Diego's Baptism and Christmas

I am doing well. I don´t know about the NYLT camp. My thoughts were to be able to earn money off of it. I don´t know what I want to do when I get home. I am used to doing something though. But I am slightly exhausted from everything. If they are working 30 hour weeks. I could see if they would let me work shifts at some of the schools getting home to work 3 10 hour days and then have two days open for other things... I don´t know I also don´t know how much they allow in extra hours anymore. I don´t have a clue what I want when I get home. There are a bunch of details that are unknown still.

We are working with Claudio and Sebastian. They are really awesome. We found a house where 5 families live together and many of them are really receptive. We have been teaching English to a couple of them. Claudio came to church Sunday and he and Sebastian have baptismal dates for the 16th of January. Claudio stayed for Diego´s baptism. It went really well. We went by yesterday and met Aileen who is a cousin there, who also is really interested. We are looking into helping this family more. They are really great and there is a ton of potential here.

I have found many things. I could look into the custom made scripture cases. I think you might have seen some of them if you look on Noemi Torrejón´s Facebook page. It is possible that you find the scripture cases that she got for her daughter before she left for her mission. I am still looking into a lot of things. I need a new backpack because I washed this one and it keeps staining everything.... I sweat way too much.... I gave away 1 Rubik’s cube to Cristobal Torrejón and I am going to give the other spare to Sebastian my investigator. I gave one to my companion and I have mine.

The mission Christmas party had a musical program and President and Sister Doll came from the CCM and we have several classes as well. Yes they made a new Christmas Calendar, but I don´t have a picture with me here.

To be honest my companion doesn´t know how to take care of his money.... I pulled out extra because he ends up broke halfway through the month and I end up paying all of the extra costs and they add up quickly. I told him to do better about it, but he doesn´t have the desire to change on his own yet or to understand the need to fix that yet. I am making it so we can get by. I pulled out in total $208 if my math is right. I am going to try to have it around and take care of things, but I am just sick of running out and having problems.

Karla and the dad of her kids were together for a while, but they are separated. They never married. He doesn't live here and isn't receptive to us. We haven´t tried working with him because he isn´t from our sector and it is complicated.

Elder Allen from my group is in the office. Elder Ballard is an Assistant now. Elder Clegg from one group less than me is a Zone Leader and this Elder Clegg is a new missionary. Elder Allen training is a younger Elder Allen, but has around a year in the mission.

Sandra is a member who was baptized around a year and a half ago. Mario is an eternal investigator. He doesn´t want to change or pray and has lots of pains and he has problems that make life hard for him. We haven´t seen Lissette in around a month.

I like having the scriptures on the packages. It makes it more fun to open in the mission. I liked the stockings and the Santa hats this year. That is the majority of this gigantic email for now.

Hi!   You are on later than usual.  Sorry for so many questions.
 

It sounds like you had an amazing week.  That is exciting that you have so many investigators who are interested and willing to listen and make commitments.  I bet there are lots of eternal investigators like Mario.  It seems like it is harder for the men to have faith and commit to live the gospel.  I imagine giving up their alcohol is hard, because it is so much a part of their celebrations.  Someday the right set of missionaries will touch his heart when the Lord has prepared him enough.  I am sure you have planted some good seeds in his heart. 

Don’t worry about the job and stuff when you get home.  It will all work out.  We can talk about it more when the time is closer to you coming home.  I don’t think the NYLT thing will be the best way for you to earn money this summer, but there may be a future for you in scouting someday in a paid position. 

Can you send any photos of the baptism and Christmas?

I am working on it they are loading right now.

Here is a picture of Diego.

Awesome!  You look very handsome in your white clothes.  Which sister missionaries taught him?  I missed that in our Skype call.

Hermana Erthal and Hermana Pizarro the ones from our ward.

All three are recent converts from different sectors. Daniel is by me he is from Manzano 2, Karla is ours and Diego from Sauce 2. 

Christmas was fun.

Thank you.  I am glad you enjoyed the gifts.  You look happy!  I hope you enjoyed giving as much as receiving.  I know it must be a pain to try to teach your companion to be more frugal with his money.  Sometimes it takes going through a rough time without before you really realize that you have to save a little and be more careful.  It was tough for Curtis to learn that lesson.  I should have let him suffer more and go without, but he always seemed to have a reason why he needed more money.  I am grateful that you have been willing to live on what you receive.  You are very wise in your young years.

