egg, avacado and turkey sandwich (Easter lunch)
Eggs + Inca Kola = yum? to Elder Cloward, yes
The ill-fated egg fight (next year those Utes are going down!!!!)
Showing posts with label Parque Subercaseaux. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Parque Subercaseaux. Show all posts
Monday, April 20, 2009
Fotos de Pasqua
egg, avacado and turkey sandwich (Easter lunch) Eggs + Inca Kola = yum? to Elder Cloward, yes The ill-fated egg fight (next year those Utes are going down!!!!)
Semana 16 en Parque Subercaseaux
"The egg fight went well, but left me devestated. I made an egg that had bYu on it, and elder fuller made one from U of U, and wrote 13-0 underneath. And his egg destroyed mine. I am still trying to recover from the defeat.
"I got the easter card last week. thanks! The box was good and I liked everything. We have already used the egg lesson 3 times and everyone loves it. Thank you for taking the time to put that together for me I truly appreciate it. Tell Melia and Jose felicitaciones on the baby.
"The lesson went well with Eduardo and Paula, we have to call them today to set another cita. Liliana came to church yesterday! She has two daughters: Natalia (13) and Paulina (4). Paulina came to church, but Natalia didn´t. They are also redoing the bathrooms and baptismal font and putting in a parking lot (out of cement instead of dirt, seems like a good improvement) in our chapel. It is one of the oldest chapels in Chile. So they will be constructing until June 5 and in the meantime we have to go to church in the stake center, San Miguel. We haven´t seen Maria or Seba in a while but we are going to visit this week.
"So pretty much the worst day of my mission happened on Saturday. Nothing drastic, it was just a super lame day. We had appointments at 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 o´clock, and all five of them fell through, which was a rather large trial of our patience. We then spent some time searching for an apartment building to find a reference that Elder Fuller and Elder Arango (the elders we live with) gave us, her name is Cherti and her sister is a member of their ward. The only problem was that her sister wasn´t sure of the exact address, so she just gave us the intersection of two streets and said that she lived in number 22B. There are literally 8 apartment buildings in that area, and I was getting pretty frustrated, but we didn´t give up and finally found the building, but Cherti wasn´t home. End of Saturday. On Sunday at 8 we went by again, and the receptionist let us go knock her door because the intercom was broken. We introduced ourselves to her and asked her if she was Cherti. She looked kind of surprised that we knew her name, and we explained that her sister was a member of the church and told us we could pass by her house. She thought about if for a second and then said "pasen" (come in), so we did. She talked to us for about 30 minutes about her family, she has three sons, 16, 13, and 12 years old (I can´t remember their names right now). Apparently the doctors told her that she was infertile and would never be able to have kids, but she and her husband spent all of the money they had doing the petri dish insemination thing, and she finally got pregnant, and had the oldest son. Then three years later she just randomly felt sick one day, and went to the doctor. He told her that she needed to take a pill to get her period started again, but she felt that she shouldn´t take it, and went back two weeks later to find out that she was pregnant, this time naturally. If she would have taken the pill she would have killed the baby. After she told the story, we explained a little about the eternal families, we said something to the effect of "it seems like a miracle how God has blessed with such a great family, but an even greater miracle is that your family can be eternal, if you do some certain things" and right about at this point her husband got home. The look on his face was classic. I honestly thought of our family history story of Robert Harris when he found Wilford Woodruff in his home talking with his wife. He sat down in front of us and was kind of just staring at us then asked Cherti who we were. She said "oh these are the missionaries, he is from California and he is from Arizona" but he didn´t seem too happy. Then she asked him what was wrong. He said "nothing, I´m just surprised to see two missionaries sitting in my house" then he asked us what we were doing there, what our goal was as missionaries, what we wanted with his family, etc. I knew at that point that what we said in the next few moments was crucial, and I felt the spirit so strongly as we taught. We explained to them the message of the restoration and how it is a blessing for their family. At one point of the lesson Cherti stopped and turned to Jorge her husband and said "they are very focused on the families. I like that." Honestly the spirit was so strong there I felt like I knew every word that I had to say. I have never felt so confident as I have testified about the restoration and the Church. I didn´t feel like I was defending or arguing a point. I was just saying the truth how it was and the spirit bore testimony of it. It has honestly been a long time since I have felt so happy, it is so hard to find people to teach in this sector. I am very excited to teach this family. We still don´t have another appointment with them, since Cherti said that the two of them were going to converse as a couple to see when we could come by again, and she will call us. I asked her for her telephone number to call her just in case she forgets and she said that would be fine. We will hopefully be with them again this coming weekend.
"It is so strange how strong the ups and downs are on the mission. The sadness we feel when someone rejects us or doesn´t progress, and the pure joy of finding new people to teach and then helping them to receive the gospel in their lives. I just have to not get discouraged when times are bad, because I know that the blessings are right around the corner. I know without a doubt that this is the Lord´s church, that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church on the face of the Earth. It is the only one that has the Authority of God to seal families for time and all Eternity, and the only one that can perform ordenances that will have effect here in the earth as well as in the heavens. I am so grateful for this time to serve and grow and for all of the blessings that our family has. I love all of you so much and thank you for always supporting me. "
"I got the easter card last week. thanks! The box was good and I liked everything. We have already used the egg lesson 3 times and everyone loves it. Thank you for taking the time to put that together for me I truly appreciate it. Tell Melia and Jose felicitaciones on the baby.
"The lesson went well with Eduardo and Paula, we have to call them today to set another cita. Liliana came to church yesterday! She has two daughters: Natalia (13) and Paulina (4). Paulina came to church, but Natalia didn´t. They are also redoing the bathrooms and baptismal font and putting in a parking lot (out of cement instead of dirt, seems like a good improvement) in our chapel. It is one of the oldest chapels in Chile. So they will be constructing until June 5 and in the meantime we have to go to church in the stake center, San Miguel. We haven´t seen Maria or Seba in a while but we are going to visit this week.
