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."

Fotos galore

Fotos from the past few weeks:

Elder Cloward loves his tree and all the ornaments!
Elder Cloward and Elder Wagner and the "trunky" tree (haha)

Thanks for the ornament, Adriana! And what is Joel doing on the tree?

Fotos from service (cleaning the Young Women President's rug):

Fotos from Elder Cloward's mission Christmas party: Elder Butterfield, President Jones, Elder Cloward

Elder Cloward, Elder Mawhinney, Elder Krainik

The Jones family (Mission President, wife and children)

Semana 9 en Los Arcos

"So right now I`m sitting in an internet cafe on the other side of the world, and `Take on Me`is playing in the background (does he mean 'Take a Chance on Me' maybe?). nice. So we didn`t do email yesterday because we were in the Christmas activity pretty much all day. It was really fun. We went to the chapel of Rivas Vicuña at about 8:30 and changed into our pday clothes to play (you guessed it, soccer) and some other games that Sister Jones had organized. Then we watched the `restrospectiva`which is like a slide show of the past year, and we all got a copy of it after. Then we ate lunch, sang some christmas songs, and President Jones spoke, then we took a pic of the whole mission, but I don`t have it, because they didn`t want to take the picture 160 times for the whole mission. So they will email it to me and I will email it to you.

"The Christmas activities for our ward and stake were this weekend, too. The ward activity was Friday and the stake activity was Saturday. On Saturday we had a whole stand set up outside with pamphlets, Liahona`s, pictures of Christ, etc. and we contacted pretty much every person that walked by to invite them to come in to the activity. Fernando Tapia (the 11 year old that we have been teaching from Flia. Tapia) came to the activity, but didn`t want to go in because he wanted to be outside with us and help us talk to people about Jesus Christ. He is a really great kid and we are going to try to set a date for his baptism tonight. Yesterday I asked him what he wants to do when he grows up and he told me he wants to be a missionary so he can help people. He also told us that he has been reading 4 pages from his Book of Mormon every day and he brings it to school and sometimes reads it with his friends. So yeah he is basically golden. His dad, Angel, came to church for the first time on Sunday and loved it. He was very impressed by how kind the members here. He told us they treated him like someone that they had known for a long time even though they were meeting him for the first time. Fernando didn`t come on Sunday because his dad told him he had to stay home and finsih his homework, so yesterday we told Fernando to make sure he has his homework done before Sunday so he can come to church.

"We are still teaching Katy but it is hard to get an appointment with her. Her fiancè, Erick, got fired from his old job and is now driving a radio taxi (basically someone calls him whil he is driving around and he picks them up and drops them off where they want to go) and he gets home very late from work and works every other Sunday. And Katy wants Erick to be there when we do the lessons (as do we) so we will see what happens with that, but they are going to get married January 30th and after that Katy can get baptized.We still have lunch every day with the members, but we are not sure who we will eat Christmas dinner with yet. Here Christmas dinner is always on the 24th and they open all of the gifts at midnight, which I guess is kinda cool, but then they just don`t really do anything on the 25th. They all think that I am crazy because we open the gifts on the 25th in the morning. I tried explaining that you have to go to sleep early on the 24th so that Santa Claus (here his name is `viejito pascuero`, literally `the old christmas man` haha) can come during the night to leave the gifts. oh well different country different traditions.

"I will take a picture of me by the tree and one up close of adrianna`s ornament. I really like the one that cousin Connie made of my new cousin `oopsie`hahaha. I put all of the ornaments that you sent me on the tree, so please let everyone that made an ornament know and tell them thank you. Thank you so much for all of the gifts the 12 days of christmas makes me laugh every time I open one. I try to guess what it will be before I open it and I have gotten a few of them right (animal crackers, fruit rollups) when I opened the Payday bar I was guessing it would be 100 grand, so I almost got that one write haha. well everybody I love you very much and cant wait to talk to you tomorrow! (2:oo my time 9:oo your time) talk to you soon!"

Feliz Navidad! or, Semana 10 en Los Arcos

"Merry Christmas and happy 2009!!! (almost) It was great to talk to everyone on mom`s birthday. Thank you so much for all of the ties and tell grandma Sharon thank you so much for the white shirt and tie! I really love all of the ties you sent. I decided that I am going to call the white and black one my zebra tie haha but I really do like it I wore it the day I opened it. I am feeling better too I just need to rest a little bit (he was a little sick when he called us).

