OKay. My life pretty much is amazing right now. I will tell you all about it. It´s called Once Upon A Time I had to wait until THURSDAY to go to the Tierra del Fuego. So I did. Waking up at 3 in the morning really wasn´t that difficult as I could really sleep that night anyways (Hermana Milmont and Hermana Alvey slept just fine). I get to the airport at 4 in the morning to find my good buddy Elder Palomino waiting to go south too! Elder Palomino is from Colombia and was in my zone for the past....forever. A long time. Anyways, I was happy because at least I was with another missionary and not by my onesie. Being in the Remis with the male driver was a little weird. So, it was good to have an Elder there. We were the only two lucky ones to leave at 4 in the morning. So we grab our stuff (aka Elder Palomino took my bag and his, LOVE being an Hermana) and we head out to the plane. Which we get into by stairs. Small airport. And by some crazy weirdness, we´re not sitting together. Pucha. But it doesn´t matter because it´s early and I try to sleep. Fast forward to 9 in the morning and I´m looking down to OCEAN. There´s going to be a lot of caps in the e-mail. Just saying. I´m excited. Anyways, so ocean. Yes, we get off the plane, we go find our bags and then head out to meet the Elders and the....Elders. Wait, where are the Hermanas? Oh, they didn´t know I was coming. Bienvenida al Sur. Yes, communication is a tricky process here. So, I get in a taxi and head off to the church in Ushuaia to wait for the Hermanas. Which is good, when they get there we get to chat for a bit, and I can change into tights - which was necessary. Oh, did I not tell you? Went outside and it was doing the mild slush rain thing. First thought in my mind? This is like Colorado! Love it.
Anyways, change into my tights, whip out my big coat, and then head out to the convey. But there´s only room for one passenger. Well, that´s not fun. So, we decide to wait until the next convey (which is like a 16 passenger van). Head back to the church and enjoy the little brownies the Hermanas had made for district meeting. Yumm, breakfast. So, we leave at 12:30 on the convey and it´s fun. Elder Palomino and I get to chat on this 4 hour drive, so now we are best friends, and he keeps telling me how he´s going to die. Never seen snow before, never been in the cold before, except for last winter in Buenos Aires. He will do great things. But we finally make it to Rio Grande and Elder Palomino gets dropped off first and I see the other Elders and there´s Elder León! Not my last district leader, but one of the Elders from my first district in Nuñez! I was all..what the..awesome! But I continue on to Chacra II - which is part of Rio Grande for those that were confused. I had no idea where I was going so I told you Chacra II because that´s what I knew. Anyways, so essentially, it´s like a barrio, a neighborhood, within the city of Rio Grande. The best part is I´m 5 minutes from the Ocean. yes!!! And I so badly look the part of the tourist. I´m just whipping my head side to side. Oh - tangent, driving here made me think of Wyoming. So, weather of Colorado, terrain of Wyoming - aka brown and flat. And I love it.
So, keep going, and I finally meet my companion. We take my bags in and the first thing I say to her is. Great! Can we go eat? I´m starving. I had not eaten all day, and now it´s 5 in the tarde. We cooked up some good milanesa while Hermana Gutierrez updated me on the investigators and menos activos in Chacra. And I just basked in the glory of being in the south. It is incredible. And I´m just so happy all the time. Hermana Gutierrez is incredible. She knows the language really well, and is full of confidence, we laugh a lot. And she always asks questions and tries to be better. She is an integrated part of this companionship. We actually talk about things and try to figure out what would be best for our area and our investigators. God loves me.
And then we head out and start working. First day I meet a couple of our investigators. And we found some new ones. My favorite investigator right now is Rodrigo. He´s 10, but he´s nearly as tall as I am. Which is nothing, we met his 13 year old brother the other day, and I had to go on my tiptoes to bezo him. These kids are ridiculously tall. But super humble and sweet. It´s a great family. The mom and dad are both deaf, so I´ve been trying to remember all the sign language that I know. They can read lips pretty well, and the kids help them interpret. I can understand them sometimes, like half the time. I usually get at least the gist of it, and then I can ask for details. I´m sure they´ve learned how to interact with the world. But they love reading and the Dad wants a book of Mormon, so we´re looking for a big version so he can actually read (his eyesight is really bad and he can´t read the small letters). But get this, So, we took Rodrigo to the baptism of the Elders on Saturday (we share a BRANCH - did I mention that? Oh yeah, I´m in a branch. It´s hard because I keep accidently saying ward. And I keep calling the Branch President an Obispo - or Hermano.) and set a fecha bautismal with him and he came to church on Sunday. When we talked to him last night he said that when he was reading he felt alivado - or relieved, he felt something. It was incredible. He´s such a cute little kid. He will be getting baptized in three weeks, I kind of want to make it four and have him get baptized with his family. We´ll see what happens. "I have a family here on earth...." That song just popped into my mind.
AND THEN, I´m writing on Tuesday because we had a Zone Conference on Monday. And this is what is awesome. Because Rio Grande is in the cheto boonies, we take a convey down to Ushuaia Sunday night, and then we do divisions with the Hermanas there until it´s time to go to bed. And it was hilarious. Hermana Gonzalez from Utah and Hermana Shelley from California crack me up. So I go out with Hermana Gonzalez and we´re sharing mission gossip and stories and it gets time to go back inside. It´s about 10 (the horario is different here because things are so tranquil. We get up at 7:30 and go to bed at 11:30. So just an hour difference, but that means we are out later, when people are actually home. Love it.) and we get a phone call from a very out of breath Hermana Shelley. "Hermanas? Are you in the pension? President Gulbrandsen is going to inspect our apartment in 5 minutes!" and we´re all " FA!!!!!!" And we start booking it home. Run home, smash open the door, to find.....President and Hermana Gulbrandsen standing in our apartment. We´re panting, red faced, bundled up like mini snowmen. "hehe...Hey President....oi" It was good, Pte Gulbrandsen is pretty good natured about this kind of thing. Anyways, so then they leave and we get ready for bed.
Next day, we have our zone conference and it is amazing. We talk about how it really is our purpose to help others learn how to Love Christ. Because if we develop that love, then we are willing to do everything else. But we have to catch the Vision. We have to really understand it for ourselves. And that´s something I want to work on. I don´t have a lot of time left (I complete a year this Friday. How crazy is that? HAppy ONE YEAR! Yay me.) so I´ve got to capture it and apply it real quick. But I´m more determined then ever. And I´m super pumped because I know the Lord confides in me. We´re going to work miracles.
Well, I hope this letter was entertaining. I thought about titling it "I´m leavin´on a jet plane. Don´t know when I´ll be back again" But, obviously I didn´t. But I thought about it.
I¨M FARTHER SOUTH THEN THE PENGUINS! I´m happy, and sad about that. I asked my companion and she´s been here 3 months and hasn´t seen a single penguino. What the lame. Oh, and the people born here? Called Fueguinos. Because they´re from the Tierra del Fuego. I love my life.
Love you, I´ll be more spiritual next week. I´m to stoked right now to try to calm down.
Hermana Reed
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