Compañero nuevo! First change in the field!‏

My new companion is Elder Bennett! He is from Idaho Falls and has been
serving for one year and five months. He is my trainer because I still
have six more weeks of training and also our District leader so talk
about a lot of things to do and worry about. I'm going to do
everything I can to help him out! And he has never served in our
sector Los Andes or in our city Catemu. I am soooo happy to be staying
here. Elder Anderson and I have made some very good relationships with
the people here and I love them! So I'm very glad to be staying here.
But because Elder Bennett doesn't know the area I am in charge of
getting us to places and helping planning our day and what person
needs what and things like that I guess! I've got to show him where
our chapel is and district meeting and what bus to use and all that
but I feel comfortable doing that! In the next six weeks of my
training I am suppose to be doing a lot more talking so we will see
how that goes. Haha I think it will go good and I feel more
comfortable with the people we teach so I feel more comfortable
talking to them. For the majority of the time I can understand what
the people are saying. I just can't quite say or express what I want
to perfectly. And my accent still needs a lot of work but I am making
progress! The ability to speak spanish doesn't seem so far away now.

This last week we did our first splits. A split is where you switch
companions for 24 hours. We switched with the district leader and his
companion, Elder De Lima. Elder De Lima came to Catemu and I stayed in
here and Elder Anderson went to San Felipe with our district leader
Elder Fonseca. It was soo fun!! Elder De Lima is from Sau Pualo,
Brazil and has been out for about five or six months. It was way fun
getting to know him and his story. We talked and talked non stop and
went to bed later than we should have cause we were talking about
everything. This day I was in charge of where to go and what lessons
to teach which meant I talked a lot more and I was a little nervous
for that but in the end I liked it a lot. He is a great missionary and
helped me make a lot of contacts that day. It was overall a way good
experience and I was able to carry those things that I learned with me
when Elder Anderson came back. Also I made german pancakes for him
cause he had never had them!

Also this week I made banana cake from a recipe I got from Hermana
Lima from Brazil also. And that was pretty tasty! We did a really cool
family home evening with a family that is less active. We split the
family up in to two teams and kinda had a race to make brownies.
Beforehand Elder Anderson and I had measured everything out so all
they had to do was put the ingredients in and mix them up. The rule
was that nobody could taste the batter before it was cooked. Why was
that a rule? Well with one of the teams we changed the sugar out for
salt. So instead of two cups of salt they used two cups of sugar.
Obviously those brownies were gonna be gross. The moral and the lesson
is that Satan a lot of the time uses things that are really similiar
to good things but are actually bad. Sugar and salt are very similiar
and if you aren't careful you hardly notice the difference until the
end. Kinda like internet is something very good but if you aren't
careful it can be something bad. What would you rather have, the
brownies with two cups of salt or two cups of sugar? We have to be
very careful because Satan is always trying to tempt us.

It was sad to see Elder Anderson to go but it was also pretty cool
because he was so excited to see his family. One day I'll be there
too. It kinda made me sad for a minute but then I realized that I
don't want to leave this place or these people. I'm definitely not
ready for that! And I think after I learn spanish it will be even
harder.

Halloween was good here! It's a little different here but kids still
dress up and collect candy. It's not as popular here but every year it
gets bigger and bigger, at least that is what people have told me.

Here's a picture of one of the spiders that we killed last night, it
was pretty big and I'm almost sure it was a brown recluse. The food
mostly consists of rice, pasta, meats(that are soo very good, the way
they cook them I think), potatoes, and some others. I have yet to eat
something super weird or gross. The fruit here is incredible and so
are the avocados!! The avocados are to die for and dad you could make
some mean guacamole with them.

Thank you all so much for your emails! I can't believe it is already
November and that you have snow!! It is very warm here, some days are
super hot and some not so much but there is a lot of heat still to
come I've been told! I feel like Christmas is gonna be here fast.


Love,
Elder Gunnell

Our District

 Our Branch President and his daughter and me

Me dressed up in a traditional get up for a Chileano (obviously I need a new camera)