"Today we are going to play volleyball for our zone activity I am so excited!!! finally! For the 24th we went to one of the sisters in Los Arcos and had dinner with her. She gave us socks for Christmas! haha I opened the gift from Lidia and she gave us socks too she is really funny. That is really exciting that Mitch is going to have his first baptism I am very excited for him. I am going to (try to) write them today I am not sure if i will have time with the zone activity. have you listened to the tape i sent or tried some of the cookies? I hope you like everything.

"Things are going well here yesterday Angel and Fernando came to church again. Angela didn`t come because she was feeling very sick again. Apparently she went to the hospital on Saturday and they are going again today. I really hope she will be okay. Apparently her mom died of ovarian cancer and her mom`s sister died of breast cancer and they think she might have the same thing, but she is only 16 years old. I feel so bad for the family and just hope that they will let the gospel help them overcome the challanges in their life. Well I have to go buy some stuff to get ready for the activity and I will talk to you again next week. I love you all so much!"

Fotos! Semana 8 en Los Arcos

The Christmas Tree! See if you can find your ornaments

Also, please observe the musical Christmas ties from Dollar Tree

"Some old Catholic cathedral I thought looked really cool"

Elder Cloward & Elder Krainik at the mission home

Semana 8 en Los Arcos

"This week was pretty interesting. On Thursday I had to go to the mission office because I had to get my carnèt, which is basically my foreigner Chilean I.D. We had to go to three different gov't buildings throughout Santiago to get it and waited in lines for about 2 hours at each place. It was a good oportunity to make some contacts and talk to some peeps, but it was also a trial of my patience haha. So my card should be arriving in about 3 weeks. We had to wake up at about 5:30 a.m. and we did not get back to our sector until 6:00 p.m. but the sister who made us lunch, Hermana Corina Cancino, saved food for us. She is really cool and helps us a lot. I think it is because she has a son on the mission too and wants to help us as much as possible because she wants the members in Argentina to help her son like that. Her son, Elder Cancino, is serving in Buenos Aires North, is that Elder Anderson`s mission or Elder Williamson`s mission? They should know him since he is about to finish his mission.

"We also have taught the Familia Tapia to more times since last week. The daughter went to the hospital on Tuesday for a check up and the doctor could not find anything wrong with her, which I am pretty sure qualifies as a miracle considering how sick she was on Sunday. Also, they found the dad`s car which was stolen last week. So this family is seeing a lot of miracles which is really great. We have another lesson with them tonight.

"Thanks so much for the packages. I wasn`t sure about the stocking so I already opened it (but not the ties, I saved them for Christmas!) and gave the CTR rings, pencils, and stickers to the Primary kids and they loved them! The Primary president and her counselors were very grateful and wanted to thank you very much! I gave Elder Becerra his stocking too and told him to wait to open his tie until Christmas, but he openend it right away. I told him it was a very nice tie and he needs to take care of it, and he wanted to say "sank you very much" to the family (he has some problems making the "th" sound haha it doesn`t exist in Spanish). And I already put the treee up on the wall and finished decorating it today. I put the ties and the shirt from Grandma, along with the 12 days of christmas gifts "under" the tree it all looks pretty cool. I will send a pic today. The cookies and candy from your package were still very fresh I think putting the pieces of bread in there helped. As I was eating the cookies I thought how lucky I am to have a family that cares so much to wrap each individual cookie and send them in a container like that just so I could get them fresh. Thank you so much for all of the packages they are making our pension much more Christmas-y. Thanks for the cassette tape too I already listened to the whole thing during my exercize/get ready for bed time. I started laughing so hard when Mitch started talking. I also thought it was really funny when Elisabeth said that she couldn`t here me talking to her then when the girls explained to her that it was a recording that I would hear later and she said "oooohhh" haha made my day.

"We should be having Christmas dinner with one of the members, and we get to stay out until 11:00 p.m. woo-hoo!!! party day!!! haha."

(we get to talk to him in 9 days!!!!)

Fotos Semana 7

We have no idea what is going on here, but the statue is cool.
Elder Cloward and - we think - Elder Kranick outside a pretty church.

