Merry Christmas Everyone!!! People here are all doing
last minute shopping, so downtown has been packed all day today. I am
really excited to be able to Skype this Sunday with my family and see
and hear everyone. This will be my 3rd of the 4 calls I get!! It is
crazy to think that the only one left is Mother's Day .... and that's
it.
On another note, Inez and Nelson are
going to get married!!!! They are planing to get married the first week
of the new year. I couldn't be happier for them and their choice! They
do have almost 32 years together, but I guess its better late than
never!! That is all they are talking about now, is how silly they were
for waiting for such a long time.
If everything
goes well this week we should have a baptism this weekend for Christmas
Eve and then the confirmation for Christmas day. Something
that we did last week, all the missionaries in Copiapo went to a
hospital and sang Christmas carols to everyone there! It was a blast and
we got to just about every floor in the hospital. After we were all
done, it had been like 3 hours, and nobody could talk.
Also starting this week, every Tuesday
I am going to be teaching English classes at the church building! I'm
nervous because I have no idea where to start teaching but excited at the
same time to start practicing English more. By the time the class is
all over or I leave this sector, everyone that is in those classes will
probably end up with a southern accent...but only when they speak
English!
Yesterday
was the Christmas Conference for the southern part of our mission so
pretty much all day we were in talking with the Mission President and
his family. It was pretty much a normal conference for the most part but
we had a huge lunch and after there was a movie and ice cream! Then
after all that, we went out and played soccer with the President and his
family for part of our p day. So today we have a half day to go out and
write and to buy food and other stuff that missionaries need. At the
the conference yesterday got a package that was sent to Vallenar by
mistake. So I got a sweet package from Jud filled with all kinds of
candy and beef jerky and socks! Thanks SO much for that Jud!!!!!
My
companion finally got here late last Tuesday, His name is Elder
Castañeta and he is from Bogota, Columbia. Me and him are pretty big
jokers but we have been going at it like crazy this past week! We have
been sharing a lot about the current Christmas season. There is a video
in particular that we have been showing everyone that is from the church
and lasts about 3 mins called light the world. I have seen it about a
million times now but it is still a super neat video that everyone
should see!
Enzo,
who got baptized about a week ago, is doing super well too! He is
always learning or reading something new in the Book of Mormon and the
principles book, and he always asking the craziest questions that
usually I dont't know the answers to! We also have this other family
that I am hoping and praying that they can get married and baptized
before New Years. Not because anything will change after new years but
they have been together for 31 years and almost have grandchildren and
they still haven't gotten married. I think that's enough
procrastinating!!!!!
Elder Gali is going to Iquique. My new comp is going to be a Columbino that is coming from Arica, but he wont get here until 3 am
tomorrow! This last week, Enzo made the decision to get baptized while
his dad was in town. The service was amazing!! Elder Gali did the honors
because he was leaving, but it was still really exciting for everyone.
He even has been inviting the members to get more involved in la obra
misional. {missionary work}. On his way out, Sebastian gave Elder Gali a
watermelon and Elder Gali just about cried he was so happy!!! Today is a
bit crazy, like transfers usually are, because all day people are
leaving and arriving in the bus terminal.
Also
something new that has changed in the mission. it is the amount of
time that we have to write. Now we are limited to one hour, where as
before we could write all day if we wanted to. So what I am lacking in
letters and stories, I will have to make up in lots of photos and videos
to send back. Sorry this is short, but I'm sure that I will get better
at this new rule and manage time better or type faster, or something.
Elder Gali & Elder Brayton visit the beach in Caldera.
