April 14, 2014

Hello, Everyone!

Well, it’s been another eventful week on the mission front. As Dad says, Chile is on fire, and not just the spiritual kind. Valparaiso has been burning since Saturday; hopefully it’s out by now but we still haven’t heard. Last time we heard, over 3000 people had lost their homes, and there were at least 11 dead with a lot more missing. Very sad. Yesterday at church, they were talking a lot about it, how in the temple this weekend they had been there with another ward from that area. It reminded me of the talk a few conferences ago about the people of Mexico losing all their crops in a freeze and still being there to work in the temple. It’s always a testimony builder to see those good examples of consecration, and know that even with all the terrible stuff that goes down in the world there is still a lot of good out there... and it’s worth fighting for! --Samwise Gamgee.

We also had interviews this week. We then had lunch with President in the mission home, which I’ve never done before, we ate tacos (which never happens), and an apple cake that was amazingly flavorful and American. So that was fun. 

And, in other news, we had a good run in with the Chilean police detective force. Apparently, if you don’t change your address in their records within thirty days after changing addresses it’s a legal infraction. Welp, now we know. It wasn’t just me, it was a bunch of missionaries, but I guess that’s what I get for not following the details with exactness of what the office elders say to do. Ah, well. Unfortunately, it sounds like all the lawyers and all this stuff had to get involved and we are going to see what that means--it didn’t seem like a big deal when we went in--the detective I talked to had already talked with tons of missionaries, has a Book of Mormon on his desk and a photo of the temple on his screen.

We have been working hard in our sector to just find some new people to teach; we have been talking with tons of people, knocking doors, getting our members involved, and little by little we are starting to see some possibilities. We have transfers this week, and it’s more than likely that I leave Chiguayante. But I want to make sure that I leave everything here hopefully MUCH better than I found it, and make sure Elder G is good to go here.

This morning we had to get up super early to go look for H’s dad in the bus terminal and bring him to the house. He has Alzheimer’s and was getting in from Puerto Montt and no one else could go look for him. Good thing we are called to serve.

It’s been a fun week. It’s starting to get cold and rain more here, but that’s just the way it goes! Can’t always be blue skies or we would never really appreciate it!

Have a great week!
Elder Brown