1-17-11

Tuesday: Elder Orellana took a lot of time in the shower today, so I had to choose between showering and shaving. Needless to say, I went to the Distrizona with a little "barbita." I hadn`t had time to lop off the stubble I had accumulated during the day when I was in Temuco. After just one day, everyone noticed it. It was totally lame and not my fault. We`re winning in a competition between all the zones in the mission with the most people attending church as well as having the most baptisimal dates. Too bad none of those people are in Tirùa. When we checked our email, I got really scared. Daddy told me I had overdrafted and he couldn`t access my bank account because he needed information from my "studen Visa Credit Card." I had no idea what that was, so I couldn`t give him that info. I waas going to have bad credit rotting for 2 years. All I told Daddy, after saying a quiet prayer, was that I had a lot of papers from the day I set up my bank account. Not a lot, believe me, I knew. That was all he needed. He eventually found everything he needed and said he`d take care of it and told me not to worry. What a relieve. I was so so scared. Alan and I reminisced a few times and I`m sure he laughed as much as I did. We came back to find our friend, Luis, had been hospitalized from the ocean. He got stuck out there, got tired, almost drowned, but managed to survive with ONLY a severe case of hypothermia. After 4 hours, he was still shivering.

Wednesday: Elder Orellana woke up sick this morning. Lately, he feels really sick after every meal that he eats. Kind of reminds me of Elder Mcconnell`s and my last weeks together in the MTC. I think I`m like the plague reincarnate, getting all of my comps. sick. I have been thinking about home a lot lately, as you can probably tell. But it`s a hallow thing. I just think about it without any intentions, but even that is a distraction from the mission. Where do I get all the free time, you ask? The people ignore us a lot. Hna. Olivares gave me a long talk after lunch, eplaining how to play hard to get. We got on THAT lovely topic thanks to Elder Orellana blabbing about my lack of girlfriend experience. But I still love him. I can already see some "vague" ways how my life will have been blessed by the mission--free dating advice. We did some ironing and had to come to cañete. I thought about excercising for some reason. Weird, right? But my mind almost immediately latched onto swimming. I`ll do it every morning after the mission. I miss it soooo much. When we arrived at the Zone Leaders` house, we had another good chat. Elder heiser wanted to talk to me about kissing. See what I mean? Blessings. He`s such a stud. We had a study party for the Scripture master at the conference tomorrow. I won! We`ll see how it goes tomorrow for rizzle.

Thursday: today we had a really cool training zone conferenc. It was rally really inspirational. Today, President told us that Elder Bednar had come a few years ago and said, "Right now, the missionaries are teaching Preach My Gospel. Their goal should be to BECOME Preach My Gospel." So that`s going to be the mission`s goal for this year. The year of the baptisms. I made some pretty good contributions to the training discussions and President told me, "well, said." in front of everyone. Hna. Swenson leaned over, and was shaking her head as she said, "your spanish is just so GOOD. How did you learn it so fast?" I was just glowing. President gave us some really good advice on how to make good habits in the mission. I realize that if I hadn`t learned to study or pray with my companion on the mission, I might not have entered into the routine of doing it with my wife and kids later in life. In my personal study, reading King Benjamin`s speech, he said things like, "believe in Christ!" or "Rejoice in Christ!" and things like that. Those are things we take for granted. It`s like when Moses told people to look at the snake on his staff. It`s not as physical, but very bit as vital to our exhaltation--not salvation. We`ll all be saved. The bus driver on the way home totally had a jafar beard! Oh! I got a letter from Estèe, Jess, Tosha, and The Childs from the home ward. Thank you everyone!

Friday: When we got up, Elder Orellana felt really sick to his stomach. I studied a lot and then decided to write responses to some of the other letters I had received. Jess and Tosha had it finally click that I was a missionary, and not just an Elder, preaching the Gospel. I got to testify of all the wonderful blessings that the Lord has seen fit to give me. One of the biggest and amazing things that I`ve found on the mission is forgiveness. Not the ability to figive others, but being forgiven of my personal mistakes, and still being loved. At the beginning of my mission, I was worried about who I was and finding it out so I could be accepted by someone. I was worried about not being good enough for Heavenly Father. But every time I kneel and tell him I love him and do my best to SHOW him my love, he shares his with me. And when I feel that touch of his presence, I don`t need anything else. I feel...complete in a way that goes beyond where our words can describe. I`m so happy!

