Hello from Chile!

This week is a special week for the country here. The 18th is their version of the 4th of July- the independence day of Chile. So, our mission president (the man in charge of the Chile Santiago North Mission) actually asked us to stay with members or in the house that day, because of the large amounts of rioting and drunks. Most of the people here are normal with their partying, having BBQs and whatnot, but a few bad apples in the bunch kind of ruin the experience for the rest. I plan on spending the day eating a lot and getting to know the new ward I have.

Speaking of that, this last week I got changed to my third area. It's in this tiny town in the middle of the montains called Catemu, the nearest town of bigger size being LLay-LLay (pronounced yai-yai) and San Felipe. It's a cute, picturesque group of homes that is now my favorite place in the world. It reminds me of rural Oregon and Idaho a lot, actually. The people here are nicer than in Santiago, there isn't a lot to do here, so people have the chance to listen to us a little bit more.

More than that, we are the first missionaries to be in the area in around 2 months. The mission president took them out for a time, and we have been put in to replace them. It's been a fun adventure, getting to know the whole area by ourselves, withoutt a comp who already knows the area.

But trust me, if there was a guide it would come in handy, at least to find out where people live here.

Not joke, one of the references in the area we had to find was the following "Lives in the Heroes neighborhood, on the only dirt street, in the house with the little birds and black puppy out front. Don't worry, they are always out front so you'll be able to find the house."

Half of the houses don't have numbers, half of the streets don't either. I think it's the closest I'll get to living in a medieval village. To be 100% honest, it's a lot of fun, and when you find the houses it feels like a bigger acomplishment.

The dopest thing is that the cities here have city shields, just like European cities. It's just cool to have a city coat of arms like that.

Also, eveen in this rural corner of Chile, there are still lots of haitians. I'm happy to report that things never change here.

This first week I also got to meet my first Chilean equivalent of a cowboy/farmer, called a Huaso (pronounced wasso). He has a horse and some cows, and the coolest hat ever. I have a photo of him and his cows if you want. He is a very happy man, who would love to have a haitian girlfriend (he told me that 3-4 times). I hope he gets one.

Oh! I also have a new companion. Welcome to Elder Rodriguez, from Nicaragua. He's a baseball fanatic, and is learning English to work in the tourism industry when he finishes the mission. He has around 5 months, so I am the older missionary of the 2, but he is also 22 years old. He was going to play baseball professionally in his home country, but chose to serve a mission instead. He likes to eat a lot, and is and overall dope dude.

We've been working really hard in this new area, and we've already found quie a few people to teach, but most of them will have to wait until after the week of the 18th, because lots are traveling out of town for the weekend. This week is basically a relaxation week (but not because I want it to, everyone is just making it a break week).

I do love my new area a lot. We also have the chance of basically starting from the ground up here, because there are only 3-5 active members in this town of about 5000. The church building is in Llay-llay, a 20 minute bus drive away. So my goal has been that in the next 4 and 1/2 months, there are enough active members here that we don't need to go to Llay-llay for church meetings, since the travel does limit the number of members here. It's basically because Catemu is a very poor town, and paying bus fares every Sunday (amounting to about 2 dollars every week) is an actual difficulty to the people here. It's kind of sad, because people here just have enough to live and work, and not much else. They just kind of make do with what they have. It's respectable.

I'm disappointed in myself this week. It has nothing to do with missionary work, but with a shirt I have. I bought a cheap ripoff Chile Soccer Team shirt for around 15-20 bucks, so not the cheapest thing in the world, but then again a real shirt runs you around 60-70. But anyways, I brought it home, happy with it all for about 3 to 4 weeks, then one of the patches fell off. My comp told me to put it back on with superglue. When I did, there was a drop of the glue that landed in a central part of the shirt and caused a stain, that I don't think will be able to be removed. I've washed it like twice since then. I'm just mad with myself to ruin te 20 shirt. But whatever. Knowing me, I'll buy a ton of shirts to take home and whatnot, so I don't worry too much. And it's not like the shirt is unusable, it's just a PJ shirt now.

Aside from that, I can't think of anything else to write for right now, but I plan on sending a couple of photos as well. Be safe everyone!

Elder MacGregor