Hey Team! April 7, 2014
I survived the earthquake and tsunami! Crazy stuff, right? Really we didn't feel anything at all down here in Arauco but we were on tsuami alert the entire night. Everyone was evacuating to the hills far away from the ocean and we didn't know a lot of what was going on, but thankfully our neighbors had our backs. They yelled to our windows, "apúrate, apúrate, Danger danger!" Haha. We definitely knew that one was for us. So we grabbed some emergency food and clothes and stayed up at a member's house that was in the safety zone all night with the elders in our area. Presidente didn't want us going to sleep until the alert was lifted so in case of emergency we would be ready to flee for the hills. I won't lie, it was a little freaky. I swear there is nothing scarier than a tsunami but thankfully we didn't have to see what that was like. So we are all right. It was the first all nighter I have pulled in a long time!
Also transfers were today and Hermana Henderson and I are both staying in Arauco. Whoooo! We are so pumped.
Follow up on Mauricio - the guy we met at the outdoor market whose sister's boyfriend passed away- we had a lesson with him and found out he is moving to Santiago this week which is a bummer, but we did get to teach him once, IN ENGLISH. It was so weird. He speaks like an Australian and was using all kinds of English swear words without shame so that was funny.
Also General Conference! I hope you guys got to watch all of it. I really enjoyed all the talks. It called my attention to how often they spoke out families and the importance of strengthening the family. The importance of the simple things, family prayer, scripture study and family home evening. It inspired me to make my focus, work and thoughts more on families here in Chile with the people we are finding and teaching. Focusing on helping people to have the ultimate vision for an eternal family in the temple. I am so grateful for you guys and that we have made those covenants as a family and have those blessings. It is really sad to see so many members of the church here that are the only members in their family. The gospel is for families. We are so blessed to all be members of the church and have each other to support us. Mom and Dad, thanks for always teaching me the importance of the church and helping me to grow up with the gospel as such a huge part of my life. You guys are dee best!
I love you guys.
Love always,
HNA CHALMERS
Hermana Henderson and me
Arauco
Watching conference in our little English room.
Hey team! March 31, 2014
Sounds like you guys are living the dream over there. We are really excited for General Conference, too. This week was a little crazy. The Elders had a baptism Saturday and we also had a ward activity that same day, Comidas del Mundo, where everyone cooked their favorite dish from another country or Chile. Hermana Henderson and I made soft pretzels and choco chip cookies by our friend, Betty Crocker. Turns out they were a HIT and all the Hermanas were asking us for the recipe for these cookies. No one REALLY needs to know it's from the bag.
The baptism of the Elders was this dad, Hugo, whose whole family was baptized about a year ago. He asked to have this guy, Hermano Temer, baptize him, but for some reason no one thought of the fact that Hno Temer is like in his 60´s, 5 ft and 100 lbs and Hugo is a really big, tall guy. It was quite the experience to figure that one out. They had Hugo kneel down and even though it was not the most reverent or organized baptism, Hugo was happy and able to be baptized and that is the most important part anyway.
We had the most entertaining lunch this past week with an old lady in the ward, Hermana Clara. We were just talking and I asked her what her hobbies were and she says something along the lines of, "Taking blood out of people, giving shots and well, really anything having to do with blood!" Whaaaat? She then told us all about her life as a nurse in a mental hospital taking care of the "locos," a term she used like it was completely socially acceptable. She also showed us around her house to all the photos she had on the walls of her kids. She had three pictures of Jesus Christ in order on her wall and explained what was happening in each of them one by one. When she got to the third (the classic picture of Christ resurrected when he appears to Mary Magdalene) we could tell she didn't really know what was going on in the photo so she just said, "Oh and this is when Jesus tells a woman that he is The Living Water and she asks how to obtain eternal life and he says he will help her." Hahah. So close ,Hermana Clara. That is just some of the "Hermana Clara false doctrine" in addition to, "Well two angels came down to help Jose Smith translate the libro de mormon and one of them was Oliver Cowdery, right Hermanas?" Hahah she is hilarious.
Even though it was a stressful week, it was still really great. It helped me to appreciate the little things and take note of the importance of others' feelings. Sometimes I think I get caught up in having everything planned and such and forget that people and their feelings are more important than programs or events.
I love you guys!
Love always,
Hermana Meg
Mosiah 2:41
