All Dogs go to Chile

Can you believe next week is April??!! 

How crazy is that! Want to hear something even crazier?

Tomorrow I complete 6 months in the mission....1/3 of my mission is done!

I only have a year left!!

See you in 365 days!

ha

This week I completed many different life goals. 

The first is I learned how to make Chilean Lemon pie! Its pretty much the best thing ever so learning to make it was essential. Mom said my last letter was only about food so I am going to try and not talk about it much in this letter...which is hard because I am hungry..

But anyways...Carolina (basically my best little 18 year old friend here....3rd companion....star member ward missionary) taught me! We had a lovely time making it. Then it was time to go home for the night so me and Hermana De Leon started walking home....with the pie in my arms. We were normally walking along...singing...saying hola to every creature....when a pack of dogs ran by. About three different ones came and crashed into me with such force that I completely fell down...and the pie went up up up and down down down on the ground. Rey triste. 

At first my companion was only worried about our smashed pie...and then she saw my arm. 

I had happened to fall on glass (as there is glass and trash in every inch of the streets here) and scraped up my arm and hand pretty bad. We ran home and spent the next hour trying to dig out the glass and stop the blood. My arm survived. But sadly the pie did not. Just another experience that makes me wish there were pounds here. Really...WHERE ARE THE POUNDS??

Other life goal completed

Our relief society has been having knitting parties every saturday. We take our older investigators to them and its great. Except I cant knit. I have tried thousands of times....well okay maybe only like four or five times in my life....

But it just hasnt been something I have been able to do. 

Luckily I live with the amazing and incredibly patient Hermana Tejerina....who spent 6 hours with me as I cried..threw fits...threw needles...and just COULD NOT learn how to tie those tiny knots. 

But miracle of all miracles....last night I finally figured it out. Hermana Tejerina cried tears of joy that she did not have to resist the urge to suffercate me anymore. 

I plan to make everybody scarfs! But first me....because its really cold here now!

Oh Hermana Tejerina...such patience. Anyone who can be patient enough with me to teach me both spanish AND how to knit! What a rockstar.

Last Monday we had an activity for the hermanas at the house of the president. I love going to his house. It has carpet!!! And you dont have to wear your shoes inside! Or a sweatshirt or kill bugs every five mins! Its basically heaven!! We ate french toast which was great...but they had WHIPPED CREAM!! Oh such tears of happiness.

To try and get people to our English class, we have turned it into an English/American foods class. Last week we made brownies. Brownies are kind of a magical thing here. Everyone knows what they are...but no one knows how to make them or really what they are. People were fascinated. It was pretty funny. They didnt turn out too great but you would have thought that I set pure gold on the table.

Saturday I needed to stay at a ward activity to our convert Maria...but we had some appts far away so my companion took a member and went and did that. I walked Maria back to her house and waited for my companion there. She took a really long time coming to get me so I got to hang out with Maria for awhile. Her daughter is a profesional chef of pastries or something. She came out and said "What American food have you been missing lately?". I have thought about that a lot and without hesitation said "pancakes". Not only did she make me wonderful pancakes with manjar and dulce de leche....but also amazing fried fish....and hot chocolate and basically I was in heaven.

Opps. I have already spent half this letter talking about food.

Okay. We have been setting really high goals for contacts lately. This last week we were returning back to our house at night but still had about 15 more contacts to reach our goal. We passed a soccer game and counted the players on the field. 15. Perfect. We thought maybe if we just kind of stood on the side of the field they would stop the game and we could contact them all at once. But they didnt. We didnt have much time so I basically just ran out into the field yelling in english and they all stopped and looked pretty surprised. We were able to give them all a nice little presentation and invite them all to church. A few of them seemed interested. A few threatened us and told us to get off the field. We`ll see what happens. It was pretty funny. My poor companion...I don't think she ever knows what to do with me.

That is super cool about your missionary experience yesterday! It is amazing how some people are just so ready and prepared! Members are so important to have in lessons. We have been teaching this one lady for probably three months now. She has made progress in different areas but just never commits to baptism. We had pretty much given up on her when we passed by her house with a recent convert. We had him share his baptism experience and this lady who is always so hard...and who we just have not been able to connect with cried. And committed to baptism!! Oh the members are so important!!

Our little family has been struggling but I think they are finally back on track. They have a little daughter who is 2 years old and pretty much the most darling thing on this earth.  She will run up to me and yell "asha"...the closest thing she can say to orchard. It melts my heart. Oh please pray for them!

Chile is the best! I never want to leave. I can't imagine the experiences and love I would have missed if I had decided to not serve a mission. There is nothing better. I am convinced of that with 200% of my corazon.