"So pretty much the worst day of my mission happened on Saturday. Nothing drastic, it was just a super lame day. We had appointments at 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 o´clock, and all five of them fell through, which was a rather large trial of our patience. We then spent some time searching for an apartment building to find a reference that Elder Fuller and Elder Arango (the elders we live with) gave us, her name is Cherti and her sister is a member of their ward. The only problem was that her sister wasn´t sure of the exact address, so she just gave us the intersection of two streets and said that she lived in number 22B. There are literally 8 apartment buildings in that area, and I was getting pretty frustrated, but we didn´t give up and finally found the building, but Cherti wasn´t home. End of Saturday. On Sunday at 8 we went by again, and the receptionist let us go knock her door because the intercom was broken. We introduced ourselves to her and asked her if she was Cherti. She looked kind of surprised that we knew her name, and we explained that her sister was a member of the church and told us we could pass by her house. She thought about if for a second and then said "pasen" (come in), so we did. She talked to us for about 30 minutes about her family, she has three sons, 16, 13, and 12 years old (I can´t remember their names right now). Apparently the doctors told her that she was infertile and would never be able to have kids, but she and her husband spent all of the money they had doing the petri dish insemination thing, and she finally got pregnant, and had the oldest son. Then three years later she just randomly felt sick one day, and went to the doctor. He told her that she needed to take a pill to get her period started again, but she felt that she shouldn´t take it, and went back two weeks later to find out that she was pregnant, this time naturally. If she would have taken the pill she would have killed the baby. After she told the story, we explained a little about the eternal families, we said something to the effect of "it seems like a miracle how God has blessed with such a great family, but an even greater miracle is that your family can be eternal, if you do some certain things" and right about at this point her husband got home. The look on his face was classic. I honestly thought of our family history story of Robert Harris when he found Wilford Woodruff in his home talking with his wife. He sat down in front of us and was kind of just staring at us then asked Cherti who we were. She said "oh these are the missionaries, he is from California and he is from Arizona" but he didn´t seem too happy. Then she asked him what was wrong. He said "nothing, I´m just surprised to see two missionaries sitting in my house" then he asked us what we were doing there, what our goal was as missionaries, what we wanted with his family, etc. I knew at that point that what we said in the next few moments was crucial, and I felt the spirit so strongly as we taught. We explained to them the message of the restoration and how it is a blessing for their family. At one point of the lesson Cherti stopped and turned to Jorge her husband and said "they are very focused on the families. I like that." Honestly the spirit was so strong there I felt like I knew every word that I had to say. I have never felt so confident as I have testified about the restoration and the Church. I didn´t feel like I was defending or arguing a point. I was just saying the truth how it was and the spirit bore testimony of it. It has honestly been a long time since I have felt so happy, it is so hard to find people to teach in this sector. I am very excited to teach this family. We still don´t have another appointment with them, since Cherti said that the two of them were going to converse as a couple to see when we could come by again, and she will call us. I asked her for her telephone number to call her just in case she forgets and she said that would be fine. We will hopefully be with them again this coming weekend.
"It is so strange how strong the ups and downs are on the mission. The sadness we feel when someone rejects us or doesn´t progress, and the pure joy of finding new people to teach and then helping them to receive the gospel in their lives. I just have to not get discouraged when times are bad, because I know that the blessings are right around the corner. I know without a doubt that this is the Lord´s church, that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church on the face of the Earth. It is the only one that has the Authority of God to seal families for time and all Eternity, and the only one that can perform ordenances that will have effect here in the earth as well as in the heavens. I am so grateful for this time to serve and grow and for all of the blessings that our family has. I love all of you so much and thank you for always supporting me. "
Monday, April 13, 2009
Pascua (Easter) en Parque Subercaseaux
"We haven´t done the egg fight yet, but I bought eggs this morning and we shall boil them and dye them and fight. I will send pics next week.
"That is so cool about Aaron and Ryan, tell them I said congratulations and they are coming to a great country. I don´t know much about Concepción, just that it´s a little bit to the south of Santiago and is basically just a smaller version of Santiago. The east mission is supercuico (really rich or upperclass) especially the sector Las Condes. I have heard that there are a ton of members there and all of there chapels are huge and actually have more than 50 to 60 people there every week. I will also have the chance of seeing Aaron if we just so happen to be in the office at the same time. I will at least be able to see his foto there, since they show all of missionaries from the east and west mission in the office. I think the north mission uses a different building. (P.S. tell Aaron and Ryan that I can still tell them apart! I opened the pic that Cara sent me before reading the email and knew immediately that Aaron was the one reading the call, then I zoomed in and could read his name on the envelope. I know they will both make great missionaries, and they will love Chile.)
"We have a noche de hogar with the Araya family tonight and we are going to use the Easter egg game with them. (ask Rebecca if you want to see this game) They are all members, the mom and two daughters are active but the dad is not. They were at the point of being sealed as a family but the dad fought with someone in the church and they then went inactive. Now the wife and daughters are attending church but he still isn´t. I am hoping that we can help him reacitivate and get sealed to his family.
"Eduardo and Paula canceled the lesson again because they had more meetings, we have another appt with them tomorrow but I don´t know if that will go through either. We are having more progress with Liliana (the woman from the elevator) and her daughter Natalia. This Wednesday I went on divisions with Elder Walker in Departamental and Elder Mawhinney came here with Elder Carpenter. They taught Liliana the first lesson, and one of the young married couples in our ward went with them to the lesson, since they live in the same apartment building.
"Well I think that is all for now, we have to get back to the pension so we can have our egg fights! Thanks for the package, I already gave the one bag of m&m´s to Flia. Guerrero and they were so excited. April 10th was the birthday of Isabel, gaby´s mom, and Carol, gaby´s aunt. Apparently they were born the same day, 3 years apart. They were very excited to get the candy and said thank you and they can´t wait to meet you when you come here."
