Hey everybody! This was easily the weirdest week of my whole mission, and sadly that resulted in us not being able to do very much as far as working goes. But there are still a few good stories to share!
First though I have news! I be goin to Santiago! We got the changes Saturday and Elder Barbosa will be staying in Paniahue to finish off his mission and I'll be going to a zone called Buin, which is a city in the South of Santiago (it's right on the border of our mission and the Santiago South mission.) The branch I'll be serving in, however, is called Hospital, a city that seems to be about 30 to 45 minutes south of Buin. I hear good things about the place! I'll be comps with Elder Mendez, from Mexico. I've never heard of him, nor has anyone else that I've talked to, so it's likely that he's newer. So we'll see how that goes!
So the weird (wierd or weird?) week! Everything was mas o menos normal until Thursday, when Elder Crane got a call from President saying that he would be the new assistant the next change. Which is awesome! Elder Crane is one of my best friends in the mission, and he'll do a fantastic job. But that meant that the assistants were going to come by and pick him up that night, and that Elder Barbosa and Elder Young and I would be combining sectors and working as a trio until Tuesday, the day of the actual changes. So that day we had to wait around for the assistants then go out and work as a trio. The next day! We get a call from Elder Santini saying that his comp was going to be a secretary in the office and that they were going to come to Santa Cruz and that the secretaries would pick his comp up that night and Elder Santini was going to stay in Santa Cruz with us and be temporary companions with Elder Young. The next day, there was a baptizm in Santa Cruz and Elder Barbosa had to help prepare for it, so we did divisions and I worked with ELder Santini while Elder barbosa and Elder Young prepared for the baptism. The next day, we found out that there would be a whitewash in Pichilemu so both Elder from Pichi were going to come to our house and live there for the weekend on their way out. So we had to wait for them to get to the house and then we worked in trios again.
I'm sorry, that was super complicated. And that's why it was the weirdest week ever! And we weren't able to get much done. BUT I still have some stories.
This week was a super famous week in Santa Cruz! I already forgot what it was called, but it has something to do with wine! Turns out, this valley is one of the best places in the world for wine and for it's vineyards, so it's actually a pretty touristic place. It attracts a lot of people from France, and some from the States and England and other places like that. This week, however, is the official week of wine in Santa Cruz. So there are a ton of foreigners everywhere this week. The only downside to this is that the purpose of the holiday is to drink wine, which makes things a little iffy for us. In fact, on the way to the baptizm Saturday, Elder Santini and I walked through the thick of the festivities. I've never seen so much wine in my life. But anyway, I digress. The coolest thing about all of this, though, was that Saturday I saw an airshow! An airshow! In Santa Cruz Chile! Probably just about the weirdest place in the world to see an airshow! It was actually extremely impressive, as impressive as the performances are in the Hill Air Force Base airshow. So that was definitely the highlight of my week! Luckily it was during lunch so I could pause and watch it all while it was happening.
Today we went to one of the coolest museums I've ever been to. It's here in Santa Cruz, and it has thousands of things from all ages of the history of Chile. The coolest, though, are the artifacts from the ancient inhabitants of South America. They have thousands of tools, artwork, pots, everything from the ancient inhabitants of South America. It was one of the coolest things I've ever seen! The coolest thing though, is that I saw a lot of things that support the history of the Book of Mormon. Which I thought was cool! At one point in the museum there was a timeline of the age of the artifacts and places that they've found, and they all start at - you guessed it - 600 B.C. There are a few before that (including some temples) which I would assume are from the Jaredites, but the vast majority of the things found date from after 600 B.C. I just thought that that was cool.
So there were two moments this week where I was moved to tears in the most unexpected moments. Which, if you know me, never happens to me! I almost never get moved to tears, ever. So that fact that it happened twice this week was something interesting for me. The first was when I was saying goodbye to my little branch in Paniahue. Of course, upon hearing that I'd be going to Buin I was a little sad to be leaving Paniahue but I had grown to love it and had grown to love a ton of people here, but I wasn't as heartbroken as I was in Conti by a long-shot. Then I got up in fast and testimony meeting to say goodbye to my little branch of 20, and started crying out of nowhere! I think I realized that this place has shaped me more than I had originally thought, and I realized how much I had grown to love this place and all of the people here. It was a special experience, and all of the members let me know how much they appreciated what I've done for them and were genuinely sad I was leaving, which was a surprise given how much they dislike North Americans generally. Many re-told me the story of how I played the piano for the primary program the first Sunday and how much of a miracle that was for them. It's good to know that I make a difference in the lives of these members here.
The second time I got emotional was today in the museum, in an exhibit dedicated to the 33 Chilean miners that were trapped and were rescued. That, too, came out of absolutely nowhere. I would like to share more thoughts and details about that experience, but sadly I'm out of time.
I love you all, have a good week!
Elder Fox
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