Elder Millard with his mission president

Elder Millard with his mission president

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Independence Day in Chile

Hey everyone!!!! I really can´t believe i´m on the last week of my first change! Its been so great and such a great experience! I have learned so much from my trainer Elder Mace. So i find out this sat if i´m staying in coquimbo or leaving, getting a new comp... i´m excited to see what happens. but these last six weeks have seriously been amazing! missionary work is so awesome and so rewarding.
This last week was the biggest holliday of the year in Chile, the 18 de septiembre, Chilean independance day. And its so great because its the most celebrated up here in coquimbo. I must say though, this last week was really hard to teach and find but i´ll tell you what, i have never eaten so much meat in a week in my entire life! haha. seriously, every lunch was a Huge asao or bbq. The food is great here! It was really wierd though, when Elder mace and i would walk down the street, it was basically empty because everyone was at ´´La Pampilla¨´, one of the huge parties for the 18th up here in Coquimbo. it lasts for 4 days. it was also really crazy because most of the people that we did see on the street were Super drunk! The 18th was crazy! yesterday for pday, Elder Mace and i got permission to go to La pampilla with a member, so that is exactly what we did! it was So cool! so many people and so many little booths to buy stuff. everything was so cheap and it was So awesome to see more of the Chilean culture and be appart of the pampilla of the Bicentenial. this year it was especially big because Chile is officially 200 years old. So this week was really unique but super awesome!
The Chilean national dance is called the Cueca. So everyone was dancing the cueca in the street with music blasting, at some of the parties that were around that we saw, and also at the pampilla there was alot of cueca. On the 18th, we stopped by Joselin´s house to teach her a little bit then to spend a little time with them, and i learned how to dance the cueca a little bit... it was a terrible attempt at it but at least i tried haha. they were laughing at me... i guess it was pretty bad haha.
So our Awesome momita that has done everything for us is moving to Santiago this week! so sad!! She was so awesome and such a good example of service and selflessness. She seriously went more beyond to help us missonaries out. on a random night, she would just give us a call and bring us a bunch of dougnuts or a big cake or something. and her luches were incredible. whenever we needed anything, we would just call the momita and she would be happy to help. Great example to me. We will miss her dearly
So funny experience... Just a little background, the chileans are very ´´of skin people´´ so when they great eachother, they give eachother a kiss on the cheek. So here i was in an investigators house, sitting on the couch. and the next thing i know, this lady comes up behind me and grabs my hand and moves in for the kiss!!! i could not do anything because i was on the couch and i did not want to offend her so i just took it. a big fat one right on my right cheek. my first kiss as a missionary! haha. Gotta love Chile right.
So Elder Mace and i have found a few new investigators that are great! the first two are Miguel and Eduardo. they are about 23 and 27 and accepted a baptisimal date. They have a long way to go but i´m so happy that the lord blessed elder mace and i with two more people that are on the path to accepting the gospel. We also found another Great investigator whos name is Rosa. she is So awesome! her parents are members and were sealed in the temple so she knows a little bit about the church. but she felt the spirit when Elder Mace and i taught and she is going to talk to her husband to see if she should get baptized. She told us that she wants her whole family to get baptized, if it happens! That would be So great! there are 5 of them in the family.
Our other investigators with baptisimal dates are doing good as well... for the most part ha. So Danisa and Jeovanni went on vacation for the 18th week. we had to push their date back because they just aren´t ready. Elder mace and i are really going to talk to them and see if this is what they really want. They are so close, they just need that extra little drive to make it. Joselin is absolutely amazing! she has a really hard life but she is happy because she has the gospel. She is living with some members, but this last week, she came on her own to church even though she lives super far away and had to walk. She really wants this and its so cool to see how the Gospel is changing her life.
I love you all!
Elder Millard

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