week # 7

We got to skype with Alex this week, which was just awesome! I can't believe he is so far away and yet it was like he was just away at college. Actually, he would have been home for Christmas but at least he is safe and having relatively good times! He sent a few pictures too which always makes me happy. I really miss him but realized his mission is 1/6 over! Hard to believe but only 5 more of those and we will have him back! Yay!!!!! He looks really skinny! He says he can put both hands in fists in the waist band of his pants. His shirts are probably about 1/2 inch too big on both sides of his neck. Sheesh! He has been sick as well as walking 10-15 miles a day so the weight has just fallen off. Hopefully he doesn't get any skinnier! I won't even recognize him!




I really haven't done anything since I talked to you guys. We basically went to church (and our investigators ditched us), tracted that day, got our shirts from the lady who cleans them, and then it was PDay. Today we all were super tired, and we have been for a few days. We heard it could be mold or something, so we cleaned the walls and stuff today, all day, with chlorine something that was awful. The house smells like a public pool today. Suddenly I've started getting really bad cramps out of nowhere. I guessed it was electrolyte imbalance from all the 'rhea. What I'm saying with all that is not a lot of stuff you want to hear about happened after that.

However, the week was a lot of stuff. I named the pictures so you can tell what they are if I forget to mention them. (The pictures kind of suck. I think the camera's wearing out or something.) Elder Lacambra moved in this week to replace Elder Silva, who is in the picture "in the pension" Elder Lacambra is from Spain. He already speaks Spanish, as you might imagine, but he speaks English like a missionary who's been out for a month. He can usually get you to understand what he means to say. It's funny though, because whenever the z or c make a 's' sound in Spansih normally, they say 'th.' It makes them sound kind of... metrosexual. There's been a lot of humor about that this week. The word 'civilización' has it three times ("thivilithathion"), and he says it every time he introduces the Book of Mormon. He's actually trying to get rid of it, but it's still really funny.

Also notable among these pictures is the one of the gonzales family. They are they with whom I had Christmas Eve. The one who wants to go to BYU and loves Google is the one who looks just a little older than us. It was a fun night, and they gave us ties! The ties were actually really legit, so we wore them the next day to Church.


If we reach farther back into the week, we also have the activity with President King and the entire mission. I finally got to find out who Elder Christiansen is. He's actually really cool. Elder Monsen is related to him in the same way I am in a different direction... or something. So we took a picture. We watched the Joseph Smith movie, admittedly in Spanish, then had some painting-monkeys time with our mission friends. I sat with my district from the MTC, of course. They really are in every place they could be. I'm in the suburbs, a few of them are out in the boonies, a few in the coast, and even one in downtown city center. One Elder is in the actual most dangerous part of Santiago. Half of their sector is off limits without a member. He says it's so dangerous and scary it actually becomes funny after a while. The Elder on the coast has a picture of a spider the size of a hand that was on a tree by his house. And he has flea bites... what the flip? I don't want to go out there very much. I really like where I am, on Pablo Suarez, where the most exciting thing they do is play mariachi really loud.

Well, that's all for today.

Love,
Elder Alex C Crist

Christmas Week

I am so excited by this news! We can actually see him! Far far away but still close enough to see. Yay!

Are you ready for the best news ever? This year, and probably forever, we are going to be permitted to use Skype. Not only audio - video. All the cibers (intenet cafes) including the one I´m in have cameras... so yeah. Skype. It´s happening. I´ll have to show you how big my pants are.

Therefore, you will need my name. elder.crist. That´s it. Just type that in and it will find me. Furthermore, it will be free, besides the money to use the computer, which will be about 1.60. Win. We don´t really get to decide when to do it, as it will be next week. I´m really sorry about this, but I´m going to talk to my companion and we´re going to decide when and you´ll have to figure it out. Sorry. Use my computer probably, skype works best on it.

