September 9, 2014 Osorno, Chile Mission Home

Hola Familia!

I made it to Osorno safe and sound :) I'm still pretty sick with a really bad cold (headache, congestion, a bad cough, etc), but I'm hanging tough.  I fly out tomorrow morning for Punta Arenas!! :) Yay!  My first place is crazy beautiful (at least that's what I've heard) and it's super close to the Antarctica, so hopefully I'll see some penguins.  That would be too legit to quit.  I haven't met my trainer yet because she's at the bottom of the country, but President Obeso said she's from the Dominican Republic.  I'm super excited to have a native Spanish speaker!  Speaking of President Obeso, he and his wife are the sweetest people ever (next to you of course).  But really though, I love them already.

As excited as I am to go to my area, getting on another plane and then a boat sounds exhausting.  On the plane ride from Mexico City to Santiago I sat next to a Chilean Olympian!  He's a professional kayaker and he was way nice.

Well I'm going to have to stop that story there because I have a much more important one.  One of the Hermanas who is serving in the mission office with her husband asked for all our passports (especially since I'll need it for my flight tomorrow) and I realized I left it in the seat pocket in front of me on the plane.  Leaving out all the suspense, my passport is in Santiago and they're sending someone to get it.  Turns out I won't be heading to Punta Arenas tomorrow, but it's all good because the Lord's the one in charge here and I'm just super grateful for the tender mercy that my passport isn't lost forever.

Wow!!  What an exciting first day :) Here's to many more!  Love you all so much and hopefully you'll hear from me soon!

LOVE YOU!!

Hermana Coombs

Hermana Coombs and President and Sister Obeso

September 4, 2014

Hola!!

Wow, I feel like so much has happened this week.  First things first, I jinxed myself and threw up the morning after my last email, but don't worry because it was just something I ate.  Then later that night the power went out in our casa, which was quite the adventure.  I was the only one with a flashlight (can you tell we're all super prepared?) so everyone came and hung out in our room until the power came back on.  Haha it was quite the party :)

Sorry if this letter has lots of mistakes in it; Spanish is destroying my life.  I can't speak Spanish fluently, and it's making me forget English, so communication is really a struggle.  The other day I was trying to say something in Spanish and I couldn't remember the word, but then I couldn't remember it in English either.  The struggle is so real.  Also some nights when I'm righting in my journal I'll randomly throw in Spanish words without even realizing it.  And sometimes I'll be talking to someone in English and I'll just accidentally start speaking in Spanish.  Hop on the struggle bus.

Random things that happened this week: I learned to split an apple in half with my bare hands (don't mess with me). I got a case for my Spanish scriptures and it's too legit to quit.  Apparently the CCM likes to randomly go around and do preventative fumigation to the casas, and they chose to fumigate ours the other day, which really complicated life.

Yesterday there was a torrential downpour again and the streets started flooding.  The elders in our district decided they wanted to see how well a paper airplane would fly in the rain, so we had a paper airplane contest and they all actually did surprisingly well.  Then we got the idea to make a gigantic paper airplane and fly it out a window on the third story of a building today.  It was an epic fail because the windows only opened up so you could throw the airplane straight at the ground, but it was fun to do anyway :)

Happy belated Labor Day!!  Unfortunately Mexico isn't as cool as America, so we didn't get to celebrate, but I hope everyone had a good time.  Mexico does however celebrate their Independence Day on the 15th, and I am so incredibly sad I'm going to miss the huge fiesta.  Even the CCM is throwing a fiesta for everyone who is still going to be here.  Even though I'll be missing the fiesta I'll be having a fiesta of my own in Chile!! :)  We got our flight plans the other day and I fly out Monday night at 8:25.  It's an 8 hour flight to Santiago, then I have a 5 hour lay-over, and another 1.5 hour flight to Osorno.  It's going to be a SUPER long day, but I'm so excited! :D

One last thing I'd like to leave you all with is a thought from our devotional on Sunday by Richard G. Scott.  Prayer is a sacred privilege, and he always answers our prayers.  It might not be right away, and we might not always recognize the answer, but he ALWAYS answers us.  Elder Scott said that prayers are answered one of three ways: 1) peace, comfort, assurance 2) unsettling feeling 3) No immediate response - he does this so we can exercise faith and act in faith.  I know that our Heavenly Father listens when we pray and he will answer our prayers when we pray in faith. 