Lidia's baptism - Elder Cloward, Lidia, Raul, Elder Becerra

Semana 7 en Los Arcos

"This Thursday we had interviews with President Jones and he knew about the situation with Lidia from my weekly email and he told us he had been praying about it a lot, and he felt from the Spirit that the baptism on Saturday was okay. He said that it is possible that I was wrong when I saw the tunica above the water, or it is also possible that it went under the water and came up after. He said that one time he saw a baptism and both of the witnesses said it was good, but he was sitting to the side and to him it looked like the person had not gone completely under water, and he wanted to say something, but he felt the Spirit confirm that it was okay. Lidia definitely showed her true intention by being baptized (about 6 or 7 times) and if part of her clothes left from the water, it is okay. President Jones told me that if he is wrong, then it will fall on his head, not on mine. I thought that was pretty funny, but it also made me feel a lot better. So we told Lidia that everything was good with her baptism and she was very excited. So that is the good news of this week, but here comes the better news... get excited!

"We had a great experience this week with a new family (sorry this is kind of long, but it is a good story, I promise!). We only found them through what seems like an accident (but we don`t believe in coincidences, right?). We were standing oustide of an investigator´s house (his name is Emilio... he is a great investigator too but that is a different story for a different day) last Monday and a member from another stake, Hna. Sandoval, stopped to talk to us and told us that we should go visit this family, la familia Tapia, that was a good friend of hers, and lived in the apartment building across the street from Emilio. So we went and visited the next day, and set an appointment for Thursday. On Thursday we came by, and someone had robbed the dad`s car, so it was not the best time to teach a lesson. We invited Àngel (The dad) to say a prayer with us, but he didn`t want to. He said that there are so many bad things that have happened in his life (his wife passed away about a year and a half ago) that it is hard for him to have faith. We came by again on Saturday, and Àngel was in the hospital with his daughter, Àngela (16 years old) and it seems that she is pretty sick, but we are not sure with what. I called saturday night and talked with the son, Fernando (11 years old) and he said that his sister was still in the hospital, and I invited him to pray for her and asked if he could come to church Sunday and he said yes. Sunday morning we went to their house and only Fernando came to church, because his sister and dad were waiting for a doctor to come by and do a house-call (I think that is what they are called). His dad told us that he had never let his son go out without him before, but he let him go with us. As we were walking to the church (which is across the street from their apartment) Fernando told us that when he prayed for his sister saturday night, she came home from the hospital right away. This kid is amazing! When he saw us paying fast offerings in the chapel he asked us what it was for, we explained it to him and after he wanted to pay (of course we explained to him he didn`t have to, but could if he wanted to). When we went back to his house he took out $300 pesos (about the equivalent of 50 cents) to give to the church! When we went back to his house, his sister was lying in bed and was feeling very sick. The same member that told us to visit the family, Hermana Sandoval, was in the house visiting and explained to the dad how we do blessings of health in the church. He wanted Elder Becerra and I to give Àngela a blessing, which we gladly did. We came back later that night to share a lesson with the family (the plan of salvation) and the daughter was feeling much better. The dad said that after the blessing she felt some of the pain leave and slept for a while, and after her nap they went to the store and she was walking around perfectly fine. The dad said that he wasn`t quite ready to say it was a miracle or to convert immediately to the Mormon faith, but he did say that there was a huge change in the health of his daughter, and that he could tell that there was `something good going on with the mormons.` He also thanked us very much because he could see that we were truly worried about the family and wanted to help, not just try to convert them. So we are very excited to teach them (we are going again tomorrow night). Fernando wanted us to come by today, but his dad said no because they are going to be out of town. It is amazing to see the ways that the Lord brings us to the people that are waiting for the truth. I also think it is kind of funny/ironic (or maybe a lesson in humility for me) that it was through no effort of our own that we were led to this family, so it is impossible for Elder Becerra or me to say ´I found this family.´ We were simply in the right place at the right time. So that is the really cool story of the week, I hope you enjoyed it.

"Katy and her member-boyfriend Erick are still taking the lessons and coming to church. They have a goal to get married this January and then in the temple one year later. We need to hurry up a little bit with the lessons though, it has been hard to teach them a lot because Erick works a lot (we have only done a lesson twice since I have been here) so we will see how that goes.

"Last week I got the letter from Mom and Dad, and also a letter from Elder Jensen and Elder Jergensen it seems like they are doing very well, they make me laugh. That is so cool that Ben is coming to Chile, too, now Jonah will have three cousins in Chile! (Aside from Elder Cloward, two of Jonah's other cousins will be serving in Chile very soon, but different missions). The Christmas party will be more like an activity. We are going to the chapel of Rivas Vicuña on the 22 and we are going to play soccer, which should be fun."

