July 20, 2009

Hola familia, How are all ya´ll doing, hopefully all is super super good alla. Everything is going just great here in Iquique. The family that we are teaching is very active with all of the activities and with everything. For example, our Stake just had the olympics with Soccer, Ping Pong and Chess. It was for the young men and young women but everyone was invited, of course we couldn`t go because we had a lot of work to do, but the family went and had a great time it sounds like. Yesterday I taught them how to make pancakes from scratch, and they loved it(that pancake recipe is really coming in handy Dad, I appreciate it). They have been waiting for me to cook them something, so we had a good time, and talked about everything. Janett asked me if my mother is mad at me because I am forgetting my english, and I said I hope not. Jorge had to go to Peru for his business and had a great time, he took his bible that he just baught and his Book of Mormon to read on the trip. Well he gave his Book of Mormon to a lady that was sad, and he said this book has given me peace. So the family is progressing a lot and we have a great relationship with them but they don`t want pressure, so we can`t give them a baptismal date, but it is all about patience right? The less active members are coming to church, we had about 20 more in the sacrament meeting than normal, so the work is really good right now. Elder Cruz is teaching me a lot and we are having a great time, he is a great son and listens, so now I understand how happy you and Dad are when we listen to you. That story was funny about Jonah, I will have to use that one. I am loving the bible right now, I never understood how much information you could take out of the old and new testament. There is no way I could understand it without the spirit though, some of that stuff is DEEP!!!!!!! Oh and I am going to buy the luggage today, they are really nice, 16 thousand pesos(about$30.00) and yeah we do use CHILENO PESOS, when I take the money out of my card, it turns into Chileno Peso. Everyone loves to see the American money here though. They love American anything, especially missionaries with blonde hair, je je. Tell Jordan and Heidi to keep the pesos, it is from a different country, so it is cool to have. I will bring some money home when I am done. I am keeping healthy, I just got done with a cold, everyone in Chile has the cold so it wasn`t anything new. The weather just so ya`ll now is freezing now, I am so glad I bought a jacket before the mission. It gets really cold at night and the waves from the ocean now are huge, it is sweet. I listen to them all night while I sleep. Tell dad ´take luck with the buisness, take it , care for it, je je.´ I am praying for you all everynight, so I hope everything goes great. I don`t know what else to write, I am trying to think about things that are going on. This last week was the week of the Virgen of the Tirana, and so there are people from all over Chile in my sector that are all dressed up in costumes and do a dance, it is really cool, but extremely Babilonish, too bad they don`t have the truth, yet....Oh yeah, this week my ward is going to have an actividad where every family is going to present their country, food, and the culture or whatever we want to say. My ward has people from all over, Brazil, Argentina, Costa Rica, Peru, Colombia, Japan, Paraguay, Uraguay and the best of all THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!!!!! HECK YES!!! So I am going to make a bunch of Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwhiches, because I couldn`t think of a type of food that we have, we kinda steal the food from other countries. So hopefully it goes well. Anywho, this email has been a book, but whatever other questions you all have about where I am at the the culture go ahead and ask. I love Chile so there is a lot to talk about. I love you all and will talk to ya next week. Check ya later, and con mucho questo. Elder McKAY Bryan Jackson