So can I just say I love Chile?

I love Chile.

Okay I am sorry I am such a bad person: Happy birthday Gma & I know Sister Kozaks is coming up or just passed. I am not sure I left my calender in my suitcase on accident. SOO HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOVELY LADIES!

Oh btw I tried praying in English. Not possible.

So the 18th was kind of like Chile´s Indepence day. But not really.. They call is Primera Junta Nacionalde Gobierno. Not really even sure what that means. But they party hardy. They get 4 days off of work. Like the entire country shuts down. Its insane. So we got to go to the park thing and buy little prizes. I only bought two things. One for Taylor and one for Mom. But I will buy more sutff later dont worry. I only had 3 dollars on me. It was so much fun. And I ate my first empanda. EW. NASTY. No me gusta empanadas. Like no. But It was cool being able to talk to people and buy things.

Our district is being destroyed and reconstructed with a new district. But our named is still District 2. EL MEJOR.

Elder Cowan and our Brazialans are leaving us. I am so sad. Oh well life goes on.

THE BEST THING THIS WEEK.

My Mission President cam to the CCM and spoke to us. He is from Brazil and guess what. I understood everything he said. Guys I understand spanish!!! Feliz día. Anywho I felt like he was a celebrity. He was so sweet and his wife, even sweeter. I love them. love love love. When he came to speak to us at the devotional, he brought like a ton of elders with him. They all knew our names.

Their exact words ¨we have been praying for you and wating for you to come out into the field, we need you.´´

My heart just melted. I am sooooooo excited to go out into the field. Like I want to go now. NOW. NOW. Jk I sitll cant speak Spanish so I am scared.

I cannot believe I only have 2 more weeks left here. AH! Crazy.

Here is spiritual thought I want to leave with you:

I said this on Sunday after I watched on Elder Holland talk-

Be presistant. Remember the name you put on yourself every morning: Jesus Christ. We are His hands on this Earth. We need to be confident, loving, and as bold as He would be.

It doesn´t matter if you are a missionary or a member of the ward or a new convert or whatever. If you belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints you are given the responsibility to represent Him. At all times, in all things, and in all places.

I challenge each of you to pick a Christ like attribute and work on it this week. I am working on Obedience. And dang sometimes its hard to follow little silly rules. But I am trying my hardest to be as Christ was.

Want to talk to a friend about religion, here are some quesitons:

Do you believe in Chirst?

Why do you think Christ established a church when he was on the earth?

Would you have attended that church?

Would you attend His church if it was on the Earth today?

Great news! It is and you can attend this Sunday!!!!

You´re welcome. Just helpin when I can.

I love you and want all of you to read the Book of Mormon. It is so awesomeeeeeeeeeee. AWE-SOME. Read it. Like you´ll love it. I just know it.

K. Running oout of time.

I love you and am so happy here. I logged on and had 21 emails so sorry if I didnt respond :( I only have so much time!! But I love you all the same. thank you for everything!

Line of week:

Hermana Gibby dressed up in a really ridiculous outfit and sat on Hermana MacRaes bed and waited for her to get out of the shower.

Hermana MacRae´s response to seeing Hna. Gibby

¨You look like a Lamanite warrior¨

hahahhaha I just love them. Sista forevs.

Les amo! Gracias por sus oracions y por su amor. Yo pienso sobre ustedes cada día. Yo sé que esta iglesia es verdadera y esta iglesia es la iglesia de Jesucristo sobre la teirra hoy.

I love you! till next week!!!


<3

xoxo
Hermana Upton

Alright so this week flew by. Like I am not even sure where it went. Maybe to the other side of the country. Idk. Last Tuesday was Pday and we got to walk around the city. We found a grocery store named Liders. BEST PLACE EVER. It has so many American products. I am in love and buy secret stashes of chocolate. Shh dont tell. Today we are going there again and I am sending out some post cards. And I am buying more so people look forward to get some in  a few weeks.

Highlights of this week:

one of our investigators Carolina is getting baptized. HOLA at your girsl! We are shooting for the 15th of Octubre. A little info of all my investigators.

