Politics? Ay, no.

I love the mission. I'm learning so much that I can't even explain. Every day is so hard but so good. 

This week Chile had elections. I literally know nothing about Chilean politics. Partly because we aren't allowed to talk about politics as missionaries, partly because I don't know political words in Spanish, so even when people talk about it against our wishes, I don't understand. We dedicated this Thursday to contacting in a particular street, and were literally interrupted by a parade. A parade of cars with flags and political banners, honking and blasting music. There are some things you just can't even plan for. 

We also only had Sacrament meeting this Sunday, due to the elections. Every 3rd Sunday we have mission-themed Sacrament meeting. And since we only had the one meeting, we decided to do a musical number with us 4 Hermanas and the ward missionaries. We talked a little bit before the meeting, and planned to sing a hymn. I was playing prelude when the 1st counselor, who was conducting, asked me what hymn we would sing. I thought he meant the musical number, so I told him. But he was actually asking for what could be the opening hymn. When we started the meeting and he announced we would sing 163, Mirad Reales Huestes, we all looked at each other not knowing what to do. I was at the piano and decided to just go with it, assuming that we wouldn't have an intermediate musical number. But they still announced later that we would be singing. Yikes. We started searching frantically for a hymn and finally chose one. When it was time, we all went forward to present our "special musical number". It was indeed quite special. Hermana Rodriguez played a beautiful flute introduction to "El Amor del Salvador" (Our Savior's Love). But when it was time to start singing, I didn't hear anything. There was a miscommunication and the others were looking at "Dios da Valor" (God Speed the Right). We got to about the 3rd verse before everyone figured it out. Hermana Rodriguez stopped playing the flute halfway through the first verse to start singing, and I tried to sing as well. This lowered the quality of the piano playing greatly. I also don't know the words. It became apparent that the others were not, in fact, familiar with that hymn. In my 3 months here in Tomé, we've been gaining the trust of the members. They've seen my progress as a missionary and with my Spanish, they've seen us bring people to church and have been with us in lessons. But as we were singing that hymn, I saw all that trust tumbling down like the tower of Babel. We aren't sure now if we should do another musical number to cover up the damage, or if we should just request emergency transfers. 

I'm definitely lying about the emergency transfers part. I love every day in Tomé more. I'm also really grateful to be here because it doesn't get too hot. The sun is really strong, though, due to Chile's location and elevation. Basically everyone we talk to, members, investigators, people we talk to in the street, asks me if I use sunscreen. "Yes," I reply. Did you hear that, mom? I use SPF 50 as my daily face moisturizer. 

Really, folks, I never know what to say at this point. I could tell you about every person I've talked to here and what I've learned from them, but obviously there's not time for that. I'll just say that I learned this week a lot about the importance of preparation, the blessings of diligence, the difference an attitude makes, and what it really means to act in faith. 

I love you all and I hope this email finds you incredibly well. 

Love, 

Hermana Glazier

The First Real Cambio

Photos: the complications of fitting another bed in the room

Celebrating last p-day with us 4 at Mega Churrasco. Mmmmmm.

There are now 4 Hermanas in our ward. 6 Hermanas in our house. It's been a crazy week, and I'm loving every second.

I'm not going to lie, it's been a little bit harder having 6 people and 1 shower. But other than that we're doing just great with 2 more missionaries here! 

My new companion is Hermana Rodriguez, from Guatemala. It was sad to say goodbye to my "mom", Hermana Suárez, but I am extremely happy to be with her. She radiates with a loving spirit and I already know this will be a great cambio. 

The great moments of the week:

We were visiting a less-active family one night and I used their restroom. I almost left the house with my skirt tucked into my tights. Luckily I figured it out before anyone saw, but they saw my reaction and knew exactly what happened. I'm grateful that I didn't go outside like that, but if that family never comes to church again I guess we know why. 

One night there was a temblor (tremor) that was apparently pretty strong. The other hermanas woke up kinda freaked out, but I slept right through it.  I woke up to Hermana Suárez shouting, "Hermana Glazier! Hermana Glazier!" (I sleep on the bunk above her and she thought I was freaking out up there. Turns out it was just an earthquake).

I wish I could sufficiently explain the greatness of the mission, but I will never be able to. So I will just leave you with the reassurance that I am loving it here in Tomé, Chile, and I know that the Lord's way is the best way. 

Love you all, Hermana Glazier

Meeting with all the Hermanas in the zone. 

