tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72628327427732640872024-02-18T23:10:09.948-08:00Brig's MissionBrigham Merrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03791313958892267082noreply@blogger.comBlogger92125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262832742773264087.post-25987405967039711442012-03-07T14:02:00.004-08:002012-03-07T14:03:13.324-08:003-4-12<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Monday: Today was the two-year anniversary of the big earthquake that<br />hit Chile. It hit just a week-and-a-half after I got my calling to<br />here. They were running a bunch of cool celebration/memorial programs<br />all day. they actually made a movie that airs next week. Elder Burch<br />and I left LA at 8:15 in the morning. We stopped by the office, for<br />mail, and I found I had my "trunky nametag" waiting for me. It´s like<br />a regular one, but under my name, it says "Misión Chile Concepción<br />Sur." You can order it during your last 6 months, but you can only<br />wear it during your last transfer. We switched back with our comps at<br />villa acero. My comp. said he´d missed me. That was surprising, but<br />awesome. We had lunch delivered to us. That was awesome, too. Last<br />week, the Mall burned down--along with all the gringo food:<br />McDonald´s, Pizza Hut, and I was looking forward to trying Burger<br />King. Not anymore :( We then wrote the family. Mama wrote me a poem,<br />´cause she knows I like them. I love her so much. Cassie /(sister)<br />sent me a photo of my plaque that´s hanging in the church, and said I<br />look old. That photo´s 4 years old! Daddy´s still healing. In the<br />evening, we were going to go with a Sister to pick up some Sister<br />Missionaries who were going to be travelling. But my comp. and the<br />gringa, who doesn´t have much experience with Spanish, had a<br />miscommunication. when I spoke with her, she said they+´d be<br />travelling on Thursday. The Sister, that was going to help, was Hna.<br />Barrigas. We had completos and she gave me advice on how to know if<br />I´m choosing the right wife: if she thinks the same as me.<br /><br />Tuesday: Today was a great day. My comp. and I are getting along a lot<br />better, knowing what to expect of each other and dealing with it.<br />Elder Aparicio is laughing and joking more. It feels good, having<br />overcome such a big obstacle. I had a Spiritual experience today, in<br />my Personal study. I was reading my Patriarchal blessing for the first<br />time in about a year. There were two big things that hit me, but I´m<br />only gonna be vague in this writing. The most important thing that hit<br />me was a promise from the Lord, concerning my children, and when I<br />read that promise, and what it was giving me, a huge amount of peace<br />and comfort hit me and I KNEW that Heavenly Father knows me. He does,<br />and it just made my spirit sing as he spoke with me. It was very<br />special to me. It´s the same feeling as always, but I think it´s<br />interesting that those thoughts were placed in my heart--irremovable,<br />undoubtable. We had lunch in the house. We worked in the Afternoon,<br />but weren´t able to find our investigators. In the evening, we had a<br />meeting with the Ward Missionaries. We taught them how to teach the<br />Book of Mormon. I was surprised at the amount of info. we had to give,<br />regarding teaching methods. But they all di well. I called elder<br />Calaway, to wish him a happy "monthday." When I told him that was why<br />I was calling, he said, "I´m so jealous of your big heart." We both<br />laughed. He said he´s learned a lot in these few weeks as a Zone<br />Leader. I´ve been learning, too!<br /><br />Wednesday(Leap Year!): Today was a good day. My comp. wasn´t feeling<br />so good, though. He´s been grinding his teeth lately, and one of his<br />fillings popped off, and now it´s hurting him. So, I got up and<br />prepared a class to give to the Zone. I decided to teach "How to find<br />the Lord´s Elect" based on the book Sister Tan wrote and gave to me.<br />When we got to our Distrizona Meeting, we felt we should change it,<br />and focus on teaching more lessons with a member present. It went<br />really well, and I got to share my experience of helping my convert<br />from Hualpencillo, María. I really like being a Zone Leader. I´ve just<br />felt like I´ve had a lot of good ideas, and now I can share them with<br />people, and they LISTEN to me. but, saying it like that, I realize I<br />have a lot to learn still, because I should be focused 100% on helping<br />THEM, not me. After lunch, we asked the Sister if we could visit one<br />of her neighbors. She was VERY reluctant, but we got a referral. Some<br />Sister Missionaries travelled here, from Victoria, tonight. they<br />didn´t know how to get to their Sector, so we arranged for Hna.<br />Barrigas to pick them up. when that was all set up, we went to visit<br />Aurora. She´s doing well, but not really progressing. We got a<br />referral from the Office--someone who wants to be baptized. WOOT!!!<br />But when we went by, his Mom answered and said he´s going to Santiago<br />tomorrow, for several months. Dang it! During lunch, my comp. told the<br />Sister that I was his favorite comp. I didn´t believe him until he<br />reaffirmed it in the evening. Thenm, I felt a whole lot better. It´s<br />definitely been an intense companionship, but it just goes to show<br />that when you talk things out, everything gets resolved just fine.<br /><br />Thursday: Today was a good day. We went out to buy breakfast in the<br />mornign. I offered to buy for my comp. ´cause he doesn´t have any. At<br />the register, he said, "I´d help, but I lost my money last week." I<br />thought he was saying it out of spite for our incident last week. I<br />tried to defend myself, and he got offended again because he HADN´T<br />been sarcastic. He had a hole in his pants and had actually lost his<br />money! So we talked when we got home, and he got mad and walked out. I<br />swept the downstairs, and he said he wasn´t gonna eat the big amount<br />of food I´d bought (Most was what he had asked for), because if I´d<br />ahd the intent to share with him, I´d have prepared it for him. He<br />said I was a prideful gringo with lots of money. That made me cry<br />because I´ve been trying so hard to be humble. I read talks about<br />charity and optimism. I found comfort there. After lunch, we did a<br />contact and Elder Aparicio bashed with him. He was a Pastor. I made<br />the comment, afterward, that he was aggressive. When we got to the<br />house, he said we needed to talk...again. He asked what bothered me<br />most about him. I said that the fact that assumed the worst in me,<br />making him easy to offend. He nodded and surprised me by saying, "I<br />feel the same way about you." And he was right,. so I decided right<br />there to try better and put forth conscious effort to think good of<br />him. I told him 5 good things I found in him. Things got slightly<br />better after that. We planned out our plan to help our Zone in the<br />afternoon. In the evening, some missionaries arrived for oour council<br />tomorrow. Elder Tavernier, Elder Lisonbee´s hijo, is one of them. He´s<br />so great. I´m really tired now.<br /><br />Friday: So, for the ipast two weeks we´ve been having daily tremors of<br />about 4pts. on the richter scale. It´s like your house is driving down<br />the freeway, hitting bumps in the road--but the whole city feels it.<br />We got up at 5:30 so we could p lay soccer as Zone Leaders of the<br />Mission. We had lots of fun. Then, we showered and changed before<br />going to the Mission Pres´s. home, for my first Zone Leader Council.<br />It was great! We spent a lot of time taking turns, explaining what<br />were some challenges in February, as wella s our plans for march. Our<br />focus, as a Mission, will be working with the Members, and I´m so<br />excited. right when we got back, we went to re-interview Hector from<br />Las Salinas. he´d smoked right before his baptism, last week. But this<br />eek he seemed a lot better. After that, we went to an FHE with Hno.<br />Maldonado, our WArd Mission Leader. There, he shared a VERY inspired<br />class. It was about saying nice things and not getting angry. He<br />shared 2 Nephi 2:27, which says we´re free to choose to DO good or DO<br />evil. Hno. Maldonado focused his lesson on choosing to SAY good or<br />SAY evil. But the Spirit confirmed to me that we can also choose to<br />SEE good or SEE evil in others. Hno. Maldonado shared 2 Nephi 4:27<br />which says we shouldn´t get angry. Matt. 12: 34-36 says that as a man<br />speaks, so is he. And, lately, I´ve been wondering if I should be more<br />bold, so I´m not picked on so much. But Hna. Maldonado mentioned that<br />Pres. Hinckley´s wife fell in love with him because he was gentle,<br />softspoken, and noble. I think I can work on the "noble" part, but it<br />brought peace to me, knowing that I don´t have to be a macho. At<br />night, Elder Aparicio shared 2 Nephi 4:26-32 and explained it was his<br />conversion Scripture. He cried from emotion, and I was grateful the<br />Spirit had touched him so.<br /><br />Saturday: We got up this mornign and went to get some groceries. And<br />we did it without fighting. I had a good personal study. In the last<br />general conference, Elder Cook gave a talk called, "The Songs they<br />couldn´t sing." At the end, he quoted a hymn that said, "And Jesus<br />list´ning can hear the songs I cannot sing."That just struck a chord<br />in me. There was many times when I can´t express myself, or when I do<br />things secretly because I know jit´s the right thing to do, and I just<br />feel alone sometimes. But to know that someone KNOWS me absolutely,<br />even if I don´t, and loves me despite my shortcomings, is a huge<br />comfort. I also realized something about myself, today: I act and<br />think according to how the people surrounding me treat me. It´s not<br />really a good trait, but true nonetheless. Every time iI was around<br />Kayla, after she dumped me, I immediately became sad. I couldn´t avoid<br />it. When I was with Elder Zuñiga, I was the ibest I´d ever been:<br />happy, confident, funny, and outgoing. When I´m with Elder Aparicio,<br />even though we get along better now, I´m stiill kind of reserved and<br />don´t talk much. Sio I´m going to choose to surround myself with<br />people who make me happy when I get back. We had lunch with Hna.<br />Valdevenito. She said I spoke Spanish better than my comp. We visited<br />Tomás, and then dropped off our clothes. We spent a good chunk of the<br />night getting the numbers, instead of right after church tomorrow. the<br />Sisters in our Zone, Hna´s Oliver and Baker, are so great. They tried<br />to set up their Investigator´s interfiew today, but his wife, who´s a<br />member, stopped them. they were a little disappointed, so I gave them<br />a Scripture to read and they said they really appreciated it.<br /><br />Sunday: Not a lot happened today. We got up and went to Ward Council.<br />There, Hno. Maldonado reviewed the MIssion Plan for the Ward, and the<br />parts that each of the organizations will play. It´s really great<br />because of the new focus the Mission is putting on working with<br />members. Hno. Maldonado has a lot of fire going for him, just pumped<br />up and ready to work with us. I haven´t been in many sectors with a<br />Ward Mission Leader this good. Eduardo maldonado (a different guy) is<br />absolutely hilarious. He makes me laugh every time we talk. Today, he<br />said if I ever come back to Chile, I HAVE to stay in his house. He´s<br />awesome. The class in Sunday School was on Prayer. It´s such a big<br />part of this work and real conversion. During lunch, I traded ties<br />with the 2nd counselor in the Bishopric for a sweet green tie. The<br />afternoon was kind of hectic, because we had to get a lot of info. for<br />the new form the Misison is using to report weekly. It´s online, so I<br />didn´t know what to expect beforehand. It took a while to work<br />through. We spent the Afternoon with Aurora. she´s not a member, and<br />she won´t let us commit her to things...yet. Right now, we´re trying<br />to get her trust and teach her correct principles. It´s working. She<br />comes to Church most weeks. She just needs to read and pray. That´s<br />all. She´ll get there.</span></span>Brigham Merrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03791313958892267082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262832742773264087.post-811913623010670662012-03-07T14:02:00.002-08:002012-03-07T14:02:24.241-08:002-26-12<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Monday: Today was a good Pday. My comp. was so excited to sleep in,<br />that he did it twice. He jokingly asked if I´d get him breakfast in<br />bed. I did anyway. Haha. Then he went back to bed. I got the house<br />cleaned up,and read some chapters on how to be more creative. Word<br />play with synonyms and puns are a great creative exercise. I woke my<br />comp. up at 11, and we went to the office at 12. We hitch-hiked. We<br />turned it into a "mobile Contact." I didn´t have any mail. While I was<br />there, I got to talk with Elder Tanner. He said that after a<br />month-and-a-half he´s just barely having time to leave the office and<br />work in his sector, which is my old one, Hualpencillo. He said he met<br />with Hna. Soledad and that she just loves me so much. She asked if<br />they, the Assisstants, could arrange for me to have lunch with her<br />sometime.We´ll probably do exchanges on March 4th. That´ll be so much<br />fun! We went to write the family. Daddy´s almost completely better.<br />he´ll be off his blood thinners soon, which worries all of us, ´cause<br />we don´t want the bloodclots to return. Daddy said Cassie (sister)<br />misses me and loves me so much. I miss her, too. we got lunch at<br />Doggi´s before coming home.We visited Hna. Aurora and then Hno.<br />Marcos.Marcos had a court session today,and he saw that his wife just<br />hates him. He was a brokenman. I testified to him of the healing power<br />of the Atonement, and thepeace it brings. He called thebishop right<br />there, and set up an appt.for tomorrow night.<br /><br />Tuesday: I think I´m starting to get the hang of handling my comp.<br />There are just lots of little things that he will or won´t do. For<br />example, he WILL ask me to do lots of things his way (don´t bother him<br />during personal study, teach by ear (the spirit) so we don´t have to<br />plan,etc).He WON´T do something for nothing. If I ask him to stop<br />doing somethign that bothers me, he´ll askwhy, prove that it´s okay to<br />do, and then accuse me of doing something worse. But it´s helping me<br />to be better. In the morning, we planned out our distrizona. We<br />dicided to challenge every companionship to put 3 morebaptismal<br />dates.Then, we taught them the process of working a Miracle. It was a<br />really cool study. The Zone was really excited. We´re trying to serve<br />the other Missionaries by repairingtheir homes. We went to the home of<br />the Missionaries in Talcahuano Centro. They live at the top of a<br />staircase that´s 2,582 (or around there) steps long. Ugh! We took<br />stock of what they needed and reported it to the Mission office. We<br />had lunch early, with time after, to rest.My comp. said he had a bad<br />headache.When we finally left, he got after me for not telling him to<br />go work. What would that have been like ? "Oh! My head hurts! I need<br />to rest." "Nope. Let´s work." yeah, that´s just asking for trouble. So<br />it was my fault we left late. We taught our 2ndlesson to Roxana. She´s<br />a bit of a slow learner. But once she gets it, it´s there. She<br />understands she needs the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and a new baptism.<br />She knows Christ´s church was lost. Today we taught about faith. She<br />feels she has weak faith. We promised it would grow through daily<br />prayer, Scripture study...and going to church. She was fine with the<br />first two. But "Church" was her buzz word, and she holed up.But she´ll<br />get there, I think. Then, we taught Thomas the Word of Wisdom and the<br />Law of Chastity. I´d never taught the Law of Chastity to a kid, and<br />found myself at a loss for words. My comp. took over, ask,ing, "Do you<br />know what the word "sexual" refers to?" I just slapped my forehead<br />with my palm. SUPER SMOOTH. We then dropped off our dirty laundry.<br /><br />Wednesday: Today was really great, and ended really well. We got up<br />and both took our showers. My comp. ate some oatmeal before his<br />shower.It was funny because he didn´t want cold showers anymore. He<br />boiled some water and mixed it with some cold.Next thing I know, I<br />hear a shout fromthe bathroom.Not enough cold water, I guess. When he<br />finished, he said his stomach hurt from his oatmeal and he went to lie<br />down. I studied until lunchtime. I love personal study. I wonder if<br />I´ll like studying for College as much. I better! We had lunch with<br />some converts who just completed a year in the Church. they´re going<br />to get sealed this Friday! they´re so happy. they also just got their<br />Patriarchal Blessings last week. their name´s are pedro and Roxana. We<br />rested for a bit, before going to meet with the Ward Missionaries. We<br />then split up to go visit inactive recent converts. We visited a<br />Sister from Ecuador. She lives in one of the many sheds that the Gov´t<br />built for victims ofthe Earthquake. She´s inactive because someone<br />gave her a box of food to help her, along with an offensive message.<br />At least,she found it offensive. I´d imagine it had said something<br />supportive. She just came off rather prideful. Our Ward Mission Leader<br />was withme.he told my comp. to meet us at the Church at a certain<br />hour, and he wasn´t there. theBrother kind of chewed him out, and<br />Elder aparicio tried to chew HIM out. Eventually, we found out there<br />had beena miscommunication and all was forgiven. But as soon as we<br />were alone, my comp. got after me for not supporting him. So then we<br />talked THAT out. Imentioned all this successful arguing was really<br />preparing us to be good husbands.I told him every one of his comps.<br />has an attribute of his future wife,but that HE had to choose which<br />one to see.Of me, he said, "You´re really good at memorizing things."<br />*forehead-slap* I toldhim that didn´t count so he said,"Youreally know<br />theScriptures." Same vein, but I guess it´s okay. I said I like his<br />desire to keep improving, regardless of being imperfect.<br /><br />Thursday: Today was kind of tough in the afternoon. This companionship<br />is really hard.I got up and was studying when my comp. got up. He<br />feels really bad for having slept in,so tomorrow we´re for sure going<br />to get up on time. I called the Missionaries in Los Angeles to see<br />what was thestatus on scarlet´s baptism. They said she´d just barely<br />passed her interview, and that she´d had to move it from Saturday to<br />Sunday, because she´d be travelling in Santiago.Well that´s great. So<br />I planned out all the things we´ll need. I´m going to have to pay for<br />my comp. ´cause he doesn´t want to pay for something he has nothing to<br />do with. We had lunch with an awesome family: The Varrigas family. the<br />brother is really funny, and the Sister´s food was SO good! while we<br />ate, their son alternated between his xbox 360 kinect and his PS3.<br />yes, the food wasn´t the only reason I was drooling. After<br />lunch,wepiocked up baptismal clothes for Thomas. elderKuhn, our<br />district Leader, did the Interview. it was his first one,and he did<br />great! :) After that,I got permission from Pres.to travel on Sunday.<br />My comp. and I had our biggest argument yet, and we resolved that,<br />too. So things are good. Keep us in your prayers.<br /><br />Friday: today was a good day. Things with my comp. got marginally<br />better. I found out thatwhen he says things that are kind of rude, he<br />wants me to laughbecause he´s just kidding, even though he´s not. We<br />had lunch with an RM who is SUPER awesome. He got back from his<br />Mission to Bolivia a year ago.He got sealed int heTemple 6 months ago.<br />his name´s eduardo. he´s a real jokester. He was making fun ofme being<br />trunky, and of Eelder aparicio for not having half my tiem. I<br />teasedhim a little bit, too. Afterward, he said he wanted to see the<br />same smile I was wearing when I was messing with him, when he messes<br />with me. So I got a better idea of how to act. He got sick in the<br />afternoon, in the tunny, so we stayed in. I got bored. Later, we went<br />to Las Salinas to Interview their Investigator for baptism. It was my<br />first one as a Zone Leader. My comp. said it was tradition that i pay<br />for the bus farethere. Lame. I Interviewed an elderly man, named<br />Hector. He has some memory problems, buthe was eager to obey all his<br />commandments. Plus, his family´s member, so he´ll be alright. We had<br />our baptism at 8:00. Thomas had been waiting for this ever since he<br />turned 8. He´s such a good boy. His mom was so happy for him.<br />Everything got awkward when Hno. marcos, for whom his wife has a<br />restraining order, showed up. He was so desperate to see hisfamily.<br />the baptism went really well. thomas´s aunt gave an emotional message<br />afterward. then I bore my testimony. It started to rain, and Hna.<br />Raquel, Thomas´s mom, invited us to have some cake at their place. Oh!<br />I forgot to say that when I shared a Scripture with Hno. Eduardo after<br />lunch, he said it was just what he needed. Inspiration!!!<br /><br />Saturday: today was a beautiful day. It was still raining in the<br />morning, and it set the temperature for the rest of theday. After our<br />usual study,w e bought more gas. Do you know what that MEANS?! I had<br />my first warm shower in almost 4 months!!! Oh my goodness, it was so<br />good. Here, we play with the Youth on Saturdays, so we can get some<br />Investigators. Because of therain, we endedup playing Ping Pong<br />inside. My comop. is really good.When we got back, we added more<br />minutes on our phone. Elder Aparicio asked how much I wanted to load.<br />I said $2. but when we got there, he asked the lasdy for $7 worth, and<br />asked me for another dollar (so to speak). When we got back, I wrote<br />it along with all teh other money he owes me. He saw I was keeping<br />track and got offended. then, I remembered I had cancelled lunch<br />´cause we were SUPPOSED to be travelling today. He said since I was<br />the one to cancel, I had to pay for lunch. I woouldn´t do that to<br />himm,and I asked him to pay for himself.when he refused, I suggested<br />he just pay from his debt and subtract from his tab. he got offended<br />again and paid me backabout $10 in the equivalent of pennies, and I<br />bought us lunch. then, a Sister called, telling us to come over,<br />andthat she hadlunch waiting. Itwas Hna. Varrigas. She´s so good. by<br />the time I finished THAT lunch, Iwas so full that I was sick. She<br />could tell and told me to lie down. Twice in a week. How embarassing.<br />Thenw e visited Aurora, our Eternal Investigator. We spoke with her<br />and her family. Then, we played a mini game of soccer in her street<br />out front. She´s a Grandma, and her grandkids were swarming, and it<br />was just fun. Then, we shared a Scripture and prayer.<br /><br />sunday: today was amazing! I woke up and asked Hna. Raquel if she<br />could bring my memory card,which I´d left in her house, to church.<br />When we´d gotten to church, we were called up to confirm Thomas. I got<br />to do it. I was also called to bless the water. After Church, a Sister<br />told me that when I said the blessing, it was as if she was caught up<br />to Heaven. A little extreme, but very flattering. Daniel Guiñazú said<br />he´d felt a spirit that was higher than the usual. Eduardo Maldonado<br />is really awesome. He said he´d make a photocopy of his study journal<br />for me. We met up with Elder Burch and switched comps. I just love<br />Elder Burhc. He´s one of my favorite comps. It was a nice refresher<br />from how things have been. We had a nice 2-hour drive in the bus, just<br />talking. On our way to the Chapel, we stopped by Hna. Pinar´s, to make<br />sure she´d be there, at the baptismm. She was so happy to see us both.<br />I said hi to lots of beloved members at the church and I was sure it<br />couldn´t get better, but then Scarlet and Gustavo came in, married,<br />andI kenw Heaven was there with us. When Scarlet saw me, shestarted<br />crying, and I started crying ´cause we were sohappy. I baptized her<br />and it got even better. We tried to hustle out, but it was hard. Hna.<br />Pinar was like, "That´s my son! I´m his mamita!" She loves me so much.<br />Hna. Marita has always been jealous and (apart from throwing Hna.<br />Pinar the stink-eye) offered to drop us off at the Terminal. There<br />weren´t any more buses available until tomorrow, so the family offered<br />us dinner:french fries and beef. yum. I finally met Mario, who was in<br />my HOUSE, and met my FAMILY He´s awesome, and we talked about gringo<br />stuff. he said I look like my dad. TRUNKY. We´re spending the night<br />with my grandson, Elder Tholl, and Elder Williams. Elder tholl looks<br />like Elder Kemp.</span></span>Brigham Merrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03791313958892267082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262832742773264087.post-1984659028881398592012-03-07T13:59:00.001-08:002012-03-07T14:01:03.146-08:002-19-12<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Monday: We woke up early this morning and I kept Eldr Smith company as<br />he finished packing. I hugged him goodbye and wished him good luck. I<br />spent the morning cleaning the house up so I could make my video tour<br />of the house. We went to write the family. Daddy doing so much better.<br />He had his filter removed and he`s recovering well. He`s not coughing<br />as much, now. Mom and Daddy spent the weekend alone and had a good<br />time. Mom said Devin paid his tithing and fasted without being asked.<br />Cassie`s a bit sick, but still has stellar grades. I spent the<br />afternoon packing. I got it all done by 6. LIfe`s good. I got to say<br />goodbye to the Diaz family. I didn`t expect their strong reaction to<br />my leaving. Hno. John and his wife were both very impressed with my<br />happiness. They said it`s totally contagious and that I should always<br />be how I am. Hna. Paulina asked how I can always be so smiley. I`ve<br />really learned on the Mission. I taught her what I`d learned. I think<br />she`ll be fine. They`re such a good family.<br /><br />Tuesday: So, today we had our transfers. I got up 40 min. too early,<br />and got to wait in suspense. I couldn`t believe I was leaving<br />Curanilahue! I had been totally prepared to finish my Mission there.<br />We got all my stuff together and made the bus on time. WE got to the<br />Terminal safely. WE didn`t have to wait long before Elder Brady`s new<br />comp., Elder Mendenhall, arrived. Elder Brady`s and my goodbye wasn`t<br />that emotional. As Zone Leader, my first responsibility was to wait<br />until all of the Zone had arrived. I met my new comp. Elder Aparicio.<br />He`s a total crackup. He has the straight-face kind of humor. As I`ve<br />come to know him, I`ve found him to be a little relaxed, but he wants<br />to get things done well. His last comp. wasn`t much of a team-player,<br />and he really likes me. I had a good time talking with Elder<br />Mcconnell, too. But I spent most of my time with elder Burch. We had<br />lunch with the Bishop`s wife. When we dropped my things off at the<br />house, I found it to be totally messy. OMG! So I asked my comp. if we<br />could take some time to clean up. Now it looks amazing. We have a few<br />investigators preparing to be baptized. One, Thomas has a date for<br />next week. we talked with his mom, who`s going through a divorce. She<br />is having a really hard time. I just wanted to help her so much. I<br />felt that she somehow felt responsible and guilty about what happened.<br />I told her it wasn`t her fault. She started crying, and we all felt<br />the Spirit. She`s going to read her Scriptures more, so she can be<br />closer to God. Her name`s Reaquel. Elder LIsonbee called me up, and<br />swung by with his parents. Yeah. I was fereaking out on the inside. We<br />dropped off the dirty clothes before coming back home. I`d heard Elder<br />Calaway had had surgery last week for appendicitis. I called and he<br />said he`s feeling much better. He`s gonna be a Zone Leader in San<br />Pedro, 30 min. to the South. I felt like a Junior comp. today. It was<br />nice.<br /><br />Wednesday: So...I feel kind of overwhelmed. Haha. After having cleaned<br />up the house, I was kind of excited to get up. We did our exercises,<br />and had personal study. I found a book called, "How to become more<br />creative" which is something I deperately need. And it explained my<br />lack of creativity as a result of my "judiciary imagination." That`s<br />the use of imagination to weigh consequences and make decisions. It<br />weakens creativity. We started out the day doing contacts, before<br />going to visit the soon-to-be-ex-husband of the Sister we visited<br />yesterday. He kicked his wife and children out of his home. But the<br />man we spoke with was penetant and broken. He explained how he was<br />feeling, and we explained how things can get better. I thought my<br />comp. was going to go into explaining how to love his wife, or<br />something. But he did well and set the goal of helping them both come<br />closer to Christ. That is our purpose after all. We shared with him<br />the story of King Lamoni`s father, and how he asked to know God, so he<br />could receive the Eternal life. We had lunch with our WArd MIssion<br />Leader, who is awesome and actually does stuff with us. We got ot call<br />the two new Missionaries in our Zone,a nd welcome them to Chile. For a<br />contact, my comp. called out to a kid with a basketball, asking to see<br />it. The kid gives it to him, he dribbles it ONCE, it bouncesinto the<br />HIghway, and a bus pops it. It all happened in 5 sec. and I was<br />laughing SO hard. And then, he teaches the kid a lesson and asks if he<br />wants us to come over. The kid shook his head no, and asked for<br />payment. My comp. didn`t have money, so I had to pay. lame. We went to<br />see a past contact, Samuel, who runs an upholstery shop. My comp`s<br />done that his whole life. So we helped upholster a couch. We taught<br />Thomas, our 9 yr.-old investigator about faith, using water balloons<br />and a blindfold to make a cool activity. Then we had our commitee and<br />gave a class. And finally, we picked up the clothes. I`m so lost. :)<br />But it`s nice to be with someone who knows what they`re doing.<br /><br />Thursday: Things are getting better. I still felt a little stressed<br />when we spoke with each other to plan the Distrizona. I have been so<br />wire-tight, trying to anticipate everything because my comp. is relaly<br />laid-back and likes to do things in the moment, without planning. Next<br />to him, the Mamita we live with things I`m a no-nonsense,<br />super-organized, clean Missionary. But I`m getting better. Our Meeting<br />went off without a hitch (We DID end up planning it). We`ve got a<br />really good Zone. There`s an Elder Gonzalez from Provo. He went to the<br />other High School. He spent 11 months in Iraq, and told me some<br />stories. When he finished, he said, "I like you, which is weird<br />because, since the war, I`ve had trouble with that." I really wanted<br />to gain the Zone`s trust, and everyone else had equally positive<br />reactions. :) As we were leaving, a bird pooped on me, but only on my<br />backpack strap. Yay! We had lunch with an Hna. Aurora, who isn`t a<br />member. She`s been investigating since October, but isn`t fure. She<br />loves the Missionaries, but her relationship with Elder Aparicio is<br />too casual, just like everyone here. He says he wants to "enjoy the<br />Mission", but I think there may be a better way. But I`m trying to be<br />more humble. We visited Samuel, the Upholstery guy, but he was busy.<br />He`s gonna read a chapter of the Book of Mormon before we visit again.<br />As we were walking from him, we started talking with two kids-- one<br />15, and one 18, both fireman in the 3rd company of firemen. The 18<br />year-old, Collin, said we could talk with him right there. We sat<br />beneath a tree and taught baptism. Collin said he wasn`t baptized yet.<br />He was excited to learn more. WE`ll talk on Sunday. wE taught Thomas<br />the Baptismal interview questions. He`ll review it with his mom. I<br />gave her the talk "Forget Me Not" by Elder Uchtdorf from the NOvember<br />Liahona. We ended the night with the Guiñazú family. We live with<br />them, and they are SO Nice. They made us a butt-load of completos.<br />They like it when we visit.<br /><br />Friday: Today was a good day. It rained for the first time in a while.<br />Walking through the windy rain reminded me of my dear times with<br />Elders Calaway, Burch, and Zuñiga. I wonder what it will be like, to<br />look back on the Mission as a whole? My companion`s beginning to<br />remind me of Elder Argueta, who I got along with so "stellarly." I`ve<br />begun to notice he`s a bit of a manipulator, saying rude thigns while<br />apologizing. It`s really disorienting. But I`m trying to see the best<br />in others, and my efforts have been rewarded. The Assisstants called<br />and chewed him out for something he forgot to do. He acknowledged that<br />he wasn`t perfect, but he tries to be better. And he really doesn`t<br />get down on himself when he messes up. I`ve gotten hard on myself,<br />really hard, for failing. But I`ve learned that it`s okay not to be<br />perfect. It`s the effort of TRYING that the Lord expects. And I`ve<br />never stopped doing that. In the morning, we went to buy our bus<br />tickets for our trip tomorrow. We had lunch with a cool Sister that<br />made us a veggie pie. It was great. We went through the rain all day.