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