I love you guys so much and I hope everyone is doing well.  Have an awesome week!!

Stay sweet,

Hermana Coombs

Awesome cover for Spanish scriptures

us getting ready for "graduation" 

August 28, 2014

Same old same old this week. I did play some ping-pong and foosball to mix things up during gym time, but volleyball is still the best (especially on the sand courts).

Well, some of my really good friends from my zone left on Monday for their missions, which was pretty triste.  I'm actually super jealous because as much as I love it here in the CCM I really want to be in Chile.  Less than 2 weeks left!

Variety is the spice of life, so to add some spice to life here at the CCM some of the Elders in my district and I have started competitions to see who can slide the farthest down the hallway by our class.  Hermana Coombs - infiniti. Elders - 0.  We did have one Elder who tried it and he fell and broke his collar bone... just kidding, no one's gotten hurt.

The plague round two hit the CCM and it did some more damage than last time.  One of the girls in mi casa is going home because she got so sick, and one of the elders in her district has been throwing up for fifteen days straight, so he's going home too.  It's super sad and they're both really bummed, but getting healthy is way more important.  Once again, shout out to Mom and Dad for my immune system.  It's holding up remarkably well.

We made some new friends in the comedor! Hna. Aguiñiga is from Mexico and her companion Hna. Galagua is from Peru.  They are both super funny and they're helping us with our Spanish.  It still needs a ton of work, but we can talk to them and have pretty normal conversations without too many problems.

Other than that, everything else here is pretty much the same.  I love you all and hope you're loving life!

Stay sweet,

Hermana Coombs

August 21, 2014

Hola!

So this week I got roped into singing in church because there are only two Hermanas in our district and they wanted someone to sing alto.  I am proud to report that I did not totally mess us up :)

All our amigos from volleyball left on Monday, which was pretty sad.  Every time we would play volleyball they were so funny, so it´s been pretty sad not seeing them every day. (But that hasn't stopped us from playing volleyball; it's still pretty much the greatest thing ever).

Some highlights from the week:

Elder Thomas tried hiding in a cabinet to scare our teacher and someone locked him in the there for a few min.  Haha, it was way funny.  Last night some Elders made a Jeopardy game to review some Spanish stuff, and Hermana Williams and I DOMINATED so hard core.  Haha we killed it.  The Elders were so ashamed to have lost to girls, but everyone had a lot of fun.  

I FINALLY GOT SOME LETTERS :D It felt just like Christmas morning!  Well, not quite, but it was pretty close.  Moral of the story a turtle is the sole employee of the postal service, but he does a wonderful job.

If anyone has some time I recommend watching "Men's Hearts Shall Fail Them."  It's a Mormon Message that our district watched last night and it's pretty awesome.

I love you all and hope you're doing amazing things!

Stay sweet,

Hermana Coombs

this is a funny joke our Hno. Salvador told us:

"What did the fish do in the water? Nada"

Haha get it? Nada = nothing, and nada = he swims

Oh well, I thought it was funny :)

My volleyball amigos

My amigas from the casa

Family Letter 3 -- Aug 14, 2014

Well, the Black Plague hit the CCM this week, but I AM A SURVIVOR!

Thank you mom and dad for blessing me with a strong immune system.  Seriously though, everyone and their mother was getting sick down here.  Hermana Williams and Hermana Wilemon (she lives in the same room as me) both got sick and were out for a few days.  Because my companion was sick I had to stay inside with her all day for 3 days because I couldn't leave her in the room to die by herself.  But boy oh boy was it rough having to study in the dark for 3 days.  We ended up calling our room the Den of Death, and it is now probably my least favorite place in the entire CCM.

