Visa

Hola family!
Sorry I didn't write much last week, due to the cyber (computer place) closing unexpectedly. I didn't have much more time to write.
This week we didn't have a lot of time to work, due to the fact that we had zone conference Wednesday and I had to do my visa on Thursday, and most people want to meet with us during the week. Zone conference was great! I loved everything we learned and got to listen to. Doing my visa was...good. It's like the DMV on steroids. We had to go to three different places to get three different things. First the immigration office, then we had to walk 15 minutes to the police department, and then a 50 minute walk to Registro Civil. The immigration office was fine. We had to wait four hours in the police department which seemed like it had all of Santiago there, there being very little seats and even more people standing, including all the missionaries. But we got to contact and talk to people and missionaries from the other three missions in Santiago! Registro Civil closed at two, and to get there before it closed, my companion and I had to get a taxi, which was a miracle because hte doors closed right after we got there. A lot of missionaries have to do their visa work in two days. I was lucky to get it done in one.
Besides that we have been able to see small miracles in Santiago. One of them happened when we went to try and visit an old investigator. We usually pass by buildings and try to see if the person is there or we call them. In this case, we went and saw the conserje and asked if Enzo was there. When he said no, we turned and started walking out the door. We opened the agate to let some people through, and my companion said hi to the second, an older lady with her dog. She hugged my companion, kissed her, and started saying, "It's been so long!" like they were long-lost friends. My companion hugged her, of course, and asked if she had seen missionaries before. The women, taken aback and offended, said touching my companion's placa, "No, I was confused!" and walked into the building. But she gave us enough time for Enzo to call the conserje and tell us to wait. So we waited for him to come down and meet us. So I am pretty sure God influenced the woman to hug my companion so we could meet Enzo.
Another miracle is we happened to be walking in the street and we said hello to a man who came up to us. When we told him we were missionaries, he told us that he had a son who was LDS. He also told us that when we were walking towards him, he had the feeling we were from his son's curch and that he needed to talk to us. And he lives in our ward area! MIRACLE!
Well, I don't have much more time! Have a great day!

Primavera en Santiago

Spring is beginning to appear in Santiago! Trees are budding with flowers, birds are singing in the streets, and the days are slowly becoming longer and warmer. It's beautiful, but I have been warned about the heat of summer. I'll let you know when it comes.
I am still in my area, but my limits are changing. The new elders in my ward are the secretaries of the mission, so they have even less time to proselyte and work with members. But they're pretty awesome and one of them is my companion and I's district leader. It's a little different because the elders who were in our zone before were our zone leaders.
There was another baptism in the ward this past Saturday, but it was not actually an investigator or a person in our ward. A family came from Utah to see their family for three weeks and their eight year-old daughter got baptized while they were here. They came to our church building because the mother has a connection with our ward. The parents are both converts and the rest of their families were non-members. They asked me to play piano (which was brave of them). It was a great opportunity to get out and meet people and have them see a baptism. A lot of them have no clue what we believe, so we got to speak to them a little about the church.
And because the limits have changed a bit, we have walked even more and tried to get to know the areas we don't know as well. It's fun because we get to see new places and get to know more people!

Hermana Reed

Pioneer Children Sang as They Walked

This week we walked and walked and walked! We are trying our best not to use the subway and bus systems because it uses a lot of our money. One day we had four citas in four hours in four different parts of our area, and we made them all! The following day other day we found a pedometer and we counted that we walked 20,567 steps in that day, which is around ten miles. 

We also had a super successful noche de hogar this past Friday, and about four families came.  I think my favorite part was the last prayer, when 6 year old Magdalena Luna said, "Thank you so much for this marvelous Noche de Hogar." I could not stop smiling and gave her a big hug! And her mom afterward says that she won't stop talking about it. Not only that, but they were talking about it in Ward Council and I think they like the idea of Noche de Hogar more. 

The elders in my ward had a baptism this past Saturday. His name's Diego and he's pretty awesome. He also wants an eternal family so his next goal is the temple. He was super happy. I love that this gospel makes people so happy. 

We also were walking in Vitacura one day when a man fell down in the street. He was a little large and lost his balance. Some guys immediately came over to help, but they were having a little trouble lifting him up. My companion, who was a CNA, tried to help at first, but since they said no, we stood back. But as we saw them struggling to lift him, she came over and said in her best Spanish, "Underneath the arms!" A few guys moved for her and she practically lifted him up herself and helped him to a nearby bench. My companion is pretty awesome. And we got to help someone!

Have a great week!

-- 

Hermana Reed

P.S. Pictures! First one is a cool fountain in my area and the second is the last district picture before some missionaries go home.

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