Monday, September 30, 2013

First full week in Chile

Sounds like Sean is very busy, and didn't have the time to write much this week, he only answer a few of the many questions sent by family members.  We will be sending him the equipment this week he needs to start sharing pictures.  He seems to be adjusting well, and is have many interesting experiences.

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Hey everyone,

It sounds like everyone is having a good time and the pictures are awesome to get. Sundance looks like a lot of fun and I’m hoping dad’s birthday was fun. I’m glad that Mom, Jessica and Brooke were able to go to the Relief Society General Meeting and I hope the talks were really good.

This last week has been really hard and really fun so it’s mixed emotions at times. The Spanish is coming but slowly, but I’m able to understand more than I can talk right now. Soon we will be moving into a different house, and it’s much nicer than the one we are in right now so that’s a plus. I haven’t pulled out the sleeping bad yet but I will for sure use that in the winter, because right now it is summer.

The dogs here seem to get really scared when I go to grab a rock, so that was a nice tip from you guys. The new area is really hard but a lot of people here are really nice and are very inviting when it’s cold outside. Right now we have two investigators, Sara Flores and Maria Elena that are doing really well, and they came to church with us on Sunday. Contacting hasn't been going well, and that is hard.

The communication with my companion is going okay, but very hard at times because we can’t understand each other. My zone it awesome! Today, on our p-day, we played some soccer and I scored two goals but they are amazing down here in Chile at soccer. I have gone shopping for food, but that’s for in the morning and around 11 at night. Here in Chile we wake up at 7:30 and lights out at 11:30. That’s the times here because the people of Chile don’t get up early. It seems like it’s hard for them to get up for 9:00 church (haha). The people here clean their cars all the time, and never clean their houses, so the houses are gross looking and the cars are clean but not nice cars. The one nice car I have seen here was a Porsche, which was like seeing a space ship in America on the street (haha). We found the house with the Porsche, and we are going to contact it this week (hahaha).

Flying kites here is awesome; they get them out about two miles away and do some pretty cool tricks. I tried to record it, but you can’t really see the kites. Me and my companion went up to some kids and told them we were police and they were playing on private property and told them they had to leave. They started saying they were sorry, don’t take our kites away, we won’t play here again (haha).  Their faces were priceless, but then we told them that we were missionaries, they let us fly their kites. The kites are so cool here; I’m going to have to buy one at some time.

My companion and i love to beatbox, so we do that all the time while we walk down the street and that’s pretty fun. I have been marking my scriptures like crazy and the marking pencils have been very handy so thank you for those. I would love to send you pictures so, a USB cable or the SD receiver would work just fine.

Oh I almost forgot, so apparently I look like some big actor down here and everyone tells me that. We have been having problems with teenage girls here because I look like the actor (haha). At times I’m still told the person doesn't like me because I’m American and they think I’m super rich with helicopters, planes and multiple houses with pools. I have to tell them every time I’m just a normal person in America. Me and my companion use “Ether 12:4” a lot, and I love it because I can talk about it the easiest. When I teach people are always like can you do that in English now, and I’m like sure I guess so (haha). People that don’t hate Americans always use the English words they do know and tell me them. So I get told “what’s up man” a lot here and it’s so funny to hear. Our name is supper hard to say down here, and no one can say it right.

I’m running super low on time today so I will tell you more next week, but I love Chile so far and the people and food are great. So thanks for your guys love and support.

I love you guys, you’re a great family!!!

Love,


Elder McAlister

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One of the thoughts shared with Sean this week came from President Ezra Taft Benson: 

“I have often said that one of the greatest secrets of missionary work is work! If a missionary works, he will get the Spirit; if he gets the Spirit, he will teach by the Spirit; and if he teaches by the Spirit, he will touch the hearts of the people and he will be happy. Work, work, work—there is no satisfactory substitute, especially in missionary work.” 

I think this message applies to many parts of our lives...we need to work hard to accomplish our goals.  Until next week.

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