Hello everyone, this is the last letter you will be gettin from Elder Elder. Things have really been going very well for us down here. We are having 2 more baptisms this friday (kevins birthday and my 2 year mark)!!! This past week we had a really good time. On friday night we were able to go our priesthood group camping because my comp and I are the Branch Presidency. We dont have too much money in the church budget and everyone here is pretty poor so we decided to get donations of rice, eggs, and hot dogs for dinner (and breakfast haha) and someone talked to the mayor and asked if someone from the city could drive us 20 minutes into this really pretty canyon and so it all worked out great. We went with our whole new deacons qourom, the newly reactivated members and all the guy converts, we also had an investigator that is really interested. We got there about 7ish and set up camp then started making dinner. After dinner we had a devotional and my comp and I taught about the pioneers and how the 3 young men carried the people across the frozen water and how our priesthood responsability we have is really big. They all liked it. After that we all chilled around the fir and told stories, i played my guitar for a while and then fell asleep. Almost all of us slept outside by the fire under the stars. I was right next to the fire and my convert slept right next to me. All he wants to be is a missionary, he is good little kid. The next day we got up, ate, cleaned camp and went to a river so they could go swim. i wanted to so bad......................soon enough tho. I really was such a good activity.


This past sunday we had stake conference and the missionaries that are leaving from the stake all gave their testimonies. 2of the 5 are from my sector. I was actually in this stake last year at this time i dont know if you remember or not but i was in Angol for 6 months and now ive been in los sauces for 4 months. Ive been in this stake almost half my mission. Pretty much the whole stake knows me really well. I was a really good day yesterday. One of the other missionaries that is leaving mentions how much his parents helped him to get on his mission and then he mentioned me. I really am going to miss this place. Seriously so many people have stopped me and have commented on our work and the legacy i am leaving here. I always tell them it wasnt just me obviously but its still nice to hear their appreciation. Tonight actually the members here in the stake are planning a stake family night for me. I have to be there in another hour. I really love it here. It is so wierd for me to say goodbye to them all because it feels like it really is my home.
I know that is week is going to go by really fast. I only have like 3 days that
 i can work in my sector too.........im going to start packing my bags too this week. Im writing letters to all my converts and people here. It is and long and slow task.......i really hope i can finish. I really am so content with the work and progress that the Lord has helped us to have. Im going to happy but sad at the same time. I guess that is a good sign tho.

Its wierd for me to think that it really has been 2 years since ive been home. To see modern things and white people and people with all there teeth again. Dad, if you can find out for me what my homecoming talk is about it would help a lot because on the plane i can start it. Please help me out with that. I really hope that for those of you that are going to travel i hope you travel with safety and that you´re all stoked to see me because i am!!! I wanna get tacked by all my nieces and nephews. That is if they aren´t too scared to talk to me because they dont know me.........

Ok fam i need to get going. I love you all so much and want to thank you for all your love and support. I will be anxiously waiting to see you in Salt Lake!
Take care,
Elder Elder

heree are the camping trip pics, halloween activity,  and the 2 baptims from a couple weeks ago.

Well I now finally have a little time to write my family letter. I am in a little stinky internet cafe and it is getting very very hot now. I was outside all day for a mission activity and I am exausted and burned. Its ok tho i need to enjoy the little summer i am going to have. When I get home its already going to be pretty much winter!

Well this week was very eventful for us. We had 2 more baptisms!!! 2 Brothers that are 18 and 13 got baptised and loved their baptisms. We are still working with their dad. Hopefullly before i go home!!! I dont know if he is the man that God is preparing for Los Sauces or not but we gotta try. We also had our own primary program and it turned out so good. Our new 20 year old convert is the new primary pres and she and her 15 counseler prepared it very very well. We helped a little in prepare but mostly them. We helped a lot in the practices tho. There was about 5 niños that particapated and this friday we are going to have a little party for them. They were pretty stoked about that. There is a little 3 year old that participated that asked for the prize really really loud when the program ended. Every one lauged really hard.

I have 3 more weeks left to be a missionary. It is pretty nerv racking for me. The bad part is that I have like 4 big meetings before i go that i have to attend. And becuase i am so far i have to travel a lot. In one next thursday apparently we have a apostal that is coming here! i dont know who tho. Next monday we want to go climb a volcano too! I really hope i can. There have been a lot of erruptions here lately.................we´ll see what happens.

Ok fam i love you all so much and I appreciate your prayers. Keep em coming. Have a great week!

Elder Elder

Hey sorry i couldnt write yesterday we were a little busy because my comp had to get his stuff ready to leave from the sector. I am now waiting for my new comp. This week was a really good week. Our branch went to the temple! In the end we didnt get permission to leave the mission area but I am happy that our members got to go. One of our converts went to and he loved it. They all got home very very tired from walking miles in the huge city and over 12 hours on the bus but they loved the experience. During fast and testimony meeting they all talked about going and the spirit they felt there. It made all the time and planning my comp and I put into it worth it. I had to use so many minutes from our cell phone to coordinate the deal and several times a problem would present itself and i would have to solve it. But it all turned out great.

