This is a really interesting experience being here in a new place again. I am not really that surprised that I cried when I left Tocopilla because I am usually pretty emotional in things like that. The difference between leaving there and leaving home is that there is a good chance I may never see some of those people ever again. I should be able to talk with some of them again, but I may never meet them again.
I wouldn't say that I wasn't expecting the transfer, I just really wasn't all that worried about it. I am pretty much just going with the flow of all the changes and differences now. So far every change has been doable and I have not yet felt really overwhelmed. I am hoping that I can start understanding people better - it is really annoying hearing every word perfectly, understanding every word, and still not know what they are saying because the grammar doesn´t make sense. However, Elder Valle doesn't really speak much English so we will talk in Spanish most of the time.
east-Huamachuco
west- Heroes de la Concepcion
north- Juan Orione
south-Nicolas Tirado
There's a couple differences between Elder Revi and Elder Valle I've noticed so far. Elder Revi was almost fluent in English and Elder Valle isn't - that's OK. Elder Valle is really, really obedient in the morning and with the schedule so that is good for me. I will definitely learn a whole new set of things from Elder Valle.
Tell Spencer (reporting in April to the MTC and then to the Sophia Bulgaria mission) to speak his language even if he feels like an idiot doing it (like me). I didn't as much as I should have, and I wish I had.
Antofagasta supposedly has the best weather in the mission, so that is nice. There have been some days where the people here were really cold... so perfect shorts and T-shirt weather.
Here is my view on Conference. Before my mission, conference was something I watched on Sunday to get it out of the way so that I could do something else. I now view it as the missionary Super Bowl. It was really awesome. We are forced (light usage) to watch all 4 sessions and the priesthood session and I took like 13 pages of notes - stuff that was said and stuff that came to mind while watching it. I wish Conference was a week long so that I could just keep going. There was a room for us Gringos to watch in English. We just disfrutando (enjoyed) our little room with a big table and comfy chairs. It was probably a highlight of my mission so far. One unfortunate thing was that we thought they were going to announce the building of a Chile Antofagasta temple, but they didn't announce any temples.
I don't really need anymore pins or CTR rings because I am pretty lame at handing them out. I am also really lame at taking pictures so I don't have any new ones for you. Sorry.
Love
Jord
