Amigos, he sobrevivido mis primeras seis semanas acá en Chile!!!
Every six weeks, we have what is called a cambio where old
missionaries go home, new missionaries arrive and the rest of us change
areas.
This morning we all huddled around in the zone leader´s room
listening to Elder Boveda announce all of the changes. He saved us for
last. Honestly, it was like a gameshow. It was pretty fun.
Since everyone in my district is new, there were no changes;
however, Elders Alencastro and Jensen are heading to Concepción
tomorrow. Alencastro to work in the office and Jensen to pick up a
nuevo! I am not going to be the newbie any more!
So much happened this week that I cannot write about much of
it. We watched Coco in our casa last Monday, had zone conference last Wednesday, had a devotional with President Nelson on Saturday, had a
temple dedication on Sunday, and ate a massive
dinner in our casa last night to celebrate the end of the cambio.
This weekend was pretty awesome.
Also, we have been teaching an English teacher for the past couple
of weeks. She is a 7th Day Adventist, but is quite receptive to our
message. She is rather busy, but she plans on reading two chapters from
the Book of Mormon that we gave her. I love meeting
with her because 1) I can understand her because we mostly talk in
English and 2) because she is a wonderful person and I feel edified
every time we meet with her. She is super awesome.
And Brandon? He lives in the other branch now. Oh well, we referred
him to Elders Stanworth and Huyter. They are both good missionaries.
¿Y mi español? De verdad, todavía no puedo entender todas personas,
pero tengo suficiente capacidad para hacer muchas cosas mejores que lo
que podía antes.
I am getting there! I have almost finished my first book month here
in Chile. I am getting better every day. Solo quince más cambios ¡a
que!
Elder Cherpeski
Photos from my casa dinner, me with Elder Allencastro, my district, and the other missionaries in my branch!
I learned quite a lot about my mission this last zone
conference. My mission is really different. For one thing, we have a
mission rule that forbids us from teaching people that are cohabitating.
Every time we meet someone, we ask them stuff
like "How long have you been married?" to ascertain if we can teaching.
If they are cohabitating, we have a routine. "Hermano, más que nada,
estamos invitando personas a venir a la iglesia este Domingo a las
10..." And that is that.
This week was pretty awesome. We taught for the first time a man name
Juan that is literally amazing. He is both at the same time highly
knowledgeable, wise, and receptive. Although he couldn´t make it to
church this week, I am pretty sure he will be my first
baptism. Frankly, I stand to learn a lot from him!
Also, during our district counsel this week, we ate a cake in
celebration of Elder Wood an Elder Boveda, who both had their birthdays
on Halloween. I am including a picture from that.
¡Vayan bien, ustedes!
It just goes to show that apostasy can happen anywhere, and we should always be vigilant.
Another thing is that our districts are really small. 4 to 6
missionaries. They are so small, because our mission tries to do as many
baptismal interviews as possible, so we have a lot of district leaders
to do them. Also, our mission doesn´t do contacts.
Instead, we do nececidades. Every time we meet someone, we try to find
what needs they have in their life. We count needs found as well as
people contacted.
Just some things that I think are a bit different than other missions.
Elder Cherpeski
11/5/2018
Since my days in the CCM two lifetimes ago, learning Spanish has
been line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little there a little.
However, this week I feel like I have crossed a threshold, if only one
psychologically. I don´t know if it is the
relief of having finished my first cambio or if it is the presence of
Elder Staley, the nuevo from Alaska, who has even less time learning the
language than me, pero me siento como he hecho progreso.
My brother and I were comparing Spanish in Mexico and Chile the other
day, and I thought that I would share my favorite phrase I have learned
here in Chile: Dar jugo. Translated literally, dar jugo means to give
juice, but what it signifies is to waste time.
Estamos dando jugo means, we are wasting time. That phrase is so funny
to me!
They kind of celebrate it here in Chile. The movie Coco is super
popular here, so I bet that boosts its popularity down here. I would say
that daylight savings does not exist because we have not changed the
clocks ever.
Juan is incredible. He is a yoga teacher in the wealthy part of my area.