My last comp is going to be Elder Nelson from Texas. People say he is a really good missionary so It´ll be good. I am going to train him to be the new Branch President after I leave. My goal is to find and baptise a solid good man in these next 6 weeks. Please pray to help us with that. This area really needs it. It is very strange for me how time is finishing up, I have loved the mission. It has been a life changing experience.

Ok i dont have that much time i just wanted to write the family letter. Take care everyone and congratutions to my little niece Emily for your baptism!!! I love you so much and I´ll see you soon so i can teach you to long board.

Love Elder Elder

Well this was another good week for us. We didnt really have a lot of time to do a lot of trackting and teaching people because of General Conference and a conference as the mission but its better because the Prophet teaches better anyways. Man i really liked this conference. It talked so much about missionaries and missions which was really cool. That was my 4th general conference in chile! I was thinking about how much i want to go to a live one next year so bad. That is something i am really excited for!

Well like i told you that we had an ostrich egg last week well we ate it on thursday morning with a member that we are helping to be active again. It was soooooooooo much! I am attaching several pics of it. we had to hit small holes with a screw driver in it so we could keep the shell and then had to blow out the guts. They told us it was equivilant to 12 chicken eggs. Thats a lot. We also made waffles with the family. I swear i have eaten more waffles in the last 3 months than in my entire life. They love them here. hahaha the family actualy talked about selling waffles on the street to make money.

This is my last week with my companion Elder Searle. He is a really good kid i like him a lot. He is going to USU too so that´ll be good. As a branch we had to take busses the all the sessions. I love how loyal the members are here. We were crammed into stuffy disgusting busses and they were all just really happy. we took some funny pics going to the stake center. Our deacons are studs here too. we have 3 now and one is our new convert. We are teaching them well their duties as deacons how they need to assist the branch president so we asked them to go to all the members houses on bikes and tell them about a branch fireside we did. They took off right away and flew around all over town for about 2 hours. They are such good kids. The temple trip is this week too. My comp and I arent actually going to be able to go because there is a rule that missionaries from our missoin cant go. We had been told we could but now we cant. A small group from the branch is going tho! The deacons come from very poor families so they asked the stake pres if they could do some odd jobs for the church to make money because they wanted to go to the temple. Afther General Conference the stake pres pulled me into his office and told me how touched he was by them that he is going to pay all their bus fare. We are going to have them clean up the church so they feel like they did something. We also had them clean up our yard area at our house this past week to make some money. I love these kids. There names are Sebastian and Julio(July) they are the kids in the picture with my comp on the bus.

 

I hope all is well with you all back home and i am greatful for all your letters. You dont have to worry tho, just because i am almost done doenst mean im dead. I am still working hard, haha everyone is telling me to finish good. hahahahhah now i feel dumb because i told that to Ashlee and she told me what i am now writing haha sorry Ash. Dont worry. I will finish good and hard.

Love you so much.

Elder Elder

well hi all you people.

This was a really fun week for us. We are now getting back to the normal schedule because the big activity is now done so its nice. we had 37 people in church! we broke the record, the room was almost full. The members here are so happy its really cool. I will be getting my last companion here in 2 weeks. that is definately a weird thought.
We are going to have a branch primary program on oct 30 i think. we only have like 4 little kids in the primary hahaha and sometimes when the primary teacher cant go my comp has to play with them for the last 2 hours while i interview the members. hahahahahaha its really funny. i always say how good the day went and he just looks at me all tired and says you have no idea what i had to do that whole time. ahahhaha my comp is a way funny kid i like him a lot. the little primary kids are pretty crazy and screem all the time. we are helping the calm down. very slowly. very very slowly.
This past weekend i had the oportunity to see quite a few converts randomly. It is honestly one of the best feelings in the world when you see how much your converts have progressed in their lives because of hte gospel. I love it so much. I love this country and people so much. I am pretty sure i say that every week but its true.
are you all excited for conference? Down here there is a really bad custom to just go to the sunday morning session because they think its the more important one. we talked in sac meeting about what general conference really was and i think they got it. usually down here the branch pays for everythign adn the members dont put up any money but we have been changing that and asking them to sacrifice a little to be able to go to all the conferences and pay their way. Money is a big issue here but they got really big faith here. That isnt correct gramar is it. They all have a lot of faith. There we go.

Alright my family. I love you all so much. I really do and i am exctied to see you all. have a great week.
Elder Elder

