Luke's 1st Letter from Chile

May 18, 2009

Hey how is everyone? I didn’t know that President Urra sent you a letter, that was nice. Monday is our P-day so its my first chance to write you. Could you tell Brittany for me that I can only write family, I’m sure you forward this to her, but the letter I’ll write her today is going to take 2 to 3 weeks to get there. So that’s a bummer. Also tell her that it’s fine for her to write me emails, I just can only write family members. I’m sure she will understand. By the way Spanish keyboards are a little different so my typing will be a little messed up. Really I have so much to tell you I just don’t know where to start. It took forever to get to Antofagasta, then when I did there was no one waiting for me at the airport, but they arrived after about ten minutes of waiting.

The president and his wife picked me up, along with 3 new sister missionaries. So we stop and took our picture by that rock you probably got pictures of. There were 10 new missionaries coming into the mission that day, all latins except for me. So... there I am, extremely tired from 28 hours of traveling, trying to understand different dialects of Spanish. I was very lost, but was happy and excited. We spent that day doing little things then that night I got my trainer Elder Knackstedt, from Utah slash Washington and stuff. He’s a good guy we get along really well. He’s not really into sports or stuff like that but our nerd sides match and we joke in a similar way so that’s fun. He is helping me with my Spanish as well. After getting him for my companion we jumped on a Turbus to Arica, which was 11 hours north of Antofagasta!

So we finally got to Arica at like... 9 in the morning or so. I was so flippin tired. We rested some, then at about 330 we went out to work. I can’t really remember a lot of the people here yet because I’ve met so many. We have a few investigators, but I dint really know how much they’re progressing. A lot of our investigators are kids and teenagers. We have two boys, about 10 and 12 that have a grandma who is a strong member and they want to be baptized. Their mom is an inactive member, used to be a temple worker, and for some reason doesn’t want them to be baptized. Its sad, its like all the knowledge she once had of the church has just been taken away. But the boys really want to be and like church and everything, so were continuing our work there. On Saturday we did some service for them planting a tree, so hopefully that helps. We also have a 12 yr old girl who was just baptized before I got here who has a very strong testimony, she has an 8 yr cousin or something at her home that we took to church yesterday and who wants to be baptized as well. His mom and aunt also are investigators, and my companion says they received answers to the book of mormon, but the aunt just had a baby and is bed resting, and the mom is extremely busy working so its hard. Other than that we have people we try to visit and stuff, and its fun but hard work. Theres a lot of walking haha, but its not too hot here and im getting a tan haha.

The members here are amazing, the active ones. There is a family here, well, its a weird situation. Theres a mom and dad, but theyre not married, and shes not a baptized member, but they are both active and have callings. But they live together, but its ok for some reason because here in Chile divorce laws are weird and shes been waiting for 4 years for her divorce to go through. Well, it finally went through this last week, so she can finally get baptized and they can get married, even though they already have one kid together. I dont get it, but they are the coolest family. They have 4 kids, well, she has 2 from her marriage and he has one from his earlier one, and they have one together. We had dinner there last night and it was a riot. yesterday in church I got to present myself over the pulpit, so that was exciting and I received many warm welcomes from members.

My spanish is ok, Im getting better at understanding whats going on, and I can always testify of the things my companion taught and add some of my own, and I can also teach parts of lessons. My ability to communicate my thoughts is decent, but its trying to understand what the crap people here are saying. Chilenos speak super fast, dont say the s on the end of words, and say the word po at the end of sayings and words. Like, sípo and nopo. And they have lots of weird sayings I have to get used to. So im learning spanish, but im also learning chilean haha. I feel very blessed that im able to unbderstand the things that I can and say the things im able to. I pray for the gift of tongues every day.

The food here is good. We have a papita who brings us lunch everyday, which is the big meal, and then usually we will eat somewhere at night, like somebody will offer us some bread and stuff that we have for dinner because dinners are very small here. The bread they have here is really amazing. We make pancakes for our breakfast in the morning. But the food here has been better than i expected, sandwiches, potatoes and meat, bread, empanadas, so ya, I’m eating very well. The hard thing is I get thirsty through out the day and we havent had our water thing filled since I got here... so I find that annoying, but were taking care of that today and that will make it a lot easier. Our papita and his family also take care of our laundry, so that is nice as well. We have an apartment, it has the main room with our desk where we study and plan, a small kitchen area, very small, our bedroom with our bunkbed and a dresser thingy where we keep our clothes, I keep a lot of them just in the suit case as well because its easy.

The part of Arica were in is not next to the ocean, i just found out today it was as we had to travel near it to do visa stuff. our part is a little dumpy probably compared to the rest you saw. All the houses have walls and gates around them, so you bang on the gate and say HALO and people might come out. Knocking doors is the least effective way for us to find people to teach. We try to get members to go with us or invite their friends over and stuff and thats better. The days go by slow if poeple are not home for their appointments, cause we just do street contacts and stuff and are on our feet all day, but when we get to talk to people in their homes it is much better and goes by faster and not so painful. I feel like Im working my hardest and doing all I can to push forth the work, but its hard right now because I cant understand always whats going on and my companion cant sit there and translate everything for me, but i try. He says i´m doing a lot better then he did his first week. He is the district leader for us as well. He says in 5 more weeks i´ll be doing a lot better and at 3 months I´ll about have it down and at 6 months I´ll feel great about it. I dunno but I sure hope so, and if it is sooner that would be great because I feel like i have so much more to offer but that I can´t really do because I can´t comunícate my thoughts and feelings. But I´m trying, and praying my heart out for the blessings I need. Thank you for your prayers and everything. I received emails from you, grandma carol and brittany, thank you all for emailing me. Its harder to not have as much contact from home while out here, but I have a lot less time to think about home. I loved grandmas story about the dogs, thats way funny. And I´m glad that you really like those books dad, they are really good, I only was able to read book 4 though, I hope they end well. Now that I´m out here in the field I don´t have nearly as much time t oread as I did in the mTC, so I´m glad I was able to finísh the missionary library while I was there. Now I´m doing a more intense study of BoM and preach my gospel, and then I continue to study the language as much as I can. Its amazing how much you can take from the BoM if you really take the time to liken it to yourself. I´ve found a loto f applications in the first two chapters this week that I wouldn´t have found before I hadn´t looked at it in depth like I was able to.

I´m so excited about starla and shantel. I can´t wait to see all the kids when I get back. Let them know that they can email me if they have the time. I have an hour to do email here instead of just half an hour, so thats better. I can have time t oread and write. Definately feel free to do the DearElders though, I think I will get those about weekly or so. I´m not really sure. Oh dad, I met a bolivian the other day, he was at a house of a member, he´s a jehovah´s witness, but he gave me this cool little keychain with a sandle on it. It was my first gift here so that was kinda cool. My comp says that you acquire quite a few of those little things as you go through. My comp has been out for 16 months. Well, i need to get going because I need to write a letter to the president and I only have about 10 minutes left and if I don´t send that I´ll be in trouble.

Thank you for the letters and love and support. I can definately feel the love coming from Idaho and the other places in the good ole´ USA . I love you mom and dad! Let starla and telly know that I love them and if you getthe chance tell brittany too. Thank you again for the emails and love and support. Can´t wait to hear from you some more!!!

Love Your missionary, Elder Luke Skene