<br />wE found osme new investigators: Roxana, and Alex. Roxana didn`t want<br />to talk at first. She`s Catholic. But as we explained about Christ`s<br />Church and the Apostasy, she became very interested. It was all<br />academic, until we mentioned the GIft of the Holy Ghost. She wanted<br />it, and will continue receiving us. Then we taught Thomas about<br />Prophets and the Restoration. His mom really likes it when we come<br />over. She really needs the visits now. We came home early, because<br />some members from San Vicente lost a house and were coming to pick up<br />our spare mattresses. While we waited, we shared the "17 MIracles"<br />movie with the Guiñazú family. They loved it! P.S. My comp. says I<br />sleep talk in Spanish and english. He heard me say, "Oh my goodness!"<br /><br />Saturday: Today was sooo long! We travelled to Tirúa, because the<br />Olivares family asked me to baptize their youngest daughter, Belén. I<br />wanted to be out, waiting for the "micro" bus at 6:20, so it could<br />take us to the bus terminal for OUR bus at 7:30. Yesterday, it took us<br />an hour. My comp. got us out the door at 6:35. I freaked out a little,<br />on the inside. WE caught a micro at 6:45, and I asked Heavenly FAther<br />for help. We made it in 30 min! We got on the bus and made the 3-hour<br />trip to Cañete, then another hour-and-a-half to Tirúa. It was so cool<br />to walk up the hill to their house, just like old times. Their house<br />looked the same, and it brought back all my feelings of love for them.<br />Lehi`s voice has dropped a lot, and Jayson is still a little, round<br />sweetheart. Hna. Olivares swas so happy to see me. And Hno. Renato,<br />from my previous sector, Curanilahue, was there. I saw him last week!<br />Haha. The Olivares` had all teir relatives over (minus Diego,<br />Meybelline, and Gonzalo). I had met them all over the course of 3<br />months last year, but it was great to see them al again. The baptism<br />was performed in their backyard pool. I had to repeat it because<br />Belén`s toe popped up. So we did the second time kneeling. Hna.<br />Olivares made us Choripanes with a good sauce. She`s like, "I made you<br />the sauce that you like." I was like, "What sauce?" But when I tried<br />it, I was like, "Oh THAT sauce!" It was amazing. So it was a good day.<br />We took a 5-hour bus back home. When we arrived, I was so dead. But<br />Hno. Guiñazú invited us to have some warm soup he had waiting for us.<br />He`s so good.<br /><br />Sunday: Today was a good day. We went to our meeting with the Ward<br />Council. The WArd here is really excited to help the MIssionaries.<br />They have a few Young Men who are preparing to leave in a little<br />while, on their missions. My Comp. has a great relationship with the<br />members, too. He has a great sense of humor, and knows how to use it.<br />We had a class on the Fall of adam and Eve, the one I taught a few<br />weeks ago. When we got to lunch, I was SO Hungry. My stomach was<br />killing me. But as I ate, it got worse, and I asked the Sister if I<br />could bag up my lunch. She asked if I was well, and I said no. She<br />invited me to lie down in one of her rooms. As soon as she closed the<br />door, I cried from the pain. Then the whole family came in and saw. Oh<br />geez. After a rest, I didn`t feel better, so we went home. I was<br />worried because we`d miss our 6 o`clock appt. with Collin. But we<br />randomly ran into him on the way home. Crazy! Tonight, was the first<br />time I asked my Zoine for their numbers. Elder Alvez`s District, as<br />well as hi sown sector, had low results for a week of work. I wanted<br />to love him, but I wanted to do better, too. I was a bit too rough<br />with him. My comp. asked, "Do you feel you`ve served Elder Alvez<br />enough to be able to ask things like that of him?" I told him no, and<br />he taught me how to be a better, loving leader. I have more respect<br />for him now.I called Elder Alvez back, and apologized. I felt so bad.<br />I just don`t want to mess up.</span></span>Brigham Merrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03791313958892267082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262832742773264087.post-70473833967671580692012-02-19T13:20:00.002-08:002012-02-19T13:21:12.084-08:002-12-12<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Monday: today was a great Pday. The Zone Leaders planned an activity<br />in Lebu. Initially, no one in Curanilahue wanted to go with me. Bu<br />then Eler Arjona spoke with my comp, and reminded him of a commitment<br />he`d made, that I wasnt aware of: to keep his comp. happy. So he<br />changed his mind. But when Elder Smith heard we were going to the<br />beach and some caves, he offered to take Elder Brady`s place. It was<br />really pretty. We went from the main beach, through a long tunnel,<br />into a smaller inlet. It was an awesome white sand bach. We spent the<br />first little while taking pictures. We went quite a ways from the main<br />group. We were climbing on the rocks close to the waves. Elder smith<br />wanted to go to a specific place, but it was too close to the waves<br />for my liking. Elder Smith went ahead to show me how. But as soon as<br />he was pinned in what we thought was a "safe spot", the waves got<br />ENORMOUS and came over his head. He pretyt much almost died. I got<br />pictures. But we got back all right. We were going to receive a<br />spiritual message in the tunnel when Hna. Gomez sprained her ankle.<br />Luckily, an inactive member with a 15-person van drove up right then,<br />and took us to the hospital. Lucky. riiiiiight. Here`s waht I imagine<br />the Spiritual message being: We were in a long, dark tunnel with a<br />light at the end. The way was rocky and dangerous (hence the sprained<br />ankle...it was real, not planned, so don`t go having sadistic thoughts<br />about our teachers). We were told to bring our flashlights. Some<br />didn`t. These could depend on others` lights, but it was not easy. I<br />imagine the flashlights being our testimonies. We can lean on others`<br />from time to time, but it`s a lot more hazardous when we`re directly<br />confronted with challenges. The family`s doing better. Mom said the<br />car`s ready and waiting for me. Dad said the clots are now scar tissue<br />that will dissolve. What a relief.<br /><br />Tuesday: Today was all right. I got kind of sick in the evening, but<br />it was a good day besides. We made i in time to catch our bus to<br />Distrizona. We spoke with the Zone leaders about goals for this month.<br />As a Zone, we`re actually doing pretty well, and I told them we`d have<br />2 more for March. It was Elder Smith`s last District Meeting, and he<br />was talking and talking, taking away from the lesson. I wasn`t the one<br />teaching it. It was comforting to know he listens better when I`m the<br />one talking. It shows he respects what I have to say. Elder corliss<br />was awesome and bought a cake for Elder Arjona, because it was his<br />birthday last week. We had lunch with Hno. Alvarado, the Elders`<br />Quorum Pres. He runs a tight ship. He laid out exactly how our lunch<br />behavior would be. Afterwards, he chewed us out for the actions of two<br />of us this past Sunday. Apparently someone had tattled, becasue he<br />wasn`t even in Church on Sunday. He said if he catches us being<br />irreverent (sleeping, reading Scriptures not of the lesson) again, hed<br />take us into the hall. Just so youknow, I wasn`t one of the offenders.<br />When he gave us that little lecture, it was done in a very<br />considerate, loving way. The other 3 Elders were offended. I thought<br />it was cool. As a Leader, I`ve found I`m TOO loving, and sometimes<br />people don`t listen to me. Thanks to this brother`s righteous example,<br />I can be a better leader. I got sick in the evening, throwing up 3<br />times. I`m feling better now. The other companionship traveled to<br />Concepción tonight, for the Conference tomorrow. We`ll be going<br />tomorrow.<br /><br />Wednesday: Today was great! I mean I`m really happy right now. I<br />actually heard something cool in our conference: Happiness is a<br />decision. I think that`s true. The trick is doing it even when it`s<br />hard. Anyway, we had our big conference today. We got up at 5:00 so we<br />could take our bus to Concepción. As we got to the Meeting--well, a<br />half-hour before it--I studied Scripture Mastery for 10 min. with<br />Elders Woodward and Rasmussen (Elder Rasmussen and I were the only two<br />to get 100% on the test), the San Pedro Zone Leaders. We spent most of<br />the day learning about improving our teaching skils. We had some<br />really cool object lessons. For example, Elder Tanner had us mention<br />investigator doubts and solutions. We`d then get to try and hit a<br />bulls-eye on a dartboard, representing us trying to findInvestigator`s<br />doubts on our own. Then, he played a track on his iPod (low volume)<br />and told us to listen to the "spirit`s" voice, telling us to throw the<br />dart at the ballon in the garbage can in the corner. I was the first<br />one to recognize it, and got to throw from 4 ft. away. After 5<br />freakin` failed tries, I gave up. analogy to my mission work (being<br />able to find the doubts but not executing the teaching)? Maybe. It was<br />embarrasing. Elder Brady got it on his first try. I talked with Pres.<br />afterward, asking permission to go baptize Scarlet on the 25th. He<br />said transfers were this week, and I`d be leaving. He gave me<br />permission and thanked me for my patience with elder Brady. He said<br />I`d passed through the trial of faith and now the blessings can come.<br />He thanked me for my obedience and righteousness (in front of<br />everyone, no less) and told me he wanted me to be a Zone Leader (in<br />private) somewhere in Concepción. Wow. I didn`t see that coming. I<br />actually feel really good about it. Better than if he`d told me I`d be<br />training. Whew! YEAH!!! We came back at 9:00 PM and had a [very] late<br />lunch with Hna. Diaz. She`s so awesome.<br /><br />Thursday: today was a good day. for my personal study, I read some<br />little stories from the January Liahona. they were both about people`s<br />conversion tories. And the cool part was that they were totally<br />miraculous! One told of a girl that got a copy of the Book of mormon<br />form a co-worker, saying that he knew it was a true book of Jesus<br />Christ`s Gospel, and that it would touch her heart. she read it and<br />loved it. Some time later, she moved. One day, she passed abuilding<br />witha stained-glass window of Lehi`s dream. She asked a emmber, and<br />he referred her to the Missionaries. For the Missionaries, it was<br />someone who randomly showed up, wanting to be baptized. It happens.<br />But there is so much that goes on behind the scenes, that we`re not<br />even aware of. Heavenly Father knows each of us, and will do<br />everything to give us the chance to choose happiness. It just depends<br />on us. We had lunch with Hna. Judith, Hno. Neira`s sister. We had<br />CFC--Chilean Fried chicken. It was good. In the afternoon, I had to o<br />with Elder smith to Interview their Investigator, Paula. She`s really<br />smart. And she told me of some of her Spiritual experiences. She`d<br />been told if she wanted to know something, she just had to ask. she<br />asked a question on Fast Sunda. Then, someone testified of Heavenly<br />Father, Jesus Christ, and Joseph SMith. She said she felt, lik, a wind<br />on her face and a feeling that it was true. As I finihed the closin<br />prayer, she looked like she had something to say. At my request, she<br />told me she felt a calm energy on her back as I prayed. It gave her<br />goosebumps, which she never gets. I still have the Spirit!<br /><br />Friday: Today was great. 2 years ago, from today, Elder Lisonbee went<br />into the MTC. He completed his 24 months of service. So I gave him a<br />call to congradulate him and see how he was feeling. He said he was<br />dead, and that he was sleeping in. Haha! I can`t believe he`s DONE!!!<br />It feels like it coul dnever end. And, indeed, there are many times<br />when I wish it wouldn`t. It`s sad to think I won`t be able to see him<br />for a while. But I know I`ll see him again soon. It`s just another way<br />the Mission relates to real life. I mean, Grandfather and Grandpa have<br />both died, and I was sad. It wasn`t the grief of a permanent loss, but<br />of emporary separation. We`ll see each other again when I finish my<br />mortal mission, just like I`lls ee Elder Lisonbee in a few months.<br />We`ll watch the new Spider-man movie together--AT MIDNIGHT!!! On our<br />way to lunch, a dog HOWLED at us. Like a wolf. It was sweet. Elder<br />Smith also completed 2 years today. He wasn`t too inclined to work. I<br />didn`t push him. He FINISHED his Mission. That`s so cool. We workedin<br />the afternoon, and met a few people. the most receptive was Gloria. We<br />took our clothes to Hna. Nidia`s. As I shared a Scripture, I<br />discovered I had opened to yet another one about humility. Totally<br />accidental, but it struck a chord in her. She talked bout someone who<br />was offended by her actions, but she assured us she never does<br />anything wrong, and she was the victim. She wouldn`t listen. We (Elder<br />Maldonado and I) met with Hno. Neira for correlation, because Elder<br />Smith got sick.<br /><br />Saturday: Today was a great day. I spent it with Elder Smith, `cause<br />he asked me to. He`s kinda freakin` out because he`s going to see his<br />family in only a few days more. In the morning, we played some cards<br />while just talking. He told me about all the things he`s excited to<br />do/eat/see when he gets back. I just listened. I`m pretty good at<br />that. Our lunch was a little different today. We had a Branch activity<br />where the little kids got to play in inflatable pools an there was a<br />big tarp to make shad for the adults. For lunch, we had Umitas. In<br />Mexico, they`re caled Taales. Basically, they`re rolls of mashed-up<br />corn and onions. The eat them with sugar, and they`re pretty good.<br />We`re probably going to have leftovers tomorrow. :) We spent a while<br />trying to figure out how to get the font going, for the baptism,<br />because it was acting up. But we did that and waited for it to fill.<br />Then we had Paula`s baptism. She belongs to the other Missionaries. Al<br />went well. In the afternoon, I wrote a reply to Miriam. She`s serving<br />in New York. That`s pretty cool. I got a call in the night, telling me<br />the transfers. I`m going to be a zone Leader in the Talcahuano North<br />Zone, in the "Cruz del Sur" sector with Elder Aparicio. I`ve heard<br />he`s good. Elder Mendenhall is replacing me, here, to be with Elder<br />Brady. I called Hna. Pinar in Los Angeles, to tell her how much I<br />loved and missed her. My hijo`s leaving to be in Temuco Cautín. That`s<br />cool. Elder Calaway and Elder Montalbán are going to be Zone Leaders<br />in the other Zones of the North with me. WOOT!!! I love being a<br />Missionary.<br /><br />Sunday: So, I woke up to a phone call from the Zone Leaders, telling<br />me that the Olivares family, from Tirúa, want me to baptize their 8<br />year-old daughter, Belén--this Saturday. Dang it! I`m getting<br />transferred. I`ll have to check with Pres. Martinez and my new comp.<br />But it`s great to have both Scarlet and the Olivares family wanting me<br />to be part of their lives. I love them all. In SAcrament Meeting, all<br />of the themes were basic stuff. I used to get bored of all the<br />repetition, but I realized something really obvious: basics are<br />fundamental. I hear lots of Missionaries say things like, "I can`t<br />wait to do such-and-such with my Eternal Companion." But it`s not like<br />we can just skip there, like it`s automatic. We cannoat make Temple<br />Covenants if we can`t do simple things like daily Scripture study. So<br />those primary talks became very important to me. I just love being<br />instructed by the Spirit. Elder Smith and Elder Maldonado went to<br />Concepción for Elder Smith`s Interview (the office people actually<br />screwed things up, and he actually didn`t have it today, and had to<br />come back). We had lunch with Hna. Bernardina. She`s Elder Oversby`s<br />convert. I`m so grateful for all of the Sisters` sacrifices in our<br />lunches. they WWILL receive blessings. The good news is that Elder<br />Smith`s trip to Concepción was not COMPLETELY in vain: I got a letter<br />from Cassie!!! It was awesome. :D</span></span>Brigham Merrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03791313958892267082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262832742773264087.post-20066326174607161622012-02-19T13:20:00.001-08:002012-02-19T13:20:33.797-08:002-5-12<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Monday: Today was a good pday. Very productive. We got a call late<br />last night, from the Zone Leaders, saying that we needed to have the<br />house clean all week because Pres. is going to come and inspect them.<br />The gratifying thing is that all 4 of us did our parts. Elder Smith<br />cleaned the nasty bathroom which had not been cleaned in 6 months.<br />Ugh! Elder Maldonado took care of the kitchen. I`ve been asking him<br />to, for over a week,. There have been ants EVERYWHERE in our<br />apartment. Elder Brady cleaned up his "organized Chaos". Now our room<br />looks decent. I swept the house (wooden floors), dusted, and washed<br />the walls. Then, I did something I didn`t use to do: I looked for<br />something else that needed doing, and took care of the fridge. As a<br />house, we`re in a financial pickle again. Everyone`s out of cash again<br />(except me) because everyone keeps lending money to Elder Smith, and<br />he uses his credit card to pay them off. He`ll get cash on Wednesday.<br />I hope. I loved talking with the family today. Mom said that Daddys<br />feeling much better, not coughing as badly, but his neck still aches<br />from bonking his head last week. All in all, it was a good day.<br /><br />Tuesday:Today was awesome! I got the money situation taken care of,<br />and we were all able to go to Distrizona. We had enough to take only a<br />certain kind of bus, and we had to go on the first one becasue we<br />don`t get many buses to Cañete and take what we get. The first bus<br />wasn`t the one. I asked the driver how much he charged and, sure<br />enough, it was too much. He must have seen something in my face<br />because he offered a lower price, which was exactly what we needed.<br />Tender mercies of the Lord! The Zone Leaders introduced s ome new<br />goals and I passed them to my district. Eder Arjona spoke with Elder<br />Brady, telling him he needed to start helping out or he`d go home. I<br />bought a big painting for $3. It was random, but gorgeous. I`m full of<br />enthusiasm again. There`s still a part that`s tired and a little<br />disappointed, but I know this is a critical time for elder Brady so<br />I`m going to be a good example. I also asked Eder Corliss to motivate<br />me, just in case. We met nice people and not-so-nice people. We got<br />into one guy`s house, but he was WAY drunk because his wife left him<br />14 years ago. He asked me to help him and I told him to stop drinking.<br />He went into another room and came back with wine dribbling down his<br />chin. I felt bad. The look on his face is something I usually see in<br />children. We shared a scripture before setting an appt. with him for<br />tomorrow morning, hopefully he`ll be sober. Oh! And his name`s<br />gustavo. It felt good to be enthusiastic again. I`ll last longer this<br />time. Also, I found a list of Elder Brady`s "Positives" that he has,<br />to help change his attitude. He mom had listed, like, 4, and he had 2.<br />One of his was a re-wording of one of his mom`s. the other was "my<br />companion". ME! That makes me feel good.<br /><br />Wednesday:It`s the first day of February. That`s so crazy how fast the<br />time is going. this morning was so great. I got Elder Brady up on<br />time, today. He kept telling me he was not a morning person the whole<br />time. He alsosaid he didn`t like studying. But when I sat him down,<br />and encouraged him to write in his study journal, he took to it like<br />an alligator takes to some hapless animal...that was a weird simile.<br />:) He just got really into it, you know? But it kind of made me feel<br />guilty, knowing that if I hadn`t let myself get disappointed I would<br />have been able to keep him going. But it takes a LOT to get him going.<br />I`m afraid that I`ll be held responsable for not having had the best<br />attitude. It didn`t bother me before. But I feel that I should always<br />be happy as a Missionary. Anyway, I AM feeling happier. We had our<br />personal studies as well as a companionship study. It was awesome to<br />see him explaining things to me. I was so happy to find how many times<br />I was smiling throughout the day. It rained on Monday, and it seems<br />that it was the "end of summer" rain, meaining that it`s going to<br />start cooling down. Thank goodness. I`ll be gone before winter gets<br />here, though. That`s weird. I was kind of nervous to go over to<br />gustavo`s. but he wasn`t even home. We had lunch with Hna. Diaz. She<br />made us french fries and rice. She also prepared an amazing salsa. We<br />were g oing to visit a referral with a member, javiera, but she never<br />showed up. Elder Corliss called in the evening, to check up on me. He<br />really is a caring and considerate friend. His hijo says he wants me<br />to be his comp. Elder Corliss says he`s worried he`s not being a good<br />trainer, even though he`s working really hard. He`s awesome.<br /><br />Thursday: today was awesome! We had, like, 3 apts. set up for us and I<br />was excited. I got up and had oreos with milk for breakfast (don`t<br />look at me like that) as I studied. I`m reading in Helaman 5 . I read<br />a quote by Pres. Kimball. He aske dwhat`s the most important word in<br />teh whole dictionary? he suggests it is "remember." I think so, too.<br />`cause when you think about it, covenants are the most imporant<br />thing...out of everything. They`re our ticket into the Celestial<br />Kingdom. We HAVE to stay faithful to them. but I also felt kind of<br />bad, `cause history just doesn`t yank my chain, if you know what I<br />mean. Anyway, things are still going well with Elder Brady`s change.<br />He`s getting up earlier and studying. He`s using his study journal and<br />he started Spanish study on his own, reciting the first part of the<br />First Vision before moving onto the next. It was very heartwarming. We<br />had TONS o ffrench fries, with Hna. Soledad, for lunch. SO GOOD!!! She<br />really likes having us over. Something great that Elder Brady did in<br />the afternoon was say, "Let`s go to our appt." I had been trying to<br />muster the motivation to say the same to him. He`s starting to help me<br />out. All 3 of our appts. fell through, and I was sad. the last was a<br />referral from a youth in the Branch, Javiera. But we had a miracle<br />when we got home. Apparently, the other missionaries had been stopped<br />by a member in a car with his family. They just moved here, from<br />Santiago, and he has 2 sons he wants baptized! :O One`s 12 and the<br />other`s 8. The wife`s not a member, either, and she`s indifferent, so<br />we may be able to work with her. The Lord has blessed us with the<br />tender mercies because we`ve been trying so hard. Also the zone<br />Leaders say we should think about baptism so much, that we dream about<br />it. I tried last night, and got close. I dreamt I was swimming in a<br />supermarket. Hey. There was water. That`s close.<br /><br />Friday: Today was a good day. everythign just seems better since both<br />elder Brady AND I have been trying our best. I had my personal study<br />in Helaman 5 again. It`s the part where Nephi and Lehi are stuck in a<br />prison with a bunch of bloodthirsty lamanites...Oh and there`s a cloud<br />of darkness, and a pillar of fire, and an earth-trembling voice.<br />Anyway, the Lamanites ask, "What can we do, so that this cloud of<br />darkness may be removed?" One of the nephite desserters says they<br />should call to the voice until they have faith in Christ. From a<br />symbolic standponit it gets interesting. A cloud of darkness, in<br />Lehi`s dream for example, usually means temptation or something that<br />keeps us from God. And I`m sure "Ccalling to the voice" doesn`t imply<br />something empty and impersonal. They had a purpose: have faith in<br />christ. they needed to TALK with him. When they had all done that,<br />they were surounded by PILLARS (plural) of fire. It wasn`t one big<br />one. They each had a personal connection, through the Holy Spirit, to<br />Heavenly Father. Just like each of us do. Pretty neat, I think. Elder<br />Brady not only let me teach him grammar, but he was excited for it. I<br />hope he can change. He needs more light in h is heart. We had lu nch<br />with the Branch Pres`s wife. I feel great when I go over there,<br />becasue she used to be really grouchy, and now I just love seeing her<br />face light up when she talks with me. In the afternoon. I went with<br />elder Smith to take out money, so he could pay me back, as well as<br />accompany him to his haircut. We were going to have an FHE with Hna.<br />Soledad and her husband, but she cancelled. We improvised and did what<br />we always do with free time: contacts.<br /><br />Saturday: Today was really hard for some reason. I just felt really down<br /><br />Sunday: I woke up this morning in a fit of depression. Things have<br />been going better, and yet I feel as if I`ve been failing more. I<br />don`t know. I completed 21 months today. I remember meeting lots of<br />people with that time, and thinking they were so close to the end, but<br />I still have 3 months left. But even still, I`m pretty dang close to<br />the end and it`s kind of distracting. We met with the Branch<br />Presidency in lieu (ya like that word?) of Hno. Neira, seeing as how<br />he was out of town. he was nice enough to call me 10 min. before the<br />meeting to let me know, as well as to let me know I`d be teaching<br />Sunday School today. Lovely. It actually went pretty well. It was on<br />the "Fall of Adam and Eve," something I`ve studied a lot in the<br />Mission. But the coolest experience of the day was when we were<br />sitting in Sacrament Meeting as the bread was being passed. I was<br />thinking of all the things I wanted to do better on, when all of a<br />sudden I heard a very distinct voice in my thoughts that my whole body<br />heard, "I forgive you." There haven`t been many times when I`ve<br />identified the Spirit as a voice, but this was one of them. and it was<br />the greatest feeling to know that I could put my mistakes, regret, and<br />pain on the Atonement, and to know that Heavenly Father and Jesus<br />Christ not only know me personally, but that they love me in spite of<br />everything I may do wrong.</span></span>Brigham Merrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03791313958892267082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262832742773264087.post-29828112531854958582012-02-19T13:18:00.001-08:002012-02-19T13:18:48.559-08:001-29-12<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Monday: Today was awesome. I woke up at 7:30 and got paked and ready<br />to go to Concepción. I`ve had to bring my passport to the office for a<br />while, and I totally spaced. Elder Walker, the Secretary, called me on<br />it when we arrived. I travelled with Elder Corliss and his hijo, Elder<br />Butterfield. On the way up, Eloder Corliss and I just remenisced about<br />a lot of things we did together. Let`s just say 2 1/2 housrs passed<br />quickly. We have a meeting in Concepción tomorrow, but we came a day<br />early so that we could say goodbye to Elder Hall. He was REALLY<br />freaking ou t. He said he`s anxious, and confused about how to feel. I<br />teased him about all the different ways he can look at it. One of the<br />Sister Missionaries, Sister Eggbert, said that even though she has<br />less time left than me, she`s not as trunky as I am. Wow. I`m not<br />trunky, and Elder Corliss totrally defended me. But she looked at me<br />like I was sinning. Wonderful. We had lu nch at the new Subway they<br />built. NOt worth it. We replaced Elder Diaz for Elder Butterfield, for<br />the Meeting tomorrow. We had to wait in the office for a while before<br />going to write the family. Mom said Daddy`s cold has turned into an<br />infection and that he bonked his head on Uncle Doug`s new truck. I`m<br />so worried for him! I just want some good news. Pres. gave us<br />permission to visit someone from Hualpencillo. He also thanked me for<br />being with Elder Brady and sticking it out. Elder Pliler said I might<br />be asked to train again, next transfer. I think that`d just be the<br />best. We spent the evening with the Cruz family, being loved and<br />loving back. Then, we spent the night with Elders Mendenhall and<br />Jackson. They`re really close friends of mine.<br /><br />Tuesday: This morning was cool. WE all got up on time and did<br />exercises. Elder Mendenhall was really impressive. He rean 3 km and<br />then did "ab-ripper X" with me. That HURTS! Haha. I didn`t last long<br />at all. But after that, Elder Mendenhall kept going and worked out<br />with his arms. He`s a stud. I can`t wait to swiom. That, I can do. We<br />eventually had to leave to our Meeting in the church. we`re realizing<br />that the number of baptisms is going down as a Mission. We`re all<br />working hard, but the Asisstantsand Pres. want us to be able to work<br />more efficiently, being able to do more. We didn`t really learn<br />anything new. They just helped us realize that our focus shouldn`t be<br />on contacts or referrals, but that all of the other things help us<br />baptize more people. We practied finding someone`s doubt and solving<br />it. I was the Investigator, being taught by Elders WAlker and<br />DeGracie. I swea, they spoke for, like, 5 min. before they asked me a<br />question. They would just talk AT me. It wasn`t too productive. But<br />ewhen they started asking questions, trying to find out where I was<br />standing and they were able to progress and stuff. I got to see Elder<br />LIsonbee and Elder Burch. They`re so great. We travelled back home.<br />Today was elder SMith`s b-day. Elder Maldonado and I went and got him<br />a Raspberry-chocolate cake. mmm. Yesterday, I oculdn`t write my family<br />for the full hour. So I did, today! I chatted with Cass and Dev. Cass<br />said Mom`s been going easy on me. Apparently Daddy has one lung that`s<br />"dead." Cass said he can recover, though. I certainly hope so.<br /><br />Wednesday: So, for the first time in 61/2 months of being a District<br />Leader, I didn`t have to prepare a class for my District Meeting.<br />Usually, Elder Smith doesn`t pay attention, claiming he already knows<br />it. So I gave him the class and it was really greatifying to see the<br />enthusiasm with which he taught the class. It had been a while since<br />he`s had it. Before the District Meeting, while we were together as a<br />Zone, Elder Coprliss asked if he could borrow a marker. I gave him<br />mine. As we started our Meeting, I realized he needed it for his<br />meeting., instead of jotting something down. I said sorry for having<br />mislead him, and Sister Eggbert (the one that called me trunky on<br />MOnday) said to only say sorry if I mean it. Duh! That`s why I said<br />it! We had our class and went home. On the ride home, I was really<br />concerned with how Sister Eggbert has been treating me. I mean, I`ve<br />been nothing but nice to her, in the whole 2 conversations we`ve had<br />in 3 months. I barely know her. Elder Smith says she likes me. Ha!<br />yeah, right. If she takes another swing at me, I think I`ll have to<br />confront her. We had some really yummy noodle soup with beans and<br />longaniza for lunch. The other missionaries had their first<br />appointment with their investigator who showed up to church by<br />herself. It`s their 3rd Investigator that they`ve had, that has come,<br />ready to be baptized. I want to be a fruitful missionary. It`s been 6<br />months since I`ve baptized. I know success isn`t measured by baptisms,<br />but I want...something. We met Manuel yesterday. He invited us back<br />today, and we taught about baptism. He said he doesn`t want anything<br />to do with that, that his Pastor said he`s already saved. I know I<br />cand do better, but I just want a little help.<br /><br />Thursday: today was a good day. I woke up and had my personal study. I<br />also read Elder Scott`s talk, from this past Conference, about<br />Scripture study. He said that memorized Scripture passages can be like<br />close friends that will always be there to offer comfort, strength,<br />and guidance; and they won`t fade over time. It`s our connection to<br />Heavenly Father for the things we need. These days, I`m preaying my<br />hardest for Daddy`s sake. I love him so much. I think this is one of<br />the few times I`ve had to dependd on my faith so much--trustin gthat<br />everything will be alright. We had lunch with Hna. María Rivas. She<br />made apple/orange/ chirimoya juice. We did contacts for a while,<br />before Elder Maldonado called and asked if I`d go to an appt. with<br />him. He said Elder smith didn`t want to go. So I went. We stopped by<br />Hno. Riffo`s house and had him accompany us, because we were<br />visiting his daughter`s in-laws. The investigator`s name is Sergio.<br />I`ve got to say that it felt good to teach again. I mean, REALLY<br />teach--with a companion and everything. I`ve realized we haven`t had<br />investigators because I just can`t do this on my own. I`ve had 3<br />months (almost) where preactically nothing has happened. Pres. asks me<br />to be patient. I thought I was, but iot`s getting harder. I find<br />myself wanting more, but I guess that`s the first step: recognize that<br />the impatience and wanting is there. I`ll be better. We had the weekly<br />activity night and Elder maldonado went to the bathroom in the church.<br />all the Neira family tried to tell Elder Smith to be with him. He said<br />no. I know he`s right. the manual said we don`t have to accompany our<br />comps. to the bathroom. But he was pretty impolite to Madelyn and her<br />brother.<br /><br />Friday: Today was pretty uneventful. I did have a really good time in<br />personal study, though. I read Pres. Monson`s talk from the last<br />conference called, "Stand in Holy Places." He spoke about moral<br />standards an dhow the world has totally lost it`s moral compass. When<br />God`s prophet calls the world out on things like that, you need to sit<br />down with yourself and see how you`re doing. I`m so grateful for<br />coming on my Mission and havin gthe Spirit in my life. Pres. Monson<br />says that there is NOTHING that brings us greater joy in this life. He<br />aslso spoke abou thte special relationship we can have with Heavenly<br />Father, through daily prayer. I think that was a little bit of<br />inspiration--the fact that I chose that story at this difficult time.