Dec 16, 2013

Okay, this week was a million billion trillion times better than last week. We had so much more success this week! We made a goal to have 8 new investigators, which was huge compared to the zero investigators we had the week before. Amazingly, and by the goodness of Heavenly Father, we found 8 new investigators.  I'm super grateful for the advice from my district leader. He told us that as we contact if we say "por lo menos" which means "at least" we will enter more houses. So when we would contact, if--I mean, WHEN--they tried to reject us we would say, "Can we at least come in a sing a Christmas song with your family, or say a quick prayer?" It worked almost every time! And for that reason, we had 8 new investigators. Also references from members. We were out contacting one day and someone shouted at us from a car. We turned around and the car came toward us. Inside there were no less than 5 youth and a member. One of them, named S, gave us the address of one of her friends and told us to go visit her. We went last night and not only did we have a lesson with her, but with her mom and her sister too. BAM! 3 new investigators. All 3 of them are awesome. I can already see the light of Christ in their eyes and I think that, as long as we teach with the spirit, we will see a baptism of 3 here in a month or so.

Can you say BAPTISM!!! J was baptized on Saturday WOOO!!!  Half our zone came and we got a picture with everyone. The pictures I have with just J suck so this will have to do.

Okay the missionaries who are in the picture from left to right are:

Hna C, Hna U (my companion!) J, me, Hna d and Elder Ae (ZL) (on the ground)

in the back: Elder L (my DL), Elder L Elder J, Elder A (ZL) and Elder O

And I think the kid on the ground is named B

WOO BAPTISM!!! That makes 7.

On Thrusday we did service at an elementary school. It was hot and long and fun. We mowed their lawn and made it look all pretty. 

Wednesday, I did my first splits. The Coordinator of Divisions (splits) came to Manzanal and my companion went to her sector in C. Her name is Hermana N. She. is. AWESOME!!!!!! She's actually going home to Colombia this thursday :( but I learned a ton from her during our splits. It was an awesome day. It was cool to talk to a missionary who's just about to go home and here about her experiences and everything she's learned. I hope I will be like her when I'm about to go home.

So this week, we have a Christmas zone conference. Actually that's tomorrow haha and also tomorrow, the results of the Quantrofusion Gold (haha) test come in so we will know once and for all what's going to happen with all this TB nonsense. Also this Saturday we have a stake Christmas program. At first I just needed to play the piano for my ward, but all of the sudden I'm playing for the whole stake and I'm playing the piano for a special number with the friend of a woman in my ward. He has an amazing voice. We're going to do O Holy Night. One of the Elders in the other Zone is going to conduct all the music. Good thing there are gringos here. I don't know how the Chileans would have Christmas programs without us :) I'll tell you how it goes when we SKYPE!

I hope you all have a great week! LOVE YOU!!!

Hermana Hutchinson

 

 

 

December 9, 2013

Okay, last P day was basically the best p day there ever was. We got up early to do our p day stuff like write our families and buy food and stuff. We then went to the mission office at noon to meet up with President Warne. We left with him and Hermana Warne to Santiago. It was SUPER fun! Not many people can say they spent an entire p day with their mission president. First we stopped by the MTC to pick up Elder J. He is the doctor for all the missions in Chile. He also doesn't speak a word of Spanish so my poor colombian companion was stuck in a car with 4 Americans, but she was a good sport about it. We went to my appointment at IsaMedica and spoke with the Doctor who was super nice! Also he spoke a bit of English so that helped a lot with Elder J.The best part is that he was actually trying to help us with our situation and not prevent us from doing what we need to do. We also found the light at the end of the tunnel. So this is the news:

The chileans all recieve a vaccination for TB. Because of this Vaccination, all of their PPD tests come out positive. So with just a positive PPD test alone, we get a prescripcion for INH, the drug that the church wants us to take. They obviously want to avoid drug abuse and drug resistence to INH. But, there's is a test we can take, a blood test, to find out if we have TB that is more difinitive than the PPD test. It has a weird SciFi name like Introfusion or something like that haha. If this test comes out positive, from my understanding, we can get the okay from the government to take INH. 

So Wednesday, we got the band back together and went to Santiago.....again. I've been out of my mission boundries 4 times within 6 months of being in the mission field. We did the blood test, but we have to wait until December 17th to get the results. Obviously, I will tell you what happens. The best part of this test is it's more difinitive so we will know for sure if we have TB or not (which is better than 12mm...which doesn't mean a blasted thing). There are a lot of problems with the PPD test. For example, Elder J told us that if someone takes the test and it comes out positive, they shouldn't take it again because the sore on their arm will actually get worse and worse every time they take it. So right now we're in limbo, waiting for the test results. 

Okay, but other things happened this week too!

So I lied when I said last week was the worst week of my mission. THIS week was the worst week of my mission. We did not have very much success this week. It was super hard, but we're pressing foward because there isn't really anything else that we can do.

So we had two really stupid moments this week. The first one was on Wednesday in the afternoon. This woman stopped us and told that she needed our help. She then started telling us that she was pregnant and something about her son and something about how she needed to go to the doctor for her mental health and something about how she wanted to go see her mom. We finally asked her what she needed and she told us she needed money for bus tickets to go see her mom. We offered to call a member and have them take her to the bus station and buy her tickets for her, but she said all she wanted was money. She started telling us something about how her daughter was sexually abused as a child and wouldn't get in a vehicle with a man. We said his wife could take her, but she said her daughter wouldn't do that either. Yet her daughter was perfectly okay with getting into a bus-ful of strange men. When she realized we weren't going to give her money she started saying that she had been thinking about investigating the church but now she didn't want to. Then she asked to use our phone to call someone to give her a ride. When she got off the phone she said the guy didn't have money and wouldn't come get her. We gave her money for a taxi and left. When we looked at the recent calls on our phone, there wasn't anything except the last call we'd made to our District leader. 

