Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Happy Semana Santa! :) Happy Easter!

Hello everyone! :)
Happy Easter soon! And here it is Happy Semana Santa! All the religions that dont attend church throughout the year are swarming the churches! Haha. It is good to see that they all believe in something though. 
Well anyway! March 19th was the 3 month mark in my mission! I didnt even notice until someone said it was the 19th and I realized Id been in the mish for 3 months! Pretty cool. 

We had a ward talent show this Saturday, and everyone from the ward came, plus 9 nonmembers! It was awesome! All the youth and primary did a skit which was adorable, and there were some other acts, some jokes, guitar playing, and lots of singing! Me and my comp, Hermana Garcia, sang NSYNC's This I Promise You! It was fun. 

I got my boots fixed in El Centro! You should have seen them after the MTC...I wore those babies every single day for more than 2 months straight. And you could tell! So they fixed them and they are so pretty now. They are ready for some Chile dirt and wear and contacting and tocando puertas! Woohoo! I look forward to when I will have to get them fixed again. Haha. 

So I respond to the name Hannah now. I know I know, weird right. But while I was at Once with Francisco and Maria Isabel and everyone, Francisco said, Do you want some more juice, Hannah? And I looked up immediately and answered, and everyone was like Wowww! She even responds to Hannah now! haha. Im totally fine with it. 

Me and Hermana Garcia got to go to Viña del Mar this week! We were told by the assistants to go to the mission office to pick up some ironing boards. So Cecilia and her daughter Javiera and Cecilias dad Guillermo drove us to Viña! We picked up the ironing boards and our mail, said hi to all the assistants and everyone, then went to Burger King and took pics along the way! It was a gorgeous day! I will attach a couple for sure. It surprised me how similar the coast was to California. ITs like almost exactly the same! haha both the Pacific Ocean. :) Oh and btw, everyone in the US, enjoy Burger King. Its not as good here! But it was fast food and it made me miss the States! haha. But I dont wanna go home yet of course. Im lovin this new culture for sure! Its the best thing ever. 

So transfers are like April 8th or something... and Im soooo nervous! There are 20 new sisters coming, which is super scary cuz there arent enough real trainers for them! Sooo apparently, according to the rumors, some of us greenies will be training greenies! Hope it wont be me...I am sooo not ready! Haha Hermana Garcia still has to translate Chilean Spanish into regular Spanish for me. But yeah I dont know what theyll do for the next transfer! Que será, será! And thats alright with me. :)

We have a colectivo friend here named Fabian and he is the coolest! We just call him, he picks up and says, Where are you? Then comes and takes us anywhere we wanna go! And it was his birthday this past weekend so we bought him some chocolate. Hes super nice. 

We had zone conference this Friday in Achupallas! We had to get up at 5:30 to make it to Achupallas by 8:30! We took a colectivo to the bus station to wait for our Elders, then took a micro with them to Achupallas. The zone conference was really awesome! They talked for the most of the time, but I learned a lot! I was chosen to recite our missionary purpose in Spanish, and then all the new missionaries had to share their testimony in Spanish. It was really cool! And one of the other Elders asked my companion, Your companion speaks really good Spanish! And my comp said, Well she has a good teacher :)  Hahaha. But it was fun, we had empanadas, apples, juice, and Negritas. So good!
Look for our pic on the mission blog! It should say Zone Conference in Achupallas or something like that. 

Something really awesome happened this Thursday! Me and Hermana Garcia were walking in the streets, and my comp was on the phone with the district leader, and then we hear, "Mormonas! Mormonas!" So my comp gets off the phone and theres a man on the sidewalk waving us over. So we kinda walk toward him and he comes up to us and says, "Ive been looking for you! I want to get baptized. Can you help me?" And we were just like....seriously? Hahaha it was soooo coool! And after we set a baptismal date and told him we'd visit him, we were walking away and I said, "Where did he come from?" And my comp said, "Se cayó del cielo!" Which means, He fell from heaven! Haha seriously! It was incredible.

