The one with the first thanksgiving...

¡Hola Ladies and Gentleman! I hope everyone is alive and well and you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! So before we get into the week im just mention a few things...while its getting colder and colder for all of you this week ive began to a solid suntan walking all the day in the south america sun. (dont worry mom im putting on sunscreen) but yeah it's getting super hot here but hey what are you gunna do. 

So maybe a few of you guys are wondering how i spent my Thanksgiving and the fact of the matter was that...for the most part it was just another day. I actually spent the day in an intercambio with another missionary, Elder Alex Leavitt from Mesa, AZ. It was kinda cool to at least spend the holiday with another American. The Latinos just dont appreciate the day like we do but ya can't really blame them, it's not part of their culture. But no we had a fun time hanging out working hard, not gunna lie we spoke more english that day than we probably should have but hey, it was a holiday cut me some slack. 

Besides that things are kinda coming to a close with my companion Elder Garcia because this time next week, Elder Garcia will be back home with his family in Mexico and I'll have a new companion, who ever he may be...we dont find out until monday in the office, its like a lottery haha. But all is well, its a bit too hot to be walking around in a shirt and tie all day but hey, Welcome to the Mission. 

Anyways i believe thats all to report on, if anyone has any specific questions that ive failed to answer or you guys just wanna know something, send me an email and ill get back to you when i can! I love ya'll and i wish you all a great rest of your week. Until next tuesday!

Elder Carlos Cabrera

facts of the week:

1. as the summer season comes up more and more people start breaking out the barbecues and it really does a number on the air quality here, especially when youre always outside and walking fast haha

2. All those of you that are sad that youre beginning to lose your suntans because of wintertime, take mine i dont want it every person i run into is like "Elder have you been working otuside lately?" the answer is always yes...

3. Nobody has any money during this time of the year here in Chile, theyre tarting to buy christmas presents and spending more money on electricity for fans and stuff and everybody is just poor haha its quite a humbling experience

The one with Maria Livia's baptism...

¡Hola Everybody! Coming to you live once again from Caliente Santiago. Another week come and gone and its been a busy one. We had an intercambio, temple tour, a baptism, a confirmation, more sightseeing and a whole lot of experience a long the way. I hope you all are well and that you all are getting ready to chow down this Thursday, as for me, its just a normal Thursday.

So as expected Maria Livia Giraldo was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. What a special day it was for her. Shes not really a woman that likes to show much emotion but she couldn't help but display the joy she felt. What a neat experience. But it wasn't easy we did some major traveling, my companion and I had to travel to the other side of Santiago to go to the temple where Maria could get interviewed by baptized by President Canioles. It was quite the hassle. But all went well.

Today we did some more sighteeing and we climbed Cerro Santa Lucia, it was awesome, the architecture is super beautiful and we had a great time celebrating the last Pday for my companion Elder Garcia before he heads home to Mexico. 

So i dont have too much to say but ive got a ton of pics so i hope that makes up for it. I wish you all a wonderful thankgiving as you reunite with famil, friends and loved ones and i hope you all are able to feel and share the things your are grateful for in your lives. The Lord has truly blesed all of us in more ways than one and we just need to take the time to look. Happy Thansgiving!

Elder Carlos Cabrera

Facts of the week:

1. theres these spiders here that make these cool spider webs that look like blackholes on like every tree here and if you stick your pen on the web and cause a vibration on the web, the spider will come out and literally try to grab the pen from you. It was quite terrifying at first but now its an entertaining game we play.

2. Its completely normal to pass other cars by going into the othher lane going the other way. In the states its seen as rude and a bit dangerous, but here its an everyda necesity. I would hate to drive here.

The one where i got locked out with an old man

¡Hola! Its our favorite missionary in Santiago, Chile reporting to you all once again. So another week has come and gone and i feel like so much has happened but nothing at the same time. Sorry if that doesnt make sense. lets get on to week...

So when i last wrote to you guys we still werent sure who would be the next President of the Great US of A. I didnt recieve the reult until Wednesday morning on the bus when some old guy yelled at me "Hey gringo i hope youre happy with President Trump" or something like that, it was kind of gibberish. So yeah i now know and i hope that all turns out well and he's able to make a positive difference for the country. Thats all im gunna say about that. 

So many of you are probably wondering what happened according to my subject title. So in past emails ive talked about a member in the ward named Mario, he's 87 years old and hes lost his marbles a little bit but he cant read so we take time every week to read him the scriptures. Anyways we were in his backyard this past week and it was kind of windy outside and Mario is scenial so everything has a lock, anyways we were talking outside on his patio when suddenly BAH the backdoor shut and it locks automatically and nobody had a key. we were completely stuck in his backyard. His front door was open so i suggested we call someone who lives close by to come save us. and we did. and so the first counselor in the ward came by opened the backdoor, in the meantime Mario decided to get on the roof to yell at nearby people if they could come help us for some reason. Anyways he came saved us, came out onto the patio to talk to us when BAH the door shut again...we were dying laughing we thought it was hilarious but Mario was pissed hahaha to wrap it up Mario found someone from the roof to come save us, we made it back in, but we made one funny memory in the meantime haha. 

