the one with the Chile census and earthquakes!

Hola everybody here we are once again reporting to ya'll from a chillier Santiago, Chile. this has been a week of not much yet still stuff going on. ill explain a little more what i mean by that in a second. but no everythings been great here in the service of the Lord.

So this week on wednesday we had the national census where people gotta go around and take stats on people that are living here ya know all that fun stuff, and so that means that everyone in Chile had to be in their houses, so no school no work and no missionaries on the street, which is a sad thing. anyways we got the word that as soon as we were censused we could leave and go do our thing, that wouldve been nice but we didnt get censused until about 7 pm which means we spent all day inside in a boring missionary apartment. so that was fun, a day of just exercising, reading and staring at the ceiling. and then that night my comp got sick so we spent the NEXT day in the house in boredom as my comp was throwing up and all that stuff that id rather not get into details about. so yeah but after that things went back to normal we worked we taught people about Jesus Christ and all was great. and then one night im praying and all of sudden Santiago gets hit with an earthquake, i just thought that Heavenly Father was trying to make a point to me, but that one wasnt that strong, it wasnt until yesterday when all of a sudden the earthquake got pretty strong, nothing dramatic happened but it felt like i got up to fast and was dizzy except it wasnt me it was the earth haha. but no we're all goo hear safe and sound. We're well taken care of here so no worries ya'll. 

but yeah same old same old helping people come to know Christ and make changes that will allow them to follow Him.

I love you all so much and hope you all have a great week!

Love, Elder Carlos Cabrera

facts of the week:

1. Santiago is actually super well built to last earthquakes, they take them like a champ

2. its super common to see food places here that sell pizza and sushi together, i just cant get myself to think thats a good combination, they are mistaken

3. if youre a foreigner and you experience an earthquake, the chileans love talking about it with you, they take pride in their experience with the mighty earthquake

the one with the first easter

Hola everyone i hope you all are awesome and you all enjoyed your easter egg hunts and Robin Egg candy and that you all had a wonderful Easter. This week was full and awesome and overall really short. While i did go on easter egg hunts or anything of that sort, i was sure busy with showing people the restored church of Jesus Christ and what we're all about and invite them to learn more, thats the job.  but ill explain a little more...

So this week was full with the open chapel activity that we had at several church buildings around Santiago and other things here and there. We had the activity at our chapel friday night and it was a solid turn out all and all great and now we have new people to teach! so thats always excited to have new people who want to learn more and grow closer to Christ. And then antoher chapel that we had it at was in Santiago central where its total city with skyscrapers and all that jazz. there we went around invited everyone we saw on the streets. now im not the best at just going up to anybody and talking and all, but after about 10 minutes i got used to it. its always exciting what youre gunna get. i talk to a man that doesnt believe in Jesus Christ but in Avatars, i talked to an old man that took 5 minutes to answer what his name was, i talked to this weird other Christian church nun kind of lady who tried to invite me to join her church and so i invited her in return and then we ended up just getting about 15 random people off the streets to come with us and check out the activity, pretty fun and successful. so that was a great activity and it took the rest of the night haha and plus it was Elder Carrizo's birthday! so we at least spent it in an interesting way saturday night. 

The good old Easter Sunday came around and here in Chile....they dont do anything special. haha its all good just another day in the business and i was actually okay with it! They just dont eat meat here because of some Catholic tradition or something like that. 

anyways thats about it, im healthy im happy and im Chilean these days. I hope you all are doing well, that your families are well and that ya'll know how much i love ya. Take care all and have a great week!

Love, Elder Carlos Cabrera

facts of the week:

1. Here in Chile you dont even hear a "Happy Easter" on Easter, its like it doesnt exist

2. if youre really lucky, a Church member will sneak you a easter chocolate egg candy during church to celebrate

3. they dont eat meat on Easter so they all eat fish to substitute, in turn the venders raise the price in fish like double, those clever guys...

the one with the steph curry socks

HOLA HOLA A TODOS MI SERES QUERIDOS!!! How are we these days??? i hope we're all doin well and i know we're all gearing up for the easter festivities and what not during many spring breaks. so as you guys are filling your easter eggs for the hunt i just wanna update ya'll on whats been going on down here in the big CHI-LE. Lets gets started then...

So this week was nearly as jam packed i think as the weeks before, for the most part all is pretty normal we are working hard to help our investigators get to the waters of baptism, but occasionally, its not that easy. But we have an activity coming up that i think ive mentioned before in the past called "Capillas Abiertas" or like an Open Chapel Tour where the ward gets together and we give a tour to those that arent members that way they get to know the church, what we're all about, what it is that we crazy mormons do on sundays and some of the basic principles in what we believe in. that will be held this friday in the evening so we're hoping on a big turn out to further the work. im stoked so we've got lots of planning and invitiations to give out so thats what im up to this week. 

we also had transfers yesterday and.......IM Still here in my same sector, no changes for Elder Cabrera, but its cool it just means ive still got some work to take care of here before i move on to new things. gotta tie one shoe before ya tie the other am i right? hope that metaphor worked...

anyways thats about it, im healthy, im happy, im a clean, mean door knocking machine. 

Thats about it so i love you all very much and a big Happy Easter to you all. Hope the Easter Bunny takes good care of you guys this Sunday.

Love, Elder Carlos Cabrera

facts of the week:

1. so theres this chilean word here which is "weon" and it has two meanings one is the simple "buddy" and the other is the stronger form of "dumb butt"...you can imagine the difficulty in the figuring out which form theyre using when people are talking to you....

2. there are stores here that put names such as a shoe store with the name "Shoes & Shoes" and they think they are so clever just because the name is in english...im not impressed

3. Apparently here Starbucks is only for the rich, upper class citizens, while back in the states i know of middle school kids that refuse to go to school in the morning without their vanilla bean frappachino...

oh and a big shout out to Elder Harper who hooked me up with the sweet Steph Curry socks...theyre so sweet im in love, go warriors!

The one with conferencia genial (thats a pun in spanish)

hola hola everyone!!! i hope you all had a great week!! if you really want to understand the pun you should look up what "genial" means, what General Conference in spanish is conferencia general. just so ya know. hahaha yeah well my week was great! lots going on like always and teaching and learning a lot. but obviously the best part was having the opportunity to hear from our Prophet and his 12 apostles during General Conference this past weekend. it was truly a treat and i left very motivated, uplifted and happier in general.

As we are entering into this season of Easter and everything we are all trying to develop our knowledge of our Savior, Jesus Christ and follow Him better. Obviously its not an easy task but its definitely possible. Theres the princeofpeace initiative im going to attach to this email so i invite you all to take the time to watch it, its awesome. 

sorry i dont have too much to say this week but stand by and im sure more journeys are to be recorded as i take on Chile, one door at a time. 

I love you all very much! hope you all have a great week and learn more of Christ!!

Love, Elder Carlos Cabrera

instead of facts this week im doing a birthday shout out to my loved ones that have birthdays this week!!

Shouts out to:

1. Grandpa Eccles (this past sunday)

2. Aunt Camille (this past sunday)

3. My favorite brother Caden (this thursday)

4. My Princess my lil sister Kami (this saturday)

5. and last but not least my sister, lil Red Kennedy (next wednesday) (turning the big 1-6) 

gosh they grow up so fast!