Carolina- was a Catholic. Likes her coffee. But she read the BOM and knows its true. So she is getting baptized. SHE IS GOLDEN.

Alejandro- 27 and a pain in my butt. He just does not care about us or our messaged. He is just taking the discussions for his mom and his gf. IM LIKE HELLO THIS IS YOUR ETERNAL SALVATION. Dont worry we are going to get him.

Roberto: inactive member. has stage 4 cancer and we are trying to get him to come back to church and remember that there is a life after this one.

Rafael- loves gringas....awk. He asked me if I had a bf. MOST DEF. STAY AWAY. He wants to be a rockstar and doesnt believe in God. Dont worry you will when we are done with you.

Remember how I fell on my face? Prime I know. Well I still have the bruises and scrapes. Yuck!

My District. D2. is the bees knees seriously we are going to be amigos por siempre! We are famous for our slang/catch phrases.

De nads- No prob

Me mal- My bad

Mismos- Samies

Toats- Totes

Paz fuera- Peace out

Historia verdad- True story

We famous. No big.

Also our Brazilians have some pretty funny one liners in English. I will share a few they say all the time. They probably wont make sense but I dont care.

Keep Calm!

Why would you take it!

I don´t speak english.

Mi districto es mi familia. Le amo.

I taught in Relief Society yesterday about Baptism and I got to share a little of my story. But something I focused on was the ability we have when we are baptixed to be Born Again. We dont always have to feel sad. We can start over by being born again into Christs restored chuch. Its amazing how bran new I felt when I joined this church. There is a life after this one. I know it with all my soul. Thank you for all of your prayers. They keep me strong every day. You are constantly in my prayers and I think about each of you all the time.

Spanish gets easier every day. I just use Elder Cowan as my walking dictionary. He speaks so much Spanish. Jelly belly. JK

OH THATS ALSO ONE OF MY SLANG WORDS.

instead of jk I say

 jota ke (hotu kay)

Soooo funny......

If I have learned anything from being here it is that The Lord will carry you in your afflictions. I know this is hard. I miss each of you so much, every day. But this will pass and Christ will never leave us alone. This is so worth it and I love it here.

I will go and do the things the Lord commands. And now I know it is His will that I am here in Chile. BRING ON THE CHILEANS.

Oh btw their spanish is so hard to understand I just shout at them LISTO LISTO! (Slow, slow!)

I love being here its amazing. I miss alot of this but I would not want to be anywhere else. I am here to helpe people come unto Christ and feel the sweet peace of being born again. I LOVE YOU ALL SOO SOO MUCH!

Two lines of the week this week:

1. ´´Elder Peel will you please bless the food´´

Elder Peel- ´´How do you bless it again´´

´´Bendice la comida´´

Elder Peel- ´´THATS WHAT WE´VE BEEN SAYING THIS WHOLE TIME.´´

#smh

2. This one takes some explaining so all the new elder came to AlCantara and a lot of them are latinos. So Elder Cowan in my disrtrict was trying to ask one of them to pass something down. Assuming he only spoke spanish he started speaking realllllly slowly and making giant hand gestures: ´´CAN....YOUUU...PLEASEEE...PASSS...THATTT... OVER HERRRREE´´

The Elder: ´´The yogurt?´´

Yup. He was from Cali and spoke perfect english. I WAS DYING! ahahha failure.

I love youu all. I smile and laugh every day.

So you keep smiling too.

Love you forever,

xoxo

Hermana Upton

Well I took lots of notes on what I wanted to say to you and then I left them in class. Hahah oops. Two important things:

1. I have no idea when I will be having P-day and email time. It changes every week

2. I have no idea what my address is so no one send me any mail until I leave the MTC. I have no idea whats going on here.... haha

This week was so bitter sweet. I have gotten to walk around the streets of Chile and it is beautiful. Its basically like LA, SLC, and NYC all in one. Just with a lot of Chileans instead of white people. But whatevs.

Everything is pretty cheap here and they have a lot of American stuff.