We also had a lesson with an investigator in the second hour of church, and the bishops wife accompanied us. And it was absolutely amazing to have her there as a friend to the investigator, Carolina! It was absolutely wonderful. Then in Relief Society we had a lesson on the Plan of Salvation and the Atonement, and Carolina participated in the discussion! Ah it was bakán! Haha it was cool! Her daughter wants to get baptized too. She goes to seminary every morning! 

Oh, btw, everybody read D&C 19. It is suuuuper good. I love it love it love it! And read Jesus the Christ! I am reading it right now and its really .... idk, really enlightening. Like on every page you have an epiphany! Haha idk its really good. A really good book. 

Today we had a district activity on our property! We did service for Cecilia, chopping wood and moving dirt (hard work considering this was the hottest day of my life, no joke). And then we had a barbecue with chicken and chorizo and steak and salad and rice and bread and everything! It was awesome! My district is seriously the best. I love them so much! They are sooo cool. :)
Then we all went to Lider (Walmart) together! And took a micro home! 

Oh, and guess what. I ate horse meat. I didnt know it at the time, cuz it was in patty form...but it was gross. And tough. And we had it with spaghetti....and I got sick of it and gave the rest to my comp haha...she ate it all. What a champ. And she knew it was horse meat! Ah I have the best comp ever. Shes such a blessing. Oh and also, she just got a Dear Jane letter from her boyfriend, who is now engaged to someone else....so thats fun. :(  She will be ok tho!

Tomorrow we have a lesson with Francisco! This week is gonna be awesome and I'm gonna learn SO MUCH SPANISH!!! Haha. Ah I love being a missionary. And I am gonna make the best of this short time I have with this big opportunity! Love it. 

I love CHILE! I love the people here and the mission and this crazy awesome chance I get to be an official representative of Christ! I have a plaque and a certificate and the mindset! I got this! Woo!

Share the gospel with everyone you get the chance to! Its the greatest thing ever, I honestly dont know what I would do without it. It is the best thing in my life, along with my family and friends. I love it!!!!

I hope you all have a fantastic week and Happy Easter! Remember the reason for the holiday (hint: Christ) :) and enjoy the time with your families! 

I love you all so much! Hasta próxima semana!

Hermana Amy Schrader :)






Monday, March 11, 2013

CRAZY Heat and Super Steep Hills!


Hola from Quilpué, Chile!!!
Hows it going everyone?! Its P-Day!!!!! Yesss. Today is a beautiful sunny day! 
It's been super hot here! And there was a fire yesterday! Over on a distant hill! With lots of helicopters and airplanes and sirens! Intense heat. 
Well my companion is HILARIOUS. Haha she is sooo awesome too. Super friendly and always talking to people. She has no fear, this one. :) I want to have her courage someday! She is such an awesome example for me and I want to be just like her! 
We are actually alike in a lot of things, we like the same music and movies and we both have similar opinions on things. I love it, shes so awesome. 
This week was pretty darn SWEEET. I love the people of Chile so much! Everyone is sooo nice and always ready to cook us food or bring us drinks or take us places or do whatever! They are the best. 
This week Hermana Garcia got a caricature from a member over in Quillota, and we met him in El Centro. The caricature is awesome, I totally want one! 
But while we were waiting for him to come, we had a weird experience. We were sitting on a brick wall by a tree, in the middle of an outdoor mall. And this old guy passes us, and just keeps staring. So we just smile and keep talking, but then he stops and comes toward us. He tells us he is a member of the Church, but has been inactive for a long time cuz his mom doesnt want him to go to church. But he kept staring and asking us our names and ages and where we are from. And he touched my hair, which totally freaked me out! Haha Hermana Garcia was laughing. He was so amazed by the color of my hair and eyes, and kept saying, "Muy amarillo" which means very yellow. Haha. Like I have yellow hair...yeah right. He was interesting, all he wanted to do was stand there and talk to us but we kept bringing the conversation back to the Church, but he wouldnt have it. So eventually we just had to leave him cuz he just kept talking about random unimportant things. Haha. 

