Tuesday, June 30, 2015

One step forward, two steps back


One of my favorite meals of fish and eggs on a bed of spinach.
June 17, 2015

            Today was a fun p-day.  We played Risk and Monopoly, both of which I won without cheating (the only way I every won a game against my siblings.)  I don’t usually like those kinds of games, but they are more fun when you don’t lose every time you play them. After the games we emailed our families and then bought food and made our lunch. The best part of the day was when we were working and we met some guys who were doing calisthenics in the park.  It was fun to learn some workouts with them.

Miracle #267 (weak one) I was able to match this very fit guy in repetitions on the calisthenics. 



            The worst part of the day was confronting my companions about some really serious issues that he is having.  The whole house talked to him and he denied that he had a problem.  It left all of us with feeling emotionally drained.  I don’t know what to do about this situation.

June 18, 2015

            Today was a decent day.  The problem from yesterday left some tension in our relationship all day.  Also I was as tired as my companion always is, so we just did not bring energy and the spirit to our lessons today. 

Miracle #268: One of the less active members in our ward, is taking lessons from us and he lent me a great book about the history of the church.

            The best part of the day was going home early to grab our jackets because it is freezing here.  We were leaving to go to more appointments but because the spirit was not with us, I decided to stay at home and talk with my companion.  We talked for a long time and by the end of the evening, I had a lot more love for my companion and I hope to work better with him tomorrow.

A kid decided that we should put a broken shovel on the other side of a rake... we´re like the Darth Maul of Chilean gardening!
June 19, 2015

            Well today was a decent day.  We had a service activity this morning, which was good except that the lady seemed like she was just taking advantage of free missionary labor. We had a nice long chat about just stupid things that we have seen on the mission.  We also spent a large part of the day in the house during the killer game of Chile vs. Bolivia. 

Miracle #269: Chile beat Bolivia 5-0. It is really only cool because I am living here and I have to root for Chile.

            Here is a list of some of the different things that happen here:

1.     Chileans water their dirt.  Yep, just dirt. ONLY dirt, no plants.

2.     Chileans can do anything with a broom: wash a car, dust the walls, and scrub the floors.

3.     Chileans complain about being poor, and they really are, except even the tiniest shack has a huge HD flat screen TV in it.

4.     Every house has a huge, imposing fence around it – which is left unlocked most of the time.

5.     La Boca Chueca = the belief that your mouth will freeze if you drink a hot drink and then go out into the cold weather.

6.     They plant water bottles in the dirt, caps closed, not sure why.

7.     Nearly every house has an alter to the Virgin Mary that looks like a little doghouse.

8.     All of the women wear an apron, every day.

9.     They drink only juice and soda….never water even though it is potable here.

10.  They put soda in their baby’s bottles.

11.  Instead of school buses they have school vans.

12.  There are speed bumps on every street and they drive really fast up to the speed bump then screeched to a near stop to go over them.

13.  They fry EVERYTHING in a ton of oil because they genuinely believe that oil is good for you.

14.  They believe that their little Nissans go faster with a tailfin.

15.  They don’t fill their car’s tires full.

16.  They build their own houses and paint everything with really cheap water based paint.

17.  They think that concrete is 1 part rock, 2 parts sand, and 0.05 parts cement.  #dirtisharder

18.  If you eat unripe fruit, it will kill you.

I was practicing card throwing and hit the mark with a card of "The Restoration of the Truth" card...... its at the feet of the Virgin Maria.... hehe
June 20, 2015
            Today was a horrible day.  I had the laziest day of my mission yet.  I just followed my comp and we did nothing. I studied a ton, and I worked out, but that was it.  It was just a terrible day until we did a little contacting in the evening, but even that was very unproductive.

Miracle #270: (there wasn’t one, It was just one of those days.)

June 21, 2015

            Well today was not the best Sunday ever.  I was doing a special fast for our companionship and it is not really working. I did come up with the idea to just give my companion the leadership of the sector.  It may not be good for the sector, but I have high hopes that it will help the companionship.  It was weird not celebrating Father’s Day today.  It is the first time in my life where I haven’t celebrated in any way.  On the bright side, I have decided that this ward is really a great ward!

Miracle #271: I got not 1, but 2 treats to break my fast. One was for Father’s Day, the other was just a random youth who gave me food.

            The funny part of the day was the fact that we had an enormous lunch and afterwards everyone in the house fell asleep.  We had a fun talk about cars today.

Scary batman-dog keeping vigil over the city of Santiago from the rooftops.
June 22, 2015

            Well today I got chewed out by my zone leaders for confronting my companion about his problem.  Basically they told me that I screwed up and that my companion now wants to go home and that it is my fault.  To that fun bit of information, I had 2 reactions: 1) Let him go home, he doesn’t want to be here anyway.  2) Why would my comp tell everyone except for me how he is feeling.  Of all the things that are necessary for a missionary to have (including worthiness), I truly believe that desire to serve is the most important.  My comp. has no desire to serve and he is an anchor to the work, but he is apparently more important that the people we are supposed to be teaching.  I was also told that his salvation relies on me now….what? Good luck Elder, cause if your salvation  relies on me in the slightest, you are screwed. I can barely manage to keep my own head above the water.

Miracle #272: I handed over the leadership to my companion and it gave me a ton more time to think about other things. I memorized three scriptures in Spanish today.  When you just follow your comp around, things are a lot easier.

            Today was hard and funny because I spent the whole day getting after my comp for seriously checking out the girls.  I see the girls too, but I don’t turn around to stare at them.

June 23, 2015

            Today was a good day.  It was probably one of the best days we have had in this sector.  The coolest part of the day was going to a lesson with some newish investigators who are really eager to learn.  It was moderately stressful for me because every time my comp. would talk, he would say false doctrine.  They I would have to figure out a way to correct what he said later on in a way that would not offend him.  I was pretty tense, but in the end, the lesson turned out great because the spirit was present and testified of the truth.

Miracle #273: For the first time in this sector, our lessons turned out and we taught 5 lessons.  That made my companion super happy.

            There was no funny parts of today. Honestly, I am really ready for p-day.


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