April 25th 2011

Hermana Whyte Report,

This week has been really exciting. A lot has been going on. Clara got baptized yesterday and it was AMAZING!!! There were a ton of people there and a lot of music. But she loved it. She was thinking it would just be us and some close friends but a lot of the ward stayed to support her and so it was great. Now we just need to teacher her daughter because she just turned 8 :)

I got to go to my old area on Friday! It was great to see some people. We did intercambios with the Hermanas over there because they are the only sisters in their zone. So I went to Villa Primavera and we ate lunch with the Bishop  (we made empanadas for my first time) and then we went to visit my convert but she wasn´t there (it was a holiday for Easter Week (Semana Santa)). But I did get to see Andrea. She was so excited and I was so excited too! (If she hasn´t already put this picture of facebook, I attached it...Scroll down) It was so fun to go see people and walk my old stomping ground... haha.:)

Oh, after church yesterday this kid (11 years old) Diego, came up to us and said ¨Hermanas I want to get baptized, will you come teach me the lessons.¨  It was great! He lives in the other part of Santiago (outside the mission) but comes and stays with a family in our ward on the weekends so he can go to church with them. He is the cutest ever. We had lunch with them yesterday and then we taught him a little bit. We wrote in a Book of Mormon and gave it to him because he had lost his old one. It was amazing, he took it in his hands and said ¨I can use this to help my family know the gospel too¨ he is amazing! Then we continued talking and he read what I had written in the back and started to cry. He felt the spirit soo strong and just wants to be a member of the church. He KNOWS it´s true. We told him he could get baptized in a month if he wanted to and he said "Ya, I want to." Then we told him we could do it in 3 weeks if he wanted and his face lit up and he said "Please, can we do it as soon as possible." Our Bishop has to talk to his Bishop where he lives but I think because he lives here on the weekends he will be able to get baptized here. He said his parents are OK with it so I hope everything goes well because whenever we talked about him getting baptized he got a big ol smile on his face. He made us all cry yesterday when we had to say goodbye. But I am excited to teach him. He is only at this house on Fri ,Sat and Sun so we will only have a few times to teach him but it will probably be easy because he is just soaking it all in.

I just got back to write more but can´t remember what I already said in the letters in the past but here it goes. When I was in my old area I was on splits with Hermana Player and turns out that she is my companion now. We never expected this change because she was only there for 6 weeks. She is from Nibley UT and has one more change than me (6weeks). It´s crazy that I¨m starting to be with people who have the same time as me in the mission. I´m senior companion, which sounds scary but it´s all the same to me. She seems pretty cool so hopefully things go well. It´s crazy because Hermana Dymock trained Hermana Player. And yes I did take a picture with her plaque in exchanges because we saw each other in the MTC and I remember thinking that is so funny to have the last name Player, I want a picture with her plaque on, and then low and behold we are comps.

We are somewhat teaching our neighbors that live above us and when they found out that Hermana Dymock was leaving they made us sushi for a going a way thing. It was really good. I felt like I was in the movies in the middle of a huge city in this modern apt at a sushi party (some of their friends were there). It was fun.

That is pretty much my week. It was a great one! Things are good here, we are tired from lugging suitcases all over Santiago, in and out of subways and all that jazz, but life is good. It was so weird to say goodbye to Hermana Dymock and Hermana Buckner. But I think I am going to see Hermana Buckner and her parents tonight if everything goes according to plan. So hopefully it works out. I sent some stuff with Hermana Dymock and gave her Mom´s cell phone number. I have her info but I forgot it. So if she doesn´t call you let me know and I will get you her info. As for the call for Mother´s Day I´m not sure what is going to happen. I imagine I will call at 4ish my time so 1 or 2 your time (I heard that the time might change so I'm not sure but around that time) I will let you know for sure next week. I will buy a calling card so I can call you and then tell you to call me but the country code is 56 and then dial 2 for Santiago then her number which is 748-5669. This is what her daughter told me so it should be right unless I tell you differently next week. I´m sooo excited to talk to you all. Let me know what number to call and if a different time works better. I can´t use skype or anything and can only talk for 40 min but it will still be good.

