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

 

This week was exciting! We now have FOUR people with a baptismal date! This Saturday a girl named K is getting baptized. She is 11 years old. Her parents were taking the discussions with the missionaries, but decided they weren't interested anymore, but K still was (at least that's what I think happened. Language barrier) Her parents are super nice though. They aren't married, but there have been whisperings of them thinking about it. Karla's mom came to church with K on Sunday. I think she really likes it, but doesn't think she has time. Anywho, K is awesome! She's really smart and has a big personality for an 11 year old. 

We also have a woman named C on date for the 20th. She's really cool too. We started meeting with her and her husband C, C and her young daughter a couple weeks ago. C lost interest, but C still wanted to keep meeting with us. We invited her to a FHE activity and she's come to church twice. It's cool to see the change that has come over her. You can see the light of Christ in her eyes. The other day we had an FHE at her apartment with C. He's interesting. I can tell there is something holding him back, but I'm not sure what it is. I can tell he really likes our message, but for some reason he won't keep commitments. He was supposed to come to church with us on Sunday, but had a headache. I dunno. I've been praying for him. I know it would be much better if both of them were baptized. Hopefully the Lord will help C.

We also have a gentleman and his 9 year old son. V and M. They are both awesome! Vr unfortuanately lost his wife in the earthquake so it's just him and M. They are really poor. They were supposed to come to church with us last week, but didn't because they didn't have money for a cab and it was raining. Here the taxis are $350 which is about 60-70 cents in America. Yesterday we made sure to pick them up and we paid for the taxi. They loved church! They also attended a baptism on Saturday and loved it too! V loves everything about the church so far (at least I think he does--language barrier) And M is adorable. He's 9, but he looks like he's 6! He's really shy too, but I think he really likes coming to church.

As you can see we've had a lot of success! I'm excited for K's baptism this Saturday and I hope that C, V and M will keep coming to church and keeping their commitments so they can be baptized too!

Other than that, this week has consisted of a lot of contacting, which I've decided I don't like. At least right now because I can't really do it very well. I can follow conversations alright, but for some reason when someone talks to me, I'm completely lost. So contacting is kinda hard for me. I have a funny story though. They other day it was raining so I had my umbrella. It stopped raining as we started talking to these 4 girl. They were all 12 and 13. So my companion is talking to these girls and I'm closing my umbrella which as rain all over it, because it had just stopped raining. My umbrella is spring loaded so all you have to do it push a button to open it. It requires a bit of force to close it though. You can just close it like a normal umbrella, usually I push it against the ground to close it. This time though I was way zoned out for some reason and I tried closing the umbrella by pulling it down from the inside. I didn't click into place though so when I let go, it sprung forward and all the water flung off onto one of the girls we were talking too. I got her all wet! And she was like 12. I felt so bad. And in my zoned out state I started speaking English. "Oh my gosh, I am so sorry!" One of the other girls was like "No problem." I had an oh-yeah-I'm-in-a-Spanish-speaking-country moment. haha it was embarrasing, but really funny.

So the language...it's coming. Slowly, but surely. It's easy to get frustrated when I don't understand or can't comunicate, but I have to keep reminding myself that I've only been speaking Spanish for 9 weeks. Usually I just bear my testimony or explain a principle during the lessons. There have been times when they had no idea what I said, but usually they're really nice and supportive of the fact that I'm learning Spanish. Everyone tells me I have a good accent though, so that's something. Keep praying for me though. It's hard being in a completely different country and having no idea what's going on most of the time. I love it here though. It's funny cause you can always tell when it's about to rain because it will get ridiculously humid. The other day I went to bed and thought "why do I feel wet!?" (like in Pink Panther haha) My towel is never completely dry and my hair....oh let's not even talk about that (braid all the time) but I love it here. I just need to learn the freaking language! But just wait, when I get home I'll be a Chilean, just wait.

I'm glad to hear everything is going well at home! I'm glad you've been meeting with the missionaries so much. Being a missionary I know how awesome it is to have the support of the members. Love the missionaries, they need it! 

And sharing the Gospel isn't too scary is it? I challange you to share the Gospel with someone! Even if you just give them a passalong card! You never know who the Lord is preparing to recieve the Gospel. 

I love you all!!! Keep being awesome!

Cuídense,

Hermana Hutchinson

So this week, I made note of all the things I wanted to tell you about.

First, the milk. They don't pasturize the milk here, they blast it with radiation...or something. It's safe to drink, don't worry, it just has a bit of different taste and you don't have to refrigerate it. But they also have dehydrated milk. My companion showed me her favorite brand of dehydrated milk and I bought it. It's hands down the most disgusting milk I have ever had. Especially on cereal. YUCK! Today I'm going to buy regular milk so I don't have to eat dry cereal anymore. Bleh.

