Hola de Chile!

Mi entrenadora, Hermana Farias

Mi favorita familia en el mundo! Le quiero mucho, mucho, mucho! I hope you know every day how much I love you. Never forget that, okay? 

Wow. What a whirlwind week. Too much has happened for me to be able to even begin to write all of it, so I'll just hit some of the highlights. (That's probably how it will be most weeks, but don't worry--I'm keeping a good journal. I write every night.)

Okay, if you want to know exactly how life is for me right now, go turn on a movie in Spanish and play it at 2x speed day after day after day. It's really difficult for me to understand what people are saying just about all the time, but I pray every day for the gift of interpretacion; please pray for me. I'm trying to be patient. I wish I could be a better missionary, but it's difficult when I can't understand. It's alright, though. Patience.

My new compañera is Hermana Farias--she's from Provo, but her parents are Mexicanos, so she's fluent in both Spanish and English. She is such a great help to me, and I've learned so much from her already. We're serving in Quillota (Dad--funny, huh? Every time I say it, it reminds me of you; it's pronounced "Kyota." Love you.) The ward here is really strong, and we're the only missionaries in our area. I love the ward members--they are so kind, and we have lots of moms to take care of us, for which I am so grateful. 

Troncal 1st Ward in Quillota

We committed one of our investigators, Diego, to baptism on Thursday (we'll have to push it back a week to next Sunday because he wasn't able to make it to church yesterday, but we're so excited for him!), and we found a new investigator--German--who came to church with us yesterday, which was very exciting. He has lots and lots of questions, but he also has lots and lots of faith. We hope we'll be able to continue teaching him with the Spirit and resolve his doubts. We also contacted into an adorable young mom and her son last night, too (I really felt like we needed to contact a certain street, and, a few streets later, we found them)--pray for Alejandra and Maxi. They seem really neat; we'll teach them on Tuesday night.

It's definitely cold here! Not nearly as cold as winter in Utah, but I have to wear my coat whenever we go out, and I sleep with six heavy blankets and in sweats and a hoodie every night. Our casa gets really cold, but it's okay. I love it here.:) Also, I love President and Hermana Kahnlein! They're wonderful. Such incredible people. I'm so grateful to have such a wonderful mission president. (Other news: I finished Jacob in El Libro de Mormon today. Super excited about that. Only about 2 months left until I'll finish!) 

To answer your questions, Mom: I have an hour and a half to email President and take care of logistical stuff and to write other emails. So about an hour to email you guys and everyone else.:) Sunday was great; I bore my testimony in sacrament meeting at the request of the bishopric in order to introduce myself, and I met lots and lots of people. I love the ward here. Our schedule changes every day...but we always get up at 7, excercise until 7:30, eat breakfast and get dressed and ready for the day until 8;30, have personal study until 9:30, companion study until 10:30, and language study until 11:30 each morning, and then go out and contact and teach lessons and visit less active members, and we almost always eat lunch at member's houses around 2:00. But yeah, our schedule is different every day depending on what appointments we have and what we decide during planning the night before. We come home every night at 9:30, plan for the next day, get ready for bed, and go to sleep at 11:00! Days last forever, but weeks do go by pretty quickly. And I saw Elder Armitstead at transfer meeting! It was good to see a familiar face. 

Other than that...I love it here! It's hard, and I have SO much to improve, but the work is good, and I'm grateful for this opportunity to serve the Lord. I love you all so much! I hope you know how much I love you. There really are no words to express it. But I miss you, I love you, and I pray for you in every single prayer during the day (that's a LOT of prayers!). Sorry for a not-too-interesting email; I'll hopefully have more stories next week. Less logistical stuff.

I love you I love you I love you! Pray for my Spanish, and never forget how much I LOVE you!

Te Quiero con Todo Mi Corazon! Cada Dia, Cada Hora--Para Siempre.

Todo Mi Amor,
Hermana Sanford

P.S.  This is me writing in Spanish:

Me gusta español mucho, pero los Chilenos hablan MUY rápido--entonces es difícil para entender mucho... Pero yo oro cada dia por el don de interpretación. Quiero poder entender ellos mas.. Otro que eso...me encanta Chile! Es muy hermosa, y las personas aqui son muy amable. Estoy sirviendo en Quillota, y esta barrio es muy fuerte, y los miembros son tan buenos a mi compañera y yo. Ella es de Utah tambien, pero sus padres son Mexicanos, así su ingles y su español son PERFECTO. Aprendo tan mucho de ella cada dia, pero todo vía tengo u LARGO vía para ir.