July 15

What I like about rivers is…

...You can´t step in the same river twice.

Well hello! 

How is everyone doing up north? We had a pretty fair week this week. We had a conference for the Hermanas which is always fun. we spent the whole day practicing pretty much and got home at like 830 after leaving at 530 in the morning because it was a few hours away. we also went to 2 different baptisms of other districts. We have close to no lessons this week but we worked a lot with menos activos. i think we are going to put a bigger focus on them because there are so so so many here! every one we contact ¨hi we´re missionaries...¨ÿa i know i´m a member¨  öhh...¨¨ haha. we have also put a lot of time into trying to figure out how we can apply plan alma to our ward because it´s too small to have 4 missionaries so we thought maybe 6 missionaries between the two wards and one companionship can work on the menos activos but the problem is that there are more menos activos than investigators. but we are going to try to focus on our menos activos because if we can strengthen the ward and strengthen all of these memebers to actually be members during the week they can set a better example for everyone else and we will be able to find more people to teach. I would say the biggest problem with menos activos is that they have seen the members doing something that they shouldn´t or they complain aboutthe bishop. who is amazing by the way... 

Remember that people are always watching you and most importantly people are always listening to you to. Even back home, those frieds i have that have left the church or young women that stopped coming is because they heard their young women leaders saying things about them. Remember that everyone is a child of God and as hard as it is to not say anything bad ever, your few words could take away someones salvacion so.... 

okay so my hands are freezing. just like they were at home. i dont´feel it but it´s really funny cause seriously every person i shake hands with says something about it. and let´s just say i shake hands with a lot of people. haha. they also think it´s funny that they turn different colors. their skin never changes color. wierd huh? does anyone else in the family have this problem? 

´Well. I best be going! Love you so much!!!!!! REALLY It¨S TRUE!!!!! 

Hermana VandeMerwe

so i guess i have a few minutes so i´ll tell you this story. while we were at the sisters conference i was sitting at a table with gringas so that was fun cause i could understnad the funny things lol. anyways there is this sister that kindof reminds me of the girl that we read the blog. she was talking about her grandparents serving in new jersy or something and said ¨¨ya my grandma told me ´the missionaries here all have their smart phones and now they´re just waiting for their... tablets.¨ with an enphises of disgust on the ¨tablets¨lol ¨and i´m like, please. sometimes i don´t even have shoes to wear.¨

LOL. another sister added ¨seriously. my biggest concern is if i have enough gas to last through the day¨ 

Haha!! it was really funny. probably more funny if you were there. and don´t worry i have shoes and gas. and we´re apparently getting that stuff in january so that will totally change the mission. really it would be a COMPLETE different mission with thtat. different way of teaching. different planning and so much more!ç

okay gtg bye!

July 8

I have seen 2 shooting stars just randomly. isn´t that random? Usually you have to stare at the sky for a while to see them. okay, maybe i spend too much time looking at the sky...

How´s everyone doing? 4th of july was great. I sang a few patriotic songs on our way home. and i almost forgot the national anthum i had to really think about it because guess what came on that very day? my visa!!! I´m oficially a citizen of Chile!

Our new address is the one that you have and we have moved so go ahead and use it up! 

Sav and mom i´m really suffering without your help for shopping. I need to buy boots and i dont´really have time to shop around so i found some hush puppies but they´re really expensifve and everything else has heals. i also found someothers but it has fabic at the top so i´m sayihg no to those even though they´re cheaper cause if they get wet-when they get when they won´t dry anyways i might end up buying the really expensive ones cause i don´t have time to find others and hope that they wil be really good. what do you thiink_ keep looking? ooh when you do send a package. can you send those oil things and i have a sister in my house that wants twistables. can you send a thing of thsoe too?

okay sorry no time! nothing new this week. Oh we had a conference and that was good except we can´t use a lot of words now... lol

love you all so much! i love your detailed letters sorry mine are not! LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE

July 1

i have so much to tell you and so little time. Thank you for your letters i want to respond to every bit but we´ll see what i can do. It´s true they don´t have a 4th of july here dad. it´s wierd i know but the day just doesn´t exist. they have 32 of september because that is when their national holiday is in september. but they spend all week celebrating with lots of food so they add an extra day at the end to make up for the loss. 

4th of july is such a fun holiday and gil and sj are going to be hitched en la morning! fancy that. CONGRATULATIONS! 

nothing really changes here with te facebook thing and ya we have a cell phone.  we just started tracking this week we haven´t had to do that yet but we´re getting desperate apparently. on thursday we tracked a street that we have no contacts or memebers or anyone. it was pouring rain and so no one wanted us to come it and then someone called us through the pounding rain to come over so we went to their house but... she was a memeber so that failed. talked to her for a bit. she has a son leaving in a few days for brazil for his mission. vising her sister who doesn´t want anything with the church... haha so ya tracking is fun.

i´ve used one of the games so far thanks! we are planning to have another ward activity in july oh it is july but i don´t know what. 

so the hot chocolate is good i guess. lol. it´s just the reg. and we don´t put whip cream on but dessert is almost always peaches and cream. I LOVE IT! 

