Week 16-carabineros, technical difficulties, climbing mountains and mas

¡Hola Amigos y Familia¡ Here again is your favorite missionary in the Chile Santiago North Mission (or at least i hope i am). Before i get started i hope you all are well and you had a splendid week. So on to the events of the week.

So this past friday we recieved a phone call from an unknown number saying he is a missionary who arrived to Chile last night and he needs our help. So we arrived at this random address to find Elder Santiago, a peruvian missionary who served 2 years in Bolivia, he has finished his 2 years and instead of returning to Peru he chose to come to Chile to live with his mom. Except one small issue, he hasnt been released from being a missionary. For those that dont know when a missionary is about to leave on his mission he is "set apart" or ordained a missionary by a leader in our church called the Stake President. And so when one returns home after his/or her service is up they have to be "released" from their missionary service which results in them taking off their missionary plaque and becoming a normal person again. So hence this Elder Santiago, now called Frank, had to spend the entire day with us being a missionary until that night when our stake president could meet with him to release him. was quite an interesting experience walking around in 3 with this basically dead missionary haha. 

Another highlight of the week actually took place today during our Pday when we hiked this mountain called Cerro San Cristobal. It was awesome it has this huge statue of the Virgin Mary on top and its very well known throughout Santiago. It was a blast always nice to mix things up and do a bit of hiking and sight seeing. Sometimes its still weird to think im in Santiago, Chile. Sometimes when youre just going about your business you forget where you are in the world. After more than 2 months here i still have my moments where i say "Wow im in CHILE!" haha my comp gets a kick out of it. 

As far as the work is going here we´re slowly finding more people interesting in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we found a wonderful family who now has a date to be baptized, well at least there parents do, i hope all goes according to plan and i hope they continue to read the scriptures, pray and develop their personal testimonies of this gospel. i know it will change their lives for the better if they do. This Gospel changes lives, it brings families together, it brings joy into a home, and it gives people the opportunity to better their lives forever here on earth and the life to come. 

Thats all for this week, take care, love one another, and remember...theres someone in Santiago Chile thats thinking about you.

Elder Carlos Cabrera

Facts of the week:

1. Chileans love to talk about their soccer team when they win, but even more so when they lose. Chileans critize their own team more than probably other countries do.

2. For gringo missionaries, what they dont tell you is that not only will you serve as a missionary but a translator as well. i swear ive translated every type of homework assignment this week, i should start charging...

3. if you have food in your hand while walking down the street, make sure to keep your hands high, or else you will lose it to the army of dogs that are ready for their lunch. Lesson learned.

WEEK 15 in the Mission!

¡Hola Mujeres y Caballeros! ¿Como le ha ido? Ive decided to count not just the weeks in the field but the weeks from the CCM as well so dont be alarmed since the last group email said week 8 haha i didn't magically just live 7 weeks in one, even if it might feel that way haha. I hope you are all are doing well. Now onto the week...So this past wednesday we had what we call Zone Conference which occurs every 8 or 9 weeks and its when all the missionaries in our zone and maybe 1 or 2 other zones come together to talk with our mission president and talk about announcements we have, introduce new missionaries (including me) and talk about the progress we are having in our areas of proselyting. It was a blast i got to see some buddies from Mexico, my best buddy Elder Johnson who's assistant to the president, and just hang out and listen to our inspiring president and his wife. AND THEN, this past weekend we had the opportunity to watch General Conference which is live broadcast from Salt Lake City in which our Prophet Thomas S Monson and his apostles and general authorities have the opportunity to address the church and its members and provide counsel, messages of inspiration and further insight about topics that they feel inspired of the Lord to speak about. It is really a cool expereince and it happens semi annually, the first weekend of April and October. I was blessed by feeling the Spirit very strongly this past weekend while listen to the words of all those who spoke, and a neat part was that i got to take a break from spanish for a bit and watch it with my fellow gringos in our native tongue haha. Hallelujah Besides that we´re just going about our business as Representatives of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I know this church is true, i know this is the same church that Jesus Christ established during His earthly ministry. We are here on the earth to learn, to progress, and to obey the commandments of Heavenly Father so we can return to live with Him again. If you don't believe what i believe, please at least take the time to listen to what we believe, it might surprise you, what's the harm in knowing? I hope you all have a wonderful week and i send my love with you all from Santiago.

Facts of the week:
1. When you ask a person in Chile how they are, they will give you the truth no matter what the answer is, great, fine, okay, terrible and everything in between. When we ask that question in the US, the answer is always "good" even though we know its a lie sometimes
2. People are more interested in the fact that we don't have tv, music, or video games than they are about the message we are here to share about Jesus Christ. Apparently that is more worth wild information.
3. Chilenos love to nickname foreigners based off of soccer players,my mexican companion is named "Chincharito" a soccer player for Mexico, a few Chilenos have decided upon the name "David Beckham", I'm not complaining one bit....

