Monday, September 2, 2013

HOLAAAA from Chile!!


FAMILY AND FRIENDS!! (:
Hi. I'm in Chile.

I absolutely love this country, these people and everything going on!
It's only been a week, and I don't know if I ever want to leave!! Can everyone just move down here??(:

I mean wow, what an awesome week! The first night I got here, I didn't even get to unpack - we just went right out and starting teaching people of The Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am currently serving in Tupahue, which is in Rancagua. The mission goes about an hour north of Rancagaua, and five hours south. In the next two years I'll be all around, but I'm glad that my first area is in the city! 

Septemper 18th, is their Independence Day, so it's coming up very soon! The whole country goes crazy. Everyone's passion to live here is way awesome! Their Chilean pride is "muy bakan"! (awesome in Chileano) Everyone flies kites here. It's soo cool. Some investigators gave us some kites this week, but we didn't get to fly them today on Preparation (P) Day because it was raining! 

I only get an hour and fifteen minutes to e-mail every week, but I love hearing about how everyone is doing, and it sounds like everyones doing awesome! (: It's still Winter here, so it's moderately cold. We don't have heat in our apartment, but we have a little heater which does a pretty good job. It's still cold. But one of the most amazing things ever is that we have what they call 'caliente camas.' Which are like hot things that go under your blankets. It makes sleeping amazing every night!! (: Although, as soon as I hit my pillow, I wake up. The days are flying by! I cant believe its already September! 

Umm, all the food is really good! Everyone serves us so much, and it's so hard to eat it all. So far I've had lots of rice and chicken. Some weirds things I've tried are maple syrup on Jello, and people put mayonnaise on everything, which is actually pretty good! Like mayonnaise on rice, and salad! I've had a ton of empanadas which are like the best thing here! Also, everyone only drinks soda, so I have to try to find water! Lots of avocados on everything too, which is amazing(: 

Everyone has to fly a Chile flag on their house during September -- it's a law! My trainer, Elder Peñuñuri is so awesome! We are a great team. He grew up in Mexico, and is from Arizona. I am from los estados unidos, which is America. All the kids thinks is so funny, to say "Hello, how are you?" They yell it and then run away! It's awesome. One of the families here is just like our family. They all live pretty close to each other and are in the same ward. They even have a Chileano Rob here! His name is Ricardo. He's a pretty funny guy! 


One of the best things I've had so far was like horchata, it was rice and milk, but it was wayyy better than horchata!

Mom, I would seriously kill for a massage every night! We walk so far and so much every day (:
Umm here, everyone eats one breakfast and then a huge lunch, and sometimes they eat an "once" (11?) but that's usually an avocado every night for me. However, the members feed us lunch every day which is awesome. We get 95,000 pesos every month which is close to 200 dollars. So it's nice because we don't have to spend much of it!

This week, one night while we were looking for peopple to teach, after about four hours of getting turned down (which I don't know why anyone should ever turn down our message, because it's so important) But after the four hours we decided to say a very specific prayer. We prayed that if we walked 500 steps north, that a man in a white shirt would be there and we needed to teach them. So having faith that God can grant small gifts, we headed out and walked exactly 500 steps north on this street. As soon as I said 500, a man in a white shirt walked around the corner! My heart swelled, because my prayer had been answered so soon. It's amazing how if we truly have faith, that things will go our way. We talked to him for a little while, and he said we could come back this week, so I hope he's the one! 

I know that if we have faith, and let God know of our desires that anything can happen. The Spirit is so strong on the mission, but anyone can have this. All you have to do is all the small things like study the scriptures, pray a lot, and follow the commandments! That's all I do every day, and I'm exactly obedient to everything, so the Spirit can dwell in my life and guide me! It's so important that we do these small things every day! There's not a day that goes by that I don't see the hand of the Lord in my life. He is there to help us! All we have to do is ask! 

We have four people with baptismal dates. We found five new investigators this past week, and five people came to church with us! It's amazing! I am loving the mission. All the missionaries here are soooooooo cool! I've met so many cool people already!

As far as Spanish goes, I'm killing it! I can understand a lot of things which is crazy, because these people talk soooo fast!! Hopefully another week, and I'll understand more. I can tell the God is truly helping me learn this language, because it's coming way fast. I know I'm not capable of learning this myself.

I really love Rancagaua Chile, and all the people here. This is going to be the best two years of my life, and I'm not going to waste a minute!

Today for P-day, we went to a Feria, which is like a cool outdoor market. I bought a Chilean flag for 8 dollars, and it's a nice one! I also bought a freaking cool jacket. I love it here! Everything's way cheap! The 30 minute bus ride there was two dollars... crazy! I also found Elder Loveride there (my buddy from the MTC) Oh, and I met Elder Archuleta! He was pretty cool. Everyone here greets you with a handshake, then a hug, and then a handshake. So we talked for a little bit. Haha, pretty cool!

I love all of you, and thank all of you for forming me to the person I am today. I don't regret anything, and I wouldn't change the life I have had or the influences you have had on me for anything!  Thank you all for impacting my life so much!

I love you all and I will try to be more descriptive next week when I have more time!! (:

Love, Elder McGee

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