"Festival Gastronómico"

Well, I have good news! My hija (daughter) is still alive! I will now proceed to tell you what happened. When we go to pick up our children, they give us a little class about all the things we need to do when we train. After that, all the trainers and newbies eat lunch together and chat while the suspense builds and everyone is wondering who their companion is. There were 12 sisters that came in this cambio, so plenty to choose from! Surprisingly though, only four of the new sisters were gringas. After lunch we went into the chapel, where all of the new missionaries bore their testimony in Spanish and all of the trainers tried to receive revelation about who they would be training. After that FINALLY came the moment where we got to know who our companions are. They would call up the new missionary and then tell them who their trainer is, which is followed by the trainer happily running up to the front and giving their new companion a big hug (me included). Well, there you have it. That´s how it went. And my companion is..... (drum roll please)..... HERMANA LEES! She is from Seattle, Washington! Wahoo! And just in case you are interested to know, Hermana Phelps is ALSO training a gringa! So we´re all gringas here in Chillancito! That's crazy. What are the chances that two of the four gringas came to Chillancito? Yeah, it´s pretty great. We like it.

Well, I´m not going to lie, I was a little stressed out this week- You know going from junior companion to trainer, and then on top of all that, our ward had activities every single day this week because of ward conference! Here in Chile, ward activities aren´t just like in the states where everything is taken care of by the ward, and the missionaries can show up when and if they want. No, you HAVE to go, help set up, participate in the activity, and help clean up. And if you don´t, the ward will probably think you are the worst missionaries in the world.... So I was a little stressed that we weren´t going to get ANYTHING done this week. BUT with sacrifice brings miracles. Our members were seriously awesome and invited their neighbors and friends, so half of the people there were less active members, and we even had a few non members in there! We were able to make appointments with referrals and all that great stuff that missionaries live for! We are very enthused to work with these new people this week!

Well, as part of our participation in the ward activities, we were in charge of the "Festival Gastronómico" Which was a food competition! Everyone made some sort of food or dessert, and shared it. As missionaries we decided to make no-bake cookies, and let me tell you, they were a real hit! No one had ever tried them before, and most people had never even tried peanut butter, so it was a completely new taste and they loved it.

I´m happy to say that sticky notes never cease to work miracles. We accidentally offended one of the families here in the ward because we usually have FHE with them, but we couldn´t go two weeks in a row. So then at the beginning of the week, at the ward activities we noticed that they were glaring at us. Chuta.... So we decided to make amends, we would just stop by their house with the four missionaries to say hello and tell them they´re great. Good idea right? Right. Well, they weren´t home. So we decided to just write a sticky note, it said the following, "We passed by because you guys are INCREDIBLE, Love the missionaries". Yeah well that night they came up to us and were super happy and acted like they were never even offended. Then yesterday the husband went out to work with us and gave us a bunch of referrals. Yeah.... I think I´ll be writing sticky notes to members a lot more often.

Okay you guys are probably sick of reading but I just have one more story! Remember the family that named their rabbit after me? Yeah well I was eating at their house and the husband was like "Hermana Goodbury, what does your name mean in Spanish? Good means bueno, but what does bury mean?" Yeah, "wood" and "good" definitely sound the same to them.

Alright that´s it. hope no one is expecting a personal email today, because I just used up all my time! Love you guys!

Love, Hermana "Bueno"bury