<br />We had lunch with the Branch Pres`s wife. When I explained about<br />Daddy`s situation, she told me to pray as well. I AM feeling better,<br />even now. Like, no matter what happens, everything will be alight. I<br />guess I can`t be selfish to demand to have what I want over what<br />Heavenly Father wants. We met a really nice woman today named Karen.<br />We chatted with her, and found out she doesn`t feel like she knows<br />Christ. She said we oculd come by another day, to help her. In the<br />evening, we visited Hna. Soledad. She seemed to be doing better. We<br />just had a nice visit.<br /><br />Saturday: Today was a great day. I read General Conference talks in<br />the morning. I really liked one by Sister Elaine S. Dalton. It was<br />called "Love Her Mother." It was for fathers who needed more help on<br />how to help raise their daughters. Her counsel, obviously, was to love<br />their wives, and she said how to do it. I feel like I`ve changed a lot<br />in the Mission. For example, I find every possible chance to love<br />people, but it`s been so long since I`ve even considered anything<br />romantic. Romantic was all I aspired to be, before the Mission. but<br />that`s only part of it. I`ve learned that righteous actions also have<br />a large rold in everything we do. Things like dligence, hard work,<br />honesty, REAL love--charity (being able to see people as who they<br />really are, and loving the bad as well as the good), patience, and<br />being able to accept the Lord`s will in all things. That came out of<br />nowhere. I`m grateful for revelation. See there? The Lord just helped<br />me see that I`ve learned really good things. I can remember specific<br />instances when I learned those attributes. I treasure all of the<br />opportunities I have had, to be able to progress. I`m feeling the<br />Spirit so strongly right now! I know Heavenly FAther loves me, and<br />that all of my life has a Plan, and that it`s for my happiness. As I<br />become aware of the happiness that the Spirit can bring, I am trying<br />to encourage Elder Brady to be better. But he`s just getting angrier.<br />I went with Elder Smith to a downhill biking event (with Pres`s<br />permission). We worked extra hard during the week so we could have<br />time to go. It was free. They had some really good riders. In the<br />afternoon/evening, we cleaned the Chapel.<br /><br />Sunday: Toiday was a vbery good SAbbath Day. We started it out by<br />going to our correlation meeting with the Branch Mission Leader. Elder<br />Smith and his comp. weren`t ready on time, so they weren`t there. So,<br />we got chewed out for Elder Smith`s actions on Thursday. Hno. Neira<br />also told Elder Brady to stop looking so darn depressed all the time,<br />and to start studying Spanish. Elder Brady continued to stare blankly,<br />unaware he was being spoken to. It was 5th Sunday, so we started out<br />with everyone together. Pres. Rojas put a black dot on the otherwise<br />blank whiteboard. He asked us what we saw. A lot of people said, "A<br />black dot." He asked if we wouldn`t rather like to see all the white.<br />He said, "Sometimes we see only the black dot in our Brothers and<br />Sisters, instead of the vast white background." I realized I may be<br />one of the "spot" people, so I think that`s something else I want to<br />work on, for myself. An RM asked, "If you had a child on a train<br />track, listening to their headphones, and they couldn`t hear your<br />shouts of warning, would you leave them there saying, "Oh, they have<br />their agency?" Or would you take their earbuds, pick them up, or take<br />some other action?" It was a good example of good parenting skills<br />I`ll keep forever. Judging from yesterday`s entry, as well as a lot of<br />times in personal study, I`ve found that writing=revelation. If we<br />aren`t writing, we aren`t learning. Same thing goes for school. We had<br />yummy tomato pasta for lunch. In the afternoon, we got a call from a<br />member from concepción, who was visiting here, and asked for a<br />blessing for his mom. We met up at the church. The mom recently had<br />her leg amputated, and she had a foot-long stick coming out of her<br />neck (she never explained it). In the blessing (for a head and tummy<br />ache) I gave her, it sounded like I was preparing her and her family<br />for death. That`s a first. I hope everything goes well.</span></span>Brigham Merrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03791313958892267082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262832742773264087.post-7797408865860827272012-02-19T13:17:00.002-08:002012-02-19T13:18:13.656-08:001-22-12<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Monday: Today was a wonderful Pday. I was the first one up, and I just<br />walked through the apartment, enjoying the feeling of nothing to do.<br />We went to write the family, but my family hadn written me yet, so we<br />planned to return in the afternoon. Hna. Pinar wrote me and says she<br />misses me and that it`s not the same without me there. Fernanda told<br />me it`s her mom`s b-day this Sunday, and that I HAVE to call. :) We<br />discovered that the 4 of us are almost out of cash, and the rest of<br />our moeny is on our cards. The buses to our Meeting only take cash,<br />and I have enough for my comp. and I to make the trip there. It`s<br />scary because the only ATM in the city is closed. We returned to<br />writing the family, and found out that Daddy now has a cold. My<br />favorite email was from Cassie (friend). She worried about me, and, to<br />comfort me, she used a Scripture I shared with her...a YEAR ago! She<br />remembered! She wanted to open her b-day letter so bad, that Tina had<br />to take it away. My hijo threatened to do the same thing when I got my<br />b-day letter from her. We did contacts in the evening, and had a good<br />time talking with people.<br /><br />Tuesday: Alright, so today was the best day I`ve had in 2 months. Oh!<br />I`m so happy. I`ve been so focused on the principles of sacrifice and<br />Go`s love for us, lately. today, I finally was able to put them into<br />practice. In my District Meeting, I had everyone analyze the<br />"Christlike Attributes" in PMG and choose their weakest one. Elder<br />Smith and I tied for "Diligence." My next-worst was patience. This<br />week, we`re all going to improve our attributes and become real<br />disciples of Christ. I`m really worried about Elder Smith. He`s too<br />casual with the Gospel, and laughed at me when I tried to motivate<br />them to be better. We had french fries with Hna. Soledad for lunch.<br />Yum. Elder Smith started to annoy me with inappropriate talk, and I<br />then got upset at myself for not being patient with him. So I tried<br />better, and got better. we started a fast for a greater desire for<br />good and for Daddy`s health. We were heading out to do contacts, and<br />Elder Smith was saying somethign contrary, but my comp. said, "I want<br />to do contacts with Elder Merrell!" I was so happy for him! We set an<br />appt. with our first contact. Our last contact (Diligence PWN!) was<br />really special. He was a drunk kid, but we were able to "astonish"<br />(Matt. 7:28) him. He kept asking about 2012 and the end of the world.<br />He also admitted he was smoking and drinking. He wasn`t sure if he<br />should follow God or tuck those beliefs away. I asked for the Lord`s<br />help . I had the impression he was nervous of being held accountable<br />for sins. I taught him of being able to repent, be baptized and<br />receive a remission of those sins. Then, he was really interested. It<br />was like a switch had been flipped. He invited us back for another<br />day. I`m grateful for the Lord`s help with me and my weaknesses.<br /><br />Wednesday: Today wasn`t as productive as yesterday, but I was still<br />able to learn a few important things. I`ve discovered that I really am<br />happier when I choose the right. I`ve gotten much better at<br />recognizing the Spirit`s promptings, too. I realized that most times,<br />when I don`t choose the right, it`s because I stop and think, "Oh, but<br />this other thing might be fun," or something. But it`s like in one of<br />those shows where, objectively, you know everything that`s going on<br />and what the character should do. You know what he needs, but he still<br />chooses wrong. I figured I know what I need and what will happen if I<br />don`t do it. So, I`m not even going to consider following my own<br />desires and passions when I get a prompting. If the Spirit says, " "<br />that`s what I`m going to do. I was reading some conference talks. One,<br />by Elder Uchtdorf, taught me another lesson. Pride is one of the most<br />dangerous sins. It`s about competition. There are two extremities<br />Satan uses to attack: making us feel more important than otheres, and<br />making us feel less important and feel alone. But the solution to both<br />of those is selfless/humble service (Mosiah 3:19). I love being able<br />to help others. We had lunch with the Llancapan family. I bought a<br />choc. bar for Hno. Llancapan`s b-day. Afterward, I searched our map<br />for 45 min. trying to find our contact`s house for our appt. We never<br />found it, and that means we never showed up. Dang it! Wep re still<br />trying to be better missionaries, though. I hope Elder Brady can<br />change. It seems everyone`s apathetic in this house but me.<br /><br />Thursday: This morning was normal: Elder Maldonado and I were up while<br />the other two alept. Haha. It`s kind of sad. When Elder Arjona called<br />he had some important announcements. The biggest one was that Elder<br />Hall`s going home, on Tuesday, because of his sickness. Elder Arjona<br />wants everyone who can to meet with them, in Concepción to say<br />goodbye. I spent the next hour coordinating with the other District<br />Leaders, so Elder Hall wouldn`t overhear. I asked Elder Arjona if he<br />knew his next comp. He said no, but it would be really weird if one of<br />us from Curanilahue became his comp., but he`d find out on Saturday.<br />Elder Corliss said I+ d hate him for not telling me something, but I`d<br />find out on Saturday. He thinks I`ll be zone Leader. Ha! I guess we`ll<br />see. We had lunch with Hna. María Rivas. She always makes home-made<br />cherry juice. It`s sooooo good, especially after being in the heat for<br />so long. We had an appt. with a young man, John, we met the other day.<br />I went with Elder Maldonado, so I wouldn`t have to teach alone. John<br />wasn`t home, so we knocked doors on another street for a few hours. We<br />got one appt. with a lady, Veronica. We found an inactive member that<br />has baptism-age children that aren`t baptized. his name`s oscar, and<br />he`s really nice. We had our weekly game night with the ward. We<br />played soccer and tennis. When we got home, Pablo called me. He`s been<br />in Santiago for a few weeks. He said he has a friend, Catelín, who<br />wants us to invite her to church. I told him we`d go by tomorrow.<br />Tender mercies of the Lord are wonderful.<br /><br />Friday: Today was a good, if uneventful, day. Actually, Elder smith<br />told me of some disturbing news. Apparently, there`s a bill being<br />passed back home, that will outlaw internet copyright<br />infringement--for media, information, etc. I didn`t think much of it<br />until he tol dme that if it gets passed we could lose websites like<br />Google, yahoo, and wikipedia. This is huge! Elder Smith and I went to<br />lunch together. Today, the Relief Society had a party at the city<br />pool. So we walked out there to pick up our bagged lunch and then<br />walked back. As we walked, Elder Smith told me how public gymns work<br />and how great they are. He taught me a little about weightlifting,<br />too. we had peeled potatoes with a lettuce-tuna salad. We bought a<br />completo to help it go down easier. Elder Maldonado went out with me<br />in the afternoon. We went by Catelín`s house, so we could get to know<br />her and invite her to church like Pablo asked us to do. But her dad<br />came out and told us she works in Concepción on weekdays, and that<br />we`d have to return tomorrow. He wasn`t that cordial with us, but<br />we`re going to come back anyway. We found, in a newspaper, that<br />"<a href="http://megaupload.com/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 85, 204);">megaupload.com</a>" was closed yesterday. Since that`s where most of<br />Chile gets it`s music/any media, it was pretty big. If the bill does<br />go through, and we can`t use google, then college is going to be very<br />hard. Holy Smokes!<br /><br />Saturday: Today was a productive day. WE got up and did our workouts<br />and studies. Elder Maldonado aske dme if I could beat his push-up<br />record. I did, and then Elder Smith beat me. That`sfine. I built for<br />moving and jumping and stuff. I went out with Elder Maldonado, in the<br />morning, to visit some of his old contacts and try and help them<br />progress. wE didn`t find any. and we had to climb a staircase of...I<br />don`t know how many stairs, but we went up a 1/4 mile. Whew! We had<br />lunch with the Riffo family. wE found out that the 60 year-old brother<br />has been working 18-hour shifts for a week, (4 PM-10 AM) and he still<br />comes to church! After lunch, he put on a serious face and said,<br />"Don`t get me wrong Elders, we`re happpy to have you here. Very happy.<br />But--" Right there, I thought he ws gonig to chew us out for<br />something, as a LOT of people like to do in this country. But he said<br />this, "Please forgive us for not having more." He actually thought we<br />cared about that, and wanted to serve us more. This brother is one of<br />the best examples of Christ-like humility that I`ve seen. Elder<br />Corliss had told me a story of a peasant boy who saw a man standing by<br />a shiny car. He asked the owner if it was his. The man said he`d<br />bought it for his brother who wasn`t doing so well. The boy said, "I<br />wish," and the man thought he would wish for a brother to buy him<br />things. But tears came to his eyes as he said, "I wish I could BE a<br />brother like that." I`m going to try and be like that for my family.<br />We couldn`t find Catelín. We were walking around. We passed an old<br />lady on a park bench, and her smile was sweet with a little bit<br />of...hope(?) in it. So I turned around (imagine that image of a<br />missionary doing a 180 on the sidewalk to talk to someone. Weird) and<br />spoke with her. He rname`s María, and she and her husband would love<br />for us to visit them. In the evening, we cleaned the Chapel. Then I<br />helped Elder Brady prepare for the talk that he has to give tomorrow.<br /><br />Sunday: today was less than awesome, but still ended well. for our<br />class in Priesthood we had to have read "Counsel for the Youth" by<br />Boyd K. Packer. It was a rally good message from the last conference.<br />He said that even though bad, scary things may be happening in the<br />world, IF we heed the promptings of the Spriit, we will be protected.<br />That`s a huge promise. He said that "hearing" the voice of the Spirit<br />is more of a feeling. Elder Brady did well on his talk. We had lunch<br />with a part-member family. I didn`t know that. When Elder Smith<br />introduced himself, I said, "He had the second vision." The non-member<br />21 year-old said, "What?" Realizing he wasn`t a member, I quickly<br />said, "What?" like I hadn`t heard right, and moved on. In the<br />afternoon, I asked everyone to help clean the apartment for Elder<br />Corliss and his comp. that were going to be staying with us tonight.<br />No one helped for a while. Elder Smith and Elder Brady joined later.<br />We had to take the clothes today. I asked Elder Smith to wait for me.<br />He walked right out the door. My comp. and I left later. They waited a<br />1/4 mile later. I didn`t speak `cause I felt like Elder Smith just<br />didn`t respect me and had not cared what I had to say. He even said so<br />when I told him what bothered me. He said that he hadn`t heard me aske<br />him to wait, and told me I shouldn`t be so sensitive. He called me a<br />baby and aske if I`d do that to my wife. He said I should grow up. He<br />just kept attacking, blowing the whole thing out of proportion. I said<br />nothing and couldn`t sto pthe tears. Elder Brady swore at Elder Smith<br />for the 2 months of bullying that I`ve endured from Elder Smith. (<br />hadn`t realized it for what it was). I cried all the way home and the<br />other two stayed to see the laundry sister. I didn`t want to be angry,<br />so I made Elder Smith`s be dand folded hi sclothes. He apologized when<br />he got home. Hna. Soledad asked to speak with us (Elder Smith and I)<br />in person, at 10 PM. She told us about a serious marriage problem that<br />she had(and it is serious). She doesn`t know what to do. I was like,<br />"Please, Heavenly Father, help me help her." I gave her som eadvice,<br />then a Priesthood blessing of comfort. She said she felt the Spirit as<br />I blessed her. I called my convert, Sabrina, and my Chilean mom, Maite<br />Millahual, to wish them both Happy Birthday.</span></span>Brigham Merrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03791313958892267082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262832742773264087.post-41260884041144124602012-02-19T13:17:00.001-08:002012-02-19T13:17:37.562-08:001-15-12<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Monday: Today was a relief. We woke up on time, and just relaxed until<br />the Branch Pres. arrived with the tennis net for us. elder Maldonado<br />was the only other one that wanted to play with me. but we still had<br />lots of fun. While we were there, the Assisstants called me. Elder<br />Tanner and Elder Pliler are the new Assisstants! They were my favorite<br />Zone Leaders when they were comps before. Anyway, they asked if I, or<br />anyone here, had a talent to share in front of the Mission at our<br />conference, on Wednesday. I couldn`t think of a talent that was<br />"showable." But Elder Tanner asked if someone SOMEHOW got their hands<br />on a footbag, I would be willing to share that. OH YEAH! Throughout<br />the day, I split up my Internet time, so I cold email and get a<br />response. It took a few tries, but mama wrote me back. She said<br />Daddy`s feeling muh better, with less pain, but there`s still a bit of<br />room to recover.I love mama so much. This must have been such a scare<br />for her. Later, I got a hold of Cassie (sister). It was cool to be<br />able to hear form her. NOw I know why she hasn`t written me: She got a<br />new email address without telling me. She said she`s still trying to<br />figure out her iPhone. I was able to teach her something she hadn`t<br />known before. WOOT! We worked in the evening. I`m feeling better as I<br />make the resolution to do my best, no matter who I`m with. Pres.<br />Swenson said times like this would come, and when they did, I`d have<br />to just keep going and to drag my comp. with me.<br /><br />Tuesday: today was great. We go tup and ready to go to our distrizona.<br />I called the zone Leaders to ask if they`d bring some new planners. It<br />turns out they were in Concepción and had cancelled Distrizona because<br />Elder hall was really sick and had a Doctor`s apt. up there. I hope he<br />has a quick recovery. He`s a really good Elder. I finally got a color<br />code going for my new study journal system. I had fun having some<br />personal study. i trie to make a good suggestion to Elder Brady to<br />help with his Spanish, but he acted insulted and said practicing was<br />overrated, like being on time was, as well. In the afternoon, he said<br />he didn`t want to work, and that if I did, I`d have to go with Elder<br />maldonado. Wow. It`s official. I don`t know how to help him. I<br />admitted it to myself today: I`m depressed. I spoke with Elder<br />Maldonado. That helped.We went to visit their recent convert, Alvaro.<br />I wanted to teach him how to study well. We had a really great lesson,<br />and had the opportunity to give a blessing to his mom, who had a<br />horrible headache. They gave us ties, saying, "We got these for the<br />first two missionaries who came to give a blessing." They had so much<br />faith that we`d come, that they`d bought TIES. And the Lord did send<br />us. Elder Smith asked me to run some errands for him. I was so fed up<br />with him and Elde rBrady and I reacted in anger. But then I felt bad<br />and did it anyway. Elder Smith pointed out, the other day, that I`m<br />submissive. That`s his word for humble. I don`t want him to take<br />advantage of me, but I don`t know how else to be. I called Eldder<br />Lisonbee, to wish him "happy 23" in the Mission.<br /><br />Wednesday: I learned so much today! We had a special conference with<br />our Area Pres./Seventy, Elder Lawrence E. Corbridge. Whenever he<br />comes, my mind pretty much explodes. Sister Corbridge gave a talk that<br />told us, "Decide to decide." She told us we needed to place lines in<br />our lives that we`ll never cross, and just create a pllan for our<br />lives. It was what I`d been praying for: a way to better resist<br />temptation. Elder Corbrige spoke about the relationship of two<br />opposites: He said the more we forget ourselves, the more we benefit<br />from it. Self-interest and selflessness. He asked, "What good having<br />the whole world would do you if you lost your soul?" He said life is<br />about learning good from evil and learning to make the best decisions.<br />Our greatest accomplishment, in this life, will be ourselves. "If<br />there is anything virtuous, lovely, of of good report, or<br />praiseworthy", we seek after THOSE things. Why? Because we become<br />them. We spent the afternoon learning how to teach better. It was a<br />really cool process, but I don`t have room here. Elder Tanner gifted<br />me a footbag, today! It`s so I can hav something to show in the next<br />talent show. I had an interview with Pres. Martinez while Elder Brady<br />spoke with Eder corbridge. I told him what bothered me and he gave me<br />encouragement. He thanked me for thi sservice and told me to have<br />patience. He said he wants 10 more missionaris like me. He told me my<br />hijo looks p to me and has me up on a pedestal. He actually called me<br />today, to cheer me up. He knows I`m struggling. Oh! Elder Burch and I<br />had a mini comp. study and practice because both our comps. hate<br />studying. it was so great to have comp. study again. It`ll be cool to<br />do it with my wife!<br /><br />Thursday: today was awesome! We got up to go to our Distrizona<br />Meeting, but our bus never came. So, we had to go with the other<br />companionship. We arrived right before the openin prayer. After that,<br />Elder Hall gave me my "Trunky Letter" in front of everyone. I also go<br />tletters from Bro. And Sis. Duke, Sister Nibley, and my friend,<br />Miriam. She`s already halfway through with her Mission. She`ll get<br />home in September, I think. It turns out that the Senior Missionary<br />couple in our mission, are Sister Nibley`s Sister and Brother-in-law.<br />I had prepared a class on the Book of Mormon, but, the whole trip to<br />the Meeting, I couldn`t stop thinking about what we learned yesterday,<br />aout the process of a silogism: 2 beliefs followed by a conclusion. As<br />I taught, my mind was filled with ideas and I knew that`s what we<br />needed. We picked up our clothes before going to lunch. There, Madelyn<br />Neira asked for help scraping off paint when we finished. We spent the<br />afternoon helping her an dher sister scrape paint off the house of an<br />old non-member lady with only one leg. We had fun. I spoke with elder<br />Smith, which was...entertaining. We found that he and Madelyn clash<br />becuase their personalities clash. She did note, however, that out of<br />the four of us, I am the sweetest. That`s a plus. The YSA had a game<br />night, and invited us to come. We`d been working all day, so we did.<br />Thre was tennis, ping-pong, and basketball. B-ball was my favorite. We<br />played 21, and apparently my lak of skill and goofy behavior made<br />everyone laugh. It was a real spirit-lifter.<br /><br />Friday (the 13th): today was REALLY hot. I got up and did my studying.<br />I finished Helaman 4. It was so sad to see all the bad things that<br />happened to the Nephites, as well as the things they lost. It was not<br />only due to their iniquity, but their lack of belief was also the<br />cause. How many blessings do we lose, in times of need, just becuase<br />we give up on believing? But Mosiah 8:16-18 tells us what we have, in<br />our time, to warn us of all the consequences of sin: a Prophet. The<br />conference edition of the Liahona just came out, and it`s sweet. We<br />left at 10:00 to go help Madelyn and Eileen scrape paint again. It`s a<br />HUGE project. Madelyn tol me of her dream of studying in BYU. Thinking<br />of BYU made me realize how close I am, to going home. I`m terrified!<br />What am I going to do? Going on dates again? AH! We worked until lunch<br />with the Branch Pres`s wife. We were going to work with Madelyn`s<br />brother, Ronald, who came home early from the Mission. I don`t know<br />why. Anyway, he cancelled an hour before we were scheduled to go do<br />contacts. It`s not that hot here (okay, maybe it is), but what really<br />affects me is how strong the sun is. It stings and makes me anxious.<br />Today was worse becuase, because of the heat, I got a really bad<br />migreaine. I tried to keep working, but it got to the point where I<br />couldn`t function and we had to come back home.<br /><br />Saturday: today was a really good day. I really am grateful for my<br />Mission, specifically because of the chance I have to surround myself<br />with spiritual things, and, in turn, be changed by them. I want to<br />continu having personal study every day after my Mission. It`ll be<br />cool to do it as a family when I get home. In the morning, I went with<br />Eldder Maldonado to go get his hair cut. I almost did, as well, but<br />even though my hair`s long for me, it`s really not that long. so I`ll<br />wait a bit. Our lunch was...different. We started with a big soup<br />filled with some oysters. Yuck! I thought that would be it, but the<br />sister came back with peeled potatoes (not baked) and batter-covered<br />fish. It would have been normal, but it still had silver scales poking<br />thorugh the crust. Mmmm. In the afternoon, I was feeling depressed<br />again, but you know who came to my rescue? Elder Smith! He said for me<br />to come and do contacts with him. That did so muh for me. I didn`t<br />have to do all the contacts myself. I spoke Spanish with him. It was<br />awesome. we were able to speak with a gentleman, named Luis. He said<br />he had to go to a conference today, but he`d love to have us over,<br />another day. Tood bad we were knocking in the other sector`s...sector.<br />We did a quick stop by Internet so Elder Smith could see if his family<br />had sent him money. I`ve been covering for him for a week. But he<br />says he`ll pay me back. He`s good. I can`t wait to hear from my family<br />on Monday:<br /><br />Sunday: Today was wonderful. I woke up to a phone call from Madelyn,<br />telling me her dad (the Ward Mission Leader) wanted to meet with us at<br />8:30. Today, we made it on time! During church, I received some very<br />special instruction form Heavenly Father. It just happened n the<br />middle of Priesthood. It was this: "We need to give up everything. God<br />did. He gave up the thing he loved most--his son. What is a good<br />sacrifice I can make? What can I give up, to e a better servant?<br />(Personal desires, impatience, entertainment, time, etc.) If I give up<br />my desires, God`s will replace them and I will be worthy of blessings.<br />Without temporary distractions I can be a better Missionary, and with<br />more work, I can be a better person." Everything in the world belongs<br />to Heavenly Father, except our desires /will. And that`s the one thing<br />he asks of us. We have to give up things that we may think are good,<br />trusting that we will, in the end, receive something great. It`s like<br />that story where the girl gives her pretty fake-pearl necklace to her<br />Dad, and he gives her a beautiful, genuine, pearl necklace. Sometimes<br />sacrifice is hard when you can`t see the results immediately. But that<br />promise will always be there (D&C 130:20-21). We worked in the<br />afternoon. Elder Burch called, and said he`s getting transsferred from<br />his difficult comp. this week, and he`s training! He`s been upset<br />because he`s still Junior comp.--but not anymore. He was so excited to<br />tell me, `cause he knew I`d be happy for him. I miss being around ice,<br />sincere people. Everyone in my house is cool, bu not that loving.<br />Elder Smith and I visited Hna. Soledad, to return a jacket she`d lent<br />me. She`s really cool.</span></span>Brigham Merrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03791313958892267082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262832742773264087.post-8448680916343785272012-02-19T13:16:00.000-08:002012-02-19T13:17:01.474-08:001-8-12<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Monday: Today was really cool. Elder Brady and I were the only ones<br />home, still, and we slept in. It was awesome. I studied fo ra while,<br />before he got up and we went to use Internet. Just for a bit, so we<br />could return in the afternoon `cause that`s usually when Daddy writes<br />me. I ended up chatting with Devin for a little bit. He told me about<br />his favorite games and books. We got completos with the other Elders,<br />when they got back, with mint ice cream for dessert. I`d missed it.<br />Nobody had written me, of the family. Elder Maldonado felt sick. He<br />asked if I`d go to the Apartment with him. I read for a while, until<br />sundown. But my lightbulb blew and I couldn`t read more. Smith and<br />Brady said they hand`t found anyone in their contacts. And so ends the<br />first transfer here.<br /><br />Tuesday: So we got gas this morning. That means no more cold showers!<br />But my shower was actually too hot, and the controls were broken-ish,<br />so I couldn`t cool it down. I acutally missed my cold shower. Today is<br />the first day of the new transfer. I studied some more of Helaman 4.<br />Something I`ve always found strange is how often the Nephites and<br />Lamanites fight. It seems so pointless. In this part, the Lamanites<br />have conquered much of the land. But Moroniah (spelling in english?),<br />the Nephite general, "reconquers" some cities. I turned it into a<br />battle of good vs. evil, like we have in our lives and saw that we<br />have to be brave when the "bad" conquers parts of our lives, and<br />reconquer those parts. ALWAYS resist temptation. We had our lunch that<br />was really far, today. When we got home, I called Mirta, from<br />Hualpencillo. She wasn`t doing so well. Ever since we met her, her<br />father has been an instrument in the hands of the Adversary to hedge<br />up the way. Apparently, right before Christmas, he told MIrta she was<br />dead to him. She just barely turned 16! She got kicked out of her<br />house and is now living with her sister. But she said she had a happy<br />New Year`s. I felt so proud of her. She`s so optimistic. Always. I<br />shared a few Scriptures with her before telling her I loved her and<br />hung up. I`ll be praying for her. We did contacts and got into a few<br />houses, actually. In the evening, we played soccer with the youth.<br />Camilo, the recent convert, and Pablo, who got back from his<br />mini-mission, were there. Pablo said that Pres. Martinez adores me. He<br />said he talks well of all the missionaries, but he really likes me.<br />That helped me, especially because I`ve been feeling kinda like a<br />failure. Soccer was really fun. But now I`m super tired.<br /><br />Wednesday:<br />Today went well. We got up and waited for our undependable bus. It<br />didn`t show up on time. We eventually made it to our Distrizona<br />Meeting. We all had to introduce ourselves to the two new Missionaries<br />in Tirùa. I think my comp. has changed for the better in the six weeks<br />we`ve already spent together. In our District Meeting, he was<br />definitely participating more than he used to. We did a practice<br />lesson. I said we could do it in Spanish or English, and he chose<br />Spanish. He struggled for a big, but he didn`t give up, and I was just<br />cheerin` him on as hard as I could. I taught them about "The Vision of<br />Baptizing", a talk by Elder Corbridge. I tried to help them understand<br />WHY we baptize, and the importance of the remission of sins. I hope we<br />can see results soon. It`s been getting harder and harder for me to<br />stay strong. I don`t feel depressed, just tired of fighting. I don`t<br />want to be a bad Missionary. I WANT to be strong and make the right<br />decisions every time, but sometimes I`m not that strong. It`s like I<br />know the answer, but not how to execute the plan itself. Anyway, Elder<br />Smith and I went on an exchange to do a service project for Hna.<br />Soledad Rodriguez. Then we finished up, doing contacts. As we headed<br />to the house, we pooled our money and bought a big bag of mashed<br />potatoes. 32 servings baby!<br /><br />Thursday: So, I completed 20 months, today.I`m in the 20`s! I know<br />that sounds like a lot, but I`ve still got 4 left (Devin!)--plenty of<br />time to work. I studied alone, until I had to report our numbers to<br />the zone Leaders. After I did that, Elder Hall asked me how I was<br />doing. Usually, I tell him I`m alright, but today I came clean. I told<br />him I`m tired and my comp. is dragging me down. Elder hall has been<br />Elder Brady`s Zone Leader all of Elder Brady`s Mission, so he knows<br />him. He asked if Elder Brady had progressed at all. I told him he<br />hadn`t. When I told Elder Hall all this, he said that it shows. I`m<br />losing energy. Anyway, Elder Hall said he`d write Pres. about our<br />situation. Elder Diaz, from tirúa, doesn`t have a cell phone, and<br />didn`t know the Meeting in Concepción was cancelled. So we tried to<br />cut him off in our city, but he wasn`t on any of the buses. Elder<br />Smith went with me. He and I have gotten to be good friends. He just<br />has a really strong personality and likes to be right. He`s totally<br />gonna help me bargain-hunt when I get back. After lunch, my comp. and<br />I did contacts for a while. Then, we tried to visit an inactive member<br />that Elder Smith had told us had kids that aren`t baptized. They<br />weren`t home. At night, we found out our oven works. So we made<br />brownies. It was a weak oven, so it took 2 hours. Hahah. it`s 12:10 AM<br />right now. But they`re delicious, so it`s totally worth it.