Hermana Rodrigues and Hermana Glazier

                                                Me with President and Hermana Arrington

In Tomé, to Stay, for Another Day, Along the Way, What Else Can I Say...

Tomé has lots of rhyming words. Love that. 

I have completed 3 months in the country of Chile. What. 

3 months = 2 cambios. And, as you already figured out (hopefully) from the title, I'm staying in Tomé! Along with the rest of our zone! A lot of people are coming here, so no one is leaving Tomé. Crazy right? 

I am incredibly excited for that, because I love the members here. And the fact that we have an ocean view from our house doesn't hurt either. But most of all, I'm excited to continue working with some people that have made great changes and spiritual progress in their lives thanks to the Gospel. 

There will be some changes, though. Hna Suárez and I are now dividing our sector! She will have a new companion, and I will have a new companion. I'm pretending I'm not nervous about that part. I'm excited because our sector is really big, but I'm not sure how I'll do without Hna Suárez. I know I won't be alone, but I'm going to have to focus and work a lot harder. And the part I'm most worried about, we're going to have 6 hermanas sharing 1 tiny bathroom. I'll let you know how that works out. 

The miraculous part is, we kind of had a test trial this week. We had mini-missionaries for 4 days - young women from another stake that live the norms of the mission with us for a few days to get a little bit of the experience. My companion had an incredible attitude, even though 90% of the time all of our plans fell and we were just knocking doors or talking to people in the street. I learned that I still have a long way to go, but I was also able to feel a lot more confident in my abilities as a missionary because I had to practice doing everything. The Lord knows us better than ourselves, and I know that this cambio I'm going to continue learning even more. 

I hope this email isn't too serious...here are some of the fun, unimportant moments of the week:

Hna Suárez had her birthday! Woohoo! we came home to a clean (ish) house (gracias to the other hermanas in our house) and decorations. And then 3 different people gave us an entire cake. We ate a lot of cake. 

(Mom don't read this one you'll get worried) With my mini-missionary, a dog tried to bite me. It only got my boot, and I was perfectly fine. But before I realized that I screamed at the top of my lungs and everyone in the street looked at me. Later when we met up with my companion and her mini-missionary, she was super worried. Someone who recognized us had told her that a dog bit me. She was worried that I was in the hospital or something, stuck without any means of communication. Luckily nothing happened, but I felt bad that she was so worried all day!

We had a tea party last night (for the 20 minutes of free time that we had) to celebrate the last day of the cambio.

Probably the best moment of the whole week was when we got a new faucet. Our old was was literally the worst kitchen faucet I can imagine. It broke, which was intially kind of a bad thing. But then we got it replaced and now we have a better one. So. It's up to you all to interpret the deep life lesson there.

I have also included in this email photos of a typical Chilean lunch. In case anyone was wondering.

"The work is true amen". - Laurence Glazier. 

Love you all, more next week (obvi). 

Hermana Glazier

I Feel Good. I Feel Great. I Feel Wonderful.

(if the Glazier fam doesn't know what that's from, I will be so disappointed). 

Once again, the majority of our appointments fell this week. But I feel just as good, if not better, than I have for the whole mission so far. I can NOT believe I'm about to complete 3 months in the land of South America. So many of my attitudes and ideas have changed and I have learned an incredible amount about what faith really means. I'm just starting to see how much more I really have to do to become the missionary I want to be. 

I still miss some things about America though. Example: garbage service. The garbage collection is on strike in Tomé. And they don't even have trash bins, they just put it on the curb in bags. So. Yeah. I won't elaborate any further. Just know that I am still alive. And appreciate your trash bins back home!

Yesterday was Ward Conference. It's a big deal here, because a lot more people come than normal Sundays. We were talking about it and preparing the whole week before. I remember growing up I didn't actually understand what Ward Conference was until I was in young women's. It was a great meeting, and I got to play piano with the kid's choir that sang the musical numbers. I play piano every Sunday, but this was extra fun. 

Fun moment of the week was when we went to lunch at a member's house and he started talking about his copies of The Books of Mormons (I will never be able to decide how to say it). He has it in 98 different languages! We spent some of our study time to take the pictures, but hey, it's language study time anyway . . .and there I am, with the two that I can read. 

Love you all, keep sharing the Gospel and being good!

Love, Hermana Glazier

p.s. Happy Halloween!

Pulgas in my Pantys

Don't worry, "pantys" means "tights" here. But obviously you understand why Hermana Harris and I laughed a ton when another Hermana said that exact phrase. (Pulgas means fleas. Speaking of which, I haven't had a huge problem. I got a few bites, but I started actually using bug repellent at night and I'm good now).

