Elder Alex Leavitt Chile Santiago West Mission: Alex's 39th email 5/16/11

Elder Leavitt & Elder Madsen

Alex writes "I told you I am in wine country here in La Islita. Well here is a batch of grapes out of the wine barrels"

Hola Familia!!!!

First off I am way tired. We have been working like crazy trying to get this place going but it is way difficult. I will be honest this place is about ten times as dead as Lo Ovalle was but we are working hard so it will just take a little bit of time. I probably have done more contacting in the 3 weeks I have been here than in all my other sectors combined it's insane and I know that is why I have been so tired.

Alex mentioned in his Mother's Day call that their area is surrounded by a mountain. I'm assuming this is it.

So guess what? There is now a new rule that we are no longer allowed to go to the temple as a mission. It made me sad. We are allowed to go for converts going for the first time and when we leave the mission. We also learned that Elder Madsen and I are getting new bikes tomorrow. Just in time too! My seat on my bike just broke off haha. I got a new helmet too and it is crazy. I swear the thing is military grade haha.

Bye, bye bike! He sure sounds excited about getting a new one.

Tuesday I went on divisions with a greenie named Elder Britt. The kid is legit haha. We had a fun time. I have never been with someone though who didn't really know Spanish so it was weird at first having to really talk the whole time but I made him talk alot though cause I know it is good for him and he thanked me actually cause I guess his comp really doesn't give him time to talk. But it was awesome we taught alot of lessons in his sector.

OH!!! awesome story!! so I told you already we get attacked alot while riding bikes. Well I have always tried kicking them but for the most part they stay just out of kicking range so I have never hit one. But like it's scary when they attack cause if you are not careful you will crash, they run in front of your bike and all around you and so ya. But when I was on division a group of dogs came running at us. It was beautiful, this dog comes running up on my right side and leaped at me to bite me. I stared it down the whole way winded up and let my foot go and nailed it in the face! It was soo legit!! Made my day haha.

We have been doing a ton of contacts like I said and have found 5 news this week. We are pretty happy. I have high hopes for 2 of them. This older guy named Raul who loved having us over and actually invited us to a asado, and Camillo who is 20 and in the military. Camillo is soo cool and so fun to talk to. He is funny and likes to goof around but when we start teaching or start talking about the gospel he gets way serious and into it. He is golden I can feel it. I have a very good feeling about him, also Laura. We feel like we are going to invite them to baptism in the next one or two appointments. We feel like they are ready so keep them in your prayers. They have been progressing a lot I am excited about them.

Asado is a term used both for a range of barbecue techniques and the social event of having or attending a barbecue in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile and southern Brazil. In these countries asado is also the standard word for barbecue. This a picture of the asado that Raul invited the Elders to.

We have a cita with Vivianna tonight I am excited for that. Elder Madsen is a stud. I love that kid. I hope I get to be with him another change. We have a great time and the kid is a workhorse. The branch is tiny. I told you how we have 4 Elders in our one branch. So I thought it would be good to count how many members live in our sector. So we can see how we are doing with our own personal sector attendance. We can't do anything to help the other sector but we can help ours you know. So I decided to count our own personal attendance as well. Well out of 57 members who attended this last Sunday 13 live in our sector crazy! Part of the reason our sector is slow is that we have very little member support. Saturday we went to the feria. Basically where they close down a street and sell goods. We set up a table had pictures of Christ, pamphlets, pass along cards, had a free sign, and the four of us sang hymns. Then we would do a little contacting and sing some more. It was fun and we usually give away almost all of the stuff it was cool. Also we went exploring and found some huge mansions. We contacted some and this white guy walks out! Turns out this dude is from New Castle England and has been living in Talagante for the past 20 years! insane. It was cool and surprisingly difficult to contact in English.