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!