don´t have a lot of time to respond personally to everyone this week, but I will do my best in the following weeks! Also, family, those dune bugging pictures made me a little jealous! How fun. It is great to hear all the missionary opportunities everyone is having by just being your nice, friendly, selves. Remember, if missionary work is ¨hard¨, we aren´t doing it right. It´s very natural. 
 

I love you all and am very excited to hear more about your lives! Keep me posted. 
 

Be good people, 
 

Hermana VanCott