Everything that happened this week was amazing! This was
the week of Thanksgiving and everyone here knows what that is but no one
actually celebrates it. But Black Friday is the bandwagon that everyone has jumped on around here. They don`t even try to translate it, they just say black Friday
like normal. But back to the real stuff. This year for me and my comp
we didn`t spend Thanksgiving grubbing down like usual. In fact, the day
of we just had some soup for lunch and some chicken and rice. It was
very different from all of the previous years of celebrating
Thanksgiving for both Elder Gali and I. But the quantity of food that we
lacked that day was more than made up for with the lessons and the new
people that we met. Sebastian, for one, is doing a ton better
physically. He has some good color in his face and has more energy than
he has had in the past. I was able to learn a bit more about his
situation this week so that we could help him out a bit more. Basically
something happened in his life about 4 years ago, and that left him
really sad and eventually he got depressed. After some more time without
doing anything about it that, depression started to affect him mentally
and physically. More time passed and he lost a ton of weight and he
just kind of shut down to the world. He still has a couple of problems
from all weight that he lost but is overcoming that with much patience
and faith. I cant believe how much he has improved in just the last 2
weeks! He is walking around and getting back some meat on his bones, and
even better, has had less panic attacks from being out with many
people. Just goes to show how much can be done through ones faith and
the faith and actions of the family.
I
have got to at least mention about Enzo. I am not sure if I have
mentioned about him before but if I haven`t, I will introduce y'all.
First off he has the same name as Enzo Ferrari, how cool is that!
Second, he is a reference from our land lord here and they are family
friends. When Enzo mentioned to him that he was looking for something
that made more sense and could be explained better than just saying to
save to be saved. So he told him to go to church next Sunday
and for him to see for himself. Long story short, Enzo found what he
was looking for and now me and him are just about best buds. He, just
like myself, tries to understand everything that he can about a topic
that interests him, including religion. When you find someone like that
with 2 missionaries like Elder Gali and I who love to talk and
explain... it leads to some very long lessons. Not that there is
anything wrong with lessons like that, actually I really enjoy them
because Enzo is always asking really good questions in an effort on his
part to deepen his knowledge and testimony. By far the highlight of my
week was when I gave Enzo a book with different art work from the
scriptures, the life of Jesus, and even some photography. The book was
mine but because he is so interested in different styles of painting and
within the book there are various styles, plus all the works have a
scripture story to go with it, I figured it could be good for him to
study said stories if he got interested. When I gave it to him he was so
lit up and happy. I kind of thought that he was going to cry but he
held him self together. I am hoping that he will get baptized this next
month because then after he could begin to prepare to serve his own
mission if he wanted to! Enzo is 19 btw.
Today,
because it is the last P-day for Elder Walker and one other missionary
in our zone, we organized to go to the beach in Caldera. It was fun and
we ended up meeting up with the missionaries out there to have a BBQ on
the beach and playing soccer. We actually started off playing football
but the Latinos didn`t understand that they couldn`t tackle, so we cut
that game short just so no one would get hurt. All of the gringos that
were out there got super burnt, myself included... something that did
happen was the Elder that was having back problems in my district ended
up having to go home because of his back. The doctors here couldn`t find
the exact cause so that kind of worried everyone more, so he got sent
to the states to have a second opinion.
Well, I have now finished my first year in the mission!! To celebrate Friday
night, my comp and I went and bought a ton of food and then we came
back to the house and ate and told stories about the mission. A couple
of people have asked me if I burned a shirt for my first year and
honestly I forgot to do it. Other than that, I didn´t do anything the day
of but the day after we had a conference in Copiapo with a ton of youth
in the stake. That was really fun for me because all we did was talk to
them about how great a mission is and then we ate food! For whatever
reason, Saturday we got given a ton of food!!! Like so much that we are still snacking on it today.
I
really just want to talk about what happened last night. So last night
after the ward counsel we went to visit a family that came to the
church. Everyone in this family are members of the church but they have
not been in forever. So we went and visited them. A of the members
of the church went with us. The lesson and what we were talking about was unreal
to me. After we got there, it took about 20 mins for the son to open up
to us and start to share with us about what is going on with him. He
explained that he suffers from a couple of different medical problems
and that in the last couple of months it has gotten so bad that he can't
leave his house that often. But on that particular day he knew that he
wanted to go to church but refused to go to any other church than the
one that he was baptized into. But, as he explained that and kept
telling us more stuff about himself and his family I started to feel
just an outstanding love for this guy sitting in front of me. He was
just asking that someone help him and his family. We shared with him
about the help that we can receive as we pray and that we can find
through Jesus. I am really glad that the member was with us was
there because she already loves to help people; especially when
it is apparent that someone needs it. It was one of the most powerful
experiences I have had up until this point in the mission. It also
helped me understand when people say that there are people in your
mission that are waiting for you to find them, and I think that
Sebastian might have been waiting for awhile to get some help. I can't
explain how excited I am to return tomorrow
and to help him and his family return to feel the love of Christ. It
also gave me something to be extremely thankful for this week and that
helped me think about all the things that I am thankful for!
