Sunnny sunnny sunnnnyyyyyy!!!!!

Holaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!

Thank you for all the happy birthday wishes! We plan to go out and track in the beautiful country tomorrow...hopefully there us sun!!

This week was crazy!

One day we accidently locked our keys inside the house. Luckily our investigator knows quite a bit about breaking into houses so he helped us out a bit. At least he tried. It was raining really hard and dark yet he was climbing all over the roof...trying to break in from some point. I was a bit scared that he was going to fall and die and we would have to call president and say that we accidently killed our investigator. Anyways, turns out our house is a compound and he could not get in! Desperately we called the bishop and he came over and opened the door in about 15 seconds. He didnt let us see how he did it though...

Saturday we had a baptism! It was so so wonderful!! We had quite the challenge getting him there. 

And de verdad...I have NEVER seen anyone SO HAPPY as he was at his baptism. I wish I could have that experience every day. I´ve always known that the gospel could change people...and I have definitely seen it in different degrees throughout my mission. But this was the first 360 change I have seen. It was amazing to see. 

Sunday we had the baptism of sweet Annais. THAT was an adventure. She has a little sister of like 3 years who is CRAZY! She was running around the whole chapel screaming, laughing, throwing cookies in the air...trying to jump in the font. I just chased after her the whole time. But Annais also was SO HAPPY! and it made us SO HAPPY! So I already received the best birthday presents I could possibly get! 

Have a beautiful week! 

Hermana Orchard

P.S. one last thing:

ahhhhh...I just watched the birthday video!

wow. Thanks for making me cry!!

I have to say that everyone looks so white....with such blonde hair...and everyone has such nice teeth! 

I did not recognize Caleb or Anna. Caleb looks SO OLD!!! And I thought Anna was myself! Who knew Anna sang? And played that little instrument?

I especially enjoyed Charlee and Caden fighting during the song :) 

Thank you!!!!!!

Have fun eating all the food I like on my birthday! 

I will be eating rice....and probably completos. :)

The following pictures are from Linares...I am really behind (uploading)

Si hacemos un muñeco?

Well...

There is an unimaginable power in our choices. Agency is our greatest gift but we must be so careful in how we use it. Each of our choices are like little dots on a line...they can send us shooting in one direction or the other. Last night we sat down with our investigator that is having troubles quitting his drugs and all that. He started to relate to us his whole life story. He was a star student and athlete at his school. At 14 years old one morning he slept in  bit and was late going to school. This led him to walk past a group of kids that were outside doing drugs. That morning he just stopped to stop to them or something...then the next he did the same thing and so on..Years passed and his activities of this sort grew. At the age of 18 instead of being in college and following his plans...he was living in the streets. His family had kicked him out because he had been stealing from them to buy drugs. So he walked around the freezing dirty city and was the Captain of the drug crew there. This led him to do other things he never imagined doing. 

Now he is 22 years old and lives in a little dirt shack that floods everytime it rains. He cant get a job because he knows he will just use the money to buy drugs. All he can do is sleep. Thanks to the gospel he is making some huge changes. But to see the chains of his addictions is heartbreaking.I cant help and think of what would have happened if he had made a different choice that walk to school ten years afo. But now he has the chance to make another monumental decision. I wish we could learn to look ahead and see the ending results of our little choices. 

This week was a good week where we were able to see the fruits of our labors! Thats always nice and doesnt happen all that often. 

I discovered a new talent Chile has....it can suck all the water out from the ocean...and then rain it down on this little town with a force and duration that is incredible! Sometimes I wonder if I will ever see the sun again...or be dry. It just rains and rains and I keep expecting to see an ark or something to save us in! Half the city is already miserably flooded. The rain is so loud that it wakes me up in the night and I lay there wondering how long it will be before it breaks the house! I know...its just rain. But I´ve never experienced anything like this!

I mentioned to someone that my birthday is next week...they asked me how old I would be...I said 20. The moment the word came out of my mouth I wanted to take it back! It literlly hurt to say and tasted terrible!!!  How can I be twenty years old if just yesterday I was 11???  There must be some mistake! Pray for me to handle this awful ordel of growing up. Its the worst!

We have been eating lots of completos this week because we havent had money to buy anything else. But today my wonderful mexican companera taught me how to make corn tortillas and we made them into empanadas and all wonderful different creations!

One day when we were walking along the street we saw the weirdest creature that had fallen from another planet! It was dead so we poked around at it and examined its 20 legs and how disgusting it was. The next day guess what was served on our lunch plates? Yes people eat these strange alien spider things. They bite off the head and suck out the insides and put the legs in soup. I literally thought I was going to die. It was the first time I pushed my plate back and said no. I could hardly look at the things....screamed when it almost touched me...it would take a lot of drugs and therapy to get me to put it in my mouth,

Welp thats some of the adventures of this week. 