The second stupid moment was last night. We have a list of members that we're updating. We went to an address and asked the woman if the members lived there. She told us no and then started telling us that we were wasting our time as missionaries of a church of lies and that we invented names just to get into peoples houses. And that the only reason we were missionaries was to see the world. I really really wanted to say that if I was a missionary just to get to know the world, I wouldn't have come to Chile. But I held my tounge. It was actually really funny. After we left, my companion was kinda mad, but I was just laughing.

Okay, baptisms!! M is not getting baptized unfortunately. He doesn't want to keep the Word of Wisdom. But J is still getting baptized! She is super excited about it. I haven't seen such a big change in anyone before. She has seriously experienced a change of heart. It makes contacting all day in 90° plus weather completely worth it.

My companion and I are super excited for Christmas! We're excited to talk with our families :)

I love you all!!!! Keep being awesome!

Hermana Hutchinson

December 2, 2013

This week was officially the worst week of my mission. This sector is a difficult one. Despite have a hard time, my companion and I are pushing forward and trying to have faith to find new investigators. But it was definitely a hard week. It's been super duper hot here. I can say that before this sector, I really did not understand Celcius. 34 degrees for me is cold. But in Celcius it's SUPER HOT!!!!!!!!! Like, 98 degrees. The last few days have all been above 90 degrees. The sucky thing is walking in the bright sun all day gives me a headache. But that's the life of the missionary.

Okay, TB news. This is a super long and complicated process. Right now we have to get permission from the Chilean government to take these medications. so today my companion and I are off to Santiago with President and Hermana Warne. I'm the pilot test apparently. If we can get permission for me to take the meds, we can get permission for all the other missionaries too. It has something to do with how the Church and American government deal with TB. The standard is higher in the US (and the church has the same standard) so if a US citizen can get permission, the latinas can too. Or something like that..... the really unfortunate thing about this whole process is it has nothing to do with the meds. It's all politics. It doesn't matter if we're dying, if the i's aren't dotted and the t's crossed, we can take the meds. So that's where we're at right now. I'm really not sure what my function will be today, but I kind of feel like I'm on some crazy secret mission to infiltrate the Chilean government.

This week with M and J was almost scary. Okay, with J we're fine. That girl has experience a change of heart. I'm slightly bummed that I didn't know her before. My companion was telling me that at first she didn't want anything to do with the church (her dad was recently re-activated. the sisters were meeting with him for a while before working with J and M) but now she is studying and learning every day. I feel like it would be better if she taught US the lessons.
M however is being a bit of a punk. This kid is crazy. He's 13, the same age as Jake, but he acts like he's 18 or 20. He has a group of really sketchy friends that all drink and smoke. He is doing really great, but when he hangs out with his friends, he falls. Last week he had problems with the Word of Wisdom and we almost dropped him. He came to church yesterday and after we asked him was his final say was and he said he wanted to be baptized! So we're going to keep working with him. We need to take a different approach though because he has the attention span of a 2 year old. He doesn't remember any of the lessons we've had with him so we're going to have to go over them again. He's a funny kid though. We're hoping that he'll be able to be strong and find new friends that won't be a bad influence on him.


 Earlier this week, our district leader received revelation that we're were going to find one of God's elect this week. We searched and searched and searched. We have a lot of possiblities, but we didn't officially find them. Until last night. It might be too soon to say, but I think we might have found our golden investigator. Her name is  and she lives really close to us. It was the frist time I've taught the Restoration and actually had someone really understand the significance of it. When we recited the first vision, the spirit was really strong. She still has a few doubts, but she's willing to pray and ask Heavenly Father if our message is true. It was a good lesson.

I'm glad you're all doing well and that you got to see the family! Tell everyone I love them! 

So now I'm off on my secret mission to infiltrate the government! I'll let you know how it goes next week :)

I LOVE YOU ALL!!! LES AMO MUCHISIMO
Hermana Hutchinson

November 25, 2013

Okay so last Monday night, Hna M and I left for Talca and spent the night there. Tuesday we got up early and made for the train station. We met up with the rest of the missionaries who were getting transfered from Talca and we put all of our luggage on the train and left. It's a bit stressfull because the train doesn't stop for very long so we had to move everything really fast. The trains are like metros and have doors on both sides. In the train car I was in we had all of our luggage on one side of the train because the train lady told us that all of the platforms would be on the other side. So we went on our merry way. I enjoyed talking with the other Hermanas and such. We were about 10 minutes away from San Fernando when I had a sudden realization that there was a very good chance that the zone leaders in San Fernanado would be on the platfom to help everyone getting off and on the train. When we got to the platform in San Fernanado the doors opened on the side all of our luggage was on (and of course one of MY suitcases had to fall out.) So all the missionaries on the train had a frantic moment of moving all the luggage to the other side of the train so people could get on and off. Suddenly a bunch of missionaries from San Fernando came over with more luggage. Sure enough, the zone leaders were there. I don't remember the other one's name, but one of the is called Elder Archuleta. They helped an Hermana get off the train and another Hermana get on the train. I said good-bye to the Hermana getting off (Hermana B) because we've been in the same zone since I got to Chile and we were off to Rancagua.

