Wellllll....
Another week has come and gone.
Tan rapido this time is flying!
I completed 4 months this week! Can you even believe that??!
But
Transfers.
This morning at 7:00 am.
The phone awoke us to the reality of it.
We answered. Well my companion did. I put my head under the covers as everyone ran and jumped into my bed.
We didnt breathe as Elder Layton said..
Hermana De Leon....va quedar (breathe, breathe)
Hermana Tejerina ....va quedar (okay...this is good...breathe breathe)
Hermana Orchard.........va quedar (a rock is lifted from my stomach as I can finally breathe fully)
and then
Hermana Lees....se va ........a Lirquen
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just stayed under the covers and cried. Eventually we got over the shock and packed her up. And cried. And talked in as much english as we could (for the last time). And cried. And ate chips and salsa for breakfast. And cried. And tried to take a thousand pictures. And cried. And sat on the bus. And cried. And now we are in an internet cafe. Crying. Its going to be a long day.
Hermana Lee´s was the very first missionary I met in the Arizona airport that one day so long ago. We were together in the MTC and for (really hard!) transfer....and second (perfectly blissful and happy) transfer. But this is life. Goodbyes. I just dont want it to happen!
Luckily she isnt going too terribly far and we plan to have parties every p-day.
Ohhh this is so sad!!!!
I am just grateful for the four months we have had together. Anyways, At least I still have my wonderful companion and my favorite Tejerina still!
Okay, enough about that.
This week was great! We are in the process of planning three baptisms for next week!! So that makes me happy.
A couple things that happened..
Our investigator Leonardo taught me how to start a chilean oven so I could make marshmellow chocolate cookies for english class! Unfortunately the pan we had didnt fit in the oven so we had to put it in sideways. And all the cookies slid into a clump on one side . But it was okay! Because they tasted really good and chileans dont know what cookies are supposed to look like anyways!
Our house has been infested with bedbugs and fleas again. I will wake up in a puddle of my blood after a night long of snacking from the little critters. Thats always fun. Im gonna come home with some scars. But today we plan on deep cleaning every thing with bleach and every chemical we can get our hands on. WE ARE GOING TO KILL ALL THE BUGS ONCE AND FOR ALL!!
Okay...so confession time. You would think that after 4 months I would be speaking spanish fluently. Well....no. That has not happened yet. In fact my spanish is still really, really bad. I can understand about 70% of what is being said. So that is good. But there is still SO much that I dont know how to say. And chileans are super honest people. They really tell things how it is. I love that,,,unless they are telling me my spanish is awful. Or telling me to go back to france (everyone thinks I am a english speaking frech person). And one day after a particularly brutal bashing on my spanish skills....I just came home and gave up. I decided that I was done learning spanish and done trying to speak it. So I went a whole day without saying anything (which is really hard as a missionary). Luckily I live with three amazing people who surprised me at night with new drawings, qoutes and letters all over my walls. And chocolate. And manjar. And sparkles. And then stayed up with me giving pep talk after pep talk until I agreed that yes...I could learn this language. And yes...I do need to be more patient with myself. And yes....being perfect is not necessary. And yes...I could still be a good missionary even if I cant speak super clearly. But...prayers for chilean spanish skills would be appreciated.
Also, if you feel like praying for anything else. My mission is struggling physically. Half the mission is sick and tons are getting sent home early due to illness. The majority with weird migraines that will just never go away. So just keep Chile Concepcion Mission´s health in your prayers. :)
We have developed an awesome system of eating all the food at lunch. We call it musical plates. Its mainly just to help me. Let me elaborate.
I get my plate of food and eat a little...while Hermana Lee´s eats as fast as she can. Then..secretly...we switch plates. And I only have about half as much food on my plate.
Then...I will take some of the food and quickly swipe it onto Hermama Tejerina´s plate. My cup of soda is always swiped too. If I still cant do it we will all switch plates one more time. All in all I only have to eat about 1/5 of the food normally. Its still hard. But one day my stomach with adjust! hahah
So Hector (the recent convert) is an awesome song creator! I will just name a subject and he will make me a wonderful song about it! This last week I developed a new obsession with manjar. So he made me a song about it! I would write all the lyrics but that would take too long. (First part: Manjar, manjar, manjar de mi vida! Te amo te amo por siempre jamas!) So one night we came back to our apartment and started balcony singing. We will sing a song to our fellow missionaries on the third floor as they throw sparkles down on us. (Hermana Lees and Tejerina have been stuck at home because Hermana Tejerina has feet issues this week) Its a great new tradition.
We found an awesome family who hasnt been to church in 15 years. They have four awesome kids and came to church! And they are awesome. Awesome awesome awesome. A bakan family! And I am so thankful we found them. Because they- like everyone else- NEEDED the gospel back in their lives. Its amazing the difference we see in them after just one week!
Okay, this is long enough for this week.
I was thinking. I hope all of you are helping the missionaries out in your wards. Everyone should accompnay the missionaries at least once a week. Especially youth. Even Caleb. One of my favorite members to accompnay us is a 10 year old boy. He is awesome in lessons and everyone loves him! We even had him teach the whole Joseph Smith story one time. Caleb should definietly be accompanying the missionaries. Also....dont feed the missionaries so much.
Okay, thats all for now.
I love you all!! Remember to show your love for others and not just keep it locked in your heart!
And LOVE EVERYONE!!
Whoohoooo! Have a FANTASTIC week!!!!
Hermana Orchard
