¡Hola mi familia y mis amigos!
I drank root beer last week.
I'm serious, I did! I will even attach pictures to prove it. Amazing. Refreshing. American. We found it last week because we had gone to La Serena to change our address on our Chilean foreigner ID's at the Police Department, and stayed to do groceries and the preparation day works, and so we went to Jumbo to do groceries. Jumbo is like this big, huge Chilean version of Sam's club, or as close as it gets to America in a grocery store here. As we were shuffling through the aisles looking for odds and ends, we passed by the sodas and did a great, big double-take. Right before our eyes, on the shelf wedged between the Sprite and Fanta was the very beverage I haven't even dreamed about in over a year. We reached out our fingers to touch and feel the mirage that played with our fancies, and beheld and proved to ourselves the very existence of 5 cans of A&W Root Beer, "aged with old vanilla."
There were only 5 cans, so we decided to buy 2 and 2, or 4 of them. We then saved them and carefully planned how to best use them, cherish them, delight ourselves in them. I placed my 2 cans in the back of the refrigerator behind my carton of eggs, and next to the carton of milk. We then waited, building the wonder and excitement in the same way that Christmas music right after Halloween gets you pumped for Christmas, except even better. We decided we would drink one each at the end of the day Sunday, yesterday, which we did, cold and bare. We're saving the other can for this week, cause we're going to buy some vanilla ice cream today and make the good ol' dessert, the very American root beer float. So, in short, it was an incredible week, and this next week looks pretty promising as well.
I could probably stop there with the traditional, and sincere, "I love you all!" but I'll add a couple more stuff to the letter before I sign out, I suppose.
We went back down to Viña last Tuesday for a conference with Elder Viñas, 2nd counselor in the area presidency. He's going to be pretty involved in all of Chile for the next couple of months getting a few things fixed up and touring the missions. Elder Tonks and I left Coquimbo near midnight on Monday and then returned in the early morning on Wednesday, back to work. While I was in Viña, I learned from the elders that are in Villa Alemana that my hijito, Elder Abatti, ended up baptizing Juan in Olmué a couple weeks after I left, which was for when we had set a date before I left, so it was so nice to hear that Juan made it happen. He's the one we found in the old investigators pile that like rap and hip hop. Also, I heard from a couple of elders that Elder Diaz, my second companion, who returned to Colombia after finishing his mission in May, already got married in the temple a bit over a month ago, which is awesome, but also surprising, because he did not have any girlfriend and hadn't dated a whole lot before the mission, so that was quick!
For preparation day today, we went to Hermano Mossó's house, the second counselor in the district presidency, so he could teach us to make Chinese food. It was a ton of fun, and very scrumptious. He had this rig in the back of his house, a kind of grill that puts the flame on way high, and we basically fire-cooked the food pro-style, it was great.
We've had an interesting adventure getting people to church the last few weeks. Of the eleven people who have gone in the last two Sundays, only one has repeated, and all the others who went to church last week didn't come yesterday. We just got to hammer down a little bit and ease people into the habit of coming to church on a weekly basis. The other curiosity that has been nagging us is that nearly everyone we find looks like a way sweet family that could go the distance, and then we find out that they're not married, and that it's going to require a little bit more faith and effort to get them so. No worries, we always like a little challenge, and it keeps us on our toes and makes us build their testimonies so we can't get lazy as missionaries. Also, it's been rather fun studying for such needs. Elder Tonks' previous companion finished up his mission this last transfer, so he had a ton of BYU fireside talks that were specially themed on marriage to get him stoked to get home and into school and the happy hunting season. He passed those talks over to Elder Tonks before leaving, and now we listen to one or two every morning as we do exercises and get prepared for personal study. Not going to lie, marriage talks from the apostles start making a lot more sense on the mission when you're trying to convince a group of investigators the beauty and reason for the marital covenant. The future is bright ahead.
Kenzie and Kelby, thanks for the letters! I'm so grateful for a solid, happy family, and will do all I can to help others to enjoy the same kind of loving family bonds that we so cherish. Family may be even better than root beer when based upon righteous principles. I love you all so much!
Love, Elder Kimball
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