The blog of me: May 21, 2011

Heylo!

Wow, that is a lot of music stuff you've got going on there! The most music I've got going on in my life right now is what we listen to in the car/while studying and choosing the hymns that will be sung in our meetings.

This week was really busy for us. We left early Monday morning down to Pitrufquen for interviews with the Nueva Toltén zone (it's about a 4-hour drive). That night we went to work in a small town called Gorbea with the elders. That was the first time I had ever had the opportunity to work in that zone, so it was nice. However, I didn't get to see much because there was a really dense fog - the furthest point I could see was the other side of the street. Anyway, so I didn't see much of Gorbea, but I did meet some great people that they're teaching. The last appointment of the day especially sticks out in my mind: Elder Gómez (who I was working with) felt that we should pass by to see a man that they had met named Israel. When we got there he opened the door and just looked at us. We asked if we could come in, he said yes, so we followed him into his room. Three things told me that this man was having problems - a pack of cigarettes on the bed, a container of alcohol on the floor, and a knife on his pillow. We sat down and talked with him for awhile and he was just torn up inside, he had been contemplating suicide. Turns out he had just found his girlfriend/wife cheating on him that night or the night before. Israel was absolutely furious, so we talked with him and helped calm him down. We offered him a priesthood blessing which he accepted, and it was incredible to see the change in him afterwards. Before we left the house he was feeling very optimistic, even laughing about some things, and was very excited to have the missionaries over again the next day. So I'm glad we were able to pass by and see him - who knows what would have happened if we didn't.

The next day we had interviews with the Temuco Ñielol zone and the day after that with the Temuco Cautín zone. I had the opportunity to work in Lican Ray again! That was really enjoyable because I was able to drop by converts and say goodbye to them (who knows if I'll be able to go to Temuco again) and meet some of the people they are teaching now. One guy named Frank (he actually lived in Chicago for a number of years) insisted that we speak english the whole time. He's working his way out of depression and smoking habits and is preparing to be baptized. In the half an hour that we were with him it looks like he took well to me, haha. He calls me whenever he's feeling down or tempted to smoke and wants me to call him in the morning on Sundays to make sure he gets to church. He's a great guy. Oh yeah, something I noticed during those two Temuco days - my right shoe has a giant hole in the bottom, haha. How did I miss that?! I'll tell you one thing, though, it's hard to miss a hole in your shoe when it's raining outside and there's puddles everywhere. So what I've decided to do, since it's not even worth buying new shoes at this point, is just try to use my older shoes (if I can get my feet in them) and use the newer ones on days that it isn't raining.

The day after that we had interviews with the zones of Angol and Victoria, and then we did an intercambio with the elders in a sector called El Mirador (Elder Hong and Elder Nelson). Elder Hong and I had the opportunity to deliver a free DVD about Finding Faith in Christ to a family who called for one (that almost never happens here in Chile - happens quite a lot in the states, though). SUCH a good family - they're worried about how the way the world is today will have an effect on their family, so they want to get closer to Christ. They made a GREAT decision. Elder Hong and Elder Nelson will be going back to teach them.

Yesterday we had our last day of interviews for this week with both of the Los Angeles zones. We finished the interviews at about 7pm with Los Angeles South, and it just so happened that the San Martín ward was having an activity that night, so I was able to see all my friends from that ward, including an investigator I found with Elder Heiser last August, Patricia (I believe I've mentioned her before). I actually spoke with Patricia for a little while and she committed to being baptized in June! That made my day :)

This morning we woke up bright and early...well, dark and early because it was raining...and made our way over to the Antuco volcano. As I mentioned it was raining, so we couldn't actually do too much volcano-hiking, but there is a lake up there as well, so we climbed all over the volcanic rock and got some nice pictures of the lake and some other cool things around there (one of the office elders let us borrow their camera).

Cliffs by the Antuco lake

Rubilar and me in front of the lake by Antuco

Me by the Antuco lake (it was raining)

Waterfall near Antuco

So that was pretty much my week in a nutshell. We got back to Concepción today to find that there are more protests going on. Fun stuff! Last time there were a lot of injuries, so hopefully it doesn't get that far this time.

Protest downtown Concepción

Alrighty, I think we're going to head back to the house, get all cleaned up and then go get the car cleaned - on Sunday and Monday there is a conference for the sisters of the mission and Elder Rubilar and I got roped into playing taxi-driver for them. Thank you for the letter! I'll look forward to hearing from you next week!