Dec. 16

(Did the Barras family get baptized)  yes they did! it was honestly one of the best days of my life! haha I came to Chile to help people! And that is exactly what we did! It was seriously so cool and I haven't been that nervous for something in my whole life! I'm not sure how many times I said the baptisms words that day but it was A LOT! It was only the mom and daughter this saturdaybecause the younger boy had to go to a fundraiser for his school. thats catholic haha. but it was more because he went with his dad and he doesn't get much time with his dad. this week we should have his baptism on saturday! but yeah. The mom asked me to baptize her and the daughter wanted E' Artiga to baptize her so thats what happened! on friday it was the daughters birthday but she had her party after the baptism saturday so we went to that also and we watched shreck 1. haha it was pretty sweet!

the zone conference was really cool! E' Svec of the 70 and his wife spoke to us. that guy was straight Chileno. it was way hard to understand him. chileans do not say the S at the end of the word. so 2 is do and 3 is tre. haha but i understood his wife. it was fun! heard from pres and his wife and they challenged us to read the book of mormon once every 3 months for a grand total of 4 times this year. haha. its going to be tough but i want to do it! when we were coming back from the conference (which we only got a roll and and apple for lunch because they were in a hurry! and we had to get up a 4:30 in the morning to leave to breakfast was way early!) we got stuck in a traffic jam on a mountain haha. for 3 hours. a semi full of grapes rolled. and right when we were leaving another truck driving past us had a tire of the edge of the road haha. it was a litte crazy! but we got free grapes out of it! 

but that doesn't sustain you when you haven't eaten in 12 hours! we eventually had dinner at 11 o'clock when we got back. however i didnt get my packages! i will get them after x-mas it looks like. which sucks haha but there isn't anything i can do about it. but the zone leader told me that they have at least one at the house.

those trampoline places are fun! and pizza! they have pizza here but its not the same!

its definitely getting hotter here! it is only a little bit more humid here than our house. but i still sweat. haha if i get sent any further north things are going to get really intersting with the heat and my attributes of sweating like a pig. haha yeah we will see what happens! and we have changes this week so there is a posibility that i could change but for new missionaries pres usually keeps them in the same place!

the allergies are fine which is awesome! so far nothing her bothers me whick is really nice!

the forgien comp sucked for the first 2 weeks but now its a huge blessing! my spanish is flying! and i only studied once  this week haha whoops. i can understand almost every conversation that we have and if i dont its because i dont know the word that was said. which is really nice. i taught half of the lesson yesterday with the fam. barrasa sanchez. its fun. the gift of tongues is real haha. that is for sure! also during the conference  i met a elder from enterprise utah and he has been out the same amount of time as josh and my spanish is equal if not a little above his and he has the gringo accent. and i an latino elder in my district has told me before that i don't have a gringo accent. haha that was humbling! I didn't realize how much I have been blessed. thank you for your advice of having paticience and making mistakes! applied that right of the bat and that has made a huge difference! very grateful for what i have been given! like an awesome mom :)

LOVE YOU MOM!

im having fun here, so enjoy yourself there!

read the scriptures if you need help with anything!

love you

Elder Ethington

(This email came 5 minutes after the one above!)

MOM!  THE MOM AND DAD JUST DECIDED TO GET MARRIED!!!!!!!!!! LIKE 1 MIN AGO THEY CALLED US AND THEY ARE DOING THE PAPERS RIGHT NOW FOR THE MARRAIGE! CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!!!!!!! AHAHA I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO SAY! 

Dec. 9th

haha for some reason im not even surprised that all this is happening to josie. haha it seems like if anything ridiculous can happen. it happens to her! walking disaster is right! i hope she feels better! for good!

ill be honest i miss the snow! it doesnt really feel like christmas without the snow! haha this whole week it was like 50 in the morning and then 80 during the day. its very much like the weather in utah! haha.

well they have a baptism date for this saturday! yesterday they had thier interviews and they all passed. and by they I mean the mom, daughter and son. the dad left for work for the week and when he left they were separated and H´gabriela said that she wants to be baptized and it came to a head that her and jime were going to serperate. but when jime left for work he called us at 10 that same night and said that he wants to support her and do his part in this! he is like a child. also thank you SO MUCH! for the advice. i finnaly cried this week :) on wednesday H´gabriela was trying to figure out what she was going to do about jime and all that, and i told her what you said about change and having patience! thank you! it was spot on and we both cried haha! that was pure inspiration on your part THANK YOU! everything has gone a lot smoother since then! THANK YOU!

we talked with geraldin the JW. but only talked. haha she doesnt have adults to talk to so we just had oncé (its what they call late dinner here) and talked with her. that is one thing with here they have late dinner and all it is, is bread avacadoes eggs and ham. and herb tea. I love it!

yeah Schramms are nice. they came with us to a lesson with fam Barrasa and they helped a ton and we are very grateful for that!

im in the zone Illapel, but im in the district, Los Vilos. haha but i will remember that if i get to be in illapel. haha i kind of hope i don´t! it is like an oven there! its not even the middle of summer yet!

haha yeah its crazy that christmas is here. it doesnt really feel real! they are a few houses that have lights but it is not the same! haha but its is still fun. we had a christmas/ night of sweets activity on friday and it was sweet! there was a ton of members and a ton of cake and chilean plates! me and my companion made scones with family barrasa and they had a little sauce thing they made for them! it was sweet! they have cake here that is almost like  your tres leche but yours is much better. and if you put manjar on you tres leche. WATCH OUT! that would be deadly! they celebrate the same as us i think haha. and the family barrasa invited us over for christmas to so that will be fun. the son carlos. he is a lot like ely! haha its really funny but it really sucks sometimes! it makes me miss everyone! but really ill survive! haha im going to have a good time and i also get to talk to you all on christmas so that is going to be sweet! only 15 more days!

i hope my package gets here too! haha it has been almost 2 months! we have a christmas conference on friday with president and also one of the 70 is going to come speak to us also! but more importantly i hopefully will get your packages! or something! haha i hope! 

thank you for everything and i love you! you are a huge example to me and i look for your support when i am on the other side of the world right now. im here so others can have the same happiness that we have.! i love you mom! you are my hero!!

elder ethington

Make sure to watch Thomas's MTC group sing "How Can I Be"
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