Puerto Varas - Week 2

Dear Friends and Family,

There are dogs everywhere in Chile.  There are tons and tons of dogs and cats all over the place and the dogs are super loud.  I really can’t quite understand...It is kind of funny.  If you walk by some houses the dogs go nuts and start barking and then sometimes it sets off all the other dogs in the neighborhood and then all the dogs start barking and then you can’t hear anything.  Sometimes you don’t even have to walk by the house they just start barking if they see you.  Yesterday we were talking to one of our contacts and setting up an appointment with him, but there were three dogs behind him that were trying to eat each other and I was trying really hard to focus but I couldn't stop looking at the dogs.  Then we left and I was like, "Oh my goodness Hermana Wood, get your priorities straight.  What is more important, a son of God or a couple of dogs trying to eat each other?"  So now I am going to try to be a little more focused and not get so distracted by the giant dog population here.

It is supposed to rain here about 90% of the time but I got here during the 10% of sun fortunately.  Isn’t that nice?  I hope it lasts a couple more weeks, but I don’t know.  My nose is red. I need to buy some sunscreen.  One of the reasons I am glad it hasn’t started raining is because our apartment has problems.  The shower leaks, the toilet leaks, and yesterday something from the ceiling started leaking, so as you can imagine there are certain parts of the house that just don’t ever get dry.  I don’t know what we are going to do when it starts raining ... haha.  Speaking of my apartment, I told you the ceiling is really low right?  Well I hit my head on it A LOT.  Isn’t that sad?  There is a board that stretches across the ceiling and it gets me every time...I can’t decide if it is affecting my brain or not.  I know I am clumsy, but I feel like I have been extra clumsy lately.  This week we were walking in the street and there was one part of the sidewalk that had a bunch of little rocks and I guess it was just too much for me to handle because I totally slipped and pretty much did the splits in the middle of the street.  How embarrassing is that?  Then right after that we tried to talk to some people in the street and they didn’t really want to listen to us but they were like "Be careful walking!" and I was like...ugh...yeah...You would have all found it very funny.

Anyway, as a new American missionary fresh to the mission field I never know what is going on.  I try really hard to figure out what is going on, but I really just don’t know most of the time.  Sad huh?  It is pretty funny sometimes.  People would be shocked if they knew I was actually smart.  There is one investigator that talks to Hermana Zortman and I like we are the dumbest little girls in the world.  He is so funny, I love him.

Oh speaking of investigators, there is one guy we met this week that is super obsessed with family history.  He is crazy.  He has these enormous family trees in his house and all these little artifacts from Puerta Montt and Puerta Varas.  He is super funny.  I have a pretty good future planned for him.  First, he will get baptized.  Then in a year he will go to the temple and love it and then he will become a temple worker.  It’s perfect because he goes to Santiago all the time for work so he doesn’t even have to move!  I am so excited.  He doesn’t believe in God though, so we have some work to do but I don’t think it will be a problem.  He went to Santiago this week but he has a Book of Mormon and we showed him the cool genealogy parts so he will probably have read it by the time he gets back and then boom!  Hahaha, I love being a missionary.

I better go.

Love,

Lexie

I'm in CHILE!!!!!

I am in Chile!!!!  Isn’t that crazy?  I am trying to figure out how to type in English on this keyboard...It is tricky.  Anyway, except for the fact that I have no idea what is happening most of the time, I am doing really well.  But I'm serious I almost never know what is going on.  People try to talk to me and I just smile and nod and hope that they aren't asking me a question...

So Chile...it is super beautiful here.  I am in Puerta Varas near Puerta Montt and it is right by a lake with a couple of big volcanoes in the background and everything is green!  Weird!  It is seriously so beautiful I am so lucky.  Since there are so many Hermanas some sisters have to train two of the new hermanas instead of one...so I am companions with one of my companions from the MTC (Hermana Zortman) and my trainer Hermana Cartagena, that poor patient soul.  She is from Hungary and fortunately she speaks English but unfortunately I do not speak Spanish so I feel like she is kind of a solo act right now while Hermana Zortman and I figure out how to open the milk cartons and light the stove.

When I got here I just wanted to talk to everyone right away and then I realized I had nooooooooooo idea what to say.  It is really interesting to find out how much I don´t know.  Of course I knew that would happen, but it´s always different in the moment you know?  Also Chileans talk so fast...and they mumble...and they don´t say the s a lot of the time.  Even the Hermanas from Mexico have a hard time understanding some people.  Not that hard of a time obviously, but it is comforting to know.

