November 5, 2012

November 5, 2012

Hola Familia!

I finally got some letters in the mail! Always good to hear some good jokes from the Taylors. Gotta love the mix between a hippi and a hobo. Some great Elliot humor never fails.

So I have started taking notes during the week so that I can write better emails. Here goes. Monday- P-day. Our funds ran out. Unfortunately, we did not receive more until Thursday. After the initial panic of what we were going to eat, we planned it out, got our haircuts, and then went to a member’s house. They gave us a bunch of food, without us even asking, for us to take home. We spent the next couple of days eating these weird cheeto things with mustard. Miracles. Turns out that happened like three other times in the week. We still haven't bought more food.

Did a minicambio with Elder Carter, a zone leader, in Independencia on Tuesday. Talked with this lady who told us the year before her husband and her had been planning to kill themselves and their children because they had zero money and lots of problems. But they pressed forward and now they have baptism dates.

Visited a less active that had two references for us-- it was weird. We spent way too long in their house because he kept asking us to show them things and stuff, awkward. But he was a really funny guy, and he really loved Journey, and wanted to show me all the songs on his phone, and if I knew all of them. It was funny. The Chileans love the eighties and John Denver. I’m not complaining.

Halloween was cool here in Chile. The Chileans have super ghetto costumes they throw on, and everyone just goes to get candy. Lots of people think it’s really demonic. I accidentally asked some really good folks about it (adventistas) and they gave us weird looks. Elder Conti told me later they see it as pagan and I need to be more careful. Woops. Just trying to make some conservacion. But we spent the night in Cancha Rayada with an Elder Zach Broadhead from Bingham-- we met a couple that had gotten married at 13 and 15 years. Awkward-- but they now are preparing for baptism!

We have had some cool experiences with investigators, as well. Met Sandra, who is gold. She walked to church this Sunday, about a mile and a half, even though she has had a stroke and still has a hard time walking. Really amazing. We knocked the last door of the night, turned out to be a member, and taught her husband Raphael with her and gave him a blessing. We came back the next day and he told us after the blessing he felt way better and it was great. Super cool. He was at church Sunday, too.

We had our first English class at the church this Thursday. Nobody came. Awkward. Everyone asked about it after though, and we were just like, uh, yeah, about that. Everyone said it was probably because of the festival this weekend-- oh yeah, huge party week in Talca-- Dia de los Santos on Thursday, Friday, Sat, Sun., everyone was partying and stuff-- so we are going to try again next week, this time a little earlier. We will see.

We have been working hard with the members as well. We work a lot with the youth and try to match our investigators to people in the ward that can help them. It’s really important that we animate the members about the work-- they are SO important. But we go with Germaine, Gabriela, Pablo, los gemelos Kandalaft, etc. All really friendly and helpful usually. We called them once and all the member girls were watching 'Crepusculo' marathon-- Twilight. Funny how some things just don’t change. Speaking of things not changing-- testimony meeting in the ward. Lots of people with very long testimonies. The bishop had to cut it short, but Mamita Fuentes pushed by and bore her testimony real quick. Funny stuff.

But the big news of the week-- Claudia Mundaca got baptized! On Saturday. The baptism had a few problems but it worked and was very spiritual. She even brought a friend! I played the piano-- I play a lot here, thanks Mom-- and she was confirmed the next day. Good stuff. She gave us a scare and didn’t show up to be confirmed til like the second they called her up. Phew. After church we had a great lunch with the bishop of Mexi food and torta de panqueque, tons of manjar. He had one of those marble games that Grandma and Grandpa have in Oakley where you jump and take it away, and I did it with only two left. The bishop was really impressed. I told him Kristy or Mare or someone claims they did it to one once, but he didn’t buy it. Not sure I buy it either. We then went to this missionary activity for the young people of the stake, and taught workshops on missionary service; it went well and got them pumped up to serve and to share the gospel.

Today was great, as well-- we climbed up to the Virgin statue with both zones of Talca, and had a barbecue of churripan, and Hermana Pulsipher made us all Texas sheet cake. Soooo good. I miss good pastries/desserts. All they eat here is fruit with cream or manjar or alfahor-- not much with flavor.

This week we have the baptism of Cristofer coming up-- we have planned it really well and put out lots of invitations-- way more than usual. It’s really important to his mom, and there are going to be a lot of nonmembers there. Hopefully it goes really, really well! He asked me to baptize him, even though I have a really hard time understanding them. They talk really, really campo. But I am definitely getting way better. Comin’ along.

Feeling pretty good about everything! Having lots of good spiritual experiences! I hope that the elections go well-- excited to hear! I hope all is well with everyone, Allie, Ben, the Jacobs, the ward, Duke people, etc.! Sorry to hear about the hurricane--we have answered a lot of questions about the end of days this week. Even members don’t really understand here-- Chileans are very superstitious and have some weird ideas some times. Getting super hot here, too-- summer is going to be pretty tough. Good thing we have a nice rainy winter to look forward to!

To end, a funny story: The bishop asked me a question at the baptism about something. I was pretty sure he said, “What is Claudia's favorite hymn,” to which I answered, “41.” Grande eres tu. Turns out he asked what her full name was. Pretty sure not that. Ah.

Love you all! Have a great week!
Elder Brown