"Robbery" Numero Uno, Sleep Talking In Spanish, and TRANSFERS!!!

¡Hola Familia y Amigos!

Holy freaking HECK these past two weeks have been inSANE! I don't even know where to begin. Missions are crazy.

Two weeks ago, Hermana V. and I were walking around in Santiago contacting. Contacting is where you basically just talk to everyone and introduce yourself as a missionary. I contacted this lady who was selling fruit on the corner of the street and when the conversation started lagging I sort of panicked and was like, "hey can I buy some grapes!?!" Bought some grapes and she committed to come to church so that was that. So there we were, walking around with a bag of grapes, sweating, and looking for more people to contact. We started talking to this guy named Domingo who is super atheist and has no interest in the church yet he always calls us over to talk to him. To make a long story short, he gave us a mango. For those of you that know me well, I love mangos. So that REALLY put a skip in my step. So THEN there we were. Hermana V. with a mango and I with a bag of grapes. We contacted another house, which was the cutest experience of my LIFE, and then out of nowhere we turned around to find a really angry woman standing in front of us. She was dressed really weird, wasn't wearing any shoes, and was trying to get us to buy this notebook. When we told her she wasn't interested she got really angry and told us to give her the mango. Hermana V. is nicer than I am because she totally handed over the mango. We walked maybe 10 more steps before we ran into ANOTHER angry lady who looked just like the last one, but this time she talked to me. I think she thought she could fool the gringa. She told me she really liked my water bottle and wanted it, but I thought she was talking about the grapes.....so I guess she did fool the gringa now that I think about it. I told her no......because what the heck. Then she pushed me for the grapes again. And I said no......because what the heck. Then, and I kid you not, she said "¡Dame DOS uvas!" which translates to "Give me TWO grapes!" Hermana V. nudged me and told me I had to do it, which I thought was really dumb but it's fine. I reached into my bag, grabbed two grapes, and off the lady went. Come to find out, gracias a Hermana V., the women were gypsies. Hermana V. told me we need to be really careful with gypsies because they work with the devil but then I told her I'm a representative of Jesus Christ so the gypsies ain't got nothing on me. Which is true. But then I was reading in Mosiah in my personal study later where King Benjamin counsels the people to give to the poor and all that so talk about being humbled.

Transfer calls came and they were a total shock. Hermana V. and I were freaking out waiting for the clock to hit 6 (because that's when the calls come). I was really feeling like I was going to stay in Santiago and she really felt like she was going to leave so when I got the call and was told I was being transferred to JUJUY, Ciudad de Nieva (12 hours north!) to be companions with Hermana HORTON (gringa) I was shocked! But, I was really excited. Jujuy is everyone's dream in the mission and this past week and I have come to understand why. I LOVE it here! My last night in Santiago I woke up Hermana V. and another hermana to tell them how nervous I was about transfers.....except I was asleep. So basically I have yet to dream in Spanish but I'm fluent-ish when it comes to sleep talking. I just about died when Hermana V. told me what I said during the night.

Missed my first bus to get to Jujuy...........which was really frustrating and is a whole other story so I caught a later bus, alone, and traveled 12 hours north. When I got into the terminal in Jujuy, there were no missionaries to be seen. So that was also a fun adventure. But all is well now. Hermana Horton and I are best friends. We have bikes in our area and Jujuy is literally hills upon hills upon hills so I'm actually dying but it's ok. We have some AWESOME people we're teaching and everyone is SO nice and the members are so excited to work with the missionaries all the time. I. Love. It. Here.

Our second day together in Jujuy Hermana Horton and I got PELTED by a rainstorm but we had a ton of appointments we had to catch so we threw on some ponchos and made the rest of our visits. We looked ridiculous and I would kill to watch the reaction of these teenage boys who opened their front door to us over and over again. Two soaking gringas with helmets over their ponchos. Third day a dog decided to use Hermana Horton's leg as a toilet. That was hilarious. Fourth day Hermana Horton used a very inappropriate word during one of our lessons. She went to say the word "pain" in Spanish but she accidently said another word that sounds pretty similar and I almost fell over. We bond over deep doctrine and funny stories. Every night we stay up about two hours later than we should talking about deep doctrine. Our conversations are pretty intense. We removed a hornets nest outside of our apartment window (on the sixth floor) using a mop. Hope no one was down below. Bought cool bracelets from these hippies that travel around the world collecting rocks and stones. And she convinced me to do something I was really against doing in the mission..........see attached photo. Surprise :)

Things have really flipped for me and while I'm still struggling to learn Spanish, I'm learning how to enjoy the mission. I know Hermana Horton needs to be my companion and I am so happy I get to serve the people of Jujuy.

Read the Book of Mormon this week and wish my mom and Grandma Gogo a happy late birthday for me. I love them.

Love love loveeeee,

Hermana McKinlay