Week 56

hola hola hola!

Well, this week was a good one! Apparently, more so for you than for me, but that's ok haha! You guys did a lot of awesome stuff! It's as if a kid moved out and all of the sudden you have more money, or something... but I'm happy you enjoyed the week. That was a ton of planning and stress for the wedding, it was probably good to relax. I am also glad that Lehi crushed the new brats! You told me that Dad had new stylin clothes and shoes, and I saw the picture, and I thought, ''He must have bought them after this picture!'' jejejejeje

Anyways, as I said, this week was a good week. First things first, there was baptism in Caliche!! Woot woot, we baptised Dayana, the ecuatoriano jovencita (Ecuadorian young girl) that we were teaching! It was an excellent baptism! The young woman's president stepped up big time and made sure that all of the young woman were there and participating, which was great. The ward is gettting a lot better with... hermanadores (siblings)... I don't know what it's called in English, but people who are basically the member friends of new members. They are getting more active in the work, and I'm about to slam them with some steep sticks. (In spanish, ''give sticks'' means to chastize people to get them to work harder, or something like that). 'dar palos'. My English is going to be very interesting, because I use spanish grammar but with english words... and all the missionaries do that.. but anyways, the baptism was fantastic, and she was so excited! I'm going to try to send fotos, but I don't know if this computer can. Now we are teaching her mom, and she will get baptised too! 

So, this week got a lot hotter than usual, we are officially coming into summer! Fetching everyone is telling me over there how it's getting colder, and I just get jealous! But it's good to think that the next time that it will be getting colder... I'll be there! ;) But it was a little harder to be going up and down so much in Caliche! My sector is just straight uphill! I pity the man who comes here when I leave in December and it's just blazing hot and all of the sudden he has to walk uphill! We are also working a lot more in the tomas. The 'Tomas' are the more ghetto part that is all made up of makeshift houses. Everyone there is always super humble and awesome! The only problem is trying to get them to keep commitments. Especaially the law of chastity. We end the lesson, challenge to them to keep the law of chastity, and they straight up tell us no. They understand completely what they are doing, and why it's bad and sinful, but they just tell us they don't care! Oooooohhhhhhh it's so frustrating! But that's ok! When we find gold, they are truly golden! Like Dayana! She's from the Tomas! It's not like finding gold amidst sand... it's like finding gold amidst a field of Dog Crap! Jejeje I say that not for the people, but because legit the ground is basically just made of dog crap in places...

We are coming up on Thanksgiving! That's weird! Last time I had Thanksgiving in the CCM, and it was really awesome! Here, I'm not even sure if they know what that is. I wouldn't be surprised... especially because it's an American Holiday... but I'm probably going to make some food! Some brownies. Some Elder I live with now has a lot of recipes too, and we do challenges, and I usually win, becuase my recipes are from Sister Konuiszy, and what missionary has a chance against her?! But it's fun, and we're not half bad at it! It is crazy expensive, though. My companion gets mad at me, a lot, because the new people we live with are all super awesome and we end up talking for a very long time, and I don't go to bed on time, which is bad. But we just lose track of time! But it's bad and I need to stop.

But, thinking about Thanksgiving, of course makes one ponder of the things he is really grateful for! On the mission, that list doesn't really get bigger, but rather brings into really intense focus the things you truly are grateful for. I am so grateful for my family, for their strength, for their love, and for their commitment to God. We will live together forever, and what more can I ask for from God? I cannot expres the love I have for them, especially after being away from them for a bit of time, and especially after seeing the state of families here. I am eternally grateful for the chance God gave me to grow up in a family like I did. I am grateful for the gospel. For a long time I thought it was better to be a convert than born into the church, because they have such strong testimonies, but here, I realize how much of a blessing it was to be born in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. I cannot imagine what I would be doing if I were not a member! The Gospel brings happiness. Straight and simple. The gospel brings everyone to God, who is the author of said happiness! I am grateful for the opportunity to repent. It is the biggest lesson I have learned here. I am so grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ, for everything he did, does, and will do for me! Repentence is the only way to come to him! I am eternally grateful for the peace and the joy that comes of shedding off my sins, of becoming a new creature, and continuing onward. I cannot properly express the absolute joy that comes of being able to forget my transgressions with the assurance that God is forgetting them as well, as long as I do my part. This is a testimony that I can never lose. I am grateful... 

