One more week in the Chile Mission Training Center

This week went by really fast. We now have one more week left until we are out into the campo misional. 

I don´t think I´ve gotten to talk much about the Chilean customs and lifestyles around here. Santiago is very pretty. When  you meet someone (usually a woman), it is polite to kiss them on their cheek (left side). The hermanas are instructed to permit a stranger who is a man to do it once, and then politely explain that they are missionaries for the church... so yep! They have very pretty birds here called Lodos which are like green parakeets. There are also TONS of stray dogs in santiago. We´ve named a few that we´ve seen and usually take the same dog back home every day after exercises. All of the parks around here have exercise equiptment for the public to use. We like to play fútbol for early morning exercises. Gringos vs. Latinos and we usually get crushed. But I am getting really good at fútbol jajajaja. For the most part, Santiago is one of the wealthier places in Chile. It is very clean here and everything is maintained. It is also very busy. There is a lot of traffic here.

I don´t know if you have heard this, but Elder Holland lived in Chile for a few years to reorganize the membership. (read a news article about this here)There were a lot of baptisms at one point and so many chaples were built here with account to all of the members. The sad thing is that a lot of the missionaries who baptized these people bribed them into baptism somehow and because of this, the poeple who were baptized became less active in the church . Many church building were boarded up or sold. On average, a ward will have around 900 people on a ward roster with about 100 members who actively attend. Fellowing less-active members is SO important here. 

Fue muchas experiencias esta semana con la oportunidad para compartir mi testimonio con los miembros en mi districto y con mi compañera. Realizé que había sido muchas experiencias en mi vida que ayudame decir que yo SÉ que estas cosas son verdaderas. Busque por las cosas pequeñas que puede construir sus testimonios también. Espero que pueda decir más en las proximas semanas. Pero, ahora estoy muy faliz para cumplir y compartir la obra del Senior.