Chilly in Chile!

March 24, 2014

Hola mi familia maravillosa!!

 

I seriously can´t believe it`s been another week! Time is flying! I love reading all your emails especially because they`re in english and I can understand EVERY word! My spanish is still terrible but at least I can understand a little more than I did last week, so small victories!

 

So pretty much they feed us like crazy here! I´m so sorry but we might have to buy an extra plane ticket for my ride back because I don´t know if one seat will contain me a year and a half from now....You seriously walk away physically exhausted from eating and I´ve yet to clear an entire plate. One day a lady brought in this huge watermelon for dessert and cut it in quarters and gave an entire quarter to us! It was seriously as big as my head.... ok exaggeration. But it was as big as the dinner plate. Not exaggeration. This week I´ve also eaten more fish than I would like.  Meat I don´t even know what animal it was from, and a pudding that tasted like my oatmeal body wash. On the bright side though, the ice cream here is WAY better than the ice cream in the U.S.  All the more reason for that extra seat. 

 

We met some interesting people this week, here are some of the highlights:

 

Maria who has a terrible speach impediment. She just stared at me the whole time we were talking and then finally she was like you look just like a doll. When we were leaving I turned around and she had a huge china cabinet filled with staring, blonde porcelien dolls, so that wasn´t creepy at all...

 

Daniela is gothic, believes in reincarnation, and thinks she was a witch in the previous life because she is so interested in tarioc cards and crystal balls.... Plan of Salvation is our next lesson. Her mom is a member and she was thinking about baptism a few months ago but now wants to understand the gospel a lot before she does anythnig. That was one of those lessons where I was understanding but didn´t think I actually was because she was saying some wierd stuff...She`s a sweetheart though and it kills me knowing how much better the gospel will make her life but she doesn´t understand it.

 

A hermano in the ward passed away this week, he had parkinson so it wasn´t anything sudden or anything, but the wierd things was when we went to visit his wife she had the casket in their living room with the part where his head was open! And the houses here are really small so it took up like half the room. I´ve never seen a dead person before so I couldn´t bare to look. But when we talked to her she spoke with a lot of peace in her voice. It was one of those lessons where I didn´t understand anything but I could feel the peace. I´m so grateful for the Plan of Salvation and that we all can have the assurance to be with the people we love most once again. This is such a wonderful message and I know that she knows this to be true in her heart. 

 

Camilla is one of my favorites! She`s 19 too and a menos activo. When we asked why she doesn´t come to church she said because shé´s not pretty. My heart broke. We talked to her about the temple and her divine purpose. I loved this because the temple has such a special place in my heart and I was able to talk a lot more I think because I have such a strong testimony of it. I even threw in my dinglehopper analogy from my farewell talk and it made her laugh through her tears so that was really cool!

 

Nicolas! I just love him to pieces. He`s 14 and has been coming to seminary with some the kids in the ward. They have seminary at 6 at night here... they have no clue how easy they have it haha. ANyway he was there early and we were at the capilla for a meeting so we gave him a tour of the chapel. There was such a special feeling in the room. Hma. Huaman told him I play the piano and he thought that was super cool so when it was my turn to talk I asked if I could play a song instead. I played Yo sè que vive mi Señor or as I used to call it I Know that My Redeemer Lives. It was a really special moment. I love the spirit that music brings into our lives. I think it`s the most powerful because music is what feeilngs sound like and the spirit testifies through feeilngs so basicallly music, well hymns, are the voice of the spirit. I challenged him to baptism afterward and he said yes! But he has to talk with his parents. And he came to church yesterday!! I pray everything works out!

 

Answer time:

1.We don´t have a mamita but a sweet lady in the ward does our laundry so that`s so nice

2.The food is mas o menos good (see above) But when it´s good, it`s GOOD

3.Food is chicken, fish, spaghetti, potatoes, pretty much anything with a lot of carbs they serve us. Hence that extra ticket once again haha

4. The toilet paper is fine thanks. It`s called comfort here which makes me giggle a little

5. The water is good and clean from the tap! I drink it everyday! Hence why I´m alive right now

6.We have good warm showers, except for the day we ran out of gas and it was really cold.

7. I enjoy my compañera but it´`s hard being with someone all day everyday sometimes. Especially when they don`t speak your language and I don`t think she understands how hard it is for me sometimes.. But so good so far!

8. I am SOOOOOOOO happy I´m here! SO happy! It`s really hard not being able to say what I want when I want and not understanding but I know that in teh end it`ll be totally worth it so YES, fullhearted YES I´m happy!

9. I am warm enough for now. I can feel winter coming so I will keep you updated but I know I´m going to have to buy a coat

10. No fleas!!!! Knock on wood.. But I´m safe so far!

11. (see answer for mamita)

12. Send packages to the mission home, the address is on my blog. Speak of which can you be sure to send more of those eye drops because I only brought enough for 9 months of the mission, also prenatal vitamins for my hair if you can!