Food in the MTC. I want to die. I miss salad so much. They just feed you a bunch of carbs and there is BREAD AT EVERY MEAL. Even breakfast. My Spanish is so much better. I can actually understand conversations. And I can create complete sentences and alomst teach a lesson without having to look down at my notes.

One of our ´investigators´ is getting baptized. The other ones hates us. JK but they are guys and just feel weird around us...probably cus we wont date them? Im not sure haha.

My companionship is the best in the world. I love them so much. Although it is a little weird having to be with someone ALL THE TIME. I miss me time.

There are tender mercies every day, like going to sleep a littlbe earlier, meeting a cute little girls, getting brownies. The Lord loves his missionaries and my goodness does he spoil us so much.

I have never been so tired in my life. It is so stressful learning another language becuase I understand them but dont know how to reply. Im just like ohhh.....sí? hahaha

Oh well life goes on. Don´t worry about me getting fat. I run every morning and im actually losing weight.

Today was so sad because our roommates left for their missions. I was bawlingggggg. But we are getting a new group of missionaries tomorrow so we are going to be the new big sisters. There are only 10 of us right now in a house built for 50. Its so empty haha.

Oh and there are stray dogs everywhere. Like when I say everywhere. I mean every where. EVERY WHERE. And there are no squirells. Its so weird.

My district has become my new family. Its going to be so hard to leave them. Like I have no idea what I will do. It won´t be as hard as leaving home, but its going to be hard. They make me laugh every day and help my testimony of God´s love flourish.

I am healthy and so happy here. I am so excited for this journey and believe it or not I am not scared at all. There is a special comfort here that I know I will be taken care of.

The Gilberts keep us safe and sound. They are awesome, like a Ma and Pa.

There are two Brazilians in my district so I learned how to sind happy birthday in porteugese. GET ON MY LEVEL.

Oh and I pray every day in Spanish now. I don´t even remember how to pray in english.... its weird.

Sundays are my favorite days because I will do is watch church movies and go to church. LIKE THE BEST. And this Sunday I learned a lot of the things. First, the number of baptisms we get is not as important as the number of conversions. Jesus didnt go around during his ministry looking for people to merely get baptized. He was looking for real converted souls. This isn´t a race for who can have the most baptisms. But rather who can help bring people unto Christ. SO next time some one comes home from their mission ask them their favorite memory not how many baptisms they got.

Second, the Lord wants us to come from our missions with at least one convert. And that convert is US. Every thing we want for our investigators the Lord wants of us. You want them to be obeidient. The Lord wants you to be obedient. You want them to come unto Christ. He wants you to come unto Christ. We are the first and most important convert in thsi work.

I have such a testimony of this gospel and I will bare it in Spanish:

Yo se que esta iglesia is verdadera. Yo se que Dios vive y Él ama todos Sus hijos. Yo se que Jesucristo es mi Salvador y el camino a vivida eterno. Yo se que El Libro de Mormón es la palabra de Dios. Me amo este Evangelio con todos mi corazon. En el nombre de Jesucristo. Amen.

Pretty cool huh? Just use google translate to figure out what it said. Thats what I did all of highschool. oops. I don't have google translate now.... I just have a reallly fat dictionary hahaha.

I love you and can´t believe how many of you email me. I signed on with 19 emails. Like holy cow! Sorry I can´t respond to all of you there just isn't enough time. But I love you all so much and can't believe I am really a missionary! AHHHHHH.

More to come next week <3

Line of the week:

Elder Sousa (from Brazil)

"Shutup please"

In Brazil they prounounce syrup as shutup. I just about died.

Oh and we are teaching the Brazilians English. They are going to be trilingual.

I cannot believe I am going to speak another language. Like I do speak two lanuages....WHAT. Never thought I would make it this far. This gospel has blessed me so much. Started from the bottom now I´m here.

Love you and can´t wait to here from you :)

Oh and mama I sent you a letter this morning should get there in a few weeks. I LOVE YOU!

xoxo

Hermana Carly Upton

Week one: A La CCM: September 2, 2013

I have almost been here a week. So the time zone in the CCM (MTC) is really messed up. I feel like each day is a week. But at the same time this week went by fast. THE DAYS ARE SLOW, THE WEEK IS FAST. I am loving everyhting about Chile. I have to make some corrections:

I live in Alcantara. That is the house. Every one there is like a giant family. 