I
hope everyone has a good thanksgiving! Everyone eat some turkey or ham
for me because the Chilenos don´t really care what happened with the
pilgrims way back when.
Love y´all a ton!!!
I am thankful for....
1) Ending the first of the 2 best years
2) My Parents, Sisters, and family that are all healthy and well
3) Love and support that I get every week from friends and family
4) Everyone that motivated me to go on this amazing adventure
5) The opportunity to teach simple truths everyday
6) The other missionaries that I write to that are all over the world
Well this week will be a very large milestone for me and
my mission and my family as well! So Thursday, I think, it will be will
my one year mark in this two year mission that I have been doing. To
hear that for me, is beyond crazy!!. In most ways, it does not feel like
I have been doing this for a year. But after thinking about it for a
while it started to set in... of all the things that have happened over
the last year.... I can kind of get the feeling of what all has
happened. But its okay because everyone says that the second year goes
by a ton faster and I 100% believe that. Ever since I was in Arica
training elder Jimenez, time has been flying by like crazy. I have very
mixed feelings because I am enjoying that the weeks are going by quick
and I can watch the progress of all of these awesome people in my old
areas, as well as my current area. But at the same time, I know that I
need to cherish the time I have left because its all going to be passing
by quicker than ever now. On the bright side to all this is that I
think that I will be staying in Tierra Amarilla through Christmas and
New Years, and possibly a month or two after that!
Two
weeks ago in our sector I think that I said something about going to
the back side of our area to find some new people and look for some old
ones too. Also that we found a guy named Oscar that came up to us and
invited us to come back. So what happened was this family was talking to
other missionaries years ago and just kind of stopped for no particular
reason. They were so excited to have the missionaries back in their
house after so much time. The first time we went over there they told us
that they want their two sons baptized and so me and Elder Gali were
just as happy as we could have been. Even though this family lives over
an hour away from the church building, they came!! Even more is that
they showed up before us!! Because they had been the church in the past,
everyone already knows who they are and remembers them from way back
when. We have already been by twice this week and are planning to head
back out there Tuesday. We have talked to the mission president about
being able to use bikes if we can borrow some from a family, and he gave
us the okay as long as we have helmets and something reflective like a
vest or something. So that will save us a ton of time for when we go out
there again and will also help us go to the other town that is in our
sector!
In our poor district this week, just
about everyone ended up with some kind of sickness or infirmity, myself
included. I got off pretty easy with some super crazy allergies. Right
now this is still the spring season down here and summer vacation will
start for the kids here in a couple of weeks. That also means is that
there is some crazy pollen flying around in our area and that has gotten
to me, but now I am all better and back to full energy!! Some of the
other Elders have it way worse than me. I feel bad for them because they
are all workaholics and can´t stand having down time. Of the four of
them three of them are sick... One with a bad cough, another with
pneumonia, and the last with a herniated disk. Nobody is sure what the
last person did but he is in a good bit of pain and on a lot of meds
right now. Just as a district in general we are falling apart. But
everyone is getting better and hopefully everyone will be better by
Christmas.
Sorry that I have not been able to write a ton. For whatever reason, the last 2 weeks have been holidays, so the places I usually go to write were closed. So we didn't get a ton of time. But this week should be better because everything is wrapping up here. The last week has been really hard on us because one of our investigators was supposed to get baptized but ended up not because his dad had some serious disagreements with the church. After spending all day Tuesday with the guy talking to him, I still am not sure what he wants. What happened was Omero was already about to get baptized, like walking down into the water with Elder Gali, and the bishop mentioned that nobody should take pictures or record video just out of respect and to keep the reverence of everything. Something about that just didn't sit well with the dad. He kind of freaked out and he left right away. So that all was really embarrassing for us and something that has never happened to me before. We have since been working more with Omero and his family and also been really encouraging the member of the branch to be more involved with the missionary work.
