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