Greetings From Santiago!

Hello! Wow, it feels like so much time has gone by. It´s only been a week! ah! So, I just want to say thank you fpr all the emails I received! They were very encouraging! Thank you, thank you!!! Ah! So the the flights here were all ok. It was so weird saying goodbye to Mom at the gate in Long Beach. It was probs one of the hardest things I have had to do so far in my life. Give my precious mamasita one last hug and leave her for the next eighteen months. But! I want you all to know I am soooo happy! I am sooo happy to be a missionary! It´s the best thing ever!! Yes, the rumours are true, I am in a native district (I guess it´s not really a rumour if I told you, lolzz). I have two companions. Hermana Rivero from Argentina and Hermana Piriz from Uruguay. They are awesome. They talk really fast and they have strong accents. It´s been fun. Haha. So we are in class all day, and it´s been so fun and crazy. I will not lie, the first two or three days were really, really hard. My district lives in the Alcantara casa which is about 15 minutes away from the CCM. It´s a really beautiful house that used to be owned by the government or something. But yeah, it´s good. So about the second day of classes at the ccm, I was feeling realllllly homesick.  I was pretty stressed haha. My teachers understand that I am an American, and they try and speak a little more slow so I can understand. But this one morning I just could not understand what was going on at all. I felt really sad and discouraged because everyone could make comments and participate, but it took me forever just to translate something in my head and figure out how to say a simple comment. So I think my teacher looked at me and asked me a question, like if I was understanding him, and I TOTALLY LOST IT. OH my heck!!! I started to cry. Only it was really embarassing because it was the type of crying where you like heave and breathe really heavily and you start hiccuping. haha and so one hermana in my district came over and tried to give me some water, so i took a drink but because i was doing the whole heaving i can´t breathe properly thing, I SPAT IT OUT ALL OVER MY DESK AND ALL OVER MY SKIRT.....CAN YOU BELIEVE IT??!!. Because that´s what happened. hahaha thinkiing about it now, i just laugh. I have really had to put my trust in Heavenly Father. I feel him close to me. I love him ,and I am so honoured to be a representative of his church.

So I am not sure if i am going to stay for just the two weeks, or if I will stay longer.....we´ll see. Thanks to all who have prayed in my behalf. We get to go to the Santiago Temple today! I am so excited! I love the temple! I love Chile! .....I´m  pretty sure I might just move back here and marry a Chilean man. We´ll see lolzzzz.

The food here in the CCM is great. But they feed us so many carbs! Like every meal it´s rice, mashed potatoes, some of meat or chicken, or pasta. They call noodles, fideo. When I first asked a worker what it was called she told me, and I thought of Grandma Ana...so presh! Last night they had salmon, and I remembered the salmon we bought at Costco that I never got to eat before I left haha. I guess last night makes up for it.

The Spanish is coming along so so! It is challenging being completely surrounded by it all day every day! Even at the Alcantara casa when I am in my room with my companions it´s all just spanish. it´s good. I feel more comfortable expressing myself in Spanish now. Sometimes I just start speaking in English and my companions are like wait what are you saying?? Slow down, speak spanish we don´t know what you are saying. And I´m like THAT´S ME LIKE EVERY DAY. haha.

i am so happy here! It was not until after I left that I realized how much I love my family!! I loooooooove my family soo much! I love my precious mamasita, my father (Sup, Dave!), Monty, Zachy, and Madi! Love you all! I am not close to you physcially, but please know that I think about you often. I pray for you all daily!

Heavenly Father is real. I know He lives. He loves us perfectly. He knows us perfectly. If we ever feel discouraged, all we need do is pray to Him. I know he will send us the comfort and peace we need to feel. I testify that Jesus Christ lives. He gave his life for us. He loves us, and he will always love us no matter what! What a wonderful message!

It´s all good. So yeah! Every night I sleep with the blanket Audge made me. I love it! It´s so warm and cozy! And I keep all your little notes under my pillow every night. My family is so dear to me. I cannot wait to come home and hug you all. But for now....CHILE!! Ah! I am so excited! Every day I wake up, and I thank my Heavenly Father that I am in Chile. It´s so great. Yo yo, a great scripture is Doctrine and Covenants Section 31 verse 13 (I think). Lift up your hearts and rejoice! All seven of the hermanas (including me) in my district say this every day. Whenever we feel stressed or whatever, we just say Alza tu corazon y regocijate!! Life is so good!

I had a paper with all the things I wanted to tell you...but i left it at the house... haha.....uh, next week! LOVE YOU ALLL I AM IN CHILE AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Love,

Hermana Mittleman (legit!)