So this was a really fast week, and I have a feeling this week will be an even faster one, because this coming friday we find out changes. So these past 5 weeks went by pretty fast. I'm hoping I don't go after one change of being here, but we'll see.

Anyway, this was a pretty crazy week! Where to start, where to start....

We had a lot of service again this week! Which was really good! We have been working on our investigator's box car that he uses to sell his fish... So it's kind of a weird service project, but it's really good that we are doing it! Our investigators names are Juan and Asuncion. They are super good to us and always love to take care of us! But when we started to work on their car, they started to listen to us a lot more intently and take notice to what we say, so they are having a real change of heart. So that's super good! We are hoping they will come to General Conference this weekend!

On Thursday I went on divisions with our District Leader Elder Alba. It went super good, and I stayed in our sector and we worked together there. We got a lot of work done and it went super well! I did super good leading the sector for that day, so I got really excited after that day!

On Friday we had a really weird day! Chile has a holiday on the 29 of March where all the young kids go out and just make disasters and make trouble and stuff, so I am not sure where they got such a holiday or why it is a holiday. But it's there. So on Friday we had to go into the house at 5 in the afternoon, and then we couldn't leave again until Sunday. So we had to spend all day Saturday in the house. It was rough. We all wanted to go out and work, but our ward mission leader helped us out. Since we live on the floor above our ward mission leader in his house, we got to go downstairs to his house all day and have an asado, which is a Bar-B-Que Chilean style!

That was really great! And it helped us to gain more confidence in him and stuff, so that was really great!

So overall it was a really good week! Just a little bad because we couldn't work for two whole days, but this week should be better! Anyway, time to send pictures.

This first one is on Saturday morning. We made french toast since we had a little bit more time after studies.

The second is how much meat we cooked at our asado on Saturday.. There was a lot of food!

We had to clean the whole apartment on Saturday, and the third picture is when we were cleaning the fridge. Somebody left a melon in there since before I started the mission, so cleaning that part of the fridge got pretty nasty... Na just kidding. We decided to put on the gloves and mask as a joke, our apartment really wasn't that bad!

Pants

Just had to add this picture to Braden's blog!!!

This is a picture of the thighs of his pants!  He said all of his pants are doing this.  He told me that his pants weren't made for all of the walking and sweating he is doing!

Off to find new pants!

5 Months!

Hey! So today marks 5 months since I have left home. That's pretty crazy to think about! This week went by so fast, and now the time is just flying! It is so crazy! I don't think I like it...

Anyway, this week was a pretty interesting week. We did end up going to the temple on Tuesday, and that was really cool. I understood just about every word in Spanish, so I can tell that my Spanish is improving. I still lack a little bit (okay a lot a bit) to be fluent, but it's improving. 

This week we did a lot of service again. It's great to do service, but we have done so much that sometimes it's hard to get to work. So it's a little hard, but it's all good. We had a really great week this week, so I don't have anything to complain about. 

We discovered what the world cup is going to be like yesterday... Yesterday the 4 biggest club soccer teams all played. They were  Los Clasicos, the Chilean Classic which is when the rivals play each other. We dropped in church attendance almost 20 to 25 people. And only those 4 teams played. After that, we hardly had any work to do because people were still watching the games. So when the World Cup comes around, let's just say it will be a slow time for us...

But we kept working, and we keep trying. I'm having a bunch of fun down here and I'm learning a lot. I really like just helping the people, and I think I'm starting to love the people in general. Just Chileans in general, which is really good!

The first picture is my district going to the temple. It was really fun to go!

The second is me with Elder McMullin. Every night after planning we make some hot chocolate and just relax. It's pretty cool.

The third is when we tried to make cookies this morning... It's Elder McMullin's birthday, and we tried. Key word Tried...

Have a great week!

So there is another week down. The time is going by really fast now! Not sure yet if I am liking that or not, I'm honestly thinking not... I'm starting to really love being down here. I'm really loving the work that I'm doing here and the people I am getting to help! So I'm having a blast down here. 

So this week was really good! We had a lot of hard work to do this week, which in one sense was kind of a bummer. Let me explain..

Of the 7 days we had this week, we did service projects in the morning 3 of those days. Which is fantastic really! 2 of those days were to help our ward mission leader, which was great! It helped us gain his confidence and now we are working a little bit more with him, and a little bit better too! So that's really good! The other we helped an investigator move and attach this big heavy door to the front of the gate, which was hard work. Overall we did almost 10 hours of service this week, which was awesome, now we are just pretty tired, but that's okay!

