Stitches

Hola!!

So P-day is Tuesday this week. It could be Tuesday or Wednesday each week, so I was worried I wouldn't have any e-mails since it is only Tuesday, but thanks for the letters everyone wrote!

Anyway, I had sure an interesting experience this week! We have started to get some rain here (which is great because Chile is in a major drought) so everything is really wet in the mornings. On Friday, we were coming back from playing soccer in the park and I bolted across the street to catch up with everyone, then stepped on a utility cover in the median, slipped, and slammed my head into the pavement. Oops. When I stood up I saw my glasses broken in front of me and my water bottle rolling into the street. Then I put my hand on my head and saw blood coming down. So everyone hurried me up and away, and Hermana Doll (CCM president's wife) helped me get to the hospedaje and clean up. After I got all cleaned up and showered, I went with Presidente Doll to the hospital in Los Condes to get stitches. The hospital was super nice (it is actually afiliated with Johns Hopkins University) and we got in and out relatively quickly. A plastic surgeon put in a few stitches (there is still a bandage, so I'll send a picture of the injury next week. It is a cut above my right eyebrow). 

Don't worry though, I am totally fine now. The very next day I had no more pain, and everything still feels really good. I had to take 10 antibiotic pills with my meals, which is really hard because I have never been able to swallow a pill in my life. But, I really was determined to take them so I can be healthy and not get an infection. I took the first few with jalea (Jell-O) and by the end of them I could swallow them normally with just water. So that is a little blessing. I guess now I will have a cool scar to always remember Chile... And it is definitely a reminder to be more careful in the future! 

Oh also the worst part of my injury is that I can't do any sports for 15 days!! So that means no soccer in the morning for a while... The first day I can play again also happens to be my birthday, so that is nice.

Anyway, the rest of the week went very well. It's weird, but time here goes really quickly and really slowly. The days are long and busy, but at the same time this week seemed to fly by! Our classes are going really well. One of the main things we do is teach practice investigators. It is really hard to connect with them and gain their trust while speaking in Spanish! But I am getting better, and our last lesson went really well. I could feel the Spirit while we taught, and we really connected with the investigator.

My favorite teacher we have is Hermano Riutor. He is very candid and honest about what we should expect and really pushes us to do better in the language and missionary work. One thing he reminded me of is that my mission has already started and I can really help out the people in my district with my Spanish skills. We have something here called SYL (Speak Your Language) which tells us that we should speak as much Spanish as we know. That is hard for me because I could basically talk only in Spanish, but then a lot of my district would not understand me. So Hermano Riutor reminded me that I should talk a lot more in Spanish, and doing so can really help out the other missionaries. Last night, he had me and two other advanced missionaries each teach small groups of others Spanish grammar. It was really great to serve and teach, and I hope I can keep doing that.

Sundays here are great days, because we don't have our normal classes. We basically have lots of devotionals and stuff all day, but they are all really well taught. This Sunday one of my favorite things was teaching a practice lesson to a less-active member. We practiced in English, so it was much easier to communicate, but it was still an inspiring activity.

Today, a group of missionaries left from the CCM for their actual missions. Missionaries come and go every two weeks, so it is hard to believe that it has already been two weeks since we came. Tomorrow another group of new missionaries get here and we won't be the newbies anymore. There are about 80 missionaries here at a time. Some districts are English-speaking missionaries who stay here for 6 weeks, and some are Spanish-speaking missionaries who only stay for 2 weeks. (While I was saying bye to people today, one of the South American missionaries told me I have really good Spanish, so that was an awesome compliment to get!) 

Today, we had a pretty good P-day. We went to the Nueva Providencia area and looked around at some stores there. All the mall type areas here and basically just like flea markets, with really small stores, it is kind of strange. We also ate completos at a place called Domino. For all of you gringos, a completo is a hot dog with mayonaise, guacamole, and tomatoes, and it is really tasty. That is a very common Chilean food. I also bought a cool Chile scarf and hat. I want to get a Copa America champions shirt, but it is suprisingly hard to find anything like that. Oh well.

Anyway, life is good. Don't worry about me (or my injury). I am working hard and having a great time. My district is a great group of people, and we are all motivated. Tomorrow we will get three new teachers, and continue on with the work.

Con amor,

Elder Richards

Completos!

​Mural in Nueva Providencia

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