First Birthday on the Mission‏

It's been a really good week here in Chile.  I'm loving Rio Bueno.  The people here are awesome and really receptive to the gospel.  A lot of our investigators that were here before I got here have either dropped or have been really hard to get in to visit with them.  So we've decided that we need to work on finding more people.  The great thing about that is that it is a lot easier to find people here than in Punta Arenas.  The people here tend to be a lot more willing to meet with us and listen.  We had a great lesson yesterday with an investigator named Pamela.  She has been searching in the Bible for the right church all her life.and has a friend who is part of the branch who gave the missionaries the referral. She's really busy so it's been hard to get in to visit with her but yesterday we just felt like going by.  We went by and she was home for like the only day in a month. We shared the restoration with her and she told us how she didn't like any of the churches she had attended before and was excited to learn.  She shared about how when she was a little girl one day she was carrying a bunch of heavy bags to her house and didn't know how she would make it there.  Two really tall gringo missionaries came and helped her carry the bags to her house.  That was the perception she had of the Mormons for her whole life and now because of that one act, she's more willing to listen to us.  It's a testimony to me that the Lord has a plan for everyone and that no act of kindness is wasted.

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes.  Saturday was a wierd day. I can't believe I'm really 19 years old, it's incredible.  The time has flown by!  Everyone here was really nice and I had 3 different birthday cakes haha. I made the one that I got in my package in the church for an activity we did Saturday with all the missionaries and Julio, our ward mission leader with some investigators and less active members. Mamita made me a really good blackberry pie (blackberries grow on the sides of the roads here, you can walk by and just grab a handful) and yesterday we ate with a family of members and they put a candle in the watermelon we had for dessert haha. For being away from home for my birthday, it was the best I could have asked for.

Thanks again for all of your support and prayers, I love you all!

Elder Dower

Here is some Q&A we had with Cam this week.

1  What is your teaching pool like?
 i think i mentioned that in my other email, but we have a lot more people here than in Punta Arenas, but they're hard to find during the week since everyone here works a ton, plus they're on summer vacation now, so we're finding more people.
2. How is the ward?
 I'm actually in a branch, but the funny thing in our mission is that generally, branches are stronger than wards, we have about 70 in church each week.
3. Do the members feed the missionaries?
we eat with members sundays
4. What the the Mamita do?
 Mamita makes lunch tuesday through saturday
5. What did you do for your birthday?
My birthday was great, we had an activity as the Mission Work that night and I made my cake. I didn't go to dinner, because one, there aren't really any places here,