Monday, February 3, 2014

Week 22 - My first progressing investigator!


January 27, 2014


Hey Guys!

Well it's been a long week, but I made it! A lot happened and I've had a few crazy days but I'm here again a week older and a bit better than I was last.

Monday was a bit nuts. We left the server with maybe an hour and a half of P-day left and we still hadn't bought food yet. So, I was a bit shocked to get dragged into another wild goose chase for lapiz lazuli... luckily this one only took 20 minutes. We hauled to Lider and took a collectivo back to the house, made it home at 5:45 and didn't have time to eat anything. We got ready and headed out to proselyte. It was raining and none of our investigators were around so we knocked on doors. We bumped into an aspiring dentist and Elder W__asked him a ton of questions about his teeth. He let us in. Reminded me about Uncle Bengt's joke about how any topic is better to get in the door than religion. I might just try his "could you take a look at my rash?"  Well we got some delicious cake out of it which I thought was funny being in a dentist's house and better yet a lesson. We came home and made nachos and tried out the Pancho Villa "picante" Salsa Mexicana. It’s the tamest salsa I've ever had but hey, it was made in Chile where casi nadie likes spicy food! Oh, last weeks dinner was grilled cheese with carmelized red onions in it! Don't knock it till you try it 'cause it tasted like I was eating mom's french onion soup!

Tuesday no rain, we had a district meeting and gave brother D a blessing. He's an inactive member who's a carabinero. A week ago a drunk elbowed him and broke a rib. We had a short lesson on fe as well and a little Book of Mormon reading. Wednesday it rained all day and I found out how waterproof your coat is after 8 hours in the rain. We took a bus out to Relun and ended up teaching Carlos. Afterwards we caught the last bus out and went to a noche de hogar we planned with Barbara.  She wasn't there but we still read the Book of Mormon and had once with the Lopez's. Thursday it stopped raining! I got your package and we wasted an hour at the PDI trying to get my visa but the extranjero person wasn't there. Friday we went to the PDI again in the morning and she was there so in about an hour she stamped my visa.  Also we were waiting in line and bumped into a nice family from Arizona. It was so weird to say “hola” and get a “hi” back! They were very familiar with the church and wanted absolutely nothing to do with it but they were still really nice.

Saturday was INSANE! I had my regular morning schedule except that I thought I was going to have an intercambio with the elders of Volcan while Elder W had a meeting in Osorno. WRONG! I get a call telling me that I'm going to be helping with a sobre cambio to Valdivia which in reality meant I would be sitting on a bus for 6 hours. But before that we were going to help Elder Biggs become an auxiliary clerk in the Anchual branch. He needed some more information and so Sister Biggs checked her email for it and she found Mom's letter on top.  I was prepared for it, but it was still a bit shocking to find out that your grandmother had died from someone else's email. After that I picked up Elder Linares from the bus station and we took a bus to Valdivia.  He is a really cool guy who served two years in the military starting at 16 and likes to hunt crocodiles in the jungle during his spare time. I was sitting next to a psychologist during the bus so it was fun to review a little AP psych. Got to Valdivia and met the guy I was supposed to pick up Elder Santisteban, turns out he's one of my friends from the airplane to Puerto Montt.  I flew in with Elder Rivera and him. We had a lot of laughs and it was a good trip home. We got home at about 6:45 and ate lunch. Elder W and Elder W came by at about 7:30 to pick him up and take him to Pucón.

We then left on the last bus OUT to Relun for a hail mary attempt to get Carlos to church.  Turns out that Hermano Puentes had already told him that he would pick him up at 9:30 Sunday morning! We taught a short lesson and were lucky to find out that because of a nearby fair the buses were going till 12 a.m. and so we caught another bus out and got home at 10:00p.m.  

Sunday was great!  We had Carlos come to church, which means HE’S MY FIRST PROGRESSING INVESTIGATOR WOOOOO! After that we blessed a sister at her home with Hermano Puentes and then had lunch at his house. By far the biggest asado I've been to yet.  There had to be at least 20 kilos of pork, chorizo, and beef! So good! We then came home, got out of our suits, and started proselyting.  We taught Jonathan and he accepted a fecha baptismal which was pretty great! After that we went out looking for an antiguo investigator and ended up finding the mother at her house. I noticed that an odd looking stick was attached to her fence and I soon realized it wasn't a stick but a bug! Man! I had just picked it up when Elder Wise started screaming. The bug freaked out as much as he did and started flipping all of its legs around! I set it in a tree and everybody was ok. Still nuts how much it… well, looked like a stick! Came home after that and ate some nachos. Hey that’s my week in a short novel, I hope you guys have a great week!

Elder Washburn 



Walking Stick bug!




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