Relax, You're in Pirque!

  That is what it says on some of the signs here in good ole Pirque. Relax, you're in Pirque. And it's really true, it's so much different here than in the city. I am really enjoying it here. A lot of this letter will be talking about the sector and stuff that goes on and what has happeend and all that jazz. But first off....

  Lakers won! Haha, that's pretty cool. Too bad I was here. But Chile won their game in the world cup today so that's cool. And the States isn't doing bad I've heard. Anyway,
  So Pirque. I've completed my first week here and is pretty much flown by. I dunno where to get start. So Pirque is a comuna in Santiago, comuna being like an area, but it's kinda not Santiago because it's not really city, more like country area. And the whole comuna is our sector. Its gigantic. Elder Sáenz says on bike it would take a few hours to go end from end. But it's not too bad. We do a lot of bus riding and bike riding. We haven't got on the bikes yet though, because the whole week was terribly cold and it rained a lot, on Thursday or Friday it rained the entire day. Ah, we live in the house of a member of the church. Her son is currently attending BYU. We live in the addition to her house in the back. So it's pretty cool. She makes us lunch on Mondays, which is good for me because as you know I'm kinda lazy. They have two dogs, a rooster, and like 15 chickens. And the rooster wakes me up every morning! But Elder Saenz says you just get used to it. So like I said we have to take either busses or bikes to travel around the sector. Or of course, you got old fashioned feet. Here we don't get as many lessons because we do spend a lot of time travelling. Sometimes the busses take a while to get around or sometimes we don't wanna use the money and go on a super short bus ride so we just walk for like 45 mins haha. But it's really cool here. The people are completely different. Everyone says that the people here are like the people in the south of Chile, the people who live in the country. They're just friendlier, more open to listen to us, and all around nicer to us as missionaries. Also, in Santiago, it is illegal to burn firewood. But here in Pirque it isn't, so everyone has these stoves in their houses called salamandras and you just stick he firewood in there and it heats up the house amazingly. It's really really nice because it is a little colder here. Unfortunately, in out part of the house we don't have one, so we freeze. Just a joke, we don't freeze. Dad would love it here, because its like we're in the outdoors. There's a river, the Andes mountains are close and pretty looking with the recent snowfall(which could potentially get to Pirque), long roads with no cars or people, trees, all that good nature stuff. That's pretty much my sector. I'm loving it here. Its a great break from the craziness of the city life, with people everywhere, flaites, and regaeton blasting everywhere. So it should be a good time spent here. And don't worry I've already took a ton of pictures.
A couple of experiences to help you know what it's like here in the sector.
  -We see huasos a lot here. Huasos are the cowboys of Chile. They're riding horses, with their hats and ponchos, it's pretty cool. I'll have to show you a picture of them.
   -The other day we were walking down the street and I was looking to the side or something and Elder Saenz says oh man! and I look ahead and there's three bulls running down the street towards us! Some guy pops out of nowhere and says, don't worry, and then guides them off down a street to their corral.
  - We were also walking down the street on Tuesday or Wednesday. We were looking for an old investigator that the missionaries were teaching a while back. The problem is in this sector is that their numbering and street naming system isn't good. Lots of times there aren't street names. So we were walking on the street and some guy in his car stops and tells us to get in, so we do and he says where you going? we tell him the address and he asks us the question, who are you trying to see? We tell him the name and he responds, "oh I don't know her. and I know everyone here in Pirque because I've lived here all my life. Let's go to this little store and ask the guy, he knows everyone" so we went there and he asked the guy but the guy wasn't sure, when in walk two random guys into the store and say, "oh yeah we know her, she lives right over there!" so then we got to the house.
But that's how it is here. Pretty different but I like it a lot.
  In terms of other things. Our investigators are doing good. We are teaching a couple called Juan and Yazna who are really cool. They are really close to getting baptized, they already have their testimonies and everything, but they need to get married. We're doing a temple tour with them on Saturday and then we're gonna ask them what they think. But yeah, at the moment those are the only ones I remember really. There's others but we're working with them. No one went to church though so that was disappointing.
  Other things that went on this week.....We had interviews with President this week and they went really good. Pres. gave me some really good advice. These next few changes should be interesting. Oh, my zone leader is Elder Evans, the one that was my second comp. Hes "dying" this change, or say,  he's going home at the end of July. so that's cool, we got to catch up and we see each other once a week.
  On friday we had a Priesthood activity in the house of one of the members. And Elder Saenz made authentic Mexican tacos and it was really delicious. He found a mexican restaurant that actually makes mexican tortillas and we made some tacos and quesadillas and guacamole for the men of the ward. It turned out really good.
  Well that is basically it. I'll have a more descriptive letter next week, with more details on things. It's gonna take me years to figure this sector out though, its huge. We'll see. But I'm loving it here. This change is gonna be a really good one. Hope that you are all doing really good over there in the States! I'm doing really well here in the far distant land of chile. Hope your week goes well. Talk to you next week!

Elder Aaron Mayberry