Volver a tus Raízes

Today I saw graffiti of a mapuche guy and a bobcat in a tree and below it said "Volver a tus raízes" which means "return to your roots." I thought it was pretty relevant to this week. 

Besides having to meet the usual deadlines we had a fairly light work load this week so we decided to do some missionary work. It was honesty pretty weird. In these last couple of weeks I´ve started to feel almost like a normal person. Now I actually had to adjust back to talking with people in the street and going into random peoples houses. Yesterday we went to a little pueblito called Santa Juana where there sister missionaries aren't having that much success. So the assistants and us went to contact for a few hours to find new people. Maybe I had gotten used to it before but people here are the funniest. Even more so in small campo towns. There was one time where we talked to a women through her window and said stuff like "hey, hows it going, we´re missionaries, is that your kid..." and she wouldn´t respond at all. Until we asked her name and she just said "no." I really am going to miss it.

Earlier in the week we had to wash the car but we didn´t have time to do it by hand to we stopped by the car wash. We waited for a few minutes but the car in front of us wouldn´t pull forward so we pulled up beside him and he was completely out. Asleep with his head on his steering wheel. We honked and he woke up abruptly, looked very confused for a couple seconds then went forward. The worst part was he wasn´t even old. He probably had like 40 years or something.

Today for pday we went to do service in el campo. A recent convert just bought a piece of land in the Forest and wanted to put a barbed wired fence around it. So we came to dig holes and put in the fence. The best part was trying to get there. We were stuck in the mud for a solid half an hour and even with like 15 people, it took a while. But we finally got creative with some sticks and carpet things. Afterwards they were having a barbecue, but we had to leave right as they were choosing between buying the live pig or the live lamb to kill and eat.

Elder Swenson went home on Tuesday. It was weird seeing another friend go back. But then again the mission is like that; weird. in a perfect way.

Elder Thompson

Locura

In my time in Chile, I haven´t been able to tell if there are actually more crazy people here or if being a missionary forces me to work with them more. Our office is also in a more sketchy area of the city so we get the worst of the worst. For example, across the street there is a dirty hotel that rents rooms by the hour. And every night around 10 there will be manly looking women who are definitely not dressed for how cold it is standing out it front. People will also ring our doorbell at least once a day to ask for money.

On the way back from another trip to the south we were passing through a small town at like 10ish. We were driving through a dark foresty part when we saw two lights off in the distance. Because of the thick fog we couldn´t tell if it was a car or two motorcycles. We got a little closer and we saw that they were right in our lane so we slowed down. As we realized what it was, these two 40 year old women with flashlights and the darkest, most hollowed out faces ran twords us, screaming and making obscene gestures. While screaming ourselves, we went around them and quickly sped off. We still aren´t sure what we saw.

Besides all that, this week was bacially spent infront of a computer screen. By day two we both felt gross and unhealthy. I guess our bodies have gotten used to walking literaly all day. So thanks to my comps mom, who is a health coach, we now have our diet/physical activity all planned out for this week. We went running today and we both died so we´ll see how it´s going in a week.

My studies have gotten a lot more interesting now that I have a computer. I´m pretty excited to read talks and books a ton after the mission. If you haven´t seen it yet, check out Speaches.byu.edu. It´s the best.

Till next week!

Elder Thompson

Piedra de Águila

Nothing has changed this week. Which means everything is changing constantly.

This week there were another series of conferences but we stayed behind to get some stuff done. But even though we only planned on getting the small tedious but necessary tasks done, none of it got done due to the compulsiveness of being in the office.

This week we finally got out a little in our sector. We visited two members and between them two we got 5 referrals. Boom. Our plan is to only work by referrals and stop knocking doors. Well, its not really our plan because president told us to do it but we are liking it so far. The only down side to our sector is that it is too nice. Almost everybody here is loaded which makes it difficult to get to peoples hearts but some way or another we´ll get there.

