February 24, 2014
Hey guys,
How are ya doing? It's
been a weird week, but I made it! Let's see what happened…. Wednesday, we
stacked several tons of wood; Thursday we met a missionary from Brazil (not
sure from which church) that was heading up to Villarrica and bumped into Freddy,
one of our investigators who is about 80 years old and was in his underwear;
Friday, I found a spider living in my garments and we knocked a richer arian...
I mean Chilean suburb; Saturday we taught another family in their underwear and
Sunday I found out I have a doppelgänger in Mendoza, Argentina! Like I said it
was a strange week.
Wednesday was awesome! Woke up and visited the familia Cortes.
We found out that they were doing the laundry for the week. We then asked
Hermano Cortes about wood. We had heard that he had recently bought some and we
wanted to find out where he got it and how much. He asked if we were looking
and we said yes. He said stop. He told us to come by and take as much ulmo (the
most expensive and best kind down here) as we needed and when we ran out to
take some more. We told him that we couldn't except this offer along with the
other which we already act on (taking all the fruit, eggs, and vegetables we
can eat from his fruiteria) He simply told us that when he covenanted to live
the law of consecration he meant it and to tell the President to talk to him if
he had any problems with the offer. We then left and fixed a few citas with
some investigators and came back home for lunch. We left for the Chandias house
where we then stacked a warehouse of 78 barras. ( 3 barras = a cubic meter of
wood) if that gives you an idea to the size of this). We then taught them
the restauración, With them being extremely evangelico this was a miracle on
its own. We then taught a menos activo family the Retamals. They're doing
great!
Thursday, We took a collectivo to the mirador and knocked. We set
up citas with investigators and talked to a few menos activos. It's there that we bumped into the Brazilian missionary.
She had spent some time in the states so her English was better than her Spanish.
So that was fun. It's a little weird for me to talk about the gospel in English
now though. She then told us that she was heading up to Villarrica the next day
with a couple other missionaries to preach. I told her about it and how slow
the work was, at least for mormon missionaries and she told me by the sound of
it that she would love it. We then went down to teach Freddy and found him in
his underwear! he said he was a little busy
and I really couldn't seriously teach the gospel while I'm laughing my head off
so that was ok…..
Friday, I woke up and started the daily battle with the
califont. After about 15 minutes of tinkering it started up so I grabbed some
garments and when I put them down I just about died as I watched a huge spider
crawl out of them. So, me and Elder Abarca torched the annoying, not so little
bugger with a bit of alcohol and I took my shower, but when I came out it was
still kicking! So I stepped on it and went outside to grab my razor and came
back to find it still moving so I finally picked it up with some comfor or T.P.
and crushed the thing with way more force than it should have taken. We then
headed out and tracted for a little bit, came back had lunch and then headed
out to the really rich part of our sector. We had a few ok contacts but for the
most part people were just as rude as normal and we got a lot of nos via
intercoms. After that we went to a small subdivision it was kind of funny just
about everyone was white and all of the children were blond with blue eyes… a
rich german neighborhood. We taught Freddy afterwards (he was wearing pants)
and then came home. Freddy is a good investigator but he has the same problem
understanding the apostasy that a lot of Catholics seem to have. But a large part of that is that they don't
know the history of the Catholic church, when it started and how it was run
after it was going.
Saturday started off normal. We tracted a bit up in the mirador
after lunch and then had a lesson with Monica and our first counselor. When we picked him up his wife said I looked
like her son. We got to Monica’s and she dropped us, so that was kind of a
bummer. But, the missionaries have been teaching her for over a year and she has
only been to church 4 times and because it was my first time meeting her I just
didn't feel that bad. We knocked a little up there made some good contacts, a hilarious
guy who was drunk but told us he was an ex-mormon and he will never drink
coffee... We then went down and walked to Luis’ house, a menos activo. We
knocked and surprise! Luis's daughter came out pulling a Freddy... ya a bit
awkward! Reminded me a bit of Uncle Bengt’s old missionary stories. She went upstairs
to grab her dad (and we had hoped some pants). We were partially disappointed
when she came back but at least she brought her dad. We then read some chapters
in the book of Mormon all the while hoping and praying that Luis would tell his
teenage daughter to put some pants on. We were once again disappointed... We
left a little red faced and headed for Joel Chandia's house and taught him with
his wife. She gave us the usual
envangelico garbage that Lucifer can appear as an angel of light and the threat
at the end of Revelation "whoever shall add or take away from this
prophecy the sames name shall be taken from the book of life.” I asked her if
she believed that the compilers and translators of the Bible had their names
stripped, she didn't know what to think about that. Like most of the evangelicos
I know she didn't even kinda understands where the bible came from, so we
explained that and then tried to teach her husband who is extremely receptive
while she was confused and not attacking us. By the time she got going again it
was close to 9:55 so we asked her to leave us with a prayer in which she asked
God to bless us for sharing His word. She turned out to be one of those nice
evangelicos and not the mean ones who tell us that were stealing souls away
from the general public.
Sunday was crazy! I introduced myself to the ward and it was
kind of weird though, it felt like everyone was looking at me funny. They all just looked really confused at why I
was there. All of church was like that. Well
we left with the Gonzalez family for lunch and she told me when we picked up
her husband before that I looked exactly like her son. Well her son was in the car with us and
looking at him, he looks nothing like me! But, as we were at the table eating she keeps
telling me that I look exactly like her son and that the whole ward agreed when
I was up on the stand. I guess that explains the weird looks. Well I apparently
look like her other son who is on his mission in Argentina Mendoza. Well they
finally show me a picture and I can tell you right now that looking at him
freaked me out! He looks more than a little like me so I can now say that I
look like at least one Chilean. Monica also told some of the members in the
mirador that she wants a noche de hogar so we are getting a second chance! We
then had a noche de hogar with familia Retamal, the mamita’s family and her
inactive son and came home! Long day!
Well guys that was my week I hope yours was as good as mine. Have
a great week to come!
Elder
Washburn
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