Merry Christmas!!

I think I am the happiest person on earth.  Sorry everyone else.  Me and the Chilean comp are buckling down, focusing our unmakeuped eyes on the work and glory of God, letting our uncolored, unstyled hair fly, walking our gross, caloused feet to the bone and WORKING! That sounded really gross.  I seriously hope I´m not as bad as I describe.  I´ve attached my most recent photo to this blog so you can all get an idea...:)

People, Merry Christmas.  My favorite part was going to the local old folks home and singing Christmas carols to the ancianos. The blind one clapped all through ¨Silent Night¨ and the deaf one talked through ¨Angels we have Heard on High¨.  The tiny little grandma with crippled hands said she wanted to knit me a pair of socks and I can come get them on Friday.  They are such wonderful children of God.  ON Christmas day, HEavenly Father put us in the path of Ana...A little old lady with flaming red hair that lives alone because her daughter died 4 years ago.  She lives in a one room house with a broken wood stove in a mudfield.  We sang Christmas carols and taught her about the Savior and gave her pictures of Christ (I´m pretty sure it was her only Christmas present) She expressed her desires to follow Christ and commited to be baptized 22nd of Enero.  It was so wonderful.

I feel joy in serving Heavenly Father and His children. It is THE greatest blessing of my life and sometimes I just can´t contain the gratitude I feel.  I feel like everything is so clear.  It´s like Elder Uchtdorfs talk in Conference about slowing down and focusing on the basics.  That´s the only stuff I focus on out here and it really brings JOY.

Big Congrats go out to ALEXIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No way Paul.  What a wonderful couple....I love freshman year.  Tambien....HILARY HDAWG congrats on your matrimony tomorrow.  I went to Coyhaique and the elders had this gigantic envelope and I walked in and said ¨who the heck is that for!?¨ (but in spanish obviously) I was exceedingly pleased to discover it was for me and even more pleased to find out that you are getting marriaged tomorrow! AHHHH. yay. And luz and jess....I love you both.  Make sure you take lots of pictures with my creepy mannequin.

What else? Really great to talk to you fam.  You all sound wonderful and it was nice to hear your voices. I really don´t have much to say because I´d rather be working.  It sounds like you all have my future pretty well planned out and I´m super happy about that.  YOU all can worry about my future...I´m going to be thrusting in my sickel.   I LOVE YOU ALL.  Grandpa Hal...good luck in that toe and vein pageant...I´m rooting for you!

Hermana Bourne

Merry Christmas!

Aysen is the only place I´ve ever served where there is the simultaneous threat of earthquake, tsunami, volcano explosion, blizzard, flood, and dog bites. I. LOVE. IT.  Merry Christmas to all.  Remember that we are celebrating the birth of the Savior of our souls. Independently of any other person on earth, I know that Christ lives.  I will be in His service for the rest of my life because I desire to please my Father in Heaven.  We chopped a bazilion pounds of wood, so we´ll be toasty and happy all week.  People, I love you all, but writing home is so lame.  Parents, I will call the 24th at 1 or 2 my time....


Merry Christmas, I love you!
Hermana Bourne

"I'll probably never come home...."

People, my mission could NOT be cooler.  People are progressing, I´m turning more into a ¨sister¨ every day, the relief society goes and visits our investigators without even being asked, EVERYONE wants to eat Sunday dinner with the new Hermanas. I love being a missionary.  A lady we taught once stopped us in the street and said she got an answer to her prayer about the restoration and wants us to come by.   I´m the only gringa within an hour busride.   It rains every day all day, I got emails from RAMROD and teef! .  I think I saw a Trex come down from our coniferous mountains and I. AM. LOVING. IT. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Every second of every day I can see and feel and hear (and taste sometimes) the blessings that Heavenly Father is constantly pouring over my head....it´s ridiculous.  What a happy, growthfilled, solid, wonderful time of my life.  I´ll probably just never come home.   Sorry.

This week we solidified a bunch of stuff in the sector.  We have a handful of really wonderful investigators (two of which came to the branch....miracle!!!!) who understand what they are working for.  The branch president and his wife are the best people I´ve ever met and trust us completely.  The sisters are just dying to come out with us....I haven´t even really seen my comp because we´ve been in divisions almost every day.  We got the house all clean and liveable and ready for the next few months.  We bought a meter of wood to keep us alive and have been chopping to our hearts content.  I broke down and finally bought an umbrella....my first one since Ovejeria in January.  We solidified a bunch of worthy goals....spiritually, emotionally, intellectually, and yes, physically. We raised the ¨Estandarte del cuerpo celestial¨ .  It says ¨in memory of our health, our pride, our friends, families.¨ We are giant nerds....but seriously...what would happen to YOU if you ate 2 potatoes and 3 pieces of bread at lunch every day for more than a year....uh oh. :)

I´m kind of all over the place in the email because we are in Coyhaique and our bus is going to leave.  We came to eat an all you can eat buffet of pizza with the elders.  It was so hilarious.  We have hands down the best zone this cambio.  They all rode a mechanical bull after.  We declined politely.  Wouldn´t be appropriate for hermanas...pucha. 

Kathy Jones, can I just say how much I love you? Thank you for being a phenominal friend and fellow hermana all this time.  I prayed and fasted for you while you were out and loved your lettters.  I was thrilled to hear about your hard core (other religion) baptism who is going to serve a mission.  What a giant blessing.  I know YOU were that change your last sector needed.

Well family and friends, I´d invite you to the phone call on Christmas, but my family is escaping to the mountains of Idaho for Christmas sorry! LIZ AND JESS, I WANT PICTURES. I LOVE YOU BOTH and was thinnking about you today. less than a month! wow.

I´m sorry, we got to run...have a beautiful day.  I enjoy every second down here....what a lucky hermana.

Hermana Bourne

Holy Shrapnel!! I'm in Jurassic Park!!

HOLY SHRAPNEL!

So much goodness!

1.  I am in the best sector of the best rama of the best zone of the best mission IN THE WORLD! (Sorry beckron and Ramrod).  I lied about Coyhaique.  I´m more isolated than even that!  After arriving in Coyhaique after a whole day´s travels..me and my comp took a bus through a wilderness for and hour and a half to the beautiful pueblo of Puerto Aysén.  Oh. My. Goodness.  I feel like I´m in Jurrasic Park.  Chile is so weird and different.  I am, once again, FREEZING.  It rains 400 days of the year here and the giant mountains that surround us on all sides are always snowcapped and all mysterious and GREEN.  We have a river that runs throught the pueblo with a puente that looks like the one in San Fransisco.  There are signs that says ¨tsunami danger zone....run to higher ground¨ I´ll take a photo and send it out as soon as my suitcase comes.  My comp is from Santiago and reminds me of a statue...she´s really noble, but hilarious and wants to be perfectly obedient and wants to know everything.  We have the best time together.  Yesterday was incredible.  There haven´t been sisters in this branch for 15 years and so EVERYONE is taking really good care of us.  The branch prez is INCREDIBLE and is wife is even more so.  I don´t think I´ve ever fallen in love with my sector and the people so fast.  My sepulture is beautiful and I will die happy and working.

