I'm in Chile!

March 26, 2013

Hey! I´m in Chile!!! 

The whole trip took about 2 days...ick. I am in a city called copayapo (I think that´s how it´s spelled....i don´t know haha). It´s about 8 hours south of Antofagasta. Once I arrived in Antofagasta, I had about an hour or two to meet and eat with the president, and I was off on a bus south. We arrived about 1 in the morning. It´s sooooo....weird. My companion, Hermana Garcia, is from Mexico, and guess what...yep, she doesn´t speak a word of english. It´s hard to communicate. Really hard. I feel like crying all the time because it´s so frustrating. I can speak very little with her because I know so little and she speaks so fast! I can tell she´s trying to slow down, but I´m still lost. Good thing she´s so sweet and patient. She trying to learn english, so what she does know she tries to say...but trust me, like the only words she knows is ¨whats up¨ and ¨cookies¨.  We went grocery shopping today, and that was scary! GROCERY SHOPPING...SCARY. Who would´ve thought, the simplest thing in the world. I had no idea what the prices meant or what the products even said. I recognized brands, but I couldn´t tell between shampoos and lotions...so that was fun. There are so many stray dogs here, it´s ridiculous. I´m pretty sure there was a dead one on the sidewalk last night. I couldn´t tell, but I thought it was dead. No one cares! The dogs just roam the streets eating whatever, but I expected that. I´ve only seen one or two dogs that actually belong to someone. 

It´s so hot here, I love it! But it´s so embarrassing to be the whitest person in town. I´ve already had 2 people comment on how white and skinny I am. hahaha hopefully the sun fixes my whiteness!!! The food is really sketchy because of the water they use with it. This town has the worst water (so I´ve heard) so I have to be careful, but they also said I have to get used to it somehow since that´s what they cook the food in...so I´ll be sick for a little bit. I´m not sick yet (knock on wood), but hopefully WHEN I do get sick, it´s not too bad and not too long. 

There´s so much I want to tell you! I don´t even remember everything! Oh, we visited a man named Gilberto, and he was the nicest man ever! He was so forgiving with my Spanish. He just laughed and my companion explained. It was difficult to contribute when I had no idea what they were talking about, but I just bore my testimony about the scriptures, and that seemed to be enough. Tonight we´re meeting with a familia...I hope I catch some words that fly around the room. I´m sure they talk about how gringa I am and how they could say so many things to me and all I would do is smile...hahaha.  

Anyway, the plane ride here was pretty nice. We had all three meals on the plane ride to Santiago (that´s how long it was). We had a layover in Lima, Peru, so that was cool, but I was in the very middle of the plane, I didn´t have a window seat, so I didn´t see much of Peru.  The stop was about 30 minutes. We stopped in Peru and people got off and more got on. We never got off. Oh, they love their Christina Aguliera and Avril Lavigne here!!! Hahaha that made me laugh. Most of the music 
I´ve heard is Christina, and SOOOOO many people have asked me if I like Avril Lavigne and that I even look like her.  That was something I never heard before.  My zone is great. Of course there are missionaries there who also speak English, which is muy bien! There are about 10 (??) in our zone, and only about 4 are latinos, so yeah. Anyway, I don´t have much time. I´m sure I´ll have much more to say next time! 

I expected this first transfer to be really hard. I´m already frustrated and scared, but don´t worry, I know the Lord will help me. I always have to remind myself that He will never forsake me. The people here are so nice. And guess what, it´s already a little hard to remember English! not totally, hahahahah oh boy its a long time before I´m fluent, but some of these words were hard to remember. Ok, I have to go now! 


Hermana Howell

This is the day I arrived in Antofagasta