"That is so cool about Aaron and Ryan, tell them I said congratulations and they are coming to a great country. I don´t know much about Concepción, just that it´s a little bit to the south of Santiago and is basically just a smaller version of Santiago. The east mission is supercuico (really rich or upperclass) especially the sector Las Condes. I have heard that there are a ton of members there and all of there chapels are huge and actually have more than 50 to 60 people there every week. I will also have the chance of seeing Aaron if we just so happen to be in the office at the same time. I will at least be able to see his foto there, since they show all of missionaries from the east and west mission in the office. I think the north mission uses a different building. (P.S. tell Aaron and Ryan that I can still tell them apart! I opened the pic that Cara sent me before reading the email and knew immediately that Aaron was the one reading the call, then I zoomed in and could read his name on the envelope. I know they will both make great missionaries, and they will love Chile.)
"We have a noche de hogar with the Araya family tonight and we are going to use the Easter egg game with them. (ask Rebecca if you want to see this game) They are all members, the mom and two daughters are active but the dad is not. They were at the point of being sealed as a family but the dad fought with someone in the church and they then went inactive. Now the wife and daughters are attending church but he still isn´t. I am hoping that we can help him reacitivate and get sealed to his family.
"Eduardo and Paula canceled the lesson again because they had more meetings, we have another appt with them tomorrow but I don´t know if that will go through either. We are having more progress with Liliana (the woman from the elevator) and her daughter Natalia. This Wednesday I went on divisions with Elder Walker in Departamental and Elder Mawhinney came here with Elder Carpenter. They taught Liliana the first lesson, and one of the young married couples in our ward went with them to the lesson, since they live in the same apartment building.
"Well I think that is all for now, we have to get back to the pension so we can have our egg fights! Thanks for the package, I already gave the one bag of m&m´s to Flia. Guerrero and they were so excited. April 10th was the birthday of Isabel, gaby´s mom, and Carol, gaby´s aunt. Apparently they were born the same day, 3 years apart. They were very excited to get the candy and said thank you and they can´t wait to meet you when you come here."
Monday, April 6, 2009
Semana 14 en Parque Subercaseaux
"This week went pretty well. We are starting to find new people again, which is always fun. We weren`t able to teach Eduardo and Paula again last Tuesday because they had a parent teacher meeting with their son but we have another appointment with them tomorrow. I am starting to realize that a lot of times the Lord will bless us in missionary opportunities when we least likely expect it. For example, about two weeks ago we contacted a man in the street with the family, and he was rushed but gave us his address (in another apartment building, our sector has tons) and told us to come by. So we went by a few days later, and the receptionist told us that the number was wrong, but was friendly with us and said she would look for the man`s name in the list of renters. While she was looking, a woman came out of the elevator and started asking us questions about the church, then later told us that her grandpa used to be a bishop, but she is not a member. She told we could come teach her family and gave us her address. We went by her house Thursday and taught her and her daughter. So it turns out that the address of the contact was incorrect, but through it the Lord led us to another person that was waiting for us. Pretty interesting how He works.
"Please tell Grandma happy 25th birthday for me! I love you grandma and thanks for all of the letters and packages, they truly make me feel loved.
"There were sadly no investigators that came to the conference but we have high hopes that some will come to church next Sunday. We gringos got to watch it in English in the high priest room. I got to sit by Elder Butterfield and Elder Mawhinney while we watched it, which was good times (and spiritual times, too) all around.
"There are a ton of tiny parks in our sector, on one side of the Gran Avenida (the grand avenue, of course) and on the other side of that street there is only one. It is like a division between the rich and not so rich part of our sector. It is kinda weird how drastic the change is just from crossing the street. We do divisions about 2 to 3 times a change and they are always for 24 hours, sometimes I go to the other sector and sometimes I stay where I am.
"Today for our district activity we met in the stake center (Barrio San Miguel, Saint Michael haha) and made guacamole and ate chips and guacamole for lunch. It was pretty fun.
"General Conference was amazing, but I must say that my favorite session was the priesthood session. President Eyring and President Uchtdorf`s talks about priesthood service were incredible. They inspired me to serve with all my strength in my mission and also throughout my life. I thought about how in the pre existence I probably begged to be foreordained to serve a mission, probably in this exact place so that I could serve my brothers and sisters and I am very grateful for the opportunities that I have to serve every day in this work. I also know that I will be able to continue to serve in various callings in the church throughout my life, but nothing compares to these two years. I think that the mission is not so much about "getting" baptisms or the numbers that we achieve. It is more about becoming a missionary (as Elder Bednar said in a talk a few years ago). I think the point of the mission is to teach us self discipline and how to listen to the spirit so that we can be better fathers, husbands, and leaders in the future. I was reading a little story that Elder Carpenter had, about a man that lived in the mountains and one day while he was praying received a revelation from God telling him to get up and go push a giant boulder outside of his house. The man was obedient and spent months from sun up to sun down pushing against the rock, but it wouldn`t budge. One day Satan arrived to tempt him, telling him that he was wasting his time and efforts with a task that was impossible, and that he should just give up. The man became discouraged, but decided to consult the Lord in prayer before quitting. In his prayer, the Lord explained him that he had never commanded him to move the rock, just to push against it, and then told the man to look at himself and see how much he had grown in strenth by pushing against the rock as hard as he could every day. The man realized that it was not moving the rock that was important, but rather the experience that he had gained by being obedient to the Lord`s will for him. Interesting.
"Well that is all for today, thank you for your emails, dear elders, etc. I love you all very much."
"Please tell Grandma happy 25th birthday for me! I love you grandma and thanks for all of the letters and packages, they truly make me feel loved.
"There were sadly no investigators that came to the conference but we have high hopes that some will come to church next Sunday. We gringos got to watch it in English in the high priest room. I got to sit by Elder Butterfield and Elder Mawhinney while we watched it, which was good times (and spiritual times, too) all around.
