Christmas Conference

 Yay... You're friends with Hna Ricagno on FB!!!!!!!!!!! Ha-ha that’s so awesome! Glad she writes you in English, she writes me in Spanish, so unfair ha-ha :D probably so she can understand what I’m saying, my English is getting interesting. I know she has plans to come back to visit Chile next year, maybe we can plan to meet up here. :D Yeah, she lives with her parents :) that’s normal until you get married down here.
Yeah, there’s lots of homeless people here. It's pretty easy to spot the gypsies they're really, really tall, look gringo, tight shirts, long skirts, flowy or column, big earrings, braids or loose hair, but always very long, and skinny. You get a shiver when you look at them. They do mess with black magic and are super dangerous. You walk around them if you can :) but yeah I wanted my food :D so yeah.
Most people here just work odd jobs.
My pics won't load... I took a lot :(

 Ha-ha yeah, I figured if I stood on the outside you’d see me better :D the blonde I’m standing beside is Alyssa Smyke from Cochrane so that was cool, Hna Wright is training her. :) 
 (We knew Alyssa's family when we lived in Cochrane)

 

                                      Shay is on the right side

 

I sang in the choir for the conf too, we did a "Joy to the World" spanish version flash mob during the conf too :D all these missionaries popping up in the crowd to sing it was fun :D ha-ha Hna Myler is a drama teacher, she was put in charge of the conf music :D I believe I’m gonna be on the same thing as David Burton, having a hard time speaking English when I get home. :P It’s so hard to speak English especially to adults ha-ha and anyone who’s not a missionary. I’m trying to help Hna Vasquez learn English, it’s been fun ha-ha.... hoping I’m teaching her right. 
                         
                                      Shay is on the left

                                     
Can't wait to talk to Shaylee Sunday morning at 8:00!!!

Gypsies

Ha-ha I do love completos :D  That’s so crazy that Shae (Sommerfeldt) is back already :P 

 Hna Ric... Evelyn sent me an email from her house, it’s like the mission force is falling apart ha-ha! Chile’s gonna be losing the best missionary in 3 more fast Sundays approx. no me recuerda si esta en 3 o 4? bueno :D  The old lady we passed off to the elders is doing well.

Monday night we got a call from the zone leaders, so off we go to the district center and there we find ourselves in a meeting with the Hna’s of Toluca, and the elders of Victoria.  Turns out Pres May called said that there needed to be a cambio and that we were the ones to do it. 😱 Scariest feeling of trust ever ha-ha :D.  So yeah, after many tears from Hna Salles, and Hna Mercau looking completely confused, (I think sometimes I understand more than she does when people talk fast ha-ha) and lots of prayers, we came to the conclusion that me and Hna Mercau, needed to be in Victoria, and Elder Maldonado and Elder Espindola, needed to be in Tolhuaca.  So now we're in the same sector as the zone leaders, opening a sector and it’s been nuts so far, ha-ha and kinda fun too cause we now have a 17 yr. old investigator named jael (jah-ale).  She cried yesterday during our first lesson together. She knows it’s all true already, only problem is parental permission because her mom is in jail.... Buena :D ha-ha, so yeah she’s living in her boyfriend’s house (her boyfriend is in Santiago right now).

 Below there’s a pic of us with Johana she’s going to get baptized soon and is now an investigator of the elders, her mom Rosa and Ashley is the teen with us :D, she’s so cute :D  Her dad was the missionary who taught her mom, and there like 7 yrs. apart and she’s older :P his gringo is so weird!!! They’re a really cool family :D 

 

                        A bug we found, it’s bigger than my fist :P

 

 

 

 She finally opened the pkg she thought we had sent her for Christmas.

 

Fan from Uncle Randall And Aunt Sarah's Japan trip.

