Wed, Dec 9, 2015

Hola Familia!

This is my 2 month email!  22 more to go... well I'm sure it'll go by fast, so I best be enjoying it! The Spanish is still awful but it is improving every day.  I can talk to people over the phone sometimes.  I'm such a big boy!!!

So I have a few stories to tell from this week and I think they are a little interesting.

Last week we visited two women for a lesson.  We were starting things off great with them because they seemed interested from the start.  I forgot to mention that they both had kids…little kids. So as we were teaching them their babies started crying because they were hungry.  Acting completely natural, one of the ladies just flings out a boob and starts feeding right in front of our faces... AHHHH!!!!! What the crap just happened? I then continued on with the lesson looking at the other woman and then her kid starts crying, so what does she do?.... WHOOSH! THE SAME THING......AHHH!!!!! What do I do? Where do I look? It was very interesting.... apparently it’s completely normal to do that here so I guess it’s cool. I’m not used to that though so I was caught a little off guard. It was a good lesson but I was uncomfortable for a bit.

Today my companion and I went and ate some ass! It was so delicious! I sent some pics to my mommy and I hope she likes them. I want to eat ass every week now! Ass is like a completo except with meat instead of a hotdog. Very good! I hope this didn’t throw anyone off guard... lots of fun here in Chile!!!!

Now for something more spiritual...We taught a new lady named Marcia and talked to her about the family. My companion was sitting there talking to her for a while and I was so lost in the conversation because I couldn’t understand it that well. It was extremely frustrating and I just wanted to understand. Then out of nowhere my companion and the lady look at me and I just out of nowhere start going off speaking like a Chilean about family and how family is center in God’s plan. I went on for a good while and it just felt powerful. She understood all of it and was very impressed. We are going to visit her again this week. After that lesson my companion was like, "Where did all of that come from?" I was like, "I don’t know…I don’t even speak Spanish. I just thought about what I was going to say in English and then it all came out in Spanish. My companion was very impressed. I was very surprised and shocked that happened! Gift of tongues is true!

Also yesterday we passed by a house and the person who answered the door was Canadian and had a hard time with Spanish so I talked to her in English and the conversation went on for over an hour. I can’t wait to be able to talk to people meaningfully like that in Spanish! It’ll come. I just need to be very patient.

So that’s pretty much it for this week. It has been a very hard week for me. This mission is so hard. This is definitely something I’m not used to, but I know that if I have perseverance and faith and continue to work hard I’ll be blessed. Other families will be too. I know that there are people out there that need me and my job is to find them and give them the opportunity to receive the most priceless blessings that I have been blessed with in my life.

"This work is exhausting, but it is also ENERGIZING" – Elder Bednar.

I wish the best for all at home and thank you all for the support because I really need it. It really means a lot. I know this gospel is true and I know that it is the answer to all things. Have a good week!

With lots of love,

-Elder Sims