Alex's 55th email from Chile 9/5/11

Kites for sale

Hola Family!!!


Well winter is finally over and spring is kicking in full force. And now once again the skies are filled with the Chilean square kites and the Chilean flags are everywhere. Now I don't know if I have told you about these kites before but they are pretty cool. One you don't fly them normally at least how I was taught as a little kid. It's constant pulling down reeling out reeling in and it's hard. I can't do it. But it's awesome. They are all over the place and the kids here battle their kites. They try to wrap their kite around the lines of other people and burn the string so their kite falls to the ground. For me this is the best part. There is always a group of little kids waiting like vultures for downed kites. Once they see the kite get cut they are sprinting chasing it down and steal the kite from the owner. So basically you do not want to loose so your kite doesn't get jacked. The best part of spring is though it is no longer cold. I now leave during the day in my short sleeve working on my farmers tan.

Kite fighting field

Well this week nothing really new or exciting happened, just the good ole missionary work.  Which I am completely ok with. We taught some good lessons, had an awesome lesson with Jose our investigator with a baptismal date for the 17th of September. He is progressing a lot and I am excited for him to get baptized. So is his dad, who is an inactive member we have been working with as well.


I don't want to sound cocky or anything but it makes me feel loved, but everyone in our branch wants to have lunch with Elder Gracia and I. It's nothing special and is probably bad but it makes me feel cool and loved. Elder Garcia is progressing a lot. I am proud of him we just always need to go over the lessons and do lots of practices so he can get down the principals. Man I feel like not much happened this week and that I don't have much to write. Probably the most exciting thing that happened this week was that MArk, Sebastian and Marion were confirmed this week and the Confirmations went great! Elder Garcia messed up the wording the first time but it all worked out in the end. It was awesome and I am so excited for that family.


On Saturday we did another cosechon or as Mom calls it blitz but in the sector of the Hermanas. I was with Elder Chase again and we did really good. We entered a house, a gave a house blessing, and set an appointment for the hermanas to go by. I think it's cool how we do that here. Elder Merchans Greenie is from Colombia. Unfortunately he told me straight up he hates gringos and never wants a gringo companion. But at least now he is scared of me because of something that happened. So I am going to tell you.


So 3 days ago at like 2 in the morning the alarm of Elder Gueto went off. It was beeping for like 5 minutes until one of the two Elder Merchan and Elder Gueto turned it off. But I was already awake and not a happy camper for getting woken up at 2 in the morning, but I didn't say anything. The NEXT day the same alarm went off at 7 in the morning a half hour before we need to get up. It was beeping and beeping and nobody was getting up to turn it off. I was soo mad so I counted in my head till ten then got out of bed. The other two missionaries sleep in another room. I slammed open the door, turned on the lights, found the dumb clock, turned it off, threw to the floor and slmmed the door behind me and went to my bed.  Unfortunately when you get woken up its almost impossible to fall back asleep. Later when we were all up I went over to Elder Gueto and said the next time your clock goes off before 7:30 I am going to throw it against the wall and you won't have a clock anymore. He has been very respectful since that day. Now everyone in the pension loves talking about that story because no one has ever seen me mad before haha.


Yes, I do my internet everyweek in an internet cafe, here called cibers. The girls in the foto last week is the youth in our branch. We don't have a single young man in our branch all girls. The baptismal date of Jose is for the 17th of September. Oh Something cool, we are now going to teach Rafeal the dad of Mark and Sebastian. Hopefully we can complete that family!!!


Well guys thats all I can think of for you. Hopefully it is sufficient.  I love you all soo much and will talk to you next week!!


Con Mucho Amor,
                            Elder Alex Leavitt


A little side note about the kite flying/fighting that Alex talks about:


El Volantín (Kite)

Kite flying is a favorite pastime in Chile. Chileans like to make their own kites from balsa wood and tissue paper. These are then attached to large spools of rope as seen in the picture. One competition that people play with kites is to try and cut down another's kite. This is done by flying your kite such that your string wraps around that of another and cuts their line. Real competitors often coat their string in glass to increase their chances of earning a victory known as a commission.