The Mar

Here are some photos from our adventure today at the mar, the mar that isn't too far from Antarctica

July 13, 2015 Tomorrow means 6 months!

This week almost all of our investigators left on vacation. And about one fourth of our ward left too. Everyone in Punta Arenas, when they go on vacation, they GOOO. If they leave, they have to fly so, to make their money's worth out of it, they stay for a while. About a month. At least 3 weeks.

And that's cool. ... it's just a little inconvenient when you are in the middle of saving their soul! ;) 

Sooooo we focused on finding new investigators that are still around here in Punta Arenas. Our district goal was to do a minimum of 10 contacts every day. By 9 p.m. on Monday, Hermana Mota and I had contacted 9 people. We had to be in the house by 9:30. We wanted to find one more person, but not just contact this person just to get the number 10. So we prayed for Heavenly Father to place those who should be contacted that night in our path. After the prayer, we chose a direction to walk. As we turned the street, there was a father and his son salting the snow in front of their house and no one else in the street. 

Wow! Great. Wasn't that easy?! 

By the time we reached their house they had seen us and literally skidaddled into their house. 

Meesh. So we kept walking and I saw an old woman hobbling trying to carry a few bags. I thought Cool! Service too! Then we walked up to her and she looked up at us and screamed and ran faster than I've seen an old lady run....because I don't think I've ever seen an old woman run. 

We turned the corner and the entire street was suddenly FULL of people. Woo! We are going to talk to people! And just like those Las Vegas casino ladies fan out until you see the singing gorilla from George of the Jungle, every single person fanned out from our path! Some people even left their shovel with shoveled-snow still sitting on it waiting to be thrown to the side... It was like we were a walking in a toxic bubble! And there wasn't even any ''singing gorilla'' at the end of this either... 

....so we kept walking. 4 more people were ahead and all of them individually took a turn, or crossed the street. At this point it was 9:25. Our feet were frozen and numb and we were very uncomfortably tired and cold. We were close to our apartment but didn't want to go home until we had at least contacted one more person before 9:30.

9:29 we met Carlos. He was on his way to a soccer game and out of curiosity asked what our church is about. We talked to him and set an appointment. He's awesome! 

9:30 we got a bonus and met Orlando on our way back to our apartment. He was very excited to meet us and he is very receptive to the gospel! 

It was such a cool experience to put in our part and see Heavenly Father follow through because He always does. 

We got home and while our bodies were thawing, we smiled feeling excited to go back out the next day. 

Just like Monday, this week was cold, but it was great and absolutely beautiful!!!! 

I. LOVE. SNOW!

The first few days most of the streets and sidewalks were untreaded or deep snow, so Hna. Mota and I had to lug our feet through a lot of snow for the entire day. Sometimes we would walk in the tire tracks of cars to give our feet a break. A few days later, when there were paths, our feet still got soaked and frozen, so we decided to trudge on the sides that were less tread so that we could feel like epic pioneers all day. haha Hna Mota has really enjoyed the snow. Well, we could say its a mix of love and hate. But I think it's a pretty cool story to tell people you didn't meet snow until you were in the end of the world! haha We've had a lot of spontaneous snowball fights while walking. 

She tells me that she feels like she's walked more in this sector than she ever has. Her legs hurt a lot and are reacting strange, so we went to a cyber during the week and she e-mailed the enfermera. This kid sitting next to her in the cyber was just plainly and openly watching youtube videos on ''How to cultivate and treat your marijuana'' Yeah that was interesting... Then on our way to meet up with the zone leaders to get the ibuprofen and other medications for Hna Mota, we were walking behind a very normal looking woman and then all of a sudden a group of 3 guys walked past her and while walking past each other they exchanged drugs and money. Ha what. Sometimes Hna Mota and I walk in silence and then we realize we just people-watched the same people and then laugh or comment without having to explain what we just saw personally.This was one of those times. We were so surprised that people just do that! 

