La Chorrera

Woah it feels like forever ago since I last wrote!  So on Tuesday morning we were in the chapel teaching K one more lesson before her baptismal interview and our DL walks in and goes "I know transfers.  Do you want them right now or after?  They are good and bad." And I knew right then that I was getting transfered.  We finished the lesson and then went in to find out what was gonna happen.  My companion stayed in Santiago and is training, they closed one area of elders in Santiago, and I am in La Chorrera!  I was super sad to leave Santiago and especially to miss K's baptism on Wednesday but I am also super excited to be here closer to the city!  I packed up all my stuff, said some tough goodbyes, and took the bus to Albrook. 

 Miracle- Hna Patrick was also waiting in Albrook and we got to talk for a while which was really nice, I miss her!  

Then I got on the bus to Chorrera with another hermana and we met our companions and our zone for zone meeting.  My companion is Hermana Chamul.  She is from El Salvador and has one transfer on the mission and she is really quiet but she is a really good missionary.  She has only been here 6 weeks and doesnt know the area too well so we are going to to a lot of walking and contacting this week to get ourselves started in the area.  A little bit about the area- we are in a WARD!  A real functioning, happy ward!  The members here are incredible, incredible!  We have lunch and dinner everyday and they are super excited to work with the missionaries.  Our area is out of the main part of Chorrera in a ward called Biancheri and it is all lomas (hills)  tons of hills.  We had a talent show on friday night and that was a ton of fun.  People actually showed up!  We have a ton of youth in this ward and they are all willing to go out and work with us which rocks!  Basically I am in love with Chorrera.  Also Chorrera is famous for this drink called chicheme which is literally just milk, sugar, and corn.  Sounds super gross and I tried it once in Santiago and it wasnt that good but they do it different around here and its actually pretty delicious.  

Yesterday we went to something called a rescate or rescue in one of the other wards.  Everyone meets after church and the missionaries and the members split up and go out visiting all of the less actives from the ward.  It was a fun experience and cool to see the whole ward working together to "rescue" all of the lost members.   

Today we went and played sports with our zone and then walked around the city for a little bit.  We ran into some other elders talking to some gringos outside of pizza hut.  It was a retired couple from Tennessee who are living in Costa Rica but want to move to Panama so they are here looking for houses.  They were super nice and bought us a pizza yaaa!  

Not much else for right now....I will talk to you on Sunday!!!  

Hermana Smith

Oh funniest moment of the week-  it is nice and cool here so they leave the doors open at church and I was playing the sacrament hymn and I look over and there is a dog just chillin in the chapel and everytime they chase it out he just goes around to the other doors and comes back in haha  tons of dogs in this area...but not the good kind, they are kinda scary