Semana 6 en Los Arcos

"So now comes the story of the year: I call it the almost baptism of Lidia Jara Santibañez. So yeah Saturday we had some problems getting the keys to the chapel and the bishop went to fill up the font. When we got there the font was filling up way too slowly so we used the emergency fire house in the chapel to fill it up faster. Then when Raul tried to baptize his mom, her knees could not bend and her whole body just floated up. She is 74 years old, not exactly flexible. So we closed the doors to the font so the whole ward wouldn`t see. I think Lidia was feeling a lot of pressure. So we closed the doors and went around back and tried to do it again, but Raul was having problems. So the bishop used the extra pants and shirt that I brought (I have been learning from past experiences) and came into the font to do the baptism. I was one of the witnesses and every time that they did it she did not go under. And then the bishop told her that they were going to do it only one more time, and she did it, but her clothes were floating about the surface of the water. I said that she didn`t go under, but the other witness said yes and the bishop said yes and told Lidia it was okay, so she left the font and started drying off. So yeah I talked to our district leader and he said that both witnesses need to agree that the person and their clothes went completely under water, and since that didn`t happen we need to do the baptism again. Nice. The only problem is that we have not been able to talk to Lidia since and she still thinks that she did it fine and is good to go. So that should be an interesting conversation. Needless to say we will be praying and fasting very much for her to have the courage to do the baptism again. She was basically a golden investigator and I knew that everything was going too easy! Oh well we will work from where we are and do our best to get the problem resolved as quickly as possible. So that is the catostrophic news for the day.

"Now some happier news. Elder Krainik had changes this cambio and now he is in my zone, so I get to see him once a week for district meetings and possibly on pdays too. Elder Mawhinney is in his 3rd change in the coast, I wonder how he is doing. We will see him for the mision christmas party. This morning we went and hiked the same hill that the president took us to on our first day here. It was weird to be there again. 3 months have gone by pretty fast, I would say. The weeks are short but the days are long, as we say here. We have been teaching a lot of different people / families. Most of them are just from contacts we made or doors we knocked, and others are referrals from members or other missionaries. I don`t like to say too many details when we have only started teaching them though, because a lot of times we teach them once and never see them again, so I will wait until things are a little more sure befor I get my and your hopes up. Although I do have a funny story from one of the investigators. In Los Arcos, there are two teenage boys we are teaching, Nacho (nickname for Ignacio) and Jeffry. They are friends of Rocìo Muños, the only active young woman in the ward. They are both ready to be baptized but there are two problems: Nacho lives outside of the sector, and Jeffry does not want to set a date for his baptism. We are talking with President Jones about Nacho to see if he can be baptized here or if he needs to go to his own ward. But Friday there was a stake youth dance and they went with Rocìo and were wearing white shirts ties and slacks, they borrowed our nametags and pretended to be missionaries, it was pretty funny. They taught us a lesson about prophets which was good because it showed us that they understand what a prophet is and why they are important. I am hoping we can get everything resolved with them too so that they can be baptized soon. So we will see what happens with that. Thank you for your prayers love and support (and packages!!!) I love you all so much and can`t wait to talk to you!"

Mas fotos

Elder Cloward & Elder Bacerra on top of the hill San Cristobal which we hiked today as a zone activity.
Elder Cloward's version of "O Jerusalem" (except in Santiago instead of Jerusalem).

Raul Padro, ward mission leader, filling up the baptismal font with a fire hose for his mother's almost baptism (see semana six email).

Semana 5 en Los Arcos

Spanish words of the week:

La Mirada = the glance

Granada = pomegranate or grenade (nice)

Fome = lame (Elder C's response to BYU's embarrassing loss to Utah this weekend)

"So today is my first official day as a non-greeny. The greeny-ness only lasts for 2 cambios (changes) and my second change ended yesterday. Elder Becerra and I do not have changes, so we will be here together for 6 more weeks.

"I am choosing to ignore the news about losing to Utah. Next year!

