ASADO!

Elder McMullan had a pretty busy week.  He mentioned how excited he was for General Conference this weekend.  All of the Missionaries in Copiapo will be watching GC together.

Here are a few pics he sent today:  

Here are the Elders pictured with one of their investigator families.

I love the look on the girl's face.  

The week of Sept 18th, is a HUGE celebration!  (In their case, the celebration didn't happen until the following week.  (Their sector was a ghost-town) 

ASADO!!!!  The feast to celebrate Chile's Independence

"Pac-man"

A Ward Activity.  (Pierce really needs to step up on his picture taking skills :) )  

Elder McMullan made sure to point out that he's actually taller than the two Elders on the Left.  (They are standing on a hill)  lol

!

Elder McMullan didn't have much to say this week.  It was a rough week trying to get into homes with it being the biggest party week of the year in Chile!

Here are a couple excerpts from his email:

"This past week was 18 of September, which is basically, their 4th of July. This year was WAY lame compared to last year.  Last year, people were home and invited us over and stuff.   This year, my whole sector was a ghost town.  NOBODY in the streets.  All the members left.   Over 50 people left from the branch, all from my sector."

"We did find 4 puppies one day..., then the next day there were 3.  They were EATING the 4th one. CANNIBAL PUPPIES! "

 

 "We've been trying to contact all the old investigators and we've found a few so we’ll see what happens with them. The people here say "I would go to church but I like to sleep in. God understands that I need to sleep." I've heard that one like 1 million times in the time I've been in Chile."

I loved Elder McMullan's email today.  He was wordy!!  He gave details! (for Pierce.., lot's of details)  It was AWESOME!!

Here are some excerpts from today's email:

"Hey Mom, yesterday was zone conference, so today is pday.   JUST NOW the place opened so we could email.  Not much new going on.   Presidents conference was good.  President told us to fake the smile until it becomes real!   It’s hard sometimes, to stay animated with my companion.  He’s the first one to actually get on my nerves.  He always does little things to annoy me. That’s NEVER happened before with anyone else.  Just Little things, but they’re all on purpose. So....irritating."  

"I think maybe, MAYBE,.... that I can figure out what to do in this sector.  I have 6 weeks under my belt..., but I still have no idea.  It’s weird it’s never been like this since Arica.  Some of the  people we have are leaving the country or are like not doing ANYTHING to show that they’re really looking for something.  It gets discouraging at times."  

"Yes I finished the BOM a long time ago for the challenge.   I think I actually read it like 3 times during the time we were supposed to. It’s not that long of a book.  I finished it again last week.  And, Helaman!  Man, I didn't realize how cool it was until this last time reading it!  (and  it’s like my 8th time reading it!)   

"This past Saturday night, the other Elders told me I had to give a talk the next day. The branch president didn’t tell me anything. Guess what topic?   La obra misional. (Missionary work) They asked 3 of us to speak on the same topic. It was like 10 when they told me.  I said, why don’t you talk about finding/baptism, you talk about retention and I'll do reactivation?  Simple enough.  The other 2 finished and I had like 20 minutes left. I Just basically talked about Amulek, Dads family (how they were inactive and because of his brother, his family came back to church), Claudio and Karen, and Vallenar in General really.  I took up the time and some lady was crying. It’s always a good sign when they cry. It was a lady who has been inactive for like a million years.  She came on that Sunday of all Sundays. Coincidence? Nope, they don’t exist. But the gnomes do!"

"I'm trying a ton to stay happy and stuff. I am happy, but I want other people to feel happy and it’s just sad a lot of the time. I don’t know how the youth are at home in general, but the kids here in Chile are basically lost. From lack of parenting and laws even. I can’t tell you how many 10-11 year old kids I’ve seen smoking pot or cigarettes or drunk.  I’ve even seen some being a dad at age 12. Sad."

"I just Wanna be more obedient.  Everyday I'm a Little bit better I think. Just staying at people’s houses too long. It’s hard to get out sometimes they want you to stay and stay and stay!"  

My hair is SUPER long.  I need to cut it!  It's only been 6 weeks and I'm starting to look like Macklemore again....

Lot's of pics!

Here are a few excerpts from Elder McMullan today.  He didn't have a whole lot to say today!  He DID send a lot of pictures though!  :)  I LOVE the pictures of him getting "attacked!"


"Copiapo is dry, and um that’s about it. I think it’s as big as Arica, maybe smaller actually, but it’s getting SO HOT here!"  

" I’m in a small branch of like 80ish members. The branch president is brand new.   He’s cool."

"So technically, we aren't supposed to play with kids or whatever, but this little kid makes me laugh so much!  His name is Cristobol.  I wanted to take a picture of him doing something funny and when I took out the camera he attacked me! "

LOVE these pics!  I'm sure one of the reason he loves this kid, is because he reminds him of his little brother, Aiden.  Anyone who knows Aiden will see the similarities!  

The little Chilean kids LOVE Elder McMullan!

This is his view from the front of his house. 

This is the front of his house.

The downstairs.

13 MONTHS, Meat Volcanoes and Mexican food!

Here are some excerpts from Elder McMullan's email this week:

  "We are teaching a lot of people, but nobody is really progressing too great at the momento.  I really like Ecuadorians!  They’re really cool and humble people.   We are teaching a few families from Ecuador now.  This is the first place people have REALLY brought out the Bible to use it to bash with us.  One of the families, Jazmín and her husband, love to bash.  They are 7^th day Adventists.   I'm not really good at doing things on a whim in Spanish, especially.  The English Bible is soooo much better. The topical guide saves lives. Guess what….. it doesn’t exist in the Spanish Bible . Sooo, it makes life a little difficult at the moment.  Anyhow, I’m studying it again like crazy"

"In other news…… 13 months!!!   I really WOULD LOVE to be able to walk out the door and take a nice long walk by myself.  I have never missed being alone so much.  Ever.  In my life.  It’s starting to get to me a little bit."

 

"The dogs here are really, really, diseased.   Most of them have these “meat volcanoes,” I like to call them.  Basically, some random lump that has ripped open the skin to an open oozing wound. Let me say that again…., OPEN OOZING WOUND.  It’s from all the contamination here I think. We live by a copper cleaning plant and there’s this nice thick layer of fog in the morning, only it’s not fog,  It’s contaminated smoke from the factory." 

"Hey along with those other books I asked for, could you please send me "Mormon Doctrine" by Bruce R. McConkie and "A Marvelous Work and Wonder" by some other apostle. I use the scriptures, but those books are also good to study.  They help explain things on a more basic level to those we teach.  If you could send me some of those if you find them, that’d be SWEET!"

"I had a burrito at this Mexican restaurant. It was amazing!  Probably one of the most trunkie moments of the mission! "