Sick, National Independence Day, a New Companion and OH MY! - September 22, 2014

So last week after I wrote all of you we had a super awesome weekly planning session! It was literally the best one we had. We knew exactly what we needed to do this week. And on Tuesday we went to Zone Conference in Quilicura. We literally live the farthest out of everyone from the Zone Conference so it´s always a crazy trek to get there and back. The conference was awesome though. We learned how to work more with the Bishop and how to better utilize the area book. We had lessons in just our zone from Elder Larson and Elder Ortiz on diligence and obedience respectively and both of them did a killer job. We had some relay races with all of the districts and sadly both of the districts in Renca placed last in their heat and didn´t get to go the finals...So after all of the games we heard some from our medic missionary Hermana Duffy and President Videla about some of the changes in the mission. I´m sure it was super awesome but I started to feel really rotten as far as being achy and cold and what not. Because of that I had a hard time really paying attention and trying to understand everything. The coolest part of the conference was hearing the testimonies of the missionaries that are leaving. They are so awesome. The conference lasted until 7 and we probably got back around 8.  On our way home we had a funny experience. Elder Ortiz pressed the button for the bus to stop and I guess the button had already been pressed because the busdriver lost it and yelled some stuff at us before we got it off. I found out later it went like this, "*Swear word* I know how to work the door. I heard the button the first time." We had some good laughs about that one. Anways so got home took my temperature and sure enough I had a fever. Called and cancelled appointments, took some medicine, and went to bed. In the night I woke up with another fever and my stomach was killing me. Took some medicine and went back to bed.

On Wednesday I woke up and I could tell I didn´t have a fever anymore which was good but I still felt pretty rotten. Around 10 I started to get yet another fever but before I took medicine or anything I fell back asleep and woke up feeling better. Luckily after that no more fevers. I found out from Elder Bullock that the reason my stomach was killing me was probably because I had minor food poisoning. There was an entire zone out with food poisoning the day after the conference. So yeah double the sickness double the fun! Right? Not really. I just laid around all day and studied as much as I could and wrote some letters. 

Alright so Thursday I woke up and felt way better in general. Went to the activity at the stake center for the 18th which is their National Independence day. There were all sorts of crazy relay races and inside the cultural hall they had every ward selling empanadas and completos and papas fritas (french fries) to help pay for the kids encampment this summer. Elder Bullock and I spent about 3 hours in the kitchen cooking empanadas and fries and that was super fun but afterwards I think I was tired of hearing "PAPAS FRITAS" over and over and over. One of the families in our ward went and got me a gatorade and that was lifesaving. I felt so much better drinking that. I love our ward. So at night the performances started and we started watching the dances. Our ward did an Island dance and they were seriously the most entertaining to watch all biases aside. It reminded me of doing the haka as a kid and watching my sisters and mom hula! The National Dance that we saw a ton of is called the Cueca. One day I need to learn it for fun. Anyways, after the performances a dance started and the zone leaders decided it was time for us to bow out gracefully so we didn´t have to sit through the torture of good music and no dancing. So we went back to the house. Oh but before we left we were throwing the football and these two girls came up to me and one of them was like "Can my friend take a picture with you?" I am not even supposed to talk to the opposite gender alone and all of the other missionaries were 10+ feet away and I just quickly was like "nope sorry we have a rule." It was really awkward. I don´t know why they singled me out like that. Elder Macedo joked that if I had done it they would have put it up on facebook saying "Me and My Boyfriend." Probably true...

Friday we had another killer day planned. I had a super awesome scripture study reading Helaman 5. Seriously like one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon. Super super good stuff in there. When we left the house in the morning, we were almost to our first appointment of the day when we got a call from the zone leaders saying they were on their way to inspect our house. So once again we returned to the house where we spent so much time and spent the morning there. Then on our way to lunch we get a call from Elder Larson saying it was gonna be at 2. We were almost there so we went to Elder Larsons and Elder Princes house and Elder Bullock had to inspect their house. Then we finally got to lunch at 2 with Bishop. It was super fun but it lasted until almost 3:30. Afterward we had to go pick up our laundry because we had been sick. Then we went to the taxi place and they had nothing so we treked it all the way back to the house. We started language study at 4:20. It´s supposed to start at 2. Then we left the house at 5:20 to go see Luis. He was there on the 18th which was awesome and it was good to visit with him. It was just a little frustrating because the member lady that takes care of him was really being a distraction. We were trying to share a scripture with him and she kept changing the subject and what not. After we left there and decided that we were gonna try to eat dinner with one of our appointments so that we didn´t have to go back to the house. We went to visit the less active Maria Sepulvida and her dad Juan who is a recent convert. When we got there luckily they had food. They gave Elder Bullock an Empanada and a half each. Then we talked with Juan for a bit. Then we talked with Fernando and had a super awesome conversation trying to motivate him to read and pray more. He´s such a stud. He recognized that he felt different because he wasn´t doing the little things and promised us that he´s gonna be better. He´s gonna be mission ready in a few years no doubt. We were getting ready to leave and then they made us sit back down and stuffed more meet down our throats and by the time we finally left it was time to head back to the house. 

Saturday in the afternoon we had to go to Cerro Colorado with Elder Ortiz and Elder Pope for Elder Bullock to do some baptismal interviews. At the second house they asked me to teach Obey and Honor the law which I have never taught. I was tanking pretty hard I´m sure but then some people came over and distracted everybody and Elder Ortiz picked up where I left off once we regained everyones attention. He saved the lesson and transitioned to his part and everything was all good. That night we were really tired and we just visited with Alex and Carola after dinner and finshed out the day there. Dinner was super late too because we didn´t get back until 7 from Cerro Colorado. 

Sunday morning the transfer calls came. I found out that Elder Bullock was leaving and going to none other than Cerro Colorado. He´s still gonna be my district leader! What the heck?! And Elder Ortiz came here to Renca 2. He has literally served in every ward in Renca except for Jose Miguel Infante and that´s a branch. It was kind of a weird transfer but I am really excited to work with Elder Ortiz. Having a Latino companion is gonna do wonders for my Spanish and he´s super funny so I think we´ll get along great too. I can tell he´s a hard worker so we will be able to do some awesome stuff here I think. So Sunday was pretty normal. It was sad for Elder Bullock to say goodbye to Alex and Carola. Carola cried a little bit which was really sad. And now we are to today. Transfers were kind  of crazy but now Elder Ortiz is all settled in and I´m writing you guys. This week was kind of hard and it wasn´t too fun being sick but I really loved the 18th and I´m excited to see what my second transfer has to offer! 

Elder Shell

 Couple dancing the Cueca