Really, I have been on the members backs ever since I got here. I guess that they finally got tired of hearing me all the time because yesterday they had their first ward counsel in a super long time (when really they are supposed to meet together ever other week). After the 2 months of bugging, they finally met up and had a meeting last night and it was sweet how much they got done in just a couple of hours. I am also really excited for this week coming up because we have planned to go and do visits with members almost every day this week. What is even more exciting is that this week we are planning to do divisions with a new elder. The new Elder is going to come and work with me for the day and I will get to be a trainer for a day, or at least pretend like one! I´m really pumped because he only has about 3 weeks in Chile. If I´m right, he is from Spanish Fork, Utah.
One of the days this week we left to go to a part of our sector that I had never been to. The thing about Tierra Amarilla is that it is very narrow and very long. To go from one side of the town to the other takes about 5 minutes walking the narrow part, but from end to end it takes about 3 hours. We decided to get out there and work all day Thursday. We ended up finding a ton of new people and even more people that had talked to the missionaries before but for whatever reasons stopped. Now they want us to return so they can hear the discussions. There were even a couple of people that approached us to invite us to come back a different day. It was amazing to see all the people that wanted to have us back and wanted to keep learning about the gospel! So we are headed out there again tomorrow to go and see a guy named Oscar and the Morales family. The only downside is that they live pretty far away. Maybe we can get some bikes or a member to bring us out there! However we end up out there, I am really excited to be meeting some new people this week!
Guys, I don´t remember how the elections are in the states, but I am almost positive that they are nothing compared to Chile. Really just all of the things that have happened this week have been pretty difficult for us here. With the elections happening this week, everyone was campaigning at full force with shows and concerts. Because of that, everyone was missing from their homes all week. That was actually cool to see and learn a little bit about how the government works. One thing that I thought was insane was that here there are multiple political parties. Of those parties, one of the popular ones is the communist party. That is a normal thing here, but when I saw them having their concert and saw the flags I thought I had just walked into a protest, but it was just a rally for the guy running. No huge deal.
The town was having some huge problems this past week. There were two major power outages and during the second one Elder Gali and I decided to make a little camp fire for light and to cook some s´mores. It was just like camping! Except right in our front yard... By the way the guy who did win the elections lives right beside us, and he had a huge celebration party last night and invited the town. I walked back there while it was still early to see what was going one and there was his back yard packed with people. They had themselves a nice little celebration even so much as we could feel the music shaking our walls! It was pretty spectacular.
Um I have more to write but if I don't make it back to a computer today, this is what I had time for. There are transfers today so its kind of crazy.
I just want to say that I have no idea what happened to
the time while I have been in this area. I got here in August or
something like a week ago and now its October AND I'm going to complete
11 months some time soon. Maybe my companion is pranking me with the
calendar and date on our watch. I know time isn't supposed to go by this
fast!! Really, it feels like we are going into May or July because it
is starting to warm up, but we all know that's false. I guess its
October now, but I have no idea because Chileans don't do Halloween or
pumpkin spice. Those are the two big clues in the states. One thing that I
do know is going on is that there was a huge hurricane last weekend at
home. I'm glad that everyone is ok. 2 things that Chileans ask me about
is the presidential race and also about clowns? Usually for both
questions, I just tell them to visit Canada instead.