What he told us when we started is that "I came to the conclusion that
Jesus Christ was true eventually. One thing I noticed about him is that
of all of the great spiritual teachers, he
was the only to do miracles. I tried the Catholic and Protestant
churches, but they didn´t seem like they followed Christ truly. Then my
brother got baptized in your church and I took interest." He even had us
sign our names in the copy of the Book of Mormon
that we gave him. Elder Olson was on an intercambio with me, and
afterwards he said "Yeah, I want to attend his baptism".
Speaking of which, I feel like I have gotten to be friends with all
of the missionaries in my casa and district, so that is really nice.
Being able to talk does help. Elder Olson, in particular is super funny.
One game he showed me is finger guns. Here
in Chile there are a lot of dogs. In general, the dogs on the street
are nice, but many of the dogs behind the fences are worse than Lucy.
Every time we see dogs like that, we pretend to shoot them with our
finger guns. It gets more ostentatious every time.
For instance, Elder Olson one time pretended to be using a sniper rifle
at a particularly annoying dog. He is applying to BYU right now, so I am
going to help him with his essays because I want to hang out with him
after the mission.
Elder Staley is from the Fairbanks Alaska stake. You were there when it
became a stake, right? I am definitely looking forward to the package.
This week, I met a former bishop from the ward where I am serving in a pharmacy. Of course, he isn´t a member anymore.
In fact, he was excommunicated.
Linares right now has two branches. This whole area is the Linares
district. Why not a stake? Back in the day, there was 4 wards in my city
where there is now only 2 branches. What happened?
About 20 years ago, this stake was rotten. I don´t know the specifics,
but I do know that a lot of bad things happened. Elder Holland came and
cleared house. Many people were excommunicated and others left the
church. Even now, the church has yet to recover
here in Linares.
11/12/2018
As my casa-mates know very well now, yesterday was the 100th anniversary
of the end of World War 1. This week also marks my first 100 days in
the mission. Thus ends the Hundred Days Offensive. I opened my mission
call exactly 100 days before
reporting to the CCM, so this marks the tipping point. I am now farther
in on this side of the mission veil.
As I am writing this email, I think that I am getting sick. This should
be rough. My lesson with Juan went great. His reaction to 3 Nephi 11 was
incredible. He told us directly that the Book of Mormon is the
clearest, most powerful book that
he has ever read. When we taught him the Plan of Salvation and
explained Temple ordinances, there was a special spirit in the room.
It is birthday of my friend Craig today, so I hope that he is doing well.
This week went fairly well. Quite a lot happened, which goes
without saying. Juan, who I mentioned last week, is progressing well,
and we have also added someone named Fernanda to our group of people
with strong potential.
I am writing a bit later today, because we went to a lake near the
town of Colbun this morning. We were really close to Argentina.
On Wednesday, both Elder Jensen and Elder Stevenson had to go to
centro to work on their visas. I was studying when Elder Jensen handed
me the phone, saying,"It´s Hermana Catala"
"Elder," she began in her Chinese accented Spanish, "Your companion
and Elder Jensen need to go to get their carnets, would you be willing
to lead Elder Staley in you area?" That blew my mind.
Now, the government building proved to be closed, so nothing
happened. But I had the opportunity to see how much I have learned in
these past hundred days. I still have to learn so much, but I am, at
least making progress.
Before my mission, I always told myself that the first hundred days
would be difficult, but after that things would be easier. These last
100 days
have been challenging. I think it has been the hardest time of my
life. September 19, 2018 in particular challenged me intensely.
Fortunately, things
have improved greatly from that time. I am still new. "This is
not the end; it is not even the beginning of the end. It is, perhaps,
the end of the beginning" (Winson Churchill).
Elder Cherpeski
Pics
Lunch with Elder Wood, his trainer, and the trainer of his trainer´s trainer.
With Elder Boveda at the lake
Also, our branch is pretty useless. We had a baptismal service on
friday, and literally, the only members that attended besides the
missionaries was Hermana Carmen, who owns our house. That was a bit sad.
