August 24 update

We had a wonderful letter from Elder Kenison this week; it made up for last week's brief note when he was sick. He is doing much better with the bronchitis. The "mission doctor" in Santiago told him what antibiotics to take, and it's helped a lot, though he's still coughing. It's been cooler and rainier in Cartagena the past week or two, which probably has aggravated his condition.

Things seem to going great with the four elders living together. Having a Honduran and a Chilean in their apartment is making a difference; he said that living with them is

pretty cool haha we enjoy it. i'm starting to understand a lot more spanish so it's gotten more fun haha

When we asked about his companion, Elder Mejia, he said,

he's hilarious haha we're always laughing going from place to place haha but it's so fun

Here is a photo of the four elders enjoying a nice "Chilean" meal together (notice who has the biggest piece):

He also sent this photo of a "completo" (I guess a hot dog with "everything") that he said he really enjoys. The Chilean restaurant in Provo advertises this, so now I have to go try one!


And while we're on the food theme, here are a couple of photos that he sent without explanation. Note the height on that second throw!!

In our last package to Matt, we included some brown sugar which he was not able to find in Chile, so he could make his favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe. This was his comment:

haha i laughed so hard when i saw the brown sugar haha we made cookies the other day and baked them last night. haha Elder Romero wants to say something...

I like de cookies!!! i'm a chilean missionary and i liked the reseta (recipe) that you send for your son. send more!!!!

haha he's a funny guy. he pretty much loves anything with chocolate. haha actually the first couple times I made brownies he ate most of them haha then for two days he had Diarriah (whatever) haha so yeah he only eats a couple when i make them haha :D

For a P-day service project, the four elders traveled to a nearby city (El Quisco) and helped dig a hole for an outhouse. It's amazing how much fun you can have doing unusual things when you're doing them for a good reason! Check out this wonderful photo of Elder Kenison (as always, click on the photo for more detail):

Here's another fun photo, which came without explanation — just the title of the photo, which was "Practicing lesson 1. with bob esponga.jpg"


We did hear some more serious and inspiring things today too.

elder mejia and I worked hard this week haha one investigator told us not to pass by anymore. elder Mejia bore his testimony. it was AMAZING the spirit was so strong. but they still asked us not to come back. it's sad how some people aren't willing to listen. i KNOW they felt something but they just decided to ignore it.

on a happy note for us elder's we had 10 investigators come to church. elder mejia and i had 5. elder Rawlins and Elder Romero actually had an investigator who is a priest from a Evangelical church come. i was with elder rawlins when we first met him. we were just going to pass by. and not say a word (i don't know why) but he said "hello, how are you?" i flipped around "you know english?" he said "no" haha we laughed and started talking to him. he said that it would be ok if the missionaries came by. haha so elder rawlins and elder marquez passed by and now elder rawlins with elder romero have passed by. haha he, ismael, told elder rawlins that he has a problem. elder rawlins asked why. haha and Ismael said "Yo se que el Libro de mormon es verdadero" (i know the book of mormon is true) haha so he's moving along nice. haha for us we had a family come. the parents of the family, Juan and Marisol. want to get married so they can get baptized so we're pretty excited :D

Finally, those who know Matt are aware that he can never pass up taking photos of waterfalls and sunsets. So far, we haven't seen any waterfalls from Chile; but here's the latest sunset: