3-11-13

¡Hola chiquillos!

I hope you all had a great week! This week for me went very well. On Monday, we had the setting apart and farewell of Hernan, who went to Floridianopolis, Brazil on his mission. It was fairly emotional for me because I really like Hernan and we became good friends. I'm going to keep in touch with him a little bit. My new companion, Elder Close, is doing well! He didn't know much Spanish before the mission (or at least he doesn't remember any from high school haha), so, it's been a tough climb for him. I've been trying to be very patient and helpful. It was weird to go from a companion who was my example for Spanish to a companion who doesn't know much of it. I'm trying to teach him everything right though. Towards the end of the week, we had a surprise meeting with the new missionaries and some service with made us really busy with studying and planning, but we're doing well.

"F" came to church on Sunday! We went by his house in the morning, but decided not to yell because everyone was sleeping. We saw that the gate was opened and thought that that meant that he left, because he was already on his way to church when we saw him last Sunday. Turned out that he was asleep hmmm. We called him after the Sacrament and he showed up in twenty more minutes.  :)  We had some really good lessons with him this week and he's progressing a lot. Unfortunately, he has a lot of weird ideas about doctrine. For example, he didn't want to accept Jesus Christ because he thought he was only supposed to worship "God." We corrected him on that, but he has a lot of ideas like that.

"C" went to Valparaíso this weekend, so she missed church. We were going to see her tonight, but she just called me and cancelled the visit. :( She has a baptismal date for this Sunday, but I'm worried that it's going to fall again. I'm going to have to do something crazy this week to make it all work out haha.

We have other investigators, but they're not progressing much yet. We desperately need to find more, but I've really struggled with that my whole mission. I wish I had some cool musical or artistic ability to attract people to talk to me or make them more interested.

Today, we went to a big mall in the nicer part of Santiago called Las Condes. We ate lunch in the Hard Rock Café, and an extremely nice man came up to us and gave us money to pay for our lunch (and Hard Rock Café isn't cheap). John Collins, if you ever read this, thank you! It was fun to go around the mall and feel more at home (because the nicer parts of Santiago feel more American). Elder Close's camera also broke so we tried to get it fixed. We found a Nikon store kind of near the mall, but we didn't have time to check it out.

I wish I could be there while the Mickelson family is visiting! I love being here but I don't like missing out on family. I hope they had a good stay. I really liked the video that Maddie sent this week. I love and miss you guys so much!!!! Only a little more time until we can skype again. :) Thank you for sending that package! I'm waiting very patiently for the music haha. I can't believe all the changes and things that are going on at home! I hope everything is well and happy for you guys. Everyone looks older (except for Mom), but at the same time everyone looks the same. I love you all so much! :)

Mucho Amor,

Elder Hill