Adventures of a Tall Girl: WHOOOOAAAAA I'M HALFWAY THERE

Wow okay I was not prepared for picTURES AND NOW I´M SITTING HERE CRYING MY EYES OUT AND ELDER FELIPE BESIDE ME THINKS I´M INSANE COS I´M AUDIBLY SOBBING AND MY DISTRICT HAS BEEN QUESTIONING MY SANITY ALL WEEK AND NOW THEY´RE JUST QUESTIONING IT MORE BUT ANYWAY WOW OKAY SO FIRST OF ALL

[Photos of Elder Schomburg's homecoming were sent to Hermana Schomburg with an explicit warning... apparently, she decided to partke so I will share them here.] :)

Yeah okay so Jeffrey got home holy cannoli I cannot tell you how emotionally compromised I have been this week okay I watched the clock all day Tuesday and Wednesday keeping track of when he would be on the plane and stuff and we went out to walk around the temple for a break with Hermano Ceballos and I accidentally started crying cos just I dunno like everything is crazy and the temple is pretty and I just love Santiago and Hermano Ceballos felt very bad and I didn´t mean to start crying it just happened and then he gave me a good piece of advice. It was just something simple, but it was what I needed to hear. He told me, ´Have patience Hermana Schomburg,´ and I think I am beginning to learn more and more every day how importance patience is going to be for me on my mission.

This week has been a bit of a prematurely trunky week, what with Jeffrey coming home and Robby turning 12 today and just everything in the world. It´s all been kinda crazy and I´ve been missing home a lot, but I can also say that there is no place I would rather be than here. I love you guys, I really do, don´t misunderstand, but I also love being a missionary more than I ever dreamed I would.

We watched a devotional given by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland at the Provo MTC on January 13th of 2009 on Sunday and it was just amazing. Behold some of my scattered but meaningful (to me) notes on said devotional;

One thing that he said that really struck me was that ´the most important thing in this universe is the salvation of the human soul,´ and that the Atonement is a testimony of that. Christ suffered and died for the salvation of our very souls; he suffered and died for the same cause that I am currently fighting for. I believe that he later used some of his phrases in a conference talk or something of the like, but he said something along the lines of, Í am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience,´ and went on to say that missionaries ´cannot be his witness and not walk where he walked.´ The words are striking on the page but I encourage you to find the original talk that they´re from and watch it, because they´re even more amazing when you hear them spoken. I guess it just got me thinking a lot.

[Here are the links for the devotional and General Conference talk to which Hermana Schomburg is referring.]

The Miracle of a Mission

Missionary Work and the Atonement

This is the most important thing that I will ever do in my life, apart from of course getting married and sealed in the temple. I have been entrusted with the power to save not just lives, but souls. I have been entrusted with the responsibility of some of Heavenly Father´s children and this responsibility should not be taken lightly. I am on the Lord´s errand, doing his work. I have been prepared my whole life to do this and I only have 18 months. This is one thing that I will only get to do once; I´ve got one shot at this and I am going to make it count. Elder Holland also painted a picture of being carried into your homecoming talk on a stretcher through the door we only ever use for funerals and stumbling to the stage to give a rousing speech. That´s what I want.

I want to give every ounce of strength I have to this mission and have faith that the Lord will carry me through the hard times, and through the good. I want to be one of those annoying return missionaries that starts every single sentence with, ´When I was on my mission...´ and I want everybody in the world to know that the gospel is true and to gain a testimony for themselves and to return to live with our Father in Heaven again someday and though I know that´s a little steep of a goal, that´s how I feel. I know with every ounce of my being that this gospel is true and that it saves lives and families: it saved mine.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

BUT I´M NOT DONE YET BECAUSE NOW I HAVE TO TELL YOU ALL ABOUT MY WWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKK WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Okay so this week has gone by SO FAST it´s insane. I feel like I was writing you literally four minutes ago I cannot believe at ALL that it has been an entire week.

We got new teachers this week, which was a big change. Our morning teachers (Hermanas Jiménez y Abarzúa) don´t speak a speck of English. Not even a speck. They told us at the beginning of the week that they only every taught North Americans that are in their fifth and sixth weeks, not their third and fourth, so we´re not sure what that says about us, but we think it´s good.

Then our afternoon teachers do speak English but when we asked them if they spoke English, they both said, ´Not for you,´ and we all laughed but they were serious. They don´t speak English to us either, but it´s way fun. I LOVE SPANISH SO MUCH. I just love it. I just

I JUST HAVE A LOT OF LOVE FOR THE SPANISH LANGUAGE

But anyway, our afternoon teachers (Hno. Marcel y Hna. Muñoz) are really awesome. I love them.