Anyways,
this past week in our sector, we got to organize a huge activity in our
area that we worked. What it is, or what its called is el rescate ( the
rescue). This was my first time participating in one of these. The
activity is to go around making sure that people live where they say
that they have lived. This, for more than anything, is important because
if something bad happens, like an earthquake, or even a hurricane like
just happened back in South Carolina, someone would be able to leave
with this list of people to go make sure everyone is okay and if they
need anything. So we were going around to verify all of the names and
addresses. The complicated part was there was some 400 names that we had
to divide up among 30 groups of people. I kind of felt bad because
Elder Gali ended up doing a lot of the busy work...like matching names
to streets and then assigning them to a group because he knows the town
way better than I do. I tried to make a video of the process of the
whole thing but it came out with a weird watermark. Anyway, the rescate
came out to be really successful. Everyone that participated had at
least one spiritual experience while they were working. So, I was exited
about that. After all was said and done, the list was just about
completely taken care of except for like 10 people.
This past week, the struggle was real on Sunday.
I think that I have said this before, but just in case, my personal
goal for this area is to have 50 people in church because this is a
really small church. 50 was the goal that I set when I arrived here. I
just want to bring to your mind something that either bugs you or
bothers you or just makes you antsy..... what ever that thing is for you
and however you feel while you are doing it. THAT is how I felt in
church!!! There were 49 people there. I probably counted like 20 times,
but the number never changed. The whole time I wanted to leave just to
go grab someone from the street. My comp wouldn't let me but, we were so
close!!! But, I'm pretty pumped for next week because we will probably
reach that goal!! That just means we are going to be working that much
harder this week to reach it. I know that it is possible!!
I hope everyone has a good week! I'll talk to everyone next week!!
Okay, so I want to say before I start, all of
this happened to me two weeks ago. The story that goes with this
experience is crazy!!
So, it is Wednesday
and we have just eaten lunch. We are getting ready to leave a bit early
so that we could get a head start on the service project that we had
already started at the kindergarten where we are painting a small mural.
But, before we head out, we stopped by the church to meet with the
elders quorum president to talk to him about some of the people that we
could maybe help him with. We are going through a pretty large list with
him when Bryan shows up with his grandmother to the church to take care
of an activity that they would be having in another hour or so. While
we are conversing about the different families that we could help,
Bryan had a couple questions about his missionary folder and asked if I
could help him with it. I told him I could for sure help him and we went
back to the secretary of the church. The secretary is a room where the
computers, all the electronics for the wi-fi, and a television are kept.
They are kept there because the secretary is a sort of metal vault. I'm
not sure of the exact reason why it is so heavy duty. Two guesses are
one, because there is private information about members of that
particular church stored in that room like phone numbers, addresses and
other things. The other guess is because it is kind of necessary to keep
electronics like computers, routers, and televisions under lock and key. They still aren't super common in South America.
A
quick side story to help y'all understand this a little better. Right
before I got to Chile last January the church in which I was assigned
was broken into and the secretary was cut open with like an industrial
blow torch. I'm not sure exactly what it was but it left some huge burn
marks on the walls. This was all done just to get a TV, a computer,and
the monitor to go with the computer. So that's why it is
necessary to have the vaults as storage. Anyways, back to the story.
I
help Bryan finish up his work as Elder Gali is finishing talking about
the list. As we are leaving, I thought it would be funny to shut the
door behind me and close Bryan in the room. I did it, and it was funny. I
let him out and all was good in the world. But then, I had to grab
something out from the secretary before we could head out to do the
service project. I got what I needed... but as some pay back, Bryan
closed the door on me and locked the vault door just like I had done to
him. But this time, when he tried to let me out something happened with
one of the rods in the door and it got stuck in place. That is how I got
stuck in a vault last week...... And everything after that went
something like this. The president of the branch coming and trying to
tackle the door down, which didn't work and just made a ton of noise.
The mammita that we eat lunch with telling me to stay relaxed and just
watch a movie on the computer (which I didn't do). Some maintenance
workers or contractors that came and then cussed at the door because it
was some fancy German brand. I never actually saw these two guys. And
then, the fire department with the big saw they had that they didn't
actually get to use.