Well i really dont even know where to begin so many things happened this week. very very good and very bad. I guess i will start the good, and then the bad. And then more good! well we had the big activity finally that me and my comp have been organizing for last several weeks. this last week we probably worked as missionaries in the street like.......4 hours. the rest we were flying like crazy taking busses to buy stuff, calling, calling, calling, delagating, fixing drama problems because so and so had to help so and so cook for the activty and ended up not going and bla bla. It was a really stressful week but the activity turned out great. we had a ton of food, drinks, games, and everyone was really happy. ok now the bad news. On like thursday i got a call from a missionary that is now in my first area. It turns out that one of my converts that sadly was inactive because her mom is crazy and burned her book of mormon and hymn book and told her she would disown her if she kept going, well she passed away last week. She commited suicide. Her mom and her always argued and she got home from a party appartently drunk and her mom got way mad and after that she decided to do it. Her little 15 year old sister walked in on her after she had done it. When i first found out it didnt hit me and then i called a member from that city and when he answered i completely lost it. I had not cried like that for a very long time. It makes me so sad because when we taught her she changed so much and was so happy in life. But she didnt have the support to stay. And that same night i found out that a really really good friend of mine decided to go home. He had just completed a year. So that day was horrible but it got better. now more good news. after the activity i baptised!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was such a great baptism. it was the girl who fell on her face and was unconcious. It was so awesome to see her overcome that trial. And later that night on the way home we stopped by a members house to drop off my wet clothes to get washed and when we walked in they turned on the lights and had a surprise birthday for me. We were there for a while and laughed soooooooooo much. by the end of the day my (face) cheaks litterally hurt so bad from laughing so much. it was such an amazing birthday. I am now in my first area visiting the family of my convert that died. I dont have a lot of time but i loved your letters so much. I love you all so much and am very greatful for you all. it was nice to hear all those memories again. I am excited to see you all again i honestly dont want to leave these people. ugh. ok i need to go now.. i will have to send you pics a little later sorry.


i love you!!!!!

Elder Elder

September 5th 2011

Hey everyone hows it going?

This was a pretty good week not the best but still it was good. We honestly had a week where we had to plan a ton of stuff for this big branch activity that we are doing on sept 17. Sept 18 is the independance day down here and it is a 4 day festival of basically nonstop eating, drinking, and dancing and tons of missionaryt opportunities. Just kidding on the last one. It is probably the slowest missionary success week. Anyways as the branch presidency we have to make sure all the food and activities go good and this week was full of that. We are going to use basically all of our money and hopefully get reinbursed by the church. Its awesome! It will be a good time. On the 17 which is my birthday we are going to do the activity which is going to be with empenadas, shizcabobs, and a lot of other chilean typical food. The ward members are going to help cook but we have to delegate. Oh ya and we also confirmed the temple trip date. We are going on October 7! I am really excited. Our two new converts are going to go with us too. We gave the 13 year old boy the priesthood yesterday. He was really really excited for it. He is a good kid.

This week we are really glad that most of the planning for the activity is over so we can actually have more time for visiting and teaching people.

Have a great week everyone. You look great from the pictures that i have recieved.

Well hello my family!

This has been a great week.  We found several male investigators this week that are really interested in what we teach.  We taught one one them 4 days in a row because he kept wanting us to come back.  His parents have been inactive for 20 and we are now activating them and teaching him.  He thought it was really interesting about Thomas Monson is is really excited for general conference.  He lives with his girl friend and they have a little baby boy and we talked to them a lot about the temple and the plan of salvation and they loved it.  we talked about marriage and they say not yet but we´lll see about that:)

Yesterday the man that we activated a couple weeks ago that went to the snow activity with his family asked to speak to me alone in the bishops office and told me that he wants to be 100% active, get married before i go home, and his girlfriend wants to be baptised with her son!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  When he told me that i was so extremely happy you have no idea.  I have wanted to marry a couple my whole life and now i will be able to.  hopefully 2!  I love being Branch pres.  We are litterally activating 5 or 6 families so far and we baptised 2 people this weekend!  The Lords work is going great down here.  With the man who told me he wants to go 100% he also found work here in the city. they were going to have to leave the city because he couldnt find work and they both feel that they really have recieved so many blessings for getting closer to God.

Tomorrow is transfer day and my comp are staying together!  i am really happy about that i like my comp a lot he´s a lot of fun.  And that also means he´ll stay for my birthday, the indepence day which is a HUGE deal down here, and also the temple trip we are going on.  This next transfer is going to be great.

On saturday we baptised 2 people.  I baptised the 13 boy and a member that sent in this mission papers this past week baptised his mom.  When he baptised her they hugged in the font for about a minute.  She is so so happy.  He waited for 2 years for this day.

It was seriously one of the best weeks.  I also worked in my area with a different missionary for a day this week and he was really jealous of how good our investigators are.  We realy have been blessed with great ready people.

Ok well i got to get going. i am trying to send pics but its being a pain.  ill keep trying.  bye everyone i love you all

Elder Elder

Elder Elder is now a Branch President in Chile.

Here is Elder Elder's last letter where he is taking his branch on a bus to the snow.

Man what a week. I really have so much to tell you all. I dont really know where to start off. Well things are going great in the Branch. We had 32 people in church and that being that it used to be 10, 12, 15 consistantly for years. We also had 7 investigators in church! We were even lacking 10 or so faithful people that could go yesterday so we would have broken the record for sure. My goal is that have at least 50 in church before i go home.
On saturday we had a branch activity planned and we went in a bus to the snow!!!!!! I was in heaven and the members even more. Almost all of them had never even seen it before. they were all like little kids at christmas time when we got there. But it gets better. At the bottom of the mountain we all saw that there were sleds for renting so we went to check it out and they more we saw the happier we got. We found out they were really cheap to rent for the day and so were snowboards. They members asked me if we could rent some for everyone...............so we did! It was probably the funniest thing i have ever seen in my life. Almost every one went sledding and they were laughing their heads off the whole time and my comp and I taught several of the bigger people how to snowboard. I went down 2 times and i could not stop smiling the entire time. We were only going down this hill but it was still so amazing! The really funny thing too is that the member in charge of renting the bus said that we were going to have a bus for 40 people. We didnt get it. We got one for 25. But we already had 41 people going! So come saturday morning realize we all had to cram into the bus. It was a nice tight fit both of the 3 hour trips ahahhaha. It is chile so there aren´t the seat belt laws and stuff like that that we have in the states.

