September 30

Wahoo! We had our baptism and confirmation this week! I love this family. Super awesome. We are going to work with him so he can get the priesthood soon and then become branch president and then his kids will grow up and go on missions and he’s going to be mission president and it’s just going to be great!!!

So I don’t think I told you but I am working with plan Alma now that I’m in a branch with 6 missionaries. So we are working with less actives and recent converts. The thing is they just made changes to the plans and so now we can also work with investigators if we find them. And the other people can work with the inactives if they find them. The thing is, it’s a great great great plan that would work super well but I think there’s just too much pride. Before others would turn in complete families to us and we would give them our investigators but now they only give us the less actives it’s just a race to find the family home first. But moral of the story is I do a lot of work with inactives and the conversos, but I like it a lot because I’m excited to help lots of people work toward the priesthood and the temple. We always focus on the men. Men men men because we need priesthood to get a temple here so we contact all the men ever but the problem is they never make it to that point. Just baptism. So anyways. The work is progressing

I’m so glad Tate is doing so well in his concerts and dances. I want to see some pictures!

I haven’t heard about the ski resorts but I know there are some. Some people took little trips to the ¨snow¨¨ also I didn’t know we had a rugby team here. No one talks about it. I didn’t know dad played rugby in college.... but I kind of remember saying that the last time I found out. My memory is as bad as moms sometimes. LOL. I’m just kidding mom. I´m just walking in your every footstep and I like it.

Thanks for cleaning the church! That is such a big help! I wish we had people to clean our chapel! Really bad actually. I almost just started crying because of how great that would be if a family came to the church to clean. lol!

Love you all to the moon and back!

Hermana VandeMerwe

September 23

WOW! I have so much to tell you and so little time! Thanks for all of your letters this week! It was fun to hear from everyone. Okay so I guess I’ll start from the beginning. 

First I took a 5 hour bus ride to Temuco. It was horrible. I was sick the whole time. i took Dramamine but I guess I just don{t react to that any more. golly. So I mainly slept or tried to. When I arrived I met my new companion, hermana Horan. She’s super awesome and laughs all the time so she’s super fun to be around and we get along just great. We took a 40 min bus ride to Picrtufquen and here I am! It’s so darling. Every house is like one of those houses that people are always looking to take pictures in front of, like rustic and colorful. I love it love it love! Our house is laughable not as colorful but still cute. We walk down like this hallway thing to go to some backyard and then up the stairs. The other sisters hate it but I think it{s fun. It’s like a treehouse. (kind of-really it’s just upstairs but whatever) plus it comes complete with a dog and a baby. We have some gym thing downstairs. Looks a little deserted but I hear there are people that use it.  And we just got 2 new sisters for this area so they just squeezed them in with us. Our bunk beds have about 18 inches in between them. lol. But it’s a lot of fun. We workout and dance in our 1 foot space each in the morning. 

Our sector is really big but it covers one branch. It has about the same assistance that our ward in la marina covered. But we’ve just got to get the priesthood!! We have 6 missionaries. 4 hermanas and 2 elders. I love everyone in the ward so far. There are a few leaving on missions soon so that’s really fun. Our yw president is 19, her mom is the RS president and the primary president is also the seminary teacher. There’s lots of multiple calling people. 

Whew okay so now for the 18th!!! Super fun we spent the day with our adorable family.... wait for it... our investigator.. that is.... GETTING BAPTISED on Saturday!!!!!! His wife got baptized a few months back and he just needed a little more time but we’ve got him now! They’re super adorable. Young and have a little 2 year old. They are super great with the missionaries and already act like members making sure we have food and everything. So we went to the parade I told you about. Really it was just all of the school kids walking in a line in their uniforms. They didn’t look very happy about it. Followed by a few fireman and a line of taxis. We ate lots of empanadas which I really don’t think are that good at all but oh well. And then went to the rodeo! The rodeo was fun! It was just like ours except that at the end of the catch the pig game they said “and now your dad can come over and get it” they just threw it in a bag and that was the prize. They did it again with the moms. “You’ll have dinner tomorrow!!!” lol. Just throw the pig in a bag and there you go. We didn’t work that night but instead went inside early to do lesson plans. 

The next day was crazy. Everything. EVERYTHING was closed and there wasn’t a soul on the street. We didn’t really get in any houses. But we visited a converso reciente who gave us a ton of Chilean food. Like more empanadas, shishkabobs, and mote with huesos. This was right after our lunch that we made ourselves... it wasn’t very good we were scraping for things in the house but somehow managed to eat a ton. Later that day we saw our Family Fray in the street and they gave us a sandwich. Then we went to a FHE where we ate more empanadas and more cookie things which also aren’t very good.... 

The next day we spent the entire day at the church for the 18th activity there. Super fun! I learned the cueca which is super fun to do. We had a competition. I think I would’ve won but they didn’t want a gringa to show them up so... 

We also played lots of games like the jump sack game (I totally won) and relays then did lots of karaoke and more dancing in the night. They somehow turned on cotton eye joe and were just amazed at the 3 gringos (me, hermana horan, elder ricks) that just started doing it. They loved it. lol. Ate some more empanadas and lunch and that was that.

LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hermana VandeMerwe

September 16

National Holiday in Chile this week--Cambria was unable to write! :)

September 9

I¨M LEAVING!!! Goodbye North, Ocean Breeze, Marina, Rain Drops, Candalaria, Sector La Marina. Hello South, Campo, Trees, spring, Sector Pitrufquen!!!

I´m being transferred to the furthest south we go. Funny because right now I´m as north as we go so it will be quite the change. I leave tomorrow. I´m not sure how long the bus is but probably like 5 or 6 hours. My new companion is Hermana Hernan- at least that´s what I heard from the Latinas. She´s another gringa and I hear she´s great! I also hear it´s beautiful and getting nice and warm. By the way today I have only one layer on-- :O   I will let you know all about it! 

This week I found out that it´s a law that we have a Chile flag outside for the 18th! We better buy a flag! lol. They also said it wasn´t enforced so I´m not too worried! We´ve also had some people tell us we´re all creatures or that we´re all devils. Of course the missionaries are angels... yet they still don´t listen to us. hmm where have I heard that story before? 

I learned a little bit of the national dance- la cueca but I need to practice a lot more if I´m going to be ready for the 18th! 

I haven´t received my package yet but I´m sure soon. I also haven´t heard about problems at all for packages to Chile so don´t fret. We have the mission home where the president lives and the mission office. The mission office looks like a church and has a sign in the front. No it doesn´t look like whatever you saw on mapquest. As far as organization we carry around our planners with us everywhere we go all still paper down here. 

We haven´t started our English class yet- slackers I guess you could say but I´d rather not think of it like that we just put other things above that! I´ll go see if there´s one in Pitrufquen. 

Thanks for your letters! I love you! 

Hermana VandeMerwe