Ok well actually it's the 22nd of September, but this week we celebrated Chilean Independance day the 18th and 19th of September. the 18th was pretty boring since we weren't allowed to work so we got the house cleaned really well and just hung out. The 19th was a lot more fun, we had our branch activity that day. We made "anticucho" which is basically a bunch of meat grilled on a shishkabob, and "sopaipillas" which is fried bread with salsa. We played a ton of games which was a lot of fun, sack races (I won!), a game similar to dodgeball, and a bunch of others. For those of you who know how competitive I can get with stuff like that will understand how I was pretty worn out by the end of that day and may have possibly injured my knee (don't worry, it feels fine now). But I had more fun than I think I have my entire mission, it was a blast.
So Tuesday we had our conference with Elder Viñas. Monday night my companion and I got to help the assistants to the president set up the church where we had it and clean it up. We had to fill up a bucket to mop the floor in the hallway, but the bucket wouldn't fit into the sink, so we devised the brilliant idea of using the emergency firehose to fill it up. What we didn't know is that once we had filled it up we had to drain all the water out of the hose that had remained there. We spent about another hour trying to get the hose put back into its place. We were laughing pretty hard.
The conference was really great. Something that called my attention that Elder Viñas said was that in the mission, and in life, sometimes we need to learn to "sufrir con gozo" or "suffer with joy." The mission, and life, is hard, sometimes more so than others, but that is part of the plan that our Heavenly Father made for us, that we would have to pass through difficult times in order to learn and grow and progress. Difficult doesn't necessarily mean bad, nor does it mean that we can't be happy during the difficult times in life. We can "suffer with joy" and be happy during every moment of our life because we know that the Atonement of Christ is real and that He can help us overcome any challenge that comes to us. He will never throw something at us that we can't handle with His help. And because of His Atonement, as long as we are putting in the effort to follow Him and keep His commandments, we can have the peace and calm of knowing that everything will be alright, not easy, but alright. I have a testimony of this, I know that through Christ, we really can pass through every moment of every day of our lives, being happy.
Have a great week everyone, hope you are all doing great. Thanks for all of your support, it really is a great feeling to get in here each Monday and see all of your emails, it means more to me than I could ever express. Be Happy!
Elder Cameron Dower
Answers to Questions
1-7. What did you do each day this week? (Mon, Tue etc.)
1. Mon. went to Puerto Montt hung out in the mall, helped AP's set up the church.
2. Tues. Conference, returned to Quellón at like 10:00 at night.
3. Wed. Big service project, we chopped eight meters of firewood between the 4 of us.
4. Thurs. 18th, cleaned the house, played ping pong in the church, really boring.
5 .Fri. Branch activity, tons of food and fun in the church all day
6 .Sat. Worked to find all our investigators again, taught Yohana.
7 .Sun. Church, training, lesson with recent convert family.
8. Package?
8. I got my package!!! Thank you soo much! I've been wearing my Sanuks around the house whenever we aren't out working and tell Madi I LOVE that blanket, it's awesome!
9. Pastel de Papas, it's delicious!
Glad you enjoyed the temple dedication, sad I missed it. We'll all have to go when I get back.
Love you all, Cam
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