Out of the MTC and into the mission!

HELLO FAMILY!!!

I miss you all so much. These past two weeks have been really hard. I am in an area called Casa Blanca. It is the mission furthest south on the border and there is tons of work to do! I finally understand what Nephi meant when he said the great and abominable church.  My companion's name is Hermana Alvarez and she is from argentina. We are the only two missionaries in casa blanca. It is huge. It is kinda like the size of AF and PG and we have to walk everywhere to get to our members. We are also very far away from other zones. In order to get to our district meetings we need to drive an hour and a half. 

Casa Blanca is VERY COLD. I was not prepared for how cold it is here... I am so so so grateful for my sleeping bag that I have. Without it I dont think I would sleep. Our appartment is less than clean and very ghetto. There are two things I miss the most in the united states other than my family and friends. Milk and flushing toilet paper down the toilet! But I LOVE IT!!! I love our little appartment and learning how to fix everything. Today we repaired our sink with scotch tape and glue!!! HAHAHAHA oh the life of a missionary. 

So in case you hadnt heard there were huge fires in Valapariso. That is my area. 3,000 homes were destroyed and the people were literally left with nothing so on saturday we got to go and help them repair their homes. We actually ended up helping them tear them down. We tore down and shoveled concrete so that they could begin building their new homes. It was heart breaking. They have nothing. To mark which house used to be theirs they put their names on cardboard and tape it to the burnt fences. It was heart wrenching. Imagine if you had very little to begin with and now it is all burnt down and your whole family is living out of a tent. Very hard to see. But Think if I hadnt gone on my mission I never would have been able to help. 

So when I got here we had 3 investigators with baptismal dates. I havent even gotten to meet them yet. But they texted us this morning and they dont have time for us and dont want us to come back. So we dont know what do. BUT we have this other family that wasn`t progressing at all but guess what!! THEY CAME TO CHURCH YESTERDAY!! We are meeting with them tonight and I think they will accept the baptismal invitation! 

I went on exchanges on friday in an area close to mine. Our areas are very different. She has a very rich area with very a very strong barrio and members. But I did learn how to make homemade churros at an activity her ward did. 

Oh so funny story. When we first got off the bus in vina it was in the middle of the city. Our president told us to leave everything in the bus and gave us one Book of mormon and the address to the mission home and left us there!! That was an adventure!! But Me and my temporary companion got 3 references and found the mission home. 

I really love my mission. I know that I just need to figure out spanish and I will enjoy it more. I have eaten things here and that were cooked in ways I never thought I would. I am using LOTS of the essential oils for health reasons. 

I love you all so much. Know that I think and pray for you everyday. This week was hard and the time goes slow. BUT I CAN DO IT!! I love hearing from you all and please dont stop. 

I CANT WAIT FOR MOTHERS DAY!! LOVE YOU ALL!!

Hermana Cook

Gringo Ball and Valparaiso fires

Hey everyone!!!

 

So this week has been awesome. We got a new set of Latinos and Gringos. No new girls though. Because all the latinos were in orientation we got to play gringo ball!! I love gringo ball... I can actually play. But the elder that usually plays goalie wanted game time so who did the elders think would be a good person to put in goal... HERMANA COOK!! haha I got a little beat up but I bocked more balls than went in. Which I consider an accomplishment. We got new roomates... one is from Colombia and served in the military. We decided to have an arm wrestling contest and guess who won... ME!! Everyone was just as surprised as I was. Haha It was so much fun. She got to go through the temple yesterday and I got to be there with her. She was so happy that her and I just sat in the celestial room and cried. What I great experience. My other roomate is from New Jersey. Everytime I meet someone knew I am amazed at their testimony.

This week has been awesome we got to go with 10 people through the temple yesterday and then this week we go out on splits with actual missionaries. I am so excited. We have gotten to share the gospel with so many people but very few will actually take the lessons because of their catolic backgrounds. But it is amazing to me to see how many people will actually listen.

I still havent gotten the package but I hope and pray for it everyday.

It is getting really cold here. I defindently should have brought long skirts and sweaters. But I love Chile. We leave for Vina next tuesday and we dont get a P Day next week so I will have to talk to you all in 2 weeks.

I am sure you have all heard about the fires going on in Valapariso. That is a city right next to Vina. Last we heard 1000 homes were burned and 2 members will killed along with 18 others. they think that when we get there we will be all sent to Valapariso to help with the humanitarian work. GOOD THING I BROUGHT MY JEANS. I am so excited to help with all the service.

 

I love you all and pray for you constantly.

Hermana Cook

Earthquakes and law of chastity

Hey everyone,

 

Another week has gone by in the MTC or CCM here and Chile and things are great. My spanish is improving and I can actually do most things without notes. There was a 5.6 earthquake in Vina this week and we felt the after afects of it. It actually took our power out for a little bit. We have been having small ones but this is the first one that was really strong.

