¡Hola mi familia y mis amigos!
One funny thing about computers here is that every so often I get a keyboard that is configured differently, so the question marks and quotes and stuff like that are not in the normal places, and you have to play hide and seek to find the right button combination to find the punctuation mark. I just wrote that because it took me like 3 minutes to find the upside down exclamation point, but it was worth it.
Happy Birthday to Kylie!! You kids are getting so old...
Elder Tonks (from Las Vegas) and I played the find-all-the-obsure-small-world-connections game when we were companions, and he told me he had 2 really good friends in Berlin Germany with Elder Burnett, so we speculated how cool it'd be if they knew each other, let alone were companions, way cool. I don't remember who the other friend of his is in that mission, but Elder Popp probably knows.
Oh, and Marta, Elder Oberg does not happen to be related to any Oberg you know. I'm sure she was just as good an Oberg as he is, though!
Mom, the chapel I go to is on the corner of the streets Alessandri and Ignacio Carrera Pinto, but the area where Elder Oberg and I work is in la Cantera, which is actually halfway between Coquimbo and Tierras Blancas, which isn't on the peninsula looking part of Coquimbo surrounded by water. The other 2 missionaries in our branch have that part of the area, and there's another branch, la Parte Alta, that is the tip of the peninsula where another companionship works. I'm hardly ever real close to the beach, although it's always a great view, but just this last week we took a rare trip down there to look for a future investigator that we had talked to that lives in a house on the beach in our area. We walked all along the beach on the sidewalk looking for the house, but we couldn't find it, although we did find a dead sea lion on the beach, so that was kind of cool too. If you really want to have some fun on looking at my area on the internet, it just so happens that the google earth van drove right past us in one of the neighborhoods we were walking in last week, so you might be able to see me walking on the sidewalk with my companion if you search for the street Jorge Medina Esteves. Unfortunately, it's Chile, so it just so happens that Jorge Medina Esteves also exists in about 4 other locations in my area, so good luck searching for me. It's actually the Jorge Medina Esteves that is next to the street Pio XII.
Ok, last Monday was perhaps the funniest night on the mission so far. We were teaching a lesson with a member, Barbara, and her boyfriend, Patricio, in their house. It was so powerful and all the questions that Patricio has ever had in his life were being answered and his eyes were being opened as the truth slowly unfolded in front of him. It was spectacular. However, last week just so happened to be the worst week in the existence of Chile. That's right, the week of the 18th of September. All those who remember last year's experience will remember that it is a week to be dreaded, and oh, was it so. Not only was it the hardest week for all of Chile, but Coquimbo is the town that goes most hardcore uncontrolled for the week. The nation of Chile takes a 3 day holiday from the 17th to the 19th, but Coquimbo takes the entire week off, completely shut down, everybody wasted. Not only are the gone mentally, they are gone physically because the Coquimbanos invented something called la Pampilla, which is a week long campout in la Parte Alta of Coquimbo, where all the locals and many visitors come with tents to camp out for the entire week to be able to party hard every single night together. Even the members go camp out, even though they don't drink or anything like that. Just a huge tent city, but that's completely off track of my story. The point is, the Chilean culture for this week is that distant relatives just show up unannounced to your house when you don't even expect it, and they stay with you for a few days, and then go back. It happens all the time and is just normal for them, and is what happened Monday night. Barbara's cousins showed up at her house right then when the lesson was just fantastic, and crowded into the room and started the party up right then and there.
Now the funny part: one of the cousins, an 18 year old girl, goes into the bathroom and shuts the door. That was a mistake because the door was broken and once it closed, could not be opened again. Barbara said the last time she closed it, the firefighters had to come to open it up. So then begins the real-life joke about how many Chileans it takes to fix a doorknob. First, the boyfriend, Patricio, goes to try to open it by wedging a credit card, and then a screwdriver in, which was respectable, it was a worthy effort. But then he sees that it doesn't work, but doesn't want to fail in front of Barbara and all her family, so starts wedging in the screwdriver in random parts of the crack of the door, which just made absolutely no sense. Finally, the 24 year old boy cousin takes charge and puts into effect his brilliant plan. I can just imagine that he had been waiting his entire life for this very opportunity, and I'm sure every time he saw an action movie, he pictured himself in this very situation, so he goes up to the door, and then with all his force tries to kick the door down!! Elder Oberg and I had to choke back laughs, especially since he wasn't even kicking near the doorknob, the strongest part of the door, but in the middle of the door where the best thing that could happen is punching your foot through the door. The wall started shaking and the light started spazzing out, so of course he was shoved to the side pretty quick by the all-knowing Chilean grandmother, who proceeds to demonstrate "how things ought to be done." To be nice, I won't attempt to describe how funny that was, because the poor lady had no idea what she was doing, but was pretty darn convinced she did. For lack of time, I can't describe the other 2 people who attempted to open the door either, but it was evident that noone knew how a door worked. Anyways, since the very beginning, Barbara had wanted Elder Oberg to go fix the door because she had the feeling that he knew what he was doing, and he had the look on his face that he knew exactly how to open it, but everyone besides her totally rejected that idea, because they didn't want the Mormon gringos to be the ones to save the day, so we just stood back to watch them. Finally, after all their attempts, Barbara told them to make way for Elder Oberg, who in about 3 seconds took the doorknob off and let the door swing harmlessly open. The poor 18 year old was so embarrassed for all the fuss that was made, and it was so funny because the only happy person in the house was Barbara because it was the Mormon gringo who knew how to open it all along. You may or may not have had to been there to appreciate the true hilarity of the story, but we still laugh pretty good about it when we look back. I love you all!
Love, Elder Kimball
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