I can ride my bike with no handlebars

that's a lie haha and very dangerous dont worry i'm fine

and also i have a bike

i have taken 1 journey on it so far to get to where i am right here writing to you 

how the heck am i supposed to handle my skirt

also oh

i should say

that i am not actually training a NEW newbie! what happened was, there were a whole bunch of people that went home this transfer and one of them happened to be in the middle of training somebody, so i'm finishing her training. She's been here for 6 weeks in this sector so she knows it a little bit already and she is teaching me how to do the bike thing

Trainers of the mission for this transfer
(New missionaries train in the field for 12 weeks -
this is Hermana Schomburg's 2nd time training a new missionary.)

but i have so many plans

after seeing the area map and the wall and the carpeta [area folder]

we are going to work this sector

just like

a lot

so much work

I AM SO EXCITED

I'VE ALREADY MET A WHOLE BUNCH OF MEMBERS AND THEY ARE SO COOL! I CANT EVEN SAY! THEY ARE SO COOL AND I LOVE THEM AND EVERYBODY HAS REALLY GREAT THINGS TO SAY ABOUT CURACAVÍ 

oh i forgot to say that

WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Im out in the campo!! [country, rural area]

we're about 30 minutes from valparaíso here and yeah

it's super genial from what i've seen and i am so excited to just do so many cool things here and visit so many people and do so many things

and ride my bike

i'm just struggling with the skirt haha

IT IS A STRUGGLE

THE STRUGGLE IS REAL

but hey

i'll get there

what else

oh yeah, i'm with my new hijita [literally, daughter; new trainee] Hermana Petramalo; she's from Arizona and she's little and blonde and just so cute and I'm so excited to work with her and just have a really great cambio [change] and learn all the things of the campo land and just

EVERYTHING

so yeah

I am a poquito [a littel bit] sad about leaving Vivaceta, but I know that the Lord's plans for me are more important than my own plans for me and that He will ALWAYS be right. He doesn't make mistakes, and if we always follow Him and look to Him first to know what to do, we'll always come out on top. 

there was something else that i was going to say but i forgot

shoot

uhm 

UGH

okay, but so, we dont have a lot of time to write today, obviously, cos we had to come out here to the campo and everything and it takes like an hour and that was all after the meeting and everything so okay, i have to go :( BUT ALSO GUESS WHAT

HERMANA FERRIN IS MY HERMANA LIDER HERE AND I AM SO EXCITED WE GET TO DO INTERCAMBIOS HAHAHAHAHA HERMANA FERRIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNN and one of the elders from my group is my district leader and just

Hermana Ferrin and Hermana Schomburg in August 2015

this change is going to be so great

and i hope that you all can feel the same way about the new year; that we can all take this new year as a new start and be better people, doing better things, making better decisions, and following Jesus Christ a little bit closer. 

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY AND I AM SO HAPPY TO BE HERE IN CHILE

And I will talk to you all more in detail next week; LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH WOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Some very bad photos taken during our Skype session on Christmas Day.
She is exceptionally happy and working so very hard...
and English is now her 2nd language. :)

close encounters of the fish head soup kind

don't worry

it was just only a close encounter

nothing happened

we're all good

WHAT HAPPENED WAS

we were going to have fish head soup for lunch on Friday, right? naturally

but then somebody else actually had us scheduled for lunch at their house first so we went there and had asparagus soup and a MOUNTAIN OF PURÉ [thick soup] and chicken and it was much better than fish head soup (sorry not sorry)

but anyway LET'S GET DOWN TO BUSINESS

let me just describe to you a couple of things that went down this week

so, Monday was pday and we did stuff and i already said those things and sent those pictures

and Tuesday we had

*magic fingers* intercambios [exchanges]

finally

after literally 5 weeks we had intercambios and it was super cool and I got to hang out in my sector with Hermana McCoard and we made mac and cheese and ate ice cream and celebrated being gringas for a little bit and it was fun

and then on Wednesday

ENTREVISTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSS

those were super great; presidente always knows what to say. He's really awesome :) he's like the Lorax but without the mustache

what else

oh yeah i was going day by day

then on Thursday

*chun chun chun* (that's to be read with suspense but not dread, just suspense, with a little pause between the second and third chun) 

Tata had his baptismal interview 

AND HE PASSED WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO AND SO ON SUNDAY (we're jumpin around a little bit now) HE GOT BAPTIZED WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO 

