Not that we're excited or anything but Matt gets home on
Tuesday October 19 12:00 noon SLC airport American Airlines
October 04,2010
Wow, I can´t believe that in only two weeks I´ll be coming home. It´s hard to believe that the time has gone by that fast. It´s also crazy to think that next week is going to be the last time we have to e-mail each other while I´m on the mission. Well, I´m glad that you guys came to the conclusion that I don´t need to buy anything for you guys before I get home. Because really, Chile is kind of like a mini-United States, and it doesn´t really have that much souvenir stuff anyway. I´ve been trying to think of stuff that I want to take home for me and I can´t even think of too much.
This last weekend was pretty fun. I´ve always liked watching General Conference in the mission. All of the gringo missionaries go to a separate room in the stake center and we watch it in english on a small tv. And we all bring snacks and joke around. It´s always a fun time.
This week has been a really good week for us. And this next week we´re going to be pretty busy preparing the two people that are going to be baptized next Sunday. I´m pretty excited about that. It´s a good way to end the mission. Things are going really good with my companion. I think he´s starting to realize that in two weeks I´m going to leave and he´s going to have to run the sector when he gets his new companion and that´s freaking him out a little bit. The same thing happened to me with my trainer, and I know exactly what he´s going through. There´s not too much more to say for this week. I´m just trying to work hard until the end. I´m really excited to be getting back soon.
Monday, October 4, 2010
September 2010
9/27/10
This past week has been good. We went to the temple as a zone, and we also had interviews with the Mission President. All that means a lot of travelling. But it was good. In my interview with President, he told me to take advantage of all of the opportunities that I come across to get educated. Which is what I´m planning to do. Before the mission I was pretty excited for the two year break from school but now I´m pretty excited to get back into school. It´s funny how things change.
This week went really well as far as missionary work goes. My companion and I are teaching a guy named Oscar that accepted a baptismal date for the 10th of October. And there´s a kid from the Primary that turned 8 recently, and his Dad isn´t a member, so he doesn´t have anyone to baptize him and he asked me to do it. So it looks like I´m going to be ending the mission with a couple of baptisms. I´m really excited for that.
On Sunday we finally got a new Branch President. The Stake President had a pretty small group to pick from, so we thought that we knew who it was going to be. Then the Stake President threw a curveball, he called one of the recent converts from last year. He is 28 years old and isn´t married yet. We´re all really excited for him. It´s funny because he gave a short talk on Sunday and you could see how nervous he was. But he´s going to do a good job because he has a really strong testimony. That´s the big news from the branch.
This morning my companion and I got up early and went to Seminary and made the kids pancakes. We´ve been trying to get one of the young men from the branch to go to seminary and the only way we could convince him was by going and making them breakfast. But he went, so I feel pretty good about it. And now I know what it´s like to have early morning seminary. I don´t think I could have done it when I was in high school.
9/20/10
Everything is going good here. It has been a pretty fun week here in Chile. On Saturday it was the Chilean Independence Day, and they took advantage of it being on a Saturday to stretch out the vacation days from Friday to Monday. So on Friday we had our branch activity. It was a lot of fun. We had a big chilean barbeque, then played typical chilean games like jump rope, tug-o-war, and tops. I learned how to throw a spinning top this week. Then everybody started dancing the cueca, which is the national dance here, and my companion and I took off. It was a lot of fun. Then on Saturday morning we played soccer with the some guys from the branch. But after lunch on Saturday we pretty much walked around. It was tough because everybody had people in town, or they left to visit family, so it was about impossible to work on Saturday. On Sunday, my companion and I had to give talks. We were the only two speaking in Sacrament Meeting, and since my companion is so new, he pretty much read the talk that he prepared the night before. So I had about thirty minutes to talk. I tried not to be too boring, but it was a long time. I spoke about the Book of Mormon and how we need to read it throughout our whole lives. It was good though, I felt good about the talk. Then I had to teach the Sunday School class for the young men and women. With my last companion we took turns every week, but since my companion is so new, I´ve got the class every week. But I actually like it. We are studying the Old Testament and it gives me a chance to read stories and learn more about the Old Testament. Today we had a zone activity where we played soccer and basketball and had a barbeque. I like barbeques and all, but I´ve pretty much eaten barbeque for four days straight now. Well, this week was kind of slow as far as missionary work because of the holidays. But things are going to pick up this week.
9/13/10
It sounds like you guys had a good time last week. Jenni told me that they´re having a baby boy a couple of weeks ago. With the greek festival and then the polynesian wedding reception you guys must have had a good variety of culture this weekend.
Everything is going good down here. Well, this week has been pretty busy. Training is kind of hard. My new companion is awesome, he´s a stud, but I do a good amount of the work because he is so new. My new companion´s name is Elder Jewer, and he was born in England, then moved to Canada. So it´s cool, because everybody thinks that all of the gringos are from Utah, so this throws in a little variety. Last Sunday they didn´t call a new branch president. It looks like the Stake President is going to have interviews with all of the potential candidates this week and next Sunday they should call a new branch president. Last Saturday was a holiday called el Día del Jóven Combatiente, or Youth Combatant Day. I´m not exactly sure what they are celebrating, but all of the teenagers go out and destroy stuff in the nighttime. So all of the missionaries had to be in the apartment at 6:00, but it really wasn´t bad for us because outside of the city they don´t do too much. On Thursday, we had a mission activity to celebrate Chile´s independence day. The mission activity was fun, it was pretty much the same as last year. We ate empanandas and watched a movie. We watched Hoosiers this year. It was funny. This week has been pretty good. It has been fun to teach my new companion a little about Chilean culture.
Well, thanks for everything you do. I love and miss you
9/06/10
Well, I hope you guys have a good time with the Labor Day barbeque. Tell everyone I say hi. Wow, I can´t believe that Briggs is going to be going on a mission. And is Kevin Hopkinson the younger brother that was Courtney´s age? That´s crazy to think that the kids from Courtney´s year are going out already.
Well, these last couple of days have been pretty exciting. Yesterday, we had a baptism. We baptized a lady named Luz. And since we don´t have a church in my area, we had to go to Santiago for the baptism. But it was cool because 12 other people from our zone got baptized yesterday, so we just jumped in on the zone baptism. It was a really good experience, our mission president spoke during the baptismal service. Then with everybody that went from the branch, we all piled into the Branch President´s van and went back to our sector last night.
Last night was the last night of the transfer, so after the baptism we went around to all of the cool families from the branch and my companion said goodbye. We didn´t know for sure if he was going to be transferred or not, but we kind of figured that he would since he had been there for about four months. Then we got the call late Sunday night, and my companion had to pack his bags, and I am going to train. So actually, right now I´m with another Elder that´s going to train, because the new missionaries arrive Tuesday morning. Tomorrow morning we get to go through a session in the temple, then we pick up our new companions and we go back to our areas. I don´t know who my new companion is, but his last name is Jewer, so I´m pretty sure that he is gringo.
Well, this is my last transfer in the mission. Then I´ll be home. It seems so weird. Time has flown by. Have a good week. I love you.
Final itinerary for coming home!
CHURCH TRAVEL CWT DATE 13SEPTEMBER10
50 EAST NORTH TEMPLE ST AGENT VH/JG BOOKING REF ZAS244
SALT LAKE CITY UT 84150
TELEPHONE: 801 240-5111 BRAILSFORD/BRETT CA 146281-R
FAX : 801-240-5115 HUGO/JESSICA SADIE 157377-R
MCLEAN/MATTHEW CHRI 148620-R
SERVICE DATE FROM TO DEPART ARRIVE
_____________________ _____ ______________ ______________ _______ ______
AMERICAN AIRLINES 18OCT SANTIAGO DALLAS TX 1000P 610A
AA 940 MONDAY A MERINO BENIT DALLAS FT WORT 19OCT
N ECONOMY TERMINAL INTL TERMINAL D
NON SMOKING DINNER/BREAKFAST NON STOP
RESERVATION CONFIRMED 10:10 DURATION
AIRCRAFT: BOEING 767-300/300ER
SEATS 38G/38H/38J NO SMOKING CONFIRMED
AMERICAN AIRLINES 19OCT DALLAS TX SALT LAKE C UT 1015A 1200N
AA 689 TUESDAY DALLAS FT WORT INTL
N ECONOMY TERMINAL 1
NON SMOKING FOOD FOR PURCHASE NON STOP
RESERVATION CONFIRMED 2:45 DURATION
AIRCRAFT: BOEING (DOUGLAS) MD-80 ALL SERIES
SEATS 25D/25E/25F NO SMOKING CONFIRMED
This past week has been good. We went to the temple as a zone, and we also had interviews with the Mission President. All that means a lot of travelling. But it was good. In my interview with President, he told me to take advantage of all of the opportunities that I come across to get educated. Which is what I´m planning to do. Before the mission I was pretty excited for the two year break from school but now I´m pretty excited to get back into school. It´s funny how things change.
This week went really well as far as missionary work goes. My companion and I are teaching a guy named Oscar that accepted a baptismal date for the 10th of October. And there´s a kid from the Primary that turned 8 recently, and his Dad isn´t a member, so he doesn´t have anyone to baptize him and he asked me to do it. So it looks like I´m going to be ending the mission with a couple of baptisms. I´m really excited for that.
On Sunday we finally got a new Branch President. The Stake President had a pretty small group to pick from, so we thought that we knew who it was going to be. Then the Stake President threw a curveball, he called one of the recent converts from last year. He is 28 years old and isn´t married yet. We´re all really excited for him. It´s funny because he gave a short talk on Sunday and you could see how nervous he was. But he´s going to do a good job because he has a really strong testimony. That´s the big news from the branch.
This morning my companion and I got up early and went to Seminary and made the kids pancakes. We´ve been trying to get one of the young men from the branch to go to seminary and the only way we could convince him was by going and making them breakfast. But he went, so I feel pretty good about it. And now I know what it´s like to have early morning seminary. I don´t think I could have done it when I was in high school.
9/20/10
Everything is going good here. It has been a pretty fun week here in Chile. On Saturday it was the Chilean Independence Day, and they took advantage of it being on a Saturday to stretch out the vacation days from Friday to Monday. So on Friday we had our branch activity. It was a lot of fun. We had a big chilean barbeque, then played typical chilean games like jump rope, tug-o-war, and tops. I learned how to throw a spinning top this week. Then everybody started dancing the cueca, which is the national dance here, and my companion and I took off. It was a lot of fun. Then on Saturday morning we played soccer with the some guys from the branch. But after lunch on Saturday we pretty much walked around. It was tough because everybody had people in town, or they left to visit family, so it was about impossible to work on Saturday. On Sunday, my companion and I had to give talks. We were the only two speaking in Sacrament Meeting, and since my companion is so new, he pretty much read the talk that he prepared the night before. So I had about thirty minutes to talk. I tried not to be too boring, but it was a long time. I spoke about the Book of Mormon and how we need to read it throughout our whole lives. It was good though, I felt good about the talk. Then I had to teach the Sunday School class for the young men and women. With my last companion we took turns every week, but since my companion is so new, I´ve got the class every week. But I actually like it. We are studying the Old Testament and it gives me a chance to read stories and learn more about the Old Testament. Today we had a zone activity where we played soccer and basketball and had a barbeque. I like barbeques and all, but I´ve pretty much eaten barbeque for four days straight now. Well, this week was kind of slow as far as missionary work because of the holidays. But things are going to pick up this week.
