Week 14

 This week was super good. I didnt even know there was an earthquake until we went to a members home and it was on the news. We didnt feel anything in the area where we are at. I was a little sad, I kind of want to experience an earthquake but I dont want our house to break or anything, maybe just a small one. It has been really hot during the day still. My companion and I bought some hats for some protection but now people think we are Jehovahs Witnesses, because there is a JW church in our sector and all of their members wear hats like the ones we bought. My companion and I watched this video on the LDS website by Elder Bednar titled Being an Agent to Act and it was super good. He talked about how our main purpose here in mortality is to learn, and we learn in such a way here that we couldnt have learned in premortality. The lessons here prepare us for eternity. We progress step by step, a little bit at a time.

     We set baptism dates for this family we are teaching and they attended Sacrament Meeting with us which shows they are committed as of right now. Also during Sacrament Meeting this week there was this kid who could not sit down, he just kept running around the chapel. His mom gave him cookies to try and keep him quite, he took the cookies and then started going around asking everyone if they wanted one, which is really cool of him to do, but it was still super distracting. 

      Another question someone asked me in English "What time is your name?" I tried so hard not to laugh. They also call me John Wayne because of the hat I have.

       Thats so crazy that Trump won! Im glad Im here for the next two years. I dont know if I will come back to the US. 

       Hope everyone is doing well!

Les Amo!

Week 13

    The President changed a rule this week regarding P day, we used to be able to leave the mission because it is so small but now we cant which bummed a lot of people out because there isnt a whole lot of cool places to go in the mission, and my companion and I were planning on going on a hike in the mountains but we will find other things to do. How was Halloween? What was everyones costume? There were actually quite a few people here that dressed up and were Trick or Treating. I saw a really good costume of Edward Scissorhands. My companion and I dressed up as missionaries but there werent very many people that liked our costumes. We found another house of people from Haiti and they are super cool and nice. Also one of our investigators quite smoking and is really wanting to change. There is this less active family that we visit and try to teach but they have a young son and two chickens so there is a lot of distraction and we havent been able to have a very good lesson yet. Let me know who wins the election.

Les Amo! 

Week 12

The weather has changed back to being super hot, I think I prefer the cold. Most of our investigators are progressing pretty well but there is this one who has a hard time getting motivated to go to church. We found this house full of Haitians and only one of them can speak spanish, but they were super friendly. Today for P-day we had a zone activity, we cooked french toast and watched Kung Fu Panda. also everyone asks me, Trump or Clinton? and I say neither, I dont think they are very interested in the election but it is just something they associate with me because Im from the US. Also, Here are some more pictures.

Week 11

  Not much happened this week but it did rain for the first time and it has been pretty cold the past couple of days. There is a lot of new snow in the mountains that we can see from our house. We had divisions this week and I had to direct my sector because my companion was from a different sector and didnt know where people lived. It was a little scary but I think I did alright.

     Today for P-day we went to an area more for tourism, we went to a catholic cathedral called Catedral Metropolitana which was really cool. We also went to a museum. There were quite a few people from the US at the museum. 

     We have a couple investigators right now that are progressing really well, but we have a ton of less active members that we are trying to reactivate. Also another drunk guy tried talking me in English, it was pretty fun, but then he started talking in Spanish and I have learned that it is impossible to understand a drunk Chilean.

Love you all!

Week 10

Hola!

     This week was good, the days go by really fast. I was finally able to buy some fruit this week which made me really happy. We usually buy most things at these street fairs they have every Tuesday and Friday, Its really cool. Also the other day we were contacting and this dog started following us and kept biting our ankles, it was really annoying. It got distracted by another dog so we ran around a corner to lose it, but then like 10 minutes later we came around another corner and there it was! so it followed us a little while longer but then it got bored with us. Last night we went to the house of a guy named Claudio who is  a recent convert and we were able to share a short message with him. There was also a soccer game on TV that we watched with him for a little bit, it was The University of Chile versus Peru. Then as we were walking home we heard cheering come from like 3 or 4 houses around us, that let us know that Chile scored a goal.

     Today for P-day we went to this little restaurant called Corbatas and bought a 50cm long Completos which is just a hot dog. It was massive, I was able to eat the whole thing but right now I dont feel so good. I cant tell yet if I am going to lose weight or gain weight because we always eat a super big lunch but most days thats all we eat.

      I feel I am progressing in the language, I can understand a lot but it is talking that I need to work on. I am able to do more than share my testimony in lessons and I can have somewhat of a conversation with someone, but I am not too worried, I think it just takes time. That is about all that happened this week with me, I hope you all are doing good.

Love you!​​

Week 9

Sorry I didnt write yesterday, I didnt have anytime, and right now I only have a couple of minutes so it will be short. I was able to watch the Saturday sessions of General Conference in English but the rest were in Spanish, but I was able to understand about half of what they said. I really liked Elder Cornish s talk, He talked about how we often compare ourselves to others when the only person we need to compare to is ourselves, and the only opinion that should matter to us is Gods.

     Yesterday for P-day about 10 missionaries and I got to go the home of the mission president and watch Star Wars 7 and eat pizza, it was awesome! 

     I will write more next week, Love you all!

Week 8

Hola!

     Another good week! I am progressing in the Spanish very slowly, but it is coming. We are teaching a few investigators and have baptism dates for two of them, I hope we can help them be fully prepared for baptism. My companion and I are getting along really well. He has these numchucks that he bought here that he likes to twirl around every now and then, it is pretty funny. The food is OK here, I havent gotten sick yet or eaten anything gross. Yesterday we had cow heart and noodles with a lot of bread. It is pretty hot during the day but around 6 it starts to cool off, I am super tired by the end of each day which is good. we typically have around 4 or 5 lessons each day, I am able to participate more in the lessons. I will be able to watch General Conference this weekend at the Stake Center but I dont know if they will have it available in English or not. I am going to try and buy an adaptor for my camera today so I can send some pictures. I hope everthing is going well at home.

Love you all!