Then we met the eldders out in front of the mall. We gave them the money for the medication, and they gave us the medicine. After the elders scurried off in a taxi, we looked at each other like, ''.....we just participated in a drug-dealing.'' Obviously it wasn't....but I just wonder what other people thought by seeing us missionaries doing that! hahaha! 

Our ward mission leader served in Brasil so he was excited to speak with Hna Mota en Portuguese. ...she couldn't speak back. She kept switching to Spanish. (And sometimes she switches into Portuguese while she's talking to me, it's similar enough to understand some of the words, but she doesn't notice.) So our mission leader told us that if we are forgetting our language it means we aren't teaching our companion. 

So I am learning Portuguese and teaching Hermana Mota English. 

Hermana Mota is fun to teach and fun to learn from. We found a mini white board in our house and hung it up and teach each other like we are teaching a giant class. Haha. And sometimes it takes us a while to figure out if that really is the way something is spelled or the way we say something. 

But we are learning and learning is fun! 

We were finishing up weekly planning and then Hna Mota reminded me about companionship inventory. I had forgotten all about that because Hna. Parkinson and I kind of just did it during the week when we had something nice to say or something that bothered us in the moment. But Hermana Mota didn't forget! Nope. haha she had written an entire list of things I need to improve. So I am slowly but surely smoothing out the rough edges. Progress is an awesome thing and humbling too. One of the things she told me to change was to start saying ''we'' instead of ''I.'' Which is funny because my other companion didn't like it when I used ''we.''And it just made me remember Mom and Dad and Mom always saying, ''It's not WE!'' hahaha or something like that. Now I'm just spinning in confusion! hahaha

Well, this week we have a family night planned for every day of the week except for Thursday! And we have plans to work with the members every day! It's fantastic. Are you guys helping the missionary work? You should invite a family to have family night with you all to play blankets and chairs or the sleepy finger game... hahaha no, but really you should ask the missionaries if they have any investigators or less active members that they would like to have a lesson with you! It's so awesome! 

This week's past life entertainment episode favorite:

One of those times when I was very very tired and didn't want to be awake for family night, so I was sleeping on the couch in my giant comforter until you all wanted to go play lava tag at some random park. So we drove there and you guys said I couldn't stay in the van, so I brought my entire comforter out with me and lay down on the playground bridge and slept while all of you ran around and played tag. Ugh. I'm glad those stubborn days are over. It made me chuckle to myself one day during lunch though :) 

I love you my dear family! I can't believe 6 months has already passed! I have loved them all so dearly. I have a long way to go, but not really. Thank you so much for being my family and for sharing your testimonies with me. I love you. 

Love,

Hermana Olson

Here is the view from our window

Trekking through the white stuff

A nice little perro who doesn't have fleas, because fleas don't exist here!

July 6, 2015 Embarrassing Experience

It is snowing like I’m in the end of the world outside! But I am so hot! I just had what I think is the most embarrassing experience of my mission.

I was in the huge post office they have here (it has the four turn door doors!!!) and there was a long windy line of about 30 people. My companion decided to sit down to wait and about 5 minutes later, in walked 3 United Statesians. They all seemed like they were around my age, like in their mid twenties or so (aroooooound my age). They were all talking in English and I was just curious what a bunch of United Statesians girls were doing in the bottom of Chile in midwinter. So I turned around and said, ''Where are you guys from?'' 

They kind of were taken aback and then said very slowly, ''The United States.'' with really friendly smiles. Then I said, ''Yeah, but which part do you come from?'' 

''Oh I'm from Colorado. It's in the west part of the country.'' 

''Oh that's cool, what are you doing here?'' 

''We are doing an internship in Santiago for our studies.'' 

''Oh wow! So do you all know Spanish?!'' 

''....um haha we are trying.'' Then the other girl said, ''How did you learn English? It's. very. good.'' (very despacito)

I PUT SO MUCH RED!!!!! My face is still flushed with blush color. I can feel it! I was kind of confused when they asked that because I thought they were joking, but then I realized that they were talking super slow and sweet to me as if I was a baby that whole time! 