9/13/10
It sounds like you guys had a good time last week. Jenni told me that they´re having a baby boy a couple of weeks ago. With the greek festival and then the polynesian wedding reception you guys must have had a good variety of culture this weekend.
Everything is going good down here. Well, this week has been pretty busy. Training is kind of hard. My new companion is awesome, he´s a stud, but I do a good amount of the work because he is so new. My new companion´s name is Elder Jewer, and he was born in England, then moved to Canada. So it´s cool, because everybody thinks that all of the gringos are from Utah, so this throws in a little variety. Last Sunday they didn´t call a new branch president. It looks like the Stake President is going to have interviews with all of the potential candidates this week and next Sunday they should call a new branch president. Last Saturday was a holiday called el Día del Jóven Combatiente, or Youth Combatant Day. I´m not exactly sure what they are celebrating, but all of the teenagers go out and destroy stuff in the nighttime. So all of the missionaries had to be in the apartment at 6:00, but it really wasn´t bad for us because outside of the city they don´t do too much. On Thursday, we had a mission activity to celebrate Chile´s independence day. The mission activity was fun, it was pretty much the same as last year. We ate empanandas and watched a movie. We watched Hoosiers this year. It was funny. This week has been pretty good. It has been fun to teach my new companion a little about Chilean culture.
Well, thanks for everything you do. I love and miss you
9/06/10
Well, I hope you guys have a good time with the Labor Day barbeque. Tell everyone I say hi. Wow, I can´t believe that Briggs is going to be going on a mission. And is Kevin Hopkinson the younger brother that was Courtney´s age? That´s crazy to think that the kids from Courtney´s year are going out already.
Well, these last couple of days have been pretty exciting. Yesterday, we had a baptism. We baptized a lady named Luz. And since we don´t have a church in my area, we had to go to Santiago for the baptism. But it was cool because 12 other people from our zone got baptized yesterday, so we just jumped in on the zone baptism. It was a really good experience, our mission president spoke during the baptismal service. Then with everybody that went from the branch, we all piled into the Branch President´s van and went back to our sector last night.
Last night was the last night of the transfer, so after the baptism we went around to all of the cool families from the branch and my companion said goodbye. We didn´t know for sure if he was going to be transferred or not, but we kind of figured that he would since he had been there for about four months. Then we got the call late Sunday night, and my companion had to pack his bags, and I am going to train. So actually, right now I´m with another Elder that´s going to train, because the new missionaries arrive Tuesday morning. Tomorrow morning we get to go through a session in the temple, then we pick up our new companions and we go back to our areas. I don´t know who my new companion is, but his last name is Jewer, so I´m pretty sure that he is gringo.
Well, this is my last transfer in the mission. Then I´ll be home. It seems so weird. Time has flown by. Have a good week. I love you.
Final itinerary for coming home!
CHURCH TRAVEL CWT DATE 13SEPTEMBER10
50 EAST NORTH TEMPLE ST AGENT VH/JG BOOKING REF ZAS244
SALT LAKE CITY UT 84150
TELEPHONE: 801 240-5111 BRAILSFORD/BRETT CA 146281-R
FAX : 801-240-5115 HUGO/JESSICA SADIE 157377-R
MCLEAN/MATTHEW CHRI 148620-R
SERVICE DATE FROM TO DEPART ARRIVE
_____________________ _____ ______________ ______________ _______ ______
AMERICAN AIRLINES 18OCT SANTIAGO DALLAS TX 1000P 610A
AA 940 MONDAY A MERINO BENIT DALLAS FT WORT 19OCT
N ECONOMY TERMINAL INTL TERMINAL D
NON SMOKING DINNER/BREAKFAST NON STOP
RESERVATION CONFIRMED 10:10 DURATION
AIRCRAFT: BOEING 767-300/300ER
SEATS 38G/38H/38J NO SMOKING CONFIRMED
AMERICAN AIRLINES 19OCT DALLAS TX SALT LAKE C UT 1015A 1200N
AA 689 TUESDAY DALLAS FT WORT INTL
N ECONOMY TERMINAL 1
NON SMOKING FOOD FOR PURCHASE NON STOP
RESERVATION CONFIRMED 2:45 DURATION
AIRCRAFT: BOEING (DOUGLAS) MD-80 ALL SERIES
SEATS 25D/25E/25F NO SMOKING CONFIRMED
August 2010
8/30/10
That´s really funny about Grandpa´s haircut. What happened to him was pretty much what happened to me the first few times I cut my hair in Chile, although I have the excuse that I really couldn´t understand what they were saying to me in Spanish. As far as missionary stuff goes, I liked the fitted white shirts that you got, and I liked Rockport shoes because they were comfortable and not crazy expensive. Ecco is the best brand for shoes, but they are really expensive. And tell Briggs not to let the salesman at Missionary Mall and Mr. Mac try to trick him into buying suits a couple sizes big unless he thinks he really could get fat, because my suits have been a little baggy for the whole mission.
Well, this week went well. Last week we we had training meetings with the mission president every morning from Tuesday to Friday. It´s a new thing that they are doing where they teach us something that has to with missionary work, then we practice it. It´s a pretty good way of teaching some basic things so that all of the missionaries know how to do them. The bad thing is, being in a branch in the mountains, we have to travel anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours every morning just to get to them. And we´ve got these training meetings all this week too.
Yesterday we had Stake Conference, even though branches normally pertain to the mission, the branches in this mission pertain to stakes, because there are only two branches. So we went to Stake Conference yesterday, and the Stake Presidency got changed up, and our Branch President was called to be second counselor in the stake presidency. So that changes things completely for the branch. The Branch President and his family are the only ones in the branch that have been members for a long time. Everyone else in the branch have been baptized in the last four years, so we don´t know exactly what´s going to go on with the branch, but the one family that was holding it all together is probably not going to be able to help as much now. Right now, there isn´t anybody in the branch that meets the requirements to be branch president, so it looks like the stake is going to have to assign one of the guys from the high council over to be the temporary branch president. It´s going to be interesting to see what happens.
Things are going good here, thanks for everything. I love you.
8/23/10
That´s so crazy that Courtney is going to start college this week. For me it still feels like she´s in high school. Some things have changed quite a bit since I left, I guess that´s what happens. I´m glad to hear that Jake will be around when I get back, although I don´t think too much has changed for him, his favorite thing has always been eating treats.
This week went pretty well. Elder Richard G. Scott and Elder Costa from the presidency of the Seventy are in Chile, so there was a special devotional last Saturday morning for the missionaries in Santiago. Although Elder Scott wasn´t there, just Elder Costa talked to us. I think that´s what they always do when the Apostles come to Chile because last year Elder Oaks came with Elder Dickson, and we had a conference with Elder Dickson. It was a really good devotional.
Today we had a big zone activity in our sector, we played soccer and had a barbeque. It was fun, we brought all of the missionaries from our zone up to a camping ground in our area. It was fun because we hardly ever see the other missionaries. Usually, there is a zone class every week, but we don´t go because our area is kind of far away from the city. It was funny, one of the missionaries that ends the mission with me was at the activity and he kept talking to me about how we have eight weeks left. Everybody made fun of him for being trunky.
This week we had a good turnout of investigators at church. This one sister in the branch brought a friend to church for the first time yesterday. It was cool, because hardly anyone even invites their friends to church, so we´re pretty excited to start teaching the friend. It´s funny, the sister is 40-something years old and separated, and her friend was a guy with pretty much the same situation, so my companion and I are thinking that maybe they are dating, but the sister wants the guy to be a member of the church.
Things are going good here in Chile, thanks for everything.
8/16/10
Well, this week was a lot better. Although the investigator that was going to get baptized isn´t going to get baptized now. Her parents said that she is too young to make a decision like that. But my companion and I suspected that this was going to happen because the week that she told us that she got sick, she didn´t really look very sick. And her mom was the one telling us that she couldn´t be baptized. Tonight we have an appointment with the whole family and we´re hoping that we can work it all out tonight. We´re going to talk about how to recognize the spirit and receive an answer from God because our investigator has a testimony, and she received an answer, we´re hoping that this will give her the chance to share her testimony with her parents, and maybe that´ll soften their hearts. This Sunday was a lot better than last Sunday, although we still had to teach Sunday School class, and the Primary class third hour. But, considering all that happened last week, this week was much better.
Well, sorry for such a short e-mail this week. There isn´t too much to tell. We´re kind of worried about tonight, but whatever happens, happens. Thanks for everything. I love you.
8/09/10
I´ve got some bad news, the girl that we´ve been teaching didn´t get baptized yesterday. She got sick with bronchitis last week and we had to postpone the baptism. So that is kind of a bummer, but we just have to wait until she gets better because she is ready for her baptism. This week we did the Movie Night that got postponed from last week, but it didn´t go very well. We scheduled the activity at 7:00pm, so that everybody would show up at about 7:30, but people were rolling in after 8:00 and close to 8:30. So we couldn´t even start the activity on time. And we were supposed to watch the movie on a projector that the Branch President said he would bring, but didn´t. So we ended up watching the movie on the little tv from the library. It didn´t really turn out anything like we wanted it to Then on Sunday, we started walking to church and the Branch President called us and asked us if we were ready. We told him that we didn´t know what he was talking about and he told us that every 2nd Sunday of the month is Missionary Work Sunday, the the Elders have to give talks. Of course we said that was fine and that we would give talks, but before this month, the 4th Sunday of every month was when we gave talks. My companion and I were talking about why he would change it all of a sudden without telling us, then we remembered that one of the guys from the High Council of the stake was at church yesterday, and we think that the Branch President didn´t have anyone to give talks, and didn´t want to look unorganized for the guy from the stake. It sucks, the Branch President has been screwing us over lately so that he doesn´t look bad. Then, after Sacrament Meeting, it was my turn to give the Sunday School class for the young men and women. Then, in the third hour, the Primary President asked us if we could play games and sing with the primary kids for the last hour. But I don´t really blame her because her counselors never come to church to help her out. But anyway, this week was kind of crazy, and really busy. We had a lot to do, but I think that's always better than having nothing to do. Thanks for everything.
Love,
Matt
PS I don´t want to sound trunky or anything, but I´ve only got 10 weeks left.
8/02/10
This week went well for us. Although we had a Movie Night branch activity planned for last Friday, and it got postponed until this Friday because the Young Women had an activity the same night, and the Young Womens President is the Branch President´s wife, so she won. It was funny because he announced the Movie Night last Sacrament Meeting and everything, so we had to run around letting everybody know that the activity was postponed. But it´s all good because this week we´re going to do. So this week should be a really good week because we´re going to have the Movie Night on Friday, then the baptism on Sunday. Everything is good to go for the baptism for the 8th.
