Monday, June 29, 2015

June 29th, 2015: My Presidente is going home and Cecilla got baptized

Wow this week was a Little bit wild but tons of stuff passed and I want to tell you all everything! Finally Cecilla got baptized and we also will baptize the fifth of July! His name is Matias and he is so awesome! He is a little boy that has nine years and he acts like a 20 year old ex missionary, so SPIRITUAL. As for this week the work has been attacked by the America cup that’s going on in Chile, but I will tell you more about that in a bit!

The Gran Cecilla was baptized and it was such a great experience! I have to give the credit for the beautiful service to all the young women in the ward, they planned out everything with such talent and spirit, she was crying the whole way through it and I could not help but cry as well, well just a Little bit hahaha.  But I love the tender mercy’s of the lord and how we can all be made clean again, I love to see the change in these wonderful people, I love being a missionary and to call everyone to repentance through the love and the atonement of Jesus Christ. What great blessings we have to be a part of this church! But a couple days before the baptism Cecilla was getting really nervous and then she fell ill, fearing that she could not be baptized the following day she called up asking for a blessing, after the blessing she asked me to be the one to baptize her, for me it is such an honor to baptize and I was so humbled to help her in this ordinance. Her baptism went so well! The only problem was that the water was so cold that I entered first and felt the breath come out of me "this happens a lot during our baptisms" and as I help her into the Font I started to shake because the spirit was so strong and because it was cold haha.  Its one of those moments when I’m glad I get to baptize the person because entering the water would be a serious challenge, but its another act in the devotion of the person who will do anything to be clean right?

Sorry mom I know I’m writing so bad but my hands are so cold! "I miss heating systems so much" but its really hard to write because my hands are so stiff, hahahahahaahaha speaking of hand my companion had the craziest thing happen to his hands and they got all swollen and had little zit looking things on them and I thought he was going to pass out.  We were in a lesson with Matias and I was looking directly at him and then the next moment passed and my companion whispered to me to look at his hands, as I looked down I about lost my lunch! Hahaha he had like two little clubs where his hands should of been! We rushed and put rubbing alcohol on them and it hurt him even more "I think it was never my life’s calling to be a doctor" so then we rubbed lemon on it, this is a typical trick in Chile, lemon fixes everything! Good news now is that he only has the bumps but his hands went back down again! Whew! I don’t like to miss days working and neither does my companion, I love working with him and we get a bunch of things done!

The America cup is going on and Chile has never won it before and it’s going on in the country of Chile and they are in the semi finals! Its crazy and the flags are out and people get drunk at about 1 in the afternoon and they get prepped for the game at 8, hope they win! They are going up against Peru, they are the worst enemy’s of Chile, but honestly I love the people from Peru. It’s really hard to teach on days like these because no one wants to listen! But we show the Lord our faith and he really does bless us.

I have a huge testimony of the power of blessings, but not only blessing but the power of being worthy to give a blessing in the moment of need, let us all be ready to serve the lord in every minute of the day shall we? I also learned this week that we need to act the part, we must look, talk and smile like god’s children, we must not be prideful but we must humbly serve the Lord with all our might! I am swinging my sickle with all my might and I’m taking the harvest and giving everything to the Lord! What blessings I have!

I went back to my old sector last week and talked with my old mamita, she was so awesome and her son just came home from the mission! Elias piña my first convert is suffering from memory issues and it was really hard for me........ He could barely talk and remember me, but I know the things he did when he was younger was he chance to follow the lord.


I love you all,

Elder Passey


Ya my companion broke one of the toilets so I went to work and I did what I do best, 
I fix things redneck style, its a serious talent! 
I made a new chain for the toilet with a hanging iron! 



Going to work!



Cecillia
Zone leader meeting, June 2015



How did the pioneers get down here?!!!

Oh, ye city of Quilipue

Monday, June 22, 2015

June 22nd, 2015: The Power of a Father

Wow first off happy fathers day dad! I love you so much! Thank you for teaching me all the correct principals on how to become an even better missionary and future father! Life is so amazing in the mission field and I just want all of you to know how much I love being a missionary, I love that the spirit is so close and how we can really feel the power of the priesthood at work in our lives! I now understand just a Little bit more on how the power of prayer and fasting can change a persons life and your own as well! Cecilla is doing great and we have a couple more baptism dates and I am sooooo happy! Also I am still in Quilpue with my same Chilean companion! Yes! Baptisms! We work well together and it’s a blast to have a Chilean as my companion!

Bueno, this week has been full of challenges! We are doing all we can to find new people to teach! We have a couple baptism dates and we are really hoping to get everything planned out for July! I’m ready to kick into super mode! July will be the greatest month Quilpue has ever seen! But to start out I would like to tell an experience about Cecilla, she is a missionary in the making! The spirit has been so strong in the lessons! She passed her baptism interview and as she left she had tears in her eyes and was saying how blessed she was to make real promises with the Lord! Her baptism will be this Sunday! We seriously can’t wait! The coolest lesson we have had with that family was talking about the temple! I am so blessed to live close to the temple in Utah! Well all of them for that matter! I am so ready to enter into the temple and feel the love of the Lord! But to explain the temple to an investigator is quite different, you have to let them feel the love of the lesson, if you only teach with words then you will fail as a missionary, it was our HONOR to teach how she could help save her family and let them partake of these everlasting covenants as well! It was so cool! She is starting to fill out her family history! Great!

Also my companion has been really sick this week, I think it’s the flu; I hope I don’t catch it! But there is no need to fear! Hermana Marta is here! hahahaha she jumped to the rescue and saved us with warm drinks with lemon and honey! yummy yummy for the tummy! but I think he is doing quite well.  He is on the upside! I remember my first winter in Quilpue as well! Its so cold in the morning and then you get sunburned and night! What’s going on! But then you freeze again at night; everyone says that Utah is extreme! But all in all we are living! I am so happy for the chance to serve for NINE MONTHS in the city of Quilpue, it has been the city where I have learned so much about myself, sometimes it really is my oven of affliction and almost always I have found the most sweetest and wonderful blessings in this city!