 

 

Our last mutual with our mujeres jovenes.. :( 😭 was a fun time while it lasted :D (last activity with the YW)

 

 

Today we are writing from Temuco :D  We had to come in to the Dr. again for my comp, (she has an infection in her throat) eeewww :P but we bought lovely humitas :D and I got a pic right before gypsies stole my comps lunch. I basically told em to get lost, I had a pair of scissors in my hand so they didn’t rob me :D yay! My comp has random items like scissors in her bag :D  It was a super yummy my humita :) We had to buy another for Hna Mercau ha-ha :D We're just having fun here today until we have to head home :D  We had another conf with Pres. and it was really good, and guess what? Goulding and Poyfair stayed where they were, so we got to see each other again yay!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I miss you all so much :D  I am so excited for Christmas, wish I was gonna be home but I’m hoping to find someone who needs the gospel mientras :D I love you with all of my heart.

Love amazing Shaylee

PS we got 26 referrals yesterday :D miracles happen :D I love you!

Hna Ricagno Heads Home

We ended up switching apartments with the elders, there is literally nada here to rent.  We got to work for a total of about 10 hrs this week, we were under strict orders to look for a new place to live or else!  I forgot to take a pic of the outside, the inside is still in progress, the elders where pigs! Scrubbing mold off the walls is better than the wheelchair guy who lived on our corner, he didn’t have legs and he would sometimes purposefully fall out of his chair, wait till someone tried to help him and then either try stab them, or rob them one of the two :D ha-ha.  I’m glad were not there anymore :D This house is smaller, older and I found a slug in the shower last night, but that’s ok because its safe there :D  It’s been a loong and crazy week ha-ha :D  Hna Ricagno came out to help us pack and clean, so that made it all worth it because I got to see her one more time. Seriously worst moment of the mission when we had to walk away. Right now she should be in the final testimony meeting before her flight home tomorrow. 😰 So sad!!!!

 

My new room

 

 

                                   Canada is everywhere ;)

 So I don’t know if you’ve seen the cover of the conference liahona, but this is our real life version ha-ha.  It was pouring rain after the district conference on Sunday, this is us escaping to go to lunch, and the member took these pics in between laughing at us ha-ha :D mission life ha-ha
(This picture she is talking about never came through, I wish it did the Liahona picture is cute!)

 

My package arrived! It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas :D in our room at least ha-ha :D  I got Kristy’s package too! I opened it, and out popped a Christmas tree! I was almost crying I was so excited to put up the tree :D ha-ha.  I took a pic before I got it set up good ha-ha :D its put up better now :D, and guess what... our room is blue :D, my first blue room in the mission :D and the whole house has a blue stripe around the roof 😄

 

Our fave completo place ;D its less than a 2 blocks from our house now :D 💃

 

I got a letter from Soledad too! She got her mission call to Salta Argentina :D she’s leaving in January :D yay team sole!
 

 We don't get the 6 month training before we go home, here they do it just before they release us :D They'll be training Hna Ricagno right now for after mission life. ha-ha :D  I really don’t think I’d make a good teacher.  I don’t know if I could work in an MTC, I really didn’t enjoy that place ha-ha :D but yeah I’ve been dreaming and scheming about what I’m going to do with my photography :D I’m excited :D

 Kayleen was pregnant???? Surprise ha-ha :D

Wait... Shelby knows how to cook :D sweet! She can be my nanny :D

Blurry shot of me and Hna Vasquez :D she’s Peruvian from lima :D 
 

 
                                          My raspberry pie :D

 

Elder Myler and Hna Myler took us out for ice cream on Monday, I got a pistachio thing with mixed nuts on top it was soooo good :D  We went back after the zone meeting Tuesday, when I thought it was the last I'd see of Ricagno, ha-ha :D it was really good :D

My zone leader, who was also my second district leader, goes home today too. ha-ha  He just looked at me in horror when I told him I had fourteen months this Tuesday, ha-ha :D  Oh, and as for our cambios (transfers), all four of us Hna's stayed the same, that hardly ever happens. :D  Hna Mercau has already been here 6 months, so it was hard for her, and as for me, well I took a few minutes to be shocked and not know how to react..... It’s gonna be weird to be with someone for 12 weeks who’s not my trainer or trainee ha-ha.

