November 8, 2017
This week came with some unexpected events!
It started off pretty well. Last Wednesday, we had a great lesson with some younger sisters who were actually Adventist. One of them had gone to a chapel open house and so we had met her already. She liked it a lot and wanted to learn more! To be honest, my least favorite demographic to teach are people my age. It's weird, but I get more nervous because it's less common and the only people my age I know are usually missionaries. Anyway, we go to visit her and she and her younger sister are super receptive and invite us in. It was pretty late starting so we only had time to go over the Book of Mormon and answer some good questions about things like baptisms for the dead. They have an appointment for today again so that'll be neat.
The week came and went and we had a couple of neat conferences in the mission but nothing too hardcore. Then came transfers and I was 92% sure I was gonna chill another transfer in my sector but then it turned out I DID have transfers, but "without suitcases", which means that I'll be staying within the zone. So in our house, we don't live in our ward; we live in a neighboring ward and we live with the missionaries from that ward. It turns out, the missionaries in THAT ward both got sent out so I then went to one of the office missionaries and was like, "Hey, you should tell me if I need to pack my bags, because if I go to Nocedal (the ward we live in) I don't want to pack up for nothing." And he was like, "Oh yeah, you've got a point..." So he told me I got sent to the ward that I currently live in and have done about 3 splits in already, so I already know a few members there. I'd even conducted the interviews for the last two recent converts!
I call it a "diet whitewash" because a whitewash is usually two missionaries being thrown into an unknown area and hopelessly trying to find their way around and meet the members and investigators. My situation is way easier and much more comical.
My new comp is an Argentine named Elder Topalda and this is his last transfer! He's pretty fun and it seems we'll get along just fine. He also likes máte so what can go wrong?!
Although I knew where I was going, it was still kinda weird the first day. We actually tripped the alarm system in the chapel because they never mentioned they had one! We have two investigators that are going to get baptized on the 25th. One is more than ready and the other is very unready but we'll see how things go. The good thing is that one of the missionaries that left Nocedal (my new ward) is still in the zone so we're good.
Anyway, that was the week and it's been good, and very unexpected! Hope you all have a good one! Chao!
-Elder Sierra
P.S. My sister-in-law asked what kind of nice places we had to visit in the mission. I told her we had a hill. LOL That's about it! Here's a picture of the hill with a Chilean flag for Independence Day.
My new companion, Elder Topalda and me:
My new bike!
Members and a former companion at church. Then celebrating Chilean Independence with a 'horse'!