So funny story this week our teacher Hermano Enriques walks into class and puts a pamphlet on each companionships desk. We just so happened to get the Law of Chastity. He then tells us to prepare a 2 min contact on the street based on the pamphlet. We then prepare to teach him but instead he tells us to come with him. We then went outside and had to contact people about the church using our pamphlets. There was a couple sitting by the fountain that was making out... our teacher said Hermanas they need to hear your message. I was seriously thinking WHAT ARE WE DOING!!!! But we went over there and in our very broken and nervous spanish taught the law of chastity and how it could bless their lives. At first both of them just laughed at us. But as we got further and further into the lesson the girl actually started crying!! It ended up being an great opportunity.

We said goodbye to our second set of latinos and get more today... but no girls at all this time... BAHHHHH. I love getting to know all of the latinos.They really are amazing.

I hope general conference was amazing for everyone! I loved and really needed the talks that were presented. I heard that preistood session was amazing and I would love to get the talks from that. We got to watch the Young womens session with all the women and that was amazing. It made me especially home sick and missing my family. I really missed sunday dinner that night. But luckily I have an amazing companion who we can both relate to.

I love you all and hope you have an amazing week.

Love,

Hermana Cook

I can literally feel your prayers

It is so crazy to think I have been gone for 2 weeks. Only a few more to go! We got our ministers licences this week and so I can legally minister now! Spanish is coming faster than I could ever imagine. I can literally feel your prayers. 

On thing we have been told to do is ask our families to pray so that we can receive the gift of tongues. I love the MTC here. We literally live on the temple grounds! It is such a beautiful place. 

The members here are amazing too. Some of them travel all night 12 hours just to do one session and then go back on a very stinky bus. They truly love the lord. I love my district. We have a great group who all love to work hard. 

This week we taught all the latinos kickball which they now lovingly call footbase. It is so much fun to go to the parks and just play soccer. never in my life have I loved exercise so much. 

One thing we did last p-day is eat completos. They are hot dogs with avacado tomatoe and tons of other things. THEY ARE SO GOOD. another thing that our family would love is the strawberries and raspberries and the blue berries. WORDS CANNOT DESCRIBE HOW AMAZING THEY ARE!! I have never in my entire life had such good fruit for so cheap... only 2$ for a whole bag!! But in the MTC we get very little fruit and I think that is they are the main reason for all the digestive problems. 

I am so excited for my mission though!! Any time any one asks where I am going and I tell them Vina they go crazy! from what I have been told it is the ultimate vacation spot. My presidents name is president doll. Because there are so few of us we get to see him and his wife everyday. They really teach us to work hard though. 

I heard from hermana garces that mom and her mom met up!! that is so much fun!! I am so sad to hear about grandpa. Please tell him of my love and I hope that I will see him soon. I hope that all goes well with the medication. He will for sure be in my prayers.

FIRST EMAIL--"WE'VE GOT MAIL!"

Hey everyone! I hope this letter finds you well. I dont have much time to email but I will let you know as much as I can. My companions name is Hermana Garces and she literally lives like 2 min away from us. You guys will have to get together with her family. We are so similar it is FREAKY. I love her so much. This past week has literally felt like a year in itself. We are constantly speaking spanish. The hardest part is that we are learning spanish... IN SPANISH. not a whole lot of english is used to teach. We had to give our first lesson on the second day we were here. We didnt even get to change out of our clothes... its straight to work. I just have to remember not to get frustrated with my spanish... it will come. So there are about 60 people total here. Over half are latino elders and the rest are gringos... or americans. We are the only 2 american sisters though... there are 4 other latino hermanas though. I couldnt email yesterday because we recieved a whole bunch of missionaries from venezuela. Aparently they pulled out all the missionaries that werent natives because things are just so bad. Coming here though I have taken on a whole new perspective. Our roomates are 2 hermanas from argentina and bolivia. They really dont have much. Today one of them went through the temple and so me and hermana Garces did her hair and make up and let her use our clothing. She literally felt like a princess. I love it here though. My distict is amazing!! Two girls and 8 Elders. We all just love eachother!!! It kinda feels like EFY but on steroids. Oh but the food is killing me.... lets just say I have lost 7 pounds already. Good news though!!! We can recieve packages in the MTC!! So if I could have like 20 bottles of digestzen capsules that would be great!! Ya so just send the packages to the MTC they should get here!! I would love anything!! Oh there is so much to say. I love a mission. I love being an hermana. I just hope the language comes sooner.

Well I love you all so much and I can feel your prayers keeping me going.

Love

Hermana Cook

This is Julie Cook, Melissa's mom. I will be running this blog for the next 18 months to keep everyone updated on Melissa (Hermana Cook) and how the work is going. Today was her farewell and we are so thankful and grateful for all those who made it out to support Melissa. She is so overwhelmed with the love she feels from all of you.
The thing she is looking forward to most in the coming months is to bring some hope and the message of the gospel, to the people of Chile.