Hermana Heywood

Kaitlynn in the Chile Puerto Montt Mission

Morning P-Day Call with You (Puerto Montt), June 8, 2026

June 8, 2026 · Puerto Montt + Herriman

Our weekly Monday P-day morning call, in two parts: a first call about 7:37 a.m. that ended when you had to get on a bus, and the callback you promised "in 10 minutes," which came about 8:28 a.m. You were eating breakfast and heading out for a zone P-day at a member's property in the country. The audio was rough, especially the callback.

Breakfast and the zone P-day plan

You answered with "Hello, Father," and we did our usual opening. You were having breakfast, about fifteen minutes from leaving for the P-day in the zone at some members' property in the country. You didn't know what would happen other than that you'd been asked to bring albahaca [basil] and oregano; you thought albahaca was basil but weren't sure how to say it, so you'd been pronouncing it "alppanca." Whatever you were eating was really yummy and you thought you might be addicted to it - basically chocolate milk with a little protein powder so they could call it protein, and the protein powder was probably just sugar. Mom joked they'd put a piece of beef jerky in it, or a whole cow.

A request about a fellow missionary

You said you had a very important question and were completely serious. A fellow missionary of yours, from Idaho, will finish her mission at the same time as you - same day, same airport - so Mom and I would see you both at once. You said she's facing an unsettled living situation after the mission and is planning to attend Utah State, with her options being to stay briefly with an aunt and then either go to her mother's or to a grandmother about ten hours away in Reno.

You said you'd felt strongly you should ask whether she could stay with us for a few months, September until school starts in January - just you, her, Mason, and Alexa, since Bryson and Natalie wouldn't be home. You hadn't said anything to her; you wanted to ask us first. You said it felt like you were asking for a pet dog: "I'll take care of her."

I said, "I don't like that idea. That's a humongous ask." Mom said we could pray about it but she didn't feel any excitement; it's hard to bring someone into the house when she's already working hard to help the kids who are here, and it would throw off the dynamic. She said she admires people who are good at welcoming others that way and that it isn't something we've been good at - even one person spending the night with two friends had been a big deal and very hard - "very not us." You said that was exactly why you asked us first instead of offering and then having to take it back. Mom turned it into a heads-up that her own parents will need to come stay a couple of days for Natalie's farewell. She tied it together by saying this was about making peace with the people in our lives we have to have a relationship with. You agreed, and landed on the idea that your friend should stay with her mom and work on that relationship, since she'd recently started talking with her again. You said you'd tried hard not to judge, because you'd never lived her experience.

Returned-missionary marriages

You asked if we'd seen that your friend Bird got married, on the sixth - married her boyfriend from before the mission, home not even a year. You said it's weird how many people from your mission are getting married, and named Jennings as another. Mom joked, asking how many of the elders you'd dated had gotten married.

The trip to Chiloé

Asked what you'd done this week, you said you finally went to "the island place" - not the Falklands, you joked, but the big island of Chile, Chiloé. You mentioned that Presidente Mackay's parents are serving in your mission right now as a senior couple, and joked about him being "the president of his parents." You took a bus and then a ferry across; you and I did a Lord of the Rings bit about Mount Doom and an old man with a stick. You said the water was gorgeous and showed photos, and told me they'd started building a bridge to Chiloé but stopped because it wasn't lined up right and would have come out wrong.

Venezuelan food and "Kirby"

You said you'd gotten your companion, Hermana Figueredo, addicted to Venezuelan food and found a new place to buy it. You two have a running joke: she keeps saying the food's making her fat and she'll go home heavier, and you told her she's not allowed to say "fat," she has to say "Kirby" - so she said she feels "Kirby in the front." You thought it was cute.

Running and the ankle

Mom asked if you'd been running. You had, but you twisted your ankle really badly Saturday or Sunday and it still hurt; today was the first time you'd run since. Your companion could run while you did ankle exercises, strength work, and wore your brace. You couldn't remember the ankle hurting this long before and thought you'd bruised the bone. You texted the medico, who said keep resting it and get an X-ray if it isn't much better in a week; you didn't think it warranted one yet.

Natalie's farewell time

Mom told you Natalie's farewell is Sunday at 10:30. After some confusion about the time, you worked out that 10:30 our time is 12:30 yours, which is perfect because you'll be out of church by then. You put it in your schedule.

Watching your language

I teased you for using a word you'd said you weren't going to use anymore, and you'd just said it again. You said you'd set a goal this week to watch your language even more, because you go back and forth - sometimes good, sometimes bad - and it frustrates you. You'd prayed and asked God what you needed to do to have the Spirit with you more, and what you felt was to fix your language. You set a weekly goal to stop saying naughty words.

Getting on the bus

You were a minute or two from the bus terminal and getting distracted boarding; the noise made it hard to talk. You said give you about ten minutes and you'd call back so you could pay better attention. The first call ended there.

The callback: travel and Aunt Kathy

About fifty minutes later you called back, and this part broke up a lot. You talked me through where you were headed, toward the coast, while I looked at a map, and mentioned a house in Puerto Montt built to look like the house from the movie Up. You'd be playing games at a member's house.

You asked how Aunt Kathy (Kathi Hunt) is doing, and asked about a family divorce you'd read about in my email. I said the papers were signed and it was just waiting on the courts to finalize. You asked about Aunt Kathy's schooling; I said she's three weeks into a six-week summer semester, working toward becoming a surgical tech, and once the pre-reqs are done she can finish the program in a year and assist in surgeries. You said that was cool. You were about to head into a meeting and would try to talk again that night, since it would only be about an hour. We said our love-yous, with a last bit about whether you could write letters on the bus.

Cleanup Notes