2.  Beckron, thank you for writing me! wow.  I can´t believe it.. It´s like yesterday you pulled out your calling and shouted in disbelief ¨WHAT?!¨ Taiwan...wow. I love you.  Call my family because Katie my little sister is on board to live with me next year...we can coordinate :)

3.  Mom, I love you.  Thanks for your emails.

4. Okay, someone has to talk to Presidente Lon Packard because my comp knows him and we both agree he´s awesome.  Hermana Donoso has 9 brothers and sisters and they are ALL members in Santiago.  The world is so small.  Remember how my seminary teacher´s brother baptized my comp?

5. Opening a sector is hilarious...we only have the carpeta (uhhh...notebook of the area..something like that).  I´ve reverted to thinking in Spanish and dreaming again. LOVE IT! We´re meeting random people all over the place and we have to create some more stability this week...but we are getting to know everyone and I love it.

6.  So I´m reading in Lucas in the Bible and I think it was in cap. 14, but I was so impressed with the Joseph Smith Translation.  It says something like ¨settle this in your hearts, that you will do what I teach¨ I can´t get it out of my mind. In D and C 58:29 I think it teaches us that even if we obey, we can still be condemmed because we obey with a doubtful heart.  Our hearts MUST change to desire what God wants, or He can NOT change us.  If we do everything that we are supposed to but still secretly hold these desires in our hearts, we will not become like the Savior because it is not possible.  We need to even give the secret desires of out hearts to God or we will not be capable of being saved because that´s not how He works.  He doesn´t want to make the natural man inside of us better or change it.  He wants to kill it.  Then He wants to give us a whole new heart.  I have a testimony that when I have honestly tried to give my whole heart and mind (MY will and desires aka obey with happiness)  not only my strength and might (aka..obedience maybe with a little resentment) to God, He has made something SO much better of my efforts. Just some thoughts floating around...

7.  I have a compromiso for all of you. DON¨T BE TRUNKY.  I don´t like it.  If you are trunky I´ll just stay down here and buy a little piece of campo and live here the rest of my life.  Chao no mas with the rest of you!  Nah, it´s all a big lie.  But seriously, write me about your testimony...what helped YOU on your mission...how you helped someone else today or what you learned while studying the scrips!

8.  If you are debating...go on a mission.

9. Best christmas package ever mom! Thank you so much, thank you thank you thank you.

10.  We are doing okay infiltrating the man zone.  The Elders down here are the sweetest in the mission and are really taking care of us (even though they ALL live between 1 and 5 hours away)

I LOVE EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU.

Hermana Bourne

 

Gettin' moved!

People, I´ll never, ever be right about anything, EVER, on the mission. My little missionary brain was full of plans and schemes and wonderful things for the gold mine that is Radimadi and BAM....guess where I´m going.  I¨ll give you a few clues...

1. There have never been sisters in this zone before (aka...the MAN zone)
2. I have to take a 2 hour bus, a 2 hour plane ride and another hour bus.
3. It gets more snow than Utah.
4. It is apparently the most beautiful part of Chile.  

Go find a map and find Osorno...got it? now go south, south....hit Punta Arenas? Too south.  Go up and find Coyhaique...right in the middle of nowhere...where no sister has ever been invited or dared to go.  AHHHHHHHH!

Bueno, Prez called me last week and said ¨Hermana, you´re leaving Radimad.¨ My Nephi-like missionary state was evidenced by my response.  I shouted no! and started crying.  But don´t worry, I¨m making sure to bring my diapers and pacifier to Coyhaique.  It was just kind of a shock for my little brain.  I was planning on dying in happy valley Radimadi with all of these people that I´ve really come to love through service.  I always like to think of myself as the type of person who will take a deep breath and square her shoulders and boldly say ¨I will go and do¨ when a call like that comes along....I obviously have a long way to go :)

I really am excited though.  What a wonderful adventure.  I´m getting sent to open a sector and I´m taking the new Chilean along with me so I can finish her training.  Her name is Hermana Donoso and she is exactly who I want to kill me out here.  I love starting in new sectors or with new companions because it gives me the opportunity to leave everything below par or lame behind me and start again and be the best missionary I can possibly be.

As the very trunky family countdown starts (Thank you for reminding me exactly how much time I have left in EVERY single email from EVERYONE!), I can´t help but feel pure gratitude for this very, exceedingly short period of time God has gifted me to be in His service.  I love the Chileans, I love my companions, and I love to serve my Father in Heaven.  I know independently of everyone else on earth that Christ lives and loves us.  I know of the reality of the restoration of the Gospel and the central doctrines of it because of my own searching, studying, pondering, praying, asking, and receiving answers.  God has answered so constantly and so consistantly that it leaves no room for doubt.  I feel as if the faith that I started with has grown and has become something that flexes and breaths.  It´s marvelous, to serve.

I love all of you.  Happy Thanksgiving! We forgot it was THanksgiving until we returned home that night.....whoops.  Still grateful nonetheless.

Lizzie and Clark, could you BE a more attractive couple? (that´s what I look like after a day of tracking.......NOT!) Jessie, I´m expecting competing pictures!!! RIchie, you are amazing. THank you for your lesson on faith and your living example of it to me.  Tiff....today is a lot of days after thanksgiving day...everything seems to be going our waaaaaaaaay! (I sang that the day after Thanksgiving day.  Love you) Katie, way to go with the emails and SOPHIE I love you thank you for the email.

People, go to church this SUnday.  Really listen.  Look around for someone who needs help.  Ask God to make you His instrument.  Help the Bishop out a bit.  Be an angel for someone...thats what we´re here for.
Love you all.

Hermana ¨going to be a frozen, Chilean popsicle¨ Bourne

"super model sisters..."

Okay people, they dropped a bomb on the Hermanas of the Gran Misión- Chile Osorno.  After zone conference, Hermana Lovell asked all of us ladies to stay after the conference to talk to us 10 minutes.  As the Elders filed out of the room, we wondered what was going on....were they going to call Hermana district leaders? Is a mission for sisters now required? Were we all to return to our native lands to get married? Hermana Lovell pulls out exhibit A (aka first photo) and says...who received THIS when they received their call.?..we all raised our hands.  Forty year old women in black, ¨mom jeans¨ skirts and sensible shoes made for men and triangle haircuts....I think my grandma  used to have a couch covered in the flower material of one skirt!  The Hermana Lovell said that there had been a change worldwide and that we were encouraged to be attractive (but not TOO attractive), clean, and comely young women.  She then busts out exhibit B of these "super model sisters" that obviously do not have to jump barbed wire fences, walk all day in pouring rain, dodge cow pies and dirty street dogs.  They look like they get pedicures, dye their hair and exfoliate weekly....Our skirts can officially now hit just below our knee (instead of the former mid-calf) and we are encouraged to wear patterns and colors and semi-fashionable cuts and styles....This is the most shocking thing to happen in my entire mission.

joke.

sigh, I guess this announcement didn´t really come as a surprise... My first cambio here, I saw a nun with a skirt shorter than mine!......