Have a great week!!

Hermana Orchard

Completos and mountains of food...aka I'm getting fat!!!

Whoohooo! Another week has come and gone. Crazy. Somedays I literally feel like I arrived here in Chile yesterday. And then I try to remember what it is like in America...

Can you really walk down the street without a crowd of 40 dogs?

Do people really have CARPET in their houses??

Was there a time when I didn't wake up drenched in blood from a night of fleas snacking?

Was there a time when I wasn't a missionary?

And sometimes it feels like I have only been here my whole life.

Either way...its going by super fast, but I love every moment dearly!!

First of all....HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!

All my companions agreed that based on your pictures you must be turning 25. One of my companions thought your picture (of you surfing or something) was of an american model and tried to tape it up in her study room. No joke. It was kind of awkward. Anyways....

One day at lunch a member mentioned that they have some Mormon movies....and we just happened to get a teeny tiny DVD player....so naturally we had to have a movie night!!

We also discovered (worst/best discovery ever) that there is a little food place that delivers! So we ordered a bunch of completos and french fries and watched The Other Side of Heaven on my bed. It was fun.

In case I havent talked about completos yet...they are basically hot dogs. Well...its a hot dog that is in a huge thing of bread. Kind of like a loaf of french bread or something. Not sure how to describe it...but they toast the bread around the hot dog and MOUNTAIN it with gaucemole, tomatoes, mayonnaise, ketchup and basically every thing possible. They are really good. Like really really good. We also eat french fries all the time. Everyone makes homemade french fries. They are also really good. Another thing I havent mentioned is that food is really cheap here. You can just walk by a little panaderia and but bread, empanaadas, ice cream, little pastels or anything for basically nothing. 

And these little panaderias are about every 5 feet. People have them outside their houses...or just about everywhere. Like yesterday...we were walking down this random street in the cerro when we passed a sign that said "Calsone rotos...10 pesos". 10 pesos is like a penny. I said to my comp "what is that" and a lady out of no where came and invited us into her house where she had mountaisn of these scone things smothered in this sugar thing. We bought some and happily walked down the street eat heaven. One day we will be rolling down these streets eating..ahhh

One more quick thing about food....everyone here has tea parties! Its the best! Every night. And we CANNOT teach a lesson without sitting down and eating with them first. Lots of tea and this coffee type thing. Lots of bread with cheese, jams, manjar and sopa pies. Lots of scones...and little cakes. I love it. And hate it. But I do love how everyone just stops everything to sit down and eat...with whoever is there! Chile is so much more family and people centered than us. No one ever has their phones out....I never see computers or tvs or ipods. People are always just talking. Sitting on their porch talking...sitting around the table talking....eating...talking...cooking...talking. 

And no one cares about getting fat. Most people are fat. But no one cares. And it makes eating time so much more enjoyable. People just eat what they want. There are no party downers who sit on the edge not eating because they are watching their weight or anything. Obviously there are good and bad parts to this...but its really refreshing. Here the value of peoples personalitys and hearts completely drowns out how someone looks. Which is good....because as my companion likes to tell me...my face is cresending. (growing). 

A word about gorwing up in latin america. I have really been trying to figure out what growing up in Latin America is like. When I told my companions that school doesnt get out til 3:00 and after kids have to do homework...they were shocked! Down here school gets out at 12:00...for all ages. And after people dont really have homework. The whole family comes home for lunch and has a couple of hours together before the parents go back to work. Whole families live together...grandparents..cousins...and everyone gets along! 

You can drop by someones house at midnight and they will immediately invite you in and feed you. I cant think of many people who would be happy with me dropping by their house unannounced at midnight. 

One other kind of weird thing. My companions....who are into their 20s have never had a job! Apparently the parents are expected to pay for EVERYTHING until the children are married. Even if the family is poor...the kids aren't supposed to work or get jobs. Its a huge shame on the family if the kids have to get a job before their marriage. (Even after they pay for a lot too). So my question was..."what on earth did you do your whole life if you got done with school by noon?"....hang out with friends...help my grandma cook...sew...go to dances...

It sounds kind of crazy....but good. What a nice slow way of living.  Nothing's rushed...no one is stressed...everyone just helps each other out and is just...nice and I don't know how to describe it. We can learn a lot from this culture. Not exactly the kids not working part (that is not what I am trying to get at here) but the slowing down thing. People care much more about spending time with their family than spending time working to make money. 

I have gone on enough tangents this week. 

A few more little tidbits....I started teaching piano classes! In the chapel. No one has pianos here or knows how to play. Its kind of hard to teach without books and in spanish but just the chance I have to touch a piano again (even if it isn't real) is priceless!! 

