Kami's First Letter from Chile!

From: Kami Severtson
Date: Wed, Mar 27, 2013 at 4:56 PM
Subject: Hola familia!
To: Toby Severtson 

Hey all! Im in chile! the keyboards are different, so i dont know how to do apostrophes! 

anyways, pres bruce wanted us to email you today to let you know were safe :) my companion is from peru, (hma garbin) knows only a little english. im in a city called iquique (e key kay) and is very good! the spanish is WAY different, and hard to understand, but i think soon (hopefully) ill get the hang of it.

pres bruce was goign to send an email to you with a picture of me here, did you get it? hope so!

tell sis wright in the ward that her nephew is my zone leader...from queen creek too! small world! :) 

so guess what, i had a layover in peru too!! but we didnt change planes so it wasnt on the travel plans. but cool! another country! then we missed our plane to antofagasta from santiago, but pres said it happens every time so it wasnt a big deal. ill give more info on monday when ill have more time. but yeah, it was an adventure!

guess what i tried today?? its called ecco, and its pretty much coffee without the caffiene. its super big down here, everyone drinks it. it tastes just like coffee smells, .... it was okay i guess, not super delicious. but ill have to buy some to bring home for you all to try! 

anyways, i gotta go for now, ill write more on monday!

con amor, 

hermana severtson

Message from Kami's Mission President

From: Chile Antofagasta Mission
Date: Tue, Mar 26, 2013 at 7:29 PM
Subject: Your missionary has arrived Safely in Antofagasta.
To:

Dear Family.

I apologize for not getting this email to you sooner, but I wanted to report that your missionary has arrived safely in Antofagasta!  We had a busy day going back and forth to the airport but we had a total group of 24 missionaries arrive and now they are all off to their new sectors with to meet up with their companions.  I have asked them to email you as soon as possible upon arrival into their sectors.  For your comfort, I have attached a link to photos that we took on our first day together.  We look forward to serving with these wonderful new missionaries!

Presidente Leland E. Bruce

Misión Chile Antofagasta

March 2013 Nuevitos View photos You are invited to view MCA's album. This album has 122 files.

Kami Last MTC Letter (dated March 22, 2013)

From: Kami Severtson
Date: Fri, Mar 22, 2013 at 1:12 PM
Subject: Re: One last email before you leave for Chile!! :-)
To: Toby Severtson 

We decided to email later today than usual, so we can do it while we do laundry. I'm timed, 25 minutes left so far, and if i have time, i'll try to send some pictures! I'll be sending my SD card home tomorrow anyways, but i thought it'd be fun anyways :) oh, and i do have 2 SD cards. and i'm not able to copy the pictures from on to the other...so hopefully you get it okay :) when you send it back to me, can you leave them on the card though? I want to be able to still have them hwile i'm gone :)

What phone do you want me to call? home or cell? I am going to buy a phone card from the book store, which gives me like 40 minutes or so for $5 or something. So i'll just use that. and good point about SLC or LAX, I'll see what time it is when we finally get checked in at SLC and probably call then :)

The other day, we got called in to the travel office, and apparently there's a $160 tax for landing in chile. If i were to pay by cash, they need PERFECT bills. So they gave us 160 to use for our baggage and stuff, and said to use a card for the tax. SO i'll probably have a charge on my credit card monday or tuesday. But, they said sometimes we get lucky, and they don't ask for the tax. in that case, they'll just deduct the 160 from my budget, or something. I'm not sure exactly. But I just wanted to let you know i'll probably have a charge on my credit card :)

I finished memorizing all the Articulos de Fe in Spanish!! :) I was so proud of myself :) it was a goal to have it done before I left! I'm just a little iffy on a few of them, I gotta think about it, so i'm giong to keep practicing them.

I got a shot yesterday. the Hep A part 2. it was $71 dollars, and I just used some of my cash. They gave me a form to mail home, that we can send to insurance to reimburse it. So i'll send that back in my package i'll send tomorrow too.

guess who i saw!?!? You'll never guess. I didn't even believe it. REmember the Stempniaks (?) in our ward?? Deizsha is here. Wow. But I don't think she knows who I am, so I didn't say anything to her.

