So we are in Chaiten
right now again, we didn’t really get to do much today because everything’s
closed for bad weather. It rained all last night super hard, but oh
well...Anyways we had some funny experiences this week! Stuff that legit like I
tell people here and they just say "That’s definitely an Elder Walden
thing...that doesn’t happen to anyone else..." So First thing...getting on
the boat to Chaiten, we had to board at 6 and we were supposed to get there at
like 10. Well the boat didn’t dock until 8:30...and we ended up getting to Chaiten
at 1:00 in the morning. Then we stayed up talking to the other Elders for
awhile because they never get to see people. So I am super tired today because
we still woke up at 7:00am...wooo haha.
Okay so this week we had to make an emergency
trip to Ancud as well for some stuff that we had to drop off to the Elders...soooo
we get there fine and on the way home we buy some bus tickets for a bus that
left at 7...and then as we were waiting we were told it would get there at
730...then they told us 8...then they told us 830...finally a bus gets there so
we ask the conductor if that was it and he said yes so we get on...and they
pull out and they’re on their way and we realize that our seats don’t
exist...so someone tells us we should look on the first floor of the bus...so
we go...still don’t exist...then we ask someone where the bus was going and
they tell us "Santiago..." We had already been on the bus for like 10
minutes so we were like far away from the terminal...so we told the bus driver
just to leave us where we were...so we got off...hitch hiked back to the
terminal...got there...and the bus we had waited an hour for had just passed by
and we missed it!!!! Gosh dang it!!!!! So we ended up explaining the whole
thing to the terminal jefe and he hooked us up with some free tickets on a bus
because he felt bad for us and thought it was really funny what had happened to
us...but hey that picture I have of that sign that says Los Angeles was where
that bus dropped us off, so at least I got a cool picture!
Anyways another cool
experience was when I went with Elder Clements on an intercambio for a day and
we went down to take a taxi up to the sector and we waited there for 15 minutes
and I was ticked because that’s a really long time and empty collectivos
(taxis) were just passing by without stopping! Well after like 20 minutes an Hermana
that I had never met before came out of nowhere and said "Hey elders I’m a
member of the church and live right there, and my mom is 95 and is sick and
dying, could you come real fast and give her a blessing?" So we went, gave
her the blessing, left, and got a collective (taxi) right away...I guess she
was praying and looked right outside and we were right there waiting for the
taxi, almost magically, I guess God had a different plan for us ha-ha. Now I
know why we didn’t get a collectivo right away. Also 2 of our citas fell through
that day, which stunk but it ended up being a blessing because we ended up
teaching this one investigator we found a few weeks back for like 3
hours...because she wanted to know everything and had so many questions and she
wrote down every question she had and the answer and was crying during the
lesson and now she wants to get baptized...it was awesome. So definitely a
blessing that our other cita fell through and we could be there for more time.
Also after that we went and knocked some doors. After because the other cita
had also fell. And then we realized we had to do some stuff for the zone in
centro...so I said "Ok, we were going to talk to 2 more people in their
doors and then we will go do that" Because it was getting late...well we
knocked, and knocked, and knocked and NO ONE ANSWERED!!! Literally no one...so
we got bothered again and we almost just left...but we decided to not let God
down and talk with at least 2 more people...well right after that we knocked a
door and a guy came out...named Rodrigo...and it caught me off guard because we
had just knocked for like 2 hours without anyone answering...so we talked to
him for a bit and he invited us in! And we taught the restoration and he told
us that he doesn’t go to any church...but believes in God and he feels like
what we teach could definitely be true! It was awesome! He said that whatever
we said, made him just feel really good inside...so it was awesome! We also
figured out right there why no one was answering their doors...if 2 others
answered their doors...we would have left and never would have found him. But
God wanted us to find him specifically. It was awesome! I also gave a talk
yesterday because everyone think I’m out of here in a week...because I’ve been
here for 7 months...but who knows ha-ha, I also gave the class yesterday...woo ha-ha
go Chile! Have a great week!!!!