Chao Pescado

Six months ago I got to the beach but today I had to say goodbye to the nice ocean breeze and the good views. I am now in the countryside... well actually I havent even gotten to my sector yet I am not sure what it is like. But I have heard that it is country and that it is beautiful. I am excited to get to know it and to start working here in El Monte.

It was bitter sweet having to say goodbye to all of my friends in Algarrobo. It was kinda sad to say see ya later to all the people i had met and gotten to know really well but at the same time satisfying to see the fruits of all the work we do. It really did feel like home out there If anyone ever wants to visit the ocean in chile I would reccomend it 10/10.

This last week before i left I was trying my best to teach my new companion the sector as best I could because I knew it was possible that I would get transferred... and it was a really really big sector. liiike all of stansbury and all of tooele and maybe even heading out toward stockton. But we had a lot of awesome experiences this last week. We taught a guy that is a diving instructor. He lives in these super nice apartments on the nicest beach in algarrobo which is called el canelillo. But instead of going in his house we just shared on a little bench overlooking all of the beach. It was incredible. we ran in to him two days later while we were in divisions and he told me that something crazy had happened and I asked him to tell me but he said he wanted to wait until the next time we went over to see him. He said that like 2 hours after we had taught him a friend just started talking to him about the book of mormon out of the blue. But. That is all I know at this point because he didnt tell us more. 

Another little miracle is we went in search of a family that had moved from another ward but that got baptized just a few months ago. Turns out they live in these parcelas like up in the middle of nowhere in the mountains. So first we had to hitchike in the back of a truck to get to the hill to climb up to their house. But when we got there none of the neighbors knew who they were and they didnt have cell phone connection so we couldnt call them. We searched for like an hour and just as we threw in the towel and were starting to head out we hear someone call from behind us ELDERS! It was them!! hahaha they had found us. That was a little testimony builder of prayer because we had said a little prayer before to be able to find them. Goes to show that when we put in our effort god puts in his. 

Funny story real quick about what happened on the way out to my new zone. we were traveling with 5 elders... 4 of which had changes. So imagine how many suitcases that is... like 12. So we took a bus to the city in the country that is called melipilla. But then from there we had to take another smaller bus to a place called talagante. But we couldnt fit in the little buses with our bags. So we ended up getting in a big bus going toward santiago that told us that he could drop us off closer to talagante. AS we were getting in the bus we looked out side and some guy off the road was taking out and trying to steal some of the bags... lol... so we put an end to that for sure. It was more funny than anything serious. Cuz the bad guys arent hard core in chile. But then we got dropped off on the side of the highway and none of us had any idea where we were. But we got a taxi that helped us get everything to the stake center and now all is well in zion.

Sounds like it was a really awesome week back home!! Congrats to the champs for their win and I loved all the pictures!

Elder Holdstock