The Package Exists!

 

"The District"  May 2013

 

July 29, 2013



Mom,


To answer your question about my companion, yes; Elder Aburto de Concepción, Chile. Haha. He is as close to his house as he can be and still be in another mission. It would be the equivalent of me serving in Saint George. Haha.


I am always very pleased to read your emails. They make me smile. I am so very happy that you made the choice to speak in Sacrament Meeting. That is so awesome. I knew you would do it. :)


I have excellent news!! The package that you sent me EXISTS!!!! It exists. I was starting to think that you were pulling my leg!! Haha. I still don´t have it yet, but I know that it exists. What happened was that they made a mistake in the office and sent my package to Rio Bueno. Who knows how long it has been there, but the Senior couple said they would bring it to me on Wednesday or Thursday. That is good news, right?? I am excited. But it makes me wonder how often my mail gets sent to the wrong sector. And there will be another package coming soon! How exciting. But I am telling you right now that this should be the last package, because I am becoming kind of spoiled. The reality is that I have everything that I need (except for a good rain jacket).  Haha. How about every time you feel tempted to send me something, you can just deposit money in my account? ;)  I will save it for a rainy day or something.


Ahhh… today is a good day. :) The sun is shining today. We went to the capilla and played basketball and ping pong with the other missionaries here. It reminded me of the old days with my friends. Haha. I also enjoyed reading the email that Carter sent home to his family. His dad forwards them to me. It sounds like he is doing well over there in Madagascar.  I wonder if Nate or Dave have received the letters that I sent them yet.  That is one thing that I don’t really like about the whole handwritten mail thing…. I never know if people get them because it takes so long to get there and then I have to wait for a handwritten response. Oh well. Hopefully everyone gets the letters that I send them.


I have a cool story about something that happened yesterday.  We went and we knocked on this door. This really big and angry looking guy answered it and said, “What do you want?” He was very short with us and very rude to us actually.  He started to shut the door in our face and then he paused… and then he said, “Come in.”  I was thinking to myself, “Oh great, here we go again. This is probably some man of another religión that is going to try and bash on everything that we believe.” We went in and sat down on his couch and we started talking to him. He was still not very nice and pretty rude. Then his wife came in from the other room and she was so excited to see us. Like… super excited. She said, “I am shocked that he let you in! He usually is very unpleasant with the missionaries and tells them to go away.”  Then he said, “I don´t really know why I let you in.”  We started teaching them and telling them about how the Gospel of Jesus Christ blesses the familias and that familias can be eternal. They were listening to us. Then they both opened up and started talking to us. They said just before we had knocked on their door, they had been talking about getting divorced. The woman started to cry and she said, “And I know that you can help us.”  We then watched a Mormon Message about the importance of the familias. By the end of the lesson, this man had completely changed from rude and unwelcoming, to interested and actively participating. At the end of the lesson he asked us if we would come back. It was incredible. That was definitely the Miracle of the week this past week.


In other news this past week:  Our water heater doesn’t work. So... we have two options. We can either shower with freezing cold water, or we can boil water and do a sponge bath kind of thing. I switch off between the two. Flea bites leave scars… so I will always have souvenirs from my time here in Chile. I saw a drug deal happen right in front of me. I saw a dog get destroyed by a car and die. We are looking into getting a washing machine here in the house because there aren’t enough members here to do our laundry.  There were only 17 people at church yesterday. I make my bed every day, even though I sleep on the top bunk. I sort of cut my own hair today, just so that I could say that I cut my own hair on the mission. Haha. It turned out quite nicely (I really only just cut a hair that the barber missed... Haha.)


About the Sister missionary that went home? I don´t know her. You said she was in my mission? I may have shaken her hand in a conference or something. Hmm... The food here is good. But if someone has a gluten problem, they wouldn´t survive here. All we eat is bread, pasta, rice, and potatoes.


I hope you have an excellent week. I love you to death, mom. The lady who sent you the photo wants to meet you. I talk to her about you. She used to be the mamita here, and she always takes good care of us.


Love,
Elder Warren