Earthquakes and English

This week I got to feel my first earthquake! And to be honest, I was awesome and not scary at all. It was super small and just shook my building a little bit during companion study. My companion and I were pretty excited. 

And we had a pretty sucessful Noche de Hogar this past week! A lot of people came and we learned about eternal families! We are promoting this upcoming one and hopefully we'll get some more investigadors there. 

This past Thursday my companion and I went on intercambios to Pocuro, which is the ward with the temple in it. I actually got to do a temple tour with Hermana Andersen with a primary from another ward. They were so sweet and cute. If I never get transferred into Pocuro, at least I've done a temple tour!

Because me and my companion always try to talk in Spanish, our English is getting worse. I have realized that more and more because we have a couple people who are from the United States and Australia in our ward. And occasionally they say Australian words that I don't understand. We had lunch with an Austrailian family, and occasionally they will say a word like "mince," "vegimite," and other words they use that we haven't heard. We got to try some Australian food, which I never thought would happen in my mission. I also get to teach Spanish because of the families that don't speak Spanish and want to practice with us. We were thinking of starting an English/Spanish class because of the number of people in my sector that don't speak Spanish. 

There are also a lot of people from Haiti that are moving to Chile to work. I've ran into a couple of them and contacted them, and its actually super hard because a lot of them have been here for a little time and are learning Spanish. And they don't know any English. With one contact, he was actually translating what he was saying and what I was saying in his phone. But from what he understood, he wanted to learn more! Too bad he doesn't live in my area, but I am sure wherever he is there are great missionaries. I would want to start learning French, but I think Creole is a little different than normal French. Which is funny because some people have told us we have French accents (and apparently we look French) when we speak Spanish. 

Have a great week!

Hermana Reed

Hola!

We had our zone activity today and played a lot of fun games and things. A lot of people are leaving the zone so a lot of things are changing this coming intercambio. With our President, everything is possible. 

Also in our ward we have family home evening every week, and its been a bit of a struggle to get people there. The whole purpose of family home evening is for the ward to get together and become closer, and for us to bring investigators and them to feel more comfortable about coming to church. According to the elders in my barrio, at first they were very successful and a lot of people came. But I guess its been a while and these past couple weeks they have been cancelled because of the lack of people. 

But we are trying to get them working again so we have been trying other ways of getting people to come. These can help the barrio so much, because a lot of people don't get to know each other in the barrio because everybody moves a lot (because my sector is Sanhattan). Family Home Evenings are super important! 

This week I found a scripture that I love, and it is in 2 Corinthians 9:7 and it says: "Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver." I love it because it applies so much to my mission. Sometimes its hard because missionaries are always working, and sometimes I feel tired. But the times that are most worth it are the little times in the mission: the times that you can see people change and become happier, the times that they tell you they are so grateful for what we do, and some people have even called us angels (which makes me so happy). And this only happens when I give and do all I can for these people. And I am not doing it because I feel obligated, but because I love my mission and this gospel. I want to become a more cheerful giver. 

Ciao ciao! 

Hermana Reed

Pictures of my sector

Pictures of my sector

The Wilderness of Santiago

Hola!
This week my companion and I decided to explore the concrete jungle of Santiago and find the wild beasts within. So we took our bags, got in the metro, and went to the Santiago Zoo.
It was fun and pretty exciting. It's different because a lot of the animals are from South America, so we saw a lot of monkeys, emu, llamas, and other animals. It's a super small zoo, but it was all you needed. The animals were also super active, which made it more exciting.
My little sector of Sanhattan is getting better and better every day. We are finding more people that belong to my sector and teaching them and getting to know other. One day we were stopped by a menos activos house, and she gave us some shampoo because the type she had is better for our hair apparently. So we started walking around with our Books of Mormon, water bottles, and shampoo. We stopped at another building to look for someone, and the conserje asked if we sold shampoo. Of course I said no, but we have a special message about the gospel of Jesus Christ!
We also had a great fireside in another sector, and my companion and I went because our President asked us to be in the choir. It was great because we got to see a lot of other missionaries we haven't seen in a while, like my trainer!
I am also noticing small ways of how the Lord prepares people to receive the gospel. Something I learned in one of our many meetings as a missionary is that missionaries do not prepare people to receive the gospel; the Lord does.
Through small means He prepares the people to receive our message and we are here to teach it. There are so many people that I have talked to this week. As they have talked to me, I can see how the Lord has prepared them. And it makes me happy that I can help them in their path.
And some photos! The first one is of me and my hija.

Kangaroos and the view of the city from the zoo

One of the tigers they have

Me and the penguins

Have a great day! Ciao ciao!

Sanhattan

Hola,
Recently I learned another name for my area of Cristóbal Colón - Sanhattan. There are some Australians in my ward and they explained that a lot of people call this area Sanhattan because it's like the New York of South America: a lot of people move here to work, there are tons of big buildings, subway, everything.

But yep, that's pretty much how it is! A lot of people here are from other countries too: Australia, Colombia, United States, Peru, Ecuador, etc. Chile had a good economy, so a lot of people move here to work.

