My Next 20 Years!

September 22, 2015

My Next 20 Years!

 I think I'll take a moment, celebrate my age, ending of an era and the turning of a page. Now it's time to focus in on where I'll go from here, Lord have mercy on my next 20 years. My next twenty years will be the best years of my life. Gonna raise a little family and hang out with my wife. Spend precious moments with the one's that I hold dear. Make up for any lost time, in my next 20 years. In my next 20 years, in my next 20 years! 

 So if nobody caught it that's a line from Tim McGraw's "My Next 30 Years." Give that song a play for me and think about me, there's a good way to remember me. I was singing it all day on Sunday with Elder Ramirez and it about drove him crazy. The translation in Spanish isn't as cool when I was trying to explain it to him. 

 So this week was absolutely insane. I'm not really sure where to begin. I guess first and foremost is the earthquake! Wednesday was pretty rad. I was on divisions with Elder Montero from Costa Rica and we were in a lesson with Darwin when the earthquake hit. Darwin is a little depressed because his girlfriend broke up with him and he was basically just like "¡llevame no más Dios, llevame!" When the earthquake started. I wasn't really freaked out, I was actually just laughing because Darwin was so hung up on this girl.  The fact of the matter is that although it was 8.3 or something like that on the Richter scale. It was really just long and it was super strong but not fast... the house was just moving slowly for a minute or so. So that was a fun night! I'm all-good though! Pray for the people & the missionaries in the north! That is where most of the damage took place. Chile is the most volatile country I've ever heard of. Since I've been here, the north flooded, volcano in the south, now an earthquake and a tsunami to top it all off! Fortunately as a missionary you basically just feel the comfort of the Lord 24/7 and I've yet to feel like I've been in danger. 

 This past Friday was Chile's independence day and we had such a good time at the ward activity! We brought 3 investigators and they loved it as well! Our ward has so much talent! We have a professional singer in our ward and he sang and everyone was going nuts! Not going to lie, the man can sing! The funny thing about Hermano Leiva is that he sings in English perfectly but doesn't understand a thing he's saying. I'll show you the videos of the party when I get home next year! Super cool activity! The Chileno thing to do is dance "cueca" which is actually pretty cool! They all dress up as cowboys basically and the girls wear these super beautiful dresses! I was going to buy Mia one, but I don't know what size to get! Anyways, needless to say... we ate way too much this weekend! The Chilenos literally celebrate the 18th of September ALL WEEKEND LONG. I never want to eat Asado or Empanadas ever again! 

 As far as how my birthday went... On Sunday night La Familia Tapia surprised me at their house when we had an appointment with them. They made SO MUCH FOOD and just sang "Feliz Cumpleaños" It was such a surprise!  I felt super loved though! I'll never forget the Tapia family or Hermano Juan who was also there with his wife! He's been helping us out A TON with all these investigadoras that live sola so that we can teach them! (We have to have another man if a woman is alone). 

 As far as my real birthday went, I just worked as normal. I was on divisions with Elder Montero again and we put a baptismal date down with María Jose. She´s going to be baptized with Claudia this Saturday! We also found a new family to teach yesterday as well! 

 In the night yesterday I opened your package and it was AWESOME! THANK YOU SO MUCH MOM AND DAD! You guys rock! President and Hermana Barreiros called me as well to wish me a happy birthday! President even sang in Portuguese and everything to me. I also found out yesterday that I HAVE CHANGES! Yep, after 4 and a half months here in Pajaritos 3... I'm leaving! Not going to lie, it was bittersweet! We have two baptisms this weekend! Fortunately President gave me permission to go to the service this weekend! 

 All and all it was the best week of my life here! Ate a ton of food, and now I get to say bye to everyone in the ward tonight! Everyone's super sad that I'm leaving, and honestly so am I! Hermana Tapia already said that she wants to talk to President Barreiros so that I stay longer! Elder Ramirez is pretty sad too! We really get along well! He wants to go to general conference after the mission with me! Haha! 

 That's about it! In the words of Kenny Chesney "Don't blink cause just like that you're 6 years old and you take a nap, wake up and you're (20 and you're on the mission and going into your 3rd sector)." Nah, the song doesn't go like that, but close enough.

 Love you all!

Love the mission! 

Love the Lord!

Love life!

LOVE PAJARITOS!!!!

Elder Weaver 

La Ciudad (the city)

El Campo