I also got my haircut today. Sisters get 1 free in the MTC, so I just trimmed like 2 in off. Cool! One last "nice" haircut before I leave to chile :)

WE had in-field orientation yesterday all day. It was cool, told us stuff about tracting, finding people to teach, members, bishop, all that stuff. It made me so much more excited to leave!! Until I remembered it'll be in spanish ;) haha nah, I'm still super excited.

That's awesome about Cal's call! Good for him! He will LOVE the MTC :) It's the best place ever!! 

Your temple trip sounds fun too! I really wanted to do something like that..but obviously never got around to it :) Maybe when I"m home we'll have to! Except as a family...not the scouts :)

Today, it snowed. It's officially the first day of spring. and it snowed. WHAT!? But oh well, it's pretty. And i wont have "cold" weather for a long time.

That's crazy that Chad is home too. Good for him! I can't wait until that's me!! :) haha

Oh!! So I think they changed the email rules!! (still depending on the mission president..) but we are allwoed to email friends now! Not in the MTC, so it might be a little bit. well like 3 days. :) I think pday there is monday ( i think it is everywhere) so in a week and a half when I can email next, i'll be able to!

Also, Dearelder should still work okay, but I'm pretty sure I'll only get mail sent to the mission home every 6 weeks at transfers. And since it takes a few weeks to get letters to Chile, it's probably best to have people send stuff there anyways. Or email me :)

Tell the kids, I'll email them all back next time, but it was so nice to hear from all of them! Tell porter i'm SO happy he was able to translate that letter for ya all :) WOO HOO!! And have fun at the cabin! I wish I was able to be there with all of ya!

Happy Birthday (yesterday) dad! I hope it was a great day for ya! And happy birthday to mom on sunday :) Thanks for you package, I got it today!!! Those shirts are perfect, so thanks! And my companions say thanks for the Chile shirts too :) They love them! Tell grandma porter thanks for the shirt too. I'm wearing it today, and I love it! It's such a pretty color! :)

I'll talk to you monday!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D Have some questions ready for me, because I probably won't know what to talk about :)

Miss and love you all!! And next time my email will be from CHILE! <3

---Hermana Kami Severtson!

P.S. Here's some pictures for ya!! Add them to my blog, and I'll send the rest home. These I think (the pictures are hard to see small on the computer)  are the best ones :)

Adios!

Kami MTC Letter (dated March 15, 2013)

I got my travel plans!!!

I leave March 25 at 6am here. my flight is american airlines flight 2692 to LAX at 10:20am and land at 11:15

then from LAX we fly Lan Chile S.A. to Santiago flight 601 at 1:30pm (la time) and get to Santiago at 6am the 26th.

From Santiago we fly to Antofagasta Lan Chile flight 128 at 7:30 and get to Antofagasta at 9:30

!!! i plan to call you most likely in LA, but I will let you know for sure next email. Send me a letter with what time would probably be best for you.

It's all so real now that we have this information!! I am SUPER excited to go to Chile, but at the same time, it kinda freaks me out! haha

we can now count on our hands how many days we have left in the MTC!!!! :D

 

I FINALLY ran into bryndee on Sunday! THen again on Wednesday and Thursday...butonly for like 2 minutes each time. But I'm glad I saw her! She lives in the same building as me, so I told her she HAS to come visit me one of these nights! SHe leaves monday, so we only have a couple days left!

 

We got to host on Wednesday..it was super neat! We welcomed the new missionaries, took them to their rooms, got their books, and took them to their class! It was neat to be on the other side of things, and see the helping instead of being the one so lost and confused :)

 

WEdnesday we hit our month anniversary... WHOA!! I can't believe it's been that long! 17 months more! :) That was probably the most filled, long, and busy, but quickest month of my life! The MTC is amazing!