''In the United States.''

''Oh really!!! What were you doing there?'' 

''I am from California.''

Then they all turned to each other with gringa WIDE OPEN MOUTHS! And then said, ''WHAT?!'' And I was just standing there really awkwardly because I was just so embarrassed. And still was in shock that they didn't think I was from there. 

And then I asked them if they were serious because I couldn't believe what I just heard. And they said they really thought I was from here and was just trying to speak to them in English (the people that know a few words always yell it out when they see a gringa like 'Helllooo!'' or ''Hello lady'' and sometimes when we are doing contacts some people like to try out their English with us.) BUT I LOOK SO GRINGA! The girls got embarrassed too. It was so awkward and then they asked me how long I've been in Chile and I told them 5 months. And they said, ''What on earth are you doing that is making you loose a normal accent.'' 

And then Bam, I explained that I was a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day saints and (tried to) explain what I am doing as a missionary... And let me just say that was very embarrassing too because I couldn't speak a solid sentence and then I was realizing how weird I was sounding and it was awkward! And I am just so happy I am serving in Spanish and not English! I would be such an awkward missionary. 

When I was done sending my letters, the girls were at the other booth trying to act out their words to the Chilean behind the counter. So I walked over and helped them out. I was a lot more comfortable with them speaking in Spanish. AAAAGGGHH!!!! It was so embarrassing. I haven't spoken English in a while, but I've been writing in my journal and stuff! How weird though! HOW WEIRD! 

June 22, 2015 Snowy Mountain Adventure

Querido Familia,

How strange it is to think that you are all on your sunny summer vacations! Yesterday, being the 21st of June, was the official start of winter here (supposedly). And it was also the shortest day of the year. The sun came up while we were in church....and it was setting when we left. Crazy. It snowed a fresh new snow again! And the snowflakes were GIGANTIC! I like Patagonia a lot more with the snow. It covers all the stray dog poop so everything just looks clean and cozy! 

Axel changed houses! How sad! But there is only one stake in Punta Arenas, so perhaps we will be seeing him around. 

Oh boy. . . I don't really know what to say. Oh yeah, today is Monday, not Tuesday. I was going to write tomorrow because the sister missionaries of Punta Arenas were going to go to Torres de Paine, which is AWESOME and has glaciers and is like The Yellowstone of Chile sort of. And it takes about 4 hours to drive there so we wouldn't have time to write emails today, BUT the elders went last Wednesday and the weather was terrible and they couldn't see anything... So we decided to not pay that much money to go and we went to the mountains near by instead. 

I was really excited to go to Torres de Paine, but I think it was good the way it worked out because I almost didn't sleep last night from a spontaneous adventure of throwing up...

Which made this mountain adventure much more than an adventure for me... haha 

All the sister missionaries (there are 8 of us) showed up to the tourist kiosk thing in the plaza and we climbed into a little bus that was supposed to take us up to the top of a mountain for about 8 kilometros.. Well it was pretty dandy until we went about 2 kilimetros up and the guy driving stopped the car and said that it was too dangerous to go the rest up in a car. So he walked around a bit and went over to a side of the mountain and said, you guys could just hike up for the rest of the way. I don't know if you are okay with walking, and we all laughed and said we are pretty accustomed to it. 

So he explained to us that we had to stay on a straight path because off to the sides of this little ''path'' thing he was talking about it was about 2 metro tall of snow...I don't know how much a metro is... but it's a lot. Then he said he'd come back in 2 hours. 

Before he left, one of the sisters asked, ''And what are these tracks?'' Pointing to some animal tracks in the snow. 

''Oh, a rabbit.''

''And those?'' 

''That is a Puma. Yeah, also watch out for Pumas'' 

And then he drove away. WHAT? hahaha so we turned around and just started climbing up. 

And then we climbed the entire rest of the mountain thing! And we could see all of Punta Arenas, which is actually surprisingly much smaller than I thought. 

