W14: Chillin In Castro

This week was a little interesting. Elder Garlick died (dying just means they finish their mission and go home). A little crazy that now my first comp just finished and is now home. But apparently one dying on me wasn't enough because now my second companion is also going to die. This is his last transfer and he will go home in like 5 weeks from now. Apparently I am an assassin. 

Because Elder Garlick was going home I spent quite a bit of time in Castro this week waiting for my new companion. Castro is a bigger town about 1.5 hours away from Quellon (where I live and work). We left Quellon Wednesday around 11AM so Elder Garlick could catch his bus from Castro to Puerto Montt at 1. We rode up to Castro, he said his good byes to our amigos, then I was off with our zone leaders for the rest of the day. We didn't do anything super interesting. A lot of contacting their friends and trying to find people to talk to. At night we had a game night at their church and we ended up playing Truko (an Argentinian card game) with a youth that was interested in the church.That was pretty fun way to finish the night. 

The Next day I had to wake up at 6 to walk with the zone leaders down to the bus terminal to say goodbye to our faithful district leader who was leaving for another area. The Zone leaders have to go and grab their keys so they can give them to the new missionaries taking their place. Then we had to walk all the way back up to the zone leaders house. It was quite the walk with lots of elevation and over 2 miles there and back. Then I went with Elder Nielsons companion (Elder Cole) and we went to his house so I could eat all of Elder Nielson's food that he didn't bring with him. I am hoping to outgrow my 29 waist pants. After that we went back to the Bus terminal to drop off Elder Cole. Spent most of the day either at the bus terminal or walking to the bus terminal. 

After Elder Cole left I actually went with Elder Williams to his sector. Funny story about Elder Williams is that his brother met my cousin, the one and only Elder Drew formerly known as Josh!! His brother lives in Provo and had the missionaries over and somehow they brought up that they both had family serving in the best mission in the world (Chile, Puerto Montt)! Elder Williams was talking to his brother and told him that we where actually in the same zone and that I spent the night at his house before zone conference! Crazy small world. But yeah I went out with Elder Williams to his sector and just tried doing some work there. We ate lunch then walked back to the terminal (for the 3rd time) where I finally met my new companion and no longer had to be another stray in the city of Castro. In summary I pretty much acted as a companion for almost every other Elder in my Zone. 

We then went back to Quellon to get started on the work and its just been pretty basic missionary work the whole rest of the week. The weather has started to change for the worst.  I thought it rained a lot before but it rains a lot more and a lot harder now. I feel bad because we get to lessons and are just dripping wet. Like literally we drip water on to their floor. 

Other than that its just been a pretty normal week. I'm still playing the piano in church so that is chill. I'm trying to learn how to play stairway to heaven on the guitar. I'm really missing taco bell hot sauce. My mom tried to ship it but amazon restricts it to Chile.  My shoes are getting more comfortable by the day. Pretty average missionary stuff. 

I did have to go and get a haircut today. I went to the same barber that cut Elder Garlick's hair. I didn't really know what to ask for but it looks like it turned out pretty nice. The barber was a little ghetto. He had not one but two slits in his eyebrow so I wasn't sure how the cut would be but he was a really nice guy. There are a bunch of barbers in Quellon but I guess this one is just my barber now.  First time my dad didn't cut my hair.   

Spiritual thought
We went over to one of our friends house because Elder Garlick was leaving. They wanted to get us something and they ended up feeding us some food. They are unemployed and not super secure financially but they still wanted to feed us as a way of thanking Elder Garlick. It was a humble gesture that came from their hearts and it meant a lot to me and Elder Garlick. 

It made me realize that many of us have so much more than we realize and often focused on getting more. More money is not going to equate to more happiness and although this family does not have the most money in the world they definitely have an excess of happiness. We need to strive to find happiness in our relationships around us. Money can buy a lot of things but it can not buy happiness. This family and a lot of people I get to hang out with are huge examples of this to me. 

Pics 1-3 Saying our Good-byes
Pics 4-5 Introducing Quellon to mi nuevo companero




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