This week we had a good turn out of investigators at church. One of them was the friend of one of the members and said that she wants to learn more about the church. The only bad thing is that her friend that´s a member, only comes every once in a while and has a reputation for asking for stuff from the Bishop´s Storehouse a lot. So we´re going to have to take it slow and see if she is in it for the right reasons.
Thanks for getting me a new debit card, and thanks for sending me the flight plans. Thanks for everything.
That´s really funny about Grandpa´s haircut. What happened to him was pretty much what happened to me the first few times I cut my hair in Chile, although I have the excuse that I really couldn´t understand what they were saying to me in Spanish. As far as missionary stuff goes, I liked the fitted white shirts that you got, and I liked Rockport shoes because they were comfortable and not crazy expensive. Ecco is the best brand for shoes, but they are really expensive. And tell Briggs not to let the salesman at Missionary Mall and Mr. Mac try to trick him into buying suits a couple sizes big unless he thinks he really could get fat, because my suits have been a little baggy for the whole mission.
Well, this week went well. Last week we we had training meetings with the mission president every morning from Tuesday to Friday. It´s a new thing that they are doing where they teach us something that has to with missionary work, then we practice it. It´s a pretty good way of teaching some basic things so that all of the missionaries know how to do them. The bad thing is, being in a branch in the mountains, we have to travel anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours every morning just to get to them. And we´ve got these training meetings all this week too.
Yesterday we had Stake Conference, even though branches normally pertain to the mission, the branches in this mission pertain to stakes, because there are only two branches. So we went to Stake Conference yesterday, and the Stake Presidency got changed up, and our Branch President was called to be second counselor in the stake presidency. So that changes things completely for the branch. The Branch President and his family are the only ones in the branch that have been members for a long time. Everyone else in the branch have been baptized in the last four years, so we don´t know exactly what´s going to go on with the branch, but the one family that was holding it all together is probably not going to be able to help as much now. Right now, there isn´t anybody in the branch that meets the requirements to be branch president, so it looks like the stake is going to have to assign one of the guys from the high council over to be the temporary branch president. It´s going to be interesting to see what happens.
Things are going good here, thanks for everything. I love you.
8/23/10
That´s so crazy that Courtney is going to start college this week. For me it still feels like she´s in high school. Some things have changed quite a bit since I left, I guess that´s what happens. I´m glad to hear that Jake will be around when I get back, although I don´t think too much has changed for him, his favorite thing has always been eating treats.
This week went pretty well. Elder Richard G. Scott and Elder Costa from the presidency of the Seventy are in Chile, so there was a special devotional last Saturday morning for the missionaries in Santiago. Although Elder Scott wasn´t there, just Elder Costa talked to us. I think that´s what they always do when the Apostles come to Chile because last year Elder Oaks came with Elder Dickson, and we had a conference with Elder Dickson. It was a really good devotional.
Today we had a big zone activity in our sector, we played soccer and had a barbeque. It was fun, we brought all of the missionaries from our zone up to a camping ground in our area. It was fun because we hardly ever see the other missionaries. Usually, there is a zone class every week, but we don´t go because our area is kind of far away from the city. It was funny, one of the missionaries that ends the mission with me was at the activity and he kept talking to me about how we have eight weeks left. Everybody made fun of him for being trunky.
This week we had a good turnout of investigators at church. This one sister in the branch brought a friend to church for the first time yesterday. It was cool, because hardly anyone even invites their friends to church, so we´re pretty excited to start teaching the friend. It´s funny, the sister is 40-something years old and separated, and her friend was a guy with pretty much the same situation, so my companion and I are thinking that maybe they are dating, but the sister wants the guy to be a member of the church.
Things are going good here in Chile, thanks for everything.
8/16/10
Well, this week was a lot better. Although the investigator that was going to get baptized isn´t going to get baptized now. Her parents said that she is too young to make a decision like that. But my companion and I suspected that this was going to happen because the week that she told us that she got sick, she didn´t really look very sick. And her mom was the one telling us that she couldn´t be baptized. Tonight we have an appointment with the whole family and we´re hoping that we can work it all out tonight. We´re going to talk about how to recognize the spirit and receive an answer from God because our investigator has a testimony, and she received an answer, we´re hoping that this will give her the chance to share her testimony with her parents, and maybe that´ll soften their hearts. This Sunday was a lot better than last Sunday, although we still had to teach Sunday School class, and the Primary class third hour. But, considering all that happened last week, this week was much better.
Well, sorry for such a short e-mail this week. There isn´t too much to tell. We´re kind of worried about tonight, but whatever happens, happens. Thanks for everything. I love you.
8/09/10
I´ve got some bad news, the girl that we´ve been teaching didn´t get baptized yesterday. She got sick with bronchitis last week and we had to postpone the baptism. So that is kind of a bummer, but we just have to wait until she gets better because she is ready for her baptism. This week we did the Movie Night that got postponed from last week, but it didn´t go very well. We scheduled the activity at 7:00pm, so that everybody would show up at about 7:30, but people were rolling in after 8:00 and close to 8:30. So we couldn´t even start the activity on time. And we were supposed to watch the movie on a projector that the Branch President said he would bring, but didn´t. So we ended up watching the movie on the little tv from the library. It didn´t really turn out anything like we wanted it to Then on Sunday, we started walking to church and the Branch President called us and asked us if we were ready. We told him that we didn´t know what he was talking about and he told us that every 2nd Sunday of the month is Missionary Work Sunday, the the Elders have to give talks. Of course we said that was fine and that we would give talks, but before this month, the 4th Sunday of every month was when we gave talks. My companion and I were talking about why he would change it all of a sudden without telling us, then we remembered that one of the guys from the High Council of the stake was at church yesterday, and we think that the Branch President didn´t have anyone to give talks, and didn´t want to look unorganized for the guy from the stake. It sucks, the Branch President has been screwing us over lately so that he doesn´t look bad. Then, after Sacrament Meeting, it was my turn to give the Sunday School class for the young men and women. Then, in the third hour, the Primary President asked us if we could play games and sing with the primary kids for the last hour. But I don´t really blame her because her counselors never come to church to help her out. But anyway, this week was kind of crazy, and really busy. We had a lot to do, but I think that's always better than having nothing to do. Thanks for everything.
Love,
Matt
PS I don´t want to sound trunky or anything, but I´ve only got 10 weeks left.
8/02/10
This week went well for us. Although we had a Movie Night branch activity planned for last Friday, and it got postponed until this Friday because the Young Women had an activity the same night, and the Young Womens President is the Branch President´s wife, so she won. It was funny because he announced the Movie Night last Sacrament Meeting and everything, so we had to run around letting everybody know that the activity was postponed. But it´s all good because this week we´re going to do. So this week should be a really good week because we´re going to have the Movie Night on Friday, then the baptism on Sunday. Everything is good to go for the baptism for the 8th.
This week we had a good turn out of investigators at church. One of them was the friend of one of the members and said that she wants to learn more about the church. The only bad thing is that her friend that´s a member, only comes every once in a while and has a reputation for asking for stuff from the Bishop´s Storehouse a lot. So we´re going to have to take it slow and see if she is in it for the right reasons.
Thanks for getting me a new debit card, and thanks for sending me the flight plans. Thanks for everything.
July 2010
July 26, 2010
This week went really well. Today we had changes, so Elder Montecinos and I were a little worried about what was going to happen to us. But we got the call last night and we are going to stay together for another transfer. That´s a good thing, especially since this week we found a golden investigator that has a baptismal date for the 8th of August. I guess I should say, that she found us. For the last couple of months we have been teaching a couple who is completely ready to get baptized, but they aren´t married, so they´re just waiting on that. So we went over to their house to visit them this week. When we got there their granddaughter came up to us and told us that she wants to get baptized. Apparently, this family has been doing Family Home Evenings every week for the last month or two, and the one that they did last week was really special. The Spirit was felt strongly in their home during the Family Home Evening and the granddaughter decided right then and there that she wants to be baptized. So we´ve been teaching her this week and she is preparing herself to get baptized on the 8th. We´re really excited about that.
This week it snowed here in San José de Maipo. It is freezing cold, but winter is always better with snow. The first morning it snowed my companion and I immediately ran outside and started playing in the snow. What can you expect from a couple of missionaries. Also, this week was the first branch conference ever here in San José. It went really well and quite a few people came to church.
Since last week was the last week of the transfer and my companion´s birthday was on Monday, the members have been treating us pretty well. And my companion has been saying goodbye to a lot of the members. He even got a couple of presents. It´s funny because both of us are still here. It´s weird to say goodbye when you´re not sure if you´re leaving. But this week was a really good week.
Thanks for everything. I love you and miss you. This week I´m starting my second to last transfer. Can you believe that? Only two more transfers.
July 19, 2010
This week went really well. Three mornings this week we have woken up and found that our water pipes have been frozen. So that means no hot showers in the morning to warm us up. The water comes back at about noon. The first morning wasn´t fun because we didn´t have any water at all. After that we started filling up bottles of water in the nighttime to use the next morning. This morning I heated some water on the stove and combed my hair and washed my face with that.
As far as investigators go, we´re not having too much luck lately. The other day we stopped by a store where one of the members of the branch works, and we were talking to the member and one of her co-workers. We found out that the member gave a book of mormon to her co-worker a while ago, and so we started talking about it, and the lady said that she was reading it and was liking it. My companion and I were really excited. We thought that we had struck gold, but when we offered to visit the co-worker in her house and teach her a little bit more about the book of mormon, she gave us a fake excuse and left. So that was a bummer.
Then on Sunday we went to church and a family of four people came to church out of nowhere. We started talking to the family, and it turns out that the guy has always been interested in religion and has always wanted to be a member of a church, but hasn´t been able to find the true church. He has looked into a lot of different churches in his life, and he´s actually listened to the missionaries before. He told us that they came to church thinking that we were Jehovah´s witnesses. But he said that it wasn´t coincidence that they got to our church. After talking with him a little bit, we tried to get an appointment with his family to start teaching him, and he told us that he doesn´t want to listen to us yet. He said that he´s going to keep coming to church, and that he´ll let us know when he´s ready to listen. Yet again, my companion and I were really excited, and we thought that we were the luckiest missionaries in the whole world, and they didn´t want to listen to us. I don´t know what´s going on. I just hope that they come back to church next week.
Last Friday we organized a Family Home Evening for the whole branch in the church. It was fun, for the spiritual part we divided everybody up into groups and had each group draw something on a poster board to represent a principle of the gospel. Then we played Pictionary for the game, and it was a lot of fun. It´s pretty easy to organize little activities like that in a small branch, so I think we´re going to be doing that more often.
Today is my companion´s birthday, so when we get back from internet I´m going to bake one of those cakes that you sent. The money was in the birthday card. I´m pretty sure that eveything made it here just fine. Thanks so much for everything. I miss you, tell Garry and Jenny that I say hi.