The thing you´ll find with Chilean food is anything made for an occasion is good. Desserts are amazing. Party stuff, like empanadas, completos, pizzas, all very good. Normal food is pretty much a choice between three things : Chicken leg with rice, porrotos, which is a kind of bean soup that is really bland, and pana, which is like "meat surprise", essentially. It could be pancreas, heart, kidney, or liver. Occasionaly they give you queso de cabeza, cheese of head, which is ground-up tongue and brain together. It is the worst thing they have here, bar none. They always have salad drenched in oil and lemon juice, which is not terribly good either. The only things you can depend upon are the drink, which is either soda or juice, and the bread, which is always good here. Always. Certain ward members make their own professionally - needless to say, I stopped buying it at the market. And tomatoes. They love tomatoes pure and raw. You can always find those too. Juice is a strong point of the stuff we get. I went to the completo place in the mall and got some pineapple juice they make with a grinder in front of the store. They add nothing to it, and it totally has awesome pulp, but it´s just good.

There are actually ads for Tron on the buses we take. It does look pretty cool. (I do remember the original) It sounds like one of those movies that Jake and I would like. I´ve already started a "trunky list" at the back of my journal, so I´ll be sure to add it.

I will probably get the stuff you sent on Wednesday at meeting. The stuff goes to the mission HQ and it gets to us over a week or so. I´m sure I´ll be getting it, in fact. Exciting. Hope it didn´t cost too much... oh, what do I care- it´s a package!

The doctors said the thing I got was probably from stick deodorant... so I am now using cool Chilean spray deodorant. It works just fine, actually. The stick kind gives certain people ingrown hairs, especially if you put it on and then put a shirt on right after without letting it sink in or something... whatever.

(my companion just said we´re going to call at 1530 Chilean time. I belive that´s 1130 there. Just be ready. elder.crist, okay? We kind of got screwed with the announcement coming out so late. If it fails, I´ll just call, but I imagine you´ll be able to do that.)

Cambios (changes) was Sunday, and we are... doing nothing. Usually you stay with your dad (trainer) for two cambios, then you leave, and he probably stays, maybe not. That´s how they call it here. Your brothers had the same trainer, your son is the Elder you trained, and so forth. Therefore, it´s very rare to meet your grandpa, but it happens from time to time. The only time I saw the MTC guys was at the "greenie meeting" a month ago, and one Elder who ended up in my zone, who I see every week. It´s way fun to meet them and talk about their areas. My companion from the MTC (the sane one) is in the most flaite area of the mission. They have a crack corner, a weed corner, etc. They get threatened all the time but nothing happens. They actually can´t go into half their area without a local. That reminds me of a story... just a second.

We were walking home one night along the highway (imagine this - it´s very loud) under an overpass. We contact this guy who is walking next to us. He was a member, but he went inactive because he didn´t believe in the Word of Wisdom. We asked him why, and he said because when Noah got off the ark, God said to him he could eat anything he could see. We tried to get his address but he didn´t let us. We started walking away, me having heard nothing, and Elder Mann says "Yeah, I´m Noah. The first thing I thought of when I got off the boat : I´m gonna go make a bong." I had no idea why he said that, so it made me laugh so hard I tripped on a rock.

But other than that, we actually do have investigators. Our best right now is a lady who lives out in the boonies of our sector. She lives in this house with a half-metal roof with her kids and husband. She has this tiny little garden of carrots in her front yard, which is mostly cement other wise. There are really only three rooms: the front with the tv, the bedroom for everyone, and the laundry/dump room. The kids sleep outside when it´s hot to save space, to give you an idea. We got in the first time, and it went really well. She had a lot of faith already in God - she said that she´s gone hungry before, but since she´s had her kids, she can feel God´s love because she never lacks food for them.

Another investigator we have you may want to hear about as well. I think I may have met one of the people most similar to Granny in the entire world. She accepts the Gospel readily, even to the point that it seems she knows it already. She hasn´t been able to set a date for baptism yet. You´d suspect the classic problems : fear, inabilty to commit to coming to church, etc. She can´t because she is too busy organizing a community-wide Christmas program for kids who don´t have enough money to do Christmas, complete with a meal and presents. She lives day-to-day almost failing at times, for she can only work on donations - she has no money to speak of. People are touched by her just enough to contribute, and the program looks to be coming off resoundingly well. What´s more, she has a bent coccyx that gives her serious pain, and a compressed siadic nerve, and diagnosed fibromyalgia, but she doesn´t stop for a moment.

