Well, I am now one month in Chile. And 3 months on the mission in total. Wow how time flies! It´s going so fast! And yet at the same time, it seems to go slow, too. I´m not sure which I want more: fast so I can get home to my family, or slow so I can be here in the work of the Lord for longer. It´s a wonderful work, and coming great.

The language is really coming. I can speak a lot better. Many people are surprised when they hear me talk, and later discover I only have a month here. I can talk, for the most part, really well. As always, understanding is something different. There are still many people that I can´t for the life of me understand no matter how hard I try. But there are many people that I can understand pretty well and answer back. It´s coming, but I still need more time and work.

I got a little sick this last week. At first it was just a little cough, then that got worse. I woke up one night coughing like crazy. I had to take some Dayquil at 2 in the morning. The next day I had a headache all day, worse in the night, and woke up again at 2 shivering and shaking. I couldn´t control it either. The next day I woke up with a migraine. But we had to go to a zone conference, so I took some Ibueprofen and didn´t say anything. It got a little better throughout the day. After that I just had headaches and coughs. And eventually it got better. I hope. I´m taking vitamins and hope it doesn´t come back.

This week was a little sad for one main reason. We had to drop Karla and Elva, because they weren´t keeping their commitments or appointments. And Cristian Catalan´s parents don´t want him talking with us. We´ve told him that it´s his decision and if he wants to learn more we could teach him somewhere else. If he really wanted to he could, but we don´t think he´s that dedicated. We dropped Jorge, too. A lot of people dropped. But we´re searching for the chosen and know that the Lord will help us with this.

This week we have found a couple more people. Cristian Borgus is 20-ish and works, I think, in a supermarket. He´s really great. We taught the Restoration and Book of Mormon. He´s prayed several times and has felt peace, which we tell him is the Spirit answering him. He also has read a little in the Book of Mormon. Tonight we´re going to watch a film with him called "By Small and Simple Things" and commit him to church. He has a date for Augost 16. He´s progressing really well. We also found a family. Soñia and her daughters Ursula and Fabiola. Ursula has a 2-year-old named Felipe. We call him Felipe Feliz because Feliz is Spanish for happy, and he is always smiling and laughing and happy. Fabiola has a 12-year-old daughter, Scarlet. Soñia never is interested in our lessons, and Scarlet kinda just listens. But Ursula and Fabiola have prayed and read the Book of Mormon, felt the Spirit, and this Sunday are commited to church. They´re progressing great, too.

I forgot to tell about P-Day two weeks ago. We went to a hill called Santa Lucia. It has some remnants of a castle from back in the days of the Spaniards, complete with towers, canons, and a statue of a founder of Santiago. It´s really cool. I sent some pictures home.

Thursday we had a zone conference with President May. It was really great. I learned a lot from him that I´m trying to apply in my mission and life. We also had lunch there. It was really good. There are a few older women and men, (4 I think) that help President and Sister May with the mission home, and with food and everything. We sang one verse of called to serve for them. One of the women was one of the first missionaries to serve from Chile. That´s way cool.
President and Sister May are wonderful. I love them! They really work hard in this work, and also for us. They´re great!

Our English class was great this Saturday. We started with three people, and about halfway through three more came, so we ended with six. (One, this is her 3rd week, and another this is his 2nd. Another already speaks really good English, just wants to practice.) We taught about presenting ourselves, as usual, a little, but they already knew that. Then we taught about asking and answering questions. They all caught on great. It´s fun hearing people who have lived in Chile their whole life and grown up speaking Spanish, speaking in English. It´s great.

Not much else happened this week. Still trying to find more people to teach and trying to get the language down. But things are going great. We had lasagna the other day, and it was good, but it made me miss mom´s lasagna, which is way better.
Well, I think that´s about it. Take care this week. Love you!
Elder Murdoch