the one with my sons first week, what a week

Hola Everybody!!!! yep its me once again reporting live from cold Santiago! Happy late Memorial day!, i totally forgot that holiday existed, its been a while since ive been stateside. This has been quite the week and its gone by pretty dang fast, as you all know i got my son and we're going on a week together and his like 3rd week in Chile. Ill get straight to the details.

my kids name is Elder Andrade from Mar de plata, Argentina. thats right my sons argentine how cool right. hes not your classic argentine, hes a big boy hes like 6'4'' and he used to play rugby and basketball. Hes a youngin though, just turned 18 and hes a total sweetheart. He made me dinner the other night (see photo) and hes excited and energized to work and to learn, he really wants to learn english too so im teaching him that too. this has been a great experience so far so alls good on that front. 

This week has been full of teaching (people and my companion) a lot of patience and dramatic experiences. so short little story our investigators that have planned to get baptized the 15th of July Patricia and Walter are doing good for the most part but this week was kinda bumpy, we could definitely see Satan working against their choice to follow Jesus Christ. so one night we were going to pass by to teach them and then when we got to the door the mom came out (patricia) crying telling us how walter got beat up by his older brother and took off. so we went to go look for him and during the search the dog of patricia was crossing the street to go check out another dog when, BAM it got hit by a car, just when she stopped crying that happened and she started balling again. we had no idea what to do and it was getting late, so what we did was we said a prayer asking for a special blessing over patricia and her family (including her dog) and we had to leave to go home. I was traumatized that night, but the next day at church, she showed up with the family with smiles and i was like what the heck and apparently all was resolved in her family and her dog was healed miraculously over night. the power of prayer, still continues to surprise me.

anyways all is good im happy, my son is alive and we are loving being the service of the Lord. the church is true, priesthood is real and prayers can make miracles happen, miracles still exist, they didnt cease to exist when Jesus Christ did. 

I wish you all a great week and i love you all very much. 

love, Elder Carlos Cabrera

facts of the week:

1. little mixed pug/ terrier mix kind of dogs are indestructable

2. tall argentines are believed to be gringo to the average chilean

3. dont speak french to a colombian that you think is haitian...they get really pissed, it didnt happen to me by the way just to make that clear, but a valuable lesson to be learned all the same

the one where im gunna be a dad!!!

Hola Everybody how are we all doing???? i hope you guys are all well and preparing yourselves for the summer time!!! WHile im starting to bundle myself up out here (fyi im writing with a a suit, a huge jacket and a scarf on...i never wear scarves), i actually have some news for all ya'll. IM GUNNA BE A DAD but no not in the sense you all think. When i say that i mean that im going to train a brand new missionary and teach him how to be a missionary. today im going to pick him up from the office and bring him back to my area and from there his training begins, i dont know what country hes from yet but ill let ya'll know next week!!! So yeah thats my assignment from President, and im also going to be district leader and im staying in my same sector Alberdi 2 for 3 more months!!!! im happy and excited for this opportunity to serve and have more responsibility. 

SO yeah we had our last week together wth Elder Carrizo and now hes in LOS ANDES so hes happy and im happy for him!!! 

Oh i also had the chance to skype my amazing beautiful family that i love so much and we had a great time together. totally made my day. nothing i love more in this world.

so all in all i cant complain im happy, things are happening and we'll see what the Lord has in store the next couple months. I know the Church is true and that we are helping others come unto Christ and change lives. Heavenly Father loves us and i love all of you too. Take care eveyone and have a great week!!!!

Love, Elder Carlos Cabrera

facts of the week:

1. there is no such thing as public bathrooms in chile, trust me i would know

2. when you cant pay for the bus cause you dont have money you just say "permiso" and you can get on anyways, kind of messed up

3. i thought smoking was a problem here but not until we hit winter time, they fill their lunges with toxins to somehow feel warmer. thats actually their insides burning

the one with the mothers day

Hola Hola to all of you wonderful people!!!! Happy Belated Mothers Day to all you mothers out there! This week was a very chill week with not too much to report actually, no big highlights or anything and for that i dont have any photos to send, sorry ya'll. but ill try and recollect everything that happened and see if i can update all you guys.

Well this week was full of just working and teaching new people, families, its starting to get cold down here and its sweet because i get to break out the sweaters, i feel a little more stylish. but yeah we brought this amazing family named Patricia, Kenshy, Walter and Maria to church and Kenshy and Maria have a baby girl of 3 months and even she came a long haha. It was wonderful they met the Bishop they made a bunch of new friends and they loved it at church. the baby was actually super quite and calm during sacrament meeting and all, im positive the Spirit helped. 

