Wheelbarrow champ

So I'll start with a funny story. On Sunday we ate lunch with a family. This family has three little kids and their youngest simon is four years old. He is always telling funny stories and doing funny things. Before lunch we were telling stories from the scriptures to simon. For example I told the story of the brother of Jared and how he needed light for his ships. I asked him what he did so that their was light. He thought for a moment and he was like he gathered a bunch of rocks. Everyone was laughing because we were like how could he possibly know? And we told him 3 or 4 stories more and he knew all of them. It was awesome. It made me liss how hilarious my little brothers are.
On Saturday we had an activity in the church. It literally lasted all day. Chileans do church activities different than Americans.   They plan for a long time and spend hours and hours together.  It was a blast though. We ate a bunch of food. Played games. Bishop won the potato sack race but elder bof  and I dominated wheelbarrow race :) Afterwards in the night we watched the cueca (chilean dance) It was a total success. We were able to bring a bunch of investigators between all of the missionaries. Everybody had a good time.
So the best news of this week is that Cristina, Juan's wife decided that she wanted to get baptized this sunday. We are so happy for her. Like Juan, she needs to quit smoking. We gave her a plan to quit and so far has gone four days without smoking. Everyday we are so nervous to talk to her, and it is such a relief to hear that she is still doing good. Something that I have learned with Juan and Cristina is that they have been able to quit something that has been so hard for them. I think the main reason is that there was no pressure or no fear. Only love and positive things.   I love you guys have a great week, and enjoy conference this weekend! 1 John 4  16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.  17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.  18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.  19 We love him, because he first loved us.   I love you guys have a great week, and enjoy conference this weekend!

Earthquake

We had a fantstic week this week. We started this week with zone conference. It was a conference with the whole mission because the 18th was Independence Day. It was awesome to see all my friends from the mish that I haven't seen in awhile. Elder Jimènez leaves this change so he bore his testimony. He did a really good job. He had a great mission and I loved being his comp.
WELL,  Wednesday was the earthquake. I have felt a ton of earthquakes here but this one was definitely the stronest. It started out small but gradually kept getting stronger and stronger. Things were falling from the walls and cabinets. Even Buenos Aires felt the earthquake.  It was a little scary but mainly made super scary by people yelling and acting like it was the end of the world.   If someone could teach the Chileans to remain calm in a disaster we would all do better :)  
We ate non-stop empanadas this week because of the 18th. They were so good! We spent the 18th with the Rojas Family. We've had some problems with them as of late. They're really dramatic and said that they wouldn't go to church anymore for something that happened. We have tried a lot of times to go to their house but they said no. Finally we were able to go on Friday. We bought expands to them and had a really good time with them. She told us that she was really lonely and was happy that we were with them and thanked us for not giving up. I love what preach my gospel says. It says the best thing a member can do for others is be their friend. Most of the time all people need is a good friend but one really important step beyond that is a friend that will listen. I love you guys have a great week. 

JUANS BIG DAY

I'm so glad to hear that you guys had a good week. I'm sad I wasn't able to be there for luke and dads birthdays, but it sounds like they had a good time without their favorite son/brother! :)  We had a really great week. Things started off slow because we got behind with interviews being on monday. but we ended the week really well, including Juans baptism! Everyday this past week we passed by Juans house, asking him how he was doing with giving up smoking. Each time we prepared ourselves for the worse, but each time he said that he hadn't smoked. His wife and his kids were so excited for him. On Sunday we went to church with him and his family. When we got to the church we had all sorts of problems setting everything up. Turns out nobody had keys to the baptismal font, so we had to break in using a fork. We started the water and it looked like it would easily fill up by the time of his baptism. Right before, we checked the water and there was hardly any. Me and Elder Bof panicked and we found a bucket and a garbage can and cleaned them out. We filled them up with water from the hose outside so that the font would fill up. The good news is that it filled up. The bad news was that the water was ICE cold. Juan afterwards joked with us and said that the ocean was warmer. But the baptism went real smooth. The best part was when he bore his testimony. He has had a lot of struggles getting to baptism with his smoking and health issues, but he said he didn't wait too long or too short. That everything was perfect timing. And that he has hope and faith that in the same timing all of his family would join with him so that they could get sealed in the temple. Now we just have to work with his wife :) We had a really cool experience with one of our investigators. We were teaching her about the plan of Salvation. We got towards the end and we asked her a question. We told her there is only one person standing in her way to be with God some day, who is that person? She thought for awhile and guessed a few times. She guessed the evil in the world, temptations, bad influences, the devil. But we told her no. The only person in your way is your own self. It was a neat experience because it was like she lit up. I have been thinking a lot about that as of late and I really like this quote- The Savior seems to say to us: “Come unto me, and I will give you such assurance and hope and strength that you cannot be taken hostage by anyone who seems to do you harm. I will liberate you into love. And then you will no longer give anyone cause to resent or fear you. Instead, they will respond to the love that I have bestowed upon you. By abiding in me, you will do much good, bear much fruit.” C. Terry Warner Time is flying here on the mish. this week is independence week for chile so I'm looking forward to all of the empanadas and mote con huesillo! I love you guys have a great week!

Brotherly Advice

Yesterday we all had interviews with the President.   It went really well.   I feel like I got to know him a lot better.   Juan is getting baptized next Sunday so we are really excited about that. It has been several days since he smoked last.  Everyone is keeping their fingers crossed he can stick to it!  GO JUAN!    The work is busy and wonderful and I can't believe how much I am loving it.  

We finally got our water turned back on after a week.   I ate off this knife for a while because there were no clean spoons.   Remember how I used to drink out of mom's flower vase when there were no clean cups?   Very similar and made me feel at home. 

I wanted to make this email mostly to Luke and Paul.   I hope that's OK.  I want you two little guys to know how much I love you.   You're going to be the very best missionaries some day. Junior high is such a different change than elementary, and it's confusing. It's hard trying to figure it all out. Luke just know third grade is like walking on cotton candy for a year.   It's that great.   Jesus spent his whole life telling people that he is the way. He that comes to Jesus will never hunger (dudes I'm always hungry) , he will never thirst. As humans we have needs, I think the most important are to love and feel loved. My advice for you is to tell Heavenly Father how much you love him every night before you go to bed. Read the scriptures and try to know him better. Try seeing things from other peoples view. Love other people even if it's hard. Give people sincere compliments and try your best to do nice things for them. And they will truly love you for who you are. That is who you truly are. God will fill you up from your head to your toe with his love. You'll realize you truly do need him to have true happiness. Mom always tells me that I'm enough. It's hard to believe but when I think like that, I feel so good. Sometimes we put question marks after periods. Try not to complicate things, you're enough...... PERIOD:) Today we went bowling and they were playing a bunch of cool songs I've never heard before. Have an absolute blast this year in School and we'll have amazing times when I get home this summer.

I miss you family but work keeps me busy and happy and I have things to do.   In fact I have a lot of things to do and I'm not slowing down until the last second of my mission.   My heart is full of gratitude to be here in Chile.   I love these people.   And I love Jesus Christ more than I ever had any idea.   He is a brother born for us and has found me and taken me under his wing on the streets of Santiago Chile.   Love you guys.   Stay positive.   Everything always works out in the end.