Sept 17, 2013 News from Zach

Hello everyone, here is latest email form Zach. He was able to send us some pictures but it takes along time for them to download so he wasn't able to send all. It was great to hear from him and get to see him in a picture.

Hola! from Santiago Chile,

Thanks for the supporting words. And no I havent met my mission
president yet, they just took the supplies and gave it to him.

This first week has been tough, discouraging, and has made me feel
inadequate. But I know that what im doing is right so i will be ok.
Spanish is coming very slowly but i can speak more then when i first
arrived. The classes are long, we spend 12 hours at the CCM, then head
back to Alcantara to sleep. We get to bed between 11 and 12 and are up
by 645 in the morning getting ready to study. The teachers are awesome
and are very nice. Also they reinbursed me for the 75 dollars we spent
to check my second bag.

Im in a District and it is District 1. We have 10 elders and 2
sisters. All but one of us us going to Santiago South. My companion is
Elder Marshall from Eagle Mountain Utah. We get along very well and
have a lot of fun together. We have taught two discussions so far. The
first one was a total bomb. We didnt do very well at all and it was
discouraging and i felt like a failure. After that first lesson i was
thinking, what am i doing here? But the other elders who have been
here longer have told us it gets easier and spanish will come it just
takes a couple of weeks. The second lesson went a little better and
wasnt so discouring but we still didnt do very well. Its ok though
because we got alot of good feedback and know what we can do
different. I cant wait to be in the field and get to know people and
see the rest of the city. The mountains are HUGE and they come right
up next to the city. They are just as close but bigger then the ones
in Utah.

Today we went to a mall for P-Day. I have pictures but i cant send a
ton of them to you becasue they forever to upload so you will have to
wait, sorry. I got a couple of things and they have everything that
they sell in the United States. So i wont be missing anything. Oh, and
tomorrow is their Independence Day so there will fiestas and
empanadas. An empanada is meat and cheese in bread. Ive heard it is
sooo good. I cant wait to try one.

The days are going by slow but i cant believe its already been a week!
Before i know it ill be on a plane again heading home. I hope
everything is going well. Tell me everything you can becasue i just
dont know what questions to ask you guys. Hows school, work, dance,
football, anything? You name it and i would like to hear about it. I
tried to send letters today but the post office is closed becauase
tomorrow is a holiday so alot of businesses are closed. So i will try
to send them next week. You should get one letter every week to two
weeks, atleast i will try to do that. I dont know if it happen all the
time that way but i will try. Also if you could send me a book of
stamps that would be awesome becasue then i could use pouch mail and
wouldnt have to worry about going to the post office.

The city is beautiful and the people are really nice. It reminds of
salt lake city a little bit. I believe i will enjoy my two years here.

I love you all, Elder Ashworth