Gorbea es Bae ♥

Thank you so much everybody for being so patient with me! More bad news though, my email time has been cut short once again. While I still have an hour to email, I have to email my mission president cada semana first! But! Please dont stop writing me! I love to read them and if I don{t have time i print them out and read them later. I dont think im going to hardly have any time ever to reply to all of you cada semana and so los siento ahora that Im never going to reply haha! I will still read them though! The best way to get a response from me is to write me letters! Itll take around 3 weeks for me to get the letters and then another bunch of weeks to get my letter back haha. Its the way it goes though. SO! My address, first of all.

Castellon 1063, Oficina Sur
Casilla 3580
Concepcion
Bio-Bio
Chile

Send everything to this address!

SO! My first area iss......... GORBEA! I am as far south into the mission as sisters can go! Theres another zone below us but only Elders are allowed to go there. We are in one of the more poor areas in our mission I believe, but that just means the spirit is here even stronger. We have one recent convert here who lives in a one room little house with his bed and fridge and table all right there. His name is Miguel and he loves being our member for each lesson we teach to investagators. He is the cutest guy I have ever encountered. My first day, he handed us two wrapped packages, one with hair ties and bows and another with a mug with disney princesses. He is incerio the nicest person I have ever met. I cant understand hardly anything he says though. Besides the Spanish, he has a pretty heavy lisp. But honestly all of the people here are incredible. My first Sunday here was one of the best I{ve ever had. There were 42 people at church including the 6 missionaries. Two elders had to visit from another area because our branch president and his councelor are both going to be gone working for a few weeks. I never thought wards could exist that were so small. Everything that everyone has ever said about missions is suddenly becoming so true. But I love all of them so much! A few of them seem to be kind of holding on to old beliefs that they had, and so Im feeling a huge amount of responsibility to teach these people correct doctrines and make them strong in the church. My companion, trainer, and mom told me that it is our responsibility to grow this ward. We need to reactivate inactives, baptize more members, and teach everybody correct principles. It{s so important that I am as worthy as possible to let the spirit teach through me, and that I can be the absolute best possible example for these people to follow. I never, ever thought I could feel this way about other people. Every single thing that I do, I{m wondering and questioning if it{s, either now or in the long run helping the people of Gorbea. I already love it here and never want to leave. Its incredible to already be feeling the changes the mission makes in people. Like, I cant put into words at all how amazing this is. Obviously this is the best decision I ever could have made in my life.

MY TRAINER IS THE BEST PERSON EVER! Her name is Hermana Kleinman, and she is from Mesa Arizona! She is also the youngest in her family of 4 brothers and sisters, and were both very white and very blonde. We legit are turning heads everywhere. I{ve been asked probably 3 or 4 times if my hair is natural, which yes, it is. We get whistled at constantly. Two white blonde young girls, speaking (soon to be!) fluent spanish must look quite the sight in small town Gorbea. A lot of people wonder why were here. It{s making for some cool opportunites to talk to people. She is the most serving, Christlike person I{ve ever encountered and its making me want to serve her better. It{s cool! It{s a cycle! Serving others makes them want to serve which inspires even more people. UGHDSAL! THE CHURCH IS TRUE! I LOVE IT! I{ve had a ton of incredible experiences, every single day, incerio, that build my testimony and make me love being a missionary. I can see how this is the most exhausting work that could exist. Constantly carring about other people, constatnly worrying about them and hoping they keep their compromismos and praying for them; feeling crushed when they dont read and didnt pray, the absolute joy, through the roof feeling when they say they read and prayed and felt the spirit. Theres nothing else like this in the world guys. The people here are very humble. So is our casa. It{s nothing like the homes in America. But it is on of the nicest that they have in the mission and Im so grateful for it and for the church. My old MTC roomate, hermana Curtis is in the same house as me! Shes training wtih Hermana Lockling, who is from Santiago Chile and is going home in 3 months! My district here is way cool and our district leader every night during our phone call yells and screams and is so enthusiastic. It is hilarious. Evedently, I am a ´machine´. cool beans.

The picture with the three of us is my mom, Hermana Kleinman, and my abuela, Hermana Rich! We look like actual sisters! Chao chao! Muchas grasias por su oracions y amor!

Sister Ashlee Bowling
♥ from Chile!

New sisters in mission

CCM district

Ashlee, Hermana Kleinman (mom), Hermana Rich (grandma)

Ash & her trainer Hermana Kleinman