Tuesday, May 26, 2015

May 25th, 2015

Sorry this letter is really short! But Marta went to church and will be baptized this weekend! She is loved by the ward and she will progress a bunch! She passed her interview with flying colors and is always ready with food for us when we get to our appointments, last night she called us and asked us how we where doing, we said good and asked why, she said that we did not call or pass by her house and she started to worry, then she really started to worry and called us thinking something bad happened.....oh Marta! She is the besssssst!

As for this week I really have come to learn something special about the mission, it’s called the comfort zone. If we are comfortable we are not progressing, if we feel fine and happy with what we are doing then we need to leave the comfort zone and progress, its the only way that will help us get to heaven with all the ones we love. I know that this is true, they say that when exercising that pain is weakness leaving the body, its the same for a missionary and for a member of the church, we much progress and leave the comfort zone to become stronger, if not we will remain the same, and if we remain the same then we will never make it to the presence of God!


I love you guys so much! I’m doing great and the missionary work is progressing and I want everyone to know how much I love them! Especially my grandparents.

Just a cool P-day!


Zone Conference, May 2015.  Quilipe

View from my apartment in Coquimbo

A great family that got married this month.  Temple time!

This man is one of my hero's.  Hermano Checho, he has changed my life forever, he can hardly walk and he has to get up two hours early to make it to church on time.  Sad thing is that nobody helps him make it to church, he says walking two hours to church is the greatest blessing for him.  Its really hard for him to walk, the distance from his house to the church in Coquimbo is about five minutes for us, and he gets to church before every other member, here

A Baptism in Coquimbo.

This is showing how old I am,
I can't believe I have used all of these

Selfie

This is the coolest kid ever!


Elder Lima

The Castillo family came down to say goodbye to me right before I went on the bus.  I just got a letter and they are going to the temple! Only Catalina will go in and do baptisms for the dead but they want to be sealed.  Wow........ no words can describe the joy I have felt
from this family.  I love receiving letters from them!

Thanks for the package mom!

The first American pizza in over a year,
and it was ridiculously expensive!

My comp shaving his stache

I'm so cold in this house! But its all good!
We are going to buy a little space heater.  

Monday, May 18, 2015

May 18th, 2015: Stake Conference

The best things have happened this week! Guess what! I got a package from you mom, I love you so much! Hahaha I was so pumped and then I opened my box and I found cereal.......hahaha I loved it! I now need to buy milk and all will be good! My companion almost ate all the pop tarts haha and they made my stomach hurt a little bit, bunches of sugar and stuff and so I feel a little bit sick. But all is good! The ward is very alert with the mission work and I feel like we will have a bunch of success soon! We will also have our last zone conference with president and it will be this Friday, time to get spiritually pumped!

The most important thing that has happened this week was that I have been very blessed, I received letter from some of my converts "the Castillo family" from Coquimbo! They are dong great! I got news that Hector was baptized! Wow! My joy is seriously so full that I feel like I could burst! And they are preparing to go to the temple! I seriously have felt like I have been an instrument in the hands of God for that family, I also received mail from them telling me how they can not thank me enough but I know its not me, its the Lord who has brought down so much blessings for that family, reading all the letters and receiving all the pictures has really given me an energy boost in the work! What we all need to realize is this is the work of the Lord, it is not my work, not the work of the mission Chile vine del mar, but this is the work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I feel like when we as missionary’s give all the credit to the Lord we receive more success. I love everything to do with this work and I love teaching about the prophet Joseph smith. It’s really the best thing in the world! I cannot even begin to tell you all the blessings it brings to see a family come together through baptism and aim to go to the temple! I will always keep the letters in my heart! What blessings! They are all doing great and they are all working towards one goal, the temple. I love the words of little Catalina,  "the gospel has made feel so happy that I want to share it with everyone, I just gave a book of Mormon to a teacher, and I cant wait till I can serve a mission and be just like you, share the gospel and let everyone else feel the same way! Wow how awesome! As I read that part I felt the tears stream from my face! I love hearing about how these great converts are progressing. 

Marta is getting better in her preparation to be baptized, she loves the choir and I hope she will end up joining! We teach her everyday and she gives us the best coffee cake in the work! "It does not have real coffee" but it’s amazing! She is a great cook and is convinced that I am dying of hunger so she is always helping us "gain energy" hahaha I love that woman! She will have her interview this Saturday so say a prayer for her! She is really progressing very well. I shared my testimony on waiting, she was really nervous with her date thinking it would be too fast, we shared our testimony’s on how we need to act and show our faith, I bore my testimony on how I waited to go on my mission and how it was really hard for me, she felt the spirit so strong!

Well for my living conditions I have the best apartment in the world, its a two story house, three bathrooms and a bunch of rooms that we don’t use haha but what really happens is it gets really cold in the night time and I feel like I’m back camping in the snowy mountains of Utah hahahahahahaha buts its okay! Everything for the work! We are finding more and more people to teach everyday! All for the work right?


Sorry I don’t have bunches of time I love you all so much! Thank you for your prayers.

