Thanksgiving in Chile

Update on the district that I am in, I am the only gringo and everyone else has a lot of time in the mission so I am definitely learning a lot.  I talked to a guy in a ciber about all the new video games that are coming out and about his business which was pretty cool. Cibers are big here in Chile and it’s just like videogames and computers. He told me he was Atheist but he respects and thinks it impressive what we do as missionaries of our church. It was cool talking to him.

This week I experienced my first Thanksgiving in Chile!!! It was so sick, one of the best Thanksgivings in my life!!! Not, haha Thanksgiving isn´t even a holiday here. So I spent the whole day thinking about what my family was doing and eating. My thanksgiving meal was some kind of soup that had pumpkin chunks in it.... that´s it haha. Dinner was PB and J’s so yeah I ate pretty well for Thanksgiving!!! Elder Haynes, my comp in the CCM, called me and wished me a Happy Thanksgiving so that was pretty fun talking to him. All in all, Thanksgiving was pretty hard and humbling for me but it was a good experience!

What made it one of the best days in my mission was the package that my parents sent to me for Thanksgiving. It was so amazing, my mom killed it with what she did! It was probably the best Thanksgiving gift I have ever received. Besides the candy with funny little sayings, There was a package of paper leaves on which every one of them had a message from someone in my family and extended family saying why they were grateful for me. Seriously it was one of the greatest things I have ever received. I have such a loving and supportive family and I am so grateful for that. There was also a Thanksgiving paper thing that said on it,”Why we are thankful for the gospel”, and on it many members of my family had written things. All in all it was incredible. So grateful for my mom for setting the whole thing up and doing it. It got me thinking that day how grateful I am for my family and for my extended family. And how grateful I am for the plan that god has prepared for us and for the opportunity we have to live as families forever. I love all of you family and thank you for what you guys wrote. I needed it. So yeah, that was my Thanksgiving. 

Only one more month until Christmas. That´s crazy to think. A couple more things that happened this week... This Saturday when we were playing soccer, we decided to play World cup, which is pretty much everyone vs everyone. I ended up winning it all which was pretty cool because the rest of the people we were playing with were latinos or gringos who played before the mission.

The last thing that I want to talk about in this letter is about Joy. The joy that I have learned about while I have been here on my mission. How great the joy is that I have when I see an investigator or less active member, who we have been working with a lot to get them to come to church, enter into the chapel. Never did I think that my joy could be so great seeing someone at church or anything like that, but now it is the greatest joy in my life at the moment. Also seeing recent converts working in the church with callings is something that is amazing to see also. Vicky, my recent convert, is now working with the primary and it was the Primary program for sacrament meeting yesterday and it was so incredible to see her working with the kids and what they all did. 

My relationship with my companion, Elder Maguina is a work in progress,  there have been some very good times and very funny times with him. To live with someone 24-7 is pretty strange.  We are both working at it.

Hope everything went well at home for your Thanksgiving. I love and am grateful for every single one of you.

Elder Clay