Anyways... that's pretty much it. It was a good week, but everything is starting to blur together even more. I still have a year left and need to make the most of it! Hope you all have an awesome week! 

Les amo a todos!

Elder Schmid

Week 55

Whoa... whoa whoa whoa whoa

Caelan is married!!! How crazy is that! I'm so happy for you, hermanita!!!!! Jaja you're not exactly my 'little' sister, but 'hermana mayor' just sounds weird. But really, I am so happy for you!!! Brad is one lucky guy haha! And I'm sure the wedding and reception and everything was just a blur of craziness! Kinda loco that so many months and months of planning got blown through in a couple of hours, huh? But I am sure it was fantastic! It's weird that there were people at our house... I wonder if Darian follows everyone's footsteps and goes to other people's houses instead of inviting them over to ours, even though our house is the perfect house for everything. Jejejeje, But how's everyone holding up? It makes me laugh imagining Bronson at his 'Trash Duty' post, barking at everyone for not cleaning up! What do you mean 'we spotted you at the wedding?'

Well, I must say that my week wasn't quite as busy and crazy as yours! It was a slightly difficult week, but not too much. I honestly don't know what to talk about. It was a pretty normal week. One thing different about this week is that I had some doctor's test all this week. The dermatologist figured that the crap on my hand might be an allergic reaction, so he gave me a 'patch' test. Basically, they put a very high concentration of random chemicals on some patches and taped it to my body, and I leave it there for a week, and at the end, if my body is reacting, it means I'm allergic... so basically, I couldn't shower all week, because I couldn't get them wet. Can you imagine a missionary walking everywhere every day not being able to shower? It wasn't exactly the loveliest of experiences. However, I don't really sweat too much, so it could've been a lot worse. I got the results today, and turns out I'm allergic to some weird named chemicals I don't even know how to pronounce, and cobalt. So that's that...

It was the first week of the new cambios. I'm still with my hijito, Elder Aparicio. We are just trucking along. We live in a ward that's super far away from ours, so we have to travel by bus every day to get there, it takes around half an hour. But that's chill. Now, the other missionaries from Caliche are moving from the old house to our current house. There are going to be eight missionaries in our pension. That will be interesting! I like it though, there are some cool people there. There is a Columbian who lives there and he cuts my hair and he's super cool. 

This Sunday was pretty awesome. We only had two people come to church, and one is an eternal investigator, but the other will get baptized this week! Dayana, a young woman that we are teaching, is progressing very rapidly! She is the sister of a less active kid, Antony, and he's coming back. They're from Ecaudor! There are more foreigners in Antofagasta than there are Chilenos. We call it 'Antofolombia' jejeje. But anyways, the church was awesome too because it was fast and testimony meeting (we had stake conference the first sunday). And there were a lot of awesome testimonies. A missionary came home and he gave an awesome testimony of the work! But in the night we had a family home evening in the chapel with our investigators and less actives and new converts and everything.  It was legit, but I didn't know I was going to teach until a few minutes before. It just ended up being a short thing about the Book of Mormon, but very powerful! And then we had very fun games. 

So, I will admit, Saturday was a little difficult. It didn't really hit me until halfway through the day that my sister was getting married that day! Not the fact of her marriage made me sad, but the fact that I wasn't there. A lot of people just randomly started asking me about my family that day! Jaja I don't get to talk about you guys too much, but just randomly everyone asked me that very day what my family was doing! What the deuce?! So it was just a constant reminder that I wasn't there for such a big family event. But that's ok. The same stuff will happen to Aiden jejeje. But it was just an interesting day.

Well, that's pretty much it... kinda boring, per así es la vida! I'll talk to y'all next week! Keep it classy!

Les amo a todos!

Elder Schmid

Week 54

Hola!