Love you all so much :D

LEAVE NOW!

Wow, I didn’t know about the world wide day of service on Thursday.  I guess we'll be finding out about that on Tuesday, they never give us much notice ha-ha :D  Wow, I miss bible dictionary and topical guide so much! Doesn’t exist in Spanish :P it's so incredibly useful :D 

 I never would have thought to put Kris and Mataya together as younger, and older Mary, but its perfect, they do look alike :)
 

 I hope Riley’s bag is the same one I have, because every one that brings a different type ends up buying a cheap ugly version of mine. The strap that secures around the waist is so much nicer on the back.  

A memorable moment from this week... hmmm. Definitely Saturday night, I slept with a kitten attacking me ha-ha on a couch, listening to the other girls fight with the other cats ha-ha :D I had the small problem. I still slept remarkably well :D

Saturday morning we went to see a member Doctora, she was so cool.

She called me Hna Shaylee and I about keeled over in shock ha-ha :D 

 ha-ha, and now I have pills :P crushable ;) and creams and shoe inserts, and bandages to cover where buddy (knob on the side of her foot) touches my sock to protect him. :D We're finally getting somewhere yay! I like her, she studied in Washington, USA so that helps ha-ha :D  

The conference this past week was fantastical :D I loved it! It was long but we learned a lot.  We did a lot of searching into the ilumina el mundo (Light the World) thingy :D They trained us how to catch peoples attention with the pass along cards :D

We did a rescue of inactive in traiguen yesterday and I did splits, but in a trio ha-ha they begged me to come stay in their ward, said they miss having Hermana’s ha-ha :D I love it when the members appreciate the Hermana’s missionaries cause there’s some that... don’t? Ha-ha Bueno what can we do? We're just to awesome for them :D

                                            branch activity :D 

                     me and a ma named Javiera :D she’s 13  

 

       Those ugly red hearts I’m wearing, we had to sew 100 by hand :P

Well this week has been kinda crazy!  We have to dedicate today to finding a new house, we need to move si o sì this week :P  Last Saturday when we were coming back to the house, I got a feeling we were going in a direction we shouldn’t be, and thankfully all four of us felt the same, so we changed direction to go home a different way, but the feeling stayed so we changed again and same thing so we decided to run home. We live in an extremely unsafe area. Like extremely. So we ran, luckily I was wearing pants :D  When we got into the house I was like, ok now were going to be ok, but when I walked through the door, it was like a wall, and a firm NO as in  "DO NOT ENTER"!!! So we all went back into the glass awning room thingy just outside the door, and its 9:35 so we can’t go anywhere it was like.... Bueno. So we knelt and said a prayer. Then Hna Salles and Hna Vasquez felt it too, so we started to sing a hymn while we waited for the zone leader to call us back with the answer if we could go to a members house or not.  Five words into our conversation, and all 4 of us got a LEAVE NOW! impression so we left immediately and booked it 2 blocks to the closest member. We spent the night there. (Must be where she slept with the crazy cats)  The cops, (who never come when people call) came and searched the house (miracle number 1). They didn’t find anything except a ladder on the back end of the house going up to the bathroom window (one without bars). But yeah president wants us out ASAP. We’ve been getting a lot of sketch ohoine calls lately too. People telling us they have our keys, and to come to a certain place to receive them. (obviously we haven’t gone) cause all four of us have our keys, sooo. Yeah. If you guys could pray that we can get moved out within the next couple days it’d be fantastic. Last night we holed up in my room upstairs where it’s safer, with kitchen knives and cellphones close. Hardly slept, but it’s all good :D  I know we'll be fine :D  I love you!

Love amazing Shaylee

Preachin in Pants

Pres. May says he will drive down to my sector so I can use church wifi to skype you guys at Christmas, so I can have a good connection so I can see and talk to Riley. We can talk for 40 minutes. :P 

Yeah, almost no one did their pre mission stuff that I know... honestly make him watch dad’s sales training videos as well, ha-ha, he´ll be glad he did. Make sure he takes a teeny tiny quad set of scriptures, his back will thank him. Those mini cute individual scripture books would work too. My dream is that those existed in Spanish. He’ll have to carry enough big, heavy stuff around. 

