Time Flies When You´re Having Fun!

Hola hola everyone!  I can't believe that it's been a month since I got to Chile.  The time goes so fast, it's nuts.  Well I'll just launch right into all of the most interesting stories you'll hear for the next week.  Broma. [Joke.]

Before I start, every time Elder Carter and I get rejected, or someone is mean, or something awkward happens, we aren't even a little sad.  Actually, usually we can barely hold our laughter in.  That's just how the mission is when you get along with your companion.

Elder Carter and I love walking up to random people in the street and talking to them.  Sometimes they don't like talking to us.  But's that a different story.  One time we talked to this grandma that was walking with her granddaughter who was maybe 5.  She politely listened to us, while her granddaughter ran around the corner.  Then her granddaughter started yelling at her abuela [grandma] to hurry up, and then started throwing rocks at the missionaries.  So yeah, we had rocks thrown at us.

Another time we knocked on a door, and a son answered.  We asked him if his parents were home, and he ran off to find them.  They must have told him to tell us they were busy, because he came back and told us we couldn't talk to them.  We were friendly with the boy though, and asked his name.  The whole time he is talking to us from behind the door, and then he starts slowly closing it.  So we're having a conversation and the door is slowly closing.  And then "click" it shuts.  And Elder Carter and I just crack up laughing.

Something about being a gringo in Chile is that everyone looks at you all the time.  Especially because we're dressed in white shirts and ties with dress slacks.  Also los gringos misioneros attract bums and drunks like flies.  We were walking by this park once, and a bum saw us and made a beeline for us, rubbing his hands and motioning for us to give him money, rubbing his fingers together.  Without even breaking stride, Elder Carter whips out a pass-along card from his shirt pocket and hands it to the bum.  And the bums takes it without even asking, and then turns around and walks back.  Again Elder Carter and I walk out of earshot, and bust up laughing.  I'm really glad that I have Elder Carter to help me with bums and drunks, because I can barely even understand sober Spanish.

Being a gringo misionero also means that random people across the street yell at you to show off their English.  So it's pretty common for us to be walking along and hear, in an incomprehensible Spanish accent, "I love you man!" or one time, "It's cooooooooool man!"  I love it though.  Imagine if everyone around you spoke with an accent like Nacho Libre.  Constant hilarity.

Something funny about Chile is that they love to imitate the culture of the US.  So they have a small version of Halloween.  But all of the houses in Chile have tall, black fences with locked gates.  So, in order to trick-or-treat, you have to stand outside the fence and yell, "Haaaalo!"  Super awkward to trick-or-treat outside someone's fence.  But hilarious for missionaries to watch because we have to do it everyday, haha.

There's a lot of stray dogs in Chile.  About 2 or 3 for every block actually.  Which means over the course of a day I meet about 50 dogs, and they all have fleas.  They don't move around too much, so Elder Carter and I have names for some of the ones we run into more.  And then in addition to those, almost everybody has a vicious dog behind their gate/fence.  And none of them like me.  I don't know why, but dogs here really don't like me.  Everywhere we go, it's constant constant barking and dogs running up to bite you.  Always an adventure, haha.

Our one really good investigator is a young woman attending university studying English.  I think the only reason she let us in the door is because she wanted to practice English with us, but now she is interested in our message.  It is really incredible to watch her read the Book of Mormon and pray and do those things that bring her closer to Christ, to do those things that will begin a relationship with God that will benefit her the rest of her life, and bring her peace and joy in this life and in the life to come.

The moral of the story is that I love Chile.  The people here are incredibly friendly.  Most of the time, if we ask someone for their phone number on the street, they'll just give it to us.  Chile is also incredibly beautiful, with volcanoes and mountains and the ocean.

So I'm having the time of my life!  How's life back in the States?

Your friend,
-Elder Thomas Crotzer

Editor's note:  A "pass-along card" is a small wallet-sized card that contains a picture on one side and info on the other side of the card.  The picture might be a picture of Christ, or the LDS temple in Salt Lake, or some other Gospel-themed image.  The info on the back could be how to receive a free Book of Mormon, or the location of one of the Church websites (i.e. www.lds.org or www.mormon.org).