Good thing his last area looks like Utah- would have been hard to come home from the beach This is as far north as the mission goes. CH
Hi everyone
I am writing everyone from my new area called Vicuña. It is farther north of chile close to La serena and Coquimbo. Monday and tuesday we had a normal day in my old sector. On tuesday night I found out that I would be going to the north which made me happy becuase I have never served this far north before. On wednesday we had a normal morning and then in the evening we went to los vilos ( the area by the beach) and I got on the bus going to the north. I was in the bus for like 4.5 hours until we got to la serena. We stayed the night in the zone leaders house becuase my area is 1.5 hours outside of the rest of the zone of la serena. On thursday morning we got on another bus and came to vicuña. It is small little town. smaller than the last one I was in. It is really calm here the people are really nice. The branch has about 75 asisting weekly and has been growing fast lately. This last month they had 5 baptisms and there are 5 baptism dates right now for may. There are great leaders here and the members are really willing to help us out. There are a ton of youth. More youth than I have seen in one ward let alone branch in chile. There are about 15 youth. 3 Youth now serving missions and at the end of the year hopefully 6 people serving. I am really happy to be here. My companion is elder Davila he is from peru and has 9 months here in chile. he is great, diligent and obedient. We get along great and I am so thankful to have him as my companion. It is starting to get colder but actually now that I am farther north it has gotten hotter. haha. I am slowly but surely getting to winter. Still in the morning and at night it is pretty cold but I wont have to use my full winter gear like I did last year. I will definately keep that because I know it will come in handy this winter in utah. Like I said there are 5 people with a baptism date in may. They are truly chosen investigadors. Three are a conversos family, mom and two sisters, and they saw a great change in there brother/son so they chose to make that change in their lives too. There brother is going to receive the priesthood this next week and baptise them next friday. This friday and saturdaythey are going camping with the branch. The other two is a mom and her 10 year old son who were contacted in front of the church. They are really great too! Both families often talk about the change in their lives. The 10 year old boy, Danilo, already talks about going on his mission to his mom, Carolina. Mirium, the mom, Catalina 16 and Barbara 14 said that they are so happy that they have found the place where they always want to be. I love hearing people say this and realize the blessings and happiness that we can receive in the gospel. It makes me so happy.
Vicuña has a lot of vinards and a factory where they make wine that is the biggest in chile. There are a ton of grapes here it is crazy. Unfortunately the time has now passed for grape season. I missed it. but it is cool to see all of the vinards and fields. Farther in the country I have heard that it is a great place to see stars there are a lot of observatorys here close. My companion said that in febuary and march there were a lot of tourists.
I hope you all had a great mothers day. I loved talking to the family. It was so great to see everyone. Just to warn everyone. You cant send any more letters through the mail now because they wont get here in time so just email from here on out. I love you all so much.
Love you all so much
Elder Hamilton