 This morning I woke up with a crazy head cold, I got an ear infection after the conference on Friday. The conference was from 10-6, it was so cool :D Hna Ricagno and I went for our last intercambio, and get this, it was exactly 1 year from the day she picked me up in Concèpcion at the beginning of my time in Chile. :D How crazy is that!  I was like whoa.... she planned that one good, ha-ha!  We went to get x-rays, then off to licanrye and it was fun :D After so much time apart, we teach pretty amazingly together I must say. We can just read each other’s mind.  Before bed we made popcorn and covered it in syrup, it was heavenly. :D  
I’m really glad Pres. planned another emergency conference with Elder Bragg, from the area seventy next week :D I get to see Hna Ricagno one last time :D We will definitely be going to Argentina to visit her when we come back to Chile with the family.

 

 Hna Mercau and I have been shocking people with our pants all week :D its sooo fun to see people’s reactions :D we’ve gotten some good ones ha-ha :D

                                                 The socks and flip flops look good. Lol!

 

My foot has not been so happy :P  I had an ultrasound on it Thursday, to see if I had plantar fasciitis I knew it wasn't, but did doc listen? No! Haha They did find a benign tumor near my heal. :P They said it is made out of fat tissue supposedly. That could be a part of it I guess if it’s pushing on a nerve or something. I still think they’re dislocated again, everything feels the exact same as before :P Oh well. I’ll get it figured out.

 

Next week on the 24 the new Christmas video of the church comes out, its sooo cool :D ilumina al mundo :D yay! New pass-along cards and everything :D

Oh and also I didn’t feel the earthquake this morning, here if it’s below 6.8 it’s called a tremor ha-ha, above 7 they might call it an earthquake.  If there is one, all of the church buildings are extremely earthquake safe.  I heard they don’t even move ha-ha :D 

 

 

Riley's Mission Call

Thanks for telling me my hair looks great :D  It's past my waist now, and its always in a pony tail.  Honestly... I’m thinking about bleaching the ends and flame tipping it purple and blue till I get bored, then cutting it all off :D  

 

 I’m kind of crying my eyes out about Riley. I’m so excited for him, I really am :D  I’m just sad, it's going to be a long 3 and a half years.  

 Oh no, tears are back, the radio just turned to photograph, that song Riley’s always playin. 😭 I’ll be fine don’t worry! ❄ conceal it, don’t feel it, put on a show, make one wrong move and everyone will know. ❄ Unless riley postpones his call or I come home early 😎 mwahaha. Honestly this is killing me slowly.
 

 I’m studying humility right now.... pushing myself to get the light back, ha-ha.  I started feeling like I was in a rut, cause when your training it’s a constant battle, everything feels so monotonous now :P ha-ha, especially since Goulding’s sassiness ha-ha. Never thought I would miss occasional back talking ha-ha (it was all in good humor)

 

 I did get called to be a YW teacher :D yay! I love it so much ha-ha we’ve done 1 activity and 1 lesson I love YW’s :D

The Hnas conference was fantastic :D I loved every second of it :D  They had gravy!!!!!!!!!!!! I almost died of happiness :D  The last time I had gravy was last Christmas :D yay! I love gravy :D  We learned about D&C 25, it was so cool, also lots of talks based from talks by Pres. Hinckley :D  Hna May was all so, "pants are not required ladies, don’t worry, you don’t have to wear them, it's not mandatory", so I raised my hand and asked if we can wear them if we want to :D  She said yes, if my comp wears them at the same time :D  So after this, were going to go buy pants :D yay!!!! por fin! woohoo :D I’m so excited :D I'll definitely be sending pics :D

 

This group pic is our mission family tree, we're only missing Galdino :D 

Ricagno trained me, and Bazaes, Bazaes is training the gringa Hna Saunders, Hna between Bazaes and Ricagno is Fres, she finished Bazaes training, and I trained Poyfair and Goulding and the girl beside Goulding is Hna Rico who started her training she’s from Spain :D I want her accent ha-ha

