Elder Washburn in Osorno Chile: Week 13 - Shaking Hands with a Small Black Bear!

November 25, 2013

Dad,

Ok, let’s talk about the important stuff first, the fly rod.... No, I'm just kidding! But the information you heard about only being able to take about 40 pounds of gear down to Punta Arenas, not true. You get one bag full and then the other gets sent by land. It doesn't get there for a few weeks, but it does get there, I watched Elder Johnson go through this. It was funny though because I'm not sure he had 40 pounds of gear to begin with! I'm chucking the rain gear they gave me though. I get soaked in that garbage if it rains like it did Saturday, the whole darn day!

Ok, now let’s talk about the fly rod. It's not really important and I was thinking you could send me the blanks for a rod. They sell them on Cabela’s site and it's a 6 or 7 piece rod not a 5. It's a build it yourself kit kind of thing. Just send me the cheapest guides seat and handle you can find with it. And I wouldn't just be fishing, every elder I've talked to wants to learn. It would be nice but I don't really need it.

Sorry, I wrote way too much about that garbage! Here’s your letter! Instead of those stupid little sentences that I send you every week (I'm still sorry about that). This week has been pretty good, haven't taught many lessons, but I think we might have found some new investigators. We tried to focus on inactives this week and had a little success but it seems like they've all disappeared. Well Tuesday was decent; we visited the American, Jesse. I'm not sure I've said much about him, but he's a fellow gun nut who's almost finished building his own CNC. We visit him every week and try to get some doctrine and short lessons into conversations but right now we're really just trying to be his friends and this week’s conversation went from the gospel to guns, horses, and Spitz dogs and specifically about his Norwegian Elkhound which has a really cool history. Something that might interest you, we talked a little about Alaskans having problems with huskies and malamutes reverting to wolves and forming packs, thought that was interesting. Had an English teaching appointment later in the week. I still think the irony of me teaching English is hilarious, but it went pretty well and we're starting to teach a little more doctrine.

Only had one day where it rained all day (Saturday) and it's starting to get really hot here. But this morning it's surprisingly cold! We were going to have a barbeque with the Biggs and the Peruvian elders today but we ended up going with Elder Biggs to fix a broken window instead. But the Biggs invited us to go out to dinner to celebrate Thanksgiving!

Almost forgot, two days ago I bumped into the biggest dog I've ever seen. It was a Mastiff German Shepard mix and weighed maybe 200 pounds! It’s paws were larger than my palms! I know this because after letting it smell my hand and a few snarls, it lifted up it's paw to give me a hand shake. SO SCARY! This thing was the size and demeanor of a small black bear! Anna would have loved it!

Well it's been an exciting yet uneventful week over here, but our numbers are increasing slowly but surely! Well I just want you to know that I love and miss you and the family. Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Washburn