America Week!

Hola!

What a wonderful week! So many things... Not sure where to start to be honest... Let´s talk about Americanization.

Americanization ("modernization" to Americans) is a force for good and evil here in Chile. On the one hand, I was able to enjoy Subway for lunch today (DIVINE, I might add...), General Conference in English Via Satellite (¡Muy Rico!), and can enjoy the occasional American treat when I have the money (Snickers Bars, Waffles, and Cinamon Life, Oh My!). On the other hand, it means that when we try to teach the concepts of tithing, dia de reposo, and Chastity, we often have to work a lot harder to help our investigators understand and live these standards. We´re working with Lorena still, but she only attended one session of General Conference because she was prepping her business (Saturday, we could blow it off, but Sunday it was slightly more alarming). She has her (hopefully) final interview tonight with President Essig, and we do have a date set with her for the 9th of October. I really hope that it goes through, because I´m probably getting transferred the 10th. Pray for Lorena!

As for the rest of the barrio, things are going fairly well. I think I´ve mentioned before that we have a LOT of work to do in our sector up north, but we are slowly and steadily working through it. I´ve been sick, but we keep working through it and somehow the Lord gives me strength enough to do what I need to do during the day. THANK YOU for your prayers, I know that it is because of the people who pray for us that we can be effective at all.

General Conference was AMAZING. I don´t know if it was more intense for all of you, but for some reason it seemed a lot more intense than usual to me. The English, of course, was wonderful, but everybody seems to talk slower now. This, of course, is caused by the difference in language.

This is one other thing that I discovered this week. There are actually TWO alternate forms of spanish that are used here. One is more international (Vos) and the other is Chilean Tú form. Because they are used interchangeably and occasionally in the same sentence, this makes it much more confusing. Now that I understand the difference though, it is much better. Compare the typical experience of the first day missionary:

NM: Hola, ¿como esta?
Chilean: Bien, ¿y tu?
NM: Muy bien, Gracias. Somos misioneros de la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Últimos Días. ¿Ha visto misioneros antes de hoy?
Chilean: Ya, protngomrlgnpoynncsitmaspo. ¿Cachai?
(New missionary looks at companion, companion looks back expectantly)
(New missionary stammers and tries to explain that he can´t speak spanish very well. Words are lost in translation, but message is clearly understood)
Chilean: Oh, vos soi GRINGO... Voy ser mas lento para tupo... Hevistolosmisionerospoperoyotengomireligionpoynonecesitamaspo, especialmentesusantoJonSmidtpo. ¡Tuestailocopo!
(New missionary almost starts crying, trainer mercifully remembers that he doesn´t know chilean spanish and takes over the conversation. New missionary stays up late trying to find out which flight he was actually supposed to take to get to Chile.)

Translation follows next week!

-Elder Wheelhouse

P.S. Sorry to cut short, have to go.