I love the area and the language is finally kicking in

Hola Todos!                                                                           Feb 17, 14

Wow, we had a great week here in San Francisco, and it sounds like you have had a good week too. Man that skiing trip sounded awesome. I always wanted to be able to ski a bowl, but whenever I was able to go it was either early or late in the season and they usually didn’t have a lot of snow.

Sounds like the Olympics are fun and slushy. I think they should try to go to a place without palm trees next time. They had the same problem last time too. Maybe if they just went somewhere super cold, like really cold, they won’t have the same problems, because while location is important, snow is more important.  I miss the Winter Olympics, they’ve always been some of my favorite, but then again, being in Argentina is pretty cool. They don’t have much of a team, so I rarely hear about the Olympics in general.

To start, the rain has stopped a little bit which is nice, things are drying out a bit as of now, but earlier this week the roads were pretty mucky. Our bikes were having trouble because the chains would get all muddy, then we’d have a lesson, and they would dry off and have a thick layer of mud encrusted on the chain. So with that, our chain usually fell off about every block. On Wednesday we were heading down the road and the chain fell off my companion’s bike. WE were getting a little tired of always fixing up our bikes, so we came up with the brilliant idea that maybe we just needed to ride through the mud to lubricate the bike chain. So without giving it much thought, we plowed into the biggest mud puddle we could find. It was in the middle of the puddle we realized that we didn’t think this plan through very well. My bike chain fell off midway through this mud puddle and so I had muddy shoes the rest of the day.

Elder Cobb, my companion, is a great Elder and really funny. We laugh a lot and are enjoying the work. He’s really nice, patient, and easy going.  He actually reminds me of my BYU roommate, Danny. We get along very well. He’s teaching me a lot about working with members and how to just relax. I learned that obedience is important, but it’s an attitude. If I am stressed to be exactly obedient, I still can’t feel the spirit because I’m over worried. So both disobedience and over-stressing about obedience result in the same thing. I have honestly felt the spirit stronger this week than any other week.

I’m really happy. I love the area and the language is finally kicking in. I think I have more challenges in the upcoming months, in fact, I know I do, but it’s nice to know that I can have at least a small break, or at least an easier time. I still miss you a lot and had a dream that I was able to give you a super big hug. Which was nice =). There are many miracles seen every day, and we are enjoying every minute of it.

The area is progressing well. We visit a lot of members, fishing for referrals and in truth, we are starting to get some. We were unable to talk to Pablo this week so we had to postpone the baptism for next Saturday. We also have an investigator named Ramona who is progressing very well. She is on track to be baptized on March 1st.

Miracle of the week, found out that one of the Elders before we came left a bottle of Root Beer Extract, so we’re going to be making root beer tonight.

I’ll send pictures next week because I forgot my SD card today.  I learned how to make homemade pasta and a member has some super cute puppies that I need to show Allie, so they will come next week!

Thanks for all of your prayers. I love you all and hope you’re all doing well!

Elder Chipman