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....