In some parts of the climb we did, it was very very deep, about right under our waist! Boy it was an adventure! And there really wasn't any time for me to throw up, so I just pretended I wasn't sick and it really works! ...or at least helps. 

We got to a cool flat area and there was just a little bit left to go to get to the very top. Everyone sat down and started saying how pretty this spot was and how we should just settle here and enjoy this spot. And I couldn't believe it! I told them we can't just stop and be fine when we are SO close to the tip top of ANDANI! I told them that it was just like settling with the Terrestial Kingdom! hahaha And no one wanted to be the one saying that's fine after I said that and so we all made it to the top. :) It was fun. And very cold. But a nice adventure. We made it back in time for this random tour guide man to take us back to civilization...  And now I am here soaking wet and feeling very very nauseous... 

I really don't feel like writing anything more. Oh we didn't get eaten by any pumas. We saw one on the way back when we were in the car. Pretty cool! I didn't even know that pumas lived down here! 

This week was really good. On Saturday we had a missionary devotional for the entire stake and they were all supposed to invite someone to come with them. The devotional was about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It was SO AWESOME! All the missionaries sang as a choir and we had some videos. 

I sang a song called ''His Hands'' But in Spanish obviously. And as I sang a video of everything I was singing was playing in the background. It was very very special! 

I don't know what else to say about this week. I am still loving this cold, dark place. The people are awesome. And we are finding a lot of really good people. Now we just need to refind them and help them a bit in understanding how profoundly amazing this gospel really is. 

There isn't much else coming to my mind right now... I'm sorry family! This was a good week, but just a bad day for my stomach and I don't really want to sit here for much longer... I'm sorry! 

I hope that you enjoy the family reunions and everything! 

I'll have a better letter next week! I didn't bring anything with me to write because we just decided it would be more convenient to do it now while we are in Centro, so I can't send any pictures and I don't have my notes of things I was going to tell you about. 

Until next time I guess! I love you all very much. I hope you all enjoy the sun for me! I'm getting very very VERY white. 

Okay I LOVE YOU!

Love, Hermana Olson 

P.S. Tomorrow we get to get shots for flu! I think I may have already gotten it? I don't know hahaha

Hermana Olson

June 15 2015 Breaking Ice and Buying Land

I think the epitome description (if that is a thing) of this week is ICE. 

You could fill a mini sticky-note with the tallies of times I fell. 

There are lots of hills and...well, just ground..if you are me, to slip on! Here in Chile, to say something like, ''You ate it.'' They say ''Compró tierra'' or 'He bought land.' I'm pretty sure in just a little time I will have bought all of Patagonia. I guess it's not too expensive! Just a few bruises and concussions is all :) 

But this week the pain proved worth it because breaking the ice makes a good ice-breaker! And I'm not kidding! We made a lot of contacts through my falls, not like it was my intention, but it went in our favor after all. So after this week I kind of got the hang of things maybe. The trick is to put panties over your shoes to cause friction (and by panties I mean Nylon tight things, not underwear. It's just that here in Chile, tights are panties, so that was the manner of our instruction of how not to fall). And everyone does it. Even the men. And it works! You still have to walk like penguins. 

Yes, just a clarification, there are not penguins here. Because they come in the summer. And right now it is winter. 

Patagonia just has human penguins. It's a good mental picture I'm going to keep in my memory box of my mission forever. It's been fun to just look around the town down the street and watch the waddling people go about their day. It's almost as entertaining as watching penguins at the zoo. 

It's probably more entertaining for the Patagonian people watching me waddle around.... hahaha but it's a fun ice breaker with strangers or even just small talk before lessons. A lot of the small talk has naturally morphed into ''So did you fall yet?'' or ''Did you buy land yet?'' 

And now when you leave from somewhere instead of saying "Que le vaya bien" or something like that, everyone says ''no se caiga!'' Which is changing it all from Have a good day basically to Don't fall! And everyone says it! 

haha 

Axel's baptism!!! And it snowed! His dad came to church for the first time in 25 years! Almost all of the ward came. His mom, who didn't want him to be baptized ever, and then a little later decided it was okay as long as he got baptized in the catholic church first, and then wasn't okay with it, came and talked to us afterward. She told us that she felt something really different and couldn't be happier for Axel. She said she wasn't anticipating to feel so pleased and touched to see her son be baptized. She's going to come to church next week! 

