This week we've been blessed to see the good.

Hola, ¿Que honda?

First off, I´d like to throw a shout out to my favorite Dad in the whole world. hApPy BiRtHdAy DaD!?! I hope you don´t feel too old (even though you´re REALLY old now). Haha I love you. That letter you all sent me on dad´s birthday was incredible. Si tienen ganas de hacerlo de nuevo, por favor haganlo. Me encantó. (If you feel like doing it again, please do. I loved it!) Really, it was cool to just get a little bit from everybody really quickly, thank you.
On Tuesday I finally got my package from Kelly! She´s just TOO good. I don´t know if she told you all what she sent me, but the best part of it all was the Baby´s First Christmas Snow Globe she sent with a picture of me in it.... There was a book, CD, spongebob, Cheetos and cualquier otra cosa (all sorts of things) in that package. Unfortunately the bag of Jalapeño Cheetos she sent exploded during the journey. Spicy, cheesy, grease soaked into everything. Haha. Elder Evans re-baked the Cheetos and we ate them anyways. I cleaned everything up and everything is good now. Thank you so much Kelly!

Last Monday we went to El Cerro San Cristobal, which is a giant famous hill with a GIANT statue of the Virgin Mary on top. The four of us and 6 other Elders hiked up it in our missionary clothes. Halfway up we began to regret our decision to hike (we also began to realize how out of shape we are). We climbed to the top, looked over all of Santiago and took some awesome pictures. I'll send you the pictures in a separate email. After that we took this train thing back down and then went to Gatsby's, all you can eat buffet. It's probably one of the best quality buffets I've ever seen in my life. We ate ourselves sick then went and did a public presentation. Good preparation day.

This week I witnessed one of the scariest things I've seen in my life. About 30-40 ft away from me a kid got hit by a car. He crossed the street from a behind a vehicle, just as a car was passing at full speed. He smashed into the front window and then his face skidded about 10 ft on the ground. The scariest part was that his older brother or friend started screaming, running around, kicking cars, and yelled at us to call the police. I felt horrible for the middle-aged lady that hit him as well. She was so sad and confused about everything. The miraculous thing was that after about 10 minutes the kid who got hit seemed to be breathing normal and talking and there were no signs of blood?? We don´t know how it all ended, but ever since Elder Blankenfeld and I have been very careful when we cross the street.

Now for a change in theme. As missionaries we hear a lot from people that the world is just evil and that everyone has bad intentions and does everything for themselves. This week especially, I've begun to realize that they´re wrong. As servants of the Lord we are blessed to see some of the best and worst in people. Luckily this week we've been blessed to see the good. A 15 year old girl, who always attended seminary, named Macarena finally told us she´s ready to start preparing for baptism again. A 30 year old guy has brought his friend to church twice now and we placed a Baptismal date on his friend now. This guy is amazing, his name is Rodrigo, and he has truly been humbled through his afflictions and his trying to grow closer to God. Gloria and Estefanía, the family that lives directly in front of the church, finally went to church! Best thing about it was the members were great about saluting them and both Gloria and Estefanía loved it. A boy at church who was starting to ¨go down the wrong path¨ spent a full week of doing service and is now aiming to be a missionary again. He bore his testimony yesterday and it really impressed Gloria. Marcela Soto, a lady that lives next door to the bishop, finally has started to take interest in the church these last few weeks. She goes to church every Sunday now and is the most attentive person there. She invited all 4 of us over yesterday, gave us food to make completos (crazy hot dogs), and she made us an ridiculously amazing cake! It was a chocolate vanilla, raspberry, and mint cake with white and dark chocolate chunks. I ate my portion for breakfast today... Everyone wants to give us stuff right now. Gloria and Romina always make us banana milk, fresh juice, or some kinda tomato egg and bread stuff. Anita, Camila, and Paulo are always inviting us over to eat too. This sector is being amazing to us in every way and we don´t even feel like we deserve it. It´s a real blessing though.

As you can tell, things are going good here in the mission. Elder Blankenfeld and Boyce are always fighting (kinda fake, but kinda real). Elder Evans is always cleaning or baking for us. And I´m just chillin´. I miss you all very much and I hope all is well for you. Thank you so much for the praying and fasting for our sector. I´m positive it´s paid off.

Love,
Elder Mooney

PS- Sister Knighton, thank you so much for all the letters you've written me. You are amazing!