Conference and Service

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.

Love y'all and take care!!

Elder Brayton