Email received October 13, 2014

Hello!

Well, this week, on the ninth, marked one month in Chile, and it feels like it's gone by so fast! I've learned so much, and my Spanish has grown soooooo much. In the original language of Chile, Mapuche, the word Nancagua has two meanings. The first one is something close to "jump over water," and the second one is literally "city of apostacy." The second meaning is very very true. The missionary work is barely happening here, but were still doing all we can. No one wants to talk to us, but we just make it fun. And the members that are here are really nice, and they know that we're having a hard time, so they're extra nice. This morning we had a little 15 second tremor, so that was cool. We could feel it pretty well up on the second story, and it was kind of fun. Well, here's my picture letters, and I'm gonna respond to individuals now.

Love,

Elder Hamilton

Here's the way out to a little poblacion called La Orilla. It's super pretty because it's spring and all the plants are growing super fast, and there's always birds, bugs, dogs, and whatever other animal making noise. There's a whole bunch of little irrigation canals in the dirt, so there's that noise too. It's always super peaceful.

Very very very little happened this week that was worth taking a picture of. But my trainer inherited this investigator progress board from his old trainer, and we just got it this week. It's freaking awesome, and I thought I would let you appreciate it as well. 

To Baby Sis, she told his about her week…

Dang, that sounds crazy. Hey, I'm gonna send you a letter sometime soon hopefully, because I got your letter this week. I just have to go to a town with a post office. (The closest one is half an hour away by bus :/  )

To Mom

Hey,

Yeah, we got to watch conference this weekend. I was worried that I was going to have to watch it in Spanish, but luckily they shoved us into the clerk's office at the last second with a laptop, so we got to actually understand it! I agree, it was really cool. Did you notice that the first three speakers on sunday morning all spoke about how the prophet makes big decisions, and that we need to do exactly as he says, because he can't tell us to do something that's not right, even if we don't like it? We were all freaking out, and we thought he was going to reinstitute polygomy or something crazy. Luckily, he didn't announce anything at all. 

We just had an investigator move really far away. And we just had another investigator's grandma tell us that we couldn't come back until her grandson is doing better in school. So that kinda sucks, but we had some guy ask for a book of mormon on the church website, so we hooked up with him and he's super stoked. But we're 99% sure that he's a druggy, so we're gonna have to eventually tell him that he can't do that any more... BUt yeah, this week we're focusing on finding new investigators, so we're going to be doing a lot more contacting. Which I am terrified of, but I guess I'll eventually get comfortabe with it.

Love,

     ELder Hamilton

I asked if he got the package we sent…

Yeah, I had to go to Rancagua on Friday for a new missionary training, and I got it there! Thank you so much for everything in there! The notes especially! The slippers are perfect, and I didn't realize how much I miss normal food!

Talking about the coat we sent….

​Yeah, it's like spring summer here, so some days its hot, but some days the clouds never leave and it stays super cold, so that was good!​

Nancagua kind of sucks, but the members are super awesome because they know that no one wants to talk to us. I feel like I'm not getting enough opportunities to contact or teach or anything because no one ever answers their door, but we do a lot of practices. And it's all in the attitude, so we just make it fun. A member told me that ALL of the food is super food. Even the vegetables are synthetically grown. So that sucks. I think I'm gonna take some money out of my card and buy a blender the next time we go into rancagua. If that's ok with you and dad. And some members grow and sell lettuce, and I'll buy fruit from the farmers market each friday. So yeah, there's that.

Also, can you give me Uncle Josh's email address and street address? While I was in the MTC he mailed me a spanish to english picture dictionary from the 80's. It's freaking awesome, and I want to thank him for it. Also, I don't want to be obnoxious, but in the next package you send me, could you send a 32gb flash drive? Elder Madsen has one that's aluminum and it's really compact and perfect. If you can find one like that it would be perfect, but if not it's not abig deal. I just want one because we have found the best way to get inside houses is to share mormon messages videos, and when my companion isnt my companion anymore, I won't have access to a flash drive. And its not super important, but if you could send a new nib my way that would be cool. It's not super important, and don't worry about it too much. 

One more request: My headlamp and some extra batteries. The power goes out sometimes, and we're not supposed to have open flames in the mission house (candles) so it kind of sucked. Thanks so much, and don't feel like you have to send a package for a while! unless you want to. but it was really expensive. your choice! I don't actually need any of this stuff, it just makes living in Chile a lot easier!