Week 29: Snow in Santiago!!

Elder Hendrix at a college in Santiago.

Some interesting statues in Santiago.

This week has been different for sure! Saturday morning, we woke up to see the entire cuidad totally covered with snow!! Soooooo much nicer than rain! It has been getting sooooo cold here though. We had to take a 2 hour bus ride to Lugo, which means we drove through the mountains, and I could not believe the amount of snow that had come down in one night. It was crazy! And it continued snowing the entire day! It was so awesome! The weather this week has been so weird. A few days ago, we could barely even walk in the street cause it was hailing so hard.

Snow in Santiago.

Here's some stories from this week!

1. We spent one morning this week making cookies for some members cause it was hailing bowling balls outside. So that night, we stopped by literally every member family's piso (all 6 of them) and nobody was
home. It was quite the disappointment. We didn't want all of these plates of cookies to go to waste, so we decided to go contacting in the streets in attempt to give them away and possibly find someone that would listen to our message and be ready to receive he gospel. I know it's weird.. I wouldn't take cookies from a stranger either, but we figured we would just give it a try and see how it goes. Contacting is all about trying new things anyway haha. Well, after a while, we found this woman named Rosalía. She was literally the only person we found in the street after like 2 hours cause it's freezing and wet outside and nobody in this town wants to leave their piso. We talked to her about the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and how because of Him, we
can progress and become like Him through His gospel. We talked about the atonement being the greatest gift to mankind. We told her we wanted to show our love and appreciation for Him by sharing gifts with others (present plate of chocolate chip cookies and smile). And she just smiled and said thank you so much and  even shed some tears. She told us it made her whole week. She was so grateful! We did not receive her phone number or address, but it just made me really happy to see how this small act of kindness effected her. It was a greater reminder of the importance of working hard all the time and pressing forward with faith, because that one person makes it worth it. Anyway, my invitation to all of you this week is to make someone cookies. And thus it is.
2. It's still raining.
3. As I mentioned, we took a bus to Lugo this week. The hermanas over there are having a baptism soon, and since my companion is district leader, he had to go do the baptismal interview. After the hour long walk to the bus station from our piso, we realized we left our phone at home. We really needed the phone cause we had no idea where we were supposed to go when we got to Lugo, so we looked for a pay phone to call the senior couple (the Bake's) in Santiago to see if they could drive by our piso and pick it up and bring it to us before we miss the bus. We found a pay phone after a while, and I was about to drop a coin in it, but then I felt the impression not to do it. I told my companion that I don't know why, but we need to just walk home ourselves and get it and just take the next bus. So we did so, and on our way back, this dude comes up to us and asks us who we are. He said he's been looking for someone to tell him what he can do to change his life. He's homeless and lives in the bus station and doesn't understand what he's supposed to be doing with his life. He asked us if we could come teach him one day about God and who He is and what His plan is for us. It was soooooo awesome! We are gonna meet him this week to teach him, so I'll definitely report back next week! But it's just so cool how the spirit works. I knew we needed to go back for some reason!!! And we were actually right by a random pay phone when this happened, so after he left, we called the Bake's and they brought our phone to us and we didn't even miss the first bus. Haha oh man this church is true.
4. It's still raining.
5. First of all, if you don't know what a tortilla de patata is, look it up, make one, and then your life will be complete. Elder Wither and I had to make 12 of those things Saturday night for our branch. Every 4th Sunday, the whole branch stays after church and we have a big potluck lunch thing. Unfortunately however, there was only 17 people at church yesterday, and only 13 stayed afterwards, and 6 of those were missionaries... But we had a TON of tortillas left. But it's cool cause I got lunch every day this week.
6. It's raining.

Today for P day the Bake's took us to the beach! I got tons of pictures! My mom will have them posted on my blog today. It's soooo weird how Santiago is freezing and snowy and super overcast and raining every single day, but at the beach (only 45 minutes away) it's sunny and warmer and there's no clouds. So strange. But the beach was so much fun!!! I could easily spend an entire day just walking on the sand. I got so many awesome shells! And we caught a bunch of little sand crabs.

Also, I learned how to solve a 4x4 Rubik's cube, and I still have no friends.

Anyway, have an awesome week! Make someone cookies.

Elder Hendrix