<br /><br />Friday: I got up, this morning at 8:15 `cause I left our phone (alarm<br />clock) in the other room and didn`t hear it. I got up and did my<br />personal study. I`ve never asked for an emergency transfer, because<br />I`ve considered it cowardice and going against God`s will. But I am<br />really getting close. During lunch with the Branch Pres.`s wife, she<br />aske dhow much time I have left. When I told her, she said she wants<br />me to finish here because I`m so happy. She confessed that she`s a bit<br />of a serious person. As I began giving her some advice, she asked me<br />for counsel with one of her neighbors. She feels like she`s losing a<br />friendship. It was interesting how the Spirit guided the conversation<br />so she could receive her answer. In the afternoon, I had to use email<br />really quick, and chek the class I have to give next week. But when I<br />looked, I found an email, saying Daddy`s in the hospital with blood<br />clots in both lungs. BLOOD CLOTS!!! LUNGS!!! I can`t function without<br />my Daddy. I just can`t. Mom said the blood thinners should take him<br />back out of the woods. I`m just really scared. We had an FHE with the<br />Neira family and a few other families. They hadn`t warned us that we<br />had the lesson. We taught the Book of Mormon and then watched "The<br />Testaments." I told Madelyn about Daddy, and she offered to call mom<br />tomorrow. that`s so nice.<br /><br />Saturday: I had a really cool personal study today. I`m starting to do<br />the activities in the Seminary manual for the Book of Mormon that I<br />found. today, I studied pride, and why it`s sometimes called the<br />"central sin," and all the other sins that can come from it.<br />Thankfully, Helman 3:35 shows us how we can get rid of pride. It comes<br />from giving our heart to God. That`s what Alan and I are trying to do.<br />he`s so awesome! Madelyn called me this morning. She had a very soft<br />tone of voice, as if she didn`t want me to get hurt. She said, "I<br />talked with your mom, and she said that you need to remain calm when<br />you hear this--" I stopped listening right there. I started thinking,<br />"I don`t have a Dad anymore. What`s the family gonna do? That am I<br />gonna do?" And my heart was racing. But Madelyn rephrased it and said,<br />"You mom says to remain calm, because your dad`s out of the hospital<br />and recovering." I told her she scared the living CRAP out of me.<br />GAH!!! But I`m very relieved that Daddy`s alright. Whew! the place<br />where we use Internet has a girl, our age, who works there. she took<br />this week off because her dad died. I`m going to give her chocolate<br />and the Plan of SAlvation when she comes back. The 4 of us and her<br />chat when we go over. I think this is God, preparing her. I hoep she<br />can feel better. I can`t imagine how she must be feeling. I got a<br />glimpse, and it almost drove me crazy. We did contacts in the evening.<br />We got in a few houses today. There was on lady, Graciela, who was<br />really nice and receptive. I asked if Elder Smith would sell me one of<br />his Portable hard drives. He`s thinking about it.<br /><br />Sunday: today was a great day. Well, mostly. Now that we finally have<br />gas, again, for warm showers, our water heater broke. It`s okay. I<br />only got one hot shower and I fount I didn`t like it as much. I guess<br />I`ve just gotten used to these showers. We were almost late to church<br />again, even though we`re two minutes away. Let`s see, nothing exciting<br />happened in church. After that, we had lunch with the Neira family. We<br />had barbeque meat again: beef and turkey, with an awesome salsa. While<br />I was at church, I fount out that Ayleen, a member of the family,<br />wasn`t feeling well..but I don`t know if it was emotionally or<br />physically. So I shared a Scripture from Mosiah 4 that says we aren`t<br />commanded to run faster than we are able, and that we should just be<br />diligent in what we can do. I f we do that, we`ll receive all the<br />blessings we need. It`s so amazing that he put all of the commandments<br />within the limits of everyone. Oh! And I was thinking about Moroni`s<br />primise. He invites us to ask if "these things are NOT true." Why not<br />ask if they ARE true? I think it`s because the latter is too easily<br />dismissed by most people. Can someone who doesn`t believe the church<br />is true prove that it ISN`T true? I think I just condemned myself to<br />dual-questioning everything for life. We finished our contacts today.<br />wE met our goal for the first time, and we got some new investigators.<br />YEAH! At night, we watched Elder maldonado`s copy of "The Errand of<br />Angles." In my opinion, it captures the real feeling of a Mission<br />better than "The Best Two Years." The whole movie, whe`s having a LOT<br />of hard times, and only a few happy times. But at the end, all she<br />remembers are the good moments. It was way cool.</span></span>Brigham Merrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03791313958892267082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262832742773264087.post-23225636472622004322012-02-19T13:15:00.002-08:002012-02-19T13:16:25.674-08:001-1-12<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Tuesday: Due to the fact that we gave up our Pday yesterday so we<br />could have our distrizona, we were allowed to do our Pday stuff today.<br />We started out by playing tennis. Last week I was pretty bad.<br />Seriously. this week, I got really good at serving. that reminds me of<br />a quote I read once: "Life is like tennis--he who serves best almost<br />always wins." that`s pretty cool. Anyway, today was pretty epic. Elder<br />Smith beat the 3 of us consistently. but I finally beat him in the<br />last match. Haha. It was the last match because I quit while I was<br />ahead. :) We went back to the house for a while before lunch. While<br />there, I finished my reply to Cassie. While I did that, elder Brady<br />went with elder Smith to write the family. Elder Maldonado went to<br />lunch with the Branch President`s wife. We arrived on time, expecting<br />to see the other 2, but they arrived 30 min. ate. Their taxi wasn`t<br />clear on where they wanted to go. Then I went to write MY family.<br />Kevin said he`s going to Bulgaria tomorrow. That sounds exciting. In<br />the afternoon, we were invited to play soccer with the youth, a common<br />thing in the Mission, but we were so darn pooped form this morning. So<br />we just did the normal contacting. We found a few nice people.<br /><br />Wednesday: Today was a great day. When I got up, I decided to call<br />Elder Calaway. It had been a very long time since I`d spoken to him.<br />Gosh it was so good to hear from him. Actually, from our brief<br />conversation, I could tell that he`d changed a lot...for the better of<br />course. He`s always been someone just trying to do their best. We<br />talked about how weird it is that time the time has passed so fast. We<br />remenisced about the last time we got to call our parents. His dad had<br />answered and acted normal (i.e. "hey jake.") So funny! he said his<br />parents asked about me in the phone call. "Where`s Elder Merrell?" He<br />said they really like me. I had written them a letter, telling them<br />what a good boy they have. I forgot how much I love Elder Calaway. He<br />really is one of my best friends--someone I can count on. He said<br />we`re going to play a lot of xbox live when we get back. I miss him a<br />lot. He said he might be training this next transfer. I`m so happy for<br />him. It waws just one of those moments when you realize just how big<br />your heart is, and how good it feels to love. I put all my finished<br />letters I`d written in their envelopes. We had lunch with Hna. Daz.<br />She lives on top of a big hill that makes me sweat every single time.<br />We spent the afternoon doing contacts. We had an appt. but she wasn`t<br />there. I got a little discouraged. In one week, I`m almost certain<br />I`ll have another comp. I can`t wait to see how that goes.<br /><br />Thursday: I had some personal study time and loved it. WhenI spoke<br />with the family, I got to have a one-on-one conversation with Cassie<br />(sister). She`s so good about reading her Scriptures. She says that if<br />she doesn`t read in the morning and night, she feels restless and not<br />as happy as when she does. I feel exactly the same way. Thinking about<br />it, she`s changed a lot. I remember at the beginning of my Mission, or<br />even as recently as this past Spring, she seemed a bit more confused.<br />But now I can see the Spirit influencing her life, and she can see the<br />joy that comes from it. That makes me so happy. I miss my family a<br />lot! We had lunch with the Neira family. They served us peeled<br />potatoes with roast. It`s a really common chilean dish. In fact, we<br />had it yesterday, too. In the afternoon, I went on exchanges with<br />Elder Maldonado. His companion`s causing him some problems, too. He<br />actually broke down and cried because he felt so bad for not having<br />been able to do good work this transfer. I understood that. The sad<br />part is I think he`s staying with his comp. one more transfer. We did<br />contacts in the afternoon. We had some appts., but they all fell<br />through. It`s shocking how little success we`ve had this transfer.<br /><br />Friday: Today was a good day, but also a little sad. It was sad<br />because elde rKemp went home today. I KNOW, RIGHT?! I remember when he<br />left, two yars ago. For me, time in the mission passes normally. Not<br />fast or slow. But I believe that will change my last day, when I look<br />back and say, "Already?" I got a little taste of that today. Because,<br />for me, my Mission has always been looming in the future, it has been<br />the focus of my financial endeavors, and the bane of potential<br />relationships. but I literally only have a few months left before it`s<br />already over. But I`m not going to focus on that right now. Elder Kemp<br />served his Mission with excellency. I actually got my comp. to have<br />personal and comp. study with me. And he liked it! It was so wonderful<br />to hear what he`d learned and for him to want to share it. I learned<br />some great things in Helaman 3, myself. We had lunch with the Sister<br />that doesn`t season her food. But the food was extra good and she was<br />conversational. She sent us home with 4 giant loaves of home-made<br />bread. In the afteronoon, I got to interview Camilo for his baptism<br />tomorrow. He came to Church, on his own, our first week here. Since<br />then, he`s come to all the Young Single Adults activities and is in<br />the Branch Choir. He`s already a member, pretty much. The Interview<br />went great, for the most part. I had to fill him in on some doctrinal<br />points, because the other Missionaries had skipped some stuff. But he<br />passed. He`ll be baptized tomorrow, at 11. It`s funny because he`s<br />getting baptized in 2011 and confirmed in 2012. Pretty sweet!<br /><br />Saturday: Today was a good day. We woke up really early so we could<br />run to the chapel and turn on the baptismal font., for camilo`s<br />baptism. Then, we came back home and studied and got ready like<br />normal. When we eventually returned for the baptism, we were really<br />diappointed with all the people that didn`t show up. There were 3<br />members and the 4 of us. 2 of the members only showed up because they<br />had to give talks. Elder Maldonado was chosen to do the actual<br />baptism. He kept complaining about hwo small the font was. As he was<br />bringing Camilo up, he guided his head right into one of the metal<br />handrails. OOPH! But camilo said he was alright and we ended fine.<br />Afterward, Ayleen Neira, a way cool youth from the Branch, asked if<br />she could speak with me. She thanked me for the Scriptures I always<br />share after lunch. She said that, out of the 4 missionaries, the<br />ScripturesI share always impact her and are exactly what she needed.<br />that`s proof that the Spirit`s guiding me. Sweet! We were going to<br />spend the night at the Diaz family`s home, but Hna. Diaz called at<br />7:30 to cancel. Dang it! So we just did the normal thing until it was<br />time to go in. Not a lot of success. We found out our transfers<br />tonight. the 4 of us, in curanilahue, are staying . I`m going to be<br />with Elder brady for 6 more weeks. That`s going to be really hard for<br />me. I called Elder Lisonbee. He`s going to finish in Yumbel, where<br />Elder Burch is currently serving. Elder Calaway`s going to train in<br />Ñielol, and share a house with Elder Montalban. Elder corliss is<br />training as well. And...the Pres ahs decided to re-open Tirúa. My time<br />there was really hard. I hope they have better luck. Elder Lisonbee<br />said he`s getting an iPad when he gets back. He`s excited to wach "The<br />Amazing Spiderman" at midnight with me, and use our iPads in the line<br />while we`re camped out. He knows me so well. :)<br /><br />Sunday: So, it`s 2012. that`s the year I go home. that also means I<br />spent all of 2011 in a foreign country. That`s awesome! My New Year`s<br />commitment is to continue the good habits I`ve learned in the Mission<br />(i.e. Scripture study, daily prayers, keepng commandments, etc.). And<br />more dates with girls! I was behind on my quota last year. Haha. This<br />whole "New Year" thing is seriously freaking me out. Anyway, we went<br />to church alright. In the afternoon, I tried to study Spanish with<br />Elder Brady, and he asked, "Why?" His usual response to EVERYTHING.<br />I`m so frustrated. because of the new year, we`re starting the "Gospel<br />Principles" book over, hopping off the 3 classes we`ve been stuck on,<br />for months. We learned abou tHeavenly Father...and i learned<br />something! Or maybe it just "clicked." It is this: the more we know<br />God, the more we`ll love him. It`s something I`d been wanting to know,<br />in the back of my mind. Because if we DO love him more, we`ll have a<br />greater desire to obey his commandments. And if that desire comes,<br />we`ll have more power to resist temptation. But how do we get to know<br />God? Reading Scriptures, prayer, and keeping the commandments. It all<br />fits! The Neira family`s warming up to us, at our lunches. Oh! And I<br />totally finished my marking of the Book of Mormon where it mentions<br />Christ. It took about 3 months, but I did it! Not my whole "system" is<br />done. The other companionship got permission to go to Talcahuano to<br />visit some people. We just stayed in our sector and did contacts.</span></span>Brigham Merrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03791313958892267082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262832742773264087.post-17038381226742503252012-02-19T13:15:00.001-08:002012-02-19T13:15:43.032-08:0012-26-11<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Monday: Today was a great Pday. I spent some time in the morning<br />writing back to Kevin. I like talking with him. I feel like we`re on<br />the same level. It`ll be so great to see him again. We started out the<br />day rather well, I think. Elder Maldonado got together a lot of tennis<br />equipment and invited some members to play with us, at the Church. I<br />remember being better at that sport. Everybody eelse was totally<br />kicking my can all over the place. But then I got warmed up and things<br />went more smoothly for me. After only 2 hours of sunblock-free fun<br />time, I turned bright red. Yay, Chile. We then went to write the<br />family. Mom sent me a bunch of pictures of home, which I loved.<br />Kevin`s doing well in Ukraine. We were going to have FHE with the<br />Neira family, but they cancelled on us. Ugh!<br /><br />Tuesday: Today...I loved today. We got up early to go to our Mission<br />Christmas devotional. We got to see a lot of my friends, including<br />Elder Lisonbee, and Elder Kemp. Right before the conference started,<br />President and Sister Kemp came in, too. they both said hi to me. Pres.<br />Martinez gave them both some time to share their testimonies. As they<br />spoke, I felt such a strong Spirit of love come from them. The nwe<br />Missionaries introduced themselves, and I got to see my "grandson",<br />Elder Tholl. He had the best Spanish out of all of them. Then, we got<br />to see the MIssion slideshow. It was a LOT shorter than last year`s,<br />but my photo of me, posing like spider-man made it in. AWESOME! Pres.<br />told us we have a big influence on his kids. We had a talent show,<br />full of pianists and guitarists. Then, Pres. wanted to show us how<br />we`d influenced his kids. I thought his youngest daughter was going to<br />play the piano, but when Pres. called Hna. Eggbert up, I knew what was<br />up. Hna. Eggbert is famous in the mission because she can put her<br />whole hand in her mouth. So can Pres`s daughter, apparently. a lot of<br />good Missionaries are leaving this transfer. One Missionary said he`d<br />wanted to go home at the beginning of his mission. But Pres. Swenson<br />saved his life with one word: "no." I got chills when I heard that.<br />The Mission is hard, but it`s the only way to learn this stuff. I got<br />a letter from Cassie! It was sooooooooo awesome. She makes me so<br />happy. And WHO she is is so impressive. I`m proud of all she`s done.<br />Way to go, Cass!<br /><br />Wednesday: Today was the same old, same old. We got up early so we<br />could go to our Distrizona Meeting. I usually go before the other<br />companionship, for my leader meeting. But today, the early bus never<br />arrived. So I had to go with the other Elders. I don`t think I`ve<br />mentioned this yet, so I will now. It`s been a week since we ran out<br />of gas. Now we`re taking ice-cold showers. This hasn`t happened in a<br />year. I think it`s because of the new financial system. Some sectors<br />need to travel more than others and they used to get more moeny for<br />that travel at the beginning of the motnh. Now we have to pay for<br />stuff and reimgburse it. that takes a few weeks. Anyway, everyone in<br />our hosue is too broke to buy new gas. It`s sweet. When we eventually<br />got on the bus, we found the lebu Elders, including Elder Corliss. His<br />comp. had to go home yesterday because he was really sick. I got to<br />teach my District about asking good questions that cause introspection<br />and can, at the same time, instruct. JUST LIKE THE SAVIOR DID!!! Very<br />early in my Mission, I realized this is one of the most important<br />skills and have dedicated a lot of practice to improving it. I read<br />something I wrote in the MTC, and the way I spoke was so different. It<br />was better. Some of the Elders I`ve lived with ahve been a little more<br />relaxed and crass, and I fear that I`ve become less concerned with my<br />language. I`m setting a goal to become closer to Christ, this week,<br />and through my life, through respectful speaking. Obviously, this<br />never happens in Spanish. so this is meainly to be a better example to<br />the others in my District. We had some appts. in the afternoon, but<br />they fell through. We met our goal of contacts, but we didn`t get any<br />news. BLAST! The Zone Leaders said next week the whole Zone`s gonna<br />come and help us find people.<br /><br />Thursday: today was a good day. I woke up and did my studying and<br />learned hwo to better overcome temptation and sin by casting it out at<br />the first sign. a lot of studying can be way more effective if we are<br />aware of what we learned and make constant efforts to apply it to our<br />lives and make those changes that are the fruits of repentance. We had<br />our session of Weekly Planning in the morning, as well. While we were<br />doing that, I got a call from Edler Zuñiga, my hijo. they said<br />Scarlett will be baptized on February 25th, and that she wants me to<br />return to Los Angeles so I can baptize her. She`s so special. I hope<br />she realizes that. That news pretty much made my day. For lunch with<br />the Neira family, we had rice with steamed veggies and a wonderful<br />chicken breast. It was very well done. the weeks here are passing by<br />so quickly. We only have next week left of this transfer. That`s<br />crazy! In the Afternoon, we had to go on exchanges so I could<br />interview Alvaro, the other sector`s investigator, for his baptism<br />this Saturday. It was one of my favorite interivews. He really has a<br />testimony. He noticed the change between where he was at first and<br />wheere he is now. He feels a lot calmeer and like a burden has been<br />lifted. The whole purpose of the interview is to give them a chance to<br />testify before a representative of the Lord that they are willing and<br />ready to make a covenant with him. What a wonderful blessing that is.<br />Tomorrow`s Elder Brady`s birthday, so I got him a box of 30<br />bon-o-bons. They`re his favorite candy(try and imagine me getting that<br />information discreetly...it wasn`t. haha.). We did contacts for a<br />while in their sector while Brady and Smith worked in our sector. Well<br />done.<br /><br />Friday: Today was really hard for me. We just didn`t have that much<br />success. But I`m still good!<br /><br />Saturday: So today was Christmas Eve, which, inChile, is way more<br />important than the actual Christmas day. elder Maldonado and I went to<br />the Chapel at 7 in the morning, to fill up the baptismal font for<br />their baptism. We came back and did the mnormal thing until 10, when<br />the baptism was going to take place. Elder Maldonado and I were going<br />to do a special musical number, but I really don`t know how to sing<br />harmony and we ended up cancelling it at the last minute. The branch<br />members are finally warming up to us and acting friendly. I guess<br />everyone likes a good basptism.And on Christmas Eve, too! Alvaro was<br />so happy, and not at all nervous. Everything went off without a hitch<br />(think about that saying. It doesn`t make sense). Last week, Hna.<br />Nidia assigned Elder Brady a Scripture to share for this week. He did<br />remarkably well. He knows Spanish. He`s just got to push himself.<br />because of the holiday, none of the doors we knocked opened. When you<br />think about it like that, especially in this season, I just think of<br />that picture of Christ knocking on the door. It`s pretty cool, being a<br />Missionary during Christmas. All of our contacts were done in the<br />streets and no one gave us their address. I called Hna. Roa, from my<br />last sector. She was doing well and sent me her love. We were invited<br />by Hna. Diaz to spend Christmas Eve with her family. Everyone eats<br />dinner at 10:30 here, and our curfew put some roast and potatoes in a<br />container for us. I called hna. Pinar, too. she was so happy to hear<br />from me. My hijo and grandson were eating dinner with her. I was happy<br />for my posterity.<br /><br />Sunday: Today was so awesome! I`m so happy right now. It was<br />Christmas, today! Our meeting with the Ward Mission Leader was<br />cancelled. In church, we only had to go to Sacrament Meeting. It was<br />filled with talks by little Primary girls. The smallest one, who<br />looked like she was 6, gave a 10-minute talk about what she wanted to,<br />nothing written. It was a wonderfully impressive discourse.<br />Afterwards, we had some free time to ourselves before our lunch. We<br />went home and just relaxed, taking it easy. Eventually, we went to<br />lunch with the Lazo family. I had so much food that I couldn`t exhale<br />all the way. Haha. Then, we got to call home with a "video call!" It<br />was like another world, being able to see and talk with them.<br />Lindsay`s new home was all decorated and cozy. Everyone`s so excited<br />for me to come home. Cassie got a new iPhone 3GS. SO jealous! She said<br />she didn`t know how to use it, and I just had the biggest urge to just<br />drown her in geekiness. Devin has been stocking up on good galmes<br />while I`ve been away. He`s such a good padawan. Awww. That`s so great.<br />Mom said I`d earned a little "somethin`-somethin`" for when I get<br />home. WOOT! Mom`s super happy. She loves working in the temple...and<br />swimming...lucky. Haha. Goodbyes weren`t too hard, until Daddy. then,<br />for somereason, my eyes started sweating uncontrollably. It probably<br />looked like I was crying. And the air pressure (or something vague)<br />made it hard to keep my voice from shaking. I love them all so much.<br />Now I`m all emotionally numb, and stuff. Groovy.<br /><br />Monday: Today was a great day. We changed things up, this week.<br />Instead of having Pday, we had our Distrizona, and here in<br />Curanilahue. Everyone came here, so we didn`t have to spend money on<br />travel. Everyone came here and we started heading to the woods. We<br />were also going to share about the Restoration. I helped those of my<br />District feel that burning desire to know something that Joseph Smith<br />had ( I find it interesting that, out of all the people that I`m sure<br />had their questions, he went on a hunt for truth. "I will go and do,<br />not sit and stew."). I then invited them to go out, into the woods,<br />and oepen their hearts to the lord, ask for help in their struggles,<br />and for answers to questions they`ve had. I personally asked to have<br />strength in my decision-making, being able to be strong and follow<br />through with what I say I`ll do. As we left the forest, I felt a<br />distinct peacefulness. I want to be able to help people repent and<br />change, and I can`t do that if I`m fonforming to them. that`s a cool<br />thought. we had a big barbeque lunch, with salad and soda. It was so<br />good, and there was a lot leftover. for the afternoon, we did<br />exchanges as a zone. I went with Elder Aizpurùa, from Panama. He`s<br />Elder Mcconnell`s son. Sweet, huh? The whole zone "attacked"<br />curanilahue, doing contacts. We found, like, o ne good guy. But he<br />wasn`t that receptive. Just relatively good. It was so stinkin` hot<br />today. In the evening, we traded back and we went to get some<br />breakfast for tomorrow with the christmas money mom and dad gave me.</span></span>Brigham Merrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03791313958892267082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262832742773264087.post-41878068076954924652012-02-19T13:14:00.001-08:002012-02-19T13:14:59.417-08:0012-18-11<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Monday: Today, my fever was crazy. I woke up with a fever of 102.4. I<br />was getting kind of nervous. Physically, I just felt weak. Our first<br />activity of the day was to go to the Government building to finish the<br />process of getting my second ID. It was a possibility that I would get<br />arrested, so I bought a candy bar on the way, for nourishment. That`s<br />smarts, man. Luckily, the woman who was attending me was actually<br />working her first solo shift, and we didn`t have any problems. She was<br />actually really nice. On the way to use Internet, I didn`t feel good,<br />so we went home for a few hours. There, I laid down and tried to rest.<br />But I got..."hot flashes" is the best word I can think of. I`d be<br />shivering one moment, then Ii`d break out in a sweat the next. It was<br />awful. So I called Hna. Martinez to ask which meds. I should take. She<br />told me and told me to drink lots of water. We eventually left to get<br />something to eat. We entered at the same time as someone else. He<br />ordered 3 completos and 3 drinks. Then he gave my comp. and me one<br />each. He wouldln`t let us pay, either. How nice. Then, we found out<br />he`s a member from Talcahuano. We wrote the family after that. Kevin`s<br />opening a sector, over there in Ukraine. Alan`s just a stud in<br />everything he does. Daddy wants Dev and Cass to do what`s right. I<br />hope that I can be as good of a Father as he is. He just loves, loves,<br />LOVES his family. I went with Elder Smith in the evening, to have our<br />FHE with the Rodriguez family and Manuel. Manuel didn`t show up. We<br />waited for an hour-and-a-half. But Soledad Rodriguez is so awesome.<br />She`s my mamita for this sector.<br /><br />Tuesday: This entry`s going to be a little shorter, because I was just<br />sick all day. We went to distrizona. Our Zone`s doing really well,<br />with their baptismal dates. I taught about How to Begin Teadching. We<br />went through the 10 points laid out in Preach My Gospel. Everyone<br />repeated the points, applying it to one of their Invetigators. I even<br />got Elder Brady to memorize 4! His problem isn`t a learning handicap,<br />it may jsut be a lack of mativation and maybe laziness. But with<br />enough encouragement and positive reinforcement, I think we can get<br />him going. But before the class even started, I just broke down from<br />the pain. Elder Smith went with Elder Hall to buy me some medications.<br />I spent the rest of the day in bed, pretty much. Elder Smith gave me<br />some pineapple ice-cream we had in the freezer.<br /><br />Wednesday: Today was the same as yesterday, but with less activity in<br />teh morning. The good news is that my fever`s down to 100-ish and my<br />throat and ears don`t hurt anymore. so that`s great. I thought about<br />Alan today. I know it`s a day early, `cause TOMORROW`S his birthday,<br />but I found one of his emails I printed up. He`s so awesome. On<br />Monday, he invited me to work out and beef up with him after the<br />Mission. Totally going to do it.<br /><br />Thursday: So last night, chile played against Ecuador and won. As a<br />result, the whole country took their cars to the streets and honked<br />non-stop `til 1 AM. We live next to the busiest intersection in town.<br />Ugh. As of this morning, we hadn`t done any work for the week, due to<br />my fever. I decided I would work today because 1) it needed to be done<br />and 2) I had cabin fever. So I got up and studied like I was supposed<br />to. We had lunch with the Neira family--barbeque again! it was so<br />good. Last week, Madelyn said I copied my "Scripture Shortcuts" system<br />and that others were much better. She just kept insulting me. But she<br />was better-behaved this week. her younger sister, Eileen, is a huge<br />fan of swimming and we got to talk about that. Madelyn is going to<br />BYU-I in April. She speaks English?! Anyway, we came home and made our<br />smoothie (OJ, pineapple sherbet, Kiwi, and apple). YUM!!! My comp. was<br />loathe to see his week-long vacation come to an end. We did contacts<br />for a while, before Hna. Martinez called me. She asked how I was. I<br />told her my throat and ears don`t hurt, but I still have a fever. She<br />said I still had to get my anti-biotics from elder Corliss in Lebu. My<br />comp´s out of money, so I took Elder Smith. we picked up the meds. and<br />some letters. I got one from Kevin and one from Elder Calaway`s<br />girlfriend. She was thanking me for the letter I sent her, telling her<br />hw awesome I think Elder calaway is. It was a good letter.<br /><br />Friday: Today was a great day. I felt really good. I got up and did my<br />personal study (loved it) and all the usual stuff. Elder Smith<br />accompanied me to the store to buy a little bit of food. I got some<br />instant mashed potatoes, some milk and cookies, and more toothpaste.<br />We came back to drop stuff off, then we had to make the long walk to<br />our lunch. this Sister gave us unseasoned rice with unseasoned meat<br />last week. This time, we went with garlic salt. It totally did the<br />trick! the Sister doesn`t even sit at the table with us. In the<br />afternoon, we did some contacts--and we actually found some good<br />people. One guy, Leandro, is a dad. I asked him ho whe felt about<br />that. He said he loves it, and that it makes him happy. I got to tell<br />him that god has prepared a way for them to be together forever. He<br />seemed pretty interested in that. Another woman, Irma, was really<br />receptive as well. She said we coul dcome by next week. It just felt<br />good to be workin gagain, doing what I`m here to do. those times in<br />the Mission, when I`ve had to stay in the house, have just made me<br />feel bad...and restless. but working, just like obedience to all the<br />other commandments, brings a great measure of peace that I prefer over<br />anything. elder Smith and I went to use Internet briefly, so he could<br />coordinate his phonecall. After that, we had an FHE with the Llancapan<br />family. We read Alma 42 with them. and Hno. Miguel. their youngest<br />daughter, Ana, is a member, but inactive. We tried encouraging her to<br />read her Scriptures more. she wouldn`t commit. Are people like that<br />back home? Here, people won`t commit because they "might" mess up.<br />Well, that`s why we set goals, people. Anyway, we came home and I had<br />potatoes. Yum. My comp. won`t take part in the companionship, still.<br />It`s getting hard for me to stay motivated.<br /><br />Saturday: Today was so awesome! I got up and got my studying done.<br />Elder Maldonado asked if I wanted to go by the feria, which is like a<br />one-ay-of-the-week street market. Everybody goes there, and sells whay<br />they want. I`m pretty sure that these wouldn`t exist if chile had a<br />health code. But it works for me. they had a ton of fruits and veggies<br />that were just so vibrant with their colors. But they also sell<br />miscellaneous stuff. Watches, for example. I got a watch with an<br />orange-and-black display. I was so anxious for lunch, today. we<br />decided we would call our families today, to set up our Christmas<br />call. It was SO AWESOME!!! Cassie answered the phone with Dev. It`s<br />going to be so great to be home, and do things with them. We talked<br />about a lot of things in little time. Gosh, I missed them. But I think<br />they`re more trunky than I am. They were already planning things we`ll<br />be doing when I get back. After the phone call, I was in a kind of<br />shock. I wanted more. I miss them a lot. But I`ll be with them again<br />soon. WOOT! We walked back from lunch, and worked until 7, when we<br />had a Christmas Devotional, provided by the Elders` Quorum. I liked<br />one of the messages, inviting us to live christmas on another level.