Well I am here in Chile on Memorial´s Day on a very rainy
day! It´s nothing too new right? Anyways I´m glad your trip to Idaho was a
success and filled with so much entertainment that you can´t even help yourself
but jump for joy :) no but for reals I´m glad you guys enjoyed yourself! I
enjoyed reading what Carter said when Julie asked him where I was.. I´m glad he
still remembers me :) That´s too bad about Grandma.. I feel so bad. I don´t
ever think I ever really said goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa which makes me
kind of sad.. but tell them that I love them! Well Grandpa since he knows who I
am.. anyways I´m doing alright here in Linares! The new missionary came to live
in our house and I was so excited to not be the worst at Spanish! However, I
already told you last week what would happen because of my never-ending bad
luck. A Latin from Guatemala... yes.. let´s all remember how I called this last
week. There were 6 gringos that came and 2 Latins, so you would think my odds
were pretty good of getting a gringo in my house right? Oh wait.. my name is
Trenton :) haha so I´m still the worst at Spanish.. but I actually really like
him. He´s really nice and pretty chill. Our house is so much better without
that other elder. Even my companion was like.. wow you can tell such a
difference with him gone. Also, Elder C is 10x better and nicer now.. I know
the other elder got mad at him for speaking ANY English to me.. but we´re
pretty good friends now that we can have some fun with American humor :) Lately I´ve been incredibly hungry and
starving. I eat and eat and eat but I´m never satisfied. The other day I had a
big meal from a member that the other missionaries had a hard time
finishing, and I went home and ate 2 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and
Top Ramen. I was still hungry after.. and I´ve noticed I´ve gained quite a bit
of weight already. Like almost unhealthy for how long I´ve been here. Okay onto
my experiences this past week. There is this lady named Elia that we have been
visiting and she is so awesome. She has all the desires to be baptized and keep
the commandments but there´s one problem. Her husband gets drunk all the time
and if she was baptized, would be sooo angry. We were there the other day and
she just started crying, and started singing a song to us which I didn´t understand
because of the Spanish and she was crying. It´s super sad but there´s nothing
we can really do. We´ve been having a big problem with this Catholic lady that
lives in an area in which we like to work. She hates us more than anything, and
has made an effort to go door to door telling everyone to not listen to us. We
were in the new converts house this past week (single mother that can´t take
care of her kids) and guess who knocks on the door. The Catholic lady. She
comes in and tells us we are complete garbage and how the mom (Claudia) needs
to lock the door on us and not let us in. These past few days we have tried to
visit Claudia, but she doesn´t answer her door or tells us she is always busy. Also, we have 2 awesome investigators named Evelyn and Martin. It is
a 30 year old mom and her 11 year old son... they actually came to church
yesterday too! The missionaries have been working with her for awhile, but she
had to work every Sunday. Saturday, she called us and told us that she doesn´t
have to work on Sunday anymore! How cool is that? While at church, Evelyn
leaned over to my companion and asked him if it´s possible they could be
baptized in a river. Sooooo that´s pretty cool so hopefully they keep
progressing and they can be my first baptism! We were visiting them last night,
and guess who knocks on the door?
The Catholic lady! Yeah what the heck I know.. we have no
idea how she knew we were there. Luckily earlier, we had told Evelyn that this
Catholic lady had been giving us problems so she knew. Anyways as soon as the
Catholic lady walked in, you could tell the Spirit just immediately left the
room. Both my companion and I got this weird feeling and we left soon after
that. We went and contacted some less actives and they fed us once (Jeremy can
tell you about that). I also said a small prayer that whatever the Catholic
lady told Evelyn, that she wouldn´t believe it. After that Evelyn called us and
told us that the Catholic lady had told her that we missionaries were garbage,
we were a false church, and we were paid to be out here. However, Evelyn said,
¨I know that´s not true because at church today, I learned that you guys did
this voluntarily.¨ How cool is that? She told us to come back and visit her and
she would give us fries to eat. We went back and it was really good! The 11
year old loves me and is making an effort to learn some English while I´m
there. We had a notebook and paper and everything and had a nice English lesson!
In return he cut out a superhero for me to tape in my planner.. haha he´s a
funny kid! Anyways last Tuesday we were supposed to have Family Night with this
less active family. The mother´s name is Cintia and she loves the missionaries!
She always feeds us and loves when we visit her. She called us that morning,
and told us that her wallet had been stolen. She asked us for money, but the
zone leaders told us that we weren´t able to give her any. She got super upset
and told us that the other missionaries had given her money, but in ¨secret¨.
We told her we couldn´t do that and she was mad. We went back Thursday or
Friday night to see how she was doing and she was super short with us and told
us she was busy. She said, Ï will find a way to feed my family tonight, I
will.¨ She´s just trying to make us feel bad but to be honest I don´t think her
wallet really got stolen. Maybe it did, but my gut feeling is it wasn´t.
Anyways it sucks because she was going to teach me how to make their bread :(
Anyways the Spanish is coming along okay.. I still can´t understand a ton of
things which is super frustrating. I feel like I can say whatever I want, but
the people speak SOOOOOO fast here. I think that´s what the hardest thing is
for me right now.. it´s hard because I can´t teach as well when I don´t know
what they´re saying. At times I get frustrated because I feel like some of my
time is going to waste because I can´t teach or communicate as well as I´d like
to. I know it takes a lot of time and patience so the Lord is definitely
teaching me patience right now. I don´t have a whole lot more to report.. it
was a decent week and I´m just hoping Evelyn and Martin will keep progressing!
I´m also hoping I don´t get too fat and nothing is wrong there.. for reals tho
if I sent a picture of me right now you would think I was Jon. Hahahaha freak I
miss those jokes... Love you Donovan!!! :) Again I´m glad you all enjoyed
yourselves in Idaho (apart from Jeremy and Jon) and had a good week! Thank you
all for writing me/pictures! Mom, I honestly don´t know why that lady called me
haha but it´s whatever. Trevor good luck with your applications for a new job!
Let me know what happens with that.. and Heather.. definitely send me the
pictures of Brielle´s room! :) Brian, thanks again for the pictures, Dallin
looks like he has a ton of hair and is HUGE! Anyways thanks for everything and
I love you all!!!!!
From Linares, Chile:
TRENTON ¨TREMPIN¨ DANIEL NEILSON OUT!!!!