 

Tell Kirk and Keta thanks for that package ;) THe cookies were DELICIOUS!! Very yummy, and all the other snacks too :) And for grandma severtson for the cinnamon rolls. SO GOOD!!

And thanks to you guys for the package, treats, and the shirt! I LOVE THE SHIRT! so, if you DO have time (if not it's okay) could ya make one for my comp's too? :) They liked it too :) But either way, whatever you have time for. It'd probably have to be sent my monday or tuesday to be sure I get it beore I leave. (wow, that makes it sound like i leave SUPER soon!! Which I guess i do..?)  :)

Also, tell Gpa Severtson thanks for his "letter" ;) I was glad to get at least something from him! It was more than he said he would send :)

And to JuLee and kids for their dearelders. :) So fun! Super cute how they all typed them out themselves :)

 

Also, tell Kimilee and Colton thanks for their letters. I will try to write them abck today. It's so nice to hear from friends and family. I was super excited to see I got a letter from them two.

For Cal's call, I'm guessing somewhere in Central America. Like Dom Repub, Cuba, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador...one of those places. SOmething like that. Let me know when he get is, that's super excited! Good for him!

 

Garrett had asked me if I had to speak in church yet... YES. I am so far the only one in my district that has been called. I was asked last Sunday to speak..but it wasn't that bad. We have it all pre-written on what we want to say, so I just had to read it, and hope my spanish grammar was right ;) ALSO last sunday, we did a musical number in sacrament! sis howell, sis johnson, and sis furmann sang in spanish (mas cerca dios de ti--nearer my god to thee) while I played the piano. it was nice to play the piano again, i miss it!!

 

Ok, I'm SO glad we live in AZ, because Daylight Savings is not fun!! haha I'm so glad AZ doesn't participate in that :)

 

So someone came up to me the other day, asking if I have relatives in Oregon, because he knows some Severtson's. Turns out, they spell theirs with SIvertson, but cool huh? And they say their's the same way too!! AND they're members of the church :) I just thought that was cool :)

 

I run into Andrew Neher and Jordan Washburn all the time. I also ran into Seth Bloomfield the other day! His classroom is close to mine, and his schedule with meals and gym is the same, so I see him somewhat often now. Funny, when I as talking to him, he turned to his companion/district adn said "remember when I told you I stuck my booger into that guys hand when he gave me a handshake, that's her dad" :) haha I don't know WHY he told his district that...haha but I thought it was funny!!

 

As of tomorrow, we will have learned every aspect of the Spanish language. !!!WHOAA!!! Next week We'll just review a lot, and go over anything we want to re-learn, but we have learned it all! It's so amazing how much and how fast we learn things here. Did you get the letter I set you last week that was all in spanish?? :) I don't know if the grammar is right, and I didn't know how to say some things, so I had to say it in a weird way..but still! :)

 

the weather this week ahs been SUPER nice!! I see the mountains right there, and want to go hiking SO BAD!! But I can't :( I hope I can in Chile on pday, but if not, it's all good. we'll just all have to go on a big hike when I get home! SPeaking of, I saw in the Provo Temple Cafeteria this morning a picture that totally looks like havasupai! <3 Like that first corner where there's that first tree covering over the trail! It looks JUST like it, and it makes me want to go this summer aagin really bad!!

 

I haven't seen bro reed much, so I figured I'd send my SD card home with a few other things I want to send. I have my jackets, a cardigan that got a hole in the elbow (don't throw it away though, I'll try to fix it when I'm home or something..I like it.. :) haha) and probably a few mor things, so i'll probably send it like next friday or something. We'll see.

