Week 35 - The Cueca.

This week was pretty good. I had exchanges with Elder Lopez.  I wasn't sure what to expect and worried it might not be fun. Elder Lopez is quiet spoken.  He is latino and I still fear going out with other latinos because of my language skills.  Often I have to explain things more than once and I have to figure out their words. But it was a really good day!  Elder Lopez is so cool. We started our day by eating in the house as somebody brought food over in tupperware. We played chess while we ate.

We sometimes run into sad situations.  We taught two kids and learned their mom sells cocaine. We also taught a schizophrenic.

The exchange was very interesting and I loved it.   It was fun serving in another area.  We found and taught a new family.  The mother's name is "C" and she has an 11-year old daughter.  They came to church!

We also taught "S" and he is doing okay.  We still hope his parents will permit him to be baptized.

"J" didn't go to church for the third time.  This concerns us.  She was locked in once, but it still worries us that she hasn't come.

"O" is doing good.  He is excited to get the priesthood and be sealed in the temple.

"R" goes to church every other week.  His daughter is about to go on a mission and has been pretty emotional.

There was a church party for the Fiestas Patrias.  This celebrates the beginning of Chilean independence in 1810.  It occurred on September 18th.  It's like a second Christmas here.  Many celebrate for a full week.  We saw people dance the national dance and ate lots of meat.  It was pretty cool.

A typical hat and outfit worn for the National Chilean Cueca dance.

Yesterday we had to go inside by 8:00 pm.  The mission president felt we shouldn't be out at night on the 11th.  This is because it is a bad day for "gringos".  The previous government did something bad on this day.  It was a dictatorship and lots of people were killed and tortured.  On the 11th people chant and riot in front of police from what I understand.   We went inside an hour and half early, played chess, and ate fried Oreos.