July 8, 2013 Loncoche

President got his quilt and we took a picture of it with his wife and he said he is going to send it to you! Hermana Martinez freaked out she was sooo excited!!! I gave it to him on the fourth of July!! woo hoo!!

So this week was great as well! I got sick but we still got lots of work done and we have some really good investigators that we are working with. My companion, Elder Flitton is an amazing missionary and I love him sooo much. We are having a great time out here.

It has been raining a ton and that just opens the doors to more miracles from hard work. It is not easy to work in the rain especially when you knock on someone’s door wanting to go in and they look at you all wet and say uhh are you crazy? We are not looking to get a swimming pool in our living room! But God always leads us to someone who needs this message. Our little branch is growing. 

We had the first baptism in seven months here and we have two more baptisms in July who have come to church twice now.  I love this little pueblo and we are really starting to build trust with the members and people there. Elder Moss says hi to everyone in the family. He says you’re the best mom and he doesn’t even know you yet! I love Elder Moss and just so you know you will be seeing lots of him after the mission. 

My testimony has finally moved into a deep love and conversion to the gospel even if it’s really hard to carry on. Many times I have wanted to give up but I have not. In life I will never fail or give up after what I have learned here. I love my Savior. I have perhaps felt a true kind of love for Him as I never have before. When we suffer we draw near to him. He tells us that he understands and he is right there walking that thorny trail with us. I love Him. I love all of you and I can’t believe how fast I will be getting home… Chau!

July 1, 2013 Loncoche

We have a conference on Thursday when they bring all the packages so I should be able to give the quilt to president then! So thanks for that.

This week was also really great! We worked really, really hard and found lots more people and we even had a baptism. Her name is Crista. She has been listening to the Elders for four months and she had a baptism date in a couple of weeks. But our mission this month was really close to getting a hundred baptisms which we have not done for a very long time. So president was asking for miracles – people that could be baptized this last Sunday and Crista popped into my mind. We did an interview and she was ready. Well the day before Satan started making her doubt her decision so she said she did not want to do it. So we committed her to pray and really ask God what He wanted for her: to wait or to do it now. Well, we left the house a little discouraged but still with faith. She called us in twenty minutes and said she had prayed and she wanted to do it. We met with her later and asked her what changed. Her family really did not want anything to do with us. So she told us one of the reasons she did not want to do it is because her mom was not going to attend or support her. Well after the prayer her mom said she would support her and she came to the baptism. Also her sister and her brother in law called and said to Crista that if she didn't get baptized they were not going to either. They also came and we are teaching them now so I think they will get baptized in July. So we are doing really good.

The only lame thing is that I have to stay in two days because I got my famous cough and bronchitis. So that sucks but I am going to try and get better really fast. Anyway that is about it for this week! I love you all!

June 24, 2013 Loncoche

Well, here in Loncoche we got together and just hit the streets. Elder Flitton is a hardworking and awesome guy. I love him a ton and he is from Utah! Our first day we worked really hard the whole day and nothing happened until about seven. So the first miracle was when we got lost and decided to knock some doors until another lesson. So we knocked a door and a man came out. And before we could say hola he just said come in. So I figured it was an old investigator or less active. I asked him if he knew who the missionaries were and he said no. I asked him why he let us in and he said I felt the need to listen. So we shared a lesson and him and his wife, Ramey, and they loved it and are very excited to keep listening.

Then after that we went to a lesson with a member. The member told us that this lady named Nancy had lost her husband in November and they are very poor. The husband did not have a leg so it was hard for him to work a lot. So Nancy goes and works all day and her daughter who is 15 left school to work in the house with the food and everything. So we started to teach a little about the plan of salvation and my companion shared a scripture about the resurrection and that our bodies will be completely restored in the end. And Nancy got really excited and told us about an experience she had had with her family. Recently, after the passing of her husband, she and all her family saw him in his spirit form walking with a big smile on his face and he walked out the door.  So the scripture had a huge impact on her. Then she asked about where our church was and she was soo excited. Sadly, her son found out she was listening to us and he is paying the rent for their house and he threatened to stop paying his mother’s rent if she listened to us. So that was very heart breaking. Satan just loves to stir the hearts of the people. He did it in Christ’s time. He did in the restoration and he does it now. Lame…

But another cool thing. We have an investigator named Vanessa. She is the mom of a special needs kid named Martin and she wants to be baptized but she was afraid to go to church because of her son making too much noise. So we went by and shared a scripture that says Christ invites everyone on this planet to come and see. So she came to church. It was amazing! She loved it! I have never seen someone learn so fast from the spirit. She will listen to the basic doctrine of something we teach and then she will expound on it deeply and know stuff that only the spirit could have taught her. She truly blows our minds every time she testifies. So she is getting baptized in July.

