October 27th, 2014: Shoes, Headaches and Tons of other stuff

Hello my beautiful family! How is the Utah fall going on? I love that time of year and I love all the colors of the leaves! I just want you guys to know that I am super close to one year of having my mission call! That's so weird huh? I was thinking about it when I was writing in my journal last night! One year with the mission call put into my life, a call that would really change who I am, how I would think act and talk, I am a missionary and I will be a missionary for life, it does not matter where I am or what language leaves my mouth but I will be a missionary for my whole life and I encourage you all to do the same! This week I was running around doing everything in this city and I had my first baptism interviews, and I even had additional study time this week, I will tell you why in a little bit haha but the other thing was my comp has these shoes that have worn down so bad it started to tear his socks and the soles where all gone in them, it sounds worse then it was but them I just went to work!  Also my comp got some seriously bad headaches and was feeling super sick so he went home and slept and I read the first 40 chapters of the Doctrine and Covenants......ya it was that type of week.

So lets start with the shoes, I went nuts and all "Young Women" and started fixing shoes and really I am so glad for the other testimony I have of how great my mom is.  She is such a great example of how we need to make it happen and how talented she really is! Mom this is a note for you, I love you so much!  Thank you for all your help!  But I sat there and was hearing him talk about how he was going to buy new shoes and I just stopped him and said, pass them over hear, then I went nuts and made a bunch of new shoes, don't worry pictures are on the way!  But what happened I took out the little insert things and I cut out three identical looking inserts out of cardboard and I taped them together and I even streched a tight plastic bag over them so they would not get to wet if it rains!  Then I slipped them back in and re put the inserts in and boom! New shoes!  He was so freaking stoked and I was so surprised to see that he liked them and they fit great and now we are cruising around with him and new shoes!  Just start calling me the shoe maker from now on haha!  Don't worry I have pictures, it was one of those I am going to fake it until i make it moments haha and I really can not believe it worked out so well! Anyway so that was my little arts and crafts time of the week!  I hope that you all know that when you need a new pair of shoes let me fix your old ones first hahahahahahahahahahaha jk  I want a real job but if you ever need a quick fix use cheerio boxes and scotch tape.

Okay so hear is the thing that happened to my companion that is super sad!  He has suffered from headaches and migraines for his whole life so when he got one it was super bad. like he looked way sick and we where in a lesson and he could not even speak or look at the light, so what happened is we called the nurse and he was told to go home and take a nap, this happened at about six sunday night so for three hours I went on to care for my companion, not lying he did everything himself though, he just straight up passed out and slept for like 13 hours tho.  So I was by myself in our apartment with no food, but spiritual food!  So I wrote in my journal and read a bunch of the scriptures about Noah and the D&C and a bunch of that stuff.  I have to admit it was really weird and I never felt so alone before! ever!  It was so strange to be alone and I was so glad that I had the chance to call and talk to my district!  The mission life is changing me and alone time is like death haha.  I don't like it one little bit!  But my companion is doing better and he is still pretty tired but he is moving around now so that's better.  This p day will be super easy and all we will do is go back to our apartment!

So about the work of the Lord.  We hit up tons and tons of lessons and I feel like I am running my comp and I to the ground but we are making progress slowly and surely! I hope that we will find all these new investigators and get them to church pretty quickly so they can be baptised and make that connection with God!"  Oscar smoked another cigarette the day before his baptism interview so we had to cancel everything and re work the whole Oscar situation, and this week was super hard because all of our investigators have a problem with tithing. I understand that it is a hard commandment and I know because I have been working on keeping it my whole life but this week all of my investigators did not want to live this commandment!  It was super hard and it was a blow to our confidence but we know that once they get a answer from God they will respond! Every single lesson was hard and we ran forever!  I am getting in better and better shape and I cant believe how fast we can make it up this huge hill! 

I want to end my letter about two words, disappointment and discouragement.  They are two words that are commonly used the same but are completely different!  Disappointment is when we love, we have so much love for our friends and family and when they don't follow the commandments of the Lord and when they all fall its super hard and we get disappointed, but we need to be reminded that when we start to think of everything bad and then that's when we get discouraged, that is from Satan.  We can not let that happen, he was an angel of light before he got discouraged and look at him now, its okay to be disappointed but then we need to think of how we can be better to never feel that way again, never ever get discouraged in this life, we are sons of God!  I love you all!

These pictures are from Quilipe

October 20th, 2014

Man I have never walked so many hills before in my life!  But I feel like I'm not training I'm learning from all my companion has to offer, Spanish and lessons, he is a champ and we are starting to work better and better with each other and I hope that we will continue to rise up to the standards of the Lord which is pretty high but I think we can do it!  I really am starting to just sweat all the time but I love the cool nights and waking up to just sunshine and how its never cold! I don't know whats going to happen when I get back I'm going to die ha ha but this week was super spiritual with stories of drunks, more baptism dates and even more assignments!

