August 20, 2012

Fam! How are all of ya! Terrific, Im sending pics!

Well, I had a terrific week! The language really is coming, who would have thought eh? Of course I still have my setbacks and such, but I´m improving rather quickly, or so I´ve been told. But cmon, what else are they going to tell you!! Well this week was an adventure!

Random Culture/Chile stuff first-

Bueno, everything here runs on gas, like propane tanks. Our Calofont, which is our shower heater has had some problems and has been taking forever to light the past week, but eventually always lit. But these past 2 days, nada! But we´re getting fixed today, and at least it wasn't summer, because it´s not like I get sweaty here anyway. But awesome. Also, it seems that the amount of lint here is crazy! Lots of it. It´s been rainy the past 4-5 days, with little bits of sun in between. A couple days ago it was really clear for a bit actually, after lots of rain. It was super pretty because everything was clean, and you could see all the mtns. all snowy and awesome. Its been chilly but it´s warming up slowly. Im also getting a hair cut today, yay!

Food-

The food here is freakin awesome. Our past 3-4 almuerzos have been soooo good. One day we ate lentals actually, with bread of course, and then fruit and cream desert. Lentals eh? what es this! We ate this meal with a member the other day.  Salad first.  The salad here is usually with avocado, celery, something like lettuce, tomato, onion, and olive-- all put together or usually divided up in different bowls, with a lemonish dressing.  Pretty great.  Then we had soup.  Soup is soup, and its delicious.  Then we had the main course, Lasagna!  Very awesome.  Then we had a dessert, a little bit like        tres leches.  All of this is with bread and salsa.  And always juice, or coca cola, never water.

We ate this yesterday, sooooooooo good.  Soup first, pretty similar to french onion.  Then the main course of a whole potato, with super delicious onions all over, and a big piece of really good meat.  Super delicious. With salad(like above) in between, and arroz(rice).  Then we had a cake type desert that was also super delicious.  The bottom line is that the food is super good.  But of course then again, we are missionaries, so we always eat really well.  We are kind of spoiled in that sense.

Our investigators! And guess what? We had 6 investigators at the capilla yesterday! Thats a miracle right there. 

Dad, I'm going to start trying this, although I don't know if I'm just going to jump into it. But we are supposed to invite from the 1st lesson, which we only do 30 percent of the time for various factors. But we actually talked about something like this, a little bit this morning. We need to let people know that our goal is to help them make that first covenant with the Lord. I will tell you how it goes over the next couple weeks. 

Well I'm really getting more comfortable. With the language, the people, the culture, but most of all myself. That really is the big one. Ive got a terrific companion, and were actually doing pretty well, but obviously still have a lot to work on. This week we did a lot of contacting, 80 contacts, which was awesome. But we also had a lot of citas fall through which was lame. It was partially just an irregular 2-3 days, but here there still is a culture of I'm busy, come back later, of inconsistency. If we're straight up and more serious with people, this should cleanse our pool, I suppose. So that was a little lame. We still had some really good lessons though, and I'm getting more bold, more comfortable. Awesome. 

Teresa- Teresa is our best investigator right now. She knows the church is true. She's 49 years old, and had a date for the 2nd but that will get pushed back for various reasons. But she's super awesome, super nice, knows the church is true, and really just needs to kick her boyfriend out now, ha. Actually, him and her family have been giving her a hard time about the church, actually he kind of still is, BUT, yesterday we went over to her house, and taught her two kids and her, 33 and 26, who were contributing to this, and they loved us! Were going to keep teaching them, but only sundays, becuase they don't live with her. 

Patricio- Patricio is something like 66ish, and in a wheel chair because he doesn't have a leg. But he's a baller and knows the church is true, loves us a lot, and especially loves the church. He can't see super well, as in can't read the text in his regular size LDM, and so we got him a big triple. Its funny because now, he carries around with him everywhere. Hes getting baptized and stuff, but the thing is he is moving is more or less 2 weeks, so were not going to baptize him here, but in his new ward. Also we only visit him outside of church oneish time a week, but friday when we did, he told us that he just felt that we were coming over that day to teach him. Cool Stuff. 

Claudia- Also awesome and progressing, but slow because its hard to find times when we can teach her, with a guy. Everyone here works a lot. I've also learned that for everyone here, they make true sacrifices. Like in Utah to not go to church, for a lot of people the excuse is i don't want to. Here it's well, I have work to feed my family... Something real. But she's awesome and we teach her wednesday. We are also working with some cool people. Wendy and her fam- gonzalo, javiera, and Nelson. Antonio and Catalina and their fam. Also Juanito and Nicholas, among others. 

Actually, we also just dropped 4 people. Which is good, especially from your advice dad. They definitely weren't there. Were trying to work the male youth in the ward here, theres only 3, and one is inactive, and one is partially. Jeremy and Rodolfo, pray for them. 

We've got other people were working with, but these are our most progressing as of now! Keep you updated! Love you all lots! Tell me about life, and ask me questions! 

Have you guys had any funny dreams lately? Awesome! Camping and stuff! Chile actually, (the mtns.) just got lots of snow, and I heard the skiing was awesome. 

We've got some amazing families in our area, who really help us. The familia Garrido, Bara, Roco, Rex, Poblette, and more! 

Everyone here is super awesome, Chile's sweet, the church really is true. The mission is hard, but really really good. And always getting better! I'm also amazed how much more I get out of my scripture study now. I remember I used to read, and learn nothing. I didnt read with real intent of course. I read becuase the prophet, you all, the bishop, etc. had said too. The BOM is true. 

Love you all! The best of luck! Random questions for next week?

Elder Spencer Tasso

ps. it was funny, last week I spent 20 mill on food at the grocery store here, Lider. Which is a lot. Therefore, I still have loads of food and am not buying anything this week. 

 pps. I really like Spanish. French, next probably. with a close second of Italian, Japanese, and Mandarin.