Week 85 - December 26, 2016

Yesterday was Christmas, but we still had 3 investigators go to church and Rosa got confirmed!!!!!!!!! WOOO HOOOOO! Haha so right now we have three dates for baptism one with Nicol who was supposed to be baptized this week, but she didn't go to church last week so we changed her date to January 7th, Gabriel who is a 14 year old for the same day and finally Jose who is the fiance of a member who lives in the Laguna Verde! Pray lots for these people so that they will be able to progress and reach these goals! 

Christmas eve we stayed with the family who lives in the Laguna Verde, and we had a night of cakes and french fries (Because they asked me what I wanted hahaha) They also had an Ex-missionary from Utah there with his wife too so it was fun to see them too. But that's about all that's going on. 

I got to talk to the family yesterday which was great haha, and I was thinking about what my grandpa asked me while we were skyping and he asked me what goals do I have for the rest of my mission. I have been thinking about this a lot lately, especially in the person that I want to be after the mission. I want to be someone who is humble but strong. I don't want to go back with the same pridefulness that I left with. I want to be somebody who does lots of service because I love to do it not because I have a calling. I want to take advantage of this time that I have left to grow my testimony and my knowledge so that I can talk with the spirit and help other people get to the truth. I'm so grateful for all your support! Have an excellent week! CHAO! 

Week 82 - December 5th, 2016

This week, we had a miracle! Rosa got baptized last Friday!!!! WOOOHOOOOO!!!! It was really cool, because her baptism date was kind of like there in the air for awhile like she really wasn't sure but we had a really good lesson with her Monday and she decided that it was time soooo she was baptized! She will get confirmed next week because we had a stake conference last Sunday. But that is the big news for this week! 

We had an activity in Viña today with all the missionaries in the 5th Region so that was fun. I got to see 2 of my old companions! And I also heard that one of my converts in Miraflores got the Melchizedek priesthood!!! They plan on getting sealed in March!!! WOOHOO! BUT that's about all that has been going on. I don't have a lot of time to write today, but I just wanted to give a small update! Have a great week! Thanks for all the support! CHAO!!

Week 79 - November 14th, 2016

We had 3 investigators go to church yesterday, Catalina was confirmed member of the church, and we had twins that are less active go to church!!! WOOHOOOO! Hahaha so this week has been really busy and really fast. 

This week is exchanges!! But I think that E. Islas and I will be together for another change. Anyway, we did a service project this past Tuesday with all the Elders from my Zone in the Laguna verde!!! So that was fun, we had a huge BBQ and we cut trees, weeds and cleaned up garbage. And it was the Birthday of my companion. Hes growing up so fast 😂 Hahaha just kidding. 

We found lots of new people to teach and we set a date for baptism yesterday with a man who is dating a temple worker!!!!! WOOT WOOT!!! Hahaha thats what we need. More single temple workers that only date non members! Hahaha just kidding.......... ANYWAY, other than that I have been doing good. We played ultimate frisbee today hahaha which was fun. But that's all! Thanks for the emails and support:) CHAO!

Pictures!

We love our missionary.

Week 77 - October 31, 2016

Its been a week of finding new investigators, we have 7 new investigators!!! The trick, now, is finding them again hahaha uhhhh 😑. BUT we had three dates for baptism! We are teaching a new convert´s sister and she is willing to go to church and everything, shes just really lazy hahaha. We also found Jazmine and Karina who know basically nothing about Jesus Christ so we have been teaching and helping them, and they are very receptive they just need to go to church!!!! 😭 AHHHH! Make sure to pray for them. 

A new family moved to our sector and they are really motivated to work so we have been working with them a lot. They are a huge blessing for this ward. There are over 2000 members here and only 80 that are going to church:P Sooo I hope that it helps. 

Something that I have been studying a lot lately is Pride its basically the cause for everything that goes bad in the world: its the way Satan wants to dominate us because that's the way he went from the level of Jesus to the devil. It's the cause of contention. All the fights, grudges, etc. 

