24 October 2011 - Nueva Aurora, Viña del Mar Oeste

¡Hola mi familia y mis amigos!

That´s funny that the family Arangua, your new visiting teaching assignment, is from Temuco, Chile! Our pension has 4 elders in it, me and my companion and then Elders Applegate and Esparza. Elder Esparza is also from Temuco, Chile, but he says he doesn´t recognize that name at all. It doesn´t help that the Aranguas moved to the US 11 years ago, I guess.

By the way, in my first letter from Chile, I said I was told we have one of the best pensions in the mission. Anyway, I don´t know who told me that, but that´s a lie, haha. Our pension isn´t bad or anything and I am comfortable in it, but the other 3 pensions in our zone alone are better than ours, haha. Nontheless, I really do love the view from our 5th floor balcony over Valparaìso and the cove. I keep forgetting to take pictures, though, but I´ll try to take some and send them next week so you can see where I live. Also, we couldn´t find Borax, the antiflea stuff you recommended, but I invested in some flea spray stuff that I spray around the pension and in the floorboards and my bed frame. Hopefully it starts making a difference with time. At any rate, I´m still convinced I was born in the best possible area. I just love Nueva Aurora! Something about it just feels like where I need to be.

We found a lady, Maria, about 5 weeks ago by knocking doors. When she opened her door and we started talking with her, I could see right from the beginning depression in her eyes. She let us in her house to teach her and everything about her house just felt sad. It literally and figuratively felt dark in her house, and she had no animation about any of her movements or anything she said. It is absolutely the opposite now. It is incredible to me to see the difference that the knowledge of the restored gospel has made in her life. She has a sense of direction in her life now and she has felt God´s love for her every time she prays. Basically, most of her family has died from various diseases, and her husband divorced her, and her one surviving daughter is really mean to her whenever she comes to live with her on the weekends. We got her to take more control of her life when we met her by pumping her up to make decisions on her own to read, pray and go to church. We would always ask her, "Who´s the boss in this house?" And she would answer, "I´m the boss!" Last week, as we were getting her ready for her baptism, she told us that the very day we came to her door, she had decided that there was nothing left for her in life, and that she didn´t want to try anymore, didn´t even want to live anymore. Now, she is always joking and smiling and is a social butterfly with the relief society in our ward. She´s a bit on the larger side (see picture) and it was very difficult to find a baptismal tunica for her to wear, and actually got a little panicky. We tried all last week to find one that would fit her and called around to a bunch of different missionaries and wards, but it got all the way up to the day of her baptism and we still couldn´t find anything. However, with faith that the Lord would provide something, we finally went to her with a tunica that was not quite big enough to see if we could alter it or something, and then she asked us if she could just wear her pajamas! Turns out she has solid white pajamas that work perfectly as baptismal clothing, so she got to be baptized in her pajamas in the end!

Last week we started teaching a man, Jaime, who lost one of his legs due to diabetes. He´s what you would call one of those legendary golden investigators. We´ve taught him 5 times already and he reads the chapters that we assign him in the Book of Mormon over and over again. When we come back to verify, he recounts everything from what he read and basically teaches himself the doctrine that is in the scriptures. When we had him read the introduction to the Book of Mormon with the testimony of Joseph Smith and all that in the front, he told us in the next visit the exact dates of when the Angel Moroni visited Jospeh Smith and the dates of the First Vision and when the priesthood was restored and all that. The best word I can think to describe him is meek. He is so humble and really just wants to know what to do to come unto Christ. He asks us why he can feel the Spirit so strongly when we´re there with him and when he´s in church and when he´s reading and praying. He is so sensitive to all of that and keeps saying that he´s just hungry to learn more! Anyways, it was really fun getting him to church yesterday, because he lives on the third floor of his apartment building. Elder Pilcher and I had to carry him in his wheelchair down the stairs in order to get him out of his building and then we took a colectivo (taxi) to central Viña where we had stake conference. Then we took him back home and carried him back up the flights of stairs to get him back to his apartment. It was pretty fun, but he´s not exactly light, even after losing a leg, haha.

I´m doing pretty good on supplies. It might be a good idea to send some Miralax sometime soon, I have 2 of those left, and it takes a while for packages to arrive, I think. I haven´t seen anything like it here in the supermarket, but I´m going to search harder today just to make sure. I have 2 and a half bottles of contact solution left, so I might be needing more in a few more months. Other than that, I don´t really need anything, but if you were to send a package or something, Skittles and Peanut Butter M&M´s are always things that bring back good memories... Actually, basically anything from Costco that one can snack on would be a good item in Chile, like a giant jug of peanuts or trail mix or something. One of these days I might buy a cheap pair of Chilean dress shoes, because I´ve been told that my Ecco´s will last my whole mission, but only if I switch off every other day with another pair of shoes. Basically every missionary here has two pairs of shoes so they can switch off every other day. I probably won´t do that for a while though, but I am a little concerned because I don´t want my shoes to wear out or something. I try to wear my brown suit 2 or 3 times a week, too, so that I can wear my brown shoes and let my Ecco´s breathe. So yeah, that´s probably what I´ll end up doing instead of buying another pair of shoes.

I love you all so much!

Love, Elder Kimball