Good Week!

Hot Dog Dinner With The Hermana's

September 2, 2013



Mother!

Hey, I want to start off by telling you that I am sorry that the email last week got deleted. It was really a work of literature. I wrote for 45 minutes and then... It got deleted. I am so bummed about that.


I will start by explaining the new rules to you. I used to have 45 minutes on the internet to email you and my mission president. I still have that 45 minutes to email you and the mission president, but I also have an additional 15 minutes to email friends. What a blessing. I can now really keep in touch with my boys who are out there serving the Lord. I sent them a group email last week with a picture and they all responded, except for Nate. So sweet!! I really have some great friends. I owe a lot to them and their example to me.


Next I will clear up your doubt about where I am. Haha. I am still in Villarrica, Chile. The branch I am in is Volcan Branch. There are two branches in Villarrica, Volcan and Ancahual. Within the two branches, there are 4 sectores or four sets of missionaries. 4 Elderes y 4 Hermana’s. I am in Volcan 2.  I am still with Elder Aburto for another cambio. The water heater has been fixed! So…no worries. I am no longer showering with cold water.


To tell you about our little trip to Argentina last week:  It was awesome! We went with the Elderes de Pucon, Villarrica, y Panguipulli. We went with a group of 15 people in total? Something like that. We crossed over to the line that separates Argentina y Chile! There was a ton of snow. We split up between the line (we were up in the mountains) and we had the most awesome snowball fight across the border of the two countries! It was easily one of the sweetest days ever!


This last week was really good. We actually have people to teach, which is really awesome. That makes me very happy. We are teaching several really good families. We have one family that is progressing a ton. They have come to church 4 times now!! How sweet is that? They have made friends with people in the branch. They are awesome. They always feed us when we go over there. His name is Marcelo, the lumber jack. The dude is sweet. He is already planning for me and Elder Aburto to come and stay with him and his family after the mission, and he is going to take us to all of the tourist attractions that are around here. He is great. They aren´t quite to the point of baptism yet. Marcelo wants to be really sure about what he is doing. But he told us when he gets to that point; he wants to be baptized in Lago Villarrica. We are definitely going ask permission to baptize him in the lake. Wouldn´t that be sweet!?


We also have been working a lot with a woman. She is really cool. Her husband was the Branch President, but she is not a member. In fact, she used to be anti-Mormon. She wouldn´t even let missionaries in her house. Well, that is all changing. She lives in the sector of the Hermana’s, but we went over there to plan an English class. She is a professor of English here in the university. I teach the English class every Saturday to help her students. But she and I get along well. She always invites us over. We went over there the first time with the Hermana’s, and we ended up helping in the lesson. For the last 3 weeks we have been going over there and I have been helping her prepare to take an international certification test for English. If she passes, she will get a scholarship to study in England. So I read all of her essays and help her correct them. Slowly we have been gaining her confidence. So the other day she asked if we would come over and help her with that, and then share something afterwards. So we did. We got a copy of the Book of Mormon in ingles and we gave it to her. She committed to read it. What a miracle! The sister missionaries have invited her to read the Book of Mormon like 10 times, and she always says no. But she said yes! And then Saturday she called me in the morning and she had been reading it! She actually read the chapter! The entire thing and she wants us to come back and talk to her about it. Her husband is so happy with us and for what we are doing for her. It is incredible to see the changes that she is making.


The other really cool thing here in the sector is that we are like... the cool kids. We seriously are friends with everyone. People are always greeting us and giving us hugs. (That is what the men do here: handshake, hug, and handshake.)  We have friends that hook us up with things. There are a lot of men who make things out of wood that we are friends with. Juanito is going to make us baseball bats on his lathe. We have a cake lady. We have an empanada lady. We just have a lot of good friends here. It is kind of funny. It is like the people think that it is cool to be friends with the missionaries in this sector.


I am happy, just to let you know. I am learning a lot. I am under 200 pounds :) and things are going well. Some days are still tough; Haha. Tough to be away from my mama. But I will say this:  The more time I spend away from home the more I realize that you taught me VERY well; manners, hygiene, kindness, cleanliness, responsibility. You taught me well. Job well done. I didn´t always do what you taught me when I was living at home, but I learned something. So thank you!

Sometimes I feel a little stressed about what will happen after the mission. I try not to think about it, but the people we talk with every single day always ask:  What are you going to do after the mission? What are you going to study? How are you going to pay for it?  Haha... those are all really good questions. I know I will study after the mission, but I don´t really know what I will study. Or how I will pay for it. Haha. But it will all work out... I hope.


In other news, I have decided that one day I am going to buy a guitar, learn to play it, go to the nursing home, and sing hymns in Spanish and sing to the old people. That is what I plan on doing in my life.


Hey, have an excellent week. Be happy. Read your scriptures. Ask Brett about when he plans on doing his home teaching this month. Make him do it. Home teaching practically doesn´t exist here, and that is why 90 % of all members of the church in Chile are not active. (I am not even making that statistic up!!)


I hope your back starts feeling better. You are in my prayers

.
Elder Warren


P.s. Thank you for the email address of Megan. I will send her something!

FYI:  I don't think that the Post Office is on strike anymore.