Week 19

I gave  talk this sunday! It was about 20 minutes long and in front of about 90 people. It`s awesome because now i know my spanish is good enough to give that long of a talk. My spanish has been improving a tonnn in the past few weeks.

One thing that was cool, is that we always bring a member to church with us, Pedro, because he can`t walk very well. We push his wheelchair to church. It usually takes like 5 minutes to get there. BUT, this week we passed by, and he wasn`t there! When we went to church, he was there! Apparently he woke up early, and started walking to church with his cane. A trip that would take a normal person 5 minutes walking took him like 45 minutes. It was a pretty awesome miracle.

We had changes this past week, but my companion and i didn`t get changed! So, i have at least another 6 weeks  here in valdivia. I`m happy with that though because the ward here is awesome, we have a mcdonalds and a kfc and a mall here, and we have a lot of investigators and lessons. It would be cool to know another part of Chile though. 

Anyways, that`s my update for the week!

Hasta la vista

Elder Pollock

Week 18

This week was cool as usual! We had a lot of work, but not as much as the past couple weeks. We only had to speed walk between appointments instead of sprint haha.

This week we had exchanges, which is changing companions for a day. It was awesome because for that day i had a latino companion who didn`t speak english and i understood almost everything, and no one even commented on my spanish ability! They only commented on my accent, but they understood me. It`s amazing how fast you can learn a language when you`re surrounded by it. I`ve already learned more than my whole 3 years of spanish is highschool.

Also, i`m officially done with my training! After 6 weeks in the missionary training center, and 12 weeks in the field, you finally finish all the training programs and stuff. 

We also have changes this wednesday, so i might be staying in Valdivia or leave to some other random city, but we don`t know yet! I guess we`ll see next week.

Anyways, i didn`t have much to write, so i just took random pictures and wrote about them!

I`m glad to be out here working in the mission field! I know the book of Mormon is true and that`s why i`m out here. 

Black Falcon out

Elder Pollock

This is the church building our ward goes to. There`s a lot of buildings here in chile. There`s like 3 more church buildings within a 15 minute walking ditance. All the church buildings have huge fences and walls surroundings them to keep out the gangsters and grafitti and dogs and stuff. 

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This is a pretty typical street here in chile. 

One night we didn`t have a ton going on so we played on a swing set.

Week 17

One thing that was cool this week is we had a family home evening with 2 famlies in the ward and it was super fun! We ate, played games, watched a short movie, and had a short lesson. Family home evenings are super fun in the mission because they`re usually a lot more fun than lessons. I`ll have to get the pictures from one of the moms!

We were invited to a birthday party of a 10 year old, (He really wanted us to come) so we went to go drop off a present, and they invited us in to have cake and stuff! There were like 3 parents and like 15 ten year olds, and then 2 american missonaries. It was extremely awkward. But hey, at least we got to watch them play minecraft, we got cake, and we got cookies so it wasn`t too bad! 

We are soooo busy in this sector. The members are giving us tons of references and we literally dont have time to do everything! Because other than the references, we are teaching like 5 less active families, we need to talk to people in the streets and knock houses, we are visiting members and we are teaching like 7 or 8 investigators so it`s super hard to fit everything in. At least we`re busy though, and the high amount of references must mean the ward members trust us, so that`s good! This area is super productive, and we have 2 investigators with a date for baptism. 

BUT, i might be moving sectors because we have changes in 2 weeks. I`ll know if i`m staying or going by saturday. I really want to stay because this sector is super good and we`re seeing a lot of miracles, but i also want to go to expereince another part of Chile! But i`m happy either way!

Also, this is a side note, but me and my companion had a war with 2 little 6-7 year old kids the other day. We walked by and they pretended to shoot us, so we ran away and hid, they chased us, we died, and then we became zombies so that was a highlight of my day! 

Anyways, time is short, talk to you all next week!

May the force be with you 

Elder Pollock

We went bowling again!

 

 

Hugeee completo (It`s like a hot, except it has avocado)

This is what our mamita makes for us everyday. (The picture with spaghetti) We eat at her house every day for lunch. She always makes us really good food! 

Week 16-Conference

We had conference this weekend and it was so awesome! We went to the stake center to watch it, and there was a room just for english missionaries to watch it in english. There was only 4 of us and we brought cookies and candy and it was a good time. It`s amazing how much you can get out of conference if you really pay attention and spirtually prepare for the messages.

Also, my parents sent me a package and i got it on sunday!! There was pez, laffy taffy, peanut butter, and a dog tazer, which are all rare finds down here in Chile. The dog tazer works super well (It emits sound). A dog tried to follow us, so i used it and he ran the opposite direction as fast as he could. I have a new toy to use now! And now we wont get attacked by dogs anymore haha.

Other than conference, this was the busiest week i`ve had so far. We literally ran from appointment to appointment to get there on time and not miss one. Not only are we teaching, we`re getting a workout too!

A couple days ago we visited a less active member named Elizabeth. her 18 year old daughter answered the door and said her mom wasn`t home so we would have to come back later. Little did they know, i could see through the crack in the door hinge and perfectly see her Mom sitting on the couch! We talked to the daughter for like 3 minutes and before we left i asked if her Mom was home again, and she said no again so when we were leaving and she was shutting the door, i said ¨bye Andrea!¨ (The daughter) and then ¨Bye Elizabeth¨ (The Mom) and their reaction was priceless. We might not speak spanish perfectly, but you can`t fool the missionaries! haha it was funny though and we`re going to visit them next week.

I`m grateful for the opportunity to serve a mission and my testimony is growing exponentially. Until next week!

Peace

Elder Pollock