People, I can´t express the gratitude that I feel to be Hermana Bourne.  Radimadi, newly christened ¨the secret gold mine¨ is just wonderful and I want to die (aka end my mission) here.  This week, I did a study of the balance of the justice of God and of His mercy.  100% true, all of it.  I´ve learned that we are our own judges.  The truest and deepest desires of our hearts will be ours because we will really act according to our real desires and not just what we say we desire.  In Alma it says that we will stand or fall...being our own judges. wow. Hard Core.  To be a missionary is the most confusing, hard, happy, patience-requiring experience of a lifetime. My good buddy Cepta Jones wrote me a letter last year that talked about a verse in Matthew where is says that if your right arm offendeth you, cut it off.  But how can we cut off a part of us....a part that we love...a part that makes us who we are? AHHH! My arm! It hurts....and over the course of my mission, the parts of me...the ¨natural man¨ parts,things that offend the Spirit have been being sawed off and it hurts! But that´s the price we pay if we´re going to be better.  Chao no mas arm!

Once again, I love each and every one of you and I'm pretty convinced I´m the single most blessed person in the entire world.  Give yourself a pat on the back for being such a good blessing...then go read your scriptures and help someone else!

Hermana E Bourne

I love being a missionary!!

Friends, family, 

First of all, I love all of you.  I´ve been overly blessed with an abundance of absolute awesomeness in my life...so thank you...each and every one of you....you make life beautiful. We have an awesome zone conference on Wednesday and my zone got chosen to sing the musical number.....our musical talent ability is so low in this particular zone, that my zone leaders are forcing me and another Elder to sing in front of everyone....holy shrapnel...poor people listening.  I´m going to try and get in touch with my  high school chamber days ....pull out that hand drum and pink satin blazer we wore...maybe even some panlettes.Ahh, the good ole´ days...

People, I LOVE being a missionary way too much.

Oh wait....HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASHLEY on the 20th.  I love you.

Where was I? No, I really love being a missionary.  Radimadi has turned into a gold mine.  This was the one sector that I did not want to come to.  Every missionary who has ever served here has told prez to close the sector.  This Sunday, I looked around and saw so many changes that are happening in people´s lives.  A broken Colombian family is getting ready to go back to the temple and get resealed...we have four people progressing towards a baptismal fecha, people are praying and reading and wanting this in their lives.  I look forward to Sundays now because it means I get to receive the remission of my sins.  All I can think about are the scriptures that we are going to share in our next lesson and how we can get a ward activity going.  Sure, we coud focus on the bad or the boring or the really, really horrific things that still take place (members robbing converts and fun stuff like that) but I´m going to focus on the good.

Prez visited the branch for the first time in a year and gave the best talk ever...about HOW we should serve in the church.... He is the best man in the entire world. The Hermana Lovell snuck homemade cookies into my backpack and said I could have them all if I wanted...but don´t worry! I shared them with my compy and our cutie little investigator that we walked home and put with fecha that day because she absolutely LOVED church.

So we´re trying to establish the beloved ¨Noche de Hogar¨ Every week in the capilla. (Family Home Evening...you South American missionaries know what I´m talking about....The most important things to the latinos are the temple, Noche de Hogar, and futbol :) ) Our mission leader showed up super late because of work and a member of another faith was his collectivo (taxi) driver.  Alexis LOVES being Mormon (convert from 10 years ago...was going to be a Catholic priest, but then served a mission and got married in the temple, has a child, and is our strongest member).  He said to the driver ¨leave me here on the corner at the church.....the true one¨ And then he smiled and got out.  He is super soft spoken and looks like he´s 14 (he´s 32) and he just laughed as he told the story.....

There´s all sorts of hidden beauty here in Chile.  Today, our Zone Leaders and Distric leader and his comp (us 6 make up our whole district...we are the only people in the whole city of La Union) thought it would be an awesome idea to take a bus an hour out to the countryside (campo) and hike an hour through cow fields to find where the Rio Bueno starts.  It DID turn out to be an awesome idea and we had a fantastic time. 

I don´t know what else to write you all.  I´m ridiculously happy (missionary happy...the best and most innocent kind), healthy (aka fat), and working hard (my body is dying).  I think if I sat and wrote for days and days and days I could never capture what one day holds here...I´m going to try really quick:

Wake up, pray, pray sola, excercise, shower (well....light the gas shower on fire and THEN shower), eat cereal and yogurt made down the street  (I´m in the yogurt capital of Chile...MOOO!), Study an hour by myself (best best BEST!), study and practice and memorize with comp, go out and serve or talk to random people in the street or to a meeting of some sort (an hour away), eat an awesome chilean lunch with the mamita and our mission leader and wife, go home and study Spanish, study and do outlines and practices of lessons we want to teach, leave house at 3 and from that second on walk miles and miles, knock a bazillion doors, run away from dogs and drunks, talk to every person we see in the street, try to get members to come out with us, think and scheme for the week, sing in the street, pray, listen to the Spirit, be happy, be rejected, be rejected again, walk through cow fields looking for an address that probably doesn´t exist, get in houses, try to find out when Heavenly Father wants us to say to them, pray really hard and hope to speak by the Spirit, have some lame lessons, get rejected by someone who knows it´s true, castigar the less active who didn´t come to church, find some really weird people. find some really lovely people, have everything I believe questioned, walk, walk, walk, call people to accompany us, pray, feel happy, sing again, talk to more people in the street, walk in the rain, death sun comes out, visit someone progressing, have an idea come to your mind and you follow it and it works and you help someone (THE best), run home to arrive just in time to pray, call the District Leader, write down goals and make a million plans for the next day, pray, pray sola, DIE into my bed.

THAT is what I have been doing for months and years and months.  THAT is what makes me happier than anything else I´ve ever done and THAT is what will make you happy too.

That is just a normal day, sometimes there is a cool conference or we get to go to church.  A mission is the best.

Love you all

Hermana Bourne

Just a quick hello this week...

