Week 55/76 Semáforo Means Stoplight Not Fruitstand

Hey everyone, its been a minute, how are you guys? Surprise Thursday email for cambios!! 

Its been a crazy week and a half. We met Graciela and Laura, a mom and daughter who accepted a baptism date for this month! Graciela was baptized in the catholic church, but never confirmed, she said she is very excited to finally complete this spiritual step, and feel whole after all these years! Then, when a sister in the branch shared her testimony that Christ lives, Graciela said that she had cried when she was younger because she had been taught that Christ had died, and to know that her Savior lives was a huge answer to her prayers! They've been a little MIA this week, but we're not giving up hope. 

We also met Hermes, the neighborhood friend of the second counselor and cousin of the relief society president. He said he would come to church, then somehow got lost in camino, but next week we will walk together.

We did some more window washing, this time for our friend Carmen, and even though we had already eaten lunch she gave us a tupperware of roast and potatoes to take home. 

Does everyone remember that couple I mentioned a few weeks ago that had set a date for their wedding and baptism? 

Well they got married and were baptized on Friday! Even though I was only a pequeña part of their conversion, it has made me so happy to see them step onto the convenant path. 

Spring in Chile is so pretty! Flowers of every color, lots of butterflies, and rico sol! 

I've especially loved the snap dragons growing everywhere that remind me of my great grandmas house! 

An inactive member and her husband spent the whole lesson showing us pictures of the Saratoga Springs, Provo, and Provo City Center temples. All the while explaining how they are planning to move to Utah and I'll be able to watch the rest of their family be baptized when I get home from my mission. They are very set on that, and refuse to come to church and be baptized in Yungay. Those lucky missionaries will be recieving a golden referral! They also gave us 30 free eggs, and that was a highlight of the week! 

I forgot that Chile is still part of the Americas, just south. And everything was closed for Columbus day, so we got up early, got dressed to go do service with our zone, and the bus terminal was empty. 

But we enjoyed our morning walk and then had a picnic for lunch. 

On Monday we recieved transfer news and have spent the last 3 days saying goodbye, packing, and trying all the good things Yungay has to offer. Including but not limited too: Mote con Huesillo, ice cream, visiting a bunch of inactive members, seeing horses and cows, and eating sushi! 

It has been a crazy 6 months in Yungay and now its time to start a new adventure even further from the coast, in Linares, where I'm going to finish training another hermana! 

A funny story from Yungay to finish my email:

The old building they used as the church in yungay has now been turned into a fruit and veggie market. It's a huge building that's been painted bright green. Everytime I heard people talking about it they'd be like "oh yeah when the church was where the semáforo is". So I thought that they were referring to the fruit stand. Come to find out, that semáforo means stoplight. There's only one stoplight in all of Yungay and the green fruit stand is on the corner of the intersection. When the members said the church was where the semáforo is, they were saying that the church was by the stoplight. 

Understandably I got a few strange looks from strangers as I told them that the old church was in a stoplight. It only took me 5 1/2 months to figure it out. 

I just arrived in my new sector and it is so pretty! I think I'm going to melt with the spring/summer heat, but I'm so excited! 

-Hermana Pratt