June 29, 2015
This morning was spent trying to fix our water heater. We had our Branch President, his Dad, and our Landlord working on the dumb thing and we are still not sure it works. We literally took it apart, cleaned everything (sometimes with acid), and replaced several small parts. If it does not work this week we will just have to buy a new one but they are kind of expensive (which is why we worked so hard to just fix the one we have).

This week at church there were 44 people, but a few different ones from last week. We will keep working so that we can see growth here in our sector. Guido is progressing well but he was sick on Sunday so he did not go to church. Claudio finally found work but Karen went to go live with her parents for a week (possibly more) because they did not have any more food in the house. This week we lost a few investigators (one moved away, one did not want to share with us anymore, ect) but we found several less active members who are receptive and some of them were at church this Sunday.

It is weird to hear about other people who are ending their missions. Has it really been 2 years since Cameron Palmer left? And I know he spoke Spanish but he was also in the States so there was a bit of English too. Here, everything is Chilean (I cant even say it is Spanish).

The jersey is not mine. I wore it just for the pic because it was the first soccer game I was able to watch in the mission. I am not a soccer fan just yet but I may watch highlights from Chile´s soccer games when I get home. Just to support Chile.

I am glad that the website works. Hopefully that will make it easier for me to send pictures and see them too. In the future I will organize it better but for now I will have it split between the first year of my mission and the second. Hopefully I can get it to work. I am glad to hear that Jake is doing well with his piano lessons. In this Branch I do not play the piano because I have to (sorry, get to) direct the music. The good thing is no one else knows how to direct music so they do not know if I do it correctly or not.

I will be praying for Grandpa Mellor so he feels better. I understand foot problems and they are not fun. I will also be praying that everything goes well with your Trek so that none of the youth get foot problems. 

I really do not feel like I have been out here a year. I obviously have but I do not believe it. Anyway, Happy Birthday Mom! I will celebrate your birthday by having one year in the mission.

In our mission we are encouraged to do service when we can but there are weeks where we do not have any formal service projects. Other times, like during the flooding of the Region Atacama, we do service nearly every day depending on the needs of the people in our sectors.

Brennon Crankshaw is getting married? It is just too weird to hear that people from High School are getting married... it is even weirder to think that Kaitlin will be a Senior.

I forgot to tell Dad in my letter to him but I used his scripture in a talk I had to prepare for Sunday. My topic was "La Santificación Personal". I ended my talk with his scripture from DyC 121:34-46. Many are called but few are chosen. That applies to us as members and to the investigators as well. We invite all to come unto Christ but not everyone chooses to do so. (I just deleted 2 paragraphs of stories because we had some experiences this past week but I am choosing to focus on the positive. so...) We had 5 less active members, with their families, who came to church this week after we had visited them. They chose to come back to Christ and renew their covenants with the Sacrament.

I have been getting along well with my companion and the members here. Felipe, who is the son of the Branch President, leaves on his mission Tuesday. He is going to Concepcion in the South of Chile. We will miss his help here but we know he will be a great missionary.

We get to watch another Chile Futbol game today against Peru. If they win they go to the Finals of the Copa America. If they win then I may just have to buy a soccer jersey afterall.

I will try to upload a few more photos today but no promises. I love you guys and I hope that you enjoy your week.

Love you guys, Elder Brock Hunter