Friday night was a very crazy night for me as well. We were walking back to the church down a long dark sidewalk and i was telling a story to my companion about a friend and how he once was walking really crazily. Well as i was showing him i lost balance and fell off the side walk. But the thing is i didnt realize because it was so dark that right in the very spot where i was walking i was walking over a small bridge. So i fell back first off the bridge into a stream. It was about a 4-5 feet drop and i landed squarely on a huge rock above my buns. I didnt move because i was terrified i had broken something in my back because i really did fall way hard. I kinda whispered yelled to my comp to take me out. we both were soaked. I ended up going to the doctors office and being that we are in a very developed county they only gave me some antiflaming pills. We got homp at like 1130 at night. Now that i think about they story i can laugh my head off because of how funny it wouldve looked. I am just glad i wasnt hurt.
We had a lot of really great lessons this week too. We are getting really really close to reactivate another member that hasnt gone for 15 or so years. All kids went to the snow activity and church. We have a family night planed with them tomorrow and we´re making waffles! I really am excited for the missionary work in this sector. There really is so much potential.

I hope you all havea great week. I love you all so much. I willl send more pics later but i need to go. take care
Elder Elder

August 8 2011

Well this weekend was a very different weekend that I have had on my mission. The week went great on friday and saturday we visited a ton of people and got them excited to go to church, I really thought we were goign to have more than 40 but we didnt. Next week. Anyways the crazy part was right before church. Church starts at 10:00 and about 9:50ish our investigator and her mom that is the new Relief Society Pres were walking in the church and all of a sudden the daughter trips on this rubber foot cleaner thing and falls litteraly on her face right on the curb. She got knocked out on impact and was bleeding. I was inside preparing the sacrament meeting and i hear everyone shouting call an ambulance! I run out side and i see her laying on her face on the ground. I froze for a second when i saw her because i was so stunded but someone called an ambulance and i ran to my bag to get the oil to give her a blessing. I did the first part and my comp did the second part. His spanish isn´t the best but getting a lot better but in the circumstance i had to remind him the words of what he had to say during the blessing. Well after a few minutes the ambulance showed up. We hadnt moved her because we didnt want to hurt her more. I thougth she had hit her forhead or temple. It seriously hurt me to see her like that just unconcious. After she left we had to start the meeting. We started about 10:25 or so. My comp and I kinda shuffled everyone inside and i did a special prayer for her then we started the meeting. Right after the meeting ended we made sure the classes were going then me and my comp ran to the doctors office to see her. She was really disorientated but now concious. They brought her to a hospital in a newbye town called Traigen. In the afternoon my comp and I went to visit her and we were there with her and her family. Her sisters are kinda against the church so i really think it helped them. We gave her another blessing in the hospital(i seem to do a lot of hospital visits here in chile) and shared a scripture from D&C 121 7-11 and applied it to her. She was crying and we talked that she still had had a miracle that day. She fell on her chin and not her nose or her temple. She did chip a tooth but they are going to be able to fix most of it. There will be scar tho. I feel really bad for her. She is only 20 years old. It was a really good visit and them we left. The next bus leaving the town left and hour later so we started walking home.(a 35 min drive) hahahaha we walked for a long time and then finally someone picked us up. We got their address too of the people drove us and we are going to send the missionaries to their house. We´ll see what happens.

But that was my weekend.

We only had 26 people in church and 3 investigators but it was still pretty good. Still a lot of work to do tho.

Today we went as a zone to this one lake to go rock climbing. The cool part is that we went with my convert and his wife and kids in their 1980 RV!!!!!!! It is so old school but so awesome. hahaha man it was a great time. We had the guitars and we playing on the cliffs. We had a BBQ and just relaxed. It was a really good Pday. Its scary realizing how more mondays I have left.

This weekend we have 2 baptisms! We were going to maybe have 3 but the girl that fell now cant, not for a little while longer. It is a 13 boy that is the future Thomas S Monson. He really is so smart and is so excited for everything. All her wants is the priesthood and to go on the mission. His mom is now quiting smoking and getting reactivated. And the other is a 40 year oldish lady and her son that is a member is going to baptise her. I am really so excited!!!

That is really awesome about Elder Bednar! That is something i am actually really excited for. Seeing all the top guys more often. And you all of course.

Things are going really good down here. Its getting warmer too!!!!! This week we were riding in our new bikes that the mission gave us and we rode in our white shirts. It was very very nice. Well have a great week.

