This is our apartment (where my companion is locking the door).
We´re at the very top of a big hill, and although it appears white in the photo, the view is very nice. The four missionaries in our ward all live here.
I cut my hand while we were cutting firewood for some members in the ward.
Naturally, the first thing I needed to do was take a picture :D
I´m a little clumsy with the ax, but my companion is teaching me.
These antennas are close to where I live, and we walk past them every day.
This view is from the church.
Yá pó!
That´s what people in Chile say a lot. I do to. Yá is basically yah in English (as opposed to sí and yes) and the pó is what people in Chile often put after their words. The pó doesn´t mean anything... it´s just there.
Can I just mention I loved reading about Rebecca in Bulgaria? (Connor’s cousin is on a mission in Bulgaria.)
Oh! And business. The rule is that I can Skype the family for a total of 45 minutes and I can use those minutes in the 23rd, 24th, or 25th of December (that was strikingly difficult to spell after I´ve been writing Diciembre all month). I still don´t know when... I was thinking that when we had it figured out where and what day, I could ask the members to email you (although Google translate will probably be part of the process). I don´t know what the time difference is with daylight savings and all that, so assume that all times I say are in current Chilean time.
It doesn´t get dark until about
9:45, which is awesome because people are more likely to open their doors and
talk. When it was winter and it was completely dark by 6:00, no one wanted to
talk because it felt late.
Life as a missionary is very
bizarre. I feel like I´m trying to be the best missionary I can be, but it´s
awfully hard to tell what that means.
This week we had intercambios (I
think they´re called exchanges in English) and I worked in the sector of the
zone leaders for a day. Their sector has a very beautiful view of the ocean
(ours as well, but theirs also has nice green hills). The day was really nice.
I felt really happy knocking doors and contacting people in the street, and
although I felt we were more persistent and insistent than I am with my regular
companion, I felt really happy about the day.
The
next day we had a lesson with two sisters. They actually listened and said they
wanted to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it when we invited them. That
doesn´t happen... that just never happens! We have another appointment with
them tomorrow, and I hope they will have read and prayed!
I feel like we´ve had a lot of éxito
(success) these past 2 weeks. We´ve been having more lessons. What´s also helped is that we´ve done tours
of the church where we open the doors, have a table with pamphlets and copies
of the Book of Mormon (along with delicious no-bakes made by one of the missionaries). We
stand in the street and invite people in. I think our district´s taught about
14 non-members in the church that way, which is awesome! Much more successful than knocking doors and being told, "No, we´re very very busy. Another time." Or ,"No *wags finger* we´re Catholic."
Tommy always mentions
his progressing investigators. That´s a little more difficult with me because
no one has attended church and is progressing, but I feel like I should mention
at least someone each week. We knocked doors the other week and found a family
of inactive members. We set up an appointment and arrived with a member. It
felt really sad and empty in their house... they´re a bit poor and work long
hours. One of them almost cried when we talked about families and the
happiness that comes from them. I think they realized that they weren´t
as happy as they could be. We got a member to accompany them to the church and
they attended, WOOHOO! It´s nice when people who haven´t been in the church in
many years attend. I hope it becomes habitual.
Yup. That´s my bit for now.
Love you all,
Elder Christopherson.
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