Milagros Tras Milagros

3/1/2019

 I am here in Chile!! It is starting to feel real now, hahaha. I will get to talking about Chile, but first I need to tell you the miracles that happened on the way there.

So last time I mentioned that I had to mail my spit across the country in order to get a Covid test. Well, the package that had the test was delayed because of the weather. It needed to reach Utah by Wednesday morning in order for me to get the results back in time, and the package tracker said it would *maybe* get there Wednesday night. That wasn't fast enough because I left Thursday at 12pm. On Wednesday, I recieved an email that said if it was possible, I should try to obtain a Rapid PCR Covid test locally. This is the most accurate test that you get back in 30 minutes or so instead of 2 days.

Our mission medical coordinator Sister Smedley was calling every medical center in our mission to see if they did the test. One even gave her a list of 10 or so places that could have it. They all said they didn't do the rapid PCR test, only the regular PCR test. When she called us to tell us there were none in our mission that administered the test, a name of a clinic came into to her mind that she didn't think of before. She told us, "hold on, there's one more place I need to call." She called us back and said that it had the test.

Well, this medical center happened to administer the rapid PCR test. It also happened to be an ER, so we didn't have to make an appointment. It also happened to be in Lorton, about 10 minutes away from our apartment.

We got there around 9:30pm. It wasn't busy at all. There was no one in the waiting room. The lady at the front desk told me she'd have to create a new record for me, which would take some time. Well when she started to put in my information, I was already in the system! They had my records from when I was a baby, 20 years ago!! They also initially balked at my insurance but everything worked out just fine. 

They poked my brain a little (not really, just my sinuses) and we waited about 30 minutes for the results. We got home at about 11pm, tired, happy, and with a negative test result.

Oh yeah and the doctor was super nice, he told me about an Elder who came in one time who accidentally got high off of cough syrup and was speaking to him in Chinese.

I don't believe that any of these things were coincidences, there are just too many things that "happened" that made it a miracle.

Well, on Thursday, I made it to the Dulles airport with sufficient time, talked to a member who worked at TSA for a bit. Also helped a lady who didn't speak English very well find her terminal. Thanks to my time teaching people in English in Alexandria, I can understand thick African accents pretty well! 

I flew for 3 hours to Houston. I was able to read scriptures on the plane for a bit.

In Houston I helped a boy who spoke Spanish get on the right train. The trains were having issues but fortunately I was able to get to my gate about 5 minutes before boarding started! I met up with about 12 other missionaries there and sat there with them until we could board.

The flight was sooo long but I made it.

We arrived bright and early at 8am on Friday. It was surprisingly easy to get through security and customs, immigration, and all that. Just took some time waiting.

We went to the mission office and met our mission leaders and their family! They are so cute. Their names are President and Sister Mitchell. They have 4 kids, the oldest is 13.

We hung out with them, the AP's, the other new missionaries, their companions for a few hours. It is very hot here. I love it. It doesn't seem like March! There were 3 other new Hermanas and 3 new Elders.

We rode with the office elders (who are from Chile) to our house. Let me just tell you that I am glad to not be driving. It would be difficult. Every time the Elder that was driving would take a short cut, go really fast, or something generally sketchy would happen, I would just look at the missionaries in the car that served in the US like, "yep we're in Chile"

President told us that one of the Hermanas, Hermana Pack, and I would be together in an area, and the other two would be together too. Hermana Pack and I both have 6 months in the mission, her Spanish is a little rough because she didn't speak Spanish at all unless it was in a lesson. That is wild to me. But she is very nice and has a great attitude. She is diligent. We share a house with two other Hermanas, Hermana Lago (from Peru) and Hermana Constant (from Chile). They are very sweet. But basically they are gone all day. We have to quarentine for 10 days. I really wonder how the other two Hermanas are doing, they've only been out for 4 months, and they are in their apartment alone.

So far so good! Honestly it has been okay! There have been a few adjustments but I'm doing all right. The second day I had to break in to our own house with a pair of gardening shears because I went outside with my copanion and shut the door.. I didn't realize that the back door didn't have a handle on it.... :|

I just had to pry open the latch.

And also the first day, the Hermanas left us and told us, oh, yeah, watch out for these little black, fat, spiders. If they bite you you have to go the hospital. And we were pretty nervous after that.

There are dogs barking basically every hour of the day, but I can still sleep because I'm exhausted.

Our kitchen is pretty nice, you have to light the stove with matches, and there isn't really a surface to work on.

Today our house Hermanas went shopping and bought us some food and Chilean treats :)

The Covid situatuion is actually better than Virginia, we can go to people's houses (after quarentine) but we can't proselyte. And members can bring us lunch. Lunch is the big meal here, not dinner. We're looking forward to the first one tomorrow!

Okay well this is super long! But I hope you all are doing great! Have an awesome week.

Hermana Smalley