"There are a ton of tiny parks in our sector, on one side of the Gran Avenida (the grand avenue, of course) and on the other side of that street there is only one. It is like a division between the rich and not so rich part of our sector. It is kinda weird how drastic the change is just from crossing the street. We do divisions about 2 to 3 times a change and they are always for 24 hours, sometimes I go to the other sector and sometimes I stay where I am.
"Today for our district activity we met in the stake center (Barrio San Miguel, Saint Michael haha) and made guacamole and ate chips and guacamole for lunch. It was pretty fun.
"General Conference was amazing, but I must say that my favorite session was the priesthood session. President Eyring and President Uchtdorf`s talks about priesthood service were incredible. They inspired me to serve with all my strength in my mission and also throughout my life. I thought about how in the pre existence I probably begged to be foreordained to serve a mission, probably in this exact place so that I could serve my brothers and sisters and I am very grateful for the opportunities that I have to serve every day in this work. I also know that I will be able to continue to serve in various callings in the church throughout my life, but nothing compares to these two years. I think that the mission is not so much about "getting" baptisms or the numbers that we achieve. It is more about becoming a missionary (as Elder Bednar said in a talk a few years ago). I think the point of the mission is to teach us self discipline and how to listen to the spirit so that we can be better fathers, husbands, and leaders in the future. I was reading a little story that Elder Carpenter had, about a man that lived in the mountains and one day while he was praying received a revelation from God telling him to get up and go push a giant boulder outside of his house. The man was obedient and spent months from sun up to sun down pushing against the rock, but it wouldn`t budge. One day Satan arrived to tempt him, telling him that he was wasting his time and efforts with a task that was impossible, and that he should just give up. The man became discouraged, but decided to consult the Lord in prayer before quitting. In his prayer, the Lord explained him that he had never commanded him to move the rock, just to push against it, and then told the man to look at himself and see how much he had grown in strenth by pushing against the rock as hard as he could every day. The man realized that it was not moving the rock that was important, but rather the experience that he had gained by being obedient to the Lord`s will for him. Interesting.
"Well that is all for today, thank you for your emails, dear elders, etc. I love you all very much."
Semana 13 en Parque Subercaseaux
"Yesterday our district leader called and said that Elder Carpenter and I won`t be transfered, so we will have 6 more weeks to stay together and work here. Yesterday was the fifth Sunday and Elder Carpenter and I had the last hour with everyone in the ward combined to do a lesson. It was pretty intense. We talked about unity in the ward since the ward mission plan should be ready in two weeks, then we will be needing the cooperation of everyone to make it work. The attendance at church is a little better. We have about an average of 50, and our goal to have by the end of the year is 70 and I think we can get there with everyone`s help.
"It is still pretty hot, but the days are getting shorter. We will be watching conference this weekend, all 5 sessions. It should be good times had by all. It will also be a good opportunity to bring people to church, since there are at least 4 opportuinities on different days. We shall see.
"So I have two funny stories for you this week:
1. Last Sunday we contacted a family sitting on a park bench and they told us we could come by Tuesday at seven and that they live in the apartment building next to the church. So on Tuesday at 7 we went by and pressed the intercom and asked for Paula and Eduardo from apt. no. 308 and the receptionist told me that I had the wrong address because that was not the right name. I repeated it again and he said I was wrong. So we thought maybe we went to the wrong apt building and started walking towards another, when we crossed paths with Eduardo, the husband. He asked us where we were going, since it was already seven and we had the appointment with him. I told him what the receptionist had told me, but Eduardo said that the address that I had was correct. So we went with him into the building and Eduardo got mad at the receptionist for telling us we had a bad address. The receptionist told him that he couldn`t understand the names I said, but Eduardo told him to double check next time before saying it is wrong. Then we went up to his apartment and taught him and his wife about the restoration. It was a good experience. We have another appointment with them tomorrow.
2. Elder Mawhinney and I had divisions again on Wednesday and this time I went to his sector. The next day we had to meet our companions in a certain metro station at 11:00 a.m. to change back. We got in a taxi and started driving but the driver went the wrong way. Elder Mawhinney no longer knew where we were, then we realized that we had arrived in La Florida, which is part of the east mission. haha so then we went to the closest metro station and took the subway for an hour trying to get back. good times."
"It is still pretty hot, but the days are getting shorter. We will be watching conference this weekend, all 5 sessions. It should be good times had by all. It will also be a good opportunity to bring people to church, since there are at least 4 opportuinities on different days. We shall see.
"So I have two funny stories for you this week:
1. Last Sunday we contacted a family sitting on a park bench and they told us we could come by Tuesday at seven and that they live in the apartment building next to the church. So on Tuesday at 7 we went by and pressed the intercom and asked for Paula and Eduardo from apt. no. 308 and the receptionist told me that I had the wrong address because that was not the right name. I repeated it again and he said I was wrong. So we thought maybe we went to the wrong apt building and started walking towards another, when we crossed paths with Eduardo, the husband. He asked us where we were going, since it was already seven and we had the appointment with him. I told him what the receptionist had told me, but Eduardo said that the address that I had was correct. So we went with him into the building and Eduardo got mad at the receptionist for telling us we had a bad address. The receptionist told him that he couldn`t understand the names I said, but Eduardo told him to double check next time before saying it is wrong. Then we went up to his apartment and taught him and his wife about the restoration. It was a good experience. We have another appointment with them tomorrow.
2. Elder Mawhinney and I had divisions again on Wednesday and this time I went to his sector. The next day we had to meet our companions in a certain metro station at 11:00 a.m. to change back. We got in a taxi and started driving but the driver went the wrong way. Elder Mawhinney no longer knew where we were, then we realized that we had arrived in La Florida, which is part of the east mission. haha so then we went to the closest metro station and took the subway for an hour trying to get back. good times."
