This is Ulices or Dario as he likes to be called. He was the Ward Mission Leader in Braxton's last area, Bollenar. He works on the church buildings. He was at one of the chapels last week when he took this photo and posted it on Facebook for me to see.
This is Juan and Elder Goode. He is one of the recent converts in his current ward. Braxton is teaching Juan's mother and several of his family members. Juan posted this photo on Facebook for us on Sunday. It was so fun to get two surprise photos this week!
All of the sisters in the picture you sent are from the Mission. Ulices or Dario works on the church buildings and I ran into him at my district meeting in Malloco. Juan is our retention. He is a new convert that got baptized last year in March. We are working to take him to the Temple. Our Temple trip that was for this last Saturday fell through. We are working to go this weekend. We have Claudio with a baptismal date for the 15th, because he wants his girlfriend to be able to come. So he is going to get baptized Friday. We are going to go by later today to verify the Baptismal Questions and set up his Interview. He attended church this week with Sebastian.
We had to talk in church yesterday. They told us we were talking 5 minutes before church and wanted 15 minute talks from my companion and I. It went well.
In the District, the Sisters from El Sauce have
baptized 2 people. One was Diego. He didn´t get confirmed and he will need to
be baptized again. He has some difficulties. The Elders from Manzano had a
baptism this Saturday and he got confirmed so we have 2 that have gotten
confirmed. We are working for this weekend. There aren´t other baptismal dates
yet, but we are going to see what we can do about moving things forward.
I have
plenty of contacts and solution. I haven´t found a backpack yet, because they
don´t sell them here in our sector.
I added Juan as a Friend on Facebook and
then looked at some of his photos. It looks like he has a lot of family he
is close to, but I would guess he is the only member among them. That
probably makes it hard. It looks like he works at a grocery store.
Does he attend church regularly and the gospel principles class?
Has Sebastian been attending
church? How about the female cousin you were teaching?
I think it is fun that all of those sister
missionaries are together at BYU. I guess that gives you good friends and
roommates who have the same standards you do and makes it easier to live the
gospel.
Sebastian came yesterday! We haven´t been able to have
Aileen come yet. Juan´s dad and sister are members as well. They are converts
as well. We are working with his mom to have her get baptized. She has come 3
times with us so far. We are pushing towards it. Juan attends twice a month
because he works 2 Sundays a month. We visit his family a couple times a week.
I bought this backpack. My other one got destroyed in
3 months at the beginning of my mission. I don´t like the backpacks that the
mission provides.
I talked about Conversion and Jesus Christ´s Atonement
and effect. I will share one of my experiences from the talk with you again
when I get home. It went really well. I talked around 18 minutes and my
companion covered around 12. We were shooting for 30 combined and he talked
first.
Diego wants to, but he needs to make a few changes. He
wasn´t quite ready because he fell back into some of his earlier challenges.
I may appear skinny, but I am doing fine. I eat like
normal.... I tend to lose weight in the summer and when walking or biking all
day. Things happen.
I am not worried that you are skinny.
You look healthy! That is what I worry about. I am sure I can
fatten you back up when you get home and are sitting around all day instead of
biking 20 or more miles a day. As long as you have bright eyes and a
happy smile, I don’t worry much about your health. Exercise is good for
you.
I am happy you are making progress with
Juan’s family. That is neat. Hopefully you will get to baptize his
mom. Then they can work towards becoming an eternal family. It is
tough when you have to work on Sundays. I am glad he can come twice a
month. Hopefully Diego will overcome his challenges.
I wish I could be there to hear you speak
and share your testimony. Of course I wouldn’t understand all the
Spanish, but I would understand the feeling behind it. I can’t wait to
hear about all of your experiences when you get home. That was nice of
you to cover the extra time during your talk. I know you are a great
speaker now and the experiences you have had speaking will help you throughout
the rest of your life as you serve in many callings.
I hope you are able to find another backpack
that will work for you for the rest of your mission.
I know that you aren´t worried. I am doing great. I am
loving the work. It is hard at times. My companion went through heat exhaustion
yesterday and passed out in the street. It was almost 9:30 and luckily I was
able to get him home. He wasn´t doing good in the evening and he is
stubborn.... I had to command him to do things like drink water and use the
ice. He was very frustrated because I wasn´t accepting no as an answer. He is
doing much better now, but he had a fever and was not okay. I was able to get
him drinking water, a cold shower, and icing his head to help before I let him
go to bed. Even though I was late doing everything else in the evening, it was
the most important thing.
I am not worried about Diego. He can be baptized
again if he puts in his part and the sisters are working hard to help him. Juan
is great, but the family is a harder case and we are doing our best to help
them. His family is the family with potential to baptize 6 more people.