Monday, May 11, 2015

May 11th, 2015: Back in Quilpue

One might say that returning to a zone in which they have previously served would be hard, as for me I give thanks for the blessings in which I have to go back and make Quilpue even better then before! And I feel like that the Lord has something for me to do in Quilpue! My companion is amazing and I feel like we are seriously so blessed! We are working so hard and trying to find the people who are chosen! And believe me when we put our work in we will find those who are searching for us! I believe this with all my heart and I know its hot, then cold and hard but the blessings are so worth it! How can I deny this great work! We have received miracles and we have an investigator that will be baptized the 30 of May! That’s like just around the corner! ahhhhh! There is no time in the world to do everything! But hey that’s life right? Time goes so fast!

Funny experience of the week is that I of course made pancakes in the morning and they turned out super horrible! I can’t believe that my cooking skills have been gradually getting worse but the food seems to be getting better and better ha-ha or maybe I’m just starving! But my companion just about died from laughing and said that he will show me how to make pancakes...huh are we going to have a cook off? Game on! He makes some killer top ramen with eggs in it so I don’t know if my talents can live up to that but we will see! 

Another laugh your head off moment is just right before this I went to cut my hair, I still hate cutting my hair but hey it’s apart of the mission! So I went into the store and she helped me into the chair and took out a razor and shaved part of my head! Then she asked " so do you like that length?" after looking at my have shaven head I figured I had to just go with it and she butchered me! I have never looked so bad before in my life! As my companion was crying of laughter and I will never go get another cheap haircut again! But my companion said that maybe the people with have pity on me and take us in hahahaha I sure hope so! As long as I can move my legs and open my mouth I will always be teaching the gospel! The only other time I have been cut so bad was when Elder Osuna and I entered and the ladies were Jehovah witnesses and Elder Osuna got into a bible bash with them while they where cutting our hair.....yeah we lost physically but spiritually we won! haha

What I have learned from my life in the field as of now is that to be a carrier of the truth we need to clean ourselves from the inside as well as the outside! That means that the we should always be "self evaluating" and figuring out how and why we need to become better, it was always hard for me to really kick out bad habits, but then I thought about why we must fight the natural man, the reason is that we must do it in order to be clean and worthy to stand before god, how can we not change? We must better ourselves and live the life of Christ, obviously we probably wont ever walk the same path physically but spiritually we must always follow that path to be brought back to happiness! Of course I will change for that!


I love Christ more than anything in this world, he is my Savior and my light, I defend him and try to walk with him, I want to be just like him, of course I’m not perfect and never will be but I can try, and that’s what counts! So I will do my best! I love you all so much and wish you all the best of luck on your personal journey to Christ! 








Tuesday, May 5, 2015

May 4th, 2015: A Week of Hard Work and Baptisms

I was thinking about where I was last year, I was freezing in the cold water trying to have my first baptism ever with Elias Pina! This Sunday I was yet again in freezing water with Moises my 20 year old Chilean and Yamelet! We where so blessed to see such a great family come one step closer to Christ! The dad is still listening but I’m really scared that he will become an eternal investigator! So we will see what happens and I hope that everything will work out okay! Also the nerves are up on guard because we have transfers this Wednesday. So we will find out if I will get another chance to serve in this same area and with my companion or not! Time will tell!

Speaking of time I really feel like time is my worst enemy! I don’t have enough time in the day to do anything! I feel like days are really short and there is just too much to do! But guess what? I love it. I love every minute I have to be here in the mission and to feel the joy of being a missionary. It’s hard sometimes but we can always make it through if we find faith in our Lord and Savior! I cant believe that one change has already gone by and so much as happened and I feel like I could serve another change right here and be happy, maybe even another six month campaign! 

Funny story, I did something that no one thought I could do! I sang a solo! Yep! Mom before you start to cringe it went all right... my companion played the piano and I sang one verse of “Nearer my God to Thee in Spanish and one in English! Wow it was so heart pounding and I was so nervous! My companion is just learning to play the piano and I can’t sing for squat so it was great! He played the right hand simplified version and I sang with all my might and we where doing great until the very end when my companion messed up and my voice cracked, at the same time! I was so embarrassed and had no idea what to do so I choked through the last line and then we sat down awkwardly.  But I just want you all to know I have made and met my goal that was established over one year ago, I would sing a solo in a baptism service! Check hahahaha the ward was so nice and said it was so great but I knew the truth hhahahaha its okay though!

So we baptized another family member in my new Chilean family! The Castillo family is so great and their 20-year-old son got baptized and asked me to baptize him! It was really hard for him to quit smoking and when he came out of the water he was glowing with happiness! The water by the way was the coldest I have ever felt "it felt the same as when I jumped into the lake the day before Christmas" I was glad thought to see his smiling face!

Yamelet is an angel that searched my family on Facebook and is a fan of my sister Rachel hahahaha so Rachel needs to send a shot out to her using Google translator please! But anyway my companion baptized her and she was a very good sport about the water!


I love the prophet Jacob in the book of Mormon! Also I love Alma! I love how he was so changed through his own will to change! We must all become like him! I love the thought by President Uchdorf , he said that heaven would be filled with people who have made mistakes but have come back to the rod, what power! I love him and I know this church is true! I’m so happy to be apart of this church and to be a missionary! I love you all so much and I will be seeing you on Mother’s Day!