Elder Espinoza looks happy.  I am glad we sent him the gifts.  I know he will appreciate what a thoughtful, kind and sharing missionary you were.  He might not realize it now, but later on his mission when he is with another companion who is not as kind, he will know that he had a good friend in you and that he was very blessed to have someone who cared about him.  At that point, he will get it and understand what you have tried to teach him.  Be patient with him.  Love him and let him know you are his friend.  He is still learning and it takes a while to become humble enough to be teachable.

I am avoiding spending right now. I pulled money out, but I am doing what is necessary. But this next month, I am not going to let him spend more. If he runs out of money I am going to make him call the Zone Leaders and explain why he is out of money instead of saving him. It will be three months of the same problem if he isn´t careful. He always has an excuse to what happened with his money, but I have spent more on large costs and I still had money until almost the last couple days and around 2 weeks of that I was paying for double on buses and everything else.... I just get frustrated with the same problems all the time.

I am out of time, but that is a good amount of pictures for now. We will get back to you later. Sorry that I wasn´t able to send more. Thank you for everything. Talk to you next week! Love you!

I love you, too!  Be Goode!


Photos from the Mission Christmas Party on December 21, 2015 that I got from Facebook on President and Hermana Barreiros's Facebook Page.

Elder Goode - He just conveniently was standing for the photo.

It looks like they had to add another place setting for him at the table.

 President and Hermana Barreiros on the far right.  The second couple from the left is President and Sister Doll from the CCM in Chile.

Cupcakes and candy for dessert.

Elder Ballard, grandson of Elder M. Russell Ballard is on the left.  He was in Braxton's CCM group and is a new Assistant to the President.  Look carefully and you will see Elder Goode between their heads talking to one of the Senior Missionaries.

A photo of all of the missionaries in the mission on December 21, 2015.

President and Hermana Barreiros and their son who is with them on the mission.

Elder Goode is on the far right at the center table.

The four Hermanas on the back right side are in Braxton's District.

Merry Christmas!

Things are going really well. We haven´t had new people at church, but we have the Mom of some of the recent converts who attended. We need to focus in on a couple of people and help them to be baptized. Things have been going really well. We had a difficult day yesterday. Karla´s youngest son was in an accident and we ran to the hospital to be there to help her. We were able to give him a blessing, before they took him in an ambulance to another hospital. He supposedly got hit by a car. He had head injuries, but he was awake and conscious. I was very stressed when we heard and we went running to help. Things went well though.

I have the first 3 packages. I have the Thanksgiving one, The District gifts, and the shirts and scriptures. They are going to try to bring the next package later. They didn´t have it on yesterday at the activity of the mission. I am hoping that the Christmas Stockings get here soon. We are going to be visiting with several people. I honestly don´t have the plans all figured out for those days yet. We will have a lot going on. The house is around 10 minutes from the cyber walking. We can be in the house until 1 in the afternoon which is 9 in the morning for you. We will be doing several things. 

I don´t know yet about a zone activity yet. 

Hello.  It is so good to hear from you and to know that the packages have finally made it there.  At least you will have something to give, even if you don’t have something to receive and you can enjoy a fun meal. 

I am sorry to hear about Karla’s son, but happy you were able to be there to help him with a blessing and to comfort her.  This may be the Lord’s way of turning their hearts to Him.  If they see that the blessing was able to make things better, it may help their faith to grow.  It may also help other ward members to be more involved in their lives.  All things happen for a reason. 

I am glad you will have some plans for Christmas and Christmas Eve.  It helps me to know that others are looking out for you and taking care of you. 

Are you nice and hot today?  We are getting a nice, fluffy snow falling beautifully from the sky.  A lot of the snow we had melted yesterday when it rained most of the day.  This has given us another four inches of fresh beautiful white for Christmas.  Clain came home wet and muddy yesterday.  He fell in the mud and got soaked all the way through.  Hopefully he will enjoy today a lot more than he did yesterday. 

I´m sorry about Clain.... I just come home dripping wet from sweating all day... Thank you so much for the shirts. I needed them badly. My backpack stains my shirts from sweating.... It is hard for me because I hate long sleeve shirts.... 

With Karla´s son we found out quick. She was out visiting with the Sisters in our ward and the sister´s called us when they heard and we went running to check on her kids at her house and then we went to the small hospital emergency attention that there is in our sector to help. It was a long day, but things are going fine. Yesterday we had our Christmas party for the mission it went really great. I got Elder Ludeman´s white elephant gift.

I am glad the shirts helped.  I knew you were not a fan of the long sleeve shirts when we bought them, but thought you might wear them just to keep warm.  I bet you didn’t wear the thermals, sweaters and scarves much either. 

