7-11-11

Monday: Pday mornings are awesome. All week is spent waking up and
fighting bed-magnets and arrive exhausted at night. But sleeping in
until 8:30 on pday is so great. Elder Calaway is one of my best
friends in the mission and I look up to him a lot. After that, we went
to the office to look for mail. There wasn`t any. I should be getting
a letter/package next week. I`ve been expecting a letter from Jess for
6 weeks. I think it`s lost. We used internet to write the family. I
had 3 letters from Mom and Dad. They had a fun 4th of July in Payson
Lake with Dev. They have an inflatable motorboat, too! Devin wants to
get his mission fund ready by the time he`s 16. He`s always been
better with moeny than me. Daddy said he`s going to make a tape for
me, and send it to me. I`m really excited for that. Alan sent me some
Scriptures that he compared to us, to show that we`re best friends. I
love him. We went to Hna. Rebecca`s son`s birthday. He`s 3. While
there, they wanted to hear me play a song on their violin. It was
"less bad" after I warmed up, but not anywhere near "good." It is
nothing like riding a bike. We ended up at the Solis family`s. They`re
so awesome. My time here has been really special.

Tuesday: We got up and got some breakfast from the bakery. I got bread
with patè (creamed meat). One tube of patè serves 3 breads for me.
Everyone knows it. Elder Chavez took some for 2 of his breads even
when I asked him not to. I offered him some juice and he declined,
saying he didn`t want to take my stuff. My comp. told me to keep
cool--that he just likes to push buttons. We received sounsel at
Distrizona. After that, we got my comp s batman PJ`s and Elder
Montalbàn`s Flash PJ`s. We ate with Hna. Marìa. While there, Hna.
Soledad told us she`d had two neighbors commit to coming to church on
Sunday. One is the Mom of Josuè`s (Soledad`s son) Classmate. They`re
both about 6-ish. Josuè is the only one in class that raises his hand.
He said he learned it in his church. This mom wants her daughter to
have the same standards. We were really impressed with Josuè`s
example. We did a contact where a big, white-haired man opened up and
hated us. He told us we were wasting our time and should go back to
our country. We talked a little more and found out that he hasn`t had
a job in a month. He wants help, but doesn`t know what to do. He
accepted a return appointment. It`s so amazing to see the changes that
love can make happen. There was another Soccer game and the streets
were deserted. But we found someone to let us in and we shared with t
hem. We won Pero 1-0!

Wednesday: Today, we had a really cool experience with Marìa. Our
District Leader, Elder Demke, told us yesterday that we need to have
more lessons with Members. Taking that to heart, we took Hna. Teresa
with us to teach Marìa the Plan of Salvation. When she opened the
door, I said, "We brought a friend for you." I didn`t think anything
of it at first. But a few minutes later, Marìa told us that not 10
minutes before, she had asked Heavenly Father for a friend because
she`s having hard times. Marìa and Teresa hugged and cried
together--instantly friends. Women. Go figure. I was happy to tell her
that her FAther has a Plan just for her. Teresa was talking a lot,
helping Marìa understand better. We were invited by the Solis family,
in Bio Bio, to have lunch with them. It was seasoned potatoes with
really tender, delicious beef. It was the exact opposite of Chilean
food: flavorful. It was great. It got really windy and rainy in the
afternoon. We taught Josè. Near the end of the lesson, he asked which
church was the true one. We`ve taught him the REstoration twice
already! I just feel like an ineffective teacher sometimes. But he`s
80, so who knows? We did lots of contacts and taught in the streets.
Then we had correlation with the WArd. We took pictures with our
superhero PJ`s.

