My Chilean Companion!

Hey Family!

  What wonderful news I have! I'm TRAINING again!!! And this time it's a Chilean named Elder Olivares from Santiago!!!!!! WHOOOHOOO!!! And he's from Max's generation of missionaries! SO WEIRD! He's 19 and I'm basically training Max. HOW COOL! Elder Willett got transferred. That did make us sad. We said goodbye to all our converts on Sunday because my leaders had told me that I'd probably be going. Well it turns out that Elder Willett left. And I'm TRAINING again!! I can't tell you how excited I am. Also, Elder Silos is training! SO I'M A GRANDPA!!! (when you train, they're considered your sons, so my son's son is my grandpa!). Today I went in the morning to the mission offices to pick my new compy up. Their were a group of seven, but I knew immediately who would be my companion when I saw him. I can't describe how, but then it turned out that he was the one that was from Chile! How cool. But I HAVE SUCH A HARD TIME UNDERSTANDING HIM. He doesn't pronounce his "s" at the end of words. He said that the fruit in Chile is "mas rico" but I understood "marrico" and wondered what word that was.. By the way, my tongue sometimes rolls! So yes! I'm training. And President promised that we'll baptize three this month. I'm going to do all I can. I want to baptize 32 more people in my mission, so I've got to figure this out. They say that training is the greatest honor in the mission because it affects the rest of the mission of the new elder. Elder Woodhouse, who is an assistant, actually told me that they were going to make me be a zone leader, but decided to wait. Oh no..

  So that's the good news. I loved Elder Willett. I'm going to miss him. We had a ton of fun! And have a TON of inside jokes. I wish I could tell you all, but they require acting it out. The Elder (President) Octavio Tenorio came this Friday to see all of us elders. He told us to have vision! We need to put forth an effort, concentrate, and have joy in completing with our dreams. He said that if we want to do something with our life and be really successful--I'll give a pie shop as an example--then we have to first do it for free, observing how others do it, but learn to do it faster, cheaper, and better. So that's my advice for me for later. I can't believe in 10 months I'll be home. But anyway. After that conference an elder came up to me and told me how some of my converts are doing. Not very good. It actually was something that really depressed me. But I'm happy now. I just have to put it in the Lord's hands. He'll take care of them and give them a fair chance to progress.

  Well I love you family!

Love,

My Chilean Companion, Elder Olivares

  Elder Poirier