A little extra light

To start off, I´ll answer your questions! ...after that I´m guessing that my letter is going to be really incoherent haha.

I was gonna ask YOU if you´d watched the broadcast yesterday, but woohoo!! I learned a lot from yesterday and everything that they shared really meant a LOT. One thing that stuck out to me was the soccer analogy. There´s a lot of ¨"positions" out here in the mission field, and maybe I´m just not meant to play forward. I´m in the defensive position maybe...I´m not the ONE person that has to score the goal. I don´t know, it just hit home for me thinking about it like that. We have a LOT of less actives here in Chile, and suddenly we´ve had lots of them coming to church with us....people that haven´t come to church in literally YEARS...and it´s amazing. And I´m happy...but sometimes it´s discouraging because we don´t have many people who are being baptized...but honestly, it´s okay. I know what my position is right now. And whatEVER my position is, I´m gonna play it well.

The ward here, lo marcoleta, is awesome. We have a great ward mission leader and bishop, leaders in general really, and they´re all willing to help us. Our ward mission leader is very organized and is always talking with the ward council to help us. We are VERY close with the ward now, and we continue to grow closer with them. They love us, want to help us, and we find every opportunity we can to help them. We are now five sisters in this ward.  Hermana Molina (de Chile), and Hermana Acosta (de Peru) and us. They´re both really great, and they´re working hard. It was a little frustrating at first because they took half of the ward to work in...but that half has every single recent convert, and at LEAST half of our investigators. So we had to back track a bit to get a good new start for this change. But so far it´s going well. We had a LOT of less actives in the church yesterday, and we´ve had Family Home Evenings with them, they´ve started coming to activities...and some even are helping us in the missionary work!! It´s been really amazing. 

I still haven´t got your package....I´m hoping that it exists haha. If she got it to the office I SHOULD get it tomorrow in District Meeting. 

I´m staying way warm at night. It´s a little hard to get up some mornings when you wake up and can see your breath in your room...but I´m surviving. I haven´t had to ask for another blanket, and I still just sleep with my one blanket. If it gets colder maybe I´ll ask for another blanket, but I could also put on some more clothes as I still sleep in my bball shorts and T-Shirts.  

My health is doing great. I haven´t had much issues this week...just poppin pills every morning. 

Tell Ella how much I LOVED her letter! It was so absolutely adorably precious. It´s in my PMG and it meant the world to me to get it. I printed it out and showed it to my companions who just thought it was ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE haha. 

Tell Hannah and Pepper that they´re slackers for not writing me and that they should probably pick up the pace or what not.....it would be nice to HEAR from them!!

As for the card, I´m just gonna end up sending it home. Apparently it´s a common issue here in Chile cause ...I don´t actually know. But it happens a lot. The GOOD thing is everyone manages to recover their pics when they get home to the US...So I´m thinking I´ll just send it home with Hermana Edwards.

I can´t believe that it´s almost time for trek! And that you guys are done with school...and ...it´s honestly just weird to think about. But it´s cool too. 

We had some fun rain here. It wasn´t anything bad at all, a sprinkle, but it smelt like Anacortes and it was a weird blessing from God. 

As you can imagine the food here is different. There are a lot of things that I absolutely LOVE ...and things that are just meh. ...things that I miss from the US, and things I KNOW I´m gonna miss here in Chile. But a couple of days ago I had the unfortunate experience to try palm tree. No. It was not good, and no, I will not be eating it again. There are also random types of cheese that litterally taste like moldy tofu...that made me gag...it´s pretty gross. But overal I like the food here. What´s REALLY funny is that the people here think that something is spicy when it´s NOT. (and they think that gringos eat really bland food haha...). One time I put hot sauce on something, I can´t even remember what it was, and the woman was like "what are you doing!? That stuff is really spicy!!" I tried it, and it had like no flavor. I doubled the amount I put on before, and she just looked at me like I was crazy haha. 

I rescued a cat from the roof! It took a long time, and I was completely covered in soot afterwards, but I rescued him! ....then when I got home I realized that I´d lost my name tag. When we finally went back to where I like...KNEW it was, we found it, but my dork dot and another sticker had been taken off by some slobber mouth kid...and the magnet back is missing so I can´t USE it...but at least I HAVE it! 

I FELT my first earthquake here in Chile. Apparently we have them a lot here. Like A LOT more than I thought, but we were in a lesson with Marcela and BAM everything was just shaking....it was like 5 seconds or something, but it took me a bit to realize what was actually going on. It was cool...cause nothing happened, but it sure was strong! 

Chile has one thing that the US really doesn´t have. They´re like gas stations without the gas...haha. About every block there are little stores that sell random things, often candy and snacks, sometimes ice cream....BREAD. And then there are others that are more like mini hole in the wall restaurants. Imagining that there are a LOT you can also imagine how different everyone is...and that of COURSE we have to try a LOT of things. Well, both I and Hermana Ceccon are great fanatics of french fries. I have some awesome news for you! After searching long and hard, we have found the best french fries in town! Not only that, but we go there every so often. And guess what? They love us haha. We pay them just a little bit extra and they give us a whole MONGO PLATE of fresh french fries. We went one time and decided to order a little less and they asked us ... why so little?! haha. We leave them little thank you notes and stuff. It´s pretty cool. 

We´re working really hard and focusing in on how we can improve every day. I can see a change in our companionship already and It´s honestly amazing to me all the blessings that I´ve been able to see, ESPECIALLY as I´ve been more obedient. 

I love this gospel, and I love the work. I´m praying for you all and hoping that you´re helping the missionaries in EVERY way that you possibly can!!! 

Siempre con amor, 

Hermana Alex Johnson