Coke, Sprite, Fanta.. anything new?‏

Thanks everyone again for the letters.. it´s always nice on Mondays coming to read everyone´s letters. Sounds like everyone had a nice Thanksgiving and Black Friday. If anyone was wondering that doesn´t exist here so nothing was different. Pretty boring I know. Anything this week was pretty slow at the beginning but started to pick up towards to weekend. We have been as you all now struggling to find new people to teach that are somewhat decent. We have been trying to do less contacts and just to only work through the members to ask for references and also look for less actives that have family members who aren´t members. I will be sending you a picture of this member after, but we have reactivated Hermano V.  He lived in Australia for 30 years and says he knows more than 10 languages. We knows a few words in English but for 30 years there he should be fluent. Anyways I was thinking the other day I guarantee no missionaries have ever asked him for references. We went over there, had a good lesson to help him remember about the blessings he received, and had him write his testimony in the Book of Mormon. (Had me write and he just signed it) We told him to think of someone he could give the book to. He thought of his neighbor a little bit further down and said he would do it. We went back 2 days later to contact and it was a mom with 2 kids and her husband was out working. She told me she had been reading the Book of Mormon but couldn´t understand it. We helped her out and also shared The Restoration with her. She said she was scared of big crowds at church but that she was excited to read and learn more. We have an appointment with her tomorrow and I believe her husband will be there.  Hermano V knows every single date for all the prophets, their births, the ages of prophets in the Book of Mormon and what age they died, etc.) We are going to bring a different member with visit with that family instead of him because he will just start talking about the most random things haha. Anyways she smokes so in the future she might have a problem with that. Don´t worry too much because we´ve only had 1 lesson with her so we´ll see where she goes from there.  Also yesterday we went and visited a 14 year old boy that got baptized 2 years ago but never went to church after that. This whole week we were trying to find his house but we could never find it and would always run out of time. Finally we found it yesterday and his family was so surprised to see the missionaries. We immediately got in their house. G, the 14 year old member, was super shy and nervous it seemed like. We got in and just started talking to them about everything. It had been 2 years since the missionaries had visited them which really surprised me. His mom isn´t a member, his brother, and his aunt that was there visiting but lives in Yungay. We shared the Restoration with them and they all agreed to read the pamphlet we left them about it. It was really good and they really enjoyed talking to the missionaries again. The mom did say she was Catholic but we´re going to keep sharing with them. Maybe it´s their time. The brother is way cool with us but is like 25 or so. G is super excited to come with us to the English class on Friday and the movie night. I guess he hardly leaves his house and his mom wants us to help him out. That should be good. Also yesterday we found a lady I had been wondering about for a very long time. We contacted her a long time ago with Elder C. She told us she would have been baptized but a missionary left and she didn´t like the new one. Haha but we weren´t able to get her address the first time but finally we met up with her in the street. She gave us her phone number and wants us to pass by soon. We are starting to see some small miracles in Yungay and starting to find a few more people to teach little by little. We also had church in Chillan for the Stake Conference. Our ward mission leader gave us a ride there early in the morning so we were there for the priesthood session too. President Arrington gave a talk there but we were the only missionaries there. After, a bunch more came for the actual stake conference where he and his wife( the president translated for her) gave talks as well. They did a really good job. We had a total of 6 members from Yungay make the trip to Chillan which was super disappointing. The President, secretary, ward mission leader, elder´s quorum president, and 2 sisters. Anyways it was a good conference and it was focused on helping the full-time missionaries out. Today we went to Chillan to do some shopping. I was looking for some more pants to wear so I took like 100 bucks there just in case. I was also looking for another backpack for mini-cambios and some sunglasses. We also went because we were craving a Big Mac. Anyways we went into a store and I found some good pants that were 30 bucks so I was looking for another pair. Then I spot a certain brand that is on sale for 16 bucks. I had no idea what size I was in in centimeters so I went and tried 5 different sizes on and finally found the right one. I went to the register to buy the pants for 16 bucks but it rang up about 5 bucks. They were like this can´t be right... so they called the manager over and she´s like it´s all good they´re on sale. I was like wow okay that´s cool. So I went over to look for some more pants and found some tan pants (they are allowed in the mission now) and bought those for also 5 bucks. They are nice pants too and I felt like a champion walking out of that store.. just saying :) While eating some scones before that, I heard some yelping from a dog across the street. There was a huge crowd of people and all I could see was this lady swinging her purse. This yelping was unlike anything I´ve heard before just nonstop... it was so sad. I then finally can see.. and there´s 2 dogs fighting. The same size of dogs, but one was biting the others throat. He was whipping him around like a ragdoll.. I´m not exaggerating. Whipping the dog side to side by his throat and banging him on the sidewalk. It was honestly one of the saddest things I´ve ever seen. There was a huge crowd of people watching and people kicking and hitting the other dog and finally it let go. I didn´t see what happened to the other dog but it walked or ran off. I´ve seen some dead dogs here but that honestly made me so sick to my stomach. Freak I love dogs. I miss Bella but I´m so glad she´s at home. Anyways that´s basically all that happened this week... G has a baptism date for the 21st (after transfers) and is aware she needs to go to church 2 more times in order to do it. She has all the commandments taught except for tithing.  Pray for her so she can progress.  The music from Marshall McDonald didn´t work so if Jon could send it through Gmail that would probably be better. My allergies have been a little bit better.. I had to go buy some nose spray for 20 bucks which I should get reimbursed for. It´s starting to get so hot it´s ridiculous. But I gotta do what I gotta do. I´m glad the Utes were able to win the Toilet Bowl of theirs they had against Colorado. Better luck to them next year. I still love and support my Utes 100%! I shouldn´t need a phone card because we will be able to talk again through Skype for an hour and a half. I will have to make arrangements depending if I get transferred or not. I can´t remember any other questions I was asked or anything that happened this week so I´ll sign off for this week. Thanks for everything and I´ll talk to you all next week!

 Getting a shoeshine!

 Trenton with newly activated member

Enjoying the country...