9--10-12

Seth with Giovanni

In the streets of Chile!!

Hi everyone!

This week has been really good! Elder Smith and I were only able to meet with each one of our investigators once this week because of scheduling conflicts, which was a big bummer. On the bright side, we still visited with and saw a ton of people. One less active hermana in the ward actually came to church yesterday because we have been visiting her! That was a huge plus. :) I'm inviting everyone, including less active members of the Church, to come unto Christ. This week is Chile's independence day, so everything is a little crazy here (¡tiqui tiqui ti! - do you remember that, Dad?). We actually have to return to the pension [apartment] early tomorrow night because it gets super dangerous. But we have the Lord's protection. Something interesting the Elder Smith just told me is that the previous mission president spoke to his parents and told them that Santiago is an R-rated city that is full of temptations, but the the Lord shields his missionaries. I found that to be true because I don't notice anything of that sort haha.

Elder Smith and I are really trying to get the ward even more involved with missionary work. We're going out on a lot of divisions with the Priests and Elders and even have a schedule for the month now. I think the testimonies of the members will help us so much when we teach our investigators. The Priests have a tradition in this ward that after divisions, we go to this small restaurant called El Guatón and we get some completos [a Chilean hot dog usually served with a ton of avocado, a Chilean staple] and talk for a little bit. The Priests here are really great.

On Wednesday, we ate cena [dinner] at this one younger man's house and Giovanni came over too, it's always so good to spend time with people who are strong in the Church. Noche de Hogar [Family Home Evening] and zone activities with missionaries are really great for that reason too.

We have a new Mission Leader in this ward, and so far he's an all-star player in missionary work. I'm excited to work with him more. He also served us brownies and hot chocolate in our first meeting! So, I have no doubt he'll be amazing. ;)

On Saturday while we were out contacting, I saw this woman ahead of us on the sidewalk. I told Elder Smith that we have to talk to her and I said a quick prayer in my heart, asking Heavenly Father to let her be someone we can teach. She turned out to be super interested in the Church. She was especially interested in the resurrection, because she said her son was murdered as a child. It was a super emotional conversation. We're planning on meeting her this week.

Spanish is coming along fine. It's pretty apparent to me now that I can understand more than I can speak. I'm working on pronunciation, but it's hard to overcome my gringo-ness haha. There's an elder in our mission who everyone talks about because he's American but has a perfect Chileno accent. They say it's because he's very musical and has a good ear to notice small things in how people speak. I'm trying to listen and imitate people, but it's quite a process.

Oh, something else of note: I successfully gave myself a haircut today! And it looks pretty good!  [He didn't send a picture of it.]

That's all for now.  I love you all so much and I miss you! You are always in my prayers. :)

¡Que le vaya bien!