Today we also had cambios, and this time we were "touched" by it (literal Spanish translation there). I am going to Hualqui to be with Hermana Lyons (who came in the same group as Hermana Snyder and who was trained by Hermana Morán), and my Hermanita Snyder is going to TRAIN! I am so proud of her. She´s a little overwhelmed at the thought, I think, but I know she can do it! She has so much faith and so much ánimo for the work that I know she will be an amazing trainer. :D Something else SUPER AWESOME is that Hualqui also just happens to be where Hermana Frandsen is!!!!!!!! HIP, HIP HOORAY!!!!!!!!!! We are going to be in the same house! We didn´t think we´d ever get the opportunity to work that closely together again in the mission. We´re both totally stoked.
I am also nervous about the change, of course. It wasn´t weird going to Libertador, really, because I had already been in Chillán, so it was a little like going home. Leaving Chillán again is going to be hard. I do love it here and there's always the chance that I won´t get to come back. And this time I am leaving behind converts, which is something I haven´t done before. That is going to be weird, not being able to check up on my converts all the time.
Bueno. Nothing too exciting to report. Though we did have some really awesome food experiences! Last P-Day we went to the Pulsipher´s apartment (senior couple missionaries that are here in Chillán) and Hermana Pulsipher made us scones. She´s the best. Makes me think of my Gramma and Grampa and how awesome it must have been for the missionaries in Joliette to get to hang out with them. Then we discovered this really great wheat bread which comes in a loaf (most bread here is white and comes in the form of mini French bread loaves or what are called hallullas - looks a little bit like and has layers like a biscuit, but is bigger in circumference and definitely has a bread and not a bixcuit texture). It was so good we didn´t even wait to get home to eat it. We just tore off hunks and ate while we walked. Then a couple of days later, we were walking down the street and a member from our ward saw us and gave us calzones rotos (like a cross between a scone and a cake doughnut and these ones had an amazing hint of lemon) which were the best we had ever had! Seriously, we´ve been dreaming about them ever since. And then we stopped in a meat shop one evening to ask for directions, and the nice meat shop man gave us free longaniza (lone-guh-knee-sah), which is a delicious type of sausage which Chillán is particularly famous for. I love it. Hermana Martinez helped me cook it and we ate it for breakfast one morning (not typical breakfast food, especially not in Chile, but it was still awesome). And today we got together with the elders from Libertador and Copihues and had an awesome Peruvian meal (the elders cooked) with arroz con leche for dessert (Hermana Martinez made it and it was so good!). It was delicious. So all in all, we had a good food week. It was exciting. I always get excited about good food. And there´s quite a bit of it here, so I´m a happy camper!
Not too much else happened this week. Hermana Lovell and I did a mini-cambio on Friday and that was fun. Also throughout the week we got to go out with three members of the same family this week to teach lessons and visit recent converts and less-actives. They are a super great family and really supportive of the missionaries, so I was really grateful for their help and for the sacrifices they made to come out with us. That is a facet of missionary work that I didn´t understand before - I had never, ever gone out with the missionaries. Not very often did I even see them, much less have them as a regular part of my ward. But now that I see how important it is, I hope I have the opportunity to help the missionaries more after I get home.
So for your commitment this week, I want to invite you all to do what my zone leaders have been encouraging us to do for the past couple of weeks, and take the opportunity to really prepare yourselves to partake of the sacrament. For example, our zone leaders have asked us to prepare by reading a talk which focuses on the Atonement (such as this one: Remembering, Repenting, and Changing or this one: Sacrament Meeting and the Sacrament) on Sundaymorning during our study before church. And to go to church and use the sacrament time to really ponder about the Savior and present before Him our sins and weaknesses. To ask for forgiveness and resolve to change, and to accept the Savior´s help and allow ourselves to feel His peace. To really allow the renovation of our covenants to be a "mini-baptism" as we teach our investigators and our recent converts. I struggle with this a lot. I just always have so much to do and to think about and I don´t always concentrate and prepare myself the way I should, so I will be working on this too. But I invite you all to try it this week (and the next and the next if you like) in order to really take advantage of and appreciate the Atonement and sacrament meeting this week.
Anyway, that´s all I´ve got for now. Thanks for all your love and support. Next week I´ll be writing from the inside....
Lovelovelove,
Herman
P.S. I am not clear on the details, but for some reason, Correos Chile (basically the USPS of Chile) is not functioning right now. Nothing is coming in from or going out of Santiago for an undetermined period of time.... So, if you want to send anything I guess you would need to ask the post office how to send it through a different courier (and make sure to use that new mission address). The locals tell me that Chile Express is international and is still operating. I don´t know if it would be more expensive or how any of that would work. I have very little contact with the outside world.... If you would rather not bother, emails always make me happy! :D
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