Well, fourth transfer is now over. Last night we got the call telling us about the new tranfers. The problem is that Elder Barney likes to joke. A lot. He said that Elder Squire was leaving, and I was staying. My new comp would be a Chilean that was in my last zone. Then he called back and said that wasn´t the transfers, and asked if we wanted to know what they are. Then he said, "Do you wanna know the real joke?" Those were the transfers. Then he said just kidding and that he´d call when he got them. Then he called later with some other fake transfers, and then hung up. Then his comp called and said that they were frustrated and bored because the call wouldn´t come. Finally we received the real news. Both Elder Squire and I are staying again. This will be our third transfer together! Crazy! But there´s more: our sector, Carrión, is going to split. It will still be the same ward, but two sectors, Carrión 1 and Carrión 2. And there will be 4 missionaries in our apartment. It´s gonna be a little cramped, but it shouldn´t be too bad. One, Elder Pitito, is from Argentina. I´ve heard that he´s really good. We don´t know how long he´s been here, but he´ll be training so he must have some time. I´m looking forward to it. It will definitely help my Spanish, having a latino, plus we can help his with English which I enjoy doing. And we´ll be helping his "son" to learn. It does put a little more weight on my shoulder to be a good example for the greenie, but honestly I think it will be good for me. It should be a good experience for all of us.

Nicolas and Natasha are still doing great. They´ve been going to church, reading, and praying about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. They still haven´t received their answer or testimony, so we´ll have to work with that. They had their baptismal date for this Sunday, the 13th, but Chile has elections that day, so we can´t have baptisms. Which means we´ll have to baptize them the 20th, which I´m sure will happen. I´m glad I´ll get to be here for it. This week we´re gonna do a fast together with them; a fast to help them receive an answer. Then we´re gonna end it by having lunch with them. I´m really excited for them, and can´t wait till the 20th.

But we did almost lose Nicolas the other night. We were in the house planning for the next day, and the doorbell rang. We opened the door, and the pamplet of the Restoration was on the welcome mat, with a note. The hall was empty. It was a note from Nicolas that basically said "Don´t come by anymore. I talked to some people who told me a bunch of stuff about you guys. I don´t want any more. I don´t want to have a lot of wives! Satanists!" We were really confused because we´ve already explained polygamy to him and he understood and was good. Then I flipped over the pamphlet, and noticed that the back, which has reminders for the investigators, was blank. We always write stuff on the back:what they´re supposed to read, their baptismal goal, our name and number, etc. So I knew it couldn´t be Nicolas, it had to be a prank. But who knew about Nicolas, knew where we lived, and could easily get a pamplet? Besides a missionary? We went down to ask the guy in the guardhouse if someone came by and asked where we live. He said no, but two other missionaries had come by. (He´s actually a member from a different ward) But they hadn´t left. So we went around back looking, and sure enough, Elder Barney my DL, and his companion, were there. They had made it up on the way to our apartments. We were infuriated with them. But at least it was just a joke and not true. The next day we visited Nicolas, and he was just as great as ever. It was quite the experience. Now, looking back, it was kinda funny.

Maria, the woman who got baptized about 2 months ago, is doing good. We´re working with her son Felipe. We´ve tried with her husband, Mario, but he doesn´t want to stop smoking. We´re gonna baptize Felipe, and that should put more pressure on Mario, then being the only non-member in his family. Felipe, 9 years old, is coming along great. Actually, wonderful. Two months ago when we baptized Maria, he would always call us the bad Mormons. Now he really likes us. So much that after we left an appointment with them yesterday he came running after us and asked us why we have to leave. He had his head down and was about at the point of crying. Maria usually accompanies us a little ways out the door before leaving us, but yesterday she didn´t even leave the house. We know that she cried a bit. They´ll both be happy that we both stayed here. Also, Mario says hi to everyone.

The other day we were walking down the street and we passed a black man. He stopped us and, in English, asked if we speak English. We talked to him for a few minutes, in English and Spanish. He´s from Haiti, and has been here for awhile and said he has to practice English or he forgets. He´s pretty cool, and we took down his address and are gonna visit him when we get a chance.

Today I went to the doctor again. While there we stopped by the office of the Chile Santiago East Mission to drop off a referencia. While waiting, one Elder started talking to me. Turns of he´s from Idaho Falls and has heard of Grace before. Also, their mission president came in and also asked me where I´m from. He owns land in Bear Lake. Wow. It´s a small world. I come all the way down here to Chile and I still can´t get away from Grace. :)

Well, I think that´s about it. We´re a little low on investigators right now and knocking doors a lot, but we´ve been told that the whole mission is like that. Hopefully soon we can find more people. But until next week...ciao!

Elder Murdoch