Hola!

This has been a really slow week with the 18th and everything going on but it was fun nonetheless. I realized that I forgot to mention something last email, last Sunday I gave my first priesthood blessing! We visited an older lady in our ward, Hermana Donatti, and just talked to her for a little while, just as we were starting to leave to our next appointment she just started crying about how her body is in pain and she can't really do anything anymore. She asked us for a blessing, we always ask who they want to do which part and usually people have Elder Nuttall do the blessing and I anoint but this time she asked me to do it, which was pretty scary because I had to do it in Spanish and when you do blessings and prayers, there's a different form of "you" that you use that we don't really use very much.  It ended up working out though. The same thing happened Thursday night.  Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, we were supposed to visit as many people as we could and then go back home before it got dark, especially for us because we have centro in our sector which is where all the bars and strip clubs are and borachos (drunk people).So Thursday we were in our house and the sister missionaries in our sector called and asked if we could come give Hermana Marlene a blessing. Her husband came back and she's been having a hard time with theire relationship and everything.  She asked me to give the blessing and commented on how much better my spanish was. It was a testimony builder to me that when the Lord needs us to do something, He can use us to do it no matter how weak we are, He can work through us.  We've had the opportunity to give a lot of blessings here because the two of us make up half of the Elders quorum along with the bishop and ex bishop (who has been out of town in Peru), so we've had to do a lot of the things that normally the members would need to do.

So since today is my companion's birthday I realized I haven't mentioned much about him.  Elder Nuttall turned 22 today, it's pretty funny, he's three and a half years older than me.  He went to West Point (the Army acadamy) before the mission and has been working on some paperwork to get back in after.  I think he also went to the same high school as Chelsey and Jessica. He's been a great trainer!

Like I said last week, we finally got the house cleaned up. Some of the elders before us didn't take very good care of it so we get to clean up after them. Next week I'll try to send some pictures of it.

Tomorrow I get to do my first companion exchange with our district leader, Elder Carranza.  He's really cool, he's from Peru so doesn't speak English and this is his last cambio in his mission so he goes home in two weeks.  To be honest I'm a little apprehensive to not be able to speak English for 24 hours, but it will be good for me.

Ariel and Leslie finally came to church for the first time in almost a month yesterday, which was really exciting.  One of our less active members who we've been working with has been struggling.  Her kids aren't into the best things and on Tuesday they were smoking in her car and set it on fire, it's sitting out in front of her house still.

It's been a great week, the time keeps flying by and I'm getting better at everything, little by little.  We're still trying to get more investigators but we're keeping ourselves busy enough without having to knock doors too much, which makes me happy.

We live in a house behind a house behind another house.  It's kind of funny but pretty common here. We do our own laundery and so far I haven't made any of my shirts pink.  Like I mentioned before, we eat lunch with a different member each day of the week, so I have cereal in the morning and make sandwiches in the night for dinner so I don't really have to cook much.

I'm very happy!  The members here really are awesome. The Spanish is coming along slowly but surely. I can pretty much understand anyone who isn't Chilean.  The Chilean accent is the hardest to understand because they speak so fast and don't always complete their words.  I can say more or less what I need to, but when they respond I'm kind of at a loss haha.  Transfers are every six weeks, and I'm not sure how they work. I'll be in this sector for at least two transfers for training, after that I could go anywhere. Usually we stay down here in Punta Arenas for longer since it's so much farther from everything else.  My companion was in his first area for 6 months, and I would love to be here longer. I want to be here when I'm more comfortable with the spanish.

It's getting warmer here, but the wind has started.  The wind gets very strong here during the summer and we can hear it during the night and it sounds like the house is going to fall down haha.

I love you all and miss you tons.  Thank you for your prayers.

Elder Dower