Tuesday, July 7, 2015

Week 3


Hola Hola!
Chile es campeon! it was really fun this last saturday we were able to watch the entire game, which ended up going all the way to PKs! it was really fun to watch all of the chilean teachers go crazy during the game as they kept singing and cheering and then after the game the whole city of santiago was going crazy. it lasted all night long. People were driving around honking and cheering and waving their chilean flags. needles to say i had to use my stash of ibuprfen pm and earplugs that night. So this week has been a little difficult my companion has been really struggling with listening and staying active in the lessons. so at times the lesson will getting into more spiritual things and and random question will be thrown in. It definitely was frustrating at times. but yesterday during one of our classes the teacher asked me to do a practice lesson alone in front of the class and it was a lesson that was full of the spirit. I was able to share about how when i wass first baptized i honestly didnt fully know if the church was true, but i always knew that i felt good at church and with time i have received more and more witnesses that the church is true. Honestly i wasnt expecting to be able to recount the full story in spanish but surprisingly i was able to. That teaching experience really helped me because i was starting to feel down because my lessons were not going so hot. It really helped because both me and the investigator because we were both "edified by the spirit"
One other fun thing that happened this week was that E. Cowley and E. Morby moved into the classroom next to me. This has started a lot more games. within my district i have organized 2 tournaments already for paper football and this other coin game (yes the games are only played during breaks). Another thing we discovered you can do during breaks between classes is to go up to the fence outside and call top the street vendors to bring the "roja fruta" and man oh man are the strawberries good. 
So within our room we have all made goals for our weight and weigh in each sunday so as all of you can guess my goal is to gain weight. so with that in mind during all of the meals i have gotten into the habit of saying "todo" and still to my amazement if i eat all of it i still weigh 140, i guess its a lesson of patience jaja. 
So for my pday today we went to this hotdog place called dominos or something like that and it was soooo good. i was able to get the classic chilean dog with mayo guac and tomatoes. also i was able to get pinapple juice which was to die for. That took up most of  the time so we just walked around the city. My spanish is really coming along i can now talk to the latinos in the ccm comfortably so it makes me feel a lot more confident! I was a little bummed to not be in the states for the fourth of july but isnt here just there without a T?
Hope all of you doing well!!
chao
E.Livingston

Week 2




CHI CHI CHI! LE LE LE! VIVE CHILE! 
this week was pretty good other than being  kinda sick. it was only really bad on friday when i had to take a nap in one of the investigator[s homes. IT was super nice being to rest some during the middle of the day and now i am feeling a lot better. So here one of the biggest pieces of news is the chile made finals in the cupa americano and we get to watch the finals!! I am super excited for it! So this past week we have been practicing teaching a lot which me and my companion definitely need. Its hard to teach because if i ever deviate from the script my companion is lost and gets flustered. THere was one lesson where once we walked into the door without saying anything my companion handed the lady a book of mormon jajaja. she was very confused and our lesson wasnt even on the book of mormon. so we have been using mostly english in our classes but this week they are starting to make the transition to complete spanish. i am really excited for this because it was a little too easy in spanglish but now i get to really push myself. So last week i didnt get to talk about my roomates. they are probably my best friends in the mtc we have reaally bonded thhey are E. morby and E. cowley. E. cowley is going to concepcion along with about 4 more elders and 2 hermanas. but we have so much fun together and they have been really good for E. Neubert as we try to get him to loosen up and relax and enjoy the mission. we have a lot of games in the room. one of my favorites is where each day we take turns hiding a garbage bag in each others beds. it gets erally creative somtimes and last night i hid about 6 bags under E. cowleys sheets. So one unique thing about the CCM is that on p days we get to go out into the city so last p day E N and i went to Paris which is basically maceys. we had to get sweat pants and towel for E. morby and cowley because they couldnt find the store on their p day. Not much changes here usually we just are making up some kind of game that we can play during breaks to keep us sane. It is really cool learning all of thre religious words in spanish because it makes youo think about the significance of the word and i can now amlost succesfully teach the 1st lesson in spanish. I just keep getting more and more excited to go to concepcion. one of my teachers grew up in concepcion and he says that it really rains a lot and to be prepared to be wet for the next two years. he also told me about how the dog situation is pretty bad and that it is common for missionaries to carry the rabies shot with them. he also says that people in concepcion dont really like americans and that the church members do not like investigators. so concepcion looks like it is going to be quite the challenge but i am getting really excited to be out there with the people that are searching for truth. Tomorrow a new batch of missionaries come in and there will be 6 people in opur room so the ccm is going to start getting a llittle cramped. today for p day i went to liders and got some snacks for the week and then i  got like 3 cheese empanadas. ugh they were sooooo good and they are really cheap. also when we outside of a church store i was able to talk to these two men in spanish it felt awesome! one was blind and i was able to talk about how im still really new to being a missionary and the other guy and i were able to talk about virginia because he ised to live in richmond. oh and mom and dad remember how we thought the outlets are the same, they are not they are completely different so i still need to get a converter and adapter. but all is well here thank you for keeping me in your prayers i know that i  have been recieveing blessings from them.
Chao,

E. Livingston