February 23, 2015

This week we had a conference with elder Di Giovanni and his wife. He is a member of the quorum of the 70 and was assigned to tour our mission and get to know the work that we are doing here,

It is always so awesome to have a conference with church leaders because they are just always so inspired! I learn so much then they speak...

Some things that they spoke on is our faith in Christ and just how willing we are to act with the knowledge that have gained.

Every one said that they have faith, but not many are willing to act on it. Even as missionaries, we say that we have the faith the find, to work to teach and to baptize but that will only be achieved if we put our trust in the lord and act according to his will.

President Hinckley once said that "you can’t guarantee success, but you can deserve it"

We can only work hard and do what we should... and wait for the tender mercies of the lord to pour down upon us.

The Lord is bound to keep his promise when we do what he says... so our biggest challenge throughout our whole time here on the earth is to be obedient... and that’s it.

Elder di Giovanni also said that when our expectations go up, our efficiency goes up.

So we need to raise the bar. And set it high.

We have prepared for many thousands of years to be here on the earth, so we shouldn’t give up now, or just work to get by... that doesn’t fly by me.

Also this week...

-we had the Concepcion cup round 2!  Dodgeball! And we dress up like thugs... we tied for first. No big

-Jose is progressing great and will be baptized in that river on March 7!

-we did an awesome service with the community painting the walls of the city... the wall with the crabs on it and the colored bubbles is the one that I designed and painted! It was great and we got to meet a lot of new people.

Serving the community! yeahhhhhh

I think that’s about it for the week... I can’t think of anything else right now. I love you family and friends!

February 16, 2015

Well cambios are a lot more stressful when you are a zone leader.

What happens is that the Tuesday morning of cambios everyone that is changing sectors, or picking up new missionaries meets in my old sector of Colloa in the Concepcion bus terminal... there we have to make sure that everyone leaves and comes when they need too.

It was crazy. I feel like every 6th Tuesday the people in the bus terminal hate us, because hundreds of missionary’s with hundreds of bags full up the place and make a missionary barricade causing serious traffic and delays.

A Hermana missed her bus, we couldn't find a group of elders, buses were delayed, disorder everywhere. BUT after a good 5 hours in the bus terminal all arrived safely to their sectors.

My new companion is awesome. He is from Oregon but moved to Utah for college. We are having a blast together.

We started insanity this week. It is a workout video that is the hardest thing in my life....

I AM SO SORE

But I am going to come back from the mission looking good! If I survive insanity... i am only 34 days into it but it is tough.

Elder Hancock my friend that I lived with in Cerro Verde ended his mission and came to visit tome with his parents. It was awesome to see him again! He lives in phx so we will definitely hang out after...

This week we revived permission from president to go to a ward activity in the middle of the forest to a river called Quillay. There the members stayed all day and swam and played... we didn’t do that. We stayed only for a couple hours to help out and plan some ward games and activities and get to know you games that were a lot of fun!

ALSO some of our investigators and a lot of our less actives that we are working with came too!

This week in tome is the week of TOMECINOS

It is a celebration of the city of Tome. We live in the center of the city and had to listen to fireworks, music and people shouting outside of our apartment all week long. The city is trashed with confetti and glitter.

We are going to have 2 baptisms on March 7 in a river! Hooray!

February 10, 2015

Well my first cambio has rolled by here in tome and the Zone is changing dramatically.

-half the zone is going to be training newbies

-Elder Ainge is going to Lianares, the farthest sector north of the mission to die in peace training (he has 8 weeks left...)

And my new companion is named elder Hoops!

 I am very excited to work with all the new people in my zone

One of my favorite parts of being a zone leader is the chance that I have to do mini cambios or exchanges with a lot of people. This way I can get to know different sectors, different people, different missionaries and different ways to teach and work. This week I had the chance to go to a very touristic city called Ditchato... it is very famous because that place was one of the most effected from the earthquake of 2010. When it hit the city it was completely wiped out and covered by the ocean, and many houses, cars and even people were sweaped back into the sea. Tragic...

But now it is back in action and a hot spot for vacationing Chileans because it is very beautiful.

I had the mini cambio with Elder Incil, from Peru! He is a great missionary and works very hard.

 But the bad part was during the cambio we were walking through the town square and I got attacked/molested by a clown mime...

I was just walking minding my own business and this mime who was doing an act in the middle of the street stop what he was doing when he saw me, ran up and hugged me and wouldn’t let go. Everyone who was around started to laugh so he went even farther and tried to kiss me. He was really going in for it so I put my mission plaque up to my lips just in time and he kissed that instead. I pushed him away and he fell to his knees and hugged my legs... and I pushed him away again and ran out of there... he then ran after me and squeezed my butt.

Mime clowns suck.

I also had a mini cambio this week with a new missionary named elder Rojas from Santiago.

He is a missionary with a powerful 7, we had a lesson with a new less active that we found and she was explaining that she couldn’t go to church because she lives far and has bad joints. Elder Rojas then explained to her that he was diagnosed with arthritis when he was six and lives with pain almost every day BUT has received health and strength through living the gospel principles... She then committed to go to church.

The knowledge of what we know of Christ and his gospel gives us power to do good and to help others that have fallen.

I love a scripture that is in Jacob 1: 7 Wherefore we labored diligently among our people, that we might persuade them to come unto Christ, and partake of the goodness of God, that they might enter into his rest...

That is the reason why we are here.

Here are some pictures of Collao that I found during Christmas that I don’t think I posted... and of my mini cambio with Elder Rojas and Elder Incil...

And a Hermana in my zone is leaving... so after our zone class we had some cake... and even made her a grave stone... Hermana Mendoza is going back to her house in Honduras.

Feb. 2, 2015

The struggle is real with the less actives in Tome. Seems like everyone and their neighbors have their complaints and sob stories and criticisms... but none of that matters to me. I'm not a therapist I'm a missionary... if you want to talk about how unjust the world and its people are go talk to Judge Judy... 'Caso cerrado'. (Case closed)

I am here to talk about God, and his infinite love for all of us.

We can't love God without loving his commandments.

And that's all I have to say about that.

This week I got to have 2 mini cambios.

One with Elder Santos a big Brazilian black guy in my Zone, and the other with Elder Calder, the president’s assistant.

 "IF you do today what others won't, you can accomplish tomorrow what others can't.” -Dan Clark

Sorry that's all I can say this week. Love you!