April 30, 2012

Hey
  I am doing great. I am starting to worry about changes a little though. I really don't wanna leave. Yesterday almost the entire Gomez Parada family went to church. Elizabeth(mom), Lukas, Fernanda, and Florencia all went. They liked it a lot. The ward really did a good job making them feel welcome. Our Bishop is ALMOST perfect. His only problem is that he used to make people feel uncomfortable during sacrament meeting by welcoming ¨Members and investigators¨. Its just NOT a good idea to call people investigators to their faces. But he stopped doing it so now we are all good.

  Lukas and his Dad(yes, the dad who has NO portion of the Spirit) came and played soccer with us today. Lukas is a cool guy. He has come to church with his Mom twice now. It seems like he really likes it. We will hopefully challenge him to baptism this week.

  We found an old couple a couple weeks ago named Gladys and Gastón. They have a daughter in Seattle who is a member. They have gone to Seattle for several months at a time to visit. When they go, they always go to church with her. Gastón had a stroke in December and lost function in his left side. He is slowly getting it back, but was really bitter and blamed God. Gladys is a saint. They both came to church on Sunday, they loved it. Turns out they have a life long friend who is a member, so they chatted it up and the sister that knows them is all excited and wants to help them. They will be baptized in June. Gladys might get baptized earlier, but Gaston needs time to recuperate.

  The weather took a big change. It's now cold. Today isn't so bad, but the other day it rained all day and was cold. We put on G´s, long sleeve shirt, sweater, suit coat, and rain coat. It's a buttload of layers. I feel like that little kid from ¨Christmas Story¨.

  Oh ya. Elizabeth, Julio(argh!) and Fernanda came with us to a baptismal service in another ward. A woman named Aurora was baptized in Amengual Ward. Elizabeth LOVED it. She is really excited to get baptized. She asked when changes were, and I told her that they are on the 8th of May. Her baptismal date is the 13th. It sucks not knowing if you are going to be able to witness an investigators baptism. I hope so...

   I ran out of razors. They are WAAAAAYYYY too expensive here. I am going to buy an electric shaver today. I have been using Elder Madsens, and I like it. But I am sick of feeling like a mooch.

   We did 2 interviews yesterday. Elder Sanchez did a 3rd. The zone is having a lot of success.

  Wednesday we have our weekly meetings. President King and his assistants will be there I think. Thursday we have Concilio in President King's house. That's about it. I guess there was a problem with the money getting from SLC to Chile, so we as missionaries are going to be broke until May 2nd. That should be fun. I have the equivalent of like 8 dollars. haha

  Elder Madsen and I are now gonna head to the grocery store. We are gonna look for something to cook in the house. Duh. Money is tight...

  I guess Elder Madsen's parents recieved his travel itinerary in email. Did you guys get it too? yikes.

  Love you. Thanks for all the updates. We will be seeing you shortly. And for the last time. dun dun dun

Elder Van Dyke