Fotos de Parque Subercaseaux

The ceremonial tie burning. This is a big moment, folks. Elders burn ties at the six month mark, shirts at the year mark, and something else at the year and a half mark (shoes? I don't remember)

Also please note the Omniture Rock/Paper/Scissors shirt from BYU haha

Service for the week - sanding down some chairs

Just a little pool playing

Zone conference foto from last week

Semana 3 en Parque Subercaseaux

"This Friday Katy and Erick are getting married and Saturday Katy will get baptized, but I don´t think I will be able to go. I will ask Elder Becerra to take pics for me.

"And a nice short story of how our week went: One of our investigators, Maria Eugenia, has a baptism date set for February 14th. Her son, Sebastian, is 19 years old and was baptized about a year and a half ago. Seba never got the priesthood because he has one of those expanding earrings in his ear, and we have talked to him countless times about the importance of taking it out to be able to have the priesthood, but he never wanted to. Yesterday after sacrament meeting, he told Elder Noguera and I to go outside with him, and he took off his earing and threw it over the fence! He told us "I need to receive the priesthood, I want to be a missionary." He said that while he was sitting in the sacrament meeting, he saw a vision of himself serving a mission, and he didn´t have his earing, and in that moment he knew how dumb he was being letting his earing stop him from all of the blessings he can receive. We are going to work with him these next few weeks and try to prepare him to be ordained a priest and he might be able to baptize his mom on the 14th!

"One of the lessons elder noguera and I have been sharing this week is about being a true disciple of Jesus Christ. We talked about the young rich man who asks Jesus what he needs to do to be saved, and he says keep the commandments, and the rich man says he has done that since his youth, then Jesus tells him to sell all he has, give it to the poor, and follow him, and the young man leaves because he doesn´t want to do that. This man was a disciple of Jesus Christ, but only up to a certain point. If we are true followers of Christ, there are no "buts" and he can never ask too much of us. (See mark 19:16 i think that is where it is)."

Fotos of Bowling & Baptisms

Elder Cloward bowling with his district

Elder Cloward & 3 of his 4 companions: Elder Low, Elder Bacerra & Elder Noguera

Elder Noguera, Maria & Elder Cloward at Maria's baptism

Semana 2 en Parque Subercaseaux

"This Saturday we had a zone conference with Elder Zeballos of the Seventy, who talked to us about the importance of `raising the bar`and doing our best in the mission, etc. His son (also named Elder Zeballos... what a coincidence) is serving in this mission so when we ate lunch he ate with his parents. The conference was in the chapel in Los Arcos, and Fernando came to give me a letter since I didn't get to say bye to him. It was slightly awkward though because he came while Elder Zevallos was speaking and was waving to me from the doors to the chapel and then from the windows from outside, but I couldn`t leave because there was a general authority speaking. good times.

"After the conference we left in a rush to get to the baptism for Maria at 5:00. The power failed in the subway right before we got to our last stop, which was pretty entertaining, but it came back in about 5 minutes. The baptism turned out very well and Maria was confirmed yesterday.

"The other elders don`t speak English, but that is cool I have gotten used to the lack of English speaking. Elder Krainik is still in the same sector so we are still in the same zone. I see Elder Butterfield every once in a while in zone conferences, and see Elder Becerra a lot since he is in my zone. He says everyone is doing well and Katy is still on track for her baptism on the 31st.

"Today we went bowling for a zone activity and Elder Low was there! It was great to see him again. He is already senior companion and his junior comp is Elder Leathem (you don`t know him, but he was in our zone in the mtc!) They are doing great and are right next to the airport. I will send pictures.

"There is another family that we are starting to teach. Their names are Luis and Rosario, and they have two sons, Antonio (5) and Fernando (2). They just got married about two months ago and Rosario told us they are having a lot of problems. She said everyone told her that when she got married her problems would go away, but now she has more. We haven`t talked to the two of them together, just once we talked to Rosario and yesterday we went by and her husband Luis was there. He said he has never accepted Jesus in his life before but thinks that now might be the time. They are both really good people and i know they can work out their problems if they both accept the gospel, but we will see what happens."

Parque Subercaseaux Fotos

Elder Noguera and Elder Cloward

View from the new pension

Semana 1 en Parque Subercaseaux

"Yes, that is the name of my new sector. Very French.

"So I got transfered, but I am only about four metro-stops farther north from where I was, and I am still in the same zone, La Gran Avenida. Our sector is pretty cuico (rich/classy) and there are a ton of apartment buildings, which makes it hard to make contacts/knock doors, but I really like the sector.

