I cannot believe how slow the mail gets to Alex! We shipped two packages on the same day. Mostly just to split the cost and we had a few things to send, but he has only gotten one of those. Crazy! He got one after like three weeks and then nothing. We have sent another one but hopefully he will get the others too! Just in case anyone ever wants to send something. Expect 6-8 weeks for delivery but hope and pray for faster.
Oh, and sorry no pictures this time! I guess they have to remember things in the morning and if they don't, they just do without. Like converters and such. Oh well! Hopefully next time
Riley(Alex's cousin) will be going to the Vina Del Mar, Chile Mission in June. That is just North of Alex but covers a very large area up to Antofagasta. That will be exciting for them when they come home and can totally speak to each other and all of that fun stuff. I am totally excited for them both!
We love you Elder Crist!
Business things:
No packages after socks yet.
A missionary on his way to the office to go home said I´ll want like 17 garments in the winter because they don´t dry very fast when it´s raining. So like three or four more, MT (medium tall), maybe one click smaller on the waist.
ªªªªªªUmbrella. Important! I need a good one, smallish, and very American in quality. Chilean ones tend to rust. In May, it´s going to rain extremely hard in three day spurts, probably until October.
Two copies of the scripture master scripture stickers (there are 100 in total, in packs of 25, I´d imagine.)(Elder Silva would really like them because they´re really, really expensive here)
Viña del Mar? I talk to people at times who have just been there on vacation! Flip, Kip. I´m sure suddenly they´re going to "remember" me and start asking what stuff to do to get ready. I can use any attention, so I welcome it. It sufficeth me to say for now, until asked more, that Chile is bakán. That´s Chilean (not Spanish - Chilean) for "sick" or "dope." You do not understand cheese until you´ve taken down a cheese empanada off the street from a guy with 4 teeth. Not to scare anyone, but Chilean spanish is the second fastest spoken Spanish dialect in the world, so you have that to look forward to. Oh, and it someone asks you if you want "guatita", say NO.
No, but seriously, Viña is where everyone goes to party, because it´s just so dang pretty and climatically perfect. I´d imagine the mission reaches into the country, but mostly against the beach. That´s awesome. The cool thing is he´ll go through the main building with his mission president that I used just today. (Elder Silva needed to see the doctor) Bakán!
On the other side of "bakán," Brennan almost blew my face off. I turned to Elder Silva and told him, and he just started laughing. He said, "Fetch, man- only missed it by a year." Yeah, exactly. The thing is, it could have been so easily true, based on Utah standards, I didn´t even consider joking. It actually would have been a little late for Happy Valley.
On the topic Melipilla, we had a baptism. Elder Silva actually did it. It was a great service, and I´m sure that between her, and her mom who´s already baptized, they´ll be active forever. I wasn´t terribly involved in teaching her, but we´ve had some moments.
Our big investigator happening now is Carlos Vargas, a construction worker (I think). He´s probably the best investigator ever, for he is both prepared for the gospel, and studies the material independently and well. He gives us a ten-minute summary of what he´s read of the Book of Mormon and the pampflets each time.
I just hope he can find what he needs in the Gospel. He attempted suicide, but now has changed everything about him. But now his ex-wife, with the court behind her, is messing him over. He made one mistake, and now he can´t get away from her. She manipulates his feelings for her and the kids to get more money from him. It´s scary, and it´s hard to deal with for us because we´re not really here to give him "professional-level" council and assistance on this level of thing. I don´t know what to really do, but I think what we´re doing is helping him understand the purpose of all these things.
I met the most interesting man Sunday. The teacher of Gospel Principles (here I am again with Gospel Principles) is a doctor in this ward. He has a way of teaching and thinking that are pretty much mine, evolved to where I want them to be. I´ve started to realize a few of the ways I approached commandments were "apologistic", let´s say. For example, a lot of the time we make Word of Wisdom like a thing we´d do even if it wasn´t revealed. We discussed why the Lord has prohibited coffee. People think - "It must be for the caffeine. God is trying to say "Caffeine."" But, we are apologizing for the Lord´s commandments by taking out conclusions that we don´t have the authority to take. The commandment is for coffee. Coffee. Coffee. We try to make the commandments make sense to men, but that´s not what they´re designed to do. For example.
Also, in the class, the question of why the Egyptian that Joseph Smith translated isn´t available to the public, but is rather stored by BYU came up. He explained a lot of stuff about the translation, why it would be difficult, and why people would mess it up, etc, but then he stopped. He said, "Look. You know why it is, really? Let´s go to Habbukuk." Habbukuk? What the heck is Habbukuk? In the first part, Habbukuk is asking God what the heck is up with the world. Then, chapter 2, verse 4. Look at what it says about faith.
Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith .
That is why.
I feel pretty lame up against Randy´s thoughts. There´s that, though.
Oh, something funny. I´ve been teaching Elder Silva the ABCs. He now says "ema-ho-pee" like Abby did. Haha.
Love and stuff,
Elder A. Conrad Crist
(It looks more "Quorum of the Seventy" that way, don´t you think?)
Someone tell Grandma I can finally drink that hot cocoa because now it´s really cold in the morning.
(I´d just like to add that what they´re teaching you pretty much comes out of chapter ten and eleven of Preach My Gospel, if you want to get a jump on it.)
I´ll have to explain to you my version 4.1 marking system sometime. It´s awesome, and not complicated. Sufficeth to say, marking it makes it stick in your head better.
All I can say for now about music, without thinking over a few days, is SOUNDTRACKS that don´t have words. Gladiator´s is freaking amazing, for example. I´ll get back to you on that.
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