Happy birthday Jon and Rebecca!!! Not a day over 25.  Shout out to Blob and his amazing technicolor nightmare of death! (I promise I will try to write you a letter...good luck on your giant nerd test!) and to LUZ thank you for writing....I´m glad I´ll be at the wedding in all my cardboard cutout glory (I remember how creepy those were at your sisters´ weddings!). And MADI Rice! You have a child. HOly. Shrapnel. He´s adorable- congrats!  I´m living in the BIble belt of Chile...isn´t the Bible belt the best? And BEEF....you are not Sister Beef anymore...wow, you left yesterday.  I left yesterday. Life is weird.

HUGE call to repentance today:  Tucker Smith! Where have you been for a year? (Jade Barben is in my zone....really tall lurpy Snow college Utah kid....just a peach...he says hello), Ashley Haven and Mikey and James and Noah Driggs and HAL and Mr. Bouchdial and Pen pal -repent! yes, you. Whew, so much repenting.

I´m going to be a hypocite and just write to the fam today but Katie, to kind of tranquilize me after the mission, I´ll be living in Salt Lake, but I want you to apply to EFY for me so I can be a counselor at the U....I can´t do it because I´m on a mish...but If you could look into the application process and clue me in, I´d love it.

Love you all! Go study your scriptures and help someone!

Que verguenza! Spiritual thought for the day that I learned: We can be less active while we are sitting in the pews on Sunday.  Are we listening? Are we repenting? Do we feel the Spirit?  Do we look for ways to help, lift, or build?  The Sabbath day is one of the most broken commandments I think.  It´s so much more than going to church.  We participate in a sacred ordinance every week.  Love you all!

Hermana E Bourne

 

Humility...

The time goes by WAY to fast out here....it´s disgusting.

SHOUT OUT OF THE CENTURY GOES TO.........KATIE! Happy Birthday tomorrow...you´re all grown up! Eat a butterball for me!  Speaking of butterballs......

MOM and SOPHIE....most. hilarious. package. ever. I´d forgotten about the poptart incident.....I died laughing.  For those of you who don´t know...I once gave Sophie a 2nd degree burn with a molten  poptart.  I recently received a package from her in the which was a burnt poptart with the note ¨I hope you enjoy your poptart¨ enclosed.  Such a good sense of humor Soph.

This week was a normal one in the mish.  Day after day of frustration and just trying to get this whole thing going.  Day after day of little miracles and seeing the hand of God working among His children.  Incredible things are happening here in Chile.  Just heard of an awesome member in Punta who is putting in his papers to serve and is going to be a phenominal instrument in the hands of God.  secret shoutout!

Wednesday, Prez gave the best conference about humility (NOT a strong point for me) and it helped me look over my life.     On my mission, I have been compelled to be humble.  My whole life, I have really liked the fact that in whatever situation I am in (social, educational, physical), I can usually do that which is required of me.  That led me to a dependence on (and pride in) my own abilities.  The mission has completely compelled that all away.  I am, day after day after day, put in situations where, left to my own devices, I will inevitably fail...there is no other option than to fall to my knees and ask Heavenly Father for HIS help and HIS guidance....which, wonderfully enough is ALWAYS better than my own abilities.

  I am the poster girl for that missionary Prez described who wanted in her homecoming talk to look really good in front of her ward...saying she baptized hundreds... sectors and children of converts were named after her... generations would remember her name with a smile.  I'm a huge idiot. While I still want to be a good and strong and noble servant of my Father in Heaven... I have come to a knowledge on the mish that its the secret, unnoticed, unhearalded things we do in this life that will count.  I learned a lot from a wonderful comp that said ´I do not care in the least if my converts remember my name as long as they are strong in the church their entire lives.´ I almost couldn´t believe her when she said that.  But now, I feel that way too.  I am here to nurture and to lift the hands that hang down.  I am here to be the hands of the Savior.  And while I will never get near His level...I can help and lift and nurture in small ways.  We all can.  That´s the beauty of it.

I read ¨The abundant life¨ by Elder Wirthlin this morning.  Go look it up and read it.  The key to our happiness and joy in this life is to drink deeply from the fountain of life (Christ, HIs gospel, and His teachings), love with all of our hearts, and serve others.  We really can create of our lives a masterpiece if we give it to God....if we don´t, we will only create of ourselves a smudge.  We help, we love, we are kind, and we forget ourselves...THAT is who I want to be.

Friends and family I love each and every single one of you.  Thank you for your influence, love, support, emails, and letters (secret call to repentence!)

Thanks for writing family and Richie this week.  I love you fam and I love you Richie...you´ve always been a light.  I think of you guys and think of Matthew 4 and 5. You are all examples to me. LOVE YOU!

Hermana Bourne

 

I love Radimadi!

If you went to Olympus you'll understand this shot...but Emily seems happy holding this "breathtaking" (Seinfeld reference) baby...

WHEW.  It hasn´t rained for like 2 months and I´m drying up!  Absolutely gorgeous! A giant call to repentence goes to all those dating my immediate family members who haven´t written me. But a giant shout out of love goes to Tiffany Andrews (you sound AMAZING...I´m praying for you slash happy birthday in Sept!), Blob....best emails ever, and my family....thank you thank you thank you!

People, I really love you all, but I officially won´t be writing any more handwritten letters home because I just don´t have time.  I´ll see you all in a matter of weeks anyways....baaaaaaah.  Lame.  It makes me nauseated to think of it.  Moving on.

I absolutely love Radimadi.  Why is it that we love the places where we give the most?  It should seem contradictory, but it´s not...it´s just how God works.  It is the smallest sector in the mission in the middle of cow fields, but I´d honestly be content to die here (aka...finish my mission).  We had district conference on Sunday and Prez and Elder Amado came and talked about La Union becoming a Stake!!! The prospects are very exciting, but there is still a LOT of work to be done (like getting more than 30 people active in the rama (branch)).  I just don´t want to learn a new sector and people and problems and everything.  I LOVE RADIMADI.  Which is funny because from the first day of my mission I did not want to come here (It was THAT sector).  But I´ve always loved a challenge and we are seeing beautiful progress.

We went out to campo on Saturday to help our Mission Leader move from his slanted, old house into a teeny-tiny one in the ¨city¨ and it was awesome.  To get to his house, we had to take a collectivo 10 minutes out into these fields and then walk 30 minutes on a dirt one to get to his house.  We got all the furniture and mattresses out......(oh man, a Dr Dre song that I used to ski to just came on and flashbacks of moguls and trees and powder crept into my mind....(cue the music) Soy un hijo de Dios! anyways)...we were moving everything out of the house when I went outside to ask Alexis something and saw him break the neck of the chicken that was in his arms with his bare hands and he began to brutally rip the feathers out of the still moving body.  Then he chopped it up and made soup out of it and fed it to us....it. was. awesome.  I love the campo.  He is really a great guy...he was going to be a catholic priest when the missionaries found him, he got baptized, served a mission, married in the temple, and moved out here.