13. See above

14. My bed is more or less comfy I haven´t really thought about it so I´d say that`s good!

15. We email from different spots. Right now Im in this really crappy place where the computers are in the smallest little cubbies and my elbows are cramped. I don´t know why my compañera chose this place. Also the key board is broken so sorry for so many mispelled things, I don´t have the patience to keep backspacing.

 

The cool thing about being a missionary is talking with people who have serious, real life problems. They have worries, doubts, needs and seeing the gospel of Jesus Christ is the solution to all. I love that I don´t have to convice, argue, persuade, trick. Missionaries aren´t salesmen, we`re saVesmen (saves(wo)men). This gospel is such a marvellous message. I´m so blessed to be a part of this great work! The spirit really does it all, not us, and man what a comfort that is!

 

I miss you all and hope everything is going well!!! Give the cats a kiss for me!

Con todo el amor en mi corazon,

Hermana Evans



Apartment in Quillota

Kitchen area

Bathroom

 

Street in Quillota

 

Viva La Vina!

March 12, 2014

From: Secretario Misión Chile Viña del Mar <secretariomv@outlook.com>
Date: March 12, 2014, 7:34:37 AM PDT
To: "claytonevans24@gmail.com" <claytonevans24@gmail.com>
Subject: Sister Evans

Dear Evans Family,

Your daughter arrived safely and is now with us in the mission field, we are grateful to have her here.

Here is a picture of her.

Elder Miles y Elder Truman
Secretarios Ejecutivos
Misión Chile Viña del Mar
4 Norte 1112 | 68315332

March 17, 2014

Hola mi bonita familia!!!

Ok first off I`m sorry I didn´t have a chance to write last week! Pday is Tuesday at the CCM but we left for Viña on Tuesday so we couldn`t write and then Pday here is Monday, hence por què I am writing you ahora. So expect my emails on Mondays now!!

Ok so first my last week at the CCM was fantastic! I was so sad having to say goodbye to all my amazing maestros and district!! My district was seriously my best friends and after spending like everyday all day with each other for 6 weeks we got really close. Luckily most of us will be at BYU afterward so we`ve already planned our reunion. 

BUT THE BEST NEWS IN THE WORLD: So Fernando, the guy we contacted who then came to church with the Hermanas?? So we saw him again on our last saturday there about to have a lesson with the Hermanas and we talked with him for a little while. He`s doing great. Then we ran into the Hermanas the next day after our evening devotional and guess what?! HE'S GETTING BAPTIZED!!! How cool is that?? Our first contact! Obviously we had nothing to do with the decision, that`s all the Lord and the Hermanas, but still, our first contact!! We were super excited! I don`t know how many people can say they contacted a person who got baptized before they even left the MTC. Super cool.

Answer time: I ended up buying a new camera at the mall, so I have one and I`ve been taking pictures! It`s shock proof and water proof so hopefully it`ll withstand. I`ll be sure to send them to you. Also that sucks you can`t whiten the acrylic on my tooth because my teeth are whiter than the color. But just barely, honestly I`m probably being dramatic because I always want everything to be perfect. I`ll just figure something out when I`m back.

So I made it to Viña!!! And it`s everything I ever imagined. When we first arrived we went to the clock like you saw in the picture they sent you. Then they gave us all Book of Mormons and an address for the mission home and were like ok, so you guys need to find your way, hand out the Book of Mormon and get a reference before you arrive. So we were like alright let`s go! It really wasn`t as bad as it sounds. The people here are so nice and willing to help and Hma. Watt and I were able to get 4 references on our way!

Our mission president is awesome!! I love him and his wife! Sad story time: We`re not allowed to drink coke. I may have let out an audible `what!`at orientation (hashtag oops)... Because I may or may not have drank it on our pdays at the CCM and it`s totally the same as mexican coke.. AKA the best thing in the world. It`s ok I´m over it now.

The area I`m serving in right now is called Quiotta. I think that`s how you spell it at least. But it`s not by the ocean. I know my heart may have cried a little, but I`m over it now too. My compañera is Hma. Huaman and is from Peru. She`s 24 and speaks hardly any english so I`m forced to speak the español 24/7 which is good because I know I`ll learn faster but can be really frustrating at times because my vocabulary is still limited. I can barely understand anything anyone says though. Also it is with a very heavy heart that I must report that Chile has been infected with a terrible mumbling epidemic. Everyone has it. I think they think the cure is to talk as fast as they can, so everyone speaks WAY WAY WAY fast. And that is not even an exaggeration. But it doesn`t help. In fact it makes it much worse. Hma. Huaman tells me that she even has a hard time understanding them and she`s a Latiña! I don`t know if that`s suppose to make me feel better or worse.. It`s like I`m talking on a cell phone that keeps cutting out every few seconds. I can get words here and there but not enough to piece much together of what is going on. So when it`s my turn to speak in lessons, I just bare my testimony because honestly I really don`t know what more I can do. 

We had intercambios (aka splits) on friday so I went to another area called San Pedro. We were suppose to teach the first lesson to this family but when we got there they were having lots of family problems because the mom has had to go back to work so she has a lot more responisbilities and the kids don`t like it because now they have to help out around the house more and she`s never home so they all were in a huge fight. Something like that.. Like I said I can`t understand much.. So when my compañera who also didn`t speak english looked at me I just testified. It was really cool because afterward the mom looked at me and was like `Wow. For someone who can`t understand, you sure can speak well.` That made me feel really good because I know I don`t speak well but it meant that she could feel the spirit through my broken words so once again I am EXTREMELY grateful for the language of the spirit. 

The area here is pretty poor. It`s wierd, we go into some houses and they don`t even have floors, its just like concrete and gravel and the walls are just wooden boards and then we go into a house on the next street over and it`s like a normal house on the inside. I don`t really get it, but it`s really humbling to see and it`s cool to see how the gospel applies to everyones life.

Church on sunday was great. Once again I didn`t understand much but eveyone is so kind and patient! The ward is really small. I counted about 50 people in sacrament. Also they don`t have a pianist so guess who`s the wards new sacrament pianist?? Yup, I am! 

We walk a lot which I enjoy and eat chicken and rice everyday which I also LOVE! Everyone is so kind and generous!

I love my scriptures so much! They`re AMAZING!!! Like seriously, have these things been here my whole life??? I wish I would have realized how wonderful they are before! 

I love you all so much! I hope everything is sunny and wonderful in California! It`s starting to get kind of chilly here at night so winter is coming soon. You are all in my prayers and I love hearing from you every week! Just know I`m doing well, healthy, and happily struggling to speak and understand spanish. I take a lot of comfort in the scripture that says I the Lord and bound when you do what I say. So I`m doing all I can do so He will do all He can do, which is anything so I think I`m in good hands.

Sending you all a warm Chilean ambrazo!

Con todo el amor en mi corazon,

Hermana Evans :)

 

 

 

Me and Hermana Watt before transfer in Vina

Vina Del Mar Mission Home

View of Vina

 

 

One More Week To Go In The Santiago CCM

 

March 4, 2014

 

Hola mi familia fabulosa!

First, I love you guys! I hope everything is going well!! I'm so happy to hear that you guys finally got rain!! I know that was an answer to prayers! This past week has been awesome although I'm beginning to doubt that you can have a bad week when you're a missionary! But I apologize for this novel ahead of time.

 

Last week on Pday we found this little store that sells these super cool leather scripture cases that you can have them make custom for you! So I ordered one and we get to go pick it up when we're done emailing!! It'll have my name on the front and my mission down the spine with the picture of the santiago temple on the front and one of Christ on the back! I'm so excited to get it! I may or may not have dreamed about it a few times this week.

COOL STORY TIME...After Pday last week we had to go out into the calle (or as us lighter skinned people like to call it: street) and practice introducing the Book of Mormon to real people! So Hma. Watt and I go out and are like ok how the heck are we suppose to do this? I mean have you heard our spanish? It´s pretty broken but at least I can speak it ok and she can understand it ok so we make a pretty good team... Anyway we see this guy walking down the street so we´re like ok let´s just go talk to him and see where it goes. So we go over and I ask if he has a few minutes to talk and he's like yeah and we tell him we´re representatives of Jesus Christ and ask if he believes in Jesus and he does but doesn't go to church. It was really hard to understand him and we kept having to ask him to slow down. It was so nice though because he just kept asking us questions so we thankfully didn't have to work hard to engage him. He was like oh you´re North Americans and started asking if we were married and stuff and if we can only marry Mormons.  Then he asked about church and if it´s like mass and stuff and we´re just trying our best to answer his questions. We ask if he wants to come to church and that could be cool! But we didn´t know what time it was here so we brought him down to meet our teacher and were able to get his phone and address! So we got a referral! The first person we talked to! It was seriously the best feeling ever! THEN fast forward to Sunday. We´re sitting in sacrament waiting for testimony meeting to start when Presidente Doll calls us out to the hall. Guess who was standing there with some Hermanas?? Fernando! He came to church!! He stayed all three hours and told me he really liked it! He said that the Hermanas have been teaching him at his house this past week too! Seriously I have never felt such SWEET JOY!!!! I pray for him every night that he will keep progressing. I´m so grateful that the Lord trusts us enough to have let Fernanado´s mind be open to this beautiful message when we talked to him on the street, even when we really didn´t share anything that spiritual. It really taught me that even through broken teeth and broken spanish the Lord does work through you to touch the heart of others. You just have to open your mouth even when you have no clue what to say and the Lord will help you! I´m so much more excited to get out into the field now! 

Also this past week we started all Spanish in classes so now our teachers only speak spanish and actually only even know a little english at that, but it´s not as hard as I thought it would be. Friday we went to the temple for the last time as it is closed in March for cleaning so  it was probably my last time for the next 17 months, which is just the saddest thought ever. But it´s worth not going to the temple for that long if I can give other people the chance to feel its peace by bringing the gospel to them. AND I did the session ALL in spanish too! No headphones for this gringa! And when I say all I really mean ALL! I was watching, listening, talking the español the entire time, with the help of the workers of course!