July 12 2010
I hope all goes well with the unpacking. It sounds like you really won´t have much time at all this week, but that´s alright. It´s more fun to be with family than to unpack. This week both of the packages that you sent made it. Thank you so much for everything. It was a lot of fun to see all of the pictures of you guys. Everything was perfect, exactly what I needed. Thank you again.
Well, this week went well. On Wednesday we had our zone conference. It was held in a church about two and a half hours away from our area, so we had to wake up really early and travel a lot Wednesday morning. But when we woke up Wednesday morning, it was about an hour before the conference started. I swear that the alarm clock didn´t go off that morning. My theory is that it was so cold Tuesday night, that the alarm didn´t go off. So we got ready as fast as we could and went to the conference, and ended up getting there almost two hours late. My companion and I were so embarrased. But we got there and slipped in the back, and nobody really said anything. And if anybody did say anything, they said that they understood because we are so far away from rest of the mission. We lucked out. Then the next morning we had to wake up early and go to the temple. Since the temple is in our mission, we get to go to the temple every change, which is every six weeks. So on Thursday we got to go to the temple, and that´s when we swung by the office and picked up the packages. On Sunday, we went to church and the daughter of one of the recent converts, who isn´t a member, came to church with her mom. We were talking to her and she told us that last year she was listening to the discussions and almost got baptized, but stopped because the missionaries that were teaching her left, but she told us that she wants to get baptized now. So we are pretty excited about that. We didn´t really have to do anything, she just showed up and asked us how she can be baptized. She´s one of the golden investigators. Things are going really good. We have transfers in two weeks and my companion and I are hoping that President doesn´t change either of us.
Thanks for everything Mom. Tell everyone I say hi. Have a great week.
July 5, 2010
I´m so sorry to hear about the car and all that you guys had to go through last night. Cars are the biggest convenience and inconvenience at the same time. But you´re right, that´s life. Things like that are bound to happen from time to time. Still nothing on the birthday packages, but we have zone conference this week, so I might get them when we go to zone conference.
This last week we had interviews with President Laycock. They went really well. President told me that I am the expert of the mission in branches, because I have been in a branch for about half of my mission. My companion and I were pretty excited going into the interviews because for the last two transfers President has told my companion what the changes were going to be. So we thought that we might get a heads up on the next transfer, but we didn´t get anything. But it was still a good experience. This last week went well. We´re having trouble finding new investigators. We decided to work hard at asking for referrals from the members, and the majority of the members just told us about someone that used to be investigating with the missionaries like a year ago. So that kind of didn´t turn out as well as we wanted it to. Because on one hand they gave us a referral, but on the other it was just some old investigator that the missionaries dropped for some reason or other. But we´re working at it. We´ve been starting a fire in the fireplace just about every night lately, I´m getting pretty good at it. Even though I´m an eagle scout I don´t think I was very good at starting fires until I got to this area and had to start fires to survive. Things are going good and I´m getting along really well with my companion. He´s my first Chilean companion. He´s a really good guy.
Well, unfortunately, there isn´t too much to report on this week. Thanks for everything. Hey, were you about to ask Timpview High School to send my transcript and ACT scores to the University of Utah? Can you let me know when you do that just so that I can know? Thanks a bunch. I love you and miss you.
This week went really well. Today we had changes, so Elder Montecinos and I were a little worried about what was going to happen to us. But we got the call last night and we are going to stay together for another transfer. That´s a good thing, especially since this week we found a golden investigator that has a baptismal date for the 8th of August. I guess I should say, that she found us. For the last couple of months we have been teaching a couple who is completely ready to get baptized, but they aren´t married, so they´re just waiting on that. So we went over to their house to visit them this week. When we got there their granddaughter came up to us and told us that she wants to get baptized. Apparently, this family has been doing Family Home Evenings every week for the last month or two, and the one that they did last week was really special. The Spirit was felt strongly in their home during the Family Home Evening and the granddaughter decided right then and there that she wants to be baptized. So we´ve been teaching her this week and she is preparing herself to get baptized on the 8th. We´re really excited about that.
This week it snowed here in San José de Maipo. It is freezing cold, but winter is always better with snow. The first morning it snowed my companion and I immediately ran outside and started playing in the snow. What can you expect from a couple of missionaries. Also, this week was the first branch conference ever here in San José. It went really well and quite a few people came to church.
Since last week was the last week of the transfer and my companion´s birthday was on Monday, the members have been treating us pretty well. And my companion has been saying goodbye to a lot of the members. He even got a couple of presents. It´s funny because both of us are still here. It´s weird to say goodbye when you´re not sure if you´re leaving. But this week was a really good week.
Thanks for everything. I love you and miss you. This week I´m starting my second to last transfer. Can you believe that? Only two more transfers.
July 19, 2010
This week went really well. Three mornings this week we have woken up and found that our water pipes have been frozen. So that means no hot showers in the morning to warm us up. The water comes back at about noon. The first morning wasn´t fun because we didn´t have any water at all. After that we started filling up bottles of water in the nighttime to use the next morning. This morning I heated some water on the stove and combed my hair and washed my face with that.
As far as investigators go, we´re not having too much luck lately. The other day we stopped by a store where one of the members of the branch works, and we were talking to the member and one of her co-workers. We found out that the member gave a book of mormon to her co-worker a while ago, and so we started talking about it, and the lady said that she was reading it and was liking it. My companion and I were really excited. We thought that we had struck gold, but when we offered to visit the co-worker in her house and teach her a little bit more about the book of mormon, she gave us a fake excuse and left. So that was a bummer.
Then on Sunday we went to church and a family of four people came to church out of nowhere. We started talking to the family, and it turns out that the guy has always been interested in religion and has always wanted to be a member of a church, but hasn´t been able to find the true church. He has looked into a lot of different churches in his life, and he´s actually listened to the missionaries before. He told us that they came to church thinking that we were Jehovah´s witnesses. But he said that it wasn´t coincidence that they got to our church. After talking with him a little bit, we tried to get an appointment with his family to start teaching him, and he told us that he doesn´t want to listen to us yet. He said that he´s going to keep coming to church, and that he´ll let us know when he´s ready to listen. Yet again, my companion and I were really excited, and we thought that we were the luckiest missionaries in the whole world, and they didn´t want to listen to us. I don´t know what´s going on. I just hope that they come back to church next week.
Last Friday we organized a Family Home Evening for the whole branch in the church. It was fun, for the spiritual part we divided everybody up into groups and had each group draw something on a poster board to represent a principle of the gospel. Then we played Pictionary for the game, and it was a lot of fun. It´s pretty easy to organize little activities like that in a small branch, so I think we´re going to be doing that more often.
Today is my companion´s birthday, so when we get back from internet I´m going to bake one of those cakes that you sent. The money was in the birthday card. I´m pretty sure that eveything made it here just fine. Thanks so much for everything. I miss you, tell Garry and Jenny that I say hi.
July 12 2010
I hope all goes well with the unpacking. It sounds like you really won´t have much time at all this week, but that´s alright. It´s more fun to be with family than to unpack. This week both of the packages that you sent made it. Thank you so much for everything. It was a lot of fun to see all of the pictures of you guys. Everything was perfect, exactly what I needed. Thank you again.
Well, this week went well. On Wednesday we had our zone conference. It was held in a church about two and a half hours away from our area, so we had to wake up really early and travel a lot Wednesday morning. But when we woke up Wednesday morning, it was about an hour before the conference started. I swear that the alarm clock didn´t go off that morning. My theory is that it was so cold Tuesday night, that the alarm didn´t go off. So we got ready as fast as we could and went to the conference, and ended up getting there almost two hours late. My companion and I were so embarrased. But we got there and slipped in the back, and nobody really said anything. And if anybody did say anything, they said that they understood because we are so far away from rest of the mission. We lucked out. Then the next morning we had to wake up early and go to the temple. Since the temple is in our mission, we get to go to the temple every change, which is every six weeks. So on Thursday we got to go to the temple, and that´s when we swung by the office and picked up the packages. On Sunday, we went to church and the daughter of one of the recent converts, who isn´t a member, came to church with her mom. We were talking to her and she told us that last year she was listening to the discussions and almost got baptized, but stopped because the missionaries that were teaching her left, but she told us that she wants to get baptized now. So we are pretty excited about that. We didn´t really have to do anything, she just showed up and asked us how she can be baptized. She´s one of the golden investigators. Things are going really good. We have transfers in two weeks and my companion and I are hoping that President doesn´t change either of us.
Thanks for everything Mom. Tell everyone I say hi. Have a great week.
July 5, 2010
I´m so sorry to hear about the car and all that you guys had to go through last night. Cars are the biggest convenience and inconvenience at the same time. But you´re right, that´s life. Things like that are bound to happen from time to time. Still nothing on the birthday packages, but we have zone conference this week, so I might get them when we go to zone conference.
This last week we had interviews with President Laycock. They went really well. President told me that I am the expert of the mission in branches, because I have been in a branch for about half of my mission. My companion and I were pretty excited going into the interviews because for the last two transfers President has told my companion what the changes were going to be. So we thought that we might get a heads up on the next transfer, but we didn´t get anything. But it was still a good experience. This last week went well. We´re having trouble finding new investigators. We decided to work hard at asking for referrals from the members, and the majority of the members just told us about someone that used to be investigating with the missionaries like a year ago. So that kind of didn´t turn out as well as we wanted it to. Because on one hand they gave us a referral, but on the other it was just some old investigator that the missionaries dropped for some reason or other. But we´re working at it. We´ve been starting a fire in the fireplace just about every night lately, I´m getting pretty good at it. Even though I´m an eagle scout I don´t think I was very good at starting fires until I got to this area and had to start fires to survive. Things are going good and I´m getting along really well with my companion. He´s my first Chilean companion. He´s a really good guy.
Well, unfortunately, there isn´t too much to report on this week. Thanks for everything. Hey, were you about to ask Timpview High School to send my transcript and ACT scores to the University of Utah? Can you let me know when you do that just so that I can know? Thanks a bunch. I love you and miss you.
June 2010
June 28, 2010
This week was pretty good. I was sick for the first part of the week, so that wasn´t too fun. But I´m almost completely over it. Saturday was a good day. In the morning we played soccer with a bunch of members from the branch and some investigators. It was a lot of fun, because in my last sector we hardly ever got to play soccer. It was fun to get out and run around a little bit. In the nighttime a member from the branch called and invited us over to eat completos (they´re chilean hotdogs). I thought that the member that invited us over knew it was my birthday because we had talked about birthdays a couple of weeks ago, but we went over there and nobody said anything about my birthday. Then the next day at church somebody said happy birthday to me and the family that invited us over for completos overheard, and they said that they had no idea. So I guess we just lucked out.
On Sunday my companion and I had to give talks in sacrament meeting. Then I had to teach the young men and young women in Sunday School about David, Bath-sheba, and the Law of Chastity. It was a funny class. As far as investigators go, we´re teaching a lot of good people, but almost all of our investigators are married to their first spouse and living with someone. It looks like that happens a lot here in Chile because the government makes it so hard to get divorced.
