Letter #74: June 17, 2013

Hey guys! 

Happy Father’s Day, Dad!!!!  (Mom, I loved the gift from Austin!  Sooo cute!)  So, I can FINALLY send you all some pics of my Coquimbo adventures from the past 4 weeks!  Things are still great here!  I love my companion more and more.  I’m just learning SO much with her and from her.  She really is sooo amazing!  She came super prepared to the mission (something that I wish I would have been)!!  

We are just here serving and doing what we can to help some peeps.  It’s amazing to me how God works in such mysterious ways.  So mysterious even that it makes perfect sense sometimes. I love the divine design of missionary work.  Converting the missionary as he/she converts the people.  I’m so grateful for my mission at this point!  I wouldn’t trade all my wonderfully awesome and incredibly crappy experiences for the world!!  I love this Gospel, I love this plan, and I love the Savior.  I’m overwhelmed with God’s loving mercy for each and every one of His chilluns.

I’m amazed at the spiritual strength, progression, and happiness that come from living the Gospel of Jesus Christ and every day.  I find myself more and more awed at the simple signs of love of our Supreme Creator.  Sometimes I go back and read my old journals from the beginning of my mission and it still surprises me at what an idiot I was... Ha. Ha.  So embarrassing.  Good thing Jesus and God have perfect patience because I would definitely be in trouble if not...

Anyway, I can’t think of any specific story from this week, so I’m just going to explain all the photos.  :)

Picture 1—Welcome to the Sirius Black house (12 Grimmauld Place) a.k.a. our living quarters/pension. 

Picture 2— Some nice Phineus and Ferb graffiti ft. Perry the Platypus. Stay classy, Chile. 

Picture 3—Hitler Cat. (this is not photo shopped)

Picture 4— Sooo happy with my new companion!!! So happy that I can’t even keep my eyes open...

Picture 5— After talking about how much we want tacos for 3 weeks, we finally go to this Mexican restaurant last p-day to find out that it’s closed... Waste of a good 2 hours walking around trying to find it... Ha! Ha! Ha! SO funny!

Picture 6— Found some olives in the backyard from the neighbors olives trees.  Note to self: *Don’t eat olives fresh off the tree... taste = rat poison...*

Picture 7— Familia Ledezma.  LOVE THEM!!

Picture 8— Hey, what are you guys doin’?... Oh ya know... Just roastin’ some mallows on the stove....

Anyway, love you guys sooo much!!! Have a great week!

Love, Hermana Hermansen

Letter #73: June 10, 2013

Hey thir! 

Things were much better this week!  We were able to work a lot stronger and have more success. We put 5 baptismal dates with people, but only 2 of them came to church, so we only have 2 people with dates now.  That’s ok, though, we still have this week to re-put their dates so that they can still get baptized in June.  The two that have dates are named Lisbeth and Emily.  They are sisters and they are super cute!  They are both super shy and super pretty!  Lisbeth is 18 and Emily is 10.  They live with their mom and she is listening to us, too, but wants the girls to get baptized first.  We found them this week but they both have been attending a different branch for about a year with their cousins.

Hmm... well what can I say... My companion and I  are still getting along super well!!  We are basically always laughing together... I sort of feel like she’s my long lost sister... We have fun. :) I wish I could send pics, but once again this computer is super crappy and will not allow me to do so!  I’m doing really well.  Finally not sick, which is awesome!  I’m just loving the work and loving my time out here!  

Glad to hear everyone is doing well and that Rachel did awesome in her marathon! I can’t believe how much everything has changed since I’ve been on my mission.... I feel like I’m going to come home and everything is going to be backwards and upside down.... Ha! Ha!... Oh well.. Such is life...  Sorry I’m not as funny in my e-mails as I used to be... I promise that I’m still funny, but I’m just not good at remembering things that I want to write on Mondays and the pressure to write fast hinders my witty skills... Also everything just feels so normal now that I’ve slightly forgotten what normal life is REALLY like... Ha.

Anyway, that’s all that I can think of to write for now.... Oh wait! I thought of a funny story!! (This is written by my companion....) Who wants to hear the latest drama about the elders?  

So, first of all, we share the branch San Juan with two other elders, and now we’re four gringos. With all the new sisters in the mission President Kahnlein has come out with some pretty strict rules about interaction between elders and hermanas, which we’re all really thankful for.  But the other elders that are here... are awkward.  And make us uncomfortable.  Like they always stare at us (well duh) and try to talk to us (well duh).  For example, in our mission coordination meeting two weeks ago they tried to walk home with us after and gave us some nasty candy bars.  Which was weird in and of itself.