Elder Elder

I've been out a year and a half!

this week was one of my favorite weeks so far in the mission. It was ward conference so we had a blast. We had 3 activities, 2 baptisms, the most people i have ever seen in church here in chile, and 27 people in our new people class on sunday! On tuesday my comp and I were in charge of the activity so we taught a little about the iron rod and then played a bunch of games. One was there was 2 teams and they had to throw a ton of balloons to the"balloon popper" on there team. there was like 30 balloons flying around and everyone screaming and pooping balloons. It was so funny. and then we tied little balloons to the shoe and you had to stomp the othere people balloons while you protected yourself. you know that one game we always played for our birthday parties as kids? ya it was legit. and then another game where it was a contest to tie a tie and if you lost you got kicked out of hte circle and your face got drew on. everyone was laughing so hard and said they really had a good time.

On Wednesday there was a kararoke night with shishkabobs that were way good! we sang really loud when the microphone came to us.

And then on Friday night we had a costume party! I was batman and my costume had huge muscles and everyone kept feeling my chest. i felt extremely awkward hahahah. My comp was a three muskateer. The ward here is so awesome i love it so much. And they keep thanking us for the work we are doing here.

Saturday we baptised my chilean grandma and members sister. She is the one that wants to be a missionary. It was another of the best baptisms ive been in too. We sang a special number. the primary heavenly father melody but in spanish. It sounded really good. Well at least in my opinion......................................................after the actual baptisms we went back in the sacrament room to finish and afterward every one went over and congradulated them. there was probably about 40 people there in the baptism. I just stood back and watched them hugging everyone just way happy and it made me really really happy. Ha, i actually started to cry a little. A brother from the ward said me that God was really happy for the service we have been doing here. I really love this place so much. I am scared I am leaving soon. I really dont want to.

So today i had to go do some visa paper work stuff and at the foreigners office place there was this way funny guy from Australia. I asked him if he had seen Dumb and Dumber and he said yes!!!!!!!! So i aksed if he remembered the beginning part when he pulls up to that lady and she says she from Austria and he´s like well good day mate! lets put another shrimp on the barby! hahaha when i said that to him he just looked at my stupidly and i could help but laugh. ahhahahahahah i probably looked like such an idiot. all well. I thought it was so funny. and he told me that they really do say that there tho! and then i taught him about baptisms and he wants to get baptised! no just kidding. that would be really cool tho.

Alright my family. I love you so much. I hope all is well with you all. And i will see you in exactly 6 months from this morning!

Love, Elder Elder

I also had my last interview with my pres. He leaves in a month. I am going to miss him and his wife so much. They are such great people.

And we also celebrated my year and a half mark! i burned some pants. six more months and ill burn the whole suit!

I just read a ton of letters! that took a while. Well we had another great week. i feel like i always say that in my letters, like the same thing but its really true. i love this place so much. We had another baptism on saturday and it was one of the best ones ive had. Her name is Ginette. I´ll send you a pic. She is 39 with 3 kids. She used to be a top studier for the Jehovas witnesses but never got baptised with them. So she knows the bible a TON! Last monday we had a lesson with her and explained really well how Jesus is Jehova not God. She gave her testimony about how her baptism went and thanked my comp and I so much for caring so much for her. She is a really awesome lady. In church on sunday it was so awesome! We do the Gospel principal class for the newly baptised people and investigators and there was 20 people in the class!! The bishopric is really happy with the work we are doing in the ward and every one is excited to help us out. Oh ya and with the baptism we had my comp and I made programs with the hyms we were going to sing for the baptism and showed them to Ginette the day before and she actually started crying because someone took the time to make it more special for her.

This weekend we had HOPEFULLY 2 baptisms........hahahha its really funny. There are 2 more people that really want to get baptised but one said that it might be......................you know like that time of the month............and she doesnt want to if it is. so we all started laughing and we said we could pray so it doesnt happen this weekend hahahahha but they are both really really excited. One is the grandma of 2 other people we baptised and we call her Mama and the other is an 18 year old girl that wants to be a missionary. We had 2 other men but they are losing interest. We´re trying to keep them there tho. The really fat guy we baptised last transfer got the priesthood yestderday tho! Man, that guy is so funny. We are going to eat lunch with him and his fam today actually. I was way surprised by Kevin´s story tho! I really thought it was gonna be like some crazy guy chasing them but im glad it wasn´t. It so weird that he is finishing 7 grade and Katie is graduating!

Alright well I am doing really well and loving it down here. I love you all so much and hope you have another great week! Good luck with all the new babies new houses and jobs and everthing! Happy birthday to those who are having birthdays soon! bye every one.

Elder Elder
We had a Zone Paint Balling activity!

We had another great week. We had two more baptisms that we weren´t even planning on having. This huge fat guy that is probably the coolest guy in the world named Oscar. His kids were baptised a couple weeks before i got here and we have been working a lot with him but never wanted to put a set date. Then on wednesday we went to his house after not seeing him for like 4 days or so and he´s like Elder´s! Im getting baptised. What do i have to do? I asked him when and he said Saturday and started laughing because of our expression. So we had a couple more lessons we had to teach him and he was ready. On friday morning we were going all over town desperately trying to find a shirt that would fit him and we finnally did. XXL when we gave it to him he went to his room to try it on and came out of his room with it unbuttoned and started slapping his stomach. You know when you throw a huge rock in a pond from way up high? Ya.......very similar. He started laughing again and said a bad word and that he looks pregnant. He used to say a TON of swear words but now hardly any at all. We´re still workin on that part with him hahaha. oh man i love that guy. The other that we baptised is the girl that was in the bycicle accident and her dad died and her family blames her. She got baptised too but on Sunday she showed up way late to the sac meeting and didnt get confirmed..............................................................so next week i guess.
This week we have two more baptisms so we will finish this month and transfer with 5 baptisms. We are both way happy. We already have 4 more people that will be baptised next month too! I love this sector so much. We keep finding people that want to be baptised.

