week #5

I will not say much and just let you get to the letter. Pray for him to get over the infections that plague his life. I know they make him miserable and not very effective as a missionary. It brings him down because he can't seem to do much. Darn it! So here you go...


I did a mail to dad about the details, but it sufficeth me to say that they certainly did, and I saw the doctor. I could probably use some of that wash stuff. As for not working, it could be a few days before I can go at all. Fetch. I would work inside in a second, and the President said that could very well happen because I know computer stuff, but I have to be good enough at Spanish first.

The call can be 24, 25, or 26th. Whenever. It's an hour long. I don't know how to do google voice with it. Maybe look into it? I could maybe have you call from voice to a member's phone. I don't know. Is there a way to call collect on google voice? I don't know. I can always get a phone card, but that's rather expensive. And the coin phones are hard core shank. Basically you just do it however you want. Some crooked "chueco" missionaries will call every day or for like 3 hours, and no one ever finds out. In conclusion, a lot of freedom there. Whenever is better. Remember the time difference.

I still haven't been homesick except for when they were working on my infections. I just thought about mountain dews and doing stuff that's fun that you don't have to do.

Turns out the reason I couldn't do pull ups was that I had too much weight. I don't know what I've lost, but I can do double the exercises now. From walking very briskly all day, I actually am pretty conditioned. We play soccer and I run around the whole time and never get sideaches or out of breath. It's really suprising because it doesn't seem like I've done that much exercise, but I have. We truly walk ten miles a day very easily. Every part of our area is a mile apart or more, so if we have a different appointment, we do a mile. This could happen hourly. You do the math.

We did actually have a baptismal date the other day. But then the lady, an older community organizer, bailed. She is putting together an enormous Christmas program for kids who don't have Christmas, with food and presents and all. It's a pretty good excuse, since she did say she wanted to start up again after. But losing a date is awful. We've really been having a lot of disappointments this change - Elder Mann says it's the worst he's ever seen in terms of people suddenly turning us down or stopping the discussions. We've just now found a couple of people that are refered to here as "los escogidos" - the chosen. You know it when you see it. People who have questions that fit the Church perfectly, like "Why are there so many chuches?" or "Why do priests get paid/never get married?" You show them the Book of Mormon and they often accept it before you ever enter their house. We have two right now. One's an older lady with a daughter who converted recently (having any family whatsoever in the Church is fantastic) who had the first question. The other is a single man with an autistic son with the second. He didn't believe the Catholic Church had authority because people vote on the Pope and stuff like that. Elder Mann and I just waited for him to look away to do a fist bump.

I may be shorter than Jake, but you should see the people here. On the metro today I could see the eye-level exit ("salida") signs at the very back of the train 100 feet away; not a single person was tall enough to block my view. I have seen probably 20 people up close who where heavier or taller than me. I am a very large person here. I don't fit in most seats. It's really kind of funny. I routinely accidentaly move couches when I stand up and my knees usually sick out in the air because of the lowness of them.

They do have a metro here. It's a lot like the DC one, except with people pushing into the car to let the door close. It's kind of dark and it smells like cave. Even so, people sell ice cream bars and play saxophones on the trains for money. You'd think it'd become annoying - and it does at first, but you actually wish there was one when there isn't. We actually heard a really cool tribalish singer/drum player on the bendy-bus (Oh, did I mention there are bendy-buses here?). They actually have a deal with the bus company to not pay every time they get on the bus, but rather pay a commission or something. You really think it's going to be annoying, but sometimes you actually do want a cold pear or a ice cream bar, and it's not at all expensive. They sell creamies (different in name only)(called "Como Mono" [which is wordplay, because como can mean "like" or "I eat". It's banana flavor, so it's "I eat like a monkey" ie, a banana. You get it, I think.])

The first picture is one of the four of us in our pension. I don't remember if I've told you about them before. Elder Silva is the native. He's a firefighter, actually. He is learning english, which is huge in Chile. Speaking English is a guaranteed good job anywhere. You can translate instuction manuals and other such things, teach in school, be a live translator for tv shows or conferences, or whatever. Elder Smith is a very white guy from Texas. I think he did a bunch of school in history already. I belive he likes history in the proximity of Joseph Smith and the Civil War, which means he's a good authority on anything about the beginning of the Church. They work immediately around the pension, and we work 15 minutes away.

That baked good is an empanada. I finally got one, and that was it. It was a nepolitano, which means it had pizza ingredients in it. Fantastic. Like nothing the states has. It's like the best bread you can imagine for an empanada, with legit, thick slices of meat in it. They cook them in broiling oven things while you wait and give them to you hot enough to melt plastic. I mentioned the good chocolate milk, but that is it. Soprole. It has no sugar really, but it's dark and just awesome. It's utterly fantastic also. That's the trend in Chile. The normal people food is pretty so-so. I ate freaking pancreas the other day! It actually wasn't any worse than the meat-meat, but the meat-meat was pretty bad anyway. They just boil it usually, no seasoning or anything. When you see them get out the barbeque though, that is an exciting thing. Things made for occassions are very, very good. Restaurants are extremely good and rather cheap. Desserts almost of all kinds are also just better than the States. They sell layered ice cream in sleeves, much like those dairy queen cakes, but they have twenty kinds. Of course, this ice cream follows the "more cream, less sugar" philosophy. It's so creamed out that it doesn't ever get hard in the freezer. It will always be scoopable. People here have discovered how great cold stuff is recently, and now most people have a legit cold fridge. It's always great to see people come out of the kitchen with a condensing Coke bottle for lunch. It's often the best part of the meal, unfortunately. They operate on a bottle-exchange system, and when you get them, they are already cold enough. The only reason we don't buy them is there's no room in the fridge.

I'm trying to be more focused with these things. I need to read some of Randy's letters again. He had it figured out. What did he do?

Also, I have confirmed that Grandma can email me. Or any family. Just saying.

Elder AC Crist