SHOUTOUT to Aleigh and Hunter who ALSO went to the temple this past week and were sealed!! I´m SOO happy for you guys! I wish I could have been there but I LOVE you both and can´t wait to hear all about it! I ate the cake at lunch that day in celebration.

Also SHOUTOUT to Uncle Kel who I believe had a birthday this week! How many times have you turned 29 now?? ;)

Sundays here are too awesome! We had Elder Evans and his wife come and address us. And yes--He is as awesome as he sounds. He´s a member of the first quorum of the 70 and over all the missionaries and CCMs in the world. He gave an awesome talk on the doctrine of the family. I mean we had Elder Rasband a few weeks ago and then Elder Evans this week?? What is this the Provo MTC?? I love it.  Also I bore my testimony on Sunday in SPANISH! I mean how could I not after Fernando came to church! At least now if I can't learn anymore spanish for the rest of my mission I can bare my testimony at the end of my homecoming and everyone will still think I´m fluent.

Then yesterday I FINALLY got my tooth fixed! Hma. Watt and I caught a cab by ourselves and went to the office. It was funny because in the car we tried to talk to the driver about the church, like nothing big just basic small talk, but apparently he didn´t believe in Jesus Christ and then dropped us off a ways from the actual office. Oh well, you win some and you lose some, but we found it and it was a really nice place! In my head I had imagined some dark little room with a single bare light bulb and a table with an assortment of steak knives instead of dental tools. Not the case. And the dentista spoke english too! So that made it so much easier! He said he could either do a veneer or redo the acrylic covering so he did the latter and I´m as good as new! It´s not exactly perfect--the color is not quite as white as the rest of my teeth but it is pretty darn close. No one notices unless they´re like me and staring at it a inch from a mirror. BUT if you ever do send a package and want to include some white strips so I can even it out perfectly I would love you forever.

KK that´s awesome about lacrosse! You´re such a beast! I wish I could be there for some of your games! Also it was super awesome to get your email! Just keep a playlist of all your awesome tunes and then when I get back we´ll jam and you can catch me up!  Also keep the emails coming I love them! And I always will have time to read yours!

I don´t know when I´ll get to email next since next week at this time I´ll be on my way to Viña and I don´t know when Pday is there. But if you don´t hear from me on Tuesday don´t worry, there will be one coming as soon as I can!

I love you all and I love being a missionary!

Peace, love, and empanadas

Hermana Avans
(I have a maestro who consistently likes to spell my name this way haha)

MTC map of Chile



Santiago, Chile Temple

Santiago MTC

District 3 in the MTC

Por, Para and Pure

February 25, 2014

 

Hola mi familia encatadora!

 

This past week has been fabulosa! Can you believe tomorrow is our month mark?? I can't believe I only get to do this like 17 more times! Actually not going to lie, I'm kind of glad I won't be doing the CCM thing specifically for 17 more months.. The routine of the same classes everyday Mon-Sat is getting kind of old. I'm NEVER complaining about school again! Only two weeks left though! But my district is AWESOME so thank goodness for that! The other day we decided our district is legitly  ¨The Office¨. En serio, there's like no better way of explaining us. We got Michael (who ironically is our District Leader), Dwight, Jim/Ryan, Kevin, Andy, Oscar, Pam, Karen, Kelly, and Phyllis. Guess which one I am! Haha. We were dying at how accurately we all fit into the description! I swear the things the Elders get into are seriously as ridiculous as some of the things they do on the show. Ex: Shower Olympics. It's hard to have withdrawls from your favorite show when you feel like you´re living it! We quote it all the time in class and the Maestros are always like ¨What? Who´s Michael??¨ Bahaha it's too great. We've already planned an Office marathon when we´re all back in Utah.

 

The most exciting thing this week was last wednesday when I was eating breakfast. They have the loveliest peaches here so I was eating one but I cut it up so I was eating it with a fork (I know what you´re thinking--this IS the most exciting story ever, but wait! It gets better) When all of the sudden, I go to take a bite and miss my mouth and hit my front tooth with the fork--AND it chips off half the enamel on my front tooth! Then this was the day they were having huge leadership conferences so no one was even here for me to go tell! But don't worry, I have an appointment to go get a crown first thing March 3rd. The dentist is out of town. It's fine though! When it happened I thought I lost all of the bottom of my tooth--like Lloyd Christmas from Dumb and Dumber.  But it's only chipped. So I only look like half a homeless hillbilly. Some of the Elders are pushing for me to get a gold crown on it but I think I'll have to pass--even though I have a feeling I'll regret this once I get home and become a famous rapper. It's fine though, I'll worry about that in a year and a half.