After the baptism we were walking outside and it had snowed a little bit outside. Some of the primary kids started throwing snowballs at us and we all had a SNOWBALL FIGHT until there really weren't any more scraps to pick up. Axel's mom was taking pictures of it all and laughing. When we were getting ready to leave, Axel's dad ran over to us and asked if he could get a picture of us for to remember. It was a good day. I enjoyed it a lot. I really like Axel. He's a superstar and such a smart, good, righteous 11 year old. He'll be an awesome priesthood holder. It was quite a pleasure to teach him.

This week we had intercambios and I stayed here in Patagonia with Hermana Figueredo from Argentina. She's great!!! It was an interesting day because I have a terrible sense of direction so finding houses included lots of circles and laughs. 

THE WIND IS BACK and we almost were pushed down to the ground four times. 

And the South American Soccer Championship started and Chile was playing that day. So there were absolutely no citas! Which was an interesting comparison to last week when we had 9 to 11 appointments three separate days! haha so we tried doing a lot of contacts or recontacts but the outside world is like walking in a twilight zone when there is a soccer game. The whole day people are just in their houses or go to other peoples houses and no one answers to missionaries! hahaha There is another game tonight, so that will be interesting haha. One of our investigators, Ociel, told us to come find him in the next month after the championship is over! hahahaha Chileans love soccer! It's awesome. 

Intercambios were great nonetheless! 

A few days ago we went to the house of a woman we contacted a few weeks ago named Angelica. She was very easy to talk to and invited us in. After talking to her for a little we asked if we could share something with her and start with a hymn. She started laughing and gave us a note in advance that she will probably laugh and she was apologizing in advance because she just couldn't handle the fact that two ''gringa angels'' were going to be in her house singing to her! hahah 

Well so we sang Lead Kindly Light and she didn't laugh. She cried. We said a prayer and she said that she felt different. She told us that the first time we contacted her was the precise moment that she had come back from the hospital finding out that she had a miscarriage and felt hurt and just sad and then we knocked. Then she told us she was amazed at the maturity that we carry and the feeling (of the spirit) that we brought to her heart. It was very neat to see such a drastic change in the way she was treating us, or I guess her attitude after we invited the spirit with a hymn. 

We have another cita with her and she invited to make lunch for us! She is very excited to learn! It was a special experience for us all :) 

Embarrassing moment of the week:

We were eating almuerzo with the family Frías and talking about embarrassing moments. The grandma was telling about how she was eating at her mother-in-laws for the first time, well first time meeting her then future mother in law and she spilled her tea all over the table. That was her most embarrassing moment. 

Well, we were eating Casuela, a soup thing with steak, cracked wheat, carrots, and corn on the cob, and pototoes. But all of the things are served whole inside of the soup so you have to eat the soup and then cut the stuff and eat it. It's really yummy, but you have to cut the corn off of the cob. It's not very easy. Anyway to make a long story short, I was cutting the corn off the cob and my knife slid and my fork holding the cob up slid through the bowl shoving ALL OF EVERYTHING ALL OVER MY FACE AND MY SHIRT and skirt and everything.... hahaha Everyone looked at me and we were all silent and then I said, ''At least you aren't my mother-in-law!'' And we all laughed a lot. And I ate the few kernels of corn left in my bowl and we went on our merry way of being missionaries after going home and changing. 

That's all I got for now! IT SNOWED TODAY AND HASN'T STOPPED! It's magical. And beautiful and I love it! It makes up for the four hour sunlight days! 

I love you! and I love being a missionary in the end of the world IN the end of the world. 

Con mucho Cariño,

Hermana Olson

P.S. next week we will be writing on Tuesday. 