Okay so first I want to tell you guys again that my district is made up of the zone leaders, and the sister trainers. so they are all studs but they are champs! but one of my zone leaders got transferred out and I heard that a zone leader from la serena might be coming down......do you know what that means!!!!!!!!!! Elder Artiga my old companion might be in my district! awwwww I would freak out hahaa but that is the news with the district, we have in total five baptism dates, three are coming from our sector so right now we are the little young hotshots running around Valpo! 

On a side note, I don't have fleas, whats up!

I have to say adjusting to the city life is a little bit different but I love it so much and we are working on so many things that I hope will be able to have a ton of blessings come are way, i am so sorry for all the bad letters now, I just have so much work to do that I am writing like nuts to write all of you guys. but this week was super spiritual and I have to tell you about this lady, her name is Patricia A., she is our new investigator with a baptism date for the second of November, and I am positive that we can baptise her.   As well as our other dates, she is the most pure loving lady that has ever walked this planet and she wants to be apart of the relief society haha.  She lives by herself so that social activity is super fantastic for her! I hope she progresses enough to be baptized

Crazy story of the week, 

we where on this trolley and someone went nuts and popped the tire while it was moving, the tire shattered and it hit like five women in the street who started screaming and running around or laying on the ground, when the trolley stopped we all hopped off and then these guys started to brush past people and rob them. like secretly tho, it was a pretty strange experience, also there are tons of car accidents her in Valpo. 

I love you all and I am so sorry this weeks letter was super bad, but mom I also need the recipe for corn bread, we found a bunch of corn flour hahaha.  So who knows what will happen!  My companion is great and everything will be fine with him, I hope that we will all get baptisms but what is most important is I wish that we all can become a little bit more like Jesus-

This is Mario with his gun remember them? hahaha
They are awesome and I miss them so much!

This is my protector when I was in quilpue, ya.  Mario my Gangster friend!

My mom in Chile made me a mini me, Haha.  It's a little doll that looks like me
and it has my same shoes.

Mini Me doll that I was given when I left Quilpe

My favorite family here in Quilpue

Study Sesh

Valpo

Valpo

Valpo

I love you all

Quilipe zone October 2014

October 13th, 2014: New Sector! Valpo!

Well my beloved brothers and sisters, I have finally been transferred out of the city of the sun and I am now in the midst of this huge city of Valporasio!  And guess what! I am loving it!  I am in the new sector of Rodelillo  and its like this huge hill that is more like a mountain that we climb every single day, and what else is crazy is that I am a district leader, new sector and I am finishing the last half of my companions training, so crazy huh? As you can imagine I have been super stressed out and I have been running him to the ground but I love this life and I love this sector and in fact I love the work of the Lord which is missionary work!  The name of my companion is Elder Ammirati and he is from Colorado and he is a stud we are working hard and our legs feel like jelly this past weekend because we have been going nuts, right now is only four days we got three baptism dates planned and we are rocking and rolling like some mad men on wheels haha.  I love everything about this zone and my companion, I know that I have a lot to work on and my Spanish is okay but not that great, I need a lot to work on and improve especially in the Christlike area, my comps Spanish is super good for only being here in three months and I  feel like I need to improve so much but its starting to get harder with a American comp, he is a little cocky and thinks he knows everything but we are getting along and I was like him at the start of my mission and so we will all progress just fine.

Our first investigator with a baptism date is Oscar.   He is like eighty years old and trying to quit smoking, right know he is down to only one a day and he is off then as we speak, he is going to get baptised on the 25 of October if he can stop smoking long enough.  He has had about six appearances in the church so problems with him coming to church is not a problem but what is a problem is this terrible addiction to stop smoking!  What in the world are we going to do to make him quit? We went to Young Womens and got about twenty pictures of Jesus to post around his house and he said that he does not want to smoke in the presence of Jesus haha.  So that's a pretty easy way to solve the problem, then he does not go outside with any money so he then can not buy his cigs.  He is progressing and he is the first on the list to baptise but probably the hardest and I hope he can kick this addiction and be baptized.  I love him so much already and he says when he quits smoking he feels younger! haha  He also dyed his hair jet black so he would look pretty cool in the baptism font.  I pray with all  my heart that he will be baptised and feel the love of the Savior in his life like I feel it in mine right now.

Jorge is our other new investigator that we found and he is a young single father who wants to become like a Child of God and for that we got his baptism date for the 26 of October.  Oh one more thing with Oscar is that he will be baptised on a Saturday and then he will receive the holy Ghost on Sunday "the same Sunday Jorge will be baptized"  So this week will be crazy cool!  I love it so much, preparing people to be baptised is one way to feel the spirit let me tell you!  The story on how we found him was we where running for this appointment because we where late and then stopping to look at our plans we realized that we were one hour early! Fail!  But what is cool is we looked at this house and felt strongly that we needed to contact it.  Then after finding him we taught a super powerful first lesson and then he was committed to be baptised! This week he was inviting members to his baptism and I feel like he is a sure deal!  He also has his daughter who will be eight years old on the 26 of December ,  So we hope that he can have the priesthood and baptise his daughter! que bueno!