What gift did you get from Elder Ludeman?  What gift did you give and who got it?  What activities did they have for your mission party?

I am sending you a Word Document and a PDF of the same document in case you can’t open the Word document for your Neumont Application.  I need you to fill in a couple of blanks and read and give me any suggestions for changes.  Look for the red stuff.

My gift went to Elder Benavides.  I gave him a laser pointer with different heads that change the lights distortions. 

I got a camo Santa hat, a frisbee, a nativity, a mug, and a green tie.

I saw you got logged into Skype.  Was your companion able to get logged in as well?  I am happy you got the scriptures for him.  Are you saving them for Christmas Day to give to him?  I should have sent some wrapping paper for them.  Sorry, I didn’t think of it till later and I should have put his name on the case.  Sorry.  Maybe you could find a place in Chile that would do it for you.  I was in a hurry that day trying to get the package in the mail so I could get to Grandma’s for her doctor appointment.  Are the new glasses okay?  Do they fit right?  Hopefully your eyes will adjust to them quickly. 

Sweet.  I will have to share the photo with Elder Ludeman’s mother on Facebook. 

Clain wanted me to send you a camo Santa hat.  I am glad I didn’t.  Did you buy a laser pointer for yourself?  It would be a good teaching tool when you are doing District Trainings.  Have you gone to any mission trainings for District Leaders and Zone Leaders?  Have you gone to the temple or do you have any upcoming temple dates?  I need to get there again, soon.  Maybe next week.  I would like to go to Logan or to Salt Lake again. 

The new glasses work great. I gave the scriptures to him today. He was a little down yesterday, so I wanted to pick him up a little. He also wanted me to thank you for the Scriptures. I put together the packages to share with the District right now.

We are verifying cameras and headphones and microphones, but they aren´t the best here....

I almost tossed in a headset for you, but then didn’t.  I should have.  Sorry.  Is it a big Cyber Café or a small one?  Will it be busy on Christmas Day?

We are looking to go to the Temple on the 9th of January. Elder Ludeman’s health is doing better.  He was bad for a while, but he is doing well now. He is still really skinny, but he is doing fine. He is happy and he is a really great friend of mine. I haven´t had any trainings yet for District Leaders. 

On the documents that you sent me, it was five levels instead of 10. Plantations works. The software for the programming camp was Gamemaker. In Digital Media Arts we used Photoshop, and other animation software. Mainly it was Photoshop. I will go through it again to verify the red parts.

I hope you don’t come home with any tapeworms or parasites.  How is your health doing?  Do you feel well most of the time?  Have your allergies gotten better with the summer weather?  I am happy you and Elder Ludeman are great friends.  I hope you are able to meet up after the mission and continue to be friends. 

Okay.  That helps with the application.  I will edit the application and try to get it submitted to Jason today. 

The Cyber Café here is small. I am considering looking for another one, because the cameras are awful.... It will be open on Christmas, but I doubt it will be busy. I am doing well.  I have lost weight, but I don´t know if it is a tapeworm situation or what, but, oh well.

The forms of serving is anything and everything.... I don´t have a lot of details there....

I was hoping you could tell me you did something cool.  Have you hauled hay, helped harvest any crops, washed windows or anything else, painted anything, built anything, cut grass with a machete, any help would be appreciated.  What did you do to serve in the city? 

I will schedule a doctor visit for you soon after you get home and we will make sure you are healthy or get healthy.  I will also schedule dentist and eye doctor appointments.  Those will be something to look forward to.  J   The mission should give you some pills to take for parasites before you come home.  At least, I hope they will.  Curtis never got them because they had run out.  Luckily, he was okay.

I painted a room in a house once, I cleaned up a yard, moved dirt for a family to help them level out their land. Those have been the main ones so far. A couple of house projects where we helped briefly with construction.

I don´t know about our mission. I think they give them if you are sick and it is noticeable. I lost a lot of weight, but mainly from the bike. Right now, I think I have been maintaining.

I know you are riding a lot of miles on your bike.  That is great.  It will keep you healthy and strong. 

Great.  I can use those.  Elder Ludeman is from Roseville, California, but maybe he will come to Utah for school.  California is not that far away, really, so I hope you will get to see him and many other friends you have made on your mission.

Did you get all of your packages when you were at the Mission Party yesterday?  How did you get them all back to your apartment?  Are the gifts for your District okay?  Who replaced Hermana Tolk?  Were there any other changes in your District?

