Hello from the southern hemisphere!                Dec.22,2014

 life is pretty good here! thank goodness I finally learned how to change the computer setting from spanish to english so i can actually type and stuff now. Before it was a real hassle, believe me. Also on the list of good things, its Christmas week! Probably the best week of the whole year. Fourth of July is the best day, but if were talking about best weeks, and in this case we are, then its safe to say Christmas is the best! It hasnt really felt super Christmassy here because #1 is hot and definately not going to be a white christmas #2 cafeteria food hardly counts as a christmas dinner to look forward to and #3 ill be home for christmas, if only in my dreams. But its okay because Im loving it here! Spanish is coming slowly but surely and I am loving the people here. so... the lord knows just what we needed to have a piece of home. haha my piece of home is all the awkward red heads here that look like the whitest nerdiest boys, and then dont speak a word of english. 

My first week  here, there was this tall awkward elder with red hair and napoleon dynamite glasses, trying to kick a soccer ball. he looked so uncoordinated so i was  laughing when he asked the latinos if he could play soccer with them. he started playing and schooling them all!!! I was yelling for him so loud! OOOOOOOHHHHHH haha then he started yelling at them all in spanish and talking back to them. so i asked a hermana um, isn't he white? how is he good at soccer? and she said, hermana you cant just ask people if they are white and why they are good at soccer #rebuked! it was such a tender nerdy little mercy. haha you may not understand how that made me know they Lord loves me, but people, it is true! I hope everyone has such a wonderful christmas. Give your families an extra tight squeeze for me and in return i promise im sending warm hugs from the land of chile! Dont forget the real reason for the season!  take care, hermana phelps

hey family! how are you doing!? holy cow its finally p day here in the mtc i only get about forty minutes to email you but its better than nothing! we actually get three hours of total p day here, but were only allowed to email you for an hour of it! ya getting here was really a disaster. i don't even want to know how i'm still alive. i guess the lord blesses his missionaries!  i've come to the conclusion that i'm really not supposed to be here, well at least not at this time.   im the only hermana here  going to the santiago west mission. everyone here is going to the rancagua mission or the conception mission. even the mtc president doesn't really have any idea why i'm here. there are two other elders that are in the west mission. its weird,  i think they  rotate new groups in by what mission they are supposed to be in becasue apparently all the west missionaries are coming right after christmas. also, im the only missionary who has flown american airlines that the president knows of and my spanish learning online account that all the missionaries have does not exist. pretty much i think someone screwed up somewhere! but thats ok, it will all work out. so we ´pretty much have the same schedule every day. we wake up at six thirty and  have person study for an hour. then we eat breakfast and run to the park where we have about 45 minutes to run or play basketball or futbol or whatever we want.   we come back and have about 30 minutes to get ready,  then we have class breakfast, class lunch, class dinner, class bed. it's pretty easy to memorize right? we stay in class until about 1030 and then we get 20 minutes to get ready for bed, and trust me you are ready for bed. we mostly have language class but we do get some actual missionary kinda stuff. its really hard because EVERYTHING is in spanish. even the explanations of the spanish language are in spanish. so its really hard to learn but slowly it's coming. the teachers have this theory (that probably works) that if you just listen to as much spanish as possible then you will eventually understand.  its crazy because its hard to learn when you dont understand the words they are using. it mostly involves a lot of sign language. we already have 3 investigators. we are expected to teach in only spanish. im talking full on lessons and testimonies and prayers. its really hard but i know its good practice and thats the only way to learn. me companion is.....my real trail i hate to say. spanish comes easy compared to that. her name is hermana smith from colorado. she is really nice but..not the most obedient missionary. i know that being obedient is one of the most important things here for sure. so its hard to try and do what is right, get up on time and plan lessons by myself, but hopefully im setting and example and she will get there soon. i feel bad for the elders in my district who she is hugging on all the time. i can tell it makes them feel really uncomfortable. but enough of that i like her, but you all know how i am, not really a people person. im doing okay its just hard right now but ive seen the blessings. this gospel is so true. the spirit is so real! everyone sounds like they are doing ok.  sorry the wrestling tournament didnt go so hot but awesome for jackson! and the pigs sound like an awesome story! im honestly really sad i missed the backhoe fiasco! but i dont want you to think im not loving being a missinoary because i am! its sooooo amazing. ive never felt my heavenly fathers love more than these last few weeks. and i only get a short amount of time so im not going to reply to everyones emails individually but i love you all. miss you all and love you all! mom tell granny im doing good even though i didnt reply to hers but ill write her soon! have an awesome week and find someone to serve. heavenly father wants his children back and he will do anything possible to get you to help him. be his hands! love you all and talk to you next week!

Crazy Day

so i made it barely. it was kind of a disaster. the flight from farmington to denver was really rough. there was only 4 of us on the plane and you could see right into the cockpit. we started hitting some turbulence and the pilots started freaking out and pushing lots of buttons and levers and stuff. it was really scary, our seatbelts couldn't keep us in our seats! anyways i got to denver and then to dallas. my flight to santiago got delayed a couple of hours, so i called the number in my packet that is for delays and told a lady. she said she would call and tell the mtc my flight had been delayed, all the while there is not a single missionary anywhere.So i finally got here to chile and there was no one waiting for me of course. i asked an airport worker and he said "oh a missionary, you guys come here all the time so confused.  let me help you" so he said "follow me to a taxi, " but i new i wasn't supposed to take a taxi.  I sat and waited for 2 hours and still no one had come so the worker called the mtc and said "they said no one is coming for you, you need to take a taxi" so i just did that. I got dropped off on a random street, but soon  some elders walked by and I waved them down! they walked me over a  dew blocks and helped me with my bags.  They got me to the mtc and found someone for me to talk when then the mission president's wife ran up to me and was so glad to see me. appartently no one had told them about my delay, nor had anyone called the mtc and told me to take a taxi.   She said they  thought i just decided not to come and had no idea where i was. It was pretty much the most stressful 20 hours of my life. But i made it i guess, they gave me permission to email you and let you know im not dead. First thing i learned on my mission: when they call someone on the phone, it is fake. Phone calls never go through or something here! anyways im alive, stressed, and hot. but im here!