Hit my 6 month mark this week. Wow. Lots of thoughts about it that were summed up by my good buddy Trevor Mathews ¨I realized that tomorrow, I complete 6 months. That´s a fourth of my mission. And I still don´t really feel like I´ve done all that much... I´m not working nearly as hard as I could be. I don´t know how to explain what I´m feeling, but I think I´m having sort of a mission mid-life crisis... I´m ready to change some stuff. I have so much more I can give that I´m holding back from the Lord. This isn´t my time right now, this is His. I´ve been selfish, and that needs to change. I´ve been lazy, and that needs to change. I need to change, gosh dang it. I need more testimony and more faith, I dont have enough. I need to fast more. I need to learn how to pray.  I need to get better.  I know that Ill get better and lose myself more in the work!!

This week was kinda slow

Our investigatorss Williams and Gaby, theyve been investigating forever, are finally getting married next week! They are going to be baptized next saturday!

Gabriella, She is in a wheelchair, is progressing rapidly, and her baptism is this saturday!

We have been looking for a new place to live, because the owner wants a lot of money!

There is a lady in our ward that served her mission in Temple Square, we were talking to her this week during service, and she said that after her mission, she went back to utah for 5 years, and she lived in Spanish Fork!!! We talked about how awesome America/Utah/Spanish fork is during lunch!

 

One of our investigators, Franco, told us that he almost got robbed the other night. He was on his bulletbike (really nice) and a guy came up with a gun and tried to rob him. Long story short, Franco hit him with his helmet and got out of there! 

I went on splits with Elder Blake the other day. His Uncle was my Stake President in Carrollton Texas. That was a good time! He almost broke a chair and fell during a lesson, and he said Closo (not a word), not Casi (meaning close) He has 21 Months in the mission and he is still mixing up with English! 

Got home from devisions and the apartment was covered in water because Elder Tafur unplugged the fridge the night before..... Water got in my dirty laundry, and my blue laundry bag bled onto my clothes, so I had to do Laundry!

To be spiritual by stealing words from my Best Friend Elder Iongi, ¨Even though We went through all this Trouble and suffered a lot... We NEED TO STOP AND THINK... JESUS CHRIST suffered MUCH MUCH MUCH MORE!!

Without him we wouldnt have the chance to return to our Heavenly father! I KNOW without a doubt that He is my Savior and Redeemer, Through him I can be forgiven of ALL my sins and Return to live with my family for eternity.

 My message to ALLL is that Life may be rough...All we need to do is think of our OWN OLDER BROTHER, Jesus Christ. Think of all the AGONY he felt in the Garden of Gethsemany, Think of the Scourging, Think of the Crown of Thorns he had to wear, Think of When he carried his very own cross to the place where he was prepared to Die, and Think of when he suffered on the Cross. HE DID ALLLLL OF THAT for US! ... For Me, For EACH AND EVERYONE of you! ... Never Feel bad, sad , or Hopeless... Jesus IS ALWAYS WITH You... I testify ALL these things and KNOW that they are ALL true, In His name, Jesus Christ, Amen.

I love you guys and leave you with a talk from Conference Oct. 2013

Tuesday during sleep time, it POURED rain for like 5 hours. and we woke up to the streets absolutly flooded, luckily, only a little bit of water came in the house through the window. Unluckily for the other neighbors, they were filled with water. We left in the morning and helped a few people take out water and clean.

Wednesday, we visited a less active family that everybody tells us to visit. the dad was the branch president before they moved here, and theyve been inactive for a while. They came to church this week though!

Thursday we went on splits in the night with 2 members. I was with my convert Hno. Ruiz. It was hard to be in charge and teach basically the whole lesson, but i did it!

Friday we had a zone training and we talked about working better with recent converts. That was good and full of info.

Saturday we did service for Luciano. His wife had their baby on friday, so we cleaned up the house, then ate pizza. In the night Hno. Ledesma came with us to teach, we had a solid lesson with a new investgator and then visited a few less actives. We visted a crazy lady that didn´t want to read in the scriptures to answer one of her questions. 

Sunday we had 3 investigator at church, then had a lesson with William and Gaby about reaching goals. They want to be baptized next saturday, but they still have to get married and quit smoking. But its possible!!

Nothing else too special, enjoy the pics of the water.

Lots of walking. Area is huge!! In the mornings, we cover one part, and in the nights the other. We are hoping to get bikes this week. That will be awesome!

Tuesday we had a district meeting. One Elder was talking about prayer and he said ¨Orar con fe, amor, y con ganas a sentir mas cerca a Dios.¨ Solid

Wednesday I wasn´t feeling so hot. It was also pouring rain for like three days this week, and maybe again tonight!