We´re just getting ready for Halloween this week (my comps favorite holiday...of course!) and we bought big bags of little candies to hand out to little kids so we can contact their parents.  Bwah ha ha! Who said missionaries weren´t diabolical?  The people around me are looking at me weird becaue Ï´m humming the tune to soy un hijo de dios to avoid any worldy involvement ) Alas- I´m an hermana.

 

This weekend at conference, Elder Amado and Prez talked about Zion.  How it´s not a place we move to...but a place that we create starting with every one of ourselves.  We look at ourselves and the beams in OUR eyes and fix that.  Then we purify our hearts and that´s the part I can´t get out of my mind.  I´m reading the Bible and in Ezekial 36 I think it talks about God taking out our heart of stone and replacing it with a heart of flesh.  I LOVE THAT.  I think Elder Renlund or someone gave a talk about it.  But the way we do it is Helaman 3:35.  We fast, we pray, and through the atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ, we are purified...we are firm in our faith.  I LOVE IT.  

I feel like that is how my mission has been...a refiner´s fire that has been slowly heating up for a year now and right now its at a degree that would´ve burned me a year ago.  It´s like when Shadrech and his buds got thrown in the furnace....they weren´t burned because the Savior was with them....I feel like I´m walking in fire alone a lot of the time here...but oddly enough, I don´t get burned....I probably smell like smoke...but I¨m being refined.  Enough with the fire analogies...you´re all probably cold enough with all that snow.

 

Well, I love you all.  Thank you for the prayers and the emails and packages and support.  I need all of that stuff I can get! Please pray for my investigators and the sector of Radimadi.  BE GOOD!

Hermana Bourne

 

CHI-CHI- CHI-LE-LE-LE CHILE!!!!! 33 miners rescued!!!!!!!!

A balmy day at the Straits of Magellen

Lookin' fine, feelin' toasty in the Penquin sweater!!

An historic day for Chile!  The world watches as 33 miners emerge after two months!!

Hell-(o)

Bueno, shout outs first of all.  Paulina Dowdle and Breanne Shaw!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Congrats on the eternal companions and Breanne, thank you for writing me! It was really great to hear from you and I couldn´t be more thrilled that you´re getting hitched.  You´re a fantastic person and he´s a very, very lucky guy.   Paulina...I am living in your motherland...write to me!!!!

**my address is

Hermana Bourne

Casilla 7-0

Osorno Chile

Well, cambios came out this morning and me and Hermana Herbert are staying together another cambio here in Radimadi. (ouch) I really, really love the sector and I´m so happy to see so many wonderful changes happening in the branch and with our investigators.  We meet in a house that was converted into a chapel and we build a fire to stay warm during the meetings....its all wood on the inside and I play the broken electric piano that doesn´t have a pedal (yesterday, I started playing the sacrament hymn and the piano has this ¨rock beat back up¨ that started playing the second I started.....really brought the spirit.... For some reason, Heavenly Father is blessing this sector with a lot of success recently...this week, we reached the standards of the mission for lessons with member and nuevitos which hasn´t happened for I think 2 years.  He is blessing us with a lot of people to teach and the members are starting to help out a lot more.  I honestly don´t think I´ve ever relied on the hand of the Lord like this in my life. Ever.  And I think for that, God is blessing us.

I have blatant and 100% confidence that this is where God wants me to be and who He wants me to be with.  I feel happiness to know that with every hard thing I do, my spiritual muscles grow, my capacity to serve grows, and my heart is softened.  Hard things are really hard to do (especially looking forward at them)...but I know that looking back, I will be and I am grateful. 

 Love you all! Thank you for writing to me and praying for me and being my friends....I really do love you all.

Hermana Bourne

 

Baptism!

Me and my "peeps"...

Attention! My next Pday is this Saturday....write to me before then!

LUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUZ and JESSSSS! Congrats on the upcoming eternal companions.....I´m DYING down here! Send more pictures Liz, and Jess send me SOMETHING! CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!! I´ll be there in Spirit and I´m sure in really creepy cardboard cutout form :).  I want pictures people! (Jess, I´´ve never even seen this Peter fellow, but I´m positive he´s awesome to be marrying bigfoot :) ).

Big shout out to liz and jess and their future spouses....weird slash AMAZINGLY AWESOME! (For your wedding gifts, I´ll try to baptize someone.)

Well people, (insert scream) this last week marks one year of missionarying (I´m not counting the MTC...that place is like the Celestial Kingdom).  I love it.  On the 7th, I walked down the street at my normal missionary pace (with my comp huffing and puffing behind me....speed walking in the next Olympics here I come!) and just had a giant, toothy grin all day.  I love to serve God.  Even though it hurts...even though it´s hard.  My bones were kind of creaking and my knee caulouses felt super unfeminine against my thermals...my hair-which has absolutely no color or style-was blowing around all over the place, my dinosaur toes were hurting a little and I think my pasty white skin blinded a contact...but I am happy.  I fall asleep every single night with pure exhaustion, but with pure contentment and an inner peace.  I love this.  Kathy Jones wrote me and said that she hopes we´ve become spiritual babes because we aren´t counting on the physical.  Love her. But seriously people, serving a mission is the best thing anyone can do. Love it.

Shout outs this week go to LIZ and JESs, Grandpa Hal, the majority of my family and Noah...who apparently IS part of my extended family.  Creepy.  You are all phenominal.  I love your advice and encouragement and stories.  All of you should have letters coming!

The work moves on here in Radimadi.  The biggest yogurt and milk factory in the south is down here.  It´s called Colun.  (pronounced coloon....not colon.  Even though I´m pretty sure dairy would be good for your colon...)  Suffice to say...we have a lot of fields and even more cows.  I´m in a really beautiful area and we have about 20 really active members.  But some little tiny, wonderful miracles are happening.  We had a new matrimony move into the ward...they are young and both RM´s so I´m jut tickled about that!  I´m sorry I do not have a bazillion things to write about this week....truthfully I´d rather be out working than writing this.  Sorry!   I love you all and still mean what I said in my last entry but I¨m going to go now because I´ll see you soon enough.  Be good!

Hermana Bourne

Seriously people! WRITE TO ME!!

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope you didn´t get all trunky for me during Elder Oaks talk when he talked about Chile and then the missionaries in the world.  I got trunky for myself. JOKE!  Okay, so I was going to start this week´s email with a giant call to repentance to every single person to read these words (except mom, dad, Katie, and Tiffany Andrews)...BUT, the prophet´s talk keeps playing through my mind...so I think I´m going to call myself to repentence and express my gratitude that I have for every single one of you.