On the bright side both Hna. Williams and Hna. Wilemon are doing much better and are able to be out and about doing the normal schedule!  Other than that not too much happened this week, or we just missed it all.  Life here in the CCM is pretty much the same everyday with lots of classes, meal times, and gym time.  Speaking of gym, my volleyball skills are quickly improving because we play volleyball everyday.

I guess one exciting thing that happened was I became friends with some of the Latinas in mi casa, and they are all super funny.  They're helping us all with our Spanish because it still needs mucho work.

I love you all and hope all your wildest dreams are coming true!

Stay sweet,

Hermana Coombs

Family Letter 2

Hola!

First off, I´m sorry I didn't email you last Thursday like I said I would.  I guess that wasn't actually in the schedule like I thought it was.  Oops

But wow! I have so much to tell you all!  On the way to Mexico City I talked to a six year old from Mexico in Español and she said my Spanish was pretty good, which made me feel super cool.  But then I realized she´s six and said it was only pretty good.  Haha oh well :)  And don´t be offended but as I was going through the first day I hardly missed you guys at all.  It wasn't until dinner that I really started missing you, but then I missed you a lot. :(  Everyone says the first few days are the hardest but then it gets a ton better.  They are SO right!  By Sunday I was good as gold and loving it here.

My companion's name is Hermana Williams; she´s from Seattle, she´s also going to Osorno Chile, and she's pretty cool.  My district is seriously the BEST.  Haha everyone is super funny :)  I wish I could think of a specific story about them, but I can't right now. Lo siento.

My Spanish is improving a ton!  Pretty soon my friend from the plane will say that I'm actually good at Spanish!  Haha.  My grammar still sucks dog buns, but it´ll get better with time.

Random side note, a girl in mi casa knows Dana Cobb; they grew up together.  Crazy small world.

More about the CCM.   We have gym time everyday and it rocks.  We usually play volleyball with the elders, and it´s really funny because none of us are very good.

Mom, the food here is definitely sub par when compared to your cooking, but we did have tamales the other day.  They were sooooooo good!  And don´t worry, I'm still eating lots of food and occasionally getting food babies :)

We are in class for 5-ever everyday, which isn't as cool as dance parties or exploring, but it really isn't that bad.  You will also be proud to know that adjusting to the missionary schedule (in bed by 10:30, up at 6:30) was a piece of cake!

The weather here is usually really nice.  The first day here we were welcomed by a torrential downpour, and I was worried it would be like that everyday.  So far though it's only drizzled twice since then. (But I learned that my rainboots are magical and worth more that gold).  The campus is beautiful and you can even hear and see parrots up in the palm trees.

P-days really are as glorious as everyone says they are.  This morning our district got to go to the Mexico City Temple (well actually the visitor's center because the temple is closed) and it was BEAUTIFUL!  It was seriously so awesome.  The only downside is that you can only go once while staying at the MTC (or CCM in Español), so we won't be able to go again.

Quick shout out to Mom for the amazing packages, Katherine for her  super funny note, Stephanie for her superb letter, and Dad and Connor for being awesome!

I love you all a ton and miss you!!

Stay sweet,

Hermana Coombs

Family Letter 1 -- CCM arrival

Hola familia!!  

I made it to the MTC/CCM safely :)  I flew with a bunch of really cool and funny guys out of Detroit (but some of them were from AZ).

I don't have much time to email right now, but my p-day is tomorrow so you'll here from me more then.

Love you guys lots!

Stay sweet,

Hermana Coombs

PS. Stephanie would love it here. On the ride from the airport to the CCM I saw 52 slug bugs and 2 cruiser bruisers

PPS. they wanted me to give you this information

Your Missionary's mailing addres is:

Sister Hannah Coombs

09/09/2014 13A

Carretera Tenayuca-Chalmita #828

Colonia Zona Escolar, Gustavo A. Madero

07230 Mexico, Distrito Federal

Mexico