Week 8!

¡Hola cada person! ¿Como estamos? I hope everyone is doing well and that you all had a great week! So im half way through my second transfer in the mission field and the big news of the week was that Elder Garcia and I had a baptism this past Sunday and that marked my first baptism! Exciting stuff! 

So this week was pretty relaxed for the most part no huge activities or celebrations or anything so that made things a bit more chill. The weather here is starting to get dramtically hotter and its weird considering its almost october haha. Thats South America for ya, its funny cause when i got here it was still freezing and i remember walking in the sun on purpose so i could heat up a bit. That is definitely not the case now, if you guys were here you would be watching me taking every route possible to stay in the sombra (shade) its actually quite fun its a little game i play. My companion refuses to play with me hahaha. 

But onto the important stuff! The Lord's work! So this week like i mentioned earlier we baptized Ronald this sunday and it was so awesome! He had his family there who arent members and he was able to be a great example to his parents and his siblings. He´s changing the course of his life for the better and one day he says he wants to serve a mission, marry a girl in the temple and enjoy all the blessings of having a family for eternity. What more could you ask for? He´s an example to all of us, hes 14 years old and he´s taught me so much already just through the strength of his testimony and his desire to do what the Lord asks of him. What i love so much about this work is that yeah im teaching them, but at the same time im able to learn huge amounts of things from them and their experiences as well. We´re on this earth to learn and to progress and i have the opportunity to do that in ten fold each and every day. The Glory of God truly is intelligence.

Other than that, everything is just going along, life is continuing to go on, what a blessing that is. I hope you all have a wonderful week and i want you all to know i love you all and i send my best from beautiful Santiago!

Elder Carlos Cabrera

Random facts of the week: 

1. Chileans refuse to smile in photos i have no idea why...even the children, it makes me so sad

2. The stereotype of construction workers whistling at women doesnt just apply to the United States, i witnessed it first hand today, it was quite funny

3. Chileans love their soap operas and one must know better than interrupt a person while "Te Doy La Vida" is on...learned that one the hard way

Week 7 - Fiestas

¡Hola Everybody! I hope everyone is doing well and that all is well
with things up north in the beautiful US of A. So here i am writingyet again about my week in Santiago Norte. More specifically in mysector Los Manantiales.
This week was full of festivals, traditions, and a whole lot of food.So on the 18th of September was Felices Fiestas Patrias which isbasicall the Chilean version of 4t of July. That day celebrates theday that Chile declared independence from Spain. Because the 18th fellon a Sunday this week the members in my ward held a party on the 17that the church building and it was sooo much fun! We had all thhetraditional Chilean stuff, empanadas, completos, weird Chileandesserts, the works! And not only food but we had a bunch of games andactivities and of course a few intense games of soccer. People dancedthe Cueca which is the national dance of Chile and if you ask me itlooks a bit silly, but hey when in Chile...don´t make fun of theCueca!!!
As far as the work goes, it was a bit hard to be very productive thisweek with all the festivals going on, and people being gone or out oftown or busy. But hey some big news I have my first baptism thi comingsunday! The invetigators name is Ronald he is 14 years old, hes anawesome kid and he has such a great testimony of the gospel and he´sready to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized. He knowsthat in order to become like Christ, and to be perfected unto Him andrecieve all the eternal blesings that we have the opportunity ofrecieving, we need to follow the example of Jesus Christ and bebaptized by immersion through proper priesthood authority. I know heis ready to take on the name of Jesus Christ and stand as a witnessthat Jesus Christ lives, that this Church is the Church of JesusChrist and through proper priesthood authority we are able to performthe ordinances that we need to in order to live with our HeavenlyFather again. I couldn't be more excited for Ronald and Sunday.
thats my update this week and i love you all! 
until next week, 
Elder Carlos Cabrera

fun facts for the week:1. On the 18th of September every houehold must display a Chilean flagoutside their house or they will be fined2. Kids and even some adults are absolutely obsessed with flyingkites, theres kids that fly kites like all day long here and its justthe in thing to do here apparently3. The Chileans use the term "Permiso" which literally just translatesto permission and when they say this it means they are about to dosomething like open a door, take some food, anything they want to dobasically but instead of waiting for actual permission they just aheadand do it haha

Week 6...Check!

Hola Everybody! so ive just completed my first 6 weeks in Chile and that means ive got one missionary change under my belt (as a missionary there are changes every 6 weeks, you can change your comapnion, the area that you are working, you can become a district leader a zone leader an assistent to the president or you can stay exactly the same for the next 6 weeks, ya never know whats gunna happen and it keeps things exciting). sorry for that rant but theres probably someone that didnt know that stuff, i know i didnt. 