Back tracking a little
bit, as soon as the door was found out to be closed and not opening on
its own I started trying to find out if there was a way that I could get
out that wasn't the door. I checked the roof, it was solid metal. I
checked the walls, concrete. And so once I started to realize that I was
only going to get out through the door, I started to think of ways that
I could ether break the door more or fix it enough to get out. The
biggest problem I had was that I had no tools with me. Most of the stuff
that was in the secretary was too expensive for me to want to break. So
of the stuff that I felt comfortable taking apart I had, an old radio,
my watch, a fork, and some older ether net cables. After a ton of trial
and error with these things, (I had taken apart my watch to use the metal
band as a flat head screw driver) I used that to open up a door
panel that showed the mechanism of the vault door. With the antennas
from the radio and the fork, I found out which pin was broken and
started to take it apart. The pin that did go bad was part of a dead bolt that you could lock from the inside if you were working in there,
but had broken off inside the door. So with the antenna and fork, I got
the dead bolt taken apart from the inside as best as I could. I
couldn't see a ton because this was all inside the door. Once it was
loose, I used the Ethernet cord to pull down on it enough to get it out.
Keep in mind all of this took me about 3 hours to get done while all of
that other stuff was happening outside. Just as they were about to cut
through the roof with the big saw, I got the door opened!! The next day,
the same contractors were able to come back and replace the deadbolt
with a new one. Now the door works fine. The members still tease me a
ton for getting stuck in there and Bryan even more for closing the door.
But seeing as he leaves today for his mission in Mexico, it won't
matter much for him. So everyone in the Mexico, Cancun area look out for
Elder Valencia!!! Okay that is my story for this week, and I will
probably go back to the normal updates next week.
Wow I hope that everyone had the chance to see some
of conference this past weekend or at least hear one of the amazing
talks that were given during the weekend. I enjoyed all the talks given, but especially the ones about missionary work. For those of you
that don't know what I am talking about, this past weekend was General Conference. It is a huge series of sessions or meetings where the
leaders of our church give inspired messages to all of the people in the
world twice a year. The other cool thing about it is that everyone has the
opportunity to listen to these messages in their own languages. I
got to listen to it in English because they had a room set up for all of
the Gringos living in the Copiapo area. They put all the
English speakers in a smaller side room. To the me and the other
Gringos.... it is the Gringo Room aka, the party/feasting room. Even
though it was mainly just other missionaries from the states, it was
still sweet to hear some English this past weekend. Also we ate a
crazy amount of food and candy, which at the time wasn't a big deal, but
I am feeling it now. For one of the Saturday
sessions, the choir was made up of other missionaries that are getting
ready to go to their assigned country or area but are learning the
language. I saw a couple of people that I know including my cousin that
is headed out to Russia here pretty soon! So shout out to those guys!
This
past week we had the chance to do a service project at a
day care/ Kindergarten. The first time we went out there 2 weeks ago, we
went and cleaned up everything in and around the building. This week
just us and another youth went to finish painting a mural thing. We have
not finished yet but we are getting close and it looks pretty good so far. All of the little kids in this daycare are the most precious
things I have ever seen! All the people that work there are super
friendly.
Almost completed mural at the day care.
Elder Brayton painting the mural.
Something really exiting happened for the
missionaries here in this area. This month we have gotten texting on our phones. that is like a huge deal for all of us because before we could only
call. This will help us a ton because it seems like no one in Chile
likes to answer their phones. Also, if all the missionaries can
transition over to texting we, in the next few months we might be
getting iPads! That is just too crazy to believe for me but if our
mission president says that we can then I guess I can't argue with that!
So it looks like we could be getting some big changes here in the next
couple of months!!!!!
One last thing, this last week
something happened to me, and I have had a ton of people ask to explain
it in more detail but I was already half way done writing when they
asked. So, next Monday everyone will get to hear about how I escaped (like MacGyver) from the secretary/vault in our church building.
So
this area that I am in, Tierra Amarilla, is huge, and a lot of the times we are really
pressed for time because the area just follows a long road headed to Argentina. This last week, more than any other time in my mission,
possibly in my life have I ever thought of time as such a precious
resource to me. I have come to realize that the only limiting factor
that stops us during the day is the amount of hours that we have. Sort
of some general information about missionaries, and this applies to all
missionaries in the world: We have a very specific scheduled that we
follow to the point every day. But we only have 16 hours to get stuff
done. For whatever reason, for me, it just ends up being way too small
amount of time. If somehow I could make the days more time effective I
would be one of the happiest people ever. But with the time that we do
have here me and Elder Gali have been able to do some amazing things in
this ward.
