Monday, April 7, 2014

Letter 23: Woof woof!

Hey Mom!

April 1st today! Whhattttt?? Its hard to believe sometimes. I cant believe that in June ill be 19? I'm with you mom, I don't want another birthday either! And Brock, you guys should definitely buy him a car (and no...he didn't email me telling me to tell you guys to buy him a car) Seriously I don't even feel that old at all. I'm aging far too quickly haha. I remember being like 5 years old and thinking that i would never be this old, or that is was so far away that I didn't have to think about it. This whole getting older thing is really weird to be honest. Isn't it kind of funny that when you´re young you think that everyone that is older knows everything, and then you get older and realize wow...I have a lot to learn. Hahah life. I´m really excited to see you guys in May as well! I cant believe that is came so fast as well, i still feel like we just talked which is a good thing!

Hahaha actually i´m pretty sure Edith is right about the food. Honestly before I left on the mission I thought the food would be really different and...flavorful? I mean obviously, south America, Chile...one would think so. But nope, normally we eat chicken and rice..and sometimes barotos(bean soup), which is actually pretty good (minus the times I've found ants in them) haha. The good foods that they have here would be there Mexican completos. Its this sliced steak with hot sauce and guacamole, its pretty good. Anyway, my companion also says the the Peruvian food is way better, he has a cook book and everything so I'm going to make him cook me things, also I'm going to teach him how to clean up after himself before I go insane haha. Sometimes its annoying to be with a Peruvian because the Peruvians and Chileans fight ALL THE TIME....and so I have to sit there and listen to who is better between Chile or Peru when in reality I know the USA is the best hahahah. But tell Edith that that's a great idea and ill be sure to take her up on it when I get home.

Yes the senior couple is in my area and they will probably be here for all of their mission. Also from what I have heard i´m probably going to be here until July or August. The people who come here stay for 2-4 changes and President Kahnlein likes to keep the senior companion in the area for longer. So we´ll see how that goes! I'm glad to hear that you are staying busy and that business is going well right now. Also that Nichole´s wedding planning went smoothly and is already almost over. And yes, you have to take a ton of pictures obviously (to indulgences!!). 

I really like the branch that i´m in and the area i´m in. We just had a change in the presidency on Sunday. I felt really bad for the last president because his counselors were practically inactive and he had to do just about everything alone. Not only that but he had to work everyday out in the sea and sometimes with work he couldn't do the things of the branch without support from his counselors. I was actually pretty disappointed to see that the missionaries and a few of the members were making fun of him behind his back when I arrived here in Los Vilos. From what I was able to see he worked as best as he could with what he had. Now we have a presidency that should be much stronger, although the 1st counselor is less active, so we are hoping that this will reactivate him and that he will take it seriously. I love the mission leader that we have in the branch (not only because he reminds me of Cory) but because he magnifies his calling and does a lot to help us. 

Okay so we are teaching a family right now and they are just amazing. Luis and Elvia are the parents and they have 2 kids who are grown up Macarena and Manuel, and 2 grand-kids that live there with one on the way from Macarena. But we have been teaching them (minus Luis because he works away from a month at a time then comes home, BUT his son that lives where he works is a member married in the temple and has been reading the book of Mormon and principles of the Gospel AND attending church there!), and its been amazing. They are so interested and truly want to learn and progress. We were able to finish the plan of salvation yesterday. Elvia was telling us how she just wanted to sit there and think, and to know if it was true. Elvia was also able to give the finally prayer after the lesson and mom, my heart literally felt so happy but sad at the same time. She started to cry almost immediately and asked the Heavenly Father help her family stay united, that the problems they had could be fixed, that it was such a stress and she just doesn't want it anymore, she doesn't want the problems. My heart broke because I could feel her pain, but at the same time I felt so happy because they´re progressing and coming to know our Heavenly Father and that the answer to their problems we have. They are going to watch general conference and we are going to but a baptismal date for Macarena and then put a marriage date for Elvia and Luis. I'm so excited for this family and I really don't want to mess anything up, really we have to trust in the spirit. Speaking of which, I'm ridiculously excited for general conference! Its like Christmas for the missionaries. I've been praying to know what to listen for and to understand what God wants from me at this time. I think that really  if we prepare before we listen to their messages we will get so much more out of it. 

We had our zone conference yesterday with President Kahnlein and his wife. That man is just pure spiritual power, its amazing. We talked a lot about obedience and about the things that we can do to really be true missionaries. We also finished the Book of Mormon with the subjects of Faith, Repentance, Baptism, The Atonement, And the Holy Ghost. Now we are going to study and look for God and Jesus Christ, words directly from them, Prayer, Obedience, and Satan. Pres. wants us to really know our adversary as well as our Father in Heaven. If we know our adversary we can more easily fight against him, we can defend. It really is true, I've met people out here who believe in God but refuse to believe in Satan...how crazy is that! Satan is teaching people that he doesn't exist so that they wont have to worry about anything. I'm excited to study these subjects and learn them. We also talked about the promise in the Introduction in the book of Mormon from Joseph Smith, That a man would get closer to God by following the teachings of the Book Of Mormon than that of any other book. He made the point that we cant just read it and learn things but we have to follow the teachings...or in other words APPLY it in our lives. That really is the hardest part at times. But the Conference was amazing, I always feel so motivated and spiritually uplifted afterwards. I want to be able to keep the spiritual highs that I get, its hard to do.

THANK YOU FOR REMINDING ME!!! I'm going to buy crepe stuff today (if they have it, we have one small supermarket and that's it). I will be thinking about that for sure though, about our Sunday crepes. The member have us over for lunch every day except P-day and sometimes we eat Once (or mini dinner) with the members or investigators if they offer it to us. The meals are....usually good hahaha sometimes I wonder what I'm eating. But its mostly the same ol things. Could be worse though! 

OH....story time. So I came to find out that there was a lady here a little while ago who was selling meat empanadas. Well after a while of selling them people were getting sick and had stomach pains. After finding out that many of the sick people had eaten from her they went to investigate and what did they find in her home? Carcasses of dogs and animals. The garbage men and also filed a report about finding a lot of bones in her trash. Long story short, she was selling meat empanadas of dog. So in other words I will not be buying anything from street vendors or from sketchy restaurants...ever. Also, turns out that they eat horse here, and no, I'm not going to eat it. Haha.

My tooth is all fixed. Sometimes it hurts, especially when something hot touches it. They did it really weird, so I'm probably going to have it checked when I get home. Sometimes I dream that my crown falls off again. But I'm really happy, doing really well! Im happy to hear that you and the family are doing good. Is it starting to warm up there? Is there still snow on the ground? Can you believe that the school year is almost over already?? Here in Chile is just started a few months ago. Its so weird to be here sometimes haha. Its still pretty warm here and we are enjoying while we can. Oh yeah, supposedly a tsunami is supposed to hit here in a few weeks. But all is well because we live high up. There are a ton of earthquakes going on here in Chile right now. And the Area presidency  has counseled us to prepare our emergency kits and reserve food. So we are going to do that today.

Well I love you tons!

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