<br />The first 2 levels are toys; decorations and the nativity; The 3rd<br />level is remembering Christ always and following his example.<br />Afterwward, we had refreshments. I love soda. There`s a pineapple<br />soda, KEM, that I just adore here.<br /><br />Sunday: So this might be one of my worst streaks in the Mission. It`s<br />been 4 weeks here, in Curanilahue, and I still don`t have 1<br />investigator. I literally drag my comp through everything. I miss<br />having a companion that I can rely on. I`m getting tired. We didn`t<br />make it to our Meeting, today, because he didn`t get up on<br />time...again. Manuel, the guy that came last week, didn`t show up<br />today. The other Missionaries` Investigators are doing great. Alvaro<br />is going to get baptized this Saturday. I`ll have to do his Interview<br />this week. In Sunday School we`ve been doing the same 3 classes for<br />almost 3 months. It`s ridiculous how repetitive it is. I`m sorry. This<br />entry is really grouchy. I don`t know why I`m so on-edge. It actuallyw<br />as a gorgeous day. Most days are, here. It`s so green and colorful,<br />thanks to the yellow sunshine. It`s so great. We had macaroni-shell<br />spagghetti with a fried egg thrown on top. Typical Chilean dish. It<br />was delicious. In the evening, there was a broadcast from Salt Lake<br />City, showing the General christmas Devotional. Camilo, the other<br />sector`s investigator, went to see it. It was cool, because he got to<br />see the Prophet. Pres. Monson said that EVERY Christmas he reads "A<br />Christmas Carol" and "John Whitman`s Mansion." I`d never heard of the<br />latter. It`s a story of a man like Scrooge who had a dream of the<br />after-life. All the generous people got big mansions from their good<br />deeds. He had a little one because he never sent any "material." I<br />really liked that message. We played cards after the day.</span></span>Brigham Merrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03791313958892267082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262832742773264087.post-64340320610487747412011-12-14T19:43:00.001-08:002011-12-14T19:43:27.440-08:0012-11-11Monday: I remember a time, when I was with Elder Calaway, right after<br />we spoke with our families, when we wanted to know how much time we`d<br />have, when we spoke with them again. I calculated that I would have 19<br />1/2 months. Today I completed 19 months! That`s one of the numbers I<br />always thought was really high when I was new. Haha. Time just won`t<br />stop and let you sit. I didn`t really get a Pday today. At 7:30 I was<br />on a bus to Concepción with Elder Corliss and Arnett, on our way to a<br />Training session for District Leaders only. When we got there, I saw<br />Elder Lisonbee and we sat by each other, enjoying each others`<br />company. The first persons to train us surprised me. It turns out that<br />Pres. Martinez has Sister Assisstants! It was definitely a different<br />feeling to be taught by Missionaries without ties. Anyway, they helped<br />me realize a quality that I want in my wife: I want her to support and<br />encourage me in my callings. They were telling us things like, 2We<br />trust your decisions. You are men of God, and you are here for a<br />reason." It was an interesting spirit that accompanied them. We<br />learned that we have to give our Missionaries "The Vision of<br />Baptizing," in order for them to know where all this is going. The<br />Assisstants (Elders) taught us more about our responsibilities in<br />Exchanges and things. Pres. Martinez explained the importance of<br />having the HOly Ghost. Elder Richards, when he visited, explained that<br />the enthusiasm we have is recognizable as the Spirit, or was it the<br />other way around? If someone`s depressed, it`s because they lost the<br />Spirit. We had a long ride home, and then wrote the family. All is<br />well. Mom loves being a Temple Worker and is hearing a lot of cool<br />stories.<br /><br />Tuesday: Today went pretty well. I got up to shower early, so my comp.<br />would get up on time and shower and we`d still have plenty of time<br />before the bus came. It kinda worked. This was the first Distrizona we<br />did, implementing the new "report sheets"--forms that included our<br />Weekly Planning and progress of news--and I got to put some of the<br />things I learned yesterday into practice. Up until now, I`ve ben too<br />casual with my District. I thought I was being happy and friendly with<br />them. But I found a balance where I can still be my happy self and<br />still be able to correct them. In my class, for instance, they tried<br />to joke and put off the class for as long as possible. Before, I<br />wouldn`t have known how to take command or, more importantly, WHY. But<br />that time I have, to teach and inspire them is so vital, so I took<br />command, had better posture, and kept them focused. It worked. They<br />started listening to me and behavin better. In the Afternoon, I went<br />with Elder Maldonado to visit an Investigator while our comps. went to<br />an INternet Café to do an emergency transfer of moeny. They said<br />they`d be 10 min. Alvaro, the Investigator I visited with Elder<br />Maldonado, is great. He`s gonna get baptized on the 24th. We taught<br />the Restoration and he felt the spirit and it was great. We did<br />contacts for a while after that.<br /><br />Wednesday: So we worked pretty hard, today, doing our best to do what<br />we should...and we had some amazing experiences! We started out the<br />day a little differently. we traveled to Lebu to start my second<br />Carnet. I`m actually late, and I might be arrested. We got there, only<br />to find that the man who had to attend us wasn`t in today. I`ll be<br />busy for the rest of the week, so I have to wait for Monday. Lame. We<br />got back in time to pick up the clean clothes. Then, we went to have<br />lunch with Hna. Diaz. It was funny because we had tough meat with<br />bones and cartilag eand I had trouble cutting. She (or I?) made the<br />joke of meeting my future in-laws at a dinner with meat like that, and<br />the impression Id make. That`s why I`m going to order sammon, or<br />mashed potatoes, or some other more malleable substance. haha. We<br />didn`t have any appts. set up for the Afternoon, so we did contacts.<br />It actually went really well. The Lord must have known how hard this<br />was getting for me. I remember we`d been contacting for about 3 hours<br />before our first Spiritual Experience. We were too early for where we<br />wanted to go, so I chose to "explore" and take the scenic route. Well,<br />actually I took the route and then came up with the reason because I<br />wasn`t sure. I decided to knock a few doors on one random alley. We<br />got in the first hosue. We started talking about her son and eternal<br />families. Eventually, we found out her father died 3 weeks ago. We<br />wouldn`t have found her if we`d taken the "quick" route. Later, we<br />were walking and we passed a man in his doorway. we kept going before<br />I felt to turn around. He didn`t want to let us in. We spoke and I<br />pulled out a pass-along and he invited us in. We talked a lot before I<br />offered to say a prayer. He hadn`t paid attention well. When I<br />finished the prayer, he wasn`t reactive. He wouldn`t talk or blink or<br />move. I had a very strong impression to reach out and touch him on his<br />right shoulder. As I did, he jumped as if shocked. He explained he`d<br />felt as if something warm had fallen on him. I invited him to be<br />baptized and he said yes. Guided by the Spirit much? OH YEAH!!!<br /><br />Thursday: Today was an alright day. During our weekly Planning, our<br />Zone Leaders came and joined us. the 6 of us went to lunch with the<br />Neira family. The Dad was ticked, `cause he thought we`d spread romors<br />that we got sick, last week, due to his cooking. we never did! elder<br />Arjona went to Cañete with Elder brady to work for the day. i stayed<br />here with Elder Hall. We were outside ALL DAY knocking doors. Usually,<br />when we do contacts, we get into a few houses. Not today. aBut I LOVED<br />eing Elder Hall`s comp. It was so great to not be working alone. He`s<br />such a dedicated guy. I planned out all of the people that gave us so<br />much as a "pass by some other day." We were banging on all cylinders!<br />But, for some reason, we weren`t able to find someone to let us in. We<br />met several people that said they don`t like the church, but couldn`t<br />give a reason why. one lady told us to come by another day. When we<br />asked which day, she told us, "NEVER!" I don`t know how people can<br />treat their Salvation like that. By the end of the night, I was<br />freezing and my legs hurt so bad it gave me tingles.<br /><br />Friday: When I woke up today, after the 5 other times I woke up during<br />the night, I was completely stiff. Every movement created a creaking<br />of muscles. My night was so restless because my recently aquired<br />snburn kept overheating me. I was wearing SPF 80! Elder Hall and I<br />left aound 8:00, to Cañete, for Interviews. He wanted to change and<br />shower. Elder Arjone (bless his soul) offered to buy us breakfast. We<br />had a ham and cheese sandwich followed by a banana split...when I<br />think about it, that is like a Missionary Mom`s nightmare. Haha. It<br />was delicious. Our Interviews went really well. First, the Assisstants<br />gave us some really cool training. Last July, a new program came into<br />the Mission field. it includes 8 steps on how to help an Investigator<br />be really converted. First they asked us to put ANY concern we had on<br />the board. They said they would give an answer to each of them. And<br />they did...just not how I was expecting them to. they showed us that<br />any concern we have can be resolved with one of those 8 lessons. Then<br />the Sister Assisstants (still weird) got up and reviewed the 6 steps<br />of teaching by the Spirit: Observe, listen, discern, ask inspired<br />questions, teach pure doctrine, invite to act, repeat. We did a<br />practice that was different. We were to use those steps to find and<br />resolve a person`s doubts. But instead of Investigators, we taught the<br />Assisstant and Zone Leaders and themselve. I had my Interview with<br />Pres. where he gave me a pep talk and told me to have patience with my<br />comp. Then i returned an hopped into a practice, teaching Elder Arjona<br />with a new Misionary. Afterward, Elder Arjona said I really touched<br />his heart and helped him. I love him. The Assisstants bought everyone<br />completos. then, we came back. Right as we got hom,e a Policeman from<br />Lebu, where i`d started my paperwork for my Carnet, called me. He<br />saiid he`d finished mys tuff and was in Curanilahue. He handed it to<br />me and saved me $5 in travel. YES! My sunburn, and the sun, gave me a<br />pounding headache that forced me to retreat home. Elder Smith and<br />Elder Brady went to our appts.<br /><br />Saturday: Today kind of sucked. On the bright side, my muscles stopped<br />hurting. I spent the morning writing my talk I have to give tomorrow.<br />The other Missionaries were doing their own thing and just tried so<br />hard to avoid getting distracted and staying focused. I had a really<br />great time exploring the topic of my talk. Little tip: If there`s<br />anything youre unsure of, or want to learn more about, just write a<br />talk about it. The revelation that accompanies the process is so<br />great! I wrote my talk about Family Home Evenings, as was assined to<br />me. I discovered something I hadn`t known before: An<br />advantage/blessing for the parents, thanks to FHE, the Father is<br />viewed as the authority in the house. How many broken families do we<br />have in this world, that wouldn`t exist if they just followed the<br />Prophet? Well, I guess if everyone did that, they`d end up getting<br />baptized. Haha. Before we went to lunch, I called Elder Lisonbee, to<br />wish him Happy "monthday". He turned 22 in the Mission! I love him.<br />Haha. W ehad fried fish and rice for lunch. i loved it! Afterwards, my<br />comp. told me he wasn`t feeling well. I told him to lie down. I took<br />his temperature later. 101.4 So I had him take a drink of water<br />throughout the day, as well as have him take some ibuprofen. We pretty<br />much just laid in our beds. I had a fever of 99.something. it was<br />relatively cool, but we were both sweating a lot. Gross, right? My<br />head still hurts and it`s late. I`m going to bed.<br /><br />Sunday: We were blessed today. we worked so hard this week, when we<br />could, but before today we hadn`t found more than a few people. Before<br />Church started, we had our meeting with our grouchy Ward Leader. One<br />of the four of us has problems getting going in the mornings and we<br />didn`t make it out on time. Anyway, we arrived 5 min. late and Hno.<br />Neira accused us of sleeping in. It`s tough, paying the price for<br />someone else`s mistakes. We shared our stuff efore going to pick up<br />Miguel. He didn`t answer. But when we started the firt class, a member<br />walked in with a non-member friend. He totally lives in our sector!<br />His name is Manuel. He said he just came with his friend, this time<br />only. Elders Smith, Maldonado, and I had to give talks today. I went<br />first and talked about Family Home Evenings. Elder Smith spoke on the<br />power of prayer. Elder Maldonado spoke on why it is important to read<br />the scriptures. A Sister said my Spanih was like listening to a<br />General Authority. Boo yeah! I spoke with the non-member afterwards.<br />He said he anted to hear us out. His member friends invited him and us<br />to an FHE tomorrow. In te afternoon, I got the fever Elder Brady had.<br />My temp. kept rising, until it stopped at 102. As I was resting, I<br />thought of something. Everyone alays asks, "What would Jesus do?" I<br />didn`t know, before the mission. Now I know he`d do the will of the<br />Father. SO... We should ask, "What does Heavenly Father want me to<br />do?" For me, that makes it easier. When I was back in bed, Elder Smith<br />brought me medicine and Elder Brady brought me a hot water bottle. I<br />felt cold, taht`s why. They`re good guys.Brigham Merrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03791313958892267082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262832742773264087.post-55524179265108446052011-12-14T19:42:00.001-08:002011-12-14T19:42:49.300-08:0012-4-11Monday: Today was a great day. We got to enjoy the morning in the<br />house, cleaning and relaxing. Then we went to get lunch. We had<br />completos. YES! We then wentto use Internet to write the family. Daddy<br />said they all enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving. but he also said it<br />was kind of lame because it was just the four of them. They want me<br />home. I think they`re "trunkier" than I am. Haha. I got an email<br />from...Joe! He is currently in Orlando, Florida. What the heck?! I<br />hope he`s doing well. loved hearing form him. We did exchanges at<br />night. I went with Elder Maldonado. We tried to contact a member who`d<br />said she had a referral for us. But she wasn`t home. So we pretty much<br />just did contacts all night. But then I had the idea to share the "17<br />Miracles" movie with the Diaz family. They were totally down for it.<br />It really was a beautiful movie. We were all feeling the Spirit so<br />strongly. Then they gave us some refreshments. Yum.<br /><br />Tuesday: Today was great. We actually got picked up on time, this<br />week, to go to our Distrizona in Cañete. The Zone Leaders are sking us<br />to get reports on all of our Districts investigators and their<br />activities. In our district Meting, I said something insensitive to<br />Elder Brady. As soon as I made the remark, he got quiet, closed his<br />eyes, and started shaking. I was just thinking, "Oh crap. I`m an<br />idiot." He turned around and went to the bakc of the room and refused<br />to participate. I went over and stood by him, and rubbed his back. He<br />was crying. He said he learns things by touch, and that doesn`t wrk<br />with languages. I`m such a jerk. He accepted my apologywe hugged and<br />cried and stuff. We did contacts in the afternoon. We got into 3<br />houses. One in particular, Estéfani, was really great. She`s young,<br />about 23 or 24, and has a 4 year-old daughter. I noticed how her eyes<br />shone when she spoke of her daughter. So we decided to teach about<br />Eternal families. She said we could come back tomorrow. We`ll see how<br />that goes. My whole run-down with Elder Brady has let me know just how<br />far I have togo before I can get marrand have kids and relationships<br />in general. Dang it! But I guess it`s normal to mak mistakes<br />sometimes. As for making upfor hose mistakes, I think I`m doing<br />alright.<br /><br />Wednesday: Today was wonderful. It was kind of funny in the morning,<br />though. I was so excited to study. We ran, I showered, got dressed,<br />got all my books out, and then the other MIssionaries told us we had<br />to do service. We did that for a few hours before we got back. I was<br />just sitting down to study en the Branch res. called and asked us to<br />come by, to pick up the Permaneced list. We got back and I read<br />twoverses before my comp. reminded me of an appt. we had in 15 min.<br />DANG IT!!! We couldn`t even find the guy. We took out money beto<br />lunch. After lunch, we met with Camilo, the kid who went to church on<br />Sunday. We waited in the Chapel, and I was pleasantsed when he<br />arrived. We taught the Restoration. He`s been through a lot of<br />churches, looking for truth. he wants to do what`s right. When I told<br />of the First Vision I felt the Spirit so strongly. I was oing to<br />explain tHAuthority, but I lt impressed to ask how he felt. He said,<br />j"I feel a calmness I`ve never felt before." This message is so<br />powerful. "It doesn`t depend on the Message, but the messenger," as<br />Boyd K. Packer said. He wants to read and pray about the Book of<br />Mormon. He also said he wants to be baptized. WOOT! But he belongs to<br />the oher missionaries. We did contacts until night. Then, the Ward<br />Mission Leader invited us o his son`s b-ay party. It was great.<br /><br />Thursday: So this is the last entry in my 398-page journal. WHAT?!<br />what the crazy sauce is that all about? ;) We got up and, after doing<br />the usual, we did our Weekly Planning session. The only problem: we<br />don`t have any investigators, after our week or so of being here in<br />Curanilahue. I now that we should be measuring our success by how e`re<br />doing with ourselves, rather than base it off of the decisions others<br />make. But not seeing any success...well, it gets discouraging<br />sometimes. We DID have a delicious BBQ fo lunch. It was smoked meat,<br />full of flavor and not cartilage. I ate as muchI could. All of our<br />appts. with "future Investigators" fell through. Another day full of<br />contacts. We fond a lady that wanted to listen to us, but just that.<br />She "has faith in her own church." When I asked her why, she said<br />"because it`s closest." She was so hard-hearted, and I just wanted to<br />help. I was very grateful for the respite from the sun, thanks to<br />cloud cover, as well as for the good night`s sleep ahead of me.<br /><br />Friday: So we wer up all night, the four of us. Elder Smith, Elder<br />Maldonado, Elder Brady and I. It turns out that we all have food<br />poisoning and we spe the night vomiting together. It`s really weird.<br />All four ofus. Weird. Before the Mission, I`d never met what I like to<br />call a "vocal vomiter." I have now met a few. It`s someone that yells<br />at the top of their luns until they become reaquainted with their<br />previous meal. Let me tell you, it`s enough to turn anyone`s gut. We<br />cancelled our lunch today, because even though our mouths wanted food,<br />the rest of us couldn`t take it. I tried to study in the morning, but<br />I had an enormous headache that prevented me. Eventually, it went away<br />and since, out of the four of us, Elder Maldonado and I were feeling<br />the best, we wenti some people and get the laundry. The people weren`t<br />there, and the laundry wasn`t ready. We came home and slept. Later,<br />the two of us went to try and teach Camilo about baptism, but he never<br />arrived at the Chapel. ile we were there, Elder maldonado started<br />asking me what I thought of him. He said he`d been h aving a lot of<br />introspective doubts lately. He asked questions about my family and<br />what I missed most. He`s got one tmore than me. I can tell that he<br />misses his family a lot. I bet he`s looing forward to his Christmas<br />phone call. Camilo never showed up, so we headed back to thepartment.<br />As the evening has progressed, the others` symptoms have improved,<br />whmine have progressively worsened. My stomach is cramping, my head<br />aches, and I`m dizzy,creating nausea. Ooph! But it`s nice to be in<br />this together. It creates kind of a comraderie between us. it`s sweet.<br /><br />Saturday: So today was part 2 of the "food poisoning doosies." but on<br />the bright side, even though I didn`t feel well enough to go too far<br />away from the toilet, I WAS able to study. I was finishing up Alma 42<br />and read some advice that Alma the Younger gives to his son. There`s a<br />part where he tells his son not to excuse his sin in the slightest<br />degree. He says this is so he can be humbled down, to the dust. I was<br />pondering on how that oculd work, and I realized that if we were<br />always making excuses for ourselves, we would never feel guilty. And<br />if we never felt guilty for our actions, we would never feel the need<br />to repent of those things we`re doing badly. heavenly Father really<br />can`t excuse us...at all. When I learned this, I realized just how<br />much I sometimes make bad chioices or mess up because I give myself<br />excuses, or crutches to go off of. But I`m not going to do that<br />anymore. I think it`ll help me in my endeavor with Alan, of getting to<br />be the best people we can be. We didn`t cancel lunch today, `cause we<br />just HAD to get out of the house. While we were waiting for lunch to<br />be ready, we shared stories of how we got our various scars. Or<br />rather, everyone else did. I didn`t have any cool ones. I`ve kind of<br />made it a point to avoid dangerou/stupid situations and, as a result,<br />have lived a relatively dulll life. Hah! We were also talking (in<br />English) about where we`d be calling our families for Christmas. Then,<br />the Brother walked in and invited us. Sweet! I spent the Afternoon<br />napping. I woke up several times with chills and sweating. I`m feeling<br />better, though. We`re gonna work our butts off tomorrow, to try and<br />make up for some of the stuff we haven`t haveen able to do. I`m tired<br />right now.<br /><br />Sunday:Today was fast and Testimony meeting. It was really great. We<br />got to our Priesthood meeting and Hno. Neira asked why we hadn`t gone<br />to the Executive Comitee meeting, asking if we had slelpt in. I hate<br />how the people in this Branch assume the worst about the Missionaries<br />based on how the last ones behaved. First ofall, that meeting is<br />invitation-only, so they have to invite us, which they didn`t do. And<br />second ofall, I was totally up at 6:30, getting ready. Judging and<br />prejudice suck. We had a really great class about Brotherhood. The<br />teacher turned the word into a cool acronymthat doesn`t work in<br />English. Sunday School was about Exaltation. The testimonies were<br />great, as always. We had lunch with Hna. Nidia, who washes our clothes<br />for us. She toldus about what it was like, to be a mom of missionary<br />sons. She said that when both of them came back home they were<br />different...and she didn`t like the changes. What kind of jmother says<br />that about her own sons? What kind of changes deserve that reaction?<br />Almost all of my journal entries have been dedicated to self-analysis<br />and discovery. I`ve definitely come a long way in self-confidence. But<br />what will those changes be viewed as, by otheres? 2 years is a long<br />time. What will I think of THEM? It`ll certainly be interesting. I<br />couldn`t sleep most of last night. In the time I had to think I<br />thought of the time I have left to me as a Missionary. There`s so much<br />more I can do and learn. But it`s not very long until I get to see my<br />family again. I still remember my first shock as I realized that I was<br />leaving them. Scary and intimidating as heck. And soon, after all the<br />waiting and missing, I`ll be back with them again. What will that be<br />like?Brigham Merrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03791313958892267082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262832742773264087.post-41087496416552418022011-11-29T19:50:00.001-08:002011-11-29T19:50:18.100-08:0011-20-11<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">Monday: Today was a great Pday. I slept in and enjoyed being able to<br />rest. Then we headed off to Laja Waterfall. This is my second time<br />going there and it was just so pretty. I went closer to the base, this<br />time, because there was less mist and got some really cool photos. We<br />came back to Los Angeles and went straight to lunch with Hna. Marita.<br />She made some yummy pork and rice. They showed me a picture of their<br />son, Mario, with my family...in MY HOUSE! It was bizarre. Then, Hna.<br />Marita brought out this awesome wafer cake. It was so good! When we<br />wrote the family, I had 16 emails! I was from more people wishing me<br />happy birthday. Lindsay`s in Nebraska now, and even though she wasn`t<br />unpacked all the way, she was able to have decorated for Halloween. We<br />visited Alejandro, a new investigator. He`s pretty receptive. He wants<br />to know our purpose for being here. We did contacts for a while,<br />finding a few people, before going to FHE with the Garcia family. Hna.<br />Garcia made completos! Mouricio Garcia, their son, is awesome. He<br />showed me iphone stuff, and I showed him a cool tie knot.<br /><br />Tuesday: Today was a good day. We got up and went to our Distrizona<br />meeting. I gave a short lesson about how to find people more<br />efficiently. Then, I asked everyone to share what they`d learned from<br />their companions. Elder Gomez and Elder Barton were just chill, but<br />Hna. Clavero and Hna. Velasquez were crying as they wxpressed their<br />love for each other. They had passed through a hard time together, and<br />it bonded them. elder Zuñiga said I taught him what it means to be a<br />good teacher, and that he`d remember it for his whole life. When I<br />spoke of my hijo, remembering all that we`d beeen through and all I`ve<br />learned from him, I started to cry, too. That love just filled me<br />right up. In the afternoon it was hot. I fear for the sun. The air<br />isn`t too hot, but the sun is so strong it hurts. We were supposed to<br />meet up with a member at the church, but we waited in the shade across<br />from it, `cause there is none on THAT side. He didn`t show up so we<br />got ready to go. As we were leaving, we found him on the other side of<br />the truck we`d been sigging by. Hed been there the whole time,<br />avoiding the sun, like us! He`s so great. He has 5 kinds of cancer but<br />was the first to volunteer. He was very enthusiastic. Today was mostly<br />contacts and finding back-up plans. But I had a good time talking with<br />people. When we dropped off the laundry, we had a pillow fight with<br />Paula, Loreto, and Tuka--Hna. Pinar`s little girls.<br /><br />Wednesday: Today was excellent. we got up and headed out kind of early<br />so that we could get to the other Stake`s Stake Center on time ofr our<br />Conference with Pres. Martinez. I got to talk with Elder Montalban for<br />a bit. He told me crazy Doctrine principles that blew my mind. The<br />Assisstants had an object lesson on the Church`s Soccer field. They<br />asked who didn`t like Soccer. I raised my hand and was promptly chosen<br />to play. The haters played the pros and lost, but it was a good<br />lesson. It had to do with training, and the importance of learning<br />from those who knew what they were doing. We learned about the Holy<br />Ghost from Pres. A lot of MIssionaries said farewell, because they<br />finish in a week. What will that be like? I had an interview with the<br />Pres. that I`d asked for. I wanted him to transfer me to a place with<br />less sun...but then I realized that was dumb and asked for a<br />recommendation of sunscreen because APF 50 ain`t cutting it. He<br />actually told me my transfer!He wants me to open a new Sector! Visit<br />people that haven`t heard the Gosoopel. it`s like "The Other Side of<br />Heaven." I`ll be with a challenging Missionary, one who doesn`t like<br />Spanish. Pres. thinks I can help him out. I`m kind of nervous because<br />they don`t have a house for us yet"they`ll get one, I hope). I don`t<br />know the streets, and we won`t have a phone for a while. But I`m<br />really excited, too! WOOT! Jorge cancelled his appt. and we did<br />contacts with Hno. Amstein. We visited an inactive that gave up 20<br />years ago. But he is having hard times and needs help. He said he`ll<br />try and come to church.<br /><br />thursday: We got up this morning and got ready for the day. I`m<br />studying Alma the Younger`s letters to his son, Helaman. They`re so<br />wonderful. He explains a little bit about the Liahona and it`s<br />symbolism. the "director" represents the words of Christ that, if we<br />follow their guidance, will tell us what we should do. I have enjoyed<br />coming closer to christ through the application of what I learn in my<br />personal study. But I can always work on being more teachable. We had<br />our Weekly Planning before going to lunch. I LOVE the<br />tomato/onion/cilatro salads Hna. Ordenes makes. We studied Spanish for<br />a while, before going out to teach David, someone we`d found right<br />before General Conference. He asked us, first thing, about Tithing. We<br />resolved his doubts and, with the help of the Spirit, invited him to<br />be baptized. He siad he wanted to be prepared and we said we`d help.<br />we ran to the Centro to make photocopies and then went to pick up a<br />member to hlep us. We only did 1 contact because, it turned out he and<br />the Member had worked together, and they talked for a while. We met<br />with Hno. Garcia for comité. Then Hna. Roa gave me a 2nd b-day gift!<br />It`s a black t-shirt with "Chile" on it. The "i" in "chile" is shaped<br />like the country. It`s awesome. we talked for a while before we went<br />to our appt. She (Viviana) wasn`t there. Oh well. At least I didn`t<br />roast today. Cloud cover ROCKS!!!<br /><br />Friday: Where did the day go? We got up and got ready. It`s been<br />cloudy for 3 days now, without reain or sun. It`s been awesome! It<br />turns out that, out of all South America, Chile receives the greatest<br />amount of Solar radiation, and Pres. said that, out of all of Chile,<br />our Mission is right under the biggest hole in the Ozone. Holy smokes!<br />In Alma 38:3 I found out how to have joy: Faithfulness to covenants,<br />diligence in Church callings/work, patience in trials, and<br />long-suffering with our neighbors. We passed by Marcela, a contact<br />from a while back, and found that she just works in our sector, and<br />actually lives in Villa Las Americas. So we wrote down her address and<br />passed it to the Elderws there. we had lunch with the Garcia family.<br />Their veggie lasagna was awesome. Right afterward, we had to go to<br />Santa Barbara for an Interview. It was different. Patricio, the<br />candidate, seemed to be having a hard time with the questions. He said<br />he sometimes thinks about other things. I eventually got him to tell<br />me his mom was diagnosed with stomach cancer and was acting strange.<br />Yesterday, she`d forbidden him from calling his big sister who`s<br />studying in another city. He was sad, so I read him some Scriptures.<br />We finished the Interview and we got back in time to visit Hno. Ruiz,<br />who my hijo has been telling for 3 weeks, we`d visit. I didn`t know<br />until today, so we went. Then the day ran out. I`m pooped.<br /><br />Saturday: Today was great! We had a great companionship study,<br />learning about the Missionary purpose and how we are to help others<br />really come unto Christ. The more time I talk with people, or just see<br />things really, the I realize that the world is just in really bad<br />shape. for example, some drunk person was walking toward us, and then<br />he suddenly jsut threw his 1 1/2 liter glass bottle at us. But being<br />drunk didn`t help his aim. And in the night, we joined a search party,<br />looking for a rapist that had just finished the dirty deed. But I know<br />that, for all of that, that as a Missionary of God, I can really help<br />and serve p eople when they need it most. We had lunch with Hna. roa.<br />I love her. On the way back, Hno. Ordenes aske dus to help clean the<br />Church. So we did that. We did contacts on our own, and then with Hno.<br />Pinar as well. When we dropped him off, we noticed his family was<br />watching "The Lion King." That`s Alan`s favorite Disney movie! He`s so<br />awesome. We received our transfers! I`m NOT going to open a sector, it<br />seems. I`m going to Curanilahue1 with Elder Brady. It`s in the same<br />Zone as Tirua was. That`s great! Elder Zuñiga`s gonna stay here...and<br />TRAIN! WOOT! I`m gonna be a grandpa in the Mission! Elder Gomez is<br />going to be a Zone Leader, which is great! Elder Burch is still<br />Junior comp and is ticked `cause Pres. won`t make him a leader. I<br />don`t know how to help him.<br /><br />Sunday: Today was a good day. I mean REALLY good. No day, in the<br />Mission, will you ever feel as loved as the day you say goodbye to<br />everyone. I was really surprised by how close I`d gotten to several<br />people. Hno. Mansicca, especially. He had threatened me on my first<br />day, to me sure I behaved. But today he said that I had done good<br />work, and helped the Ward, and thanked me for all my efforts. Same<br />with Mauricio Rodriguez. We had lunch with the Solar family in the<br />countryside, as wella s their relatives. I met someone named Lexly.