Hola Todos!

¡Hola todos! This week was alright. Had some really good parts and some other not so good parts. Ill start with the good. Yesterday I turned a whole 19 years old and it feels the same as 18, haha. Some of the members of Agronomía (that's the name of the ward) threw me a surprise party last night which was really sweet of them. One of their daughters too had a birthday so we shared the party. Those members, as a present, bought me a storm trooper (everyone here knows I love Star Wars) which is huge and that made me laugh pretty hard. They are really great people.  I enjoyed the Bithday in the mission. It was really simple and different and for that I liked it. But the time is passing so fast that I am sure I will be home before I know it. That makes me a little sad but it is crazy to think that about a year ago I was doing my papers to get ready to leave. Its insane how fast it passes 

Not so good news, Bella and Marilu "died" this week which means that they are no longer investigators. Bella had a change in her work and wont be able to meet with us anymore and also wouldn´t be able to go to church. So we had to let her go. She never really understood the importance of what we were teaching though. I just don´t think it was quite her time to be baptized. We have a few other investigators that are alright but none that are worth writing about... yet.

We did quite a bit of service here this week too. One day, painted a cement fence which didn´t really work very well but they were happy with it. And the other, we re-furnished a couch. Its funny. The people here think that very little things that are very basic are skills. For example, we went and washed the windows of the bishop one day and his wife asked me if I "knew how". I thought that she was talking about some special technique or somehting so I had her show me. It was literally just a normal thing. Soapy water and a rag. It was funny and Im really grateful that I get to serve here in Chile. The people are funny and strange and its a different world but I love it.

That is so cool to hear of the people that are going to leave on their missions. It makes me feel so old in the mission and makes me realize how fast time goes by. But yeah I feel pretty fluent. There are some situations though that are tough. Chileans speak horribly and dont pronounce anything well. They also use a ton of different phrases and things that are hard to understand.

Have a good week!

Love, Elder Parker

(The two gifts I have received in Chile. The other was for Christmas)