So I'm now in Rancagua. Holy crap, it's hot here. We've been at a steady 90 degrees all week...I think. They measure temperature in Celcius so I'm actually not sure. 30 degrees C. So far I'm really enjoying Rancagua. The only thing is that my sector, Manzanal is really huge so we are walking a TON. The first few days were brutal. I'm starting to get used to it, but it's still exhausting. We also don't have very many investigators so we are doing even more walking and contacting. But the good news is that I'm enjoying myself. My companion, Hermana U is also really awesome. We get along really well.

We do have two investigators preparing for baptism on the 14 of December. Their names are M and J. M is 13 and drinks and smokes. J is 16, almost 17, and pregnant. But they are both AWESOME. It's crazy that they're so young and already have problems with the commandments, but that just goes to show the times we're living in. We've taught them both the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. Last night was our lesson on the Law of Chastity. We first did a short lesson on the Plan of Salvation. When we got to the Law of Chastity, both me and my companion were super nervous. We didn't want J to feel bad, but we also wanted to be direct with her. We had spent the whole day trying to figure out how to teach the lesson. Luckily we had the spirit and that helped infinitely. At first she looked like she was going to cry. She had her head down the whole time and her face was a little red. When my companion asked if she would keep the law of chastity she looked up and said she can't because she's already broken it. I felt prompted to tell her about about the Lotus flower. It's a flower that grows in the worst of conditions, but it's a really beautiful flower. I told her that even though she's broken the law of chastity she has something beautiful: her child. And now she has the chance to repent and keep the law of chastity from the point on. She said she would do it! It was probably one of the best lessons I've been in. We were both able to feel and follow the spirit.

The ward here is super small. There's about 40-50 people that go every sunday. Most of the members are old, but they're all super loving. I love the ward so far! Of course, there's no one here to play the piano, so you can guess who's the new pianist. This sunday my companion and I helped in the Primary. There's a girl in the primary named E. She's 3 almost 4 and adorable. Apparently she's hasn't really liked any of the missionaries in the past, but for some reason she's in love with me. During sacrament meeting she kept walking over to me to pet my hair and try to say my name...everyone has a hard time saying Hutchinson. She's super cute.

We also taught a CTR (in Spanish it's HLJ) class about fasting. My companion made same money out of paper to illustrate the point of fast offerings. At the end of the lesson when we asked them what fast offering is, one of the little boys said "uhh...when you have fake money?" hahahah it was really funny.

So that's what's going on with me. I'm really enjoying Rancagua!

President Warne called me to tell me that I will start taking medicine soon. I'll have to take it for 4 months and get a blood test every month to make sure I don't have any reactions to the medicine. I have a feeling I'll be here in Manzanal for all of those 4 months. So I will hit my half-way mark in my second sector......eh, could be worse.

Hermana Hutchinson 

November 18, 2013

The big news is transfers. After 5 months of being in Constitución, I am being transfered! I'm off to Rancagua. My new companion's name is Hermana U. She is from Colombia. It's funny because her companion, Hermana A is coming to Conti. My sector is Manzanal, which happens to be the sector of the president. The lucky thing is I actually have been to my new house. When we went to Rancagua to take out my carnet, we slept in this house. It's a really awesome house, I'm excited to go there. I also know Hermana U, so I'm exicted for that too :)

I was 99% sure I was getting transferred so I had my suitcases almost all the way packed on Friday. Today has been a pretty stress free day.

The other news is this TB business. So I was under the impression that I was getting the x-ray to see if I had latent TB. But apparently is was to see if I have active TB. The x-ray came out clean because obviously I don't have active TB. But because my TTB test came out positive (the one I did in Santiago I few weeks ago), I have to start taking meds. I don't know if there's a way of actually knowing that I have inactive TB, but considering that my TTB test came out positive, they're assuming I have latent TB. The biggest problem is that in Chile, they don't treat latent TB so the medication isn't readily available. I think it's here, but difficult to get. I'm under the impression that that's where we're at right now. Working on getting the medication. But President Warne told me that I should start taking the meds within the next couple weeks. He also told me that I'm famous in Salt Lake right now. Supposedly several of the brethern have seen my name. There's another american that also has to take the meds, but it sucks for the latinas because they all came in with positive TTB tests so they can't take the meds. Supposedly the meds don't work if you've had latent TB for a long time.

So that's where we're at right now. It was actually because of this that I figured I was getting transferred to Rancauga. 

Other than that, everything has been going really well. We had interviews with the president this week and a training with the assistents. It was really cool, I enjoyed it. I've also been studying a lot about attributes of Christ. If you haven't already, you should read that chapter in Preach my Gosple. I love studying the attributes of Christ and trying to apply them in my life. The last couple weeks I've been working on Charity. I particularly love 1 Corinthians 13, which talks about the characteristics of charity. I have been trying to become a person with the same discription, but of course, nobody's perfect.

Hermana Hutchinson

November 11, 2013

This week, I made a list of things I want to tell you so I don't forget anything.

I was going to tell you last week, but forgot, that I experienced my first tremor last week! Tuesday night at about 11:30 I woke up to the bed vibrating. It took me a second to register what was happening, but I figured it was a tremor. I was going to get my glasses to look outside, but when I got out of bed, it stopped. It was a pretty strong tremor. It registered as a 5 on the rictor scale and it lasted for a while. Supposedly there were 2 other tremors that were noticable and a total of 14 tremors throughout the night. A couple days later, there was another tremor, but we were walking home from lunch so we didn't feel it. I guess when you're walking, you can't feel tremors.
I have officially experienced a tremor! Woo!

