WE GOT THERE JUST IN TIME TO WATCH THEM SLAUGHTER THE CHRISTMAS LAMB

FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello hello everybody! I hope that you all had an amazing Christmas. Family, it was awesome talking to you guys on Christmas, especially with Skype, gotta love technology. I still can´t believe how huge Baylor and Izzie are. I noticed it on Skype and then again on the Christmas stairs picture. And Baylor's voice still throws me off; the days of his Michael Jackson impressions are definitely over jaja. And Abbie..well..you haven't grown but at least you look older. I have reached that stage now when two years here or there doesn't really change how I look; it makes me feel old or something jaja. Anyways, it was great to talk to and see you all on Christmas; I greatly enjoyed it. And thank you family and everyone for the Christmas package. Me, my comp, and my house mates are very much enjoying their contents now. Well the family already got all the updates about the week and my Christmas but now I´ll talk about how it all went for the rest of you all.

So Tuesday morning we took off early to make the 6 hour drive up to Concepción so Elder Garcia and I could pick up our new hijos (trainees). When we got there we were trained a little bit by some of the zone leaders and then ate pizza while waiting for the newbies to come. It was dejavu being in that chapel again but this time sitting in the back watching instead of being a greenie up front nervously presenting myself in terribly broken spanish. Anywas the new guys came (a group of all gringos) and unto me a son was born jaja. His name is Elder Ahart, he´s from Colorado Springs, Colorado.

He´s a good kid and I think he talks even more than me. He can talk my ear off sometimes jaja but he's excited to be here and excited to work, which is good. We are going to have a lot of fun this cambio and work hard and I think that he will adjust quickly because he doesn't really have much of that wide-eyed what-the-heck-am-I-doing-here look or attitude that most new gringos have. His spanish.. well.. jaja were going to work a lot on that this cambio because as of right now he doesn't speak much but I´m sure that he will learn quickly.

Anyways after picking him up we made the journey back and we arrived in Pitrufquén at 12:00am early Wednesday morning and just stayed the night there and then made it to Loncoche Wednesday afternoon after district meeting. As far as how Christmas went here it actually went a lot better than I thought it would. Jaja to be honest I thought it was going to be a bust and the only thing I was really looking forward to was talking with you guys, which of course was still the high light, but it turned out to be a really good Christmas over all. Since we had so little time to work this week due to picking up the kids, the Christmas Conference with the President in Temuco on Thursday, and Christmas, the time that we did have to work we spent running around visiting our investigators and a few less active members. I went to visit all of them with my Santa hat which they loved and I found that all of them were good and I was able to spend some time with almost all of them and share with them a little Christmas message. Then on Christmas Eve before going home, we decided to visit this less active member that's been having a real rough time to wish them a Merry Christmas and we got there just in time to witness a Christmas tradition of the Chilean campo (the country folk). We got there just in time to watch them slaughter the Christmas lamb. Here in Loncoche it's a tradition on

Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve to buy a live lamb, kill it, skin it, clean it, cook it, and then barbecue it and eat it. And we got to watch the whole process jaja. Yes, it might sound a little gross and disturbing but it was a lot of fun and then they invited us to come back on Christmas Day to eat it with them. I won't give you very many details but to kill it they just kind of tied it down to this bench and then stabbed it once through the neck and bled it to death. Yeah the skinning and cleaning process was a little more gruesome so I will spare you all the details but dont worry, we got pictures jaja. So that was Christmas Eve.

Then on Christmas we woke up, I opened my presents and as I was finishing up, we heard a rustling sound and crunching coming from the kitchen. All of us missionaries were together so we crept over there and then peeked into the kitchen to see what was going on. There we found a package of spaghetti spilled all over the ground that led to a little hole in the wall of a kitchen and a crunching sound coming from the wall. Yes, a rat was enjoying a Christmas breakfast of our spaghetti in our house! no no no.. unacceptable. So all of us, still in pajamas and sandals, gathered a broom and some pots and pans and I got the camera to film us getting that thing out. We pounded on the wall a few times and apparently we were unprepared for the big black ball of furry that came out of the hole because everyone yelled and jumped to avoid it running into our feet. It made one circle around the kitchen, ran into 

one of the elder's feet, and ran back. After we gathered together once again the shreds of our manhood and pride, we banged on the wall once again this time prepared to take the sucker down. Unfortunately he had learned his lesson and was not coming back out. So we devised a plan. We lit about fifteen incense sticks and stuck them into one of the holes of the wall to smoke him out. I think we did a better job of smoking us out than him. Anyways we finally got him back out but the broom and pots and pans just couldn't get him; he was too fast for us. Yeah, so short story long we didn't kill the bugger and we are now just going to buy a bunch of rat traps. He better have enjoyed his last Christmas because his days are numbered. Anyways after that we went to go eat the Christmas lamb and then went to the familia Ariz house to talk with you guys. And that was our Christmas; it definitely wasnt boring jaja.

Then on Sunday morning we weren't expecting to have many investigators at church because most were busy or out of town for the holidays but one Mom (Neli) and her two kids (Tamara and Valentina) that we are teaching came and they stayed for all three hours and seemed to enjoy it a lot. This was the Mom's second time in church but the daughter's first time. But they all seemed to make fast friends with the members and you could tell that they felt the spirit during the meetings. They are members of the church of the seventh day adventists and have made that clear to us but we are starting to notice a change in them now and I'm sure that the spirit is working to open their hearts to the truthfulness of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. We have an appointment to teach them with some of their neighboors now on Wednesday and if everything goes well we will be putting a baptismal date with them. And that was my week. Well I got to go now but I love you all a lot and for those of you that I didn't talk to on Saturday, I hope that you had a very Merry Christmas and that you were able to feel the true spirit of Christmas with the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Well until next week chau chau and a happy New Year.

con amor, Elder Harper =)