I am happy that you are happy and still
loving the work. I hope these last few months will be your most happy
time in the mission, though you always seem to be happy and smiling. I
hope you are smiling all day every day and not just for the photos.
Thanks for taking good care of your
companion. That was the most important thing. Make sure he drinks
more water during the daytime, too. It is hot there and you have to
protect yourself from heat stroke. Is he doing better today?
I hope you are able to help Juan and Diego
and their families. That will help them through the rest of their
lives. They will act differently and make different decisions as members
than they would without the gospel. They will marry differently and raise
their families differently. Keep trying. It will bless future
generations if you can get them truly converted.
That is the work that we have right now. We are
working a lot more with the younger generation and the youth. We are trying to
influence their lives more and help them to make changes now so that they can
live happier. We are doing a lot lately. There is always something going on.
I am glad you are having a positive
influence on them. Everyone seems to love you. When Juan posted
that photo on Facebook, there are lots of comments and likes from people down
there that I don’t know, but who know you and they all seem very
positive. You are well liked and loved by the people you serve. I
am sure your happy smile and positive outlook have a lot to do with that.
You have a special glow about you that will draw people to you.
I met a couple of new elders in the foyer at
church yesterday. I said hello to them as I was going out to the car
after Sunday School to put my laptop in the car. They lacked any kind of
enthusiasm. They were sitting in the two foyer chairs, both hunched down
with terrible posture, playing on their ipads. I stopped and introduced
myself to them on the way back in and told them I had a son serving a mission
in Chile. I asked where they were from and how long they had been out and
through the whole conversation they just lacked any kind of enthusiasm.
It was almost like I was bothering them and they wanted me to go away. It
made me sad. I know you would never act that way.
The work you do with these people will
change their lives for the better. I am certain of that!
It happens. There are
missionaries like that. What bothers me more than anything is when Leaders look
at the missionaries that are working hard and doing their best and they judge
them without actually doing their best to actually get to know them. It bothers
me when they put so much stress on us to do so much when we are already doing
the best that we can. But I love the work. I just wish they wouldn´t stress so
much over little things. If we acted like the Elders that you have there, in
our mission, we would have interviews with our Mission President almost
immediately. I don´t act that way and I won´t, but thanks for the update.
Maybe these new
elders were just having a bad day. I should have taken a photo of them
and sent it to their mothers for them. The sisters they replaced were so
awesome. I guess it was a disappointment to see their lack of
energy. I will have to see if we can have them over for dinner. We
don’t get the opportunity very often to feed the missionaries. I think
they have each ward do a month at a time and with all the wards in our stake,
our opportunity doesn’t come around very often. I know that is very
different from where you are.
The thing I have
learned from having all three sons serve is that the Lord has His hand in all
of the things that happen. He helps you to have the experiences that were
meant for you. He helps you to have the companions you need and to meet
the people you need to meet and to serve in the areas you need to serve
in. I feel certain that you had friends in heaven that you promised to
find and teach and they were placed in this part of Chile and now you are
called to find them and teach them and help them come unto Christ. It is
a miracle that the Lord is able to arrange all of that in His great Plan of
Happiness.
When we met with
Clain’s Mission President in Oregon and again when we went to their homecoming
address and when we went to his first Mission President’s homecoming, I was
impressed with how well each Mission President and their wives really knew
Clain. I think they knew that being a leader would be a lot of stress on
him that he wouldn’t deal well with. He doesn’t like to be in the
limelight and receive a lot of recognition. He doesn’t like to stand
out. He was happy to just be a missionary and teach and work the best he
could. I was impressed that they knew he was easy to get along with and
placed him with difficult missionaries on purpose because they knew he could
help them to become better missionaries and if they couldn’t survive the
mission with Clain, they wouldn’t make it as missionaries with any
companion. You heard the praise he had for Clain when we were in
Oregon.
You are a lot like
Clain in your disposition. You are easy to get along with and low
maintenance. You roll with the punches and just do your best and make the
best of every situation. That is what Jesus would have done. That
is the kind of man he was. He didn’t cause contention. He just
dealt with what came his way. He didn’t seek for positions and power and
glory. He was happy to be a servant and wash the feet of his
disciples. He didn’t care that it was a lowly servant’s job to do
that. He saw a need and he used it to teach his disciples a message of
love and caring.
You have already
served in many leadership positions in your youth and you already know how to
lead. You don’t need the title to be a leader. People follow you
because you are a natural leader. It is a quality and talent you have
developed in your character. One of the most important lessons you have
learned on your mission is humility. It matters less where you serve than
how you serve. You are an amazing missionary and I know you are an
amazing teacher. You are there to teach the gospel and I am glad you are having
that opportunity. You are planting so many seeds and even if you don’t
see them reach maturity and see the harvest, you still had a part in bringing
them to Christ.