We had a lesson with Francisco!!! Our investigator, who is the boyfriend of a member. He is suuuper nice and really funny. And he really liked the lesson we taught him. And when we taught him about Joseph Smith, he was so surprised, but I could tell he really liked it. We will find out how it went tomorrow! We teach him on Tuesdays! But anyway, that night he and Maria Isabel, his polola, (girlfriend) took us home and gave us frutillas (strawberries in Chile) which are suuuper delicious! They are from the south of Chile. So good. 

We had a district meeting with our Elders. They are always so funny and are always cracking jokes. And yes the jokes are always in Spanish and Hermana Garcia always has to take a minute after to explain it all to me. Haha. But yeah they are from Chile, Canada, and Utah probably. 

The food they serve us here is almost always the same! Rice with chicken. And its always really good, but they serve WAY too much food! My companion had to start telling the people to serve me less, cuz theres no way I can eat it all! Especially with additional salad and fruit dessert. I dont know how everyone here isnt fat. So much food. 
But yeah they always serve honeydew with sweet cream for dessert! Which is always my favorite part. I love fruit! And its super tasty here in Chile!

Oooh good story. Hermana Adriasola, who we had lunch with one day, told me that in all her 45 years of being a member of the church, she had never met a gringa missionary that was so good at Spanish! She said my accent is super good and she was super impressed. How nice. :)

Well I have my first snake. (For those of you who dont know, snake is a term for someone who likes a missionary and flirts with them.) And guess what! Hes 90 years old! Awesome, eh? His name is Rene. He has no teeth, and no hair. Sexy. ;) But yeah we stopped to talk to him in the street and we talked about religion for a while, but when we asked if we could come teach him sometime, he said only when his wife wasnt there. And we asked why and he said, So I can have you two to myself!  Ahhhh!!! Scary!!! So we decided, if we ever go to teach him, we are bringing Leo along (awesome dude in our ward) and some pepper spray. :) But honestly we probably won't go teach him...dirty old man.

We met some Jehovah's Witness people too...that was fun. One of them works as a gardener for Cecilia, the owner of our house. We met him on the street once with a bunch of them, and he came up to us cuz he knows us, and gave us a flyer, and we just smiled and thanked him and invited him to our church. But it was funny cuz all the other Jehovah's Witness people were staring...I think they were super impressed that he went up to talk to us and give us a flyer. Hahaha. They are interesting.

We got 77 contacts this week! Just knocking on doors and talking to people in the street! And now we have a lot of future investigators! And now my boots are super worn out! 
But the people here are usually super nice and invite us to come back later when they're not busy. But since we got 20 contacts a day for 3 consecutive days, we get pizza from our zone leaders! Pizza Hut! Pizza Hut here is super expensive and nobody can really afford it, so its a big treat. 

Another fun story. While we were on the street corner in the plaza one night, near the park and courts and shops, a teenage boy came up to us and asked us what religion we were from. Apparently all his other friends were over by the skate park being accosted by some Jehovah's Witness ladies. So we were talking to him, and then another teenage boy came and joined in. And then another and another and another! 5 handsome teenagers! And their two friends that were girls were still being accosted by Jehovah's Witness. Haha. Then I think the Jehovah's Witness left and left the two girls looking bored and jealous cuz all their guy friends were talking to us! But they were just asking us what we do and where we are from and what we believe in, and then they asked us if we wanted to go to a party with them or to a grill. And we just laughed and said no way dudes.  And after a while the girls got mad and left. And then our colectivo came and every single one of the boys gave us a kiss on the cheek! In case you didnt know, thats how you greet and say goodbye to people here. 
And so we just said goodbye to them and all 5 boys kissed us on the cheek! As we were leaving, we were like, I hope nobody saw us!

