Well, this was a pretty boring week. Not a whole ton happened. Still recovering from the swine flu, but getting better, slowly.

Last Thursday, as a birthday present for Sister May, we had a sports morning. All of the zones got together in groups, two zones in one group, and played sports. They had ultimate frisbee, basketball, and the ones I played, football and soccer. It was way fun. We played for 3 hours, and I had forgotten sunscreen so I got pretty burned. But it was a great morning. While there an Elder Snider stopped me on the soccer field to find out where he recognized me from. Turns out we were in a Book of Mormon class together with Brother Gary Purse at BYU-Idaho. After we realized it, I actually recognized him too.

Saturday we had divisions, and I went with Elder Moore to his sector, Carrión 2. He´s just completing one month in Chile but speaks really good Spanish. In a contact we did, the guy came out and asked if we were Communist or from Obama. I told him we´re not Communist so he said we must be from Obama. I replied that he actually doesn´t know us let alone know that we´re here. He didn´t send us, God did. He didn´t buy it. He said "Are you Communists or from Obama?" Again I said neither. He then said "Well then, we´re bad here, cause I´m communist." So we ended the contact, and as we walked away he added "Why are you here anyway? Go back to your country." I told him that in one year and three months I will. But he wanted me to go back RIGHT NOW! It was pretty amusing.

Interesting side note for anyone who has seen the movie "Rain Man" with Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. Kim Peek, the man who inspired that movie, died a few days ago at the age of 58. The bishop´s wife gave us a news article that talked about it. It said that at the age of 6, he had memorized 8 volumes of encyclopedias. Pretty interesting.

We´re working with a man right now named Jose who is pretty interesting. He used to be with Jehovah´s Witnesses. He actually was a missionary and later a pastor for them. Then he realized that they really don´t follow Jesus much so he left. He since then has shared with the Community of Christ and now with us. He has the Bible that we use, the Book of Mormon, the New World Bible from JW, and Doctrine and Pacts, the JW version of Doctrine and Covenants. He already believes in Joseph Smith. Actually, when we showed up for the lesson last week he was on You Tube listening to "Praise to the Man" while watching a slide show with pictures of the First Vision. The problem is that he believes that all churches are right and all have lies. There isn´t one church that is the only right one. So we´ll have to help him out there. But he is really great and already believes in Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon.

Aside from playing sports in the morning, we passed the 31st like any normal day. They did have fireworks at night in Cerro (Hill) Renca, which we can see perfectly from our window. They started at midnight and went for 15 minutes. But we got to bed at 11:30. I was out cold, and wanted to stay that way, but the fireworks woke all of us up so we watched them. They were pretty fun. Then the 1st was also a normal day, even though not for anyone else. There was almost no one in the streets, cars or people. And not many people were home, either. But we worked anyway. Interesting way to pass the new year.

Well, I think that´s about it for this week. Next week will be the last one of the transfer, so hopefully I´ll have something more to say. But until then......ciao!

Elder Murdoch