It sounds like there is a lot going on there and that you are having fun, which is good. Is Noah going to play soccer again this summer? Anything else exciting happening? How did you all pass your Easter? Did the Easter bunny find you? Maybe his candy will help Noah´s tooth fall out... haha:). I can´t believe that he is already old enough to loose teeth. Tell everyone hi for me and remember I love you and hope that life is good. Have a great week and I will talk to you on Mon. in email and then on Sun. ON THE PHONE!!! :)

LOVE ALWAYS!!!!

Steph

 Andrea, Hermana Player and me when we were on exchanges. 

 Hermana Player (my new comp), Hermana Dymock (my old comp), and me today when we switched 

 Andrea (a member who was inactive but is coming back) with her 2 daughters and Glorian our investigator who is praying if she should get baptized on the 22 of May. They are so great and loved the baptism yesterday so hopefully everything goes well.

April 18th, 2011

Hello, Hello

How are you all doing? It seems like just yesterday I was writing you but I will try to think of things to tell you. Dad, How does it feel to be the clerk in the singles ward? A little less stress or stressful to learn it all. I´m sure you will be an old pro before you know it! Do you like having the two branches combined? I'm glad to hear that you are going to go down and visit Granny and Grandpa. It will be great to see them. You will probably wear Granny out but it will be worth it! Tell them "Hi" for me. I have written them but I´m not sure if they are checking their email so I don´t know if I will continue until I know.

We are super excited because we are going to have a baptism on Sunday!!!! Clara is so ready! She has been investigating and going to church for 3 years and is the cutest lady on the planet. She has a daughter who is 8, so hopefully she can be a good example and Valentina (her daughter) will get baptized soon. The problem will probably be her Dad, they are in the middle of their divorce and she visits him on the weekends so it´s hard for her to go to church. But we are so excited!

I got the Easter package! Thanks soo much! It was so fun to find all sorts of treasures! I should have everything I need for the rest of my mission. And I LOVED the beanie and the scarf- so stinkin´ cute! and you know me all to well to send me the biggest bag of cadbury eggs I have ever seen! It´s a piece of heaven in Chile! The chocolate here is ok, but not great. They ship some stuff in from the states of Hersheys but it´s super expensive and the nasty chocolate is expensive too but I will be set until who knows when :)  Thanks!

This week Hermana Dymock went to the temple and so I was with a different Hermana, Hermana Moss, from Mapelton UT so I asked if she knows Stephen Whyte and she does! She said her dad knows him more but that she knows him too. It was fun to find that connection. If you talk to Steve tell him that I am in the mission with Amber Moss, the daughter of Ryan who works in Little Gian Ladders. (I think that is what you call it) and while we were together I cut her and her comps hair. I didn´t realize how much I miss doing hair. But then I remembered that when I get home I will get all back into practice with all of you! :)

This week we painted a part of a members bathroom with the paint we had left over from our little mishap in the kitchen that we repainted. So we used it to paint 2 walls in the shower of this less active, Victoria. She is a smoker and we were almost dying breathing in her house and we smelled like smoke for the rest of the day but it looks a lot better. It was super moldy and not good. So now she has 2 new walls, so it´s a little better.

Our investigator Matilde had a birthday this week (I think she turned 53) so we took her a lemon pie. I had never tried a lemon pie here, but it was SOO good! Hermana Dymock has the recipe so I'm going to get it from her. They use sweetened condensed milk so it makes it rich and yummy. They use sweetened condensed milk in everything here. But it was fun to celebrate a little with her. She is so funny she gets us laughing and she starts laughing so hard her whole body shakes. I love it. Also we went to teach Lydia who lives above us and in the end she ended up giving us lip stick and clothes. She had me try this lip stick shine stuff and said it looks so good I have to take it with me. I like it but it leaves your lips feeling weird but oh well. Then she gave me a red spagetti strap shirt and a black and grey stripped shirt that is about 3 sizes too small for me. But it´s the thought that counts I guess. Haha they are funny. They don´t relize the rules we have as missionaries. They are great though, they came down at 9 (so we still weren´t home) on Friday to invite us to eat some sushi with them. But they found out that Hermana Dymock is leaving so they said they are going to make us sushi for when we come to teach them next Saturday.