The food is interesting haha. I really miss spices. Everything here is really bland and salty. I drink SO MUCH water. And I eat all the fruit because I hate the desert here. So its acutally a blessing in diguise haha. I only have a half hour left to email so I will try and make this quick.

Learning a new language in a short ammount of time is indeed the hardest thing I have ever done. But I already have learned so much. I can have a pretty sucessful conversation. I know how to bare my testimony in spanish and I know how to pray in spanish. Prayers and testimonys in spanish are SO MUCH MORE BEAUTIFUL. It really is the language of love. jk no one has time for romance here. Its stricting eternal salvation.

Lets talk about Ceciela she does our laundry and is like the mom in the house you are afraid to mess with. She speaks no english. Speaking of speaking english...I can´t anymore haha. Learning spanish is messing up my english. So I can´t speak spansih and i can´t speak english.

THE STRUGGLE IS REAL.

My CCM President and his wife (Elder and sister Allread) as awesome. My Alcantara parents (Elder & Sister Gilbert) are awesome.

TAYLOR! I mean...Elder Kozak, Clara Johnson is here!!!!!!!!!!!!! She is the best.

Thank you for all of your letters. They are awesome and just make me smile and cry. I really love it here. It is winter and kinda cloudy. But I am constanly inside so don´t worry I am not getting sick.

Oh and girls coming to the CCM stay away fromt he bean soup spagetti. You can thank me later.

My District is THE BEST

Elder Cummings: District Leader and just a boss and his name is Hunter! And freaks out when people say Hunner. Reminded me of my BIL <3 shoutout to Hunter Kozak. Miss you best friend.

Elder White: Sweetest guy ever, he reminds me of a teddy bear

Elder Horne: uhmmm haha. kinda off but he really loves people and never judges anyone like ever

Elder Sousa: He is fron Brazil. I never understand him but he is awesome

Elder Amorim: Also from Brazil and can never understand him

Elder Peel: Has a twin named PORTER! I know.

Elder Cowan: he is from Mesa and is just a great guys

Mi Compañeras:

Hermana (sister) Macrae: basically Emma Heywoods twin. She is from Canada and talks weird so we always make fun of her.

Hermana Gibby: She is so awesome and knew Jacque Bench my roommate at BYU. We make fun of her last name

We are just all immature here. Sorry not sorry.

I went to the temple on Saturday (don´t worry I got English headphones) it was amazing. What I love about the church is that it is the same all over the world. like this has to be the true church. no other church is like this.

A quote I wanted to share: Miracles happen when you do waht most missionaries wouldnt.

We have three investigators: Caroline, Ismael, and Alejandro.

We taught Caroline is Spanish.....so rough. I understood everything she said. But did not know how to reply!!!!!!!!!! It was so dissapointing, but I am over it. You just have to move on. We stopped by Ismael´s house (oh btw guys our investigators are fake ahah they are our teachers, but the symblize real people they know and it is really helpful to be able to practice and treat them like real people).

Ismael went good! He has never had sister missionaries before

HOLLLLA AT YO GIRLS. Don´t worry Ismael we got your spiritual back.

Anyway, I am just about out of time. I love you all and want to share my Districts motto with you. We all love eachother and the Savior and are one grande familia

Nosotros vivimos nuestros vidas para Él porque Él dio su vida para nos.

We live our lives for Him because He gave His life for us.

I LOVE YOU ALL AND HOPE TO HERE FROM YOU ALL NEXT WEEK.

Kisses!

Line of the week:

Some Hermana at the lunch table: I´m 10% redneck....

Yeah she is weird.

Oh and no pics this week lo siento (I am sorry). I forget my camera. ahahaha. Oops. Next week forsure. 

I love you all!

Espically Mom, Dad, Colby, Gma, Gpa, and the Kozaks.

Thanks for keeping my stuff up to date mama! I LOVE YOU. You are the best.

xoxo
Hermana Upton