New Companion!!

Helllllllooooooooo,
First off happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Amy, happy birthday to YOU!!! That´s awesome and weird at the same time that you are a teenager right now, good luck with them boys haha. don´t get addicted to texting with that phone. Hope you had a great day!!
BYU beat Wyoming...by 5 points, that´s still pretty embarrassing, but oh well, a wins a win. GO COUGARS!!!
So this week was awesome! Monday we went around saying goodbye with Elder Lopez, and it was fun to visit so many people in one day. We walked a lot. Tuesday I was traveling ALL day. We woke up at 6:00am to get to Curicó by 7:15am, but of course like always with Elder Lopez, we were late. Luckily we showed up just as the bus was heading out with all the other Elders and we hopped right on to go to Talca. We got to Talca and Elder Pitcher was there waiting to pick us up. We talked for quite a while cuz our bus didn´t get there until 10 and so it was really fun. We talked about the work, other Elders, and then we talked about home and baseball haha. It was fun to remember the good old days of High school with someone who actually attended AF with me. Also as we were in Talca waiting for the bus, I went to go see the new Chapel in Piduco, they finally finished it and are meeting there again. It looked really beautiful, and now they have a mini soccer, tennis, basketball court with lights and everything. I was soooo jealous to see that. Remember that mummified cat we found in the dirt? That´s where the soccer court is now. It was cool to see the chapel again, but then we had to go on the bus heading for Concepción. It was a 6 hour drive, but it didn´t feel long at all. We had a good time with the other missionaries who were going to train, and we got there in no time. What I got from Concepción is that it´s just beautiful. I hadn´t been there for over a year, and now I woud love love love to be sent down there to work. The people are harder to teach down there, but it would be awesome to work there. We walked into the chapel that I had been in on November 17, 2009, the day I got to Chile. I felt sooo weird walking in there and remembering how it felt to be a brand new missionary, and now I was there to pick up my greenie haha. There were a lot of Elders that I knew there too waiting to pick up their companions. We talked for a long time, and then 15 new missionaries walked in, tired and beat up looking from over 24 hours of traveling haha. That was a huge group, and I was the first to greet them. Every one of them were really chill, and I was optimistic (I didn´t want some nerdy kid like on the Best two Years haha). President Humphrey interviewed all of them while we ate pizza and brownies. I remember my first lunch in Chile consisted of a mini chicken, I would call it a roasted pigeon, and tiny piece of bread and some salad....I love President Humphrey, go pizza!!! Then the new Elders all gave their testimonies, and I was surprised by how good their spanish was. Then President began assigning companionships, and I was one of the last ones to get my comp. His name is Elder Balkman, he´s from Washington and he´s a big kid. It was really weird giving a hug to someone who was taller than me, he´s like 6´4¨, cuz I’m used to mini chilean hugs haha. We then left to go to the bus station to head back on up to Molina. On the way he was just asking me tons of questions, and was amazed by the littlest things that he saw in the street, it was really fun to see. I remember when I got here and was just confused and excited about everything. He reminds me a lot of myself when I got here. We traveled for another 6 hours and got home hot, sweaty, and tired and we went to bed.
The next day we went around showing him the sector, the members, and the people that we´re teaching. He was super confused with how the Chileans talk, and I remember that I didn´t understand a word when I got here. The Chileans talk really fast, but now I can understand practically everything they say, no matter who is talking. It really strengthened my testimony of the gift of tongues to see how far I’ve progressed. Elder Balkman is seriously an awesome missionary and he´s a really good teacher, and actually has a big vocabulary for someone just getting here. Every day he´s doing better and understanding more, and he´s been able to remember and use the words that I’ve corrected and taught him. I´m super excited to have him here, cuz now I have someone else that contributes in lesson planning (Elder Lopez would just go with whatever I said, even when I asked his opinion). But we´ve been planning and teaching some really powerful lessons, and we had a really good week. He´s also teaching me how to cook haha, I know you´re happy and proud about that mom. This week we made spaghetti, eggs, aaaaand more spaghetti haha. We didn´t have money to buy anything else, but we have big plans to make some good meals this upcoming week when we get more money from the mission!!
Jorge is going to be baptized next week, and we found out this week that his parents might not actually be members. The bishop is going to look them up on the church’s information and see if they´re on there. If they´re not recorded as members, they both want to be baptized and already want to go to the temple. This is seriously the most humble and prepared family I’ve ever met. Everything we teach them, they just accept and have really enjoyed church and the spirit they´ve been feeling. They told us they want us to teach them every commandment so that they can obey them and be ready for their baptism, and that they´re willing to do whatever the Lord asks them. We had a funny experience teaching them the law of chastity. We taught the whole thing, and afterward Alejandra (jorge´s mom) asked ¨ soooo if we´re not married, we can´t, uh, you know?¨ I just told them that God wants us to be chaste and clean. Apparently Alejandra has to get divorced from her husband first, and then marry Juan (that happens here all the time) and that could take 6 months. Juan said, well I don´t have any problem with it, if that´s what God wants. They´re awesome. We also passed by Danitza again, cuz she´s living with her mom again. Joana says that Danitza´s changed a lot and that she´s not being such a punk anymore, so Elder Balkman invited her to church and to be baptized on the 7th. She accepted and we´re going to work a lot with her so she understands what she needs to do to be baptized. We´ve found several other people that we´re working with and we´re really excited with what´s going on here lately, I’ve probably never worked so hard in my mission, but I love it. That´s why I’m pumped to have Elder Balkman here, he´s excited and ready to work. Let´s go to work!
We had like 85 people in church yesterday, and so the tiny house where we have meetings now, due to the chapel being remodeled, was completely packed. We had some really spiritual talks and lessons, Sebastian gave his first talk, it was one of the best Church meetings I’ve had here. There´s definitely a special spirit with us right now that I haven´t been feeling for a while now, and it feels really really good. We also had a meeting with all the visiting and home teachers, along with the bishopric and leaders of the ward, to unite the missionary work with the ward. We developed a plan to help our recent converts stay active and receive more support and visits from the ward. It´s something that we´ve lacked here and it feels good to know that we´re getting that done. I know that the work we´re doing right now is true, and has the power to change lives and I’m loving the work!!!
Say hi to everyone there, and tell the ward hello. Love you all tons!!!
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