Friday, January 31, 2014

Not In Atlanta!!!!

January 31, 2014

Hola mi bonita familia!

Ok so I only have like 5 minutes to email you right now since it´s not technically our pday but I have made it here safely. Even though my luggage hasn´t.. Are you surprised? At this point I´m not. But I´ll tell you all about everything that happened when I have longer! I love you all though! It´s beautiful here! My companion is Hermana Watt and she´s the cutest little thing from St. George, Utah. She´s just as blonde as I am and we´re going to take this CCM and all its Latinas by storm :) We just had breakfast which consisted of fruit loops with either yogurt or warm milk because who eats cereal with cold milk?? I opted for the yogurt which was just as watery as milk but it wasn´t too bad and then we had these like little english muffins with ham (I think) and cheese and manjar. The manjar tasted different than yours mom, a little more like black licorice-y if that makes since so yours definitely tasted better haha. It´s lovely here and I´m doing awesome so don´t worry! Please pray that I get my luggage soon as I haven´t been able to wear my contacts since Monday night due to all our delays and canceled flights! Luckily my eye sight is not bad yet though so that´s a huge blessing!! Our room is like a big dorm room with 3 sets of bunk beds but it{s only hermana watt and I so it´s nice even though the shower floods the entire floor. Santiago is super cool. It{s like if Arizona had Utah mountains and it{s like really heavy hot if that makes since. I believe that´s called humidity and I´m not a super huge fan. Though a super huge fan would be nice right about now. This keyboard is in spanish so I´m having the trickiest time typing on this right now. I curser keeps jumping around and the shift and apostrophe and stuff are all in the wrong places haha but I´m sure it{ll only take a few times to get use to it! Anyway I have to go but I love you all SOO MUCH!! Just know I´m finally in Santiago and being taken good care of! I´m so happy here and it{s weird to think I´m actually a missionary now! I definitely don{t feel like it though, at least not yet haha. I love you and can´t wait to hear from you all!

Con todo el amor en mi corozon (my spanish classes start tomorrow),

Hermana Evans

San Diego Airport pictures and Arrival email from the President of the Santiago MTC

January 28, 2014

Getting ready to leave for Chile

KK feeling emotional

Had to take bottle of shampoo out of suitcase....too heavy






heading through security

last view of our missionary










Sister Doll and I are writing to let you know that your missionary arrived as the Chile MTC today (Thursday, 5:30p).  It has been quite an ordeal for them.  They’ll have some interesting stories to share with you of their adventures since they last saw you on Tuesday.  They arrived very worn out but excited to tell about what had happened.  We immediately got them checked in, took them to the MTC cafeteria for lots of good Chilean food, and most have now hit the showers and bed.  Most elected to not e-mail home until Friday so be patient.  I’m sure they’ll give you details.  In couple of cases some luggage has not yet arrived but the travel office people are working on it.
 
I can assure you that the MTC here was in constant contact with Missionary Travel throughout the ordeal.  The flights out of Atlanta were so backed up that the airlines just had trouble getting everyone to their destinations and they didn’t give us much information.  It’s interesting how just three inches of snow in the wrong place and at the wrong time can create so many problems. 
 
This has been a bit of an adventure for Sister Doll and me.  We only arrived in Santiago eight days ago to begin our two-year assignment at the MTC.  This was our first group of new missionaries.  So, nothing went according to what we’d planned for and expected.  Fortunately, the office staff tells us this has rarely happened before and probably won’t happen again.
 
We want to let you know that we’re excited to help your missionary get a fantastic start on his or her experience in Chile.  This is truly one of the best MTCs in the world and I know you’re going to get wonderful reports over the next six weeks.  There are 68 missionaries here right now – a mixture of Latinos and North Americans.  We love them each, and we’ll love your missionary.
 
Let me know if you have questions.
………………………….
President Sherman L. Doll
Chile Missionary Training Center