Sunday, October 19, 2014

Week 55

Hey everyone! It’s a pleasure to be writing you all today.

To be honest the week was nothing too exciting. We worked hard and did what we could but nothing really turned around. We are waiting for the blessings to come around.

I’ll give you guys some highlights of what went down this week!

-          Elder Hampton from Utah got here to Coyquen this Tuesday. He is just about as old as me and has just 3 months more than I do in the mission. He is a lot different than Elder Sanabria. The whole feeling of the house changed quite a bit. We are getting to know him and we are adjusting well.

 -          Really strange week of weather. Last week it was blazing hot, but this week on Wednesday it suddenly turned bone chilling cold. It’s a roller coaster ride of weather here as well. It warmed up towards Friday and now it’s hot outside again.

 -          We are working pretty hard with Silvana and her family. We had two lessons this week. Both were great, she just has a lot of questions from having so much religious background. It is going to be difficult to really have her commit and seek to find the truth of our message. She also didn’t show up to church this week. It was pretty disappointing, but we will continue to push and involve the members in helping her and her family.

-          Mitzi has still been missing. That makes 3 weeks now. We are almost out of hope. Let’s hope that we will be able to find her in at least the next month.

 -          We had a cool FHE with the Vergara’s this Saturday. We watched the ‘‘Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration’’ movie. The family enjoyed it, they still don’t know much doctrine but they are on their way to being firm in the faith. Especially Constanza, she has told us that she wants to be a missionary. We gave her a ‘Preach my Gospel’ and everything. Her testimony is growing quite a bit. Felipe is having a bit of trouble with his testimony. He has grown up being pretty popular. The school where he goes to is mostly made up of flaites. It’s not an easy place to be as a kid. The adjustment of coming into the church was rough for him and he is trying to figure it all out right now. The balance between his social life and the adjustment into the church is his main difficulty. We are working with him and just being there for him as missionaries and as friends.

-          We are just trying to conquer all the laziness that some people have. It is a big struggle to help people to try and get up out of their beds on Sunday. Everyone seems to have an addiction to sleep on Sundays. It’s a bit hard working with people who don’t have much of a desire to do things.


-          Elder Bird and I started to go to the gym this week. Our zone leaders and other elders that live with them head over there every morning. We decided to start joining them. OUCH…… It’s been far too long since I’ve had a good workout like that. It’s sufficient to say that my muscles KILL right now. It’s great because Elder Jensen plays football for BYU and Elder Watts plays at Virginia. It’s cool having a personal trainer kind of deal with huge football players. Hopefully I will be in good shape in no time!



-          We had some cool service projects this week. First off we helped a family that recently got into the ward. They lived in Spain for a while and have a house here in Coyquen, and in another part of Chillán. On Wednesday we went over to their house here in Coyquen and helped them clean up a bit and lay sheetrock on the ceiling in their kitchen. The Dad is hilarious and we had a great time. They also invited us to stay over and we agreed. We had to cancel the other lunch that was scheduled and stayed there. We ended up having a delicious asado. At the other home, the other elders said that they had ‘’chupe de guatita’’, or stomach casserole! We got lucky on that one! Our other service was at a recent convert’s house. A really old man named David. He’s in his 80’s and I don’t think he is capable of cleaning his house and he lives alone. I don’t think the house had been cleaned in 20 years. We scrubbed mold covered walls, dust covered floors and various other rotten objects. It was gross, but we had fun.

 -          The senior couple that we live with got a new puppy. The other elders named it after me. They call it ‘Haws’ because I’m apparently… small… and innocent… Cool puppy though. His real name is ‘Jogey.’

-          I caught a flea this morning. It’s the first one I’ve seen in a long time. Retiro didn’t have a single flea, so you can say that I’ve been blessed. However, looks like now I’m going to have to get prepared for the return of the fleas. I don’t like fleas all that much. I took the captured flea and stuck it in my collection; I named it Jogey, just like our new puppy friend. It probably came from him…

So this week was pretty basic. Nothing too much to report, but I had a good time. Elder Bird and I are still pushing it as hard as we can and we have major plans and goals for this week. We are putting more of a focus in goals so that we can accomplish more. I love being in the service in the Lord. I feel so blessed to be out here serving my Chilean brothers and sisters. Sometime it is difficult dealing with some of the people and the difference of the culture, but we all have to learn how to love one another. It is a privilege to be blessed with so many opportunities to grow. I love the gospel, and I love living it! Let’s all live it as best as we can and reach out to others and help them in their lives.

I love all of you so much. You are such an inspiration to me every week. I miss you and pray for all of you. Thank you all so much for keeping me updated and for sending me your support. I love you and miss you all! Keep going and enjoy this week! Until the next!


Elder Ethan Haws

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