"So yesterday we had the baptismal interview for Lidia and it was quite the fiasco. We talked with the bishop of Lo Ovalle in sacrament meeting and told him that we were going to come by his house at 4 or 4:30 to get the keys to the chapel, since the interviews have to be done in the chapel. He said yeah sounds good. So at 4 we went to Lidia's house then went to the bishop but he definitely was not in his house. To give some context to the story, Lidia is 74 years old, and she cannot walk very fast. It was also about 90 degrees outside. Good times. So we went to visit the second counselor of Lo Ovalle but he didnt have keys, then we went by the house of the ward secretary and he wasnt home. It turns out that the bishop from Lo Ovalle was in Los Arcos (the stake center) practicing singing in the choir. nice. So we called the Muños family from Los Arcos to come pick up Lidia and take her with Elder Skinner (our district leader; district leaders or zone leaders have to do the baptismal interviews) and his companion Elder Sanchez to Los Arcos to do the interview there. It was good times. Haha it was fun to have a challenge it makes the experience more worth it, right? Lidia is very excited for her baptism and so is her son, Raul. He will do the baptism, which will be a great experience for him. Her baptism will be the 29th of November, which is also her son's birthday. His birthday present will be pretty great, I would say.

"We did the English class again Saturday but only one person came. We need to anounce it better so that more people come. But Ignacio and his family are doing well. Nacho (the nickname for Ignacio) came to Mutual this Thursday to play soccer with the youth and there was another activity Saturday morning and he came to that too. He and his family couldn't come to church though because he had a soccer match in the morning, and they went out of Santiago in the afternoon so we could not go by and teach them, which was kind of sad but we have another appointment with them next Sunday so we will see what happens."

Semana 4 en Los Arcos

"I will start by answering some of the questions from the letters: Yes they do talk faster in Santiago and a lot of the people are hard to understand but for the most part I can understand what we are talking about in most situations and I am able to respond. My Spanish has been getting better since I pretty much don`t speak English anymore. But yeah the Chilean accent is interesting. I am not sure if I would call it beautiful... haha I think it is actually kind of funny. The way that most people talk here is flaite (fly-tay) which basically means gangster talk / ghetto. Both sectors I have been in are pretty flaite but they are not dangerous, it is just the way the people talk. I am not sure if I have told you, but here they say `po`a lot. It does not mean anything, but people just say it. I don`t know why. For example, if you ask me if I am having a good day, I could say `sì` or I could say `sìpo` and it basically means the same thing, I think the po just adds more emphasis. You can also say no or nopo, basically just through it onto the last word in the sentence and you will sound like a Chilenopo. So that is our Spanish lesson of the day!

"I have not gone to the temple yet but I will sure let you know when I do. I saw only the back of it when we got to Chile in September (the pic of me and Elder Butterfield and President and Sister Jones was taken behind the temple). I have heard that we go once a year usually and also we get to go if one of our converts receives their endowment or gets sealed, so I am hoping I will have that opportunity some day, maybe with the familia Correa.

"About the old buildings there was one we went to in my old sector called estaciòn central (central station) we went there every monday to do email, but I never got a picture there. I think you can see it on wikipedia. We also went to the post office in central station. It is called correos chile. They are pretty much like ours.

"I believe I am actually farther from the ocean now, but we can still see the mountain range through the lovely Chilean smog. I wouldn`t exactly call the sector pretty... I have often thought that Cara would have a heart attack if she were to see the state of the interior design of some of the houses here. We do not do service on pday we usually do service in the morning before we eat lunch. We are very close to the grocery store in our sector, it is called santa isabel. And the members still feed us and do our laundry.

"And yes President does give us hugs when we see him haha. The way of greeting is really cool here, I think. When two men great each other that are friends they first shake hands, hug, then shake hands again. When a man and a woman greet or two women greet they first shake hands then kiss each other on the cheek. Obviously as missionaries it is not the best idea for us to be kissing girls on the cheek, so we just shake the girls' hands haha. So yeah just get used to that idea so you dont get surprised when you come to Chile. A lot of times the women don`t know that we elders don`t give `besitos` (little kisses) on the cheek and they try to do it and we have to take evasive action. haha then we have to awkwardly explain that we dont do that and they always get really embarrassed. good times.

"So this week we had some good things happen! yay! I told you before about the ward mission leader`s mom, right? We started teaching her this week. We taught her all of the first three lessons and now she has a date for a baptism! she came to church for the third time in a row yesterday and her date for her baptism is the 29 of november. She is very receptive and understands very well. She is a very strong christian (which usually makes people not want to listen to us) she used to think that we worshipped joseph smith in place of jesus, but know she understands that we worship the same christ as her and that Joseph Smith was just a man. A prophet, but still a man and we do not worship him. So yes we are excited about that.

"I also believe I told you about the family that we met last week? when all of the families were at their moms house for Sunday dinner? Yesterday we went to the house of one of the families. The dad, Hèctor, is an inactive member who got baptized when he was 13 but stopped going to shurch about 3 years later. I helped his son Ignacio study for an English test on tuesday and he came to the English class on Saturday too. Yesterday we went to their house and taught the plan of salvation and it was pretty much awesome. The only downside is that we can`t teach them again until next Sunday becasue they are so busy during the week. I don`t want to get my hopes up too much because we have a lot of great first lessons and then nothing happens after a lot of the time, but it was just cool to teach a whole family again.

"So that was my week! Thanks for the emails I will try writing letters today since we should have time. Love you all talk to you soon (Christmas is only 1.5 months away! yay christmas!) and tell the Dickens family congrats, tell Nicholas hi and also let me know what happens with the fires. I am glad to hear that everyone is okay."

Semana 3 en Los Arcos

"My week was good, I feel like things are getting better here. Katy is still taking the lessons and coming to church, but we can only teach her once a week (Monday nights) because we have to teach her in her future-husband's house. It will take a while to teach her all she needs to know, but that is okay because she can't get baptized until she gets married, which they are apparently going to do in January, so she will be prepared by then. They have a ten month old baby, Tómas, who is also taking the discussions, although he doesnt understand anything ;).

"The Spanish is steadily improving, which is great. Now I can focus on learning how to be a missionary haha.

"My companion has 3 siblings and they and his parents are all members for about 7 years now I believe.

"We had our mission conference this week in Rivas Vicuña and it was really weird to be back there and see Elder Butterfield again. He gave me a letter that Alfredo (from fam. Correa) wrote me, it was a really great letter.

"The other day we contacted this man from Spain. He had a Spanish accent, apparently. But I couldnt really tell. He did say "vosotros" a couple of times, which is the modern equevalent of "thou" but plural. That is how they talk in Spain. Crazy Spaniards. But yeah we talked to him about the church and he told us that he was a free mason, like the secret society from National Treasure! haha that was the first thing I thought of when he told me that. But yeah we showed him the pictures in the intro to theBOM and when he saw Moroni burying the plates he told us to wait a second and went into his house. He is an artist, and he came out with a drawing he had made a few weeks ago. It looked a lot like the painging of Moroni. It was a warrior kneeling, holding a sword in one hand and a book in the other. Pretty interesting.

"Yesterday for the first time we finally got into someone`s house. It was the first time that we have found new people to teach since I got here. yay! haha it felt good to have someone finally let us into their home. It turns out that a few of them were members but havent gone to church in a while. But we set up an appointment to teach one of the families this Saturday (there were about four families there, kind of like when we have Easter dinner at grandma`s house) the grandma is a member and all four of her kids, but the spouses of her kids and her grandkids are not members. We did a review of lesson 1, the restoration, with two of her sons that are members. So we will see what happens with that.

"For Christmas I honestly dont know what I want still. Maybe one more short sleeve shirt would be good it is really hot here now and I wear short sleeves every day but Sunday (I still refuse to wear a short sleeve shirt with a suit haha I hope my sisters will be proud of me (we are)).

"Mi compañero está molestandome tengo que ir. Haha my comp wants to go our time to email is up talk to you later"

Semana 2 in Los Arcos

"So our new area is really big, since there are two wards. Yesterday we went to Los Arcos for sacrament meeting then to Lo Ovalle for Sunday School. They are pretty far apart from each other, about a 20 minute walk. We heard that a couple of investigators bore their testimonies in Lo Ovalle, which is pretty great I would say. We have found that there are a lot of investigators that were being taught by the previous elders, but we are having trouble finding new people. I know I need to have faith and be patient and keep working hard, but yeah it has been kind of dificult.

"We live in an apartment above Pizza Hut and there are two other elders in our zone that live in the pension above us. Apparently we are right next to the zone that Elder Krainik is in. This Thursday we will have Zone Conference with half of the mission in the Rivas Vicuña chapel.

