1-31-11

Thursday: Today was freaking amazing! Today, we started with an awesome companionship study about baptism, practicing teaching each other. That helped me a lot. Then we spent our weekly planning time to work on our Sunday School Classes. The cool parts came after lunch. We wanted to watch "The Testaments" with Maybelline so she could grasp a little bit of the importance of the Book of Mormon. Everything was going great until the DVD froze near the end. She didn`t get to see the best part! She didn`t get to cry and have a beautiful moment. Elder Orellana and I looked at each other, and then he proposed that we read the ending in the Book of Mormon. We got scared when she skipped her turn and didn`t want to read, but she let us, and I got to put a baptisimal date with her for the 12th of February. I liked how eager she was to accept. She looked happy. We later met up with Josè Luis at the Church. We got to know him better. Turns out that he sells cheeses. I find that very classy. We taught him about the Plan of Salvation and where his mom is now. We answered a lot of questions he had about the Church by way of teaching the Restoration, too. I got to invite him to the waters of baptism too. Februrary 19th! I called President Swenson to tell him the good news. He had specifically asked me abou Maybelline yesterday, at the conference. After the lesson, Luis made us sopaipillas. Such a blast! (With two new people at church, the weekly attendance will go up 14%)

Friday: I`m bone-tired tonight. I walked a lot during the day, but I`ll get to that later. First part of the day was spent studying. I used my "missionary`s little book of answers" that I got for my B-day last year, and translated to my comp for 4 hours. We got a TON of good stuff out of it. While we were studying, I was wrapped up in my snuggie and we were both eating leftover sopaipillas with mustard. The food tasted exactly like Jamba`s parmesan pretzel`s with mustard. It was a rather nostalgiac experience. We weren`t able to teach maybelline as we spent time together. Hna. Olivares wanted some special black rocks from the beach to be brought up. So we went down with all the kids and the local cousins. I brought a sign that said "Australia----->" pointing to the ocean. But when we got there, my batteries died in my camera. Lame! But Elder Orellana got some good ics, and will pass them to me. I had a really fun itm ejumping around the giant boulders, but it was very tiring. I was awed by the ocean. I wanted to swim, but I didn`t want to swim. But I sat down and listened to the waves. I had heard electronic copies, and I loved the differences the real thing had. I said a quiet prayer of thanks to Heavenly Father, thanking him for the beauty of the ocean. Then we came back and had a big stack of french Fries.

Saturday: Today was a pretty good day. Last night, Jassay and Maybelline pulled a prank on us. They said, "Play ping pong, we want to see how good you play." Then, while we played, their cousin, Diego went in our room (we were already in the chapel) and put rocks in my sheets and took some of the mattress-supporting boards out. We caught it before someone was hurt, but after everyone had left. But oh-ho! Our revenge was sweet! We called their mom and explained that I had been hurt and my nose was bleeding and we were deciding to go to the hospital. Then we told her we were actually okay and to lie about that and tell the kids our first story. Then, for lunch, I word a white strip of medical cloth on my nose. The looks on the girls faces! PRICELESS! Jassay had her mouth covered with wide eyes but still tried to act normal. They were mortified when Elder Orellana suddenly "punched" me in my "wounded" nose. But I took off the bandage and we had a good laugh. We taught Maybelline the Word of Wisdom and the law of Chastity. It went really well. It was kind of awkward to talk to a 15 year-old girl about sexual relations. But she was totally cool with everything. I told her that we look at marriage as something to last through the eternities. That her husband can love her forever and that she`ll always be his princess/Queen. I think I saw her sit up a little straighter after that. I`m glad. We also heard our investigator, Luis, is gay. We`re not sure, but it would suck if it was true. We`ll teach HIM chastity next. :) We wrote the family, `cause we didn`t last monday. Alan and I are still best friends. My new comp. will be Elder Montoya from Spain.

Sunday: I`m pretty sure showers hate me. Everywhere. It just happens. It`s Summer now, and today the gas froze while I was doing business. When I asked my comp to boil some water on the electric boiler to pour on and thaw the gas tank. Just then, the electricity went out. Sentient malevolence is all I have to say. I had a talk all prepared about prophets, but the folks in Cañete sent down backup: two speakers, so I got a break while Orellana said bye. The coolest part of the day was when we taught Josè Luis. turns out he`s been wanting to find the true word of God. One that can`t be argued with or misinterpreted. He doesn`t get paid until Tuesday and didn`t have any food at home. When we started talking about the Book of Mormon, he got really excited. He pulled out the equivelant of 27 cents, and said, "This is al I have. How much does that book cost?" I put a trembling hand on his shoulder and told him with a smile, "This is God`s gift to the world. Treasure it." I also gave him some Ramen noodles for good measure. I really hope he`s not as gay as his purse makes him look. I didn`t ask about it yet. We spent the afternoon saying goodbyes to people for Elder Orellana. I really think Maybelline is feeling more comfortable in Church, and with the members. We had fun playing games and eating tonight: specifically empanadas, cheetos, keke, and shortbread w/avocado. (No Way is a swear word here.)

Monday: I`m feeling pretty good right now. Tomorrow we have our tranfers. I`m not too nervous about it. I am a bit apprehensive to introduce Elder Montoya to Tirùa. He`ll ...actually I don`t know how he`ll react. But I don`t really have a lot to show for 6 weeks there. But it`s not for lack of trying. Actually, Elder Montoya called us this morning so he could get an idea for what to expect. He sounded pretty funny. I think we`ll get along well. He just completed a year in the mission, I believe. Rosendo came over this morning, to say goodbye to Older Orellana. He looks like a tough punk, but he`s a sweetheart on the inside. We got some money to travel to Cañete, so we won`t have to leave from Tirùa at an obscene hour. We arrived and went with Elders Herrera and Gatica. It`s funny, because Herrera was in Quirihue when I got to Chile and Gatica is going there, to quirihue, to replace Elder Lisonbee. Crazy! We went to write the family for this week. Not surprisingly, I hadn`t received any messages since the last time. But I still had to send THEM my update. Unfortunately, I remembered this fact only after we realized I had lft my journal at the Elders` house. I did try sending some pictures and even a sattelite photo of Tirùa, so they could see what my sector looks like. We spent the evening tailing the Cañete Elders as they said goodbye. I didn`t complain, and neither did my stomach.