Be proud of
yourself and happy with the work you are doing. Love your companion and
care for him as if he were your own brother. Be energetic and animated
and enthusiastic in all you do so that the members and the investigators will
know you care about what you are doing. I know you would never slump down
in the chair in the foyer and act that way. You have been taught better
and you love the Lord more than that. You know that your behavior makes a
difference on everyone who sees you. You are an amazing example to
me. I love you so very much and I am proud of you.
Continue to be
humble and teachable. You are meek and that is one of the most precious
character traits one can acquire. Few acquire it here in this life.
I can’t wait to throw my arms around you and kiss your sweet face, but I can
wait. You are needed in Chile for a little while longer.
What matters the
most is what Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father think of you. Do your best
for them and don’t let the little things stress you out. Only our Savior
truly knows what is in our hearts. Your heart is pure!
Love always and
forever,
Mom
This was a zone idea for 3
people who had their birthdays in 2 weeks of the mission last change. It was
Elder Brook´s, Hermana Tolk´s, and Hermana Lopez all put together. The Hearts were theirs afterwards.
That is nice.
We have been talking about this on the FB mission group. Elder Buckley’s
mom said he created it this year and it was a tri-fold with all the
missionaries on one side and ornaments of all the countries that missionaries
come from in the shape of a tree on one side and a scripture on the other side.
She posted photos of two of the sides, but she was worried about posting the
missionary photos and was trying to get permission to do it from your Mission
President.
I can send it if you want.
Here it is.
Awesome!
Thanks.
I hope that the details are
fine. I remembered that you asked me about it, so I took pictures of it.
Thank you. I
appreciate your thoughtfulness. What other photos do you have?
It is very nice. Elder Buckley did a
great job with it. Thanks for the photos.
It was also Elder Johnson from my group. They worked as a team.
That is nice. Are they assistants to
the President or just office elders? How does that work? How many
are there that work in the office? Who replaced Elder Chuquel in the
office?
Elder Buckley was a secretary and Elder Johnson was a
Financial Secretary/Pensionist. Elder Chuquel was replaced by Elder Prisbrey,
who is my brother, who was trained by Elder Chuquel as well. Elder Buckley and
Elder Johnson are Zone Leaders now.
Okay. Lots of changes in the mission
all the time. I know Elder Buckley goes home in two weeks. His mom
is so excited! Is working in the office something you have wanted to
do? Did they have you fill out a form about your skills and desires to
work in the office when you arrived? Curtis said they did with his
mission.
No. We never had anything
like that here. We just work and what happens with changes happens.
That is a fun
photo. It is at the home of the sister who sent her daughter out on a
mission, right? Are those her two sons? Are those the shirts you
wear to protect yourselves on the bikes? To make yourselves more visible?
No these were gifts that they
gave us. They are from marathons and other running events for Christmas. The
son with the dog on his shoulder goes out to visit with us. His name is Cristobal.
I gave him one of the Rubik’s Cubes. I gave the other to Sebastian our
investigator right now.
Nice. How old
are Cristobal, Sebastian, Juan and Claudio?
Cristobal is 15 but we have
permission to go out with him. Sebastian is 15 and we have permission from his
mom if he wants to get baptized. Juan is 20, but older than me. Claudio is 20
as well, and older than me. We also go out with Gid, who is the Bishop´s son,
who is 16.
Awesome! But
why does Elder Espinoza keep sticking his tongue out in photos? I hope
you don’t ever do that.
It is a habit of some Latins
for selfies and other things. I don´t....
Sadly, I am out of time and
will have to get back to you next week. I love you! I am doing my best to write
more and get you more pictures. I haven´t been the best about it, but we are
working hard. It is exhausting sometimes and there are other moments when you
just are exhausted but things keep going. Thanks for all of the support. I will
get back to you next week!
Yes, lots of things
happen and I am happy you are willing to just go and do what the Lord asks of
you and not feel bad that you might have missed an opportunity. I still
keep feeling that there are missionaries there that need to serve in leadership
positions, because they have not had those experiences at home and doing so in
the mission will help them to remain strong when they get home. You will
remain strong no matter what. You don’t need to be in a leadership
position to have been a leader. You are a natural leader and others will
follow your good example all the time. You are strong and faithful with a
vibrant testimony and very humble and teachable. I am so very, very proud
of you!!! I am proud that you don’t see it as a status symbol to have served
in the office or been an AP. I love you Son! Have I
told you that enough lately?
I hope that every
single night you drop into bed exhausted because you have given your all to the
work. I am happy with your letters. I would love to hear more of
the special spiritual things that happen to you, but I know it is hard to write
about those. I hope you will share them with us when you get home. I know
you are having them every week. Have a super week! I love you
always and forever.
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