Chili Dreaming

Gonna be a short email today so I can reply to all the people I didn't have a chance to last week! It was super awesome here as usual. We've started the first week of only Spanish speaking, so this and my journal writing is my only English escape for the next year and a half. Spanish is now officially my primary language. 0.0 scary stuff. The time is moving faster every single week. It's almost time for me to go to Chile! One more P-day I'm pretty sure. This time in two weeks I'll likely be getting ready to board the plane.

Funny thing this week: There was a lot but this one particularly tickled me.
Everyone discussing our favorite colors, I say mine is Yellow, and elder Cheney says to me, "yellow is my favorite color of all the colors that suck." Harsh words Elder Cheney. Harsh words...
Hermana Bullock and I are getting along super good. She reminds me a lot of myself mixed with Meredith. We're both very silly, and have been singing Dora the Explorer in Spanish everywhere. Did you know Dora teaches the little latino children English here? So cute.

We've been playing a lot of vollyball. Elder Cheney is pretty much a sloth because he can just reach over the next and spike it down with zero effort. I have bruises all over my arms from the volleyball though but it's worth it because I'm getting not awful.

Talk to you all next week!

Sister Ashlee Bowling
♥ from Chile!

Hola otra vez!

Third week down, a bunch more to go! I can almost start saying that I have 17 months left instead of 18! Not that I'm counting or anything. I have an hermana, sister Bullock actually, who helped me put it into words perfectly. I'm so excited to be an RM and have the amazing blessings of being fluent in Spanish and being able to talk to people and get along with different personalities and so on and so forth, but the in between part, the actual mission. Ehh. Haha, I really am excited to experience all of this and to help people, but honestly, I'm still pretty selfish right now. Sin embargo, the MTC is certainly helping me to change that. For the first actual time in my life, this is not about me. Everything I do is with the intent to help others. The language I'm learning and the things I'm teaching, the people i'm with, it's all to help me help others. It's really cool to think about and begin to feel.

We went to the temple! Today! It was incredible! It was a 45 minute drive that would probably 5 minutes of driving in Star Valley, but the roads are so crazy that it takes forever to get anywhere. I hate it! I'm glad I don't have to drive in Chile! Mexico City, honestly, is pretty cruddy. The buildings all have graffiti on them and it smells awful, like open sewage. But you pull up to the temple and the world falls away. The grounds are beautiful and the temple is so pure in contrast with the city. We wore headphones to hear the English, but I turned the volume down on mine so I could hear the Spanish words y English at the same time. It was really cool to hear how some common words like "bueno" used in such sacred context. Spanish is similar to English in that regard. One word can mean a lot of different things.

Speaking (of) Spanish, I'm starting to really get it. We learned recently in our Language lesson about past particles and how to say things had happened in different tenses. Language is actually becoming fun for me instead of a chore. I can feel the lords influence in my life and his blessing to learn quickly as I pick up on these different word endings and meanings. Languages are so cool! It's also nice because Spanish is actually incredibly easy. You know how English has exceptions for every single rule? Spanish has waaay less exceptions to most rules. For example, in this tense, add -ado or -ido to the end of the word. That's the rule. No exceptions. It's so cool! Memorizing is getting more and more easier the more I understand the grammar rules, which makes knowing more words easier, which makes memorizing even easier! It's a wonderful cycle of learning.

Jesus the Christ is the best book ever. Ever. I read it for personal study and it explains so much about the savior. Speaking of the savior, on Sunday we have a devotional. This time it was a recording of a talk Elder Bednar gave a few years ago. It's probably called the "The Character of Christ". It was incredible. Please guys, don't take me for granted here. Do you want to understand Christ? Do you have questions about who he is and how to be more like him? Does it feel incredibly impossible to ever live up to his amazing example? How can grace help me? Listen to Bednars Talk! I'm sure you can find it somewhere. He is a little more relaxed and personable I think because he's talking at the MTC in Provo, not general conference, and it's great. Mom, Dad, get me a copy of that talk somehow! Link it in a pdf so I don't have to go to another website! I want to read it every week! Also read Jesus the Christ. Amazing.

Wow this is long. Sorry.

Missionary humor. It's really not that funny to the average person, but we're missionaries and so we think it's realllly funny. A lot happened this week, but these are my most memorable and I'm running out of time.