Love you all!!!

Hermana Orchard

HOOOLLLLAAAAAA!!!!!

HOOOLLLLAAAAAA!!!!! 

This week was wonderful!

But first...I dont know if I have mentioned yet what happened with my leg? The doctor said that one is shorter than the other and thats the root of the problem. He did some stuff and now its fine! No more problems!

Last week on the way home I was robbed on the bus so I am literally penniless. But Its been good...I´ve been able to lose some weight this way and I´ll get more money next week. 

Have I mentioned that my hair is really short now? I am behind on sending pictures so you probably havent seen it yet. But one night when my comp in linares was bored she decided to cut my hair. I thought she was going to give it a trim and let her entertain herself. But she CHOPPED it off. I was pretty upset. But now I have nice short hair. Hopefully by the time I come home it will have grown out. 

Hualqui is the most beautiful place ever. One day we decided to go exploring. I wanted to go out where no missionary has ever been. So we walked and walked and walked down this dirt trail. We came to this place where we were just surrounded my mountains and hills and trees and cows and horses. It was beautiful!! Absolutly beautiful!! And I was in love! We saw this little cottage way out in the distance and walked out toward it. Some vicious dogs tried attacking us on the way but we made it! And found a wonderful family who let us in, fed us fresh bread from fire...and accepted baptism! Its a little hard to get them to church because they live so far away....but oh its so dreamy!!! 

I just love walking around in fields and hills!

We also have the BIO BIO river here. Its a huge river that is gorgeous. They have these huge beautfiul yellow flowering trees that line it and shower us all day long. Its so beautifully wonderfully pretty. I could stay here forever. 

One of our investigators died this week. Literally. I led the music at her funeral. It was really sad. 

Another one who was supposed to get baptized this week smelled a little too much like smoke at church. We questioned him and found out that he is still have serious problems with drugs (all the drugs on the face of the earth) and everything else. He has such a strong desire to change but these things are hard to deal with. So we are having him stay with us basically all day. And are going to give him two weeks of intense spiritual therapy and see what that does. Pray for him!

We have some awesome young woman in this ward who just love to accompany us. They accompany us all day everyday! Its pretty much a never ending party! They are even here with us today!

Okay..I dont have more time but I love Haulqui! And I love being a missionary. Its the best thing ever. I keep asking president if I can stay forever. Maybe if I keep asking he´ll let me. We´ll see.

Love you all!!

World Cup

The sun is shinning!!!

Hola!!! From a beautiful day in Concepcion Chile!

I am so happy to be back! 

And the best part...my new area is pretty much summer! Its the warmest area in the mission...I dont want to be here in the summer but in the dead of winter...its not too bad! 

Sun all day long and I can skip around without my snow jakcet! Its wonderful!!

This week has been interesting...as all first weeks in new places are. 

First...I have to say that this week my heart is at Camp Taylor. I didnt even think about coming home for Christmas but its really hard missing a year of Heart Camp!! Im wearing my Camp Taylor necklace and shirts under my clothes this week! Give my heart campers my love!!!

Okay. So last week we took a little detour into the mountains. Well it was really the base of the mountains but it was gorgeous! Dad always says the cure to stress and problems is to go to the mountains and I agree. It had been so long since I had been up in the mountains...or really just away from the city. It was a healing experience. We went to this river thing at the base of the Andes and some members brought a little picnic. It was lovely. Something about nature just makes all troubles melt away.

I had to say good bye to everyone at night. That was really hard. I´ve never been good byes but everytime it just seems to get harder! I just leave little bits of my heart in all these places. I dont know why we cant bring every person we love with us whereever we go...then there wouldnt have to be any pain. But I guess thats what heavens for! Right? What a wonderful party there will be there!! 

Sometimes I dont understand how can there can be so much love in such short time. I learn more every day here that our amount to love doesnt depend on time. We can love completely and fully instantly...it really depends on us. Sometimes I wish I could love less so I wouldnt have to miss so much. But. These are not good byes or endings. Just temporary interruptions. We have eternity together! 

Tuesday morning I got to travel out of Linares with my dear Hermana Lorea. She also was being transferred so we got to have four hours on the bus together. My heart broke a little to wave goodbye to the mountains that I love so much but  I know one day I will return. My heart broke even more when I had to say goodbye to Hermana Lorea. She has been my little lifesaver my time in Linares. Literally carrying me when my leg hurt too mcuh to walk...and emotionally carrying me through all the trauma that went down. She is planning on coming to America but I´m also thinking of visiting her like every year in Argentina. I think we should adopt her. Please prepare a spot for her. 

At the terminal I met my new companion. Hermana Villanueva from Mexico. Shes a pretty cool little mexican but I am having a hard time understanding her accent. Every new comp has their own country accent and words...its like learning a new language every time. But she loves rapping and is really fun. She takes my dance lessons very seriously and has made a dance schedule of all the dances I will learn in our 6 weeks together.  I´m getting better I am proud to say! 

