Week 49

The first week of every cambio is always interesting, to say the least.

So we had cambios and I ended up bumping into a bunch of missionaries that I met when I first go to the mission and haven't seen since I was still in my training. And the reaction that I was expecting came as it should have: "Whoa! You can actually talk to me now!" That was fun.

I felt so bad when I had to say goodbye to Hermana Alvarez. She cried, but I was such an emotional rollercoaster that I feel like my goodbye was so cold. I didn't shed a tear. I was to stressed and sleep-deprived to cry.

But I know that Hermana Alvarez is going to lead the sector like a boss. She knows Santa Cruz and she already knows her stuff as far as the missionary life goes. :D

I took a couple of buses to get to Buin. It was soooooo weird being there again. I was waiting with all of my suitcases in a corner gas station - the same station that I was at when I first came to the Chile Rancagua Mission. I remembered standing on the exact same corner to wait for Hermana Rajapakse (my trainer). I tell ya, going back to an old zone is like revisiting an old dream. It was so cool.

I heard someone call out from a distance and saw a tall Gringa with a salmon pink, polka-dot dress and a blue tongue. She came hobbling towards me in a boot ankle brace and introduced herself as Hermana Williams. Apparently she broke two of the tendons in her foot playing soccer. Oops. 

Aw boy. We hit it off right away. She's awesome. And I was totally right about her being a ninja. She's from Colorado, 20 years old, 5 foot 7, a black belt and a former MMA fighter and instructor. She was almost a world-record holder for the most high kicks in a minute, and was headed toward pro-status when she decided to go out and serve a mission. 

Look out, Buin.

Speaking of Buin, this is by far the biggest sector I have had in my entire mission. Buin is HUGE. It is also my first sector to have bikes. FINALLY!!!! YESSS!!!! But that can be both a good thing and a bad thing. Pros: We get around a lot faster and Hermana Williams doesn't have to walk around with her boot foot. Cons: The dogs don't really like the bikes. A couple of days ago, we were headed to a future investigator's house and two dogs ran out from nowhere in the street and went after Hermana Williams, snapping at her legs. Luckily, she didn't get bitten, and she was able to out-pedal them until they just went away. But she had an asthma attack, so that stunk. I felt so bad because the dogs didn't even pay a lick of attention to me. (No pun intended.)

Hermana Williams also ran over a cat on our way home from a Family Home Evening. Like the dogs, it ran out of nowhere in the street and stopped right in the middle of the street. But I'm pretty sure that cats are more of a liquid than a solid because Hermana Williams accidently ran it over, but it did this crazy matrix twist under her front tire and ran away. 

I was impressed.

The house in Buin is alright. I've been there before on divisions when I first started my mission. It's spacey enough for us four: Me, Hermana Williams, Hermana Cortez from Guatemala and Hermana Boully (former companion from Talca!!!! Wooooooo!!!!)

Our only recent convert here is 114 years old. I'm not even kidding. Her name is Lucia. And she's
still a pretty spunky old lady for an 114-year-old. And in pretty decent health!

Hermana Williams and I walked around the sector looking for some old investigator's house and I recognized the house of a kid that I visited with Hermana Dell during a division. It was crazy because that was about 8 or 9 months ago. 

The kid's name is Hector, but he goes by Tito. He's 20 years old and he's really cool. He's got ear gages and looks a little rough around the edges, but he's really really receptive! We went to see him and he actually recognized me. It was so neat! We're going to visit him tomorrow and see if we can put a baptismal date with him.

Also, we have a progressing investigator named Kelly. She is SOOOOOO awesome. We went to go see her and she told us that she hs been praying, and that she knows that the Book of Mormon is true. Now her goal is to get her boyfriend to start taking the lessons. We're going to do a family home evening and watch Meet the Mormons. Because Kelly wants her boyfriend to see that we're normal folks. :D

We've visited a few less-actives in the past week as well with hopes of getting them to the Temple. We've been throwing a lot of emphasis on the Temple in all of our lessons so that we can help them to be active in the church again. The overall vibe that we're getting from them is that they're feeling a little hopeless about it. But we're trying to show them that they have all the hope in the world. Because guess what? The Atonement works! We've just gotta work a little harder is all. :D Just keep swimming!

Contacting with Hermana Williams is fun. We've met a lot of cool people who seem to be promising. We have appointments with them this week!

So yeah. My sector is cool. I could do without the dogs, but meh, bienvenida a la misión.

So I forgot to mention that last Friday while I was still in Santa Cruz, Hermana Alvarez and I were headed to the apartments on one end of our sector, and this guy with a fedora appeared out of nowhere behind us and was just walking behind and asking questions about America. I was indifferent because stuff like this happens all the time, and usually the guys just go away. But he trailed behind us for a good couple of minutes. Then he says, "You wouldn't believe where I came from if I told you."

I said, "From the South, right?"

"No. I'm from another world."

Why do we always run into guys like this? Just our luck.

There were a zillion people around us, so if this guy was going to try anything, he wasn't going to be able to do much. But he didn't go away. He asked us if we were missionaries, then he said that he has a mission in Santa Cruz as well. "I collect souls. The souls of those who have sold themselves to the devil."

Oooooookaaaaaaaaay

Yeah, he basically told us that we didn't know anything and that there is no God because this guy was the one who created the world, but he doesn't remember his real name now. But he remembers that one of his names was "Luz Bethel"   

Sooooooo after a nice daily dose of heebie jeeies, we said chao and headed deeper into the neighborhood.  So that was interesting. :P

That's it for now.

Chaooooooo!!!!!!

-Hermana Darley

Hermana Williams. We did a service project and basically cut down a jungle. You wouldn't believe the size of the spiders here.

I drew a shark man on the whiteboard because nobody showed up for English Class this week. 
Yep. I'm teaching English in Buin, too. But we need to change the day to Saturday or we're 
not going to have many students. Whoops. Hehehe