Earth Quake

April 7, 2014

Dear Family and Friends,

I will admit, I was a little bit excited about the prospect of having a Chilean--adventure--via earthquake, but we didn't feel one little bit of the earthquake. Not even a shiver. The only slight influence we felt was that we couldnt figure out on Wednesday night why our calls weren`t going through. But the mission in general was slightly impacted because there was a Tsunami warning, so all of the missionaries that are close to the coast had to spend the night with those who were on higher ground. In typical mission fashion, there were two glitches. One, president Rappleye sent us all texts to tell us what had happened, but unfortunately he had no idea that in the cellular contract we have we cant recieve texts. We all had a good laugh with him over that one. AND...the Tsunami warning happened to be on April first, and so when one pair of zone leaders called two elders the two elders had a good laugh "hahaha aww a tsunami warning. thats a good one, right?!"

Thirty minutes later, the zone leaders called again. The two elders "wow. they sure are persistent in their april fool`s joke." and halfway skeptical, they started packing up to go spend the night with other elders. They arrived at the other house, and the two zone leaders (enjoying themselves a little too much) greeted them with "Happy april fool`s day!!" to mess with them, and then they heard the alarms, and that put the matter to rest. It wasnt a joke. (But it gave me a good chuckle.) 

ANYWAYS-- 

Happy General conference!!!! LOVED it. And now, to give a "follow up" to what elder ballard said--I hope you are ALL reading preach my gospel. And you can email me!! And tell me what you learn!! When i first started with preach my gospel, I read chapter three of the lessons and thought "ahh no i already know this." FALSE. dont think that. It`s not true. Chapter three is the most incredible chapter and knowledge that I have ever had. Read it. then read it again. And pray and read it again. You will find SO much knowledge and inspiration. 

This week in general was a little bit slow, because in a not so brilliant moment i tripped INSIDE the house, running in the morning to exercise because it was so cold, and so I gave myself a sprain and had to "rest" a couple of days. After two days of "rest" we had a day full of meetings with president rappleye (see..picture with my companion and pdte photo bombing us), and then two days that were practically filled with general conference and walking to pick up all the people that promise to come to general conference with us.  

But there has been moments beautifully golden in a still crazy week--mainly thanks to the 12 apostles (I am their number one fan!!!!) because one of our investigadors, Guliana--who is twelve years old karate champ, her mom is a returning less active--came to the conference with us. She came alone, deciding to come without her mom, and was there just as Elder Eyring began his talk with the words "some of you are here because the missionaries have invited you, and maybe they have invited you to be baptized.." PERFECT! and after the conference, as we were leaving, she told us in her timid voice (because we told her to come with a question in mind) "I received my answer." We had been praying so hard that she would receive her answer. You can always count on the apostles. 

Oh!! two fun facts for you. One, my companion, Hna Lepure, studied two years of gastronomia (food science? maybe?) and can cook AMAZINGLY well. And makes me mexican quesadillas and food. I am in heaven. 

Other fun fact--chileans are very Polite people. when somebody enters in a room, you need to saludar (give a kiss or handshake) every single person inside the room, and we say "permiso", or ask permission, for almost everything: to enter a room , to pray, to walk in front of someone, to eat something from a common serving dish. I love it. 

I love you all!!!