Also, Last monday we made alfejoles (little things of deliciousness) with a sister in the ward. We still haven´t gotten them because the longer they sit the better they are. but they last for like 6 months. They are soooo good. It´s like soft cookies with manjar which is like a carmel in between, and dipped in chololate. They are tasty! And we made 100 of them and it only costed $12.50. It´s a good thing they don´t have them there in the states or I would be addicted.

That has pretty much been my week. I hope you all have a good week and I will talk to you next week. What new is going on in your lives? How are all the little niños doing? I bet they are growing up so fast and are ready to go out and play all summer long... haha:) Annie, how is everything going with the baby? I'm so excited to talk to you in 3 weeks! I don´t know when but it will be great! It seems like it has been a long time but all at the same time it seems like it was just yesterday. The mission life is crazy! I love it and am so happy to be in Chile. There are a lot of things going on at home but I hope that everything is good and remember that I love you all and miss you like crazy. Time goes by fast though and so I better soak up every minute with these crazy Chileans... haha :)

Have a great week, know I love you like no other and I will write you next week. Have a great one!

LOVE AWLAYS!!!!

Steph

Alfejoles we made

A catholic cathedral they have turned into a museum of sorts

LOVE my Easter package.Thank You:)

Sister Dymock and me!!

The Post Office

April 11th 2011

Wow, lots of exciting things going on in life! First of all, I'M GOING TO BE AN AUNT AGAIN!!!!! I'm so excited! It´s good to have a bunch of boys. I like it and I imagine how much fun they are going to have together when they are a little older. Life is good!

It sounds like things are good there and you get to see each other quite a bit. Maybe it was the same when I was there but it was just normal. But it´s exciting. You just need to take more pictures and email them to me :) or you can wait until I get home and everything will be a surprise.. haha.:)

This week has been good. On Monday we surprised Hermana Dymock and met up with another set of Sisters and went to lunch. Once again at another Peruvian place (it´s always so good, we just can´t get enough) She was excited. She only has 2 weeks left and everyone keeps reminding her.. including me, but we are still working hard. On Tuesday we had interviews with President May (we have them every 3 months) and usually he likes to talk but I was at the end of the list this time so he was tired so we didn´t talk too much but they are excited and sad to finish too. On Wednesday we had family home evening with the Bishops family and 2 of our investigators. It went really well. Bishop has a granddaughter who is the same age as one of our investigators, Gabi, who is ten. It was good but her Mom wants her to get baptized with her and she still has to get divorced and get married. And that is a long process here so it will be about a year and a half before anything can happen. It´s hard when it´s like that because they are reading the Book of Mormon, coming to church, and praying but they can´t progress to a baptism so you want to teach them but you can´t waste much time with them because we are here to baptize too. So we aren´t passing by a whole lot but they are soo great.

We decided to knock the doors of people that live in our building. The first door we knocked were the people that live above us..they said "Oh hi, come in!" We thought they were members but we started asking questions and they have never talked to the missionaries and one of them doesn´t know if he believes in God. But they are super great! We are going to go back and teach them tonight. So we will see what happens. They said that they are moving in 2 months but they want to invite us to their house when they move for a BBQ... haha:). People are so funny. And when you try to explain to them that we have rules like we can´t leave our sector or we have to be in the house at 10 in the night time or that there has to be a woman in the house or we can´t go in. They just don´t understand, but oh well. A lot of people get offended but we have decided that if they can´t accept something that we have to do how can they accept to keep commandments like the Word of Wisdom or something. But it´s always interesting. I love talking to people and here they tell you whatever story... it´s so funny.

On Saturdays we walk through the fair where they sell food and a little bit of everything and announce classes for English and give out pamphlets. I love it because people come and talk to us :) Also there are all types of people. And everyone tries to use the English they know which is "Hello, my name is..., and beautiful." It´s so funny, I love it.  I went to buy a pound of grapes from this one guy. And he had 4 different flavors so he gave me some to try (that is normal) and then I chose the ones I liked and told him I wanted a pound and so I went to give him 50 cents but he filled up the bag with 3 pounds and said, no it´s a gift for being so beautiful... haha:) The people at the fair are so funny. So now we have a lot of grapes to eat.