Saturday: I woke up today to another earthquake and, surprisingly, a woodpecker outside. I shooed it away and found that my towel had fallen off of the clothesline below, and lay in the mud that the overnight rain had created. Lamesauce. We went over to the Olivares to do service. It felt like it did, back at the home ward, having people explain what they wanted, and having your mind frantically scrambling to plan how you`d do each thing as it`s explained. One of my goals when I get home is to do at least one service project for one of the older members of my home ward. Today we cleared out all of the weeds in front of their house, and built three mini barricades for each little garden. I got to measure and saw the sticks and logs while Bro. olivares and Elder Orellana dug holes. I am pretty sure I got the most physical labor done. Let`s hear it for muscle benefits! We had delicious spagghetti with chunks of horse for lunch. Soooo good. I will totally check out the chilean restaurant in Provo after the mission (It`s on Canyon road, for those of you who are interested--to the side of Day`s market.) I helped Lehi get a gameboy DS emulator on his computer with Platinum pokemon version. Hey! I can help out in all kinds of ways...even the nerdy one. In the evening, everyone wanted to make tacos. I WAS excited until I realized this country lacks two things: this country lacks taco (bell) hot sauce, and properly ground beef. We had tuna tacos. Weird, but not bad. Just like the kind of day that today was! :)

Sunday: This Sunday was better than last week, in the sense that I only had to worry about my class--without any surprise talks. I got to teach about exhaltation. I got to teach about one of the things that has really interested me in my personal study, and was able to contribute the findings and revelation that I`ve been blessed with. Speaking of blessings, I was blessed, during class, with an opportunity to test the limits of my patience--in the form of a 14 year-old boy that belonged to a family that was visiting. He kept trying to prove something by making frequent, rude comments, laughing when I made a pause to correct my Spanish. He complained during lunch (the family was visiting the Olivares) too. Older Orellana felt too sick to go out, so we went to the house/chapel. But invited some people to come make french fries later. Guess who showed up? Then I felt "sick" and went to lie down. Ronald came up and started going through all my stuff, asking what it was. He found my excedrin and asked how many to take for a headache,. I said 1. He said, "Okay, I`ll take 5." I mean COME ON!!! Then he poured them out. I jumped up and took 4 back. Then he tried to take TUMS. He messed up all my notebooks and agendas and put two staples in my envelope that held my letter to Devin. My desk was a disaster. But I smiled through the whole thing. I wasn`t mad. I understood.(I also became a home teacher today. Oh joy.)

Monday: Today was a good pday. We slept in until about 12, surprisingly. I got all showered, shaved, and clean. While I was in the shower, I spied a fly sitting on Orellana`s bar of soap. I laughed, noting the irony. We went over to the Olivares for lunch. She was making empanadas, which are like barrowhots, but just with cheese and ham/tomatoes. She was selling them, and we decided to help out. We watched "God`s army 2: States of Grace," a really intense church movie. Not by the church, but about it. It was actually really sad, because of how accurate it was. It was definitely a thrill. Oh! This morning, Mamà Millahual called with some disturbin news. I didn`t understand her at first. I thought she said I couldn`t come over ever again. I thought it might have to do with me calling Fernanda yesterday. I had reread what she had written in my journal and thanked her. But I found out Mamà had called because my previous comp. is forbidden there now. I knew he had a crush on Fernanda, and had talked to him. He said he`d change. Mamà said his flirting got violent this week! He tried to trip her, and had ended up kicking her, too. Mamà laughed when I told her i`d thought I was banished. She said she loves her "bebè", then she passed the phone to Fernanda. She said she was grateful for my friendship and for making her feel safe when I was there. Kind of scary that she would need that kind of thing. Tonight, we had a fireside on the beach. Sweet! I gave a talk about Patriarchal Blessings.