<br />That`s a cool name. They put on Robin Hood (disney cartoon version)<br />while we waited. They took a really long time. Haha. We stopped by the<br />Hospital ato give a blessing to the wife of one of Santa Barbara`s<br />contacts. He`d said she was dying because of her pregnancy. It turns<br />out he was drunk. We got there saying, "Hey, we heard you were dying.<br />We`re here to save your life." (Okay, not EXACTLY like that) But she<br />was fine. Just chillin` with her meds. AWKWARD!!! We went by Hno.<br />Felix, the Muffin Man (he actually says it in English). He gave me 6<br />muffins as a gift. Finally, we said farewell to Scarlet. I gave her<br />the drawing I asked Alan to do for her. She loved it. I love her.<br />She`s going to do a lot of good in the Church. The Sisters in<br />Nacimiento (in my district) said I was their favorite district Leader,<br />and the Zone Leaders said I could "leave Avenida Alemania with my head<br />held high" for the work I`ve done. yup. It was a good day.</span>Brigham Merrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03791313958892267082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262832742773264087.post-12868661867035732062011-11-29T19:46:00.000-08:002011-11-29T19:49:40.857-08:0011-13-11<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">Monday: Today was a great day. We got up bright (dark?) and early so<br />that we could make the ttrip to Temuco so that we could visit the<br />Millahual family. hey are my Chilean Family from my first sector,<br />Lican Ray, that pretty much adopted me. We wrote our family first,<br />through. Everyone wished me Happy Birthday for Tomorrow. I loved the<br />visit to the Millahual`s. They had made me a ake and they gave me a<br />great cream-colored tie. Starting tomorrow, we can`t return to<br />previous sectors. I was greateful I got this last chance to see them.<br />We planned the only lesson we had scheduled for the night, with<br />Ernesto. We wanted to hlep them go to church. But the first thing they<br />told us was, "Thanks for your help, but we feel like we`ve been doing<br />too much, too soon." They haven`t completed ONE commitment. We helped<br />them see that, to show their faith, they need to act, and the<br />blessings that come from obedience. they committed to praying,<br />reading, adn going to church. That lesson was 11% by the Spirit.<br />no--200% by the Spirit. (A 65 year-old man showed me his thigh and<br />said, "I`m whiter han a mormon!" I shoed him my arm and he said I got<br />him beat. It was so funny and random!)<br /><br />Tuesday: The Zone Leaders gave me Skittles and the Sisters in my<br />District gave me a keychain, with yellow, metal socks,a nd a pen. we<br />had lunch with Hna. Pinar. We had home-made pizza. Made with love!<br />Mmmm. She gave me a pretty pink tie, so I won`t wear my "amoeba"<br />(paisely) tie. She thinks it`s ugly. Haha :) It rained, and I now have<br />holes in both shoes. But I just thought, "Who says wet feet is a bad<br />thing?" And I imagined I was walking in a pool. then I wanted them to<br />be MORE we! Haha. We did contacts most of the day. We ac tually met a<br />few nice people. We had a "lesson" with two law graduate students.<br />They jsut asked questions and it was out of control. But it`s okay.<br />We`ll do better. Hna. Roa came by, and dropped off some brazo de<br />Reina, a really yummy cake with manjar inside. She gave me a pretty<br />ble tie with white stribes. I love my mamitas!<br /><br />Wednesday: today was a good day. I had a good time studying about Alma<br />and the Zoramites. It`s so impressive, to me, to see his attitude of<br />humility even when he knows that others are wrong. He just wants to<br />serve and help make everything beter for everyone. Wha a great<br />example! We ran into Hna. Gloria in the mornign. She`s still offended<br />because the Bishop asked if she`d ever participated in an abortion.<br />Absurd! We had an interesting contact right before lunch. He was<br />sitting on a riverside beach and waved us over. He told us he`d always<br />seen us preach, but never knew our message. But 5 min. into the<br />conversaaion he took control. turns out he`s studied the Bible for 30<br />years and knows greek, Hebrew, English (he`s from England) and he`d<br />already heard all the discussions. He didn`belong o any church, but<br />was convinced that the Sabbath day was Saturday because of<br />Isaiah66:something. At the beginning of my Mission, I might have been<br />shaken. But I just kept thinking about how I`ve received an answer<br />about Thomas S. Mosnon being a prophet. If he`s going to church on<br />Sunday, so am I. It was like Sheram in Jacob 7. We taught Jorge. We<br />watched "The Restoration" with him. He`ll pray about Joseph Smith. He<br />put his own baptismal date for next Saturday. That`ll be so great! We<br />did contacts and found some really great people that want to hear us.<br />we have some missionaries from Angol sleeping over here.<br /><br />thursday: We had to get up at 4:00 AM so everyone could shower and<br />then make it to the Stak Center in time to leave. But as we left at<br />4:45 Gustavo was coming home from a nigh shift and cararied us. We<br />took a bus to Concepción. There, we heard from President Keith<br />McMullen, 2nd counselor in the Presiding Bishopric. He had a really<br />deep, resonant voice. He spoke of how we need to know our message,<br />down to our bones. He spoke of one of his sons who wasn`t sure if he<br />wanted to serve, because he was unsure of hings. Elder McMullen<br />thought, and said, "Do you know that it ISN`T true?" His point is that<br />we don`t need to worry about what we DON`T know. Through service,<br />sudy, and teaching, our testimony arrives. He asked, "Wheredo you<br />think you`re going to find it? BYU-I?" I thought of Joe, and how badly<br />I want him to have the peace that comes with a testimony. Jorge read<br />and prayed by hasn`t received hsi answer. It`ll come. We taught Hector<br />tonight. I was worried for what he`d said on Sunday, about not<br />bothering him. But his concern is that he wants Sunday to do all the<br />things he didn`t have time to do, during the week. Ah-hah! a clue. we<br />know that he doesn`t understand, still, that we should rest and<br />dedicate Sunday to the Lord. We`ll help him, too! We stopped by the<br />church to use the bahroom, but the Youth were there and hey asked for<br />English help and were offering brownies as payment. ugh.<br /><br />Friday: Today was a great day. We got up and studied as usual. But<br />then he Zone Leaders came over during our session of weekly planning.<br />Elder Tanner and Elder Pliler are great Elders. they didn`t say too<br />much, but they said enough to let us know they care, and they had a<br />few good ideas about how to help our investigators progress. Elder<br />Pliler stayed with Elder Zuñiga in our secor, and I went to San Martín<br />with elder ÇTanner. We had a delicious veggie-lasagna for lunch. We<br />studied the language before heading out. Our first appt. fell through<br />so we went to teach the mom of a recent convert. She was a little<br />hard-hearted, saying she didn`t feel the need of knowing if the BOM<br />was rue. I asked her some quesions to help her out. We visited an<br />investigator, Pamela, who is super nice. She`s getting married soon,<br />so she can get baptized. She`s already glowing with the Light of<br />christ, I think. We found a young woman crying on the sidewalk. We<br />stopped and she said we should keep going. I almost did, bu the Spirit<br />told us not to. We sat down until we got a conversation going. She`d<br />had a hard time with tests in med. school. We had her laughing as we<br />got a return appt. We visited another investigator who`d received the<br />answer that she should get baptized Dec. 3rd. Golden. We found a<br />family of less-actives and are gonig to help them out. Zuñiga called<br />and said Jorge`s for sure going to church on Sunday. WOOT! It`s 11:11<br />PM on 11/11/11<br /><br />Saturday: today was a good day: I had a good time talking with Elders<br />Tanner and Tavernier. I like being in apartments with four<br />missionaries. The first thing I did was call Elder Kemp and wish him<br />Happy birthday. He`s doing excellent! We had a great personal study,<br />followed by comp. study. Elder Tanner helped me focus on how to work<br />with members. Elder Zuñiga and Elder Pliler came by shortly after. I<br />found that Elder Pliler has "The Missionary`s Little Book of<br />Inspirational Stories." I read some really cool ones. We had lunch<br />with Natalia and Javiera Roa. Their mom was in Santiago. We got back<br />intime for our appt. with Natalia (a different one), a contact we did<br />last week. She`s really nice and very receptive. She knows how to<br />think and ask good questions. Unfortunately, she works every other<br />weekend. But she`s going to read and pray about the Book of Mormon.<br />All of our other appts. fell through. So we had the blessing of being<br />able to talk to people all day. I really do enjoy being able to<br />testify to people I don`t know. It`s a lot easier than giving a talk<br />in Sacrament Meeting, like I have to do tomorrow. Near the end of the<br />night, we were let into the house of one Raphael. He old us taht he is<br />100% Catholic, and he wasn`t going to change. I just though, "I want<br />to hear you saying that form the pulpit in a few months." We called<br />Jorge and encouraged him to go to church, tomorrow, just to be sure.<br /><br />sunday: So we spent this week on Jorge. We called him or visited hime<br />very day, sharing scriptures, experiences, and encouraging him ot go<br />to church so he could get baptized this Saturday like he wanted. AND<br />HE DIDN`T GO!!! We were waiting all morning for him to show up, our<br />hopes rising and crashign with every open and close of the door. So<br />I`m frustrated. Hopefully, the next missionary to come will be able to<br />help these children of God more than I was able o. I was assigned a<br />talk about my favorite subject in the whole world: the Book of Mormon!<br />I testified why it`s important for us to study it. Hna. Marita came up<br />afterward, and said I made her cry with the experience I had when I<br />got my testimony. I apologized. I don`t want to make people cry! It<br />was odd. I testify all day in the street to strangers, but I was<br />nervous in front of members and friends. But it went well. Our lunch<br />bailed on us, but Hna. Pinar was just awesome and took us to her house<br />and gave us completos, bless her soul. We shared "17 miracles" with<br />her. It`s about the Pioneers and their trials. Abolutely amazing, what<br />they went through. We did contacts without much success until the end.<br />the last ones were a mom and her son. Her boy-friend had invited her<br />to mutual, y ears ago. Now she wants her son to go, this Thursday.<br />What a blessing!</span>Brigham Merrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03791313958892267082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262832742773264087.post-53367712084933322492011-11-29T19:44:00.000-08:002011-11-29T19:46:39.481-08:0011-6-11<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">Monday: Today was crazy-awesome. We woke up and headed off to Renaico,<br />where we had the Mission-wide activity. Right when I got there, I got<br />to say hi to my friends. Among them was Elder Lisonbee. He missed me<br />almost as much as I missed him. Haha. We spent a lot of time together,<br />actually. Al of the Zones got in a circle and shared the war chants<br />and flags they`d created. Then we played some interesting games. The<br />first one was where we had to throw our shoes into a pile, then try<br />and find them afte rit was "shuffled." that got violent. I tried to<br />stay on the outside, but an Elder Steele picked me up' by the thighs<br />and threw me on people. He`s nuts. Then we played a caterpillar game<br />where the Zone made a tunnel with their bodies and then someone had to<br />crawl. the last one was "trees." Which is like Sharks and MInnows, but<br />the tagged people can`t mave their feet. It was good. I played<br />volleyball and frisbee. For lunch, we had cheeseburgers and there was<br />home-made root beer! It wasn`t made with dry ice, but oh well. I was<br />desperate. I got a letter from my convert, Mirta. She was such a<br />miracle. She says she misses me and prays for me. She also said she<br />has permission to go to mutual and even the Temple in December! what a<br />blessing! We wrote the family. Daddy`s healing. Mom is a Temple Worker<br />now. That`s so cool! Elders Burch and Tobias are sleeping over again.<br /><br />Tuesday: So it turns out that my neck got REALLY sunburned yesterday.<br />The part that`s usually covered by my church-shirt collar is<br />particularly sensitive. OUCH! The Zone Leaders said that they wanted<br />tme to give a class on setting and completing goals as well as<br />planning efficiently.<br />I`ve found that talking with EVERYONE gives you a feeling that you`re<br />doing the right thing. We had lunch with Hna. Pinar. She enjoyed her<br />candy. :) We came home and planned like crazy, making a sweet<br />gameplan. We couldn`t visit any of our MAIN Investigators, so we did<br />contacts and tried to visit some future investigators. We didn`t find<br />any, but it never felt like I was just wandering, doing whatever. We<br />helped people, and we taught, and spoke. It was sweet. The Sisters<br />from Villa Esmeralda called with a favor. They had some non-members<br />from near Antuco that had an aunt with cancer. They were desperate and<br />one of the visiting relatives knew a member in Santiago who had spoken<br />about blessings for health. So we went 30 km (20 miles) out of Los<br />Angeles to give a blessing. My hijo gave it. She said she felt calmer.<br />I hope she stays that way. She has esophagus cancer, along with a case<br />of bronchitis. She could barely breathe.<br /><br />Wednesday: Today was a great day. I`m finally learning how to focus,<br />take the lead (moreso), and show results for my work. We planned our<br />appts. for the day, thinking of ways to help Hector and Lilian keep<br />the Word of Wisdom better. We tried to find Jorge before lunch, but he<br />wasn`t home. We dropped off our clothes at Hna. Pinar`s. We did<br />contacts until we had lunch with Hna. Marita. She made me<br />cheeseburgers in honor of my birthday next week. YES! Lilian wasn`t<br />home when she`d told us sshe would be. DANG IT! She`s ending up just<br />like Jorge. It`s frustrating, knowing that they`re receptive, but are<br />never home. But I wasn`t that depressed. We did cantacts at doors and<br />in the street. We met some old people that said god will forgive him<br />even if he doesn`t repent, as his pastor had told. I almost asked him,<br />"And who is your Pastor, to act in God`s name?" But I refrained. We<br />visited Jaime, a young 16 year-old man who wants to get to know the<br />Church. we taught the Restoration. He said he`s bad at reading and<br />praying. We said he`d be fine. We met Aldo, a man that has a doubt<br />about Tithing. He would rather give his money to the poor, himself,<br />than the Church. A General Authority had a similar experience. He told<br />the member, "I`m sure the Lord appreciates your charitable<br />desires...but I don`t think he likes you spending hi smoney." Haha.<br />the Church is true. How else could the leaders speak so familiarly<br />about God?<br /><br />Thursday: Today was pretty special. We got up early, to take a bus to<br />Concepción. elder Zuñiga couldn`t go, because it was a Conference that<br />was only for Leaders. So he and Elder Tavernier were comps. While I<br />was with Elder Ayala. We heard from Elder Kent F. Richards of the<br />Seventy. He`s also a counselr in our Area Presidency. He helped us<br />understand that, as Leaders, we have a responsibility to bring to pass<br />this marvelous work, and help the other Missionaries strengthen their<br />faith in the Lord and his work. He taught that as we teach and edify<br />each other, we will know how to conduct our lives, work, and families.<br />He taught that one of our main purposes is to seek the Holy Ghost, so<br />that we can taach , as well as receive the blessings it offers.<br />Something that really blew my mind was when he said ,"True words,<br />spoken without the Spirit, are not truth." :O After our meeting, I<br />went a few blocks away, to see Hna. Marìa and her family. they had a<br />greanddaughter kill her baby and then killed herself! :O It was good<br />to see them despite the sad news. Hna. Soledad is so great! We came<br />back, and I worked in Villa Las Amercas until we ended the exchange.<br />Elder Zuñiga found a great new investigator and they`d ddone some<br />contacts. I called the Millahual family. I love them so much. I love<br />loving!<br /><br />Friday: Today was such a beautiful day! Spring is coming around in<br />full, now, and it`s gorgeous. We did contacts in a really nice part of<br />town and being able to see all of the flowers, and the green grass,<br />and the cloudless blue sky was such a wonderful blessing. We found<br />some really receptive people while we were there. This sector really<br />is great! We had lunch with Hna. Quiroga. She`s so happy, and I love<br />it! We tried going by Lilian`s house 3 times today, but she was never<br />home. Argh! Same with Jorge! And Ernesto and his family! It`s a little<br />frustrating because it`s not a lack of faith or a particular doubt--we<br />just can`t find them when they`re home. We DID teach Ingrid. She`s a<br />new. We asked her some questions to get to know her. She talked about<br />faith a lot. Wewere able to discover that she wants help gatting it.<br />We promised her that if she read and prayed about the Book of Mormon<br />she would get an answer, which goes beyond faith and becomes a<br />testimony. In the evening, we taught Hector the Plan of Salvation. He<br />has trouble with the purpose of life--coming to gain experience and<br />keep the commandments. We tried our best to explain it, then invited<br />him to pray about it. I`m so grateful for the fact that Heavenly<br />Father hears--and answers--prayers.<br /><br />Saturday: So today I completed 18 months in the Mission. A<br />year-and-a-half since I saw my family. I only have 6 months left to<br />serve the Lord an dhelp as many people as possible. That was pretty<br />much all we did today. All of our appts. fell through. We did nothing<br />but contacts all day long, talking to all of the people we could. But<br />it was a hard day. We set out with the determination to find lots of<br />people to help. but we would find that the street we were contacting<br />was suddenly empty. So we went to others and found similar results.<br />When we knocked doors, nobody answered. 9 hours of looking for ANYONE<br />in the entire sector, and we spoke with 25 people. It was so hard for<br />me. We won`t be able to complete with our goal. We stopped by Lilian`s<br />house. She was there! But she said someone had told her dad that she<br />was seeing us. She`s using his house and he said he`d kick her and her<br />kids out if we kept visiting. She was going to get baptized at the end<br />of the month. Now, I don`t know when she`ll get those blessings. I`m<br />jsut so sad because of the ...wickedness of the people. And their<br />suffering. And their indifference. I`m being weighed down by the fact<br />that our Zone was counting on the baptisms we were planning to have.<br />Our investigators are avoiding us, and i`m somehow responsible for the<br />actions someone else decides to take. I`m going to be praying very<br />fervently tomorrow.<br /><br />Sunday: Today was an okay day. But I`m super happy right now, anyway.<br />Hector promised us three times, this week, that he would ocme to<br />Church, including this morning. We called him right before the<br />Meetings, and he said he was still in bed, but would come. When he<br />didn`t show up to Sacrament Meeting, we called again. He told us he<br />changed his mind and that we should stop pressuring him. He wa sour<br />last hope for baptizing this month. But the good news came in the<br />afternoon. We found Jorge!!! he`s been working lately. He finally got<br />a job, which is great. He mentioned that in the time that he`s spent<br />away from the church, he`s felt unprotected and vulnerable. He said he<br />wants the "good feeling" again. I bore him my testimony of the Gift of<br />the Holy Ghost and of baptism. We reviewed the word of wisdom and he<br />committed to not drinking Alcohol. He made the comment, "Your watch<br />looks a little small, there. Here, have mine." And he gave me a very<br />handsome-looking watch. It even has his name engraved on the back! He<br />said that there are lots of folks in the world that don`t pay<br />attention to others when they express their love. He said that the way<br />we`ve shown our care for him has been going around in his head and<br />that he appreciates it. I really do care for him. I just know he`ll<br />make the right decision. He could get baptized before I leave, if he<br />wanted to.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />Okay, so I`ve got an important announcement. One of the<br />ex-missionaries of this mission has a son that has cancer. He`s dying<br />and has months (inside of 3) to live. he had to come home from his<br />mission, because it was so bad. They said that they can do a<br />bone-marrow transplant that is very expensive, and can extend his life<br />by 10 years. they`re asking for help. they say that a dollar or even a<br />penny would help immensely. For those who are willing to help save<br />stephen, go to this link! <a href="http://www.Supportstephen.wordpress.com/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(17, 37, 8); ">www.Supportstephen.wordpress.<wbr>com</a><br />Thanks for reading!</span>Brigham Merrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03791313958892267082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262832742773264087.post-51542236572043036372011-11-06T16:01:00.003-08:002011-11-06T16:02:06.585-08:0010-30-11<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Mon: Today was a good Pday. Hna. Roa invited us over, to spend the day<br />at her house. We helped prepare breakfast and clean up a little bit.<br />We had an appt. with Jorge, but he cancelled 10 min. before. I don`t<br />know how to help him if he doesn`t let us. We visited a new<br />investigator, Irma, and her friend, Claudia. Claudia had had a fight<br />with some of those close to her. We tried to cheer them up with the<br />Gospel, then i told them to get some ice cream together. It makes<br />everything better.<br /><br />Tuesday: Today was a good day. the Zone Leaders called me and said<br />what my clas was supposed to be. nothing really exciting happened at<br />the Distrizona meeting. We had lunch with Hna. Briones. She gives us<br />so much food! It was like a war between my will and the confines of my<br />stomach.For our language study, we had to doa grammar test online. I<br />got 100%! I know Spanish! Lilian couldn`t meet with us today. Her<br />cousin was killed on Saturday. That`s why she didn`t come on Sunday.<br />She hadn`t slept at all, last night and was almost too drowsy to think<br />straight. She`s still smoking, and we`re trying ot help her quit. On<br />our way to do contacts, we heard someone knocking their window. They<br />invited us in. It was the house of Sara, a little old lady that had a<br />picture of Elder Mcconnell in her house. She`s dead now. Her<br />granddaughter(member) had let us in, to give a blessing to her mom<br />(non-member). We did, and they both commented that they had been just<br />the words they`d needed. Later, I was showing a video to my comp. A<br />man came out and said he didn`t like us standing in front of houses. I<br />asked if he would prefer that I stood in the middle of the road,<br />`cause you can`t NOT stand in front of houses. He shut up and went<br />inside. I was ticked! But then I felt bad afterward and repented. We<br />visited Ernesto and Lily. We taught them about the Holy Ghost and<br />Enduring to the end. They were very receptive. We`ll see how it goes<br />when we teach them the word of wisdom.<br /><br />Wednesday: This morning, I was looking through my journal, to see when<br />we had visited Sara, the recently-deceased lady. It was on july 28th.<br />She died on Aug1st, 3 days later! that`s so nuts! I hope we were able<br />to help her be prepared for the Spirit World. We didn`t have<br />companionship study, because our investigator, David, was only<br />available at 10:30. But after ourl ong walk over there, we found that<br />he wasn`t even home. But, fortunately, Hna. Pinar lived close by, and<br />needed some help. My Hijo knows, or at least, is studying, Electronic<br />Engineering. Hna. Pinar mentioned that she loves listening to the<br />radio, but only one speaker works. My hijo took the speaker apart, and<br />fiddled with the wires, and then it worked! he`s a stud. We had lunch<br />with Hno. Bravo. He doesn`t believe that completos count as lunch, but<br />we usually order them at the restaurant he takes us to anyway. Today<br />he said, "You`re not going to order completos today." So we complied.<br />I had pork! We went to Santa Barbara to interview a potential convert,<br />Margaret. She passed! Interviews are so special for me. i love hearing<br />the process of the candidates` personal Spiritual growth. In the<br />evening, we had scheduled to teach English to Hna. Quiroga`s daughter.<br />We called to confirm. She didn`t answer. we went to Hna. Pinar`s house<br />to ask if she had other numbers for Hna. Quiroga...and we found Hna.<br />Quiroga there! The Lord guided us! We had an unproductive time with<br />contacts. I finally found a way to listen to Grandpa`s funeral<br />service. I can hear mama talk and sing, and Daddy said the closing<br />prayer. It was a really long prayer :)<br /><br />Thursday: This week has gotten really stressful as of late the<br />Mission President wants to baptize a lot this weekend, so we`ve had to<br />change things up. I`ve been working closely with my District, and<br />we`ve been making the most progress in the whole Mission! elder Gomez<br />is a really hard worker, and so are the Sisters in Nacimiento. We had<br />our Weekly Planning Session. Now that ALL of our Investigators have<br />dates planned out, we were able to plan more accurately. We hadl unch<br />with the Bello family. When we went by Lilian`s house, we found out<br />she was at the Cemetary. Dang it! We tried going by Jorge, trying so<br />hard to help him get baptized this weekend! He wasn`t there either. We<br />tried to visit a lot of inactive Members, but no one answered. We ran<br />into Hna. Roa and she talked to us for a LONG time. We wrote up our<br />Progress Report and went to Comité. Hno. Garcia´s so funny. He sounds<br />like the white, cartoon dog with the orange upff of hair. We helped<br />make Completos with the Young Men and Women.<br /><br />Friday: Today was an exciting day. Yu, that`s a good word for it. We<br />got up early to walk to the Bus Terminal. On all of the other<br />occasions when we`ve had to travel, I`ve always bought my tickets a<br />day in advance. But this time, I forgot. Elder Gomez arrived first,<br />and said they were almost gone. So we ran there in our suits ( Elder<br />Gomez didn`t have money to buy tickets for us). The trip itself was<br />uneventful. I thought it would be more of a presentational meeting.<br />Nope. Pres. Martinez got up and told the new missionaries it was their<br />time to compliment and complain about their trainers. It was a report!<br />I was sweating bullets. Thankfully, my hijo didn`t have anything to<br />complain about. We`re doing all the things we shoudl be. Whew! I was<br />really happy to see Elder Arjona and Hna. Alanis. they`re some of my<br />really good friends. Oh, and Hnas. Bair and Miller, who both went to<br />Timpview. I picked up mail! I got a package from the family and<br />letters form Estee, Chanel (who`s been called to serve in Portland,<br />Oregon!), Bitsy, Muzna, and 2 from Cassie! One`s for my Bday! All of<br />those letters made me so happy! We had to ride home in the<br />Assisstant`s truck and van...all 18 of us. All the buses were sold<br />out. Most fit, but my hijo and I had to ride in the metal bed of the<br />truck for 3 hours. Ow. I opened my package and found a whole lot of<br />wonderful things.<br /><br />Saturday: Today was a really good day. We got to go to Nacimiento<br />(which means Birth) first thing in the Morning. There, I had to do two<br />Interviews with some 11 year-old boys. The first one was really<br />distracted. I kid ou not, the kid was craning his neck all the way<br />back and looking all around the room except at me. But he answered the<br />questions correctly, I guess. The other kid, Jerson, was less-familiar<br />with the Gospel (less time), but he was focused and had a wonderful<br />testimony. We got back in time to have lunch with the weird family<br />with 9 cats. They had a nephew visiting them. I swear that kid`s sick.<br />During the prayer he was calling everyone morons and that we were<br />stupid. He`s like 6. His mom asked us to give him a blessing, and we<br />did. But he was constantly moving. We even had to start over once.<br />Nuts. We were the only ones that showed up, out of the Elder`s quorum,<br />to clean the Chapel. So we lost 2 1/2 hours of work. Lame. Paola is<br />busy the whole weekend, because a visit arrived. Ernesto and his<br />family are going to temuco, so they won`t come to church, either. We<br />passed by Lilian`s house, and found her in the street, locked out of<br />her hosue. We talked for a while, and I gave her a few of my American<br />sweets. :) We found an old couple that really wants to go to Church<br />next weekend. We taught Hector the Sabbath Day. He knew we had to rest<br />but didn`t know to Sanctify it and dedicate it to the Lord. He`ll come<br />to church--next week. He already has an appt. with relatives tomorrow.<br /><br />Sunday: today was something of a discouraging day. Lilian promised us<br />that she`d go to church today. We passed by her house in the morning,<br />but she didn`t answer, and her neighbor said she had left to some<br />river. and Hector didn`t come. Neither did Ernesto and his family. I<br />was depressed. There was a young man, that was invited by a member,<br />and who was interested in the Church. Buyt we found out he belongs to<br />another sector. Then we found out that Paola, our really great<br />investigator, is also form another sector. *sigh*We visited Lilian<br />after lunch and found her outside...smoking with her friend. Because<br />she didn`t go to Church, her baptismal date changed to a time after<br />transfers. If I go, I won`t be able to see her get baptized. We did<br />contacts for the rest of the Afternoon. It was SO dang hot today.<br />after 10 min. my legs were dripping with sweat, my skin was burning,<br />and I was fidgety. Not a lot happened during contacts. We got back to<br />the house as elder Burch called us.We let him drop off his stuff. Then<br />I got some sweets out, and delivered them to Hna. Pinar because I love<br />her so very, very much. I wrote a start to my response to Cassie. I<br />was feeling down, but she made me happier through her words and<br />Testimony.</span></span>Brigham Merrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03791313958892267082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262832742773264087.post-80932405510197691212011-11-06T16:01:00.001-08:002011-11-06T16:01:27.641-08:0010-17-11<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Monday: Today was a good Pday. We didn`t get to sleep in as long as we<br />would have liked because the Zone Leaders wanted to play Soccer. But<br />even that was fun today. We went to their hosue, afterward, so they<br />could shower off. then we went all around town, looking at places<br />where they sell custom shirts. For the Mission-wide activity at the<br />end of the month, each Zone will need it`s own shirt, flag, batlle<br />cry, and song. Everybody wants me to write the song. It`s in spanish.<br />I`ll have to try really hard. We went to write the family. Mom said<br />she`s sent off my Birthday package. Other than that, I don`t know how<br />they`re doing. Supposedly, Daddy had surgery. But in this case, no<br />news is good news, right? Mom did mention that devin seems a little<br />bit lost. She noted that Cassie has Lindsay, and Devin needs me. Yeah,<br />life is going to be sweet when I get back. When I cried during the<br />Saturday devotional, Hna. Cecilia rubbed and squeezed my arm in that<br />way moms have. It`d been a long time and was so nice. I can`t wait to<br />see mama again. We gave yet another blessing in the Hospital today. It<br />was 8 year-old Juan. He`s not baptized because he`s waiting for the<br />right Elder. But when he was in the Hospital, he told his mom that<br />he`d realized WHO baptizes him isn`t as important as getting baptized.<br />We met with Scarlet and Gustavo and reviewed the "Book of Mormon"<br />Liahona. They`re so awesome!<br /><br />Tuesday: Today was a really great day. We had our Distrizona in the<br />morning. In our class, Elder Gomez mentioned an email he`d gotten from<br />his friend who got to his Mission, in Africa, a week ago. He said he<br />has already baptized 3 people, and they have 20 more people lined up<br />for the 22nd! they don`t have a Christian background/false ideas, so<br />they`re receptive. We talked about "The Vision of Baptism." It was a<br />letter from the Area Presidency, describing how we shouldn`t focus on<br />Prophets, or the BOM, or Eternal families, because none of that<br />matters if they don`t have a remission of their sins. THAT should be<br />our focus. We had to make up a song and a battle cry, butr nobody<br />wanted to. I managed to get somethign for a battle cry, but I fear the<br />swong is beyond me. We taught Jorge in the Afternoon. We were finally<br />able to teach him about fasting. we taught him, and he got emotional,<br />and before we could even commit him to try a mini-fast, he said, "I`d<br />like to fast this weekend." Wow. He hasn`t talked to us in a month<br />becuase he was scared of fasting. I`m so grateful Heavenly Father can<br />soften hearts. We checked out a referral from Hno. Amstein. She has<br />been listening to the Zone Leaders from the other Zone (she has two<br />houses). So we taught her about baptism and everything. She`s so<br />prepared! She`d only received one lesson, but she already had a date<br />and hour planned for her baptism. The work of the Lord is so real. I<br />remember saying something to her and she said, "I was just thinking<br />about that. Thank you."gift of Discernment =real!