Whassup?? Jaja I'm finding myself saying that a lot more than I would've thought here. There's this snake that lives on our street that likes to try to talk in English with me as I pass by. It's funny because she doesn't know anything! But anyways, whoa!!! That was one hefty email! Haha it looks and sounds like your week in Utah was amazing! I'm so jealous hahaha! Fireworks, hikes, family, the works! You know what I did for fourth of July? I bought a completo... haha but it's chill! I loved seeing all those pictures! Knowing you, mom, I think for every one picture I saw, there are at least 15 more for each! But that's super cool, all that you could do!
My week hasn't been quite as eventful as yours, I must admit, but it's been pretty good! My fourth of July was pretty much the same as any day, except at the end, we bought completos and sang the Star Spangled Banner as loud as possible! Which is not too good, because I've learned that the neighbors don't like us too much because we are 'too loud' and even 'keep them up until 3 or 4 in the morning'! Jaja psych! This week has been me pretty much trying to get to know my sector. It's so different from Pozo! It is very strange being in a big city, but I really like it! I like being in the city here way better than a small town. But the number one thing about my sector is that it is straight uphill or downhill. There is no flat space. We are always either walking uphill or downhill! And it's super steep! My sector is where the city meets the mountains, and it's almost straight tomas, or... I don't know what you'd call them. Tomas are like more ghetto houses, all made together with scrap wood that they found and most don't even have a floor. It's been interesting to get to know it. A lot of the streets don't have names, and we just have to memorize where people are, which kinda sucks. Especially when we are looking for menos activos and we have no idea where they live. My ward is broken up into 2 parts: Caliche A, the upper part, our part, with more tomas and more hills, and Caliche B, the lower, richer part.
Elder Blanco is super cool! He's Argentinian, and only has 3 months in the mission! This is his first sector, Caliche. The thing about Elder Blanco is... I cannot understand one dang word he says! The Argentinian accent is soooooo strong! Basically, everything sounds like the shh sound, and he doesn't bother trying to change his accent haha! So, I feel kinda bad, but I've pretty much given up on talking to him! It's not because he isn't cool, he's awesome! And funny. But I have no idea what he's saying. His teaching style is definitely new, like he's not as practiced, and I feel excited to teach him a little more about that, because from what I can tell, he is a super good teacher! We're definitely going to baptize here! The scary thing is, now I'm compañero mayor! So the work here is more my responsibility. It's honestly been a little rough doing that. I am definitely not used to it. He's looking at me to know what to do, and I'm just sitting there like... I don't know! But, we've ran into some super awesome people, and I feel like Elder Barney taught me really well en cuanto de eso (in terms of that). Haha, I realized now that my English is going away. Even during this letter I've had to pause and wonder on how to say something. So that's weird...
The people here in Antofa are surprisingly receptive! In my opinion, more receptive than in Pozo! I love it! Being in the tomas really helps, because the people there are real humble. But even in our more rich part of our sector we've been having success! On Wednesday, we had our ward council, and I really learned how unprepared I am. It was so different! It was actually efficient! It kinda scared me. We were talking about the missionary work, and they asked me how we were doing with a bunch of things that I honestly had no idea we were supposed to be doing! It was kinda bad, because they knew I was the new district leader, and they realized how bad I am at it. They asked me about three different things that I had to straight up ask, ''what's that?'', after which they just kinda stared at me and explained it as if you were explaining to a five year old... it was honestly kind of embarrasing. I got really frustrated. But here, the bishop and everyone want us to focus heavily on menos activos. The bishop doesn't feel like the ward is ready to have Ward Missionaries, and so the missionaries are the Ward Missionaries... which is also a little stressful. We are working a lot with them and getting them their interviews and reteaching them and basically doing everything that I feel the home teachers should be doing. I don't know, I'm still getting to know how things work here.
Being district leader is interesting. Basically it's not really anything. I just ask for numbers and pass those to the zone leaders, and then try to be a good example. That's hard, though, because my district is just us and Caliche B, and they are super good missionaries. They are two Philipinos, both basically 5 foot nothing hahaha, but they are super good missionaries. They crack me up too! It's hilarious, because their laughs are like the minions off of Dispicable Me, and they speak 4 languages each. So they'll be speaking some language, Tagalog or something, and then just bust up laughing like minions, and then talk a little again, and then laugh again! But they have really funny stories, because the people here don't take them as seriously, because they're some small oriental looking people haha! But anyways, leading them is basically nothing, because they're already doing everything better than I can. both have already been district leader once. So, that's my life as leader...
But life here is good! La Portada, my zone, has 13 sectors, 26 missionaries. It's the biggest in the mission. It's the northern part of Antofagasta, and usually has the most baptisms. My sector is the highest, and usually while walking, I can see the whole city underneath us, so that's always cool. La Portada is super different than Alto Hospicio, but it's cool. I like it. I'm having a stressful time learning to lead, but that's ok! The work moves forward! Hope you all have a good week!
Les amo a todos!
Elder Schmid
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