Well, today we hiked to the top of el Cerro Renca, where there's a huge cross. We woke up at 5 AM to go hike it before the sun came up so it wouldn't be so hot. We went with Elder Villagrán and Elder Huaratapayro. Elder Villagran had hiked it before... but he decided it would be faster to go straight up. It was a lot steeper than I think anyone thought it was going to be. And I'm not sure we're going to be able to walk tomorrow, especially Elder Kelson with his almost, but not fully, recovered knee. We'll see what happens. We are pretty much dead now. And we already took a 45 minute nap.  I'm hoping to send pictures, but we'll see. 

Last week we ran into a guy who was on his way to a funeral, wearing jeans and a white collared shirt without a tie. He was a little drunk. He stopped me and asked me for my tie. I kept telling him why I couldn't give him my tie but he just kept asking. I think he was partly joking, but also partly serious. "Ya po hijo, déme tu corbata." We saw him again the next day and he told me he still needed my tie. "Ya po hijo, necesito tu corbata." 

Sunday was bittersweet for us. We were planning for Mari to get baptized next Sunday, but she didn't go to church yesterday, so it will have to be changed to the next week. We have changes next Monday, so it's possible that one of us or both won't be here for her baptism. 

However, after almost two months of working with them, Eduardo y Sandy came to church. We were very happy. Sandy is a member. They are two Peruvians that love to have us visit, but struggled to do the things we asked of them. However, two weeks ago they started reading the Book of Mormon. And Eduardo is actually pretty excited about it. We will hopefully be doing a tour of the temple with them this Saturday. We did a family home evening with them the other night, and they fixed us food from Peru. It was really good, and a lot spicier than Chilean food. 

The other day we saw God working in the life of Mari. She told us that for a long time she had felt like we were trying to sell her something, and then she realized we weren´t selling anything. We visit people all day trying to give them a free gift.  She had a cool experience reading the scriptures. The word and idea of obedience really stuck out to her. She realized that all of her life she has run from obedience, telling people that she's only accountable and obedient to God... but she really wasn't obedient to Him.  Although her blood pressure went up when we first extended a baptismal date two weeks away the first time, this time she told us she realized she could be ready and that she could also stop smoking, where before she really didn't believe that she could.  It has been cool to see the huge change in her life already. She's a lot happier now and has a lot more hope. 

Last night we had a cool stake activity. The stake president felt impressed to have a meeting for all the members who had been baptized in the past two years. They sent out invitations and everything. It was a really spiritual meeting to help them feel more comfortable and strengthen their testimonies. There is a huge push to work with recent converts by both the missionaries and the members to help them feel more comfortable in the church.

We forgot about Thanksgiving until Friday, but I guess we kind of had a Thanksgiving lunch... if you count eating a dry rotisserie chicken and some mushy rice as Thanksgiving. Haha. 

I hope you're all enjoying the cold weather... because it's not even close to being cold here. 

Elder Garrett