The one that I am most exited about is the church attendance.
The first Sunday
I was here there were only 20 people and that, to me, was just
terrifying. Like it was normal for this branch, but I was just in full
on panic!. We turned almost all of our energy and time to growing the
branch as much and as fast as we could. So long story short the
attendance was huge! Like 75% increase from the past week and now we are
halfway to our goal of 50.
Also I am super exited for the General Conference this next week and the opportunity to listen in
English, even though I feel like the last conference was just 2 months
ago. I heard that some of my friends in the MTC are going to be singing
in the choir for one of sessions. So check that out!!!!
Have a great week!
Love,
Elder Brayton
Here is an excerpt from the email he sent to us answering the list of "Mom" questions:
We do our own laundry and we hang up clothes to dry outside. It is super fun because I like living out in the country and it is a lot more noticeable that I am living in South America. We don't have to cook, we eat with our neighbor. We have a big water cooler but the house is so much bigger that we can put it off in the corner. Food and water are good and I think next week we are going to fumigate the house we are in because there are a lot of creepy crawlies.
Spider on the bedroom wall
Tierra Amarilla is just a really green valley, further out there are vineyards that are really cool. The church building is right next tous and we us it every now and then for Internet, but it is super slow. Today we came into Copiapo to do some shopping and write. It is like a 30 min bus ride each way and only cost 1,800 pesos for the both of us. There is not good seafood here, everyone just sticks to chicken and rice, and sometimes potatoes.
I
finally made it to my new area and am just starting to get back into
the groove of things after that super long bus ride from Arica. A little
bit about this town is that it is super small and super rural. Like when
people think about small South American villages, that is just about
where I am right now. It is a huge change from what I am used to. Up
until this town, I have always been inside of big cities. But here there
are still a decent amount of people and just about everyone knows each
other. The town is surrounded by 3 different mines. While I was talking
with some miners that work in them, they told me that there is city of
tunnels underneath the town. In the church, there were only 20 people
that went, and my companion says that is pretty normal here. The house
that we live in is like back in the middle of nowhere, but the cool part
is that it is surrounded by green!
Yesterday and today were huge Chilean holidays. Its like their independence day or our 4th of July.
So it was very hard to find people to teach, and today everything is
closed. Today we are in the church building to write everyone. I'm
going to keep this short so that my companion can have a turn to write
his people too.
Hope this finds everyone well.
Love y'all,
Elder Brayton
Making friends!
The following are short notes we received prior to the transfer and just after he arrived.
From Arica:
This morning I am traveling from Arica to Copiapó, more specifically the town/area called Tierra Amarilla. I just saw it on a map yesterday and it looks like a single tiny road running through the desert. But I have heard a lot of good things about the town. I'm looking forward to getting there but in about an hour from now I have to get on a bus and I will be on that bus for the next 18 hours..... But on the bright side I am traveling with other missionaries, one who is a really good friend of mine. I know basically nothing about my new companion except that he only has about 6 months in the mission.
Also one very new thing for me is that I am a district leader now. I'm not really sure how to explain what that is but I know that I am kind of responsible for the other missionaries around me and that I have to teach and help them out whenever they need it. I am really excited for those new responsibilities that are coming but a little nervous at the same time.
I will be on the bus for the next 18 hours and I will try to write again tomorrow if I can but it looks like the town that I am going to is super small so I will see about that.
From Tierra Amarilla:
It was super long the bus ride, 18 hours. I'm really tired but I'm hanging in there. I am here in my sector with my companion, Elder Gali. He is from Hawaii and super chill. He has just one transfer less than I do in the mission. My district, is all gringos. Out of all of the other missionaries I have the most time in the mission somehow. For the first time in my mission I feel like an old guy. The town here is awesome from what I have seen so far but it is extremely small. It reminds me of Nauvoo because both only have one main road going through town.
