CHILE IS...QUITE A WILD RIDE... BUT THE LORD TRUSTS US HIS SERVANTS
September 21, 2016
Wow,
So Chile is... quite a wild ride! I kinda don't know where to begin, but I think I'll start with the language. If you think you know Spanish pretty well and are looking for some humility, just visit Chile. The people here are basically speaking the Thick Scottish accent of the Spanish world. It's so crazy because they have TONS of slang and they speak like they're on a shock clock or something. One of the things they do also is drop S´s at the end of words. I haven't heard "mas o menos" in, like, 5 days. It's just "ma-o meno" and some people don't pronounce S´s at all! They also have this "Po" thing that's like a filler word for them. It means absolutely nothing but some say it every other sentence. "¡Ya po!" "Yo se po!" "ayudame po" Nevertheless, I'm improving a lot and like what one of the Elders in my house says, "It gets easier every day". My comp, Elder Sims, also says my Spanish is really really good for a greenie so that's nice. It just sucks still to not always know what's going on.
Our house is a bit dirty and sketchy but not too bad. It has no heating but lots of blankets so we dont have many problems, especially since summer is really starting now.
Saturday, we got this reference for this old guy named Alfonso. We went by to talk to him and he was very nice and quite interested. All of the sudden though, a guy came up to my comp and started talking to him. My comp then told me I had to talk to Alfonso solo! It was a super-scary task because older men are the hardest to understand because they often have no teeth and have a wicked accent. So I just conversed with Alfonso for a bit and then started introducing him to the Gospel. Eventually, I taught him the Plan of Salvation completely and he was loving it. I was using a pamphlet and he was asking me if he could borrow it to read before I was even done. So I finished up with Alfonso and committed him to read, pray, etc., which he was very excited to do and then my comp was done with the other dude about the same time. I told him about Alfonso and how it was pretty dang difficult and he then told me how his guy just came up to him and told him he couldn't decide between going to work or taking his life. My comp talked him down and shared a little message with and got his info to pass to other missionaries (he lives outside our area). The guy's wife left him and his two kids and he was just getting tired of life. By the end my comp got him smiling and he went off to work. It was a bold reminder about how important our work is here and how much the Lord trusts us as his servants.
On a less serious note, the food here has been pretty nice. We get fed every lunch except p-days and we don't do a lot for dinners since dinner is hardly a meal here. They just pack it in for lunch and have a snack late at night. Since we don't have tons of money we do things like have cereal with milk and then pour some basic instant oats in there. I've actually been eating surprisingly healthy for breakfast. The lunches however are at the mercy of the members which means a lot of bread, rice, or potatoes, and Coke. They love their Coke here.
But, yeah, the people here are not huge on health. They don't eat wonderful nor do they keep their living spaces clean. It's not like we live in a super ghetto area, people will just not better their living circumstances. It's usually what you see in the difference between the active and less-active.
But, yeah, the people here are not huge on health. They don't eat wonderful nor do they keep their living spaces clean. It's not like we live in a super ghetto area, people will just not better their living circumstances. It's usually what you see in the difference between the active and less-active.
The ward here is kinda small. Around 40ish members. This last Sunday, it was only 26 because of the 18th of September which is the Chilean Independence Day. If every member actually went to church every week we would have about 80-100 active members. But the thing is, they lack ánimo. 'Animo' is a specific Spanish word that kinda means 'excitement', but also will, like the will to actually go to church or read the scriptures. So we are constantly passing by less active member homes as well as doing contacts. The members are nice here but very few of them help with the work, like... none of them. So we never get referrals.
Today we bought a fardo which is a 40 kilo bag of ties. It's kinda crazy but sadly, it was actually a really ugly one and there weren't many good ties.
Let me know what else you'd like to hear about.
Love,
Elder Sierra
P.S. This is is a REALLY Cool letter! I read it a couple days ago and it's given me so much motivation for the work! It's a long read but totally worth it.
THE RICCARDI LETTER:
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