Arica

Hola Personas.

Arica is going good. Lovin life up here with Elder Rogers. He has the same amount of time on the mission as me so basically we are both Senior Companions. He can just speak Spanish cause his mom is Hispanic. He is a stud. And we are working muy duro. My Spanish is coming along really well. It helps me a lot that he can speak both Spanish and English fluently cause he can correct me after a lesson in English where I can understand him. I'm learning a lot and really fast. We get along really well and hopefully we baptize baptize Bautizar. This sector here in Pukarani A is really really small. Smaller than my last sector in Antofagasta. with the huge flood of missionaries coming in these past few months a lot of the sectors had to be cut in half so they have places to put missionaries. Which is good and bad at the same time. It's good that our missionary work is growing so fast and good cause we can focus in on families really easily but also a bit difficult because we run out of things and places to visit at times. All is good though. 

Chile is great. Just a great big desert here. It's a lot greener than Antofa but still dirt, dirt, sand, dogs, poop, trash and more dirt. Just the way I like it ;) haha nah but all is good. Thank you for the concern about me. Hope all is well at home with you all. I pray every day for you guys (In Spanish, so it makes the prayers work better). Chile is weird because they eat 1 meal a day, and it's lunch. Their big meal for the day comes at 1 or 2 in the afternoon and then they take what is called a ciesta (a loooooong nap) silly Chileans. Weirdos. But this eating schedule that I have to get used to is really hard for me because as many of you know I'm not a fan of eating so when it comes time to eat that huge Almuerzo it's hard for me to finish cause I don't eat a lot but I also like to have little snacks throughout the day. So Chile is messing up my eating habits.... I have a rough life I know... Jk. 

Our new president has a vision of missionaries staying in the same sector for up to 6 months so we can really get to know the wards and work with them. So I have a feeling I might be here in the northern part of Chile for a while. But who knows, we'll see. Our last president liked to move missionaries around a lot but I'm down for whatever. I'm a chill guy... 

Anyway we have some potential here in Pukarani. We have Eli, 16 years old. Really a nice girl and she has the desire to change her life. She's done things in the past that she wants to ´´be clean¨ so we talk with her a lot about repentance and she knows and wants to be baptized. It's just on her time. So hopefully we can help her out. For my investigators I try really really hard to have love for them. For some it is really hard but for others, like Eli I just want the best for them. We have Fransisca who is 20 Years old, she is verrry receptive to our message about the restoration of the church on the earth. She is really good and we are going to try and set the fetcha this Thursday for her baptism at the end of the month. We went over to a Menos Activos house the other day and she came home with cigarettes and we asked if we could buy them from her so we did and we tore them up in front of her and she even tore up a few hahah. She has the desire to stop smoking but for a lot of the people here, they have been smoking their whole life so it's hard. But as missionaries we can help and that's what we try to do.

Oh ps. Joey Sargent is up here in Arica with me!!!!!!!!! I saw him the other day. We are going to be able to chill like every Monday. I'm really lucky haha. He is such a stud and was so good to see him. He has a Latin companion so he's gonna learn spanish really fast. Sooo stoked for him. So crazy one of my best friends is actually here and in the same city as me right now.

Cool cool. All is good. Thanks for being such a great family and friends to me. 

Elder Paxman

The cigarettes that Elder Paxman and Elder Rogers cut up

Elder Paxman and Elder Rogers