(note from Mom: This letter is long, because Annamarie wrote it on paper and emailed pictures of the pages. Then I typed them up. That's why she wrote wild scribbles to describe her feelings in the first paragraph. That's also why it's out of order--it took me a while.)
Family,
To put it plainly, I was a little more nervous for
this cambio than I expected. I realized
I had eased into a bit of a comfort zone this past cambio, and being thrown
back into this sector with a few crucial items taken out, my comfort zone
turned into a bit more of a [wild scribbles] zone. I was feeling overwhelmed
and afraid of failing. On Tuesday night,
I prayed to Heavenly Father and asked Him to comfort my worried mind. And I got an answer! What came to mind was, “Don’t worry,
Annamarie, you know how to swim.”
The first time we went tubing down the Snake River for
the Olson family reunion, I think I was about 10. So I ended up going with the
“women-and-children-plus-Uncle-Greg-and-Dad” group. What fun it was just floating our way down
that shallow river!. . . .until Dad yelled out “Waterfall!!!!!”
I, imagining a 1,000 foot drop off, started to
panic. I realized the water was deeper,
I was far from the sandbar, and I was already caught in the current. . .
Needless to mention, I was on top of a GIGANTOR tractor tube! I was very afraid. Dad and Uncle Greg were the only men in this
whole flock of children and helpless moms with babies on their laps. I remember Aunt Rose, Sara, and Mereoni were
already at the brink, just holding onto a cable thing. Dad passed me as he was trying to help the
rest make it in and I remember yelling out to him in panic and tears, “DAD!!
WAIT!!”
Dad didn’t bring me in. Instead he told me, “Don’t worry Annamarie.
You know how to swim.” So I swam. That
was my option. When I made it to the
dock thing, trembling and almost taken over by a traumatic shock, I looked
behind me at that river, only to realize that the deathly, plunging 1,000 ft
waterfall I had been imagining in the midst of the river’s current and chaos of
my fear-filled brain turned out to be just a dinky 5-ft rocky waterfall
thingymabob (over a wall built by the city).
Sure, I would’ve gotten a few bruises and such going down it, but it
wouldn’t have led to my certain death! I
sat there embarrassed at my own self and still in a bit of shock, while my
cousins played in the sandbar and went down the waterslide at the park we had
come to. I remember sitting on a swing
staring at my toes completely unaware of the leaches that would be having a
party on me the next year (but that’s beside the point J)
What I’m getting at is this. Sometimes we might feel that the current of
life is leading to a 1,000 ft waterfall and it’s nearly debilitating to paddle
against. But we have the gospel. We know how to swim. And we aren’t left
helpless if we can’t. I’m sure if I had
been caught too far in the current, Dad would’ve been there to bring me
back. Dad was there. But I’m glad he trusted in me and my potential
to make it through. Then when we look
back, we might realize our 1,000 ft waterfall of a trial was just a dinky 5-ft
one all along. So in the end, or I guess
I should say, in the middle of it all, we don’t need to worry. We know how to swim.
And I’m here, swimming and advancing little by
little. Elder Amachi and Elder Linton
are the new elders here in Patagonia and Hermana Mota is my new companion. It’s pretty neat, actually, to be here in my
sector/ward with 3 new missionaries. It
feels fresh like a new school, or maybe a better way to describe it would be a
new school year—same school, but new classmates.
They all have a lot of refreshing enthusiasm that has
created a new atmosphere with lots of progress.
Elder Amachi is my district leader, he has been in Punta Arenas for 1
cambio more than me. Before that he was
in Valdivia and only Valdivia for an entire year! So although he’s been out on a mission for 1
year plus some, he and I are in the same boat of places we’ve served. He’s from Lima, Peru and is a very hard
worker. His comp is Elder Linton from
Wyoming. He’s been in the field for 7
months and began it all here in Punta Arenas!
So Patagonia is his first sector that is different, he is really excited
to be here too.