 

The temple on friday was as lovely as ever! Spanish is coming along. We learned Por vs Para and I swear it's of the devil. It's so hard to get it and then it doesn't even follow it's own rules half the time.  Also all the elders are obsessed with Pure (pronounced Pu-day, the r makes a d sound in spanish because it´s not already complicated enough) which is mashed potatoes and I swear they work it into EVERY sentence. But I guess it makes sense since the Chileans seem to work it into every meal. The hardest thing about spanish is that we learn all this grammar and rules and then we go to speak and the teachers are always like if you follow the rules you´re going to be wrong. I´m at the point where I just want to get out to the field so I can hear it all the time and just learn how people speak because obviously the rules are not getting us very far.   I got to say the closing prayer in sacrament on sunday and I think only just a few of the Latinos ears bled at my terrible accent and eloquent use of grammar!

The funniest thing happened yesterday at the park. Hermana Watt and I were just walking around and we always say hi to all the Chileans on their way to work and this one lady passes us and goes ¨Guten Morgen¨  (aka Good morning in German) so I say Guten Morgen back and she stops and starts talking to us really excitedly. Only we´re not understanding ANYTHING which was kind of discouraging because usually I can at least pick out SOME words. And then i realize she's speaking German! She was asking if we were from Germany so I just responded in spanish because at this point all my languages are confused. So I said that we´re from the Estados Unidos and she's just like 'oh'. Ciao! and keeps walking. Haha it was so funny! At least I'm sure my German ancestors were very proud of that moment.

 

Also could you send me some ab workouts and stuff? I'm running out of ideas and the Chileans don´t look anywhere close to running out of pure so.. . BUT I´ve lost 2 pounds somehow so that´s nice!

 

I hope everything is going well back home! Have you guys got rain yet?? Everything here is good! I'm happy and healthy, even if I´m missing part of my tooth.. Only TWO WEEKS left and then I´m a real missionary!! I can't wait! I love this gospel SO much! I love you all and can't wait to hear from you again! I have some extra time so I'll try to send some pictures as well!

Con todo el amor en mi corozon,

Hermana Evans :)

Fish and chips, Chile style!

Yummiest Gelato ever!

 

District 3 in the Santiago MTC

Sister Watts and Me

Atlanta 15 group

 

Teach Them To Smile!

February 18, 2014

Hola mi familia bonita!

I love getting your emails! It´s like when you have your favorite t.v show so you´re always looking forward every week for the new episode and what´s going to happen next! Since I obviously can´t keep up with Vampire Diaries right now this is the next best thing and I love it!

 

So I was suppose to write you earlier today but we had a surprise visit slash (I can´t find the slash button) devotional from Elder Rasband, the President of the Quorum of the 70! And guess who was sitting in the front row not 5 feet from him?? THIS HERMANA! It was amazing! He and Elder Ballard and some other general authorities are here for some conferences and had a temple session today but when he found out that they had all these general authorities and no one was planning on talking to the missionaries he called an audible as he put it and came to address us! He's amazing! He had nothing planned so just did a Q&A kind of thing and was awesome! He taught us whenever we have a question whether one of our own or from an investigator, to think of a scripture first because though our opinion is important it doesn´t hold a candle to the words of the Lord. So for all our questions he would have us think of a scripture first. I was so impressed! He would pull scriptures off the top of his head and each and every one of them answered the questions so perfectly! It was so amazing at the end when he was testifying of this work and the role we get to play. I love being a missionary! He ended by telling us when Pres. Hinckley called him to the Presidency and the big question he asked him was ¨Does the testimony of Jesus Christ burn in your bosom (sp?) like it did when you were a young missionary?¨ I loved this question because it made me think of what I feel each and everyday out here. I want you to know that the fire is lit within me! My testimony is burning and will continue to burn for the rest of my life! At then end his wife made a comment which I loved. She simply told us to Teach Them How To Smile. Because when you trust in the Lord, you know how to smile. I LOVE THAT! AHH It was awesome!

 

So this week hasn't been super eventful. Life at the CCM is pretty much the same. Class from 10-10. I'll never complain about school again! There's this sweet couple that sells fruit and stale cookies at the corner down from our class room so my compañera and I always call her down and buy strawberries through the fence. Oh my gosh the fruit here is AMAZING!! The strawberries are divine and I´m pretty sure the plums came straight off the tree of life! I'm in heaven!! The food here is good too and beige. Seriously everything they serve is that color but I really like it so no complaints!

I love my compañera SO MUCH! She's seriously my best friend and we laugh all the time! We draw a lot of attention as the only blondes here but it´s nice to not be alone! Though it gets hard (the CCM, schedule, spanish, being blonde) it is such a relief to go through it with someone you just love! And my district is AWESOME as well!! We are seriously all best friends and as excited as I am to get to Viña, it´ll be so sad to say goodbye to everyone! We´re seriously like a family!

 

To answer your questions about my sickness, I just had a really bad cold so it wasn´t anything fatal but I wouldn´t suggest mixing it with eye infections.. BUT I´m all clear and healthy now! They said the eye infections must have been from like stress and dust in the air.. I don´t know. But it doesn't matter because I´m healthy and going strong! Also I was told there's a place here that I can buy a converter so I´ll check it out when we leave to go out in the wild world in a few minutes! Also a tip for packages if you do ever need to send one.. they say to put a bunch of crosses and like Virgin Mary stickers and stuff over and then the people here won´t touch it.. I don´t know if that really works but fun fact!

