Sea of Gold

First week of school how fun! Luke I loved your outfit, super fresh. Congrats Emma I'm so happy for you. Paul your a stud, jr. high will be a blast for you, I promise. 

 Tell Paul and Luke Im still a real live superhero even lost in the mountains in Chile!They'll believe it

So this week was a pretty good week. Santiago is a really quiet big city. It's almost surreal at times. Especially the part I'm in right now. It's a sleepy town, but I love it. My favorite investigators are Julio and Karen. They are so nice to me and have the cutest daughters. They both want to get baptized but have to figure out paperwork for both of their divorces. It would be a miracle if that got solved while I was still here.

There was a pretty big earthquake here this week. It was a 6.4 in Valparaiso, about an hour away. It was pretty strong. It felt like being in a car driving on a really bumpy road. We were in a house talking with a family and they had to get up and stop their TV from falling. It was pretty cool.

Yesterday was the most ridiculious day of my life. The plan was to go to the andes mountains in the snow, about an hour and a half drive. The car we took was so ghetto and went like 35 mph maximum.

The car broke down on the highway.

All the missionaries had to get out and push the car up the hill on the highway.

Cars were flying past us. Im sure it wasnt dangerous at all.   The man that was driving was in no rush to pull over. We pushed him for like a mile, he made two turns. HA it was insane. We got lost like  5 times.  If you are low on patience, your not going to survive here.

The best part of that trip was we drove over santiago at night. The view was incredible. I took a picture but it doesn't do it justice. The city lights looked like a sea of gold. That's what Santiago is, my sea of gold :)Sometimes I walk in the street and just think that someday this is only going to be but a dream. I can't waste anytime feeling frustrated.  I really do think that almost everyday.  I have plans on who I want to be and it's only possible serving two years for the lord. I need to be honest, the fact that we have a loving Heavenly Father and Savior in Jesus Christ was not completely real to me. I always believed but I didnt think I could prove it.  Slowly I feel how real it actually is. I've only been here for two months but I have so much evidence. The evidence of who the Savior really is and how he really feels about the children on earth, is growing so rapidly and overtaking my heart, I could never deny it.  I may be my best conversion story to date ;)

I hope you guys have a great week this next week. Enjoy school!

Yip, I live in a treehouse!

Hello my super missed and super loved family---

 This is my trainer Elder Pence.  He may be about the coolest human being Ive ever met!




My last week in the CCM was great. I got to go on splits with some missionaries from the East mission. It was really awesome. I got to do some contacts in the street with them. They had a list of all the people that were in there ward. They usually have about 70 people show up and they were supposed to have 900. That is really common here in Santiago. A huge emphasis in our mission is reactivation.

My companions name is Elder Pence. He went to Sky View High School. We get a long super good. He is a stud. He has been out for a year. He lived in Mexico a little bit before he went on the mish so he has perfect spanish. My comp is so patient and nice to me it isn't even funny. I keep watching him thinking I hope I can treat a new person as well as he is treating me.  Im not even kidding you guys he is a saint with me.   The ward members make us lunch every day. For dinner we go back to the house and make like pbj's or mac and cheese or nachos something easy. We watch a church movie during once  (dinner) it's like one of my favorite parts of the day because we are not walking (oh my gosh, Marie is not kidding about the amount of walking you have no idea!). pancake batter is super cheap so we make pancakes a lot of the mornings. Milk tastes alright here I'm used to it now. All missionaries drink water out of the sink. It tastes kind of nasty but I'll get used to it. Because I have to ha.  So blisters and chaffing seems to be the worst things Im dealing with right now. There is just a very unique kind of body exhaustion that comes with walking eight hours a day.  Its different than sports.  My feet have never looked like this.  Please pray for my feet seriously!  I hope I build up endurance.  So I guess whoever pegged me as a whiner in Chile wins a million dollars.  Ok so Im not whining again about anything.  Did I mention I cant understand most of the language and I get insanely lonely?  jk.  I dont understand the language but honestly I am loving my life here and I love the people and every day that passes is one I know I will never get back so Im really trying to drink it all in and I just feel gratitude that I can be here, and serve, and learn with such a cool companion.  

I also have just felt unreal love for the family.  Im trying to remember why I acted like such a punk at home sometimes.  I wish I wouldnt have done that.  Thank you for loving me the way you guys did.  I hear family home evening lessons in my head while we walk.  Its funny I remember some of them so well, and I can replay them over and over, especially my last year at home, I felt like the lessons were geared toward me, and even though I acted like I was timing the lessons and how long you could talk, it turns out, they stuck in my mind like a movie that I can replay over and over again.  Thank you for sticking with it mom and dad.  We dont make it easy and you keep doing it.  So what Im trying to say here, is just keep doing it. 

Our zone is in San Pablo. I'm going to be honest it is pretty ghetto. Ha I love it. We live in like this tree house thing. It's small but works just fine :) Its literally a small house built in a tree.  Makes you a little nervous when the wind blows but mostly its just cool to live in a tree house!  I'm just trying to get used to the area and get to know all of the people. I love the people here. On Sunday I got to introduce myself. I don't know how much sense I made but I just talked about myself and our family and why I was serving a mission. I really felt the spirit in a very real way, when I talked about the atonement.
I want you guys to know of the very grateful feelings I have about Jesus Christ.  I know he is real.  I know he knows my name.  I know his plan is far more loving and healing than we understand.  Lately when I fall asleep at night I think about the people I want to teach over the next two years.  I hope they are hopeless in some area of their life.  I hope they have a great sadness that never seems to go away.  I hope they deal with heartache that no solution they have ever tried has worked.  I hope that I can speak of the Savior with total honesty from the bottom of my heart, and they can feel how much his love and mercy and carried me in my life.  I hope that the message of hope and acceptance sinks deep into them and for the first time in their life, that burning that comes to you to witness Gods love to you finds its way into every part of them.  I hope I can witness healing of Gods precious children.  I hope I can speak tender and healing words.  I hope I can finish a lesson with the same determination mom and dad finish home evening even if someone is looking at their watch or acting like they hate us.  I hope the same saving grace that I have felt from a loving Savior who speaks encouragement and love to my soul, can be rolled over into the warmest people I have ever met.  I know God lives.  I know he loves me.  I know he loves you.  He is all hope, all understanding, and all about carrying our suffering so that we can learn and grow to him.  

Chileans speak super fast and it's hard to understand everything! I just need to stay patient and keep studying. I'm happy I have a trainer that can speak in English to me when I need it.

I hope everything is going good for you guys. Doubt not fear not. The lord thy god is on your side.