<br /><br />Wednesday: Today was so wonderful. I just feel like I`m going to<br />explode from happiness. We woke up and went jogging,making a<br />commitment to do it for the rest of the transfer. I discovered<br />something--jogging can be a near-traumatic experience if you`re a year<br />and a half out of practice. My lungs ached all morning. We<br />determinedly planned a lesson for Lily and Ernesto. they`ve been<br />wanting to take things slow. But we want them to have a remission of<br />their sins! Study, this morning, was a really inspired exerience. We<br />had lunch, then had afternoon study time. We passed by Daniel, a guy<br />who wants to speak English. But the first thing he said was, "I`m<br />Catholic, you won`t convince me." The Mission requires mental<br />toughness to face things like that on a daily basis. we met with<br />Angelica. She`s so proud. She asked if I think the Catholic Church was<br />false. I said yes and explained why. She was astonished and will come<br />to Church on Sunday. We took Hno. Pinar with us, to visit Lily and<br />Ernesto. They`ve come so far! They understood the examples we gave.<br />They recognize the Spirit, too. They say it feels different when we<br />visit, and when we watched "The First Vision" with them. We spoke of<br />repentance and the forgiveness that the remission of sins brings.<br />They`ll prepare to be baptized on Nov. 19th with their son, Vicente.<br />They`ll read chapters in the BOM to find answers to their "Questions<br />of the soul," and pray to know if it`s true. Hno. Pinar testified and<br />invited them to church. They said they`d let us pick them up. WOOT!<br />I`m Happy!<br /><br />Thursday: Today was SO hot. I think it was only in the 80´s, but I was<br />sweating a ton. We`re only a month into Sprin! Dang it. Jogging was<br />easier today, if only because we did the "Grandpa Shuffle" style of<br />jogging. We had our weekly planning session today. It took longer than<br />normal, because we have a LOT more investigators that are progressing.<br />We paired each investigator with a Member, and planned out future<br />lessons. It was sweet! We HAD an appt. with Jorge, but he called us<br />right before lunch, to cancel. Argh! After lunch, we met up with the<br />Zone Leaders so that we could do divisions. I went with Elder Tanner.<br />We picked up Barbara, a member, so she could accompany us to our appt.<br />with Lilian. She`s so great! Almost all of my converts are results of<br />the Lord preparing people, rather than hard people I`ve had to<br />persuade. We taught Lilian the Word of Wisdom and the Law of chastity.<br />She`s good with the Law of Chastity, but she drinks tea, coffee, and<br />smokes. But right before we found her, she randomly wanted to start<br />stopping. But today she said she was sdone. And she said that nobody<br />else will drink coffee in her family anymore. She rules(literally)! We<br />met some new people during contacts. Lots of snaky girls. :O We had<br />our Comité with Hno. Garcia before playing soccer with the Young Men<br />and a few non-members. Savannah, the gringa, came to Mutual! I got her<br />to commit to go to church on Sunday! Hna. Roa gave us ice cream. I<br />love her so much. She and Hna. Pinar are "fighting" over who`s my<br />mamita. Both are!<br /><br />Friday: I still can`t believe what has happened today and this past<br />week. We have been so blessed by tghe Lord! I have such a testimony<br />that the Lord is with us, and that by his power, the people can relaly<br />feel that we are his servants. We spent the morning planning out our<br />lessons. Our first appt. in the Afternoon was with Lilian. She used to<br />smoke 20 cigarettes a day. But in the 24 hours that she`s known about<br />the Word of Wisdom, she`s only smoked one, and has thrown out her<br />coffee. We taught her the Sabbath Day. She said, "I always go to the<br />Super Market on Sunday to buy lunches. But I understand I won`t be<br />able to do that anymore." What?! She said she is always happier after<br />we visit. He r husband`s even noticed. I gave her a blessing to help<br />her resist temptation. She told us she`d felt something warm on her<br />head that spread through her whole body. She`s so sensitive to the<br />Spirit! Wevisited with Hector. He`s always so hard-hearted and<br />doubting. He questions the Book of Mormon. But he told us today that<br />he`d been able to read a few verses. He`s nearly blind, so that`s<br />great. We taught him about repentance and Baptism. We invited him to<br />prepare to be baptized on Nov. 19th. He waited about 3 seconds before<br />saying, "Yes." At first, I thought he hadn`t understood the question.<br />But then he said that he`d been pondering a lot about Joseph Smith. He<br />said it makes sense. He also said he had less doubts since he`d<br />started reading. I know that that Book of Mormon is a Miracle of God,<br />given to us to be able to get closer to him. I`ve seen that promise<br />been completed over and over again. He also said that he feels<br />somethign differently when we come over. After that, we went to visit<br />Paola. She`s a referral that the Office gave us. We found out that she<br />is getting divorced. She`s 27. She looked so vulnerable. She said she<br />needs Spi8ritual Strength and hasn`t found it in the other Churches.<br />She has a co-worker that`s amember. She`s so smart. We taught her the<br />Restoration, and she underwstood everything. She wants to read the<br />Book of Mormon and receive an answer. She`ll come to church and even<br />accepted the invitation to prepare to be baptized on Nov. 19th. I mean<br />HOLY SMOKES!!! Wepve been blessed so much, to beable to help these<br />people. Paola said she, too, felt the Spirit. I`m really learning to<br />become a better and better instrument in the hands of the lord. I`m so<br />grateful for his mercy and his patience with me. Being worthy of his<br />love is one of my biggest dreams. I love this work. I love loving<br />people. I love helping them find Heavenly Father`s love. I`m so happy,<br />right now!<br /><br />Saturday: It`s amazing how disappointing a normal day can seem after a<br />miraculous one. We had a special activity with Pres. martinez in the<br />morning. He spoke to the Youth of the stake about the iimportance of<br />Missionary Work. It was nice. there were refreshment afterward. I got<br />to know a new Sister Missionary, Hna. barbosa. She`s from Washington.<br />I pretty much just listened as she told me how her first two weeks<br />have gone for her. those were good times for me. Well, interesting<br />times at any reate. We had lunch, and then prepared for a lesson with<br />4 new investigators. They weren`t home when they said they would be.<br />They`re not even in the city. We did contacts in the hot sun, for a<br />while, until our next appt. who also wasn`t hom. We visited Hna.<br />Pinar. Anyway, all of our appts. fell through. We did contacts, and<br />helped clean the Chapel.<br /><br />Sunday: Today was kind of a let-down. We worked all week, trying to<br />get people to commit to being baptized and progressing. And they were!<br />But not one of them showed up at Church. I felt so helpless. I had<br />felt like I had finally been doing things right. But nobody came to<br />church--not even Lilian. Mouricio Rodriguez taught about the Book of<br />Mormon, and how it`s meant to be a source of light, truth, and<br />revelation in times where sacred things are befuddled (okay, he didn`t<br />use that word EXACTLY) by the understanding and interpretation of man.<br />The Gringa, SAvannah, came to Church. we helped reactivate her, at<br />least. We had lunch with Hna. Roa. She`s so sweet. She loves to have<br />us over for lunch, and to spend time with ehr. She asked us for acvice<br />on how to help a daughter understand that she has to date within the<br />Church--or at least marry in the Temple. I found that as I pondered<br />the dilemma, my mind immediately started thinking of Scriptures and<br />questions to make them think and find the answer for themselves--just<br />like an investigator! I`m not sure how I feel about htat. We taught<br />Paola again. We`d planned to to explain baptism a little more, but she<br />asked why Christ had to die, or what happens to the Spirit between<br />death and the Resurrection, so we taught her the Plan of Salvation<br />instead. She was reather shocked that we actually had real answers. It<br />was great!</span></span>Brigham Merrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03791313958892267082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262832742773264087.post-90904981205391059782011-11-06T16:00:00.001-08:002011-11-06T16:00:58.872-08:0010-16-11<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Monday: Today was a great Pday. We woke up, and I got to sleep in. I<br />had a crazy dream last night. We cleaned a little and then went to<br />write the family. We did contacts today, and had a lot more success<br />than yesterday. I liked one comment, from Conference, that I keep<br />going back to: a lot of people pray for patience, but they want it<br />RIGHT NOW. The Lord`s not going to make that change, instantly, for<br />us. It makes me pay more attention to HOW the Lord will be preparing<br />ways for me to endure well and be rewarded with that potential prize.<br />We visited Hna. Pinar and she said she loved the talk by Elder Holland<br />that I`d left her.<br /><br />Tuesday: Today was a good day. We got up and went jogging. we actually<br />did a lot of jogging today, for various reasons. sHaha. For our comp.<br />study, we studied "Common doubts." If I ever have the time, I`d like<br />to share it with Alan and Kevin. I learned some more stuff today, for<br />sure. We did some contacts in the morning. We had lunch with Hna.<br />rodriguez. She made some heavenly lasagna. but the whole conversation<br />was about how much better her sons are than me. She said that all the<br />Utah missionaries are obligated/forced to go on a Mission. There was<br />so much I didn`t know before the Mission. I`m not sure why I came,<br />except out of love I felt for other people. I didn`t know the<br />doctrine, but I kenw how happy the Gospel made me. Hna. Rodriguez said<br />it was all a joke, AFTER she saw I`d been bothered. the Mission`s<br />frickin` hard! I don`t care if I haven`t been a Zone Leader since I<br />had 2 months in the Mission, like her son. I`m proud just for not<br />going home that first, rainy, confusing week. Okay, done venting. We<br />found Lilian. She`s way receptive. We taught her faith, repentance,<br />and prayer. She even said the closing prayer! There was an...aroused<br />dog gang, trying to get the girl dog. They started fighting with each<br />other, and we tried to get away from them. But their center of<br />attention, the girl dog, followed us. So we ran for 3 blocks, trying<br />to ditch the vicious, pursuing, horny dogs. If I had it on camera, and<br />sugsequently youtube, I`d be a star. It was so hilarious!<br /><br />Wednesday: Today was a hard day. We had our Distrizona in the MOrning.<br />I was asked, by the Zone Leaders, to give a class on how to study and<br />prepare effectively. Then, for our practice, I had everybody prepare a<br />lesson for one of the investigators right there. It was a pretty good<br />class. We had lunch with Hna. Pinar. We had completos! It was so good.<br />Hno. Pinar wasn`t feeling so good. He was all bundled up, eating warm<br />soup, next to the fire. It was raining outside. It almost made ME want<br />to be sick. And be with my mom to take care of me. Almost. we did<br />contacts in the Afternoon. After 3 hours of knocking doors, we only<br />had 11 contacts. Everybody recognizes my red hair through their window<br />curtains and tells us to go away. there`s only one really good<br />neighborhood to find people/knock houses. The rest of the Sector`s<br />just businesses. But thanks to the "Month of Sanctification" we blew<br />through the neighborhood about 3 times each transfer. This is my 7th<br />time talking to the same people that told me not to come back. One<br />particularly rude lady had remembered my name, even, without looking<br />at my nametag, and used it to tell me to stop wasting her time. I`ve<br />just hit another rough spot, I guess. But I read my Patriarchal<br />Blessing a little while ago, and I felt a peace. that was the Spirit<br />telling me, "This is true. This is right." I wrote back to Alan`s<br />letter. That made me feel better, too. I`m gonna keep going.<br /><br />Thursday: today was way better than yesterday. I think the rain had<br />been dampening my mood, is all. but today was sunny and warm and<br />awesome. We woke up and did some studying before we had to go to the<br />bus terminal to head off to santa barbara to start off our divisions.<br />I went with Elder Gomez, and both of our hijos went together. We had<br />lunch and then wen straight to an appt. Margaret wants to get<br />baptized, but her Grandpa won`t let her leave him alone on Sundays. We<br />challenged her to do everything possible to get to church. In our<br />Afternoon study time, I showed Elder Gomez a little bit about the<br />Sabbath day. we visited a less-active member before going to do the<br />Interview. Daniela was super cool! she had lots of doubts at first,<br />but through prayer she received her answer. At conference, too! She<br />told me she was pregnant, but it`d happened before she met the<br />Missionaries. I read 2 Nephi 9:25-26 telling her the marvelous<br />blessings of the Atonement. She passsed the Interview wonderfully. we<br />did a contact, and she said, "I don`t believe in happiness." But as we<br />talked more, she said she was looking for a Church for her daughter.<br />We talked more, and she said, "What if I wanted to get baptized in<br />your church?" haha. A miracle indeed. We taught Teresa about the Book<br />of Mormon. She likes what she`s seen, but is still doubtful. I bore<br />her the strongest testimony I`ve ever given and invited her to be<br />baptized when she received her answer. You could see/feel the Spirit<br />working in her before she said, "yes." It was very cool.<br /><br />Friday: Today was a really great day. I accidentally slept in, and<br />Elder Gomez didn`t wake me up. Ugh! But I got up and studied for a<br />little bit before we had to run to catch the bus to Los Angeles. we<br />met up with our comps. and ended the division. I found that Hna. Roa<br />had stopped by, this morning, to give us rasberry pie. She loves me.<br />We were asked to go to the Hospital and give a blessing. It was an<br />inactive member form another city. He was a big tough guy. He told us<br />he had cancer, and it broke my heart when he started crying. But he<br />was smiling when we left. We also had to give a blessing to the<br />grandson of a lady (non-member) we ran into. Her daughter`s a member.<br />It`s a really cool feeling to give blessings in Hospitals. People look<br />to you for hope. We taught Lilian today (while I was in Santa Barbara,<br />my hijo put a baptisimal date with her). She said she couldn`t sleep<br />last night. She felt like she was being watched. So she read the Book<br />of Mormon, and felt at peace. She said she thought it was Satan,<br />trying to stop her. We taught the Restoration. She said she believes<br />Joseph Smith was a prophet. She`s so prepared. We visited Hector. He<br />started by telling us he didn`t believe in the Book of Mormon. We<br />"argued" for about 5 minutes before I suggested we read it. Afterward,<br />he quieted down a bit. He said he`d read daily from then on, even if<br />it`s one verse. His wife is going to help him. Our Ward left for the<br />Temple at 10:30 tonight. They`re all so excited.<br /><br />Saturday: Some really cool things happened today. We spent our<br />companionship study discussing ways we can teach the Book of Mormon<br />better. Then we went to try and find Jorge. We always visited him in<br />the Afternoon. But his wife told us, on Thursday,k we can find him at<br />noon. and for the first time in a month, we found him! He`s had some<br />spinal problems. when we told him that he doesn`t have to be able to<br />fast right away, in order to get baptized. He smiled and said,<br />"Thgat`s good news." He`s gonna get baptized, I`m pretty sure. Our<br />other appts. fell through, but Hno. Ordenes called and said he needed<br />help cleaning the Chapel, because everyone else was gone. We finished<br />with just enought time to head to the "Missionary Work" Cultural<br />activity transmission from santiago. There were about 5,000 youth<br />participating. They did a really cool part with 2,000 stripling<br />warriors doing a battle dance to the Primary song "W`ll bring the<br />World his truth." An opera lady sng a solo, high up in the Stadium, of<br />"come, come, ye saints" while the "pioneers" marched below. But the<br />the whole stadium joined in. It was so moving. All of the<br />ex-missionaries that have ever served in Chile, that were able to<br />come, stood on a podium. It was cool. Then, the first two Missionaries<br />gav e a message. There was a play where a family sent their son on a<br />Mission. That made me cry. That first day was a hard one. Watching the<br />Mom saying goodbye to her son was hard.<br /><br />Sunday: Today was a good day. we fasted this week, for Jorge and for<br />Daddy, so that his surgery went well. During sacrament Meeting, the<br />Bishop called a lot of people out. He said there are 68 Ward Members<br />with Temple Recommends and only 11 went. He said that Money, Work, and<br />"being busy" in general are all excuses of man, and that going to the<br />Temple should be our top priority. It was a pretty strong call to<br />action. We didn`t have any investigators in Church today. but we<br />should have several next week. Yeah! Our lunch was with Hna. Marta.<br />She is extremely strange. Our last lunch with her was squash soup in<br />their country house that is right next to a Satanic cult. So I waws<br />worried this morning. But when we got there, we found a<br />barbeque...with no cartilage! We had pork, chicken, and a really<br />flavorful sausage called langaniza. She told us all the other<br />Missionaries spent the whole afternoon at their house, and told us to<br />do the same--and RELAX. When she told us to relax, I felt like a<br />vulnerable Zoolander to her evil Will Farrell. So wse told her we<br />still had work to do, which was true. We went to give ANOTHER blessing<br />at the Hospital. We did contacts for the rest of the night. Nobody<br />opened up until the end. My hijo said, "hello ma´am." The contact, in<br />a rumbling bass, with a smile that we could see from 10 ft. away,<br />said, "hello." My hijo was like, "i`m so sorry." The guy was coo with<br />it, and said we could come back. He`ll cut his hair, too.</span></span>Brigham Merrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03791313958892267082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262832742773264087.post-75004980274043034912011-11-06T15:59:00.000-08:002011-11-06T16:00:16.278-08:0010-9-11<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Monday: Today was a good day. Except when I woke up at 6-ish and was<br />immediately completely awake and couldn`t go back to sleep. Haha. It`s<br />ironic because it`s my only day to sleep in. We studied for a little<br />while before Hna. Roa came to pick us up to take us to her country<br />house. Her daughter, Javiera, bought a new Triple so she could use my<br />"Scripture Shortcut" system, and she needed some questions answered<br />and help in heneral. They gave us some breakfast, and then Hna. Roa`s<br />dad, who lives next door, came by with their doead dog in a<br />wheelbarrow. Everyone cried and I felt awkward. We wrote the family.<br />It looks like mama and Daddy are in pretty bad shape. I`m so worried<br />for them. We watched "Up" while we were with Hna. roa. It`s a really<br />good movie. We got home, and went to do some contacts. We found a few<br />people who are interested, and one woman even speaks English. Sweet!<br />We visited Gustavo and Scarlet. They`re so awesome! Scarlet said<br />Conference was exactly how she`d exècted it to be. She also thanked me<br />for the blessing I gave to her last week, for her back. She said she<br />was going to go to the Hospital the next day. But during the blessing,<br />she felt something she`d never felt before--a fire on her back, right<br />where it hurt, and then the pain was gone instantly. She hadn`t said<br />goodbye, that night, because she was speechless. Priesthood power is<br />real. Especially when used with love.<br /><br />Tuesday: Today was a singularly unproductive day. Actually, from the<br />way this week`s starting to shape up, with all of our meetings and<br />various duties, it looks like the whole week`s gonna be the same way.<br />We had our Distrizona in the morning, and I gave a class about how to<br />recognize and follow the Sìrit. It turned out well, and then I had<br />everyone share what they learned from their companions. That was<br />reallly awesome. Elder Zunñiga said he`s learned how to be happier and<br />how to have a positive attitude when things get hard. That made me<br />ffeel so humbled. I`m still working to get it right. I still have so<br />many short-comings. Jus ta quick note on learning how to recognize the<br />Spirit: That was one of my biggest fears in the MTC. But most of my<br />class was from personal experience. It`s such a wonderful blessing to<br />have in my life. We had lunchy with Hna. Roa before going to teach<br />Sabrina. Then we went to drop off our clothes and buy bus tickets for<br />tomorrow. We have a conference, but it`ll be in Hualpen, where I was!<br />We had a Ward Council. All of chile is doing Permaneced, trying to<br />help inactive members come back, for the Celebration of 50 years since<br />MIssionary Warted here. Santa Barbara is sleeping over here for the<br />night<br /><br />Wednesday: I completed 17 months in my Mission, Today! Woot! It<br />doesn`t feel any different from last month. haha. Today was a happy<br />day. we got up at 5:00 so we could walk to the Bus terminal and leave<br />to our conference in Hualpen. Oh, how I`d missed it. I remember the<br />stinky gas factory that used to bug me. But today I loved it, as<br />treasured memories were brought back. then, I got to see all of my<br />friends. I was especially happy to see Elder Calaway, Elder Montalbán,<br />and Elder Mcconnell. Elder Calaway is so funny, and we spent almost<br />the whole day together. I got to talk to Elder Mcconnell for the<br />second time since we left the MTC. He`s wearing glasses now. Haha. but<br />he`s doing well. I also got to see Elder Burch. He said he got me a<br />Bday present, but forgot it at home. But I was still happy to see him.<br />Pres. Martinez motivated everyone to be more obedient, using a lot of<br />Scriptures to explain how th eDevil works. It was kind of frightening<br />when you think in the detail he gave us. Satan constantly invites us<br />to do bad. But Heavenly Father constantly invites us to do good. Nephi<br />explains that it`s up to us to choose eternal life of eternal death.<br />Salvation depends on what we want. We took our long ride home, and<br />then immediately went to help Hna. Quiroga by helping her daughter<br />with her English. She`s really quite talented. We agreed to do it,<br />because her non-member husband was going to be there. He wasn`t. We<br />got home and I`m tired. Whew!<br /><br />Thursday: Today felt pressured. when we added up our numbers thjat we<br />have so far, it was quite a shock to find out how busy we`ve been with<br />all of our meetings, traveling, and stuff. But during our weekly<br />planning we got to plan for all of the families we`re teaching, and<br />how to help them resolve their doubts. It was really exciting to feel<br />the Spirit of the Lord opening our minds to receive the answers we<br />needed. We had lunch and then came back to study. I startedreading a<br />bit of "The MIracle of Forgiveness" That my hijo has. It had some<br />pretty strong stuff, and I decided to wait `til I can read it in<br />English so it can be even stronger! Bwahaha!Cristian, one of the only<br />young men that works with us, came out to do contacts for the first<br />time in a while. While we were working, I got a call from the Mission<br />office. They had a referral for us1 She was up in Concepción, but she<br />lives here. She wants to get to know the Church. She has a testimony<br />of the Restoration and wants to get baptized! I haven`t even met her<br />yet. She`s done all that on her own! We set an appt. for when she<br />returns, next Friday. We went ot the appts. we`d planned with our<br />progressing investigators, but they all fell through. If they don`t<br />start going to church, they won`t be able to receive their answers!<br />Hna. Pinar called, and said she had a great referral, too. the Lord is<br />blessing us for all of our hard work!<br /><br />Friday: Today was a pretty good day. Ever since they changed the way<br />to measure contacts, we`ve been finding it hard to complete with our<br />goal. But, we`ve been able to visit some of the awesome investigators<br />that we have. We had a great companionship study, learning together<br />about prayer. We practiced a few times, pretending to be one of our<br />investigators. It went really well. Practicing may feel uncomfortable<br />at times, or even unnecessary, but just by doing it, you`re showing<br />your diligence. And for that, Heavenly Father softens the hearts of<br />his children for you. That`s from personal experience. We had lunch<br />with Hna. Quiroga and then went out to work. We met with Angelica.<br />She`s pretty tough. We read the chapter we`d left her, together. But<br />she kept saying it`s true because it spoke of God. then she said it<br />was just as true as her church `cause they talk about God there, too.<br />She`s a real fan of the loud talkers. We invited her to pray, but she<br />said no. We were persistent for about 5 min. and I realized she`d<br />closed up. Our next appt. fell through, so we felt we should visit<br />Claudia, the wife of a guy who let us in last week. They`re always<br />busy, so this was a miracle. She`d read the intro. of the BoM we`d<br />left her husband! When we asked her to pray, and she said she wanted<br />to learn how to pray like us. the contrast between Claudia`s humility<br />and Angelica`s Stubborness was apparent. Right as we left, we found<br />Ernesto going home. We accomanied him and invited him to say a prayer.<br />Last time, he didn`t want to, but he said a wonderful prayer today. He<br />was the one we practiced for.<br /><br />Saturday: We walked a lot today. But we also did a lot of good. We got<br />up and I ate some peaches that I had been craving. Yum! I`ve been<br />reading about Alma and the change that Abinadi had caused in him. I<br />thought to myself. "We are having an Abinadi week." Because of our<br />meetings and new system of counting things. I`ve been confused a<br />little bit, trying to organize and plan for what we`ve set goals for.<br />But we`re not having the success we want. But I guess it`s not about<br />what WE want, is it? That`s one of the things I`ve learned in my<br />Mission: be humble so the Lord can teach you, and through the hard<br />times he`ll bless you. It`s been true every time. We had the best<br />spagghetti of my life with Hna. Cecilia. So good! We did contacts for<br />a while, before coming across two women trying to stuff a sofa through<br />their door. THAT`s a good finding opportunity. They refused us at<br />first, but we persisted (Elder Holland, in the MTC, said Sister<br />Holland`s AVON lady was more persisitent than us), and they let us<br />help. We ended up taking out their window, metal support-beam and all,<br />to get it in. They asked lots of questions. I gave them a Book of<br />Mormon to answer. the rest of our appts. fell through, and so we ran<br />to every possible place, trying to find someone. Nothin`. Haha. We<br />found out our transfers...We`re both staying together! Woot! It`s<br />gonna be awesome!<br /><br />Sunday: We got up, and my hijo reminded me that we had to go the Ward<br />Executive meeting two hours before church. So we hustled over there to<br />talk with everyone. we went over the Investigators we`ve been<br />teaching, and asked for their help in some areas. it went really well.<br />Today was fast and testimony meeting. I was nervous. We didn`t have<br />any of the new investigatorscome again, though. Ugh. we learned about<br />the Millenium in Gospel Principles and about the signs of the Second<br />Coming in PriesthoodThere was one investigator, Hugo, who was there.<br />He`s Catholic (hard-core) but has been coming to our church with his<br />wife for 20 years! The Missionaries have talked to him lots of times,<br />but nothing has come of it. Today, he asked if we could give him the<br />lessons :O SAY WHAT?!?!?! tHAT`S TOTALLY A MIRACLE. I called Elder<br />Burch, and he was more surprised than I was. We had lunch with the<br />Bishop. This whole week I`ve wanted a completo, but i`m saving my<br />money. Today, we had completos with the Bishop. I had 4! they were so<br />AWESOME! We did contacts for a while. We went through a whole street<br />without any doors opening. It was so lame. W evisited the Pinar family<br />and watched, "The District 2" with them. We were all crying. I can`t<br />wait to show it to my family. Hna. Roa dropped off calzones rotos<br />(broken underpants)--A chilean dessert. They`re scones with powdered<br />sugar. yum!</span></span>Brigham Merrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03791313958892267082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262832742773264087.post-15356814902710979462011-11-06T15:58:00.000-08:002011-11-06T15:59:27.108-08:0010-2-11<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Monday: Today was alright. we got up and cleaned and relaxed after<br />having enjoyed sleeping in. Then, our Zone Leaders called and said<br />they wanted to play soccer at our chapel, because of it`s field. We<br />ran over to Hna. Pinar`s house to get her copy of the key. As we were<br />playing, I realized the sad truth that I just can`t play this game<br />gracefully. So I played to my strengths and played goofily, and that<br />worked out pretty well. We went to write the family after we got<br />cleaned up. Mama and Daddy wrote me wonderful things of home.<br />Apparently, they bought a giant flag pole. My house, and car, and<br />room, and everything is going to be so different when I get home. I<br />was thinking about it, and my first day home, I`d like to just walk<br />around Provo. That sounds like a good plan. Up until this point, my<br />day was awesome. But then I got a migraine. I ended up taking three<br />aspirins, and it still didn`t lessen the pain. we went out ot drop our<br />clothes off and return Hna. Pinar`s keys. At that point, the pain was<br />so bad that Elder Zuñiga had to give me a blessing. I felt a mementary<br />relief, but it went away and the pain came back. Hna. Pinar made<br />lemonade with real lemons, saying itwould help. It didn`t, but it was<br />delicious. I couldn`t think straight through the pain, so we just came<br />home. Now I am going to just go to bed.<br /><br />Tuesday: Today was great. We went to the Distrizona and I taught my<br />class about helping Investigatators keep commitments. The Spirit was<br />there, and it went better than usual. I sent off my reply to Cassie<br />(friend). We did an online language study checklist today, and then<br />went to lunch. Hna. Soto told us Gloria had passed by, and is so happy<br />because of the help we`ve been giving her. that made me feel good.<br />Today, something changed in me. I don`t know what it was, but I`m sure<br />it has to do with the dedicated study I`ve recently been giving to the<br />Book of Mormon. This change was something that I felt. Afterwards, we<br />got into 4 houses.<br /><br />Wednesday: Today was a pretty important day. We had our interviews<br />with the President, and got to meet as a Zone with the Assisstants.<br />They told us that we`d lower the quantity of required contacts to<br />improve the quality of contacts expected. That`s something that I`ve<br />had clear since Sister Tan taught me how to do good contacts before<br />the Mission. We taught the Restoration to Angelica in the afternoon.<br />She was receptive. We walked around with the Book of Mormon in hand<br />all day. We watched "the Testaments" with Gloria. she loved it1 she<br />said she doesn`t like FHE. but she shared snacks during the movie, and<br />she shared scripture. When we told her THAT was an FHE, she said,<br />"That wasn`t so hard." I feel so great, right now! WOOT!<br /><br />Thursday: Today was so unbelievably awesome. Everything`s just coming<br />together and working perfectly. We`re teaching about 4 families with<br />about 3 people in each. They`re just starting out, but things look<br />promising. We learned about Weekly Planning from our "The District"<br />DVD`s. We had lunch with the bello family. Hno. Bello had questions<br />about his iPad 2 (hyperventilate) that I helped him out with. We tried<br />to teach Sabrina, but they`d gone to visit her sick grandma. We sent<br />chocolate with them. :) Some of our other appts. fell through, but<br />because of our more thorough contacts, we were able to have some<br />really motivating conversations. As we were standing outside a door, I<br />thought it`d be funny to send Elder Zuñiga a "toxic love note" if you<br />know what I mean. But it wasn`t as silent as I`d hoped it would be. It<br />was downright explosive! So we just ran away, red-faced and laughing.<br />We taught hector about Joseph Smith and the REstoration. He has some<br />doubts about Prophets and the Bible, but the thought of another<br />testament positively intrigued him. He said he`s not sure of lots of<br />things, but he wants to know. We invited him to read and pray, as well<br />as go to General Conference. We met with Scarlet and Gustavo for the<br />first time in 2 1/2 weeks. They`re doing so well. They hadn`t read the<br />BOM for a while, but Scarlet said she`d chewed him out yesterday<br />because of it (keep in mind that SHE`S the investigator. not him.).