Week 30!

¡buenas tardes mì familia!

how is life going in the United States?  i'm still having a blast in Vichadero.  the branch of about 15 is doing great!  we just had the stake presidency come on sunday and talk to us for sacrament meeting and for the other classes.  during all classes and sacrament meeting they really stressed on having a current temple recommend and what is the importance of having a temple recommend.  it was super good because a lot of people here don't really care about having a temple recommend because we would have to take a bus for 6 hours to get to the nearest temple.  so it was super good hearing them talk about why we should have recommends.  during sacrament meeting it was also super cool because the second counciler focused on how the church needs EVERY YOUNG MAN to go and serve a mission and how all young men need to be prepared to serve by going to seminary, institute, mutual, and attending all 3 hours of church.  it was a super good talk that really hit the people.  funny story, so after last p day we went back to Vichadero and got there at about 8:45 when we got there it was pitch black because it gets dark here at about 7 because it's changing seasons.  but we get home and our power was CUT!!!  we had no light, our fridge was not working, and our water heater for the shower didn't work! haha the next day we found out that our neighbor who we had recently changed houses with hadn't paid 3 electric bills so they cut our power.  it took her 3 days to pay the freaking bill!!!  we had no light, warm water, and couldn't use the fridge for 3 days hahaha.  Luckly we had some candles in our house so at night we could plan for the next day.   haha  Also this week we were walking to a recent convert's house and in the middle of the road was lying a 5 foot long snake!  haha yeah it was the biggest snake i've seen outside of the ZOO!  haha i have no idea if it was poisonous or not but i wish i had my camera...  i don't usually carry my camera with me because people might steal it.  but i was supper bumbed i didn't have it!  but the people here are usually super nice!  lots of them work a lot because lots work out in ranching and stuff like that, but in our branch our president works for the military but is super freaking funny and has a blast with us.  we help him plan activities, visit inactives, and whatever he needs help with.  everyone in the branch absolutely loves us so that's good! we've been working with this old retired Gaucho who wants to change his ways and get better but this week he was going to come to church and we visited him because he didn't show, we found out that his brother had commited suicide earlier that morning so that was super hard on him.  we're hoping that we can help him get stronger from this expirience.  all i can say is that the gocpel truly can be the greatest comforter in our lives.

thanks for the emails and the love,

Elder Atkinson