 As far as th work is going Maria Livia wasnt able to get baptized this past sunday because something came up but im hopeful she'll be able to get baptized this coming sunday. We have found and are developing other investigadors as well and i hope to be able to say they will be getting baptized as well in the following weeks to come. 

Anyways im healthy, im safe and im happy, not much more i can ask for here in beautiful Santiago. Sending my love to you all and wishing you all a wonderful week! Chao!

Elder Carlos Cabrera

Facts of the week:

1. There isnt air conditioning or heating in the houses here in Chile, even though i've been in desperate need of both of them during my time here...

2. As a missionary one must eat whatever they are served no matter how disgusting it is, i have learned that i have the capacity to eat probably the grossest thing ive ever ate this past week without throwing up, even though i had a few close calls

3. So many people here, children, adult, old people you name it, wear these super crude shirts with all sort of f bombs and sexual phrases in english but they dont think twice because no one understands the writing except for me, thanks Chileans, thanks

not many photos this week sorry guys

That one with my first birthday in the mission

¡Hola Ya´ll! Hows everybody doing? Man this week was a busy one and also a super eventul one too so sorry for all the photos you guy are gunna get at the end of this. Well first off i just want to say thank you to all thoe of you who ent me birthday wishes and your love i really appreciate it and its so awesome to hear from all of ya´ll from the other side of the globe. I love you guys. anyways i´ll get started on the week...

so if you havent gotten the hint by now my birthday was this past saturday and man was it eventful. I swear i gained like 10 lbs from all the food that everybody gave me this weekend. I had like 3 different birthday parties with different members here in Los Manantiales. It was so awesome because not only was i able to recieve the love and birthday wishes from my family and friends back in the US but the people here have really taken me in and made me part of their families and it truly melted my heart how special they have become to me and i was able to feel the love they have for me and even though im away from my family back home and my friends, i could still feel special on my big day. Ive been truly blessed to have known so many amazing people in my life. Word cant fully expres what i feel for what i experienced this weekend. 

Another exciting activity that took place thi past week was i experinced my firt earthquake here in Chile and actually my first one ever in my life and it was weird at first i didnt know what was going on and then i was like "oh well its an earthquake" haha but it didnt do any damage and it was relatively small for Chile standards so we're good haha. 

So besides the eartthquakes, birthday parties, huge amounts of food all is well here and we are preparing to baptize Maria Livia this sunday and he i beyond excited to follow the example of Jesus Christ. 

So all is well here in Chile, i've got 3 cakes in my fridge that are just trying to give me diabetes but i guess thats a personal problem. 

Have a great week everybody!

Facts of Chile:

1. If a stranger finds out it´s your birthday they will give the biggest hug ever even if they dont know you at all

2. Its a tradition to shove your face in your birthday cake when ou blow out the candles but when youre standing and youre taller than everyone its kinda impossible

3. Latinos love to party but they never are on time so if they ay come at 7, youre better off at arriving at 9 because the party still wont be ready.

The one with my first Halloween

¡Hola Everybody! Hows everybody doing these days? Is everyone in their candy coma from yesterdays festivities? haha but seriously i hope you all had a great Halloween its one of my favorite holidays for so many reasons haha it was sad that i wasnt walking around in my own costume last night but the fact that Chile doesnt really celebrate Halloween for the most part made me feel a little better but we'll talk about that a bit later! 

SO onto the week...

So this week we didnt have too much out of the norm just teaching and we actually are having a baptism for this like 70 year old Colombian lady named Maria Livia and she is super awesome. Her family has been members for years but she has never wanted anything to do with the church before until now. It just goes to show that sometimes people aren´t ready but that doesnt mean that we can give up, we had to have faith and trust that the Lord will soften their hearts and ready their minds. This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we have to accept it eventually if we are to return to live with Him again after this life. Anyways Maria is ready, she has a testimony that we have taught is true and she will get baptized on the 13 of November if all goes according to plan.

At the end of this week on Saturday and Sunday we had Stake Conference and we had the opportunity to hear from Elder Allan F. Packer of the Seventy, son of Elder Boyd K Packer of the Quorem of the 12 Apostles. What an experience it was to listen and meet him personally. His spanish is perfect but we were all able to feel the Spirit through his words and his counsel and the people loved him like he was one of their own. Was truly an experience that I'll always remember.

And so came Halloween yesterday as you all know with your sacks of candy stashed and your Halloween decorations still covering your homes. However hear in Chile only very children and older kids celebrated Halloween with costumes and trick or treating, every person that we talked to about it looked me straight in the eyes and said "Oh i dont do Halloween thats a thing for Gringos" hahaha it's their loss. We had an intercambio with my zone leader yesterday Elder Espinola from Paraguay and so i spent my Halloween night with him in his sector. 

Anyways thats it basically for the week and i want to give a special thanks to those of you who sent me Birthday Wishes! It was so special to open my email to see so many of the people i love write me and wish me a happy birthday for this coming saturday! I love you guys! Have a great week everybody!

Facts of Chile

1. People dont do Halloween here if ya didnt get that from the email haha

2. It´s totally normal to still live with your parents even though you are in your late 20s early 30s

3. Nobody likes to get married here, they see it more as a burden than a beautiful opportunity