MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Today I am having one of my happiest days in the mission. I am just so content.....but me voy! I am leaving Lirquen and heading to the Zona Andalien! I am going to be with the Hermana who finished the training of Hermana Garces and who trained Hermana Vawdrey from the MTC. Pretty cool I am so excited to learn from her and see more of Chile. I am going to miss Hermana Garces that is for sure. Our companionship was almost too good to be true. I am for sure going to miss all her dreams that she tells me about every morning.

But there is so much to do today to leave. We got the phone call Monday morning...I wiped a few tears away for having to leave Lirquen and started packing and will be in my new sector tomorrow morning first thing. But yeah I did have to shake a few tears. Leaving a place where I have walked the streets for over 4 months bright and early till 10 at night every day. It is hard to not be attach. I am going to miss Franco so much. He is a reference from our Bishop and he has been to church once already. He is the best! He was so down to hear I had to leave but we told him that when he gets baptized he will just have to send me  picture and he said yes :) We taught him the Plan of Salvation this past Sunday. He was all over it and before we even taught him he was teaching us from just what he thought on his own. He had thought there had to be a judgment to measure how good we were in this life. To compare the 10 good things in your life to the 5 bad. His heart and mind are so opened to the spirit and he tries so hard to meet with us. Even though he works on a lot of Sundays we to our best to make it work. Last Sunday he could not come to church because he was working at this restaurant. So we went in after church to tell him what he missed and how we missed him. And he taught us how to fold those cool napkins that are on the plates at restaurants . Now I can toss that special skill on my resume ;)

But as for my Christmas! I got to Skype my awesome family! I got to see beast family videos of my little sister tearing up the basketball cort and my awesome sister in Mexico stole my idea. Because she Skyped home firs, she had mom and dad record a message from her to me to watch when it was my turn. I was going strong with not crying till I had to say goodbye. My fam is the best!

This past Monday Hermana Garces and I had found ourselves in charge of this huge service project for our Zone. We organized a service dinner with the local police station. We had a dinner, choir, Christmas 

cards, videos, and great conversation for those without a home this Christmas. It was a tone of stress to put together. We had built a giant tree for decorations and had to run across town with it in our hands to the school that was where we were hosting the dinner. But when you are two Gringas in Chile people show you a lot of mercy. We ended up throwing our tree in the back of some random persons truck and the activity was beautiful. Lots of smiles!

If you have not been able to tell my mind is so scattered but full of so much happiness to share. Thanks for all your love and support and start off the new year with those who matter most!

Hermana Mckenzie Lance 

FELIZ NAVIDAD

Being on the mission during Christmas is awesome! We have had so many experienced we would not have if the spirit of Christmas was not there to unite us in conversation with others. So much has happened! We had a great big Christmas program with the band of the police station. They threw me on the front row with a triangle with no more information then to play what feels right. So you can see from the picture that I had a lot of fun with it and got some fun comments about it at the end.

We had an activity at the church too. The missionaries built that giant tree you can see. It took forever but the kids and families loved it. We had an investigator come. Marcela!!! She is awesome. She is the Tia to a member who usually goes out with us to visit people. All of our plans had fallen and she said that she knew where to go. So we just started to follow her. She took us to the house of her Tia. But not the Tia Marcela. Her other Tia. But she was not home and she paused a little bit bummed and then continued walking, saying I knew there was a reason I wanted to come here. Her Tia Marcela lives more up the same road. Marcela has heard from the Missionaries plenty of times and knows how everything works. So she just giggled when she saw us coming to her door. But she gave us the shot and we all got along so darn well. We were laughing and crying and sharing parts of our lives so special to us in just half an hour of knowing each other. She accepted fetcha (baptism date)!! She works out in the country on the weekends so it will be a process to get her to church but she says she wants to do it and do it FOR REAL this time (I hope you like my English translation). The member

we were with se llama Jackie was amazing to have there. She has been out with us many times before but never felt so strongly to visit Marcela. It was the perfect day and perfect message that He is the Gift (the huge Christmas video of the church) and a worthy member lista to respond to the promptings of the spirit. Marcela is in the picture with me and the chips. She kept telling everyone at the party that I had hambre (hungry) so everyone kept giving me food. She is soo funny and I love her kind heart so very much!  But as for Christmas....give everyone a hug for me. I am so thankful for the time to represent Christ during the month we celebrate his birth. He is the perfect example on how to give. He always gave and never was the recipient. Neither did he ever expect to be. He is the only one who completed all of the will of his Father. He gave us his all and continues to give us all the peace in this life we need. He gave us everything we have. Even our talents and our time are his. So what left do we have to give...our will. Probably one of the hardest things to accept, but probably one of the biggest things we can do to show our gratitude. I love my Savior and all that he did for me and my loved ones.