Thursday for planning, we basically just set days and times for each area, then planned seperate and swapped names at the end. Also and the end of the night we contacted a guy, he used to live in Dallas, so we talked english. Im pretty sure my comp was jealous

Friday We had a member Hno. Roldon come with us to my area, he used to go on splits with the elders in my area, but not for a long time, so I let him choose where we go. We visited a lot of good less active families. One family said that they were just talking about figuring out a way to go back to church, then we showed up! (They didn´t come to church....) Then we waited for the collectivo to go home for over an hour and I contacted another person in english!

Saturday in the morning we were in the other area, about to go to mine, but the spirit led me to a references house. She wasn´t too interested, but at the end she was crying. Nice. Then we taught Celste (good investigator, hard to find) the 10 commandments. we are planning for the 14th for her baptism. She told us that her birthday is the 15th, so I told her that at church, we would give her the greatest gift she will ever receive, and its called the Holy Ghost, then I invited her to be baptized! she was surprised and laughing, it was funny, but then it got serious and we talking about how we can get any answer through prayer. So she prayed and was crying.
The spirit guided me a lot that day, wow im so worthy. 

Sunday we were in his area, and we had been to this house he was trying to find once, and it was beacuse we were lost a different day and ended up there. He pulled out his map and was trying to figure out where we were for like 5 minutes. I kept telling him ¨its over here, its over here¨ then finally he followed me and I got us there. Ive been there once and I already know his area better than him. My internal navigation is real. Also, he was using a flashlight to walk, and as i was making fun of him and trying to pass him, i slipped in mud. But i didn´t fall, just slipped a little...

Thats basically my week. Hope you guys have a solid week. Also, happy birtday to Jess, and Goodluck Kaitlin as you enter the MTC on Wednesday!

My week goes as follows...

Nothing too notable during the begining of the week. I watched a video from a Jeffery R Holland talk about the atonement and it was remarkable.

a few quotes from it were - about mission work

¨Why is it so hard. cant it be easier? Someone a lot better than us has already asked that question.¨Why would this work be easy if it was NEVER easy for Him? "If we get shut down, spit on, or rejected, we shouldnt hang our head and feel bad. We are in the same situation as the greatest missionary that ever was on this earth.

We contacted a lady that works at ChangoMas (WalMart) last week, and she is awesome. Her name is Isabel. We did service for her last week and painted her whole kitchen from green to white. She is fun and really nice, then yesterday she said, ¨I want to be a mormon¨

Friday, we had a ¨white storm¨ in one of the areas. basically all of the missionaries go to this one area and work. We went with a member (Gaby 19, waiting for mission call) to visit a menos activo. We got about a block out, and two guys flew past on a motorcycle and tried to rip his backpack off. He almost fell to the ground and somehow hurt his foot. Wow. What a start, we went back to the church, left his backpack, and continued on. Trooper!

Transfers; Elder Hogge (lived with him the whole time) got transfered to tucuman. also my companion, Elder Iongi, got transfered to Oran! WHAT? only one transfer with my favorite companion. In other news, Elder Hogges companion, Elder Tafur (we dont get along too well), and I are now companions. Which means that they merged our two areas, and now we are the only 2 missionaries in the ward. I already thought that my area was the biggest in the mission, now I don´t have a single doubt. If we don´t get bikes, we might die. but, im still here in Santiago.

Shout out to Elder Iongi and Elder Hogge for keeping it real these last few transfers, Imma miss you guys.

Started out a strong week. Tuesday we had a good lesson with Brisa and filled out her ´ficha´ (Paper for baptism) and bought a milinesa sandwich

Wednesday we cleaned the church a little bit for the baptism, and only had one lesson with Silvia, our recent convert, and bought a milinesa sandwich.

Thursday we went and filled up the font in the church for the baptism, planned, taught lessons with Celeste (really good progressing investagador) did the ChuChuUa (Link from her, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umOCLJgZQYI) and Brisa. We went over the baptism questions for her interview, and her mom didn´t sign the ficha. we also got home 45 minutes late because the consistancy of the colectivos kinda suck. DIDNT BUY A MILINESA SANDWICH

Friday we had a zone training about ´How to reach our goals´ that was really good and informative. We went to Brisas for her interview, and she was sleeping, and her sister wouldn´t let us wake her up, So we went and taught a lesson to Silvias daughter, she wants to be baptized now! :) Then went back to brisas and she wasn´t home. Taught a less active family, and went back to brisas, still wasnt home, so we waited. after about 40 minutes, we went home. We didn´t have any contact with her that day, text, call, face to face, nothing. Yes, we got milinesa sandwiches.

