July 21 - Arrival in Chile

O.k. Well, it has been a crazy week. We made it to Vina for a day, and we had to do this thing where we got dropped off in the city and then were given an address to the mission home and a Book of Mormon and had to find a contact and find the mission home again. I was with Elder Henderson, and we got a few contacts and found the mission home eventually. But to start out the day, we see Elder Tousley and you could tell something was wrong. Well he got robbed the first day of the mission in like the first thirty minutes. What an experience! But he is doing ok. Everything is crazy down here and super hard to adjust too right now. The food is good, but they eat breakfast, then lunch, then that’s it. In the house, they don’t have heat, like no building has heat. And it’s the middle of winter, so it’s stinking cold in the house. When we study, I wear my coat a ton, but I don’t think I will ever use my boots. I am not in Vina. I am in Los Vilos for my first area. It is north of Vina and my companion is Elder Ramieriz. He is from Argentina so he speaks words in English so that is it. It’s hard sometimes because we don’t understand each other, but he is a good guy. He said the president much trust me for sending me up north my first transfer. I am like no, he just doesn’t want to see me. Then another girl said it was because of trust too. But I don’t know if that’s really true but if it is, that is super cool. Homesick--I get homesick every now and then. I was the first two days in the CCM and then I got in a routine and I am good now. I have to restart everything because no one speaks English. I get made fun of a lot because I don’t understand it and it makes me mad because they know like one sentence in English and then they think they can make fun of me in Spanish. I want to tell them what’s what and say go try to learn English, but I can’t. There are like 500 members here and in church there was like fifty. It was so empty you could have a row to yourself. We taught a few lessons, but a lot of times people don’t answer the door. You don’t knock down here. You shout hello at the door, and they will come answer sometimes. It’s very different from America. I don’t know about the mountains. I am right by the ocean right now. Elder Ramieriz thinks he is getting transferred this next time so that would leave me hosed. It’s hard to see all those missionaries with so much time out here and it seems like you will never get there and not understanding Spanish. I have a feeling these next six months are probably going to be the hardest in my life, but I fastest Saturday so I hope that will help. Thanks for everything, When I get back I will be so much more grateful for everything. 

Love, Elder Gillies