The blog of me: September 20, 2010

Howdy, howdy, howdy, howdy!

Can I just say that you made me realize that my mission is actually going by really fast? That part about being excited for me to return made me realize...''Shoot! Someday this is actually going to end!'' President Swenson actually talked about that in...I believe it was consejo with the leaders...about if we had realized that the mission really was going to end at some point. He said that when he and Sister Swenson started taking missionaries to the airport that were finishing their missions that they had actually picked up when they got here to the mission made them realize that things are going by really fast. Crazy...I've got less than 10 months left and I still feel like I have way too many things to do before I go home. And that's how I'll keep feeling until the very end, I suppose. But I know when I leave I'll be able to say I did everything I could, because that's what I do with my companions every second of every day. So bring it on, 10 months! You don't scare me, time...ok maybe a little...but still, haha.

You had better get that study schedule going, because I'm sure going to need someone to study with when I get back! Companionship study is one of my favorite things to do - you get to bounce ideas off one another and share the cool things you learned while studying by yourself. And really, a lot of personal revelation comes when you talk about your ideas. And I would love to be able to continue doing it in Spanish, so you'll have to get going on that as well: watch movies in spanish without subtitles, and read the scriptures out loud every day and I promise you'll start getting it down (I say watch movies because it's essential to hear a native speaker constantly to be able to know how to speak the language).

So the 18th of September was kind of a flop this year for us missionaries, haha. It wasn't quite as fun as last year even though it was the 200-year mark for Chile. Part of the reasoning for that was that our ward's activity was on the 17th, and we had our p-day on th 18th, so we didn't even get to participate in that because we had to be working haha. And then on the 18th everything was closed and nobody really wanted to go to the parade in the center, so we spent some time in the activity of the other ward that shares our buildling (Las Américas - my ward is named San Martín). So I actually don't even have any cool pictures from this year - because I never saw anything worth taking pictures of! What am I going to do with me and my lazy-picture-taking self? Haha. We did see many a drunk person, however, and some of them did throw up on the sidewalk so that was entertaining.

This coming weekend we'll be having a baptism - the girl getting baptized is named Carolina Inostroza. I believe I mentioned her before - so it suffeth me to say that she's going to be a solid convert. Yesterday in church she said that she really wants her whole family to be together in the gospel, so we'll continue working with her family. Her mom is actually pretty excited to be sharing with us and her dad is opening up, so I'm sure we'll be having some success with them soon. Edward didn't make it to sacrament meeting (he showed up for the last hour because of some sort of family problem) so we'll have to put the baptism off another week. Actually, maybe two weeks because of general conference. GENERAL CONFERENCE!! VERY EXCITED FOR THAT! And then that lady we found a few weeks ago, Marianela, should be able to start coming to church again, so she'll be getting baptized soon as well. Gotta love being a missionary - you get to see so many miracles and changes in the lives of the people you teach. :)

Quick note - this last week I got letters from:

The Purles family

Serena Lever

Lauren Berry

I've written the responses mostly, and will be sending out the letters when I get a chance. Everything is closed for awhile because of the 200-year thingamajig.

Well, that should be just about it for this week. I love and miss you all very much!