Saturday, September 21, 2013

September 16, 2013

The mission president doesn't leave the mission that much, but it is not really uncommon either. He is going for the mission president's seminar in Argentina next month. It is for all of the South America South area.

The weather here has actually been kind of weird these last two or so weeks. It started getting really hot all day and then randomly this week the temperature dropped. I have actually been using a jacket because it has been a bit cold, plus our sector is kind of high and there is lots of wind.

I will be going to Daniel's baptism and because it is the Chilean Independence Day we will also being going to the barbecue right after.

Love
Jord

Audio summary...
Some interesting stuff happened this week. I told you we had our transfers and I got to stay in the same pension, but my sector has changed. We also did some cleaning in the other pension which is in the higher, hilly part of Copiapo and we need to bring the stuff down, but there's some big stuff so we'll need someone to help us with that.

One funny though... we were going up to the Pension and Elder Gillespie said we should bring a couple of the chairs down - we have chairs here, but they're not very comfortable for sitting in and studying for a long time. So, we went up there, worked for awhile and then we brought the chairs back. Background... during the last 2 transfers, Elder Gillespie and I have made the effort not to cross the street on red lights. It's really common here, everybody does it, but we're trying to get out of the habit before we get home because it's not accepted there for the most part. I've been the same thing with Elder Rodas. Anyway... we were carrying the chairs back and stopped at a red light, but it was really long so we unfolded our chairs chairs and sat down and kept talking, then when the light turned green, we folded up our chairs, picked them up and kept walking. There was a guy that had pulled up beside us and watched this little scenario and just had a bit of a laughing attack. It was so funny! I really wanted to do it again.

The other day Elder Rodas and I were working in our sector, teaching this guy. At the end of the end of the lesson I asked him for his number and he said sure. He also took our number and he was looking at my name tag to see how to spell "McCaskill", then he turned to Elder Rodas and said "Hey, you forgot your name tag!" I looked down at Rodas and started laughing, because he'd forgotten his name tag and we weren't going back to the Pension until the end of the day because it's too far. He had to walk around all day without his name tag until I put on my jacket, then he wore Elder McCaskill for the rest of the evening. It was kind of funny.

I made a goal this week to try and drink 2 litres of water everyday and I did pretty good. If I don't think about, I drink very little which probably isn't good. I'm getting a little better.

We had a few more rule changes. One was that we're not supposed to have P Day activities with more than 6 or 8 missionaries, but I'm so close now it won't affect me much.

I think I told you before what a churrasco is. It's like a hamburger, but with thin sliced meat - kind of like an Arby's burger. Then they usually put mayo, tomato and avacado and you can add condiments like ketchup, hot sauce, etc. We've been going to this one place pretty much every week to get Churrascos - this guy makes them really good. I'm surprised more people don't eat there. We went there one day this week and he said you guys have been such good customers I'll give you a free litre of pop for the 4 of you. That was cool. We don't know his name, but he's a really good guy - we like him. He asked us to tell people about his place - I think he's a bit low on business, so hopefully that improves because it's really good and he's a good guy!

I bought these things called trompos. They're like an old fashion top -  wooden and shaped like a pear with a nail in the bottom. You wind a cord around it and throw and they spin. There is a game, but I don't know how it works, but I bought 4 of them and I'll bring them home. They're cool. 

This week we had 2 conferences. One was a small mission conference with President Dalton and the other was the Stake Conference here in Copiapo. The conference with President Dalton was really good. He talked about a number of goals for the mission and outlined his focus. President Bruce wanted to baptize, and so does President Dalton, but he wants to increase the quality and really focus on retention. He highlighted 4 big goals which were really good:  1. Double attendance in sacrament meeting 2. Baptize 2 times as many people in our mission per month 3. Double the number of people with temple recommends 4. He wants to work toward getting a temple in Antofagasta. This mission had some input on what the goals should be and that's how it turned out. I actually really think he's got some points. We haven't been able to really capitalize yet in our sector, but we're going to really work on that this week.

President Dalton also spoke in the Stake Conference, as well as the Stake President and other speakers from Young Women's and the High Priest group. It was a little odd, at the end of the conference, the choir started singing a number after the prayer. I think it was supposed to be like prelude music but afterwards, but people didn't know whether sit or leave, talk or be quiet. 

Because we didn't have any contacts from the previous missionaries, we've just been trying to find people. We've been teaching one guy Ronald, whose 16 years old. His mom is a less active member and his dad's not a member. We're trying to see if we can baptize him and his dad. Ronald is pretty funny, but has a very odd sense of humor. A good guy, but a bit strange. We really need to find people to teach, even more than in the other sector.

I'll talk to you later,
Caio!



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