Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Week 8: All you need to know about Chile!!

11-18-14
Hola Familia y Amigas,
Sorry to all of you that I don`t get to write back to every week.  I just have so much to say and so little time.  But today I am in  Conce(aka Concepcion Central) and this Cyber (pronounced seber) is big and working so I should have enough time today to answer most of your questions about Chile.  Also it is crazy because I guess this specific Cyber is the one that all the missionaries go to, because literally 66% of the people here are other missionaries.  It is awesome.  (Oh and Brooke and Katelyn I don’t know if you remember the girl in our Riv ward named Brooke who was on the Basketball team, well anyways she is here in my mission.  We saw each other and had the whole we know each other but don’t remember from where conversation.  Then I remember.  hah well anyways.)


 Leaving the CCM was actually harder than I thought it would be. And now that I am out in the mission I miss it even more.  Don’t get me wrong I would much rather be out here in the field because it is awesome and real.  But I really had is great there and I have only great memories, well besides the few bad ones. haha
  
 The flight down here was long long long, but let me just say it was like 10 stars in my book.  Nicest plane I have ever rode on ever!!!  WE each had our own touch screen tv with music and huge movie selections and tons of games.  Literally had all the newest movies on it that I never got to see and a bunch of Disney as well.  Well too bad I couldn’t actually watch any of it! Also they gave us 2 meals, and a set of stuff like blankets pillows earplugs ya know the good stuff.  Well anyways I also got lucky because I sat next to a lady who has family that are members and she spoke a little English, so in spanglish  I shared some things about the Book of Mormon with her and we talked religion and she said she already has a Book of Mormon at home, but I invited her to read it again and she said she would and I bore my testimony.  It was great!!!  Anyways after that I fell asleep for what felt like 20 minutes and a lot of moving around and readjusting, but when I woke up 6 hours had gone by and I was so happy.  So I only had like 2 hrs.left.  So we get to Santiago and then head to Concepcion, that was another 2 hour flight and I was asleep before we even took off and did not wake up again until we were landing.  It was great!

So we get our bags again and then head out and there is a whole group of missionaries and the presidency there to greet us.  It was a little overwhelming.   Well anyways they take us back to the mission home which was like 20 minutes away. I don’t really remember though, because it was all kind of a blur.  haha Then we had orientation and paperwork for visas and stuff and then we had lunch which was so good.  It was empanadas, which is pretty much like a calzone which was soo good.  Then we got assigned our companeras/trainers.  And I got Hermana Taylor.  I talked a little about her from last week.  But she is a little crazy but super super funny.  She reminds me a little of Heidi and it makes me happy. She even does this eye rolling thing like Heidi does.  I don’t know how to describe it but she does it and it is great!!  Then after we got our companions, we grabbed our stuff and three huge heavy wool blankets for our entire mission and walk 3 blocks with all my bags and then got on a bus with all my bags and then rode for like 15 minutes and we were then right in front of our house.  So I am really close to central in the Talcahuano South zone. Most people are, but some areas are 2 to 4 hours away.  So I am lucky for now.  My apt. is on the fourth floor of an apt. building. There are 4 apt per floor and 4 floors and all the apt building in the entire area look the exact same with the same layout except different random bright colors.  Anyways we share a little 2 room one bathroom apt with 2 other hermanas. We have our beds in the living room and then the rooms are for our studies and clothes.  And we have a little tiny kitchen. It is so cute. But don’t get me even started on the bathroom.  There is mold growing in it so we have been scraping it out on Pdays and the light bulb burned out and has problems, so we sometimes have a candle in there, but most of the time, it is just pitch black. Yeah it was very hard at first, but now I have just gotten used to it.  Well yep that is my house!! It is great!

So my first week was very very hard but also really awesome.  I was very tired the first few days and would find myself randomly falling asleep in morning study but I am so used to the schedule now that most days I am not even tired, just exhausted from the work. Spanish is coming slowly but it is still coming.  Understanding others has been great, but speaking has been okay.  So our sector is a third of a ward and so we have 6 missionaries in it. The other Hermanas we live with (I will talk about them next time) and our zone leaders are in our ward also.  They are all great and our ward is really good and always willing to come out with us and help us!  WE have pretty much been starting from scratch though because the ward only use to have 2 sets of missionaries and so we got a new part of the sector and are trying to learn where all the members are and less actives and such.  Also my comp. pretty much dropped all the investigators we were teaching before I came because none were keeping commitments and progressing but this week we have been finding quite a few new investigators that seem promising so that is awesome.  Also in Chile 90% of the members are less active so a lot of our focus in not only in finding good new investigators, but reactivating all of those that have already been baptized!  So we balance our focus on both because we don’t want to just keep baptizing people that are not going to stay in the church.  Also on the first day we went over and met a member named Gladys who invited us over for Christmas and to skype our families.  So if I am still here for the next transfer, I will have a place to skype.  She is great. She also taught Relief Society last week and at the end I talked to her for a minute and I thanked her for her lesson and she was like did you even understand it and I was like mas o menos which means so-so and then she just say bluntly nope you didn’t understand it at all, which is kind of true, because she was talking really fast.  Then I kind of zoned out because I couldn’t follow. I just thought it was funny how blunt she was.

Well anyways so info about Chile specifically.
1. I get called Barbie or a doll all the time or really cute!! 
2. There are dogs everywhere! Like everywhere and it is really sad because most of them are starving or hurt.
3. People talk to us in English all the time. Hi how are you. or they sing "youre beautiful" It is hilarious!! 

Well I will tell you more about Chile next week because I am out of time!!  Love you all and thanks for all of your prayers for me!! 
Love,

Hermana Corbett

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