Day 2 & 3

The past two days have been kind of a blur. We woke up on Saturday, packed our bags up in the hotel room and cruised down to Provo to pick up my sister so she could take us to the airport. I don’t think either of us really felt like we were taking off and leaving the country, but we did! We had a 3 hour layover in Dallas and ate donuts as our last American food before leaving the country. They were great! Then we hopped on a non stop flight to Santiago! I tried to read some of my books for classes on the plane, but I couldn’t pay attention, and finally I just fell asleep. I was in and out of consciousness the whole flight, but poor Sarah didn’t sleep at all, so she was wiped out when we got to Santiago.

This is us just as we landed in Santiago. So yeah, we look gross, but we were EXCITED to get here to Chile!!

We arrived this morning and had to go through customs and all that jazz. It took forever, but luckily I didn’t have to pay an entry fee again. To get into Chile you have to pay an entrance fee of $131 U.S. dollars. (It was only $100 when I came for the mission) But apparently its only once per passport, so I can come in and out of Chile without a fee until 2015! Exciting I know.

We finally got to where our bags were and then we headed out to the crowd of people waiting for people coming off flights. It was a mad house and I was really nervous we weren’t going to find Hermano Nunez. We walked away from one side and I saw a man and felt like he was the one (I had seen a picture of him, but it was a couple of months ago and he had glasses on) I almost walked passed him, but then felt like I should ask him if he was Valentin. He was and we were thankful. IT IS SO HOT! When we got off the plane at 10 a.m. it was 75 degrees, it has only gotten hotter, but it’s cooling down now that it is later in the day. Hermano Nunez took us from the airport straight to the church, so it was a little embarrassing to show up in jeans and a stinky t-shirt I had been wearing for two days, but it was nice to get to church. The ward seems so friendly and welcoming. They made sure to get our email addresses to send us information on activities and what not. I am excited to serve there as well as in the center.

After church we stopped by the center where we will be spending most of our time and took a little tour. It seems really nice and though our instruction room is really tiny, I am excited for the workshop that starts on Tuesday. We still don’t know if we are actually going to teach it, but we will have a better idea tomorrow of what our weeks are going to be like. We went and grabbed some bare essentials for eating and headed to the apartment after that.

Our apartment is tiny, but really cute. It’s a nice size for the two of us and there is definitely ‘enough and to spare’ J After Hermano Nunez left, Sarah was so tired she slept, but I for some odd reason had a lot of energy, so I got as much of my stuff put away as I could without hangers, then I took the most glorious shower of my life and read a little bit. I called a friend from the mission and he came and hung out with us. It is so amazing to be back here and get to visit with my friends from the mission. It is going to be hard trying to balance school work, work in the center, and socializing, but I am sure that if I keep the shoulder to the wheel I’ll be able to do it all. I’m really excited to get to the center tomorrow and scope things out. Today feels like the best day ever. I’m hoping each day feels like that.