 

Also, can you send me a few more last things? My gold cardigan from delias, it should just be hanging in my closet. Another pair of jeans, probably the ones that say the brand in red along the inside of the waist? (sorry, I can't rememmber what it says, but any of the jeans will do as long as they don't have holes in them :) ) and my 3/4 sleeve brown tshirt. that should be in my closet too. And if you have time (and you can use my money in my account) can you get me some more 3/4 down east shirts? I can't wear the capsleeve by themselves, and that's pretty much all i brought. And I feel like Chile might be too hot to wear a cardigan everyday. So maybe like black, light pink, grey maybe, i odn't know, whatever they have. And only if you have time. If not, it's not that big of a deal. Just remember, it would probably have to be sent by monday or tuesday, so i can pick it up by saturday. So don't stress if you are all too busy :)

 

Ask grandma and grandpa porter if they have been getting my emails. I emailed them once or twice just telling them I've gotten their package/dearelder and things :)

 

One last thing I thought of... tithing for selling my car. Can you get that all set for me too please? I didn't even think about it!

 

Thanks so much familia! I miss you all tons!

Can't wait to get to talk to you in a week and a half!! :D :D :D !!!!!

I"ll probably send you another letter today more in spanish :) and just stuff individually for each of the kids and answering what they all wrote me. so expect that in a few days as well. :)

 

Love and miss ya!

--Hermana Severtson

Kami MTC Letter (dated March 12, 2013)

Kami MTC Letter (dated March 8, 2013)

HOOLLAAA!! :)

Keep sending me the blog stuff..I like it!! It's fun to see what's going on with you all, and i'm not sure if i'll be able to look at the actual website once i'm in chile or not.... 2 1/2 weeks by the way.. :D

Monday was a bitter-sweet day. I kinda wished I was at home to spend it with all of you, but at the same time I was glad I was here. It was full of memories, so thanks to everyone for the letters and encouragement they sent to me :)

This week we heard devotionals from the Provo Temple president and Elder Aidikaitis (?) from the 70. Both (all of them) are just amazing talks!! Definitely inspired for what we all need to hear.

I ran into Andrew Neher the other day. Kinda cool to see someone from home. Also, another girl I knew from WF, Daniela Nava, I see her all the time. BUT NO BRYNDEE YET :( I've been looking everywhere for that girl, and I cannot find her! Even a couple of my other friends who know her (Alex Inman and Jonathan Claridge (cluff's cousin)) haven't seen her either! Every meal we have, I have my eyes out for her and scan every group of sisters to see if she's there. I REALLY hope I get to see her before she leaves!! Can you guys send me her MTC and SC mission address? and her email if you can get it? :)

Oh, also, speaking of getting addresses...can you send me Conner Miller and Zach Bishop's addresses? I was going to write both of them before I left, and didn't get the chance.

I found out there's an elder in my zone from Gilbert!! He went to Mesquite, so the other side of Gilbert, but it was still cool to find out! We finally got a new district in our zone on wednesday, so we aren't the "newbs" anymore :) There's a girl from YUMA! :) Kinda far from the good ol QC too, but still AZ. It's so fun to find AZ people! Everytime anyone is from AZ everyone just clicks and has someting to talk about. it's so fun! :)

So you asked about our typical day. Well, every day we have a different schedule. But it consists of either 3 or 6 hours of classroom instruction. There we teach our investigators, learn spanish, grammar, insights, how to teach... lots of stuff. We have an hour of personal study, hour of language study, sometimes an hour of TALL (online language study program), an hour of gym time, and meals. It's nice though because it's not so reduntant with a different schedule every day. Tuesdays we do service in the morning. We help clean the bathrooms in one of the dorms. And Tuesday nights are devotionals.

Sundays we have study time, RS watches music and the spoken word and then has a speaker come. A lot of times it's one of the General RS or YW presidency. OR the mtc presidency's wives. It's amazing! Then more of study time. Sacrament I think I talked a little about before. The blessings are in spanish, the missionary speakers are in spanish, then the main speaker (branch presidency member and wife) are in English. Onlyour branch pres knows spanish (besides us missionaries). We get to walk over to the temple and walk around, take pictures. Then a devotional at night. After the devotional, they have church movies/talks that we can watch.

