June 3, 2013

I'm sure there are challenges in every mission when it comes to the work. The main problem for the missionary work here in northern Chile is that the people are not very willing to make commitments to do things, even when they know it is probably what they should be doing.

I am glad to hear that your dandelion garden is flourishing this year - hopefully you are able to keep it up.

I think I am probably feeling the passage of time even faster than you because I don't live in days. I live in weeks, months and periods of six weeks (transfers/cambios). It is flying by. I don't know if you realized it, but I hit 19 months yesterday?

I really, really, really, really want more rain. It was so nice because everything was wet and it smelled fantastic. It was actually cold and I had to bundle up. I loved it!

I saw the pictures of the bathroom renovations and it looks really good. All the pictures were sideways, but from what I saw it was pretty impressive. I think when I get home we might have to change up the computer room a little bit. It will probably be a good idea to sort it anyway.

You do need to stay up on your visiting teaching there - it's so important! You too dad, well...home teaching. 

I know Kensey of course, and assume Alex is her husband). It seems strange that they've had a baby. I have not been away long enough for people my age to already have kids............at least that's how it feels.

I love you guys,

Jord

Hello Maxine,

I have been away from home for a while now without writing you, but I wanted to tell you that I am doing good. I have met a lot of really nice people here who have been very good to me. I am loving serving a mission and sharing the gospel with the people here in Chile. I hope that you are having a good time with your work and I will see you in not too too long.

Love Jord

Summary of audio...

I'm doing this recording on the way to the Cyber - you may hear lots of wind and sound effects. We just got back from playing soccer with the zone at the Stake Centre. We also had a BBQ with "salchicha en pan", which is basically sausage on bread. It's not as intereting as it might sound, but it was fun. We basically just hung out... fun stuff.

We had a really good week. We had lots of lessons and found a lot of new people to teach. We actually did an inter-cambio, where we switch off with another companionship. Elder Steiner and Lopez worked in our sector and I worked with Elder Galvant in their sector. Elder Steiner and Elder Lopez found an investigator and they came to church this week. It was a girl and her mom. Her mother is living with a guy and they aren't married so she can't get baptized, but she came with her daughter which was great, and her daughter could get baptized - that would be great for the primary!

We're having really good success finding people, but just need to get them out to church more. We're working really hard so I don't feel that bad. we'll just keep trying.

There lots of dogs here - every second house has a barking dog. (This is true - their are always dogs barking in the background of the audio and often in pictures if they're on the street.) There are also 2 dogs that always follow us. At first it was kind of cool, but now it's getting kind of annoying. We're now trying to get away from them so they don't follow us, but they're pretty persistent.

We were teaching one family but they haven't been to church in about 4 weeks and they aren't being very upfront with us. It looks like we won't put too much attention on them and may stop passing by, but we're not sure yet. It's frustrating when they're not truthful.

Dad will get this, I don't know about mom... we came across a less active girl and shared a lesson with her and she kept making a high pitched squealing noise when she laughed. It sounded like R2D2 in Star Wars when they were in the X wing and he got hit and made a really loud squealing sound. Someone would make a joke and she would make this noise and start laughing... it was hilarious.

We had our weekly episode on the street with a couple of drunk guys. They were talking to us, kind of random stuff - a bit about Joseph Smith, trying to confess their sins and then they were trying to say my last name. That didn't go so well. We distracted them and were able to leave. We looked back when we were a couple blocks away and one of the guys was on the corner playing air guitar. It was pretty funny.

I don't have much more to say because our weeks are pretty similar. We did teach one lady this week who was really smart, or at least everything just seemed to make sense to her. As much as the gospel is generally simple, that's not very common. People just don't seem to put it all together. It was really refreshing! She knew quite abit about the Bible. It seems many people say they believe in the Bible, but they don't necessarily read or study it. I'm actually reading the Bible currently - I'm in Daniel. Some of the stuff is kind of weird and some of it is really cool. Near the end of Ezekiel it talks about what's going to happen before the 2nd coming. It's cool stuff - you should give it a peruse.

That's about it for the week. I'll talk to you later. Caio!