D & J Agle Extended Family

Well our Aria has been gone three weeks now and is in the thick of it. Her letters are delightful and fun to read. You can check them out on her former Facebook page which Ken is now running but here is a few excerpts from those letters.

Letter numero uno (aka #1)

I can happily say I am in Chile!!!! Yay I love it already, I have had a great time. I love my companion. Her name is Sister Hunter. Oh fun story already; on the plane to Chile, I sat by a man named Victor. He was very nice and told me about himself and Chile. In English, because obviously I cannot speak Spanish, but I keep trying. Slow and steady I suppose. But anyway I told him about why we were going to Chile, and he said he had seen us before! Other missionaries of course, but still. I explained to him what a mission was, and he, being a man who likes to cultivate information, listened attentively. I told him about our church and what we believed in and I think it went really really well!! He even said he would come to church and ask for Hermana "Ugly" lol. There is no hope for changing it to "Agle". I shall simply accept it, I am known as Ugly. (Just kidding. It really isn't too bad.) It made him laugh and is memorable. I certainly enjoy being memorable!

Today we moved in, it was fun. There are a bunch of bunk beds and a nice bathroom and rather small closet space. But I utilized the space (like you taught me). Hermana Hunter and I helped a girl from Paraguay get set up too, she helped me in Spanish. I think I know more than I thought, or at least more than a few others here, mostly because I have been willing to embarrass myself! Guess that is one good thing about being a "rubia". Or as most would say, a blonde.

The city definitely has a smog layer, but it really feels like I am in California. It was not cold today, if this is chilly... then safe to say I can handle Chile. Today has been really relaxed, but tomorrow the work starts.

Letter #2.

First off, I love you so all much!!! I have so much to tell and so little time to tell you. (30 min.) I absolutely love my district, it is insane how you don't really know people yet you feel like you have been friends your whole lives. We all are so different and we all bring different things to our district. It is wonderful.

So in my room we have Hermanas from Guatemala and Peru & me. It's crazy having 6 girls in a room with one shower, and only 30 minutes to get ready, but we make it work.

Talking has been well... a bit of charades these first few days here to say the least, but I feel like I can communicate pretty well with them. Last night we sang Called to Serve in Spanish and English. It was so fun and we were laughing so much. Definitely a bonding moment.

I will tell you a bit of my schedule. We get up about 6:45 and in our exercisio clothing we go do personal study from 7 to 8..then we go to desayuno till 8:30. Then we work out at this awesome park with weight lifting equipment. We need those in America! We finish working out at about 9:20 then have till 10 to shower and get to class. Then we have class till...about 1:30 and then go to lunch. Then we go to class again with a different teacher, which by the way, all our maestros are soooo awesome, love them, fom like 2:20 to 8 then dinner and back to class till 10 then back to our rooms and lights out at 11. I will tell you more about it later but that is all I can get in in the time we have :)

Oh and the gift of tongues is so real. I cannot speak perfectly, but it is amazing how much progress we have made in just four days. The church is so true. I miss you guys, but I feel so happy here.

Estoy triste, haha, estoy bromeando. Entonces, te quiero mi familia y mi amigos!!

Con amor,

Hermana Agle

PS Entonces, my english is going crazy. I keep messing up words. Soon I get to meet with an investigator! Fake one but still good practice. Oh and two days ago we got to go speak to real Chileans!!! Just in the temple grounds but still so cool. And my maestro told me that was the first time any North Americans was able to actually go speak to Chileans that spoke no English. I thought I did pretty dang good too!!!! I am starting to understand way more. Gift of tongues baby!!!!

Ah I am out of time!!!!! I love you.

Oh so a bit about here..while I have time..This past Sunday I bore my testimony! I bore it half in Spanish and half in English. I truly felt the Spirit and it was sooo good to bear it in Spanish. Gosh I love Sundays! Oh and then I taught a lesson in relief society, alas it was in English. It was on patience, and I definitely need patience in my life, especially with learning Spanish. But line upon line right?

This week we got the newbies, it was rather exciting! We are now the juniors of the CCM which is nice to not feel like the babies. They were so nice and they told me they liked my accent, can't understand why..since I sound so gringa. I guess they like the American accents, which I find rather amusing. We also have new teachers now, I must admit I miss Cerda, Araya and Riutor, but our new teachers are very good too.

Did I tell you about the food? The cafe is pretty good actually but it gets repetitious, but I never get sick of the dulce de leche...so yummy!! I make myself a hot chocolate every morning. Oh and the fruit here is awesome too!

My district is great, I love them even more! Can´t imagine being here without them, we are all so close. They love all the psychological games dad so if you know a few more I will totally do them. We have two quote pages now, one for just silly funny classic things we say, such as Hermana Webb once told an investigator she could be wrapped in the arms of lunch instead of love. Almuerzo vs amoroso. SO CHISTOSO. I was dying. And the other quote page is for the cheesiest things we say. We are so cheesy with each other, it is hilarious. Now they are telling me I act like I walked out of a Disney movie. The Latinas call me princess...Sigh! Someday I will rid myself of such a nickname. I act like a little girl too much probably, but it is me right? Plus I am like super happy all the days of my life here. I really do feel like I am Rapunzel out of Tangled. Speaking of acting like a little girl, the other day we were just going over etiquette just to go over it..and they totally said no skipping or acting overly happy...hahahahahhaha. oh dear me. I will have to work on that one.

Entonces, time is flying by, cannot believe I have been here for 3 weeks. I love it so much. Santiago is so beautiful! Oh and the people here are beautiful too. I am amazed. I cannot wait to actually be able to talk and be among them all the day. I feel like so many people are just waiting for us to go out there and share the Gospel and I am pumped that I am the one who gets to!!!!

Oh and good news. Hermana Ugly has slowly transformed to Hermana Eagle. I am totally good with that.

Buena suerte! I love you, can´t wait to hear from you again!

Con Amor, Hermana Agle

Ryan, Travis, and Nathan have an annual scout fundraiser event where they ask for donations at local grocery stores to purchase flags to set them during Memorial Day weekend at the Riverside National Cemetery. For a few Saturdays they got to practice the fine art of asking for donations while

people are out trying to get groceries.

This is the 3^rd year that we’ve been doing this and I think the boys are gaining valuable experience with salesmanship that included some rejection but balanced with equal measures of success. They each raised over $200 which goes honoring our Veterans.

What is great about this event is that the scouts invite the whole family to participate in placing the flags where we read the name, branch of service and war that each Veteran served in. It is a great opportunity to pay our respects to those who have sacrificed so much for the freedom we get to enjoy.