So onto the week, this week has been ridiculously busy. We had a special barbeque with our mission president as a reward for all our good work in our zone and so we had another Pday on thursdayminus the writing session with all you awesome people. It was awesome President cooked burgers and completos (chilean hotdogs) we had a ton of food, we played volleyball, basketball, darts and we just relaxed and enjoyed the day. i felt like a normal person for a little bit haha it was kinda weird. We had all of this at this house on the other side of Santiago and the house is gigantic and super antique, something you would see in a movie or something. So that was awesome and also a little sad cause i said goodbye to my Assistente to the President Elder Anderson because he finished his 2 years and should have already arrived home by now, good for him he was awesome. But dont cry just yet because my very best friend in the mission, Elder Johnson from Utah, my zone leader was called to be the new Assistente. Talk about having friends in high places am i right? Good for him hes gunna be awesome.

Yesterday night i had my first experience with Sushi in Chile. Not half bad, not the same as the States but hey nothing is haha. i ate sushi with some awesome members and we had a blast for family home evening last night. 

Today for Pday we went to the Santiago Zoo. it was so awesome we all had a great time we went with a bunch of other missionaries and we just had a ball.

As far as the work is going, we´re beginning to have a lot more success in my sector we have 5 new investigators, 1 Chileno, 2 Peruvians and 2 Haitains. Its a bit hard to teach the Haitains because they dont know spanish or english so im basically useless but i just talk really slow and try to use all the french that i know so far haha. Ill pick up more french when i get more comfortable with Spanish. The others have dates to be baptized in October and i hope that everything goes according to plan. They are super awesome, really receptive and they are beginning to gain testimonies and feel the Spirit and its changing their lives. i couldnt be more excited for them. We are able to see the joy on their faces so much more than the first time we talked with them. By teaching them, its allowed me to strenghten my testimony by seeing the effect that the Gospel can have on the lives of others as long as they allow themselves to open their heart and see what Heavenly Father has in store for them. They have so much potential, i just hope i can help them reach that potential.

As you can see Im quite busy here in beautiful Santiago but never too busy to think about some of my favorite people back home. I pray for all of you everyday and i hope everyone is well. Life is good here.

Random Facts:

1. Chileans dont know much english but they do know all the bad words you can think of

2. Apparently im a walking english translator so kids as well as adults love to ask me how to say words in english all day long, glad i can be of service

3. Chileans absolutely love Selena Gomez here, and they absolutely hate Justin Beiber, this country is defintily team Selena all the way thats all for now! I love you all! until next week, chao!​

Carlos and his Mission President

5th week in Chile?

Hola everybody! so i added the question mark to the subject of this email because i honestly dont remember how many weeks i have in Chile haha. No matter. So this week has presented a lot of learning experiences, a lot of ups and downs and trials this week but i honestly dont remember all of them. this week was a bit of blurr. But ill try t}my very best to update ya´ll on whats been going on here on the other side of the equator.

So this week the biggest thing that happened was that we had an intercambio which for those of you that dont know its when a companionship (2 missionaries) switch companions with our district leader (another missionary thats kind of like our manager) so i recieved the companion of my district leader this week and i was Compañero Mayor (the boss of us two) my companion was another Americano and only has a month in Chile like i do and that arose some trials since none of us would consider ourselves overly proficient in the spanish language haha it was definitely an interesting day but i resulted in a few headaches here and there since im accustomed to having my latino companion save me when i dont understand. This time, i was the saving Latino since my spanish is just a bit more proficient than the other missionary. Yikes right? But all in all it was a successful intercambio, we gained two new investigators, taught a lesson and answered A LOT of questions that a less active member had about the Gospel (more or less). We actually had more success than our trainers had and they both know español perfectamente haha. It just goes to show that it doesnt take being fluent in the language to make a difference, having the spirit and having faith does.

A sad part of the week was when Chile played Paraguay and lost 1-2. Chileans are devastated when their fútbol team loses haha. Even i felt a bit blue haha. But theres another game today and everyone here is hyped haha. Ive been wearing my Chile jersey all day and the Chileans absolutely love that "one gringo that wants to be Chileno" as they say. I am hoping and praying for more success with the people and our investigators in this area for this coming week. Patience. Patience. 

Anyways all is well, the people are awesome, im eating way too much, and just living, learning, and loving my time here. I send you my love and good wishes.

Until next week! ¡Chao!

Random facts

1. when a soccer game is on and Chile is playing, absolutely nobody wants to hear about Jesus Christ or His Gospel.

2. Chileans actually consume more alcohol as a country than anyother country in the world, im convinced

3. There are a hundred barrachos (drunks) here in Chile and ive been a great hit with all the homosexual ones, they love to holler at me...take that as you may

4. Theres this thing called fería that occurs every wednesday and saturday and its like a swap meet where you can get nearly anything you need for super cheap and i absolutely love it