P.S.S. Daniel you look way older than 13. Stop growing. 

Dad, my excellent wonderful Dad. Happy Father's Day. I love you. 

June 8 2015 The Grass is Always Greener when it's White. . .or Slushy. . .or Brown

Mi querida familia! 

This week was terribly great. I got bit by a dog on Monday. That was pretty grand. The lame thing was that the dog was a puny little rat looking thing... and it was barking the ugliest bark and just followed us for almost a block, and so finally I turned around and took a ''YOU-WANNA-MESS-WITH-ME?!'' step towards it, which caused it to flinch and kind of run a little back and quiet up. And so I turned around feeling victorious and cool and bigger than that little puny gross dog until I felt a delightful rat-dog BITE on my THIGH! Yeah, he wanted to mess with me. I was super startled, naturally, so I reacted with some sort of scream sound as I flicked him off because his tooth snagged on my skirt, but with my hand, and he flew up in the air and then landed oddly and ran away. The dogs here are either super cool are reeeeeaaaaaaaally weird!  Oh yeah I was also wearing like 400 layers of tights so the only harm was a bruise :) Anyway, it was an adventure.... 

Our District Meeting this week kind of put me in a reality check when I realized how much I lack in my knowledge and my Spanish and clarity in explaining the principles and just all that missionary good stuff. I think what got me was just that I want to be so much further in who I am as a missionary than I am! I have such a long way to go, but I only have 14ish months left to go as a missionary and I don't want to be at the end of the 'go'' at the end of my mission! I want to be at the end of the ''go'' now! Well, this probably isn't making any sense, but basically I just realized that I have to be patient and just let progress take its way and do its thing. 

Anyway, the reunion ended up beneficial because I smacked myself a few times to just take it humbly and get excited to improve. We learned a lot about explaining the Book of Mormon and using it A LOT in every opportunity you have to teach or contact people or anything missionary! 

After that our day was kind of a lot of rejections. Muchìsimo to be exact (even though that isn't exact at all...) 

I think my favorite was when an oldish man opened the door, came out on his porch, closed the door, said ''Dìgame'' (which basically is the equivalent of 'Okay, what do you want' the translation is Tell me.), THEN looked up at us, did a hilarious shocked face like he was taken aback and then turned around, opened the door, closed it, and from his window waved his finger at us. 

Chilean fun fact: The Reject Wave --- they pull open the curtains, see our smiles, and point their pointer finger and just wiggle it back and forth about 10 times and then you wave goodbye and then sometimes if you are lucky they after they stare at you for a second, they start a second round of it. Their faces are also very grumpy. 

Anyway, our day wasn't so great. We were still animadas, but our citas fell through and no one AT ALL was listening to us. We were nearing the end of the day and we decided to knock a few more doors. We talked to one lady and she said to us, ''no quiero ser mañosa...de hecho, NO.'' And slammed the door. Wooo! Really rude rejections like that don't happen very much, but today of course it did! haha But I just had faith that maybe there was a tender mercy coming around the corner... so we knocked the next door, and a couple answered, saw that we were soaking wet (Oh yeah, it was basically freeze raining the entire day) and told us to come in right away! Then we sat down and they were super nice and just started asking so many questions about us and about the Book of Mormon! 

Yeah, we were so excited! I was just thinking, WOW! How awesome is this! This is too good to be true! 

And it was. 

After about two minutes, they just started attacking us! And it was super crazy how all of a sudden they changed from these cheery people to really, really mean people! Anyway, to be quite honest it was one of the hardest situations I have ever been in, but I can testify of the power of testimony. I bore a simple testimony to them. They continued to try to attack us after, but it was different. When we left, it was time to go home. I wasn't embarrassed and my faith wasn't affected, but it was still not a very delightful 10 minutes or so of my missionary experience.