We also got our x rays done. We're getting the results today. If it ends up being bad I'm sure President W will call you :)

Also, I don't know if you're aware, but last friday, the 8th, I hit my 6 month mark. One year left! Sunday, I'll hit my 5 month mark in Chile (and Constitución haha)

Yesterday was the birthday of our ward mission leader so all the missionaries went to his house for an FHE. We ended up playing Spoons and guess who won? Hermana Hutchinson!!!! I'm the Spoons champion of the missionaries in Constitución!!!

Yesterday was the baptism of C. It was super good. A lot of his family is less active, but they all came to support him. It was a super good service.

There's a mcDonalds in Talca. We went there after our district meeting a couple weeks ago. Outside of our window there was a stand selling stickers, but like, giant stickers that you can put on you wall. One of them was a picture of Buzz Lightyear, but it said Bos Layer. At first I though it was funny because it looks like Boss Layer which doesn't really make sense. There are a lot of funny attempts at english I've seen here (Like a roasted nuts stand called King the Nuts) But then I realized that Bos Layer is how you say Buzz Lightyear in Spanish. There are a lot of vowel sounds in English that don't exist in Spanish, like the U in Buzz. Also there are a lot of words where we don't pronounce the T very stongly like in Lightyear. So Bos Layer is the Spanish equivalent of Buzz Lightyear. I almost died laughing.

There are also elections on the 17th. Did you know the communist party is a pretty prominant party in Chile? Also their campaign videos look like movie trailers. Kinda funny.

We have interviews with the President this Thurdays. At first it was today. Then it was tuesday. Then it was wednesday. Then it was thursday. I hope it doesn't change to friday.

So there you have it. We have transfers in a week! Next week I'll have the news. I'm 99% sure I'm getting transfered. So sure, in fact, that I've already started packing. Also the news on my x rays.

Love you all! 

Hna Hutchinson

November 4, 2013

Wow, we still haven't gotten the x rays. We go to talca on Wednesdays for our district meeting. We stayed in Talca afterwards to go to our appointment at the Doctor. When we finally got in to see him, he listened to our lungs as we breathed, and looked at our eyes. Then he told us we needed to get an x ray. DUH! That was the reason we went to the doctor in the first place! The best part was the consultation was $60 each. It was one of the biggest wastes of time. So we still haven't gotten our x rays....

But the rest of the week was actually really good. We had a lot of success. I'm also really excited because we have a baptism this Saturday! C is getting baptized :)

Last week you asked me if the Chileans celebrate Halloween. The answer is yes actually. But it's not as big as in the US. It's kind of funny, in Chile they say "candy or trick" or "candy or garbage" or "candy or egg" I heard all three of them while we were our proselyting. The funniest part is they actually egg houses if they don't give candy. Maybe it's just because I'm from a small town, but I haven't really ever seen a house egged around Halloween. But Halloween isn't a huge deal here.

So we were in the supermarket today and a 98 Degrees song came on the radio. I was soooooo happy. It was a wonderful moment. I've also been indulging in the American candy and Oreos that this supermarket sells.

I also got a sunburn. The weather here has been really nice. We're not quite into summer yet, but the weather has been perfect, like in the 70s. We had a bit of rain recently, but it's spring so I'm not complaining. It was weird walking around on Halloween with the sun shining. Usually it's cold on Halloween haha

Right now we have 5 couples we're working with. None of them are married. In 3 of them, the guy is inactive and the woman is investigating. It's kind of funny. Hopefully in the next couple months we'll have 5 weddings :)

I've also been looking forward to Christmas! It's in the next transfer and this transfer is almost over! Two weeks! I'm 90% sure I'm getting transferred. So sure, in fact, that I've already started packing my suitcases. I want my last p day in Conti to be the least stressful possible.

Keep being awesome!

Hna Hutchinson :)

October 28, 2013

This week was another exhausting week. We got a call Wednesday night for the office that we had to go to Rancagua Friday to submit my papers for my carnet. We then had the x-ray in Talca friday evening. Unfortunately, we didn't make it to Talca in time, so I haven't had the x-ray yet. This wednesday si o si we will have the x-ray done and hopefully next monday I'll have the results.

I'm a little on the exhausted side today, but I'm looking forward to resting. :)

This week was good though. We were planning on a baptism, but it didn't happen unfortuanately. The baptism has been rescheduled for the 9th of November

 though. C is super excited. We also have been working a lot with inactive members and new investigators. Hopefully we'll have another baptism scheduled soon!

Sorry for another short email this week. Not very much happened, except for Rancagua.

Hermana Hutchinson

October 21, 2013

 So I had the TB test, they insert a bit of liquid into your arm and it makes a little bubble. I don't know what it is, but it makes a reaction if you've been exposed to TB. You wait 72 hours and then go back and check. When I went back, I had a sore on my arm that measured 12mm. Normal standards say that if it's bigger than 10mm, you've been exposed. The standards of the church are a conservative 5mm, just to be safe. This friday we are going to Talca for a chest x-ray to see if I have latent TB (since I don't have any symptoms). The 12 is just the measurement of the sore on my arm that will go away. It's actually still on my arm but it's fading away. If it turns out I have TB, it's latent because I don't have symptoms and i will need to take a medication for the next...6 months, I think, to control the TB. I think, but am not sure, that the medication will make the TB go away and I won't have to worry about it again. But we're not at that point yet so I'm not even going to worry about it.

At this point, we don't know if I have TB or not, just that I've been exposed. On the 26th, we're goint to have a mission fast for Hermana R. She has a test on the 28th to see if she still has TB and we're hoping the results will come back clean. 

