Week 7 - Frias

This week was a good week. Pretty interesting too. 7 months gone and 17 more to go. Its going to go by fast. I feel like it wont be enough time. haha

The [Youth] Activity sounded fun. All the sandwiches and food. I miss a lot of the food back home but I like the food here also. I am glad Sean knew the answer.[Editor's Note:  At last week's mutual activity, the youth had a cooking competition. There was a tie for first place and a member from each team had to answer a tie-breaking question which was, "How many cups are in a pint?"].  The other day I was making some Jello and I needed to know that too. I had to translate from spanish, figure out what it was in english then put it back in spanish. It took like 5-10 minutes. 

We havent talked to anybody about the Skype. I am sure we will find out a little later. I will be able to let you know before though. 

The highlight for this week happened yesterday morning. We were walking to a Part Members house to have a lesson with them. We came up to the street and the PM´s son was on the corner with his GF [girl friend], the neighbor. We said hey and shook hands and told him we were going to his house and to join us. He said okay. Things didnt look to good between him and his GF when we walked up. We went to their house sat down and talked for a little then pulled out scriptures and were about to have a prayer when there was a bunch of commotion and yelling outside. Come to find out that BF and GF were fighting. I guess they were hitting each other. About 5 min later the whole family walked in and started to sit down but then the GF comes storming into the house. This girl is a big girl. She is as tall as me and big. The BF was in the hallway and she was trying to get back there. The Dad was at work. It was only the mom and the kids. The Mom is pretty small and the kids are about 13, 12, and 8. The BF is about 17. But it took the whole family to stop her from getting in the hallway without the help of BF. As missionaries we really couldnt do anything and get involved. After about 10 mintues the GF left and went around the house to get in the window but then she came back around. The GF´s mom came and was trying to hold her back from going into the house but couldnt do it. She got back in and everybody was at the entrance to the hallway. The mom was sick and it was hot and the whole struggle made her feel worse. She almost passed out but they got her into a chair. For this everybody was crying and freaking out. Then the GF went outside and grabbed a rock, about the length and half the 3/4 the width of the computer in the computer room, and threatened to throw it. Then I finally stepped in and stood in the way. I wasnt going to let her throw that thing. She was relentless. She finally put it down but tried to go in the hallway again.

Finally the cops came, about 5 or 6 of them and everybody went outside and talked. Apparently the BF stole about 50 pesos or something which is I think around 6 dollars or so. The cops took the BF away to take him to his uncles house across town so they wouldnt fight anymore. When the cops were leaving the GF was trying to get at the BF again. The cops were covering him up and pushing her away. After about 30-45 minutes or so it was all over.

We finally sat down, shared a quick scripture, gave the Mom a blessing and then went to the neighbors house and gave the other mom a Blessing of health also. Then we left back to our appartment. Itwas a crazy situation. I hadnt experienced anything like that before at least from what I can remember. 

But anyway thats mainly about my week. I am going to try to send a couple pictures. I hope you have a great week!!! I love you!

Elder Dawson

Week 6 - Frias

I have heard that we could use skype but with permission from presidente. But a phone card would probably be good. You would have to make sure that I would be able to call from outside of the US into the US. But yes, when the mission recieves a package they have to pay for stuff. They send emails out that tells who has a package and the amount that it costs. 

My Spanish is improving little by little. There is so much to learn. I dont remember the last time I had a dream. Really I just lay down to go to bed at night and them I am gone. I think the last time I had a dream was back in Texas.

On Saturday we baptized Eliana. The daughter of Claudia who we baptized the week before. We talked to her and she was excited to be baptized on Saturday. It was a huge miracle. But unfortunately she didnt come to church yesterday and wasnt able to be confirmed.

Saturday and Sunday were stressful days just working to get everything to happen correctly. We think something might have changed. We dont know what or why. We are going to find out. We have to rely on the Lord to help us overcome all challenges and problems! We will see how this week goes.

Today is the first day of my 5th transfer in the field. On this coming sunday I am going to hit 7 months in the field. It has gone by fast.