Tuesday was the funniest day of the week. Elder Mathews went on an
exchange with me in my area. We called at doors all day with zero
success at all. It was so brutal that it was funny just joking about how
bad it was.
I have come to learn that my area is, indeed, quite difficult, but I
know that I have things to learn from this difficulty. Moreover, I have
gained a lot from visiting with Juan.
Elder Cherpeski
11/19/2018
Hey all,
Para que sepan, I am still here.
A lot has been going on, but not much at the same time. Every week goes by faster than the previous one.
Before my mission, I heard a lot about jokes on the new
missionaries, but that never happened to me. The only prank that
everyone played on me was to talk a secret code language that I could
not understand.
"Haha guys...That´s enough...Stop it."
Today, we had a plan to visit a villa that was founded by refugees
from Nazi Germany after WWII. First, we took a 1 hour bus ride to the
town of Parral. Then we found out that there is no bus that services to
this town.
So no, we did not visit any Nazis.
In other big news, I made my first solid pun in Spanish yesterday.
In Spanish, the phrase they fall me well (me cae bien) means that I like
a person something like that. I told Elder Jensen who fell from his
bike a few weeks ago. "Me cae bien, pero ¡se
cae mal!". It was pretty awesome.
In regards to Spanish, things are progressing well. Before my
mission, I had this impression of being able to speak a language as a
binary quality. Either one could or one couldn´t. I have come to realize
that that is absolutely untrue.
I am fluent in Spanish in the sense that I can converse in normal
topics fairly fluidly. However, I seriously lack vocabulary, and more
advanced forms of speech (hypotheticals, stories, etc) still challenge
me quite a lot. Also, I still don´t many Chilenos.
They speak fast; they speak horribly. They are incredibly difficult to
understand.
And so I find myself somewhere in the gradient of capability in the defined subspace of knowledge of the Spanish language.
One thing that I do appreciate unequivocally is that the word unequivocal is unequívoco. Not too hard to remember.
What I love most about being a missionary right is that I
feel like I am seeing the world. Being the introverted erudite that I
am, I have always been a bit experientially sheltered, but things are so
different out here.
As a missionary, I sit with the affluent on their porch one moment,
and converse with the destitute on the street one hour later. One
moment, I am with a person who is profoundly faithful, and the next, I
am testifying to an Atheist. It really is quite
remarkable: living here in this foreign land and talking in this
foreign language.
My home is a town names Linares.
Elder Cherpeski
11/26/2018
Some weeks, there really is a struggle to write about things that stand out.
12/10/2018
The Temple in Concepción Chile was dedicated only recently, so this
Wednesday, my zone (Linares) will go to the temple. A nice way to mark
the day!
Even last week, it was clear that transfers were going to be crazy. It
was the kind of situation where just about anything could happen. Since
Elder Mathews is going home he left before the transfers, so Elder Aros
from Antofagasta Chile is with us because
his companion also went home. Last night, Elder Boveda, the only zone
leader in the house received the calls indicating all of the changes.
This morning, we found out: Elder Jensen is now zone leaders with Elder
Boveda, an Elder Benson is leaving being a zone
leader to train and take over Jensen´s area.
And I?
11/26/2018
Some weeks, there really is a struggle to write about things that stand out.
This week is a bit easier.
It all started with a Baptismal service here in Linares 2nd Branch.
We had to prepare for the service fairly early in the morning, so I put
some extra materials in my backpack to study while I we waited in the
church.
My companion, Elder Stevenson wanted to practice the piano, so I
sat in the front pew studying. However, my companion had to get some
clothing from the house. Since we only live a short distance away, I
decided, with encouragement from my companion, to
leave all of my stuff where I was at. Elder Jensen and Elder Staley
were there in addition to some members that were cleaning the chapel.
What could possibly go wrong?
Well, just as were returning to the chapel, the branch president
came running out of the building, asking something a man running out of
the building with a backpack.
Yeah, I got robbed.
I was a bit irritated.
However, I was, in the end, really blessed, because a member
happened to have been outside when the villan exited the building and
called the police. Thanks to Hermano Cristian, and the Carbineros of
Linares, and got my backpack back.
Everything was still there!