i don´t know when our address changes and i don´tknow what it is. thanks for ordering that stuff for me. we can´t order it throught he missiion dad. only stuff for our investigators like books of mormon which we´ve been out of for probably a month. that´s kindof hard to teach about the book of mormon and the pray to know that it´s true when they don´t have it.. haha but the church is busy printing them i´m sure. 

so this week i finally bought peanuts from this cute little train thing that this man pushes around. it´s just the darnest thing. a little train with peanuts. but it wasn´t very much for how much it was so i probably won´t be doing that. like a whole 50 cents for this teeny tiny bag... okay i hadn´t converted it yet but still... 

another day when trackting there was a rainbow full and bright with a twin! i tried to call everyone out of their house to see this beauiful sight but no one wanted to come... modern day snake on a pole. 

we found this family of evangeligists. that. was fun. lol. okay i probably shouldn´t say that but they reminded me of hippies so i obviosly had fun and when they started preaching what they beleived someone started playing music to go with it and they passed around the mate and then we had them say the closing prayer... that was interesting.  

okay but really this is the best part of the week. really not the best part because i dont´know what it means as far as the future goes but one of our investigators aparently saw me as a ghost by her sons bed. LOL!!!! she was tall and had blonde hair so it naturally was the gringa missionary. I was laughing so hard!

I´m am so glad that we can be resurrected. i rememeber studing this at the mtc and really thinking. hhm.. i think we are really going to miss our bodies when we die. but then again we will be busy preaching the gospel so it shouldn´t be too bad. it´s amazing that we are going to have a perfected body! and that our spirit can completely control it. What is our spirit going to be?

our ward is going to the temple in september and this week the youngens sold completos to raise money to go. i´m not sure how hard it is for them. i´ll find out. my ward doen´t have a lot of money so i´m sure it´s harder for them!

more on this next week!

LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! so sos sos oss ossoso much!!ç

Hermana Vandemerwe

sav! Have a happy birthday celebration and happy birhtday!!!!!!!!!!! i love you so much more than i can write in 2 sec.

June 24

HOLA FAM!

Okay so i didn´t have time to read all the emails like usual but i will read them later it sounds like other increbly spoiled week. don´t let it get to your heads. So that´s interesting that they sent you the addrss for the mission home. I don´t nknow when you should start sending it there. Our mission home is changing because of the new missions in chile so ours is being shifted down... a little bit colder! Also means i won´t be able to come to this city - concepcion any more. but i´m lucky to be by it anyway. it´s not really in our mission but it´s where the office is so we can come and do shopping. I´ll be sure to buy some boots and hats and what not before incase i ever get transfered to the snow! I have recieved 3 letters from janie. every week? how sweet. ya ´brock and fam. just use email cause i get emails every week and not always dear elders and i won´t always be this close to the office. or whatever else you have been using. haha email is great. but i think written letters get here faster than dear elders.

ya my card doesn´t work at the atm. it has worked at stores in the past but not the one that you probably7 got the notice for. so if there´s something i should do differeent for the atm let me know.

do i get the chance to exercise. yes but not really intense haha. we just do things in our house in the morning and i kind of do the same thing every day and get board pretty fast. sometimes we get to run home if weére late... that´s my excercise. no in all actually i try but let´sjust say we are in jeans today for a zone activity and ya... they don´t fit any more. i´m not joking.

This week has been pretty .... i don´t really have words haha. not good haha. but we had a ward activity. ecco concert- it´s like a coffee concert but with ecco y hot chocolate and kareokee.. i guess it´s what they like to do here. haha. no. i´t was really fun. i was in the kitchen cooking but there were lot of inactives so that was good. the purpose was to recieve references but we didn´t get any... and none of our investigators went..oh wait what investigators_

Yesterday I had horse. ya you´´re right dad. it tasted no different. I liked it. i also talked in church. talked might be a stretch but you know what i mean. also there was a world wide mission conference! with tons of the apostles and the prophet., it was available for all members did you go? i´m guessing no. but you should have! I´m sure it was really good in english! lol

The comp is great. as latina as the get but i´m as gringa as they come so what do you do?

Love Hermana VandeMerwe

June 17

Gosh The time just flies! 

Sounds like you´ve had quite the week as well! Seriously crazy! What an amazing life you are living it´s really quite out of this world but hey- the scriptures say to live out of this world so way to liken the scriptures unto yourselves.

HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD!!!!! I sent a letter but it doesn´t sound like you got it. Hopefully this week. I LOVE YOU SO MUCH! and you are the BEST DAD ever! You of all people I know seriously know how to Work Hard and Play Hard!!! I´m trying hard to be just like you! 