I am out of time and I need to be going. We are going to try to look into another Cyber Café to see if they have better cameras, because everything here is coming out blurry on video.... I may show up on Skype, but we will be doing tests between our accounts, like I have always done to verify.

I hope you are able to find a better place to Skype from.  Have an awesome week!  Remember the true reason we celebrate Christmas and share that with everyone you meet.  I love you so very much and I am so excited to Skype with you on Christmas.

It is possible, but Elder Ludeman loves California. My companion and I got the 3 packages and caught a bus. We carried them and had them in our laps. I carried 2 of them and he carried the one that was heavier. Hermana Zanelli is Hermana Vincent´s new companion. Hermana Erthal and Hermana Pizarro stayed together. Elder Anderson changed Districts and his companion is Elder Salcedo from Columbia who is a District Leader as well. Elder Allen and Elder Clegg are in my District now. They are El Manzano 1. Elder Allen is training Elder Clegg and Elder Clegg is new. Things are going great. 

Thanks talk to you next week!

Great.  You needed some new challenges.  That will be fun to train new missionaries and do divisions with the Elders.  Have an awesome day.  We love you!  Did they do a new Christmas card poster with all of the missionaries’ photos?

Being a District Leader

Camila sent a message to me on Saturday, December 12^th.  Sounds like great news for you.  You will get to go to the temple with them in March.  Congratulations.  I am happy for them and for you.  

Thank you so much. I actually wrote a card to send to her tomorrow when we have our change meeting. I appreciate all that you are doing for me. I can´t believe that the sisters from my group are home now. It is so strange and odd that everything is happening right now. We don´t have changes, my companion or I. We are staying for Christmas. I have not received any of the packages, not even the Thanksgiving one. Thanks for the updates and the photos of Taylor´s baptism. We have been having a couple frustrating weeks. We don´t have investigators progressing and Yaresla isn´t really sure of what she wants. We haven´t been able to have her attending church since her brother´s baptism. We are working on it, but she is really indifferent about everything and we can´t find a solution to help her change her behavior....

Hi.  You are on early today.  I wish I knew how to help you with Yaresla.  The only thing I can think of is to somehow get the Young Women to invite her to their meetings.  She won’t come if she doesn’t feel she has friends in the ward.  It is a big thing at that age and more so for girls than boys.

I am sorry about your packages.  That is frustrating that you haven’t even gotten the Thanksgiving package.  The tracking says it was delivered on December 1^st.  Check with the office elders.  Maybe it is sitting in a corner somewhere.

I am glad you get to stay with your companion for Christmas.  That will be nice.  Are the two of you getting along well?  When is your change meeting? 

We have been invited to Hermana Tolk’s Homecoming Talk on Sunday.  Do you think we should go?  Did you get to know her very well?

I was in her first and last district. I was just barely her District Leader before she left yesterday. I would say that it would be a great experience for you and you could talk to her if about the mission and everything if you get the opportunity. If you are invited, why not?

Okay.  If the weather is not horrible, we will go.  We didn’t get any more snow last night.  We have 6 inches.  I talked to a guy this morning that said Bountiful got 2 feet and he had 18 inches in East Layton.  I am glad we get some where we live, but not as much as they do by the mountains.  I am sorry you are hot, but just enjoy it.

So one of the first two Christmas packages says it cleared customs this morning.  So I suspect the other one is still at customs.  It is frustrating that they are so slow this time and frustrating that you haven’t even gotten the Thanksgiving package.  It should have been delivered to you last week when you got pouch.  Have you received any post cards or letters through pouch?

I haven´t. Things are just little frustrating right now, but everything is going well. The hardest thing is finding people with a sector that is so large because of so much space. It is easier to find people when you have less space and are around the same areas all the time. I am doing really great, but I am out of time. Thank you for all that you do and we will let you know about how things go next week. We should be together my companion and I for Christmas, because we don´t have changes. I am out of time. I love you. Talk to you next week!

I love you, too.  Try to talk to the Office Elders and see if they can find your Thanksgiving package.  It is covered in pictures and quotes.  That one is a regular size package with all the stickers and stuff on top of the quotes.  Have a great week.  Don’t get discouraged.  You are there for a reason.  Be Happy.  Smile.  Be Goode!  I love you so very much.

Love always and forever,

Mom

Work hard to find some new investigators if the ones you have are not progressing.  You have a huge area.  I am sure the Lord has prepared some people for you to find in all of that area.  Keep praying and keep working hard to find them.  Talk to everyone you meet and ask everyone who feeds you if they have any friends or relatives you could visit and teach.  Maybe you could sing Christmas Carols on the street corner or at a park.  Be creative! 