That's the subject for this week because this week was just plain weird. 90% of our appointments fell, and we were usually without solid plans. The weather kept changing suddenly from hot to rainy. We had to spend a lot of time in a new population with rows and rows of completely equal houses. They're like white boxes with one color. It feels like being in a movie from the future. Our Sunday was spent walking down eerily deserted rainy streets to pick up investigators for church, none of which ended up coming. And best of all, we had the lesson of all lessons. There's a couple that we had visited one time and were really interested. When we went back, however, there was another person. THE BROTHER. 

I'm close to 97.9% sure that he was drunk. And I'm 10,000% sure that he's not interested in going to church. But he was very eager to participate in the lesson. It only took him about 5 minutes to get to a marriage proposal. He asked Hna Suárez first, then me, and when we said no, asked if we would both marry him. He continued to talk the rest of the time we were there. The couple laughed, but still seemed interested, so we explained the Book of Mormon as quickly as possible and claimed we had another appointment (the fact that all our other plans had fallen through is irrelevant here). I grabbed my scriptures, grabbed my bag, and as soon as we were out of the apartment literally ran down the stairs into a rainstorm. We continued walking, laughing, questioning what in the world just happened. It wasn't the most productive night, but we learned a few valuable lessons. First of all, the Spirit is absolutely essential in lessons. Second, never assume anything about people or lessons prematurely. Third, beware the drunk brother!

I hope all is well back home, and I hope your week was less strange than mine. Love you all, don't forget to pray!

Hermana Glazier

Photos: I was super lazy about photos this week, so here's a foggy view from the future-tupperware-house population.

AND I DON'T EVEN CRY.

So basically the only news for this week . . .

Cousins reunited at last!!!

I was less than excited today because we had to come to Concepción yet again (we've had to come almost every monday) to do my visa. We had a zone activity this morning and we walked to a tunnel. It was cool, but nobody knew that it was actually super far away and we ended up walking for about an hour in the sun. Then we had to leave to come to Conce before lunch, but when we got here the Policia was closed. Then another Hermana called and said that we had to come to a specific internet place, not the one close to the Policia. So, the two of us and our achy feet trudged across Conce, tired, sunburned, starving, and sweaty. We changed into our skirts in a sketchy little bathroom and went to search for the Hermana who said we needed to come here. Learning that she wasn't, in fact, here, wasn't exactly encouraging. But then it only took one thing to change my whole entire attitude - I saw, peeking out of a little blue and orange cubicle, HERMANA OLDROYD. 

No. NO WAY. IT CAN'T BE. Yeah, I cried. What's your point? 

The point is, actually, that this is the theme of the week. Whenever I have a day that seems to be super fome (lame), something good happens if we just keep going. The Lord will always bless us with happy moments if we look for them and persevere. 

I love you all, keep doing good things!

Love, Hermana Glazier

Hint, hint.

GENERAL CONFERENCE! Am I right?

Not much time this week, so I just want to give a quick thought from General Conference. I ended up having to watch it in Spanish, even though I was told otherwise (cough cough, thanks a lot Elder Brown). But it was still the absolute highlight of my week. It was just what I needed. Despite the fact that I missed probably half of what I heard, I got answers to a lot of things I've been trying to figure out. And I got way pumped to just go out and work even harder. That's the power of listening to the prophets, folks. 

Who can guess what my favorite talk was? Hint hint, Saturday. Hint hint, afternoon. Hint hint, ELDER BALLARD. Talk about missionary encouragement, right? I don't ever remember hearing a general authority talk directly to the full-time missionaries, so that was cool. But he gave something important to the rest of the members as well. An invitation to talk to someone about the church before Christmas.

Guys. This is a big deal. Missionary work is so important. And all of the focus right now is moving towards working with members, instead of thinking of it as two separate groups of people. We're all still members of the same church, right? So we need to work together. The Gospel is the most important thing we could ever have, and because we are blessed with the knowledge of it, we must share it. Don't be afraid. That's really the only message I want to send home this week. YES, it includes you Utah peeps.

Anyway, love you all, keep moving forward and go out and share the Gospel!

Hermana Glazier 

Photos:

We were walking past the house of the member who does our laundry, and I got really excited to see my socks hanging there. 

Surreal view of the ocean!

 Love my compañera!

                                                                                  Hold to the rod, folks.