I realized that I don´t thank you all nearly enough.  Sometimes, right before a rabid Chilean dog goes for my calf or a drunk man tries to kiss me, my whole life flashes before my eyes.  You know what I see?  I see twenty two years of pure happiness.  Sometimes YOU will come to my mind...musicals, trips, adventures, pranks, funny songs we wrote (or music videos), long talks, devil study sessions in the library, going out to lunch, family parties, mission farewells and homecomings, hiking, family prayer with Baron, the softball team, service projects, young women´s camp, goals we set, talking at the counter, bus rides, running around Spain, figuring out Punta Arenas, swim parties, barbeques, boating, our freshman dorm, weddings, testimonies shared, babysitting your children, sleepovers and the grandparents, Christmas, piano recitals, midnight movies or diners, skiing at Snowbird or Alta, letters we´ve written.  Every single one of you reading this is reading this because in some way (big or small...and the small ways are usually really big) has had an influence in my life. Thank you for your righteous influence, your helping hand, or your loving word.  If I am in any way good or a success it is because of all of you.  I have an overabundances of YOUs in my life who I love with my whole heart...who I pray for constantly and consistently...and who I would do just about anything for.  How sappy am      I? I really do love you all.

Well, I slept through ANOTHER earthquake this week. It was 5.9 or a 6.0 which isn´t THAT big down here...but it´s enough to make the house shake a lot. I sleep like a dead log every single night....bueno, except for these last few days...I came down with a ginormous ear infection and couldn´t sleep right because it was gooeing and draining all night, every night and it hurt like the dickens. Luckily, I´ve been on some monster antibiotics and the pain is gone but I´ve been completely deaf in my left ear for about 5 days now...I feel like my mom.  (but if we look on the bright side, every time I turn my whole head and say ¨EH?" because I didn´t hear right...I think of you mom! LOVE YOU)

Dad, good to hear you are in Japan and happy.  My comp loves Japan and wishes all the Chileans were Japanese...enjoy them while you have them!  I´m glad to hear conference went well.  I absolutely loved and relished and felt the Spirit in every single session.  My favorite´s were of course Holland, Eyring, Bednar, the Prophet, and the ¨you stupid cow¨ man.  I feel refocused and ready to improve and get a whole lot better.  The more time I have out here, the more I realize how much I really do not know or understand and I realize just how bad I really am.  There are an infinite number of ways to improve and change and repent...sometimes I don´t even know where to start.  But I have faith that God qualifies who He calls...and He has called me at this time and place with this companion and He has called me to repent and get better...so I trust He will provide the way to do it.

  

Speaking of hilarious, drunk, two-toothed contacts (we do 20 in the street every day at least)...I contacted such a man...he called me ugly and so I told him to repent.  He said okay, but I was still ugly.  As long as you repent hermano...

So I sing hymns all day in the street because I do.  I was having a very hard, heavy moment when "Come Come ye Saints" came into my head.  The line ¨and should we die, before our journey´s through...happy day, all is right¨ came out in the freezing Chilean night and we just died laughing...such a good hymn.

People, I love you.  Thank you for all you do and all you are.  Please write to me.  my email isemily.bourne@myldsmail.net.  I want to hear about your life and adventures and experiences.  LOVE YOU.  Choose the right.  Go read your scriptures.

Hermana E Bourne

Radimadi is hilarious!

Short on time today sorry!

Shout out to my MOTHER, Grandmother!!! Best birthday packages EVER THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.  The videos worked and everything! SOPHIE you are GIGANTIC...it´s amazing. 

Okay people...Radimadi is hilarious.  So we are teaching a family of gypsies.  The mother...who looks just like a gypsie from the movies put a gypsie blessing over my head and over the heads of my family members...watch out!  Also...we were making calls the other day when the local transvestite contacted us.  His name is Pablo, but he prefers Gina.  We have two black, stray dogs that follow us around day and night...they sleep outside our house and do contacts and go up to doorways with us...if only they spoke Spanish!

Miracle of the week! We are teaching three parejas (uhh...english...people who live together) who are just fabulous.  This week, we challenged Elizabeth to get baptized on October 30th.  She looked down at the floor and said, ¨ I´m sorry hermanas..I can´t.¨ ¨Why not, Elizabeth?¨ ¨Because I´m getting married that weekend and 

we´re going to be visiting the campo that weekend to be with our families.¨BEST EXCUSE EVER for not being able to get baptized on a specific date.  She has fecha for the next week.  People are really starting to come out of the woodwork here.  It has been easily the hardest cambio of my life to have a whole new sector, branch, and companion all on my little gringa shoulders...but I was starting to get comfortable as a missionary...so Heavenly Father threw this gigantic, really hard, uncomfortable burden my way and my legs are wobbly under the load, but we´re standing.

Grandma Cynthia asked for a Chilean recipie!  Here´s two:

 

COMPLETOS FOR TWO (mostly because everyone I know just got married!)

-two fresh, delicious, hot hoagie rolls (none of this gross U.S. hot dog buns)

-two giant hot dogs

-one avacado smashed up with salt

-one tomatoe diced

-a whole bunch of mayo (Chilean mayo is SO different and way better sorry)

directions: put it all together in this order: bread, meat, tomatoes, avacado, mayo

 

PICHANGA

-anything you can think of (potatoes cut like fries, small pieces of dough, cut up sausage and hot dogs and every other kind of meat you can think of, hard boiled eggs, avacado, anything else)

Directions: fry anything that can possibly be fried in oil and serve with mayo

 Thank you for the prayers.  I am surrounded by really supportive Elders and leaders in my zone...my ZL gave me a blessing (I actually came with him to Chile...fantastic Elder) of comfort and I´ve been feeling angels constantly around me to bear me up.  My comp is making microscopic changes for the good and my heart is (hopefully) becoming a little softerr because of this experience.  She wishes all the Chileans were Japanese and constantly makes comparisons....but we´re working on being happy and productive.  I literally am incharge of the entire sector, branch, members, less actives, finding, contacting, teaching, talking, interacting, smiling, and dragging my comp from one thing to the next.  She has no active desire to improve which is a little foreign to me.  I hope she can see the joy that I have at doing this (through my baggy eyes and absolute exhaustion) and keep finding that joy. PLEASE KEEP PRAYING FOR ME!

Family, Friends, Blog stalkers...thank you for everything.  Keep praying, keep reading the Book of Mormon, Keep choosing the right and DO what you are supposed to and you will be happy...I love you all!

 

Hermana Bourne

 

Chile's Bicentennial

And the award for the best slash nerdiest friend ever shoutout goes to …….Rob Labaron!  Thank you for the package… I died with laughter…ate everything and then swore I´d never wear that Snuggie and have been sleeping in it every night since receiving it.  Best. Package. And Letter. Ever.

Next shout out goes to Tiffany Andrews who is officially really OLD. Way to go Tiff.  Teaching 3rd grade..   I´m so proud of you. 

