Semana 21 18 de Septiembre

Dear Family,
This Friday Chile had their national Independence Day holiday party extravaganza. It was kind of a hard day to find people. The sister missionaries gave us some brownies, so I naturally put them on a paper plate and went out with Elder (not telling you his name yet), my new companion, to go knock some doors with brownies. We said something like this "oh, well I hope your having a great day and enjoying the Chilean Independence fiestas. I wanted to offer you a dessert from my country. They are called brownies. now I also know that you don`t know me, so I will also eat a little bit to show you that it is okay to eat. (I take a piece of brownie and eat it) would you like to try some?" So that almost worked. haha. Some people took the brownies, but everybody was busy with guests and family members partying it up, so nobody let us in. In the morning we went to the ward activity and watched the Chileans dance cueca, the national dance of Chile (I`ll send fotos). We also ate mote con huesillo (a dried out peach in a glass of preserve juice with wheat, weird, but strangely delicious) and lots of empanadas. I tried to fly a kite, but the wind was very inconsistent. So I just gave a bunch of kites to small Chilean children, and they broke them. haha. oh well they were cheap (20 cents each). So about the investigators:
Flia Casas: Victor started drinking and smoking again! and said he won`t come back to church! Irene said she doesn`t really see the point in us going back to teach her, she`s not willing to do anything until Victor steps up. Fabiàn said he "thinks" he`s an atheist. We`ll just have more time to dedicate to other investigators. My new companion says that Fabiàn might have a chance of progressing. We`ll see, its already been 3 months.
Pedro is doing well. We did an fhe in his house with Cristina. We watched finding faith in Christ. it was cool. We invited Cristina to stay with us and Pedro when we teach him. She said she would do it, but that we can`t ask her questions or make her read.
Liliana still wants to get baptized in a river.
The eight new people we found last week, none of them have been able to receive us and teach them again. nice.
So it`s been a long week and kind of difficult, but we are just going to focus on finding new investigators. and when I say we I mean my new companion, Elder Hernandez from El Salvador who has 7 months in the mission and is the 5th of 8 sons in his family and who is kind of short, and I. Yes family, that`s right. my new companion is Jaime Adonài Hernandez Hernandez. He no speaka english. Haha but we`re working on that. He`s pretty cool. I`ll send a pic.
so yesterday I interviewed a 16 year old girl named Darling who the sister missionaries are teaching. I felt that it would be best for her to wait 2 more weeks to be baptized instead of this saturday. She was alright with it, but it was kind of hard for the Sister missionaries at first, but they said that they trust my judgment and know that i am doing my best to listen to the spirit. The problem is that Darling`s mom is a super inactive member of the church. she started coming to church when her Aunt, from Viña del Mar, came to visit her, every week she comes with her Aunt. the problem is though that soon her Aunt will go back to Viña, and I am worried that without her support it will be harder for Darling to keep coming to church. So we are going to give her a couple weeks more to have a firmer foundation.
Elder Cannon went to las naciones, olimpo stake, still in maipù, so he`s not too far from me. It is weird when the kids grow up and move away, isnt it?I honestly felt sad when he left, I`ve never felt that way about any other companion. I was sad when Elder Butterfield and I got changed, but when Elder Cannon left it was different, I was worried if I taught him well enough, how he`ll turn out as a missionary, etc. but I know he`ll turn out right, he`s a good Elder.
well that`s about it for now, I`m gonna bounce and send some fotos!
Love,
Elder Cloward