People also call traffic jams here "tacos", and they always happen in the morning from 7:00-9:00 and night from 6:00-8:00. Whenever a taco starts to form, me and my companion like to say, "Taco time!" Too bad Taco Bell isn't in my sector.
My hija is also doing great. We've been teaching even more, contacting even more, singing in all the building, it's great. The conserjes are our "biggest" fans. At least some of them. (conserje means doorman)
My hija's name is Hna. Hirchak, which is really hard for some of the Chileans to pronounce. A lot of people think she's German. One time we went to meet with a member, and while we were talking to a conserje, someone exited and saw her placa. He got really excited and said, "I speak your language!" And then proceeded to talk in German. My hijab started to think that her Spanish was really bad while I replied, "Sorry, we don't speak that language!" So he said, "Spreaken de Duetch?" And I said, "No spreaken nada de Duetch."
For those who speak German, sorry, but I don't know how to spell anything in German.
We also celebrated the beloved Fourth of July with Doritos and some Snickers. Yay for the United States!
Hope you guys had a great Fourth of July!
Love,
Hermana Reed

Training!

Hello Family!
I'm training! Shortly after writing you last week I went to pick up my new hija. It's scary because I recently just finished my own training, but now I have to train someone else! Bienvenida a la misión.
But she's super cool! Her name is Hermana Hirchak from Orem, Utah. She has ten people in her family, but that is because her mom married her stepdad who had six children. Sounds like a party. She is also super spiritual and already seems like she's been trained. She knows everything, she just needs to practice her Spanish and teaching people.
And even though I am still new, I can see the difference between a missionary who just came out of the CCM. She is so excited to work and she walks even faster than me. I have a hard time keeping up with her! She doesn't know anybody in the ward, but the people she does know about she asks about and reminds me to keep in touch with them. She is awesome and I am so happy to be her trainer!
We also had some pretty awesome things happen this week! We've had more cities and managed to teach all of them and visited so many people that we haven't been able to visit before! We have some new investigators too, which has been a while since we've found new people. But it's great!
Today we went to Cerro San Cristobal for Preparation Day, and I am sorry but I don't have the thing to send pictures. It was awesome because it's the first time I have been hiking since being on my mission. It wasn't that bad. Everybody else said it was steep, but I know what steep really is (cough cough Hawaii hikes cough). But it was awesome! We went up and up and got to see the Virgin Mary on top. Which is cool. But I liked the view better. The smog was so beautiful...
Well, that's pretty much my week. Love you guys! Look for missionary opportunities! Read the scriptures! Pray! Stay faithful! Email me!
rachel.reed@myldsmail.net
Su hermana,
Rachel

Cambios!

Wow, some big changes and milagros have happened this past week! First of all, I am staying in Cristobal Colon and my trainer has left to go to Nunoa, which is further south in the mission. But I have also been called to train a new missionary. I haven't met her yet, but I will tonight, and then we are going to start working and meeting new people! We're going to work hard and happy! It's a bit alarming having to train right after my training, but I know that the Lord will help me and miracles will happen this cambio.

Speaking of miracles, a big one happened this week! First of all, about a month ago I lost my missionary tag when I was getting off the bus. I tried to look for it, but we had to get back to the house because of curfew. So I had to accept that my poor placa was lost. But yesterday when I was in the missionary office for the cambio reunion, I saw a placa with my name on it. I thought it was a new one, but it was actually my placa! It also had a note on it from another missionary that said: "Thanks for dropping your placa! A less active found it and found us - and now we're teaching her and her family." :) My placa is such a good missionary.

I really don't know what else to say besides that! I'm excited to train but also excited to work some more! Nothing makes me happier than sharing the gospel.

Hna. Reed

El Partido

In the chilly land of Chile, there were two missionaries. In this day, they called members and investigators and invited them to a very special night called Noche de Hogar, translated from the native language into English as "Family Home Evening". Yet something seemed amiss...nobody seemed able to come. It was when their faithful conserje told them that there was a very special game on that night between Chile and Bolivia. The game was part of the American Cup 100. And thus the missionaries discovered again how their special night was ruined again by soccer.

Just kidding. While this did happen, we just went and tried to find more people. So not all was lost. But I guess it's just going to show us how the FIFA World Cup is going to be like. #soccerisimporantinlatinamerica

I wonder how the Rio Olympics are going to be? But in all my experience in Latin America, Chileans seem the most dedicated to soccer. They scream more, there are more parties that last throughout the whole night (and thus my sleep!). Missionaries usually have a warning to be safe on game nights, because whether Chile wins or loses, people always seem to lose it and go a little loose on the streets. But since my sector is more cuico, translated from the native language as "richer", we don't seem to have this problem.

But in one of my pictures you will see the consequences of the partido (which means game, I think).
Not much else is happening. We have been trying to reach out to more menos actives and contacting more and more! And we will keep seeing more and more miracles, because miracles still happen. Next week is cambios, so some changes will be happening soon!

My sector :)

District photo!

Apparently the Partido causes cats to run away...