"We have some really great investigators in Los Arcos, but the only problem with them is that they don't live within the ward boundaries. One of them, Patricio, came to church yesterday and he was fasting (no one told him he had to) he also brought his aunt to church and I think she is going to start taking the lessons from the missionaries too. But he lives in La Blanca, another sector within our zone. I don't think he can be baptized in our sector so I think we have to tell him to go to La Blanca. We also are going to teach tonight (hopefully) an investigator from Lo Ovalle (and yes she does live in the ward boundaries of Lo Ovalle woohoo!) Her name is Katy and she is 16. She has a baby and the father of the baby, Erick, is a member of the church, and his sister, Rebecca, is the president of Relief Society in Lo Ovalle (here Relief Society is Sociedad de Socorro, or Soc Soc for short. haha) But Erick has recently become active in the church again and we heard that Katy bore her testimony in church yesterday. They have to get married before she can get baptized though. Also the mother of the ward mission leader in Lo Ovalle came to church yesterday and bore her testimony and we are going to try teaching her this week too. So yeah we have some potentials we just have to wait and see what happens!

"I still have district meetings every Wednesday, and we still have lunch with the members every day except for pday, we make our own or buy fast food. We live in an apartment that is directly on top of a Pizza Hut, and there is also a McDonalds down the street. I am in a new zone now too, it is called La Cisterna.

"We got a little pushed back today because we went to the MIM, the interactive museum in Santiago, again. I went with my old zone about 4 weeks ago I believe, but we went today with La Cisterna. It was fun.
I would love to have some brownie and pudding mixes. We can cook the brownies to use in family home evenings with investigators everyone here loves brownies. They didn't exist here before the gringos brought them and everyone calls them brownies in their funny Chileno accents.

"Thanks for the package and letters and emails! I gave some dum dums out on Halloween to all of the little trick or treating kids. They stole the holiday from the U.S. about 4 years ago haha."

Transfer to Los Arcos! & Semana 1 there

So interesting stuff happened this week. On Thursday we were supposed to have divisions with the zone leaders, I was going to stay in Rivas Vicuna with Elder Claros and Elder Butterfield was going to go to the sector of the zone leaders with Elder Wilke. But Thursday morning we had our interviews with President Jones, which we have every change. President pulled me and Elder Butterfield aside and told us he had to talk to us. He said we would have special changes and that I was leaving Rivas Vicuna and Elder Butterfield would stay. He told us at about 11 in the morning, and said I needed to be ready to leave by 3 in the afternoon.

"I talked with him about it in the interview. He said that being a misionary is like being a surgeon´s knife. To be useful, the knife has to be sharp and clean. The knife is the one that has to get dirty and messy, and when all is said and done nobody tells the knife that it did a good job on the surgery. Obviously the knife really didn't do anything, but was just an instrument in the surgeon's hand. The surgeon, of course, being Jesus Christ, since He is the one that is guiding this work. President also told me it was really important that I place my faith in the Lord and not in my own talents or abilities. He is really a great man and always knows the right things to say. So Thursday we went to visit people to say bye after I packed up. We went to see the Correa family and it was really hard to say bye to them. They made me and Elder Butterfield a dvd slide show of pictures and it was really cool. We also went by Cristian and Javiera's, but Javi wasn't there because she was with Vicente doing doctor checkups. It was really hard to leave. It is amazing how close I got with all of the poeple there in just 7 weeks.

"President told me the work in Los Arcos would be really slow and I would have to be really patient. He was definitely right. For the first time in the mission (which I admit has not been that long) we had zeroes across the board for our weekly numbers. I know that numbers do not matter but they are still a good indicator of how the work is progressing; they are called the key indicators for a reason. My new companion is Elder Becerra. He is from southern Chile. He has about 1 year 5 months in the mission. He does not speak English. So yeah i am speaking a lot of Spanish but that is definitely the best way to learn. We have two wards in our sector, Los Arcos and Lo Ovalle, and we have a lot of ground to cover. Elder Beckstead was here with Elder Becerra, I switched with him and now Elder Beckstead is in Rivas Vicuna with Elder Butterfield. Elder Butterfield said that there is always a reason for special changes, thus they are called special changes. But I have no idea what it was, and I know it doesn't matter. I am here now and this is where the Lord needs me. So I will write more about my new sector next week.

"I love you all, thank you for your prayers and support. I think I need them now a little more than I did before in Rivas Vicuña."