The whether here is not bad at all. I can't decide if it's because we haven't quite been hit with winter or if it's because I'm on the coast...maybe both? but I haven't been very cold. It's actaully pretty similar to Moscow weather sprinkled with more Seattle. It also hasn't been very humid...until today at least. Today feels like I'm taking a shower, but it's okay. But seriously, it hasn't been very cold. I actually like it. My companion is ALWAYS cold though. and she always has to go to the bathroom. It's not a bad thing though. We were able to teach a couple lessons because she asked to use their bathroom.

Everyday a member from the ward feeds us lunch. I haven't had a lunch that I didn't like (yet! knock on wood!!) Pretty much, all we've had though is soup, chicken and fish with some carbs on the side...rice, noodles, potatoes... muy rico! The food is really good (except the dehydrated milk) and the members always give us some fruit to take on the road. Yum yum! The other day though when we were at a memebers house, one of her sons had a shirt on that had english on it.  I've noticed a lot of people with english written on their shirts. This one in particular was really funny though. The tshirt said "US Army Wife" I'm 100% sure he has no idea what his shirt says!

Oh, so last week at our mission conference, I met a girl named K R. She told me she used to live in Moscow. She was a year below me, but she went to McDonald and even had Mrs. K she couldn't remember what ward she was in.

 

We were going through the area book to looks for people contact and in 2009 there was an Hermana Hutchinson in Constitución! How cool is that! Also, people have a hard time saying my name. A sister in the other companionship calls me Hermana Hutchington. It's funny, I love it.

I'm super excited because the other day we met a girl named R. She is awesome! The spirit was so strong during our lesson with her and she accepted baptism. She couldn't come to church with us yesterday, unfortunately. I think she might be my first legit investigator! The problem with the Chileans is their so nice. They invite us in to share a message with them, but they don't really have any interest. We haven't gotten past 2 lessons with very many people. I think Rocío is going to be different though! She didn't say anything, but I think there is something in her life that is difficult for her right now and I think we came and the perfect time to share the Gospel with her! I pray for her and hope she'll be my first baptism!!

Have fun on the Independence day! It will be my second in a row that I won't even be in the country! hahaha oh well, we can have a mini celebration in Chile!

I love you all! Keep being awesome!

Hermana Hutchinson

HOLA FROM CHILE!!!!

First things first, don´t worry about me being cold! It´s definitely cold, but nothing a coat and gloves can´t handle. It´s actually pretty similar to moscow cold. The houses aren´t heated, but almost everyone has a heater.

Second, good news everyone! I am no longer in the Concepción mission. I have been moved, by inspiration, to the Chile Rancagua mission. My new (brand new!) mission president will be Elder and Sister Warne. They are changing the mission boundries and everything north of Talca is getting moved. Also, I´m actually not IN Talca. (Okay, actually at the moment I´m in Talca, but more on that later) I´m in the Talca central area, but I´m in a town called Constitución. It´s a gorgeous little costal town where the Rio and the Pacific Ocean meet. I love it!

Anyway, Í am in Talca right now. We had a mission conference to say bye to the Humphreys. We´re staying the night in Talca and tomorrow we´ll head back to Conti (that´s the nickname for Consistución) I love Talca! It reminds me so much of the Dominican Republic.

I LOVE CHILE SO MUCH! I don´t even know where to begin. The people here are SO nice and so humble and they all love 80s music. The missionaries are awesome too. As you know my companion is Hermana Martinez from Mexico. She´s kinda crazy. I like her, but sometimes she´s a lot to handle. She knows a little bit of English and I´ve been teaching her some too. My first night here while we were on the bus, she was trying to tell me that I will recieve the gift of tounges through the Holy Ghost, but she couldn´t say Holy Ghost very well so she said Holocaust. So just know that I will be recieving the gift of tounges through the Holocaust. No big deal.

So Chileans speak really fast. Like, really fast. I thought I had a pretty good handle on understanding Spanish when I left the MTC, but then I came to Chile. I thought they were speaking a different language! My understanding level has increased though. I can actaully pick out words, but I still have a long way to go. The Lord was teasing me the other day though. He gave me the gift of interpretation of tounges for one day. I could understand about 93% of what everyone was saying. Context and all! It was wonderful and I was so excited! And then the next day I coudn´t understand a blasted thing. It´s really easy to get discouraged, but I have to have faith. A scripture came to my mind in church on Sunday. Ether 12:27 which is about the Lord making our weaknesses our strengths IF we humble ourselves. I thought I was pretty humble, but I realized that getting discouraged is not being humble. When I´m discouraged I´m not teachable at all. I have the mindset that I can´t do it and that´s not something the Lord can work with. So that´s what I´ve been working on the last couple days.

