December 28th, 2015

Merry Christmas! And soon to be New Year! This week was kind of hard because the people did family things and nobody was in the streets but we still found ways to teach and help others come unto Christ! We did a bunch of service as well as dined with a family of converts! We also found the Ponce family! Straight up miracles just let me tell why! Also I got to talk with my family that was awesome! They are really trunky.

Well on Christmas Eve we went to a family’s house to eat dinner and celebrate Christmas! Here in Chile they stay up all night and at 12 they put the baby Jesus in the manger in their nativity scene and then they open gifts! I still think it’s really strange! haha But hey if some people don’t have the patience to sleep and wait for the morning then that’s fine with me! So we played some soccer and waited for the dinner to get done cooking.  We had a serious asado "meat feast" with potatoes.  The bet was that I was able to pass this Christmas with converts and see them enjoy Christmas as something spiritual, that was really cool! Then we went home and went to sleep! This is where things get interesting.  So I live on the side of a hill right, well what happened was that there is a house right above us and they began to sing karaoke and laugh and break commandments.  This started at like 2 in the morning and went on until 7 or eight, long story short was that I did not sleep at all, I even laughed at myself because I realized that I have returned to my "younger state”.  I remember passing almost every Christmas wide awake waiting for my parents to let me get up and get out of bed. This year I was wide awake, waiting for the alarm to tell me to get up! hahahaha It was horrible and I was really tired the next day! But I woke up and did not even have a big breakfast, I ate oatmeal with mate to drink, ya it was one of the poorest Christmases I have ever seen! But it’s okay! Then Christmas day we went out and did a bunch of service! I cleaned and fixed a washer "ya that was sweet" and then I cleaned someone’s porch! We ate lunch and then talked to our families, my family seems really trunky! They just talked about me going home! hahahaha so that was my Christmas!°

The Ponce family continues to be amazing, the first part of the week they went off and went to a funeral, leaving us without communication, so I have been praying and I bet that my comp was too, that we could see and teach them! Well at the district meeting we talked about our investigators and we told the district that even though we did not have contact with them we had the faith that they would call us and we could be able to teach them! We then sat down and our cell pone rang and it was them! Wow, talk about miracles, so we taught them and they showed up to church and loved every minute of it! Especially Ignacio! So that was really cool! They will be baptized the 10 of January! So lets rock and roll year 2016

But that was really my week in a nutshell, Guiselle is still progressing and inviting all her friends to listen to us, her grandma is progressing a bunch! So we will see how she accepts an invitation to be baptized! Her name is Dina.

Love you all so much!

December 21st, 2015: Merry Christmas

Mom, first of all I will call in at 4 or 5 Chile time! So I hope I can call you guys without problems! This week has been great and many prayers have been answered! Guieselle was baptized this Saturday! Wooooooooow! And also we had a huge miracle where we found a new family! I can’t wait to tell you guys about it!

So where do I start? I guess I will start with the baptism of Guiselle! She has seriously been a golden investigator since the very fist day she has walked into the church! The best thing was that she felt inspired by God as she puts it to bring her grandma.  Now this grandma is like seriously the most energetic lady I have ever seen, she walks up to me while we were in the church and put her finger into my chest and said " I don’t want any commitments from you guys".  Then we started talking and we became friends. I invited her to church the next day hoping that she would show up and feel the spirit, turns out she did! So we gave her a Book of Mormon and "invited her to read it".  She then once again put her finger into my chest and said " no commitments ya?" smiled and walked off. This women! haha The same night we went to Guiselles house to put goals with her so that she could go to the temple.  As we walked in Guiselle was really happy and laughing, we asked her what was up and she told us that her grandma had read part of the book of Mormon and asked if we could start visiting her! Talk about miracles! THE BOOK OF MORMON CHANGES LIVES. I cannot explain it enough! So we will go over and Guiselle is now studying preach my gospel and will help us with the lessons! The actual baptism was incredible and the water was warm and many people showed up! She came out of the Font smiling from ear to ear! Her whole family showed up "except her dad" and thy all really liked it. I can tell that a lot of our work will come from this family.

