Vivo en Chile

Life in Chile is quite the experience! I have definitely had my ups and my downs this week but I know that this is all part of the mission. The biggest thing right now in my mind and always in my mind is the Spanish. Crazy Chileans, can’t understand a word. But I am improving, at least that’s what Elder Casperson tells me. Most of the time I can catch the drift and put my input into the conversation in simple Spanish. I continue to grow closer and closer to my companion as we bond and as he teaches me and comforts me through everything. Really he has been amazing and has saved my mish. He says he is grateful to have the opportunity to help me like this because he had a Latino trainer and went through the exact same experiences and feelings as me but he couldn’t really communicate with him.

My house is freezing always, the food is definitely different, and the responsibility of living on my own is stressful and new, but this week has been incredible! Mornings greeted by a large ole ward member yelling MOR MO NES out his truck as he drives by. Afternoons eating almuerzo (lunch) is a HUGE lunch because they don’t have dinners here, my stomach still hasn’t gotten used to it! And the rest of the day teaching investigators and proselyting! I have never walked so much in my life.

So I got lost in Chile... I had an intercambio (exchange) with Elder Rivera after a conference we had. We are both new to this area so we didn’t know which Micro to take to get back and we were way far away from our city. We somehow found the right one but after we got back to our city we didn’t know exactly where our house was so we wandered the streets of Temuco in darkness for a while, finally found our house then realized neither of us had the keys. Lol all of this in Spanish was stressful. So stressful. Definitely thought I was going to die on the cold streets of Chile that night. But we did some good proselyting then found our church and met our other companion. Lots of crazy experiences here.

This past Saturday I had the amazing opportunity to baptize for the first time! Charlotte is her name, I think I told you a little bit about her last week. But it was so cool to see the joy it brought her, she started crying after! A 16 year old girl crying because she was happy about a decision she made. And her parents aren’t members but they were there and got to see. They came up after and thanked us so much for all we had done. They even came to church the next day! It was so cool to see a family so happy. That was an experience I needed. It has been extremely difficult here, really hard to not be discourage because of the language.

Lately I have been studying Christ like attributes, especially Faith, Hope, and Patience. I encourage everyone to study Christ like attributes and strive to be more like Christ every day. That is our ultimate goal. To become like him.

Hmm some more stuff... haha we threw darts at a map to find contacts, divine revelation I know. I’ve gotten kissed on the cheek a couple times by people who don’t know missionaries do not do that, but that’s how girls say hello and bye. We play a lot of soccer, and  I stink at soccer and all the Latinos give all the gringos crap because we’re awful, but it’s pretty fun sometimes. I’ll be good by the time I get home.

Thanks for all the support I get from home, it means so much. I will continue to work the hardest I can for you guys and the Lord. A scripture chapter I have really liked lately is Alma 26. It’s a good one. I hope everything is going well at home and if there’s anything I can do for any of you, let me know. Stay strong in faith, the Lord provides a way for ALL of his children. Hasta proxima semana.

Elder Clay