Week 61

Sooooo this week was a very interesting one.

I met my companion, Hermana Darrington. As I suspected, she is from Saint George Utah. Blonde, blue eyes, shorter than me (but what else is new?) and she´s a lot of fun. Out of all of the Gringa companions I´ve had, she speaks Spanish the best. Her accent is Chilean as well. I've been told that my accent is unique, but not Gringa. I call it "Darley". Boo yah.

I think if I was to describe Hermana Darrington in a conversation, it would be this. 

"This person's name is Yobanka? I am totally naming my kid that."

Hermana Darrington: "And I'm totally gonna beat your kid up."

Oh my gosh I love this girl. She´s SOOOO funny! XD

Aaaanyways, so Rengo is huge. Ha-YOOGE! It's the biggest sector I've been in so far. My first day here stressed me out so much because our sector is so huge. And Hermana Darrington only has one cambio here, so she isn't all that familiar with our limits, either. So here's to learning together! Woooo!

The members here are really cool. They make up a pretty hard-working ward. And a lot of the members are returned missionaries that came home within the last few years, so when we bring investigators to church, there's all kinds of fellowshipping going on. =D

All of the members I´ve met thus far have told me that all the missionaries that have come here to Rengo near the end of their missions end up dying here. I mean, who knows? But I'm about 75% convinced that I'm going to die here in Rengo.

The house here is NIIIIICE. It´s just Hermana Darrington and I, and we have two bathrooms, two showers, a big living room, TONS of closet space, and four beds. (I pushed my two together and made a queen-sized bed. I love Rengo.) But I didn't sleep too well the first morning because our neighbors have like eighty-six roosters that were sending salutations to the sun at five in the morning. Gaaaahhhhhh!

We had to travel an hour by bus to get to our zone meeting on Wednesday, and I met the other missionaries in my zone. The funny thing is that Elders Saez, Leavitt, Cunha, Ancajima and Jones are all here. I was in the same zone with them in Santa Cruz as well! 

For the first time in my mission, my zone leaders and all of the district leaders are Gringos. So we had our leadership meeting in Spanglish. It was hilarious.

Also, there's an Elder here from Sandpoint. His name´s Caden Johnson. Maybe those of you from CDA know him?

Anyways, so our converts here are the coolest. Well, I´ve met two of them so far. Catarine and Cristobal. Catarine is 26 and Cristobal is 15. Cristobal went to the temple this last week and he said in Gospel Doctrine this last Sunday that he´s super happy to be a member of the church. He´s excited about family history and he loves to participate in class. He's a really mellow kid. =)

Oh my gosh. So story time. 

I was in the church bathroom on Sunday just finishing up my business when I hear, "Hola, tia!" from the floor. I whip around and see a little girl who´s about 7 with her head under my stall door. Yeah, I don't know how long she had been there, either. Afterwards, as I was washing my hands, I was looking at her and she was looking at me, but she didn't talk to me. She just stared at me like she was in trouble. Either that or I had lobsters crawling out of my ears.

Awkwaaaaaard.

We also had a really interesting contact this week. So Hermana Darrington and I were yelling ALO!!!! door to door (yeah, we don´t knock doors. Everyone has fences.) and this shirtless guy answered the door. We talked to him for a couple of minutes from outside his gate and presented a little preview of our message, then he said, "I´m actually with my girlfriend right now. Do you want to come in?"

We went inside and they immediately start bustling around the kitchen and out back. They brought us juice, then they plopped a plate of barbecued ribs down in front of us and said, "Eat! Go ahead!"

So we ate ribs. Hermana Darrington started at me and whispered with a mouthful of ribs, "Is this real life?"

I said, "I have no idea. Best contact ever."

We ended up teaching them a little bit because the boyfriend was kind of ADHD and kept getting up to get stuff. But he and his girlfriend were REALLY friendly. 

We invited them to church, then as we were leaving, the boyfriend gave us a couple of ears of corn and a big block of fresh cheese. 

Well they were friendly. =D Hoping to have a follow-up lesson this week.

We also had a lady come up to us yesterday and stop us in our tracks just to tell us that we are liars, that we're wasting our time, and that she doesn't believe in our "God Joseph Smith."

Hermana Darrington went to tell her that it wasn't like that, and she flipped out and said, "And I don't want to hear you, either! Have a good day and chao!"

Yeah, people are interesting. That was sad. Have a good day, lady. 

So that's about it for now. Mostly this week we worked with members and trying to find a bunch of less-actives, but we taught a few lessons in several new houses. and invited a lady named Olga to be baptized. She wasn't able to come to church this Sunday, so her date fell through. But she´s receptive. We´re going back to see her tomorrow.

I love you all, and I am receiving strength from your prayers. Thank you so much! 

Chaoooooo!

-Hermana Darley

My zone in Buin. I miss them already.