So there goes another week, and another month. This past week I hit 8 months, pretty crazy right? That came out of nowhere.

Well, changes were today. I didn't change! Neither did my companion, so that makes me really happy. The only thing is that not a single person changed in my district for the second time haha. That will be interesting. In other news, Elder McMullin finally left the sector after 7 months of being here haha. A little sad, but that means I am now the oldest missionary here in this sector! That will also be interesting haha. We now have a Canadian in the house, Elder Purnell is his name. I don't know too much about him, but I am sure I will as time goes on.

Chile was knocked out of the world cup, which is sad, especially because of the way it happened. Penalties stink to lose a game. We pretty much heard all about it, so we knew when they lost. It stinks, but that means it is a little bit easier for us!

We didn't have too interesting of a week, but it was still really fun! The best part of the week was last night. We had a fireside for the Birthday of the Mission! That was really cool! We are still one of the youngest missions in the world, we only have a year. But still, the progress we have seen is incredible! In the past year, we have raised the Sacrament Meeting attendance in the mission by over 1,000 people! I'm really glad I have been able to take a part of that!      President talked to us about how important it is to have a vision in missionary work. And in everything really. It was good!  I found a lot of Elders there and it was awesome! Among them were all the people I knew in the MTC and everyone I had ever shared a ward with! It was really awesome! Pictures will follow!

Also, just before I close this out, I need to recommend a video that we use all the time. It is incredible and really powerful! So check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spGtVY6L5jY

Alright here are the pictures:

Here is me sending off McMullin. He's a great friend.

The second is a good friend of mine. Elder Mateus from Colombia. He was the last AP and left to go home today.

AAAAnd what we do during the Chile games. Completos (which is the chilean hot dog. It is a hot dog with avacado and tomate.

soccer

Well, I am writing on Tuesday, not Monday. And you must all be thinking, why is that? Well the answer is kind of simple really. The World Cup. Hahaha, Chile played yesterday and so we were only allowed to leave the house for a few hours. So we were all going to go play soccer as a zone at a really good field, come back early and write. But long story short, the bus and train system was so crazy we wound up getting home late because it was full of people trying to get home for the game. So we did not get the time to write yesterday and here we are!

Anyway, Chile had 2 games this past week. Last Wednesday when they killed Spain, like they weren't supposed to, the streets went crazy!!!!!!!! We are in an area of the sector that doesn't have too many houses and our house is kind of isolated. But still. They killed Spain which is a huge deal, AND they qualified for the next round, so we heard people horsing around and making all kinds of noise and trouble just about all night. It was pretty crazy! Yesterday wasn't too bad because Chile lost, so we didn't hear too much.

Anyway, this week was pretty rough. Having to stay in the house, some things that happened to where we couldn't get to teaching and stuff, so we didn't get to teach too many people. But we did have a really interesting experience one day.

We were walking in the streets one day before lunch, and we were going to back from to the house after a lesson when all of a sudden the both of us just stopped. And we looked at each other and asked "Did you feel that?" And sure enough we both did. So we had no idea what to do, so we just starting knocking on doors that were near us, and just contacted. Doors shut in our faces and it kind of stunk for about 15 or 20 minutes, but we kept going. So we were kind of thinking like we both felt it, was it to have doors shut in our faces? But sure enough, we got to the last door on the street and a lady opened up and we talked to her for about 20 minutes, and we set an appointment for a few days later to go back and meet with her. Her name is Teresa. We haven't seen her since, but we are still hopeful!

Well that was my week, and I didn't take too many pictures, but the two I took was one of me, my District Leader and my Zone Leader in a face thingy. I'm on the left with the shades. The other is me and my DL contacting a random door on the way to the soccer field.

World Cup!

So I am thinking that Everyone is wanting to hear about how I am doing with the world cup. Well so I will just start with that then. It stinks down here haha. The thing that stinks is I don't think we'll see a game or anything. But we will see. I haven't spent too much time in the house. I only spent last Friday in the house. I guess the streets get pretty crazy down here when Chile plays. We have to enter the house a half hour before the game starts and then we have to stay in the house for the rest of the day afterward. Which kinda stinks, but we sure hear everyone. When Chile scores a goal, we know! Car horns, fireworks, screams and shouts. It stinks. But that isn't the hardest part, the hardest part is working.