Also, we have one night teacher, Hermano Díaz and I have found that usually the night teachers speak mostly in your native language because that´s when they teach you more spiritual things and, not that you can´t be spiritual in Spanish, but at this point in our knowledge of the language, it´s best for us to do that in English.

I just really love it here. The teachers are awesome and I seriously have the BEST COMPANION that has ever lived.

We have a new roommate, however. One of the Latina hermanas in our room had to go home because of some issues at home, entonces, we now have Hermana Flores! She´s a ball of sunshine all the time; it´s way fun. Also a tad bit frustrating all the time when we can´t figure out to communicate, but most of the time we do pretty well.

We had a way fun FHE [Family Home Evening] activity the other night where the North Americans taught the Latinos English and then they went head to head in a translating game and it was just loads of fun.

It has been... well, to be honest, the new missionaries have been a bit of a trial of my faith but I am TRYING SO HARD. Hna. Paulson and I are seriously trying so hard to be so nice and having a lot of patience and the new missionaries are great they really are we really love all the missionaries wow love ALL THE MISSIONARIES WE LOVE THEM WE REALLY DO.

WE.

LOVE.

THEM.

ALSO EXCITING THINGS THAT HAPPENED THIS WEEK:

Hna. Paulson and I always take a daily run outside Alcántara and yesterday we were running and there are a couple ladies that walk their dogs every day and we see them all the time and so we decided to stop and talk to them and so we talkED AND THEY ASKED ABOUT THE CHURCH AND WE GAVE THEM ANSWERS AND IT WAS SO AMAZING AND WE DID IT ALL IN SPANISH AND ALSO IT TURNED OUT THAT ONE OF THE LADIES WAS BEING TAUGHT BY SOME SISTER MISSIONARIES IN THE ESTE MISIÓN [Santiago East Mission] AND SO WE JUST TALKED AND I DUNNO IT WAS SO AWESOME I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY I LOVE IT I LOVE IT I LOVE IT SO MUCH HOLY CANNOLI

Also, I forgot to mention that we didn´t feel the earthquake at all. I said that out loud when I read it and everybody in the lab went, ´there was an earthquake?´ so yeah. No. We didn´t feel anything.

Also you asked more questions let me find them....

Ah yes new missionaries, talked about, also General Conference oh man I AM SO EXCITED FOR THAT. And I believe we stream it but I don´t remember what I was told. I apologize.

ALSO THIS TIDBIT IS FOR MY BROTHER ANDREW: ONE OF MY TEACHERS HERMANO LEIVA IS GOING TO BE AT CONFERENCE AND YOU NEED TO FIND HIM AND TALK TO HIM COS HE IS SUCH A COOL DUDE AND ALSO JUST YEAH YOU SHOULD DO THAT I TOLD HIM THAT HE COULD FACEBOOK STALK YOU IF HE LIKES

Also I don´t remember if I mentioned this but the other week we were doing a daily planner exam thing where one of the teachers takes a picture of a planner and puts it on a screen and we all look at it and see how we can improve our own and they chose mine but we had all done this funny thing since we knew it was coming and written ´get rid of that rash´ in our weekly goals and when the teachers read it we all just burst out laughing but then none of them knew what a rash was so we had to explain and it was just so hilarious and just yes. Many funny things happen here at the CCM in Chile. It´s quite the place and I am quite grateful to be here.

Also my teacher Hermano Díaz is a ginger. And looks very gringo. In fact, you could say he´s the Chilean version of Mr. Belk. So that´s a thing.

Also I keep forgetting to mention that the Latinos can´t sing to save their lives, but at the same time, there is no better sound than all of them singing Called to Serve in their own keys on a crowded bus, no better sound in the world. But anyway that´s not what I keep forgetting to say. What I keep forgetting to say is that ever since they found out I can sing they´ve made me sing publicly many times. Hermano Antileo and Hermana Ceballos made me sing for the class one day and then Hermano Marcel as well and I´ve sung two Sunday´s in a row with my district, so that´s a thing and it´s way fun and I´m so grateful that I didn´t have to give up all my music coming down here.

Also I said the closing prayer in sacrament meeting on Sunday! In Spanish!

ALSO I ACTUALLY HAVE TO GO SUPER FAST BUT I KNOW THAT THERE IS SOMETHING I´M FORGETTING POOP OH NO I CAN´T REMEMBER OH NO THIS IS BAD THIS IS BAD OH NO OKAY WELL MAYBE I´LL REMEMBER LATER I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH MORE THAN YOU CAN EVEN IMAGINE AND I PRAY FOR YOU CADA DÍA [daily]

CIAO FOR NOW MY FRIENDS AND FAMILY

Until we meet again,

Hermana Schomburg