Week 13!!

October 22, 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

Good to hear from everyone. Bad news first: I have still not received any mail. Oh well. I’m not sure why, hopefully tomorrow. But they send it to Conce, which is three hours away, and then it has to come to us by the assistants or some other way. I just sent my first letter here to Allie; I was going to last Lunes but the place was closed for Feriedad or something like that, a holiday. Really a tough process--you have to go to a crowded post office every time, and Elder Conti never wants to, so I´ll send as much as I can but it may not happen too much.

I am starting to miss the good ol’ USA a little. It’s very different here. We met a very anti Norte Americano atheist that wanted to talk at us for about ten minutes about how everything bad is the US´s fault, how we are completely wrong in our beliefs, and how he knows Satan exists but God doesn’t. Strange perspectives...

Good news! After visiting the policia and the registro civil (imagine the DMV), I am now officially a temporary resident of the Republic of Chile. You can take that to the bank. It was funny, they were all really familiar with missionaries; they said 90 percent of gringos who register in Chile are missionaries. Ha ha.

A lot has gone on this week, and we have our first baptism coming up this Saturday! His name is Cristofer, the son of Carolina Batarse, a new convert. His sister is Mariapaz, she is still struggling. He is ten, and such a great little guy. Lots of fun. I think I have a picture of him on my bike that I’m sending. Also we have 12 new investigators-- six showed up to stake conference, which is way better than the two we had last week. It was nice to see some payoff for the week.

We have been walking a lot this week, and we walk really fast because we are always late. That’s what happens when we spend way too long in every cita. We have had some really good lunches with members, and some not so good. Ate some really weird pasta casserole, and then they made me eat seconds. Ugh. We eat pretty healthy, though-- a lot of fruits, vegetables, rice, and beans, also a lot of Coca Cola and juice.

We have lots of new investigators, and lots of people who reject us. We have a really great ward, all of who are really excited to help us, and to return to the English classes. I am giving a talk this Sunday on the work-- for 15 minutes. Hopefully that goes well. It’s important to have the ward backing you up-- all the best investigators come from them. I think this English class will help.

This morning we were watching the story of Gordon B. Hinckley and I really liked it. His life was pretty inspiring and his determination to try and be like Jesus is one that I am really trying more to take to heart.

Excited for another week here in beautiful Talca!

Hope all is well with everyone and that we get mail soon! Love you all!

Elder Brown

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The missionaries have been teaching an English class to some of the members of their ward. Their flyer looked something like this:

¡¡¡CLASES DE INGLES CON LOS MISIONEROS!!!

Vamos a volver las clases de Inglés, para probar si ellos son eficaces.  ¡Estamos muy animados para dar esta oportunidad a los miembros del barrio y a MUCHOS NUEVOS INVESTIGADORES!

REGLAS:

-          ¡¡¡¡¡¡Cuando en la Iglesia, vamos a obedecer TODOS los principios de la Iglesia- NO café, té, fumando, etc!!!!!!

-          Las clases van a comenzar 20:00 hrs AL TIRO hasta 20:45 hrs. ¡Sea puntual!

-          ¡Traiga un NO miembro! ¡Por CADA miembro presente queremos un no miembro también!

-          ¡Venga preparado para aprender y divertirse!

La primera clase va a ser Jueves, 1 Noviembre, a las 20:00 – 20:45. Si hay preguntas, aplique la siguiente-

´´¡Pregúntenles los misioneros!´´ - Élder Russell M. Nelson