Week 21 - ...it's finally starting to pay off!

January 20, 2014

Hey guys!

It’s been another week, the Spanish is improving, the speed of the work...not so much. A lot of interesting things have happened this week so I'll just start from where I left you guys. After I emailed you guys we walked around for about three hours looking for Lapiz Lazuli (blue Lapis stone) for Elder Wise's family. We then went to Lider (Walmart) and went home. Left the house at 6 to proselyte. We bumped into a cool inactive family, they were impressed by my Spanish and asked me if I was braziliaño.  I felt kinda bad because I'm pretty sure my Spanish was awful enough that they thought it was Portuguese! Well it's better than being a gringo! Came home and our neighbors asked us if they could keep their dog here for a week, We called for permission and so right now we have a dog! She’s an Akita and her name is Safi. Woke up the next day and got showered and made sure the dog had water and started studying an hour early like usual. (Because of this I've finished the bible in 7 weeks!) Left the house to do some service but ended up meeting the Elders of Volcan in Central to buy bus tickets for the Zone Conference in Lanco on Wednesday. So I walked around Central with hedge clippers feeling like I was in a sub par horror film for two hours! Went to the service project and cut her grass. Went home for lunch and left again at 3:00.  We didn't teach anyone, but we bumped into an investigator's dad, who complimented my Spanish, I'm starting to wonder if it's not a joke!

Next day the Biggs picked us up at nine to head to the Zone Conference, it was a fun trip as usual and we didn't have any close calls this time! Got to the conference a bit early and talked to my friends in the zone. Elder Moreno and Rivera are both great guys that I've known from my first day here. Unfortunately Hermana Latham must have been transferred out of our zone. Great conference!  We broke at 1:00 for lunch and so we went with the Biggs out to lunch to a place Elder Gubler recommended. I got an amazing sandwich called a Churrasco: steak with carmelized onions, lettuce, and palta(avacado). Sooooo good! It turned out to weigh over a pound, maybe a bit under a kilo and was the size of my head.  Was it delicious? Was I doubted? Did I pound that thing in under ten minutes? Yes, yes and yes! Finished the zone conference with another skype meeting with Elder Pulsipher (the first one was only for the district leaders of Pucon and Villarrica). It was fun. I said goodbye to everyone and then went to the bus stop to wait for a bus home. I also just got the letter from Grandma Layton and absolutely loved it!

Next day we had weekly planning so we didn't go out for the morning. After lunch we taught Carlos.  The first thing he wanted to do was confirm his baptismal date! If we can just get him to church he'll be golden! Walked around a lot after that with no luck so we came home. 

Friday we worked on the census for the morning, came back for lunch and went to English. English was great as usual. Claudia, one of the Volcan sisters’ investigators ended up coming.  She's an English professor so she just came to practice. After English we talked to Guillermo, he now sells fruit on the corner by the chapel. We taught them and practiced Spanish. Got another amazing compliment, he told me I had a Peruvian accent! (they are the best speakers and are the easiest to understand) I've really been practicing hard and it's finally starting to pay off!

Saturday we helped Elder Biggs update MLS and then went to English at 5. Guillermo and Claudia both showed up so we just had them talk a lot. Guillermo's got a lot of talent for a year of English! Had a lot of fun there! Not much happened after though.

Sunday was great. We left for the executive priesthood meeting and that was as normal pretty boring because we were the only ones there, at 9:20ish everyone was there though. Average meeting we had a lot of visitors but hardly any natives showed up! Olga got a call for primary and so I now consider her full-on active, so happy! After church we went to the Lopez's for lunch and had an amazing meal as usual, baked Sierra, the same fish we went after in Mexico with Grandpa Layton, remember? Walked 45 minutes to Carlos's house in the boonies but he wasn't home but we caught a bus back.

And that was my week.  Hope you guys have a great one! I love you so much!

Elder Washburn