Yes I can, and i am going to send my big everything letter right here, so HERE WE GOª!
First I was thinking you should have brecca create a blog and then you can just copy and paste my letters onto there so that you dont have to add names and minus names when they want the emails. yuou can like post it on facebook and then everyone can read it when they want to!ª Just a thought, trying to make things easier for you!
Well it was a crazy week! Lots of fun but LOTS of walking. I have decided this is the area for climbing hills, but I havent been to any other area. I think that this mission is a mission of hills, so I will be coming home with legs of an olympian!ª haha We have an investigator at the top of the tallest hill in my sector, so we frequently get to climb to the very top of that>!
Last monday we had noche de hogar, or family home evening with this pretty cool family and that was pretty much the excitement of that day minus it being p day nd well I got to write home, so ya!ª haha
Tuesday We had our usual studying in the morning and then we were looking for futures and antiguos like all dayt i swear! haha We also brought our dirty clothes to the mamita, we also cracked out the bikes! hahaha My first thought was there is no way this isnt going to end ugly but then I felt like a little kid and was just having a ball! haha We used bikes a few different days this week, but not too much cause my companions bike is a little broken, it doesnt have a right pedal and it kinda wears him out! I understand why, I tried to ride with only one pedal and it is ridiculous! I applaud him for being able to even do it! haha We received some references and we even tried to do tours of the church which was reallly good for me, cause then I was confronting people all by my lonesome and I had to complete the whole conversation. Some people would just blow past me, and some people told me they were too busy but I totally got an address so that we could swing by their house later! I was pretty proud of myself when I pulled that off! haha It didnt matter if the address was fake, I totally anillated that contact! ( in the most loving way, or in other words, I was actually having a spanish conversation with someone who lives here.
That brings me to another point, how everyone talks to me in english. I think I can speak better spanish than they can speak english, but they really try to be nice to me and make sure I can understand, but I dont need english! The only way I am going to learn is if they willl give me their spanish! haha or, castillano cause its not quite spanish! It makes me laugh cause they have some many words that are strictly chilean! haha but that is part of the fun! haha But I am telling you, I hear hello more than I hear hola! haha Its kinda funny!
So I have also come to find how important it is to have a "plan b" and usually "plan c & d" haha Because there are so many different reasons why people will give you. the more popular is we arent home, there isnt any people in here, or my personl favorite, im busy. If only they could see. The saddest thing happened also. Last week when we were tracting we ran into this little boy. He is the son of an less active member and he was telling us how he wants to be baptized. Why asked him why he wasnt then and if we could come and teach him and his parents the lessons. He said his dad was catholic and he wanted him baptized catholic, but the little boy said he didnt want that. Its kinda funny, nothing against the catholics! I love all the catholic people down here! They are very nice, sometimes we will be tracting and they will just be very friendly which we need! haha
We had conferencia de la estaka, or stake conference yesterday and WOW! I thought it was hard when I pay attention, but when you cant understand you start to zone off and its kinda REALLY hard to understand, its kinda a lot different than inglish! haha But it was fun!
Random bits of facts for this week. There is a girl in our ward, her name is Valentina, and she looks EXACTLY like Brooke Richmond only smaller and maybe like a year younger but its crazy! haha Also, you wouldnt think they have very much tile here because of the earthquakes, but NO EVERYONE has tile! They all have really shiny patios, its kinda cool! haha Also, since you asked, my area is pretty dusty, but it is considered a rich area. We have gone into houses that are nice (not big, cause big houses crash in earthquakes) and I have seen and been in houses that are pretty poor. Not quite like nates trash houses, but pretty beaten and almost made of nothing. I had lunch yesterday with a guy who lives in the ward, and he said he plays TENNIS!!!!!!!! And he wants to play sometime, he said he is pretty good, so I tihnk he is expecting a challenge, and I pray he is ready for it! hahaha also, the house numbers dont always go in order, one second it can be increasing and the next second its decreasing, which makes finding houses difficult sometimes! haha
2 things I wish for. A and camera chord, should I buy one hear or would you like to send one? then I can give you pictures every now and then. and B my oh so loving little sisters brecca. They love change here, and my wallet is not meant for change. If you could make a change pouch than is about the size of a credit card that would be SO SWEET! I know you can do it! if you need some money, ask mom to take some of mine, but I bet you can make a cool one! (it needs to be able to bulge a little! please and thank you! )
Ok, my favorite story of the week: our miracle. So we were in a lesson with Vania, the girl who lives WAY on the top of the hill. Her mom says she isnt ready for baptism, but she is. so after trying to explain to her mother that she needs it, we realized we are late for our last apointment of the day. and its like by the bishop. In fact, the bishop set of the cita, for 9 o clock. So we say a prayer with vania and her family and we RUN down the hill. My companion says "This is when we need the miracles!" haha and we continued running, since we had 5 minutes to go 4 miles! As we get to the bottom of this mountain, a bus pulls up so we run to catch it, and barely get it and ride it for like 3 minutes (we are late at this point by like 2 minutes) and we get off the bus and still have a good half a mile to go. So we run! Its been a long day, we are TIRED like seriously, but we run cause we gotta make this cita! As we get there the man we are set up with, Felipe, is leaving his house. He sees us and says he was about to go down town to get some stuff since we were 5 or 10 minutes late, he wasnt sure if we were still coming. But he invites us in and gives us some water, since he saw us run up to his house. We sit down and get to know him. He is a doctor, his wife is catholic and doesnt want anything to do with the church, but he met with the missionaries about 4 months ago until they transferred. He said he can tell the difference in his life from when we was attending church and now that he isnt. Suddenly I am like just FILLED with energy. After a long day with everyone canceling, and walking a long ways and even RUNNING at the end, I just had all this energy come in me and I felt like I new Felipe! it was CRAZY! And I felt like I should tell him this, so I did. I told him how I was so excited and he sat back just kinda confused and said really? and then he just smiled. and i told him how we wanted to share this message with all his family, and he said that would be hard but he will talk with them. We said we could just share a movie with his family and he said that sounds good, and then he said he would try. I am pretty excited for him though! I cant wait til we get to go visit him again!
Well that is my big and bulky letter! hope its awesome! I love you all!
Oh wait, we need a challenge. Well this week, try to go out of your way and do 5 random act of kindness! and make one of them a little bigger, like not just getting something for someone but like washing the dishes for mom! Love you all! I am doing great!
Elder Marvin