So this was the craziest week of my life. So last Monday we were in Santiago right? Well we got back super late that night. The next day we got a call from our mission nurse confirming that we had to got back to Santiago for the test results. So we travelled to Talca for our district meeting as usual on Wednesday. After our district meeting, instead of going back to Conti, we took a bus to Rancagua. Travelling to and from Santiago is a bit pricey. We barely had enough money to get to Rancagua. We stopped by a grocery store called Jumbo. It's officially my favorite store in Chile becuase it has Dr. Pepper. I was the happiest little missionary when I saw it. I also bought an Arizona fruit cocktail that's watermelon flavored. (it's the same brand as Arizona Iced tea, but its not tea) It was DELICIOUS. I found some Watermelon flavored punch at the store today. You bet I bought it. the only sad thing is I have to wait until December to enjoy the real thing.

 

But i digress.

So we were in Jumbo looking at Cup Noodles for my companion when suddenly we found President W! Long story short, he bought our drinks and took us to the mission home. Chuta! The mission home is beautiful! And there was a piano. Needless to say, I played for the 2 hours that we were there. It's was wonderfully stress relieving.

 

Anyway--President W took us to the sisters' apartment that we were going to be staying with. We spent the night there and got up early to catch the train to Santiago. We did the same thing all over again...with the metro and the MTC and the temple. Except this time the temple store was open so I got to buy churchy things! 

 

When we got back to Rancagua, we stopped by the mission office to drop off our reembersements so we could have money for the rest of the month (DON'T WORRY, I HAVE PLENTY OF MONEY NOW). Hermana J, the nurse was in the office and she wanted to have a meeting with us to talk about TB and what the next steps were. Then Pres. W came. It was kinda funny, they were talking to us like we were all terrified, but to be honest I'm actually pretty chill about all of this. I know that the church will take care of me if I end up having TB. Did you know that Elder Russell M. Nelson is aware that there is TB in Chile? Around conference there were several emails that got passed around in the mission health office and Elder Nelson was included in those emails. Apparently he is the head of the mission health committe. So for the reason and many others, I'm not worried in the slightest.

Then we made the long journey back to Conti, getting back at 10 to midnight.

We didn't have very much time to work this week, but we managed to still have time to teach several lessons and even do some service! It ended up being a pretty successful week!

I hope you're all doing well! Don't worry too much about me, everything will be fine. Hopefully I'll have the results of the x-ray by next Monday, but I'm not sure. the following Monday for sure!

Love you all!

Hermana Hutchinson

October 14, 2013



Greetings from Santiago, Chile!

So the other day, my companion and I were doing some contacting before lunch when we got a call from the mission nurse. She told us we were due to come to Santiago on Monday (today--p day) to get our TB tests. We left Conti Sunday night, slept in Rancagua and took a train to Santiago this morning. Our adventures included taking the metro (which was one of the most uncomfortable moments of my life. It was stuff the bathroom in high school all over again.) going to the temple, stopping by the MTC and seeing one of the missionaries from the ward in Conti, eating Pizza Hut, singing hymns in the park....and coming to the ciber to write our families! The only sucky thing is we have to COME BACK on thursday so they can look at the results of the test. I love Santiago, but it's freaking 7 hours from Conti and really expensive. But the bookstore at the temple was closed so I won't mind coming back because I want churchy things. Like the new Liahona with the conference talks. 

This week we have 2 people on date for baptism! The notable one is C. He is 10 years old. His mom was a less active, but has started going to church again. The cool thing is C decided that he wanted to get baptized on his own. Nobody told him he needed to get baptized. There is something really special about this kid. I think there's a possiblity that we are teaching the first prophet from Chile ;)

Les quiro mucho. 

Hermana Hutchinson

October 7, 2013



AH I don't have much time today. Today will be a short email, sorry!

Are you ready to hear about transfers? ...............I'm staying in Conti with Hermana M! I'm really excited but I'm also pretty sure this will be my last transfer here. I'm going to hit my 6th month mark in my first sector! haha Or maybe I'll pull a Sister B and stay here for a year.

Yea for conference! I really enjoyed it this year. I also LOVED President Uchtdorf's talk. I can't wait to get the printed talks to I can study them! I also really loved the talk by David McConkie. golden

Not much happened this week, except for the news of Hna R. She has to take a 6 month break from the mission. The poor girl has TB and pnuemonia. Pray for her please!

Hermana Hutchinson

September 30, 2013

Another crazy week.

So when this tranfer started, we had Hna. S, Hna. R, Hna. M and me. Hna S got emergency transfered 2 weeks in and we got Hna. S. Then last week happened. Poor Hna R has been sick for a million years. She had pnuemonia but she never really got over it. So last week we had ANOTHER emergency transfer. Hna R got sent to Talca so she can be closer to the doctor and we have Hna B. She is from Boston and she is super cool. I really like her. But wait there's more! Hna S has asthma and her sector is pure hills so it's difficult for her. So for sure she is getting transfered next week so Hna B has to learn her new sector in 2 weeks and this is her first transfer. Luckily for her, she learned spanish before coming on her mission. She speaks about as well as me, but she has a hard time understanding. But wait there's more! Okay, Mom, don't freak out. Don't freak out. Everything is okay. Don't freak out. It turns out Hna R has tuberculosis. So everyone who lived with her while she was sick has to get tested for TB. But don't freak out mom because remember when I got my TB shot? So I don't have TB, it's all for precaution's sake.

So that was my week in a nutshell.

But the best thing in the world happened. P got baptized!!!  He is super awesome! The spirit was super strong at his baptism. His birthday was also yesterday so he got the gift of the holy ghost on his birthday! I would say that's the best present you could get for your birthday.