Things are going good. It´s really cold here, but it hasn´t snowed yet. But people tell me that in a couple of weeks it´ll start snowing. On my alarm clock there is a thermometer, and last night when we got home it was about 40 degrees fahrenheit inside the house. When we get home we pretty much plan and get straight into bed, and sometimes we start a fire in the fireplace. Even though this is the coldest area, it is definately one of the best areas in the whole mission. I am really lucky to be here. Thanks for everything.
June 21, 2010
That´s good that you guys are almost all settled in at the new house. The more I think about it, I´m glad that you guys moved before I get back because moving and unpacking is a pain in the butt. Don´t worry about the pants, I can get them hemmed down here. It won´t be a problem in this branch, there are a couple of members here that are kind of possessive about the missionaries. This sector is split up into eleven little towns or villages as you´re going up a big canyon, and whenever we go to one of the little towns we have to go visit all of the members there or else they get offended. It´s kind of ridiculous, but it has it´s perks as well. This week one of the members gave my companion and I a pair of wool socks to sleep in, which were much needed. In this area almost all of the members are converts from the last four years, which is good because they all love missionaries, but bad because they don´t really know what they´re doing when it comes to callings and stuff like that.
This week it rained quite a bit, and quite a few parts of our area got really muddy, but the good thing is I got a pair of boots from the mission. The boots have helped out a ton, because on one day when it was raining we had to walk through puddles that went past our ankles, it was crazy. Also, a couple of days this week we had to start a fire in the fireplace and study right in front of the fireplace because it´s so cold in the morning. It´s also cold in the night, but the thermals that you sent me last year for my birthday are saving my life. I pretty much never take them off.
The world cup is going on in South Africa right now and Chile classified this year for the first time in twelve years. They have already played two games and they won both of them, so it´s looking good for Chile this year. Hopefully they make it pretty far, that would be cool. Everyone pretty goes crazy while Chile plays. For example, Chile played last week at 7:30 in the morning, and the schools didn´t open until 10:30, so that the kids could watch the game, then go to school. Thanks for everything.
June 14, 2010
Here are some pictures from the last little bit. We took some pictures with the recent converts from the ward, and we had a barbeque Saturday night to say goodbye to me because everyone was pretty sure that I was going even though it wasn´t for sure.
June 14, 2010
Well, you guys are about finished with a week and a half long move, I am just finishing a 12 hour move. We had changes today. I got the call last night at about 10:30, and had to pack my bags and be ready to go at 7:00 this morning. I know I have a lot less stuff but packing in an hour or two is not fun. The move was a pain in the but because I came from the furthest northern area in the whole mission, and now I´m in pretty much the furthest sector away from where I was. But it´s all good, now I just need to unpack.
So I´m in a branch named San José de Maipo. In our mission there are only two branches, and I was in the other branch for about seven months, now I´m in the second branch. My guess is I´ll probably stay here until the end of my mission since I´ve only got four months left. I don´t know too much about the new area yet, except that I´m going to be spending a lot of money on taking the bus. And my new companion was telling me that the missionaries teach the young men and young women class every sunday, and the temple preparation class, and sometimes the primary class. Don´t ask me how that´s possible, but that´s what he said. So it looks like I´m going to be busy here.
It was sad leaving my last area, since I had been there for such a long time. I´m not going to be living with Elder Measom anymore, and I´m not going to be companions with the Elder that got his patriarchal blessing from Grandpa McLean. That will be sad. Being in a branch again, I´m going to be living alone with my companion, and we´re out in the middle of nowhere, so we don´t even have zone or district class. Actually, I´m technically the district leader of my companion and me, that´s it. So I´m pretty much isolated from the mission. When I get mail, I have to make a special trip up to the mission office just to pick it up. This is going to be crazy, but it will be a lot of fun too.
Thanks for everything. And actually not sending the package yet is a good thing, because I need some white baptismal pants. A couple of weeks ago, the other companionship in my ward had a baptism and the kid that got baptized needed pants, so I took my pants to church, and I honestly don´t know if they got used or not, but in the end I couldn´t find them when I looked for them. I remember you said that when I thought I lost the white pants the first time you said you bought another pair but didn´t send them because I found the pants. I hope it´s not too big of a problem for space, but it would be really nice if you could send them to me. Thanks again.
DESSERT CONTEST AT THE CHURCH June 5,2010
6/07/10
Well, it sounds like you guys have just had a hectic week. But at least it was fun. That´s crazy that you´ve already moved. I wasn´t expecting that news for another couple of weeks. Well, you´re going to have to send pictures soon. Also, I heard that you got an e-mail with my flight plans. You should forward me that e-mail.
Things are going good here in Chile. We had a baptism yesterday, it was good. It was our second earthquake baptism. We found this lady the day of the earthquake. Also on Friday night we did an activity at the church. It was a Dessert contest. It went pretty well, we had about 60 people there, not too bad of a turnout. We made a couple of key lime pies for the contest. There were a bunch of categories to win in, like Best Tasting, Best Dessert Made by a Man, Best Dessert Made by a Kid, Most Original, Biggest Dessert, and we won Best Tasting. It cost us a bunch to make the pies because cream cheese is really expensive down here, but it was worth it, because everyone loved the pies.
Well, thanks for everything. Can you send me the address of the new house? I think I´m going to have to give the mission the new information. I love you and miss you.
This week was pretty good. I was sick for the first part of the week, so that wasn´t too fun. But I´m almost completely over it. Saturday was a good day. In the morning we played soccer with a bunch of members from the branch and some investigators. It was a lot of fun, because in my last sector we hardly ever got to play soccer. It was fun to get out and run around a little bit. In the nighttime a member from the branch called and invited us over to eat completos (they´re chilean hotdogs). I thought that the member that invited us over knew it was my birthday because we had talked about birthdays a couple of weeks ago, but we went over there and nobody said anything about my birthday. Then the next day at church somebody said happy birthday to me and the family that invited us over for completos overheard, and they said that they had no idea. So I guess we just lucked out.
On Sunday my companion and I had to give talks in sacrament meeting. Then I had to teach the young men and young women in Sunday School about David, Bath-sheba, and the Law of Chastity. It was a funny class. As far as investigators go, we´re teaching a lot of good people, but almost all of our investigators are married to their first spouse and living with someone. It looks like that happens a lot here in Chile because the government makes it so hard to get divorced.
Things are going good. It´s really cold here, but it hasn´t snowed yet. But people tell me that in a couple of weeks it´ll start snowing. On my alarm clock there is a thermometer, and last night when we got home it was about 40 degrees fahrenheit inside the house. When we get home we pretty much plan and get straight into bed, and sometimes we start a fire in the fireplace. Even though this is the coldest area, it is definately one of the best areas in the whole mission. I am really lucky to be here. Thanks for everything.
June 21, 2010
That´s good that you guys are almost all settled in at the new house. The more I think about it, I´m glad that you guys moved before I get back because moving and unpacking is a pain in the butt. Don´t worry about the pants, I can get them hemmed down here. It won´t be a problem in this branch, there are a couple of members here that are kind of possessive about the missionaries. This sector is split up into eleven little towns or villages as you´re going up a big canyon, and whenever we go to one of the little towns we have to go visit all of the members there or else they get offended. It´s kind of ridiculous, but it has it´s perks as well. This week one of the members gave my companion and I a pair of wool socks to sleep in, which were much needed. In this area almost all of the members are converts from the last four years, which is good because they all love missionaries, but bad because they don´t really know what they´re doing when it comes to callings and stuff like that.
This week it rained quite a bit, and quite a few parts of our area got really muddy, but the good thing is I got a pair of boots from the mission. The boots have helped out a ton, because on one day when it was raining we had to walk through puddles that went past our ankles, it was crazy. Also, a couple of days this week we had to start a fire in the fireplace and study right in front of the fireplace because it´s so cold in the morning. It´s also cold in the night, but the thermals that you sent me last year for my birthday are saving my life. I pretty much never take them off.
The world cup is going on in South Africa right now and Chile classified this year for the first time in twelve years. They have already played two games and they won both of them, so it´s looking good for Chile this year. Hopefully they make it pretty far, that would be cool. Everyone pretty goes crazy while Chile plays. For example, Chile played last week at 7:30 in the morning, and the schools didn´t open until 10:30, so that the kids could watch the game, then go to school. Thanks for everything.
June 14, 2010
Here are some pictures from the last little bit. We took some pictures with the recent converts from the ward, and we had a barbeque Saturday night to say goodbye to me because everyone was pretty sure that I was going even though it wasn´t for sure.
June 14, 2010
Well, you guys are about finished with a week and a half long move, I am just finishing a 12 hour move. We had changes today. I got the call last night at about 10:30, and had to pack my bags and be ready to go at 7:00 this morning. I know I have a lot less stuff but packing in an hour or two is not fun. The move was a pain in the but because I came from the furthest northern area in the whole mission, and now I´m in pretty much the furthest sector away from where I was. But it´s all good, now I just need to unpack.
So I´m in a branch named San José de Maipo. In our mission there are only two branches, and I was in the other branch for about seven months, now I´m in the second branch. My guess is I´ll probably stay here until the end of my mission since I´ve only got four months left. I don´t know too much about the new area yet, except that I´m going to be spending a lot of money on taking the bus. And my new companion was telling me that the missionaries teach the young men and young women class every sunday, and the temple preparation class, and sometimes the primary class. Don´t ask me how that´s possible, but that´s what he said. So it looks like I´m going to be busy here.
It was sad leaving my last area, since I had been there for such a long time. I´m not going to be living with Elder Measom anymore, and I´m not going to be companions with the Elder that got his patriarchal blessing from Grandpa McLean. That will be sad. Being in a branch again, I´m going to be living alone with my companion, and we´re out in the middle of nowhere, so we don´t even have zone or district class. Actually, I´m technically the district leader of my companion and me, that´s it. So I´m pretty much isolated from the mission. When I get mail, I have to make a special trip up to the mission office just to pick it up. This is going to be crazy, but it will be a lot of fun too.
Thanks for everything. And actually not sending the package yet is a good thing, because I need some white baptismal pants. A couple of weeks ago, the other companionship in my ward had a baptism and the kid that got baptized needed pants, so I took my pants to church, and I honestly don´t know if they got used or not, but in the end I couldn´t find them when I looked for them. I remember you said that when I thought I lost the white pants the first time you said you bought another pair but didn´t send them because I found the pants. I hope it´s not too big of a problem for space, but it would be really nice if you could send them to me. Thanks again.
DESSERT CONTEST AT THE CHURCH June 5,2010
6/07/10
Well, it sounds like you guys have just had a hectic week. But at least it was fun. That´s crazy that you´ve already moved. I wasn´t expecting that news for another couple of weeks. Well, you´re going to have to send pictures soon. Also, I heard that you got an e-mail with my flight plans. You should forward me that e-mail.