Hilarious anecdote of the week.So we are teaching gypsies from the Czech Republic.  We´re talking they sleep on the floor, we teach them in a big circle on the floor, they have curtains hanging everywhere, they have a fire bowl, I thought the mom (who weighs 70 pounds and was wrapped in gypsie clothes and long skirts and scarves and everything) was going to cast a spell on me,  they are drunk a lot of the time, the whole neighborhood is scared of them, they wash their clothes in the river, and none of them go to school.  They have cool gypsie names like Fardi and Rubiski.  Rubiski is my favorite.  So we headed over their one day to teach and we show up…the 14 year old cousin is rip roaring drunk with a dirty butcher knife…made us a little uneasy…but we started seeing how they were and talking when all of a sudden he says ¨my tooth hurts¨ and shoves the point of the knife up behind his back molar and starts to dig around.  There was blood everywhere. He started coming towards us so we just booked the heck out of there. Upon our return 3 days later, we found that he´d managed to get half of his tooth out.  Disturbing.  But seriously, they are a great family and really special… I don´t know how long we´ll be teaching them though.. they tend to move around a lot. 


Chilean Equivilant, Spence Kirk is officially from Santiago.  We live in this tiny little village, but rich tourists come all the time to pasear.  So we´re walking down the street when this ginormous,beautiful pickup truck pulls over and Senor Spence Kirk gets out and asks me for directions…it was hilarious.

Well,I went crazy this weekend.  September 18th is their national holladay of independence.  It was the bicentenial this year and Chile already has a bit of a drinking problem. So for our own protection (even though I think I can outsmart a drunk person), we had to stay inside the house three whole DANG days and couldn´t even go out unless we had set appointments.  I. ALMOST. DIED.  I´m surprised my comp didn´t find me outside, up against our fence trying to contact people passing by.  I´m really grateful that was my only 18 here.  I can´t stand not working...I feel so dirty.  But the ward had a cute little activity and I ate my body weight (a considerable amount) in empanadas and huesillo (dried fruit boiled and served not dry...I LOVE it) and we got to see a little cueca (the national dance!) and then Heavenly Father blessed me that I got sick over this weekend and not some other weekend.  I got to clean the house like 8 times and write every Chilean I´ve ever met and reread my journal from this last year.

This has 100% hands down been the very best year of my life. Every time I´m in need of something (good or hard), Heavenly Father finds a way to give it to me.  If I need peace, He sends His Spirit to comfort me...I´ve been praying to have the greenie Spirit back and He´s found a great way to do that too.  Anything seemingly hard or unfair will just work for our benefit...even though it doesn´t seem like it at the time.  But I have blatant confidence in my Heavenly Father...that He is there every step of the way and that everything will work out beautifully...because it always does.

Fam, Friends, I love you!  Thank you for your encouragement and prayers...I really need it.  Love you all! 

Hermana Bourne

Family, Friends, H Dawg,

 First of all a shout out to H Dawg Holland! Send me the invite...CONGRATS.  .  

I didn´t really even write about Vanessa´s baptism.  As you can see by the picture...she is a really small woman and our two ginormous gringa heads are eclipsing her.  This Sunday she was confirmed and gave a very appropriate, brief, and heartfelt testimony.  I was so grateful and amazed to see the changes she has made in her life (she comes from abuse, abandonment, prostitution, and every other incredibly horrible thing you can imagine).  Tambien, at the baptism (which we did in the Camino Real building) the daughter of Victoria (my very first baptism) Amanda got baptizzled.  I´m not going to lie....exceedingly special moment for me and her family as they endure to the end together.  The picture doesn´t show how excited we all were because NOBODY is paying attention...but that´s okay.  (Emmy! Where are your pictures?!)

The mission is just beautiful.  I had a hard time adjusting to Rahue Alto again right after bomb.comPunta Arenas.  But I really have grown to love the sector and the wonderful people.  Two weeks ago, we found a young family who asked us to come by and start teaching them.  Alex and Angela. They have prayed and received confirmations of the Spirit.  They told us they want to come to church and know that eventually they will be baptized.  For some reason we visited 7 inactives this week and 6 of them came back to church yesterday with really big smiles.  I was walking along with my compy just satisfied at all of the change I´ve seen in this sector.  I felt like we have really been able to do some good.  I¨m comfortable and really happy here....you all know what that means! Cambios are on Wednesday and I´m getting moved.  BAAAAAAAAH!  I´m getting moved into the countryside.  It´s like the Provo of Osorno.  The Zone is La Union and my sector is Radimadi. (rawdeemawdee, mom).  I´m finishing training for a gringa named Hermana Herbert and I´m just a little nervous.  She doesn´t speak Spanish yet.  Welp, that´s where a lot of prayer is going to kick in.!

Nah, I´m good. I have faith because everything that has happened out here as been directed by the hand of God and I know something beautiful is waiting for me amidst the cowpies and even-more-rabid dogs. 

Speaking of GIANT SLUGS last night.  We were calling the DL and giving him the weeks numbers, when, all of a sudden, Elder Carrizo heard a blood curdling scream on the line.  I went over to heat up some water to make us our nightly cup of ECCO (coffee made from wheat...totally WOW approved...but I¨m still addicted...see picture) when I saw a slug as long as my hand.  It was disgusting.  Luckily Whismeister knows Tai Kwon Do and totally killed that thing.  JK, she picked it up and threw it out our door.  I think it was half snake.  Luckily, it only left a giant schmear of goo on the wall and a quickened heartbeat in my chest.  I think that thing has been lurking for two cambios by our sink.

Well, fam, I love you all.  I blink and the majority of my mission is gone...it just gives me nausea.  Katie, turn in your papers and I¨LL serve your mission for you!  Deal? Deal!  It´s the happiest, hardest, best thing in the entire world.  There are so many adventures to be had....like two nights ago Vanessa asked me to translate Michael Jackson´s ¨Beat It¨ into Spanish...or how we have to light the gas heater on fire to take a shower and sometimes there are fireballs...or how some people answer the door naked (we need some new investigators :))...or how my whole life gets changed every six weeks...or how some people call us the devil....it´s the best.  I LOVE the mission and I love you all!  Be good!

Hermana Bourne

 

Fantabulous Week

HOLY SHRAPNEL, the blessings are just too much this week!  

 Vanesa had her baptism and for some reason I can´t send pictures AGAIN this week! Sorry.  The "specialist" part was that we did the baptism in combo with my first ward, Camino Real- and Amanda, the daughter of Victoria and sister of Deisy (my two first baptisms) got baptized.  I did the musical number and just died of happiness to see everyone again.

Elder Scott came...most. awesome. experience. ever. I don´t know how I´m ever going to write everything I learned, felt or heard in that conference.  The entire mission (except Punta Arenas and Collaque) gathered together to welcome him in the stake center in centro. So the meeting with Elder Scott started...we were all lined up, ready and waiting to take a picture with him.  Right as he walked in, one of the Elders fainted from locking his knees...we all worked to cover it up as we sang ¨somos sois llamados¨...what unity!! It was hilarious.

