9.24.12

chile is still chile. this week was pretty interesting the first couple of days cuz they had their huge festival for the 18th of september. and theres tons of drunk people walking in the streets those days, so the mission president told us to spend them just visiting members. so we went to some members houses and in one of them we had a nice cookout with tons of meat and potatoes. it was really good. but hten the next day we ate the exact same thing at another members house. then later that day we went to the church for the dieziocho activity and there they had pretty much the same thing too. so i was pretty much sick of meat after that. meat and empanadas! they eat a ton of empanadas at this time too. and also this drink called mote con huesillo they gave us every single day this week at lunch. but it was a fun holiday. they dance their national dance called the cueca and then play games like the sac race and the 3 legged race and all sorts of other races, and a kid showed me how to use these big wooden tops they play with and we put up kites with them. it was fun.

then the on thursday and friday we did a mini cambio with the zone leaders who were concerned for how low our numbers were, so i went to work with elder arana for a couple days. but when i woke up there my stomach really hurt and i felt like throwing up. but we still went out to work. yesterday it was still hurting a bit but it finally went away in the evening.

this sunday was good tho cuz we actually had someone come to church.

other than that everything is pretty much the same.

this is the last week of the cambio. next week i start my second to last cambio. which means only like 12 weeks left of the mission. its a wierd feeling. like now im soo used to being here and talking spanish and having people stare at me cuz i have blonde hair and having girls yell out "hello i love you" and everyone else just saying "hello" and wearing a tie every day. there will be a lot of strange feelings when i arrive at home. i talked to the new missionary couple that came here to replace the other missionary couple here. they got here last week, so they dont speak hardly any spanish. so i talked to them in english, and it felt really awkward, and i couldnt remember a lot of words in english. so it will be really wierd to talk to everyone when i get back too...

thanks for the letter.

i miss you and love you

Love

ElderJared Philpott

 

Pictures of Dieziocho

 

9.17.12

thanks for the letters everyone. sorry i dont have much time to write ya all, so i have to do it all in one. but it sounds like you guys are doing well and dont worry, we'll be able to talk all we want in a couple of months haha.

things have been going alright here. the theme of this week was service. we had a ton of service projects in the week. and i got a bit sunburnt. but it went well. but i couldnt help feeling like we were wasting time doing all this service work when we could be out finding people. but then one day we had service behind this old ladys house, and there was a house there that was recently built with a young family living there, and they saw us doing service and came out and gave us some juice to drink and accepted a visit from us another day. And they`re cool people too. the mom is pregnant, and also has a two year old, so her younger sister comes over to help her with stuff. we havent met the husband yet, but they told us that they just recently stopped going to their protestant church because of something they didnt like, and were looking for a new church. needless to say, the lord had been planning this for awhile.

other than that it6 was a pretty normal week. kind of lame because no one came to church. they all had the excuse of the Dieziocho celebration. which is like chiles 4th of july, but they celebrate it a lot bigger than we do. and always have family come over and stay with them for the 3 day holiday. so that made it pretty hard for us to get anyone to church. and the mission president change our Pday to tuesday just because we arent going to be able to work on that day because of all the fiestas. and our branch is going to have a big activity tomorrow, so were just going to go to that. they also tell us to be careful at night cuz pretty much everyone is drunk by that time. so it will be fun experience.

again thanks for the letters. it took me awhile to read em all, but it made me feel at home for a little bit :)

i sure miss and love you all. ill see you in december.

until then love

Elder Jared Philpott

 

9.10.12

This week was a bit better than last week. it was still hard to teach lessons and find people but we ended up having one person in church. and that was pure blessing from God, cuz we hadnt even planned on seeing him in church. we had to other families ready to come but at the last minute something came up for both of them and niether of them went. so we were feeling really down and just sitting there in sacrament thinkin "crap the zone leaders are gonna talk our ears off about not having investigators in church again..." and wondering how God could let this happen after working so hard to get people to church. and right then, in walks emilio an old investigator thats 17 years old who just "felt like coming" it was a humbling experience.

but this week i was also very sick wednesday. it started out as just a cold on tuesday. but then on wednesday i had a nasty cough and body aches and could not breath. like serioiusly gasping for air sometimes. so we went to chile's free urgent healthcare next door, got in, stood in a line for half an hour to sign in, then sat down with about 30 other people waiting, and the doctors would come out every 15 minutes and call in like 4 people at a time. long story short we got there at 5 and left when it was almost 9. they told me i had bronchitus and gave me some pills and an inhaler. its been working pretty good. its almosy gone but i still have a nasty cough.

other than that we`ve been goofing around in the appartment. this one family gave us a scary mask. not sure why, but i took advantage of the situation and put it over a jar and set it in the microwave to scare the next person that opened it. the next person to open it was E`Ojeda, in the morning, making his breakfast, he had some eggs ready to fry all mixed up, and when he opened the microwave he yelled and spilled the eggs all over the kitchen! :D we were all in the next room, and i started dying laughing. he didnt say much and i just helped him clean up the eggs lol
and elder Alburqueque bought a dart board, so we`ve been having competions with that. but when that got boring we decided to strap an orange to it and just throw darts at the orange lol

but yeah thats baisically all thats new around here.

i cant wait to see you all again in december.

until then

Love

Elder Jared Philpott

 

Pictures from Tome

 

9.3.12

Well things here have been alright. this week was pretty hard actually. we didnt get many lessons taught. it seems like this sector is a lot harder than my last one. they say theres no such thing as a hard sector, and i believed it up until now. we cant seem to get into any houses. or get anyone to church. when i got here there were absolutely NO investigators and we had to start from zero. and when no one comes to church the zone leaders and my district leader all start breathing down my neck and ask me why or what we could improve on and its really just a matter of time. so its kind of dumb but i think this week we finally found some good people that might be able to come to church.

   other than that this week has been pretty average. on monday night walking home i noticed something strange in the sky and looked up and saw this giant perfect circle of clouds around the moon. there were clouds all around but not one in the circle. it was really wierd, but i was asking people, and i guess it happens somewhat often here. and its kind of a prediction of tremors. and it was right cuz that night there was a 5.4 tremor. or thats what they told me the next day. i slept right through it haha actually its been awhile since ive woken up from a tremor haha i just feel so dead tired here at night i guess.

last night me n Elder Alburqueque (Peru) played ping pong on the floor with a yoyo string for a net, and it went well for a little bit, but in the end it just turned into a game of seeing who could hit eachother harder with the ping pong ball haha

oh and good news, theres a member here who has an electric guitar and wants me to teach her, so whenever we have lunch with their family i take advantage of the time and play a little bit haha. first time ive seen an electric guitar here in chile haha 

so thats about all thats been going on here. yesterday it was a nice sunny day for church, but at like 5 in the evening this wind came all the sudden and made it cold and rained. it seriously blew in so fast. it was wierd.

I'll see you in December!
Elder Jared Philpott