Week 14

Hola familia!

Yeah, well, crazy week. A ton of working, and a lot of new stories! But all in all, a very good week!

So first off, I got a story for you, should make you super proud, mom! So we are given 180,000 pesos every month as our payment. We use this to pay for our food, our transportation, our mamìtas, our weekly necesities, our bills for electricity and water, and the rest on whatever we want. So we get to the end of the month, the beginning of the last week, right? Then Elder Jaramillo, one of the others who lives with me, one of the zone leaders, asks who's gonna pay the bills (water and electricity). I thought we were just gonna split it between us all, and so I told him that. But he replies saying that he's basicaly broke. He has only 2000 pesos left, which is not very much. And he needed it to travel. Then we go around, and Elder Reveco it turns out is flat broke, and the other Elder, Elder Cordova, only has a 1000. Then they look at me. I was smart! I saved my money! When they were buying personal stuff and food, I kept my money, because I knew I'd need it! I still had 50,000 left! So basically, even though I also paid the water bill last month, I ended up saving our butts and paid for both the bills, amounting to basically 30,000 lucas. -_-  But that's not all! Turns out, the same thing happened with all the elders in Alto Hospicio! They were broke, and couldn't pay the electricity bill! So we get a call, and their lights are out. Straight up, their electricity got turned off! Like, nobody saved their money! I think they ended up getting help from a member or something. But yeah, lesson learned, save your money!

So this week, we were also doing a lot of contacting, and we had a few interesting ones. The most strange, though, is when we were at the church getting interviews. Elder Reveco and I were leaving when a guy, completely drunk, comes in to the church. He has blood all over his face and clothes, his face is badly beat up, and he just walks in and says, "Yo tengo problemas. Necesito confesar." (I have problems. I need to confess)... uhhhhhhh, what?! Haha, that's kinda scary to hear from a guy drunk out of his mind covered in blood! But we talked to him, and he took us to his workplace just a few doors down from the church. He wanted us to talk to his friend, and when he get there, his friend is smoking something, and is crazy high! So we start to talk to him, and he just cuts us off, and starts singing to us. Hotel California was playing, by the Eagles, and he changed all the words and was singning something in spanish along with the tune! I didn't understand any of it, but he was super animated! With hand signals, dancing, crazy faces and everything! We eventually just left leaving our number with the first guy, told him to rest and recuperate and whatnot, and to call us. We'll see what happens with that! 

We had a baptism this Saturday! We finally baptized Valentina!! It was definitely a crazy day! She asked for 'agua helada' (frozen water), and we had to go super early to start filling up the tank. So then I was talking with Elder Reveco, he's done this a few times, and asked him what was going to happen that night. He just looks at me, and shrugs. What?! We had no plans! No message, not many people coming, nothing! I was super nervous, because usually a baptism is a huge thing, with a whole program! I had no idea how to plan it, what we needed to do, or who we needed to talk to! I thought Elder Reveco would do that, or at least show me how. Nope! WE were super lucky, though. Another sector saved us! They had a baptism that turned out to be at the same time. And they had a full program planned out. So we just kinda snuck ourselves in with theirs, and everything worked out great! Valentina asked me to be the one to baptize her, which was awesome! Technically, she's my first baptism of someone I actually taught! But I was super nervous, and completely forgot to ask her for her full name until we were walking to the font! But it all turned out great, and it was real spiritual, and really awesome. You could really see her face light up, and I knew she loved the experience. There was a definite change with her before and after. Something really awesome was her mom was leaving for her home in Spain, and was scared that she would miss the baptism. But things worked out, and she got a flight for the next day, and she was able to be there! We were super anxious that her mom wouldn't be able to watch the baptism, but God came through, and worked his miracles, and everything worked out great! :)

Not much else has been going on. We have actually been feeling more temblores (tremors)! Which is super fun, not gonna lie. Temblores are little earthquakes, definitely feelable, but not bad. They are super fun and loud, but don't really last too long. Maybe a few seconds. But I guess, because I am not accustomed to the flipping earth moving beneath my feet, because I feel some that the others don't. I definitely feel one every week haha, it's great! But yeah, the work is moving forward. We have a ton of citas lined up for us, and so I'm excited to see what comes of them! 

Les amo a todos!

Elder Schmid