During a World Cup in Chile, everyone watches every game. If they aren't at home, they are watching the World Cup. And if I weren't a missionary, I would love it because I love to watch soccer! But since I am a missionary, I hate it. So we have been walking a little bit more than usual. But it is pretty cool because when we are eating lunch and stuff everyone tells us what is going on in the World Cup! I would relate it to the Super Bowl, but 10 times bigger and every single day for one straight month. So this will be a pretty interesting month here on the mission!

But other than that, we were able to do some good work out here. We have a few people progressing a lot! We are starting to see some really good success here in the ward. We have been teaching Bayron a lot. He is still having a few problems with his mom, but they are getting along alright now. The only think that kind of stinks is that he is moving to another ward in the mission, so maybe I´ll get to go down there. Ya never know! Oscar is really getting better. He is still a little crazy sometimes but that´s about it. The work is still hard, but we keep going!

The first picture I carefully selected is me and my comp! Today for P Day we went and hiked this really big hill in the outskirts of the city and it had a really nice view, if you could see through the smog. I will send a straight smog picture too. The second is not computer editing, that is just straight smog.

The third picture is what we did while we had to be inside Friday during the Chile soccer game. We made a ping pong table!

And the fourth is what I look like when it is time to go out and brave the rain. It stinks haha.

Well we got quite the wake up call this week for this coming winter. We got hit by a pretty big storm this weekend and it got pretty bad. It was huge! Well in my perspective it was huge. But then I got told by everyone that it was really nothing. Hmmmm... It sure felt like a lot to me. Maybe it is just this part of Santiago, but the streets FLOODED! It got pretty bad. The big streets that are really busy were flooded so bad that the water came up to my mid calf. On Friday night we had to cross a really big street and I was wearing my winter boots, and they almost didn't help at all. I poured out water when I got home. So the next morning my comp and I went to get full on rain boots that almost come up to my knee! They are pretty sick, but now I will be able to stay dry!

This week was a pretty good week. We saw a few people that we haven´t seen in a little while. We saw Ivet and Sergio, and they are doing really good. She got a new job that is a little bit more comfortable, so that was good news!

Oscar is doing really good! He is still recuperating from a lot of things that he has left behind, and is still having a few speed bumps, but he is getting really strong in the church.

We found out that one of our investigators is moving next week, and he was progressing really well! Bayron will be moving to another ward in the mission and his mom is getting married, so that´s good. Maybe I will end up getting transferred there too haha.

But that is about it. We have had a few bumps in the road, but nothing to bad or too much to handle. We keep going and that is what is most important. We are only here to invite other people to come unto Christ, but we can´t make them. Which is hard sometimes, but it is what it is.

The first picture there is one of the storm clouds that were coming before the weekend. When you see that here in Chile, you know the next few days are going to be rough haha.

Then the next one is the only good thing about the rain. We get a really nice view whenever it snows!

And then the last one is a picture of me and my comp during weekly planning. The longest 3 hours of the week. But we try to get it done with a little bit of fun.

This week has been pretty good! I am still pretty tired, but that is part of the job. We are still working and still walking haha. The walking a little bit less this week thankfully! It is kind of nice not to be in a white wash in this time of the year because it is starting to get pretty cold! But that is alright. The only problem that we have had so far this year is in the morning and nights. But we had to move both bunk beds into one room just because it was soooooo cold in the mornings, but now we don't have a problem.

But a quick update, I have been starting to talk in my sleep, but it is a little bit weirder than just that. I am starting to teach and pray during the night, but I am doing it in Spanish.... So that is pretty weird. I will wake up one morning and everyone will joke with me and say "Burt! You were praying in your sleep last night! And your Spanish is better when you are sleeping than when you are awake!" haha, so that is a little weird.

But as for everything else, this week was a really good week. We found a few new less active members to teach and they were pretty open to listen to us. We found out that a few of the less active members that we used to teach are ready to listen to us again, so that is really good. But as for new investigators to teach, we are still having a hard time finding them, so we are working on that.

Bayon is doing well. He is still progressing and stuff. He is still really excited to get baptized and go on a mission, and he has even offered to go out and visit people with us. Ivet and Sergio are doing good, but they weren't able to go to church again, so we are going to try again this week to get them to go, but we will see how it goes!

Well I took pictures this week and they came out pretty good if I do say so myself. 

The first one is me one day when I came in so tired I put on my pjs, prayed and just died on my bed and didnt get back up until the morning!

The second one is the view out of our window. We have a good view of the mountains!

And the last two is me in my favorite teams jersey! We found this place today that sells jerseys really cheap and saw one of Manchester United and I had to! It was pretty awesome!