May 24, 2010

Being a missionary is where it's at

We had an incredibly busy week here, as well. Well...every week and every day is busy, but this week felt especially pressured (maybe it had something to do with the fact that it was the last week of the cambio). We found some amazing people this week, and TONS of them came to church with us on Sunday. I took a picture of our Gospel Principles class, I'll attach that after I finish writing. We ended up having 16 people come to church with us, so we were REALLY happy. And 5 of them (soon to be 6) have baptismal dates! The only bummer about that....IS THAT I HAVE TO LEAVE THE SECTOR NOW!!!! NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! After 4 months here in Temuco, I'm getting sent to Curanilahue, which is near Lebu (a coastal city). So the elder that will be coming to this sector is going to be VERY happy...grrrrrr. Oh well, I'm glad that my boy (Elder Hall) will get to be there to see all of those baptisms. I'm kind of sad to be leaving here, though - after awhile you get used to a sector, all the members, you know the streets, how the people are, so it can be sucky to have to leave. But such is life...er...the mission! It'll be good to get to know other places as well, but I'll definitely miss Temuco. Oh yeah, my new companion's name is Elder Laurito. I think he's latino...and I'm pretty sure this will be his second cambio, so I'm going to be a mommy again (first companion - dad, second companion - mom). Or in other words I'll be finishing his training. It'll be fun. Curanilahue, from what I've heard, is a branch, so I'm guessing it will be something similar to Cabrero.

Gospel Principles, May 23, 2010

Pedrito

Saying goodbye to Veronica, Pedro, Cristina, and Pedrito

Zone Temuco Ñielol

So I'm guessing that everyone is all finished up with school by now - lucky them! Everyone here is still in the thick of studies and tests (hehe). But I did send a little bit of our coldness up to you with that snow storm, so happy birthday...stinkers! I'm actually kind of enjoying the colder weather for a change - because we can bundle up and not be sweating all the time like we were in summer. I kind of have mixed feelings about summer as a missionary - we're outside a lot so we do get tan, but then again we're also walking a lot so we sweat a lot...and then you just feel realllllly clean all the time haha. But during winter it just rains here...so everything gets wet...BUT you're not sweating. And our houses don't have indoor heating, so that makes the mornings fun. Hmmm...maybe you should ask me what my favorite time of year is when I get back to the states, because as a missionary here in Chile it's kind of all just the same for me. Meh. I'm enjoying every second of it though, so the weather doesn't really even matter.

Funny story! Ok, maybe it's not that funny, but Elder Hall laughed really hard. So the other day when I was putting my socks and shoes on (yes, I have learned how to do that alone now) I got one of those good ol' foot cramps. You know, when your foot feels like it's trying to fold over onto itself. Yeah...I got one of those that lasted a little longer than I would have liked, so I was like ''Aahhhhhhhhh! Ahhhhhhh! Urrrrgggg!'' It went away, so I tried putting my sock on again...and I got another cramp! So I had fun with that...and then it went away. Third time...putting the sock on...THE CRAMP CAME BACK! AH! It was irritating but kind of funny at the same time.

Here's a neat experience we had this last week:

One day we were walking to an appointment when we ran into a mom and her two daughters in the street. We made friends with them, got their address and set up an appointment to go see them the next morning. So we walked all the way out to where they live (almost at the end of our sector), and they told us that they were busy. Believe it or not, this was not the first time that something like that had happened, haha. We're used to it, so we just started to knock some doors in that neighborhood. The first door we knocked...nobody answered. Shock! So we went to the next door, and a little girl opened the door. Her mother sent her to tell us that she was busy...one of these days a parent will regret doing that because their kid is going to get kidnapped...not by us, but by some psycho...anyway. So we were telling the little girl to give an invitation to church to her mom, when the second-story window of the house we had just knocked opened and a teenaged girl stuck her head out. Taking advantage of the situation, I joked around with her and asked her why she hadn't opened the door before. She started laughing and was like, ''No! I was in the bathroom!'' So I told her to come down and open the door so that we could talk to her and her family...and she did! Haha, so that was cool. She, Barbara, lives with her sister Sandra and her family (Sandra's family) of 4 (her husband Oscar, and her two kids Daniel and Tania). We got to know them for a bit, got an appointment to come back and visit them in which we shared the message of the Restoration. They told us that they had never heard anything, in regards to religion, that was so clear and made so much sense. They accepted baptismal dates and came to church with us on Sunday. ALMOST missed them, but Barbara poked her head out of the window and we were able to meet the family.

Well, it sounds like you all are going to have a pretty fun summer! I'll let you know how my summer is going when you get back into your winter clothes, hehe. Send my love to all the family and let them all know I miss and love them. I'm going to try to send a box out to you all this week with a scarf or two for dad, a Chile keepsake or two, and maybe some Bon a Bons hehe. Thank you for the letter this week - it was good to hear from you! I love and miss you very much!

I killed a spider...

Love,

Trevor