Week 8

Hola y Buen Dia!

This week has been crazy!  First off, an Almacen (Tiny corner store) about 2 blocks from my house went up in flames early Friday morning.  It was awful!  It was a tiny little bakery and store and the family who owned it lived upstairs. They lost everything! The fire also burnt about 5 homes that were next door.  So Saturday all the missionaries in my zone came and helped start the process of gutting the inside and my comp and I and a few elders went again on Tuesday.  It is so sad, one of the friends invited us to lunch with them for helping, and at lunch the friend raised her glass and said, "Cheers to new beginnings" despite everything bad that happened they are positive and focused on moving forward!  Also, most of the people we helped are catholic but anytime they see us coming down the street they wave and come talk to us, we set a really good example for them of the church. My comp and I are also currently working on getting care packages made with basic necessities to help them out.  Before our second day of service at the house we invited some elders who are our zone leaders over for breakfast.  We woke up early and made breakfast and because the Elders can't come in our home, we moved the table out on our porch to eat, it was super fun!

X----- is just as great as always.  Today for pday she took us to get pizza! Also, i told her thanks for teaching me/helping me learn Spanish, and she replied by saying "I don't know Spanish, I'm teaching you chilean..."  Help me! haha the chileans speak so fast and are incredibly difficult to understand!  My Spanish is coming along though.  On Sunday we had an open house at the chapel where the Elders went contacting on the streets and sent people to the chapel, once at the chapel all the Hermanas gave tours and talked about different aspects of our beliefs. During our 3rd tour i was able to communicate everything i wanted to say.  May not have been exactly correct but they understood me.  The gift of tongues is real!  One member asked how long i have been in Chile, i said " two weeks in the field", and she was astonished.  So I'm feeling pretty good about my Spanish right now...

My favorite foods right now are a "Churrasco" which is thin sliced meet, grilled, and served on a hamburger bun with tomato, avocado, and mayo.  It is so good!  My favorite dessert so far is a "Mondecino", which is this little cookies with dulce de leche inbetween and chocolate on the top outside! So good also!

So Thursday night I get a call from the other nurse (the one from mexico that I am replacing), and he asked if I would go and give an injection to an Hermana that got her wisdom teeth taken out.  My first thought was, "Why is she getting an injection".  So I get off the phone and I call the hermana, the dentist had given her an ampule of medication to inject for pain.  Not knowing the name (because its in Spanish)  I called the medical adviser for my mission and he informed me that the medication was toradol.  We do not give injections in the mission at all, let alone a narcotic.  So he asked me to go and look at the sockets and get the medication from them.  So at 10 pm X----- rescued us and drove us 40 minutes to this Hermanas house, I talked with her, got the medication, and explained what to do to help with the pain. We got home at midnight! It was fun, but I was super tired the next day! Other than that, just a few minor medical things such has plantar fascitis, problems with the meniscus, rashs, etc.

My favorite investigator right now is K---, she owns the sewing store that makes jerseys and uniforms for all the schools.  She is so busy and its super hard to plan lessons with her, but when we do teach her, she gives us her full attention and she keeps most all the commitments we give her!  X----- works for her, so we drop by and see them throughout the week, and we do a lot of service for her.  She smokes, and has a few health problems but overall she is a wonderful person and so good to us! Last night we asked her if she would be baptized if she knew what we were teaching was true. She didn't have a solid answer but did agree to pray about it!  We teach her again on Friday!

My comp and I were going to make banana bread this week, but we got half way making it and realized our bananas had gone super bad, so we improvised and used raspberries...BEST LIFE DECISION! It was delicious, also the recipe is from my mom! I love her banana bread recipe!

Today I had to use the bathroom while at our pday activity at the park, so we walked over to the bathroom and there were no toilet seats or toilet paper..so obviously i decided to wait.  The thought of my dad saying, "The royal throne" when referring to the toilet popped into my head and continued with, I never thought that statement would ever be so true and applicable in my life....thank you dad.

I included a picture of how I've started marking stories in my scriptures.  Its always been really hard for me to pick out and understand the different stories but I've found if i used two shades of the same color to map out the conversation it helps a ton!  So i just thought I'd share for anyone else who has the same problem....  My favorite scripture section this week was in Jacob 7:9-20.  If you believe the scriptures are true, then you have to believe there is a Christ because the scriptures truly testify of Christ (Hence the reason the Book of Mormon cover says, "Another testament of Jesus Christ).

Hope everyone is doing awesome in school and work! Love you all and thanks for the support!

Love,

Hermana Sullivan