Another miracle that happened was we received a reference wooooooooooow! hahahaha References are normally not that great and this one turned out to be pretty bad.  A member told us of a women who was an ex missionary for the church and has been home for 20 years.  Folks, that means she got home when I was born! Anyway she has twins that have not been baptized! We were so happy to get the reference and go visit them, and then the member said he did not know were they lived! Man! He said that they lived in this block of apartments, this block of apartments is like four or five apartment buildings, each like seven stories high.  So we prayed during planning session that we could be able to find them.  After we went through our day and went to a lesson that fell through and he lives right in one of the apartment buildings.  As we were walking out I felt really strongly that we should walk and touch a couple of the doors on this far building.  We of course walk all the flights of stairs and though the 7th floor door, nothing, 6th floor nothing! Not a single door opened, then as we toughed a door a women opened up and she was sobbing, as I look into the apartment building I saw two 14 or 13 year old looking kids looking at us with tears in their eyes.  She said " my name is Yolanda and I’m a member, I was a missionary, come in!!!!!!  whowowowowowowow Man that was crazy, so we got a member and went in and found out that her grandparent just died, we taught the plan of salvation and invited the two twins "Kelly and Ignacio" to be baptized. It was an amazing experience!

We have been working with all our might, the zone has some serious health problems but we are all going strong. Elder Swindler and I are the only ones who don’t have problems.  Two missionary’s will be going home soon due to bad knees, Valpo kills haha! This Sunday we will be hit by a heat wave, crazy Christmas hahaha.  I Love all of you guys and wish each one of you a happy and especially Merry Christmas!

Guiselle!

We had a mission choir concert on the beach!!!
(distant view of Valpo)    

December 14th, 2015: A White Christmas

We are having a white Christmas this December! hahahaha Not with wonderful snow like a lot of you guys, but we were able to bring the Fernandez family into the church and enjoy the spiritual feeling of there baptisms! It was so sweet! To be honest I feel the love of our Lord and Savior every day and we are receiving so many blessings! We are also progressing a lot with another investigator who will be baptized this Saturday as well! Then it’s off to work for the great year of 2016. How crazy is that?

Well I’m so stoked too hear that my little brother is going to Japan this week! I pray that the Lord will bless him in this adventure for the next little while. I remember the plane ride to Chile and the language changed on the announcements over the intercom when we crossed into Mexico and I almost passed out. hahahahaha I was so worried. But the mission has made me a person who can adapt and change depending on what the Lord wants from me.  This is incredible to think of because really a missionary does not have a house for two years, and if you cant adjust then it makes everything so much harder! I feel so blessed to know that I have been given this great gift while I have been on my mission, what great blessings.

How can someone love so much? It’s hard to explain the love that a missionary can feel towards his investigators and the members! I love the Fernandez family so much and I cant even begin to describe the countless experiences that we have felt with them.  I was given the honor of baptizing Hermana Macarena.  After we took like a million pictures we heard great talks and then we made our way down into the font. It was awesome to see Juan Carlos get baptized first, then they shut the doors and I entered and helped Macarena down into the water, she glowed, she was smiling and I felt as if I was swelling with light.  As I helped her into the warm water "yes we did have warm water this time!" the doors opened and we saw faces, some crying, some with smiles and some with awe.  As I closed my eyes to baptize her I could not help it but all my emotions came out and as teared up I baptized that wonderful mother and that family without a doubt will be sealed into the temple.  They are so amazing! Afterwards they shared their feelings and it was amazing! The next day they got confirmed and it was amazing to see them so happy!

I decided that the best thing a missionary could do is find families.

So I will spend this Christmas here with Elder Swindler, we are pretty stoked and we will have a bunch of fun! We have a great view of the bay at our house and so we will be able to see the fireworks for the New Year this year! yaaaaaaaaaaaa! So that will be cool, I think the 14 of January will start my last change, so we will see how that one goes.  My companion has been here six months but it is really weird to end your mission as a zone leader. So who knows what will happen

The streets have been peaceful and we feel really well walking around, I don’t have any more allergies so that’s nice.

And that’s been my week  Guiselle will be baptized this Saturday, she is stoked and nervous at the same time. But everything will work out just fine.

The family Fernandez!