Hola Hola Familia y Mis Amigos,
Okay so these past two weeks have been absolute mayhem and I'm not really sure where to start. I also have approximately 40 emails to get through. I want everyone to know that I do read your emails! I appreciate them SO FREAKING MUCH! I'll try and reply to all of you guys today, but if not just know that I absolutely love the support I'm getting from home... It's much needed.
Okay, so I'm going to start by saying that my trainer for these next three months is Elder Ortiz from Queretaro, Mexico! So I got what I prayed for and got a Latino trainer. He does speak quite a bit of English, but that's turned out to be a great thing-- because lemme tell ya... the Spanish they taught me in the MTC is not the same Spanish they're speaking out here in the field. I know that's cliche to say, but it's so true. My first Zone is called Penaflor and my first sector is Manzana Tres. It's actually a HUGE sector so we do have bicis(bikes) or bicicletas, but everyone here calls em bicis.
Now I'm just going to jump straight to this past Saturday because it was absolutely CRAZY! I'm not sharing this story to freak anyone out, but it was quite an experience this Saturday. One that I will never forget and it really was a trial in every sense of the word. So, Saturday we have a last minute zone meeting that lasted from 10-1:30. After that we went back to the apartment to just get some stuff and then go proselyting. We share the aparetment with two other Elders. Elder Pedersen from California and Elder "B" from Chile. Well, Elder "B" and Elder Ortiz don't really get along that well. So we got back and then Elder "B" just totally started yelling at Elder Ortiz upstairs. They were just totally going at each other. All in Spanish of course, so it's not like I really had a clue what was going on. We ended up restraining them before they started punching each other. So yeah... 5 days into the field and I'm already dealing with drama. The Zone Leaders were called and it ended up being a huge ordeal and an even bigger waste of precious time. Elder "B" ended up going on splits with our Zone Leader, Elder Harris, until Sunday night and Elder Pedersen was with Elder Chavez.
So, we finally got out of the apartment around 4 or 5. At that point we were just trying to salvage some of our appointments but everything was falling through or nobody was home. Which led us to go see a family in our area. This is a less active family with a lot of problems. They have an autistic child named Pedro (changed name) and another son named Rodrigo. We went over there to give Rodrigo a message on "Esperanza" or hope. Unfortunately, he had tried to commit suicide on Friday by hanging himself...yeah. Well we got there and the mother was WAY upset and distraught. I can't understand all the Spanish she was speaking, but it was obvious that she had a really, really, really rough day. She's also bi-polar. Well, we got into her house and it was crazy. Pedro was going off the walls! He was screaming bloody murder and just attacking Elder Ortiz. This caused the mother to lose it even more and she was screaming too. "Tranquilase" and "calmase" (basically, "be calm") is what we ended up saying about a million times. I'm not even giving this situation justice in how I'm describing it. We FINALLY got everyone settled down and I just basically bore by testimony to the mother on how Jesus Christ knows our pain and our trials and that he loves her. She kept calling me her angel and just held my hand for a really long time. We ended up singing a hymn to bring in the spirit and calm things down. It was perfect too! It totally brought the spirit into the home and we thought that we actually might get a lesson in... nope. Right after we finished singing, the mother got up and had the most scary, crazy eyes I have ever seen in my life. It literally looked like she was possessed. She went in to the kitchen and started going through this pan of silverware. I immediately got up and she had a knife in her hand. I screamed NO NO NO! And I quickly restrained her and Elder Ortiz helped me. We literally had to tear the knife from her hand and she was absolutely losing it. I have never been so scared in my life! The worst part is that Elder Ortiz was even more scared than I was. She went for the knife probably 4 or 5 more times and she was bound and determined to kill herself. During all of this her autistic child Pedro was just screaming and tearing apart the house. We finally got her restrained and called "Obispo" or Bishop Alvarez for help. The mother kept hugging me and kissing my hand. I know it's against the rules to hug the opposite gender, but this situation kinda called for it. I just kept speaking to her about trials or "desafios" or "pruebas" we have in life. After 2 hours of this mayhem we finally got out of there. The Bishop came over and she pulled the knife on him probably 2 times and I had to help restrain her with the Bishop a few more times. Her brother-in-law came over and she ended up going to his house. The police were callled, and one of the cops gave her this weird Catholic blessing that caused her to just lay down in the street for a while. I honestly can't even describe all that went down. Just know it was scary and after I literally just broke down crying because of how sad I was to see that kind of sadness in a person's life. Enough that she wanted to kill herself. She showed me the slits on her wrist too which just caused me to be even more sad. Needless to say, Saturday was quite the day. Elder Pedersen said that Satan must be working really hard on me to get me to leave because he's never heard of a greeny having these kind of experiences in their first area, nevertheless their first week! Pray for this family though. They need all the help they can get and it's not like Pedro is ever going to get any help and it's not like this mother is going to get any help either... we're in Chile.
Alright, now that the crazy story is out of the way I'll try and tell you some of the happy things that happened this week. My first day on Miercoles (Wednesday) was way cool. My first lesson we committed two little boys that are age 10 to baptism. Their names are Alexander and Brian and their Grandma is a less active member of the church. Then we committed a 15 year old boy named Eduardo to be baptized this Saturday! He wants Bishop Alvarez to baptize him though. Way cool! Then, on my first day I had a feeling that we should contact this house in the street. It turned out to be a 22 year old girl named Francis and she has a cute little boy too. She lives with her Mom and her boyfriend left her. She accepted to be baptized on March 28th after our first contact with her! Hopefully that ends up working out. We went by her house on Saturday night too after I had a feeling that we should visit her once again, and her Mom was there but they did't have any time to really talk. But her Mom is super interested in the Church too and we have an appointment set up to teach both of them tomorrow!
There honestly have been so many great and really hard experiences I've had already. I wish I could share all of them.
Just know that I FINALLY found Preston's letter in my suitcase and Grandma Stewart's! I read Preston's and I just started crying. I'm not trunky or anything, it was just really cool to read. I even admit that my first night in the apartment I pulled out my bed sheets and just smelled them for 5 minutes or so and started weeping again. They totally smell like home. So do some of my clothes too and the first night out in the field was definitely a wake up call to how hard this mission is going to be. I just love you guys so stinking much. I have the best family in the world.
My companion snores like a freaking bear! His snoring literally shakes the bunk bed we're sleeping on. So I ended up not really sleeping for 3 nights straight and I just went and layed down on the hard wood floor in our study room on a blanket to get away from the noise.
We're extremely blessed. I want everyone to know that. Chile is an AMAZING place, but I have seen homes and things that I can not even imagine growing up in. The home I was in earlier consists of cinder blocks painted neon green and a tin roof. They sleep on mats on the floor and everything is dirty and dusty. That's South and Latin America in general, but I just realized how blessed I really am in my life this week. In every aspect I'm blessed.
This gospel is true. It lifts me up and supports me every single day. Spanish is way hard for me. I'm not going to lie. Chilenos speak incredibly fast and that's kinda an understatement. I'm working really hard. I absolutely love the Chilenos. Even though I can't undersstand most of what they're saying. I love the culture too. I love that there's dogs everywhere. I love the dirst roads and the crazy micros. I am totally just living it up here, but it's definitely hard!
I love all of you guys. I know Jesus Christ loves you too. I know that this gospel can change lives, I've already seen it. I hope you all have the best week of your lives this week!
Hasta Lleugo! VIVA CHILE!
Elder Weaver
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