Thursday: Today was pretty hard for me. I got up on time and studied
all morning. Everyone got up later and joined me. But I had a problem.
I didn`t want to stop reading for our weekly Planning. Everyone was
still showering and doing other things. I just kept going, and we
started our planning late. We did that, and headed into the freezing
rain. My rain suit`s zipper broke, so I got soaked. Lunch was an hour
late. We din`t have any appointments afterward, so we did our language
study. I was so full that I fell into a food coma for a half hour. My
comp. woke me up right as I got to the deep sleeping part. I opened my
groggy eyes and mumbled, "grrr, buggit, flitzmajigger." before I got
fully awake. It was really hard. After that, I thought how nice it
would be, to be home after the MIssion, sleeping in and being with my
family instead of pleading with people to let us in to their homes and
out of the chilling and unescapable water. I pretty much didn`t have
the Spirit. I wanted to be happy. I felt guilty for even having those
thoughts, which was just another burden on my back. In the morning, I
read "More than conquerors through Him that loves us," and "As many as
I love, I chasten and Rebuke," from the most recent Conference. They
said that our trials are for our benefit and are very personal--almost
laser-guided to direct our lives to strengthen the weakest parts of
our souls. I feel like today was one of "those days."

Friday: Today was a bit better than yesterday. We got up and got ready
for the day. Then we went to go teach Marìa the SAbbath Day. She
accepted it and promised to go to Church as often as possible. It
wasn`t as exciting of a lesson because she accepted it so easily.
Haha. Can`t believe I just said that. We had lunch with the Bishop`s
wife after doing some Permaneced. Then we came back to the house to
clean up a little bit, because tonight we got to be put with members
as companions for 48 hours. While we were cleaning, the Assisstants
called us. They said that both Elder Calaway and I will be District
Leaders next transfer! That`s crazy business! We talked to Josè and
told him that he needed to pray. Then we went to the Villa Acero
chapel to pick up our new comps. Mine is Julio Càrcamo. We went back
to the sector--me with Julio and Elder Calaway with his comp.--to
preach. My comp. is very quiet...for now. He was baptized 2 years ago.
It is a lot of work to be with a newbie. I must have been a real pain
to Barajas. We have people to teach, but not enough for two
companionships. So it looks like we`re going to do lots of contacts
tomorrow. We`re going o work and be extra super obedient.

Saturday: We had a real adventure today. We did EVERYTHING exactly
obediently. And we saw results because of it. We also found out our
transfers. But we got up and I got to teach Elder Càrcamo how to study
effectively and WHY we do it. I explained hwo and why we plan and make
goals. It`s a really weird feeling to be teaching from this
perspective. Being the more-experienced missionary, who knows the
moves and everything...well maybe not everything. Aslan, Ghost, and
Gimpy (the dogs that follow us every day) followed us and Elder
Càrcamo thought it was funny. We had lunch and then came home to study
the Language. I just read the Book of Mormon in Spanish. We didn`t get
to visit any of the appointments we planned. So we went to Bio Bio`s
baptism, too. Elder Chavez comleted 2 years today. That made me miss
home. We did contacts all afternoon. We got into 4 houses and found
some really cool people. I was really greateful to have been able to
have had this today, to show Elder Càrcamo the joy of the Mission
Work. My transfer will take me to Los Angeles South, to the sector of
"Avenida Alemania" (german avenue).I`ll be a District Leader with
Elder Burch, there. They`re splitting the Zone of Talcahuano into 2
zones, and Elder Meyr will be the new Assisstant. Elde rCalaway can`t
believe it.

Sunday: Today was a really really good day. We headed off to church,
but stopped by Mirta`s on the way. We heard shouting in the hosue
before she came out with tears in her eyes. Her dad was being a jerk.
Josè and Marpia came to church, along with Josè`s nanny and her two
kids. The Lord blessed us a lot for the hard work we did this last
week of the transfer. I want to finish my Mission like that. I said
goodbye to the WArd. I`d also written about 16 individual letters to
people I really care for. I loved seeing their eyes light up as they
saw that someone cared for them. I like doing that for people. I made
two people cry with them. Haha. I droppe doff Mirta and gave her one
of my nametags. She gave me a hug. I hope she stays well. In her
farewell she wrote me, it was almost pure testimony. She`s totally
gonna get sealed in the Temple. We went to the Villa Acero chapel to
drop off our temporary comps. He was really prideful near the end.
Wouldn`t listen. It was a little difficult at times. While there, we
listened to a talk by Pres. Benson. He said MIssion Work is the msot
important thing in the world. Even being sealed to your Eternal wife
should be postponed. I said goodbye to the Silis family. Elder Rubilar
traded me one of Pres. Swenson`s ties. Score! Chile lost the American
Cup to Venezuela.