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Semana 12 en Parque Subercaseaux
"This week not too many crazy exciting things happened, but that is okay we are working hard. On Saturday we had a ward counsel to start putting together our ward mission plan. p.s. mission looks so weird in English, it is misiòn in spanish. Anyway we are working a lot with the members, not getting too many references (or actually any at all) but I feel like the blessings are coming soon. I was studying today esperanza (hope) because tonight we are going to have a family home evening with Familia Marìn and each person had to pick a Christlike atribute, study it, and prepare a talk of about 5 minutes to share tonight. Preach My Gospel says that if we have hope we trust that God will fulfill all of the promises that he has made to us. I know that the success doesn`t happen instantaneaously (wow I have no idea how to spell that word) and through our steady, constant efforts we receive blessings. I am hoping that we will start having more success with the Familia Mendez from Colombia. We invited them to church on Saturday night but they told us they couldn`t come because they had to go to mass the next day, but we have another appointment with them on Wednesday and we are going to come with members so that they start making friends in the church and have the desire to go. Maria couldn`t come again because of her mom, but I am okay with it. I know that she will come to church when she can, it is just not her time yet."
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Fotos de los animales
Elder Cloward says this bear reminds him of the California flag
Chilean police at the zooTuesday, March 17, 2009
Semana 11 en Parque Subercaseaux
"Surprise!
"So we changed pday today because we went to the Chilean national zoo in the San
Cristóval hill. We saw a lot of animals, except for penguins and sea lions,
which slightly dissapointed me :( but it was still fun. Apparently the zoo is
not open on Monday so that is why we changed pday.
"Anyway, the talk went pretty well. President Jones called me up to give it when
I was not expecting. During the zone conference we had a little break and he
asked me if I had prepared the talk like he'd asked and I told him yes. Usually
when missionaries give talks in zone conferences they announce it before, like
when the bishop or counselors do in sacrament meetings (one of the a.p.´s always
does it) but they didn´t announce anything. Then, while President Jones was
giving his talk (he never has anything written down, he just talks i am sure he
prepares it before but his talks are always great) he just said "I´m going to
ask an elder to come up and give a talk he has prepared about the importance of
obedience and listening the spirit" than he laughed a little bit and said "I
don´t want anyone to think that just because this elder is giving a talk on
obedience means that he is chueco (crooked, disobedient)" and everybody
laughed... so anyway then I got up and gave my talk and when I finished he kept
talking again. I talked about how sometimes the spirit can lead us to do things
that are "against the rules" for example in 1 Nephi 4 when Nephi is commanded to
cut off Laban´s head. but then I explained that these occasions are exceptions to
the rules that only happen very rarely. For example, Nephi never used that
experience with Laban as an excuse to kill someone else, thinking that it would
be okay to do it again if the spirit had commanded him to do it once. I think it
went pretty well, I was kind of nervous talking, since it wasn´t just sacrament
meeting, it was 100 other missionaries, most of which have a lot more experience
than me. But a good experience.
"Not too much news on the investigator front, seems that Maria Eugenia is going
to be able to come to church this next Sunday because her sister will be able to
take care of their mom. So we´ll see how that goes.
"So yeah that´s about it for this week, I don´t have much time to write due to
the whole trip to the zoo thing."
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Fotitos
Elder Cloward & Elder Mawhinney
Ghost effect on the camera (and a view of the pension)
The refrigerator magnet that Janessa sent me, plus the sticky notes that Elder Fuller (who lives in the pension with us and went to the U of U... disgusting) put on there. They are basically girly comments that the players are making to each other, such as, "hey John do you like my nails?" "yeah Tom i think they are beautiful." etc. It made me laugh so I told him he could keep the sticky notes on there if he lets me keep the magnet up.Semana 9 en Parque Subercaseaux
"We don`t have daylight savings until next week, and we gain an hour of sleep instead of losing one. Awesome. I think after my mission I`ll come to Chile for the weekend every time we have to spring forward in the U.S. because we are falling back here. Next week we will be 5 hours apart!
"Pabla is doing well I think, but we are no longer teaching her because she doesn`t live in our sector. We sent the reference to the missionaries in the east mission last week. Maria Eugenia still wants to get baptized, but her mom is very sick and she has to take care of her every day from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., which is when her sister gets home from work and then they switch. So she won`t be getting baptized March 28th as we had hoped I think it`s just not her time yet.but we are working a lot with Seba to help him get the priesthood so we`ll see how that goes.
"We meet with President Jones once every six weeks and we have interviews for about 30 minutes, and we kind of just talk about how we are doing.
"For my birthday I would really just like a tie or two. I kind of need another yellow one, I like the one I have but it is getting old and wrinkly. I know there is something else that I need, but I can`t think of it. If you could send peanut butter and m&ms in my next package that would be great.
"With the new comp I would say that being the exact opposite of Elder Noguera can be a good thing and a bad thing. Elder Noguera was very focused on following the Spirit, and not so much the rules. Elder Carpenter seems to me to be the opposite of that. I am just trying my best to keep all of the rules and follow the Spirit. Sometimes we are so focused on the letter of the law that we turn into Pharisees and forget about the Spirit, and other times we focus so much on the spirit of the law that we end up breaking all of the rules. It is quite the dilemna... President Jones actually asked me to give a talk on that in the next zone conference, which will be this Wednesday. I will let you know how it goes."
"Pabla is doing well I think, but we are no longer teaching her because she doesn`t live in our sector. We sent the reference to the missionaries in the east mission last week. Maria Eugenia still wants to get baptized, but her mom is very sick and she has to take care of her every day from 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., which is when her sister gets home from work and then they switch. So she won`t be getting baptized March 28th as we had hoped I think it`s just not her time yet.but we are working a lot with Seba to help him get the priesthood so we`ll see how that goes.
"We meet with President Jones once every six weeks and we have interviews for about 30 minutes, and we kind of just talk about how we are doing.
"For my birthday I would really just like a tie or two. I kind of need another yellow one, I like the one I have but it is getting old and wrinkly. I know there is something else that I need, but I can`t think of it. If you could send peanut butter and m&ms in my next package that would be great.
