Elder Peck's Missionary Journey in Concepción, Chile: First Week in Chile!

Hey!

There is so much to say I dont know where to start! This week has been amazing and crazy. Im wiped out but pumped for the work.

We gave away a Book of Mormon at the Mexico City airport, which was a really good experience. We spoke al in Spanish, and we had a really good conversation with the guy. Probably the best way we could have started off our journey. We had an 8 hour flight to Santiago, and an 1 hour flight to Concepcion.

So I arrived in Concepcion and the Assistants to the Mission President welcomed us at the airport. We drove to the mission home where we met the mission president, Presidente Martinez. He is really awesome and he served us all a delicious dinner.

We spent the night at a hotel in Concepcion, then went to the mission office for some orientation and to meet our new compañeros. My companion is so awesome. His name is Elder P and he is from El Paso, Texas. He is Hispanic and speaks fluent Spanish and English, so I got super lucky. Hes a great guy and I look forward to working with him.

Later we left for the bus station. We took a bus south for 5 hours to a city in the south, where we caught another bus that took another hour to get to our sector. I am assigned to work in a really small town in the South of the mission. My comp and I live in a house that is about the size of my living room at home. Its super good tho.

On day one, we arrived at the house, I unpacked, and we started working. We talked to one lady and gave her a blessing. Then we went to the church and taught two more lessons. Later that night, my comp bought me a completo, super common in Chile. Like a huge hotdog with avocado, hot sauce, mayo, kethcup, and other stuff on it. Actually super good.

The rest of the week has been crazy. We've done so much stuff. Everyone here talks so fast. I can only understand like maybe 25%. The houses are all really small, there are dogs EVERYWHERE, and we walk everywhere. The town is super small, so we can cover most of the town in a day.

The best experience of the week tho, was this Saturday. I got to baptize someone! I baptized a 19 year old investigator named Manuel. He is in the Chilean army, and is one of the funniest guys Ive ever met. His baptism day was crazy tho. We got to the Church early, around 3 on Saturday to get things ready for the baptism. We filled up the font, and my companion and I were there, along with the Sister missionaries in our sector. Then some guy came by and told us to drain the font because Manuel wasn't coming. We were surprised and tried to get a hold of Manuel. We looked all over town for him. We found his dad on a horse drawn cart riding through town, and he didnt even know. The horse cart was cool tho. We looked for hours and ccouldnt find him. But still waited. The baptism was supposed to be at 6, but at 9, we finally found him. We got him across town to the church, changed into our clothes for the baptism, and took some pictures. Then we realized that we had no refreshments. So Elder Padilla and I ran to the store across the street (there are stores everywhere here, all in peoples houses). I was just in my socks and in all white, as if I don't stand out enough anyway haha! We got the stuff, and went back and had the baptism at 10pm. Because it took so long to find Manuel, some of the water had drained, so it was about at knee level. It took two tries to get him all the way under, but he did and got baptized! I love seeing the purity and light in peoples eyes after baptism. It is so true. I love baptism.

So far, I have already played a lot of soccer and eaten weird stuff. I don't understand a lot, and people dont understand me very well, but I know that I will be able to communicate soon.

Anyway, that was the big news for this week. All kinds of other craziness has happened, but I dont have time to explain. Thanks for the emails and support!

Elder Peck