And lo and behold, next day at church, a member named Daniel came up to us and said he saw us last night. And he told us to be careful. And then we went and talked to the bishop cuz he just wanted to see how everything was going. So we told him about the 5 dudes and he just laughed. He said, Its fine! Its what aaaalll the people do here in Chile, its a cultural thing. Dont worry about it! It doesnt say in the White Handbook that they cant! 

So we searched the White Handbook and its true...believe it or not! Haha. But anyway, yeah that was funny. 

There is a super good chocolate bar here! ITs called Sahne-Nuss, and its by Nestle!  Its tasty. If they dont have them anywhere in the US, I will have to bring some home so you guys can try them! 
By the way, Im sorry if I have weird spelling mistakes or say things in a weird way. I am totally losing my English! I barely EVER speak it. Today I got to because we went to Lider (which is the exact same thing as Walmart), and met some other missionaries there. And one of them was Hermana Castleton, who came to Chile with me! So we got to talk in English and it was so weird! It was cool though cuz even though we were speaking English and it was so easy for us, it was like we were speaking in code, cuz NO ONE around us understood a thing. Fun! :) But then again, thats how they must feel with me around. Haha. 

Everyone here thinks I am sooo young, and I have no idea why. They keep saying it and saying it! You look like youre 16! You look like youre 18! So weird. Haha. 
We went to lunch on Sunday with the Leiva family, and they are so awesome. While we were waiting for the food, the dad was showing us his favorite inspirational songs on youtube. And he showed us David Archuleta! And this guy knew aaalll the words to the songs hahaha. And he was singing along! Who woulda thought, a dude whos in love with David Archuleta. :) I guess it rubbed off on his daughter, cuz she is the hugest Justin Bieber fan EVER. When I found this out, and she found out Im a huge JB fan too, we got along juuust fine. :) Hahaha. Beliebers!
They served us a typical Chilean dish called Charquican.  So look it up online and make it! Its pretty good. Lots of vegetables. :)

Soo the owner of our house, Cecilia, takes care of her dad, who lives with her. And his name is Guillermo and hes like 100 years old. And hes blind. Hahaha ok if any of you have seen Sherlock Holmes 2, theres a guy named Stanley who works for Sherlock Holmes's brother. And Guillermo totally reminds me of him! Guillermo will just start slowly walking to the other side of the room and then like an hour later, Cecilia says, Guillermo, turn around! We are over here! So he will start walking to the other side of the room for an hour and when he gets there, Cecilia says, Where are you going Guillermo? Turn around! We are over here now! Hahahaha go watch Sherlock Holmes 2 and you will know exactly what Im talking about. "Where are you going, Stanley?!"

Well thats all the news this past week! On a more spiritual note, I am sooo very glad that I am here in Chile and that I am learning so much. It is such a cool experience to be in a different country with a totally different culture. I absolutely love it and want to continue learning about different cultures my whole life. I am so glad that I get to share the gospel with everyone here, cuz it really is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me, and the gospel is for EVERYONE! It will make your life better. Guaranteed. So please share the gospel with everyone and help them know how very important it is! There is a 16 year old girl here who goes to Church every Sunday, goes to Seminary every day, and goes to every single youth activity. But she has to lie to her mom in order to come. And her mom wont let her get baptized, and wont let us come to her house to visit and teach her. So its super sad. Everyone should have the ability to choose whatever religion they want! I am so glad that I was able to grow in this gospel and keep learning without hindrance. I hope other people get the chance to hear this gospel and feel the truth of it too. 

I love life! I love the mission! I love Chile! I love you ALL!!!!
In case you havent gotten my address yet, it is:
Hermana Amy Schrader
4 Norte 1112
Viña del Mar
Chile

Thats it! Send me a letter! Guaranteed I would love to hear from you!
Love you! Miss you! Enjoy the USA!!!
Hermana Amy Schrader

Monday, March 4, 2013

CH-CH-CH-CHILE!!!!

