From the church house in Chile

Elder Lott was at the church house in the area he is serving in and it was so good to see his smile! 

(I struggle to talk and snap a picture and often disconnect myself but I'm getting better!)

He looked so tan.  He said it is SUPER hot there all the time.  He feels like he's baking but he hasn't been burning.

He was excited to show us how he had customized the front and back cover of his planner. And especially excited to show us he had a guitar.

The blurry picture is my photography struggles but the look on his face was priceless!

Here's what we learned this week:

They are opening up one of the nicer areas of his mission.  So far, he has mostly been talking through doorbells but not getting invited in. They found one sweet sister to teach from street contacting. "Opening a new area is lots of hard work!"

He feels like he is able to understand almost everything but he can't put together his responses fast enough to respond.  The responses are still coming in English and then he has to translate them in his head.  He's hoping the responses will soon just naturally come in Spanish.

They do have a cell phone and anything they do on it, they do together.  But, when it rings, Elder Lott lets Elder Moon answer the calls.

Members in the area usually feed them lunch. (Thank you kind members!)  He said a typical lunch is rice, meat, fruit and some kind of cola drink. He hasn't seen any fruit trees but the fruit they are served for lunch is good.

The water is safe to drink but it's mineralized and takes some getting used to.  He said he prefers the water to soda so he's working on acquiring a taste for it.

Before Elder Lott left, he tried and tried to solve his Rubik's cube which he had done thousands of times.  He couldn't do it.  He was excited to tell us he picked up a Rubik's cube and solved it in the mission without even thinking about it.  One of the Elders told him if there was anything he wanted to learn, to do it on the mission because you would learn so much faster and better.  I think that's where the guitar came from....

There seems to be unlimited hot water in Chile but no water pressure.  That's an adjustment for him. 

On Mondays they have District and Zone meetings.  His companion is the District Leader so he accompanies him many meetings--lots of learning opportunities.

We asked if he stood out over there with his height and he said not really.  Chileans are moderately tall--not as tall as him but tall enough that he doesn't stand out.

He will get to go to the Santiago Chile Temple next Tuesday.  Missionaries in his mission are allowed to go to the temple every other month.  

This is the picture of the Santiago Chile Temple that has been hanging in his room since he opened his call.