Monday, March 5th

Comó estamos??

Hey so something very funny about the Chilean people is the way they
respond to a friendly ¨comó está? Instead of saying, ¨I am doing
fine¨, or ¨doing great¨, they say ¨Aquí estamos!¨ This translates as:

Hey!
Hey.
How´s it going?
Here we are!!

Yep, it doesn´t make any sense whatsoever. They also refer to their
spouses as daughter or son. It goes like this:

Hey there my love.
Hey daughter.
Where did our son go today?
He went to the store with his friends.
Thanks, son.

Okay so you guys get the idea. It sounds okay in Spanish (kinda), but
in English its just all very confusing.

So, this week was another really great week. We are really being
blessed with some awesome people here, and we are excited to be
working together. Elder Villatoro is awesome, and he is really a great
sport because everybody thinks he is a 14-year-old boy who stole a
missionary´s plaque. We had stake conference on Saturday and Sunday,
and everybody thought he was just a junior missionary tagging along
for the day. But, he is a great sport and has an amazing testimony.
Elder Villa was baptized when he was 10 years old. His parents had
been inactive for a while, and he decided to start going to church by
himself. He is the oldest of the kids. Well, through his example all
of his family is now baptized and reactivated. His father just now
started going to church again. Wow!

Saturday I had to play the piano for the single adult choir for the
adult session of the stake conference. I had an hour to practice both
of the pieces before we had to perform. Considering the time and
circumstances, I thought it went pretty well!

Sunday we had a broadcast from Salt Lake City straight to Chile for
Stake Conference. It was sweet! Sister Beck, Elder Anderson, and Elder
Perry were the highlights of the day. And, would you know that all but
Elder Perry spoke in Spanish! Not bad, eh?

Well, the investigator that we brought to the stake center is Manuel.
He is awesome. We will be looking to pull out the white dress and tux
here soon because we are going to be having some weddings! haha well,
that is if everything works out well!

We have a mission conference on Tuesday, and I am excited to see
everybody from the North! It is always great to receive strength and
animo from these conferences.

This has been an amazingly awesome and challenging time in my mission.
The Lord really does love us, and He wants us to grow. I am thankful
every day for the opportunity to serve the Master and to testify in
His name. No matter who you are, no matter what you have done, you can
repent and come unto Christ. He will heal you. There is no better
feeling than to be wrapped in His arms and feel of His love. I know
that this is true.

Elder Hales