I think I am in Chile (08/31/2010)

Things are going well here in Vancouver. Sorry for not getting a letter off last week. I didn't have much written down and I couldn't think of what else to say and then I forgot to send what I had written down. Vancouver is doing well. It has been relatively cool lately. This morning it is in the low 60's overcast and misty. I don't know how it does it, but you know how people have misters in Arizona around their patio, well that's the same type of thing but its rain here, it's weird.

Sunday was a good day. We had three investigators at church, two of which were there for the whole three hours.

Domingo was the first. He is a great guy in a tough situation. He is married to a member but she is not very active. They have a son that is in Juvie right now, Mingo. But there is a twist, when this son was an infant, he was handed to them with a note that said you are now the legal parents, while they were at a carnival. Well obviously that is not a legal way of adopting. Well everything has been fine for the 14 years this kid has been alive, as fine as things can be. Well now that he is in juvie, for some reason, their other daughter is mad at them, so she called the court and told them the story and so now, they are thinking the court is not going to give them Mingo back. It is a sad situation. Domingo has been to church twice now and you can tell that his spirits are getting higher. So that is the story of Domingo. Add that to the list of things I didn't know I would do as a missionary, an adoption counselor.

Next up is Jorge. Jorge is married to Claudia and they have four kids. They also have no money. The other day we went by their apartment and Jorge was digging through the dumpster for cans to take them to Portland for the “cans for cash” thing. So we aren’t really sure what his true motives are but that is beside the point. Anyway, he came to church and now has come four times. Yesterday we went by and for the first time in probably two months, caught him and his wife at home. We talked to them about "seek ye first the kingdom of God then seek ye for riches". We promised them that if they read five minutes a day together that they will find work. So we will see what happens.

Well as you can see by the title, I have met a lot of Chileans. There are currently two families from Chile in the branch. Well another family came for the first time on Sunday and they are going to start coming. We met them yesterday and they are from Santiago and are a great family. The last investigator that came to church was Ingrid. Ingrid is the daughter of a lady that got baptized last October-ish. She is a great lady that would be baptized by now, but her husband won’t let her. She’s not even allowed to go to church. Well little by little, Gino (her husband) is changing. He came to a branch camp-out that they had and stayed the night which is amazing. So she really wants to get baptized. We don't know if Gino is going to allow that quite yet but we will see. We have made it this far so we will find out what happens this week. I would absolutely love to teach a Chilean.

Well that's about it. I hope you have a good week. Sounds like the weather is doing better down there. I hope so. Keep up the good work