No Thanksgiving Holiday in Chile

Hello my beloved family,How is everyone doing this week? Hopefully alive and kicking still...if not well I am sorry, at least try to twitch or something haha. Well mom I can tell the solo time with day is wearing on you when I started to read your "poetry" I had to check and make sure it was really from you....Dad’s crazy imagination and story writing is seeping in Mom, repulse the monkey...lol no I am just kidding, Pops has a way of doing that huh? haha love you Dad. I hope all works out for the 4th of July next year for you and if not well you will get used to singing “God Save the Queen” and celebrating her birthday, it just takes some getting used too.
Well some sad news I hear is that the American dollar dropped in price to around 436 pesos to the dollar which explains why last month I received less money in my mission account. The church puts American dollars in and I take out Chilean pesos so since the dollar is down I get less money. I want to exchange some of the American bills I have but I will wait till the dollar goes back up...I hope it goes back up. 600 pesos to a dollar would be nice haha but whatev, so if youl could just give me an update here and there that would be nice.
If only you all could have seen my face when I saw that Heidi should be getting her mission call soon, I think my heart skipped a beat....I hadn’t heard anything...I know she was considering it but I didn’t know it was actually going to happen. If she leaves in Febuary or January we will get home within 2 or 3 months of each other...pretty cool, but I am not thinking about that it is too far away and I need to focus on the work and Spanish...I cant go home till I speak and understand Spanish.
I am glad my letter got to Nick Price, I just had a feeling I should write him. He needs to serve a mission, I won’t let him miss out and I hope you all give him encouragement when you see him. It will be hard for him but as I can already see myself, growth is good when it comes from hard things that test you. You just have got to push through and rely on the Lord.
I went and registered my visa today and had to pay 7,000 pesos super expensive for some stupid papers. I should get my carnet in 2 wks, id card, my picture is super good, GQ status haha not. We had to wait forever because my comp didn’t get up this morning on time so we left late and had to wait. This week has been up and down with him, I just hope this is my last transfer with him but there is a 50/50 chance I could have one more.....ugh that might kill me.
I had to go to Parral yesterday for District Conference. It was really good. All the talks were great and super powerful. My comp and I were in our Branch choir. We sounded bad because only me and 2 other people aren’t tone deaf. My comp thinks he can sing but is so tone deaf. The choir director made us wear these ridiculous ties and stuff. I was glad Pres. Chavez wasn’t there. That would have been embarrassing.
Well it sounds like Dad and Mom are going to sac town fro TG and EM to Idaho and Iassume Lisa and Tyler are in Brigham and my fav sister Allyson is with the Hofheins clan ¿sí? Well Thanksgiving doesn’t exist here so it will just be a normal day for me.
It is warm today but every other day it is a different season here. It rained for two days these week Wed and Thursday, so I got a lil wet but just my pants and shoes. My rain jacket keeps me dry on top. Alot of members have just been giving us money to eat lately which stinks but whatever so I have been forced to cook. I usually have rice with hamburger patties because they are cheap. Eating in members homes is so much better. I have some questions about stuff though:
1 How can I flavor my white rice so its not plane like herbs or spices or something just so it is not so plain?
2 How do you tell if an avocado is ripe?
3 French toast is just eggs with milk right?
If you have any ideas for food that is cheap and easy I will greatly appreciate them. This week I plan to have hotdogs. So nothing difficult but an American classic, cheese is so expense here and not good at all...it is sad I love cheese.
This week went good...have a baptism this coming Sunday the 29th and hopefully it will happen. She is ready but nervous but this week She will have her interview so her excitement should get boosted. My mission’s goal is 150 baptisms for October and I will find out on Wed at zone conference and if not well 150 baptism in Nov hopefully. It is a high goal but we have been getting closer every month. I am happy to hear the stake met its goal that is awesome. Now it is time to retain and keep finding. That is a problem here but in the branch I am in the retention is good.
This week wasn’t too special all the meetings were shifted one day cause of cambios but nothing special. I have good and bad days with my Spanish. I keep studying hard though and speaking. sorry that this letter is boring but not much happened this week it was a slow week. Hopefully this week will be a lot better. Just got to live one day at a time.
I hope you all are doing well and that you have a great Thanksgiving. Eat lots of pineapple bread pudding and all the good food for me. I am glad to hear my puppy is still a puppy...silly pups. She has us all wrapped around here paw huh?
I love you all so much I think I put all in here I needed too. I know boring but I hope to have more exciting things next week. I love you all so much oh and about my package can I open it when I get it or is all of it for Christmas?....I will wait till next week I guess to see if yes or no...I will take a video and or lots of pics so you can all share the joy I will have.
I love you all so much and thank you for the emails and prayers and letters it is so nice to know my family is behind me.I know the church is true if I didn´t know I would not be here.
I know Jesus Christ is our Savior Lord and friend. When we have tough times He is not there to just be with us or walk with us, He is there to carry us and pick us up when we are down. He gave His life so we could one day live in the presence of our loving Heavenly Father who loves us and wants us to return to Him. We need to obey and have faith, He cannot help us if we won’t help ourselves. The true church of Christ and all the keys of the priesthood and saving ordinances have been restored to the earth through Joseph Smith. He was called of God to bring forth the restoration from that we have the Book of Mormon which contains the fullness of the gospel and with the bible we have all of the teachings of Christ, We just need to study and obey them and God will bless us. I know this without a doubt in my heart. Life is hard and a mission is harder but this life is a time to grow and prepare, not just ourselves but others. I love you all so much and thank you for your examples in my life and help too. Love you have a wonderful week....remember all we need to do is ask and we shall receive.
I love you all Love Eric