"My new companion is Elder Luis Angel Noguera. He is from northern Argentina, only four blocks from Brazil, so he is fluent in both Portugues and Spanish, and is also studying English because he wants to be a pilot (he also secretly wants to be a gringo). He is a black belt in martial arts and has had some problems in the past with fighting with missionaries and/or contacts in the street. He is honestly a great missionary and works very hard and he is helping me to learn how to listen to the spirit more, since I tend to rely on myself too much. He will finish his mission in March (he was going to finish in February but extended). He is the oldest of six boys, and the only member in his whole family.

"We have a baptism coming up this next Saturday. Her name is Maria Marìn. She starting taking the discussions because first her niece, Valentina, then her sister, Claudia, got baptized. She is 63 years old and has been single her whole life. We are also teaching Maria Eugenia, about 50 years old. She starting taking the discussions because her son, Sebastian, was baptized about two years ago. The date for her baptism is the same day as Katy's (the 31st of January) but we are kind of worried because she left this Saturday on vacation and won't come back until next Saturday. We are hoping and praying that she will still have the desire to be baptized when she gets back, because a lot of times people get back from vacations and lose interest.

"There is a family in our ward that had missionaries living in their house for ten years and they are really cool. The dad is the ward mission leader, the mom is the Relief Society president, one of their daughters is the primary president and her husband is the first counselor in the ward, and their other daughter is one of the counselors for relief society. The daughter that is married has two daughters, and one is 3 and the other 4 months. The 3 year old, Gabriela, likes to tickle me a lot and she also likes to try talking very expressively (using her hands, making gestures, etc) but no one can understand her because she doesn't make any sense when she talks haha. I told them you were sending me a package and I asked if they wanted anything. They said they want Twizzlers, m & m`s, and Mint flavored orbit gum, the kind that comes in sticks, not the kind that you pop out of foil wrapper. Oddly specific I know, but if you could find it I would appreciate it because this family does a ton for us. The mom reminds me of Mom very much, especially in the way that she talks to her 4 month old granddaughter. She is exactly the same as mom is when she is talking to a baby.

"We live in a pension that is just outside of our sector. Every day we have to cross the freeway on one of those walking bridges. We can see Cerro San Cristobal, it is in the foto I sent. We live with two other elders, Elder Fuentes from Honduras and Elder Jambo from Peru. So there is some basic info about my new sector I will let you know more next week. Love you all!"

Fotos from Los Arcos/Lo Ovalle

Relief Society President in Lo Ovalle, Rebecca, and her family, with Elder Cloward and Elder Bacerra

Elder Cloward, Tomas, Erik, Katy, Elder Bacerra

Elder Cloward, Raul, Lidia, Elder Bacerra

Last Los Arcos Fotos

New Year's Eve dinner
Back in volleyball action!

Last Semana en Los Arcos

"I have changes tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!! ah!!! so I am going to hacer como un àrbol y hoja. (make like a tree and leaf hahaha...) which really just is not funny in Spanish. So tomorrow I will go to the chapel at 9 in the morning and they will tell me where in the world I will be going. could be a fun experience. Elder Becerra is going to stay here with a new companion. However, I won`t know where I am going, who will be my companion, or any other of the details of my life for the next 6 weeks until tomorrow morning. I will let you know where I am next week in my email.

"Last week we set a date for Katy`s baptism, for the 31st of January. She and Erick are getting married the 30th and she will be baptized the next day, and confirmed the day after (assuming that everything goes well). For new years eve we ate dinner with Familia Cancino. The mom is separated and lives with her daughter, Maria Jose (19) and her son Ignacio (10) they are all really active and a great family. Her oldest son is about to finish his mission in Argentina Buenos Aires North in 9 more days and she is really nervous haha. but for new years eve we got home the same time as always, 10:30 and got to stay up until 12:00. At midnight they cut our power and set off fireworks outside, which we could not see because they were behind our apartment.

"We are still teaching Fernando, Angel, and Angela (kind of). Fernando already read the entire Book of Mormon, and he and his dad are coming to church every week. The only problem is that we can never get into their house to teach. We need to teach them about baptism and set a date but it is kind of hard if we can`t enter their house. But that is Elder Becerra`s responsability now. We have a cita with Katy and Erick tonight so I will have to say goodbye. There will be tears. haha probably not but I just hope everything goes well with them."