"With the new comp I would say that being the exact opposite of Elder Noguera can be a good thing and a bad thing. Elder Noguera was very focused on following the Spirit, and not so much the rules. Elder Carpenter seems to me to be the opposite of that. I am just trying my best to keep all of the rules and follow the Spirit. Sometimes we are so focused on the letter of the law that we turn into Pharisees and forget about the Spirit, and other times we focus so much on the spirit of the law that we end up breaking all of the rules. It is quite the dilemna... President Jones actually asked me to give a talk on that in the next zone conference, which will be this Wednesday. I will let you know how it goes."
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Fotos
Elder Carpenter & Elder Cloward
Part of our district/zone in our district activity today (eating pizza at Telepizza, the local pizza place) hurray for Chileanized Americanized Italian food!
A giant abandoned hospital in the sector next to ours. Apparently they built the whole thing, then a few years later realized that the ground they built it on was unlevel. Way to go structural engineers of Chile.(he would notice that haha)
Semanas 7 y 8 en Parque Subercaseaux
"After changes this last week, Elder Butterfield is now my zone leader, which is great. He finally left Rivas Vicuña after being there for 5 changes. And Elder Mawhinney is in my district now and it is great to see him every Wednesday for district meetings.
"This week was good. On Monday I left Elder Noguera with the assistants and came back to my new sector with Elder Carpenter. He is from Mesa Arizona (no, he doesn´t know the Giles or anyone else we know from Mesa). He has one little brother that is thirteen, and everyone in his family is a member of the church. He likes photography. He has been in the mission a year and a month and has stayed in the city the whole time. He is shorter and a slight bit stockier than me. I will send a pic. So as far as companions go Elder Carpenter is the complete opposite of Elder Noguera. The polar opposite. I talked to president about that in my interview. He said that is true, there are probably not any two elders in this mission who are more different than they are. So I told president I figure that if I can get along well with the both of them then I can get along with anyone in the mission. He agreed.
(background-Janessa sent Michael a BYU Men's Volleyball magnet with the game schedule on it...) "One of the elders that lives with Elder Carpenter and me is a Ute... ughhh.... so he didn´t really like the magnet we put on the fridge. He accepted it with the condition that he could put sticky note dialogues on the magnet, which consist of the BYU volleyball players saying girly things to each other, such as 'let´s go paint our nails together after the volleyball match,' etc. I will take a pic and send it next week. I thought it was actually pretty funny. We get along really well despite our blood-color differences. (mine is blue)
"The discussions are going well with Maria Eugenia and Sebastian. We went there on Wednesday and told her that we have already set tons of dates with her for her baptism and it never works, so we want her to pick a date. She said she wants to do it March 28th. So we are hoping and praying that this time it will go through. Also, Sebastian put his earring back in, and now the hole in his ear is growing, but we are working with him on that. I don´t think he will get the priesthood in time to baptize his mom, but she is willing to do it without him. The important thing is just that he does it.
"I just hope that Maria Eugenia gets baptized this time but I know that Lord´s will be done in all things. Maria´s mom has been really sick apparently and she lives in another part of our zone, and the missionaries gave her mom a blessing of health and apparently she wants to get baptized now too, which is great, but she is still really sick, and Maria needs to take care of her, which made it impossible for her to come church yesterday, but she still has her date for the 28th of March. Maria is very worried about her mom´s health, so we did a lesson of "comfort scriptures" that we shared with her, such as: 1 nephi 11:17, 2 nephi 2 :24, mosiah 4:9, which are pretty good to remember in the times when we don´t really understand why things go the way the do. Just something to have saved up for a rainy day :)
"There is also another investigator, Pabla, that wants to get baptized. Her cousin and two aunts are recent converts, and she always comes to visit them on the weekends, but during the week she lives and works in the east mission (funny story she is actually one of the p.e. teachers at the school where President Jones´ kids attend) but of course wants to get baptized here. So we are not exactly sure what we are going to do about that. I will keep everyone updated of course.
"Elder Krainik is no longer in this zone, he is in Maipú (pronounced my poo hahaha) it is still in the city but on the outskirts, almost the countryside.
"Alright maybe a little something for the bishop to read:
Dear La Mirada ward,
Hola ¿como han estado? Things are going great down here in Chile. I am now with my fourth companion in Chile, another gringo, which has been really strange after 18 weeks of being with companions from South America. I am forgetting English little by little... the members in our ward are doing well (all fifty of them). We started a new program called "the tie of responsibility" to get the members excited about missionary work (I actually stole the idea from the elder´s quorum in Mar Vista). So we bought a really ugle tie from the street flee market (the feria) for a dollar and then gave it to one of the brothers, and he has to wear it every week until he has a missionary experience, then he can share his experience with the other elders and pass the tie to someone else. We are doing the same thing in relief society but with bright red ugly sunglasses. The ward here is small but they are very excited and help us a lot with the work. Thank you for all of the letters of support I truly appreciate it, especially the poems from Brother Bodell. I am praying for you always!
Love, Elder Cloward
"This week was good. On Monday I left Elder Noguera with the assistants and came back to my new sector with Elder Carpenter. He is from Mesa Arizona (no, he doesn´t know the Giles or anyone else we know from Mesa). He has one little brother that is thirteen, and everyone in his family is a member of the church. He likes photography. He has been in the mission a year and a month and has stayed in the city the whole time. He is shorter and a slight bit stockier than me. I will send a pic. So as far as companions go Elder Carpenter is the complete opposite of Elder Noguera. The polar opposite. I talked to president about that in my interview. He said that is true, there are probably not any two elders in this mission who are more different than they are. So I told president I figure that if I can get along well with the both of them then I can get along with anyone in the mission. He agreed.