Hermana Mckenzie Lance 

CHRISTMAS!!!!

It is less then 2 weeks till Christmas and it does not feel a thing like it. Other then the occasional songs we hear that bring back every little memory from our homes. But it has gotten us a lot of new people to meet and teach. Just by people being impressed how far away from home we were going to be spending Christmas.  But we are making the very best out of it. Hermana Garces and I got big, fuzzy, socks for Hermana Gamboa and Hermana Ponce in our house and we are doing the 12 days of Christmas for them every night with a little something for them to wake up to every morning. 

I hit 5 months of my mission the 16th of this month. Crazy to see how much Lirquen has changed in just the time I have been here for 4 months. And even how much change we have seen in just one week. After having a super duro week last week we had one of the very best weeks this past week!! After having to kill (stop visiting) an investigator who was not progressing he came to church ON HIS OWN this past Sunday. And told us that he was ready to take it seriously! We also went to visit Patty. The sweet lady who stood up for me getting short changed on the bus. She has two little boys. One who is 8 and the other 9. When she found out I grew up in Kentucky she got so excited. She yelled, " Kentucky Fried Chicken". I said "yeah that is it.....do you know it?" She is a pretty heavy set woman and she grabbed a fat roll (which are called completos here, meaning hot dog) and said "yeah I do, se nota (you can see)". She can not go more then 5 minutes without telling us how "linda" we are and with everything we say and family perfect this all is. But it is just the simple gospel of the Church of Jesus Christ. She knows she lacks in the religious aspect in her home and wants nothing more then for her two boys to have that in there lives. She said she usually does not speak up in situations like on the bus. But she is super glad she did y que ahora nos conocemos. 

BROMA: What does the cowboy say when he wants to call for his daughter......... HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIJAAAAAAAAAAA :) 

Love you all! 

Hermana Mckenzie Lance 

Mission Life

Oh my goodness!!!! I cannot tell you how many deep breaths I have had to take this week! We had to go from dropping loved investigators to finding solid new ones to having a father to a less active member of ours pass away. This week felt almost as long and draining as my very first week in Chile. We had to have a lot of "si o si" lessons this week. In other words, "a make it or break it lesson" where we have to decide if we can keep spending time with investigators who are not progressing enough to stay in our focus group. It is always  hard but better for everyone in the long run. Everyone has their own timing and I know I was not called to baptize a specific number of people but to give my very best. That was the calling to do everything in my ability and I know the Lord can work through these efforts.

One of which is teaching English. My comp and I have the assignment to teach English once a week to our Zone of Latinos and Gringos. It is not an easy thing for the Latinos and even though they were not thrilled with the idea we made it so fun for them all. We played ¨Do you love your neighbor¨and did relay races with spelling Christmas words. People were sweating and their was tons of dancing and cheering from a lot of the Latino Elders so I would say learning English is really turning around for them!

The name of this blog is The Gringa Life and we had one of the best stories only Gringa´s have. We were paying for a bust ticket the other day. Just to go down from the most North point in Lirquen to our house.  I was almost positive I  should have gotten a lot more change back for my peso but after asking the driver about it once I decided it was fine. The lady in line behind us said to the driver.....Sir....they may be Gringas but they are not tantos (dumb). She turned out to be an amazing contact and we have plans to visit her and her two sons in the week that is coming. And I got the correct change back.

I love you all so very much and am so thankful for the constant support. The Church is true and you are loved!

Hermana Mckenzie Lance  

Making Christmas Cookies at the Mission President's Home.

La Dia de Gracias!

