Week Two and Three

So, my last week at the MTC was great. I´ve decided to find what I´m supposed to learn from each companion. What I learned from Elder Layne is that God can take two prideful guys who can´t teach together and make them into two humble guys who depend on each other and the Lord for strength and direction. It was sad to say goodbye to all the Elders and Sisters in my district and zone, but it was time for us all to get to work. I left Utah on Monday and got to Chile on Tuesday evening. It was a pretty long flight. We had a pretty long layover in Santiago before flying to Concepcion. In Concepcion, we ate with the mission president, his wife, and all the new missionaries. After that, we headed to the chapel to meet our companions. My companion is Elder Smith from Utah. He is 19, but really mature. He is a good guy. We get along really well and teach really well together. My sector right now is Coronel, Chile, which is on the coast, just south of Concepcion. There is a lot of poverty in the area, but the people are humble and extremely friendly. I´ve gotten some of the nicest rejections I´ve ever received here. They don´t slam the door in your face, they just lie to you haha. The members love to feed us. Luckily, we walk all day, so it hasn´t gotten to me yet ha. Oh, I saw Elder Trevino at the MTC. He is doing great. My first week has been a lot of looking for investigators. They just started something called Operation Alma, so my companion and I teach investigators and the other two Elders that live with us focus on less active and inactive members and try to get them back into it. It is such a great honor to serve the people here. It´s really cold... all the time. You can´t escape is because they don´t have heaters here, so I sleep in pants, a jacket, a robe, and three heavy blankets haha. It works. The house we live in is really  humble. There isn´t much to it. It has really helped me understand just how blessed we are in the US. We have so much and sometimes we just take it for granted. The people here don´t have much, but they are grateful for what they do have. We had three hermanas baptized this past weekend and I was able to perform all three of them! It is so great to see the atonement at work in improving these people´s lives. My testimony of this gospel and the church grows everday. My Spanish is improving, but the accent here is really thick and they use different words than they use in Mexico. Sometimes it´s a little hard to follow what the people I am teaching are saying, but luckily my companion knows what is going on. No earthquakes, volcanos, or tsunamis yet, so that´s good. There are so many stray dogs here. I´ve never seen anything like it. It´s funny, some of the younger kids here will see my companion, two gringos, and will say "Hello, Hello! One, two, three!" We are working hard and working to improve each and every day. The president only gives us 45 minutes on the computer every week, so sorry to everyone that I can´t get back to. I love all of you! Tengan una buena semana!