The way to stop being pride is to recognize it in ourselves first. It's really easy to see it in the people around us but its hard to admit it in ourselves. We need to be humble and trust in god. When we realize that and actively try to improve, we will find happiness even in the hardest of times. But thats what we have been doing this week! Thanks for the support and stuff haha. Have a good Halloween!! CHAO!

Week 73 - October 3, 2016

This is what I learned from the Conference: 

I really liked the talk from Elder Uchtdorf about being grateful. I cant remember exactly what he said but I related it with less active members. Because God gives us sooo much and we get upset when somebody doesn't say hi to us or with the leaders of the church. STUPID THINGS. We just need to be grateful for what we have! He has given us sooooo much. The scriptures, the Book of Mormon in particular, the church, prayer, the Holy Ghost, SOOO MUCH and all we do sometimes is complain. We get soo used to having soo many blessings that we start to forget the diamonds that we are walking on and only look at the pebbles. I loved that part. The way to be active in the church is to never stop being grateful for what you have. And I know that we will be able to find joy even when we have lots of problems. 

That was one  of the main topics for the conference: Long-suffering with joy. We had a Zone Conference and the President`s wife talked about the difference between joy and happiness. Happiness is for moments and nothing more. Joy is eternal. Its the reward for being faithful in the church. So if you want happiness then do whatever you want. But if you want joy: Follow Christ. 

Even when we aren't feeling happiness or we have lots of problems, difficulties, afflictions, trails, etc., we can still find joy, and its by knowing that we have problems to progress and that we have a loving Heavenly Father that will never leave us if we don't leave him. We can only find joy through our faith in Christ and being grateful for everything he gives us. I love you!! HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!! CHAO-ITO!

Week 71 - September 19th, 2016

So I was writing a really long email but about 2 seconds ago the iPad I was using to write this died.

NOOOOOOO. Dang it. Soo as I was writing before. Yesterday was the Independence Day of chile so we ate a lot of BBQ. It was amazing hahaha we ate empanadas de pino (which are basically bread filled with meat, hard boiled egg, an olive, and onion), churiso (mini sausages), BBQ lamb, chicken, cow, etc. YUUUUM. It was great, but today everything is closed that's why I'm using an iPad because we received permission to use the computers of the members.

A miracle happened this week!! We were contacting some houses without luck and I was just saying how in this time of the day there is nothing to do, WHEN all of the sudden a black suburban pulled up to us and a lady said to us Hola! And we were like how are u? And she said would u like to know? Uhhhh OK. And so we went over to talk to her and she told us that she is Colombian and said that she was baptized in the church over there. She has been living in chile for about 11 years and just moved to this sector because she got separated from her husband. And she told us that she saw the church and felt the strong desire to return and that was what she was thinking when she saw us!! She lives here with her 3 kids and has a Colombian restaurant in Valparaiso. She went to church yesterday with one of her kids and we have an appointment this Tuesday! WUUUMP. Haha so I'm really happy, she has a strong testimony.

Weeeeell, that's about the most exciting thing that has happened. We had to be in the house 8 because of the holiday so we got to study a little bit longer. Something really sad happened yesterday, a recent convert died. He has been struggling with alcohol for about 2 years now and it finally took its toll. It's really sad to meet people with addictions because they aren't bad people. But that's about all that's happened!!!!!! Pray lots for us this week so that we can find more people to teach!!!! Have a great week! Chao!!!!!!!

Week 67 - August 22nd, 2016

This is the last week of the change(transfers)! It went by really fast! 

Well, these past couple of weeks have been really good. We have found a lot of good people to start teaching. Yesterday one of our investigators, Jocelyn, went to church for the first time!!! WOOOHOOOO!!!! We found her about 3 weeks ago. She is the partner of a less active. Soo they aren't married but they already have 3 kids together. We did a really good lesson with her. I'm sad to say that I just understood this recently but we have been really trying to see who are the people that want to find the truth and not who are just reading and praying out of curiosity. We asked her why she has been praying and reading and she said that she was really trying to find the truth and than she said, "even if my mom doesn't want me to go I feel like I really need to go to church now." And I was like WUUUUMP there it is! 

