Yooo...what's going on everybody? So to explain the title, I'm finishing my second transfer today.
What is a transfer you might ask? Every 6 weeks you wait for a call from your zone leader (2 missionaries over your area) who waited for a call from the Assistants (2 missionaries over the mission along with your mission president) who work hard to figure out where each missionary will work and live. One, both or neither companion might stay in the area. You might be sent to snow, a city or even the far away fishing town of Quellon. You just never know where you'll be for the next 6 weeks. At least we have the comfort to know that we're most likely going to a place that will rain a lot here in the Puerto Montt Mission. Usually you stay in an area for a couple transfers and usually with a missionary for more than a transfer but I have yet to experience this.
I've been in the field for 2 transfers (12 weeks) which are also considered my training. Essentially I get put with a baller super good missionary for 12 weeks during training who tries their best to teach me how to survive in a foreign country and how to be a missionary. They work with you on the language and impart all their knowledge to you.
Normally you keep the same trainer for your training but my first trainer died or finished his mission and flew back to Alaska and now my 2nd trainer is dying and will impart on his 24 hour journey back to Colorado. Hence, 2 comps, 2 dead.
So since transfers are happening I'm getting a new comp tomorrow. He's from..........GUATEMALA! Shoutout to my favorite Guatemalans THE IANNACONES!!! So I will be speaking only Spanish from now until next Monday when I email you again. People said he does not know English so it will be Spanish 24/7. Spanish apparently is both our 2nd language since he grew up speaking an Indigenous language until he was 14 then he learned Spanish. I'll let you guys know how it goes. Hopefully he likes my English movie references. I'll probably go back to being the only person above 6 feet again in Quellon.
While he teaches me Spanish, I will hook him up with a spot in our weekly English class down here in Quellon. He's sure to be my most faithful student every Thursday night at 8pm. Our last class was really funny. We were learning about common household items. i.e. shoes, jackets, hats, pants etc... most of the class was spent with them saying "What are those?!?!?!" While pointing at our shoes. They didn't really get the meme reference but me and my comp thought it was pretty funny. We also taught them what the little plastic thing at the end of your shoelace is called. For those of you that don't know, it's called an aglet.
While Spanish class was amazing, we had a series of unfortunate events happen this week for me. It all started on a fairly normal Friday morning. I wake up, do some pull ups (gotta lock in for that 2026 NCAA swim season) then hop in the shower. All was going as expected until I went to cook my daily hashbrowns and as I'm heating up the oil, all of a sudden the gas goes out. I try to turn it on again but it just won't light. Turns out we were out of gas. We have a 45kg tank of gas that we have to replace. The worst part wasn't the inability to cook my hash browns but the inability to heat my shower. We tried calling our landlord to help us out and replace the gas because we had no idea where the tank was but our landlord straight up ghosted us. She didn't respond for over a day but we knew she was there because we heard her walking and talking on the floor above us. You can't hide when we know where you live. Sooo I had to take a bucket shower on Saturday morning and it was so cold. It was like 28 degrees outside and our apartment doesn't have heating so it's cold inside too. Overall not a great experience and I am now very grateful to have gas again.
So I leave you with a simple spiritual message. Sometimes you don't know what you have until it is suddenly gone so enjoy it while you have it. Look for the things that bring joy to your life like a warm shower or the ability to cook some food because there are many people all over who don't have that.
Well I don't have much time left since we went on a sidequest today. I had to go up to Castro again while Elder Hollingshead started his journey to Puerto Montt and to Colorado. I'll be here a day or two until my companion gets here who is currently in the very south of the mission. Right when I arrived, the Elders told me they were going on an adventure with the senior missionaries (a couple who is serving in Castro). We went to a park about an hour away. It was raining so I didn't take many photos but it was really cool as you can see from the videos below. I am serving in an amazing part of the world! Not only is it amazingly beautiful, it also has incredible people. Below are two of our favorite families. They feed us and love us. Waldo y Marcia and Familia Diaz with their dog who feeds us every Friday.
Love you all. - Elder McMillan
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