Monday, August 1, 2016

week #31 -- Lots of changes - moving in with Zone leaders - many baptisms this transfer!

Hey how`s it going? 

This week was pretty great. I had a lot of fun this week. We actually didn`t do too much but it was a fun week. First we had intercambios with the zone leaders on Tuesday and Wednesday. I was with Elder Abalos during the intercambio. He is pretty awesome and is from Utah. But something a little crazy happened to us while we were down there. So when we first got there we were walking to their house from TurBus and the owner of their house stopped us to talk. He was saying that he got an email from the mission office about the contract of the house ending and was asking them if they knew anything about it. So after we called the mission office and asked what was happening. Well this week is the week of cambios and with the new president he is starting to change a lot of different things. So what happened is that he is taking out the zone leaders from Chañaral and going to put them here in TalTal. So the zone leaders are coming here today, Elder Abalos and Elder Phillips. And they are taking out the two elder`s that are here and replacing them with the zone leaders. So Elder Torrico and Elder Boyack are going to El Salvador like 4 hours away but in the same zone. These cambios have been pretty crazy and the new president is changing a lot of different things around. And today we will be moving into the house of the other sector here in TalTal for like 2 weeks until we get our new house where all 4 of us will be living. So yeah a lot happened with these cambios but I`m still here in TalTal with my comp Elder Fernandez for another 6 weeks.

Then on Thursday we were practically preparing for an activity that happened on Friday. We did a talent show as a branch and we were trying to prepare something to do for the talent show. At first we tried to put together a dance, we had a lot of different ideas for the dance but nothing really worked out and worked well together. Then we tried to think of something else like a song to sing or a sketch or something. But in the end we didn`t end up doing anything. We spent like all day Thursday preparing to try and do something and it didn`t work out haha. We had a lot of fun and laughed a lot while preparing but yeah it was really just a waste of time. But on Friday I was the only missionary that performed something for the talent show. I did the magic trick that I learned from Hailey, Thanks Hailey!, and everyone loved it. Afterwards all the youth were asking me how I did it and everything. 

Saturday we really didn`t do too much, we learned the transfers, then visted a few people in the day but other than that nothing really happened.

But yesterday was really good. Yesterday Camila came to church and said that she really liked it and felt good there. So I`m pretty sure that she`ll keep coming and be baptized in a few weeks! Then after church we went to eat with the Family Perez. President Perez is the president of the Elders quorum and was the branch president before for like 15 years. Their family is really cool and they are super rich. The lunch that they made for us was probably one of the best lunches that I`ve had in the mission. It reminded me a lot of the food from home. Then after that we visited the family Becerra, which is the family that I talked about last week and shared with them about sealing and temples which went really well. Then the best part of yesterday is that we had a family home evening with another part family that we are teaching. It is a couple with 3 little kids. They aren`t married yet but the "wife", Jimena, is a member and has been for a long time and her "husband", Willams, is an investigator. He has been attending for a while and met with missionaries a while ago but he is super awesome. They read the scriptures and pray everyday and are progressing a lot. But yesterday for the family home evening we talked with them about baptism and the holy ghost. They accepted a date to get married and to be baptized the next day. So on September 9th is the goal for their wedding and the 10th for the baptism. And Williams and his son, Ismael, will be baptized the same day. But it was really awesome and went really well. So let`s hope that they keep with this goal because this weekend is the last weekend of this transfer. 

I`m actually really excited for this transfer because if things go well we should have like 5 baptisms and we will also be living with 2 other missionaries this week which should be a lot of fun. 

So I actually was able to get my camera charged, Elder Phillips (the zone leader), has the same charger for my battery so I used his charger to charge my battery. But still haven`t found mine... I thought that I brought it here to TalTal but I have no clue where it is, hopefully while we are moving everything this week we`ll be able to find it.

When we will live with the other elders everything is the same. You just do personal study then you have study with your comp, not the 4 of us together. But yeah definitely will be a lot more fun than just a house of 2 missionaries. More people to hang out with and to talk to. 

Thanks for the money that you`ll be putting in my account for my birthday! I`ll probably try and take some out this week. I think that our mamita might do something like make a cake or something if I mention that my birthday is this week, but I should probably mention it... I don`t know, in the mission holidays or birthday`s don`t feel like anything special haha. They`re just normal days..

Yes a lot of people here travel around. Especially during breaks because there really isn`t anything to do here. Here is TalTal they don`t really have anything. Also it is super expensive here. It is one of the most expensive parts of the mission and they don`t have a lot of products here in taltal. A lot of people leave out of town to buy other things and things for cheaper or just leave the city to actually be able to do something and have some fun haha.

Yeah when I was writing last week we had that 6.2 earthquake here. But here in Chile the people are prepared for the earthquakes because they are pretty common. So nothing got destroyed and nothing really happened. Just a few things fell. Actually in Chañalral when the earthquake happened like a large dust cloud got shot into the air and like the whole city was just blocked with dust in the air. But that`s about all that happened with the earthquake.

Sounds awesome that you`ll be able to take gpa`s bike around legally this next week. Should be fun!

Yeah I was able to open the audio file, thanks for singing happy birthday to me! Hope you guys have a great week! Love you guys!

Love
Elder Newkirk

Hope this answers your question if we have to worry about Tsunami´s here. These signs are all over town in almost every street coner.


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