(background-Janessa sent Michael a BYU Men's Volleyball magnet with the game schedule on it...) "One of the elders that lives with Elder Carpenter and me is a Ute... ughhh.... so he didn´t really like the magnet we put on the fridge. He accepted it with the condition that he could put sticky note dialogues on the magnet, which consist of the BYU volleyball players saying girly things to each other, such as 'let´s go paint our nails together after the volleyball match,' etc. I will take a pic and send it next week. I thought it was actually pretty funny. We get along really well despite our blood-color differences. (mine is blue)
"The discussions are going well with Maria Eugenia and Sebastian. We went there on Wednesday and told her that we have already set tons of dates with her for her baptism and it never works, so we want her to pick a date. She said she wants to do it March 28th. So we are hoping and praying that this time it will go through. Also, Sebastian put his earring back in, and now the hole in his ear is growing, but we are working with him on that. I don´t think he will get the priesthood in time to baptize his mom, but she is willing to do it without him. The important thing is just that he does it.
"I just hope that Maria Eugenia gets baptized this time but I know that Lord´s will be done in all things. Maria´s mom has been really sick apparently and she lives in another part of our zone, and the missionaries gave her mom a blessing of health and apparently she wants to get baptized now too, which is great, but she is still really sick, and Maria needs to take care of her, which made it impossible for her to come church yesterday, but she still has her date for the 28th of March. Maria is very worried about her mom´s health, so we did a lesson of "comfort scriptures" that we shared with her, such as: 1 nephi 11:17, 2 nephi 2 :24, mosiah 4:9, which are pretty good to remember in the times when we don´t really understand why things go the way the do. Just something to have saved up for a rainy day :)
"There is also another investigator, Pabla, that wants to get baptized. Her cousin and two aunts are recent converts, and she always comes to visit them on the weekends, but during the week she lives and works in the east mission (funny story she is actually one of the p.e. teachers at the school where President Jones´ kids attend) but of course wants to get baptized here. So we are not exactly sure what we are going to do about that. I will keep everyone updated of course.
"Elder Krainik is no longer in this zone, he is in Maipú (pronounced my poo hahaha) it is still in the city but on the outskirts, almost the countryside.
"Alright maybe a little something for the bishop to read:
Dear La Mirada ward,
Hola ¿como han estado? Things are going great down here in Chile. I am now with my fourth companion in Chile, another gringo, which has been really strange after 18 weeks of being with companions from South America. I am forgetting English little by little... the members in our ward are doing well (all fifty of them). We started a new program called "the tie of responsibility" to get the members excited about missionary work (I actually stole the idea from the elder´s quorum in Mar Vista). So we bought a really ugle tie from the street flee market (the feria) for a dollar and then gave it to one of the brothers, and he has to wear it every week until he has a missionary experience, then he can share his experience with the other elders and pass the tie to someone else. We are doing the same thing in relief society but with bright red ugly sunglasses. The ward here is small but they are very excited and help us a lot with the work. Thank you for all of the letters of support I truly appreciate it, especially the poems from Brother Bodell. I am praying for you always!
Love, Elder Cloward
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Volleyball, Christmas and a crowd surfing Mission President
The Zone
Teaching Gaby how to play volleyball
President Jones is crowd surfing whether he likes it or not!
The Chile Santiago West Mission Christmas PartySemana 6 en Parque Subercaseaux
"So this week was long and tiring but hey that is life. On Monday we went to talk to Maria and Sebastian again about her baptism and basically told her that she knows enough to be baptized and she is prepared, now she just needs to take the step and do it. She is trying hard to stop drinking tea but still seems to have a lot of doubts. She didn`t come to church yesterday so now she can`t be baptized the 21st and will have to wait almost a month more to be baptized. There really isn`t anything else we can do for her we just have to let her make the decision that she knows is right.
"We are teaching a few other people, and all of them are relatives of recent converts to the church. The niece of Maria (the other Maria, the one that was baptized the week after I got here) is listening to us now and has a baptismal date for the 7 of March and we are also teaching the mom, aunt, and grandma of Felipe, another recent convert. I will keep you updated on what goes down with them.
"In other news, this Friday Elder Noguera and all of the other elders that are going home this transfer went to temple to do an endownment session with President and Sister Jones, then take some time in the celestial room to meditate about their mission and ask if the Lord accepts their service and pray about their plans for when they get home. There were five of us who came who are the companions of the ones going home. We usually just sit in the office and study while the others do the session, but they let us go in the temple and do initiatories, which was really cool. President Jones` parents came to the temple too because they are visiting the family in Chile for about a month. His dad impressed me very much he seems like a very humble man and I could tell that he really loves the missionaries and his son.
"Let`s see...what else...I have a ton of pictures from this week I will try to send as many as i can. sometimes there are weeks with nothing to take a picture of and other times there are a lot of pictures. asì es la vida.so we have a couple of initiatives we are working on with the ward. I stole the idea from the Mar Vista singles ward. In the elders quorum we had an ugly tie that we passed form person to person, and he had to wear it until he had a missionary experience, then the next Sunday he shared the experience he had and passed the tie to the next person of hischoice. We are doing the same thing in this ward, but instead of calling it the "ugly tie" we call it the "tie of responsibility" haha so the second counselor in the ward is wearing it now. We are doing the same thing in the relief society, except we are using the "sunglasses of responsibility" that is the great thing about Chilean ferias, we bought some bright red sunglasses and an ugly tie on the street for $2 USD. Good times.
"And this is to give you an idea of how the church works here down south: yesterday morning we had the executive commitee at 8:30 in the morning. At quarter to ten (the sacrament meeting starts at ten) one of the speakers still hadn`t shown up to give their talk, so the bishop kindly asked if Elder Cloward could prepare a little talk (10 minutes) about responsibility, since we are starting the new program with the tie and the sunglasses of responsability. So at quarter to ten they told me, then Elder Noguera and I prepared the sacrament, since there are no active priests in the ward, and at 5 to 10 I had a little time to pick 3 or 4 scriptures for my talk. Then, after passing the sacrament, (there were no deacons either) I went and gave my talk. I was really nervous since it is the first time that I have ever given a talk like that with so little preparation. It went pretty well though it was a good experience, I could really feel the spirit guiding my words since at times I honestly had no idea what to say. I think He understood that I had prepared as best as I could so He made up for the rest."
