Teaching English and Playing Piano

Hello everybody! It's such a confidence boost to read all of your emails each week. Thanks for all of the love and support!
Well I broke my retainer, and there are no orthodontists over here, so I am embarking on the world of orthodontia myself.  Super glue and my shaky hands are about to repair this retainer.  Say a prayer for me.

So were kind of struggling with getting and maintaining investigators. We've been thinking of ways to find more people. My companion knows piano and we had a piano class for anybody interested this last Saturday. Not to brag but I am really good at playing a song called hot cross buns.   And it was a lot more successful than I thought it was going to be. Everybody wants to learn English so I've taught English classes in peoples homes. That may become one of my best methods.

We were walking past this house and we saw a man and a woman sitting outside enjoying the beautiful Chile sunset, because seriously every night it is incredible its like a light show, and we started talking to them. At first they said they weren't that interested but we were persistent and said we only needed 10 minutes. It went really well and we had a good conversation. The wife can't read very well and the husband has bad vision but can't afford glasses so I don't exactly know how they are going to read the Book of Mormon, but we'll figure it out! The situation feel humorous as I type it, but thinking outside the box is the only way Im going to do good work here.

Marie was right it definitely is starting to warm up down here in South America. This week it was around 90 degrees almost every day. Im sweating buckets!  Bet you wish you could still do my laundry ;) Have a wonderful week everybody!!

Birthday is the bomb!

 The missionaries here are hilarious.  Some were born to do 24 hour stand up comedy

This little girl is so funny.  She tells me funny stories all the time and I act like I'm scared out of my mind, but honestly I dont usually have a clue what shes talking about.  Shes seriously like my best friend right now.  When we see each other, we immediately start the her talking fast and me acting scared out of my mind act.  I love kids.

What's up everybody? This week is the best week of the year because of my birthday of course!

One of our challenges is getting investigators to church. So yesterday before church we stopped by one of our investigators house and asked if he wanted to come to church with us. He put down his cigarette and was like sure. Awesome. He told us he really liked the feeling that he had during sacrament. Sometimes you need to be diligent and at first the people just put up with you because they're trying to be nice, but I know that the feelings and words sink down into them.

I got my birthday package and I love it! The little missionaries are hilarious! Thank you so much for that! It was a little bit of a slower week and it was such a boost to get that package from you guys! I'm totally saving the candy and new tie for Tuesday.  Im also giving away all the stickers to the kids on that day.  My birthday is going to be the bomb!

We shared with a family yesterday. It went really good. We sat at a table me my comp and the son who was 19. There was another chair that I think every other member of the family sat in for a short period of time ha. For example, at first the dad would be sitting there but he got a phone call and left and then the mom sat there but she was cooking something and left. I wish we could've had the whole family sit down with us but oh well. They were super nice to us and said they would read the Book of Mormon. This one small promise from this family, has really lifted my spirits and made me feel so grateful to be doing this work.

My Spanish is coming a long good. It's hard to see progress because everyday you get just a little bit better. I still say alot of stupid stuff. But if I compare myself to just only a month ago, I'm a lot better. I hope you guys have a wonderful week this week. Eat some good food and remember me on my birthday! I am really happy and am really feeling alot of peace here.  Not everything is perfect, but it will never all be perfect.  Im growing and changing and it feels rewarding.  Cheer someone up this week for my birthday.  Love you guys!

Trash bags and speediness are lifesavers!

I literally was laughing out loud when I heard about you guys watching a scary disney movie from the 80's, and it was actually scary. I always loved October, please enjoy it! One of my best memories was last October when we played hide and seek in the dark with moms spooky sounds cd playing in the background, and Paul and Luke were crying in the pantry waiting to get found.  Oh man, I am laughing remembering that.  Good Times!

This week we were trying to meet with this woman named Margarita. She never answers her door. I swear it almost seemed like she was trying to ignore us! :) But we finally got a hold of her. She said that she didn't have any time to talk to us ( What? Could this explain all the ignoring us?)  because she had to move trash out of her house. We said that we would do it for her. At first she was hesitant but she agreed to it. We cleared out a BUNCH of trash from her garage! All those years taking the trash out has really paid off for me now.  After we sat down and talked to her. We had a good conversation. We're always looking for small chances to serve! I noticed it softened her heart and she was more open and warm to the message.

Ok so guess what?  There is a lot of drunk people here! Usually they are pretty funny to talk to but sometimes it turns into a bad situation ( don't ask). This dude was begging us to come into his house and try some of his "special drink" that he made. He insisted, and we basically had to run away from him.  Good thing I'm speedy as we all know.  Later that night a dude kissed my hand when I went to shake his (ew). A lot of interesting experiences with different people here!

I'm learning just to enjoy every single moment. Every day is another gift to serve. I love you guys so much, and always keep you in my prayers! have a fantastic week! Tell Paul I havent been eating a ton of chilli in Chile but Im on the lookout for some!

Mission moment on a rock

Happy birthday mom! I hope it was absolutely wonderful, you deserve it! That's lame that some of you guys are sick. It's starting to warm up down here in South America so I'll enjoy the sunshine for all of you :)

Elder Jimènez is awesome we get along really well. It's definitely helping my spanish having him as my companion. We talk pretty basic but it is getting easier to speak and also to understand. My keyboard is really messed up this week, I hope you can understand my email.

One night this last week we stopped and talked to a homeless man on the corner of the street. i think it was the most spiritual experience I have had yet. Honestly I thought it was going to be a waste of time because I thought he was drunk and not interested in what we had to offer. At first we asked him if he knew where the person we were looking for. He told us yes and gave us a little bit more specific questions. Actually he seemed pretty coherent.  He asked us what we were doing and we got into a conversation. I felt like we should stay and give this man our time. He was telling us that he had too many problems to face so it was easy just to forget about it with alcohol.  Alcohol had been his only relief in life. We told him there is always hope no matter what it seems like. I looked right in his eyes and said there was hope for his life and God wants him to be happy.  Honestly I don't know if he really believed what we were telling him, but he looked at me with a desperate desire that he wanted to believe it so much.. It was cool, I sat there and realized just exactly where I was at. I was in a foreign country sitting on a rock in the dirt talking to a homeless man about the most amazing truthful good news there is. What a loving God that would send me to Chile for maybe no other reason than to have a conversation with this homeless man on a rock no less,  who was so robbed of hope and hearing a message of hope made him sit up and take notice that there is a loving Savior named Jesus Christ and he has a plan for each of us.  I know it sounds strange, but I felt a love for this man that burned in my whole body.  I felt like he was much more important and noble than his homeless body would lead you to believe.

Conference was a huge spiritual boost. I was able to watch it in English. I took a bunch of notes for every speaker because I just felt like the words were answers to my questions. I am so grateful for general conference and the chance to listen to the living prophet and the apostles give advice and bare testimony of the Savior. None of our investigators showed up to any of the sessions. haha Lame!!

This should be a good week. We have good goals and a lot of excitement for the work especially after conference. Have a wonderful upcoming week everybody! Please tell Aunt Aryn thank you for me for her awesome email.  It made my week.