 

     Poyfair, and Goulding heading in for the cake ha-ha 

 I did my first split yesterday :D  I went with Maria Jose, we did a rescate rescue of all the menos activos close to the Capilla, it was fun :D 

I wicked miss Soledad ha-ha.  I wrote her a letter,
 which was good because Goulding told me she went into a mini depression when I left, which is not cool at all. :P I hope she’s going to be ok :D 

 This Wednesday I have doc appointment for my foot, but it looks too good since being transferred to my new area, ha-ha.  Maybe pray it turns back purple just for Wednesday? 

We have a zone conference with Ricagno, Poyfair, and Goulding again on Friday :D I’m so stoked! Yay!!!! It might be the last time I see Ricagno :( till I go visit her in Argentina :D  I’ll go pick amber up ha-ha

 

Riley wrote:

 
So I got my call Wednesday!! You ready to know where ?!?!
I'm am called to serve in the........... Canada........ Winnipeg mission haha 🤔🤗
I'm goin to the Provo MTC feb 15 2017.... so I'll miss you by 2 months😬😭

Riley,

You know you can call the mission department and postpone your call by one or two transfers, and you’ll only be put back 6 weeks or 12 weeks if you ask for two transfers, people do it all the time. Because honestly, I don’t know if I can do this if you’re not going to be at home at least for a day when I get home. They almost always issue the calls just based on the closest transfer to your availability date. If you talk to em soon it doesn’t even make a difference in the plans. 😭 I love you so much and if you don’t I might fill out my flights home to land in your sector. Ha-ha 

I’m so incredibly excited for you, it’s going to be so awesome :D with Morgan and Tanner :D :D 😂😅  You are awesome and I’m so proud of you :D I love you so much Riley :D You are going to be an amazing missionary :D

Love big sis, Shaylee

 

Earthquake in Concepcion

It is a little nerve racking to open your email and see a letter from your missionary, not on their pday, with the subject EARTHQUAKE!

November 8, 2016

This morning at 2 am there was an earthquake in Concepcion..... We didn’t feel anything this far south, in Victoria :D but there’s supposed to be aftershocks coming now :P that should be fun :P contacting on the street during an earthquake. I think I’m going to stand in the park and call everyone to repentance and baptism by water and fire, it should be fun :D  I’m all good :D no worries :D  I bought more emergency stuff yesterday so truly no worries if a big one comes again, or if there’s a second earthquake that’s bigger and all, I’m prepared :D I’m craving a strawberry cheese quake blizzard with skor bits now ha-ha :D I’m going to head out to work :D

 I love you all so much!

There’s also volcanos close to here, and ocean. Whatever happens don’t worry :D I’m like Olaf, I’ll be fine :D

Love amazing Shaylee

 

 

Adopt a Granny

They have been having quite a few earthquakes the last few weeks in northern Chile. I asked her if she ever felt any after shocks.

I’ve been blessed all of the members I talk to about earthquakes are surprised that we haven’t experienced one yet. There haven't been any down here for a while :D I’m to far down to feel the aftershocks ha-ha :D yay!

 

The Concepcion temple is a medium sized one...I believe :D it’s bigger than then the Santiago temple :D it should be done in a couple years.   

 I called Maria today, she says Goulding’s getting around roughly. She’s on number 3 of the five shot series for rabies. Poor girl, but it’s a fantastic story :D

 

It's agonizing waiting for Riley’s call!

I finally got a hold of Margaret, she cried when she heard me talk. She’s having a rough time, but she said she’s going to be good now. Wish I could be there to help her.

This week was interesting... we have run into many a drunk.

 

Hello Kitty toilet paper?!

