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
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