Crazy story of the week is that I lost my companion! Wow it was totally nuts! But one thing that I have grown to love is public transportation. Anyway we are on this bus full of sweaty people and after an hour-long bus ride I was literally going nuts when people started to bring their dogs onto the bus! So then I got the fear of having fleas and I started to panic, I get really claustrophobic and when three dogs and about fifty plus people I was just about to pass out, when we finally made it to the bus stop to get off and walk the last mile and a half to the church I let out a breath of relief and jumped off the bus and I looked back for my companion as he was just about to step off the bus the doors closed and he took off with the bus! THE LOOK OF HOROR ON HIS FACE MATCHED MINE AS I WAS LEFT IN THE SMOKE AND HE WENT OFF TO THE NEXT STOP, WHICH WAS VIÑA! LIKE AN HOUR AWWAY I started to run after the bus and it stopped like a mile away and my comp jumps off a moving bus! Phew! What relief! I can’t be alone ever again! I need to have a companion when I get home for sure! But we laughed and it was one of those shaky laughs! hahahahahahahahah so now we get off the bus literally at the same time! And I dont have fleas! Yes!

I love father’s day and I especially love my father. He has taught me so much and I love to think about what he would do in some of the situations I am facing in my mission, I have always based my life off of him and I am so proud to call him my father! I remember one time when we where hiking in the mountains and I thought that for sure we were lost! I was so ready to eat the dog haha but my dad led us back to the path! He also has led me away from spiritual danger, what a great father I have had! What I want to share is that we all have a Heavenly Father, and ever day should be father’s day for him!

I love you all so very much!


Elder Passey

Monday, June 15, 2015

June 15th, 2015: The Joy of being a Missionary

This is the best time of my life.  I have never felt like this before in my life! I love feeling the spirit and I love working as hard as I can to find, teach and bring others to the restored gospel.  This is the greatest moment that I have ever witnessed. I am not who I used to be. I feel like I have a even greater love for time on this earth because I am losing time fast and I feel really sad to think that I am "on the downhill slide" so please, all other writers who are so loving to write me, please do not talk about time. We also have seen so many miracles through the power of fasting and prayer!

So good news is that I got another letter from the Castillo family! Mom will you talk to them and send my love through Facebook please!  Send them pictures and stuff! Catalina went through the temple and I have felt so blessed to see her enter the temple. I feel like all this suffering and hard work pays off and when we feel the richness of the gospel I just want to yell at the top of my lungs, that’s when I know that when I am tired

Starting again with the Castillo family, so they all paid for Catalina to go to the temple! She sent me a picture and it made my eyes fill with tears, I can’t explain the love I feel for this family. Wow it is so incredible to see how they have become so enwrapped in the gospel. I hope and pray that we all might develop the hunger for the gospel like a new convert has. If we all become like that then I know without a doubt that no one would go inactive, a new convert who really feels the love that the Savior has for him is a member who really has what it takes to get into the kingdom of the Lord! I hope that we might all become a little bit hungrier for the gospel. 

Miracles through prayer and fasting really do exist! It’s incredible. So there is a young adult here in my sector and her name is Cecilla, she is so awesome! She is 24 and lives in the house of her best friend "they are all members" so what happened was that the missionary’s have been teaching this girl for about 7 years........that is incredible! She said that almost all the missionary’s tried to pressure her into baptism and how she would always reject it. Then we came, we have literally fasted for her for the whole change! It was incredible to see her progress, we gave her a new Book of Mormon and she began to read, I testify that those who read the Book of Mormon with a hunger to learn and to feel the Holy Ghost will gain a testimony of the truth. She began to read and the lessons became more spiritual. We felt the spirit even stronger and we became even more happy to see here coming to church.  Then Saturday happened, all day we felt the need to visit her, she is so hard to find that sometimes we can only pass by on specific days, well we passed by anyway and she came out in tears.  We passed and talked to her and the family and we came to an understanding of why she was crying. This daughter of God had received an answer. She shared with us her notebook of the Book of Mormon, she writes down everything! It was so lined with notes and tear drops that the spirit just seemed to radiate from her of the Book of Mormon and she bore her testimony saying the time was right for her to be baptized! Wow how special! It was amazing. I thank my Heavenly Father for helping us with this convert, she will be baptized the 28 of June, and so we are waiting to see what will happen!

Transfers are this Wed! I Hope I don’t get transferred! noooooooooo! I love my companion to death and I feel like I have been given the greatest companions in the world! 

I had my first council meeting with president and all the other zone leaders last Friday! Wow what a experience, I was there receiving spiritual food for about 12 hours! It was so incredible. We went out to lunch and he took us out to the fanciest restaurant that I think I have ever been in, not even in the USA! It was over the ocean and it was amazing. The president’s wife ordered the food and I ate my first blood sausage! Not going to lie it was the grossest thing I could of ever eaten but president liked it and everyone else had to eat it so we would not waste his money hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.  But hey I lived and I feel stronger then ever! What strong experiences we feel when we as latter day saints get together and share about the gospel!

Copa America has started and it’s almost as bad as it was during the world cup last year.  And even worse this year the Copa America is in Chile! It’s so crazy here! I CANT EXPLAIN WHY EVERYONE GOES NUTS WHEN CHILE PLAYS but hey I hope they win it all. It would be so sweet! They all hate Brazil but hey hope we can win! 


I love you all and I hope that we can find this hunger and really convert ourselves to the gospel.