Haha, and quite the experience it has been. My mind is in a blur at the moment, it´s a little wierd hearing nothing but spanish for hours and hours and hours and hours... did I mention hours? Haha.
My trainer/companion is great, his name is Elder Lusk. He is from Northern Utah/Idaho. He´s been out on his mission for about a year! So far about 6 of the 7 days I´ve been here it has rained. No, I don´t have culture shock, it´s more like... why is everyone speaking Spanish?!?! haha. I definitely have a long way to go before I can communicate comfortably.... it doesn´t help that I´m shy in the first place. Oh well, it´s going well!
My Mission President is great, he speaks only Spanish, so my interview with him was interesting! He fed all of us new missionaries lunch at his house on Tuesday.
Lunch is the big meal here in Chile, not Dinner. So far the food has been great (With one exception...), the people are so nice and so much fun! And they talk really fast 0.o Haha. The members are so kind and usually feed us lunch. It´s weird having a big piece of corn or a big chunk of meat floating in the middle of a bowl of soup... but so tasty! They love mayonaise here.... on pretty much anything. Also, they love Yogurt!
I´m loving the people and the place where I live. My first area is in a city called Talcahaun(a/o) but more specifically in a place called Esmeralda. It´s really different seeing fences with barbed wire and spikes around every house. But for a good reason here, I pretty much live in the ghetto! Dirt streets, crazy music, stray dogs everywhere. It´s so much fun!
We have done a lot of trackting, we rarely knock doors.... rather we yell doors! We say "Alo!" and people come to their doors to answer it. In a more ritzy part in our area we knock doors. There are a lot of people walking around, so we have an opportunity to do a lot of street contacts. We entered a home of a great family, and the little girls laughed at my spanish the whole time... haha. I have a long way to go with my Spanish. I felt good about it in the MTC, but here is so crazy! I can understand a lot of what is said, but I don´t know how to respond. But I´ve bought my own groceries and such! Woot! We live in a very small house, it´s fun but freezing in the morning. It´s a very humbling experience, but I´m so glad to be out of the MTC. I love the food here, especcially the Pan! (bread) Mmmm, so good! I have yet to have my first Completo though! Haha. I´m excited, apparently they are really really good! But they cost more than one dollar.
It turns out that the city "Concepcion" is not an area in our mission, but that is where our mission office is. I went to the city today and it was big! Imagine that! :P So far it´s been so great! I love it here, I miss home and all of you, but I´m happy I have this experience to learn and grow and to bring the gospel to the people in Chile.
So I have 2 fun stories to tell. The first is that on my second day it was pouring, we were walking home and a car drove really fast through a puddle and I got soaked!!!!! Was I mad? Nope! I love the water! Haha, so no worries with rain here for me!
Secondly, we met a really nice old lady in the street. We went to her house and talked with her for a bit and she offered us some milk. It´s very impolite not to eat everything they give you, so we took it and took a sip.... YUCKY!!! It was so warm, rancid and sour T.T I did not want to drink it at all. So my companion "had to use the bathroom" and asked the nice old lady to show him where it was. While she helped him I tossed both of our drinks down the drain.... That milk was so nasty. I´m surprised I´m not dead! Haha.
Well, I love you all and I miss you all so much! I hope you are all good and safe! Take care of Caralyn for me! Take care my family! Until next week! Oh, and also I can still get dear elders here, you just need to send them to the mission home... but please send hand written letters! I love those most of all! I get mail once a week, so sorry!
Take care everyone! Chi Chi Chi Le Le Le Viva la Chile!
Con mucho amor,
Elder Scott Garrett
On the plane to CHILE!
Elders at the MTC!
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