Funny thing about Chile is that dogs run the city. Haha not really but it seems like it. Dogs here are way smarter than the dogs in the states. There are dogs on every street, at every store, and in almost every home. The other day i saw a dog carrying 2 grocery bags down the street full of stuff. My companion says he saw like a pack of dogs that stopped a car in the middle of the street and started barking at it and attacking it. The people inside the car couldn´t do anything about it either haha. Just yesterday, my companion and i were waiting to cross the street when a dog walked up to the edge of the sidewalk 10 ft away from us, literally looked both ways, then crossed the street. It´s pretty ridiculous.
The food here isn´t that strange but different for sure. Lunches are huge here. Usually we almorzar (to lunch) in a members home at about 1:30 to 3 everyday. The people always eat salad with just oil and lemon here. That´s it... We´re lucking when they throw in avocado slice and peeled tomatoes though. (Tomatoes are always peeled here??). Then there´s a meal with rice, lentajes, chicken, sausage, potatoes or something. We always finish with a dessert as well. Alot of times it´s chopped up fruit with sweet condensed milk and manjar poured ontop. Sooo goood. People have also made us some lasagnas as well with some twists to them. They´ve actually been pretty good. Yesterday we had the best lunch though, called Papas Rellenas. Like a chile relleno but with a potato haha. There was meat, and cheese stuffed inside a fried potato. Some had olives in them, others had dried apricots, etc... Favorite thing so far, for sure. I´m gonna try to get the recipe. Then every evening people eat ONCE?? It´s just like an evening snack with bread, cookies, or whatever they have in the house. As missionaries we don´t usually get once unless we´re sharing a lesson or having a noche de hogar. Food is good though.
Missionary work has been quite difficult. We´re having difficulty finding people to teach. We´ve been knocking alot, but are trying to come up with a better way of finding new people to teach. We´re trying to put together a huge halloween party with a food making contest. Pei de Limon, Empanadas, y Completas (fancy hot dogs). We went to stake conference the other day and it was quite entertaining. The mission president is like a crazy good speaker, he and his wife are both authors, she was like miss teen USA, he was a quarter back, they did speach and debate in Utah somewhere, but anyways they both spoke, but President Laycock had the whole stake excited, intent, and motivated during stake conference.
The one thing I learned the most about missionary work is that it really is just as much the ward´s responsibility as it is the missionaries. Without ward support, it´s almost impossible to do anything. Members are supposed to pray and ask for help in finding people who are ready to receive the message of the restored gospel. Members are supposed to fellowship and help out investigators, recent converts, and less active members. Members should hold family home evenings often and invite friends and neighbors as often as they can (with the missionaries). Really the missionaries are supposed to do their best to find, but they should be using the members as support and the members should be trying just as hard. This is something i hope to remember and apply all my life.
Couple random things... The other day a older lady who´s a member of the church was telling us a really long story and i started to space out cuz it´s difficult to keep up sometimes. She was telling her story when i SNEEZED and COUGHED at the same time. My companion looked at me with a ARE YOU SERIOUS FACE?? Anyways, afterwards my companion told me that she was just telling us about a lady who lost her husband and then her son a week later when i SNEEZED and COUGHED at the same time and to them it sounded like a laugh. So they thought i laughed about the death of the father and the son. I felt so bad afterwards :S Also, I´m allowed to listen to uplifting music! So if you could, please send me food and cd´s. Haha i can listen to instrumental music, efy, church, christmas, etc... So yeah, if anyone loves me, please send cds and food (like peanut butter)! Haha
Ok, well I love you but i gotta go. I miss you all SO much. Not even kidding. But i know the church is true. I KNOW IT. So i gotta be here.
Be good! Be safe! Be clean! and Keep the faith!
Love,
Elder Mooney
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