  When we finished, he yelled ¨fantastico!¨ We all got to shake his hand before we sat down.  He started his remarks with a joke and he was just so wonderful and loving, then he announced we were going to do a practice... I knew right then that me and my compie were going to do it (out of 120 missionaries)...but I was filled with peace.  Elder Scott asked if there were any volunteers and two pairs of Elders went and practiced...then he let president pick the Hermanas to practice...and of course, out of everyone, Bourne and Whisenhunt!  We taught a five minute lesson about the Book of Mormon in front of Elder Corbridge (presidencia de la area Chile), Elder Scott, President, and our entire mission...HOLY SHRAPNEL.  They all got to raise their hands and give us compliments or advice.  As we were to go sit down from the stand, Elder Scott said...¨Hermana, tell your parents I said you did a beautiful job.¨ Wow. Booyah!

 I was feeling super awesome and super weird because I was participating a ton in the conference...directing all the hymns and practicing in front of everyone...like it was the Hermana Bourne show.  Just wait, it gets better.

 Then, he gets up after our break and says ¨now I´d like to give you some advice for after your mission¨ I KNEW it!! The marriage talk...and oh, what a marriage talk it was... anyways, so that part of the talk ended and he said he was going to speak to us as an Apostle...the whole feeling changed.  It was dead silent.  As this apostle of God bore testimony of the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, I felt the Spirit whisper to me that yes, he is an apostle called of God.  I started praying for him that he would be able to receive revelation as to what he should say to us a missionaries.  His testimony of the Savior sunk deep into my hear and I´ll never forget it.  

We finished by singing the mission hymn ¨con fe en cada paso¨- I was on the stand directing and was so grateful to look over this huge group of missionaries that I love and are great people.  The song came to a close and I turned to make my way down the stairs, when I almost ran into Elder Scott.  whoops.  He was very gracious and it was such a blessing to be near an apostle of God.

Fantabulous week. The mission is the single best thing in my life and I´m just enjoying every minute.  Now all you people, go read your scriptures,+ pray,+ serve someone else and = happiness.

Hermana Bourne

 

ps WRITE ME!

Hermana Bourne

Casilla 7-0

Osorno Chile

Simple as that.

 

Best Birthday Ever!

Okay people...let me just say HOLY SHRAPNEL! I´m going to have a birthday every week so I can get 23 emails.  I´m going to say it again.  HOLY SHRAPNEL.  Thank you all so much for the letters and love and hilarious pictures (Tuck, Noah, Brookie, Richie, and other kid who I probably know but can´t remember and now I´m embarrassed (which means ¨pregnant¨ in Spanish...which I´m not)) (Blob, Tiff, Thayne, mom, dad (who wrote the world´s best letter from Mike Bourne!) Katie, Mikey) and testimonies...it really means a lot.  I can´t get over the OVERabundance of absolutely phenominal people in my life.  I love you all!  Best birthday ever!

Everyone keeps saying my blog entries are generic.  LAME. I think I´m just getting lamer and lamer (eg.  my favorite Coldplay song came on and I started singing ¨Soy un hijo de Dios¨) I absolutely LOVE having no color or style to my hair, I have calouses on my knees from praying so much, I wear really long black socks over wool tights, , putting on makeup is ¨worldly¨, polyester is the new silk, Dansko is the newest Gucci, and the pictures of those sisters in my call letter are starting to look really stylish. I AM A SISTER MISSIONARY! AHHHH!! When did this happen?  ha ha.  People, I love being a missionary. 

I gave a talk in my ward yesterday.  I´m always the ward pianist because the only people that play instruments are the Evangelicos who all play the guitar (and attack Mormons).  Their meetings sound like rock concerts next door on Sundays.  I always sit up on the stand at the electric piano (I´ve forgotten what a real piano sounds like) and there is always one Sunday where I look over my ward and I feel a burst of love for the ward.  I had that this Sunday.  I love where I am.  I love every single person in that congregation...I know them and I´ve seen them in hard times and not so hard times.  They are loving, they are hilarious, they are Chilean...the best race ever!

I spoke in church about something I absolutely love.  Okay, so the Bible ( we have the Book of Mormon, hello! not translated five billion times) but there is something that I love more than anything right now. When Peter was fishing and Christ calls him to be a" fisher of men. " It says he leaves his net IMMEDIATELY- STRAIGHTWAY- to follow Christ.  I spoke about this concept.  I talked about how Kathy left her schooling and jobs to serve a mission because she understood who called her.  I spoke about Hermana Eva (a member in Ovejeria) who drops everything and comes RUNNING to come out with us even though she doesn´t have one of her legs-  because she understands who is calling her.  Peter understood who called him.  In the end, it´s Christ.  When we really understand who calls us...that it is Christ...we drop everything and we go running.  I´m beginning to understand this concept out here.  Even though I saw someone I babysat at the MTC, when that little Elder leader asks me to do something, I do it...not because I want to impress him or prez, but because he is called of God to lead me and my comp in our sector.  When prez asks us to do something, we do it, because we understand who called us. When I´m tired, sick, rejected, wet from rain...I keep talking to people, knocking doors, or helping because all of this is between me and God.  I´m understanding who calls me and it´s beautiful.  I have a feeling that in about 6 months, a whole bunch of nets are going to get heaped up on me and I¨ll have to wade through that shrapnel, but for now I´m enjoying the simplicity of mission life!

Another food thing.  We ate with members on Sunday and a convert from a year ago, Carolina, made us a big bucket of Pichanga.  For those of you who don´t know, Pichanga is the most Chilean food I´ve ever seen. First, you take 3 pounds of french fries, 5 pounds of cut up hot dogs, 90 hard boiled eggs, and whatever other greasy meat you want and then you fry ALL OF IT together.  Then you serve it with pop and eat the mixture with mayonaise. 

 I´m a happy camper.  I know it sounds gross,  but even the scriptures say, judge not, lest ye be judged!

Oh yeah, shout out to the BEST MOTHER IN THE ENTIRE WORLD! THank you for the package...not one of the videos works on my camera, but that´s okay...I still love you and all the good sweaters...they are WAY too cute and nice to wear down here. I will make good use of the pink one. Elder Scott is coming tomorrow...and you all know what that means...Hé´s going to tell us all to get married!   Shrapnel!!!!!!    Good thing I´m still a missionary...whew!

Family, friends, blog stalkers, I love you all! Thank you thank you thank you! I realized I hardly write about investigators, but they are there, I promise.  We taught 28 lessons this week and Vanesa is getting baptized this Saturday...she has the hardest life I´ve ever seen in my entire life and the gospel has changed everything.  It changes everything...it always does.

Hopefully this wasn´t too generic for you all! (at least it's not a post-it- right mom?)

Hermana Bourne