 

I love that you and dad went to the temple of Valentine´s Day! You guys are the cutest! This year Jesus was my valentine! I get to go back to the temple again on Friday so I´m WAY excited!

 

I´m kinda sad about my car but I knew this day would come! I'm not sure whether I want to wish you luck on selling it or not haha it was good to me minus the times it wouldn't start but I´m sure I´ll never have a car again whose seats are as comfortable!

 

Tell everyone hello from me and that I love them! Wish Stacey a happy birthday from me as well!! I love you all and I love getting your emails! They brighten my day!

 

Con todo el amor en mi corozon!

 

Hermana Evans

Second Week In The Mission Training Center/ Am I at the MTC or Spanish Camp????

February 11, 2014

 

Hola familia!!
 

This past week has been absolutely wonderful overall!! I just love being here at the CCM (Centro de Capacation (sp?) Misional aka MTC) so much! I seriously feel like I'm living in the temple even though the temple is seriously like 20 yards from the building I'm in right now. It's awesome!! I feel the happiest I¨ve ever been in my life!  My trials here, unlike most people´s, have been more physical than mental.  Getting here was exhausting and then this past week I got pretty sick AND conjunctavitis (sp?) in both eyes.. Because just learning spanish by itself isn´t hard enough.  BUT it only lasted like 4 days and I´m all better now so no worries!  The Elders in my district who I just LOVE were so sweet and one night asked if they could give me a blessing.  The blessing brought back in the peace and comfort that I really needed and after going to the doctor my eyes were cleared up really quickly!  I feel so blessed to be surrounded by such amazing Elders and I know the power of Priesthood is real.  It´s such a blessing to all of us and I can´t wait to share the happiness it brings to our lives with the people in Viña! 
 

The temple here is SOOO amazing!  We saw the B film as they called it when I was a temple worker, so the one I saw when I went through for the first time. Only this time we were the ones with headphones so we could hear it in english.  I didn´t really wear mine though because I wanted to see how much I could understand on my own and luckily I understood a lot of it!  I don{t know if it was because I´ve just seen it a lot of times and already knew in my mind or if my spanish is getting better but it was still soo cool!! 
 

Spanish lessons have been going slow but well!  I feel so blessed to have been able to take as much spanish as I did before I got here!  I feel like the Lord was preparing me for this long before I even knew this would be a possibility for me.  It´s funny, in class I feel like I have a hold on the language enough to communicate and understand but then we go out onto temple grounds to practice talking with real people I can hardly understand what people are saying!  They talk SO FAST!!!  But are so kind and patient!  I can definitely speak it a lot better than understand but hopefullly as time goes on it will get better.  We continue to teach lessons to "investigators" which are really our teachers and they have been going so well!!  Hermana Watt (mi compañera) and I love teaching our teacher Hermana Cabrera (who is AMAZING by the way, she served in London, and is just so amazing!!  I hope one day to be someone like her) Whenever we teach her the spirit is so strong and when we committed her to baptism we were all in tears!  She gives us a lot of confidence with teaching, especially in spanish. Last night we were teaching her aka ¨Karen¨ who is an inactive member and it was our first visit so we just wanted to get to know her.  We had a little message planned which we had put a lot of time into planning and translating but as we were talking to her and she was explaining her situation we realized our lesson wasn´t what she needed to hear.  I looked at Hermana Watt and she knew too and what happened next was INCREDIBLE!!  Hermana Watt was able to relate a story of one of her friends back home who went through a similar situation but came out on top and do it all in spanish! Hermana Watt took a few years of spanish in school too but doesn{t remember anything so it´s been really hard for her to speak and understand.  Plus I think she gets embarrassed easily so she gets a little fearful and quiet in lessons when we go off script.  But she did it!!  It wasn´t perfect of course but the second she started speaking the spirit came into the room so quick and so strong and she was able to get her message across.  Then I was able to testify of forgiveness and how Christ is always waiting for us with his arms outstretched.  It was crazy! Words came out of my mouth that I didn{t even know I knew in spanish!  In that moment I truly learned that as important the Spanish language is so I can communicate with the Chilean people, the language of the spirit is MOST IMPORTANT!  Because they can understand spanish with their ears, but they will understand the spirit with their heart and that is how people learn and change.  I know these little lessons are just practice, but they are very real to us missionaries and it´s experiences like that that make me so excited to get out in the field!!  Spanish is hard but honestly it´s never been a concern to me here!  Ever since I´ve got set apart I just feel so at peace about it and know that it´s going to come with time and work.  And trust me, I´m working!! 
 