When you see a person who is not a member of the Church, you need to realize something. Or a member. There´s a lot of judgment along with missionaries who don´t complete the mission. The thing is, though, all people are doing the best they can with what they´ve been given. I´d like you to reread John 9 if you find yourself thinking otherwise. They are just trying to utilize the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

The time really gets away from me on these things. Peace.

Love,
Elder AC Crist

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

busy week

Sorry I didn't get this posted sooner but we can blame the flu! I hate being sick especially this close to Christmas. The highlight of my week is obviously the letters that I get from my skinny son. I think I will have to send him some money for new clothes...already. I was under the impression that most missionaries gain weight on their missions, not lose it. We'll see if he finds some delicious treat to fill him back out.

That´s interesting that you talk about Jesus is the Americas, firstly, because that´s where I am, and secondly, because that is more often than not what we give to investigators to read the first time we leave them a Book of Mormon. The answer is always the same when we ask them how they felt when they read it - "Me sentí... paz. Tranquilidad." (I felt... peace, tranquility.) They have the same feelings you do. Jesus becomes a real, real person for them, and knowing he surely exists is what leads them to listen to us again.

I don´t know if you´ve ever read Jesus the Christ, but I´d consider it once you feel like you get the scriptures more or less. It´s not that hard of a book, or, at least, isn´t as hard as people say it is. I´ve read to about page 500 since I arrived, and I know every whit why we can read it and we cannot even read the Gospel Principles manual (true). It´s a fantastic way to get to know the Lord.

You don´t have sunshine. You should take some of mine. It´s about 90 degrees right now. There´s also an ozone hole over Chile, which means you burn in about thirty minutes of direct sun. Needless to say I´m tanner, and I use a lot of sunscreen. We are out in it about 8 hours a day, occasionally less, usually walking outdoors, which explains why I´ve made a new hole in my belt and in three weeks I now will need a new one today or tomorrow. My pants are vaguely looking wierd now because I have to pull the slack around to make it not bunch up in the front. Fetch.

I´m happy to hear that you´re doing the music stuff. Of all the stuff I did, it was the most memorable and fun. The choir trips I went on were the most fun things I did all year. I did caroling with some friends independenly of school yearly until we actually developed a reputation and received requests to go to certain places, like the hospital and such. People crying, especially around this time of year is not too uncommon when music is involved.

Here are some pictures to make you understand a little more. THAT is the shower. Scary, isn´t it? It is two feet wide, ie, you couldn´t step any more than your two feet already in the shower. The paint comes off the ceiling randomly and it routinely will stop being hot. Did I tell you about the way we get the heater to work? We have to turn on all the sinks until it turns the heater on. Whatever. Then it will go out. Why? No reason.

I´m finding those really good foods now. I had a completo, finally, that had bacon and barbeque sauce. Fantastic. It´s not exactly a fransc hot dog, but still. Also, they have a little pudding cup (of which there is a picture) called Manjarate which is a mousse with solid chocolate in it... also fantastic. I think I sent it. Hang on.

Guess it didn´t. Here they are. They gay out a lot and I have to do stuff.

But yeah. I don´t have much to say. Have any questions about stuff? There´s so much stuff here I don´t even know where to begin. We kind of got screwed on time today, as you may have noticed. I got some candy bars. I´m not hungry that much anymore. Not dead. Not injured. I have like three infections though. Pray and stuff. I need to go.

Que le vaya bien
Elder AC Crist

Thanksgiving Week #1

I say Thanksgiving Week #1 because he only has one more to go before he comes home. Okay that is still long and it doesn't seem to be going very fast! But, only 1 more Thanksgiving without him. Yay!

I finally kind of am starting to understand where I am in Chile and stuff. This may get you close on google earth: Pablo Suarez, Los Cerrillos. Our chapel is on El Mirador, with a huge parking lot/mini-soccer field, and a green fence, if you can see it.

