Well, the past week went by pretty fast and uneventful. Okay, that second one was a lie. We had more earthquakes/tremors. Thursday during studies there was a 7.2, and minutes later a 6.9. Small. It´s kinda funny how after living an 8.5, a 7.2 feels like nothing. Still I do get really nervous after every small shake. Everyone´s saying that there´s going to be another aftershock, bigger than the first earthquake, but farther north. But the other day I heard that the experts said that it´s wrong and there won´t be. I hope that´s right.

Also, maybe having to do with the earthquake, maybe not, there was a power outage last night. I don´t think it was all of Santiago but a big chunk, including where I am. It was about 8:30. We were going to do a few contacts in the street then go to a member´s house because she baked us brownies, which is her business. But then every single light in sight went out all at once. So we both pulled out the little pen lights we keep and went straight to the house. At about 10:20 the light came back. I still don´t know why it went out, but it was a pretty interesting experience.

Last week was a little difficult. We visited a lot of members to present me to them, but we didn´t have many lessons. I am learning a lot from Elder Rasmussen, but we both still have a lot more to learn. He´s still struggling with the language, but I struggle more with the teaching. There´s a reason we´re together. His last companion used to be assistant to the president when we got here. Elder Rasmussen told me that what president is doing with all of our group is trying to get it so that he can put us with the "bad" missionaries so that after being with us they can be better. Also, he´s hoping to make us leaders eventually. Hmmmmm. I´ve got a long way before I´d feel ready to be a leader. But that decision isn´t mine.

Elder Rasmussen is from Ogden, Utah. He also plays basketball (we´re probably gonna go next Monday) and is pretty funny. He got here on the same plane as me, so we have the same time. And seeing that we probably will be together the next transfer, we´ll complete a year together.

This ward is great. The bishop, young, is amazing and all the members are wonderful. The problem is that they have "groups," so we´re going to start doing Family Home Evening as a whole ward once a week, to get the ward more united, to reactivate, and, obvious, to baptize. We actually share the ward with two other missionaries--Elder King from California, on his 3rd transfer; and Elder Romero, who was in Carrión a little before me. Elder Romero, DL, is from Colombia and has the same time as Elder Rasmussen and I. He and Elder King had 3 baptisms yesterday. One was a 9-year-old whose family are active members. The other two were brothers. Their dad and two uncles (who make us think of The Godfather) are also members. One uncle is Elders Quorum President, and the dad is Young Men´s President. So they were easy baptisms for Elder Romero.

Funny thing. I think I´ve mentioned this before, but I don´t remember. I´m famous down here. There´s a TV program called Los Magnificos (The Magnificents). In USA it´s called A-Team. I´d never heard of it before the mission. But it has Mr. T. And there´s a character named Murdoch. He´s supposedly crazy and funny. Hmmmm. But everytime someone hears my name it´s like, "Oh! Murdoch! Like from Los magnificos!" Yup. Fun.

Well, I´m out of time. Got to go. Next week hopefully I´ll have more success to talk about.
Adios!

Elder Murdoch