Soo we started asking all of our investigators this and we are finally progressing with them. Yesterday, we found Gustavo again after a long time of not teaching him. HE IS EXCELENTE. Haha he has been reading the book of Mormon everyday for the past couple of weeks and is already in the middle! He also said that he really wants to go to church and everything! THAN after him we went looking for some people that we contacted in the street last week and we found Angelo. He already has the Book of Mormon, D&C, the pearl of great price and the bible from the church! He has a friend that is member and has been sharing lots of things from the church with him so he knows a lot about the church. He told us that he is catholic but he doesn't really like it, and that he really likes the story of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. And sooo we were like, "What is stopping you from getting baptized?" And he was like..... I smoke and my work doesn't let me go to church. The smoking part is really easy to fix, but the problem is finding time to go to church. Because even if he is reading everyday and praying, he cant progress. Make sure to pray lots for him that he will be able to go to church!! We set a baptismal date for Sept 15th so pleeeeeaaaase pray lots for him! But thats the latest news. 

OH I'm also going to start learning Portuguese I've decided. There is a new member in the Branch who is an ex-missionary and he is from Brazil sooo I'm going to practice with him. But that's about it! Today we are going to visit Jocelyn and make sushi with her and her partner. Hahaha soo that's always good. Have a great week! Thanks for all the support. CHAO!!!

Week 53 - May 16th, 2016

Ayline was confirmed yesterday!! WOOHOOO! hahaha She was really happy. I was so content to see her and her family. They have had a lot of problems but everything worked out great! AND this next week we will have the baptism of Manuel!!!!!!!!! 

This one is kind of a miracle because everyone thought that he would be a forever investigator Hahaha. He has been attending church for the past 6 MONTHS. He also goes to the activities and comes with us to lessons hahaha. He is going to be a great member. Anyways, make sure to pray for him A LOT because he is going to have his interview this Thursday!!! Im feeling pretty good about it now but still keep him in your prayers. 

This last Saturday it started raining really really hard and it destroied the umbrella of my companion haha so I gave him mine because he didnt have a hood on his jacket and I used my waterproof jacket haha I love that thing! Hahaha but then after like 5 minutes it stopped! and then there was sun! Its like Utah here haha. BUT ANYWAYS, thats about all thats been going on this week! 

Oh, we also got to go and play soccer with the Elders from my zone last Monday! Its really fun because almost all of the Elders are green-goes (north americans) Hahaha and green-goes are known for being terrible at soccer hahaha. Soo Im like one of the best players now hahaha. Oooh Its really funny to watch. We are terrible hahaha. BUT thats all! Have a great week! ¡Hasta Luego!

Week 52 - May 9th, 2016 (ONE YEAR!!!!)

WOOOOOO so these past couple of weeks have been pretty good!! First of all (Im not sure if I have already written it or no) But María got confirmed and now is super buena in the church!! Hahaha she went and had an interview with the bishop this past Tuesday and helped with an activity for the Relief Society. Sooo she is really good now:) AND AYLINE GOT BAPTIZED YESTERDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! Hahaha yesterday was really good, we also got to talk with our families which was nice I guess haha JK mom hahaha. BUT ANYWAYS, we also set another date for baptism with a forever investigator!! Hahaha he has been attending church for like 8 months now without fault, he also goes to all of the activities, he comes with us to lessons with investigators, and everything. The thing is is he is really really funny and doesnt take things very seriously. But he also has cancer and had to have his throat removed. We had a lesson where we bore our testiomonies and the Elder who I was with told some experiences that were really good too. Soooo we set the date for May 22nd!!!!!! Pray A LOT for him please haha. Because I really want him to come through with this date for baptism! But thats all that has been happening lately. Today we are going to go play soccer with our Zone! Hahaha so Im pretty excited for that because almost all of the missionaries who are in our zone are green-goes (North Americans) And green-goes are TERRIBLE at playing soccer sooo Im like one of the best players now hahahahaha. Thats why its fun:) Hahaha but thats all for this week! CHAO!!!

Week 49 - April 18, 2016

María got baptized!!!!!!!!! WOOOHOOOO!!!!! But dang that was stressful!! Hahaha soooo she got her interview this last Thursday which was 3 HOURS LONG. It turns out that Maria has been taking Marijuana oil stuff for pain relief sooo the district leader didnt know if that was against the word of wisdom so he called the zone leaders and then the zone leaders called the Assistents to the Pres. and then they talked to the President of the Mission. Sooo while all that was going on, my companion, the companion to the district leader and the granddaughter to Maria watched Meet the Mormons all the way through and almost finished Ephraim´s rescue. IT WAS SOOOO LONG. BUT in the end it turned out that it wasnt against the word of wisdom, but she should find something else to use. Its not like she is an addict. The last time she used it was in December and you can buy the stuff in a store. BUT ANYWAYS, she got baptized this Sunday and will be confirmed next week. It was such a struggle with the water too!!! In the end it turned out to be kind of warm:P Haha BUT everything turned out good in the end:) We also have another date for baptism!!!! May 7th! Her name is Ayline. Her parents are sealed in the temple and she never got baptized because she is afraid of the water. So we decided to do a practice in the baptismal font full of water and everything. Hahaha it was basically a baptism but it turned out really good!!! She accepted the date right after! WOOHOOO!!!! So that was the good part. Haha its really funny here, there are A LOT of members in Chile, but almost all the them are inactive. Soo it just about everyone of our contacts in the street are members of the church! Im not even kidding. We have been contacting apartment buildings and in every sigle one there is atleast one member! Hahaha that is what has been going on lately!! Its also starting to get cold here! We just got a TON of rain yesterday. But today is sunny haha. Im not sure how it is going to be this week!! Make sure to keep my investigators in your prayers!!! THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR SUPPORT!!! CHAO!!!!

Week 46 - March 28, 2016

LEO GOT BAPTIZED AND CONFIRMED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  WOOOHOOOO!!!!! Hahaha this friday he was baptized and then during the sacrament meeting yesterday, he got confirmed!!!!! It was really spiritual. His sister inlaw  is a member in the ward and she sang a song special for him:) It was really good haha. And Then the rest of the week was good too. We started teaching a girl who, before, didnt want anything to do with the missionaries this week! Her parents are active members and got sealled in the temple a couple of months ago and when her birthday came by I made her covers for her scriptures (scriptures that her parents bought for her) and invited her to start accepting the mission lessons. Soooo that was good haha. We also found a couple of young adults that want to find out more about the church, and a man attended church yesterday who told us that he wants to be baptized!!!!!! WOOHOOO!! Haha so there is a lot to do here. Today we have an appointment with a girl who we are going to set a baptismal date! Pray a lot for us and the people that we are teaching that they can progress and feel the spirit. The bad thing is that its really starting to get foggy. So its going to start raining soon :P BUT what can ya do haha. But thats what happened this week! Thanks for all the support! CHAO!!!!!!!!

 

 

Elder Weber, Caden, Elder Leiva, E.Leiva's Mother, and a member

His Area

His Area

Leo's Baptism

 