Haulqui is the most beautiful place ever!!! It is a tiny little village wrapped up in hills. We are super close to the ocean but you wouldn't know it because there are hills in every direction. There arent really stores here or much of anything. I love it so much! It is gorgeous! There are horses and cows and pigs and chickens (and of course millions of dogs) walking the streets. I just walk along a sigh and the pure beauty of everything. The air feels fresher here and everything is just better! 

There is actually a functioning ward here too! The members are the nicest people ever! Overly nice. The food is ever better here! The members call us to ask if they can accompany us. I have just been in shock all week. It is another world here! The bishop called me into his office to tell me I was his new hija and all I have felt from this beautfiul place is love! Its pretty much night and day from Linares. 

The only sad thing is that its a super poor area. We asked for money a lot. The thing that breaks my heart the most is to see dirty freezing 3 year olds out on the street asking for money. I never saw that in my other areas. 

While out one day we were walking down a dirt road and saw two eggs! They were still warm so we took them home and ate them.

Yesterday we had a good lunch. Its something you can make because its really easy. Want to try a Chilean dish....here you go..

• cook and cut up steak, chicken and sausage.
• Make french fries. 
• Cut up tomatoes and avocado. (not too much of this)
• Add all that together. Mix it all up and then ,melt some cheese on top. Then pour some extra oil over all that...just for kicks! 

Yes its not the healthiest thing ever...but hey...welcome to Chile!

Its good. Go try it. 

Saturday an awesome couple in the ward accompanied us all day long. They returned home to find they had been robbed. I felt AWFUL! They had been robbed while helping us! Now they dont have any money. But you know what...even though they knew that the robber was going to return...they still went to church the next day and left their house vulnerable. And what else.,,,,they are going to accomopany us again. The faith of the people here....amazes me! Of course they are going to be blessed for their faith and for their diligence of not getting mad that this happened....and just serving more!! 

A girl we have been working with all week really wanted to come to church. And we really wanted her to come! But her parents didnt want her to go....she is like 25 years old but in a really bad situation. Get this....they purposely drugged her so she would be too tired to come...then turned off her cellphone so her alarm wouldnt go off. We tried calling her but expected her to not come when her cellphone was turned off. She lives too far away to look for for church so we just went not expecting to see her. I said a little prayer while I was in the shower that she would wake up on time. And we walked into church to see her there!! She came up to me and said "thank you for waking me up!" I was confused and asked what she meant. She said she was sleeping when she heard my voice saying "ello". It woke her up and she thought we were outside her house. She got ready for church and came. And I am just grateful that God is taking care of our investigators when I can't. 

The longer I am here, the more I am realizing that pure love is the driving force of everytjhing...or at least should be. Love cures everything. I have been trying to have more love for everyone.,..even the dirty dogs on the steet. Even if people wont listen to us we can still love them. They can feel that and something in them will be healed by our love. Sometimes all we can do is love people...and most of the time that is more than enough. 

I LOVE you all!!!

Have a beautiful and LOVE filled week!!

Hermana Orchard

Walkkkkkeeeeeeee

Dont have too much time this week. Since we are out in the middle of no where internet is really slow and I just took 40 mins sending 6 pictures. I hope you appreciate them!

This week was really great! We are teaching three really awesome families who I have just completely fallen in love with. 

But...cambios was this morning.

 I´ll replay it for you. 

7...Elder calls. Asks if I have been sleeping. Of course not. I had already been awake for three hours. Who can sleep the night of cambios? 

Well he lets me know that I am leaving....and to WALKEE!!!!!! The place I have dreamed of going my whole mission!!!!!

It is way out in the middle of no where but has a reputation for being an awesome and BEAUTIFUL place!! I love the country!! I am so excited! I immediately started screaming and running around the house. I also get a latina companion again which is always an answer to prayers!! I leave tomorrow morning. I am happy. 

We had an awesome branch activity saturday. It was actually super stressful since we dont get any help from the branch or anything. But we managed to get a chocolate fountain and tried making popcorn over the stove. It ended up just starting a small fire in the kitchen but thats another story. We played a big game of fruit basket and everything was fun and dandy. Everyone was getting really into it..shoving people down in their path and screaming. And then my little stalker Martin decided to come in. The elders tried to get him to leave...or at least stay away from me...but he came up and was mad. Again asking why, why why. He scares me a lot and I am excited to be very far away ffrom. This last week he has been trying to follow us on his motorcycle as we walk along so we have had to run away a lot. Running isnt exactly a thing I am too great at right now. 