Wow, such a busy week for everyone! At least none of you can say you're bored! That's one crazy scar, grandma! Hope you're doing fine! And dang, Caelan's wedding is coming up quick! This is her last week as a single! It's about time hahaha! This was all supposed to happen before I left! But oh well, I'll find it in my heart to forgive you! ;) I'm excited for you! And mom, I still feel like you're stressing a ton haha, I know you too well. Stress is good, but I imagine you're not just stressing anymore, you're dying. But I know it will all turn out fantastic!

Well, this week for me was pretty good! First things first, we had cambios come in! I'm staying here in Caliche for another 6 weeks to finish the training of Elder Aparicio. It's gonna be a good cambio! We're going to see many more miracles, and many more baptisms! Elder Ramones is leaving for Iquique, the filipino elder who I lived with for a while. My zone leader became the assistant. It was exciting as always to hear it all. We were in a zone training meeting when the assistant called for the cambios, so we were all listening together. I was kind of hoping to leave, honestly, but that's just because I get bored too easily. I want to see more places and meet more people. But there's more for me to do here, so I will get to work! Or rather, keep working. 

This Sunday was stake conference. It was interesting inviting people to the stake conference, especially investigators. As we invited members, they all had the attitude that it was 'just a conference', like a day off! Some members went to the beach, others went to another city to vacation with family, and all that stuff! What the crap! But then as we were inviting the investigators and telling them what it was, they all got super excited, thinking ''Oh man, everyone in the stake is coming to one place! The leaders are going to talk! I want to go! I want to see! Whatever they say is going to have to be important!'' It was very awesome to see that, and their viewpoint of the conference. I don't know what happened to the members! Why would they think that?! They missed out on so much! How is it that the investigators can see the value of the stake conference more than they do?! It was just confusing to me. But Presidente Ferreira and Hermana Ferreira talked in the conference, which was interesting. Basically it was them calling the stake to action in the missionary work! Hopefully it worked! We are always trying to work with memebrs more! The Saturday before the conference, we called a reference that a family gave us from another ward, an hermana who told us that she couldn't attend us that day, but wanted to come to church! So we told her where it would be, not thinking much of it because so many people tell us they want to come to church and then never come. But then we are there waiting for one investigator when some family walks up looking really lost. Some missionaries walk over and start talking to her, and it ends up being the hermana we called with some of her sisters! It was awesome! 

This week we moved out of the piece of crap apartment and into a realy nice house! President decided to come see what's up with our apartment because we kept complaining. He walks in, stands still in the doorway, and just says, ''No!'' He walks further in, takes a look around, and says ''No!'' He goes to the kitchen, and looks around, and says ''This is disgusting!'' Then he goes to the bathroom, opens the door, says ''Nope'' and shuts it again! Haha the lake came back on our bathroom floor because the pipes are leaking again! He tells us he's sorry that we've been living there haha! Apparently, everyone else has houses or something, and he just didn't know that ours was so awful. So he moved Elder Aparicio and I out of there to a house in the other zone, Antofagasta Centro. And now we are there with 4 other missionaries from another zone! It's a very nice house! Very big. And we can't hear the neighbors! But I haven't slept with blankets for a week, so that's been rough. But it's still so much better! and now we are looking for a new house in my sector. We now have to cross over 4 other wards to get to ours! So that's fun, but I love it so much more! I feel relaxed now!

Anyways, the work continues! A lot of our stronger investigators are falling because they don't want to follow the commandments, so that's frustrating. But we are always looking for more! We found two new families that seem promising (mostly because the parents are married). It feels good to finally have investigators who are already married! I thought they didn't exist! But anyways, that's pretty much my life right now! Not nearly as exciting as all of yours right now, but that's ok! Just working away here in Antofa! It's a different mentality now having a year down. Everything goes quicker, and seems more rushed. I can only wonder what it will be like at the end! But I don't ever think about that, right? I'm super consecrated! ;)

Hope you guys have an awesome week! Good luck with the wedding and reception! Don't worry mom, I'll try not to tell you're secret about the tables! ;) Hehehehe put that one on the blog! Well, cuídense, todos!

Les amo a todos!

Elder Schmid