Baptisms and Barbecue

Bennett:

 FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!

This week was fun! I almost fell in the river but i jumped off the log just in time! I was soaked up to my knees but I didn't swim!  It was funny but, scary at the same time. This week was very low key with the teaching. The river keeps rising every day and my area gets more and more flooded and muddy. I'm forced to walk through straight mud now. 

My comp and I are great. We will be baptizing 6 people this month. We found a less active member named Karina. Her husband isn't a member but will be very soon, along with the rest of her family. He is called Robby. He will get married this next week and baptized the next. We are super happy for this family. As for the zone, looks like we will be the highest baptizing zone in the mission this month!!!!!! PUCHANA!!!!!!! I also finally figured what is a punchana....its a small animalito of the jungle that's like the guinea pig! PUNCHANA!

Lots of new things to be happening, we will finish with 23-25 baptisms this month.  The zone is super happy. They are most likely gonna change me this next transfer...I'll be very very sad if they do...this has been one of the most rewarding parts of my mission to have applied all that I have learned and use it all so much.. I'll leave the area baptizing close to 20 people with 2 whole familias. It's been a killer good time here!!

LOVE Y'ALL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jackson:
Hey guys!!! The sun was out all week! I was just waiting for it to rain and rain and rain but instead the wind blew and the sun stayed out all week!!! La Union has a beautiful center plaza and the weather was so nice that everyone was in the plaza all week! So we did a ton of contacts there! 

We didn't get to see Vicente this week; but he is going to get baptized in two weeks!! We also put another two investigators with fecha!! Hermana Moscoso and her daughter Luz! They are the wife and daughter of Nelson, a recently activated member! They are getting married next week! I will be the male witness at the official ceremony in front of the judge! In Chile you have to get married in front of an official judge! You have to bring a female witness and a male witness!! They also wanted me to conduct the ring ceremony, but I think that I'm going to defer to the Branch President on that one! Although sometimes I am referred to in popular Chilean nomenclature  as the "Love Guru" hahaha. 

We ate a ton of native foods this week because of the Semana Santa or "Easters" (Mexican priest voice from Nacho Libre) here in Chile!! Also, because our mamita is mapuche! She feeds us native food almost everyday, or she will serve us pasta and throw merken on there (which is a native spice of the Mapuche) and call it a Mapuche dish!! She tried to convince us that empanadas and pizza were invented by the Mapuche hahaha She is like the old guy in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, every word has a Greek root, and the Mapuche invented everything!! We drank a ton of Chicha! Which is pretty much just apple juice that they leave underground for a little while!! After a few days it starts to ferment and turn into apple beer! So, you have to be careful when they offer you chicha! Sometimes they have given me chicha and I've taken a swig only to realize that its pure alcohol haha We also drank Mudai! Which is an almost fermented drink from the local Mapuche culture!! 

Most of the people here in La Union are Mapuche or German, there are not too many Chileans! So, I am head and shoulders taller than anyone else! One day we were in the grocery store and I was just dribbling a basketball that I found while my companion was shopping, just passing it between my legs while I was walking, nothing big!! All of sudden we hear this little 5 year old kid say "WOOOOWWWWWW" Like the kid from The Incredibles haha I guess he had never seen anyone dribble a basketball before!!

We finally saw Carolina today! Maybe she snuck back into Chile from Argentina like Sherlock Holmes did on a little pony hahaha But,  she came to church! She should get baptized in a few weeks! We couldn't get to Miguel's house this week, but we called him almost everyday!! He is doing fine! We had 7 in the church this week, that's a pretty big number for this mission!! We worked our butts off all week to get there so we celebrated with barbecue at President's house today!!! My days are pretty full here, time is flying by!! Pray for warm weather for me!! Love and miss you guys!!