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Hey Yall,

This week is all about yesterday. Yep. I´m writing on Tuesday. It´s allowed, don´t worry. Yesterday was the last official day of President Swenson´s service as President, so we had a conference with the whole mission(all 180-something missionaries) and we purposely did it on preparation day so we could use the time to travel and not lose precious days of work in the mission. All of the Elders and Sisters from the South came up and stayed over night Sunday in houses of missionaries in the north of the mission. So, guess who we had in our house on Sunday? My Trainer, Papi and piano extraordinaire: Elder Kamalu! He and his companion stayed the night in our house on Sunday to make the conference the next day. We talked about how the sector was doing(I´m in the sector that he opened a year ago) and how the people of Temuco were doing. It was great time that night.

The next morning was the morning of the festivities. I´ve never seen such a sight. We got up real early to make the bus that picked up the missionaries of our zone and whoever was staying over at each of their houses. Yes, we rented a bus. It was about 30 or 40 missinoaries on that bus. All from the zones of Coronel, Temuco and Lebu. It was a sight to see. We got off the bus at the Chapel where were having the conference and talked to all of our old companions and our friends from the MTC and what not.

Before the conference, we went to take a picture as a mission with President Swenson before he goes home from the Mission. We got up on the stage with all of us and had a professional take a few pictures. What happened next was awesome. After a couple of pictures, we blind-folded President and Hermana Swenson while all the elders switched out their ties for white ties and all the sisters threw on white shirts or shawls. Then we took the blindfold off to surprise President and Hermana Swenson with a sea of white missionaries. It was an amazing sight. :)

Afterwards we had words from Hermana Swenson before having comedy sketches done by the different zones in the Mission. There was a sketch about angels working like missionaries, about entering houses while knocking doors and many others. It was a grand old time. :)

We then had lunch and during lunch we were awesome! Nearing the end of Lunch, Elder Tonimaipe´a got up and started yelling in Maori. He´s from New Zealand and he had been teaching some of us the Haka for weeks before. So, he got up there on stage and started yelling in Maori, inviting those of us who knew it to come up and dance the Haka. It was amazing because many people didn´t know about it, especially not President. We did it and there was an amazing power of all of us yelling and speaking Maori.

We´re all going to miss President, but it was a great day yesterday as we felt the spirit and took turns saying goodbye to President and Hermana. Thanks for everything to them! :)

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