Hey everyone... I think that I have everyone on the list, but I am not for sure... forward to anyone that I missed. Sorry for any typos... I am using a Spanish keyboard, lol.
So far, it is amazing. I am companions with Hermana Johnson, and we get along pretty dang well. The other two sisters in my district are awesome too, and then we have three elders in our district. I am the only one from the east coast. GUYS we have a problem. About the third day, the hermana from California told me that sometimes I remind her of her black friends.... eek. But, since they noticed, I went ahead and sang the chicken song for them.... I BUST THE WINDOWS OUT YOUR CARRRR... just go ahead and imagine it, it was hilarious.
We live in Alcantra, like I told you. It is a house about ten minutes away from the actual CCM (MTC). I LOVE it. I love being in the CCM here rather than in Provo. I feel like we get so much more freedom. In the mornings for exercise, we are allowed to run around Santiago. My companion doesnt like to run, so in the mornings we switch companions and Hermana Osterloh and I have found some awesome parks and places. SO FUN. Around ten we head over to the CCM and are in classes all day. I am learning to love them, lol.
Everything was going great until about Friday night, when we all had to plan our first lessons. UGH. That was horrible. My companion and I were nearly in tears it was so bad. We were SO SO frustrated because we felt like we couldn't say anything that we wanted to. We ended the day pretty frustrated. Saturday, the other hermanas were teaching an investigator for the first time, and they ended up quitting their lessons and were in tears. Its amazing though, because our teachers know EXACTLY what to say to us to help us. Saturday was definitely the hump day that everyone here was talking about... since Saturday, we all just have so much more confidence and we realize the potential that Heavenly Father sees in us. Lessons and planning are still really hard with the limited language, but it is getting a lot better as we learn what to focus our study on. Right now I can say a lot more than I expected, and I can understand even more, which is exciting.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE our Latina roommates. They are so amazing, I will miss them. They are only here for two weeks, then new ones come in. One is from Uruguay and the other is from Guatemala. One speaks absolutely no English, but the other is actually REALLY good at English... she studied it in school, so that has been super helpful. At first we really could not talk to them at all, but now we end up laughing and talking and playing charades trying to figure out what we are saying every night. They are helping us with Spanish, we help them with English, and it is perfect. The other Latinas at the CCM are super nice, too.
The CCM is right next to a church building where we have church and big devotionals or whatever, and then right next to that is el Templo (temple). It is small, but so pretty! We get to go through three sessions while in the CCM, our first one is tomorrow. My roommate from Uruguay actually hasn't gone through, so it will be her first time! She is so excited. She is a convert from 2011, but her parents actually were members, the kids just never knew. Her Dad is really dark skinned, so back when the church didn't allow everyone to hold the priesthood, the family got really offended, because some of them were dark and some were light skinned. Now her family is active again and all of the kids have been baptized, but the dad is still inactive.
Teaching our investigators is SO hard. I know more Spanish in the companionship, so we have a really hard time talking 50/50. We are getting better. Sometimes I have to translate during the lesson for Hermana Johnson, and even then, I miss so much of what is going on LOL. It will get better though, it's been less than a week LOL. Our teachers act as some of the investigators they taught on their own missions. It's crazy how much you get to care about these fake people. You just want to touch their lives so much. Three out of the four lessons we have taught have gone well. The fourth wasn't bad, our teacher said it was good, but it was my least favorite.
The food here is pretty decent. I was actually surprised at how non spicy it is. They have this hot sauce though, and I put it on everything. All the other girls think I am crazy. P Day is pretty short... it is actually only P three hours because we have so much to learn still, but I will take it lol.
Church was awesome. Its amazing how strong the Spirit can be through a sacrament meeting you actually have no idea what is being said in. It was actually fast Sunday... we fast every two weeks. Anyways, the SPIRIT here is STRONG. Love it.
I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH. Got your cute book Mom... that was my favorite. Love that little Evan... cute hand of his. Harrison, don't worry, I am not going to die. I want to send you pictures, so that is all for now! Till next week,
Hermana Kemmey.
PS Chile is beautiful, and all the people are so nice. Everyone says hi to you on the street. The other day a bunch of people were here at the temple, and we went over and practiced bearing our testimonies to them, and they all were so nice and talked to us. Granted they were all Mormons, but oh well. LOVE YOU!