"We are teaching a few other people, and all of them are relatives of recent converts to the church. The niece of Maria (the other Maria, the one that was baptized the week after I got here) is listening to us now and has a baptismal date for the 7 of March and we are also teaching the mom, aunt, and grandma of Felipe, another recent convert. I will keep you updated on what goes down with them.
"In other news, this Friday Elder Noguera and all of the other elders that are going home this transfer went to temple to do an endownment session with President and Sister Jones, then take some time in the celestial room to meditate about their mission and ask if the Lord accepts their service and pray about their plans for when they get home. There were five of us who came who are the companions of the ones going home. We usually just sit in the office and study while the others do the session, but they let us go in the temple and do initiatories, which was really cool. President Jones` parents came to the temple too because they are visiting the family in Chile for about a month. His dad impressed me very much he seems like a very humble man and I could tell that he really loves the missionaries and his son.
"Let`s see...what else...I have a ton of pictures from this week I will try to send as many as i can. sometimes there are weeks with nothing to take a picture of and other times there are a lot of pictures. asì es la vida.so we have a couple of initiatives we are working on with the ward. I stole the idea from the Mar Vista singles ward. In the elders quorum we had an ugly tie that we passed form person to person, and he had to wear it until he had a missionary experience, then the next Sunday he shared the experience he had and passed the tie to the next person of hischoice. We are doing the same thing in this ward, but instead of calling it the "ugly tie" we call it the "tie of responsibility" haha so the second counselor in the ward is wearing it now. We are doing the same thing in the relief society, except we are using the "sunglasses of responsibility" that is the great thing about Chilean ferias, we bought some bright red sunglasses and an ugly tie on the street for $2 USD. Good times.
"And this is to give you an idea of how the church works here down south: yesterday morning we had the executive commitee at 8:30 in the morning. At quarter to ten (the sacrament meeting starts at ten) one of the speakers still hadn`t shown up to give their talk, so the bishop kindly asked if Elder Cloward could prepare a little talk (10 minutes) about responsibility, since we are starting the new program with the tie and the sunglasses of responsability. So at quarter to ten they told me, then Elder Noguera and I prepared the sacrament, since there are no active priests in the ward, and at 5 to 10 I had a little time to pick 3 or 4 scriptures for my talk. Then, after passing the sacrament, (there were no deacons either) I went and gave my talk. I was really nervous since it is the first time that I have ever given a talk like that with so little preparation. It went pretty well though it was a good experience, I could really feel the spirit guiding my words since at times I honestly had no idea what to say. I think He understood that I had prepared as best as I could so He made up for the rest."
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Semana 5 en Parque Subercaseaux
"I have given two talks since I have been in Chile, one in Los Arcos and the other my first Sunday here in Parque Subercaseaux. Maria Eugenia will not be getting baptized this week, since she has still not stopped drinking tea. We are praying for her and working as hard as we can to help her. Her new baptismal date is the twenty first. Sebastian still doesn`t have the priesthood, but we are working with him to get ready. I talked with Elder Becerra today in our zone activity and he said that Katy couldn`t get baptized yesterday because one of her relatives passed away. She will get baptized this Saturday, and another investigator, Camilo, from Lo Ovalle will get baptized on Sunday. I am not sure if I told you about him, he is nine and his mom is a returned missionary that recently reactivated in the church. Elder Becerra and I started teaching him a couple of months ago and it looks like now he is ready to be baptized, I am very excited for him.
"Our ward has about 65 active members and our chapel is super old and tiny. The sacrament room is the cultural hall, we don`t have pews, just chairs that get stacked up.
"So Elder Noguera will be finishing the mission two weeks from today. His story is fairly complicated, but I will do my best to explain it. To finish the full two years of his mission, he would have to finish this change (which ends next Monday) and stay for another change, six more weeks. However, President Jones talked with him and told him that he doesn`t feel that it is the right thing for him to do the full two years, because Elder Noguera has a scholarship in a flight school in Argentina, and if he isn`t home by March 9th to take some test he will lose his scholarship. Elder Noguera was pretty bummed to hear that he had to go home 6 weeks early, it doesn`t really matter to him if he loses his scholarship. Anyway, a few days after that President Jones called again and said that after talking to an apostle (he didn`t tell us which one) he decided to let Elder Noguera finish this change and have an extra week. So, Elder Noguera goes home two weeks from today, one week into the next change, and someone will have special changes to come to this sector and take his place. I am not exactly sure about how that will all work out, but we`ll see."
"Our ward has about 65 active members and our chapel is super old and tiny. The sacrament room is the cultural hall, we don`t have pews, just chairs that get stacked up.
"So Elder Noguera will be finishing the mission two weeks from today. His story is fairly complicated, but I will do my best to explain it. To finish the full two years of his mission, he would have to finish this change (which ends next Monday) and stay for another change, six more weeks. However, President Jones talked with him and told him that he doesn`t feel that it is the right thing for him to do the full two years, because Elder Noguera has a scholarship in a flight school in Argentina, and if he isn`t home by March 9th to take some test he will lose his scholarship. Elder Noguera was pretty bummed to hear that he had to go home 6 weeks early, it doesn`t really matter to him if he loses his scholarship. Anyway, a few days after that President Jones called again and said that after talking to an apostle (he didn`t tell us which one) he decided to let Elder Noguera finish this change and have an extra week. So, Elder Noguera goes home two weeks from today, one week into the next change, and someone will have special changes to come to this sector and take his place. I am not exactly sure about how that will all work out, but we`ll see."
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
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 weekSemana 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)."
"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)."
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
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
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