12/13/2016
Mission Christmas party

¡Hola Familia!  ¿Como están?  I am doing great right now. I don`t have a lot of time to write so I hope I can finish all I want to say really fast.  I am in Copiapo Chile, which is a fairly big city for Chile, and it is in the southern part of northern Chile haha.  It`s a little harder for me to navigate it, but Elder Carter knows it like the back of his hand!  I`m pretty sure I said already, but Elder Carter is my trainer.

We had a fantastic P-day today, and we got to play soccer for most the day, it was very bacan.  Bacan is the Chilean word for cool, and I really like it because it sounds like bacon a little bit haha.  We bought some stuff for the week and we are going to do laundry after we write our emails.  I took a few pictures before I got to the mission, but I forgot to take some since I`ve been in Copiapo!  So I will get some more today if I have time.

We had a family night last night with the Campos family, and it was really cool, we even played Catch Phrase which is the game where you have to describe the word without saying it.  It was in Spanish though, so it was basically impossible for me haha.  I`ve been really exhausted this week because we had so much work to do, and trying to understand so much Spanish is really difficult.  Although I think I will be able to understand the language better soon, because the missionaries who have been here for only 3 months can understand pretty well.  

There was also something funny that happened.  Elder Carter and I were with the other two Elders in our room, Elder Saarelainen and Elder Court.  We were just walking down the street when some guy pulled up in his car and started pointing and shouting Assassins, Assassins!!!  Then he just drove away.  Also he said something about Fidel Castro which if you want to look it up he was like one of Chile`s Presidents or something and something happened to him, but I don`t know what haha.  I just thought it was super funny, because we were just chillin´ walking in the street and he just drove up and started yelling really loud haha.  Some people`s children...

Elder Saarelainen is from St George too. He went to Desert Hills, but I didn`t know him before the mission.  He is a cool guy and is super funny.  Elder Court is also really cool and helps me out a lot.  They are both super tall though, I feel pretty short when I am with them haha.  

Anyways we progressed one of our investigators a lot, her name is Hermana Ines and she went to church with us and now she is going to get baptized and married in the Church in about 2 weeks!  

I know I say it a lot, love you guys so much!

Love,

       Elder Hirschi

Answers:

  Did you put up any Christmas decorations yet?  How do you like your apartment?  How do you like the city you are in?

1. Yeah I put up the Christmas tree and lots of other people put up lights and stuff, but we don`t have too many Christmas decorations in our apartment. Haha the apartment is cool, but it`s pretty small, and super messy. We cleaned it a little today, but it`s still pretty cramped.  The City is pretty cool, all the people are pretty nice, but there are some strange and drunk people. 

What is your companion like?  What is his first name? Where is he from?  What does he like to do?

2. My trainer is really cool, he is from northern Utah and he is super funny.  He helps me a lot and he told me that my Spanish is actually pretty good for beginner missionaries.  His first name is Scott and he really likes soccer!

Did you find your music player?  Do they have other music players in the apartment? Did you find the Christmas music?

3. I found my music player, and we listen to music all the time with it! yeah actually I didn´t even get mine out yet we only listen to Elder Courts for now, but it`s cool, because he has some cool talks from Elder Holland!

What is your ward like?  How is the ward mission leader?

4.  The ward is super friendly and nice, they want to help you all the time with whatever you need.  The ward mission leader is the coolest guy of all. He helps a lot and is really funny.  He even speaks English pretty well!

Do the members feed you much?

5. The members feed us every Thursday till Sunday and the meals have been pretty good so far.

Where do you email at?  Do you email from members’ homes?

6. We email at a place called a cyber which is like a place that just has computers for people to use, and then you pay for it.  No we don`t email from members houses, but we will be skyping from a members house or at the Church.

  Do they have any different kinds of decorations for Christmas there?  Do many people put lights on their homes or Christmas decorations?

7.  It`s pretty similar to the United States, but it`s different, because they have a lot less.  They still have some lights and all the stores do too, but it`s just a lot less than normal.

Cool things:

1. We got to watch Madagascar for our Christmas Devotional!!! I don`t know why, but it was cool.

2. The walking lights here are cool, because it shows a guy that is actually moving it´s super cool.

3. It rained on my first night even though everyone said there wouldn`t be any rain at all!  It actually wasn`t a good thing though, because the buildings are not built for tough weather and there can be many land slides.

4. They listen to lots of songs that are in English like just today I got to hear Michael Bubble sing All I Want For Christmas Is You