We dont know if we will be able to have a baptism this week because the majority of our investigators didnt come to church. We have been able to get somebody to church every Sunday. But we need to do a lot better. We know we can do a lot better but we dont know how. We are still trying to figure out what we need to do and what the Lord wants us do to. This last transfer we taught 141 lessons.  This last week we taught 21 and the week before we taught 29 lessons. We are working hard and trying to work harder.

I havent been able to send pictures yet because I keep forgetting the cord to connect to the computer. I realized that I forgot it again today also. I am sorry. I will make sure that I bring it next week. I will send pictures. Promise.  I hope that you guys have a great week. I love You!!!!

Elder Dawson

Week 5 - Frias

Sorry that I wont get your email this week. I will print it next week and be able to read it. Being behind two hours now makes things harder.

Saturday we had the baptism of Claudia and on Sunday she was confirmed. She is super awesome and she will be a great part of the church here. She will also be a great example for her family and others that we are teaching in her neighborhood.

This last week I went on exchanges. I forgot to tell you but I went on exchanges the week before also. For exchanges we have to go to Santiago also. The two times I went in the other area. The District Leaders name is Elder Poettcker (Potcker) and he is from Canada. His companions name is Elder Santa Maria and he is from Chile. They are a lot of fun. In our district it is just us four elders and there are two sisters. We go on exchanges two times a transfer after district meeting. From Tuesday afternoon to usually about Wednesday night or Thursday morning. Sometimes we will travel back Wednesday night or early Thursday morning. It depends.

This week we are going to be mainly working with one of Claudias kids. Her name is Eliana. She can be baptized this Saturday. We dont know if it will happen or not. We are going to try the very best we can to overcome her doubts and needs. She is a great girl, just needs to have a little excitement.

I dont have to much time. Sorry that I wasnt able to send pictures last week. I wont be able to either this week. Next week I am going to try and put some in a folder and send the folder.

I hope you guys have a great week! I love you!

Elder Dawson

Week 4 - Frias

This week was a pretty alright week. Halloween isnt a thing that people do here. For Halloween we had a big storm. All morning and early afternoon it was super super windy. The sky was dark in places because of giant dust and dirt clouds. Later when we went out to work it started to rain. All the rain mixed in with the dirt in the air. We were out walking with a member going to some of the lessons that we had. Luckily we were at a gas station to get some shelter. We got pretty wet but we were good. After we got to the gas station it started hailing. The day before it was a pretty warm day. But this day it was pretty chilly. It rained all night and all morning Friday. When we went out to work in the morning there was stuff all over the place that had been blown around. Pretty much on every street trees had split and fallen or just fallen period. A lot of people had fear because the wind was super strong. We saw part of a house that collapsed because a tree fell on it. It was a outside edge of a house, more like a shed. There was a radio antenna that collapsed. It was a radio antenna that a Evangelical church had. By Friday afternoon it had all cleared up.

This weekend we are going to have a baptism for a lady named Claudia. We have been teaching her and her family for the last three weeks. She has just been soaking everything up. She really enjoys the church and she participates a lot. Gets along great with the members here too. Its great when there is a lot of activity between the members and investigators. I think next week we are going to have the baptism of one or two of her daughters. I dont remember. But we are super excited for her and she is super excited also. She is so great!

I will try to send some of the pictures I have taken. I do get fed good still. We have some members that feed us on certain days. Really every once in a while we have to cook one or two times during the week. But we are doing pretty good on food.  Our apartment is a pretty good size for the two of us...kitchen, dining room, a living space, room with our clothes, room where we study and we sleep, and the bathroom. The bathroom is pretty small. We have two toilets. One to use the bathroom, and the other is to clean your butt....haha. They use the toilets that spray water here. Its pretty interesting. I like it......hahah. I will have to take pictures this next week of the apartment. We have a washer type thing. Its like a miniature version of the kind at home. Also a thing to put our clothes in to spin and get most of the water out, then we hang dry our clothes. The grocery stores here are definitely a lot smaller than what we have back home. They dont have a lot of things that we have but they have all the things that I need.

Thats about all for me. I hope that you guys have a great week and have a lot of fun!! I will see you next week. I love you!!!

Elder Dawson