You'd find mostly about Chile, having lived in America, that people are more concerned for the well-being of others. People generally are very accepting even of missionaries that they don't like. You can ask for a glass of water from anyone, and they'll probably offer you juice or soda instead, even if they've turned you down before. Sometimes, though, they offer you agua con gas, that is, soda water... yeah, I'm not so much into that. You drink it either way. It's better if you put a drink mix in. In fact, actually good.

There are very few homeless people, actually. We always think they could get a job if they wanted to - here, they just do. People have awful jobs for ten hours a day, but they find that to be totally fine. They and a child or spouse will work full time and they think that's totally acceptable. The families usually take their grandparent-aged people in after they retire, and said person usually still performs some function, such as daycare for the kids or sometimes a grandpa-type person will have a small business. I've seen ones that sell woodcarvings and paintings. That kind of thing.

Pictures are interesting. Some of them just didn't load so whatever. I'm going to try this time.

I actually am kind of sick. I hope it has nothing to do with the fall. Speaking of showers, our propane tank ran out. So we had cold showers. They were fantastic, as we'd just played soccer with another zone, La Cisterna. If a little asthmatic.

I am finally buying enough stuff now. The chocolate milk by Soprole is fantastic. It's got fewer calories than the US, but is better. It's darker than you'd think. They also make a mousseish pudding cup that has chocolate in the bottom... very good. As you can see, if the pictures worked, is my first completo. It has bacon and barbeque sauce. You don't have to do guacamole ever. The place is called Dominó. It has nothing to do with pizza. They're about three bucks, and they sell juice they make in front of your face out of fruit. Ridiculous.

A mission is divided into cambios, which are six weeks, always. The next is before Christmas. A transfer could theoretically happen every cambio, but that's unheard of. Usually two at minimum with each companion. Furthermore, usually you stay in the same sector and zone for two companions. Nowdays, how President King does it, the newer you are, the faster you move around. You kind of solidify and take more time in each place as you get 'older'. It's not surprising to end up in your last area or job for seven and a half months or more. I secretly want to be an office elder because they do cool bank stuff most of the day and get really fast at business Spanish, not just gospel. We'll see. Often they are Elders with injuries or sicknesses - one there now can't poo. He just moved from being my zone leader because he's developed IBS over the mission. He's actually from Concepción, so he'll finish soon and go home to get it figured out. Ouch.

It's pretty ridiculous that you are cold right now. It's freaking hot here. We sweat all day. I have to bring water every day. It's freaking hot. We are out for about 5 hours of heat, and the rest is okay. My feet are pretty hammered, but it's been so much worse, you don't even know. I did get some kind of foot supports, and they help, but it doesn't help with the heat.

Before I forget, what do you do with this email? Do I need to include anything for the other readers?

We actually have to investigators now. We have a lady with a date this January. She was thinking of the temple and how pretty it was, and how she wanted to get inside of it when the missionaries first came over. What does that tell you? We've even had a new investigator cry when we told her about the possiblity of eternal families. All our sowing, as it were, is paying off, I think. We're up for a fantastic week.

I kind of know what you mean with languages. At the end of the day, you pretty much can figure it out and it sounds right, but the person-you-are-talking-to's mind was built in Spanish and some stuff just doesn't make sense. For example (this is very obscure one) in Spanish, present tense covers present progressive, meaning, I run also means I am running. You only say "I am running" if you are stressing that you are doing it at that moment. So when you want to say "Running is fun", it's not 'running', it's "run is fun." You'd think that wouldn't be that big of a deal, but it is. They will not see your point until you say it 'run'.

But by and large, the languages are close. There isn't a word for 'to fart'. You actually say "I threw a fart". It makes it sound like some kind of weapon, which is funny. So now you want to know how to say "I farted." You´d say "Tiré un pedo." I suppose you may also be interested in the opposite: "¿Tiró un pedo?" Did you fart?


Honestly I must say the thing I am most interested in is V. That show is freaking sick. There are a couple things I have to do. I have to watch Napoleon Dynamite, Nacho Libre, drink a Mountain Dew (They don't have it here, even though they have almost everything else.), and watch the Vs that have come out since. We call these trunky pensamientos, or thoughts. The command is this from the President : No sea trunky. Don't be trunky.

All I really have to do for that is find some of their bread. Especially if it's just out of the oven. They sell it like that, by the way.

