7-4-11

Monday: Today was the 4th of July, the day of our country`s
independence. We kicked butt. We, as a zone, had an activity with two
other Zones in Playa Blanca, Coronel. We went there, and it was
amazing. It was such good weather and the ocean was so blue. While we
were there, we played American Football and Ultimate Frisbee--two
sports that aren`t played in Chile. I felt very patriotic. I was
running pretty much all day long. I`m all tuckered out. For lunch, we
had choripanes, which are like mini hot dogs, but with smoked pork
sausage. We also had real hamburgers! All of the "hamburgers" I`ve
htried to buy before have always been too lacking in substance. But
today was legit. After lunch, Elder Kemp tied his American flag tie to
a light post and we sang the National Anthem to it. At the end, a
bunch of Elders pointed to the beach, where a man was standing with a
foot-long flare gun on his hsoulder, like a bazooka and shot a single
flare 300 meters out, into the ocean. It was so cool! We enjoyed the
situation for a while. We wrote the family but they hadn`t written.
Cassie (friend) wished me a happy 4th of July. We couldn`t find a our
way home for a while. The buses were weird. Nobody let us in, in the
night, because of a soccer game against Mexico. Looks like we won 2 to
1.

Tuesday: I have 14 months in the mission. I can hardly believe it. 1
year ago from right now, I was in an airplane over the Gulf of Mexico.
I remember it so clearly, it seems like just like last week. I`ve been
in Chile for ALMOST a year. I`m fluent in Chilean and have come so
close to the Lord. I`m so grateful for the changes the Lord has worded
in me. I`m a better man and son of God thanks to him. We had a
conference to meet our new mission Pres., President Martinez. He has a
great sense of humor and I already love him and trust him as a leader.
It`s different, having a president`s wife that doesn`t need a
translator. It`s a cool experience. I felt like Elder Calaway didn`t
want to be my comp. He just seems constantly annoyed by me. But he
said he`s not. Maybe he`s just like that. We did divisions with Bio
Bio. I went with Elder Chavez. We met the father of a less-active
member. His dad answered and said his son was so bad, his wife had
committed suicide. He had a restraining order against his son. How
tragic. I just thought how Adam must have felt after Cain killed Abel.
We taught an investigator and several less-actives. One in particular,
Jessica, didn`t know about the Book of Mormon. We taught her and she
was really receptive. She`s going to read and pray. I learned a lot
from Elder Chavez. He`s a really gentle and sincere. He really knows
how to help others progress and loves the people.

Wednesday: Today I hit my 1-year mark in Chile. I read my journal
entry from a year ago, and I sounded like I was scared halfway out of
my pants! So much has changed in what is really a short period of
time. If I went home right now, I don`t think I`d think any of the
streets back home would feel foreign to me. But, then again, I haven`t
heard much about Provo. WE got up and went to our Distrizona meeting.
There, we committed to bring 3 peopole to church this week. WOOT!
FUEGO! We`re gonna do it! Ovoer the past few days, I`ve been working
on making my Scripture marking system more intricate and broad. I did
that after our lunch. Then we headed out to see Marìa. It had been 2
weeks since we`d seen her. She said that after we`d left, on Sunday,
after coming to pick her up and her declining, she changed her mind
but didn`t know where the church was, so she couldn`t go and she
cried. We focused on her Book of Mormon reading in 3 Nephi 11. It`s a
powerful tool and we helped her identify the Spirit as it was felt.
She accepted a baptisimal date for August 6th...again. Her kid was
noisy and wouldn`t be quiet. He`s like 4. To shut him up, she raised
up her shirt and breast fed him. The weirdest part was how normal it
was. I wasn`t alarmed at all. *sigh* Weird. We passed by Jessica and
pretty much said that we won`t be able to pass by anymore if she
doesn`t progress. Then we had comitè with the Ward.

