Elder Newkirk Chile Antofagasta LDS Mission Blog: week #38 - Marriage of Williams and Jimena, 2 baptisms, and Chile's independance day celebration!

Man this week was pretty crazy. Conference in Copiapo, Wedding, Baptism, Parties for the 18th. Everything went really well this week!

Wednesday night we traveled to Copiapo. Got there at like midnight and Elder Fernandez and I stayed with 2 other missionaries down there. We stayed with Elders Acoasta and Pezo. They are both from Peru. So it was 3 peruanos and a gringo haha. But it was fun! Then on Thursday we had the conference with Elder Bragg from the 70. The conference went alright, mainly they were just talking about a few things that we need to do better as missionaries and how we should follow the rules and stuff like that. Also in the conference I got to see all my comps that I had in the mission(which are only 3.....). Also I got to see Elder Gali again and also Elder Wild from my group! It was good to see and talk with all of them again.

Then on Friday, Williams and Jimena got married!! I had my first marriage in the mission! We were pretty much making sure that everything was good for the wedding all day and also had seminary. But the marriage went really well, it was actually really cool. They did a really good job with the decorating and stuff. Also there was a lot of food, so it was good!

I think Saturday was the most crazy day of them all. We had the baptism at 10 am. So we had to be in the church at like 7 am to start filling the baptism font and do the baptism program. The baptism went really well. Elder Fernandez baptized Williams and I baptized Ismael(the little kid). A lot of people were laughing because I was a lot bigger then Ismael. But at least it wasn´t a big fat guy that I had to baptize.

After the baptism we had the activity for the 18th. Usually what they do for the 18th is a lot of bbqs, dances, and games. They have a national dance which is the cueca, which is actually a pretty cool dance that they do. So that´s pretty much what we did for the activity. Food, la cueca, games like tug of war, sack races, and stuff like that. It was a lot of fun!

(here's a video of the cueca dance from youtube for those interested - Cueca dance from Chile )

Then on the actual day 18th(Sunday) we just had normal church. I confirmed Williams(which is the first person I´ve ever confirmed). Went really well, sometimes I feel a little nervous to give blessings but they are actually really easy. Then for the rest of the day pretty much all the streets were dead. Everyone went traveling or were just in their houses doing their own parties and stuff. I thought it would be a lot more crazy yesterday but it was absolutely dead. I would imagine in other big cities that it is a lot more crazy. Tal-Tal is just super chill. Also I got sick yesterday which kinda sucks. I think it´s just my body calling out for a little break from everything that happened this week haha. But I´m feeling better today.

Elder Jaramillo is really cool. We have been getting along really well. He´s a really nice dude. He´s is from here, Chile. He is from Santiago but is now living in Concepcion.

Yeah, everything is going well with Elder Fernandez. Like you said it usually just takes a little bit of adjustments with every new comp that you get. But we´ve been together for quite a while now so we´re good.

Here in Chile there are actually a lot of people that play ping-pong. Like there is a convert who is now the young men´s president, Edwin, who is super good at ping pong. He trashes everyone he plays. I don´t know how he does it but he is really good. Also his kids are pretty good as well. But other than him and a few others I can usually win. But yeah the churches around the world are all pretty different depending on the culture. Like here in Chile a majority of the churches have ping pong tables and also cement soccer fields. And I´m guessing that in different parts of the world it is different as well.

Yerack is still doing good. I mean he´s only been a member for about 2 weeks now. But yesterday he brought he girlfriend to church and also to the activity. He´s doing really well so far! It´s good because he has family in the church which makes it a lot better.

We have a few investigators still. But we have been baptizing a majority of them so we are starting to dwindle down a little. We have a another couple that we are working with as well to get married and then baptized. He is already a member and his mom is still an active member in Santiago and his girlfriend(wife) has a lot of experience in the church. Just need to get married and need support to do so. Also we have the little brother and sister of Yerack who still need to be baptized. And there is a young women here, Christina, who is bring one of her friends to church who we have started to teach. She is really cool and really likes the church. Other than that there isn´t a whole ton. We have to get out there and find some new people to teach.

I´m pretty sure that do Primary Programs here but it isn´t as big as it is in the states. But I´m pretty sure that they do, do them.

Well that was my week pretty much. I´ll be sending a lot of photos this week! Love you guys a lot!!!!

Love

Elder Newkirk

This is one of the games that they had at the activity! You had to put a egg on a spoon and walk with it in your mouth until a certain point. Then had to eat a really spicy salsa and then had to find a coin in a bowl of flour without using your hands and put the coin in your mouth and run to the finish. I raced against Elder Jaramillo. It was really funny he was ahead of me and as you can see in the second to last picture he is running to the finish and started to slow down but I caught up and beat him last second because he slowed down. It was pretty funny but a lot of fun!