September 13 update

It is astonishing to us to think that Matthew has finished 3/4 of his mission!  Eighteen months down, only six to go.  When we sent him a copy of this graphic and asked only, "Does this picture mean anything to you?  How does it make you feel??  (FYI, it SHOCKS us!!)" — this was his response, in large bold underlined letters:

MY FAMILY IS SO TRUNKY!!!!!!!! HAHA

I guess maybe we are.

Last week's best investigator report was a woman named Maria and her children. This is the update this week:

Maria has been trying so hard to do her best. read and pray and everything. but Satan is really makin it difficult, but she's still fightin :D she didn't come to church though. her son, the night before got a temperature of 102 so they left to the hospital and couldn't go to church. but they're still working hard. we recently taught the word of wisdom and Maria said,"wow this is so true. i've got to work on this." so hopeully she keeps going :D

Her daughter Jocelyn (and Jocelyn's friend Valentina) is 18 and son Francisco is 13.  As for any additional progress:

a couple new investigators but still seeing if they'll keep progressing. haha inactives. we passed by but most weren't home. we changed houses on wednesday so we've been painting and stuff. i've done my best to take before and after pictures but i don't have my camera with me but i should have lots of pictures next week. especially with the 18 de Septiembre coming up (the 4th of July for chile. and they´re completing 200 years, so it´ll be crazy. haha)

This Saturday is the Chilean Bicentennial.  That will indeed be an interesting time for the missionaries to witness!  Probably pretty distracting for their work...

We asked about the challenges that take people away from the Church in Chile.  This was an interesting response:

well we´ve noticed that wards are just like the Book of Mormon. they´re obedient, then they get a little prideful, then they have problems, are humble, repent and then they´re obedient again. so really lots of members leave in that prideful/problem time. kinda crazy. but that´s really been the problem.

Much of the rest of the week was the distraction of moving to a new apartment, and all the cleaning, painting, fixing up, etc.  We'll be eager to learn more about their "pension" next week!