But a scripture came to my mind that comes from another Bible discovery I had a little ago. This is another one of my favorite chapters in the bible Acts 5. Basically this dude named Ananias and his wife lie to Peter and they both die on the spot. It's epic, go read it. All the people get all freaked out about Peter and his apostles and their preaching. And so they put them in jail, but an angel brings them out and tells them to continue to preach. Then the priests are all confused when they see them in the temple preaching again. Then they tell them we would rather obey God than men. Okay anyway this is all beside the point but this chapter is just so cool! So then the priests want to kill them and they take them to a council to be judged, and they get attacked for what they are doing.

And then they get let go on the conditions that they do not continue to preach in the name of Jesus Christ.  And verse 41 and 42 are the greatest:

''And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.

And daily in the temple and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ''

And there you go. That's what Heavenly Father's tender mercy of the day was for me; reminding me of that story so that although I felt worthless to everyone I met that day, especially in the last fifteen minutes of my Tuesday, I knew that my companion and I were counted worthy enough to suffer shame for His name. 

And if it isn't obvious in the life of Hermana Olson. A lot of other things worth telling happened this week, but all the missionaries are basically saying that it looks like I am writing the New New Testament. So I will end it here. 

I love you very very much! Thank you all for writing.  Till next week! 

Love,  Hermana Olson

May 25 Transfer to Punta Arenas

Hey family! I only have time to get on super fast and let you know that I cannot write to you this week about my experiences thus far in the Patagonia world of things because I have to go to the police investigations place to get my carnet thing like identity card for Chile today because my certification only lasts for so long and I had to wait until I got to Patagonia and I have to do it TODAY! before the thingy expires and it's really important.

So I thought it was awesome that I had a back-up thing, because I wrote out what I wanted to say on paper to take a picture of it! But I took a few pictures over by the coast and my camera died! AND I HAD YET TO TAKE A PICTURE OF THE LETTER and my companion doesn't have her camera with her. And I have to hurry over to the P.D.I. right now because it's like the DMV supposedly. But I love you and I'll just have to send the letter from this week next week! I'm sorry.

I love you! And I'll read your emails and respond to you next week! 

Love, 

Hermana Olson

p.s. yeah it is suuuuuuuuper cold here.

(Mom's transcription of the photographed letter, received the next week)

I’m here! It’ nothing that I imagined, but to be honest, the only thing I really imagined was penguins, so that’s all about it. Getting here was the part I didn’t anticipate at all.  On Monday night, Hna. Oross and I stopped by Victoria and Sandra to say goodbye and also have a good  last lesson like we planned.  It was just a nice night.  Sandra wasn’t home though, so we were going to come back on Tuesday to say bye to her too. . .until right before we were going to go home and begin packing, Elder Keetch called and said, “Hey did you know you are leaving tomorrow?” And I said no.  Because I didn’t. . .And apparently Punta Arenas people always leave the day before cambios to get to the airport down in Puerto Montt on time.  So that was a bit of a ripshock.  I hung up on the phone and it was almost 10 pm so Hna. Oross and I had to leave to be in the house on time.  But I told Victoria (and Romina, Sophie, & Erna) that I wouldn’t be stopping by tomorrow.  It was sad.  They all cried, but we couldn’t stick around for long.  I cried too.  We came home and I BEGAN packing.  I stayed up and didn’t go to sleep until 4 am. 

Then we got up and went to our district meeting.  After the district meeting, we met as a zone for a while.  Then it was lunch time, so we ate at Hermana Katy’s house.  She was very sweet and gave me about 4 pairs of really warm socks that she knitted herself because, apparently, I was going to need them.

We were supposed to be at the terminal for buses at 4:30 because the bus to Puerto Montt was leaving at 5:00.  I left my suitcases at the church.  We got to the church at 4:00 and called a taxi.  After waiting a while we called 3 more.  They didn’t come! So at 4:25 we decided to RUN to the terminal.  The terminal wasn’t too close. . .at all.  But we ran the entire way with a back pack full of 40 lbs. worth of books, a shoulder bag, my giant coat, and 2 50 lb. suitcases.  It was quite a stressful adventure.  I was just thankful we had run these past two months because there would have been NO WAY we would have been able to do that.  The sidewalks in Valdivia are SUPER cracked and rocky too.  Well, anyway, we made it to the terminal at 4:55!!  5 minutes to buy a ticket and get on the bus.  We found the zone leaders and apologized for being so late.  They looked at us and laughed just because APPARENTLY all the buses were late and we wouldn’t be leaving for another hour.  Hna. Oross and I were drenched in sweat.  The elders said we were the first ones there!  Haha, but I guess it made up for not exercising earlier that morning.

So after cooling off, !CHAU! I went.  Just like that.  Weird.  I traveled, once again, as the only sister missionary in a flock of elders.  This time it was so  much stranger without a companion.  But we all had a jolly time.  There were 9 of us on that bus.  It was neat talking about our different experiences on the mission and also seeing a bit of Chile ROAD-TRIP-STYLE =).  The bus ride was about 3 or 4 hours.  When we got to Puerto Montt, some hermanas picked me up and I stayed at their house for the night.  The next morning I had to take another bus to the airport.  This time it was just Elder Mendoza from Peru and I, because the other missionaries took an earlier bus (the traffic in Puerto Montt in the morning is CRAZY!!  We had to walk a lot of the way before getting to the bus because no taxis were open that early in the morning and Puerto Montt has A LOT of rain so my suitcases got soaked.) Anyway, I flew down to Punta Arenas with Elder Mendoza, E. Fotheringham, E Alder and E. Bliss.  The plane was not very big.  I LOVE seeing Chile from above!!  After arriving, we all crammed on this bus thing with about 40 other people.  I was squished next to a man named Gonsalo.  He was wondering who all these missionaries were and I explained who we were.  When we got to our church, the bus stopped and Gonsalo asked if this was our building.  I said, “Yes! It starts at 10 on Sundays!”  And then I got out.

GUESS WHAT! Gonsalo came to church this Sunday!  But he actually lives pretty far, so he gave us his contact information and we passed him to the missionaries in Austral.  Gonsalo liked church though, and is really interested!  I couldn’t believe he actually came!  I hope he keeps investigating.

So I met my companion.  Hermana Parkinson from Spanish Fork, Utah.  She’s the 2^nd oldest in a family of 6 kids and her youngest sibling just turned 2!  She has been out on the mission for 22 months.  We have only been speaking Spanish these past 5 days, so she’s very dedicated to the language.  I like her.  She reminds me a little of my roommate Mikayla so it’s been fun to get to know her.  I think it will be a good cambio with her.

The people here are GREAT!  I’m really missing my Valdivians, but it’s a neat experience to get to know a whole new batch of awesome people.

Punta Arenas is like another country.  It’s so different than the rest of Chile!  Or at least my birthplace.  They talk different here—their accent, or pronunciation, and also ways of saying things.  For example, quite a few people switch the ch and the sh in words.  Like chicachita is “chicashisha” or they say “osho” instead of ocho and they pronounce hecho like echo or eko! It’s different.  Some people also talk like Argentinian accents.  My companion uses a “J” sound for any word with a “y” or “ll”.  I think the accent here in Punta Arenas is just a mix between the Chilean sound and Argentinian.  But they are right next to Argentina, and actually a lot of them go to Argentina pretty often BECAUSE IT’S A LOT EASIER FOR PUNTA ARENAS PEOPLE TO GO OUT OF THEIR COUNTRY THAN TO TRAVEL IN IT!      Haha.

It’s so funny.  It’s this isolated city in the bottom of the world!  They are all very proud of this place.  It’s sort of the equivalent of Texas in the states.  They have their own flag and everything.  I really like their flag.  It’s called the flag of Magallanes.  Everyone has it everywhere: their mailbox, random stones on a hill, their porch, their couch.  But it’s a pretty cool flag.  They also have their own dance here in Patagonia called Shameme.  From what I could gather about this Patagonian dance is it looks like a mix of the Tango and Merenque, but I didn’t watch very much of it.  They say if I’m here for September 18 (independence day) I’ll see it.