<br />She asked me to give her a blessing. I gave it from my heart as best I<br />could becuase I love her and gustavo and the progress they`re making.<br />As we ended, she was crying. She`s so special.<br /><br />Friday: Today was so amazing! We`re seeing so many blessings of the<br />Lord here, in Avenida Alemania. Oh my goodness. Today was the last day<br />before General Conference, and we had all these new investigators that<br />hadn`t heard the Restoration yet. When this transfer started, I was<br />depressed because we didn`t have people to plan for, or visit. Well<br />you know that Scripture that says, "God will open the windows of<br />heaven and puor out blessings so we won`t have room enough to recei8ve<br />them?" I totally know what that feels like, now. We`ve got 6 families<br />we`re teaching and more than 10 investigators that are progressing. So<br />we were prtty much running all over the place. They`re all such<br />special children of God, and they WANT to progress. It was really<br />special to me, to be able to testify almost all day long to these<br />people who could understand the importance of what we were saying. All<br />of them got Books of Mormon, and want ot come to General Conference.<br />Lily and Ernesto were our last visit. We watched "The REstoration"<br />video with them. Ernesto had read the pamphlet and had some questions<br />ready. They believe God COULD call a prophet. they were shocked at<br />ournews and want to read the Book of Mormon and go to Conference,<br />Sunday. What a wonderful miracle. I`m so grateful for the Spirit and<br />it`s role in teaching.<br /><br />Saturday: It was General Conference today! It was so full of inspired<br />messages that just said what I needed to hear. I`m so grateful for<br />repentance and the chance that we have, each day, to improve ourselves<br />and come closer to God. Elder Uchtdorf gave a wonderful talk on how<br />big the Universe is, and how man is nothing, but everything to God. It<br />was so powerful to when he said, "You. matter, to. him." Satan wants<br />us to feel invisible and unappreciated, but we "are the reason God<br />created the Universe." We need to remember 5 things 1) the Humble and<br />Meek are jof Heaven. 2) the Gospel will be preached by the weak. 3) No<br />matter your circumstance--you are not invisible to God. 4) What you<br />see and experience now is not necessarily what will be. You will not<br />be forsaken by him. 5) The most powerful being in the Universe is the<br />Father of your spirit. He wants you to know you matter to him. Elder<br />christofferson also gave 5 important things of repentance. 1) The<br />invitation to repent is an action of love. 2) Repentance means<br />striving to change. It is a holy process. 3) Not just abandoning sin,<br />but committing to obey God. You need baptism. 4) Repentance is a<br />seriousness of purpose and a determination to remain. Deep distress<br />leads us to cry to Christ. Suffering in repentance will be little<br />compared to eternal damnation. 5) Whatever the cost of repentance, it<br />is swallowed up in the joy of forgiveness. fIt was a very special talk<br />for me. Elder Holland gave a very frank talk, calling many to serve a<br />worthy Mission, and to stop sinning but saying you`re "on christ`s<br />team when temple attendance comes around." It was very straight<br />-forward. Elder Carl B. Cook related a story where the Prophet said,<br />"It`s better to look up." That`s just what I`ve been trying to do! :)<br /><br />Sunday: Today was a bittersweet day. It was sweet because the messages<br />given that we needed our investigators to hear were all given in the<br />session that they said they would ocme to. It was bitter because not<br />one of them did what they said they were going to do. It`s so<br />frustrating and sad to see them missing the blessings they COULD be<br />having. I guess I`m getting a little taste of how Heavenly Father<br />feels when I don`t do what I know i should. There`s always something<br />to work on. We heard some really wonderful talks about the Divinity of<br />the Book of fMormon. It was explained so clearly and powerfully that<br />it just made SENSE! And during the whole while,I just had a feeling of<br />peace and rejuvination that made me feel more sure of the world and my<br />place in it. The powerful testimonies of how God knows what we`re<br />going through was especially emphasized. Through the Atonement, we can<br />have a hope for that which is to come, and how it will be a glorious<br />triumph. Elder Cook said it was like walking in on the middle of a<br />3-act play. You don`t know what`s happened or what will come. I<br />imagined a super hero who was found, by the audience, being beaten up<br />in an alley. In that BRIEF moment of weakness, you don`t know who he<br />is, or what miraculous powers he`s been endowed with, much less that<br />in a few moments he`s gonna beat the pants off of whatever`s gettin`<br />him down. (think about that analogy. it`s deep.) fIf we stay anchored<br />to the lord, he will see us through.</span></span>Brigham Merrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03791313958892267082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262832742773264087.post-3715144635116251952011-11-06T15:57:00.000-08:002011-11-06T15:58:48.971-08:009-25-11<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; font-size: medium;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Monday: We spent some of the morning cleaning. While we were going<br />through a box of trash that has accumulated over the past months, we<br />found a starfish corpse. So, of couse, we posed and took pics. :) We<br />went to write the family early. The whole city was shut down. But we<br />had asked the people, ahead of time, if they`d be open. they`d said,<br />"yes." Hno. and Hna. Solar passed us and took us there. It was closed,<br />which was lame. We went to Mauricio`s office above the cyber, and<br />waited. Hna. Solar invited us to her country house to have a<br />pre-lunchy, before we went to Hna. Rodriguez`s. They were fighting<br />over us! Our lunch with Hna. Rodriguez and her family was delicious.<br />We had all of the yummy Chilean food. Empanadas. Kabobs, pastel de<br />choclo, and everything. It was so good. We wrote the family while we<br />were there. Alan sent me another email full of good memories. Mom and<br />Dad are well. Jon is back with Lindsay after his training. The family<br />watched "The Best Two Years" last night. They said they thought of me.<br />We did contacts in the evening. We got into one house, and found<br />another lady that wants us to come back tomorrow. All in all, it was a<br />very successful holiday weekend.<br /><br />Tuesday: Today was an absoluetely wonderful day. It started out by<br />going to the Distrizona Meeting, where I got to see Elder Lisonbee for<br />the first time in 2 weeks. In my District Meeting, I did a Practice<br />where on person had to do contacts to everyone, but the "elect" would<br />have to be spoken to 2 times before accepting the Missionaries. But<br />while elder Gomez was pretending to be a wheezing man, causing all of<br />us to laugh, Hna. Velasquez "the Sister I`d chosen to do the ocntacts)<br />thought we were laughing at HER. She started crying and left. But she<br />was okay, afterward. Then, the Assisstants came with mail! My leather<br />Scripture cases, LIndsay`s package, a nd Cassie`s (friend) letter all<br />came. My spiffed up scrips. had trouble fitting in my little bag, and<br />I knew I`d have to buy a backpack. But then I found on ein Lindsay`s<br />pachage, alkong with Velveeta shells! AH! My favorite! Cassie`s letter<br />was awesome. My Scrip. cases are SO legit. We found a family in our<br />contacts, where both parents listened, and we got a return appt. We<br />did lots of walking. Ever since we found that new Villa, my gluteus<br />"beautimus" has been getting it`s butt kicked. That was an ironic<br />statement. Haha. We taught English to Sabrina and all of our other<br />appts. fell through. I talked to Elder Burch. He`s tired of his<br />sector, of his comp, and of the Mission. He doesn`t know why he`s<br />there, in San Pedro. I gave him some scriptures, and som epages from<br />Preach My Gospel, to read.<br /><br />Wednesday: Today was an excellent day. I`ve been having lots of those<br />lately, ever since my friends and parents helped me learn to see the<br />good in every situation. We got up, and I loved studying with my new<br />cases. They keep the pages open. :) We studied How to work with<br />Members, something I`ve never been able to master. So we`re going to<br />try and gain the members` trust and get them excited to be part of<br />this great work. We`ll teach the lessons to the members and practice<br />with them, to help them learn how to present the invitation to<br />ppeople. I called elder Calaway before lunch. He`s still awesome. Our<br />first appt. fell through, but we found some others that went pretty<br />well . We tried to visit one guy, but his nanny shut the door in our<br />faces, before we could ask if he was home. That ticked me off. I mean,<br />I was frustrated. We did a contact, and the guy said he didn`t have<br />time but was genuinely interested. We visited a less-active member.<br />She said she wants to go to the Temple. We set up an appt. with the<br />Bishop for her interview. and we told her about General Conference. We<br />set things up with her visiting Teachers to help her for that. Hna.<br />Pinar was depressed when we visited her. She needs to "charge her<br />batteries" at the Temple, she said. I spoke with her for a while,<br />sharing scriptures, and had her laughing as we left. I love helping<br />people!<br /><br />Thursday: I`m getting worried about Jorge. We haven`t seen him since<br />last Tuesday. We had an appt. with him today, but he called two hours<br />beforehand to cancel with us. Dang it! He`s so close! I don`t know<br />what to do, to help him. We NEED to teach him, but he seems to be<br />running away from us. Anyway, we did our studies and learned some<br />really cool things about the çAtonement. We did our weekly planning<br />and then watched "The District" for more study. We had luncyh with<br />Hna. Roa. She loved my leather scripture cases. While I wasn`t<br />lo9oking, her daughter, Javiera, sewed my sleeves closed. haha. Then<br />we did divisions with Santa Barbara and Eler Barton came here, to work<br />with me. He`s really cool. He`s form Provo and went to Provo High<br />School. He knows all the places I know, back home. We taught Sabrina<br />the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. We had our appts. fall<br />through, so we did contacts before heading to Comitè. Hno. Garcia got<br />kidnapped by his Home teaching companion and we were left with free<br />time. Which is just as well, because Hna. Quiroga came and asked me<br />for group0 game ideas for the Youth. There, I was really blessed<br />because I had been through this experience in Hualpencillo.l I was<br />able to give them plenty of ideas. That`s what Church callings do. We<br />ende dwith a visit to Hna. Gloria. She`s fine. But she has some doubts<br />we have to answer another day.<br /><br />Friday: Today was a good day. I really liked being comp. with Elder<br />Barton because of how new he is. No offense to Elder Zuñiga, but it`s<br />just that he already knows everything. Haha. For our study, Elder<br />Barton and I listened to some talks that I have: The trilogy of<br />Schousen, and Elder Holland`s "mission" talk. then I helped him learn<br />how to teach the Plan of Salvation. He needed a LITTLE help with his<br />Spanish, but he`s got a lot of it down. We had lunch with Hna. Quitoga<br />and her non-member Husband. No Missionary has ever been able to get<br />his trust, or be his friend. But I think I know what I can do. She<br />invited us over on Wendesday to teach ehr daughter english. She<br />mentioned, for some reason that her husband had an ipad, but didn`t<br />know how to use it. Do I see this as God`s hand in the work, putting<br />my nerdiness to use? Yes. yesd, I do. we switched our comps. back and<br />we went to teach a new investigator, Hector. He has a lot of questions<br />about God. First question:Why did Jesus havew to die in such a<br />horrible way, on the cross, for us? Wow. Jump right to the heart of<br />it, why don`t you? But we shared a little of the importance of<br />prophets and how god works through them to bless us. We ran out of<br />toilet paper, and had to dash to the Super Market before going to Hna.<br />Pinar`s to pick up the clothes. We found som eother good new<br />investigators, too.<br /><br />Saturday: Today was a great day. We spent the whole morning lending<br />service to the local Cemetary. It was a stake project, but only 15<br />members showed up. But all of the Missionaries were there! We got to<br />clean up weeds from graves--chilean graves are just concrete boxes,<br />about a foot above the ground, with dirt in it. Those that were poor<br />are just piles of dirt. Yuck! But we had a good time working together.<br />We got to wear those spiffy yellow "helping Hands" vests. They said<br />they might get our photos into the Liahona. While there, we saw a man,<br />who was obviously not a member, sitting at a recently-deceased woman`s<br />grave, while some candles burned. My hijo and I went over to him and<br />taught him the Plan of Salvation and how our families can be together<br />forever. He was mourning the loss of his mother, but he told us he<br />wasn`t interested in what we`d said. I guess it depends on everyone to<br />accept it ofr not. But what bugs me is that the Catholic church<br />recently started teaching about Eternal fAmilies and how they`re a<br />given--not an ordinance. So lots of opeople assume that everything`s<br />gonna be peachy after death, no matter what we do here. Ugh! We found<br />Lily and her family again. We got to know her husband, Ernesto, and<br />taught them part of the Restoration. They want to come closer to<br />Christ but want to take it slow. I spent the whole day trying to learn<br />how to say things like a Chilean gangster. It`s hard. Haha.<br /><br />Sunday: Today went really well,. I think the MIssionaries are finally<br />getting the Ward`s trust again. Actually, while we were doing contacts<br />in the afternoon, we heard a honk, and turned to see the Rodriguez<br />family across the street. They had been watchin gus for about 5 min.<br />in secret! They`re our friends, but still. The thought of people<br />monitoring us for the slightest misstep is nerveracking. Anyway,<br />Church was great. Jorge didn`t come, but Gloria did. she`s had doubts<br />about Sunday School, because she doesn`t understand much. But she<br />loved it today. She would ask a question and everyone would help her<br />learn. And she did! the Bishop gave a really bold talk. There were<br />parts where I thought he crossed the line. Like when he condemned a<br />Sister because she had a big house but her husband wasn`t baptized.<br />Ugh! Our lunch forgot about us, so we ate with Hna. Pinar. W had fish<br />sticks. In our sector, there aren`t a lot of houses. So we`re knocking<br />the same ones every 2 weeks. They don`t know my co9mp. but they see my<br />red hair and tell me, "I told you no last time." I`m like, "Lady, I`m<br />offering eternal life with your family!" They don`t understand, so I<br />won`t give up on them. It`s not as hard as it used to be.</span></span>Brigham Merrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03791313958892267082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262832742773264087.post-41466131503089426002011-09-21T18:08:00.003-07:002011-09-21T18:08:45.327-07:009-12-11<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse; ">Monday: I woke up this morning, and just wanted to lay in bed. So I<br />did. It was awesome. I got up and had some hot milk, while I<br />was...swathed(?) in my snuggie, as I wrote my handwritten letter to<br />the President. These moments are some I´ll look back on, with<br />fondness. I love morning study, while wrapped in a blanket. I called<br />Elder Burch. He said the sector, there, is dead, and that his comp.<br />was a super-robot. They planned their Pday activities, including<br />cleaning, where they´d clean, for how long, and with what. He thanked<br />me for my example and for our transfer together. We´re going to hang<br />out after the Mission. We spent the whole Pday doing errands, trying<br />to get my second ID. I tried to get all the stuff ready beforehand,<br />but there were some terms I wasn´t sure of, so the Government lady<br />chewed me out for wasting her time, but at the same time, helped me<br />out. She said I had to tell the police I changed my address from<br />Hualpen,something I did (without notifying the police) 2 months ago.<br />She said if I HAD waited that long, I shouldn´t tell them, or they´d<br />take ALL my documents. Yikes. I asked Heavenly father to provide a<br />path where I wouldn´t have to lie and they wouldn´t take my documents.<br />The police never asked me when I arrived. Whew. We had an FHE planned<br />with Lily (a mom of a family that we found) and the Pinar family. Lily<br />cancelled at the last minute. We watched "The Testaments" with them.<br />It´s awesome.<br /><br />Tuesday: Today was PERFECT! I don´t even know why, but I just loved<br />it. Everything that we needed to go well for us, did... and then some.<br />I prepared my class, for my District, but was later told I didn´t need<br />to worry about it. I turned in all the things I needed to, and then<br />sent off Jess´s letter. Then, we went to get my receipt for what I did<br />yesterday, then we booked it to lunch, getting there right on the dot.<br />I worked on making a duplicate of my "Scripture shortcuts" for Hna.<br />Roa during our hour after lunch. I was kinda nervous about teaching<br />"Tithing" to Jorge, fearing he´d have difficulty with it. But he<br />accepted it and I got to share some special experiences that I´ve had,<br />through Daddy´s strong, faithful example over the years. We´ve been<br />knocking the same doors since I got here. But I knew of a tiny<br />community we´d passed by once--made up of two blocks or so. But when<br />we went there, there were 9 blocks--9 SQUARE blocks. Never been<br />touched. We found lots of great people. I just got a jolt of<br />enthusiasm. Not even because of the new territory. But people just<br />seemed more receptive. as I realized that, EVERYONE was more<br />receptive. They hadn´t changed. I had. My attitude had. It was<br />beautiful Spring weather. I was friends with everyone. I was on top of<br />the world! I loved today! I loved teaching. I loved the weather. I<br />loved mhy sector. I loved the people. I loved the Gospel. I loved my<br />family. I loved EVERYTHING!!! I´m celebrating by eating popcorn and<br />powdered milk. Okay, when I got the milk I wasn´t thinking, "yipee" so<br />much as "skimpy." I´m trying to budget better. But I´m still<br />celebrating.<br /><br />Wednesday: Well, today was less "mind-blowingly awesome" than<br />yesterday, to say the least. It was actually really sad. The morning<br />was fine. We got up, studied, and did some practices. We did a few<br />contacts in the morning before we had to walk to lunch, about 2 miles<br />away. ooph. The afternoon is when things start going downhill. We had<br />our appt. with JOrge. He accepted everything yesterday, that had to do<br />with tithing. He´s fine with donating money. But when we met with him<br />today, he told us he doesn´t want to get baptized on Saturday anymore.<br />He said it´s very important to him, and doesn´t want to do it, unless<br />he´s 100% willing to obey. It turns out that when we were showing him<br />how to fill out the tithing slip, we briefly mentioned what fasting<br />was. well, that scared the poop out of the poor man. He said that<br />skipping meals isn´t part of who he is. Not eating, to him, is as bad<br />as drinking coffee or alcohol. He pulled out a receipt that showed how<br />much he weighs. That, I noticed, showed that he´s conscious of his<br />eating. Maybe he can´t NOT eat. we´re preparing a lesson for him for<br />tomorrow. I don´t want to lose him. He´s a real friend, trying to do<br />what´s right. He´ll keep listening tryhing to understand. He just<br />needs more timem. That´s fine with me. I´ve never been in it for the<br />numbers. we did contacts in the afternoon, finding lots of "future<br />investigators." I like it here. I know the streets, I know the people,<br />and I like where I am with everything.<br /><br />Thursday: Today was an okay day. It was overcast, but it didn´t rain,<br />for which I´m grateful. I spent the whole morning studying myu guts<br />out to learn as much about fasting as I could. I gulped it, I absorbed<br />it, it was a desperation search. I don´t want to lose Jorge. He´s so<br />close. But after learning more about it, I realized that it´s an iffy<br />commandment. You´re not a sinner if you don´t fast. It´s more like a<br />tool at our disposal. It´s not even on the Baptisimal interview list.<br />I called Pres. Martinez to ask and he said Jorge could get baptized<br />without being able to fast at first. Comprehension will come later. We<br />put together a careful lesson (´cuase you can´t just say, "It´s<br />alright if you ignore this ONE commandment so you can get baptized in<br />our church."). We did it, and I was so anxious/excited. We knocked at<br />his door and heard his son telling him to get the door. Then the son<br />said Jorge wasn´t home. AH! I don´t know what to think. Jorge´s a<br />good, honest man. I know he is. He wants to be transparent with us. I<br />don´t think he was avoiding us, but he didn´t answer/return our calls,<br />either. When we had our WArd Correllation meeting, Hno. Garcia said,<br />"I told you two he wasn´t ready. He has to wait until after the 18th,<br />´cause he wants to get drunk." I wanted to slap the man for<br />dishonoring Jorge´s integrity. If Jorge´s anything, he´s honest and<br />simple. He´s just confused about fasting, NOT alcohol. Hopefully we<br />can get a hold of him tomorrow.I heard that a comet whose passing will<br />happen on the 27th of this month, and will cause a monster earthquake<br />in midwest USA. I hope my family will be alright.<br /><br />Friday: We were busy all day, today. During our study together, we<br />started Chapter 7 in Preach My Gospel: How to improve and study the<br />language. For me, my learning has slowed ´cause my vocab. just lacks<br />some outlying words. But for most normal conversations, I´m alright.<br />Tomorrow, we´re gonna make a Language study plan fr my hijo, so he can<br />learn English better. We had to cut our study short, because of an<br />appt. we´d made. We walked all the way over there, only to find that<br />her daughter had called from school, a few minutes earlier and was in<br />a diabetic emergency. By that time, we had to take a bus to eat lunch<br />with Hna. Roa. We did some service afterward, and got back to our<br />sector at 5:00. We picked up our clothes and then had to take a bus at<br />6:00 to interview someone from santa Barbara. It was 5:55 and a<br />10-minute walk. I wanted to cut down the street where the buses<br />usually pass, to try and catch it on the way. But I had a feeling to<br />go 3 streets farther away, and I was relieved to see it was passing<br />just as we got there. There had been a detour and the Spirit helped us<br />arrive on time. The candidate, Carol, passed. We came back, and Elder<br />Cottrell stayed with us, because Carol wanted him to come from temuco<br />and baptize her. I let him sleep in my bed. At 5:00 AM, one of the<br />sides of the top bunk gave out, and all the boards, and the mattress,<br />AND Elder Cotrell fell on Elder Zuñiga. I was laughing so hard! both<br />were okay. Elder Zuñiga wasn´t even hurt.<br /><br />Saturday: Today was pretty dull, as far as Missionary Work goes. It´s<br />the day before Independance Day where they eat lots of food. Today,<br />they took all their efforts, and put them into making the food for<br />tomorrow. No time for Gringo Missionaries. In the Morning, we read<br />about how to study the language some more, and how to make a language<br />study plan. My hijo´s English is really coming along. I reviewed all<br />my notebooks, and found some of my first language study plans from the<br />MTC: Those were good times. Our three backup plans for the morning<br />fell through. That wasn´t cool. For lunch, we had a big soup, after<br />which I was full. Then we had 4 empanadas, and 2 desserts. Ha! The<br />average Chilean gains 10 lbs. during this week...until they go to the<br />bathroom :) We did contacts alla fternoon. We got into one house, but<br />it turned out it was because she felt sorry for us, and admired us for<br />leaving our hosues. She wasn´t interested in our message, or anything.<br />A waste of time. We saw Hna. Rodriguez and her family on the Highway,<br />and they pulled over to tell us they want to celebrate with us on<br />Monday or Tuesday (When Chile parties, they do it for days at a time).<br />I was down for that. We worked some more, before visiting Hna. Gloria.<br />She´s happy and well. I´m still laughing over last night. Elder Zuñiga<br />wasn´t hurt, miraculously. It was so funny!<br /><br />Sunday: Today was Chile´s INdependance Day. It wasn´t as coola s last<br />year´s, but it was also better in some ways. There weren´t a lot of<br />people in church, but I got to learn a lot about the 12 tribes of<br />Istrael from Mouricio Rodriguez. That´s always been a tricky subject<br />for me, and something I´d like to study when I get back. As we were<br />leaving Church, I told Hno. Amstein that I liked his tie (black w/<br />yellow stripes). He unbuttoned his colloar, loosened his tie, and held<br />it out saying, "Have it." and walked off. I was like, "What the<br />heck?!" So that was awesome. We had lunch with Hna. Pinar. We didn´t<br />have any of the typical Chilean food, as is tradition, but we had<br />delicious pork and, for the first time in my mission, STEAK (w/o<br />cartilage)!!! Our drink was diced peach with orange crush. It was<br />awesome. After that, we watched "Emma Smith: My story." The love she<br />shared with her husband wa sso beautiful. The first time I watched it,<br />I was really excited to go preach to everyone. But today I thought of<br />my family. Cassie and Devin are gonna be my best friends after the<br />Mission, and I´ll be theirs. We did contacts for a while with zero<br />results. I´m gonna be home for the next 4th of July. Sometimes, you<br />can´t help but think of your family, on the mission. Especially on<br />family days. I called the Millahual family. That made me really happy.<br /></span>Brigham Merrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03791313958892267082noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7262832742773264087.post-73566464897456285842011-09-21T18:08:00.001-07:002011-09-21T18:08:17.903-07:008-29-11<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse; ">Monday: Today was my first Pday in Los Angeles that we didn`t have an<br />activity planned. So instead of running everywhere, trying to do<br />things on a schedule, we got to take things slow. Elder Burch spent<br />the morning packing, while I cleaned and read a little. We went out to<br />use internet and write the family afterward. I called about my leather<br />Scripture cases. Walter said he sent them, and they should be in the<br />office. We spent the evening saying goodbye to more people: Hna.<br />Pinar, SAbrina and her mom, Cecilia, and the Garcia family. I`m<br />actually REALLY nervous about tomorrow. I realize that we don`t have<br />many people to teach. that really scares me a little. Planning with<br />few people is just hard...and repetetive. Luckily my first week with<br />my hijo should be the week of Sactification. We`ll find lots of<br />people! tomorrow`s entry is going to be awesome!<br /><br />Tuesday:(Pg. 300 in my Journal) Today was a very exciting day. We<br />cleaned up the apartment some m ore, just in case. We finished with<br />just enough time to write in each others` journals. Then we went to<br />the Bus Terminal to leave. I went to Concepciòn to get my hijo. I had<br />TONS of preconceptions. I wanted a gringo to play around with, show<br />him around Chile. And if it WAS a Latin, I didn`t want a Chilean, so I<br />could show him the culture, and the way of talking. I got to the<br />terminal in Concepciòn and talked with all the trainers. We went to<br />the Mission Home, to receive a few training stuff. Then we got our<br />"hijos" (sons). After all my wanting and praying, guess what I got. A<br />chilean. Elder Steele, another trainer, said it was because of my<br />Spanish, and that I should have dumbed it down. There were 20 gringos<br />and 4 Latins that arrived. Out of all the trainers, I was the only<br />gringo that got to train a Latin. I was a little disappointed, but as<br />I thought about it, it was because I wouldn`t be able to do the things<br />that don`t have anything to do with Missionary Work, or couldn`t show<br />off how far I`VE come. How selfish I was! Funny how I had to wait for<br />"retrospective" to help me see that. I think Elder Zuñiga (my son)<br />will help me focus a lot better in my missionary purpose. We got home,<br />and let the Santa Barbara missionaries sleepover for the Distrizona<br />tomorrow.<br /><br />Wednesday: today was pretty tough for me. As a whole, the concept of<br />planning seems to be the Acheles (spelling?) heel of my mision skills.<br />But I`ve always had a pool of people to draw from, or a comp. to give<br />me some ideas. Now I have neither, and that realization is just<br />hitting me witha gripping fear that makes me feel like I`m<br />hyperventilating inside. I don`t know why. I just don`t think I`ve<br />been this alone with this much responsibility. I just want to give<br />Elder Zuñiga MORE than I have for him, right now. But from here, it<br />just looks like we`re gonna be stuck, doing a lot of contacts. We went<br />to Distrizona and I felt kind of ashamed for only having Jorge`s name<br />to put up, while everyone else had, like, 5. We went to lunch with<br />Hno. Bravo, and the first thing he says is, "Do you want lunch, or a<br />completo?" I LOVE completos, which are considered fast food, which he<br />disdains. He made fun of me! But, we got completos anyway. I got to<br />see the blessings of training with a good focus. We got into 2 houses<br />today. They were people who had lazy missionaries over, who would be<br />buddies instead of teachers. They didn`t want lessons. But my hijo`s<br />loving it. He`s a really good guy, and he knows the lessons. He just<br />gets a little nervous under pressure.<br /><br />Thursday: Today wasn`t so bad, I think. Yesterday was just a shock for<br />me. But, you know, just a few months ago, I was musing on how life`s<br />trials are laser-guided to the weakest parts of our souls and<br />characters. Why SHOULDN`T I, a person that`s bad at planning with few<br />people, be put in a place that needs someone like that? Now it all<br />depends on how I react. God gave me a chance to prove myself. Maybe I<br />should. We are having comp. prayers mornings and nights, now, apart<br />from when we leave the house. We`re starting Preach My Gospel from the<br />beginning. Comp. study`s really awesome. Elder Zuñiga has really good<br />insights and a lot of knowledge, besides.<br /><br />Friday: Our good-weather streak ran out today. It was really wonderful<br />while it lasted. At the beginning of the week, having to pay attention<br />to every little thing I did and said, was a bit of a shock. but now<br />I`m getting used to it. It`s also been a bit of a challenge to manage<br />the lessons, because he`s making some of the ssame mistakes I used to.<br />but Elder Zuñiga is SO low-maintainance. He`s not much of a burden at<br />all. He`s just so happy and ready to serve. and I swear you don`t know<br />the MEANING of "puppy-dog eyes" until you`ve seen the kid`s uncertain<br />but completely sincere smile. We`re following the schedule exactly,<br />we`re studying what we`re supposed to, and I`ve somehow managed to<br />keep up enough people for us to visit (it started raining jsut now and<br />I`m inside. Haha!) We finally got to teach some people today. Alexis<br />and Sandra. We started to teach the Book of Mormon, but my hijo took<br />off on another subject, then another and another. We snatched a return<br />appt. and I had to remind Elder Zuñiga that we need to stay focused on<br />one topic. He was cool with it. We visited Scarlet and Gustavo.<br />Scarlet wanted to know of of whose money the Prophet and apostles<br />lived. Law of consecration, baby.<br /><br />Saturday: Today was one of them walkin` days. We walked and talked all<br />day long, after our appts. fell through. It was just one of the times<br />that has tested my diligence and hope. It was really tough for me, but<br />I just have to keep going. I just need the Lord`s help. We`re fasting<br />and praying for people. Blessings will come.<br /><br />Sunday: Today was beter than yesterday, for sure. We went to Church,<br />to find Jorge there, again. The other day, he`d told us that he`d had<br />a strange dream. In it, there was a big building that was floating,<br />but fell down. I left him 2 chapters of the Book of Mormon to read:<br />1Nephi 8 and 11, where it talks of Lehi`s dream and the interpretation<br />of it. When we saw him today, he`d finished his reading. He said it<br />kind of freaked him out, but he felt at peace when he read it. It was<br />really cool. Sabrina`s mom, Cecilia, bore her testimony. He`s a hard<br />case, so she doesn`t cry often. But she broke. down. up there. She<br />used to be inactive, but this experience really gave her a testimony<br />of prayer and fasting. At the end of Sacrament Meeting, Hno Garcia<br />came up to me and told me I had the Sunday School class! 2-minute<br />warning. A new record of unanticipated duty. I was peeved. we did<br />contacts all afternoon, and had a few people tell us to come back.<br />that was good news. We visited Hna. Pinar. She was sick and asked us<br />for a blessing. After all this time in the Mission, it`s still strange<br />to think of how people see me, albeit less strange than at the<br />beginning. We visited Hna. Gloria. She said she`ll go to church next<br />week after 4 months!</span>Brigham Merrellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03791313958892267082noreply@blogger.com0