I
did not have any time last week to write anything for real and I
apologize about that. Today I have set apart a ton of time to hopefully
respond and tell y'all about all the cool stuff happening down here in
Chile. So last Monday the bishop of the church here and the ward mission
leader took out us 4 missionaries of this ward out to eat at a really
fancy restaurant. They treated us to some of the best sushi that I have
ever eaten, granted that I only started liking sushi last year. But
still it was delicious!! We have been having some crazy success in the
ward these past two or three months. Between getting people to come back
to church and helping them re-grow their testimonies of Jesus Christ
and inviting brand new people to church for the very first time to
experience it, there are a ton more people coming to church each Sunday.
Between the time I got here to this week
(which might be my last week
here) we have seen more than 50 more people in the church!! And when the
bishop pointed that out to me we were jumping around happy like little
girls( he is like 6ft 5!) That's why I couldn't write anything last
week.
Oh and something else that happened last week, Sunday
night when the zone leaders called us to see how are week went there
was and earthquake! So let me explain before my mom freaks out too much.
It was the tiniest tremor ever. Right after I asked the family that I
live with to look it up online and it was a 4.7 that happened 40 km away
and 120 km underground. It was seriously nothing but I got really
exited about it because I have been waiting my entire mission to
experience one.
So fast forward to almost a week later to Saturday,
Chrysler finally got baptized and it was amazing! First of all I just
want to say how much I appreciate him and his attitude towards
everything. He showed up like an hour early just with as much energy as a
man his age could have and then some. And then at about 15 mins before
the baptism started he was very antsy and started to call EVERYONE, when
in reality people here don't show up to and event until they are a
least 15 mins late. But the actual service went extremely well. I got to
share a talk about faith and repentance, Elder Jimenez got to baptize
his first person ever, and the sobrino {nephew} (quien se bautizó hace 4
meses) {who was baptized 4 months ago} shared his testimony. I think
the best part about everything was at the end Chrysler's best friend
from a while back(who is now in the stake presidency) shared some
thoughts and it was just amazing. The whole day Saturday
was extremely busy but extremely rewarding. As we were walking back to
the house Elder Jimenez told me that feeling the spirit this much makes
you super tired. Yesterday was the fast and testimony of church so
anyone could go up and share their testimony. I was thinking that it
would be cool if Chrysler went up to do that, but something amazing
happened. Chrysler's dad went up and shared a powerful testimony about
faith. Keep in mind that he has never been to this church before, isn't
even a member, but he was still up there!
And
lastly today was a pretty normal p day, except for the fact that I lost
my name tag at the beach while we were playing flag football. I also
lost the Zip Chip ( its like a small frisky) so that is kind of a bummer.
Then I got a hair cut and that was it! This may be my last week here in
Arica but I will find out for sure Friday and y'all will find out Monday if I don't write, but I'll still get to send something Tuesday! I think its Labor day today in the states so everyone have a happy and safe Labor day! Do something awesome for me!!!!
Love to everyone!
P.S. I had like a companion exchange last
week with the zone leader and I realized just how bad my English has
gotten, like it is super choppy and not grammatically correct and for
whatever reason I now speak English with a super strong southern drawl.
This week was a great week for me because I turned 20!!!!
And also my 9 months in the mission which is a little less exciting for
me. But the ward here is so awesome, they gave me so much food over the
weekend! I was so grateful to all the families that invited us over for
a party! At the end of this week we ended up not having a baptism,
Gustavo, who was going to get baptized got swamped at the university and
just could never make it home before 11pm. But now we have that to look forward to this next week.
Also
I don´t know if I have mentioned this or not, but last week we found
one of the coolest guys I have ever meet. His name is Chrysler and he
has experienced some stuff in his life and not very good stuff. I don´t
want to get into a lot of details, but basically he has done a lot of
things and made a lot of mistakes and had a really bad accident
recently. He realizes that and also is looking to make a change! So we
have been going by his house this passed week and he is so ready to
learn and to make changes in his life. It is amazing to me to see how
humble he is after everything that has happened to him.
That's it!! I hope everyone has a good week, and thanks so much for the birthday wishes!!!