Pricilla is a piece of work, our third baptism that we got this weekend and she is going to be baptised on the 2 of November hich is super close by the way and super sweet!  She has had a bunch of religions washed around her brain and all she wants was the truth, we then taught the first lesson and found the spirit so strongly that it was almost knife cutting thick! I hope she will be a good convert, she as well as Jorge are a single member family and I hope that coming to church will not be a problem with her!

Sorry but I don't have that much time today.  I have a ton of stuff that I need to do and I feel a little stressed but I love you all.  I know that I am not perfect in the language, I can speak without fear and teach lessons but I still need to improve.  I know that i might not be the best "dad" in the mission but I'm trying to learn it all at once.  What I do know is the power of the gospel and how it changes lives, I love this work and I love running around in the work of the Lord!  I pray for you all and I am so glad for all your love and your blessings!

p.s:  I also want you all to know that I got this killer package with all these Hershey kisses and gummy bears but with notes from all of you guys! I loved it so much and it really was a treat to end a hard week!

October 6th, 2014

Okay so here is the plan for this letter, stories, more stories and experiences!  I loved this week and I have been feeling super good, healthy and spiritual fed, I even shared a super cool story about when my dad speared me like a deranged Indian when I was little! and yes, did all of it in Spanish! Wow what blessings! Also what I have figured out is that we all need revelation and blessings, without the help of the Lord we will all be lost, walking on an endless path to dark and bitter destruction.  We can not serve two masters, all of our decisions, every thought and word that leaves our tongue is in the service of one or the other, so who do you want to serve? 

Okay so lets start with the end of the week, general conference was a huge blast and I felt spiritually lifted after and I am so pumped to know that THERE IS A PROPHET OF GOD ON THE EARTH TODAY!  I know it, from the bottom of my heart to every fiber penetrating my body.  Never before have I felt that he was looking into my eyes, speaking like the Lord would speak to me, to insure me that there is hope, that I can make it back to my beloved master, we judge people on their works, and as citizens of the world today we all want to be working for a good boss or master, so why would we ever even think of serving the devil? Why would we ever put our lives in jeopardy for a master that has super ugly and nasty works?  The answer is no, and I know that we can all be servents to our good Shepard. what love I have for him, I can not express it enough!  These past couple of months have changed me forever, we always talk about conversion but what is really the case is I have converts and I have brought less active family's back to the church but I am not the missionary, I am the servant and I am only the mouth piece for my beloved master, in fact I am not the missionary for the converts, I AM THE CONVERT. 

We showed up to conference and we all watched it together at the stake center, which is really a blessing and I strongly incourage you all to start watching conference in our chapels and our stake centers, the spirit can be heard way more clearly when we are respecting the Lord in a shirt and tie than when we are sleeping on the bean bag to half muted conference! When we showed up I was surprised to find out that we would be watching it on this old 1980s television with other Americans in English!  It was pretty sweet and I felt like the words just seeped into my very soul and laughed about how easy it is to listen to English not Spanish, but the very most powerfull talks given where the ones in Spanish, que poderoso! It was fantastic to see how we all speak different languages but the lord speaks ONE LANGUAGE, and we all hear and understand that language right?  But after awhile I listened to it all in Spanish anyway to push myself and to show the people that I am here to be with them, talk with them and cry with them.

We spoke to our gangster friends and they are so funny!  They just had a bunch of baby ducks and geese so they have these herds running around and its great ha ha.  But the parents to these geese are super crazy and over protective freaks haha, but they asked me to tell them a story about I knew that God answered my prayers, I told them about how I carefully built a great spear out of a willow branch when I was about eight years old.  My dad then told me it was way too sharp and I would end up hurting myself and promptly cut off the dangerous tip of the spear, I then resharpened the spear and kept playing. After he cut the tip off another three times he told me he would teach me if it was dangerous, he told me to start running and he would then throw my dangerous spear at me!  Laughing and trusting in my dad I jogged off and then hearing a crazy war cry I see my dad throwing this now weapon of death at my head!  The next moment I was on the grass with blood and a spear in my head!  After he helped me come into the house I am super positive he did not want to take me to the hospital and have an awkward conversation about how I got a spear thrown at my head and I'm not sure of our financial situation at that moment but I know this, that we prayed for me to be okay and not have to get stitches, then I laid on our kitchen table and my dad played doctor with a bunch of super glue and fixed my ear!  From this experience from more than ten years ago I still remember the assurance that I had after I prayed, I know he answers our prayers!  They tought it was the coolest story ever and they started talking about a bunch of close calls they have had "working" which my companion told me was code for robbing and stealing. hahaha  But we also had a family come to church and hear the words of the prophet.

I want to tell you guys that this is the true church of god, I know it.....I simply know it, if you have not had a testimony of this great and merciful gospel before I encourage you to GO AND GET ONE!  We can not and will never serve two masters, so who do you want to serve?

My ward mission leader

My mission leader was part of this heavy metal band, but now
he is trying to make heavy metal spirtual music

Selfie before conference

At the Library