And I am going to explain a little bit more of that in a second

but first

on friday we had a ward activity! And it was really great and some of our investigators came and they had such a good time and we played games and had a live nativity but the angel didn't show up

so i had to be the angel 

and it was so much fun ALL OF IT WAS SO GREAT

and then on saturday

what happened

we worked... that's what happened

and then on sunday, here we are again, TATA GOT BAPTIZED

Let me just tell you a little story about Tata okay, i dunno if i have explained this well enough. Tata is 90 years old and his wife is a member of the church and she was inactive and one of his sons is the bishop of another ward in my stake and his other son is the president of the elders quorum in our ward and one of his grandsons is the first counselor in our ward and his other grandson is the second counselor in the stake presidency and his daughter in law is the relief society president in our ward and they all live in the same house and he has never had interest in the gospel until he heard about temple work and baptisms for the dead [baptisms by proxy].

and so we visited and the first time we met with him, we invited him to go to church and to be baptized and he accepted right away and when we told his family, they said they didnt believe us 

but then 5 weeks later he was having his baptismal interview and everybody came with him and waited outside and they all realized that Tata really was going to get baptized

and just

I remember the first time that he went to church and he went with his wife (who hasnt missed since Tata has been going) and it just all makes me want to cry because really every single one of us is a child of God and he loves us so much that he gives us families to help us and support us and set an example for us and for Tata, his family set the example their whole lives and after all this time, it has finally paid off. Yesterday Tata had the amazing opportunity to be baptized by his worthy priesthood-holding grandson and I have never seen anything more beautiful in my life. I feel incredibly humbled to have seen the Lord's hand so prominently in my life and in their lives and to know without a shadow of a doubt that every single one of us can change; every single one of us has the sacred opportunity to use the Atonement and repent of our sins and be cleansed through the sacrifice that our older brother made for us, and after that, we have the privilege to be baptized in his name; to make a covenant with him saying that we are going to try our very best and that He is going to help us. I am so so SO grateful for this gospel. I am grateful for my Savior and to have a loving Father in Heaven. I testify that he is a God of miracles. I have seen a miracle this week and I know without a doubt that it could only be the work of our Heavenly Father. It doesn't matter how old we are, it doesnt matter where we're from, or what we look like, we are all children of God and we all deserve to feel His love and to live with Him again. I love being a missionary so much; this is the most gratifying experience that I have ever had. My heart is full. I love the Lord and I love this gospel and I testify of them with everything I have and I leave this with you in his holy name, even Jesus Christ, amen.

ugh now i'm crying haha sorry okay but yeah okay i don't have any more time to say anything else but i am just SO GRATEFUL FOR EVERYTHING AND I JUST LOVE THE GOSPEL

and i hope you all have a great week (next week is cambios [transfers] so i dont know when i'll be writing) but i will talk to some of you on Friday ;) 

OH YEAH

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

i almost forgot hahaha i'm the worst lol BUT OKAY I GOTTA GO

CCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Chile Santiago North Mission
Christmas 2015

Where's Hermana Schomburg?

over the hill

Where is Hermana Schomburg?
She could be the tall, pale and fabulous one

welp, I've officially been here in Chile for 9 months and 3 days.

wut

that's kind of a long time

i dunno

i think about other people that i know and other people in the zone and i'm like

lol that's not much time

but then i think about real life and i'm like

whoa

9 months and 3 days is like

a lot of time wow

and speaking of that apparently when sister missionaries have 9 months they have to take pictures with pregnant bellies

but literally who came up with that that is the WORST IDEA (no offense to those of you who like the idea)

i think i will just buy some great value icecream and chicken nuggets and call it good SORRY I'M LAME BUT I SO DONT LIKE THE WHOLE PREGNANT THING

i just dont like it

nonono

but anyway

yeah so i've been here for 9 months and 3 days

and people are already telling me i'm old which is incorrect lol and also WHY DO PEOPLE SAY THINGS LIKE THAT IT MAKES ME AFRAID

