"Last Monday we made sushi at our pension. It was so fun and I guess out here in the mission there is an Asian Club and I got to be a part of it. I feel so cool. ha ha It was really fun and delicious. The only bad part was that Elder Balling and I had to deep clean the kitchen the next day and it was really disgusting! "
"The youth in our ward are so cool. I love them all. They are strong and help the missionaries out a ton. They all depend on eachother and support one another. They have seminary every day and end up seeing eachother a lot. I love their unity. They also do all of the stake activities and are just so awesome ."
"We had a hard week. I don't know why but we just had a lot of appointments fall through and we had a hard time finding people to teach. I think this week we will start again with new animo. Elder Balling is super sick right now and I don't think we will be working today. Hopefully he will start to feel better. We have two girls that I think will be baptized this month. They are 13 and 11 and are old investigators. They went to church when they were little but became inactive because their Dad was excommunicated. They have been to lots of churches but have always remembered how they felt at ours. They are participating in every activity and are excited to be baptized. I absolutely love it! They go to mutual and church and all the noche de hogares. It's great! They are basically baptizing themselves. "
"The next thing I am going to share is pretty intense. The other day Elder Balling and I were walking to our first appointment when I remembered that we were fasting, so we had to tell the sister to not prepare a meal for us. Elder Balling made a call right then and when he was done a 12 year old kid yelled, "Cellular! " and left his friends and ran right to us. I was thinking who is this crazy kid and then he pulls out a revolver and points it right at me. He told us he wanted our cell phone. Right when I saw the gun, I just automatically turned around and started walking as if I didn't see it. Elder Balling just followed me because he was unsure about what to do. So this kid is like these guys don't get it. He runs in front of me and opens the gun and shows me all the bullets inside. He wanted to prove that it was real because he thought that I thought it was a toy. I just looked at him as if I didn't understand. Since we didn't show any fear, the boy got embarrassed in front of his friends, and kinda chuckled and said that it was all a joke and ran back to his friends. It was awkward for him. I know that I was looking at him with an expression of, "So what? ", but inside I was thinking, "Oh my heck that kids got a gun! ." I wasn't scared until after and actually realized how dangerous the situation really was. "
"Anyways that is what is going on with me. Nothing too exciting. I love you all so much and am grateful for such an incredible family. I'm so grateful for a strong family and to have parents that love and support eachother. I'm grateful for my siblings and for the talents and strengths that they have. I'm grateful for my Heavenly Father and for my Savior, Jesus Christ. I know that they love us and only want to bless us. I love the saying that they have here, "To be Mormon is to be happy ." It is so true. I'm happy that I'm Mormon and I'm happy that I am here in Chile. I know that Joseph Smith truly was called of God to restore the true church and that the Book of Mormon is true scripture. Just knowing that can bring such a peace into our, as well as others, lives. I hope you will always be happy. Keep being you. Your gangsta missionary... "
Elder Dallon Smith
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| Companions Elder Balling and Elder Smith |
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| The Ochagavia Zone |
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| Newest members of the Asian Club: Elders Smith and McDougal |
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| Birdseye view of Santiago |