Its sad because i do believe im in my last week of this sector Alberdi and its sad because ive made some wonderful friends here and ive come to love the people so much, ive been here almost 6 months, and even though im not sure yet, i do believe im getting changes. so next week ill probably be filling you all in about where i am, who my companion is and all but i do not look forward to packing my bags. oh well thats the mission life.

all is great here in Santiago ready for the cold to start, its more fun than the heat for a missionary. i love you all very much, take care and send me an email id love to here from you guys. Have a great week!!!!

facts of the week:}

1. when a car passes by a girl that the driver finds attractive they a one single honk to be like "you fine" haha some girls get super annoyed while others im sure love it

2. missionaries love wearing sweaters why? because it means you dont have to iron your shirts and less chance of staining the nice white shirts

3. everyone here in Chile is obsessed with WWE and anime, ive never seen so many fans, i feel like the odd one when i say im not into either of those things.... 

the one with praying for knees and being called omish

Hola everybody how is everyone? im doing great down here not gunna lie this week was super fast and it was full of experiences and memories for sure. We have been quite busy this week with teaching our new investigators, we had stake conference here and that absolutely awesome. i could go on but to sum up the week im going to share a few experiences we had this week:

so this week one night i was bed sleeping like a baby when all of a sudden around 3 am my comp wakes me up and im all freaked out and hes like (in spanish) "pray with me, pray with me" and without thinking twice, i jump out of bed and get on my knees not even knowing exactly why, i was so out of it. and then i was even like "can i say the prayer" and so i start praying and i realize that i dont know why we're praying and my comp is use to having stomach problems so i pray for his stomach then i ask in midprayer "why are we praying" and he responded with "pesadillas" which means nightmares but i head "rodillas" which means knees so i prayed for his knees to feel better and then i got back into bed and fell back to sleep. Next monring i go up to him and im like "how are your knees feeling?" and he was like "great! they werent ever bad" and then he explained to me my mistake hahahaha i couldnt stop laughing

another experience... so we're trying to find this family that we met to go teach them and they told us this one house so we go and this house has like a million rooms rented out and this random haitian lets us in and we are just looking at all the different rooms and we had zero idea which was the family we were looking for and we couldnt remember there names so we started screaming "hello, new family from Peru are you there?" and then out of no where this haitian dude shows up and talks to me in perfect english and i was so thrown off guard. his name was Jeff and hes from New York and his eyes were like the size of my fist it was intimidating. then he asked what we were doing and we said we´re missionaries and he was liek "ohhhh so you guys are Omish" and im like noooo we're Mormon hahahaha it was weird and i was like where do you live so we can pass by to visit you and he was like "oh im not gunna tell you" and then he took off. i had no idea how much of that conversation my comp understood but i look over to him and in his english he was like "that guy was weird" hahaha it was hilarious. but all in all we found the family and it all went well haha. 

but yeah some great experinces this past week...im happy and safe and healthy and just loving life down here in the great CHILE. The Church is true and i wouldnt be doing what im doing if it wasnt i promise. i love you all and i wish you all a great week.

Love, Elder Carlos Cabrera

facts of the week:

1. tear gas is actually really irritating, its impossible to cross a street while in the middle of tear gas, i learned that today

2. Chile has random riots for some weird student rights or something just randomly and on a random tuesday while missioanries are trying to have fun

3. The US isnt the only ones that hose people down with water during riots, Chile proved that today it was awesome i almost got a photo, sorry gang

the one with more earthquakes, masterchef and wedding planning

Hola Everybody up north!!! how is everything going on the other side of the equator? things are a little shaky down here, lol get it? haha im lame i know. But for real this week has been crazy and fun like always, the mission is bomb seriously never know whats gunna happen next. but yeah we've had little earthquakes here and there and they say we'll be experienced a big boy soon, the tectonic plates have to move back to their normal positions and thats gunna cause some noise haha. but no worries we're good here, Chile is too prepared, this is every day ish for these people.

But this week has been full of teaching and finding some amazing people! but just a few highlights, i went on an interchange to a different sector and lucky me i just happened to be there for a ward activity where they did a chilean version of masterchef and i was a judge, life is rough as a missionary. the best was definitely the creme brullee. see winner at the bottom.

and the big highlight was that we have an investigator named Carol who is preparing to get baptized the 28th of May but one little problem, shes not married. no worries no worries we taught her that she needs to marry her boyfreind that she lives with and has a baby girl with in order to get baptized and they are setting up the arrangement to make it happen, so far so good haha. thats not always the case when you drop the marriage card here in Chile.

but yeah things are just keeping on and im happy safe and healthy so thanks for the love and the prayers, theyre definitely felt.

I love ya'll so much and i wish you all a great week!!! the Church is true!

Love, Elder Carlos Cabrera 

facts of the week:

1. the idea of marriage is considered way out fashion and unnecessary here in Chile, good thing God never goes out of fashion

2. never just assume that a dark skinned person here is Haitian, they get mad when you try and speak to them in french and theyre actually from the Dominican Republic, that was embarrassing

3. as long as you know how to say "whats up" "whats your name" and "May God bless you" you are in with every Haitian that you meet