a bed fights back

I'm glad that everybody is doing well. Good luck to Marie and Emma in college and I loved the picture of Paul with Jimmer. Mom I hope you are ok with dad in India for a month.  I laughed when you said you could hear the spooky Halloween cd all through the night whenever dad is out of town.  We're all ready for the Chile game tonight. Last game when Chile won, everybody went crazy! The streets and apartments explode with the loudest cheering youve ever heard! I think the same will happen tonight if not more crazy!

We had a good week here. We lost a little bit of time this week because we have to go in early to our departments when Chile plays in the Copa de America. But we know exactly how many goals Chile scores because everybody goes crazy!

One of our favorite people to visit is Marco. He's about forty years old and is super happy. Like, always really happy. We usually always start off lessons with a hymn. I'm not sure if we can keep singing hymns with him because he gets way into it, like Im not exagerating here one bit his whole body and soul start rocking out to the hymn,  and me and Pope laugh every time. Marco is also friends with other people we visit throughout the week, so at church we all hang out together. It's our little crew. It a little crew of people who need a friend and I love that we are in it ;)

On Thursday I was told that I was going to give a talk in Sacrament. So I spent a lot of time preparing . Yesterday I gave the talk in church. I was nervous about it but a  lot  of people told me I did a good job and a few even told me my Spanish was perfect, that was music to my american boy ears.  I talked about the Sacrament. Later that night we went on visits with elders quorum. It was a good time. We visited two families. We gave the sacrament to a 98 year old lady which was a really sacred thing. It was a good experience because I went with somebody that I don't talk  to a lot, but after the two visits we were best buddies :) Everyone need to feel loved and accepted.  Ive spent to much time worrying that I didnt speak good enough or that I was socially awkward, but when I stop caring about myself and just make sure everyone else feels good and has a friend, I feel happiest too.

Gabriela, our investigator, is still doing really well. We still have the same problem of not being able to find her because she works so much. We taught her the gospel of Jesus Christ yesterday and it went really smooth. Her little kids are awesome. Diego, her seven year old, told us the best story ever of how he got in a fight with his bed. He re-enacted how he felt like his bed was purposefully pushing at him trying to make him uncomfortable, so he took a few punches at bed, and low and behold bed started fighting back.  I was swallowing my laughs it was so hilarious.  Me and Pope have been together for a long time and we have so many funny experiences and stories together. He's a really good missionary and has truly become a close friend.

 35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

So Im hungry and thirsty a lot, like a lot which is why this scripture really speaks to me.  It feels miraculous to have some of those needs permanently filled, even in a spiritual way.  I love you guys.  Go Chile!  Have a positive happy week!

Hot soup on a hard day

This week was another cold week in Santiago. It's freezing in the morning but not too bad in the afternoon. The weather is pretty extreme.


Everyone here is excited about the copa de america. Chile played against Ecuador on thursday. We weren't allowed to watch it, but we could tell when chile scored a goal because because everyone went crazy, it was actually cool to hear the cheering from the street.


On Sunday Camila and Josè both went to the church for the first time. It was so awesome! Finally Camila went to church! Her little baby started behaving bad at the end of sacrament :) so she went home a little early. Josè went to church in L.A. and said he felt really comfortable in the church and that it was pretty much the same as california. We visited them both later Sunday and they said that they both enjoyed going to church and felt really calm the whole time!


We visited Gabriela and her little kids last night also. The little kids love me and Elder Pope. They are gold but it's really hard to visit them, because Gabriela literally works all day from monday to saturday. We taught them the plan of salvation and Gabriela told us that she felt like it was all true, especially when we talked about the atonement.


So our ward is huge, the only ward in our mission with 8 missionaries. Me and Elder Pope are the only elders so we often go and give blessings to people in all over the ward. We've had so many good experiences with giving blessings to the members here in the ward.  This will sound strange but there have been moments here I felt pure warm fire flow through my hands into someone's body like God's love was being transported to them through me.

Friday was rough.   We had important appointments that we either missed due to time constraints or fell through. I was so upset because I felt like we wasted everyone's time.    As we were walking home in the dark I felt like a total failure.  As we were turning the corner I bumped into a man on accident.  He got in my face and started screaming and swearing at me.   It shouldn't have affected me so much but it did.   At that moment a man walked out of his restaurant and invited Elder Pope and I inside.   He said God told me to bring you into my restaurant for some hot soup.   And that is exactly what he did,  free of charge.   As I ate it I thought about our failure day and thought we don't deserve this.  AS SOON as I thought that,  I felt God whisper to me failure days are the ones he most enjoys blessing us with warm soup.   My God is an awesome God.


Our goal as mortals is to gain the mind of Christ, to believe what he believes, to think what he thinks, to say what he says, to do what he does, and to be as he is. Bruce R. McConkie


Love you guys, have a great week!

Backflips for my friends

This week we have changes. I'll be here in Simòn Bolìvar with Elder Pope for at least one more change. I'm really happy with it, we had a really good week and have a lot of hope for this change.

On Friday I had my best contact of all my mission. All of our plans for the morning failed and so we decided to do contacts. I began to talking to somebody in the street and he was immediately really friendly with us. He told us that he has only been in Chile for a month because he was living in California. He was sharing with the missionaries there and was about to get baptized but moved to Chile. It was too good to be true! We do so many contacts and usually people don't have any time, or just blow us off. So it was amazing that we were able to find Josè, the contact. Happiness looks different  on my mission.  It looks like someones face lighting up when we talk about Jesus Christ.  I hope I always remember this amazing feeling.

One of the members in our ward teaches karate in the chapel every Thursday night. He has two young students who always go and the mom always goes with them. We were finally able to find the mom and schedule an appointment with her. Last night we had an awesome lesson with her and her kids. The spirit was so strong in the room, I always feel surprised by the warm confirmation of God to his children, even though I should never be surprised. They all accepted baptismal dates so we were really happy about that.

Insert backflips on our lawn here.

I've talked about Francisco and his mom Angelina before. They both were recently baptized and have such strong testimonies. Angelina came with us on a visit and bore her testimony of the word of wisdom and how she was able to overcome all of her addictions. They invited us over for dinner one night with all their family and shared their testimonies the whole time. They are just filled with love and want everybody to feel the same as they do. It was a very healing inspiring night for me.

Have a wonderful week!

 We are the creatures of our thinking. We can talk ourselves into defeat or we can talk ourselves into victory. Gordon B. Hinckley