This past week we did this service project for a sister in the ward and there was this old guy that was in charge of the construction and...........................does not know how to do it. I pledge that i will never hirer(cant spell) a chilean construction guy because there are all horrible. But there nice people! it was a fun service project i just feel way bad for the sister.
Well i love you all i need to get going so i will see you all later!
Oh ya and Matt and Melinda´s baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The whole week i was thinking about it wondering when it was coming and it came! that is so awesome i really am so happy for you two you are both going to be awesome parents.

bye everyone!
Elder Elder

well this week is going by great. we are having a lot of fun and talking a lot about baptism to several people. So that is always good right? we are going to be baptising a person on the 9th and then after that we will be having a bunch of other baptisms. we are way stoked! Its really cool as well to because in our zone all the sectors have baptismal dates and are going to baptise. Me and my comp are pretty busy always with having to do minitranfers with other missionaries to help them out and stuff but i like it because i get to know more people. The only people i cant do mini transfers are the sisters missionaries, well not for 7 and a half months! Man, it is gonna be wierd talking to girls in a flirtacious way again.........hahahaha




My comp and i are getting along great too. He is a way chill kid. We both like working really hard too so there isnt any problem. Today we all had a zone activity, we watched its cloudy with a chance of meatballs in the church then went to the food court in the mall. Didnt get any pics of that dangit. but i took a bunch of other stupid fun ones so dont worry.



I coulndt watch any the videos taht dad sent me.......but i bet you all had great time! Happy birthday Katie! I was thinkin about ya on your birthday so dont think i forgot it. I have it written on my calander. I cannot believe that you have 18 years! Man that is so crazy, i bet you are loving it huh. yes you are. Hey have you touched another guys lip? hahahahhahahaha awkward older brother question.



Well everyone i love you all so much and im glad you are all happy and i am too. Have a great week and enjoy general conference because i will! ill be looking for you all on tv. stand up and wave your hands or something so i can see you. Thanks.



bye bye now.



Elder Elder

I am in the back row in the middle!

Sorry i didnt write yesterday i had an amazing weekend! Right after church i had to take a 5 hour bus ride to Los Angeles Chile because on monday morning we had an all day leadership meeting that i had to attend. In the road i was able to stop in my first area, Cabrero and say hi to some people and slept in LA. Monday i was in the meeting till like 5 or so and then another 5 hour bus ride back. Last night we had to sleep in the Zone Leaders house because the bus to Lebu was full and we couldnt get home. and in a few more hours i have to go back up north in a 3 hour bus because we have a mission wide training tomorrow morning early and have to sleep by concepcion. hopefully there isnt any earthquakes huh. then tomorrow after the training i have to go do some baptismal interviews and sleep in that area and finally on thursday ill be home! i hate busses right now so bad. Its all by bus and its hot and reeks. But its ok too because i get to see a lot of my friends. This weekend i talked to 2 of my buds here that are probably going to sell pest control we me the summer after i get home. It´ll be so fun.

Things are going great with me and my comp, we are finding a lot more people to teach. We steadly find people to teach here which i am grateful here. I would really love to leave this sector with a bunch of baptismal dates so we´re looking in more specified ways. and plus we have had a bunch of really good trainings lately to help us with that.

So it sounds like dad and ash are going to AZ tomorrow that´ll be really fun for you guys and you have to tell everyone i say wat up! i sure love you guys so much and appreciate all you do for me. take care everyone and ill be seein ya!

Elder Elder

Happy Valentines Day!

Well today has been an awesome day. Me and a bunch of my friends went to the beach and had a way fun time. The beach here where I live looks like Jurasic Park its so cool i love the beach so much. We played football on the beach and our team killed. Our special plays completely anahilated the other team. We also went running on a lot of the huge rocks. There was this one part where there were a ton of seagulls and we were under them and im not kidding they totally started to drop bombs on us. A couple of the Elders i was with got splattered but i lucked out. They were litterally aiming for us.

On this past tuesday we moved into the way nice house. It really is the nicest house in the whole mission. On friday we had interviews with the pres and his wife and afterward she came over to inspect the house and was soooooooooo surprised about how nice it was. She told us it is the nicest house and that we need to take care of it. man i really like living there. The Elders in the house are way cool. We´re gonna make brownies tonight! We had a little BBQ last night before going to bed and it was awesome. We are meeting a lot of really cool peopel too. My comp has been sick this week so i went out with other people and i also went on a day mini transfer with an elder in my district. We were going to baptise that kid that i shaved his head on sat (ash´s birthday) but he drank when he went on this basketball tournement so we talked to him more about it and hes getting baptised this sat now!
Things are goin pretty good right now. Yes, there was a "big" earthquake but in my opinion the thing was so small. ya it was long and a lot of stuff fell down but with out trying to sound tough i dont get scared by them whatsoever i actually love them. We had several this week and while i was eating half of a huge watermelon with my friend the house started to shake and we just laughed. that day there was like 32 but 5 big ones. Yesterday during church the church started to shake and a lot of the sisters started freakin out and getting all scared. I honestly dont know why because it wasnt even that big. Man, i feel like im a jerk when i say its nothing and all these chilean ladies and fearing dearly for their lives. I calmed our new convert down and helped them out and the meeting just kept going normal.

ASHLEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Happy birthday i was thinking about you that day and i remembered you and good ol Abe. I hope you had a great one. I hope you all are doing great and remember i love ya lots. Keep praying for the work here and God bless you.

Elder Elder

Well this week went by very very fast like always. But hey, what else is new right? It was a really good week, it was the first week of the transfer so we had to do a lot more contacts to be able to have more people to teach throughout the transfer. like a bust i guess you could say. We ended up finding 12 more really good people to teach this week which was actually pretty good. Im really stoked to go chill with the people this week and start teaching them. I honestly love talking with the people in the street. Joking around is my favorite way to do it. well not joking around but just having a funny casual conversation and getting to know them. We´ve been able to get into a lot of houses that way. So me and my comp we walkin down this dirt road the other day and i told him "you know how different this is then normal life? Having complete strangers trusting us to go inside the walls of their homes and teach them something about Christ just out of the blue. I dont know why but it kinda made us laugh just to think how different it is. Its really cool to be trusted like that. Also on saturday we were visiting a less active member before lunch and all of a sudden the house started to shake and tons of stuff started to fall down. It wasnt a long earthquake just a few seconds but it totally reminded me about last years huge one. I can still remember the noise. I actually like earthquakes now. I cant tell the people here that now because they get mad. But for real i like them, they´re fun!
Yesterday we were visiting some of the people who had recently got baptised and this other lady was there who we had never met. In this order this is what happened. I asked her name, where she lives, if she had talked the missionaries before(she said a little), if she has been baptised, i told her why we need to be baptised and that me and my companion help people with getting baptised, then i asked if she wants to get baptised in three weeks. Then she just punched me in the face! It was the craziest thing that has ever happened here it surprised me so bad. Ok im just kidding, she really just smiled and looked at me and said yes. It was so cool im not kidding. We obviously have to teach her everything but for someone to be that willing like that....tells you that God does prepare his little hijos. Pray for her. Her name is Paula.

Oh another really cool thing is that we are going to live us four missionaries all in the same house so that will deffinatley be really fun. We are moving into the new house tomorrow. Its gonna be so nice because the shower will actually be warm and enjoyable! I love the luxgeries of life like that.

So i got alot of really good letters from a lot of you all and it sounds like you are all doing great and im very happy for you. I love you all so much. I cant wait to be able to spend time with my family again. Yesterday i gave my testimony in church. I talked about how challenges and difficulties have made me and are making me into who i am. The mission is challenging. But so worth it. If anyone is reading this and thinking about going. Just go. You will find out who you really are if you do the things that are taught in the mission. Some one also right before me gave his testimony and randomly said that he loves his mother very very much. It really made me think for a sec. In that moment I remembered that you all still exist. Its honestly so wierd to think that i have so many white people at home that love me. I just dont really think about it too much because of time and thinking about what im doing. And on mondays when i write you its not the same because i am sitting at a computer and writing the screen. But right in that moment it hit me hard. I love you all much. I hope you are all happy and are taking the dissisions you really want to be taking. Take care everyone and I´ll talk to you later.

Elder Elder

so the brown kid right there´s name is carlos. He´s getting baptised this weekend. we shaved his head because he lost a bet. He also did a huge service progect with us for a few hours where we just cut a ton of grass with hoes. Thats the lawn mowing system here i love it.

well this week was deffinately a ton better than last week. It was actually a great week. We had probably the best baptismal service ive had in my mission and we´re workin hard. So we dont have a ton of people to teach like we did a few weeks ago because they all got baptised but we still have one more baptism in two weeks and we´re gonna find a lot more and just do it again! We have transfers tomorrow but im going to be staying here in Lebu on the beach for another six weeks so im pretty stoked about that i cant lie. We are actually doing a bunch of door contacts like i did in Texas. Surprisingly enough in my whole mission here i have never really done that! But now we are giving it a try to see how it works and so far so good! I honestly like talking to the people on the door and making them laugh. Its a good time and a lot better than awkwardly stopping people in the street. We have already found a bunch of cool people to start teaching. This week i was able to work with my heart again. I guess the week before i was just down and whatnot but now i feel great and excited to keep working for these last 10 months. Its kinda funny how much of a roller coaster the mission is. What i have found throughout my mission is that when i just give myself to the people and do everything for them things go bye so much better. A lot of my friends here ask how we take so many people to church and what my secret is or what ever but i honestly dont have an answer. It just lovin the people!

well i am glad to here that kevin is so excited to go snowboarding! good bro cuz when i get home we are gonna go shred it up and have a way good time. I still cant believe that mike halcomb is engaged! haha man that is so cool im so happy for him. Anny´s kid looks so good! Ya, i honestly do not know what to say to the fact that katie is signing up for USU. I read that and just kinda sat there surprised. Man, that is really so crazy but awesome for you katie. I remember when you just cried all the time. no im just kiddin:) for real tho that is so cool. Joan going to Phili for 3 weeks should be really fun. Everyone sounds so great.

