I love it here

From Elder Jonathan Cattron   2/04/13     

            Estoy bien. I love it here, still, and I haven't weighed myself, but I'm pretty sure I've lost about 10 pounds at least from all the hills.

                I'm not used to the routine, because it's not one. It's a beautiful experience. Although I don't enjoy companionship study because of the role playing. Acting isn't my thing. 

We're not doing incredible in my eyes. But my view is different than Heavenly Father's so I shouldn't worry so much. Yesterday I finally "knocked" at a door where someone answered. [we yell "Halo" as in Ah-low. It's basically a question of hola or hello.]  My companion Elder H---------- said something to me right before the lady came out, so I looked back to have him repeat, and missed her coming out of the house. She seemed frustrated and kept saying something that I couldn't hear because of the 20 dogs barking around us [and we all know how I am with hearing anyway], which I learned later was "Diga me." “Tell me.”  [Tell me what you came for].  Elder H--------- came to the rescue with his super hearing by explaining we were gifting pictures. [like cards about John the Baptist and Christ and when Christ came to the Americas]. She picked the one of Christ praying, and he explained a little, and she said we could come by again to share the message and help her with her "necesidad de consuela" because she's struggling with something.  That's my success story of the week. The rest of the success is in my slow progress.

                I have been beating myself up lately because I'm still not accustomed to how fast and singsongy the Chileans talk.  Typically I only catch about 2 words because half the sentence was swallowed in my confusion. The MTC branch president's words keep coming to my head: fake it till you make it. I usually have no idea what people are saying, but sometimes I guess correctly.

                I know exactly how you feel with the Spanish, mom. I am asked often if I like Spanish. I tell them, "In all cases, I don't enjoy learning, but I enjoy speaking Spanish." or in this case, it's called Castellano... if that is the correct spelling.

                Typically my meals are desayuno [breakfast]: Yogurt and Cereal. mmmm, Almuerzo [lunch] with members at 2pm which is typically a massive meal and somehow manageable to finish, and some Pan [bread] for our 9pm dinner. Usually for lunch we have some kind of pasta [always with stinkin’ tomatoes! haha], or meat and potatoes. It's not really that different.  I've come to learn that a lot of interests of the Chileans are from the US—Especially music. You often hear people jamming to US bands. But Michael Jackson seems to be a frequent choice in general. There's actually a couple kids in the ward that play songs by Incubus and Red Hot Chili Peppers on the guitar...which brings me home and makes me smile inside.

                The schedule is different here. We actually wake up at 7am instead of 630 and retire to bed at 11pm to fit the schedule of the Chileans.  And everyone is at the beach on certain days from 1 until 3:30, so there's no one in the streets basically. It's like a ghost town. Except the dogs... they're always our flea zombies following us around.

                I sent home the MTC book thing. I don't actually know anything about the mail. I'm still figuring out how to pay at the post office.  A quiniento for a stamp, [500 pesos]—which is about equal to a dollar. 

                My companion is super awesome. He is a musical beast who can play basically any song just by listening to it and saying out loud, "do... re... so... re... okay, listo." It's pretty cool. And he puts his own style into it. He sings harmony well too. Plays guitar, piano, sings, and can play a little bit of harmonica.  He only speaks Spanish, and should have the accent of an Argentinian, but has adjusted it to an almost gringo kind of thing because no one could understand him. The Argentinians say 'Shah' for the double L's. [Como se shama? Instead of Como se “yama”?]

                Please pray that I won't keep my mouth shut when the language comes, and if possible, that I can talk to people in the street.  Both Elder H and I are bad at talking to people about the Gospel.  We could have so many more people, but honestly, I'm a little scared, and it isn't one of Elder H--------'s habits... and I haven't been talking much [different yesterday—I was better] because I failed to understand someone so I'd beat myself up about it.  I'm getting better at dealing with it, but last week I started to get rather quiet and self judging, which I know is unhealthy. 

I feel super safe here so don’t worry Mom.

                The sector we work in is called Esperanza. What a great name.  It's totally fitting, because it's just waiting for us to open our mouths and share the Gospel.

The missionary work is improving.  We have started to challenge the members to missionary work to help us and invite other families or friends to their Family home evenings [here it's called noche de hogar... night of home... haha] 

                Then we taught a 17 year old guy who is into Metal last night. Stuff like Slipknot. His brother was jamming out to some heavy metal in our first lesson last week, and it was so hard to teach. But last night was a little better, but Franco has issues with focusing, he says. It's funny really. Anything that moves in the room, his eyes are there. But it's fun. He's a pretty relaxed kid although he's super quiet. We have to ask him if he has any questions, and then ask him again after we answered the first question. 

                Really, missionary work isn't all fussy and stressful.  They're people with real concerns and thoughts, and really they're your family and friend.  Typically, they enjoy talking with people, and quickly realize that you are people too, with interests just like them.  I'm working on opening myself up to them instead of how I usually take the first day and just listen.

                Yvonne, Camila, Felipe, and Elizabeth. A super awesome family. Yvonne is the mother of Camila, who is 17ish, and Liz is the mother of Felipe, who is about 19.  Felipe isn't a member, but they are. We teach Felipe in the Chapel after we have music lessons with him.  We play guitar. Two days ago we had a music lesson with a member and Felipe where I taught guitar to Pato [Patricio, the member], and Elder H taught Felipe piano. Then we had a lesson about prophets.

I feel incredibly safe. I'm totally fine. But Esperanza is a very calm city/town.  It's like home.

There are a few drunkards who call missionaries over and say "Teach me" then sometimes they steal your stuff.  So Elder H says not to go if he doesn't feel right when that happens.

                Anyway, I'm out of time. Feel free to edit out whatever you like or explain things I don't in the blog. I hope you are doing well, Make sure you're studying and preparing for your missions, because if you don't you'll suffer like me some days by not knowing the doctrine super well.

Make copies of the things I send home so I can remember them--sometimes including the plant life... hahaha    [Jon once sent home some seeds that fell from the trees at the MTC.  I think he must have sent more from Chile that haven’t arrived here yet.]

            Tell J----- that I love her and the girls. "Ellas son super buenos, y deseo que puedo dar abrazos a todas [incluyendo J-----]."

            Ginger Dan - Felicitaciones! I sure miss your beautiful face. I want to make sure I hear where everyone goes from the Singles Branch.

Love you all. 

Elder GatoRoboto. [Cattron]