Hermana Mota is awesome! She’s from Goiana, Brazil, is the youngest of
3 (older sister & older brother), she’s been a member for 5 years and is 23
years old. She’s the only member of her
family, but has faith that the church will make its way over to her family (her
family lives 8 hours away from the nearest church building and Hna. Mota joined
when she went off to college, where the church exists). Anyway, she’s been out for 7 months and had
been serving in Osorno this whole time.
So she has A LOT of enthusiasm to be working here in the end of the
world! She also has a lot of enthusiasm
for EVERYTHING. When she found out we
had a washing machine in our apartment she screamed because apparently there
are only 3 in the entire mission. (Ha! How lucky we are!) Other perks I may not have mentioned to you
all from serving in the end of the world is we have heaters, which don’t exist
in any other part of the mission.
Everyone north of Punta Arenas uses combustiones, which requires chopped
wood and building a fire every day. I
forgot about that!! Haha. I had also forgotten about the existing of
FLEAS! Hna. Mota reminded me about that and I had the biggest smile telling her
they don’t exist here! I had completely
forgotten about that miserable state of food I was!
Well, anyway, this week we made some pretty great
goals. Hna. Mota was telling me about a
talk she read about Olympic swimmers and how they would swim HASTA VOMITAR or
until they would throw up. And with a
sweet smile on her face, she asked if that could be one of our goals. So we’ll be throwing up this week supposedly.
J
Hna. Mota has never met snow in her entire life. There was a bit of ice when she showed up,
but no snow. I told her to just wait
until Sunday because it ALWAYS snows on Sundays (it’s true!) So Sunday came
around and guess what! It was. . .
SLOOSHING! It had snowed late Saturday
night, but when it was time to walk to church, it was freeze raining!! . . .and
very very cold (what’s new?). But since
all this type of weather was new for her anyway, Hna. Mota kept asking, “Is
this snow?” like a little school girl. J
The trek to church was a bit rigorous for her. There
is one part on the way that is a large expanse of dirt, but in Sunday’s case it
was freezing cold sloshy mud. Hna Mota’s
boots had holes in the sides and she was suffering a bit and a little
disappointed in her “first snow experience” so I offered to give her a piggy
back ride. I carried her through the mud
and we finally made it to the bridge only to realize it was full of 2-inch puddles. So she decided she’d just walk it no
mas. And we made it to church.. .muddy,
wet, and cold. I felt sorry that she had
such a dramatic experience her first Sunday, but she managed to keep a smile on
her face the whole time. She said “it’s a good one for the journal!”
The mission is the best place to learn how to suffer with joy!
None of our investigators showed up, but a little bit into sacrament meeting,
Angel and Joyce walked in with their two little kids!! Ah! They are so
great! Angel was baptized a year ago and
his wife was less active and somehow they drifted out of activity in this past
year. Last week, they had told Hna.
Parkinson and I that they want to prepare to receive a Patriarchal Blessing and
told us they haven’t been paying their tithing.
We taught them about the blessing it is to pay it and they were both
very excited to begin paying it even though they don’t have very much and are
in a point of financial difficulty. This
week I wanted to pass by to teach them about fasting, but when we knocked on
the door Joyce answered and said she didn’t have time. And then before anything came out of my
mouth, she got the biggest smile on her face I’ve ever seen and said, “Oh and
just so you know, we are going to church this Sunday. We are going to pay our
tithing, and we decided to fast for the first time too!”
IT WAS SO AWESOME!!
We had a FHE last night with a family that is going to
be sealed in the Santiago temple at the end of this month. They offered their support to Angel and Joyce
to help them make their way to the temple too!
And they are so motivated!! It’s amazing to see families work together
to attain the greatest happiness EVER!
Really though, I love being able to witness progression to the
temple. Heavenly Father sure loves us.