Saturday... Di­a de amor, di­a de triste (sad) Went to Brisas in the morning and talked, she was scared to be baptized, she was afraid that after, she would get sick, or something else bad would happen. we had about an 1hr15min lesson with her getting rid of her doubts and fears about baptism. Elder Iongi and I taught, testified, and shared scriptures with her. She was ready and excited. So we set up a time to do the interview at 5. Came back after lunch and studies for the interview, and she was sleeping again UGH! the mom wouldnt wake her up and told us to come back a different day, we went on splits, and i stayed with the DL in my area, we contacted for an hour and went back to Brisas. We found her and talked to her, she said her mom didn´t want her to be baptized. After some convincing, we were able to talk to her mom. It wasn´t great, we testified about how ready her daughter was, and how great of a choice she was making, but the mom wouldn´t let anything change the fact that they are a Catholic family. We comited her to pray and ask God if this was his will for Brisa to be baptized, but I don´t think she will. Talked to brisa after, and let her know that this doesn´t change the fact that she is doing the right things with her life. She will be baptized, i just dont know when.

we got home and there was a huge party going on right outside of our house! they call it ¨carnival¨ It was loud, and there were a lot of people, and food carts. Yes we bought milinesa sandwiches.

Sunday, 0 investigadors came to church, then taught 2 or 3 lessons

Pday, didn´t get to email because the place was packed the whole day. but we talked to a lady that works at ChangoMas, and she seems promising. We are teaching her tonight! 

Today, we had district meeting, and a solid lunch with hermana Avila (less active because of health, she is the sweetest lady, and cooks amazingly)

Transfers are next week, this could possibly be my last week in Santiago, hoping for another one. I want to finish things off with some of our really good investigadors, Elder Iongi, and Brisa. But whatever happens, im ready to ¨let go and let God¨

*We play a game that if you shoot a person while having eye contact with them with an imaginary blow dart gun, they have to completly go limp and fall, it is a great time, you cant move until somebody touches your ear. There have been some funny, interesting, and great positions people have been in, including when elder Ionge was hanging his clothes up outside, and elder Hogge shot him from inside the window

Nothing our of the ordinary this week. I forgot my Journal, so i cant get into the details and the little things that happened, but the biggest thing that happened is a baptism!

Friday, we had to go to a place called La Banda (45 min) to get the baptism gown for Gisela, we found an awesome park and obviously played on it for a little bit. 

notice (Reserved for handicapped) sign behind elder Iongi, he had no Idea. lol.

We had to clean the chaple twice because after we cleaned friday, they had some sort of relif society thing, and made it dirty, so we cleanned again Saturday. The baptism was awesome, Hno. Rolondo Ruiz (my first convert) Baptized his son Nahuel, and wife Gisela. It was awesome seeing them all come together! Before they went in, Nahuel was nervous, so they knelt in prayer outside of the font! It all went good. They both had to be baptized twice, but they were baptized!! 

Sunday, we took the colectivo to an investigators house (Brisa, she is being baptized this Saturday) and there was a guy KNOCKED OUT! he was covered in paint, probably drunk, and definitly was partying the night before. When we got off the collectivo, about 5 minutes later we saw him walking back, retracing the collectivo route. He missed his stop. lol it was fun to watch. 

Nothing else really, enjoy the picture of the dog, even they think its way to hot here. :)

Just in case you guys thought i was kidding everytime i talk about how hot it is here... http://www.diariopanorama.com/seccion/locales_13/racord-santiago-la-ciudad-mas-calurosa-de l-mundo_a_184250

As for the week goes.. Ive kinda forgot.

We have been working (sweating) hard. We had divisions at one point, I was with elder tafur, the district leader. I don´t like him very much so it was a long day. but we got two fechas (baptism dates) that day. he doesnt try to build relationships with people when he teaches or contacts, so it was difficult.

the next day he went on divisions with the zone leaders, and when he got back, after about 2 minutes he was already getting mad at us for something. He always corrects everyword i say wrong in spanish, and i have told him multiple times how much i hate it, so as i was explaining it again, he was correcting me. That didn´t go over well.

Other than that, my companion is still aweome, we love eachother and are hoping for another transfer together.

On sunday, we got 66 contacts in the street. That was awesome, a lot of people sit outside with their families on sundays.

Then on monday we went to a soccer field with the other elders in the zone and played soccer, basketball, and ate steak. Then elder hogge and i found out we had to go to salta to finish our papers that day. so we hopped on the collectivo and took the 1 hour journey home to get ready. We finished our papers and wont have to go back to salta, so thats good. Nahuel (Ruiz morenos son) is doing awesome. we finished the lessons with him today and i gave him a ´stories of the book of mormon´ book to read. They are super ready for this saturday!!

Other than that, nothing too exciting.

Love you guys.

#MakeItRain (Peso edition)