Chileeee (Nov. 28, 2022)

Hey everyone, I hope you're all doin good! I'm having a great time here in Chimbarongo! Some highlights from this week are a store and 2 houses burned down so we had a good service opportunity to go help clean up over there, we were picking up all kids of burned stuff and we didn't have shovels to scoop up the ashes so I was using a DirecTV satellite dish as a shovel and it worked great, Elder Holman was using the back metal part of a TV. It was great how much we could help these people in a bad situation, they were super grateful for our help too! Thanksgiving was sweet, we went out to eat at a pizza place and feasted, I did miss home a little bit knowing the whole family was together partying at Bear Lake without me but it's alright. Right now I'm just really enjoying the awesome chance to be in Chile. 

Chile is a strange place, but it's really cool. I've eaten some big blood and some other weird stuff, they've got me putting Mayo and aji on everything that I eat. Some more strange unique things about just living here is that everyone has a tall fence outside their house with spikes on top, that's just how it is, so we can't knock on doors we just have to go up to their gates and yell "Aloh." Another thing is that all the houses are connected, like our neighbors are literally separated by a wall, it's pretty sketch honestly. For example, some people set their house on fire this week and the house and store next to them also burned down. Also the power lines here are freaky, They're just straight cement slabs with literally hundreds of wires tied onto them. Like seriously, people fix everything by just putting up a new wire and when they break they'll just let it hang or tie it to something, it's weird how normal that is to me now but at first that was so crazy. Another thing is there's always people driving around the neighborhoods selling food out of their trucks or cars and they blast the most annoying and loud advertisement and it's just on repeat. "20 HUEVOS 30 HUEVOS; HUEVOS FRESCOS 4 LUCA 5 LUCA '' The people just blast the stuff like that on repeat and it drives me crazyyy. One last thing is that people here are really superstitious and just about all of them have had a dream where they saw God or something, it's been pretty interesting to listen to the different visions that the people have had here, and the fact that they think us missionaries are some types of dream interpreters or something. With all of this being said, I love this country with all my heart and it is absolutely home to me now, I'm already realizing that going home is gonna be tough someday.

This week we were able to strengthen the branch a lot. We felt a lot of success in our branch party Saturday night, we had so many people come and it was a good experience for everyone. We were able to have a great time with a lot of the members and less actives there and strengthen them a ton. Me and Elder Holman sang a little T-Swift for everyone and they sure loved it. The video is pretty good so if you want it just ask me on messenger. We also got asked to speak Saturday night so we got prepared and the next day had the awesome chance to give talks in Sacrament meeting. It was so cool to be able to go from really fun and funny with all the members and to the next day giving spiritual talks that everyone said they loved, and everyone said our Spanish was super clear so that was really great. We had people come to church that haven't come in a long time and we still have loads more that should be coming. The work is a process but we can feel it progressing especially in the branch. Multiple times this week we've been able to realize a special

spirit here. 

Something spiritual I want to share is that I have been able to learn how critical it is to be converted to our savior Jesus Christ and the importance to learn more and try to understand his atonement for us. One scripture that I love that explains the atonement says, "And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people." I love this scripture so much because of the way it can help us begin to understand that he took upon himself literally everything! Also I didn't tell you guys what the scripture is cuz I wanted to throw in a little quiz here, if you can tell me what the scripture is I'll give you a shoutout next week on the email, and also to see who really is capable of reading an email this long haha. I'd love to hear from all of you! I've also got some really good pictures and videos from the week so if you want those shoot me a message on messenger! Love you guys!

Elder Micheli