Yestderday i gave a talk on the importance of acting instead of just sayin stuff. that is kinda a problem here in chile. A lot of people just talk but i think the talk went by really good. I really do love talking to the people here. When i got here to Lebu there had been very few baptisms in the past months. And way too many people in the ward told me that no one was listening to the missionaries and that everyone already talked to the missionaries. Well in my talk yesterday i mentioned that to the ward and looked discreetly at all the people that told me that and said, "well sorry, but that is a complete lie. That is exactly what satan wants us to think. I told them that in the past month 6 people had gotten baptised and that more will come." hahaha hopefully it wasnt too strong but i think they might have felt a little dumb. Hopefully because there are so many good people here. good times tho!
Welll i hope everyone has a great week and is really happy. keep praying for the work. have fun and be good.

love you all so much.
Elder Elder

here´s this weeks baptisms and a huge eared dog that i thought was cool.

Well so far 2011 is a great year. Me and my new comp Elder Steele are having a lot of good times and helping out a lot of really good people. We baptised 2 people on sat! It was one of the craziest baptismal services I have ever tho.....The service was supposed to be at 5:30 so we started filling up the font at 3 so it would be ready on time. Well anyways, we left the water filling up and everything was fine and when we came back someone had shut the water off and there was a half a foot of water and it was 5:20. So ya......we had to fill up the font really really fast with cold water and we baptised them in luke warmish water. It was a little cold i wont lie. But we baptised!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!




I really love chile so much. We go to the beach a lot with our investigators and have a great time over there. It makes me wanna live close to the beach! We do a lot of activities with the young peope here so they come to church and go on missions as well. There are a lot of way chill guys here. We have an investigator thats gonna get baptised on the 29 that 16 and a stud. He plays basketball and he´s way good. I guess he would go play in Argentina too. He is really really receptive too about the stuff we teach him. When we taught the restoration to him i asked him to explain back to me what he understood and i think he explained it better that i did. The lady that we went and taught on christmas is doing amazing. She will be an amazing member. Her and her daughter are also getting baptised on the 29. She just soaks everything we teach up. She´s gone through some pretty rough times and she deserves a break. We are really really close with helping a couple get married and baptised! We have an appointment with them tonight.



This moring we went and played basketball out side because it is just so nice and warm and feels soooooooooooooo good! How warm is it there? -8 right?? man, im sorry. But im lovin it here in the nice warm sun.



This wednesday i will have a year here in chile. I really cannot believe how fast its passing. It really amazes me and scares me too. Next year from now ill be studying. Also, very weird. I remember before the mission all i thought about was getting ready for the mission. Now, I have to think about life after! Im really glad i still have 10 months left to keep working hard and keep helping people. Ive really realized how much i have to take advantage of the time i have.



Well im doing good down here and i appreciate all your support. Im sorry your all sick too. Kev, i hope you are snowboarding right now. Because you know that when im back, we´re gonna be going all the time. Have a great week everyone. Pray for the work please. I love you all.



Con amor, Elder Elder

I am helping to rebuild this house

Well hello my family how are you? Things are going great down here we´re having a lot of fun. We had special permission from my pres to stay out late with our investigators for the new year and we had a ton of fun. They are an extremely poor family but the nicest people. We had dinner together at like 11 at night and then we went to the fireworks. We really had a great time. Here in chile every one always has a dinner like at 11 and then goes and watches the fireworks. This family also is renting this really small house and has land up on the hill and a little house but they need the house to be bigger but dont have the money. So me and my comp went halfsies and we bought what they needed. The dad started crying when we told him what we wanted to do. This morning we went to buy the supplies and we were going to build the house but its raining............and so we cant today. I really wanted to build his house with him so bad. The house that they live in is very similar to the thing we made for the horses several years ago, but inclosed. Im not kidding at all when i say they dont have much. The dad has smoked since he was 9. His dad died that year and he told me his family fell apart and just lost everything. He doesnt know how to read because he lived in the street pretty much after his dad died because his mom worked so much and he was left to himself. But it really has been amazing to see the change in him and his family. He calls us his angels that God sent him. He also told me that now i have a house to come stay in when i visit chile! They have a baptismal date the 15 him, his wife and daughter. 2 more want to get baptised too but need to get married first. Another lady that is going to get baptised on the 22 is really awesome. She had been baptised in another church and we are teaching her that for the baptism to be valid we have to recieve the holy ghost too. We read a story about that in acts 19 and we told her to pray. She also really liked the restoration movie. Well anyway she prayed and after her prayer she went to the bible and opened it up randomly and it opened to acts 1:5. It was litterally the perfect scripture for her. It says For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptised with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. When she showed me that she told me. I think he answered my prayer. It really was super cool. she went to church yesterday and loved it.

So that is what is going on with us lately. I hope you are all doing great and having a great time. i love you all and wish you all a happy new year!

Love, Elder Elder