So, there is so much to tell you this week. I hope you don´t get to bored. But THANK YOU ALL for the birthday wishes. It was a great day. I sent a ton of pictures that I took throughout the day. We went and visited Maria in the morning and then we went to lunch at the Family Ñancupil and that was fun (see attached video). The family Urrea had told us a few days earlier that there is a lady in their complex who is going to be at their house on Sat so if we could just happen to ¨show up¨ and teach her a little about what we believe. We went over and of course it was all a lie...they had cake waiting for me. They have a tradition here where after they sing Happy Birthday they start chanting, Bite it! then you go into take a bite of the cake and they either shove the cake in your face or they push the back of your head to plant your face into the cake, so they did that, but it was really gentle and I only got a little bit dirty. It was fun. Then we went and taught some regular lessons and then we went to Glorian´s (who is going to get baptized at the end of the month). I didn´t know she knew it was my birthday but then they brought out a bunch of gifts and flowers. Her husband had bought the flowers and her daughters picked out earrings (that are really cute) and eyeshadow (which has a bunch of weird colors) Conny drew me a picture of the church, and they got me lip gloss in the shape of a strawberry, and a stuffed animal duck (that the girls named ¨duck¨ but in spanish, original I know... haha) I have no idea what I´m going to do with it, should carry it around or what? But it was fun, then they gave us more food. But it was a great day! Everyone is so nice and kept saying, I know it´s not like when you are at home with your family- and it wasn´t -but I figure it is the only birthday I am going to have in Chile so I might as well enjoy every minute of it. Mom and Dad, thanks for celebrating in Jackson for me.. haha:)
We had interviews with Pres Essig this week. He is super nice and when I told him that I have been in this area for 7 months he said that SLC is telling them to keep the missionaries in areas longer, so I don´t know if that means that I´m not going to get transferred next week or what but we will see what happens. Hermana Essig said she lived in the pink Murdock house that was rock on the bottom (I´m not quite sure what one that is) but her maiden name was Sorensen, her Mom was related to those Murdocks and her Dad was David Sorensen who taught at Snake River- music and history. So she thought you might know him or have heard of him. They are so cute. Sister Essig is working on her Spanish and trying not to freeze to death. It´s funny. The thing is that it´s just as cold inside the house as outside, so it doesn´t matter where you are it´s just cold. But during the day it´s not too bad.
For the 4th of July, what did you all do? Turns out that Hermana Stevens couldn´t come into town so we hung out with Hermana Moss and Hermana Hadlock again and ate some good old McDonald´s to remind us of home, that was pretty much all. Not too exciting, but it was good.
We have found some new investigators this week that are super cool! Barbara and her 7 month old baby, Felipe, live in our apt. complex and she used to live with an old Bishop (who was bad, because he wasn´t divorced and was living with her. Felipe is his son!) but that is how she got to know the church, then she wanted to get baptized but knew that they needed to get married but he wasnt doing the things the church believes, so she didn´t want to marry him. They split up and she just moved to our apts a month ago and we just started talking in the parking lot and then went to visit her on Friday. She told us this story and said she wants to get baptized as soon as possible. So we are super excited for her.
We also contacted this guy from Colombia (so he is pretty black) and he is HILARIOUS! He is a hair dresser and talks so cool. It is so funny to talk to him. We had an amazing member come with us and the lesson went really well last night. He said he is going to read about the BOM, so we will see what happens.
We have been teaching this guy, Claudio, English and he is kinda interesting. This week he was playing charades with us like we didn´t understand Spanish. It was hilarious. He was explaining to me how you make this Chilean food. and he got out all the pans and the ingredients and was putting things in the bowl and pretending to stir and taste the food and all this jazz. It was hilarious! We were just laughing the whole time.
Oh, then Jose, who just got baptized a couple weeks ago... his house is pretty interesting, with all the cats and probably hasnt been cleaned for I don´t know how long. There are spider cacoon things (where the mom lays the eggs) under his old tv that is right by the couch and well ya...BLECH!! Hermana Player had to go to the bathroom so I told her that if she used his bathroom and took pictures I would buy her some bread. So she did it and from the pictures it looks pretty nasty, so I bought her some bread and I think she deserved every piece of it. What we don´t do as missionaries to get a little excitement haha:)
Yesterday we broke the rules because we aren´t supposed to give money to people, but we were walking to an appt and this nice lady came up and said "Sisters how are you doing?" we started to talk to her, shes a member from another part of Santiago and came to give medications to a lady she takes care of. On the way a guy robbed her, ripped her purse and took everything. She said she only had about 20 bucks so that wasn´t a big deal but the meds and her cell phone... that was the worst part. She asked if we had coins so she could take the subway back to her area and we said it´s against the rules to give money and she said, "Oh that is ok" I´ll figure something out. So then we walked away and we felt so bad. We thought, Jesus would have given her money. So then we turned around and went to find her. She knocked on a door and a lady gave her 20 cents and she was all excited, so we gave her a dollar and she only needed about 40 more cents to buy a subway ticket. So we felt better, even though we broke the rules.
That is pretty much all that happened this week. It sounds like things are going pretty well there. I hear Noah is rockin' it at baseball and everyone is busy busy. Have a great week and remember I love you all so much and thanks for all you do for me! Ya´ll are the best!
CON MUCHISIMO AMOR!!!!
Steph
Cake in my face
All of the birthday gifts I got from the people here. Family Urrea gave me a sweater. Glorian and her family gave me strawberry lip stuff, eye shadow, flowers, earrings, a stuffed duck, and Maria gave me more flowers
Left to right Back: Paz (12 years old, is reading the BOM and is super fun) Glorian (the mom, who is going to get baptized on the 31st) then Conny and Me (Conny is 3 or 4 and talks a lot and really fast. She is so cute!) They gave me a bunch of stuff. The prettiest white roses and pink gerber daisys and a bunch of other stuff.
The family Urrea. Jorge (9, who just got baptized) Luis, Alma and me. They gave me a huge delicious cake and a sweater
Maria (my first baptism in this area) and she sang to me and picked these flowers out of her garden that smell SO good!
This is the Family Ñancupil. They are awesome! They are like my family here. They had us over for lunch and she made tacos (because she knows I love them) and then she made an orange pie... this is them singing to me. Their son, Jorge, who got back from a mission a little while ago is recording and their other son is Jose, he is getting ready for his mission. The Dad, Jorge, is our mission leader, and the Mom, Alejandra, washes our clothes and takes care of us.
It was a great day!
Peace out
Steph
No comments:
Post a Comment