There is a woman in subway who only speaks inglish to everyone, but she doesn´t speak very well.
Every time we go we try to decide why she doesn´t speak spanishand very little english. After a couple weeks of thinking, we finally asked her and shes from India. We still don´t know why she would come to southern Chile from India to work in a subway when she doesn´t speak spanishbut I´ll keep you guys updated.

We had to brake a window to get into the missionaries house because they left their keys inside.

For pday today we drove in the truck on a long and beautiful mountain road to get to whats called Piedra de Águila. It´s a peak where you can see the ocean and the mountains in Argentina at the same time. We ended up not making it all the way up do to the snow but the drive up was amazing. It was even more amazing to be the one driving. We also stopped to make snow angels, a snow man, and we had a snowball fight. The classics.

It happens many times where we have to go to the Chilean home depot to buy like 5 gas stoves at 120$ a piece or a bunch of mattresses and it never fails to be entertaining to watch their reaction when we tell them how many we want.

In terms of how i´m doing, i´m loving the office. All in all I would call it a time to think. My entiremission, a lot of things were very obvious for example doing my studies. Or not waisting my time. When I got into the groove of things, it felt natural putting all my time and energy into the work. But now that i´m here I have a million other things I could do instead of studying and no one would even notice if I didn´t but I have to make a constant effort every day to do my studies. I could also just waist the whole day messing around on the computer and no one would say anything. Being here is teaching me a different side of sacrifice and is forcing me to develop a different kind of passion to do what is right. I would say I am experiencing a boost of personal growth.

It´s crazy to look at pictues ofdisneyland, california, camping, blue hair, and the family. Sometimes I forget that there is a world outside of Chile so keep sending them!

I also got the package. It was exactly what I wanted/needed for the office. I have a lot of time to snack but they don´t have very good snacks here. I also love thewashington and seattle stuff. Now I have a conversation starter when people are in the office.

Well that's it for now. It´s almost 6 and we still have to eat lunch.

Elder Thompson

A normal week

This week has been pretty average.

On saturday after emailing we all got in the car and my comp and I dropped off our office trainers in temuco. So it was a solid 5 hours down and 5 hours back. It was an incredibly pretty drive and I found some Delicious guava juice at the grocery store to drink on the way so I can say it was a great birthday. We got home pretty late bu we knew it would happen. On the way down Chile was eliminated from the world cup because of a penalty kick. Bummer.

On sunday one the elders here met up with his family before he went back to the states. It was pretty weird to see it happen. Even weirder that someday my mission will end as well. But that's not for a couple years.

On monday there was a big conference of all the zone leaders. In the morning we got upat 5:30 to play soccer on a turf field. After showering and heading to the office we helped with the craziness of everyone else's pday. Considering that everyone comes to the office with problems. 

On tuesday we had the first conference of all the missionaries in the north of the mission. We did it at the chapel right next to the office so it was fairly easy. After the conference, I met a guy in subway who was from san diego. He is the first white person I have seen in Chile besides missionaries.

On wednesday we went to Los Angeles for another big conference. I have always been on the other side but now that I have to put on the conferences, I am realizing that they are a lot of work. Everything barely came together on time despite the many problems and emergencies but no one else even notices. That night we had to drive back to concepción, load up a bunch of stuff and then back to los angeles which is about a four hour round trip. But this time in incredibly thick fog.

On thursday we traveled down to temuco for the next conference. This one was a lot smoother. After eating we were going to buy a couple gas heaters and drop them off at some of the houses down in temuco but my comp got really sick. So we hurried him to the nearest missionary house and he just passed out for the night.

On friday we did the last conference. During the meeting, we went to drop off the heaters and got back just in time to eat. After lunch we rode with president back to Concepción for 5 hours. It was an awesome experience. We even stopped to buy churrascos.

Finally we got home to our nice warm beds and had a normal nights sleep, not on hard wood floors and with our own shower. Even though it has been very stressful and tiring, I love being here. Hopefully this coming week isn´t any different.