This email will also be shorter, but more so because I do not have any time. The cambio was super crazy haha! Speaking of, I had a cambio! During our zone training meeting, the assistants called and gave everyone in our zone their cambios at the same time. One Hermana went home, three missionaries went to Calama, and I got mine. I was sent to....... Antofagasta!!! I'm in the big city! My sector is in the zone La Portada, and it's called Caliche. It's an actual ward now, not just a branch. I have also been called as district leader. So,pretty much the highlight of the week was finding that out. So now that's out of the way hahaha.
This week was not to great in regards to the missionary work in Pozo Almonte. We worked hard, of course, but we did not find nearly as much success. We were working hard especially with the family of Cristina. Their baptism was set for Sunday, yesterday, right after church, and we got permission to confirm them right there after their baptism, which normally does not happen. So we were visiting them everyday to make sure everything was going smoothly for their baptism and whatnot. We were also working with a few other families, but their baptisms were not so fijado (set). But we continued finding news and inviting and everything. It was hard right before Friday, when we received cambios, because I was getting super worried that I was going to stay again, and so I was not as focused as maybe I should have been, but that's ok, because we still got stuff done. After Friday, my ánimo (excitement) was higher, and it was easier to work. But then Saturday night came, and I was calling all of our investigators that we had invited to church, and basically, every single one of them canceled out. Everyone had some excuse! Some were good, and I understood why not, but then others were saying that they were going to be at their brother's house or something, and their brother's house was even closer to the church!! What?! I don't get it... but I was feeling alright, because we were at least going to have baptism. But then I called Cristina, and she told me that she was going to be traveling, and couldn't make it to church or her baptism. And her 13 year old kid wasn't going to get baptised without her. So we were really counting on her 17 year old daughter to at least come to church, because she wasn't traveling. But then she ended up telling us no, simply because she was going to spend the night at her boyfriend's house, and didn't want to wake up. That call basically broke me... I got frustrated, and just kind of gave up a little. I still called everyone to see if they can go, to offer help, and do everything I needed to, but my heart wasn't in it.
Sunday was alright. There were not too many people at church, though, because there was a partido de Chile (party of Chile) going on. Actually, it was a very big game, because it was for the Russia confederation cup, and it was the finals. Chile made it to finals versus Germany, the world champions. So everyone was super pumped, and nobody wanted to come to church, not even the members. But it was a good service, and peaceful, and very relaxing. I did not realize how stressed I was until it all went away during church. I am very grateful that I was able to decompress a little, though. After church, we had our lunch at a family's house, who happened to be watching the game at the same time. It was also kinda sad to watch, because Chile basically gave them their only goal because of a simple mistake. But oh well! The zone leaders called during lunch and told us that my bus would be leaving from Iquique at 8:00 in the morning, which meant that I had to pack everything in a couple hours and head down to Alto Hospicio to spend the night in the zone leaders pension. I said a few goodbyes to some members, and then headed out! Fun fact, they're opening a sector in Pozo, bringing in 2 more missionaries, and now there are 4 there. So basically, they need 3 missionaries to be able to do what I can do there! ;) Hahaha jk, but it's just cool because the work is going to explode now!
The zone leaders pension was disgusting. Completely disgusting. It was such a big mess that we could not even put our stuff down. Elder Barney and I spent the next several hours trying to clean a little for them, until we found the fetching rat's nest! That was too much. Apparently, they found it the other day, and cleaned it out with a stick, and out came 20 baby rats!! Little hairless red disgusting things that seemed dead, until they started spraying them with bugspray and they starrted to squirm. But then they left them there, and went to sleep, because I don't know why, and when they woke up, they were gone. The parents are still alive. But basically, Elder Barney and I slept on some chairs that night, and in the morning, I went to Iquique, boarded my bus, and said my goodbyes and everything, and left. It was a 6 hour ride to Antofagasta, not too bad, and I was on the bus with a real good friend of mine who is also coming to La Portada, Elder Gali. We basically just chatted the entire time, because they didn't play any movies on the bus, and we arrived at around 2:00. I met my new companion, Elder Blanco. He is Argentinean, from Buenos Aires. He just barely finished his training. He seems really cool. His papíto was super cool, and I'm excited for this cambio! We are going to slay it here in Caliche! We be baptisin everyone! Just throwin 'em in the water!
Elder Schmid
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