You never told me if you were singing in the Christmas concert this year.  What happened with that? 

I applied and they haven´t done anything which makes me think that they aren´t doing one.

I didn’t get time to work on the Neumont Application this week.  I will try again this coming week.  Did you write anything for me? 

We had a big snowstorm today.  We got 6 inches.  SLC got 12.  The benches in Bountiful got 18.  It is supposed to snow again during the night and give us another 6 inches.  They made school a late start tomorrow.  They should have done that today for the Bountiful people.  They may cancel school if it is too bad.  We won’t know till morning.  I am hoping they do not cancel, because we will have to make it up during Spring Break. 

I think I forgot to tell you, but last week, Carter Flick got baptized and confirmed.  He has been attending church in another ward, the 1^st Ward I think, but he got baptized and confirmed in our ward.  He is living with his grandparents next door.  I am happy for him.  He is running around with a great bunch of kids.  Dad talked to him a little after the meeting.  He didn’t know you were serving a mission.  He does now.  You will have to talk to him when you get home.

Your third package, the one with the glasses, cleared Customs in Chile today.  The other two have never reported that they did.  I hope they will all three be waiting for you when you have your change meeting this week.  Let me know.

I haven´t written anything for Neumont. Just work with it. My head is overly stressed lately. This last month and a half has really worn me down. There is a whole lot more stress being a District Leader. 

Enjoy the snow.... I have all of the heat and it is really hot here. 

That is awesome that Carter got baptized! I am happy for him. Let me know how things are going for him in the future. I am a little frustrated right now. I am trying to access my Skype account, but it won´t open, even though I know that I have everything correct... I am verifying everything so that we can have the Skype call on Christmas. We are looking at writing around 4 here which would be around 1 if I am correct.

What time is it right now there?

It is 10:12 right now. 

Okay right now we are at 2:22 so it is a 4 hour difference so it will be 12 when I do Skype. Sadly it won´t let me into my Skype account for The Microsoft entrance. Can you look into it and see if you can access my account?

Okay.  I will try to figure it out this week.  12 will work great for us for your Skype call.  I am excited to visit with you again.

An Interesting Week!

Things are going well. It was an interesting week. Nobody had baptisms in the District this weekend. We only had the confirmation of Alexis. We weren´t able to baptize Yaresla, because she was at her dad´s and visiting the grandparents. We are working with her for the 19th of December now and to have her confirmed on the 20th. She is more willing for this date. She is really timid and we are working to help her overcome it. Her baptismal interview could be a problem if she acts timidly, but we are working towards that.

I don´t have a ton of new information. We are finding a lot of new people just finding other visits with them is the main problem. We found 11 new investigators last week, but we haven´t been able to get back in contact with the grand majority of the people. I will see what happens.

Don´t worry about the reunions. We have pouch tomorrow. So I don´t think that the packages are going to arrive before Christmas, unless they do pouch specially or it comes the week afterwards and I pick them up with the change meeting on the 16th of December when we meet together or on the 21st of December when we have our mission Christmas party. Everything depends and we will see what happens. 

Hi!  I am sorry your baptism didn’t work out, but you should be happy and proud of the work you are doing.  I am glad that Yaresla is still progressing.  Can you find some friends in the ward her age that can help her to feel more comfortable?  That is tough.  If she is really timid, she may not feel she fits in.  Maybe talk to the Young Women’s Leaders and see if they can take an interest in her and invite her to activities. 

I am glad you are increasing your teaching pool.  I hope you are able to schedule some return visits with some of them.  How is the family that had three baptized out of nine coming along and how is Lissette coming along?  Have you been able to teach any of them?

I did my best in getting the packages sent to you.  Sorry if you get them late.  I am sure the Office Elders will do their best to try to get packages to everyone before Christmas, even if it means some extra trips.  Have you put up any decorations from last year?  How are things coming on finding a new apartment? 

Yaresla is more scared of making friends than anything. She doesn´t like attention. She likes going and being close to her Mom. They are really close. We have set up appointments, but most of the time the return appointments fall through. The Acuña family is a challenge. They are the family of 9. They live far away. We taught Lissette once this week. She is receptive, just hard to run into. We are working to have her be baptized in a couple more weeks. We will see what happens. I haven´t put up decorations. I don´t have a lot of time. I still need to prepare my class for District Meeting tomorrow.... We have a Brother working on finding another apartment and we haven´t been able to find one yet.

