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.