Brock! you are going to be a chef one day. I can´t beleive you just whipped up a great meal! The food here is so good and I want to learn how to make everything. I feel like it would take hours for all of these meals. But seriously I need to be more careful because I´ve gained a lot of weight already. I´m not joking. haha! sigh... It´s not that funny. Shoota. -- (Spanish for Shoot. Do you get extra credit for that)

transfers are every 6 weeks. Trainging is 3 months or 2 transfers so I´m in the same place with the same companion and the other two girls are the same to so not much of a change. but there´ll be new people in my zone and district. I´m doing great! There´s always something you can learn from different companions. and we are supposed to do interchanges every week. you switch companions with someone else in your zone for one night and work in their sector or they in yours. We´ve only done it once but I liked it! Everyone works a little differently and I like hearing new ways I can explain things in spanish. haha. 

Gosh. I never have the time I want. This next week is going to be full of miracles. Just you wait and see. I can´t wait to tell you all about it! LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH SO  SO SO SO MUCH: I need a bigger font!

Happy Anniversary! 25 years down. Eternity to go.  

Hermana VandeMerwe

June 10

Hola! 

How is everyone doing?  Sounds like the perfect summer life back at home. How fun! I love summer and strawberries too! I had strawberries and cream yesterday. not fresh though still delicious. and I hate to break it to you but we don´t have much of that cafe rio stuff it´s usually carne y papas. always cooked different though. I´ve never had it the same. sometimes we have this speggetti type stuff... it´s not spegetti but it is. also we put mayo on seriously everything and I love it! it´s not that strange. there´s usually ketchup and mayo always on the table so it´s kindof like fry sauce. They just don´t mix it. I haven´t recieved any dear elders but I´ll let you know when I do. 

Hm so this week. Today we had our return and report meeting cause I´ve completed a month in the field! can you beleive it? I can´t. It went by WAY super fast and there are many things that I need to improve and it should not take this long to do it. Ay ay ay how the time flies. 

This week we worked on a lot of less actives and had a lot of them in church! big improvement! The problem is you need to continue to visit them all the time and call and it´s hard cause we have other investigators too. Infact. Our mission is changing things up a bit. Since we have so many missionaries there are sometimes 6 missionaries in one ward so we are initiating Operation Alma. Each companionship will focus on specific people. For example menos activos and incomplete families or references or recent converts. Pretty sweet. That would really be nice i think. We only have the two of us in our ward so it doesn´t effect us but I´m sure I will be affected by it in one of the many transfers. Really the ward should be helping us with menos activos and recent converts so if we can get them going that will be good too. We just called a bunch of ward missionaries yesterday so that will be a big help.

Thank you so much for all of the games. That´s going to be fun to look through and use!! THANK YOU! also thank you for your detailed letter! I like details especially since I don´t get many here. LOL. They always think i have too much emotion my companion is always telling me the things i say that they don´t say like ¨how exciting¨¨ or ¨That´s way cool¨¨ i asked what they say instead and she said nothing so... if i get home will no emotion... don´t worry i can´t be that boring. We need fun too! Work Hard Play Hard right dad?! 

 LOVE

June 3

HOLA MI FAMILIA!!!

Como estan? This week has gone by really fast. I can´t believe I´ve been here for a month! I still have lots to learn if I want to serve even more. There is always things we can be improving though. This week we had a ward activity for the married couples about eternal marriages. We didn´t do much for planning that but helped cooking and cleaning and during. We are planning a breakfast party thing for the ward soon too and I was thinking about doing sometime of banana split party for the ward with the articles of faith like we did in primary becuase we really need references from the memebers but we need the references to be prepared first so we are trying to help teach the members how to teach and fast and pray and do all these things before giving their names to us. Really it would be nice to have names at all but I think that that will be a good way to help them because everyone should know the articles of faith. Only problem is I don´t think they really know what a bannana split is. haha. we might have to  change the desert. crepes or something... I don´t know why i thought of that. they don´t have crepes either. Anyways We are always looking for ward activities and ideas for family home evening so please send them to me! or mom all of your object lessons in young womens would be perfect like the chocolate thing (not exactly perfect cause i don´t think they have dove but you get the idea) and also can you send me a list of just games like the one where you pick up the m&m and put it in a cup with a straw or... i don´t know games like that. That would be a great help! 

So... no baptisms. Yup satan is one strong nobody. We will keep working with Alejandro & Leila as well as our other investigators. We have a lot of new ones again this week. We´re really good at finding new investigators.... haha but we´ve reevalutaed our teaching and hope our numbers and effectiveness will go up this week. 

I bought rainboots today just plain black but they will be good for the swimming pools! 

Also I haven´t been to the office today so I don´t know if i received anything but we´re going after this and I hope I do cause I want to hear more from ALL of you! We have been printing out our letters since we don´t have that much time so if it´s easier just to send an email that is great too. 

I Seriously can´t beleive it´s summer there! SERIOUS! CRAZY for me to think about. Soak up those rays. I really wanted to bring smores for everyone on the beach the next time but the idea will not go in vain because I might use it for an indoor ward activity. don´t know where we´ll get the fire but i don´t know it´s a spark of an idea. I don´t think they know what they are... how sad.

I love you all so much! I´ll see you in a jiffy. mmmm.. jiffy muffins. dang it i don´t have an oven. Lol. maybee I could microwave it. first i´d have to find it... okay time for me to go!

LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!

Hermana VandeMerwe