It occurs to me you probably want to come see this someday. I need to write my email to President King. Do good stuff, okay? I think Grandma can email if she wants, by the way.


Speaking of writing... Here is the Mission Home address. All letters, packages, etc should be sent here. If you send a package, get some pictures of Jesus from the dollar store and put them all over the outside of the package. The thieves are superstitious so they won't(usually) bother with a package like that. Also put Missionary Supplies on the box.

Elder Alex Conrad Crist
Chile Santiago West Mission
Casilla de Correo 149
Chacabuco 166
Maipu
CHILE

Week #2 in Maipu, Chile

My favorite Missionary looks just like every other missionary ever! Weirdly. I love to read his letters and encourage everyone to write to him! He would love it! To do so you can go onto dearelder.com and follow the questions. I think all you need to fill out is easy. If you go this way, he will get your mail within a week. Otherwise, it may take up to a month for him to get anything, and then he has to respond. So write!
Oh and the pictures he is describing, we didn't get. Hopefully we will sometime. No idea still who the "other" missionaries are and the cake sounds amazing but sorry, no picture!






You know what is really wierd about this place? They love American music. Right now that "I - can´t - wait- no-more I´m-yo o ours" Song is playing in this internet café type thing I´m in right now. I hear Lady Gaga and newish rock and pop all the time just walking around. They have a fair amount of their kind of music, you know, Rigatón, Mariachi, that sort of thing, but you´ll hear American as often as not. People know about many states, usually New York, California, Washington DC, maybe Texas. All the members know Utah. They call it the "fávrica," which is to say, "factory."

I am going to buy more food this week. It turns out I was roughly at half my budget last week. Bread is about two dollars per kilo. A person´s bread for a week is probably 250 pesos, or 50 cents. They have jam in bags that´s about a dollar that lasts for two weeks. It is one of the coolest things they have here - you can just squeeze it out of a corner. I have no idea why we don´t do that in the States. (That´s what we call it here. America can mean Canada too, so you say Estados Unidos, or usually just Estados) You want jam on bread, you just get bread and put it on, no sticky hands or knives required.

Before I forget, though, the address. You send it to that mission office one that´s in my packet and stuff. By the pouch system, which is actually a senior couple who drive stuff around all day, they get it to me. It´s way easy to do letters and stuff, especially dearelder ones. Nothing comes to the pension, as we move often. As for stuff I could use, mostly just ties and handkerchiefs. I can´t find either of them in our sector. There´s the Walmart-owned LIDER, but they have Walmart stuff, but less variety. There isn´t a food I can´t get here, but some stuff just doesn´t exist. Good shoe polish, for example, is extremely difficult to find, says an Elder I know. My big problem right now is finding foot supports or gel inserts. We walked through this mall all day for them and found nothing bigger than a size 11. I am going to call up to the medical advisor to see about it. I have a few blisters, which is, you know, crappy, but my feet feel bruised and the long bones hurt all day. That, with a wierd gastrointestinal attack yesterday, made for a fairly so-so Domingo.

We are in the middle of the city Maipú. We didn´t take the metro today, but we have a few times for meetings with the President. It´s like the DC one only it´s ten times the people in the same size of car, and the lines are several times longer. The buses go everywhere, and between them you can get anywhere. Things get pretty personal on the bus. You hold your bag in front of you so no one takes stuff, and usually you touch no less than two people just by standing. In the metro it can get mosh-pit, because people will almost tackle into the car to compress everyone so the door will close. Pretty ridiculous. I feel bad because I´m a big white guy who takes up a lot of space.

You have a beep (called bip, because "i" in Spanish is "ee") card that you scan to get on, and it charges some amount. If you use another system within 2 hours going the same general direction, it doesn´t cost extra, so you can get somewhere on just 500 pesos, which is normal. There are machines that let you recharge your bip card, but it´s easy to forget. Which is bad.

I actually would like a little colder weather. It's pretty hot here nowdays. It's up to 90 usually while we work. Right a 4 or 5 is the worst. It's bad enough that if you don't eat something salty you get all de-electrolyted and tired in an hour or so. It's worse after you have a gastrointestinal attack of some kind... wait, I think I said that. It all started when I discovered the best thing they have here.

