Well I am glad you received the picture with me and the President and his wife...they are super nice and their kids are so cute..I just wish I could communicate with their kids more...but now I am in the field and it doesn't matter. So right after that picture was taken in front of the flower clock we were split into companionships, given a BOM or LDM, given the address of the mission home and told to give the BOM away try to get a contact or number and find our way to the mission home. Thankfully my companion, even though she was gringa understood what people were saying to us...we were able to give the BOM away but we didn't receive numbers or address...also we contacted one man who walked us all the way to the mission home but wouldn't let us get his number because he doesn't want any religion...K should have born my testimony more strongly but it was hard because I didn't know why he was saying he didn't like religion and then when he left, my companion said it was because he feels like they just take your money...ah so yea if I could only understand! Then after that we had pizza and just waited around in the mission home for interviews which took awhile and than the sisters slept at a ´hotel´ and were able to go to bed early. We also had once which is like bread and ´cafe´or echo don´t worry we are allowed to have it.
Wednesday was full of orientation then at 5 we had the meeting and changes...I was so nervous to be leaving my district and companion or comfort zone...BUT my companion now is great! She has been in the field for a year and she is a gringa from Sandy area..I can´t remember the town right now...anyway she is super awesome. Actually Wednesday was her birthday and she turned 22. I am her first gringa companion so she is kinda excited to speak English and I am excited to speak Spanish so we speak English in the pencion (I don't know how to spell that word but it means apartment). She said she gained like 20 lbs here on the mission....so yea you can expect me to gain some weight...the pan is SO delicious and they bake it fresh everyday and the members make like everything from scratch. So Hermana Hermansen, which is my companion said I am starting out in the most perfect ward because we have a mamamita...which our house is actually behind hers and the Relief Society president arranges for members to feed us everyday and than someone does our laundry and the ward loves missionary work..so actually our ward mission leader just got called as 2nd counselor in the bishopric yesterday...so we don´t have one at the moment, but he was really great and our new bishop is 30 and loves missionary work..the former bishop was bishop for 7 years...crazy. A lady in the ward asked us yesterday if it was okay to have a new bishop..she is sweet lady is just went through the temple a couple months ago.
Our apartment is pretty nice..I don't know, at first I didn't see a difference in things, but yea houses here are def not as clean, but the water is safe to drink and we can eat the fish.. amazingly enough I haven´t gotten sick. So how they do meals is they have a small breakfast and lunch is the biggest. We have an hour and half for lunch which is with members so we talk with them and share a lesson. and they don´t really have dinner just like cookies and the ´cafe´ con pan...I actually could get used to eating just cookies for dinner....but lunch is really hard to eat everything they give us, oh and they don´t drink water only like juice and pop uh so I guess I have to give up my no pop rule...but the strawberry juice is SO good...all their juice is super sweet. So that´s how meals are...so when they fast here they fast from lunch to lunch so they have lunch on Saturday than they skip the once and breakfast than they have lunch on Sunday at like 2. Our mamamita is super nice she is menos activo so we have been ´practicing´ lessons on her but we tried to get her to come to church this Sunday but she couldn't...they seem to always be sick here haha...but one of the investigators who I haven't taught yet but met yesterday at church came even though he was sick, you could here it in his throat so I hope he is doing well.
So on with the important stuff, the work...so with training we study for like fourish hours in the morning so when I first got here I felt like I wasn't doing missionary work because we didn't have much time to go out and talk with people...but I have learned it´s not about the numbers is about bringing others to Christ and doing all we can by following the rules and being obedient. It is hard because they love to talk here....so the language, yes it's super hard to understand because they talk super fast and Chile has their own vocabulary..it´s really hard and I get nervous to speak and sometimes I don't know what to say because I have no idea what is going on, but it is getting better and my companion says even though I can´t see it, that I am progressing. I just get nervous thinking about the future but I can´t do that...right now I am just trying to get to know the area, remember names, and say as much as I can, as often as I can. So one really cool experience was when we went back to follow up with a menos activio...so the day before we had stopped by and his mom said to come back the next day and she was Catholic so didn't want our religion...but the next day we waited outside the door for 10 min. She finally answered, got her son, and even sat and listened to us...we gave her a BOM and she had lots of questions...it was awesome and the spirit was there and I was able to share why the gospel was important in my life...we are meeting with her again tomorrow...that was a tender mercy to me and showed me how important persistence is in the fact that we didn't just leave after waiting for like 3 min. I also shared a scripture in like our 2nd lesson but it was with a member so I wasn't that scared. Oh so one of the members we had lunch with, she thought I was latina haha it was funny.
I love the story of the Elder from Mexico..I guess you could say that´s how i feel..I shared my testimony on Sunday even though I told them my Spanish was bad, they all said I did pretty well...so we will see. I definitely get frustrated in the fact that I can´t communicate very much with the people and I feel like I look like the super shy quiet companion and I felt useless at first like I couldn't help in any way..but it is getting better. The language is hard and I love listening to the little kids speak Spanish. So today we still have to get my visa stuff figured out so hopefully it all goes well and doesn't take too long. We are getting empanadas for lunch so I am excited about that. Also our mamaita gave us mini coconuts so I can´t wait to try those.
Like I said, our mission leader is now in the the bishopric so we don´t have one as of today...but the bishop told us to be thinking of someone so basically Hermana Hermansen is thinking since I don´t know very many people in the ward yet. Oh and the money here, it looks like play money and Hermana Hermansen is helping me learn conversion and everything..I am glad I have a gringa to explain things so I understand. She said for the longest time she really had no idea what was going on. She also makes me feel better in our work because right now for me the most important thing is to be obedient, use study time and share a simple testimony..because that´s all I can really do. The sun feels good here..it´s starting to get cool at night so we take sweaters with us and the kids are starting school today..it was weird to get here and have it be their summer. Oh one cool thing is that they have a center where there are a bunch of stores and the main area than around it are the houses...it´s actually pretty fun. So the center is where we come to shop and email...they do have smaller shops around houses and such. Oh my area is called Villa Norte and it´s just like west of Vina I believe...also we had a district meeting where we practiced contacting and talked about investigators.
Okay well I believe that is all....I can´t belive tomorrow I will have been here for 1 week..it feels like a long time since I have been here and I don´t know much yet but everything takes time which is hard to understand sometimes. I am sorry you didn't get to go to St. George, hopefully you make up for that by going to Disneyland for spring break or something haha. Love you all, thanks for the letters and I got a little sad when Dad started talking about baseball starting up, I forgot about that ha a little bit but hopefully it´s a good season for baseball. Hopefully they get the floor done during spring break and you can get furniture. Okay well I better go now. I am attaching some pictures with me and my comp and mamaita or Hermana Jenni. Also some of the day I got to Vina. Hope all is well! Love you all, don´t worry about me, it´s great here
con amor
Hermana Morgan Anderson
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