Elder Christensen to Hma. Bullock, who was acting sad: "Hermana Bullock, do you need a handshake?"
While walking through the comador (no se how to spell), Elder Meiling was taking a picture with a latino Elder who was leaving the next day. I ran over and tried to photobomb, but missed and just ended up bumping into E. Meiling's shoulder. Everyone one "ohhh!"-d, because we're not supposed to touch one another. A few minutes later he came and sat by me, handed me a Castidad (chastity) pamphlet and told me to read and then pray about what I had done.

Have a great week! Thank you for your love and support! I love it here and love the people and love what I'm doing!

Sister Ashlee Bowling
♥ from Chile!

=)

Hma. Bullock likes snakes, so she had everyone in the district draw her one haha
Our teacher says we talk like Cavemen, cavernicola. "I am hungry. I want food now."

Sister Ashlee Bowling
♥ from Chile!

We're so cute haha. The mountain has houses crawling all over it!

Sister Ashlee Bowling
♥ from Chile!

First Week

Hola everybody! I hope to Jackson and Rebecca and Johnny this is okay if you get emails from me. I kind of didn't ask before I left haha, I just added you to my list of people.

Anyways, our first week. Holy cow so much happened and I don't know where to start. I guess I'll describe the MTC, or CCM as we call it. I don't remember what it means. My espanol is so bad.

It's incredible here. On our way from the airport to here we got to drive through Mexico City. What a crazy place this is. The buildings are rundown, the people look so impoverished. It was really cool though. There's a ton of people here! From the plane in the air all the way to the horizon was city. We're surrounded by two great big mountains with houses all the way up them. Look it up! It's really cool! We can see them from in the CCM! I don't really know how to describe the inside. It's very open and all the buildings aren't connected, so you walk outside to go from la casa to commedor(?) to the clase and so forth. It's like BYU, all the buildings are named after prophets XD. Even though it's the middle of winter it is so warm! Not uncomfortable. I doubt its ever gotten over 80`. It's the perfect temperature. The food is good also! I seriously can't even count the number of blessings I've gotten here. I'm usually so picky and so easily sick from the food I eat, but everything here has been good and I haven't been sick once, other than a little sore throat. There''s not much here, but it's obvious looking at the buildings outside of the CCM in Mexico City that we have it pretty darn great. The water in the CCM is all bottled water and is safe to drink, but I don't know how the people in Mexico city live, with the water so dangerous.

Our casa(house) is really nice. I'm in a room with 3 other girls, my companion and two other hermanas in our districto. We have our own bathroom and shower and closet! It's even nicer than the dorms at Utah State haha. Ive given away a lot of my clothes to other hermanas who need it. I am determined to get to Chile on only one suitcase! Even if I have to throw away some things. I don't need it and I can buy it there. We were given probably 20 lbs of books when we got here. Too bad I don't know spanish or I could get rid of all the ingles versions of everything and only have to take one set of books. Oh well. Also! There is a tiny store here called la tienda and I bought scripture covers for my little quad scriptures and my big espanol libro de mormon.

Our district has 10 personas, 6 Elders and 4 Hermanas. We're all going to Chile Concepcion Sul! From the reactions of the other personas here, I guess that's a really good and rare thing. My companions name es Hermana Curtis, and she's from Richfield Utah! I was so excited when she told me that, but she hasn't heard of you Wayne County people sadly. She is also the super youngest in her family, but only by 7 years. We took a bunch of pictures (we're only allowed to take pictures on P-day) but I there isn't a card reader on these computers. I'll get you all some pictures somehow.

AHH ONLY 5 MORE MINUTES. Every moment of everyday is taken up by studying, and most of that studying is spanish. I've hardly had a chance to study any thing Expiacion related. Even though it's our P-day, I have to prepare a lesson for sunday school, write a talk in spanish, memorize a ton of different things and just do so much. Everything you need to do that you don't have time for gets pushed to pday making it pretty crazy.

Pray for me to learn spanish guys! I need it! I love you all and I wish you the best!

Also, Johnny and Rebecca, send your emails to this email from now on =) I can't wait to read about what you're doing with this new missionary mindset!

Sister Ashlee Bowling
♥ from Chile!