Week 43 - March 7, 2016

Im going to answer your questions first: Yes, members still do my laundry! Woot woot haha. Chileans only have one big meal everyday and thats lunch, and we eat that with the members. After that they have something called 11. Which is basically like bread, with ecco (hot chocolate) haha. And we do eat that with the people we teach sometimes. Haha no I got to work for my birthday hahaha but the next day we did a family home evening and the people we didnt it with remembered that it was my birthday soo they bought me a cake and made me blow out candles hahaha. It was really sweet of them:) We got a date for baptism yesterday!!! Woot woot! His name is Leo. He has sometype of cancer and Im not sure if he is going to be OK or not, but his wife is a member and he wants to be sealed in the temple with her. Soooo he is going to be baptized 19 of March. He was attending church before but now he has the date for baptism!!! And we have a lot of investigators who can be baptized this month, BUT we will see what happens. We have one investigator who is really really funny, he is 61 years old and he already has all the lessons and all the church attendence that he needs BUT for some reason he will not be baptized!!! He already knows that the church is true and everything and he comes with us to teach other people sometimes hahaha. We tried telling him that you can feel the holy ghost with the feelings you get in your heart. And he said that you cant get answers from your heart because its a muscle, he wants to recieve an answer from his brain hahahaha. He is seriously porfiado, I cant remember how to say that in English. Hahaha But thats about it!!! We have found a lot of new people to teach soo thats good:) OK well thaanks for everything!! CHAO!!!

Week 42 - February 29, 2016

I left Parte Alta!!! It was really sad to say good bye especially to Gricel and Eduardo, but we have plans to see eachother next January when they would be sealed in the temple sooo we will see what happens! I am now in the south end of my mission right next to Viña del Mar called Miraflores, Achupallas. ITS REALLY PRETTY HERE. Im up on a really big hill right next to the ocean soo I get a really good view from here:) WE have a lot of investigators here too soooo hopefully this coming week we can get some baptism dates! AND I have two companions now! One is Elder Leiva, from Southern Chile, and the other is Elder Weber, from Texas. Elder Leiva is going to be finishing his mission about half through this change soo we will be in a trio until March 20:P But its ok hahaha I actually really like it because now we can enter in what ever house we want!! WOOT WOOT. Weeeell, this week was my birthday and I got 2 packages from home with a really nice watch, tie, sweater, and lots of candy hahaha. But other than that it was just like any other day:) Weeeeell thats about all that happened:) Thanks for all the emails and support:) I dont feel like Im 20 hahaha. OK WEEEELL, CHAO!

Week 38 - February 1st, 2016

Weeeeell, soooo this past week has been a little difficult. We have been contacting A TON lately because we dont really have anyone that is progressing..... BUT: The mom of Anakena who was baptized like 2 weeks ago, accepted a date for baptism!!!! Before when we were teaching Anakena, she was always like, you can teach Anakena, BUT I WILL NOT BE BAPTIZED. Sooo we were like OK...... But we are still going to try hahaha. Soo finally we got her to accept a date!!! The only thing with her is she is really worried what her friends are going to think of her. Like she really likes the gospel and knows its true, but she just couldnt bring herself to accept baptism. Make sure to pray a lot for her that she will pray and read and go to church!!!!!!!!!! But other then that, we have been doing practices with the members for a plan that they have to reactive the ward. Because in Parte Alta there are about 70 mas o menos, members attending church, BUT in total for all the members in Parte Alta, there are 900 members!!!!! Sooo the goal with this plan is to reactive the members!!! One Ex-missionary from our ward is teaching the members the lessons of the missionaries from Preach my Gospel. So now every other Sunday we have doing practices with the members so they can teach us the lessons and then after we tell them what they can do to improve and stuff like that!! Its been fun! Other than that, nothing is really going on:) Thanks for the emails and support:) Have a great week!!! CHAO!!!

