week #27 - Blessings and illnesses in Taltal - - Enjoying Taltal

Hey, como les ha ido? ojala que todo bien! Parece que están teniendo un buen tiempo ahí en Denver por el 4 de Julio!  

Bueno! Here in TalTal everythings been pretty great! I´m really enjoying the sector here with all the investigators and members. It´s funny how it works in the mission. With every companion you work a little differently. With Elder Fernandez we don´t do too many different contacts. We work more with the members and with the investigators than we do with contacting people. In my other sector it was a lot harder than this sector. And from what I´ve heard from Elder Alcantara, who is still in Gabirela Mistral, said that they are planning to close the ward and join with the other ward. So a lot of the time we were doing a lot more contacts in Antofa then we do here, but I actually like it a ton more the work that we are doing here!

With the new mission president, President Ferreira, we haven´t been able to meet him yet. Here in TalTal we have to travel to Copiapa, like 4-5 hours away, on July 18th to have interviews with the new president and to meet him and everything. So that week my P-day will probably be July 19th, Tuesday. So when I don´t write to you guys on July 18th is because I´m traveling and stuff. From what I know and heard he sounds like he will be a great mission president!

Yeah I heard from mom about everything that you guys have been doing with pictures and videos and everything. But sounds like you guys are having a great time! I wish I was there with you guys today for the 4th of July! We probably won´t be doing anything too exciting here in taltal. A normal pday here consists of buying things for the week, writing home, lunch, playing ping pong, and that´s about it. There isn´t a ton here to do in Taltal. But I´m hoping that soon we´ll try to do some other things like a hike or something. Also today we are traveling to Chañeral for our zone conference tomorrow which should be fun.

Yeah so far with Elder Fernandez we have been working really well together. And in the branch it is pretty much just an automatic assignment, it´s not really a calling it is just an assignment. We aren´t set apart or anything. Since it is a branch people can get assignments and stuff and it´s not a "calling". But I´m just practically the second councelor in Elders quorum. We are also the seminary teachers here for all the youth. Also we teach the gospel principles class every Sunday for all the investigators, new converts, and people starting to return to be active again. Also we are missionaries, so there is a lot of responsibility here but it is a lot of fun and I have been learning a lot with it!

Also something really cool about the branch is that they give pretty high calling to the recent converts who are ready to take the calling. For example our mission leader got baptized like 3-4 months ago and he is already the mission leader. But he is super awesome and works with us all the time when he isn´t working his normal job. Also the Young Men´s president is super awesome and also a recent convert who got baptised with all of his family a few months ago as well. But I´m loving the branch here and all the members.

About preparing food, we don´t have to prepare food for lunch. But if we want breakfast or dinner or something we have to prepare food. Usually what I do is just cereal in the morning then like a sandwich or something with ecco in the nights because the big meal here in lunch. The only day that we have to worry about lunch is saturdays. Usually on weekends the members feed us lunch but here in the branch we only eat with members sundays. So on saturdays we usually have fast food or cook with the other 2 missionaries just depending on what we want and how much money we have haha.

Yeah the church building here in pretty small and there is only one here in Taltal. And yes all the churches are gated like that for safety purposes. But like everything here in Chile everything is practically gated. I wouldn´t think that anyone would violate or steal or anything but you never know here. Yeah Taltal is super cool. We live really close to the plaza and the plaza is super awesome with a lot of trees and plants and stuff. 

This week has been pretty cold here in Taltal. I actually have been using my jacket a couple times this week, Thanks Grandma!!! But yeah it has been cloudy practically all week with sprinkles here and there. There were people saying that it was suppose to rain again. But today is sunny and nice out so I think that we are past the weird weather here. 

This weekend we actually had the ability to give some more blessings of health. There has been another sickness going around town that my comp has as well. I haven´t gotten sick yet so that´s good. I´m thinking that it might be the same sickness that I got in Antofa like a month or so ago. But one of the blessings was with a nonmember old man who has cancer. He is the father-in-law of a member. The spouse of the member as well isn´t a member and the father(who we gave a blessing to) is super catholic and his wife is super evangelic. So it was pretty crazy and cool that they actually accepted and asked for a blessing. The sister, who is the daughter-in-law, is a member and her husband is investigating the church so that´s how we got invited in to give a blessing. I feel like I completely butchered how we got in and the connections with everyone but yeah... But almost everyone in the family was in the same small little room where we gave the blessing. It was a little nerve wracking with everyone there but we did it. I think it was one of the most spiritual moments that I´ve felt and one of the best blessings of health that I have heard that my comp gave. Before the blessing I explained a little bit about the preisthood and how the blessing worked. But when the blessing was over, there were a lot of people crying and the spirit was super strong. I don´t know I can´t really explain it. But it was definitely an amazing experience. I honestly felt like I butchered the story a little with my terrible english... but hey you guys can fix it up for me and I hope you understand haha.

But yeah everythings going great!

Hope you guys have a great 4th of July and a great week!!! Love you guys!!!

Love

Elder Newkirk

This is like one of the most upper coners of my sector. The sector is pretty big and there is a lot of walking up and down. Our sector is the ocean until the mountain.

Me by a sign that says "Welcome to Taltal".

My comp, Elder Fernandez.