Sundays here at the CCM are SO AMAZING!!!  In one of our morning classes we get to watch devotionals of when general authorities spoke to the Provo MTC and this past week we watched Jeffrey R. Holland´s address from January 2011!  Oh.My.Gosh. We all know Holland is AMAZING but this one was soooo WONDERFUL!!  He spoke about Preach My Gospel and what a powerful, inspired tool it is for us missionaries.  And it is.  I love it so much!  But the most powerful part was at the end when he spoke about Peter and the apostles after Christ died and they went back fishing.  He used the story in one of his past conference talks about feeding sheep so it was kind of familiar to me already, but as a missionary it took on so much more meaning.  He spoke of when Jesus asked Peter if he loved him and Peter is like of course and Jesus goes on to ask him the question 2 more times (3 was probably a sensitive number to Peter at this time..) But as Elder Holland was saying ¨Do you love me? THEN FEED MY SHEEP¨ His deliverence of those words.. I swear it was not Elder Holland anymore, it was Christ using Elder Holland´s body speaking directly to me.  I lost it.  I never have felt the spirit so strong!  You know, that really is the question for all eternity.. ¨Do you love Him?¨ I cannot be, I cannot say, I cannot become the missionary I need to be, that Heavenly Father knows I can be, unless I love Him.  And I do!!  Please know that I love my Savior SO MUCH and with ALL MY HEART!!  I could not be here, doing the things I´m doing, speaking the foreign words I´m speaking if I did not love Him.  The most humbling part of the talk was when he said ¨We have a world in trouble but you´re God´s answer.  You are the Hope of Isreal and you´re 19 years old.¨  I feel so blessed to be here, to be a missionary.  I feel so blessed that God trusts me enough to give me this responsibility and I will always do my best to live up to this wonderful calling!
 

Hermana Watt and I also taught Relief Society this week!  She taught on repentence and I taught on baptism!  I couldn´t help but think of you mom and how awesome you´re talk was on baptism a few weeks ago!  I may have stole a few things you said, I hope you don{t mind :)  Everyone came up afterward and said really nice things about the lesson so I think it went well. 
 

Classes continue to go well.  We have class 12 hours a day, 6 days a week so it´s a lot but I love it!  For P-day today I tried my first authentic empanadas and they were awesome!!   And we found a gelato place which was even more awesome!!  It was just Hermana Watt and I walking the streets of Santiago and everyone was hard staring at us and all the old men would tell us how pretty our hair is, just like the sun haha!
 

Tell everyone at Tina´s hello for me!! They´re awesome and I´m not suprised the chickens love the lettuce, Tina´s is the best!!  And you´re awesome for trying to use the iphone! Sorry if you get any random texts from people for me.. haha but I know you can do it! If I can learn spanish you can learn apple language!

I love you all SO much! But I´m never returning from my mission.  I love it so much!  I´ll forever feed His sheep.  I hope everything is going well for you all and you´re ín my prayers multiple times a day!!  I can´t wait to hear from you next week!!
 

Con todo el amor en mi corozon!

Hermana Evans
 

P.S. Again sorry if I sound like a crazy person because I don{t have time to read through it

 

Santiago MTC building

 

Santiago, MTC

Santiago, Chile Temple

 

First week in Chile MTC

February, 4, 2014

Hola mi familia!