In short, I had a really stressful hour.
My house is currently being dominated by swarms of flies
because nobody here in this country has thought to make screen windows.
Last Tuesday, at 10:55 (five minutes before lights out) Elder Jensen had
had enough, so he grabbed a spray to kill the
flies and went to town. It was a funny sight, all of us in our beds
watching Elder Jensen viciously spraying at all of the flies he could
get from where he was standing.
Then I thought of the scene from The Lord of the Rings when the Rohirrim are trying to kill the Oliphants.
Then, I made the best-applied reference of all time.
"Bring them down! BRING THEM DOWN!"
Elder Stevenson and Elder Staley, who didn´t get the reference were
a bit confused. Elder Boveda, who doesn´t even speak English was even
more so. However, Elder Mathews and Elder Jensen got it perfectly. The
three of us did not stop laughing for 2 minutes.
The reference was just too perfect.
It was then that I knew I had finally made it.
So that none of you think that I am just messing around here
in Chile, I would just like to reassure all of you that I am, indeed,
working really hard. Quite frequently, I spend 8 straight hours outside.
Last Thurday evening, it was getting a bit late, and we were
tracting in a distant part of our sector. We decided to visit a family
we had met briefly in the past. They graciously invited us to have
dinner with them (which is more like a formal snack here
in Chile). So there, around this table on our patio, we taught them a
little about our message. I looked down at my watch. The time said 9:15.
That meant it was 4:15 back home.
"Wow", I thought, "This is my thanksgiving."
Elder Cherpeski
12/3/2018
Wow my friends (those of you who still read what I write every
week). We have made it to the month of December. I am set to finish my
training period and turn 19 on the same day (the 12th), so that is kind
of neat.
As I say, almost every week at this time, a lot happened this week.
As I say, almost every week at this time, a lot happened this week.
Elder Staley returned to his house this thursday, so I am back to
being the newbie. In fact, literally all of my roommates has more than a
year in the mission, and I have been here for less than six months. His
departure has necescitated that Elder Jensen,
his companion, join us. Elder Stevenson and I, now joined by the 6´5"
Elder Jensen, are now part of a trio. It is actually pretty awesome.
The presence of Elder Jensen allowed me to do my first intercambio
on friday with Elder Wood, who is of my group in the CCM. Us jóvenes
with our senior companion rocked the sector. It was interesting to see
the differences between me and Elder Wood. We
have completely different personalities, so I methods of working are
completely different.
We also had our zone conference this week, where I learned a lot
about how to improve my missionary skills. President Catala is pretty
awesome, and the depth of his understanding is pretty remarkable.What I
learned in particular is the importance of following
the Spirit, not just in lessons, but also in planning before lessons
and after lessons.
My friend Elder Mathews returns to his house next week.
I am sad to see him leave, but I have learned a lot from him during our
time together in Linares. A lot is going to happen this next transfer.
The last transfer felt pretty straightforward, but this
next one is going to be a lot more interesting. Although I cannot
follow elections here as a missionary, at least I can have the same
sense of anticipation waiting to see what changes are going to happen next week.
Although we here in Chile are heading into the heat of summer, we still like to enjoy our Christmas season (See photos 2 and 3).
I hope everyone enjoys their next week. There will be much to talk about next week.
Oh, and remember that my birthday is in 9 days.
Elder Cherpeski
Yeah, I can`t really describe this last week so well. It was crazier than normal, and that says something.
First, I should mention that my birthday is this upcoming Wednesday.
Some of you were wondering what would happen for my birthday. Well,
unlike 99% of the time for missionaries when the answer is "Not that
much" I do something pretty awesome.
Elder Stevenson leaves for Concepción and I am receiving my 2nd
(technically 3rd counting Elder Jensen) companion! Elder
Coronballus[sic] from Argentina.
Things are going to be completely different. Although I will miss
my trainer, I am excited to get to learn more Spanish and direct my
sector more!
More than that, I am really excited with the progress that our
friend Fernanda is making. She is reading from the Book of Mormon every
day, and I would say that she will be the first baptism in my area.
Things are happening people!
Elder Cherpeski