Things are going good here in Chile. We had a baptism yesterday, it was good. It was our second earthquake baptism. We found this lady the day of the earthquake. Also on Friday night we did an activity at the church. It was a Dessert contest. It went pretty well, we had about 60 people there, not too bad of a turnout. We made a couple of key lime pies for the contest. There were a bunch of categories to win in, like Best Tasting, Best Dessert Made by a Man, Best Dessert Made by a Kid, Most Original, Biggest Dessert, and we won Best Tasting. It cost us a bunch to make the pies because cream cheese is really expensive down here, but it was worth it, because everyone loved the pies.
Well, thanks for everything. Can you send me the address of the new house? I think I´m going to have to give the mission the new information. I love you and miss you.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Some of the Baptisms for the last month
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May 31,2010
I didn´t get an e-mail from you this week. I´m guessing you guys are pretty busy with graduation and Memorial Day and everything like that.
Well, this week was pretty good for us. My companion and I started working a little bit in one of the richer neighborhoods in our sector. We were rejected a lot, but we were able to teach two families, which we thought was amazing, because there is hardly any receptivity in the richer areas. So that was pretty fun. We´ll have to see if those families will progress. Also, we just got a new ward mission leader this last week. He´s a gringo. His mom was the one that took some stuff to you guys in February. But this guy is a really good ward mission leader. He´s really into missionary work and he has a lot of ideas to help us out, so we are really excited for that. Also, last Saturday morning I wanted to do a load of laundry. So I took my clothes to the washing machine, and when I lifted up the lid to the washing machine, it knicked the water valve that comes from the wall and hooks into the washing machine. The valve was pretty old and coroded, so it busted off with just a little knick from the washing machine lid, and after that a waterfall came gushing out of the wall. So, as I was getting soaked, I found the valve to cut off the water as fast as I could. Even though the water was only going for like 30 seconds, the entire floor was covered in water. So we got the mop out and cleaned it all up. By the time we finished cleaning everything up, the place was actually a lot cleaner than when before. I don´t think anyone had cleaned behind the washer and dryer as long as the missionaries have lived there. So I guess if we are trying to look at the positive side of what happened, everything is a lot cleaner. But we got everything figured out with the mission, it wasn´t my fault because a good water valve should take a lot more force to be broken off, I guess it all happened just because it was old. But it was a funny experience. Well, thanks for everything.
5/24/10
I can´t believe it´s still snowing in Utah, although I can´t say that I´m too surprised. Utah weather is just weird, and it looks like Santiago weather is the same. On Saturday it rained all day, then on Sunday it was freezing cold and windy, and today it was actually pretty warm. Sounds like this week is going to be crazy for you guys. Almost the whole family is going to be together. And on top of that you´re going to be house hunting. Well, good luck with that. I´m a little sad, because the Mangum´s house was a pretty cool house, and I only lived there for a little bit, but to be honest I don´t really care that much. It doesn´t really matter where you guys are living when I get back.
This week went pretty well for us. Ever since I got to this area about six months ago, we have been doing an English Class at the church two times a week, and two weeks ago we started playing soccer with some of the teenagers in the area after English class. We invited a lot of the teenagers from the poor areas of the sector, and of they all came because it was for soccer. It was fun though, It was gringos versus chileans and we lost by one point. But still, it was a lot closer than I thought it was going to be. Anyway, we´re starting this tradition to hopefully start teaching some of these guys.
On Sunday, church always starts at 10:00 in the morning, and we always have to go to a meeting at 8:00 in the morning with the Presidents of all the organizations and the Bishopric. So this last Sunday, we went to the meeting at 8:00, and got out a little bit after 9:00, with less than an hour before church started. And the ward secretary came up to me and assigned me a talk because the person that was supposed to give the talk, was out of town or something. So I had to write a talk really quick before church started. But it went really well. I shared Doctrine and Covenants 87:8, that says ¨Stand ye in holy places.¨ Then I talked about how we need to make our homes into holy places where we can feel the spirit.
We had a baptism this last Sunday too. This guy that is about fifty years old and has cancer, but he is really cool. On Saturday night we were at his house for his baptismal interview, then afterwards we needed to go to the supermarket to buy some rice krispies to make rice krispie treats as refreshments for after his baptism. We weren´t too excited about going because it was raining really hard that night, but we lucked out because he offered to drive us to the supermarket and then back to our pension. It was funny, we were walking around the supermarket looking for the cereal, it felt like he was just one of the guys.
So I noticed that my drivers license is going to expire on my birthday next month, is there anyway to renew that or am I just going to have to wait? Can you look into that for me? Thanks for everything. I love you and miss you. Tell everyone I say hi when they get to the house next week. I expect to see all the pictures you guys take this week pretty soon.
Love,
Matt
5/17/10
This week went pretty well for us. I still can´t believe that Courtney is going to graduate in a couple of weeks. That´s really cool about Brett Cunningham, that was a big surprise to hear that he is going to go to Sweden. That´s too bad about Jake, although it looks like he´s going to make it at least until I get back.
This week went pretty well for us. During the week I had to go renew my visa with all of the Elders that came with me to Chile, so pretty much everybody from my district in the MTC. It was fun because I was companions with my old companion from the MTC for that day. It was fun, we didn´t get to do any sightseeing, but we went by a couple of historical places. We also went to the temple as a zone. I have been really lucky because I am in the same zone that the temple is in, so we have scheduled a trip to the temple every transfer for the last couple of months, and since I´ve been here for such a long time, I have been able to go to the temple quite a bit. Yesterday, the son of member that we reactivated a couple of months ago was baptized. The dad baptized his 14 year-old son, it was a really good experience. Now the family is almost complete, we just have to teach the mom, and hopefully she´ll get baptized pretty soon.
So I was thinking about a couple other things that you could send me for my birthday. That Tide To Go pen that you sent me last year has run out, so I need a new one. Those pens are so useful. Also, about the white shirts, the best size for me would be 16 on the collar, and 34/35 length. I think that´s everything, thank you.
Love,
Matt
Mother's Day Call 5/9/10
It was so good to hear everyone´s voice last night. That hour sure does go by fast. But it was great to talk to everybody.
So everything is going really good here in the mission. Even though I´ve been a zone leader for a while now, this is my first transfer having another zone leader as my companion. It´s awesome. We´ve been working really hard this week and we have a guy that is going to get baptized this week, so we´re pretty excited about that. Everything is going great. Just last night, my companion and I were out and about visiting an investigator, but nobody was home. So we were standing outside of the investigator´s house when this guy came up to us and started talking to us. He had been drinking, but he wasn´t one of your average drunks that you see in South America, he was a normal guy. We started to talk to him and it turns out that a guy that lives a block or two from where we were mugged this guy a couple of years ago and beat the crap out of him. And the guy we were talking with never had forgiven the other guy, so he got drunk that night and decided he wanted to find the robber and hurt him really badly. He was actually on the way to the robber´s house when he saw us, then decided that God sent us there to talk to him and to stop him from getting revenge. So we walked the guy back to his house. It was crazy, if we hadn´t been there, he probably would have done something really stupid.
I hope you all have a great week. Thanks for everything.
5/03/10
Sounds like you guys have been busy enough with all of the birthday parties. We had changes today, but I´m staying in my area so I´m pretty sure I´ll be able to call from one of the phones of one of the American families here next week, I´ll probably be calling around three or four in the afternoon here, so I think it would be one or two in Utah.
Changes were kind of crazy. Here in my area there are two companionships, and the two Elders of the other companionship got whitewashed, and my old companion and I got split up and got new companions today. One of the Elders that we were living with that left, left to be the new assistant. My new companion is Elder Bell from Tucson. He´s actually in Grandma and Grandpa´s stake and Grandpa gave him his patriarchal blessing.
Last Sunday we had two baptisms in the ward, one from each companionship. So that was really cool. Also on Saturday, I had to do a baptismal interview for another area in the zone. I interviewed a middle aged man who is the only member in his family. When I asked him if his family was listening to the missionaries or if they had gotten baptized before, he told me that he was going to be working on that. It was cool, that guy had a strong testimony and he was already working on converting his wife and kids.
Also, I got kind of sick this week. Last monday we had a Family Home Evening set up with a member and some investigators, and when we got to the house my stomach wasn´t feeling very good. About half way through the lesson I excused myself and went to the bathroom and threw up. It was so nasty, then I came back and we went on with the Family Home Evening because nobody knew that I threw up. So then we played a little game, and after the game I had to excuse myself again and I threw up for a second time. Then we wrapped up the Family Home Evening as quick as possible and went home, where I threw up for the last time. But by the next day I felt pretty good, it was weird.
It´s hard to think of things that I want from the States on the spot. Could you send me a cake mix and a can of frosting? I´m good on beef jerkey and mangoes, and I still have some of those protein bars left. Just pictures and letters I guess. Thanks for everything. If there´s a change in plans for the Mother´s Day call, I´ll e-mail you sometime in the week before Sunday, but I think that it won´t be a problem to call you guys Sunday afternoon.
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May 31,2010
I didn´t get an e-mail from you this week. I´m guessing you guys are pretty busy with graduation and Memorial Day and everything like that.
Well, this week was pretty good for us. My companion and I started working a little bit in one of the richer neighborhoods in our sector. We were rejected a lot, but we were able to teach two families, which we thought was amazing, because there is hardly any receptivity in the richer areas. So that was pretty fun. We´ll have to see if those families will progress. Also, we just got a new ward mission leader this last week. He´s a gringo. His mom was the one that took some stuff to you guys in February. But this guy is a really good ward mission leader. He´s really into missionary work and he has a lot of ideas to help us out, so we are really excited for that. Also, last Saturday morning I wanted to do a load of laundry. So I took my clothes to the washing machine, and when I lifted up the lid to the washing machine, it knicked the water valve that comes from the wall and hooks into the washing machine. The valve was pretty old and coroded, so it busted off with just a little knick from the washing machine lid, and after that a waterfall came gushing out of the wall. So, as I was getting soaked, I found the valve to cut off the water as fast as I could. Even though the water was only going for like 30 seconds, the entire floor was covered in water. So we got the mop out and cleaned it all up. By the time we finished cleaning everything up, the place was actually a lot cleaner than when before. I don´t think anyone had cleaned behind the washer and dryer as long as the missionaries have lived there. So I guess if we are trying to look at the positive side of what happened, everything is a lot cleaner. But we got everything figured out with the mission, it wasn´t my fault because a good water valve should take a lot more force to be broken off, I guess it all happened just because it was old. But it was a funny experience. Well, thanks for everything.
5/24/10
I can´t believe it´s still snowing in Utah, although I can´t say that I´m too surprised. Utah weather is just weird, and it looks like Santiago weather is the same. On Saturday it rained all day, then on Sunday it was freezing cold and windy, and today it was actually pretty warm. Sounds like this week is going to be crazy for you guys. Almost the whole family is going to be together. And on top of that you´re going to be house hunting. Well, good luck with that. I´m a little sad, because the Mangum´s house was a pretty cool house, and I only lived there for a little bit, but to be honest I don´t really care that much. It doesn´t really matter where you guys are living when I get back.
