Week 26

So.

It's already been a cambio full of surprises. 

I arrived in my new area called Talca Florida two weeks ago. The new apartment is really nice. It's small, but the space is sufficient. But it is pretty cold inside because none of the windows shut all the way. Every morning, I bundle up until I look like a fluffy abominable snowman when I have to hobble out of my room and make my journey across the "frozen wasteland" to get to our kitchen. 

After my first night in this apartment, I was thinking, "I should not be able to see this much steam coming out of my mouth INDOORS!" It doesn't snow here, but I was warned that I had to be prepared for hardcore winter. Psssh please. I lived in North Idaho for a year during the coldest winter on record. These guys don´t know what "hardcore winter" is.

But uh.... yeah, it's cold. 

Our apartment has other little quirks, such as the ladybugs. We always have a vast congregation of ladybugs that fly into our apartment through the cracks in the windows, then die all over the place. Seriously, though. I have never seen a house so ladybuggified in my life.

Apart from the cold interior and constant ladybuggification, our apartment is nice, our kitchen is nice, we have two bathrooms with HOT shower water, (which is SUPER nice because for the first time in the last four and a half months, I have hot running water. Lukewarm showers are nice, but not so much in the winter.) We live in the most secure sector in the entire mission, the ward members are super cool here, and, bonus points, we have a teapot that doesn't leave paint chips floating around in my hot chocolate. That's one thing that I don´t miss about my Paine house. hahaha

  

I thought that by about this time in the mission, I'd be used to moments where you can practically hear someone yell, "PLOT TWIST!" But, I stand corrected.

We received a call from President Warne and had special cambios last week. So Hermana Rajapakse packed up and headed to Rancagua, and I met my newest companion Hermana Boully. President Warne told us that Hermana Boully knew Talca well because she's been here before, but she got here and told me, "Uhh... I was in Talca A. This is Talca B."

So guess what? WHITEWASH! Dun dun duuuuuun!

It's been great, though. It's been a little time-consuming because we have to walk around with a map all the time and figure out where everything is, but we've found a lot of good people. 

We came across a Gringa named Natalie that Hna Rajapakse had mentioned before. Upon the initial contact, she said about two or three phrases in Spanish, then she switches to perfect English. My brain had a bit of a whiplash moment. Turns out, she's been in Chile for two years teaching English. She has a house here and everything. We sat down and talked with her for a bit and got to know her, then she said, "Oh, shoot. I have to go to class. But you guys can come back and we can talk more about God and stuff! I really want to know how I can be closer to Him." Hermana Boully and I are totally going to pull a "Best Two Years" and get this lady baptized. (Gold star sticker to anyone who caught my reference.)

But anyways, it's been great as far as finding and teaching goes. It does my heart good when I don't even have enough space on the "notes" page in my agenda to make lesson plans for everyone who we are going to teach. 

I already love Talca. Coming here from Paine makes me feel like I've jumped countries because of how different they are. Paine had sidewalks, but it was mostly characterized by its dirt roads and big open fields. Talca is a big bustling city with concrete EVERYWHERE and lots of people. There are no big long dirt roads in my sector. I did love Paine and I miss it sometimes, but it is nice to be able to come back to the apartment NOT covered from head to foot in a poof of dust, and having to peel off mud-caked boots.

Oh! The other thing is, in Paine, they had two main stores, but they didn't have a huge variety of stuff. But here in Talca they have BIG stores, and they have a Lider (Which is literally the Walmart of Chile) and a Jumbo where they have all of this imported stuff from the U.S. Wooooooo!!!!! 

I made Orange Chicken and cheesecake on Pday to send Hna Rajapakse off. She was soooo happy. =D

I don´t have a way to send photos in this Cyber Cafe, so I'll have to send photos next week. Cause I'm FINALLY living near one that has newer computers!

Anyways, that's all for now. =D

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!! Keep up the prayers, cause they're working! 

And thank you so much for all of the emails! I love them! =D

¡¡¡¡¡CHAO!!!!!!