To answer your question, yes I'm going to watch GC. We're going to watch it in the chapel with the ward. It starts at 1pm here and the second session at 5pm. How weird is that? I'm just happy it's not in the middle of the night or anything. We couldn't watch the RS session because it's started at 9pmand we have to be in our house at 9:30. I was bummed, but someone in the ward is going to download it onto a CD and give it to us. So I'm not bummed anymore.

And dont worry about me not having food, I have plenty of food. And the members feed us everyday so don't you worry. In fact, you should worry about me getting fat because they eat so many carbs. Bread, rice, potatoes and more bread. And cookies. So worry about that. And I'm plenty warm. Don't you worry about a thing. Cuz every little thing...is gonna be alright.

I will have news of transfers next week. I don't want to leave Conti, but we'll find out soon!

¡Que le vaya bien!

Hermana Hutchinson

September 23, 2013

So this week was super slow because everyone was out celebrating! But the good news is that we have a new progressing investigator! His baptism is set for the 12th of October. I'm crossing my fingers that I'll still be here because we have tranfers in 2 weeks.......

But we have the baptism of P this weekend! I'm super excited! He started coming to church before meeting with the missionaries! He also gave up smoking and drinking. he's super awesome! He has a great testimony and really enjoys going to church.

Let's see....nothing very exciting happened this week because of the 18th. I've been thinking about tranfers a lot though. I'm thinking that if I don't stay in Conti with Hna M that I will either be transfered elsewhere or I'm going to train. I really don't want to leave Conti yet. I LOVE it here. It's like being in Moscow....except everyone speaks spanish and there's an ocean and a river.

Sorry for the short email. I don't have a whole lot to say this week. But you have some pictures!

Hermana Hutchinson

September 16, 2013

HOOOOLLLLLLAAAAA!

This email is super late today. We just got back from Rancagua. Hna M had a doctors appointment this morning. Rancagua is four hours away and we were there for about 6 hours. But life of a missionary I guess. But we just got back so I'm emailing now.

I've decided I'm not a huge fan of Rancagua. It's cool there, but it's so big! I love my little Constitución. I don't want to go! Which probably means that I will be getting transfered this transfer.....but we'll find out! I still have three weeks so I'm not worried. I also love ocean and the beach. But I don't like the ugly factory. It's similar to the factory in Lewiston and yeah, it almost smells the same too. Luckily it's not as bad and it's only around the factory.

This week was kind of rough. We had a hard time finding new investigators, but all is well. Our english class was good this week. We ended up starting late because of an issue with they keys to the church, but it was good.

I'm super excited for this week because it's Chilean independence day!!! September 18th. I'm glad you didn't send me a flag because there are plenty of flags here. Hahaha plenty. I can buy one on nearly every street corning. Big ones, small ones, short ones, tall ones. The cool thing about Chilean Independence day is it's not just one day...it's THREE! September 17-19. I bought a dress too! It's a dress they wear to dance the cueca (kweka) and you'll love it mom, it's purple! They're suuuper cute! I'm going to wear it tomorrow to the ward activity :) The cueca is really cool. The other day in the plaza they had a big festival with all the schools. All the kids danced the cueca together. It was really fun...except I forgot my camera.

And we have a baptism coming up!! The 28th! His name is P! He has stopped smoking and drinking and has a great testimony! I'm super excited!

Also, wanna here a funny and awkward story? Hahahah so there's an inactive memeber named E. He's, like 24ish. I met him one of my first weeks here. We went back a few more times with my last companion and taught him and his dad. Sometimes it's hard to find him, but finally, my new companion and I were able to go visit him this week. So we went to visit him, and the weirdest thing, he started flirting with me! He had never flirted with me before and suddenly, he's asking me if I had a boyfriend before my mission and if we're allowed to get married (a frequently asked question---what are we nuns?) and if we can be facebook friends. Then the next day we stopped by to drop off a Book of Mormon because he lost his in the earthquake. I shook his had to say bye but when I tried to pull it away, he wouldn't let go. awwwkwaaaard! We haven't been back since and the next time we go, si o si (as the chileans would say--it means yes or yes) we are bringing a member. Preferrably a young beautiful single woman. Hahahaha

I still love Chile and the people here! I love my mission and I'm excited for this week and conference!!!

Stay awesome and you have my permission to eat cake on Wednesday to celebrate with the chileans ;)

Hermana Hutchinson

September 9, 2013

This week was pretty good. We had a lot less proselytizing time, but we managed to do more than we did last week! The conference in Curicó was really good. Elder Fansico J Viñas came and talked to us about...missionary work! Imagine that. It was cool to meet more people in my mission. I met a sister from Brazil named Hermana S. She's uber nice. We were talking and she told me that she lived in Boise for a while in college. So we talked about Boise for a bit and I asked, "By any chance do you know E M?" And guess what. She knows E! How crazy is that! She's from Brazil, we're in Chile and she knows E M! So that was super cool.  But yeah, there are a lot of really great people in my mission. No, Elder A wasn't there, it was only half the mission. But did I tell you that Hermana M first zone leader was Elder A? She was also in his district. 

So something kinda sad happened this week. We had an emergency transfer. I don't know why, but Hermana S got transfered to the Rancagua area. Hermana S and I were pretty close so I was really bummed. She's also training right now, which is a tad bit scary for her. We were on the same plane to Chile. Not to mention she's training a gringa. Usually the gringas train the latinas and vice versa. But she's training a gringa that doesn't know very much spanish! Hna S knows a lot of spanish, but she's still not fluent. She was scared, but of all people, I would pick her for this emergency transfer too. She's an amazing person. 