I AM A MISSIONARY AND I AM STILL GOING TO BE MISSIONARYING FOR A LONG TIME PLEASE DO NOT SAY THINGS THAT MAKE ME FEEL WEIRD

hmmmmmmmmmm what can i tell you about this week

well... we worked... we had a conversation with a very philosophical man and then taught him the restoration and he told us he needed to meditate for a long time on the things that we told him

so

we'll see what happens there

we met some people that invited us in immediately and they can all say my name and they remember it 

wut

OH YEAH ALSO WE SANG AT THE municipality??? is that a word

it's a word close to municipalidad [town hall]

but anyway

we had a lil ol concert thingy there and there were lots of people and it was lots of fun and i loved it

also we had an activity with the relief society and it was way fun and i wanted to make peppermint bark but peppermint basically doesnt exist here

neither does white chocolate

so i ended up making somethign else that everybody thought was super artisan and gringo but really it was just melted milk chocolate with a scoop of crunchy peanut butter stirred in that i refroze 

but it was a hit so hey, we're all good

what else

i feel like i ate something weird this week but i dont remember what it was

that could be a good thing or a bad thing

OH HERE'S SOMETHING GREAT THAT HAPPENED

we have a couple of investigators that are really great, *Alex and *Jess and they both accepted a baptismal date of the 27th of this month (the last sunday of this transfer), but we thought that we were gonig to have to move it because we didnt have much hope that they were going to go to church

BUT THEY WENT

THEY SHOWED UP

AND IT WAS SO GREAT AND THEY LOVED EVERYTHING AND THEY WERE LIKE 'we're giong to make it a habit to come to church' AND IT MADE ME SO HAPPY

I WAS SO HAPPY

I AM SO HAPPY

THEY WANT TO GET BAPTIZED AND THEY ARE SO GREAT AND I LOVE THEM SO MUCH

also, Tata is getting ready to get baptized this sunday HOW COOL IS THAT

It's going to be SO GREAT and this week is just going to go by so fast I know because we also have exchanges and interviews with presidente and a ward activity for christmas and also another concert in Quilicura (i think, maybe Curacaví but i am not sure) 

so probably it will feel like i wrote yesterday when i write again

and what else

what else

hmmmmm

i'm sorry that this email is a little lame today and without fun stories, i dont remember what we've done all this week... 

the bishop changed the topic of the talk i gave (oh yeah, i gave a talk yesterday) last minute from charity to temporal self sufficiency

and i was like

wut

but i gave the talk and i was talking about the things we need to have ready because of the last days and all that and then i mentioned an example that it snows a lot where we live and sometimes we cant leave the house so we need food storage or something

and then i followed it with an example of when we evacuated our house because of the Waldo Canyon fire

and as i was standing up there i realized that we coloradoans kind of have all the extremes and really need to get ourselves prepared holy cannoli

if you dont have an emergency backpack with 72 hours of food and 4 litres of water

you should get on that

because you NEVER KNOW WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN and the prophets have told us many times that we need to do things to prepare ourselves like that

so

just

get on it

a prophet of God has told us to do these things, it has to be important. 

and 

hmmm

what else

IT DOESNT FEEL LIKE CHRISTMAS BECAUSE IT'S REALLY DANG HOT HERE

but sometimes in the night time theres a little bit of wind when we're going back to the house and the pollen starts to fall off the trees (there are some trees that shed pollen like NOBODY´S BUSINESS) and the light from the street lamps hits it just right and for a second i can pretend like it's snowing 

<3

BUT THAT'S ALL THE TIME I HAVE FOR THSI WEEK FOLKS

HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A GREAT WEEK AND I WILL SEE YOU SOON well only some of you

through skype

hahahahahahaHAHAHA 

LOVE YOU ALL <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 

CCCCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

MERRY CHRISTMAS
from the hermanas

nothing

We have not done anything since the last time I wrote. PDay happened like YESTERDAY. I am sorry. that is all i have to report

chao

lol jk yeah I have some things to say

so

what even did we do I dont remember

Well, on Saturday there were fireworks in the Hipodromo to celebrate something and there were like 40000 people and the fireworks were so pretty and so great and so YES and it felt like the fourth of july

Festival of Fireworks

especially because it is hot

it is not december

it is july

it was the fourth of july

and all the horses and all the people were celebrating

i just know it

but anyway

so, *Fredo got confirmed yesterday! woohooo! HE'S A MEMBER NOWWWWWW AND HAS THE HOLY GHOOOOOOOOOOST

we're very happy for him :) 

and what else...?

a family that we are teaching went to church!

I repeat

A FAMILY that we are teaching WENT TO CHURCH

A WHOLE DARN FAMILY

well, almost the whole family, one member had to work BUT EVERYBODY ELSE WENT

what else

that's pretty much it. I am almost positive that that is it. we've just kinda been working because work is what we do. We've been trying to find more people to teach that really are going to progress and stuff, and it's all been good. 

