8-8-11

Monday: Today was a pretty good Pday. We had an activity planned, as a
Zone. It was raining when I woke up and I didn´t want to go. But my
comp. said going to a freaking volano is a once-in-a-lifetime
opportunity! So I got up and it stopped raining. It was a long bus
ride to Antuco, but I had lots of fun talking with Elders Lisonbee and
Oversby. We didn´t actually go to the volcano, which was a let-down.
We were withing 1 km of the base. Lamesauce. But I saw snow for the
first time in a year and a half. We had an epic snowball fight. No one
had gloves or boots for the 3-ft. snow. I got white-washed and I just
loved being with all my friends that I love. In my email, mom and Dad
told me that Peaches died. I cried a l ittle. Dad sent another letter
that was more personal. I started crying again, 2 sentences into my
reply because I loved him and mama so much. Elder Burch had a virus on
his hard drive and almost lost all his photos. But he got them back.
His mom didn´t write him for the 2nd week in a row. He was very angry.
We bought 2.5 liters of Coke and it´s empty now. I only had 2 glasses.

Tuesday: We had our Distrizona today. We rewarded our Zone with
empanadas for completing all the goals for last week. We had lunch
with the Rodriguez´s. Their son, woh´s an MTC teacher, said he might
visit my family today. We did contacts and found Carlos. He doesn´t
go to a Church, but already had a guess that was close to the truth
about the Apostasy. (This day´s short because of a LOT of personal
thinking and pondering)

Wednesday:We had our conference today. It was really wonderful. We had
a lesson from Hna. Martinez about how to study the Scripturees better
and more effectively. We learned how to study the Doctrine of the
lessons. Pres. Martinez taught us how the children of God are being
prepared. I love seeing te hand of the Lord in this wonderful work.
The Assisstants had us all practice contacting each other. We drew
from a hat, to see if we were the "elect" or not. We were to talk to
everyone, to find the "elect." We had 5 min. Turns out that the
Assisstant, Elder Bustos, was on the stage, and NO ONE spoke to him.
We need to talk to everyone. I got a letter from Cassie. We hit the
streets and spoke with EVERYONE! We met Rina and her daughter Pía.
Their husband/father died last November. I loved them so much. I
wanted to let them know it was okay, that there was hope. I prayed for
the Spirit, so we could help them. They trusted us and asked me to
interperet a dream they had, of their dad, together. It was really
special. I testified of Eternal families. It was a good lesson. I love
feeling the Spirit. It makes things so easy to bear. We passed by, to
see how Gustavo and Scarlet were. They´re great. They´re reading in 1
Nephi 13 together.

Thursday: I´m feeling really happy. Nothing really exciting happened
today. I was writing my response to Cassie, and I realized some things
that really made an impact on me. I was asked about something I
mentioned in my last letter. I was about to replay an answer that had
been locked in my mind since childhood. But as I thought about it I
realized my opinion had changed. I thought about other questions and
discovered other things that were...different. It was a huge neon sign
to me, that the lord´s changed me. I forgot How I thought of some
things before. I was influenced by so many things. Here, I´ve really
found myself. We went to the Bishop´s house to get a Permaneced list.
Elder Burch broke a glass while playing with a balloon. Haha. We spent
the afternoon looking for the new investigators from last week. They
were all busy. Oh well. We keep on going.

Friday: Today was a great day. It rained in the morning, during our
study time. But when it was time to go out and work, it had already
stopped. I used my study time to start marking my new bible with my
special system. The morning was spent doing contacts. One guy didn´t
even listen to us. We asked what his name was, and he said, "I´m
fine." but when my comp. reached for a pass-along, the man
instinctively reached out a hand to receive it. I realized that some
people tune out everything you say and only pay attention to body
language-unless you ask good questions to make them think. For lunch,
Hna. Carmen Julia just brought out a ton of empanadas, and it was a
free-for-all. Then we started our fast for Sabrina. In the afternoon,
we told Baltazarwe wouldn´t pass by anymore. We taught Sabrina and she
said she´d received an answer about Joseph Smith. We practiced being
her dad and she asked us for permission to get baptized. Now it´s in
the Lord´s hands. then we went o Mulchen to do my first interview as a
District Leader. His name was Marco Siv. It was a short interview
´cause he answered with such thoroughness. He´s a good kid. On the bus
ride home, my comp. sawa slug bug, and hit me. I know. I don´t get it
either.

Saturday: Today was an okay day. All of our appts. fell through, but
we got to talk to a lot of people. We have been organizing our Area
Book and taking the list of future investigators and trying to clean
it out. It was allthe people that said, 2I´m busy now, come back
another day." That´s pretty much what they told us when we passed by
this afternoon. When we went to lunch, we had to wait for about an
hour, ´cause the Sister had forgotten. We had "meat" and potatoes. But
for dessert they gave us ice cream with Chocolate syrup! that was
delicious. One lady let us in, but we soon found out that she was an
inactive Sister that had been offended by people in the ward. We
shared some Scriptures with ehr and invited her to church. THere´s not
much more you can do. We´re goint to pass by another day. We contacted
a guy, and said we were Missionries. He said, "No" and gave us the
finger. I said, "Yes, we are," even though I knew what he meant, and
started testifying. We went by Hna. Gloria, Burch´s convert that´s
inactive now because someone offended her. She says she doesn´t go now
because she´s sick. Maybe she´ll "feel better" soon?

Sunday: We had some exciting experiences today. We got up and went to
Church. During Sacrament Meeting, we had 16 inactives come back to
church! A really weird Sister, Hna. Martha, got up to besar her
testimony, but ended up confessing to everyone that she hasn´t taken
the Sacrament in 2 months ´cause she can´t arrive on time,among other
things. we were going to eat lunch with the Bishop´s wife, who is
cool, but hey switched on us and we had to eat with Hna. Martha.
She´s SO weird. She told us how her husband´s a deserter and is
avoiding cops. She lives in a forest. Eler Cotrell told us that there
were people in black robes that worshipped the Devil sometimes. As we
walked around, there were some wposts when we could just feel
irritated and agitated. Ugh! SO Creepy! We completed with our
contacts, so that I could be a good example for my District. Then we
got on a bus for Santa Barbara. We´re gonna party with them tomorrow.
But when we got here, they didn´t answer their phone, they weren´t
home, and it was 34 F. We waited in the cold for an hour, before they
got home. I´m warming up by the stove, now. :)