We have another person who will be getting baptized as well. We have about ten other people that are really close to being baptized. They just need to come to church. It’s hard here cause if it’s cold outside the world stops. Loncoche is a branch with about 30 people that come and it’s the smallest sector I have had and I truly love it! Pray for our people. We want twelve people baptized this month! It’s a big goal but we have the people to do it. I love you all!

June 17, 2013 Leaving for Loncoche

So, tomorrow I am going to the most southern place in the mission, Loncoche. I will live with Elder Moss and my companion is Elder Flitton. When I first saw him he seemed familiar. We think we were at the same EFY in Taylorsville.

That's great you were able to go to Xander's baptism. I loved the pictures. I can't believe how grown up the kids are.  Layna and the whole family look great!

Dad, Happy Father's Day!  I was thinking about you a lot yesterday and I am very thankful. I am grateful to have a dad. Many people don’t have them or they are difficult. You are a strong person and you serve others. I hope I can follow your example and be able to help many people just like you. Thanks for all the help and awesome times we have had. I was remembering our trips to Arizona and Boston and the John Mayer concert and all the BYU football games!!! We had good times!! I'm excited to do stuff like that with you again! I love you and I hope you had a great Father's Day!

I will have more to write about next week. I love you and thank you for all you do to help me!

 Volcano one hour away from Loncoche

River running through the middle of Loncoche

June 10, 2013 Boca Sur

Well I have had some updates that are interesting. I am now out of the office and am in a sector called Boca Sur. It’s a really gangster place and people get shot a lot but I am only there for this week and then at transfers I am going all the way to the south! It looks like I am going to Loncoche which is the most southern sector where it is the coldest and it rains every day in winter and guess what? Its winter!! I am way excited to go there. I have never been in the south of my mission and I am going waaayy south! So I am very excited and also Elder Moss (Nate’s first companion from the MTC) lives in that sector which means if they do not transfer him I will be living with him which would be way sweet! So I am really excited this week.

Our mission is doing a new thing where in the small sectors the ward can give callings to Elders. So I might get a calling as well. Also, in a house of four Elders 2 only work with less actives and the other two only with investigators. I am going to be working with only investigators so I am really excited to find lots of people to baptize! So that is the big update!

Oh and one funny story. In the chapel this Sunday a dog ran in and barked and we had to chase it out. So we had one dog in church this Sunday.

Thanks for all you do. I give thanks every night in my prayers that you are my mom and dad! I love ya and hope you have a good week.

May 25, 2013 Concepcion (Mission Office)

(Early in the day)

Hey I am going to write more later but we as the office have a request or more of a plead… In the office we have permission to watch movies from Netflix that are Disney. And I remember that in our house we had an account. Soo if you could send the username and the password which I will only keep so we could watch a cute movie on this rainy lame day. We would all be very happy!!

(Ten minutes later…)

WE NEEED NETFLIX OR OUR PDAY IS AT RISK OF BEING BORING HELLLPPPP!!!

(Later that day)

This last week was kind of slow. I am getting put into a new position in the office now. I am going to be the guy in charge of all the houses and making sure all the missionaries have everything that they need. So when they need stuff I go travel and get it to them. I am also in charge of making sure their houses are clean. If they are not we take away their p-day so that’s kind of funny. I am kind of scared to do it cause there is a lot of stuff that I have to do but it will be good. But other than that it has been really slow.  I will probably get a new companion soon as well so that will be fun as well. I will let you guys know more when I start working in that. I am glad that you are doing really good!

May 18, 2013 Concepcion (Mission Office)

Not much news this week.  President told me that I am going to take one of the spots of the other elders in the office. I think I am going to be the mission historian. I have been learning to record all of the mission records and I am in charge of the cell phones and lots of other stuff. We are not sure what position I will take but it seems like it will be that one.  But other than that not much else has happened. I love you all and it was great to see everyone last week!