Apparently I look like I'm german. Literally everybody thinks I'm from Germany (except for the people that think i'm from Australia or Africa (????) or the united states). 

I literally have no clue what else I can tell you guys because it has been such a short time since I wrote you last.

But I will leave you all with this: 

We really shouldnt judge other people. It's not okay and it's not our job. It's just a topic that I've been thinking about lately, but we need to all start living the gospel that we proclaim to be a part of and that means that we live it 100%. Too often, instead of being 100% obedient, we make conditions for our own obedience, or excuses that exclude ourselves from following the rules. We forget that we don't make the conditions; God makes the conditions and we choose to fulfill them or not. When Jesus said (I DONT REMEMBER THE SCRIPTURE IN ENGLISH THIS IS GONNA BE ROUGH) that we must love our... neighbors...? is that the word?... okay, but when Jesus said that we must love other people, he didn't tack onto the end 'but only when they love you back'. It doesnt matter at all what other people do, where they're from, how old they are, NOTHING. We have been commanded to love one another, so why arent we doing it? We dont have to love the things people do; we dont have to love the mistakes that everybody makes, but we do have to love everybody and we also have to forgive everybody. God will forgive who deserves forgiveness in the end, but we are commanded to forgive EVERYBODY. Mistakes happen; sometimes small mistakes and sometimes big mistakes, and sometimes they arent even mistakes but were done with a purpose; but it is not our job to judge people. It is our job to love people. If we all just loved one another, how much more beautiful would the world be? Why cant we just love and help one another always?

I like to think of it this way. 

We all have a box. A big old box and every problem we have is a rock in that box. And every one of us has to hold the box and it's really hard.

But, we have a friend that has a cart. And we can all put our boxes in his cart because it's a magic cart that can hold lots of boxes of rocks. But a lot of people dont want to put their box in the cart because it's their box and they dont want this or that blah blah blah but if we would just put our boxes in the darn cart, we would have two free hands to help other people put their boxes in the cart too

The boxes of rocks are our problems

and our friend with the magic cart is Jesus Christ, our savior

And literally all we need to do is give him our problems and the things that make our lives hard and trust 100% in him and in God and VOILA

WE CAN HELP OTHER PEOPLE AND WE DONT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT OUR BOX OF ROCKS

JUST PUT YOUR BOX OF ROCKS IN THE MAGIC CART THERE ARE OTHER PEOPLE THAT NEED YOUR HELP YOU COULD MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN SOMEBODY ELSE'S LIFE TODAY IF YOU STOPPED WORRYING ABOUT YOUR OWN BOX AND STARTED HELPING SOMEBODY ELSE. 

Just... PLEASE LOVE ALL THE PEOPLE. when we put our own personal affairs behind us and help out other people, we have more of a promise of blessings than if we focus ourselves in our own problems all the time. 

Does that make sense? I really hope it does, because this is something SO IMPORTANT that all of us need to improve. 

Loving only ourselves isnt ever going to get us anywhere in life. We have to turn our hearts outward and love everybody else. And if we do that, we will have a reward bigger than anything we can imagine waiting for us in the next life. 

And that is my testimony in the name of Jesus Christ, amen. 

BUT THAT'S ALL THE TIME I HAVE FOLKS, HOPE YOU LEARNED SOMETHING AND HOPE YOU'LL ALL ACT ON WHAT YOU LEARNED 

LOVE YOU ALL AHVE A GREAT WEEK AND LIFE AND EVERYTHING 

CCCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

La Tercera es la Vencida

for non-spanish speakers, that means

THE THIRD TIME'S THE CHARM

WHICH MEANS

THAT

*FREDO

GOT BAPTIZED

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡!!!!!!!!!!!!!¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡

WOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO YAY 

We are SO HAPPY and so excited for the progress that he is making :) he gave his testimony right after and said that he is excited to start helping build up the church and help all of the people have more Christlike love <3 WOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO YAYAYAY HAPPY BAPTISM

*Fredo's privacy is important and no disrespect is intended -
but I had to share these happy hermanas

And now, for other news also. 

Well, I will start from the beginning... if I can remember that far back. It's been so long since the last P-Day, for real, it is hard when one P-Day is on Monday and the next on the next Wednesday. It is a hard thing. We almost had to start eating the food from our emergency backpacks, haha, DON'T WORRY I'M FINE

but anyway

what happened on Monday?

I don't really remember. 

OH YEAH

on monday

hhahahahaha

on Monday we got back from all our P-Day fun and everything

and we didn't have electricity. 

