Nov. 15, 2014; I LOVE this Gospel!

"Riding a Wave" on p-day

Dear family,

  We have two more weeks until the changes come and I am out of the office!..I am nervous and maybe a little bit anxious to leave... it will be a big change. Man, we have been leaving so early and getting back so late that I have lost count of how many days I have in the mission and I haven’t written my journal for almost two weeks! I really get home dead.... it has been tough and lots of work. I am glad you have some snow! Is Olivia going to snowboard this year? I miss the crazy weather! ;) It is a blazing 95 degrees here at least.

 I am glad that you guys had a good week. Thanks for the pics! That will be fun to see Olivia without braces when I get home! Did she have them before I left? I don’t even remember?!

 Q&A

 1. Our week was good. This Monday Elder Christensen of the Seventy came to Rancagua and the whole mission got together for that conference. It was awesome! I got to see a bunch of my buddies and also listen to an inspired servant of God. He did a great job and I learned a lot and quite a few of the things he said have stuck with me. He also did a question and answer thing for the mission. It was cool. On Tuesday we had to go up to Santiago and pick up a new cell phone for President Warne. We also went and replaced a couple of Garmin GPS for the mission. In the Garmin store they had this cool camera call the Garmin Virb. It is the same concept as a Go Pro. Check it out. We ate lunch at Denny’s. It was so good! Just spendy.... they charged me about $2 for a glass of water! Ha-ha but same quality!

Before repairs

After

That night we finished the house in Rengo we had to repair. On Wednesday we went down to Rengo to give the house back and then later we went out to Pichilemu to get the bicycles there. They are really beat up! So that will be good to fix them. That was a good trip. On Thursday we built a roof in our back porch area where we park the car. The roof is to protect the articles (fridges, ovens, washers, microwaves, etc.) that are there. That was an all-day project but it turned out well. I forgot to take a picture but I will send you a picture this next week! (If I remember...) that night we went down to Talca because the next morning we had to go to Constitucion to help the elders move houses. That was a long trip but we got there safe. We helped the elders move and we were so tired because we had slept in the car the night previous for only about five and a half hours.... we went and ate lunch at an open pavilion close-ish to the ocean.

My delicious salmon lunch

It was delicious. I ate salmon. That is the second time I have had it in Chile! Loved it! Later we got together with the two past house owners that we will be giving back in Constitucion. (driving there is like driving to Salt Lake... or maybe Ogden, pretty far) so that was good we were able to take advantage of that. Today we went to a skate park with a tarp and some bikes and skate boards. We used the tarp to make a "wave" it was awesome. We went "surfing". Lots of people participated. I got sun-burned though. I couldn’t find my sunscreen. Later we went back to the house to have a bbq for Elder Troncoso’s b-day today! =) It was a good time and we invited bro and sis Johnson (the senior couple who helps us) and the Ditlevsons (financer and wife) over. It was a great time! Now I am here. I am darn tired though. Hopefully I will be able to recuperate some of my strength before I head out to the field again!

 2. Yes we have a good amount of tools. We have a Skil saw, battery drill, electric drill, painting gun, and a bunch of hand tools. We are able to make do with what we have! But we have enough to make life a lot easier! 

 3. For a liter of gasoline it is about $2, for a liter of diesel it is about $1.25, a liter of milk costs a little more than a dollar, 12 eggs cost about 3 dollars. All of the measurements are in the metric system down here.

 I really appreciate all that you do for me. I love you all so much and I feel your love and support. I am so happy to be a missionary especially here in Chile! I love you guys a ton and not a day passes by when I don’t pray or think about you! I hope that everything continues to go well for you and that you have a great week. This week I have been able to learn a lot more that when I am trying my hardest and as I forgive others of their trespasses, then the Lord accepts my efforts and forgives me of my trespasses. I LOVE this gospel and the happiness that it offers. It offers us the opportunity to have a peace of mind through our Savior’s atonement; it offers us the chance to be with our loved ones for time and all eternity. It offers great friends, cherished moments, and a safe haven from the "shafts in the whirlwind" in this world. I love it so much and I am so thankful for all that you do for me to support me! I hope that you have a great week! =) I love you so much. I will talk to you next week! 

 Love always, 

 Elder Tegan Hall