Cue Aladdin "It's A Whole New World"

I am finally here! I am so happy. This week has flown by! On Wednesday I flew all night from Mexico to Santiago and from there to Concepción. We were picked up at the airport and went to the mission office with the crew. The Arringtons are so kind. They are from Clinton and LOVE Grandma and Grandpa Saunders. They were so complementary. It is nice to have a little bit of home in them. At the mission office we had a little orientation and them went contacting!!!! Craziness! That was so weird, but a really cool experience. Even when people were rolling their eyes at us and shaking their heads I could feel the spirit with us so strong. That spirit is so important to have each day. As missionaries we are so blessed. From there we came back to the office and got our companions! Hermana Howe is my trainer. She is from Arizona and SPEAKS ENGLISH! thank goodness! She is so understanding of what I am going through, I really feel so so lucky to have her, she is incredible.

Through out the week I have been learning about our investigators and the members in your ward. We have SO many less actives in our area which is really sad to see. We do our best to contact new investigators, but a big focus of our work is reactivating people who have stopped coming to church. 

I naturally can't communicate much right now, but I am studying and practicing so much. Right now I am learning how to show my love in ways other than speaking. I love talking with the little kids here. They are always very patient and they love to asking me what things are in English. The members are pretty use to greenies like me and love teasing me about my Spanish. We have a great ward. So loving.

I have to be quick, but here are some fun facts about Chile...

-When we greet people we do it with a kiss on the right cheek. I LOVE it. I think it is so sweet. (Of course with the man we only shake hands.)

-DOGS everywhere! (and there poop... gross) My sweet aunt gave my a little gadget that repels dogs with a high pitched noise that humans cant hear. Lets just say I use it about every 5 min. Most dogs are friendly but you never want them to get too close because many of them have flees.

-The homes are much humbler than I expected. Most are made of tin and wood. I will have to send picture next week but they are all pretty small. People are not poor, they just know no different than they have. 

I am out of time, but I will write more next week. I love you all!!!

Cho Que le vía buen!

Hermana Saunders

Herman Howe- Frist Companion

Saying Goodbye to the MTC........Off to Chile

my district

hola hermana saunders

elder lundell

favorite pics from week #5

Celebrating the 80's

Adios CCM

Next Monday I will be waving goodbye to the CCM and flying to Chile! Hooray! I am nervous. I really don't think I have enough Spanish under my belt but I have been working very hard and I know the Lord will help me to measure up to the needs of my investigators.

This Week has been so fun. We finished off Spirit week and by Saturday a lot of people in our Casa had joined us. I won't include all the pictures because Friday and Thursday were pretty typical as far as wardrobe.

It has been a bit cold here. The last two day the skies have finally cleared up but most of the week has been really rainy. I guess I am just being prepared for Chile.

On Monday, Mexico celebrated the birthday of a president who brought religious freedom to the country. Some how a boy in our district managed to sweet talk our favorite cook into baking us a Cake to celebrate too. It was yummy! We love our friend Esteban in the kitchen.

I am no athlete but gym time has become one of the funnest times of the day. This week, we were looking around for things to do in the gym and all the sudden Hermana Wagstaff started dancing like a lunatic around us. We began to call out request for dance moves, for example- frozen jellyfish to which she would make up a goofy move and we would watch and follow along. Boy, did we look like a bunch of idiots but we surprising worked up quite a sweat. (Don´t worry mom no one was in the gym except the sweet girls in our zone.)

Things here are starting to get slower. Less people have been coming in with each week and so our ward merged with another district this week. My Friend from home, Elder Lundell has sacrament with me now.

Other than that nothing super exciting is going on. We are wrapping up our Spanish Classes in the next few days and having infield orientation on Friday. I hope all is going well at home. Love you!

Hermana Saunders

"Spirit Week" pics

Polka dot day

Granny Day

Every Week is "Spirit Week" here at the CCM, but this week we took it a little further...

Hola From Mexico City,

Last Saturday we taught TRC for the first time... Admittedly I don't remember what TRC stands for but it is when people from the city come in and we teach a short lesson on a gospel principle.

Most are members or less active people. We were suppose to teach last Saturday but there was not enough volunteers so we ended up just practicing with our district. This week however our teacher made sure we got to teach twice to make up for lost time. Both of our volunteers talked so fast.(It makes me worried to hear what Chileans will sound like) With our second volunteer I tried to say 'How are you?´ But mistakenly asked her 'What time is it?' These two phrases are not remotely similar but I some how always mix them up. Oh well, we all got a pretty good laugh out of it.

Cue Arial because I want to be where the people are... in Chile.So two more weeks until I am out of here and my district and I couldn't be more excited. We knew this week was going to feel like a long one, next week we will have a few more preparation meeting to break up the studying.In an effort to make the week feel more fun and fast we decided to make it 'Spirit Week.' Each day we dress up according to a new theme.

The Scheduled:

Monday: Old school(aka Granny Day) (Basically wearing the frumpiest outfits we had)

Tuesday: Too Many Polka Dot Tuesday

Wednesday: What the Crap Wednesday/ Wacked Out Wednesday (It is p day so we are just dressing silly as possible- while staying appropriate)

Thursday: Throwback or 80´s Day

Friday: Funeral Friday (The boys came up with that one... who knows why)- We wear all black

Saturday: Swaggy Saturday- Dress Classy

You are all welcome to participate ;) hehe

It seems that God wanted to join us this week because he sent too many dots from Heaven last night as we had a huge hail storm. Oh boy. I was so grateful I water proofed my shoes already because it was a down pour. All the girls were running around with their shoes off to protect them but I didn't have to worry about that. We were so grateful for our warm beds last night. We only hope God will not participate in Funeral Friday. We have a strict no dying policy here at the CCM.

The language is coming little by little. I am learning how to have patients with myself. I am nervous for Chilean Spanish but I have faith that everything happens for a reason and it will all work out.

I am so incredibly blessed here to be surrounded by such great people. I feel I have made some life long friends here in my district.

I love you all. Thanks for the prayers, letters and love sent this way!

Hermana Saunders

Favorite pics-week #3

LOVE THESE HERMANAS
Some girls in our zone that are leaving for Nebraska and Reno. They have been such awesome mentors to me *Me, Hermana Wagstaff, Graham, Reynolds (Nebraska) Grubbs (Nebraska) Salazar, Casenuola- no idea about that spelling (Nebraska) Barker (Nevada)

My room! *My comp has a hilarious dog calender that we laugh at quite frequently*-seen on the right 

Favorite treats at the tienda