But now, I'm currently the only english speaker in the apartment. So I think my spanish is going to improve tenfold this transfer. My spanish is coming along quite a bit. I can understand about 90-95% of everything people say. I still struggle with speaking a bit, but I'm a lot better. And I can get my point across, I just still have to think about what I'm saying. I still have a lot to learn, but it will come. And I'm surprized with how much I know already.

Anywho, I don't think anything else very exciting happened this week. The zone came to constitución today to go to the beach! Woo! Conti is the best! Oh and we've started teaching english classes! It was going to be me, Hna S and Elder S, but now it will just be me and Elder S since Hna S left.... :( Oh yeah, it's slightly difficult to teach your language in a different language. Just saying.

Oh and tell dad I say HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Tell him he's awesome and has been an amazing example to me these last 20 years. (yikes, 20 years?!)

I love you all! Stay awesome!

Hermana Hutchinson

September 2, 2013

This week has been awesome! I love my new companion, Hermana M. I have learned a lot from her this last week and we have been getting along really well. We currently don't have any progressing investigators, but we have been doing a lot of contacting and have quite a few new investigators so I'm hoping for the best this week!

So this week, we have a mini conference in Curicó. One of the seventy is coming, Elder Franciso J Viñas. I haven't heard of him before... anywho. Also, my companion and I are going to Santiago. Hopefully for sure this time haha but I'm excited because we can stop by the bookstore by the temple and buy churchy things! haha Also everything is a million times cheeper there so I might try to find a couple things. I want to get a new messanger bag because I don't like the one I have now. Also, no, I don't enjoy the messanger bags. They hurt my shoulder! But the one I have now kind of sucks. It was freaking $34. But I needed a messanger bag so I bought it, but I would like to find a new one that is better.

The weather is slowly getting warmer, but it's still pretty cold. I want summer already! Today it rained, but I'm not freezing in the mornings, which I enjoy. We haven't been using our little heater thing as much. Summer is coming....slowly. I just want watermelon, that's my biggest thing haha

And don't worry, I'm sleeping very well. It takes me about 2 minutes to fall asleep. I haven't had any problems with bed bugs or mold, that I know of. We do have fleas, but they haven't been bad recently. I have some lovely flea bites. Soooo yeah. And don't worry, I'm eating well too. The lunches here are huge! I don't know how I finish them. And we usually eat a bit in the evening. I have been eating a lot of mandarian oranges. They're adorable and delicious! The blue jacket was in the apartment when I got here. It's surpizingly warm.

The spanish is coming along. I can speak pretty well, but I still have a lot to learn. We did a lot of contacting this week so my contacting skills have improved. I can also understand a solid 90% of what people are saying. I still get lost sometimes, but what can I do?

V and M are doing well. V got really really sick, like, right after his baptism, but he's better now. 

I love you all! 

Hermana Hutchinson

August 26, 2013

So after I emailed you last week, we went to the store. We saw the other Hermanas there and they said there were going to get haircuts and asked if we wanted to go. Hermana M has been wanting to get bangs so we went. I wasn't planning on getting my haircut, but after a split ends check, I decided to get a trim. "Just a trim" I said (in Spanish of course) and yeah--chow Katelyn's hair. That was the worst trim ever.

But the good news is, my hair in a million million million million times better that in was before. I can actually wear it down without it going Tarzan on me. The last few weeks has been braid after braid. I'm sad because it's a lot shorter, but it looks way better. I'm back to having random people tell me how pretty my hair is in the street. Like yesterday (I'm pretty sure that guy was gay because how many guys compliment random girls hair?)

¿Oh, wanna know about transfers? Well, I'm staying in Constitución!!!!! WOOO! But I'm getting a new companion named Hermana M (I think). I don't know anything about her yet except she is coming from Rancagua and she's a girl. But I will tell you all about her next week. 

Ummmmm....I don't really have anything else to say. My spanish is getting better. I can hold a decent conversation with people. I still don't understand 100% yet, but it's getting there. I think I'm going to learn a lot this transfer because my new companion doesn't know the area or the people so for the first week I'll be the one leading us around and talking with the memebers and stuff. But hopefully I will survive. I have a feeling I'll be getting a bit more help from the Lord this transfer.

Also Chilean independence day is September 18. I'm excited! The negocios are selling the tradicional Chilean dresses and everyone's talking about empanadas and dancing! I'm excited! They celebrate all week so it will be an awesome party!

Say hi to Ben, Josh and Hayden for me!

Hermana Hutchinson

So we ended up not going to Santiago. I'm kind of bummed, but oh well. And yeah, we didn't go to the temple. I'm interested to see the change in the endowment session (If I'd gone in Santiago, I would not have know what the change was in Spanish haha)

 

So I'm a little put out because here in Chile there is a Día del Niño. There's a kids day. Like mother's day and father's day, but for kids. Why doesn't America have a Kids day?¿ There was a huge celebration in the plaza downtown with games and bouncyhouses and food and sweets and the scariest mickey and minnie I've ever seen (they had human arms). And what's better, the kids get presents too! Yeah so when I'm a mom I will be celebrating Día del Niño. It's the second sunday in August if you want to start too. :)

Oh and yesterday there was an earthquake! Okay not really. It was a tremor and I didn't even feel it. My companion did though and the other hermanas, but not me. I heard it though! But I thought somebody just dropped something outside haha So my first earthquake (tremor) and I didn't even feel it! Don't worry mom, it was like a 0.1 on the rictor scale.

 

Hermana Hutchinson

 

 

WOO! This week we had TWO baptims! V and Ml! V gave up smoking to be baptized and M is super afraid of water, but still got in! (It actaully a sad story. He watched his mom die in the tsunami three years ago.) Their faith is astounding and I'm so proud of both of them!

