This is Rob's first note from the Mission field. He had a learning experience with some crooks at the Santiago airport. We told him to consider it his donation to the Chilean earthquake relief fund. Otherwise he is adjusting well to life as a new missionary and trying to learn the language. He also had his first earthquake experience with an aftershock. Sounded exciting. He sent a picture of some local street damage, nothing too dramatic. We'll try to post it to the blog.
Hola! How is everyone??? I´am now in Chile! Its been a rough start when I got to Chile though. I was stupid and lost 80 bucks to two Chileans in Santiago because I asked them for help us get to our connecting flight and I had to pay them and I didn´t know anything on the exchange rate because this guy took me to the ATM (Stupid me) and I took out money without really knowing what I was doing. I felt like an idiot and everyone in my group was just laughing at me for it so that just made it worse but theres nothing I can do about it now, it's in the past. I´m in my first area which is in the city of Valdivia and my sector is called Calle y Calle. It's a northern city about an hour and a half bus ride from Osorno. My trainer's name is Elder Simons from Provo Utah. He´s been here a year and a half and has a little less than 6 months left now. I know I´m gonna learn a lot from Elder simons and hopefully be helpful to the work with him. We met a lot of members our first day. We met the Ward mission leader, the bishop and others. They are all very nice people but I can´t understand a word they say. I'm basically looking at my trainer every five seconds when they ask me something because I can´t understand them! I hate it but it´s gonna take time because you have to train your ear and listen very closely 24/7. The house I live in with my companion is nice I guess, compared to other places he;s stayed in before so I´d say I´m pretty blessed for now. It smells like a cabin and looks like a cabin inside. Everything is basically wood. I´ve gotten used to the idea pretty much that this is how I am going to be living for the next 2 years. There are dogs everywhere!! Like literally everywhere you walk, they're like birds in the sky just everywhere! I could probably count over 60 just in the past 6 days I´ve been here!. They just don´t have animal pounds in South America so they just roam the streets. Some people have them as pets but its mostly them just wandering. You don´t wanna touch them cause they have fleas all over them and probably other diseases and might bite so I don´t touch them. Friday, I met more members and a couple of them speak a small amount of English but its really not a ton so I still need to try my best to understand them which is gonna take a while I can already tell. They all like to listen to American music and sing along with it. It´s funny that they do that because its like they sing along with it but they don´t take the words they're singing and transition it over into speaking english they only know the words through the song. We went by a less active's home with the Ward mission leader and did our first service project for someone. They had a huge pile of firewood out in front of there house and we stacked it inside for them. Firewood is the main resource here to keep their house warm so it was really helpful. The ward mission leader talked to them about the earthquake and that before it happened nobody really cared much about God but after, they were all saying oh save me help me. So he just really said we need to go to chuch every week to renew our covenants we made with God and he will keep us safe every week. We recommitted them to start coming back to church and they said yes but I didn´t see them yesterday at church. We´ve been visiting 2 boys since I got here with Elder Simons named Felipe and Alfredo. They are getting baptized on the 10th of April and I´m really excited for them! They seem like really good kids and want to do what's best for themselves. Their dad is a member already but mom is not and we're working with her right now so that she can gain a testimony for herself. We're doing an english class with both Felipe and Alfredo and they are really learning fast! They help me a bit with my Spanish but its not really my spanish that needs help its my understanding of what people are saying to me so yea haha! Lunch is the big meal here in Chile so we eat with our Mamita Hermana Moya. She's really awesome and tries to speak slow for me because she knows I´m learning. The food here isn´t bad at all, it´s pretty good except for in tomatos and lettuce when they have salad type stuff they mix in salt and I kinda don´t like it but I eat it because I need my greens and I don´t wanna be rude but otherwise its all really good. I felt my first Earthquake on Friday night when me and my Companion were doing nightly planning! It was really hard which I guess means there was an even bigger one up north but we don´t know where it hit. It shook the whole house for like 30 seconds! The table jumped up and everything on the walls was shaking! At first my companion thought I was moving the table but I said no that definitely wasn´t me. I´m expecting more of those in the next 2 years I´m here but I wonder if I will feel any really far down south or if down here you're too far off the grid to feel any . Well I believe thats all my report for the week. My p days are Mondays so this is when you should expect emails from me. I love you all and miss you all so much!! I´m sure you´ve already gotten my picture with my trainer and my group that we are in Osorno but if you haven´t then I´m sure it will come soon! Talk to yall next week!
Love Elder Blotter
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