There are lots of things to tell you and I don´t have very much time so I will do my best and if none of this makes sense that is why...Anyway, there isn't really any central heating so everything is heated with a gas stove or a fireplace or something.  All of the houses have enormous piles of firewood out front or in back and they told us that at some point we will be chopping firewood.  There are also lots of dogs in Chile and almost everyone has a gate around the house with a dog to bark really really loud at anyone who even walks by.  So imagine this if you will.  Three missionaries standing outside the gate shouting at the person inside the house about the message of the restored gospel and three dogs barking so loud that all the other dogs in the neighborhood also want to bark and then the Chilean inside the house shouts something back and the two confused American sisters looking at each other hopelessly.  It looks pretty funny. Haha.

I love being a missionary.  It´s so cool.  Obviously I have only been here a week but we just go out every day, knock on doors, get rejected, try to understand what people are saying and whether or not they are happy to see us or not, and then there is someone who says, "yeah sure come on in my house and teach me and I will be awesome and super receptive and make you so happy."  It is cool.

Oh I just remembered another thing about Chile.  Everything is small.  The people, the houses, etc.  In our apartment there is one panel of wood that is super low and I have to duck or I hit my head.  Super sad.  Because then I am always bending over and then the one time I stand up straight I hit my head on the ceiling.  Haha.  Dad would DIE here.  Seriously.  I don´t think he would be able to stand up straight in our apartment.  Maybe in most of the houses, but I won´t make any promises.  We were leaving one house and it is on a slope and I didn't really see the house next to it and then I ran into the roof...how funny is that?  And everything is little except lunch.  We eat so much food.  It is insane and I have to eat it all or I will be rude and it´s like...uh...I´m going to get fat.  We have a mamita that cooks for us every day.

Hermana Wood

MTC Week 5

I leave in a week!!!!!!!!!!!!  AGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!  That is scary.  I am pretty sure I am not going to be able to understand anyone when I get to Chile.  Awe well...Sometimes when I talk to people in Spanish I think, "Yeah, I am so cool right now I am talking to you in Spanish" and then about 2 seconds later I realize I have no idea how to talk for more than 20 seconds at a time without about 5 minutes of thinking in between.  But, that's not really all that surprising since I have only been here for 5 weeks after all...

 

Anyway, this week I have a funny story to tell; I am kind of excited.  I already wrote that I took my skirt to alterations because the hem came undone right?  And I will also remind you that the lady I gave it to was not the kindest woman alive and she may or may not have treated me like I was a shameless hussy for coming into alterations to get my hem fixed...So after about 2 maybe 3 weeks I figured, "Hey my skirt is probably done by now I am going to go pick it up!"  I went to alterations, picked up my skirt from a much nicer woman, took it to my room, noticed that the slit was sewn down, but the hem was still not sewed up.  Then I was like, "What the heck?  Why is that lady so mean?  All I wanted was my hem to be fixed!  Why is that too much to ask?  I am a servant of the Lord for crying out loud!"  Not really, but that's kind of how I felt.  Anyway, it was kind of funny.  Apparently she was really concerned about my modesty and it distracted her so much that she couldn't listen to what I was saying to her about the unraveled hem.  And apparently everyone else was so worried about my modesty they couldn't see the long flap of cloth coming from the bottom of my skirt.  I just think it is kind of ironic.  It is also ironic really because as coordinating sister it's my job to tell other girls when they are immodest. 

 

Mom sent me pictures of our family:)  My companions were pretty excited to see them.  One of them was like, "Wow, I'm so glad you showed us pictures they seem so much more real to me now."  So does that mean you didn't really believe me when I told you I had a family?  Oh ye of little faith.  Haha just kidding, but it was kind of funny.  Then my companions asked me about the picture where you are all holding me up and I am the center of attention and they were like, "Why are they all picking you up?"  And I was like...uh...I don't know...how did that happen?  I think it's because I am the favorite, but I can't really say for sure...haha.  Then they told me they didn't really see me being the center of attention, more just the quite peace maker that doesn't fight with anyone and goes with the flow.   That was kind of funny too.

 

I am excited to go to Chile.  Except I am scared and it kind of seems unreal...but someone said to me the other day that we only have about 17 more fast Sundays left and I was like, "Oh my goodness that is not very much time..."  So I am trying to make the most of everything.  It's hard to believe I have already been gone a month.

Hermana Wood