Monday, March 24, 2014

Cow Hoof for Dinner - Sister Hannah Avery

Written by Sister Hannah Avery, serving in the Chile Vina del Mar Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking Spanish.

(Note to reader: Clicking on highlighted words links to additional information. Clicking on photos will enlarge them. Some names are omitted for privacy.)

Hello my family and friends!

Wow, we had a super crazy week this week! As you all know, it was my first week as a Sister Training Leader here in Achupallas. That means more responsibility, and more interchanges! We had interchanges with the Hermanas in Quilpue, and I was with Hermana Monzon, who is from Guatemala. She is super cute! We had a lot of success there and found she and her companion three more people to teach! Woohoo! The work of the Lord really progresses, no matter where we are in the world! It was really fun to get to travel outside of the area and get to know other people and places!
Getting ready to taste the cow hoof...

We also had Zone Conference this week with our Mission President. Can I just say that Presidente Kahnlein (the mission president) is AMAZING?! He truly is inspired. As you may already know, he invited every missionary in the mission to read through the Book or Mormon every day of this year, and finish it 4 times (every 3 months) and mark different things in it while we read. From January to March, we have marked up the "Doctrine of Christ" (faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end). We are a few days short of finishing up this round! These next 3 months (April to June) we are going to be marking a lot about Christ, the things that He said, did, and also obedience and commandments. It should be really great! I am excited to see a really organized, marked up Book of Mormon at the end of the year! haha!
What it looks like up close....





Ready for the crazy story this week?? Here it is.... I ate..... COW HOOF! Yes, it's for real, and I have proof in pictures and videos! haha! It was disgusting, for real. A member gave it to us to "try" and to be able to say, "we ate something weird while we were in Chile." LOL! Hermana Stewart and I were about gagging the whole time. But, it was a good experience. And now I can officially say that I ate cow hoof, which I never would have imagined in my whole life was possible! What are the weirdest things that you all have eaten??
Here goes nothing!

Oh! We scheduled four baptism dates with people this week! They are two married couples with babies. The ones that are absolutely awesome are M and M! They came to church yesterday, and are SUPER interested in eternal families and the temple! They had SOOO many questions and are super excited for their baptisms on the 19th of April! Then there is R and L (also married). Their first baby died at 5 months old and was in NICU his whole life. I told them that my brother, Jonathan, was also in NICU and shared my testimony of eternal families. Well, a few minutes later, they accepted a baptism date for the 19th too :) We are really happy that we are teaching complete families! AHH! We are soooo blessed!!!

Well guys, you are all awesome, seriously! You love and your support keeps me going everyday. Thanks soooo much! I love you all and miss you all so much! Sending prayers, hugs and love from Achupallas, Chile!!! Talk to you next week! ¡Ciao!

xoxoxoxoo Hermana Avery (aka: cow woman)

New Area - Mirador, Chile (March 17, 2014)

Homework (March 31, 2014)