Then at church a Brother gave us a bag full of food, he has brought huge bags of food the past 3 weeks because he lives alone so we can´t go into his house so he just brings it to the church. He is the funniest old guy. We told him that he is going to make us fat and he told us that we can´t get fat until after we get married. He is hilarious.

Well, that was pretty much my week. Nothing too exciting but it´s been good. I can´t believe I have been in this area for 4 months. It´s crazy. But I like it here, everyone is nice. I hope you have a good week. Keep me updated on all the exciting things going on. Dad and Mom, I'm a little jealous that you got to go to the rodeo. But I'll have plenty of time for that I´m sure :)  Have fun this week and I will talk to you all next week, well write next week and talk in 3 weeks (WOW, I´m so excited!)

Have a great time and remember I love and miss you!

TE QUIRO, TE QUIRO, TE QUIRO

Steph

These pics were attached to this letter but had no explanations? I am sure they will come but for now, here they are...

The buildings where I live, Its actually out my back
window.

A Monday looking in to the square of plaza de armas (famous) and as usual, 

there are lots of poeple

The entry of the subway. People go and play and it´s really cool. I´m sure they make
pretty good money there.

April 3rd 2011

Good Morning!

 

Did you all enjoy conference? I loved it! But it was so wierd to sing in English! But by the last session it felt normal. It was so fun to see vidio/pics of temple square and stuff. We all said ¨Our Home!¨ haha:) But, it was good. I loved when Pres Packer said ¨if someone is looking for a church that requires very little- this is not the one¨ lots of people here love Jesus but don´t want to do anything about it or sacrifice anything. But that´s what this life is, so might as well just keep working and serving. They talked a lot about the family and how important it is. Its so true but I think we are pretty well off in that subject :) They talked quite a bit about young men getting married (in preisthood too I heard) it was so funny. All the Elders were either really excited or really freaked out. It´s so funny to watch.

 

We only had two investigators at the conference (in the last session). They said they liked it but we will find out more how it went when we visit them. There is a statistic that 85% of the investigators who go to General Conference get baptized. So... it would have been cool to have more :)  I still loved it anyways.

 

On Tuesday it was ¨Dia de joven combatiente¨ or the day of young combatant (sorry I don´t really know how to translate it) but in the 70s 2 kids were killed for no reason, they think the police killed them. So now I guess people celebrate with a lot of violence and stuff. I don´t really know but we had to be in the house at 8 at night instead of 10. So we had a lot of time to do stuff. So I just wrote in my journal and then we went to bed because Hermana Dymock was getting sick. She has been a little sick all this week but is still working hard.

 

Our District Leader finished his mission yesterday. He is now in the mission home getting ready to go back to Peru so it´s going to be a little different. He was so funny and a great Elder. The mission is full of changes so I should be used to it by now... haha.:)

 

Last Monday we went to a Peruvian restaurant and ate some delicious food! It was so good. (Better than Chilean food) That is pretty much all that is new here. Not much happend this week. Our investigator Clara broke up with her boyfriend in Chicago and is super sad but we are happy because now she can focus more on the Gospel and getting baptized. She is still preparing for the 24th of this month so we are excited. One of the investigators that came to the conference is a little crazy.  He (Jose) is about 55 and is a little loco because his wife is really crazy. He was saying that she has some type of problem in her nervous system and she is loco for cats (they have more than 10 living in their house and you can smell it) but he really likes what we teach so hopfully he will keep learning and he can understand what we are teaching. His wife doesn´t like that he is investigating but he said he will keep learning. So that is pretty much all.

 

Oh and sorry about the ¨Happy Easter¨ title last week. You can tell I´m not really part of the world because I thought Easter was this Sunday (yesterday) but later found out that it´s in 3 weeks. But I was just getting you in the holiday spirit :) haha

 

Thanks for all you do! I loved the pic from Annies play and Eastons birthday. So fun! Thanks for your prayers and thoughts! I have the best family in the world! I love you all so much and send my hugs and kisses!

TE QUIERO

Steph

                         I love Inca Cola soda! We drank the whole 2 liters at the peruvian restaurant 

          Elder Tello´s last zone class. So we were taking a district picture but others decided to join in :)

             Hermana Dymock, Elder Tello, and me yesterday after conference. Our last day with Elder Tello

 

Hope you enjoy!

Chau