This week went pretty well for us. Ever since I got to this area about six months ago, we have been doing an English Class at the church two times a week, and two weeks ago we started playing soccer with some of the teenagers in the area after English class. We invited a lot of the teenagers from the poor areas of the sector, and of they all came because it was for soccer. It was fun though, It was gringos versus chileans and we lost by one point. But still, it was a lot closer than I thought it was going to be. Anyway, we´re starting this tradition to hopefully start teaching some of these guys.
On Sunday, church always starts at 10:00 in the morning, and we always have to go to a meeting at 8:00 in the morning with the Presidents of all the organizations and the Bishopric. So this last Sunday, we went to the meeting at 8:00, and got out a little bit after 9:00, with less than an hour before church started. And the ward secretary came up to me and assigned me a talk because the person that was supposed to give the talk, was out of town or something. So I had to write a talk really quick before church started. But it went really well. I shared Doctrine and Covenants 87:8, that says ¨Stand ye in holy places.¨ Then I talked about how we need to make our homes into holy places where we can feel the spirit.
We had a baptism this last Sunday too. This guy that is about fifty years old and has cancer, but he is really cool. On Saturday night we were at his house for his baptismal interview, then afterwards we needed to go to the supermarket to buy some rice krispies to make rice krispie treats as refreshments for after his baptism. We weren´t too excited about going because it was raining really hard that night, but we lucked out because he offered to drive us to the supermarket and then back to our pension. It was funny, we were walking around the supermarket looking for the cereal, it felt like he was just one of the guys.
So I noticed that my drivers license is going to expire on my birthday next month, is there anyway to renew that or am I just going to have to wait? Can you look into that for me? Thanks for everything. I love you and miss you. Tell everyone I say hi when they get to the house next week. I expect to see all the pictures you guys take this week pretty soon.
Love,
Matt
5/17/10
This week went pretty well for us. I still can´t believe that Courtney is going to graduate in a couple of weeks. That´s really cool about Brett Cunningham, that was a big surprise to hear that he is going to go to Sweden. That´s too bad about Jake, although it looks like he´s going to make it at least until I get back.
This week went pretty well for us. During the week I had to go renew my visa with all of the Elders that came with me to Chile, so pretty much everybody from my district in the MTC. It was fun because I was companions with my old companion from the MTC for that day. It was fun, we didn´t get to do any sightseeing, but we went by a couple of historical places. We also went to the temple as a zone. I have been really lucky because I am in the same zone that the temple is in, so we have scheduled a trip to the temple every transfer for the last couple of months, and since I´ve been here for such a long time, I have been able to go to the temple quite a bit. Yesterday, the son of member that we reactivated a couple of months ago was baptized. The dad baptized his 14 year-old son, it was a really good experience. Now the family is almost complete, we just have to teach the mom, and hopefully she´ll get baptized pretty soon.
So I was thinking about a couple other things that you could send me for my birthday. That Tide To Go pen that you sent me last year has run out, so I need a new one. Those pens are so useful. Also, about the white shirts, the best size for me would be 16 on the collar, and 34/35 length. I think that´s everything, thank you.
Love,
Matt
Mother's Day Call 5/9/10
It was so good to hear everyone´s voice last night. That hour sure does go by fast. But it was great to talk to everybody.
So everything is going really good here in the mission. Even though I´ve been a zone leader for a while now, this is my first transfer having another zone leader as my companion. It´s awesome. We´ve been working really hard this week and we have a guy that is going to get baptized this week, so we´re pretty excited about that. Everything is going great. Just last night, my companion and I were out and about visiting an investigator, but nobody was home. So we were standing outside of the investigator´s house when this guy came up to us and started talking to us. He had been drinking, but he wasn´t one of your average drunks that you see in South America, he was a normal guy. We started to talk to him and it turns out that a guy that lives a block or two from where we were mugged this guy a couple of years ago and beat the crap out of him. And the guy we were talking with never had forgiven the other guy, so he got drunk that night and decided he wanted to find the robber and hurt him really badly. He was actually on the way to the robber´s house when he saw us, then decided that God sent us there to talk to him and to stop him from getting revenge. So we walked the guy back to his house. It was crazy, if we hadn´t been there, he probably would have done something really stupid.
I hope you all have a great week. Thanks for everything.
5/03/10
Sounds like you guys have been busy enough with all of the birthday parties. We had changes today, but I´m staying in my area so I´m pretty sure I´ll be able to call from one of the phones of one of the American families here next week, I´ll probably be calling around three or four in the afternoon here, so I think it would be one or two in Utah.
Changes were kind of crazy. Here in my area there are two companionships, and the two Elders of the other companionship got whitewashed, and my old companion and I got split up and got new companions today. One of the Elders that we were living with that left, left to be the new assistant. My new companion is Elder Bell from Tucson. He´s actually in Grandma and Grandpa´s stake and Grandpa gave him his patriarchal blessing.
Last Sunday we had two baptisms in the ward, one from each companionship. So that was really cool. Also on Saturday, I had to do a baptismal interview for another area in the zone. I interviewed a middle aged man who is the only member in his family. When I asked him if his family was listening to the missionaries or if they had gotten baptized before, he told me that he was going to be working on that. It was cool, that guy had a strong testimony and he was already working on converting his wife and kids.
Also, I got kind of sick this week. Last monday we had a Family Home Evening set up with a member and some investigators, and when we got to the house my stomach wasn´t feeling very good. About half way through the lesson I excused myself and went to the bathroom and threw up. It was so nasty, then I came back and we went on with the Family Home Evening because nobody knew that I threw up. So then we played a little game, and after the game I had to excuse myself again and I threw up for a second time. Then we wrapped up the Family Home Evening as quick as possible and went home, where I threw up for the last time. But by the next day I felt pretty good, it was weird.
It´s hard to think of things that I want from the States on the spot. Could you send me a cake mix and a can of frosting? I´m good on beef jerkey and mangoes, and I still have some of those protein bars left. Just pictures and letters I guess. Thanks for everything. If there´s a change in plans for the Mother´s Day call, I´ll e-mail you sometime in the week before Sunday, but I think that it won´t be a problem to call you guys Sunday afternoon.
Friday, April 30, 2010
April 2010
April 26, 2010
I can´t believe that Courtney is going to be graduating in a month. That is so crazy. I remember thinking that Courtney was going to graduate and then I will be getting home just a few months later. And now Courtney is graduating, so that means I´m getting pretty close to the end. That´s weird to think about. Jenni posted pictures on her blog of Easter weekend, it looks like you guys had a lot of fun. So if you guys end up having to move, do you think you´ll find a place in the ward?
We had a baptism last Sunday. It was awesome, because she was one of those eternal investigators. Her husband was baptized about a year and a half ago, and she has been going to church with him since then. But whenever we talked to her about baptism, she said that she knew she had to get baptized, she just wasn´t ready yet. Then she saw the last baptism we had, and I guess the spirit touched because about a week later she said she was ready, and so we started working at it and she got baptized yesterday, it was awesome.
Something funny happened to us this week too. We live in an apartment complex that has quite a few buildings. And one night, my companion and I were woken up to some people from the building next to ours, screaming at the top of their lungs that there was a thief and that someone was trying to rob them. Then we heard somebody running away and hop the fence. So after the commotion died down a little bit, we went back to bed. Hey, you can´t blame us, we were way tired. But anyway, the next morning after we got dressed we went out and asked the concierge of the complex what happened. Apparently, in the building right next to us, there is some famous Chilean tv star, and he lives on the third floor. The guard told us that this guy was dating two girls at the same time, without them knowing about it. So I guess that night the two girls found out what was going on, and teamed up and were planning on doing something to him. So they got into the apartment complex, but the tv star wasn´t home, so they decided to climb up the side of the building and sneak in through the balcony. But these two girls were a little drunk, and they accidentally climbed up to the fourth floor. When they broke into the wrong apartment, the family that lives there woke up and thought that they were thieves, and started yelling. That´s when we woke up. Then the girls, who were quite frightened, jumped from the fourth floor balcony all the way to the ground and got hurt pretty badly. Then when the cops came, they hit one of the cops, so they were hauled off. And the next day there were news reporters all over the place. It was quite a fiasco.
Thanks for everything mom. I love you and miss you.
April 19, 2010
Hey Family,
Things have been going good this week. It´s been kind of slow as far as missionary work goes, but some good things have happened. It sounds like you guys have been pretty busy lately, especially with the house. I don´t know how you guys are going to be able to clean out the garage. All I have to say is good luck. So if the house does end up getting sold, where are you guys planning on going?
We have been teaching a guy that we found through teaching English classes. But things were going pretty good, he was reading, praying, and he went to church. And he got an answer and knows the things are true. So we invited him to get baptized on the 25th of April. And he sat there for a second, looked at us, and said, ``I´ve been thinking about it, and I want to get baptized.´´ At this point we were like, Heck yeah, then he said, ``I want to get baptized the 25th of September.´´ It's his birthday, yeah, he totally wants to wait five months, and he´s being really stubborn about his baptismal date. I don´t know what to do. But I guess he at least is determined to get baptized some day, that´s the important part. But anyway, that is crazy. Also, this week we were teaching a lady who is progressing really well and she told us that she feels that we are praying for her. She said that she is really thankful for that. It was a really good experience. It showed me of how important it is to pray, and especially as a missionary pray for the investigators by name. It was a cool experience.
Alright, here´s a funny story that happened to us this week. I sent the exact same story to Justin too. But anyway, we were in the feria, which is pretty much like a big garage sale, except that a ton of people bring their stuff to sell. So my companion and I were walking through the feria and my companion wanted to see if they had some pirated DVDs, because in South America pirated DVDs are all over the place. So we go to the feria, and we didn´t see any DVDs on the ground. So we look for the shadiest guy that we can find. And we saw this guy who was bald, except the hair that grew on the side and back of his head, he grew out past his shoulders. My companion and I looked at each other and we decided that this has got to be the guy. So we walk up to him and say, ``¿Vende películas?´´ The guy looks to the left, then the right, the says what are you looking for, new movies, old movies, movies that are still in theaters? Then he pulls out a big stack of DVDs from his bag. It was so funny, it was like it was straight out of a movie. But yeah, we didn´t even end up buying anything, but it was still funny.
Thanks for everything, say hi to everyone for me.
April 12, 2010
Sounds like you guys have had a pretty busy week. Everybody has been off doing their own things. That´s crazy to think that there is a possibility of coming home to a different house when I get back. I know that it isn´t very probable, but you never know. Although, that wouldn´t be that big of a deal to me because I only lived in that house for a couple of months anyway. Good luck keeping the house clean and uncluttered. What are you guys going to do with the garage? I remember that place being a maze when I left. Hey, I know you are going to be selling or throwing out a lot of old things, but don´t throw out my old black and white nikes, I can´t wait to put those shoes on again. Although the Ecco´s that you got me are really comfortable, dress shoes will never compare to tennis shoes.