I have been completely attacked by fleas this week. I wake up in blood and find little fleas dead all over my sheets. I spray everything...I wash my sheets all the time. I don't know what to do. I have little bites covering my entire body. It looks like I have the chicken pox or something. At night I can feel them crawling under my clothes and biting me. Its horrible. Pray I can find a solution. p.s....they only eat us americans!! 

Alright....thats good for now. I´ll have a much more organized ermail next week. 

Hermana Orchard

These grandmas were my first lesson here in Chile

Falling Chili Chile

Hola Hola from the not so sunny south!

Yes. Autumn has hit! Last week I even had to bring out my huge snow jacket and scarf. The days are still hot hot hot...but at night the temperatures drop like...70 degrees. But I am happy because..

    Cold nights mean

                More empanadas to keep us warm while walking (and more fat on our bodies to help with the cold too)

              Hot Bolivian soups every night! I am so thankful that my bolivian companion forces me to try her weird (but wonderful) concotions

               People feel bad for us walking in the cold and more easily let us in

                

And one day....it RAINED!!! I love rain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

I say that now...they tell me to wait til rainy season and I will be ready to go back home.

    This week was really great. And just to clear up the confusion...next monday is cambios. I still have at least one more week with my companion.

One of my favorite hermanas in the ward called us tuesday and said she had a present for me. We went to her house...and not only had she made my favorite thing ever (sopa pies with manjar)...but she had knit me a beautfiul scarf...and this chilean shirt/sweater thing. Ill send pictures one day. She just KNEW the weather was about to change! And it just made me happy.

We prayed for a miracle with our little family...and got a miracle.
We randomly passed by their house one day,,,and they let us in. And we had a really awesome lesson. And they came to church yesterday! Not only did they come to church...but they got up and bore their testimonies! All three of them...at the same time..together! It was the sweetest thing. I was actually really nervous through it...but they talked about how much the gospel has changed their lives...how Alejandro is going to get baptized next week (that was a surpirse for us!) and cried. And after the whole ward hugged them and gave them all their chilean love. And little Antonia loved nursery. And everything was just great. Bascially they are golden. 

Another exciting thing happened at church. 

Background story.

My companion has this boy. He is kind of like an old boyfriend...who still likes her...and she kind of likes him. Well she is just not sure. Anyways...he lives in Santiago (about 8 hours away). Last week he emailed her saying he had a surprise coming. Naturally we all got really excited..he sends wonderful packages of chocolates and stuff.

So we are sitting there in church...when guess who walks in!

Awkward....incomfortable..shocking moments. haha

Dear companion didnt know what to do. 

Eventually she just shook his hand..said hola...and we left to teach a class. After a very uncomfortable moment. After class he waited for her outside...for a good while. And then left. 

How sad..he came 8 hours only to say hola. 

It was weird.  But kind of funny.

Anyways. We found this awesome man who has two of the cutest little boys ever. One of them is 1 year old and literally never stops laughing and smiling. His wife died 4 months ago. And we taught him..and he seemed golden. Perfect. Great lesson...invited him to baptsim..."I think I´ve already been baptized"...Turns out that he is just another very less active member. That happens too often. We have about 900 people on our rolls for church. And about 70 come each sunday. We dont know where have the people live...if they have died or anything. Its a mess. And that is why our new focus is to reactivate people. Which is good. Its time to clean things up a bit...organize the lists....figure out whats going on...bring people back (who dont even know they are members) all that fun stuff.

Saturday night..we were really far from our apartment and in a really sketchy area. NO ONE has cars here....but there is one menos activo that has a car. And he drove us home! I cant even remember the last time I drove in a car...well it was 6 months ago. It felt SO weird! But it was really fun!

Today we went to a beach again. The elders were in charge. I´m not sure why they are ever in charge of anything. They had us hike up this crazy mountain...and then down this sleep sloop where everyone was falling the whole way. I twisted my knee weirdly. Hopefully nothing happens with that. We did go to this cool private beach with caves and stuff...but honestly after walking all day everyday..I just wanted to sleep. Then we walked back and started a bonfire to cook our lunch. But no one knew how to start a fire---and after two hours we just went to the little stores above and bought cookies. And used a random ladys bathroom. Who happened to love mormons...and missionaries...and AMERICANS! (no one here likes americans). We got about 10 hermanas together and we all sang for her. And the spirit was so strong. And it was just so great. And I realized that I probably have more hymns memorized in spanish than I do in english!

Anyways, thats about it for the week. This internet cafe is really hot and im tired and have sand all over me. I think we are gonna leave early.

Have a great week everyone!

Hermana Orchard

A couple photos from the beach today