It was honestly a huge rock.

It's finally conference this weekend!!! So that's basically the best news ever! Plus it's Easter. It's called Pascua here. And every religion is celebrating! haha. Here everyone does the whole holy week thing as well, so the festivities and songs and dances start on Thursday and don't end til Monday. So things will be interesting here then.

There was some cool stuff this week. Like there were some guys that were really drugged that picked up a huge rock and said they were gonna hit me in the head with it. It was really weird, because I heard it, but it didn't really register, and then I saw the rock... ... I should start at the beginning.

So... This day a member was accompanying us to do our lessons, right? and we had to cross the train tracks to be able to leave him at home in safety. So we went and there's a teeny little entrance in the fence to cross the tracks so we went through and then we saw these two guys like yelling and a single woman with her baby looking bothered, but she just walked past. I thought they were just drunk and saying stupid stuff, as drunk people always do. So I kept walking and then one of them picked up this huge rock and said to me that he was gonna hit me in the head with this rock, but you know that sometimes you hear things and it just doesn't register? Ya, that's what happened. So I just kept walking towards them to be able to go through the exit on the other side of the tracks, my companion and the member started walking down the tracks to avoid the first guy, so I was left alone with the other guy. I looked in his eyes and could tell that he was drugged, and he wouldn't let me pass, so then he started asking me where I was from... I lied. I told him I was from Arica, which is a place in Chile where there are a lot of gringos, but that were born in Chile. I didn't know why I lied, but then he told me, "No, but you're from the united states, right?" I maintained that I was from Arica. And he said, "Do you have any money, what do you have to give me?" And at this point my comp and the member had joined us with guy number 1 with the rock. And they wouldn't let us pass. At this point there was about 20 people watching because they were all getting out of their church, all of them Evangelicals (I'm pretty sure in English they're called protestants and it's one of the biggest churches outside of Catholicism in Chile) and they were calling the cops. And then a young woman from our ward started explaining to them from outside of the fence that we don't have anything, not a penny, not even a cell phone and to let us go, and just like that they were like confused or something and we left. Later the cops came and picked them up and all the people that were watching wanted to let us know that it was taken care of. It was pretty cool of them to be like that, trying to help us. So anyway, that's the story this week. :) I'm only telling some of the cool stories so I can save them in two years when everyone is gonna ask me for cool stories. :) haha. 

It's really interesting what happens here. My companion is convinced that it's me, because every day something weird happens, and he said it didn't happen before. I'm pretty sure it's just Chile and being a missionary. But anyway....

Are you all so turnt for conference!!! I sure am. It's the best weekend in the mission! Our mission president invited us all to prepare questions and prepare ourselves for conference, like I said last week! Wow. I'm so smart. But really, the church has a web page to help us prepare ourselves for conference. Just go to lds.org and it's there. It's honestly amazing. And for Easter! If you haven't seen the video that the church has done called Thanks to Him, you should watch it. It's so good. 

Also, I had a really important realization this week, that I had always known but I didn't realize what it meant. I realized this week that, well.. the iron rod is the word of God, right? And so that means that if we aren't studying the scriptures, we aren't holding on to the iron rod, obviously. But that means also, that we can't be sure if we are following in the straight and narrow path. Maybe close, but not for long if we don't return to the scriptures. Even if we're doing all the rest of the things, church, prayer, callings, visiting and home teaching, etc. If we're not reading the scriptures and constantly treasuring them up in our hearts, we can't be sure that we're on the path. So read them scrips! haha. I taught that phrase in English to a family this week. And they yell it to me all the time, now. :)

I love you a freaking ton! Have a good week!

Elder Robinson