Pictures, Chile's Independence Day and What Earthquake?

Hey friends and family, this week in Victoria was another week that went very well!  It was the week of the 18^th September so it was full of preparations and then parties the entire weekend.  Unfortunately as missionaries we couldn’t do a ton of stuff but we were still able to have our church activity party that was a success!  It pretty much consisted of games and a LOT of food , but I’ll talk more about that later.

Not a lot happened at the start of the week but on Wednesday I was able to do an exchange with one of my best friends in the mission.  Elder Faas!  I’m not sure if you guys will remember but he was in Temuco with me and we did an exchange together when we were there!  We had a ton of fun together here in this sector and were able to teach a bunch of our investigators and even fit in a game of soccer against some teenagers that were egging us on haha.  Also that day supposedly a big earthquake hit Chile, but it was a lot farther up north than from where I was so nothing really happened.  A few missionaries, including my companion said that they were able to feel it, but no damage was done here.  So don’t worry about me, I’m all good.

The rest of the week was full of 18^th activities and parties in the city of Victoria.  We did have English classes on Thursday which has turned into just me being the teacher teaching the class because no one else in my house wants to do it haha  but it’s all good.  I enjoy doing it.  Also me and Elder Fui (that’s what we call him because his name is way too long) found this abandoned  half burnt down house that we explored and had some fun. 

As I said, the biggest part about this week was the activity for the 18^th that we had in our church.  We started the activity at 12 with games and then food, then more games and then more food.  This year I tried to lay a little low and let all the little kids participate in the games but I couldn’t resist the 3-legged race and the sack race haha.  We also played a lot of soccer which was a lot of fun because we haven’t played in a while because of the rule change in the mission which was that now we can’t play Saturday mornings, only P-days and holidays.  When we were playing soccer tragedy struck, I was jumping up to head a ball and when I landed I landed on my companions foot and twisted my ankle worse than I ever think I have.  In only moments it was swollen up to the size of a baseball just sticking out of my foot.  I wasn’t able to walk Friday or Saturday but Sunday I started to be able to waddle around.  It’s pretty lame not being able to walk and just staying in the house.  The ankle kind of put a damper on the end of the day for me but I still enjoyed the company of everyone and the festivity in the air. 

The next day we pretty much had a second 18^th at a members house. It was quite the scene watching the Elders in my house carry me to the house where the party was at, but I felt like a king and they were my servants haha.  The end of this weekend has been spent chilling in our house, listening to the carnival that is a couple blocks away from our house but we can still hear it inside our house #Chile. 

Church was good but unfortunately none of our investigators showed up.  I think it is because they  all partied a little too hard for the 18^th, but next week they’ll be coming.  Anyways that’s about it for this week, I just finished 2 Nephi  in my reading of the Book of Mormon for the 4^th or 5^th time in my mission, can’t remember which.   I think all the words of Nephi are awesome, he was a great prophet, and how he said when he ended, study his words, for they teach men to do good and will strengthen our weaknesses.  Have a good week everyone, Love you all!