12 September 2011 - Nueva Aurora, Viña del Mar Oeste

¡Hola mi familia y mis amigos!

I am on an adrenaline rush right now, I´m just so excited to be in Chile doing what I´ve wanted to do for years! I am so in love with my area and the people in it, and I´m doing everything in my power to not let them, my companion, or the Lord down by being the best missionary I can be and enjoying every moment. It is so important to just never get discouraged about anything, because no matter what, if I follow the mission rules and I testify with the Spirit, I am doing good.

So last week I talked about how good the ward is here, and I think I´ll reinforce that this week by describing the relief society. We get fed lunch every day Tuesday through Sunday by the women in our ward, and they had me make a list of foods I can and can´t eat, and they are so great because they all come up to me during church and ask me what they can make for me and the like. They are so nice! Then when we eat with them, they make us SO much food, it´s crazy, every time. You´re absolutely right, dad, the people of Chile are almost overly generous. These people are not rich by any means, in fact, they´d almost all be classified as poor, but they want so much to give, give, give, especially with food. We´re told to accept everything, though, because they will be blessed by their willingness to serve representatives of Christ. The lunch is always a 3 course meal, with a salad or vegetables to start, then the main course, and then dessert at the end. Then, when we´re at houses teaching lessons, half the time they will get us cheese and fruits or whatnot, and my companion eats bread. Last Wednesday, I ate 4 FULL plates of steak and potatoes, real steak, in 3 different houses. If I´m not 80 pounds heavier when I get back, I´ll be amazed. One of my investigators had his 68th birthday last week, and he gave us a big bag of fruits and sat us down for cake and fresh peaches (I couldn´t eat the cake and he was so sad when he remembered that I couldn´t eat bread, I felt so bad) even though he is unemployed and having a hard time getting by. Every time we try to stop people from giving us so muh stuff, especially when they give us stuff on our way out, but Chileans are really stubborn and won´t let you not accept their generosity.

The only thing about Chile that I would fix is the dog problem. Chile is literally the Sodom and Gomorrah of dog civilization. They are everywhere, you can´t turn a corner without tripping over 3 dogs lying on the ground or barking at you. There is dog poop everywhere, they take people´s trash and spread it all over the place, there is an everlasting soundtrack of dogs barking day and night that rings off the hills and throughout the city. I´ve seen quite a few violations of the law of chastity, and even a few homosexual relationships. Literally, I´m in the Sodom of dogworld. It is complete anarchy and I will do something about it before I leave Chile.

On preparation days, we just go to an internet cafe to do emails, it´ll be about this time every Monday. Right now, we´re in central Viña because we´re going to do groceries after this and go back to Nueva Aurora after. Last Monday, we had a family home evening with the zone, where we watched a doctrine and covenants video, did this awesome relay race thing, and had a big luncheon thing. Basically, on Mondays we just clean our pension, study, get things done that need to get done, and grocery shop, but I think we´ll start doing a couple other things in following preparation days.

Chile has been getting excited for September 18, their independence day, and our ward has a huge activity planned for Saturday. We´re going to try really hard to get people to come to church on Sunday, but it will be difficult, I can tell. All month, people have been flying flags and painting Chilean stuff on the streets and getting all sorts of national pride out, and we´re probably going to get sent in at 6 Sunday evening instead of 9:30 like normal. Last night, the 11th, we had to go home at 8 because there were the annual riots due to it being the anniversary of the overthrow. It´s kind of exciting and it´s fun to see all the people worked up about it all.

Ok, quick spiritual story: On Saturday we were in Agua Santa, the sister missionaries area, to teach a lesson with them. They´ve been having a hard time finding new investigators, so on our way out of the area, we were trying really hard to get in a house and teach a lesson so that we could give the sisters later the investigator and show them their area isn´t dead or anything. After 15 minutes, we knocked a door, and the lady let us in because she wanted to give us back our Bible. So we entered and she came out with a Jehovah´s Witness Bible in English, and she said she couldn´t understand it because it wasn´t in Spanish. We laughed and traded her for a Book of Mormon, and then taught her about the Restoration of the Lord´s church on earth today. We asked her if there was anything she would ask Christ if he were in the room with her, and she said she actually had a few questions in specific. Upon further discussion, we found out that she had been literally praying for us to come, because she has lupis, a disease that has no cure that will lead her to death in some time now. We told her that we had been called by a prophet of God to be here and she agreed that we were her answers to her prayers. She also believes that the proper authority of God has been restored through Joseph Smith and agreed to be baptized.

Hmm, the computers at this internet cafe don´t want to accept the memory card, so I can´t upload any pictures this week it looks like, and I only had time for 3 last week, but I´ll try to send more next Monday if we´re at the other cafe like last week. The email only allows for about 3 pictures at a time or so, so I´ll send a few next week.

Also, I forgot to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY MCKENZIE (tomorrow)!! WOOHOO! 15 years just like that! Eat some gluten free cake for me!

Y màs, papà, pueden usar la dirreciòn "Elder Devin Kimball, 4 Norte 1112, Viña del Mar, CHILE" para mandarme cartas. No tengo una caja personal o algo asì.

I love you all so much!

Love, Elder Kimball