Feliz Navidad

I will keep it short this week cause I will be talking to most of you in 2 Days :) We had a pretty productive week and got a lot done. During these Christmas times its tough to find people when they are with family, going to the beach (how ironic is that) and other stuff but... missionary work still goes on! This past week we had a few little activities with our small little branch. We had a Noche De Hogar (family home evening) with some ward members and also some menos activos. A success like always and the primary had a little Christmas activity and Viejo Pascura (Santa) came and visited them... Little did they know it was Elder Peck (Elder I live with).... hahah it was a fun time. All the kids were so cute and excited. We danced a little bit, ate some yummy Chilean snacks... and it was a jolly good time. Chileans try to have the Christmas spirit... It's just different because it's 100 Degrees outside and they haven't seen snow in their lifetime... Chile... but they are all having fun...

Yesterday we got all 40 missionaries here in Copiapo area and went to the Center of the City in a giant plaza where tons of people walk throughout the day and we sang Christmas Hymns and had some fun doing it. A bunch of people stopped and watched for the whole hour we were singing. It was awesome! I love this time of the year so much. Wouldn't want to be in a different place! We were able to go to the Christmas Devotional last night that happened about 2 weeks ago in Salt Lake City but it took some time to get translated in Spanish and stuff so we were able to watch that last night in the Stake Center. It was very awesome :)

Our 3 investigators with Fechas for baptism are doing alright.. only 1 was able to come to church yesterday but the other 2 had somewhat good reasons... It's all good. Sometimes the people here just don't understand the importance... but that's why missionaries are here :) We are still working hard with all our investigators and menos activos but one GIANT problem, especially here in Chile, is Con Vive Problems (People who aren't married, living together). If you find a married couple here.... literally a miracle.... I could go off on this for days.... but ya.... just another acostumbre (I don't know how to say that in English) Here in Chile... Basically allll of our investigators are Con Vive, but hey.... all is good, just a little more work to have them realize the sin they are doing and help them change that through marriage :) I've became quite the marriage counselor here in Chile hahah... Chileans.... So ya....

We live on a giant property with a ton of green trees and bushes and its beautiful, the only bad thing is on the property there are about 15 roosters..... You can imagine the fun they have with us at about 6 in the morning..... Oh the roosters..... It was cool to hear them wake me up the first little while.... but not anymore hahaha. Freaken roosters!  All is good here. I'm super excited to see most of you this Wednesday at 12:00 St. George time and about 2:30 Texas time :) I grew up getting 2 Christmas's and now I get 2 phone calls ;) How lucky am I ;) Chao

Elder Paxman