One Month in Chileee!!!

Hey Everyone!

So just letting everyone know I can only send one letter home and one to the Mission President Only so here it is haha.  Gotta be obedient;)

This week went GREAT!  I was so excited to get so many emails from everyone.  I apologize if I don’t answer some of your questions; it’s a lot of stuff to remember.

Oh man I can’t even tell you how much I love the mission already. WAYY HARD but AMAZING!
First let me tell you a little more about where I am at. So Los Muermos is a very small town surrounded by campo (country). It is about an hour by bus to Puerto Mont, where my district meetings are held. I have had to go down there a lot more though lately because I have a parasite. BUT DONT WORRY haha it’s no biggie just gotta take meds for a week and it’s gone. A got it from the MTC too not even Chile ha. Ummm let’s see, there are no fast food places in Muermos. Just little stands of food or whole in the walls (not much) and tons of little food markets that are like people’s houses. Oh and the 2 main supermarkets kinda tiny. If we ever want more we go to Puerto Mont and they have stores called Lider which is just like Wal-Mart, Its funny their good quality food is the great value cheapo stuff. Kinda pricy too so that’s a splurge. The only types of condiments they have are mustard mayo and ketchup but we found bbq sauce at Lider!!!! So we are going to try to figure out what to put it on. They do have McDonalds and pizza hut at the Mall in Puerto but its pretty dang pricy. We got it last week though it was good. Um hmm

Los Muermos is known for its drunks ha but that just makes the day that much more interesting. We have like one of the biggest homes in the mission and today we spent ALL DAY cleaning it, I’ll take pictures I was stoked, got a new study area and a clothing room and all the spider webs cleaned away. Should bring the spirit more. Umm idk we just don’t have like American candy and if we do it’s so expensive, they have like the main candies but not like Reese’s and Sour Patch Kids. Ohhh sounds so good. Ha so yeah meals are slowly getting tastier and tastier I honestly get so stoked for Rice and like some sort of sausage.

Let’s see I had my first intercompio last week and that was interesting, ha it was a huge ward in the suburbs and it just kinda culture shocked me. The mamita’s house had carpet and it just seemed soooo Cuico (rich).  I was trippen out and the lady had ranch dressing!!! They usually just drench the lettuce in oil so that was a treat. We have been running in the mornings 3 times a week to try to not get fat but its hard what they cook here and how much they feed you. Ha they sure take pride in eating you. Umm yesterday we helped a member build a house more that was fun. It is a decent size house. Ohh ohh ohh going back to intercompios I totally am so thankful now for my trainer and my area, I think I will cry now when I leave my first area, you just get so close with all the people (even when you can’t really understand them that well haha)

So I gave my first talk this Sunday, it was a full 15 min talk.. oh man it was nuts I didn’t even know how I pulled that off, my Spanish is slowly getting better and better, it’s truly humbling but it’s all about patience you kinda get used to it ha. But oh man when I testified at the end of my talk the spirit felt so strong, You gotta strive to always have the spirit here.  One thing me and my companion got better at is talking in the street in Spanish more (because when you do that it’s a lot quieter and you only are focusing on who you talk to next haha) allows the spirit to flow better.

Two of our investigators are Borris and Luis, Borris we have to go in the morning he is a smart 23 year old that is studying Derechos (or law) and is way interested. We did a soft invitation to get baptized. He is really curious to know the restrictions we have and said his family would not like if he betrayed his catholic background, but when you say well if god tells you to will you and he says well yeah...of course. So we are really praying he recognizes the fruits of the spirit. Luis is also awesome we just taught him the second part of the plan of salvation and we had a member there.  Having a sweet member there makes it sooo much better. We taught him in the capilla (chapel) so the spirit was strong as well. He seemed to love it and we gave him his first baptismal invitation, he was a little caught off guard but then said he would if he received an answer. We reminded him we are here to just invite and help see what’s true, not to force, he felt very comfortable. One amazing question he asked was regarding his mentally handicapped relative. He asked if he would go to heaven. We smiled and told him (referring to this D&C scripture) that you need albedrio (agency) in order to sin and since he can’t make his own decisions like a baby, he has a place in the kingdom of heaven. Such a cool thing because me and my companion were studying about that just a day before.

It is weird here in Chile is now regular for me already, it’s weird how fast you can get used to such a big change. Oh yeah! They love 80s music here and they play a lot of American music its funny; we hear it every time we go on the bus. Stoked for next pday we are climbing volcano Osorno! Love the work and everything about the mission. So excited for more

Blake!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRO!!! Glad you had a good one. Hope all your wildest dreams come true;) haha miss you man, I’m doing good here, how’s Erin and Lusk and your job and stuff? have you gone jacuzzying lately? I sometimes just imagine the shower is one and I get pretty happy haha you should send me a California burrito I haven’t had tortillas here, heard they have them some places I think. Do anything fun lately? I didn’t know you had the kinect thing.  That’s cool ill have to play it in 2 years love you man.

Kristy and Dalan, Carter looks so cute!!!

Mom and dad: Thanks for everything, make sure to send the package soon because I heard it takes forever like 2 months in Christmas I don’t care when I get it though:) the house looks beautiful!!!