Family and Friends! Hola from Chile!
Ahhh so much to tell you! I am in CHILE!!! It is summer here and it is AWESOME! My first area is called Quilpué (Retiro and El Sol), and I think it´s a little southeast of Viña del Mar... But yeah it´s a little city and it´s really awesome! I live kind of in the country more, where there is a lot of green! Lots of plants and trees and flowers and PALM TREES! My favorite. We have to walk a little to end up in the place where we teach, where there are more houses, where it´s a lot more crowded. 

Ah let's see! My companion is Hermana García (22 years old), and she's from Panama! She of course is a native Spanish speaker so we speak Spanish aaaalll the time. In the morning when I'm not really thinking clearly, I always start speaking in English, and she just gives me this look like, "What the heck are you saying?!" Haha And then I realize that it's English and switch back to Spanish. Haha. But anyway, she's been here in Chile for a year, and was in Valparaíso for most of her mission. She is suuuuper funny and kinda reminds me of a Panamanian Justyna. Haha. But yeah she is super fun and an AMAZING missionary, and I want to be just like her!!! 

Ok so let's start at the beginning. I left the MTC at 3 in the morning, took a bus with 20 other people that i didn't know, to the Salt Lake airport. We got on the plane to Dallas/Ft. Worth. It was humid there and we walked around for a bit and then got on a plane to Miami! Miami was beautiful and SUPER humid and we had to go through a lot more security and lines to get our ticket to Santiago. On that side of the airport, no one spoke English so it was funny. But after we got through security and everythiing, we got to call home! I talked to Mom and Dad and Camille for like 3 or 4 hours! It was sooo good to hear their voices and to talk to them. By the time I was done talking to them, we didn't have much time to do anything, so we got some food and got on the plane to Santiago! 

This plane was the bomb. Suuuper huge and fancy! They all spoke Spanish, and the stewardesses were super pretty! They were all latinas and wore red lipstick and black and red uniforms, and they were so sweet. I didn't get a window seat - sad. But it's ok cuz I got to chill in teh awesomest plane ever! Every person had a personal touch screen tv in front of them, and we could watch movies or tv shows or listen to music or play solitaire and other games. So we listened to whatever was mission approved haha. We listened to Handel's Messiah, the soundtrack of the Lion King and other Disney music, and I watched Toy Story 3! We got 2 meals on the plane, and they were pretty fancy! For dinner we had ravioli with cream, salad with asparagus, crackers and Brie cheese, and cheesecake. For breakfast we had omelets, hash browns, honeydew and grapes, and a roll. 

Everyone slept on the plane, cuz they gave us pillows and blankets. There was also a moving map that showed us exactly where we were. I remember waking up and we were flying right over the Panama Canal! It was awesome. But yeah, we got to Chile at about 7 am! We went straight through all the lines, through Customs and stuff. We paid some fee for landing there and no one could understand how to pay it. So i went up to the lady and I was speaking in English and she was trying to explain it, but couldn't in English, so she asked, "Is there anyone that I can talk to who speaks Spanish?" And I was like, yeah! Me! And she was super surprised but started speaking in Spanish. So I totally understood and told everyone else what they were saying. It was cool. 

But yeah as soon as we got through everything, the mission president and his wife were there to greet us! Their name is Kahnlein, and it's German, but it's pronounced Kenline. So we took pictures and left for Viña. We had a bus for all the new people waiting outside, and the weather was suuuper nice! Super warm! And Santiago isn't that pretty...it kinda looks like New Mexico. But as we were driving to Viña, it started to get super pretty! Super green and stuff, and it got really foggy! We took pictures next to the coast and at the flower clock, but everything was foggy and it was drizzling. The assistant that was there with us said it hadn't been so foggy for 3 months! So we didn't really get a good view of the coast or anything. But Viña is super pretty and there are HUGE ships in the harbors. Like, huge. 