They call it manjar. It's dulce de la leche, I think. We had a cake with it in the middle instead of frosting. Un-freaking-believable. It's like carmel but more creamy and less sugar. That's the philosophy with everthing here, actually. Less sugar, more cream. The milk tastes like a milkshake, but has about the same calores because they barely put any sugar into it.

We haven't had a lesson this week, really. We contact about five hours a day, at least. I'm kind of starting to look for those days when we don't have to go out for the full time. I know that's a bad attitude to have, but it gets really, really long. I'm pretty much hot all day, only ending at night. There has never been AC for the common man, except in the chapel and certain rich-people stores. Sometime we'll go in just to be in. Last PDay we did that by going into a mall. It was like we went back to America. Same restaurants and brands of everything, just cheaper and less selection. Pizza Hut is really good here, actually. It's a little Latinized, which is to say, they put more vegetables, and the sauce is more cream, less sugar.

Let me see what pictures I have. Those crazy two are the others in my pension. Elder Silva is.. ethnic. And Elder Smith is a saxophonist from Texas. Figure it out.

That cake is the manjar cake. We got it for his one-year-in-mission.

That overpass you are seeing is over the big freeway in Maipu. It's like 70 feet above ground.

That street is the street we live on, and there are some pictures, I believe, of the inside. It's small. It's really, really small. The closet is ridiculous. Apparently it's one of the smallest in the mission, and I believe it. The only space you can be comfortable in is the bed, which is wierdly smashy... so whatever. The floor could have ringworm so we can't touch the ground, which is frustrating, especially when I fell in the shower, which was gross. The shower is really gross, but the way. Let me just say the Scouting program was invented for more reasons than to give boys patches. There's no way a person could deal with that level of grossness having lived in American Suburbs for his whole life.

But we have hope. We have a new investigator that wants to be baptized before she's even met us. She decided while talking to a member in our ward (her uncle) that our church is true. That works. I want to be a part of it, but I don't know how much I'll be able to say. We did a lesson for a preacher... no, really, and his family, and I sucked. There were like seven people watching, and I sucked. I couldn't remember how to say anything. I ended up giving the First Vision, having luckily memorized it, and at least a few of them want us to come back. The preacher is so-so with us, but he'll let us return. He was one of those ones that say "Glora, Amen" and stuff while you pray. It was way, way wierd. Then his wife prayed, but it was more like a revival speech. She was almost yelling by the end. Hno Maughan at the MTC said you'll see some stuff you'll never see in the States that will wierd you out so bad you can't even speak. There we go.

I have to admit, this really does seem like a long time. I've only been here for two weeks? What? But at the same time, it hasn't been that long. I don't know. I hear that after you can speak the language, the rest is sickeningly fast. Companions will go by like bunnies, they say.

Love,
Elder AC Crist

First week in Chile

I love that Alex gets to add a little more detail now. I think he will be able to make us feel like we are there after a few more weeks. Maybe it is the amount of time he gets as opposed to the MTC. I Love to get his letters and know he is where he is supposed to be.



What can I say about this week? I don't even know. It would take about as long to tell you everything as it did to experience it -- you can't really easily compress time down on the mission. New stuff happens all the time. All the time. (If I spell things weirdly, the keyboard here is much different.)

Let's see. We don't have a lot of investigators in our sector immediately right now, so we spend a lot of time looking. We contact for about three hours a day, usually more. A lot of talking in Castellano, essentially. (The dialect is different enough here that the locals don't call it Spanish) Basically they take most protruding ss and combine two different word endings, for example, if a person is asking me and Elder Mann how we are, he may say, rather than "¿cómo estás?", "¿cómo estái?" Needless to say, it´s rough on new speakers. We are not supposed to talk in the informal unless we are talking to toddlers, dogs, or inanimate objects, or in prayer, so we don´t have to worry about picking up that peculiarity.