Miracles are always happening. My favorite this week
was Joana. Saturday morning we went
through all the plans AND plan B’s of 3 hours within 45 minutes. So we decided to do contacts . . .and no one
was around! It was just gentle rain and
gangs of dogs and cats. We went up to
Joana’s street to knock her door. For
the past 3 ½ weeks we have been trying to meet this girl. She’s a reference from a girl in our ward who
was contacted by using OUR phone, but we haven’t been able to find her in her
house or in el kiosko where she supposedly works and her phone number suddenly
didn’t work either. . .It was taking forever to meet her! I had talked to her briefly once on the phone
2 ½ weeks ago, in enough time to set an appointment, but for whatever reason,
the appointment didn’t happen.
Well, we went to her house de nuevo today to try to
find her and no one answered besides her angry little dog thing. I was feeling bad because we hadn’t done
anything the entire morning besides walk. . .(and also wander a bit because I
was trying to feel my way around the streets).
I was just worried that Hna. Mota was feeling the same aimlessness in
work that I felt in the beginning of working in this sector. . .but I stayed
positive. We decided to walk home and
see if we could find a few people to contact.
We turned out of Augustin Barrientos (the street where
Joana apparently lives) onto the next street that spits us out on the way to
our apartment. When we reached the
corner of this street, a thought popped into my mind to turn around and try to
re-contact a person that lived on this street a few houses down from where we
were standing. She wasn’t in the plans,
but we turned around and knocked (“a-lo-ed from the gate) and no one answered.
. .I felt so weird. I didn’t understand
why I had felt I should turn around if
no one even answered. What seemed
pointless just made us turn back around and start home again.
This time we reached the same corner, ready to cross
the street and a girl crossed our path very hurriedly. At first I was thinking, “Oh good! Someone to contact!” But I hesitated because
she was walking really fast and on the other side of the pasaje so instead I
just decided to say “HOLA!” with a smile so I wouldn’t bother a hurried person.
She smiled back and said Hola too, and we both
continued to walk in opposite directions but suddenly before I even realized, I
was turned around and the question, “Are you Joana?” had left from my mouth!
This stranger stopped, turned around a little bit startled,
and said “Yes.” And I smiled really big
and said, “Hi!! We’re the missionaries!” She ran up to me and gave me a big
hug! She said she had been trying to get
a hold of Nicole (the girl in our ward) all day yesterday because she had
gotten a new hone and wanted to talk to us.
She said she was in a hurry but gave us her new phone number and told us
to come by on Sunday. I said it was nice
to finally meet her and she said she has been waiting so long to meet us
too!
We parted ways and were walking for a little bit when
Hermana Mota asked, “So who is she?”
“Joana!”
“The reference you’ve been trying to find?”
“Yeah.”
“But you already knew her?”
“No. . .now I do!”
“You didn’t know her?”
“No”
“Then why did you ask a random person if they were her?”
“Oh! I don’t know.”
“But it was her!”
“Yeah!”
“And you didn’t know her?”
“Yeah!”
“HERMANA! DO YOU REALIZE WHAT JUST HAPPENED?”
And then I realized the miraculousness of that little
encounter. What a blessing! We would
have missed her if we hadn’t “pointlessly” turned around to knock that door no
one answered. It was a pretty neat 4th
of July experience.
BUT HEY THAT’S NOT ALL THAT HAPPENED ON THIS FOURTH OF
JULY. Well, to be quite honest that’s basically all that happened as far aw
proselyting goes because 4th of July ended up falling on the Copa
America Soccer Championship between Argentina and CHILE!! So of course, it was
a dead zone outside and absolutely NO ONE wanted to receive missionaries! Haha.
We haven’t been allowed to watch any of the soccer games because there
was still (obviously) work to be done, but lunch time came around and Elder
Amachi called us to let us know we had received permission to watch the
championship!!!
But we didn’t have anyone to watch the game with! Our original plan for the day (knowing there
would be no one to find in this dead zone) was to pick up trash for 3 hours
because there is A LOT of trash everywhere.
We ate lunch with a sister from the ward and she
invited us over. We asked her if she
likes watching the games and she said “No, but if you guys come I’ll enjoy it!”
with an adorable little old lady chuckle.
So we said Yes!
5 pm came around and we left to head over to her house
and it was pouring! So we were turning
and suddenly a bus pulled over (the only vehicle around in the time of the game
and opened the door. And this man gave
us a ride over to the little old lady’s house!
Haha! Her daughter was there and
the daughter’s newborn baby was asleep on the couch.
THE GAME WAS INTENSE, but we watched it so calmly and
quietly so as to not wake the baby!
Haha! After double over time and
even up to the very last penalty kick WE WON!!!!
We took some pictures with the Hna in front of the TV
with the screen that said “Chile. Champion of America!”
And Ah! The
pictures were so awesome!! And it is how
it is! Chile is the champion of
America! It had been 29 YEARS since
Chile had won a Copa America! And I’m
lucky enough to actually be in Chile
when they win, in their own country! (The cup was hosted in Santiago.)
Hna Mota and I were so excited, but we didn’t want to
make much noise because of the sleeping baby.
As soon as we opened the door and heard all the vecinas yelling and
celebrating, we ran down the stairs screaming “WOOOOOO!!!!” and then squished our way out the main door
frame because we were bumping into each other trying to get out as fast as we
can with so much excitement!
Then everyone else started leaving too and the streets
became alive again with SO MANY
cars and people making NOISE!!
It was so cool!! Everyone was out in the rain waiving
flags and horns and smiles! It was so
awesome!! I have determined that THE BEST WAY TO CELEBRATE THE FOURTH OF JULY
IS BE IN CHILE WHEN THEY WIN THE WORLD CUP FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 29 YEARS!
Everyone was dressed in red white and blue too! Haha.
Hna. Mota and I decided it was too monumental of an experience to just
go sit in our casa! So we turned around
and recorded the coolest video ever of all the cars and people (even the
firetrucks were sounding their sirens from the station!) It was SO SO SO cool to be in a country where
literally everyone was so happy all together!
Haha.
Elder Amachi called us about 20 minutes later to let
us know all missionaries have to stay in their house for the rest of the night
because it was going to get crazy.
We got home and ate our entire chicken an Hermana gave
us on Wednesday. Hna Mota was too
excited. She said we had to eat it with
our hands! She said it was something she
had on her bucket list so she ran to take a picture of this too, only to
realize she accidentally deleted ALL of the fotos on her camera.
And that was a really big downer. She lost 4 months worth of pictures L. Her entire old sector was lost! How sad.
I still have a pit in my stomach from this.
Hermana Parkinson lost her camera 3 days before she
left. That had ALL of her mission
pictures, 10 months. How sad! It also had the majority of pictures taken with
me here in Punta Arenas.
AAAGHGH! Why do things like this happen to poor
missionaries!
Anyway, just imagine that I sent you all the coolest
pictures of our fun experience of watching the greatest championship with a
sweet old lady and a sleeping baby.
I was really excited to show you the video of Punta
Arenas celebrating. . .
I feel so sad for Hermana Mota though. I can’t imagine losing so many pictures. I need to start using my own camera more
because I don’t’ have pictures either. J
But nonetheless, this year’s fourth of July was pretty
darn amazing. I can’t believe we were
just going to pick up trash! My favorite
worldly experience on my mission haha J And well. . .I
guess you will all have to wait until we are all seated around on our comfy
celestial couches watching Family Home videos with Heavenly Father to watch it.
J
Other things. . .
I’ve been eating lots of honey roasted peanuts this
week with your fun road tripping to the family reunions in mind. I love you all!
I’m excited for this snowy cambio with my Brazilian
companion.
I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY IN CHILE!
With lots of love and hugs,
Hermana Olson
