When trying to look deep down inside of me to find out what makes me tick, or what makes me the way I am its always hard to really pin point it. Its not one specific event that happened in my life but a bunch of little ones that made me the way I am. I grew up in a ghetto neighborhood where I wasn’t poor but not rich. We had the things that we needed and nothing more and we were happy. I grew up in a LDS household, my family is all LDS, my cousins and their families. Everyone. Who I am today has come from my beliefs and how I was brought up by my parents. I wanted to share how serving a mission for my church did not only strengthen my testimony in what I believe but it also gave me an opportunity to share that with other but it helped me to help others in more ways then just religious..
Because of my mission I was able to experience how difficult it is when my first language is different then that of everyone around me. I’ve grown up where my first language was what everyone else was speaking and those that could not speak it were considered different, not in a bad way but just different and hard to understand. I had served a year and a half mission for my church in the Chile, Osorno mission. The Mission was the southern part of Chile that went from a tiny town called Los Lagos (just under the city Concepcion) all the way down to the very end of Chile called Provenir (Tierra del Fuego) but I call it the end of the world. Being there I finely understood what it was like being on the other side of the language barrier, I was the different one. This time it was me trying to communicate and they were the ones looking at me wondering and trying to figure out what I had just said. It was really hard, Spanish did not come easy to me. At the beginning I felt more like I was playing a game of charades then trying to speak to them. Although I was frustrated the Chileans were so kind and friendly, they would try to help me out with words that were hard for me to pronounce or that I didn’t understand. When I started understanding more and was able to communicate with them not only was I able to share the gospel with them, but they were able to share their culture with me. The more I learned the more I fell in love with them and their culture. I learned about their history, their nations dance called the Cuaca, I’d become accustom to the kissing of the cheeks to say hello or goodbye, I had opened myself up to learning.
My mission had changed me and made me a better person. When my time was up I was so sad to be leaving such a beautiful place filled with wonderful people, I loved them and their culture so much and I was going to miss it. When returning home I was in culture shock, which does seem weird since I was born and raised in the USA. But when I would go and greet someone I would lean in to kiss their cheeks and they would step back from me as if I was some loony and I think it throw them off because I was white and only Latin’s did that here. It was hard for me, I loved the Chilean culture and I did not want to give it up. So although I had to stop with the kissing of the cheek I still wanted to keep my Spanish and to help those that were here (in mesa) learn English just like the Chileans helped me learn Spanish. I started teaching English classes for whoever wanted to learn; I attended and helped out with the Spanish branch that was in my church. Now I am a secretary for Mesa Public Schools Adult Education where I am able to speak Spanish to those who want English Classes and get them signed up.
Although it has been 3 years now since I was in Chile I still consider it home away from home. Now when people see someone that might be different, I see an opportunity to learn and to help someone feel welcomed and comfortable.
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