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.