Feliz Navidad!!!! This week has been Super eventful!!! So many changes and so many great things happening! So as you know, last week was my last week in Tierras Blancas Coquimbo. I have been assigned and called to work in the sector La Ligua B which is in the zone Quillota. The sister missionaries have been here in La Ligua for about 2 years but now they are putting Elders there. My comp and I are the lucky ones that get to move into this sector not knowing anything. haha. I´m ready and excited for the challenge.
My comp´s name is Elder Bustincio from Cuzco Cuzco Puno Perú. He is litterally the funniest kid i have ever met in my life!! So unique!! haha. Often times i wonder if he is serious with some of the comments and things that he does. haha A flawless comparison would have to be Mogley from the Jungle Book. haha. He is such a nice elder and we get along great! Always positive and always laughing. This change will be so much fun! I have started keeping a little list of all of the little quotes or comments that he makes. Elder Bustincio is a convert as of 5 years. He was baptized when he was 18 and he is 1 of 2 members in his family. His parents are not members but he decided to come on a mission anyways.
In my new pension, which is a house, we have all latins and one gringo (me). So far it has been a blast! Its kinda crazy though because none of them know any english so i´m on my own out here with having to speak the language. But i have come a long way with the language with the lords help. I´m so blessed to be able to understand and speak enough to be able to teach effectively.
So i´m sure you are all wondering... What did the elders of Chile Viña del Mar mission do for Christmas? Well to start off i´m going to explain what we did for Christmas Eve. On Thurs night, all of us elders from la Ligua had to travel down to Quillota because we had a Christmas devotional planned. Its about a 2 hour drive down there in bus. When we got there on Christmas eve eve, we slept in the pension of the elders that work in Quillota Centro. The devotional was So incredible!!! I was asked to play the piano so that was pretty cool! President Gillespie talked to us about Joseph Smith and elaborated on how he has done more for the salvation of man than any other save Jesus Christ. I learned so much! He was the prophet of the restoration. We also had a great activity where everyone was in their zone and they prepared a musical number. When we all performed, in the middle of each musical number, there was a narration and it depicted the story of Christ. I loved it! If you know me, Christmas is by far my favorite time of the year. It was so nice to be able to celebrate and ponder the meaning and spirit of christmas. They then fed us some Hamburgers, because we do not get those alot out here. Following lunch was a movie, in specific the Nativity! One of my favorite Christmas movies. Afterwards, it was back to la Ligua. When we got there, we met up with the family Palominos. They have been so nice to us!! They offered their house and invited us to spend Christmas eve with them. We had a nice dinner and then talked with them until they oppened their Christmas Presents. They open their presents here on Christmas eve (Noche Buena).
Then Christmas came!!! We had to wake up at 5:00 to be able to travel to Quillota. When i woke up, walked into our study room and opened some of the presents that the members gave me in my last ward. We got ready and then we were off to the Bus station. There were not very many people outside, just a few drunks that had a long night. But the morning really was so peacefull! I could not help but ponder about christmas in the silence and serenity. Eventually we got to Quillota and we had a fun activity with the zone. Ate some breakfast and watched a movie about Gordon B. Hinkley. Afterwards we did a White elephant and played some Dodgeball! Then it was time for service! We went to the hospital to sing christmas carols to the sick. It was such a good experience! We were all in Santa hats and we sang with tons of excitement and happiness. They were all so grateful! We traveled back to la ligua to the house of the Palominos. They prepared a bbq for us! All of us elders waited as our families would call soon!!! I was going Crazy!! haha. At 7:00 the phone rang... i said hello and the next thing i hear is a big cheer! haha. It was soo great to talk to the fam!! definitely not long enough and it went so fast haha. It was so wierd to hear all of your voices again... it did not even seem real! Well Christmas was a little different than normal but it was so great! One down one to go! ha.
This week we were able to meet the branch that we will be working in. They are great!!There are some great members and i´m so excited to work with them. There are tons of less actives that are still great members but just don´t go. So there is a lot of work with that! They did not have a pianist before so now i am the designated pianist. We also have some great investigators that we have found. Efrén, he is great! Super recetpive and plays basketball. We are going to ball it up one of these days. We also have Yosimí from Columbia. She is great as well! We talked to our next door neighbor yesterday and she let us come in and share something with her. The spirit was so strong! We are focusing on asking inspired questions, listening well for their needs, discerning, then teach them what they need. She accepted a baptisimal date for the 22 of Jan. There is tons of work to do here and i´m so excited to be here in La Ligua.
Sorry, this internet is quite possibly the slowest thing I have ever seen in my life, so I will not be able to send pictures this week! But next week for sure there will be double.
Love you all!
Elder Millard
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