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Hey Yall,
Wow, what a week it's been. Elder Bustos is leaving me this cambio to go die over in Temuco. He's going to live in a house with another Elder that's dying this next cambio, too. By dying I mean their going home, because by no means is Elder Bustos dying. My question for the week: Does the Cottrell family have a relative serving here in Chile? Because Elder Cottrell is going to be my new companion in Santa Barbara. Elder Aaron Cottrell. He's going to be District leader here and apparently has been in the mission a little over a year. He came in the group of missionaries that arrived just after the Earthquake of 2010. We're going to get a lot done this cambio.
We know that the second coming is still a year away, because I saw at least three rainbows this week. It's been raining like none other and there was one day when we walked around in it all day, from 3 until 9. Needless to say Elder Bustos and I got soaked to the bone, but we're both fine. It's definitely becoming winter here in the southern hemisphere.
We had a surprise Visit from Hermana Swenson this week. She is always going around to the mission houses to make sure they're sanitary and to make sure the missionaries are still alive. She brought us treats and made Elder Bustos nervous when she asked about his English. He speaks really well, he just got nervous in front of the Hermana. She didn't stay long because our house is pretty clean and she has a million other things to do as the wife of the mission president.
We have been finding lots of families to teach this week. We finally met the husband of Mabel, one of our good friends. He doesn't visit with us, but we're working with her and the kids. We also happened to knock the door of her sister, Maricela. Maricela and her Husband Francisco are very amiable and we're planning to teach them very fast. As for the other family, well, we were lucky. We knocked doors one day and found Juan. He came out and told us he was leaving, but that we could visit with his mom and his sister. We went inside and met Juan, Alexis(A guy), Bridget, their mom and one other brother and taught them basically all of the lessons in one. They are of an evangelical background and had all kinds of questions about knowing where the truth is and how to find it. We're hoping to visit with them again this week.
I think we were so lucky with Families because of the Semana Santa, or the Holy week in English. We all know that it´s the week before easter, but it's a huge holiday here in South America. Religious movies play pretty much 24/7 and people are all upset about the price of traveling to see their families, etc. It's huge.
Sadly, there's no look-alike for this week. I do have a great story, though. I went to use my credit card when I realized something...I don't have a credit card. I've been trying to figure out why my card doesn't work when I realized that I've been using a debit card. This being the case, I now know how to use it and it works just fine. It was a, "Duh, Dale" moment.
Sacrament Meeting was a little weird this week. Normally we arrive at the church at 9, which we did this week. Normally there are some members who show up shortly after us. This week the first person to show up came in at 9:59, just before Sacrament meeting. When we started at 10:20, there were ten of us. We finally ended up with a normal attendance of 18, but it was weird to direct the music, give a talk, bless and pass the sacrament all in the same meeting. That was the other weird thing. The old couple of the branch, Hermano and Hermana Jaque, didn't show up until about 10:35. Now, Hermano Jaque is that old guy who shows up at 5 for an activity that starts at 7. Really. It´s true. I don't know what happened yesterday, but the sacrament was passed and we were OK. :)
This week has been filled with good-byes and hellos and we're really excited for what comes in the future. Chao!

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