The first two packages arrived in Chile today.  They have left the airport and should be to Customs by now.  I have no idea where the third package is.  It left Clearfield on Friday, but it hasn’t been scanned to report its progress.  It could be with the other two or anywhere between Clearfield and Chile.  I doubt if any of them will make it to you tomorrow, though you may get some letters and postcards.

Don´t worry about it. I am fine. Things are going great.

I wondered if Yaresla was very shy.  She seems that way in the photo you sent.  It will work out.  Pray for a miracle and the Lord will provide a way.  I hope you are able to baptize Lissette.  Is any of her family interested?  You said before that the father in the Acuna family had been coming to church.  Is he still coming? What area do they live in?

Maybe one of the ideas I sent will help you with your district meeting.  Do you have set lesson topics or do you use Personal Revelation to choose your topic?  What lesson topics have you taught them this change?

This is information for your Neumont Application and your Bank Information.  The Word Document and one PDF are the same.  Print one or the other and the other PDF.  Read them this week and write your answers down.  Next week on Pday, type the answers in an email to me or login to the Neumont Application and type the answers in there.  Please do this as soon as you can, so it is done before Christmas.  I will work on it some more this week and next.

Honestly what you have so far works well. I don´t have a lot of difference. I went to The Digital Media Arts Festival, but I never won anything. I was in FBLA briefly, but not very avidly.... I don´t have a lot more. You can put what you feel. I am very limited on my ability to help with this. I liked the basis of the stuff that you wrote. The most likely to change would be what I am doing for the mission. I don´t know about the paying bills. We just send them to the office... The majority of the other parts are a great basis. I haven´t been doing a ton of other things lately. The first question is mainly based on the constant use of technology and the shift in the world into a technological era. We depend on a lot of technology and I want to be able to help and aid in the progression of this process in the world. I want to be able to know and do the necessary things to help with these situations.

I don´t have a clue about many of these questions and most anything that is placed to me seems really great. I highly doubt that we need to go extreme over the application. As to what they told us last time that I applied they would have given me a full-ride if I had been able to attend, but I am on a mission so they gave me a lower one. I don´t think we need to stress a lot over this and just send them the basis of everything. Questions 1 and 2 are slightly odd for me. I don´t know if that is because I don´t speak English like I did before of if I am just crazy. 

Also I was wanting to find out more about working with the scouting training in the summer. Can you look into the details on what would be necessary and if they pay and how well etc. I would like to have a basis and a plan started to have in mind for when I come home as to what I want to do. I know that there are so many options, but I want to have an idea as to what I want to do mainly in order to have the vision for the future. 

Okay.  I guess I will tackle the application on my own this week.  I will send it again next week with the updates and you can tell me if I need to make changes before I submit it.  I am not sure when I will have time to work on it, but I will try to figure something out.

I will try to talk to some people about the training and find out what I can.  We have a ward party tonight, so maybe Brother Schultz will be there and I can find out a few things from him. 

Dad sold seven pigeons to a guy in Canada for $1500, so I probably won’t need to transfer the money from your account.  I should be able to cover everything at this time.  That will leave you a bit more money to work with for school.

I know don´t stress over it. Sorry that I can´t help a lot on the application. I know that if you send it the best that you can it will work out. I am not stressed over school. I don´t have any reason to be. Things are going to be fine. Thanks!

Hey Mom I am out of time. I´m sorry that I wasn´t able to get pictures this week. It wasn´t a week for pictures. Thanks for everything. I will get back to you on things. Just put everything the best that you can on the details and I will let you know about it. The first 2 questions on the application for Neumont are the only ones that seemed slightly odd to me. The others at the end seemed great unless you want to add something to them.

I love you! Thanks for all that you are doing! I will get back to you on what I come up with. Thanks!

I don´t have time to discuss it all. I know what I want to talk on and now it is just planning it out. The Acuña family lives in Esperanza. Near Padre Hurtado, but to the west. We are looking into it. Lissette´s Mom is open to talking and everything, but not really to sharing messages with us. Thanks, talk to you next week!

I will work over all of the questions and send it to you again next week.  If you think of anything I should add, let me know next week.  Be safe and Be Goode!  Remember all the things you have learned as you have grown up and in scouting and the church and you will be okay.  I love you and I think of you often, like every minute!  Have a wonderful week.