Oh...where I was going with the activity. All the elders in our branch are from Colombia and they got up and did a zumba type dance. I was a little annoyed that they could dance better than me so I had my latina companions try and teach me how to dance and move my hips more latina like this morning. It was pretty comical and I definietly feel more gringa now.  I just wish I could be a full blood latina! 

We had lunch with the new american missionary couple this week. We spoke english the whole time and I was shocked at how different the food was...how clean everything was and just how much more proper it all was. And I surpirsed myself by not really feeling at home. I felt uncomfortable only eating stuff off my own plate...speaking in english and just not having the warm loving latino atmosphere! It made me very unhomesick and scared for the day when I will have to pretend that I am american again. Because I really do feel latina. I think I was meant to be latina. I feel so much more comfortable in this culture than I ever did in my own. Its strange.

Thursday we took a trip down to conce and I went and saw a chiropractor. He let me know that my legs arent the same length and that is the problem.  Makes sense. He did some adjustments (which I did not enjoy) and then told me to get something to put in my shoe. My leg hasnt really been a problem this week so I hope we figured out the solution! 

We learned some scary stuff about the youth in our branch this week. I wont go into it but sometimes I am really glad I was raised in a safe environment. Most of the young woman get pregnant at 13 or 14 here. And we found out that one of our young woman here...last year murdered her boyfriend. Yes you read that right. With a knife.  A sweet little 14 year old. She was put in a teen jail but after 6 months escaped and is here again...just living peacefully. I wish I didnt have to know some of the things I know. 

Two of the sisters in our branch had babies this week so we got to go to the hospital and visit them! I loved looking at the tiny little monkeys...but it was torture not being able to hold them!

Today I started going around and saying good bye to people in the morning. I really hate goodbyes. The elders in our branch surpirsed me and made me pizza in the church. That was nice of them. They almost burned down the church in the porcess. The ovens here are basically bombs and to turn one on you have to lay on the floor..start the gas...light a piece of paper on fire...put it under the the oven and hope it doesnt all explode. It took a few trys today and the poor elder kept burning his hand. At one point too much gas leaked out so it kind of exploded and burned his shirt and everything. 

I am going to miss this little pueblito in the mountains. My time here has been relatively short...yet very hard. But I have learned a lot. You should know...I´m planning my trip back for next summer. I have to tell myself that this will only be a year seperation. If I think for any longer than that its just too hard! 

 I love Chile. And Linares will always have a special place in my heart. Also I have given everyone our direction with the invitation that they can come visit/live with us whenever they want! So...be ready for that! 

Have a great week! I am told that this rain and almost snow will only last for 2 more months! There is hope smiling brightly before us! In the meantime...I am enjoying all the sopa pillas that people make everytime it rains!

Love you all!!!

Hermana Orchard

Out of Time

Hola!

No time this week! We are leaving in ten mins to go out to the mountains and explore a river!

I was thinking this morning...I have eaten oatmeal every single day for the last 9 months. Remember how much I used to hate oatmeal? Progress! 

Not much to say about this week. 

I ended up being able to stay til the end of transfers. There was only a week left and the little issue with the ward member went away for a few days. Mostly we just avoided him. He did find us on the street one day and rode up to us on his motorcycle to yell at me for not returning his love. As we walked away he kept yelling "why...why WHY!!!" And then yesterday he got up to bear his testimony and I almost passed out from fear. The elders got up and stood behind him on the stand just in case he tried to say something. The whole thing was very weird and he glared me down the whole time. It reminded me of that scene from the mormon pride and prejudice when that guy gets up and rats elizabeth bennet out for not accepting his marriage proposal. "Lets call her E Bennet...no...Elizabeth B." hahah!

Because we are in a small branch us missionaries plan a activity every week. This last week we had an iron rode night. We put yarn all over the church building and then led people blindfolded through it while the elders waved chocolate in the faces and blowed horns to try and distract them. It ended up being a really great experience for all! 

On the fourth of July we had a zone conference in Parrall and for the opening hymn we all stood, put our hands on our hearts and sang the national anthem...well at least all the americans did. I was pretty much in tears. I hadnt realized how much I miss America. It is such a blessed and special country and we are so lucky to be part of it!  I am so proud to be an American! I am proud to be chilean too....but oh America! 

Have I told you about my favorite little roommate Hermana Lorea? She is from Argentina and is learning english at a rapid rate! Well....last week we started her BYU appplication!!! It was so exciting! Only trying to get into BYU from another country is so much more complicated! But she will be joining us in America and it would be great if we could find a family member for her to marry! We are going to have to buy a bigger house to room all the people I am planning to take home with me!

We found tons of really awesome people this week that are just so...ready! It was so exciting! 

Of course this week was full of challenges as always. My leg has been a ton better...I havent started the chiropractor yet but will this week. Mostly I have just been having never ending problems with my companion but am learning lots and lots of patience through it! Either that or I am slowly going crazy...

Love you all!

HermanaOrchard