So this week we decided to try and bypass all that (and the fact that we didn’t have nasty candy to give back to them) by running home.  Literally.  Like little girls.  So we ran from the mission leader’s door for a few blocks, then decided we were good.  So it’s dark and creepy and we’re almost late getting home, so we walk pretty quickly.  And what do we see when we get home? There’s a note on our gate that says "Les ganamos! -Los misioneros" (translation = We beat you!).  So not only did they write us a note (which they’re not supposed to) and not only did they walk through our area to give it to us (which they’re not supposed to) but they came to our house.  OUR HOUSE!!  We were soooo creeped out.  I read it, then I yelled really loud in the street "that’s so creepy!!" and hoped they heard me.  So we told our District Leader when he called that night and he said he would tell the Zone Leaders to tell their District Leader to yell at them.  And I guess he did, because they didn’t try to talk to us at church on Sunday.  So now things are even more awkward.  But hey, that’s the mission right?  And now that is all.

Love you all!!

Peace and blessings... peace and blessings...

-Hermana Hermansen

Letter #72: June 2, 2013

So hey guys!

I feel sooo great!  So, I have been slightly sick lately... It’s like a cold... Then things got better, but now my companion is slightly sick, too. We are really cool. J  We are doing the best in our missionary work, but it’s a little hard when you have been sick.  We actually are managing just fine.  No need to worry.  We have been talking with the mission nurse and she has given us some over-the-phone remedies...

I’ve been getting to know some members in the branch this week, which has been fun.  Things are super different here as far as church norms go (because it’s so small... the branch I mean).  It’s fun learning about and adapting to the differences, though.  We had to teach all of primary yesterday (5 kids ages 7, 9, 9, 11, 11) and were advised about it yesterday while at church.  We had to just make something up on spot...it went ok.

We have one investigator.  Her name is Gladys and she is really funny.  She’s an old lady and she like shout/yells everything she says so she always sounds angry, but she’s not, that’s just how she talks.  I get a kick out of it.  :)  She accepted a baptismal date but then couldn’t come to church on Sunday because she got sick.  She’s had a lot of trials in her life and is just ready to accept the gospel.  She sells clothes in the flee market and so her house is just filled with TONS of clothes.  We help her sort the clothes and put them in bags or boxes.  The other day she was in the other room and was shout/yelling so my companion was saying things like “Oh yeah”, “uh huh”…back to her and then we realized that she was on the phone in the other room and not even talking to us... It was hilarious!  We laughed sooo hard!  

So here’s a funny story…The other day a guy in the street was getting upset because we wouldn’t tell him our first names... It was kind of funny actually... He like backed us into a wall and was saying how no one is going to trust us if we don’t tell people our first names and then he told us to watch out and be careful like 7 times because people here can’t be trusted.... He was nuts.  His name was Freddy.  We couldn’t tell if he was drunk or on drugs (because he didn’t smell like either one) or just crazy.... People here are great. Ha! Ha!

Our area is seriously sooo ghetto!  It’s really funny.  I can distinctly and quickly identify the smell and differences between alcohol and drugs in the street now.  (BTW, it smells soooo bad in the streets sometimes!! Like it will just overwhelming be smelling of dog poop or burning things or throw up or fish or vinegar or alcohol or drugs... The other day there was the most overpowering smell of burning something mixed with vinegar and poop and it lasted for like 10 blocks... nasty.)   Don’t worry though, the Lord watches over us and protects us!!  I don’t even get scared in the streets at night.  I can physically feel the Lord watching over us and protecting us.  I’m just glad that I don’t have to live in this environment forever.

My companion and I are getting along super well!!  I love her soooo much!! She is soo hilarious! We are pretty much constantly laughing (even though we are way sick right now)!!  Random facts about her: She’s one of the 19 year-old sister missionaries. She’s a twin.  Both her parents and her brother served missions in South America (Uruguay, Bolivia, Paraguay) and her twin sister has her call to Argentina and she’s in Chile.  I can finally include a pic of us because this computer works. :)  Pic = us on a bridge with the view of the ocean that we have.

Well that’s all I really have to say for now... Hope all is well at home!!  The pics look nice, Rach!!  Good work cleaning up the house! (BTW, that was the only e-mail I got from home this week... gay, but obviously I forgive you).  

I’m just loving missionary work soooo much!!  I love this gospel and I love this church!  I love how strongly I can feel the spirit ALL the time!  It’s the best!  I’m not looking forward to coming home yet..... Sorry guys.  I love you all, but I’m way not ready for the normal responsibilities of the world... Plus I just love ghetto Chile way too much!! :) Anyway, keep it real.

Until next week!

-Hermana Hermansen