Love always and forever,

Mom

Another Baptism

It was a really good week! I am happy Alexis got baptized and I was able to baptize him. It was really nice. Things are going well here. We have Yaresla in progress for this next Sunday. We are working with her to verify and help her. Alexis gets confirmed next Sunday. Things are going so nicely. I am loving the work. Try my normal password for most everything. If you don´t remember it, you originally created it. My old High school email had the password 184037716 if I am not mistaken it was all numbers. If not take out a 7 and try it. That was my old email the email was 14bgoode@davis.k12.ut.us I hope this helps I am not certain of the numbers.

I also don´t remember really well my credit card number. I haven´t used it in 17 months and my memory of the numbers is fading. I tried it the other day because I was low on money, but I couldn´t get it to work. I think that I just remembered the numbers wrong. I was having a hard time remembering. If I need money I will try it again, but we just got our money. 

Hey for Christmas do you think that you could try to send another Quadruple like you did before? I don´t know how long it will take, but it would be something special for my companion. His name if you want to personalize one. It would be Elder Diego Espinoza. That is how he would like it personalized, if you possibly can.  

Also for Christmas, I keep ending up without Rubik’s Cubes.... I like having them, but I don´t know if they are really expensive or not.... We have another young man in our ward that I was looking into giving one to, but I don´t have one right now. Do you think that you could send 2 when you get the chance? Sorry if the costs are a lot.... I don´t like spending money or making others spend money.... I have gotten over a lot of material wants just focusing more on what will leave sentimental mainly....

Hi Braxton!  Congratulations!!!  I am so happy for you to have finally used your white tie!  Send me photos please.  I am happy things are progressing nicely for you.

I have been using your normal password, but it didn’t work.  I can no longer access your old school email account.  They closed it.  I forwarded all the important stuff from that account to the email account braxtongoode@gmail.com, so I have the emails from Neumont.  I just can’t get into Neumont’s site because the password won’t work, but I will try the numbers and see if that works.  Or I will just call Jason and talk to him if he doesn’t email me today.

I don’t have your credit card number with me, but I will email it to you for next week.  Don’t you have the card with you?  I have heard from other parents that the best way to get money down there is to make a small purchase somewhere using your card and then get extra cash with the purchase.  If you do it as a credit purchase, it will have you sign your name.  If you do it as a debit purchase, it will ask for your pin number.  It is okay to do the credit purchase and sign your name.  It all comes out of the same account. 

I can get a quad, if they have them in stock and I will have them personalize it.  What about a case?  You want this to be in English, right?  Last time, I could only get it in black. 

I have bought two more Rubik’s Cubes and they are in your package ready to send.  I am just hoping to get the glasses sometime this week.  If not, I will send it without the glasses and send you another package as soon as I get the glasses.  I will have to work to get the quad into the current packages.  They are nearly full now.  I will figure it out.  I was thinking you would give one of the Rubik’s Cubes to your companion.  I may have to go pick up one more.  They are about $10 each.  Not a big deal.  

Foto del Bautismo de Alexis.

We went to the temple and they have their nativity out, so we took pictures there.

Thanks.  That is beautiful.  Did all of Karla’s kids go to the temple with you?  Was she able to do baptisms for the dead?

We only went with Karla and brought Cristobal from the Torrejón family. They are the family where the daughter left for a mission in Argentina and you added the mom on Facebook. She was able to do baptisms, but we haven´t been able to prepare names from her family yet, because we are working to baptize her kids. Cristobal was able to do baptisms as well.

That is awesome!  I am glad they got to go.  Is Cristobal male or female?  I love the photos.  It is so nice to finally get photos from you each week.

The nativity is beautiful.  Did you know that the nativity set they use at Temple Square in SLC used to be colored?  The first year they used it was a really hard winter and the pieces got damaged, so they sprayed them with a white fiberglass paint and that has preserved them so they could continue to use them for many, many more years.  Fun fact! 

Dad and I got tickets to go to the Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert on Thursday, December 17^th.  Our seats are clear up in the balcony, but it will still be fun.  They only let you get two tickets this year. 

I didn´t. I usually haven´t paid much attention to the Nativity sets. I hope that you enjoy the cold. I am really hot here. I could possibly use a few more short-sleeve white shirts. The ones I have are slightly stained and going a little gray, because I use them a lot in the summer and sweat a lot.... I still have un-opened long sleeve white shirts, because long sleeve and I aren´t really that friendly....

My plate was clean, because I know how to eat without leaving a mess. I also finished earlier than others and we were a table further away so they got there later to take pictures. All the missionaries here in this picture are in my zone. We usually end up eating near those who are from our zone, because we associate more with them.