Thursday: Today went well for us. I woke up, and studied and marked my
Scriptures for like 5 hours straight. I was just going crazy. My comp.
and the Bio Bio missionaries were joking and romping around. They had
a hard time focusing. I found a lot of really good Scriptures and
really enjoyed it. wE planned for a while before going to lunch. AS we
were heading out the door, I was interrupted by a call from Elder
Lisonbee. When I left Temuco, 7 months ago, I left a lot of post-it
notes, saying nice thing sto Lisonbee that he would appreciate--in his
shoes, backpack, scriptures, etc. We had small talk for a moment
before he told me he`d found one and it made him smile. That made ME
smile. We taught Franco in the Afternoon. We read 3 Nephi 11 with him
like with Marìa. He had had stomach pains, but I think he understood
enough because he agreed to be baptized on July 30th. We passed by
Hna. Marìa. She said she`d had an interview with the Stake Pres.
yesterday. He wants her to be a Temple Worker...in the Concepciòn
Temple that`s gonna be built here soon! I was so happy for her because
I know of the blessings that come from serving the Lord in such a
sacred way. In the evening, we did lots of contacts. I`ve discovered
that instead of thinking, "What am I doing wrong? after work, I want
to ask myself, "What can i change, to get different results?"
Different words, but they convey the same Idea with happier feelings.

Friday: Today was alright. I woke up late, with a saore throat. I
think it was a result of vicious snoring. I watched my comp.
exercising and just thought it was too much efffort, too late. But
when I got up at 8:00, my throat really hurt. So I took a cough syrup
I have that numbs. Unfortunately, it was a drowsy medicine. That
pretty much made studying ineffective. But it passed and we planned
for the day. We went to teach Marìa the Word of Wisdom. She
understands that God gives us commandments because he loves us and to
protect us. She told us that she isn`t consuming any of the things
mentioned in the Word of Wisdom. She`s freaking Golden! I still marvel
at the difference in the amount of success we`re having compared to
when I first got here. It makes me happy. WE did contacts all
afternoon. WE didn`t really have any interesting ones today, try as we
might. Today was the 2nd match Chile played in the American cup,
against Uruguay. People werne`t even answering their doors anywhere.
WE went by Josè, to see him. He invited us in to see the match. WEll,
it seemed the most efficient of all the evils. We got confidence with
him. Then we did more contacts afterwards. We ran into Hna. Rojas. She
said she had my captain America Footie-PJ`s ready. I picked them up,
and they`re frickin` awesome!

Saturday: Today was a pretty good day. It was Elder Calaway`s 20th
Birthday. I gave him my wooden oil container I made when I was 15. He
liked it. For study time, I marked a ton of Scriptures and finally
laminated my shortcuts and taped it inside my cover. It`s rally
complicated. Elder Calaway finally found a way to describe me in one
word: Dramatic. I HATE dramatic people, they drive me nuts. This
announcement pretty much bugged me all day. But I was able to see ways
to stop being this way, too. Not waht I can see how I`m acting, I can
start becoming the person I want to be. All in all, it`s avery ironic
situation. WE did contacts in the morning, that didn`t turn out too
well. WE had lunch with Hna. Novoa. She made us lasagna, the delicasy
of the MIssion. Then she served us cake. Everyone said Elder Calaway
had to take a big bite of the cake. He fell for the oldest trick in
the book! As he bent down to bite, they shoved his whole face into the
cake. The Cruz Family also invited us over. We had banana cream pie.
Mmmm. I was thinking about the Mission today, and how I can remember
things from before the mission really well, even though they happened
a year and a half ago. Like Alan`s and my times together. I can still
remember things so clearly. It`s like I haven`t left. But i know
things are different, now.

Sunday: We woke up and went to church. Our goal for the week was to
have 3 peopole come with us. WE had 4 people tell us they`d come. We
were so happy and excited. But when push came to shove, only 1 came.
Josè, our 80 year-old investigator, came to sAcrament Meeting and
Sunday School. He said he liked it. But we were still kind of bummed
out from the other people who broke promises. That`s not cool. It`s 1
week `til the end of the transfer, and probably my time here in
Hualpencillo. A lot of people were like, "You`re going? We don`t want
you to go!" Taht made me feel better. We ate lunch with the
Fruentealba family. While there, we just laughted a lot, `cause we all
had problems talking, tripping over our words and stuff. I don`t know
why it was so funny. wE celebrated Mauricio Novoa`s B-day before going
to Hna. Marìa`s. While there, we spoke with Maritza, her inactive
daughter. She doesn`t go because she doesn`t want to. I tried to teach
her with Scriptures. I didn`t work. Elder Calaway tried empathy,
saying how Church can be boring sometimes. He said he cared for her.
She said she didn`t like him. Said she doesn`t have friends. We went
on to other things, and like 15 min. later, she said that she was
sorry and took it all back. The Spirit had worked on her! Hna. Marìa
said she loved us, too, and we were all crying--except my comp. He
wants to cry but can`t. But he cries on the inside. I think he jus
thas really absorbant eyelids. :)