Other than that this week was pretty good! We finally both went to get our Visas on Friday, so now we aren't illegal in this country! Haha na, but we really did go to get our Visas. That took forever! We got to the subway station at 7:30 and went downtown to take them out. It took about 5 hours of walking and standing in line, but it was good because now we have them. There were a ton of missionaries there too, so we were able to just talk and try to make the most out of the time we had just standing, so that was good!

This week was another great week for working. We keep working with the same non-active members, but it is really starting to pay off! This week, my comp and I brought 6 non-active members to church, and the other companionship brought 9, so together we had 15 non/less active members in church, and with an attendance of 70, the four of us brought more than 20% of the attendance for this past week, so that was amazing! It was so cool to just sit there and see that all of these people are starting to have a change of heart and are starting to come back to church! SO that was the high point of this week!

So I owe some pictures I think, so we'll see what I've got...

This first one is a picture of me and Elder McMullin. This is what happens at 11:30 Saturday night when you are called to give a talk in church the next day. That was fun........... 

The second is called Plaza de Armas. That's where we had to go to take out our Visas. With a surprise appearance from my trainer Elder Bezerra who happened to go with his comp at the same time as we did, so that was cool!

And the other is last P Day, when Elder Piñeyro decided to take us Gringos to the court and teach us how to play soccer. HA! I know how to play soccer........... But i still learned a lot from him hahaha.

So this week was much much better. I'm getting to know my sector much better now and I'm doing better! 

This week we went and taught a very spiritual lesson with a non active member, Oscar,  and he has got a lot of problems. He really wants to change though. He asked us to come every day at 6 to help him out and try to fix a few of these problems. Since then, we have gone there every day at 6, and yesterday he went to church! So we were super excited for that!

Another non active member we are working with is Sergio. He used to be a very strong member, but something happened, we don't know what, we didn't want to push it. But he went to a Family Home Evening we had during the week and my comp asked everyone who went to say the things they were grateful for. He started to cry when it was his turn, and he told us "I'm going to go to church this Sunday." And to church he went. Yesterday was awesome to see him there! My comp said he has never seen him that happy before!

Yesterday was an amazing day! At church I had to give a talk pretty last minute about What is Missionary Work and How can the members help? So I did and my Spanish was almost perfect. So I just have to transition that into my every day life haha. But yesterday we had 7 non active members in church. That was amazing! Absolutely amazing! We saw them come in and it was like an answer to my prayers! We thought 3 were going to come, but 4 just came out of nowhere! That was amazing!

Btw, I have pictures, but I am sitting here in the Internet Cafe and I forgot my chord, so I will have to send more next week! 

But I love you all! I hope everything is good at home! The time is flying by so fast! In 2 more weeks I will have 5 months on the mission... Too fast really, but here we go!

Hey everyone. So this week was pretty rough. I still don't know this sector that I am working in and I'm still trying to get used to it.

Anyway, here's the update. 

My comp Elder Piñeyro is really cool! We have the same amount of time and so that is kind of rough to try and get used to, but we are working well together! He has a quite amazing background. He was a proffesional soccer play in Uruguay. He told me that he had it all. He lived in the city and played soccer for a living. He loved it at first, he started to make all kinds of money and in a perspective he had it all. But, he told me that he had to play on sundays and couldn't go to church. At first that didn't bother him and he just decided that he wasn't really happy. So he quit playing soccer, went back to church and started to prepare for a mission. And now here he is! He has an amazing story and we work really hard! It's great because we both want to be here!

This week has been kind of just getting to know the sector. It was hard because I missed the people I used to work with, but it is getting better. I am getting to know the sector a little bit better and I'm getting to know the people, so it's better! 

On saturday, we got up at 5:30 and went to the Santiago West mission to listen to a member of the seventy talk. We listened to Elder Evans, who is also the Leader of the Mission work for the church. So that was really cool and we got to listen to him. He talked to us for about 4 hours, so it was really long but really worth it. We talked about how we are really just here to help people, nothing more. If the people don't want our help, we can't force it upon them. We can only help them!

So not too much to report today, but still. I'm new in the sector so I still don't know what's really going on. I'm in a house of 4, and we are all pretty good friends, so I am having a really good time! I hope everything is good back at home! I'll send a better email next week when I know more about the sector and what's going on! 

Love you all! 

Elder Burt