Okay.  That is what I figured.  I can see your companion and the Zone Leaders in the photo.  Elder Brooks is from Brigham City area.  That will be nice you can keep in touch with him when you get home.  I have messaged with his dad a little bit on FB.

Another that came out a little better.

After the fact and a little wet and blurry but still.

Very sweet!  He looks like a fun kid.  I hope you are able to keep in touch with him all through his life. 

Thanks! Work on talking to Jason. If not, I can talk to President and get permission to look into college for the future. I am not stressed. I am fairly certain that things will work out. They seemed extremely interested in me when I applied. I just will need to refresh a lot of information. I feel really good about the scouting training camp for the summer when I get home if that opportunity opens up. I usually go through Rubik’s Cubes quickly... Having a supply for reserve wouldn´t be a bad idea either. 

The Quad would be in English because he is working on learning it and we are practicing. I am working on my Portuguese a little with him. He lived around 10 years in Brasil and has double nationality in Ecuador and Brasil. A Case would be great and as it comes the best you want or what you can prepare. I am not certain we will pass Christmas together, but we could. We have changes a little before Christmas, but how it happens, I will be certain that he receives it, if things change.

Okay.  I will get it.  It may not get in the Christmas packages this week as they are pretty full, but I can send another one and maybe pick up a few more Rubik’s Cubes to put in with the quad.  Did you get your Thanksgiving package?  Did you like the Rubik’s cube with the open center?

You said that all the companionships in your district would probably baptize this change.  Is that going to happen?  Have you been to a training meeting for the Zone Leaders and District Leaders yet?  How was that?    

We may have to make a trip to the SLC airport on June 27^th when a big group of missionaries is coming home.  They are being sent home a couple of weeks early because of the change in mission presidents.  That would be fun for you.

That group is Elder Brooks and his time with my Mission President and his wife. We haven´t had a training meeting yet and it is still possible. The sisters almost had a baptism Sunday, but the sister was a little scared. She had passes her interview with me and asked me to baptize her. We prepared everything, but she backed out. We are looking at it further on, but it is still possible. It just depends on what happens. The other sisters have a couple people that are fairly close to being baptized and the other companionship, being the Elders have baptized.

Elder Brooks has one change less than me and there are many other missionaries that live really close that I will be able to keep in touch with. Things are coming along well. We are looking for more miracles and working a lot with the Recent Converts. We have 7 right now and when the other two get confirmed, it will go up to 9 and we keep in touch with them all and work to baptize and help everyone we can, so that they are attending. Things are going really nicely and I am really happy. The Lord has been sending so many blessings here for us.

That is nice.  I hope it will work out for the sister who was scared.  I hope all of the sisters are able to baptize this transfer.  You only have a couple weeks left.  Wow, time goes quickly.  Congratulations!  Just keep working with them and it will work out.

Okay.  What size neck?  Are the ones we bought still the right size?  That would probably fill the box with the quad and the Rubik’s Cubes.  How are your socks holding up?  Do you need any new ones?  How are your shoes?  Anything else that is worn out?

The neck size is fine as what we had before. The socks are wearing down, but I am fine there. I am starting to toss some and I am fine with garments. My shoes are fine and should last. I still have the dress style shoes that I don´t use much. that will most likely be what I use when I come home getting rid of the others that are worn out. I still have the boots that I might bring home, because they are still really good, unless I give them away. 

Okay.  The boots might be nice for you to wear to school on snowy, winter days.  They would keep your feet warm on the train and you wouldn’t be walking all day in them.  It is up to you.  Get rid of the worn out stuff before you come home.  No sense bringing your sheets home.  We don’t have any beds that size.  Another elder might be able to use them.

It has been pretty cold the past week.  It is supposed to warm up a little this weekend.  We got just an inch of snow and it is still on the ground because it is so cold.  I hope Dad and Clain are able to finish cleaning up the garden on Saturday or it will be a frozen mess all winter.  I am happy you are warm.  Before you come home, you might want to give away most of your long sleeve shirts, because you probably won’t need them at home.  You will want one or two to go to the temple, but I bet you will not wear them any other time once you are back in Utah.  They would make nice gifts for the men there if they are the right size. 

I am going to look into it closer to the time to come home. I am out of time. I love you and thank you for everything that you are doing. I really appreciate it and thanks for the constant support. Talk to you next week!

I love you, too.  I love supporting you.  Have an M & M week, Magnificent & Marvelous!   You are loved and missed.  Be Goode!

Love always and forever,

Mom