But we took pictures by the flower clock and then they divided us into pairs, gave us an address and a Book of Mormon, and said, "Give the Book of Mormon to someone, get their address so the missionaries can visit them, and ask them for directions. Good luck!" Hahaha...yeah i was scared to death. I was with a girl who is suuuper gringa and couldn't understand very much Spanish at all, let alone Chilean Spanish. So we set off and there was a guy with whom we tried to ask directions, and he told us, but it was barely even Spanish!!! Haha so we just look confused but said thanks and walked away. When we looked back he was totally laughing at us. Haha. We ended up giving the Book of Mormon to an old guy who just mumbled everything. Before we could ask for his address he just kept mumbling and hobbled away. Haha it was funny. We asked this guy for directions, he was actually really cute. lol. But he walked us like 3 blocks til we got to the door of the Mission home! He was super nice but wanted nothing to do with religion. Whatevs. 

The mission home is really pretty and white and has lots of flowers. We had pizza and juice and took pictures and had our interviews with the mission president. He was suuuper impressed by my Spanish! And he is super nice. We only spoke Spanish in the interview. But yeah! Then they took the Sisters to a hotel down the street and told us to get some rest and they'd be back to give us Once. Once is what they have instead of dinner. Lunch is the big meal of the day, and Once is just bread (sometimes with jam or ham and cheese) and fake coffee. It's called like...Eco or something like that. But yeah you add sugar. It's not bad. The bread is super good. The bread here has a super awesome reputation cuz it's always made fresh and it's delicious. But we had Once downstairs in the hotel parlor and then slept til morning! 

In the morning we went to the chapel which is really pretty, and we went to the institute building for orientation. We sat there for a long time just listening to them explain everything and stuff. For lunch we had Empanadas full of cheese, and others with cheese and ham and olives and stuff, and salad, juice, and some kind of Chilean candy. Finally at like 6 pm we had Cambios, which means Changes, and its the meeting where everyone in the whole mission gets new companions and areas and everything! It happens every 6 weeks. So us newbies were super nervous cuz we were all gonna get our new companions! There were so many people there and they all sang so loud and good and it was impressive! Once they called out who your new comp was, the both of  you got up and left the meeting to go straight to the mission area! 
When they announced that Hermana Schrader was with Hermana Garcia, she came up to give me a hug and said, "Que grande!" Haha she is short and I am suuuper tall compared to all these Chileans and latinos! But we left the meeting, got all our stuff, and left with our zone leaders for the Metro! We walked a while in Viña del MAr, which is a huge city and there are so many people walking everywhere and big building and crazy stuff going on! But we got to the Metro and got on and we were on the Metro for 20 minutes before we got to Quilpué. When we got to Quilpué, my suitcase broke. Sad. The wheels don´t work anymore. So we had to drag it until we could find a Colectivo, which are like cheap taxis here. But we got in a colectivo, (the drivers all know that we are missionaries and always use the colectivos), they packed my stuff in the car and drove us to where I live! We live on a property with a nonmember named Cecilia. 

She is super rich and her house is really nice. She has 2 dogs and like a billion cats, and a pool, and they live by a pond, and its really pretty. We live on a tiny little hill right next to the house! It is called a pension. Its really small and white, and has a living room and kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom. The bathroom is really pretty and has a brand new shower and innovative sink! I will send pictures for sure. Sometimes when we have study time in the afternoon, we go sit outside by the pool and study. The dogs are Motita and Benjamin. And the cats are Josefina, Luma, ... and lots more. Haha. Cecilia is 54 and super fancy and tan and has 2 daughters, Javiera and Fernanda, and a son, Ismael. They are all in their 20s and they are super nice. Sometimes we see Cecilias husband or dad walking around and they are nice too. 

I LOVE the people in Chile! Everyone is so short and so nice and always smile and welcome you. The way we greet females is with a kiss on the cheek and a hug. ANd we just shake guys hands. haha. One lady looked at me and told me I looked like a Barbie! And everyone says I have yellow hair. Haha. Everyone is impressed by my Spanish accent, cuz most gringos that come to Chile have a horrible gringo accent. But they like my accent! 

