February 15, 2010

So you all have church at 1, eh? I'll bet all the kids love that. I don't think a ward exists here that has meetings at 1. Or I haven't heard of it at least. Our ward here in Lican Ray (Temuco, there's a little tourist town called Lican Ray a little bit to the south of here) starts at 11. I like having a little bit later of a starting time as a missionary, because then we have more time to go pick the people up to go to church with us. This last week we had 5 investigators in church, so we were pretty happy about that.

I'm glad to hear that you're getting out with some of the family to appreciate the arts. That's something I very much miss about being in the States - there really isn't a whole lot of that around here. There might be more in Santiago, but around here there's basically nothing. Make sure you take advantage of every opportunity you get to do stuff like that! It would be even better to have the whole family involved :)

Are you all having family home evening on Monday nights? That's something I always took for granted as a kid. I didn't really understand the importance of it until now - seeing it from the outside with the families that we visit. Taking some time to spend together, sharing from the scriptures, and growing in the gospel together is such a big help.

I don't remember if you told me that Cami is doing an internship in the hospital. Cool! I think it would be really cool to have a job like that, but I don't really have the dedication to learn all the science and stuff. Maybe someday I'll do it. I've been having some thoughts about maybe changing my career possibilites when I get back, but I haven't thought about it enough to say anything concrete about it yet, really. I'll think about it more towards the end of my mission. Speaking of which, today I complete 7 months in the mission. Crazy, huh? Time sure does fly by, I'll testify of that...

How's Ryan doing in the MTC? Ben, my roommate from USU, e-mailed me and said that he's going to the Greece, Athens mission. Isn't that where Nathan Taylor went? I think he said he goes in on the 24th, so that's coming up pretty soon here. How's Jarom doing in Mexico? Is he still talking in Book of Mormon language? Honestly, I don't even remember what the scriptures look like in English anymore. And I definitely don't remember how they sound (reading aloud) in English. I haven't opened mine since I was in the MTC. My brain is in Spanish...francisco....

francisco (there's an Elf moment for you ;) )

Ok, some things that happened this week real quick:
1. I saw a mailbox! It was the weirdest thing in the world!
2. We have officially found Satan's dog here in Temuco. Elder Tonumaipe'a and I took a video of it, so I'll try to make a cd of videos I've taken here in the mission to send home to you all as soon as I can. It might take a little time, but I'll get to it eventually.
3. So we got a reference from Bishop Dote this week named Catherine. In the first visit she said the words every missionary wants to hear: ''Me quiero bautizar'' In English: ''I want to get baptized'' We told her we might be able to help her out with that, but we'd have to think about it for awhile....yeah right! We did the baptismal interview just to see what she needed to prepare to get baptized, and she gave amazing answers to each question. So we put a date for the 6th of March, and we'll be helping her to prepare for that. So there was a neat blessing we got from the Lord this week :)

Well, that's about all I've got for this week. Thank you for writing, as always! We actually aren't cooling down here just yet. It is a bit chilly in the mornings and a little bit at night, but everyone is saying it will be hot through March and then it will start to cool down. Time will tell, I guess. Either way, it doesn't really matter because we'll just keep on working anyway. Anyway, I'm going to get some pictures sent. I love and miss you very much!



-Trevor