Elder McAlister is in Chile!

As you know from the blog posts last week, Sean is now in Chile, and it sounds like he is doing great!  His p-day has switched to Monday now that he is in the mission field, so we will be hearing from him on Mondays.  So if you want to write him, it's best you send your email before Mondays so he will read it on his p-day. We need to figure a way for him to send some pictures, as he seems to have some limitations for uploading pictures through the computer he is using, we would love to see where he is.

Sean is in a city called Linares, in the northern part of the Concepcion mission, about 125 miles northeast of Concepcion and 200 miles south of Santiago. The south Pacific ocean is about 50 miles to the west (out of his area), and to the east are the Andes, with the closest mountain peak being 38 miles to the mountain "Nevado De Longavi" (10,637 FT). The city has a population of close to 90,000.  They are coming to the end of their winter there, and Linares has a mild Mediterranean climate, so the temperatures average in the low 60's during the day and upper 40's at night, with a good amount of rain.



Here is a Sean's email this week:

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Hey Everyone,

I was also glad to talk to you on Thursday. It was awesome to hear all of your voices and to hear what’s going on. I’m glad that everything is going well you guys, and it sound like nothing has changed too much since I left. I’m sorry if I spell anything wrong in these emails, it’s on a Spanish keyboard and it’s hard to type on.

Well I got in Chile around 9 AM, and we had a little greeting party of missionaries and the President at the airport for us. It was cool to talk to them and the missionaries. The streets were empty when we were driving to the President’s house because everyone is still celebrating the holiday. We had interviews with the President and talked about the money down in Chile. We get 100,000 mil each month which sounds like a ton. But things cost around 1000 in the general area for cheap things.

My first companion is from Argentina, and his name is Elder Donoso. So far I really like him and he speaks very little English. We are working it out just fine. Chile is much different than I thought. We are in an okay area called Linares. There are dogs all over the place and some have broken legs, skinny as can be, and just scary looking. It makes me sad to look at them and I always want to pet them but I can’t. Some of the dogs travel in packs and you can’t walk near the ones in the packs. I haven’t been attacked by a dog yet, but I was almost bit by a house dog haha.

We have gone tracking mostly because it’s pretty much a new sector and there were only two missionary in the area. I have to say everyone one in Chile has a super nice fence and then a scary looking house haha. They all have fences to protect their houses and keep people and dogs out. The insides of houses are crazy looking. I would love to send pictures but I don’t have anything to connect to the computer to send them.

It’s been hard to track here because you have to shout to knock on the door and most of the time they don’t ever hear you. I have been told straight to my face from the person I’m talking to that he hates all Americans and wanted me to get off his street, which was just a little scary. They speak super fast down here and it is so hard to understand anything they are saying. They also speak a little different then the Mexican Spanish, but I’m going to survive just fine.

Church was okay, it’s about a 40 minute walk to get there, and for the whole three hours I had no clue what was going on. Give me a month and I will be able to understand most of what people say. Here in Chile you don’t have to look both ways to cross almost every road, which is really nice. The food is also really good, and lunch is when we eat the most. We usually eat at a member’s house for lunch and they give us so much. I think I have had the best bread in the world in Chile, I love it so much.

The weather during the days is really nice, but in the mornings and nights I hate it. It is so cold I wear about 4 shirts including my thermals and my sweats. They also gave us three warm blankets but I’m still freezing. So I’m going to break out my sleeping bag. Just to let you guys know that I did get my package and I loved it Thank you for everything in it. It was awesome to have and I love the watch you guys got me. The candy and pudding make me happy every time I am hungry, and I love the picture that Sabrina had drawn for me.

We are going to meet with four people this week that we have planned times with. The people here are very strong Catholics or atheist. We are still working hard and keeping our heads up. Oh, on the second day here. The other missionaries baptized a man named Edward and he always tries to speak English haha. People look at me very strange here because I am very tall compared to them and a little whiter then they are. Chileans don’t look like other Latino’s, they all have a very German look to them.

Our casa is weird to me and it only has four lights which is sad. We don’t have to put anything in the fridge right now because it’s so cold here. The showers water is heated by lighting a gas stove type thing which I have never seen but usually it’s a super cold shower in a super cold morning. So far I love it here in Chile and it’s been really fun, I do wish I knew more Spanish but I will push myself to learn it. Thanks for all your emails and your support, I love you guys. You’re the best family!!!

Love,

Elder McAlister

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Below is a picture of "Nevado De Longavi" which is the closest big mountain in the Andes to where Sean is:

Nevado De Longavi

Two thoughts/scriptures shared with Sean this week.  

The first from his Mom:

My thought for you for the week is the chapter of Moroni 7. The whole chapter is great but I want to focus on verse 26: "Whatsoever thing ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is good, in faith believing that ye shall receive, behold, it shall be done unto you." and verse 33: " And Christ hath said, "If ye will have faith in me ye shall have power to do whatsoever thing is expedient in me."

The second on from Dad comes from Elder Bruce R. McConkie on missionary work:

”I am called of God. My authority is above that of the kings of the earth. By revelation I have been selected as a personal representative of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is my Master and he has chosen me to represent him. To stand in his place, to say and do what he himself would say and do if he personally were ministering to the very people to whom he has sent me. My voice is his voice, and my acts are his acts; my words are his words and my doctrine is his doctrine. My commission is to do what he wants done. To say what he wants said. To be a living modern witness in word and deed of the divinity of his great and marvelous latter-day work.”

Have a great week everyone!  I know Sean would love to hear from you. As soon as I have his physical address I will update the main page of the blog with that so letters can be sent.