Crazy weather!!

HOLA FAMILIA!

 

I hear it's quite sunny over there in the States!!

I am a bit nervous about my companion going back in three weeks, but it seems like he's even more nervous about going home! The mission life is hard at times, but you also have so much just taken care of for you so you can just focus on what matters. I really hope I get a Chilean companion next! I'm learning Spanish, but we also talk a good amount of English so I think I'm ready for the full immersion!

So, this was a bit of a crazy week and most of that was due to the weather. There were a couple earthquakes this week, one was at 5 AM and shook our bed pretty bad and knocked my watch of the ledge of my bed but neither earthquake was too bad. Here they have two names for earthquakes- Terremotos and Temblores. Terremotos are the serious earthquakes like they just had in Ecuador and Japan. We just had a couple temblores which actually happens all the time here. That wasn't the crazy part of the weather this week, the crazy part was the rain. In rained hard for about four days straight and flooded a lot of Santiago. It also made the water source contaminated, so they cut our water from Saturday until Monday morning. We had some leaking into our house, but it wasn't anything dangerous. A couple Elders from our mission had their fridge blow up, so we're thankful that didn't happen to us. Saturday it rained especially bad, but when we went out to work it looked fine, so we just wore sweaters and didn't take umbrellas. After about an hour of working, the skies opened and we started getting DUMPED on. Within a few minutes we went from being completely dry to completely soaked and we were about to walk to a house all the way across the sector for an appointment. Just then, a stranger pulled up and asked us if we wanted a ride to where we were going. Rides from strangers isn't something we normally do, but it was pouring and we were super grateful. I think this gesture of kindness had an affect on us as two hours later  (still raining) we found a very intoxicated man laying down on the grass in a puddle. We passed by him without really thinking, but then realized that that man really needed help. We then picked him up and carried him 45 minutes to his house. While the rain maybe wasn't ideal, I think sometimes we need these circumstances. Both to receive service and to give it and we were super thankful for both.

 

Flooding in Santiago

 

We only had sacrament meeting on Sunday due to the rain and only 25 people came (85 came last week). Chileans are good people, but they are by no means weather proof. Thankfully one of those in attendance was Mario, who received the Priesthood and was given the calling of an assistant with the young men! He continually amazes us. After a lesson with him on Saturday I told my comp that lessons with Mario should count as negative lessons because HE'S the one teaching US (we report our numbers of lessons to our leaders). He described in detail different times during the week that he had the gift of the Holy Ghost that he had felt it's guidance in his life which was legit.

It was a good week regardless of the weather and we're looking forward to it clearing up this week!

I hope you all have a wonderful week in the heat!

Elder Birrell