Let's see--this week we had interviews with the mission president! I was nervous that it was going to be in Spanish, but I'm happy to say it was in English! It was actually kind of weird to have a conversation in English and hear my voice speaking in English. I haven't heard myself speak in that much english in a while. But it was really good. I really like President Warne. His wife is also awesome. She is in the process of learning Spanish too and we got here around the same time so we're in the same boat! They're both really wonderful people.

I also have some interesting news. This week--thrusday I believe--my companion and I will be going on an adventure to Santiago, which is not in our mission. The mission office lost her passport so we have to go to the Mexican embassy in Santiago to get her a new one so she can get her Chilean ID so she won't get deported. I'm pretty excited for that! Hermana M wants to go to the temple in Santiago. I think that would be awesome, but I don't know how I'd feel about doing a session in Spanish.....

Today we went to the beach! It was so beautiful! The sand is black here! It's so cool! I took a lot of pictures, but I'm only going to send one. Don't worry, it's the prettiest! We also saw some seals which was both really weird and really cool. And I picked up a bunch of seashells.

Nothing really exciting happened this week except for the baptism.

 

 Hermana Hutchinson

 

 

 

 

 

HOLA!!!

Okay, I don't have a ton of time, but this week was great! We had a talent show with the ward on Friday that was a lot of fun! And we have quite a few new investigators. V has been doing well. He smokes and has been trying to quit. So far so good, but it's only been a few days. His baptism is set for August 17th and we're praying that he will have the strength to give up smoking so he can be baptized. C is also doing well. We talked to him last night about if he has interest. The good news is yes, he has interest! The bad news is he doesn't like the Word of Wisdom. But the good news is, when we taught it to C, he didn't even stay for the whole lesson so he doesn't know the blessings! So we're going to be teaching him the Word of Wisdom as well as helping him to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith. He also smokes, but he has a desire to quit so we'll be helping him with that too. Jeesh, I'm going to be a pro at helping people stop smoking by the end of my mission.

Other than that nothing very exciting happened this week. We don't have any baptisms for a few weeks, but we have a few people on date. Not sure if they're going to follow through, but we'll keep working with them and I'll keep you updated!

In the meantime, I have some pictures! Food and other things

So there's Frac which is basically the Chilean equivalent of Oreos. They eat so many cookies here! They don't have much candy, but if you want a cookie, come to Chile.

And I found the cream cheese! It's in these weird tube things and you squeeze it out, but I don't care. It's cream cheese.

Milk--the good kind.

There's also a picture of our water heater thing.

Dehydrated milk. Gross.

Milo. Also gross. It's supposed to be hot chocolate, but it doesn't taste like anything.

Manjar. hahaha it's basically the greatest thing ever. It's really similar to caramel, but a little different. They put it on everything,

A picture of the beach. The sand is black--so cool!

And our decorations for the talent show!

I hope that's in the right order. :)

 

Cuidense,

 

Hermana Hutchinson

 

 

 

Hola!!

Yes, I'm plenty warm. That sleeping bag was one of the best things I brought with me. Our mission president gave each of us an electric sleeping pad, but I don't even need it.

My investigators are all doing great! C is still set to be baptized this Saturday and her husband C came to church yesterday! I was super excited!

This week was kind of weird. On...wednesday...I think... We went to Talca for a district class except this week we had to get there early because we were having a zone conference with our new mission president, President Warne. We had to wake up at 5:00am (but we didn't get up until 5:30 haha) so we could be on the bus by 6 and in Talca by 8. The conference was good and we all got interviewed by the mission president and his wife. Did you get a picture from them by chance?

And then on Friday we traveled to Rancagua for a new missionary conference! Thursday night we traveled to Talca and then Friday morning we traveled to Rancagua. 4 hours of traveling total. The conference was really good and I learned a lot! I also had the most terrifying moment of my life. The night before one of the APs called me. I figured he was going to ask me to play the piano, but no, he asked me to give the closing prayer! AHHH! I was stressing out about it the whole conference! I was planning what I was going to say and everything. Then I got up there and my mind when totally blank and I forgot all the things I was going to say! Ugggh! I made it though the prayer fine, but it was hands down the most terrifying moment of my mission so far. Hopefully I'll be off the hook for saying prayer for future mission conferences though. 

We also had transfers this week! It's weird because I've only been here 4 weeks, but Rancagua has a different transfer schedule so we had transfers! And the news is.....nothing! I'm staying in Constitución! My whole district is staying actually (I think--language barrier)

We had a baptism on Saturday! I attached a picture. So, Chileans a) don't know how to pose for pictures and b) don't know how to take pictures so it's not that great of a picutre, but it's the best one I have on my camera haha I also attached a picture I took today. It's a beautiful day in Conti! I didn't even have to wear my jacket!

So a funny story. So we were walking with the Elders (Elder T from Guatamala and Elder O from Argentina) the other night after an interview with K. Elder T and Hermana M were talking and I was walking next to Elder O, who was trying (and failing) to speak English. None of them can speak english very well. Hermana M knows some but not very much. Elder O was pulling something out of his pocket and we heard something fall so we both stopped to look for it (we couldn't find it--weird) Hermana M and Elder T didn't know we stopped so they kept walking. Elder O and I looked for a moment and decided it was nothing so we started walking again. Elder T and Hermana M were about 10 yards ahead of us and realized we weren't behind them so they turned around to see where we were. When they turned around I shouted, "Don't worry, we were just making out!" hahahaha and it's funny because none of them had any idea what I said. Oh funny. I say things like that all the time.

Les amo

Hermana Hutchinson