¡¡TUVIMOS UN BAUTISMO!!!! Translated: WE HAD A BAPTISM!!!! Adela got baptized yesterday. It was a great experience. When we visited her in the evening, she told us that she felt wonderful. She said that church took forever to end. She even didn´t pay too much attention in Relief Society cause she was so anxious for it to get over. The baptism was great. Elder Rasmussen baptized her. But there was one problem. The water heater stopped working while the font was filling. We don´t know why. So the water was freezing. She came out a popsicle, but it´ll just help her remember the baptism even more. The spirit was really strong and we could tell that she really was ready for it. She was excited, and now she´s even more excited for the confirmation next Sunday. Yeah!! She really is amazing.

During Sacrament Meeting yesterday there was a tremor. It was during fast and testimony meeting. At first it was small, hardly noticeable. The music director, a young woman about my age, was sitting on the stand next to one of the counselors in the bishopric. She looked at him, at me, and at someone in the audience, then started moving her hand up and down as if to say "The earth´s moving" and pointed at the ceiling fans which were wiggling. Then it got a little bigger. There was a lot of rustling and some whispers, but no one left. The brother giving his testimony just kept talking, and the bishop on the stand motioned for everyone to stay still. The ward mission leader also helped calm people down. Finally it stopped about when the brother finished his testimony. The next brother went up and said "Don´t worry, the tremor passed." The counselor also gave his testimony, saying that as he was reading the scriptures before the meeting, he had a feeling to open the side door that leads from the chapel to outside. It was an interesting experience. We later learned it was a 6.0--I forgot where--and a 3.0 in Santiago. Nothing compared to an 8.5. :)

Saturday we started teaching English classes. It started out small with just a few members and Adela. But it went well; they all already know a lot. We´re hoping to get more people, especially non-members, to find a way to find new investigators. The bishop has a teaching manual thing on the computer in the church that we will be using. For now we´re going to be printing off and giving out the lesson for the following week. The nice thing is that there are 4 missionaries in the ward, so we´re thinking of having two teach a beginner class and the other two teach an advanced class. It should be good.

The bad thing about Saturday was that it was a holiday, "Day of the Worker." Here in Chile they have a lot of nonsense holidays, including another one called "Kid´s Day" when they don´t work. I find it kind of ironic having "Day of the Worker" and they don´t work that day. I do have to give it to them, they do work hard down here. Which is probably why they take advantage of any opportunity to not work. But during these holidays everyone gets high and/or drunk. It was hard working in the evening cause everybody was partying. Including the 19-year-old brother of Katalina, the little girl we´re teaching. We passed by for her, and he came to the door plastered. The second he opened the door we immediately smelled Marijuana and beer. He was so wasted, he had to lean against the door and almost fell. We thought he was going to throw up on us. He was in there enough to tell us that his mom and sister are in the north of Chile for the week. He then invited us in, but we declined. Rats, we´ll have a hard time visiting Katalina. Oh well, next week.

Well, that was my week. Not a whole lot happened, but it was still a good week.
Enjoy this week!

Elder Murdoch