My Mission has really begun!

Hermana Agurto

This is Jamie's new Chilean Companion.

Jamie taught her to say "Peace Out" in English. She speaks no English!

9/4/2006

Sorry, i didn´t write on monday. I thought we had p day but we really didn´t becuase we had it on saturday with transfer, cambios. Sorry for my typing this key board really really sucks and doesn´t pick up all the letters. Ok so i got here on Tuesday and it was just Hermana Morphis and I. Transfers were´t until Saturday though. So, they had to put us somewhere. She stayed in Osorno and is still there. I went to Puerto Montt with two latinas, but one of them was going home and so I was only with her for one day. They didn´t speak English either. We went to people houses and they just laughed at me becuase i couldn't understand or speak anything. They would teach me words and I would repeat them and they would just laugh at me. esta bien. It was really cold and pretty, you could see the Osorno volcano from there. It was right on the water. I am glad I didn´t stay there because my comp there was eh.

The first night there was really good becuase they have two investidgaros with a baptism date and we had a testimonyish meeting and the lady announced her baptism and no one knew so it was really cool to be there for that. I couldn´t unerstand anything that was going on but you could feel the spirit. It was really cool.

The food here is really good, lots of bread, potato, rice, soup, and meat. Poor man's food. they feed you soooooooooo much. Holy Cow. The other day an old layd fed us soooooo much. We pretty much eat lunch and that is it. I am never, rarely hungry at night after lunch, usually snack.

The cars here are pretty much the same. I saw an escape yeterday. The houses are really poor though. They are not much to look at that is for sure. They are all really tiny too. Some are nice inside but they live very very simply. There are lots of dirt streets. So my shoes are a mess. Lots of muddy huge pot holes, you have never seen pot holes like there are here. wow.

Then, okay so the first week, we went back to the mission home on Friday. We received more new missionaries from the chilean mtc. They wanted to orient us all together so they didn´t have to do it more than once. President and his wife are awesome. Sshe is so happy and crazy. Their spanish is really good and they didn´t know any before. They are way awesome. They have been here for a year. So yeah then we stayed in a hotel and off we were.

It is so werid that eveyone around me think in spanish an I don´t. My comp, everythign is spanish to her. I am helping her with englih and she with my spanish.

We have to have 10 contacts each a day. So i contact people and try to tell them about the gospel in spanish, nonetheless but once they start talking then hermana has to take over because i don´t unerstand.

Oh yeah so in puerto montt I got called a barbie and some drunk guy tried to pick up on me and tell me in engilsh i am beautful, blah blah blah. Eveyone stares at me, everyone. It is my blonde hair. I way stick out. Huge. I am the only one with fair skin and blone hair. All the kid LOVE me though. It is so cute. They just gaze at me. The bishop´s son had a birthday and is 3, all the does is STAREEEEEEEEEEEE, he is my novio. We got invited to his birthday party last night. he is so adorable.

It is so funny becuase people here don´t have personal space AT ALL. WHEN YOU GREET poeple, kids and such, it is with a kiss on the cheek. Let´s just say that i have never gotten so many kisses in my life put together. That takes getting used to but esta bien.

Oh it is so humid your books crinkle, the pages. So the money is way diferent and much cheaper here. 1 mil pesos is like 2 dollars but things are super cheap, like a dvd player would be like 20 mil, 40 bucks. Ii can use my atm card but not credit so keep checking that for me.
I love Punta Arena already. It is so cold. The wind is crazyyyyyyyyyyy. This is the place they have ropes on buildings becuase it gets so bad. I haven´t seen them yet but the wind is what makes things cold. We are right on the water. It is gorgeous. The city itself is dirty but it is a cool place. I love my comp. We don´t always unerstand each other, a lot. Our best friend is my dictionary. We use it a lot. But she is great. She has been out a year, works hard and loves to teach which is great becase I can´t much becuase i can´t follow the converstaion.
My first day here, Sunday, we taught new investigators, it was so awesome.

When the spirit is with me I can understand almost everything, related to the gospel, when it isn´t here, i don´t understnad anything. It is on and off. Sometimes i follow and sometmes i don´t hear anything but sound. church was interesting. probbly 100 seats in teh chapel, no benches just chairs. no piano, just sing with voices. We had 3 families of investigaros at chruch last week, yesterday not as lucky but still.

Oh,the food is awesome, one of the investigators made us empanadas manzanas. They are like apple turn overs, mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

I had to buy some tights to wear because it is so cold. I look so fat becuase i wear 7 layers of clothes eveyday, top and bottom. I have to get a visa and so i started that last week.

We found two new families to teach last week. One of them seems really good, from what i unerstand which isn´t much. The other one is so so. We have one family with baptism date. They only bad thing is he is a stripper. But they seem to be progressing well. they accepted the word of wisdom and tithing. Even in this one week with them i have seen a change in them. it is really cool. The lord works miracles.

My comp tells me constantly paciencia no mas. I need pactience with the language. She broke down one day, missing her old comp. It was after someone was speakig english to me and then i could undestand. She feels bad she can´t help me becuase she doesn´t know english. It is better that way though. Way better becuase otherwise i would always revert back to english. She is awesome though. i have a lot of fun with her. i can´t wait until i can communicate with every one. the lord has blesed us for sure thoguh. we had an AWEOSME WEEK, lots of teaching, lots. And the lord has blessed me that i can understand my comp, i can´t understnad many people but at least i can her. That is a miracle in itself.

Yeah we had to send my suitcase here, got it last week. what a pain, oh well.
Our house i think is the nicest house in the mission, we have a like space heater thing and a gas stove thingy so our house is really warm and big. i will send pictures of it. It is nice for here.
hna agurto is teaching me all the phrases here, plus she says tons all the time, en serio, for real, esta es la cosa, this is the thing, .... the bishops nephew knows english so he translates for me SOMETIMES. I am making him read the bom in english so he doesn´t forget english, i gave him homework. It is really hard to go from english to spanish and back and forth, it takes a lot of brain work. Everybody wants to try to speak english though. If i knew spanish i could be teaching an english class, in time after i learn it i can teach english to the memebers.

oh one of our investigators wants desert recipes, send me some good ones and i can try to translate them. oh yeah, so i never know what anyone is saying or how to say anything. Their desert is usually just fruit. We were at a member´s house for lunch and the peaches tasted like soap, i was just eating it because i didn´t know what to do, hna agurto made fun of me because i didn´t say anything, i coulnd´t. she told them about it did and got us different. It was hilarious. I need to work on just talking simply with people. Each day i undestand soooooo much more. i helped teach tithing, gospel things i don´t have to think as much about what i am going to. it is really cool to say something and be like wow, i just said that. I have my parts that i am practicing saying. I try to talk to her as much as i can while we are just walking so i can practice more.

Our sector is really big and hilly so we walk a lot. We pretty much study in the mornings and go out and teach and visit from 3 to 930. It is exhausting. I have been so tired. But it so awesome. It is amazing how much i have learned in one week with her and two weeks in Chile. It is so awesome. I am going to try to end pictures now..we´ll see i don´t know