June 16, 2014

This week we had a bunch of things interesting happen. 

The first I will start off with is that I ate pig's foot....very weird. It was just super greasy and it was hairy too and ya it just wasn't super great.  Not sure why they give us that stuff to eat. I also ate crickets this week! I had actually tried that before but I think these ones were actally homemade haha. You eat them with salsa too. They arent really anything but crunchy. Not really any flavor to them. Also I tried a fruit called Viña. It looks like those trees that have the pea pods just bigger and on the inside around the pea it has this white stuff around it. That's the fruit or whatever you eat. It's alright, it's just kind of a sweet taste and that's about it. Wasn't super good or anything, just kinda weird. Thats about all the weird food I've eaten this week, but it was quite eventful in eating it. 

The other thing that's going on here is some festival they have. I don't know what its called but all the people dress up and they all look like Death Eaters from harry potter/KKK suits. The only difference is that they have a bunch of colors. It's actually really weird haha. They all run around with these little ropes or cords and the all whip each other. Most just do it softly as a joke, but supposedly there's others that do it to just hurt others. They also throw powder all over people, silly string , and whip cream. It's kinda interesting haha. It's just some tradition they have only here in Santiago. I'll let you know if I get hit by anyone and I need to get some good pictures of them. 

Alright, now more for the missionary stuff haha. This week I have been studying the Atonement of Jesus Christ. That's been my focus this last week. Its just a topic that I feel like I need to understand a lot better so that I can help my investigators. Anyways, I truly had an amazing time studying it and realizing a little bit more of what it means for each and everyone of us. The Atonement means that you and can be forgiven of all things. It means that we can be made perfect. That we can return with God. We can have our families forever. And soooooo many other things. But, we have to do our part to get all of these things. One of the parts I really liked was in the bible reading Romans 8. Talked a lot about turning ourselves from the natural man or the flesh and becoming spiritual. It is something that all of us must do here and the only way is through the Atonement. REMEMBER that Jesus, our older brother who loved us so dearly, gave his life for us. Knowing the great love he had for us, I want to ask a question. If he did all he did for us, How do you think he feels when we sin? I thought about that a lot this week. The sadness that he must receive when we sin. But the other part is that we can and always will be able to repent and return unto him. If we do all that we can in this world to show our love for God and Jesus Christ in this world one day we will be able return home once again to their presence. So, let's get to work. A quote came to mind when I was writing this and it's as follows, "This life isn't about how many times we get knocked down rather how many times we get back up." For that reason Christ died, so that we can get back up. I know that Christ is my savior and redeemer. He is my brother. He loves me and loves you.

Please try your hardest to live a life like Christ.

I love you all so very much,

Elder Hakes