Week 4: A Day in Santiago

HOLA TODOS!

I attached a video so hopefully you can open it!!

This week was PACKED. Last p day after I emailed we went contacting out on the streets. We walked so far and were able to give out some pamphlets and see some cool stuff in the city. Honestly I have no idea what people are saying when we talk to them but they seemed interested in the church haha! The next day we went contacting for one of our MTC classes and we gave out a Book of Mormon! Its so cool to have the experience to leave the MTC and go actually meet and talk with people even though its super scary and I usually have no idea whats going on.

Last friday we went proselyting!! They bused all the missionaries from my group to the Santiago west mission and we were paired up with a missionary in the field. My companion was Hermana Ribodino. She was from Argentina and spoke no English so it was a great opportunity to work on my Spanish. I sent a picture of us. She's the one with the purple scarf. She was such an awesome missionary she was so good at starting up a normal conversation with anyone. We walked around a neighborhood with tiny little houses and gates around every house. What you do in Chile is stand outside the gate and yell ¡Halo! and wait for people to come out. Most people didn't come out but a few did and I had an awesome experience with this man named Guido. We said Halo outside his gate and after a few minutes he came out. Hermana Ribodino started talking with him and I picked up that he didn´t really believe in Christ and that he's from Vina! As she was talking I felt the strongest feeling that I needed to give him a book of Mormon. Seriously, it was such a strong prompting and then my companion turned to me and motioned for me to speak. I bore my testimony in the little Spanish I knew and asked him if he knew about the book of Mormon. He said no, so I pulled it out and showed him. When he saw it, his expression totally changed and he was so interested in it. He was flipping through the book and my companion and I ended up teaching him the whole first lesson right outside his house by the gate! It was so cool and I taught him how to pray right there on the street. I gave the simple prayer I knew but the spirit was so strong and it was the coolest experience. My companion was a little sad he didnt actually live in Santiago West so Ill just have to find him in Vina!

Also there are so many dogs its ridiculous!! At times we couldn't hear what people were saying on the street because every dog in every house was barking its head off haha!

Yesterday I kind of freaked out when I realized how much Spanish I don´t know. haha! it was super random but we were learning a lot of grammar and I didn´t understand any of it and I was just getting so frustrated. Its also so so hard to sit in class for so long and stay focused. I fell asleep yesterday for like 25 minutes and when I woke up the Elders had written on the board, Points for Sleeping in class, Hermana Snyder: 1. haha it was funny but I also felt kinda bad.

The new group arrived at the MTC! We have two new Latinas in our room who are so awesome. One of them, Hermana Valenzuela is from Chile and she going to Los Angeles Temple Visitors Center on her mission! The other is Hermana Sanchez whose from Colombia and she is going to Vina! They are so so cute and also speak amazing english. Hermana Segovia and I went contacting with them today and we were able to get a name and number of a man and give him a book of Mormon. Hermana Valenzuela also bought all of us Super8 chocolate which is EVERYWHERE here in chile. Last night they were trying to imitate Americans and how they speak and it was the funniest thing of my life. My stomach hurt from laughing when they tried singing britney spears in their best american accent.

Anyways I love life in the CCM! Sometimes sitting in class for 12 hours a day gets pretty long but thank goodness for PDay haha. Im so thankful for my experiences here and I seriously feel the spirit so strong! Spanish is super hard and its a little scary that I leave the CCM in two weeks but I know if I rely on the Lord everything will work out!

I miss you guys and love you so so much. Good luck with school and life and everything. I pray for you guys all the time!

Con amor

Hermana Snyder