Food. Everything is very different. Milk is in a box, and is cheaper. Flavored milk is much more common and is very, very good. The chocolate milk tastes like a shake, but has about thirty or forty less calories somehow. It´s just not so homogenized and watery. They have these cool little stores called almacéns that are basically what convience stores are to cars to pedestrians. You can´t go more than a few blocks without seeing one, usually it´s just in front of the house of the owner. They have different themes, but you can always find certain things. You can always find glass bottle coke in a few sizes. By the way, the coke here is much better. They use unpurified cane sugar and don´t use as much coloring.

Oh, and the bread. Everything made of flour is incredible here. My favorite is either the hallulla or marraqueta. The first is like a big flaky english muffin that´s the size of a hamburger bun, and the other is a small loaf characteristically divided into four pieces (as if cut with a cross) that you can use for hot dogs, jam, eggs, or whatever. They have pretty much everything we have. It´s as expensive or less, never more. Some stuff is ridiculously cheap -- glass coke bottles are like maybe 150 or 200 pesos, which is about 40 cents. You don´t keep the bottle, usually. You pay 350 or 450 and get the rest back when you give back the bottle, unless you want to hang onto it. It´s the same way for these three-liter bottles of soda. You pay the deposit, like 300, with the actual price 500. You only pay 500 again when you take the bottle back to any other place. You can get your 300 if you´re moving or something and you give it back permanently. Good idea.

Pretty much everyone has a few bottles of juice and one thing of some soda, usually a coke product, and even people who want nothing to do with you will bring you a glass of whichever if it looks hot outside - you might not even ask. Older people tend to like soda water, or as we call it, agua con gas. So we avoid asking it from them. You want a person with kids, because they have the good juices and don´t have ecco, which is a gross coffee substitute a lot of people like that is okay with the church.

In conclusion, this is not guatemala. It´s hot, but in the way that provo is hot. It´s not humid or dry, and everyone has nice plants you can stand under. No one rejects you really hard. They always say something like "Ah, no, estoy preocupado." We get good investigators all the time and those who need to hear it recognize it quickly. We´ve given five or so copies of the Book of Mormon this week, and we have several "nuevo"s.

I did get sunburned like crazy the first three days, but then I was tan and put on sunscreen. I got a blister on my heel on the side for some reason, but it´s going away. We walk at least those ten miles, I guarantee that. Our working sector is a mile and a half from our pension (that is what they´re called), and we usually do it at least twice a day, there and back. And we have three main neighborhoods, all about that far from each other, so when we cross, that´s another mile or so. We have three areas, Santa Adela, atrás de Lider, and mas atrás de Lider. The second two are made up and just mean behind Lider (basically Wal-Mart) and further behind Lider. Santa Adela is the nicest, but we have had more success in atrás de Lider. We have six or so good shots at baptism going right now.

It occurs to me you don´t know much about Elder Mann. Elder Mann is from California and has about a year. He´s been in this area for the last three changes, so he really knows the people and area. He is relatively a ground-pounding animal. We walk fast, contact a lot, and don´t leave until the time is really over. He speaks and understands everything people say. It´s pretty ridiculous. The other two in our pension are Elder Smith of Texas with 13 months, and Elder Silva, a Chilean native from Concepción, who has about five months. They have the close sector, and we have the far sector, which means we work more in areas they haven´t been worked very much. Elder Mann split the sectors, which were one until recently, so that we would have more contacting and tocando puertas (knocking doors) so I could learn faster. Nice. Not. I know I need it but it´s not my favorite. I can usually do a whole contact by myself, but if the person talks back really at all, I´m poked. They say generally that I´m doing well but I still am bouncing between a quarter and a half understanding, unless the person is being really "flaite".

(Oh, see, those are the classic words for ghettoness and richness. Ghetto is "flaite". It can be an adjective, like how El Espejo is "flaite", or a noun, meaning general gangster. The opposite, kind of rich, maybe snobby, is "quico". It´s said kweekoh and fly-tay. You can´t use quico as a noun, but many neighborhoods are referred to in this way.)

I need to leave to the store relatively soon, partially to buy a cord to send you pictures. We´ll see how much more Elder Mann will let me do.

This stuff is hard, by they way. The days are freaking long and I´m tired and hungry almost always. But I can say we still do it.

Love
Elder AC Crist.