Saturday, May 16, 2015

Contacting Kings




April 29, 2015
         Today was not really a restful p-day.  We went to the temple way too early because Elder White wanted to go and hang out with his mission buddies who I don’t know.  This wouldn’t really bother me except for the fact that I don’t give a rip about socializing just for the sake of hanging out.  The temple was nice, as usual.  Afterwards, my comp wanted to the giant “American” mall and just look at stuff.  I agreed to go and then I remembered how much I hate shopping.  We got home with barely enough time to take a tiny nap and read a tiny bit.
Cinnabun...yum!
Miracle #218: I still had fun doing something that I really hate doing because I was just chilling with 2 other latino missionaries who don’t like to shop either.
         The funny part of the day was going on divisions with the bishop.  He gave me a CD of imagine dragons concerts because he knows how much I love them.  But he also knows that I am not supposed to listen to them, so he made me a disc with classical music that I can listen to now. 
April 30, 215
         Today was a little rough.  I had a rough time keeping up my enthusiasm.  It was also a really boring day.  The worst part was that our appointments fell through when we had a member present. Then all of our most solid plan B’s fell through and we began to be a little desperate to find some success to take this member kid to.  After an hour and a half, we finally were able to visit someone.  This fun/disturbing part of the division was when we got to hear about how disobedient the missionaries were before our mission was formed.  I still get blown out of the water with the sories! For example, just for “fun” one missionary here broke a stick by smacking a drunk man in the neck, and at the same time he broke the guy’s neck and almost killed him.  The worst part was that E. (the kid who was working with us today) was with that missionary when it happened. 
Miracle #219: E. still has a testimony and a desire to serve a mission despite being with the WORST examples of missionaries of all time.
         The Santiago South Mission was part of the former Rancagua mission and it was the area where all of the problem missionaries were sent.  Our mission is still trying to recover from the horrible reputation that developed before the splits in the mission.  Ironically, the worst area of Chile was assigned the very best mission president to help turn it around.

Elder White's new hair sytle.
May 1, 2015
         Today was an interesting day.  I thought we were going to work really hard and be efficient because we left early and worked hard until lunch.  Then, when we got to lunch, the Hermana preparing it hadn’t even started.  We just sat around in her house for 2 hours. It was the WORST!  The rough part of this sector is that we don’t find that many people to teach.  The other elders do, but I don’t know why we haven’t been about to find anyone. 
Miracle #220: We studied the language this morning!!!
         There wasn’t a fun part of the day today.  We had to leave one of our few investigators today because he doesn’t follow through with anything that we ask him to do.
May2, 2015
         Today was another one of the downs on this roller coaster f a mission.  Practically all ofour appointments fell through and we ended up walking around and contacting for around 4-5 hours.  Well if you include the feria contacts, it was closer to 8 hours of contacting today.  I am not sure if today will bring too many fruits, but at least I survived while working my hardest.  The real bummer of the day was getting ticked at my comp for the very first time in our companionship.  He called me out for not knowing a lesson that we never planned on teaching.  Honestly, I don’t think that it is a good idea to throw your comp under the bus especially in front of members.  Actually, I don’t think it is right to do that to anyone.
Miracle #221: Wow, miracles are getting harder to find, and I am starting to have repeats.  A really great thing that happened to today was when Elder Hanni had the insanity videos on USB, which means that the fact that my cds are getting scratched won’t matter.
         The funny part of the day was when we were doing the feria contacts and I started contacting a lady.  I basically just introduced her to Elder Chavez and walked away.  He somehow managed to take out a reference and make an appointment with her!  TEAMWORK!
May 3, 2015
         Today was the WORST Sunday ever.  As usual, it included me trying to not fall asleep in sacrament meeting (I was not successful). The rest of the meetings were the usual long boring lectures about pointless topics, followed by looking for people who didn’t want to be found.  We did get to eat a delicious lunch and then we went to visit M. in the hospital.  He was very discouraged today because he has been so bored sitting in the hospital for the past 4 weeks.  This hospital is so ghetto that it doesn’t have anything for the patients to do as a distraction.
Miracle #222:  We found a members house where we can skype our families on mother’s day!
         Well there were a few funny things today.  One was meeting a Chilean version of my oldest sister.  She looked, acted, and thought very similarly to Bailey.  I had the advantage over my companion in that conversation.  The other funny part of the day was this ancient guy who was watching us as we were looking for someone and calling for them.  He yelled that they weren’t there (Chileans try to protect their neighbors from the Mormons.) We we ignored him, he flipped his lid and started shouting Spanish profanities at us.  He called us many HORRIBLE things and said we were so stupid that we couldn’t even understand what he was saying.  I surprised him when I answered that I understood enough to know that he was totally inappropriate. 
         Another thing that happened today was when we were passing by a young couple in a park and the guy was yelling at his girl.  Things were getting heated and I was getting ready to step in to stop this guy.  Just as I was about to say something, the guy hit her.  I immediately jumped in ad told him that you never treat a woman like that.  He actually calmed down and as I was walking away, one of the old men who were watching gave me a thumbs up.  It was not really a fun experience, but I felt good about how I handled it.
May 4, 2015
         Today was really interesting.  We are really struggling to find people to teach even thought we are working very hard.  Not sure what to mention about today.  We took a tie as a birthday present to a ward member.  He was so grateful that it made us happy that we did it.  This man is probably one of the happiest guys that I have met in Chile.
Miracle #223: The birthday man’s family bought us pizza just to say thank you for coming to wish him a happy birthday.
         The funny part of the day was when I asked this family what their family name was and they told me a different name than the one that I wrote in the tie.  I got a little flustered and was worried that I screwed things up, but then they finally told us that they were just teasing us.
May 5, 2015
         Today was really unpleasant.  We were in pee-scented houses for 2 of our appointments.  The first when our entire zone worked in a specific sector for 3 hours contacting every single house in the sector.  The other house was in the house of a very sick old man.
Miracle #224: I found badly needed new pants – 4 pairs for 11 dollars!
         The funny part of the day was teaching a very drunk man.  He was so drunk that he asked my comp. to pour him a beer.  Well, Elder W. poured him a glass of water which made him very mad.  Then Elder W. poured him a glass of beer colored soda which the man gratefully accepted and chugged down. He was so drunk that he couldn’t tell the difference between soda and beer. We realized that the guy wasn’t going to remember anything that we taught him, but he did have some cookies set out and we helped ourselves to a half of a sleeve.  That was about the most successful part of our day.        

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