the word of wisdom, the sabbath day and the law of chastity...

Hey fam how is everything goin? 

All is well here in chile. That is so cool about garrett. I am so so so glad that he is alright. Tell him that he is awesome and that he has a mission to fulfill, the lord doesnt want him to go to his eternal home yet. I know that miracles still happen and it is always awesome to see them. So i havent gotten the package...still but i think it will be here tomorrow when we get mail...or the next Tuesday or sometime in the near future hahah.

So this week was a really weird week. First off it was a blast from the past. My comp when on divisions with this other elder in our district and guess who was my comp for a day...elder carpenter, my comp from the mtc. So that was really interesting cause i had to lead the sector and talk to everyone and really see if i could speak and understand spanish. It was awesome cause i did it!!! I am still alive and we did a lot of good that day. I could comunicate with the people and understand and everything. It was so much fun to see how much i have grown and how much more i know since i have been out of the mtc. I can speak a different language, crazy!!!

So that was fun, but this week has been really hard...i dont want to lie to you guys so i will have to confess my sins. Me and my comp broke a couple commandments this week. We broke the word of wisdom, the sabbath day and the law of chastity... now before you freak out let me explain myself. 

So first, the sabbath day. We went to church and we were waiting and waiting for our progressing investagator, marcelo to come to church. He didnt come so we went in and had sacrament meeting. Then after sacrament we found out that he is at the ferria, which is breaking the sabbath day...so we decided to go and get him. So we sluffed out on church and went to find him. We finally found him and got him to church but by that time church was almost over, but we got him and we tried to help him so its all good. 

What next, oh ya the law of chastity. So we were walking along and we were doing contacts in the street. We decided to contact this lady so we did. We talked to her and she was really nice and said that she wanted us to come over and teach her. So we got her dirrections and my comp shook her hand and she leaned in to kiss him. Then it was my turn so i new that she was goin to try to kiss me. So i shook her hand and pulled the stiff arm move like a linebacker but that was no good (she was a strong little granny). She broke the stiff arm move and started getting closer so i leaned back and started dodging. Remember it was my goal to not get kissed my whole mission so i was trying my hardest. Finally she found my weak spot and with unhuman speed she got me...ya well its not really breaking the law of chastity but for a missionary it is...

Ok now last but not least, the word of wisdom. We went over to a recent converts house to teach them. They offered us these home made chocolate things that were really good. So we taught them and then we ended and had 20 mins before our next appt so we decided to help them make some more sweets cause that is what they did for a living. So we wanted to do some service and have a little fun. So we are sitting there making this chocolate candy thing, talking and laughing and the hermano asks me to pass him this bottle. So i grab it and glance at it and it says bacardi rum, and i didnt think anything about it. Then suddenly i took a double take and realized that it says BACARDI RUM... so i ask him, you dont put this in your stuff do you? And he says, of course i do, it makes them taste better... so i ask him, you cook the alcohol out right. He says, no it would taste nasty if you cooked the alcohol out...so we realized that we had eaten a couple of these things that that we have broken the word of wisdom without even realizing it. Lets just say that we taught them the word of wisdom over again cause aparenty they thought as long as you dont drink it its all good...

So there was my week of commandment breaking. The missionaries are breaking the commandments that they are preaching. Haha it is awesome. So i dont know if i have told you this but our pension is freezing. It is seriously a freezer. It is colder outside then it is inside. We wake up every morning and huddle around our little heater that we have and try to do excersises. 

Lastly, we are still teaching marcelo and it is cool cause now his girl friend wants to get baptized too!!! So we are teaching them both and they are really progressing. They both came to church yesterday and are reading and praying. The only problem is that they live together and they cant get married cause she is married and is trying to get divorced but it takes like 6 to 9 months or longer to get divorced so we are working with them and trying to help them with that. They are awesome and will be baptized soon so we are excited.

It has been awesome and i am loving the work. This really was a really awesome week. I think it was the most i have done in one week on my mission. We are making a huge difference here and having a blast doing it. I love you guys tons and hope you have a great week. The church is true and i am going to repent of my sins dont worry. Love you guys. Keep praying and choosing the right. 

Love

Elder hall