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