The bishop is awesome, Bishop Nuñez, and he is absolutely hilarious. And really young. His wife is really pretty and we had Once with them once, and the whole time they called eachother Amor. They have 3 daughters, and they are really pretty and the 9 year old is really talkative and smart. the oldest is turning in her mission papers! 
We usually have lunch with the members. Most of what they serve is some kind of meat with rice. Always rice. haha. Usually with either chicken or steak, and sometimes soup or salad or bread, always juice, and always fruit. The juice here is awesome! there are so many flavors that everyone drinks! We've had watermelon juice, honeydew juice, papaya juice, mango, green grape... everything! My favorite so far has been the green grape juice. It's super delicious. The fruits here are sooo fresh and good and always my favorite part! 

No one speaks Spanish. No one. It's Chilean and I can barely understand anything! Hermana Garcias ALWAYS turns to me and translates to me in normal spanish. Haha I feel so stupid! But I will learn it eventually!  We have visited a lot of members and inactives, cuz there are no investigators. They all just got baptized! Haha. So we are looking for an investigator. There is an old guy named Rafael that we teach, who really likes to talk a lot about random things, but he doesn't really have teeth so I cant understand. Haha. So I just sit there in the lesson and smile at him and talk when Hermana Garcia looks at me. Haha. 

We taught an inactive named Lorena, who has 3 kids and her boyfriend doesn't like missionaries. But we came to her house when he wasn't there and taught her the restoration. She has a Book of Mormon but never reads. She is always super overwhelmed with kids and other stuff and says she has lots of trials and nothing helps. We told her to read the Book of Mormon adn PRAY! cuz praying always always always makes you feel better. She promised she would pray and that she'd read and then we wanted to leave with a prayer. We asked her who she wanted to say the prayer adn she asked Hermana Garcia. Hermana Garcia asked if there was anything she wanted her to pray for specifically, and Lorena said, "Yes, but I don't want to tell you in front of the kids." So Hermana Garcia (she told me later) prayed to know what to pray for! So she prayed, and she prayed that Lorena would feel comforted through all the overwhelming trials, and she prayed that her relationship with her boyfriend/husband would get better. Right when Hermana Garcia said that, Lorena started crying. We ended the prayer and were leaving, and Lorena was just sobbing, and Hermana Garcia hugged her and told her everything would be alright. It was really sad but Im so glad we could help her feel hope. We are going to visit her again on Thursday, cuz she told us we could come back then. 

All the kids here think its soooo crazy and cool that I speak English, and that I'm super tall and have green eyes and yellow hair. Haha. They always run up to me and stare at me and want me to kiss them on the cheek! Its adorable.

I showed a lady a picture of me and Jenna and Camille (one from last years Christmas) and she said, You are the oldest? And she said that Jenna looked oldest, then Camille, then me. Hahaha. And a old guy in the street looked at me and asked how old i was, I said, 21. And he said, You look 16. Hahaha so weird! I do not look 16! But everyone thinks I am way younger than 21. I dont mind. :)

We are going to visit an investigator tomorrow, who is teh boyfriend of a member. And they want to get married, but she said she wont marry him unless hes mormon. So he asked us to teach him. Haha. 

The money here is weird! its all colorful and smooth and 1,000 Chilean pesos is like 2 dollars. The clothes here are really cheap but really cute! 

Well thats all I got for now!!!! I cant think of anything else! I will try to attach pictures! If not, maybe another time! 

I love you all and miss you so much! Please write me on DearElder.com! It is still free! It will take a while to get to me, but please write me! I will write you back for sure!
I hope you all have an awesome week! See you next Monday! Pray for me! I am praying for all of you. :)

Ciao and les quiero mucho!!!!!
Hermana Schrader

P.S. My mission is Viña del Mar Chile, and the address of the mission office is:

Hermana Amy Schrader
4 Norte 1112
Viña del Mar 
Chile