November 19,2012

Well things are going alright here.  Still having troubles with my companion that don´t look like they are going to resolve themselves.  So much fun there,but transfers are in another 2 weeks so I can make it till then.

No we didn't have Janis's baptism.  She isn't totally ready, so we will put it off until she is ready.

As far as the language, you have to learn Spanish or you can´t really do anything.   I feel like I am learning it well, but I just want to know it all already, seriously.  I understand almost everything.  The native missionaries are supposed to learn English, but they don´t care.  I have yet to meet a native that really has the desire to learn English.  Okay I have met one.

Today we climbed this massive hill that is the middle of Santiago.  It's called Renca.  It took like 2 or 3 hours to climb.  It was super hot too, so that part wasn't fun, but overall it was a fun trip.  It was really cool to see all of Santiago.   There is a giant cross on the top of the hill, I will send some pictures.  It is almost the only tourist attraction in Santiago, well, there is one other hill, but not much more.  Kind of lame right?

The other day we met some people that were literally the nicest people that I have met here in Chile so far.  Well, that weren't members.  They were just friendly and we had a fun little conversation that was just that.  Them asking questions about what we believed and us doing the same to them.  It was awesome.  It was such a relief to see that there are still good people in the world.  Sometimes I wonder with how many rude people we meet.  I was so happy the rest of that day.  Just goes to show you, that how you treat someone really has an impact on that person.

I will talk about food again cause I am hungry and I like food.  haha.  We eat with the members for lunch every day.  Normally there is a salad which consists of lettuce (a lot less then what you would think), and tomatoes, and sometimes other vegetables like corn or peas or something like that.  But the salads really aren't salads like we are used to, they just call them that.  There is usually a main course of rice and some type of meat, or soup.  They eat a lot of soup here, or pasta.  Those are the three main dishes that we eat, pasta, rice and meat, or soup.  It's pretty bland, but hey, food is food.  We cook on our own on Thursdays and sometimes Mondays, and if we want anything in the morning or at night.   We don´t really cook fancy at all, like rice and eggs or something super lame like that.  They have this spicy sauce here called aji that is super awesome and we basically put it on everything.

Well, that's all for this week.

Elder Michael Knapp