Pday we start our day at the temple. We meet there at 6:30 for the 7 session or whatever we decide to do. We usually eat breakfast at the temple after too...YUM! Then we come to the computers and write you all!! (speaking of, If i see bro reed i'll probably see if he can send you some of my pictures!! can you post them on my blog too?) Then we go to gym, shower, lunch, write, laundry, then we have class at night and pday is over. Since March 1, the weather has been SUPER nice! So if it stays nice, we'll probably have a picnic with my district :)

Tell Bentley thanks for making that shirt! ;) She really didn't have to, but that's awesome! I know I"ll love it! :) and not to add more pressure or work (because you really don't have to at all) maybe for my 2 comps too? :) haha i know we've all mentioned we wanted a chile shirt :) and they're bothing going to antofagasta too. But honestly, no worries. And good luck on your wisdom teeth!! It really wasn't THAT bad (be careful taking too much medicine :P  haha) i just thought it'd be more pain for less amount of time. Jello was the best. and tomato soup. after a couple days, try to eat more of like the saltine crackers or bread or something. haha have fun with no eating! :)

I was totally craving YJ the other night.. :( Like really bad! Sundays and Wednesdays we have BYU creamery ice cream, but it's nothing...NOTHING...compared to YJ. We HAVE to go the day I get back!!! OK!?? no doubt, no question :)

It sounds like you all are keeping busy and having fun! I can't believe you have spring break already! And we were on our cruise a year ago! St. Patty's will be different, I wish we could have traveled to another cool place and did more random things!

Keep the letters coming, and remember who you are! You are all seriously amazing, and I miss you all so much! The time is going so fast, but so slow at the same time. It's realy weird. less than 20 days i'll be headed to Chile!! Hopefully I'll know enough spanish to be able to somewhat communicate with my companions and the people of chile. but i have 2 1/2 more weeks to really learn!! WHOA that's fast!! :)

Miss and love you all!!

con amor,

Hermana Severtson

Kami MTC Letter (dated March 1, 2013)

Kami MTC Letter #3

Thanks for sending that package! It was really nice to get that stuff from you all :)

 

Also, keep sending these emails through dearelder too, it's easier and gets me more time to write you guys back, instead of spending some of my 30 min reading the emails too :)

 

I love what you said about this special week for us. I was just thinking about that the other day. I wish I could go to the cemetery with you guys, but I cannot! ;) I'll be there in spirit with you guys! It might be a little hard to be here during that, but I know it's where I need to be!

 

We just got back from the temple again, and it reminded me that I have all those family names. A few are printed out on my dresser, but I found a few more before I left, so if you log in to my familysearch, you guys could go do them! I wish I could ehre, but I can't do baptisms or anything. So you guys should! I know they're reserved for only a certain amt of time, so I'm not sure how long it's been :)

 

ALSO did you guys hear there's a new Gilbert Mission opening up!? there are like 50+ new missions opening from this new age change, all on lds.org. It's awesome! I saw the Gilbert mission and got super excited!!

 

I can try to send you pictures as soon as i can, but the only comps here that can upload pics are in the laundry room, and you have to fight probably 50 or more people for that computer. I have taken a few pictures, and I'll get them to you as soon as I can, but depending, it might be until CHILE.

Speaking of CHILE...... TODAY IS MARCH 1, SO I HAVE LIKE 25-ISH DAYSSS!!! :D I am super excited, but at the same time it adds a lot of pressure to learn the language and teaching super quick!

 

I've been doing what you said, dad, and memorizing a lot of different things. I've already memorized up to article of faith 9 in spanish, baptismal promise, missionary purpose in eng and spa, and the first vision. Memorizing in spanish seems a lot easier for some reason.

I've seen a lot of the Holy Ghost bringing things to my remembrance. We sit planning a lesson with our investigator, and I remember scripture masteries from HS! Not only the keywords and reference, but a lot of the whole scripture too! It's so cool!

