July 5, 2010

Glad to hear you all enjoyed the 4th! When I got to church in the morning all the members said, ''Happy 4th, Elder!'' So I proudly put my hand over my heart and and sang the national anthem hehe. And then some hoodies that we had a sister in Lebu make for us arrived with her husband (the district president - we had a branch leader conference yesterday) that has an American flag on the shoulder (pictures will be sent, no worries), so that was also cool.

Gotta love the red, white, and blue

Hoodies backs

Hoodies Chue

Hoodies flags

Well, we have cambios once again. I'll be staying here in Curanilahue with an Elder Tatasciore from California. Haven't really heard too much about him, so I'll be telling you all about that next week. I did meet him once briefly in a mission conference, but didn't really get to know him much. Elder Laurito is going WAY far away from Curanilahue 1....Curanilahue 2!! Haha, he's just going to be switching beds. I'm actually pretty happy that I'll be staying here another cambio because we have a lot of people that are progressing and that have baptismal dates. The two that we have for the 17th of this month are named Jocelyn(20) and Gerardo(12) - they were references from their neighbors (who got baptized in July with Elder Laurito and me) and are very excited to be sharing with us. Jocelyn has a little boy named Javier who makes me think about Alexis a lot :). We have four baptismal dates for the 24th of this month as of right now - a lady named Agustina, her daughter, Fabiola, and two grandchildren named David and Fernanda. We found Agustina talking to people in the street - she invited us over and introduced us to her family. Agustina does have health problems, but wants to come to church with us and her family. Fabiola and her kids are amazing - I love them to death. Haha, last night when we were over there I was helping Fernanda memorize a song in english for her class this week (she's 8). The song was called ''We're Having a Party'', and it was pretty funky so we had a good time. And then we have a baptismal date for the 31st of this month for a lady called Ana María. She met sister missionaries for the first time in Santiago about 6 years ago, but didn't ever get baptized because she was living with her boyfriend. But then her boyfriend left her and married her sister, leaving her with 3 children. Her house fell in the earthquake, so she's living in a small house that the army made on a soccer field (there's no grass, so with all the rain it's always very muddy there). Despite the tough times that she has passed through in her life, she's very happy to be visiting with us again and really wants to get closer to God. So I'm very grateful to be able to help her along in that :). It's really amazing...being a missionary. You have so many opportunities to see the lives of people change for the better as they begin to incorporate the Gospel of Jesus Christ into their lives. I wouldn't trade this experience for anything.

Zone Lebu, June

Here's another fun story for the week:
The other day we were doing some door-to-door contacts, and Elder Laurito walked up to a fence, shouted and then started waiting for the person to come out. I had stayed a little further back because I was writing something down. When I finished I put my agenda away, and started walking towards the fence. JUST as the person opened the door my foot disappeared in a foot-deep puddle of mud...needless to say my leg was coated in the prettiest mud you ever did see haha. And my sock opened the door to my shoe and let the mud pass all the way down to my toes. If you want to know a way to change your shoes from black to brown (inside-out) just take a trip down to Curanilahue, Chile and I'll take you to pasaje 7 and show you the magic! I didn't get a picture of it (because that would be touristy! haha), but you can all have fun with the mental picture.

Well, I think I'm going to go ahead and get the pictures onto the computer so I can send you some. I'd just like to express my sincere gratitude for all that you've done for me mom and dad :) I love you both very, very much and am looking forward to talking with you face-to-face again. The same goes for all you crazy siblings. I do miss you all even if I am having an amazing time down here. I'll finish up these 2 years with all that I've got and then we'll go full-force family time haha. Thank you for the updates on the family, it's good to know how everyone is. *Side note* I was flipping through some of the letters I've recieve here in the mission and I came across the letter Cami wrote me the day I went into the MTC. Cami - that letter means the world to me; I don't know if you remember what you wrote, but it made my day this morning. Alrighty, I'm really going now. Love you all very much!

My new scripture covers

-Trevor