But first, I want to tell you a thing or two about my companion.
She's big and tall, (almost as tall as me) with blond wavy hair and blue eyes. She comes from a little town outside of Bountiful Utah and has kind of a farm girl knowhow because her grandpa is such a cowboy. hahaha I love hearing her stories.
If we're talking personality, I think Hna. Rajapakse's description of her fits perfectly. "She is like...SO sweet. She might actually give you cavities."
It's refreshing to have a little break from constant survivor-mode Spanish for a bit.
But I seriously feel like I'm going to be training one of the new missionaries coming in next change.
Speaking of, I just want to mention again that God has definitely been merciful to me as far as the Gift of Tongues goes. I still feel like I have a ton to learn, but I can get a point across without having to think about it too much now. It makes it a lot easier to rely on the Spirit while I'm teaching when I'm not having to think out every phrase I'm going to say. Now it just comes. It makes me so happy!
So I have to tell you about this convert family here called the Dominguez family. They are SO funny! The mom and the dad are Freddi and Nelli. Freddi is this stocky buff and tough guy with very little hair and HUUUUUUUUGE eyebrows! It seriously looks like all of his hair that he had before simply migrated down his face and formed eyebrows. He is super funny and is like a giant teddy bear. You would never expect him to be like that at first sight, but that's how he is. Nelli is super SUPER cool. And she told me when I first came to their house, "We are not a perfect family. But, we are real. If you guys ever need anything, we're here for you."
They are basically like the Chilean version of my family. hahaha
But they have three kids. Danitza, Cristofer and Freddi Jr. They're so great.
Nelli and Freddi call me "Kolipoki". Like what the missionary in "The Other Side of Heaven" was always called by the islanders. Cause we watched that movie for a Family Home Evening (Yes, it has recently been approved by the mission president. The whole mission has a selection of churchy movies that they can watch now.) I think they just call me Kolipoki because they don't remember my last name yet. hahaha
In other random news, Hermanas Boully, Cook, Chapman and I were talking about Christmas and how we kind of feel a little bummed at how the weather down here is freezing but we don't have Christmas. December down here is the month that starts summer time. So our Holiday Spirit Sensors have been thrown a little out of whack.
So we decided to have a mini Christmas celebration in our apartment. On the 24th of June in the hour we have between planning and bedtime. I drew a tree and taped it to the front room wall, and we made ornaments out of sparkly foam.
So yeah. Christmas in June, everybody. Go, Gringas!
Hermana boully and I taught Natalie this week. In English. Holy cow that was weird. She was very interested in what we had to say and she wants to learn more because she is still on her quest to get to know God better. She had a zillion questions. We taught The Restoration to her in English, and when it got to the part about the first vision, I realized that I couldn't even remember it in English. But as it turns out, Hermana Boully didn't either. So when she finished what she was saying and turned her eyes to me, in my mind I was like, "Oh shoot. Here it goes."
And I recited the account of The First Vision in English.
Natalie really liked what we taught and told us that we can come back another day and explain more to her. We left her with a Book of Mormon in Spanish because we don't have one in English right now, but she said she'll read the Introduction this week.
Hermana Boully and I came out of that lesson, and she said, "I'm glad that you had the first vision in English. Cause I sure didn't!" I was like, "Uhhh. Funny thing. I couldn't really remember it either. I just spoke."
It is CRAZY COOL what happens in lessons sometimes. It's another testament to me that this is definitely God's work, and the Holy Ghost plays a HUGE part in that.
Hermana Boully and I were having one of those days last week where for the first part of the day, NOBODY was receiving us, so as we were walking along, we found a clementine tree (there are all kinds of random fruit trees in Talca in the middle of everything.) so I got three and Hna. Boully picked up two and I started teaching her how to juggle. Then we turned it into a contacting opportunity. We contacted houses while juggling and we even offered to show others how to do it. It served up a lot of smiles and laughter by people both in their houses and in the street. By the end of the day, we had had one of the most productive days so far this cambio as far as lessons and good teaching opportunities goes.
Oh! Also! Hermana Boully and I were contacting this one house, and there was this old lady that let us in right away. She was fascinated by the fact that we're from the states and was asking us all kinds of questions, then she brought us this bowl of boiled fruit and was like, "Eat it! You'll never get this anywhere else."
She was right about that.
There was a huge dead fly sitting on top of one of the fruit pieces. It was swollen from being submerged in water for so long. So I pulled that piece of fruit out and picked at the rest because I didn't want to hurt the lady's feelings. I figured the rest was okay. But I noticed that there were other little dead buggy invaders floating around in the juice... after I had eaten most of it. O_O Well fly larvae has protein, right?
Hermana Boully and came out of that house feeling pretty gross. But hey, adventure! Hahahaha blerrrrrgh
A couple days ago, Hermana Boully and I did a Family Home Evening with this sweet member named Gabriela. She is so awesome. I showed her how to make Apple Pie. When I asked for measuring cups, she didn't have any, so I eyeballed the measurements. The pie came out pretty good, actually!
As for this morning's P-day, everyone in my little apartment woke up at 4:30 in the morning to go to a place called Vilches at 6:00. It's a cool hiking spot. Both literally and figuratively. It snowed a little while we were up there! Wooooo! Such a pretty hike. We saw a waterfall, too. It was sweet.
Anyways, that's all for the long email of the week.
Í LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CHAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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