Haha, it was way fun. We called the office and everything but the mission didn't have money for the moment because somebody had a really bad crash on their bike (somebody that was on the island so they had to transport him back and stuff) and we weren't going to get money to pay the bill until Wednesday. So we waited and waited and waited in the darkness for three days and then finally on Thursday, THERE WAS LIGHT

and that is what i was grateful on Thursday. 

Also, we put Tata with a baptismal date! He's going to get baptized on the 20th of December, si Dios quiere [if God wants]. His family is so big and active in the church and everything is so happy and cool now that he is going and wants to get baptized and it's just a miracle and he always tells us that it's never too late to change :) the bishop of another ward in our stake is one of his sons and talked with us the other day during a stake seminary graduation ceremony and just everything is miracles and happiness :) 

Then we had District Class (which is usually on Wednesday) on Friday and had a mini thanksgiving celebration. We had apple pie and i made funeral potatoes [i.e cheesy potatoes] (hahaha you all thought i didnt cook tricked ya) and there were other things but i forgot what. 

There was no turkey. But i bought turkey paté and it's almost the same

lol

that was a joke paté is not almost the same let me explain paté to you guys

okay, you know how like a sausage looks? like how they would draw sausages in a cartoon? it looks like that, but that's just the package the paté is inside. Paté is like... meat puree, hahahaha

it comes in many meats

and it's like a spread

and i was very skeptical in the beginning

by my boundaries have changed lol DONT WORRY I AM FINE

also friday night there was something called the Teletón happening and there was loud cueca music all night and my chilean companion taught me the cueca [Chilean national dance - a handkerchief dance]

i am officially as chilean as the porotos [this literally translates to 'beans'] now

also when we talk with Tata, he doesnt hear very well and it's hard for him to understand me, even though my accent is pretty good, so he's always shouting 'HABLA BIEN GRINGITA' and he calls me gringita always. But I don't think he really hates me because during the baptismal service of *Fredo, he said 'quiero que me bautice la gringita' which means 'i want the white girl to baptize me' but dont worry, we explained that that's not quite how things work

I've decided to make a new reality tv show called 'Teaching Tata' because it is actually the most entertaining thing of all time

AH YES AND NOW

to talk about what happened on Tuesday

yesterday

we had a conference and a member of the 70 [a member of the general church leadership], Elder Krasnoselsky (haha good luck with that) and we were told last P-Day through the mission news that we get every week that we all needed to dress nice and everything and prepare a 5 minute talk on how to be a successful missionary and that they would choose an elder and an hermana to talk when we got there and also the choir sang a number with a surprise violin (WE DID NOT PRACTICE WITH THE VIOLIN HE JUST SHOWED UP AND JUMPED IN WELCOME TO THE MISSION WE DO MUSICAL STUNTS) and so we sang and everything and i was assuming that they had already told the two that were going to talk that they were going to talk because they were SUPPOSEDLY going to tell them when they arrived

and then one of the assistents said

'and now we're going to hear two messages from two of you. we're going to hear from hermana...'

guess who it was

just guess

i just

just

i dont even

why even

why is it always me?

THIS IS LIKE THE FOURTH TIME

so I gave a talk on how to be a successful missionary (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿???????????) in our zone conference in front of a member of the 70 WELCOME TO THE MISSION WE DONT GIVE WARNINGS EVER

but it was great

Hermana Krasnoselsky talked with us about exact obedience and that the difference between even small things like waking up at 7:00 on point or 7:15 is the difference between obedience and disobedience. Her message was very powerful and I loved it :) Elder Krasnoselsky and Hermana and Presidente Videla also had really great messages. I love conferences :) I love this gospel; I love Jesus Christ so much <3 

AND I LOVE THE MISSION

if there is anybody reading this that is thinking 'i dont know if i should go on a mission but there is nothing stopping me from doing it except my own doubts'

DO NOT DOUBT

JUST DO IT

THE MISSION IS THE BEST

THE CHURCH IS TRUE

I LOVE ALL OF THIS SO SO SO SO SO MUCH AND I AM SO GRATEFUL TO BE A MISSIONARY FOR THIS SHORT 18 MONTHS THAT I HAVE :) 

I hope that you are all doing super well and enjoying the snow (while I enjoy 90+/- degree weather hahahahaha) and the holidays and everything :) drive safe everybody and always take the Spirit with you :)

I LOVE YOU ALL BUT THAT'S ALL THE TIME I HAVE TODAY

CCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO