W20: Solo Espanol

I wrote an email and it got deleted so here I am writing another one. I am officially one week into my only speaking Spanish with my companion. It's easier than I thought it was going to be but it is still pretty hard. Some things we just don't really connect on because of the language barrier. My movie references aren't a hit yet but don't you worry, we will make progress.

As I was waiting for my comp (Elder Cok) to arrive I ended up spending the Day in Castro with an Elder from Uruguay named Elder Castro!! Kinda Ironic spending the day with Elder Castro in Castro. He was pretty cool. He loves to learn slang terms in English from all of us gringo elders. I taught him what gas meant when referring to gas food.  Really quality food for you gringos who don't know teenage slang. We worked on the pronunciation of vegetable for him. While he worked on saying vegetable I was able to get some practice rolling my r's. Natives are really encouraged to learn English while on the mission so while we learn Spanish, they learn English because it opens up a lot of doors in school and work.  

I'm working on my pull ups with an entire backpack full of our pamphlets and think I am getting stronger  While I am working on eating healthier, it didn't happen this week...While I was in Castro, I had limited food because I felt bad eating other peoples food while awaiting Elder Cok.  We went to KFC.  I never liked KFC in the States, but it is pretty good here.  Elder Castro would have said it was gassss. I had a nice chicken sandwich with bacon. It made up for the days of beans and rice. Then I ended up buying this thing called a choriana. It is pretty much just loaded french fries. It has fried onions and a bunch of meat. That paired with a nice 3 liter bottle of coke was just what I needed. 

The week went well.  I realized how lucky I was to have amazing trainers.  Shoutout to Garlick and Hollingshead. When I had a week left I asked Elder Hollingshead what he still needed to teach me and he imparted some incredible missionary knowledge to me.  He was pretty much the GOAT missionary that knew how to set up your day and week for success.  

We should always seek to learn from others.  The great thing about life is there are always people in your life who are willing to help and can teach you. Sometimes you just need to seek them out.  Sometimes they are given to you, like they were to me.  My companions teach me how to be a good missionary, work hard and how to enjoy the work.  Now it's time to lock in and put all that I learned to use.  We are teaching some good people. Also teaching some people who just don't want to make decisions which will bring them happiness which can be frustrating.  Sorry the emails a little shorter. I didn't have a ton of time to rewrite my email. I'll write a longer one next week but I hope you all have a great week. Love you all!!

Below are some more pics on our sidequest, a day in Castro where we had a cooking class, and a truck that represents the fight for God here in Chile 

Love you all. Elder McMillan 






                   

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