Cambios

Well Hello Family! Today is cambio day. I was thiking that I would be staying with my Papito Elder Smith but it looks like he is going to a different sector. He is not very happy about that at all.... He wanted to die here in Centenario so he is kinda upset he is leaving but I have mixed emotions hahah. I love him to death and am gonna miss him. He only has 4 weeks left in the mission so he is gonna die with someone else. My new companion is Elder Martinez. He is from Ecuador and doesnt speak ANY English hahahha. I'm in trouble hahahah. Nah, I'm just kidding. I'm super super excited to be forced to learn Spanish with him. He's gonna be my Senior Companion but I'm gonna show him around the sector for the first few days cause I know our sector pretty well. I'm excited but nervous because I cant understand or talk Spanish very well. But it will be good for me. He should be coming in about 8 o' clock tomorrow morning.

This week was alright. Still trying to find my place here in Chile but everything is alright. Don't worry about me. This week was good. We wanted to try some new things to find some investigators so what we did was had an open house out in front of the church and did street contacts to everyone that walked by hahah. We asked them if they would want to come take a tour of the church. We hate working in the mornings and knocking doors all morning without getting in so we tried this and it really was successful. We found some good new investigators and got them to come to church through the open house. It sure took me out of my comfort zone of walking up to EVERYONE in the street and getting to know them and ask them if they wanted to hear about our church. That's what the mission does to you. It makes you get out of your comfort zone. Let's just say I'm pretty much a pro at getting rejected and doors slammed in my face haha. Gotta love it. We have one good progressing investigator, the boyfriend of the daughters mom we just baptized. He came to church by himself yesterday and asked Elder Smith straight up what he has to do to be baptized.... Obedience brings miracles, so hopefully Elder Martinez and I can close the deal this Thursday with him. I love to baptize. That's why I'm here and that's what I'm gonna do. 

The culture here in Chile is really hard to transition to but its very fun and weird to see how these people function. If you see 13 and 14 year olds walking around pregnant, thats normal. You're not normal here if you dont have a baby by the time you're 17. Its just the way they are. The way they expect to be... its sooo sad. These women have 4 kids by the time they are 23 and the husbands RARELY stay. Its so sad to see but so common here. As well as drugs here. Kids start smoking and drinking when they are 12 and 13 years old.... It's just the culture here. They think its normal to be having sex and drinking as a 14 year old. It hurts me to see these kids ruining their lives. So most of our investigators have a big problem with the Law of Chastity and the Word of Wisdom, but all we can do is invite them to come unto Christ. 

Thanks for the love. Pray for me. I'll pray for you. Miss you all tons.

Con Amor Elder Paxman