Hey Mom!

Today we had changes. Elder Barco left and I received Elder Madsen for my new companion. He is from my MTC group, old time friend. I will train him as a ZL this change. Should be fun. Elder Barco went to Melipilla(farmland). He returned to the sector he started the mission in. He will train a new missionary and do a whitewash.(thats when 2 missionaries get to a new sector without knowing it, or the ward, no investigators, etc, that's why it's called whitewash)

Our zone picked up some cool new missionaries. A few old faces and a few people I will have to get to know. My old companion and friend Elder Hall will be training. I am happy for him.

I got some good photos I hope to send you today. But I don't know if this internet cafe is going to be any help at all. So far its not working....

So this week in Pajarones 1, the following happened...........

1) Really awkward thing happend in church. A missionary that left from the ward here returned home. He left a few weeks ago. When I first saw him in the chapel, I didn't even put 2 and 2 together. Then it clicked. Awkward......

2) We had a cool thing happen with one of the women we are teaching. Her name is Nicole. We had an appointment the other day. When we were turning the corner into her passage, we saw her walking a few meters in front of us. I noticed she had a copy of the Liahona in her arm. She was just getting home from work. She told us she had taken a taxi(expensive!) to make it home in time, because she didn't want to miss our appointment. Unfortunately, her boyfriend wasn't home, so we couldn't enter into the house. We did however have a conversation by her gate. She mentioned that when she was little, she always dreamed of accomplishing a few things: being a college grad, getting a good job, buying a house, a car, etc. She told us she has now accomplished all of those things, but she still felt empty inside. She talked about it with her boyfriend a little. She told us that since she has started reading the BOM and the liahona, she feels like that emptiness is getting filled up. She said she usually has a hard time reading, but with the BOM and the Liahona, she can't put it down. She also said she feels really good everytime she goes to church. In her own words she said `I just want to be part of this...`. It was awesome

3) There have been 2 pretty strong earthquakes. I felt them both. My bed shook the other night. And yesterday while my companion said goodbye to some investigators, another strong one happened. Everyone says there is going to be a big one soon. Chileans are too superstitious.

4) The Gomez family is doing great. We had a powerful lesson with them. The Mom said `Elders, I want to you guys to take me to your church`.

5) we deep cleaned the house and inspected the pensions of our zone. All went well. Some pensions really suck though. I am glad to live where I live.

I could keep writing a bunch, but I am not in the mood. All is well in Pajarones 1. The investigators are doing great. My new companion is not that new at all. Old friends. We met all our goals this month for the zone. We even exceeded the baptism goal. That's always good.

I love you guys. Thanks for the package Mom. I am excited to give that stuff to Nibaldo.

Elder Van Dyke