 

So guess who spoke to us on Tuesday night devo....???? M. RUSSELL BALLARD!!!!! It was SO amazing!! Everyone really wanted a general authority to come..so we rushed to the gym to get a good seat. Usually, the screen shows who's speaking, but this time there wasn't anything about it, so that made us more curious. Then, during our song, Ballard walks in, and a big RUSH of the spirit with him! It was the most amazing thing ever!! He talked to us about being a good missionary. One thing he said was "remember that you know a lot". THat was powerful to me, because I had been thinking "i gotta learn spanish, I gotta remember what I memorize, I want to memorize more, I gotta learn to teach..." and that reminder that I went to church/seminary/YW/sunday school/primary/mutual... I have enough information and knowledge that I COULD go out right now and share the gospel with the world!

Sunday night, we had Stephen B Allen (managing director of the miss dept) talk to us too. It's so amazing the people they get to speak to us. To ONLY us. !!

 

I talked to Bro Reed--our cousin--the other day!! It's super cool to know someone here and have a distant relative here. He told me that whatever I needed, he could hlep me with, so taht was nice :) He mentioned how just a few weeks ago his job changed to be over the beginning spanish classes, so just in time for me to get here! He's the supervisor of my teachers! So it's pretty cool! Oh, he also told me, that when I'm home, he could probably hook me up with a job here :) That'd be fun! But I'll see.. I still got 17 months to figure that out :)

As much as I don't want to admit it, BYU might not be a bad idea... After talking to him, I thought about it. I don't know. I still kinda feel ASU is best for me how, but like I said 17 months left!

The snow isn't TOO bad either. I actually like it a lot! When it's snowing, I feel like Bentley and I chasing fireflies in Nauvoo!! <3 It amazes me and it's so beautiful!! Except for the cold..but even then, it's not TOO bad! As long as I don't have to drive in it or shovel it, I'll enjoy watching it fall ;) haha

 

I bought the Jesus the Christ books and those others that were in my packet the other day. We get a discount at the book store here, so if you want anything for cheaper I can get it for ya! :) haha

 

I finally got those letters you wrote me on like Wednesday(?). It was so nice to hear from all of you!! I love getting letters so much! Also, thanks again for that package and all those things I needed. And the kitkats and cookies :D YUM my comps and roomates loved them!

 

You keep reminding me that I never told youabout my comps! I have Hma Smith and Hma Howell. Smith is from Rexburg, right by BYUI, and Howell is from Utah, close to St George. It's so fun being in a trio! Except for it's another person to ALWAYS be with ;) But we get along and have fun. And it was a great companionship, because of everyone in my district, we are pretty much the only ones to have taken and remember HS spanish. BUT, we're getting to the point this weekend that I started getting lost in SPA 3 in HS and 202 in college. And that was as far as I got. So pretty soon here I'm as new as everyone else!!

 

Tell Noah thanks for the candy, and Jonah that he can have my Korean candy ;) haha anything you guys want, I don't care! By the time I'll get to it it'll be gross!

 

I was going to tell you too, yes, I have enough money while I'm here, but when I get on the plane, I'll probably use my Credit Card to pay for the luggage and everything. It'll be easier, and I'm not sure exactly how much it'll cost. Since I've already spent some here, and want to spend some in Chile, I'll just use that. I'll email you when I do though, and see if you can pay it off for me :)

 

I'm super excited for Bryndee to come this week!! A friend from home will be nice! Even though my whole district has already become good friends, like a family almost :)

 

I'll write you all more later, when I'm waiting for laundry and such..all the individual questions you wrote me i'll answer there, since I'm almost out of time here. But keep writing me, and I'll write as soon as I can! My Branch Presidency asked us to only write letters on Pday, so here that's Fridays. Chile I don't know the rules yet. But anyways, expect that letter in the next couple of days.

Also tell extended fam thanks for their letters I've gotten. I love the pictures from Rosy :) I'll try to write them all today too. I'll probably just send them all home to you guys, so if you could get them to everyone :) Or maybe to gma if I have her address written..I"ll just have to look.

 

Love and miss you all MUCHO!! have a buena semana y nos vemos en diezisiete meses!  

Con amor,

Hermana Kami Severtson.