Hola familia y amigos! Entonces this week was definitely a little bit slower, especially when it comes to the spiritual experiences, so I apologize in advance that I don't have any spiritual stories! Last week can make up for it because that was one of the coolest weeks of my entire life.
BUT I still have a good deal of stories.
Tuesday!! Tuesday was one of the most interesting days of my life, and in case you were wondering about the subject of this email, it's Tuesday's fault.
Let me explain.
So starting new changes is always kind of a rough and slow experience, even though Elder Hadlock and I are staying together things slow down a little bit because you don't really have planners and other people in your house are kind of adjusting. Elder Hadlock the other day told me a story about how the firstTuesday of his second change in his training his companion called the mission nurse and asked if they could have a day to relax because they were just so dead. She let them take it off until 6:00 kind of like a second P-Day to recooperate a little bit so they'd work harder the rest of the week. At the beginning of this week I felt myself start to burn out a little bit, which isn't good since I only have 3 months in the mission, so when Elder Hadlock told me this story I have to admit that I thought ''You know, that'd actually be really nice right now. Buut I know that I can work and so I'm a go work hard today anyway and I'll be blessed for it.'' Then, even though we did go out and work Tuesday, I think I had one of the most entertaining days of my entire life.
Let the stories commence.
ENTONCES at the beginning of the change we decided to drop some of our investigators that we just couldn't pas by often enough to help them progress because they were never in their houses. Really sad reason to drop someone, but you gotta do what you gotta do. So for the first time in quite a few weeks now we had time to do some contacting. The amazing thing is, we got three new investigators that day!! Just so you know, that never happens. EVER. We got three new investigators, and they're great investigators too. The funny thing is that we dropped three investigators that morning, so now after just one day our plates are completely full again.
Another story, we were contacting when we saw a man through a window painting inside his house. As we do to contact Chilean houses, we stood outside of his gate and yelled ''Alo!!'' and then he looked at us and opened the window. Here's the conversation:
Elder Hadlock: ''Hey can we help you paint?''
Man: ''No''
Elder Hadlock: ''Shoota, why not?''
Man: ''You don't paint.''
Elder Hadlock: ''...And we can't learn?''
Man: ''No.''
Elder Hadlock: ''Shooootaa... what's your name then?''
Man: ''I'm racist.''
Elder Hadlock: ''..........Okay... see ya later then''
Then he closed his window without saying anything, I was giving it everything I could not to laugh while the man could still see me, then Elder Hadlock said ''Well that's hard to contest.'' And I started laughing so hard the tears were rolling down my face. Keep in mind, some people here don't like North Americans. My companion is half Indian, but he can pass for being either a dark Latino or a just black North American. I'm not sure if it was me or him that he was refering to when he told us that he was racist, but regardless it was hilarious.
Another story! Elder Hadlock and I have a ton of fun together. I'm not gunna lie, at times we have waaaaaaay too much fun together in public. But it's okay because it laughter is very thereputic (I'm not even going to try to spell that right.) Anyway sometimes we do this thing where whenever we're acting panicked, frustrated, or angry, we talk in Spanish extremely quickly in extremely high voices. It's hilarious, remind me to do it with you guys when we Skype. Anywho, we talk so high and fast that sometimes it sounds less like Spanish and more like gobbling turkeys. So Tuesday walking back to the apartment we were doing this when two Chileans walking behind us heard us and started imitating us. The followed us around for like 15 minutes just gobbling like turkeys, to some people that'd be really obnoxious but I just thought it was hilarious, and ironic because we were actually speaking Spanish, their language. Elder Hadlock started yelling back to them in English too just for fun like ''HA... HA!! YOu can't understand us cuz we're speaking English!! HAH!!!!'' It was really funny.
Another story! This one's the finale. This is probably one of the strangest things that's every happened to me. We were still walking to our apartment (it takes about an hour) but this is after the turkey-people. Two veeeeery drunk people stop us in our tracks and start talking in English to us, which I was a little surprised. Just the basic hi, how are you, what your name, where you from, that kind of stuff. Then after that brief exchange he started counting to ten in English, which took him a few tries because he was very drunk. The guy talking to us wasn't tooooo bad, but his friend was too intoxicated to say anything. He was swaying back and forth really badly, and started to lean on Elder Hadlock for support. The guy talking to us had bags full of something that I couldn't see. I was fighting a smile the entire time because of the friend who was swaying so badly, and because of the turkey-people I was already in a laughy mood. That's when the guy talking to us reached in his bag and pulled out what looked like an other-worldy sea shell with odd holes in odd places and handed to Elder Hadlock, who took it relunctantly. I stared at it for a while trying to figure out what it was, and while the man was reaching for another one to give to me I asked Elder Hadlock quietly in English ''...what is that?'' then Elder Hadlock replied ''I don't know.... but I think it's alive.'' That's when I saw weird pincher things start poking out of the random holes and pinch out at the air around it. I had to turn away from the men and laugh for a little bit, I couldn't help myself. They were giving us crabs. Live, inedible crabs. Then the man offered me one and still surpressing a laugh I turned to him and took my live crab, very carefully making sure all the holes were poking away from my hand. That's when his friend tipped over into a grassy area on the side of the sidewalk and I, shocked and amused, let out a snort in my attempts to surpress laughter. Then, we shook their hands, and with live (and probably rather frightened) crabs in hand we started our journey for home again.
We hadn't walked 100 yards when the owner of a little tienda on the street stopped us and asked what we were carrying. We told them that we were honestly not quite sure, just that they had limbs in weird places and we could feel them moving. They told us that it was a type of crab that's inedible, and that the shell is actually a part of it's body and that's why all the limbs are in different places with every crab. I seriously don't know how they move. Anyway, the owner of the shop kindly offered to take the crabs off our hands and dispose of them somehow. That's when the shop owners wife took two meat stick things (like cabobs but it's one long thing of meat) of the stove out front and gave them to us with pan and a napkin for each of us. We were very greatful and told them how kind they were, then told them we'd pass by later and went on our way. With surprise meat sticks instead of crabs in hand, Elder Hadlock turned to me and said ''I think this might just be the strangest day of my life.'' I laughed, and agreed.
The meat sticks were really good too.
So that's my story of Tuesday! There were actually two more funny stories in the day but I don't want to spend too much time on just Tuesday. I knew that I couldn't really take a break that day with a clear conscious, so I worked anyway. Then, God went ahead and said ''Yeah, I know I can't give you a long break, but what I can give you is 3 new investigators, two drunk people, turkey-people, two live crabs, a racist, and a meat stick.''
Thanks God, I think I actually really needed that.
ENTONCES the next few days were really strange because Elder Hadlock had to go to Rancagua for a training of new District Leaders up there. So I just returned from Talca on Wednesday with Elder Schley and his new trainee. The trainee is really cool, his name is Elder Rodriguez and he's from Mexico. Luckily, he understands English well so when I'm too lazy to speak in Spanish we're still all good. That night we couldn't do anything because we had to let him unpack, and then the next day as a trio was a little odd, but still fun. We went to the overlook out of the forrest that Elder Hadlock and I went to that one time to see the sunset over the Piedra de la Iglesia and the beach and it was easily the most gorgeous thing I've ever seen in my life. Don't worry, I'll send pictures. That night Elder Hadlock came back with the zone leaders and we all went to a birthday party that Karina (One of the good friends of ours that we're teaching Engtlish to) was throwing in her house. That night the zone leaders stayed with us which was really fun, then journeyed back to Talca the next morning.
That was my week! Until next week!
Elder Fox
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