So today, Tuesday, is our P-day officially!! And I{m going to apologize beforehand for my terrible spelling and random characters because like I said the key board is in spanish so things are not where they are suppose to be. Also this will probably be a novel because I have SO MUCH to catch you guys up on. But I{m sure you guys will survive ¨:) Ok so the airport story, I don{t remember everything I told you on the phone so sorry there is some repeats! Anyway I get to Atlanta and eventually there are like 14 other missionaryies there all going to Chile MTC or CCM as it is in spanish. Our flight was delayed a few hours then we finally get on and taxi for 2 and a half hours before we´re told we have to deplane because of the snow. It´s seriously was like two inches.. and had to sleep in the airport! Crazy! But I guess how many people get to say they had a sleepover with the Elders on their mission haha so that was fun! We didn{t really sleep though. We tried to pass time by going and riding the plane train but it was closed :( So the flight was rescheduled then delayed then delayed then delayed then delayed then cancelled. Meanwhile we met a bunch of kids our age going to Belize to do humanitarian aide for their church and so we talked with them for a while and Hermana Francen and I were able to give one of them a Book of Mormon and I just bore a short testimony of it{s truthfulness so I guess the airport stay wasn{t totally for nothing. Then we were rerouted through Lima to finally get to Santiago. So 29 hours later from when we were suppose to leave we boarded the plane to Lima which actually did take off. I think I forgot planes could do that anymore at that point.. So crazy! But honestly I couldn{t have been with a better group of Hermanas and Elders! I love them all so much and no one once said anything negative. Whenever something was delayed it was just like ok well we{ve alrady been here a day a few hours won{t hurt us anymore. So finally in Lima we have to get on a flight to Sanitago but they didni{t have enough room for all of us so we had to slip into two groups one with a 6 hours layover there and then my group had a 17! But not really because thankfully we were able to swithc to a earlier flight so we were only there like 6 hours or so and the other group like 3. The other plane{s wheel broke though so they were delayed too so we got to spend more time together. I mean of course the wheel would break right? Luckily we got on our flight which was only like 3 hours and finally made it to Santiago a few hours behind the others, but guess what didn{t make it.. our luggage! So we spent like 3 hours trying to talk to this guy in our broken spanish and his broken english if he could find our luggage. It was so frusturating at that point becuaes he was just working really slowly and inefficiently just how it seemed everyone who we had tried to get us to help us had been since like day 1. Notice the use of the word day because I left Tuesday morning and we didn{t get to Chile until Thursday night. All I got to say is Satan must really not want us here. I mean snow in Atlanta and shutting down the entire airport and roads?? A wheel breaking? Our luggage getting lost?? Taking 2 days to get to Chile?? It was a lot more dramatic then it really needed to be! But I am here! And my luggage arrived Friday night so thankfully I only had to go one more day without anything. That was such a relief!!Anyway I{m here now and just love it!! I{m pretty sure the Chile CCM is the greatest MTC on the earth!! The Santiago Temple is in the same square so we{re living on temple grounds! Seriously the only thing that seperates the temple from our front door is a fountain! How cool is that! And we get to go tomorrow so I{m super excited!! It´s super small, like probably as big as our stake center. I´ll try to send pictures if I can but it´s beautiful! Classes are going really well! Hermana Watt and I taught our first lesson yesterday and it went great! The spirit was really strong we were both in tears and we asked ¨Carolina¨¨ the investigator who{s really our teacher, if she would get baptized and she said possibly! Our second lesson didn{t go as well but it was still good, we just ran out of time. Spanish is really hard. It gets so frusturating sometimes because they expect us to teach in spanish and stuff but they haven{t even gone over verb congurating yet! I{m so glad I took so much spanish in school because I have so grasp of what is going on and able to do a lot of the talking for us. But I have so much work to do! Thankfully though I can fully pray and bear a simple testimony in spanish so at least I have that. Food is good. Basically it{s pasta, meat, and rice everyday and they serve the same stuff for lunch and dinner although sunday they threw us a curve ball and had mashed potaotes. It{s good but bland. Oh and the bread is FABULOUS! Hermana Watt and I have limited ourselves to every other day at dinner because that stuff is dangerous! It was funny, for dessert yesterday they had chocolate empanadas but I guess they accidently mixed up the powdered sugar to sprinkle on top with baking soda! I bit into one and was like Woah! Not what I was expecting.. Then they came around and were collecting them so we figured there was something not right. Don{t worry though they fixed it for dinner and they were DELICIOUS!!

Also at the CCM here they have a laundry service so we don{t have to do our own laundry which is aweosme! This sweet old lady, Blanca, does it for us and she speaks the fastest spanish I{ve ever heard in my life so I just keep telling her gracias. And for P-day which is today they let us leave the CCM and walk around Santiago! It{s so beautiful here! I love it! Hermana Watt and I bought some pan chocolate which is like a croissant with chocolate and jugo Mango which is mango juice although I{m sure you figured that out. SOO SOO GOOD!! Also for our physical activity in the morning since there{s not a gym here we get to go down to one of the parks for an hour! It{s really cool they have exercise equipment outside set up so it reminds me of like a child{s playground but for health conscious adults. I love it! Everyone here is super friendly and loves our blonde hair haha. It was so funny the other day Hermana Watt and I were just standing outside our class room building during one of our breaks. The building is inside this gate but right next to the sidewalk of one of the busy streets so people are always walking by. Anyway this couple was walking by and they pulled out their phone and starting taking pictures of us! So I just smiled and posed haha I hope it ends up on instagram! #BlondesCanSpeakSpanish.

Church on sunday was awesome! How many times to you get to be in a fast and testimony meeting full of only missionaries? So awesome! I thought fasting for the full 24 hours would be hard but I fasted to not be hungry and really it was a lot easier then fasting has ever seemed before. The testimonies were awesome even though I could really only understand when the gringos were speak spanish because the chilean accent is kinda hard to distinguish the different words. I love singing the hymns in spanish! I don{t know why we even bother singing them in english when they sound so beautiful in spanish!!
The hardest thing is remembering my name is no longer Samantha. I can´t tell you how many times I´m like oh I´m Sama-- I mean Hermana Evans haha. But the name Samantha is dead to me for the next 18 months and I couldn´t be more happy to be Hermana Evans. I{m so happy to be a missionary and love the work I get to do!
I{m so happy here and doing good. Spanish is frusturating but I know it{ll be a blessing eventually and it´s only the first week. I love my district so much!! They crack me up and we´re all best friends! My companion is awesome! I seriously don´t know how I got to be so lucky! All is well even if the food is boring. I love you all and can´t wait to hear from you next week!!!

Con todo el amor en mi corazon,

Hermana Evans

PS I didn{t read through this after so I{m sorry if I sould like a crazy person..

Stop over in Peru

Hermana Watt and me in front of the Santiago temple