 

                                       View from her window

 

 

I have an official favorite member here her name is Maria Jose, she’s so cute. She wants to come with us every Sunday afternoon. She thinks it’s going to help her keep the Sabbath day holy. Her hubby will probably come along. Yesterday we all went out, it was really fun. We found a 90 yr. old lady who is taking care of her handicapped daughter, still poor lady. She cried while she talked and we sang her a himno, she was so happy to hear the word of God. :) So sweet. We're planning to do an adopt a granny with this old lady, she needs company, and a maid :D 

 

 I have kind of started taking over the personal progress part of YW here in the branch, supposedly we're allowed to have callings in the branches and I think they’re going to call me and my comp to help in the yw :D it would be so fun, I love it so much :D

I’m really excited for the sisters conference this Wednesday with Hna May :D  I get to see Goulding, Poyfair, Ricagno, and Bazaes all at once :D 

                          I found these pictures on her mission presidents FB page.

 

 I can't wait to go the temple again :D I opened my last pair of new garments this week and I just took a minute to remember the temple... I miss it so much.

 

Transfered to Victoria

I told Shaylee she had many people fasting and praying for her last Sunday, you are the people she calls her cheering section.

Ha-ha my cheering section got me sent to the smallest sector in the mission I’m sure. I’m feeling a little trapped after being in Maquehue. (one of the largest areas) It’s a tiny pueblito (village) and the branch is even tinier. They just split the branch in 2/3 & 1/3 and I’m in the 1/3 sector :P I’m going nuts, but on the other hand I only have to take one 15 minute break during the day to rest my foot. :D Way less walking here.

Saying bye to Goulding was sooo hard :( I miss her lots that’s the lame part of cambios(transfers) you really learn to love people then chao no mas (you see them no more). I’ll admit it made the change a lot easier when Ricagno called just to see how I was doing, love being able to communicate with her. She told me we are going to have a 3 zone Hna’s conference with Hna May (mission Prez wife) on the 9th :D that means I get to see her, Bazaes, Saunders, Goulding and Poyfair all at once :D :D :D :D yay!!!!!!!!!!

 

 My comp was born here in Chile, but was raised mostly in the states, and partly in Ontario, then she went off to Argentina. She’s cute, is a little different, but we get along good. She’s really sweet. I’m more used to sassy after Goulding, but sweets good too :D

 

  We had a district costume party since Halloween is frowned upon here, it was fun. I just let my hair down for the first time in forever and everyone called me princess so that worked. The first thing every member always asks in every sector is if I dance ballet and then soon they start calling me princessa :D I’m not complaining ha-ha :D

 Elder Rueda my second district leader is my zone leader now, he was my district leader when I was with Ricagno and he about fell over when I announced my time in the mission to the zone during the introduce yourself part of the meeting. ha-ha He’s going home at the end of this cambio with Ricagno. My district leader is kind of mean. I’m going to tell him to... ask him politely to lighten up on the interogations tonight, haha... well see if it helps :D We had 13 new investigators, and he was mad we didnt have a baptismal date in the church I was like, seriously? Bueno 

 Ha-ha one last Hna Goulding story.  Monday night we're going around hunting out investigators so we can explain cambios (transfers), and we stopped real fast so I could say bye to Alma. Last week they had picked Rufus (the dog) up off the street... yeah Rufus attacked us and almost got me, but that blessing I got when I was set apart really is real! I can’t tell you how many times a dogs jaws have almost closed around my ankle when I’m not paying attention, and by a miracle the dog has missed by a millimeter. Yeah I’m fine, Goulding got bit. We had to go to Soledad and Arminda´s house and they took us to the hospital. Goulding had to get the required rabies shots in her belly button. Ha-ha poor girl, I felt so bad but I also laughed... oops :D It’s all good she understood, we know each other really well after 3 months of 24/7.

 

I found this train on the way here to the cyber (where they write emails) :D

 

 I live with Hna Salles from Argentina and Hna Vasquez from Peru as well as my comp. 

Oh the house is made of wood, so I freeze every night. It's super extreme temperatures here.

 

 

 

 I lost my gray cardigan yesterday :( that was lame. If you can pray someone’ll find it and use it to accept us missionaries that’d be sweet. 

Love you all!