Of course, with the mission conference, I haven´t had much time to work on it. Sunday night we rode a bus to Talca. We then had to stay up to 1am (the wouldn´t let us sleep! Probably because we were with the Elders) for our bus. We then drove 4 hours to Concepción for the mission conference. I had a hard time sleeping. For whatever reason, some of the elders wanted to stay up talking and listening to music. At 3:30am (????)

Now about my actual mission. So apart from the fact that I can´t barely follow what´s going on, I love it! I love being a missionary and walking everywhere in the cold and knocking on doors and sharing the gosple with people. My first day in the field was awesome! We got 3 new investigators. Since then we´ve pìcked up a couple more! The culture here is so different. Most people actually like talking about religion and will let us in to share a message with them. We haven´t gotten any doors slammed in our faces (yet). We´ve been rejected for sure, but the people will tell us about their religious beliefs and are still really nice to us.

Saturday night we taught two couples. Juan & Jackie and Jorge & Jackie. And we taught them both the Law of Chastity. There a huge problem with the law of Chastity in Chile. I don´t know the exact details, but there´s a law in Chile that discourages people from getting married. I think it has something to do with in the event of a divorce one party gets way more than the other, but I still don´t really know. Soy Americana. Anyway, we were teaching J and J and we had a member family with us. They´re recent converts and really nice. They joke a lot about me not being able to understand them, but they also talk slowly so I can try to understand them. Anyway so they´re married and were trying to explain to J and J why marriage is so important (I least I think that´s what was happening. soy gringa. no endiendo mucho) I was doing my best to follow along, but I wasn´t apart of the conversation because I didn´t know what was going on and because so many people were talking. All of the sudden I had 5 Chileans and my companion all talking at me in rapid crazy Spanish. They were all trying to explain this Chilean law (that I still don´t really understand) they were trying to use objects as examples but I could really catch was ¿Me entiende? Finally I did an Ohhhhh! face and said Entiendo! even though I really didn´t. Hahaha it was a crazy night.

It´s been a lot of fun though. We´ve been teaching some great people. We´re teaching an 11 year old girl named K and an old woman name F. They´re both great!

Oh! and we were knocking on doors and met a woman named L. She has a family, but at the time was alone. She invited us in and we taught her a mini Restoration lesson and I had this prompting to ask if she knew about the book of mormon. So I....tried....to ask if she knew about the Book of Mormon, but she didn´t understand what I said. Luckily my companion knew what I was trying to say so she asked. It turns out that the Book of Mormon was what she was hung up on. So we explained about it and left one with her. I hope she reads it because I know it will bless her life and her family´s life as well! It was a cool experience.

So you asked about my flight. Turns out it was only 8 hours 45 minute. Not bad at all. I was sitting inbetween two elders, including an Elder in my district I´m good friends with, Elder J. We took some sleeping pills and were out until morning. It wasn´t the best night of sleep ever. I think I was stressed out the whole time because I didn´t want to end up sleeping on one of the Elders and ya know, I was on a plane. In a skirt (but I wore shorts underneath) Not the most comfortable thing ever. Also I found out in the morning that I had my legs on the other Elder at one point. Oops.

So today was the last day that I got to see the people in my MTC district. I have mixed feelings about going to Rancagua. I´m the only one from my MTC district so I won´t get to see any of them again, but at the same time I know this is where I´m supposed to be going and I´m really excited! I was able to get all of their email addresses so I´ll have to email them. I didn´t realize how much I was going to miss them. Anything familiar is really nice when you´re in the middle of a foreign country.

Also with the ipads. It is true that they´re going to be giving ipads to missionaries. and iphone5s. Mostly to the wealthier missions though. I obviously won´t be getting one. It´s a perfect way to teach, especially if everyone else has one. but that is a definite confirmation. And I talked to a ton of girls going to Spokane so there is a good chance I talked to whoever this sister is. I loved talking to the missionaries going to Spokane. I would tell them it´s the best mission in the world! Except Rancagua, sorry :)

 

I attached some pictures! There´s one of Conti and one of my district plus Hermano S and Hermano L (Hermano L is standing next to me and Hermano S is in the back second from the left)

 

I love you all much! Keep being awesome!

 

Les amo!

Hermana Hutchinson