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