Another P-Day, Another Cambio

¡Hola!

So no cambio for us this transfer - Hermana Fajardo and I have another six weeks to wait for our trainees.  We are hoping to get a lot done here in San Javier before our "hijas" come.  (I don´t particularly like referring to trainer/trainee as mother/daughter, but everyone does it here and I can´t seem to come up with another way of saying it that the other missionaries here will understand.)

But things are already starting to get crazy here!  They opened 5 new sectors for sisters this transfer, and two new zones.  Then we got an email from President Humphrey telling us that as 58 new missions have been announced in the world, including Chile Santiago South.  (See: http://www.mormonnewsroom.org/article/missions-created-accommodate-influx-new-missionaries)  They also announced our new mission president, President Kent J. Arrington and his wife Michele, who will be coming in July.  They are from Utah (woot woot!) and he has worked for the Church for over 30 years as Area Director of 20% of the temples in the world.  President Humphrey said he is sure that President Arrington is coming in part to help accelerate the process of the construction of the temple in Concepción, which has been on hold for several years for a variety of reasons.  (The most recent of which, we heard from some members in Cordillera, is that they started to clear out the land at the temple site and found an "antiguo" cemetery.  So it got turned into an archeaological site instead of a temple construction site for the time being.  I don´t know how much truth there is to this, but if it´s just gossip it´s pretty interesting gossip at least!)

Anyway, in order to accommodate for the new mission in Santiago, our mission boundaries are being changed, effective in July when our new mission president comes.  I am going to try to attach a map of our mission so you can picture the changes.  So right now, our mission boundaries go as far north as Teno, but in July we lose the two northernmost stakes (Curico and Talca, where I am now) to the Chile Rancagua mission and gain two stakes in Talcahuano (which I am assuming now pertain to the Concepción Sur mission).  After this change, the farthest north our mission will go will be Linares!  When Hermana Frandsen heard this, she told me, "You better hurry up and get transferred, or we´re not going to be in the same mission, po!"  ("Po" is a Chilean word.  I cannot explain what it means.  I don´t know that it really means anything.  But I know how to use it, and this is the imporant thing!)  Hahahaha.  But it´s true.  I can be certain I won´t be in San Javier any longer than through the end of June.

It´s just really interesting to be here in such a crazy time!

Our week this week was a little less crazy, but yet another one where I just kept telling myself, "someday I will know what it is like to have a normal day as a missionary."  But seeing as I have not seen a normal day yet, maybe I´d be better off to stop expecting it!  For example, this week we called some members to see if they would be able to accompany us to a lesson.  They said they would be happy to, and we made plans to meet up with them before the appointment.  When they arrived, we got in their car to go to the appointment and they drove us clear to the opposite side of town, out in the middle of nowhere where some members live that they wanted us to visit.  I am not sure if they were confused about our request, or if they just decided that what they wanted us to do was more important, because I don´t understand enough of what they say to me.  But these things certainly make for an interesting experience!

We also had a ward activity this week, a "Noche de Postres," and I made no-bake cookies and helped Hermana Fajardo make a cheesecake in the microwave.  (There is a sister here, Hermana England, who knows how to make pretty much everything in the microwave.  It´s really pretty incredible.  We´re always calling her for recipes.)  They were both a big hit!

We have begun to figure out our way around here.  Well, Hermana Fajardo has at least.  I just follow her around for the most part!  It´s really difficult for me when everyone gives directions like "arriba" and "abajo" which to me are really subjective.  I mean, which direction is "up" and which is "down"?  Hermana Fajardo is pretty good about remembering to tell me "derecha" and "izquierda" instead because "right" ande "left" is something I can understand.  Something else good is that we almost never ride our bikes "contra" traffic anymore (it took us a week or so to figure out we were even doing something wrong because so many people even drive their cars the wrong way around here).

Hermana Fajardo loves pan con queso (bread and cheese) and therefore I have become accustomed to eating it on a regular basis.  I´d better stop though or I´ll get a Chilean bread-belly!

I´ve been reading the war chapters in Alma lately, and I am totally loving it!  Captain Moroni is really something else!  I especially loved Alma 48:17, which says, "Yea, verily, verily I say unto you, if all men had been, and were, and ever would be, like unto Moroni, behold, the very powers of hell would have been shaken forever; yea, the devil would never have power over the hearts of the children of men."  Wow!  How awesome is that?  I want to become somebody like that!

So your challenge this week is to become a little bit more like Captain Moroni.  If you need suggestions, read about him in Alma 43-60.  Otherwise, just think to yourself, "what would Captain Moroni do?"  Because wouldn´t the world be an awesome place if we were all a little more like him?

I love you all and I´m very grateful for your love and support.  I wish you all a "feliz semana" as my companion would say!

Lovelovelove,

Herman