December 24.

Bueno, casi nadie me escribió esta semana, sino Dad y Grandma y Grandpa, gracias por su fielidad. Pero no tengo nada nueva para decir, entonces voy a escribir en español porque no importa si pueden entenderme y quiero practicar. Todavia estamos trabajando con la familia Sandoval, y tenemos 6 otros familias en que estamos enfocadas. Tuvimos un milagro esta semana, en serio, fuimos por la casa de un contacto y ella no estaba, pero su hermana estaba. Enseñamos la Restauración y ella nos dijo que nosotros somos la respuesta a su oración. Ella estaba orando y orando la noche antes por paz y entendimiento, y de alla, nosotros estabamos allí. Nos dijo que sentió el Espiritu con nosotros mucho y que quiere leer y orar sobre José Smith porque ella está buscando una manera a acercarse más a Dios. Ella es de oro, en serio. Tenemos un otro investigadora quien es de oro también, ella tiene MUCHOS preguntas. Ella estaba esperando este Evangelio, la unica problema es que tiente tantos necesidades que no sabemos dónde empezar porque cuando enseñamos algo, ella pregunta algo que tiene que ver en un otro principio. Es super buena, pero es muy overwhelming (I don´t know that word in Spanish) a pensar y planear por nuestras lecciónes. Pero es la obra! y es buenisimo. Soy super feliz.

Ok, so seriously, this week was really awesome. I ended up singing the soprano part for the coro on Sunday, but the cooler part was that we did it again on Wednesday in the plaza downtown as part of the concert put on by the city. Amazing. It was weird because as we were waiting to go on stage I couldn´t believe my luck that I come all the way down to Chile as a missionary to live my dream of being on stage and singing in front of hundreds of people. It was a strange feeling, somewhere between being Jamie and being Hermana Gebara, but I loved it. I´m glad it´s over because I had to sing a high A flat and my voice was getting really tired, but I loved it. Someone took a video of it, I´ll try to find it and send it to you. Hermana McShane and I sang "O Holy Night" in a zone activity this morning at a Christmas party for a school. yeah, we´re doing lots of singing. Of all the things in the world, this would probably be what would distract me most from the work we´re doing, but I´ve been trying to be really good about staying focused on being a missionary and not a singer.

Tonight we´re having a sleepover with the girls in Ovejeria and Hermana McShane promised to make french toast in the morning, and then our whole zone is getting together for lunch at the mission home, and then I´ll get to talk to you! Tomorrow is going to be a good day. I already opened the presents because I didn´t know if the other girls were going to get anything so I didn´t want to make a big deal out of opening things on Christmas morning. It´s a good thing too because I´ve already been able to use some of the stuff. (Grandma and Grandpa- the poptarts were a brilliant idea, thank you SO much, the other missionaries were super excited when I told them I got some!)

December 16th

So, it turns out I´m no longer backup for the soprano part in that quartet, I´m doing it. Tomorrow. Wish me luck, I´ll need a lot of it. Yesterday all the missionaries in our zone went to the sector of the assistants for two hours to work. It was cool to have a little change from the routine, but I really love our sector. We still have a lot of really great people we´re working with, but not a lot of news. I´m giving a talk in Sacrament meeting tomorrow! As excited as I am for all of this, I´m looking forward to tomorrow being over. It´s almost Christmas!

So this week we´ve been focusing a lot on a talk by Elder Cordbridge called "The Fourth Missionary", I hope you can find it, because it´s amazing. It completely changed the way that I go about each day. Even though it´s written for missionaries, it´s a good lesson for everyone about how to be happy in the Gospel. The bottom line is that there´s a difference between being obedient in your actions and wishing you did not have to be, and really giving it 100% of your heart, and that only the latter will really do you any good. I started memorizing scriptures in Spanish to give my mind something to do when we´re just walking so that I don´t think too much about missing home and singing. I love my zone so much, all of my leaders are amazing examples. Elder Moncada (one of my zone leaders) bore his testimony in our last zone conference because this is his last cambio, I cried. I know, miracle of miracles, right? It was basically about who you become on your mission. A mission is an amazing thing, I love it. That´s all for now because we have to get to the stake center.

Love,

Jamie

December 11th.

Ok, so another week has flown by here in Osorno. Crazy. On Tuesday we did intercambios, I was with Hermana Baum in Ovejeria. Their house is gigantic. Seriously. It has two floors, 3 bedrooms, a kitchen, a full size bathroom, a living room, and an alarm system. I felt very pampered. Hermana Baum confirmed that we live in the 2nd to worst house she's seen. So otra vez, as long as I don't go to Rahue, it can only get better. It's not so bad though, I'm kinda used to it. I really missed our sector when I was gone. Ovejeria has a lot more campo, it's not as much of a city as our sector is. We have a LOT of people we are teaching. Sadly, none of them are really progressing, but we're doing a lot of teaching and finding nuevos. Everyone in our new zone is really cool. Next week I think we're all going down to a vacation house that the senior couple serving here owns, so that'll be fun.

Today Ilse (Elizabeth's mom) taught us how to make empanadas. Hopefully I will have time to send the pictures, they turned out really well! Mine were a little deformed, but they still tasted good. If I do get to send pictures, the little girl in the kitchen with me is Esperanza, Elizabeth's niece. Patricia (her mom) is really excited about the Gospel and asked us to start coming by later so that we could teach her too when she gets home from work. All three of them came to church last Sunday! I think there's another picture of Viroska and I, she's a member from Rahue that likes to come and work with us. Notice that she is in regular not-super-warm clothes, that's because it's summer, yet I've worn my coat everyday since I've been here, ha. We're in the Christmas chorus for the stake. The performance is on the 19th, and there's another one in the plaza  downtown on the 21st. The director asked me to be the stand in for the soprano in a quartet, so it'll be fun to learn a solo part in a week... in Spanish. I'm excited though, it'll be great.

Love and miss you,

Jamie

December 6th.

It´s Teletòn day here in Chile. It´s nation wide and everyone is really into it. I think it´s to benefit children with disabilities this year. Anyway, it´s pretty cool because today all the stores are donating all of the revenue they receive to the Teletòn, so just by doing our grocery shopping this morning we were able to help out. There are people in the streets playing instruments, doing face painting and making balloon animals and stuff like that to raise money to donate as well. It´s really crazy outside (we aren´t allowed to do contacts today because it is expected that everyone will be a little drunk), but really awesome. I´m not sure what to say about this week, I feel like it went by pretty fast and not a lot of new stuff happened. It´s a new Cambio this week, but Hermana McShane and I are still together in Barrio Ecuador. I´m excited for Christmas! It´s strange seeing advertisements for Christmas stuff next to swimsuits and sunglasses, but as far as the weather goes, it´s still colder here than it is in California on Christmas. I wish I had more to say, hopefully this week will be more eventful. I have a bruise on my ankle from chopping wood for a lady in our ward. The wood flew back and hit me when I chopped it. Oh the dangers of being a missionary. Not really. I´m fine. I miss you all tons!