all i can say about Chile is WOW. it is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo different here. the people, the cars, the houses, the buildings. everything. but all i can say is... i love it. our house is a beat down shack, with holes in the walls. i don´t know if the stove works. we have a microwave which will probably give us radiation or something. the fridge does work... ha! thank heavens. my bed is way comfortable but smells horrible. we live with another companionship and there is an additional companion ship sleeping there at the moment because they are opening up a new area and don´t have a house yet. so... our house is pretty crazy.
my companion is cool.... he´s good with people. doesn´t really like me, but i don´t care. i made his bed today and am trying not to bug him too much, but its hard when you don´t have any idea what people are saying. but it´s all good... i´m learning alot from him. he´s a zone leader so we stay pretty busy. all i can say is the mission field isn´t anything like i expected... but i like it... don´t get me wrong. the people here speak soooooo fast and drop the ends of their words and just pure mumble. but over the past weekish i have been able to pick out words in their sentences and kind of get a small clue of what they are talking about... the weather is pretty good here. when i arrived to Concepcion, we had a meeting. i met my trainer and then we left on a bus for another five hours. we didn´t get to our house until about 12 ish.
but anyway the people from the ward are very nice. they like to make fun of me because i can´t understand what i´m saying, but then i just talk to them in english and it makes me feel better ha ha. but they are teaching me phrases in spanish (castillano) and i´m teaching them phrases in English. we get a lunch everyday from one of the members... which is cool. we have rice in every meal with hotdogs or chicken or some random thing. but i am able to eat it. the milk here is pretty gross and they always have the BIGGEST cups to fill it... but i just down it as fast as i can. the bishop here is really cool, he´s only about 30. we went over last night and had bistec a lo pobre, like the stuff we had at that chilean restaurant, and two different kind of desserts. it was really good.
we went to another house this last week where my companion said we were going to teach a man the first lesson and invite him to church. well we got there, started teaching him and his two "wives" and elder rust got a phone call and went outside. well that left me with them... alone... they were asking me all kinds of questions... like, is it ok to have two girlfriends or to smoke one cigarette a month. oh and they offered coffee to us and my comp took some! i was freaking out! anyway my comp came back in and they all started laughing.... they were all members.. ugh... i´m sure i will get this a lot. anyways, i just laughed with them and didn´t let it get to me. they were really cool. Pedro actually served in Santiago and had lunch with Elder Paul Johnson. i don´t know his last name though.
the families here are great. a sister named Gladis washes our clothes, and has a friend named Gerardo who has a baptismal date for this Sunday! he is super "capo"(a stud). he has a true desire to be baptized. we also have a girl who is about seventeen or eighteen, i think, who we gave a Book of Mormon to and have been teaching. she´s been coming to church and going to the activities, which is awesome. we go out and do contacts... which was nerve racking at first but now i don´t mind it. i just tell them we have a special message for them and what not and invite them to church. they´re usually really nice and listen, but usually don´t have any interest. that´s the thing here. there are so many people who have been baptized but none of them are active.
so a lot of what we do everyday is visit the in active. so yeah, it´s fun. i really do love it here even though i don´t understand what the people are saying. our president is awesome and his wife. our schedule is different here. we usually go to bed at 11 or 12 and wake up at seven because the people here are really "lazy" (I think he meant lay back) and don´t wake up till later. so when we go out and do contacts in the mornings no one is on the street. oh and my first meal here was........... Mcdonalds! ha ha ha. i bet you would have never guessed that. it wasn't my decision though !
hmmmm what else can i tell you. all the houses here are so run down, it has really humbled me and i am truly thankful for the beautiful house you live in.. there are dogs everywhere! ugh i hate it because a lot of them look like they've been hit by like five cars and they just limp everywhere. it´s sad.. it makes me miss millie though a ton.
A bunch of people here have given me books and stuff to read in Spanish to help me learn. everyone here is sooo giving. they will always give us something to eat, drink, or just something random... whether they are a member or not... oh and i gave a blessing yesterday at church to this little boy. he wanted me to do it, so my comp anointed and i sealed. i tried to do it in spanish but it was a failure, i´m sure glad it doesn't matter what i say, it just depends on my faith, his and the Lords will. but it was really cool.
The church buildings are really nice here but there aren't a lot of people that go to church. in our gospel principles class there was me, my comp, and Gerardo and another guy who just turned eighteen. they would ask me questions and i would just be so lost...
oh, we eat tons of bread here. all the time. bread with quacamole, bread with dulce, bread with meat. bread bread bread. but it´s usually really good bread. it´s hard buying things here too cuz i´m just so not used to how fast they talk and the whole peso thing, but i´m getting the hang of it. oh and about the coffee thing i talked about earlier. it´s coffee with echo. it´s not bad for you just smells exactly like coffee. everyone here drinks it and mate. mate was totally nasty the first time i tried it, but i´m getting used to it.
well..... sorry i´m scattered but i´m just saying whatever comes to my mind. oh the bus drivers here are crazy! the mall here is just like the one in the u.s. it´s so nice inside, but when you go outside everything is just so run down.. mmmmm what else.. i hope all is well. i love you all! i have truly been sooo humbled in just the week i´ve been here... seeing the conditions people live in, and they are still so happy. be grateful for all you have. we are truly blessed..
p.s. i live in cautin, the street is called vaqueria... i don´t know the actual address.. maybe the president knows..
and it takes forever to upload so i will only send some of the most important pictures on email and i´ll just keep the rest for two years... i hope the pictures show up... they´re of some people from the mission and then some of our house. oh, the shower is the most disgusting thing ever ha ha. but it´s a hot shower and that´s all that matters. the water here is fine and we are always wet. i put my hoody on today and it has never gotten wet (it hasn't rained), but it is still wet... welcome to the humidity ha ha.
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