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
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