Out of small things

Hola familia y amigos!!!

Well, as you will read, Amy has been transferred about 4-5 hours south of where she has been working. She sounds good and we are grateful that she has been able to do the things she is. I hope that all of you are well. I am doing much better...a little better every day! I hope that I will be able to get all of the things done that I need to do before we go back to school. The students will start three weeks from today! We are working hard to get things done AND we are trying to keep ahead of the weeds. We are starting to get things from our garden more regularly! I love growing things!

God bless all of you!

Karen & Mike :D

Out of small things...great things shall come to pass.

This saturday we got a call... well, like we always do the last week of transfers, and... They´re closing San Pedro! This means that for awhile all those people whose doors we´ve knocked at shall remain relatively unbothered. The Assistants are going to work it for awhile and... yup. Happens.

The mission is getting less missionaries for awhile. 16 missionaries are going home this transfer, and only six are coming, so that means that the president has to close 5 sectors... and two of them are sister sectors, even though we´re gonna continue on with 21 sisters. Hermana Holt is going to Kaupolican (o algo asi), where there are elders currently, and I´m going to Padre de las Casas, which is a little city outside of Temuco. Both of those are pretty far south, so... good times. I´ll be in a different Region of Chile, which is a bit like a state, but to give you a better Idea, it´ll be about 4-5 hours in bus, which means It´s about the same distance from Cedar to Home.

I´m going to serve with Hna Cuéllar. She´s from Mexico! Whee!

Okay, so... Cheryl e-mailed me with some good questions:

Do you make cookies there?
-No. But I want to. Someone should send me a cookie recipe.

Can you find the same ingredients down there?
-Not always. Like... no one´s even HEARD of chocolate chips, even though they come in some granola bars here. We found Butterscotch chips in Líder, which made me think of camp. There´s also lots of ingredients here which I know will be harder to find when we get there, like Chilean Ají. It´s some spicy powdery stuff. Yummers.

Do you and or your companions cook much?
-Hermana Holt and I cooked about once a week. The fact is, unlike the missionaries in the states we only get two assigned mealtimes in a day... Breakfast in the morning, and lunch at 1:30 with the members. Chileans don´t do dinner. They eat HUGE lunches and then sometimes eat sandwiches for "Onze"... elevensies! So sometimes Hna Holt and I make pasta right before we go to bed... which is yummy, but bad for your digestion, so we don´t do it often.

Do you have a full size stove/oven?
-Í´m actually not sure that it´s normal to have a fullsized stove or oven. Most apartments have at propane stovetop at least. Cerro Verde had an oven about the size of the one in the trailer. San Pedro and the Marina just have a stove top with two... firethings. What do you even call that part where you put the frying pan?

Do they hold sacrament meetings the same down there?
-Yes. Sacrament Meeting is first, then Sunday School, then Relief Society and the whole shebang. Sometimes the meetings are a little less... organized, but they always work out for the best.

How many wards/sectors do you cover at a time?
-I´ve never heard of missionaries in our mission covering more than one ward... except the Assistants, who are now going to cover San Pedro and Lomas Coloradas. Sometimes there are multiple pairs of missionaries in one ward, but I´ve never been in one. Maquehue(spelling?) is the name of the ward where I´m going in Padre de las Casas, and there are two sets of missionaries there. The elders and us.

Mom´s questions:

¿Cómo esta mi español, mama?
-Esta bien. Hermana Holt y yo hablamos lo mejor Spanglish del mundo, pero también he aprendido muchas reglas de español otra vez por causa de ella. Estaba estudiando inglés antes de la misión, entonces le gusta corregir mis congugaciones y cosas.

Why were the firemen walking? Did their truck break down?
No! That´s the funniest part! We were around the corner from the firestation, and the siren sounded and the truck sped around the corner. About two minutes later, five or six firemen ran around the corner and started hitchiking. People stopped, picked them up, and followed the truck. I´m not sure why... I do know the truck looked smaller than American ones. perhaps there´s not enough space in there for all of them?

Oh... and seriously, I´d love to recieve a recipe for awesome cookies.
We´re gonna just chop up a candybar instead of use chocolate chips.

Well... that´s it for now. Keep sending your stuff to the office address. It´ll still get to me. And... THANKS for Monica and Mark´s Wedding announcement! I don´t even know if she recieves this. But I want to make sure she knows how very happy I am for both of them. :) Who´s next to get married? Sam Gay?! When does her boy come home? And... Melanie´s still got awhile. Hmmn... JASON! He hasn´t written me for awhile, maybe that´s why... ¡Que interesante!

Love you all.
Keep the Faith.
Don´t Stop Believing.

1 Corinthians 10:13 :)

Hermana Amy Dianne Loveless.


PS- Photos are Hna Holt and I with Rina... my Mom away from Mom in San Pedro and the owner of the puppy that followed us home and is now recovering from a bruised hip caused by a car hitting her... That was traumatic, but she´s great now.

And the second is of us with the Patriarch and his wife. I´d say they´re pretty typical chilean. :D And amazing Latter-Day Saints
.