 Ward costume party! Kitties & Super Women en vez de the Choose the Right sign we have Haze Lo Justo 

Of course we did not have much of a Thanksgiving but we taught our Latina house companions about some traditions. Hermana Gamboa from Peru still lives with us and now Hermana Ponce from Mexico lives with us. She is 28 and I would bet my 9 year old sister is taller than her. But we each went around our table for lunch and shared what we were thankful for. I can say that my list of thankful things have for sure changed from my time in Chile. My list ranged from my clean sink water and name brand toliet paper, to the opportunity to assist in the temple for the first time, and even though I am crazy far and in Chile, I can have MY family for eternity, 

But for right now my family is made up of Hermana Garces and I. We click so great! It is such a temptation to speak English with her so we had to make a rule to always speak Spanish in the street and we will slowly move to 100 percent Spanish. It is the funniest things when our conversations start in English and then slowly switch to Spanish and back and forth. We teach in such unity already. One time she had forgotten which lesson we were going to teach when we had entered a home. But she just wrote a quick question on her agenda in English. It is pretty fun to have secret language. 

El es la Dádiva! 

We have a wonderful project right now as missionaries and using this Christmas time to help share the gospel. It has a great video El es la Dádiva means He is the Gift. It is about the true gift Christmas. Here is the link.

http://www.mormon.org/christmas 

Happy Holidays!

P.S. I almost forgot the best part of the week! We have had a really tough week as far as finding went - we had 0 new investigators....until Friday. And Friday we found 6 news! And one more on Saturday. It was hard to get to Friday with no one new but waiting for blessings makes them so much sweeter. Friday felt awesome! 

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Here in Chile we are just kinda passing over Thanksgiving and are heading into Christmas. I get to spend Christmas with HERMANA GARCES!! She rocks. She is 20 and from American Fork, Utah. It is super fun that we are both gringas because now people can not use the excuse that they can not understand me and turn to my Latina comp. People say it half the time to just bug us but when they turn to my comp now they get the same gringa acento. Whoops! 

With the cambios of comps I am realizing that I know a lot more Spanish than I thought I did and not only that but in the Chilean way. I cut my S's and use the word "po" for no good reason just like them. But I love it! It is not "mas o menos no mas" but "ma o meno no ma".

Hermana Garces and I have already gotten so good at passing the food that we can not finish under the table to each other. I usually get the ice cream which is no problem for me. The hard part of passing food secretly is not the passing but just not laughing or hiding a smile.

Familias Completo!

We got special permission this week to go teach an investigator se llama Francisco. We needed special permission because he lives just steps outside of our sector. His brother goes to our ward and his father in law was Raul! The very first baptism I was blessed to participate in! I have fallen in love with this family. We reactivated one of his other sisters and her family of the 2 twin little boys who we taught how to say their first prayers. I am so excited to see where this week goes! 

Enjoy the Holidays and stay warm :)

Hermana Lance 

Done Training!

I have completed 12 weeks of training here in Chile and am no longer in training! The only difference now is I have an hour less of study time for the language and adjusting to mission life. This also means that my comp Hermana Lino is leaving and headed to a different sector. She is going to be companions with my comp from the Training Center in the Mexico! Way cool!

We got cut time this week to write so just two quick things!

I ate lasagna the size bigger than my head! DE VERDAD! And that was only one 1 fourth of the meal!

Never try to explain the phrase "so and so" to a Latino because it will never work. I also made the mistake trying to say to my comp that a man was using broken English, romper ingles....no it does not work. The correct phrase is actually Trazan Ingles. Pretty funny!

Chau!! I love you all! 

Las Hermanas

Goodbye Hermana Lino

Reactivation!

This past week are investigators are working hard. They are keeping their compromisos and are always smiling when we come to visit. But it is a lot that we are teaching them and for some a lot of changes are being made in their lives. So as for right now we are moving forward very slowly, but still moving forward. Hopefully we will see some baptism dates very soon. 

But reactivation is where this week was at. We have been working with a bunch of less active church members. They are doing great and there has been a huge increase of members at church these past few weeks. But not only the church....but the temple. This past week we were able to see so many of our newly active families go to the temple! The temple is 6ish hours away and a huge sacrifice for the members but the excitement this week from all of them was so amazing to see! 

One family especially has stolen my heart. They have 2 little 7 year old boys. Our last lesson with them was to teach them how to pray. They never had said a pray before and so we broke it down super simple and got them to promise to say a prayer. A few days past and they saw us at a park. They ran over with their hands up and said they have been saying their prayers. They were so excited to tell us and we did our handshake we made. The joy of reactivation is different then baptismal but it is still so sweet. 

These Chileans: So super funny that I have not said yet. Yogurt is in a bag. You buy liters of yogurt in bags and it is the same for Mayo or ketchup or anything along the lines of those. Kinda a pain to store in the fridge once it is opened but just something that is super funny that I do not even think twice about anymore. 

I hope everyone is loving the Holidays! 

"DULCE O TRAVESURA"

Halloween in Chile?? 

Mas o menos. It is a super casual holiday. There is a lot of superstition about it that leads a lot of people to not celebrate it because of the appearance of worshiping or praising evil things. Our Ward had an activity which was so very much fun. We played lots of little games such as fruit basket. And some mixture of balloon basketball/keep up volleyball. There was 1 hula hoop hanging at each end of room. We had to get the balloon in it without it hitting the ground in the progress with 2 teams. I got boo´d a lot for being able to jump above everyone's heads and pass by to score. But at the same time there was a "Gringa" chant from my team. Nothing like breaking a sweat in a sweater and skirt. The members had no mercy with the Hermanas. 

Did we dress up? Sorta, I was Hermana Lino for the night with her clothes and nametag. And she was Hermana Lance with just my nametag. We struggled to find any of my clothes that would not drag on her.

1 de Noviembre -- 'The Day of The Dead'

No one was in their house on the first of November. The day of the dead is the day where everyone goes to cemeteries with flowers and such. It is kinda bigger than Halloween itself. So we had a huge service project with our stake and 2 zones of missionaries. The Elders went to clean out this nasty swamp while the Hermanas and other ward members went to paint over all the graffiti that is on the boardwalk next to the beach and clean up a bunch of trash from the beach. Sounds about right with how the work is always divided between the Elders and Hermanas. They take good care of us :). It was about a good 4 hours and the board walk looked so good afterwards and the Elders smelled ripe! 

Lirquen is so great! I know that I get to stay here for at least another "cambio" (6 weeks).  After that, maybe more, maybe not. But there is nothing more constant than change. Some that is welcomed and other that is not. Some change is subtle while others is unexpected. Either way don´t think about tomorrow just yet because you do not want another empty yesterday. 

Con mucho amor siempre,

H. Lance 

The dog that always finds me on P-day at the beach. 3 P-days in a row now. Se llama Frank.

The Prima Vera?

This past week was HOT super hot for just the spring at least. We are doing pretty well with finding great investigators who are gaining testimonies, reading the scriptures, and praying. But we are having a hard time getting them up in the mornings for church. Even though we are calling them at 9 am to give them time to get reading and knocking at their door at 9:40 to walk to church together with them. Our 5 phone calls with several doorbells and plenty of pounds on their doors are not doing anything to get them up for 10 o clock church. So that is a big goal this week. To help them see and feel the importance of church attendance and the sacrament. One thing that was hard for me to get use to was how even though someone says the activity starts at 8 or so people do not start to show up till 8:30 and those are the people who are in-charge of it all and are setting things up. So a 10 o clock church service on point is a big early change for most people.

Oh and I have not said how people say my name here. The members really want to say it with the correct accent.  But every time they try it sounds like "Hermana Lynn". They just stop after the N. So I have actually been Hermana Lynn for these past months. But I am super use to it now and love the effort. Because they really do believe they are saying it correctly. Even when they ask how I say it and I say Lance they repeat Lynn and say, "like that" :)

Our convert Daniel!! He always gives me something fun to talk about. He knows our town super super well. So whenever we are in the middle of a contact with other people and he sees us he comes to join the talk and asks them when they are going to come to church with us. And even sometimes when he does not know who they are. He is always looking out for us and is loving giving us references to all his friends he wants us to visit. He is a huge testimony of how developing a greater understanding of the atonement increases your desire to share the Gospel of Christ.

Happy Halloween! I hope it is not too cold for you all, I will be sweating in the hills with sweat marks from my shoulder bag on my back. YAY CHILE!

Love always,
Hermana Lance 

BEST CHICKEN FIGHT EVER!

MY FAVORITE DRINK IS BACK!

Another Summer!

Summer is finally hitting us! I caught just the very end of the the winter for Chile thankfully and get to almost have 2 summers in a row. For our prep day we got to go to the next Zone over and enjoy the beauty of TOME! Unlike our area in Penco the beach has more of a sight. Penco is more industrious but still beautiful. We found so many pine cones. So I made a stack of all of them and got a hitting line up going for some fun baseball with a tree branch nearby. And of course our Elder{s found a way to have another BBQ! It was way way good even though we may have forgotten the forks. But we finished with a little hike up to a great view of Chile :) 

The Work:

We had a pretty slow and rough week. Every once in a while we run into people who are not super happy to talk with us about really anything. They see the badge and do not even want to answer the question of, "Como esta". So yeah, a lot of slammed doors with weak and unkind things said. My comp from time to time will get a little flustered with how others treat us. And it does not help that I just laugh about it. But really I can not help it!! Okay, so I have 2 months in Chile now. And I still am about a step behind translating what people say to us. And because of this, by the time I understand what was said/yelled at us it is so stink-in hilarious. Of course I let the people pass before I laugh about it but really it is so hilarious and does not bum us out as much as you would think. My companion, Lino, is starting to get a kick out of it too now.  She watches my face try to restrain a smile while talking to another who is not the bit happy we stopped them to chat.

But! No worries! We run into people all the time who just love what we are doing in their country . They also love asking for a picture of us or to say something in English to them. 

But my point! After a week of being given fake phone numbers and addresses we had a wonderful Sunday!! We went to visit a house in Vipla. We were hoping to find a man who had listened to the missionaries a long time ago. He was not home but his daughter was! She is 18 and literally the kindest, cutest girl in the world with beautiful long curls. She was so receptive. We taught her how to pray and her first pray was so pure. She thanked God for sending Hermana Lino and Lance and thanked Him for all the beautiful things she learned in the lesson. And with almost a laugh of joy she thanked Him that we told her we were going to come back again. She accepted a baptism date and we are more than excited to meet with her whole family on the next visit!!! Ah,so little time to tell you about how incredible she is!

Pablo will have to wait for another week. He has been out of town with a sick family member but we have plans to meet TONIGHT! 

Later! 

H. Lance 

Family and Friends!!! 

I have been so excited to email this Monday because dear convert Daniel! We had lunch with him and his family just the other day. Usually when we come in he is on the computer on LDS.org watching videos from the church or reading some folleto we had given him. So he was on his computer but this time on Facebook. And not just on Facebook, he was friends with my parents! So he was flipping through all of their pictures and events. AND THEN!! He was watching old family video from church talent shows and such. It was killing me! He was just laughing so hard. He is so friendly and just wants to get to know us so well. I already know it is going to be super hard to leave this sector when we have transfers. But he always teases me. After lunch he said he was just going to go talk to my family and nap. He laughed so hard because he knows very well that I have to wait until Monday to write home we just go back to work after lunch :)

Pablo!

Our baptism for this past weekend fell through. Pablo had plans to be baptized this past weekend but he got nailed on the head with a heavy pipe. Not just once, but 3 darn times! Yikes! He has been doing a lot of construction on his house and that is when it happened. So when he had his interview the day after his accident he could only remember about half of what we had taught him. He also was having a hard time remembering friends and a girlfriend...who was not happy at all about that. But things are improving rapidly for him and we should have this baptism this Saturday! 

Remember how I said the people tell you everything you want to know with a simple, "Hola, como esta" yeah? Okay, this was the best reply we have ever gotten.....a colonoscopy!!!!! This man told us he was so bad because he had just had a colonoscopy. Haha, I was dying for the conversation to pass so I could finally double check with my comp that that is what the man said. 

Oh hey! Remember Elder Montoya? The Elder who had the accident in the CCM. He is in Chile! Not only that he is in my new Zone as well! With a very brand new smile as well ;) 

HALO

So hardly any housed have doorbells. And a lot of them have gates that prevent us from knocking on the doors. So when we need to let someone know we have arrived we literally yell Haaaallooooooo outside their door. About 3 or 4 times, however long it takes for them to come out. And the best part! I don´t sound like a Gringa! They have no idea that I am a Gringa from the states trying to teach them about The Gospel of Jesus Christ. So their faces are always fun to watch as they are surprised to see me and my comp from Peru. They always say, "Mire! Una rubia!" (Look, a blondy). But of course it is one great way to start up a conversation by explaining how far away we are from home because of the happiness this Gospel has brought our lives and all we want to do is share :) 

Have another wonderful week! I love being Hermana Lance :)

MY ZONE:

My Zone.

LOS GRINGOS:

The Gringos.

3 Months In

3 months of my mission have come and gone! I can not decide if that is a lot or not. But it feels like no time at all. I am so grateful to be here with the very kind and loving people of Chile. Almost too kind. When we contact people and write down their address and phone number to visit them at another time they are so amble!!! They are so kind and loving just hugging you throughout the whole conversation and you get so stink-in excited that they have desires to learn more about the Gospel of Christ. But most times they were just enjoying the conversation and when we actually make the trip to visit them they are always surprised we actually came. Better than being straight up rejected though I would say. 

This past Saturday our Zone of Penco participated in this huge church event in the Plaza. Us and other churches had booths of information on their church. We used the time to share what we know to be true and what separates us from other churches. The Book of Mormon and the truth that we can have our families with us for all of eternity! We got a lot of attention because we were the only church there who had Gringos. 

Oh yeah! And more about Chile. When you ask someone how they are, they tell you exactly how they are. Which even means bad. "I am so bad", "I am so sick", "I do not have work". It is always such a surprised. They will tell you if you have gained too much weight or if you are not eating enough. They have the best intentions the whole time too. 

Till next week! 

Con Amor,

Hermana Mckenzie Lance 

THE BOOK OF MORMON IS TRUE

Okay before I get to our incredible baptism. I broke our light bulb. Yeah the one on our ceiling. I just raised my hand slightly above my head to take of a sweatshirt and bash! No more luz. Makes me wonder how many bulbs the Elders are breaking in these tiny houses. 

Okay, DANIEL GOT BAPTIZED!!! Por Fin!!! Daniel was my very first lesson in Chile. So we have been teaching him for a good while and every time we would give him a baptism date he would only accept the baptism and never want the date. He said he needed to learn how to swim first. Which does not make too much since considering his occupation is a scuba diver. But he loved learning!

Daniel's Baptism

We would call him during the days to see how he was doing. If we could see his house we would always spot him with his head out the window looking for us and trying to wave us down to come and visit more. So what was the difference for Daniel and accepting a date...The Book of Mormon. He would read his assignments from day to day but only what he had to. Only a week before his baptism he started from the beginning. He read 20 pages the first day then 30 the next and had over 170 in less than a week.

I will always remember the day he asked for a baptism date during a lesson. I just threw my hands up (checking for light-bulbs first) and gave him the biggest double high five with glossy eyes. He just laughed and said it is always so obvious when I understand and do not because of my reactions. But I did not care one bit I was so proud of him and was so thankful for his open heart to change and give all the effort he needed to receive his own answer of the truthfulness the Book of Mormon has. He loves to read it. When we read in lessons he always reads over my turn a loud because I am too slow for him :) 

More Chile Words: Wawa.....guess the meaning. Okay you were probably way wrong. It means baby. Not bebe, wawa. 

Have a great week! I love being a Gringa!!! 

Hermana Fun

Hermana Fun!

Rains almost every night.

Rains Almost Every Night.

Waiting for Summer!

Waiting for Summer.

Independencia Dia!

The 18th of September and the whole week of it actually is just a huge blast in Chile! People everywhere are always giving you food. Tons of bread and bake goods! Which, yes, that means more Mote con Huesillo. I had probably 7 or so more glasses of this whatever and was able to keep it down a ton better. And somehow I found out I asked a second round when I thought I was asking for just peach juice. Nevertheless!! Each dose gets easier. Hopefully the leaf overs from the 18th will run out soon so my stomach can have a bit of a break. Besides tons of Mote was tons of empanadas! Which I enjoy. But after my 11th in 42 hours I think I am good till the next 18th of September. We never had a chance this week to even think about being hungry. A member cook 7 sausages, 4 steaks, and 5 chickens just for my companion and I. She has been passing along her skirts to me that she struggles to fit in after 6 months in Lirquen. Hopefully I will still be able to fit in them after more time here myself :)  

It was hard to find and teach this week because of the Holiday. Lots of people were out a ton and lots of people had family visiting. So on the 18th of September all four Hermanas in Lirquen went to the main Plaza where there are lots of street venders. We drew the Plan of Happiness HUGE with chalk and did our best to contact and teach families how they can enjoy the happiness that their family gives them for all of eternity. 

We of course had to get our own cueca dresses for the national dance of Chile! It is such a fun, simple, flirtatious dance. The members of our church had a fun activity and lots of dance competitions. Hopefully my videos work out with sending for you all to see. The dresses can be SO big with giant slips under them. All the members said I looked more Dutch then Chilean.  

I hope my letters are getting to you all in a decent time frame. Please email me your address if you would like a personal letter. I love writing them and my family and friends are always in my thoughts and prays. A HUGE thanks to my capa (smart) and linda (beautiful) madre! She keeps this blog running and I am so thankful for her help in preserving

these memories! Have the best week!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Lance