Week 36 - January 18th, 2016

Anakena was baptized this week!!!!! WOOT WOOT!!! Hahaha Im not sure how much I have talked about her, but she is 12yrs old and her sister is a member of the church in Concepcion which is WAAAAY in the south haha. But her sister is really good, and has been helping us a lot with her. Sooo that happened!! She got baptized yesterday right after church. She will be comfirmed next week! Gricel got a calling in the church as the secretary for the President of the relief society! She is really excited! AND Eduardo gets the preisthood next Sunday!!! Woot woot!! And then he will get Melquisedec this coming Stake conference in Feburary!!! There has been a lot of progress this week. We also started teaching a friend of Anakena, so when her sister leaves, at least she will have a friend in the church haha. We havent taught Francheska in a while!!! But we plan on visiting her tonight. She wanted be baptized this week, but the next, because she still has to stop smoking >:P But thats about all that happened this week! I stayed with Elder Soto in Parte Alta! They are really starting to cut back on missionaries! There are going to be only 200 missionaries in every mission now, so that they can start opening up new missions. They closed an area in our district so our district is now us, the sisters, and the other companionship of elders. But other than that, thats about it!!! Thank you for all the support!!! CHAO!!!!!

Week 35 - January 11th, 2016

Soo this week was pretty good I guess. GRICEL AND EDUARDO GOT MARRIED!!!!!! AND GRICEL GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOHOOOOO!!!!!!! Hahaha their wedding was this saturday and it was really cool. Gricel was baptized by my companion and I baptized the daughter of Gricel who has 8 years. The ward worked really hard to make her wedding and baptism very special:) It turned out really good. I got a ton of pictures hahaha. We also set a date for baptism with the sister of Gricel, Francheska and a girl named Anakena. The older sister of Anakena got baptized and married to the missionary who converted her and she has been here for about two or three weeks. And she has helped us a lot!!! Her testimony is very strong and she is a great influence for her sister. Sooo we got quite a bit of work to do this week, Becuase they both have dates on the same day, January 23. Francheska has to stop smoking which shouldn´t be too hard because she is only smoking 2 or 3 a day. But make sure to pray for her so that everything will go smoothly. The thing that kind of sucks now, is that Companion exchanges are this Wednesday! And I have been in my sector for about 4 months and a half sooo I might be leaving:( We will find out this Tuesday if I leave or not and then Wednesday is when I would be going to Viña del Mar. Im really grateful for all those who prayed for Gricel and Eduardo!!!! Everything went really really well. Usually the things we plan never go according to the plan haha, but this one did!! Hahaha so thank you for all your support!!!! Make sure to pray for our investigators who have dates for baptism too!!!! OK, CHAO!!!!!!

Week 34 - January 4, 2016

WOW. So this week has been busy! We have been working a ton with Gricel, because her baptism and marriage is this week! She had her interview with the Zone leaders for her baptism and we learned a couple things, but the main thing is that she has to live the Law of Chastity for one week BEFORE her baptism..... Soooo Eduardo cant sleep in his house for a week. Hahaha so we are going to talk with the members near by to see if he can stay in their house, but until we can find somebody he is sleeping in his car!! Hahaha I feel bad, but its for a good purpose!! So everything is going well with them for now. They have gotten in a couple of fights since they got their date for marriage sooo still keep them in your prayers!!!!! We have also been teaching Angelica and Anakena. Angelica just got married so she isnt breaking the law of Chastity, but the thing is with her she doesnt have any desire:/ Her daughter Anakena does want to get baptized. AND the best part is, is that Angelica´s oldest daughter came up from the South for the wedding and she is super super active in the church!!!!! The cool thing about her is that she got married to the missionary that baptized her and then after they split up, but she remained faithful in the church and he gave it up. Sooo she has a really really strong testimony and I know that its going to be a great help for her:) I have been feeling really good! We have taught a lot of good lessons lately. We also got to spend New years up until 11 with Gricel and Eduardo and then after we could stay up and watch the fireworks. So we went out on our balcony and watched the fireworks go off in the ocean!!!!! That was really cool. I have lots of video of it haha. But thats probably the main thing! We have also been teaching Gricel´s sister and she is going to be baptized the 16th or 17th of January!! She just needs to go to church 2 more times. Soooo thats about all!!!! Remember to keep Gricel and Eduardo in your prayers and stuff!!! Thank you for all the support and ¡FELIZ AÑO NUEVO! Chao!!!!