He has found the bread of life...literally

Hola, Familia - ¿Qué Tal?

Nothing much is new here in Chile. We have all worked super hard this week setting the example for the zone. We would have done better, but the problem is that I´m slightly sick. It´s only an irritated stomach - I hope. But I´ve been on clear liquids for the past 24 hours, and have gotten some additional sleep. I don´t know why I´m sick, but oh well.

That reminds me, I haven´t told you all about the food here in Chile. We´ll start with the bread. It is so, so good. Marraqueta is like french bread, but better. And "pan amasado" is this thick, dense homestyle bread - absolutely delicious. And what´s better, pan (bread) is cheap here. What´s also really good are "completos", or more specifically, "Italianos", basically a hot dog on an oversized, toasted bun with diced tomatoes, avocado, and home made mayonaise. I like mine with a little ketchup. They are so good, and a great reward for doing your daily contacts. On the sweeter side, there´s "berlines", which is basically a bismarck doughnut, and this delectable thing called "brazo de reina", which translated means, "the arm of the queen." It´s like a cake, but it´s filled with cream and manjar - basically caramel. It´s so good. The empanadas here are great too. There´s a lot of dishes with rice here, which is good. But salad is weird. The basic salad is lettuce with oil and lemon juice, generally served with tomatoes. Luckily, there´s pan at just about every meal.

I can´t believe that our ward beat Gravelly Lake - !Qué Bueno¡ The 24th of July isn´t really a big deal down here. I´m glad to hear that you all are surviving camps and temple remodels and everything else. I´m starting to settle in here. I´m adjusting to spanish, and I am even starting to think in Spanglish. I´m enjoying the work. I´ve already been here for 5 weeks - changes are this next week. I hope that I get to stay here. I really like this ward, and the people here. Oh yeah, if everything goes accroding to plan, we´re going to have one, if not two, baptisms this week! I will be sending pictures. Tell Bro. Roholt that he will do fine in the bishopric. If I can learn spanish, he can be in the bishopric.

Ciao, Amigos!

Elder Hjelm

From Chile with love

Hey, family. It´s still winter here in Santiago, but it is slightly warmer now. I think we´re starting to head into spring, which will be nice. I finally obtained a backpack - a gift from an investigator. Finally, my shoulders shouldn´t hurt very much. But now I have a shoulder bag that I don´t know what to do with! Oh well, I rather have that problem than back problems. The work here is going well. We´re contacting a lot, mainly because our appointments keep falling through. We had our Zone Conference on Wednesday - that was really good. Oh, and I had my first ward activity where, surprise, we had to share a message and a video about faith with like two minutes of preparation. But we pulled it off. The time here is really quite strange. For example, the activity started at 8 pm. We didn´t actually do anything until 9. They didn´t start cooking until 8.I was thinking the whole time that we would have had everything planned out and set up if this was back in Washington. Welcome to Southern America. I´m doing good. It sounds like you all have a busy week this week. I didn´t know that Dad was cubmaster. That should be fun. I will miss teaching knots with Uncle Rick. I enjoyed that. Just keep on working hard, and the blessings will come. You are in my prayers every night.

From Chile with Love,

Elder Hjelm

Yea pictures!



He knows where he is going!

Pizza, grilled cheese and the "white boy from Washington"

Greetings from Santiago!

I am currently in what I believe is Northeastern Santiago, in an area called Gambino. I´m not exactly sure where it is in Santiago, but I´m reasonably sure that I´m in Chile. I´m over one ward - the Gambino Ward. All the members are really nice, and they feed us three times a week. We buy lunch - the big meal here - three times a week from a member, and P-Days we have to basically fend for ourselves - don´t worry, I have become a master at making grilled cheese using the toaster and the microwave. I even bought my own bottle of ketchup, just for my grilled cheese. Grilled cheese sandwiches are warm, which is nice, considering that it´s the middle of winter here. I´m not to cold - I have my thermals, gloves, and a big coat, and lots of blankets. None of the houses here have heating or insulation, so we use plug-in heaters. We celebrated the fourth of July the other with, of course, PIZZA! Yes, even here in the middle of nowhere santiago, chile, they have pizza. Which reminds me, happy birthday to Rix, Dad, and Isaac, and congratulations to Rix on being baptized. I´m sorry I had to miss it.

Yes, I have been kind of frustrated lately. Homesick, tired, lonely, and not having fun. But some interesting things happened this week that changed that. A member of our ward died on wednesday. We went to the viewing, and I didn´t think much more of it. That is, until we got a call the next day from our ward mission leader, Hermano Muñoz, who had been authorized to preside and conduct at the funeral, and needed our help. We ended up obtaining permission from President Essig to go to the graveside service, where, of course, I, the white boy from washington who had been there for two and a half weeks, had to give the opening prayer. Thankfully, I had enough Spanish to suffice, and was given some help. Two days later, we visited his family. We sang, "Come follow me", in spanish of course, and then we prayed, and elder chung shared a message of hope. And then I had a feeling, a feeling that I should share Matthew 11:28-30, about coming unto christ. As I did so, my mouth was filled with what to say. I didn´t know as much spanish as I said that night, nor do I remember exactly what it was that I said. But one grandaughter felt it, and we are visiting them again tonight. A similar experience happened when we taught Fresia later that night with Elder Brown, one of the Assistants. Again, What I said was not of me, but from on high. The same thing happened again yesterday as well. And I can now contact better than I ever have.

I still don´t understand a lot of what people say, or why I´m here in santiago instead of San Antonio or St Paul. But I understand a lot more now than I did three days ago. I´ve been here for three weeks, and I only have another 94 to find the reason, or reasons why I´m here in Santiago. I still miss you all a lot.

Buena Suerte,

Elder Hjelm

There's Spanish and then there's Chilean Spanish....

Hello from Chile! Right now, I am in the middle of downtown santiago.
It´s kind of nice here - lots of old buildings and things. It´s a
holiday here, so we are going to go to a museum. It rained for two
days straight here, so now we can see the mountains. I still can only
understand about half of what people say. Our ward mission leader
Hermano Muñoz told me that there´s spanish, and then there´s chilean
spanish. I just want to understand something. But sometimes it´s
better to not understand. For example, when you knock a door, and the
guy is drunk. I had no idea what he was saying, but I looked and
listened intentively and then we left. No clue what he said. But we
gave him a pass along card. I guess that´s about the best that I can
really do. I know that eventually I´m going to pick up the language,
but it´s hard. I´ve never had a really hard time learning something
before. But this is different. I want it now. But it´s not my time
frame. I miss you all so much, and I can´t believe that I still have
94 weeks to go. It feels like I´ve had a lifetime of experiences
already.

With love from Chile,
Elder Hjelm