Things are going really good here in Chile. This week we were knocking doors and we found an inactive lady. She let us in and as we started talking to her we found out that she is the only member in her immediate family, and that ever since the earthquake she has felt that she needs to go back to church. And her daughter has been bugging her the last couple of weeks because she wants to know more about God. So we got there in the right moment. It´s incredible to see how God prepares the people long before we even get there. But they went to church this last Sunday for the first time, and they loved it and said that they are going to come back next week. So we have high hopes for this family.
I am going to complete a year and a half in three days. That is the last big landmark on the time in the mission. It sure is going by fast. I can´t believe that I have only been in three areas in all this time. Although, I like it better this way because I really have been able to get to know the ward well. And if you´re in one area for enough time it feels like you can make a difference, when if you´re only there for a short amount of time it´s not as good.
Thanks for everything, I hope you all have a good week. I love you and will talk to you next week.
Love,
Matt
April 6, 2010
Hey,
Sounds like you guys had a fun weekend in Colorado. Things are going good here. This week has been fun. It was great to watch conference this last weekend. On Saturday after the Priesthood session, the ward went to McDonald´s to get ice cream before going home. This ward is like a third gringo, so it has some traditions like that. So we went out to get ice cream with them after the session of conference.
So I´m pretty sure that I am either alergic to seafood or at least the weird stuff does not sit well with my stomach. On Friday, we visited a family that is Catholic, and the Catholic´s believe that we can´t eat meat on Good Friday. So they had Empanadas de Marisco, or seafood empanadas, and I ate one, and about three or four hours later, my stomach decided that it had had enough. I threw up everything that was in my stomach. Luckily, it didn´t hit me until night time when we had gotten home. But I´ve learned my lesson, and I am going to stay away from seafood down here in Chile.
We are teaching this lady who has come to church with us twice already, and she came to the last baptism we had a couple of weeks ago. And the last time we had an appointment with her, she told us that she already has decided that she wants to get baptized. The only thing is, she smokes. So we´re going to have to work with her on that, but I know that she is getting really close. So that has been really exciting. And another cool thing about her, we found her because of the earthquake. The day of the earthquake, she went to her friends house because she didn´t want to be alone with her daughter at her house, and her friend is one of our investigators. So we met her because of the earthquake.
Also, today we had a crazy experience. That´s actually why I am e-mailing really late today. We had a zone activity in the morning where we played soccer and ate lunch. Then when we were on our way home we got a call from a sister in our ward. She said that her husband was really sick, and she needed us to carry him from their apartment to their car, so that she could take him to the hospital. So we went straight to their apartment. When we got there, the brother was in bed and couldn´t move. He´s only about 35 years old, but he was so sick that he couldn´t move a muscle. So we gave him a blessing and carried him to their family´s truck. And they live on the third floor, so it was tiring to get him down the stairs. Then we jumped in the truck and went with them to the hospital. At the hospital they gave him some shots and helped him out about. Apparently something was going on with his heart. Then we helped them get back home, he is much better now than he was when we first got there. He just has to rest for the next three days and keep taking some medicine they gave him. But that was a crazy experience.
Thanks for everything. I´m going to send that deferment paper straight to BYU this week. Are you guys still putting my emails home on the blog? I just got an email from Tanner and he said that they aren´t up to date. You can keep putting my emails on the blog if you want, because I honestly don´t have enough time to write everybody. Thanks, love you.
I can´t believe that Courtney is going to be graduating in a month. That is so crazy. I remember thinking that Courtney was going to graduate and then I will be getting home just a few months later. And now Courtney is graduating, so that means I´m getting pretty close to the end. That´s weird to think about. Jenni posted pictures on her blog of Easter weekend, it looks like you guys had a lot of fun. So if you guys end up having to move, do you think you´ll find a place in the ward?
We had a baptism last Sunday. It was awesome, because she was one of those eternal investigators. Her husband was baptized about a year and a half ago, and she has been going to church with him since then. But whenever we talked to her about baptism, she said that she knew she had to get baptized, she just wasn´t ready yet. Then she saw the last baptism we had, and I guess the spirit touched because about a week later she said she was ready, and so we started working at it and she got baptized yesterday, it was awesome.
Something funny happened to us this week too. We live in an apartment complex that has quite a few buildings. And one night, my companion and I were woken up to some people from the building next to ours, screaming at the top of their lungs that there was a thief and that someone was trying to rob them. Then we heard somebody running away and hop the fence. So after the commotion died down a little bit, we went back to bed. Hey, you can´t blame us, we were way tired. But anyway, the next morning after we got dressed we went out and asked the concierge of the complex what happened. Apparently, in the building right next to us, there is some famous Chilean tv star, and he lives on the third floor. The guard told us that this guy was dating two girls at the same time, without them knowing about it. So I guess that night the two girls found out what was going on, and teamed up and were planning on doing something to him. So they got into the apartment complex, but the tv star wasn´t home, so they decided to climb up the side of the building and sneak in through the balcony. But these two girls were a little drunk, and they accidentally climbed up to the fourth floor. When they broke into the wrong apartment, the family that lives there woke up and thought that they were thieves, and started yelling. That´s when we woke up. Then the girls, who were quite frightened, jumped from the fourth floor balcony all the way to the ground and got hurt pretty badly. Then when the cops came, they hit one of the cops, so they were hauled off. And the next day there were news reporters all over the place. It was quite a fiasco.
Thanks for everything mom. I love you and miss you.
April 19, 2010
Hey Family,
Things have been going good this week. It´s been kind of slow as far as missionary work goes, but some good things have happened. It sounds like you guys have been pretty busy lately, especially with the house. I don´t know how you guys are going to be able to clean out the garage. All I have to say is good luck. So if the house does end up getting sold, where are you guys planning on going?
We have been teaching a guy that we found through teaching English classes. But things were going pretty good, he was reading, praying, and he went to church. And he got an answer and knows the things are true. So we invited him to get baptized on the 25th of April. And he sat there for a second, looked at us, and said, ``I´ve been thinking about it, and I want to get baptized.´´ At this point we were like, Heck yeah, then he said, ``I want to get baptized the 25th of September.´´ It's his birthday, yeah, he totally wants to wait five months, and he´s being really stubborn about his baptismal date. I don´t know what to do. But I guess he at least is determined to get baptized some day, that´s the important part. But anyway, that is crazy. Also, this week we were teaching a lady who is progressing really well and she told us that she feels that we are praying for her. She said that she is really thankful for that. It was a really good experience. It showed me of how important it is to pray, and especially as a missionary pray for the investigators by name. It was a cool experience.
Alright, here´s a funny story that happened to us this week. I sent the exact same story to Justin too. But anyway, we were in the feria, which is pretty much like a big garage sale, except that a ton of people bring their stuff to sell. So my companion and I were walking through the feria and my companion wanted to see if they had some pirated DVDs, because in South America pirated DVDs are all over the place. So we go to the feria, and we didn´t see any DVDs on the ground. So we look for the shadiest guy that we can find. And we saw this guy who was bald, except the hair that grew on the side and back of his head, he grew out past his shoulders. My companion and I looked at each other and we decided that this has got to be the guy. So we walk up to him and say, ``¿Vende películas?´´ The guy looks to the left, then the right, the says what are you looking for, new movies, old movies, movies that are still in theaters? Then he pulls out a big stack of DVDs from his bag. It was so funny, it was like it was straight out of a movie. But yeah, we didn´t even end up buying anything, but it was still funny.
Thanks for everything, say hi to everyone for me.
April 12, 2010
Sounds like you guys have had a pretty busy week. Everybody has been off doing their own things. That´s crazy to think that there is a possibility of coming home to a different house when I get back. I know that it isn´t very probable, but you never know. Although, that wouldn´t be that big of a deal to me because I only lived in that house for a couple of months anyway. Good luck keeping the house clean and uncluttered. What are you guys going to do with the garage? I remember that place being a maze when I left. Hey, I know you are going to be selling or throwing out a lot of old things, but don´t throw out my old black and white nikes, I can´t wait to put those shoes on again. Although the Ecco´s that you got me are really comfortable, dress shoes will never compare to tennis shoes.
Things are going really good here in Chile. This week we were knocking doors and we found an inactive lady. She let us in and as we started talking to her we found out that she is the only member in her immediate family, and that ever since the earthquake she has felt that she needs to go back to church. And her daughter has been bugging her the last couple of weeks because she wants to know more about God. So we got there in the right moment. It´s incredible to see how God prepares the people long before we even get there. But they went to church this last Sunday for the first time, and they loved it and said that they are going to come back next week. So we have high hopes for this family.
I am going to complete a year and a half in three days. That is the last big landmark on the time in the mission. It sure is going by fast. I can´t believe that I have only been in three areas in all this time. Although, I like it better this way because I really have been able to get to know the ward well. And if you´re in one area for enough time it feels like you can make a difference, when if you´re only there for a short amount of time it´s not as good.
Thanks for everything, I hope you all have a good week. I love you and will talk to you next week.
Love,
Matt
April 6, 2010
Hey,
Sounds like you guys had a fun weekend in Colorado. Things are going good here. This week has been fun. It was great to watch conference this last weekend. On Saturday after the Priesthood session, the ward went to McDonald´s to get ice cream before going home. This ward is like a third gringo, so it has some traditions like that. So we went out to get ice cream with them after the session of conference.
So I´m pretty sure that I am either alergic to seafood or at least the weird stuff does not sit well with my stomach. On Friday, we visited a family that is Catholic, and the Catholic´s believe that we can´t eat meat on Good Friday. So they had Empanadas de Marisco, or seafood empanadas, and I ate one, and about three or four hours later, my stomach decided that it had had enough. I threw up everything that was in my stomach. Luckily, it didn´t hit me until night time when we had gotten home. But I´ve learned my lesson, and I am going to stay away from seafood down here in Chile.
We are teaching this lady who has come to church with us twice already, and she came to the last baptism we had a couple of weeks ago. And the last time we had an appointment with her, she told us that she already has decided that she wants to get baptized. The only thing is, she smokes. So we´re going to have to work with her on that, but I know that she is getting really close. So that has been really exciting. And another cool thing about her, we found her because of the earthquake. The day of the earthquake, she went to her friends house because she didn´t want to be alone with her daughter at her house, and her friend is one of our investigators. So we met her because of the earthquake.
Also, today we had a crazy experience. That´s actually why I am e-mailing really late today. We had a zone activity in the morning where we played soccer and ate lunch. Then when we were on our way home we got a call from a sister in our ward. She said that her husband was really sick, and she needed us to carry him from their apartment to their car, so that she could take him to the hospital. So we went straight to their apartment. When we got there, the brother was in bed and couldn´t move. He´s only about 35 years old, but he was so sick that he couldn´t move a muscle. So we gave him a blessing and carried him to their family´s truck. And they live on the third floor, so it was tiring to get him down the stairs. Then we jumped in the truck and went with them to the hospital. At the hospital they gave him some shots and helped him out about. Apparently something was going on with his heart. Then we helped them get back home, he is much better now than he was when we first got there. He just has to rest for the next three days and keep taking some medicine they gave him. But that was a crazy experience.
Thanks for everything. I´m going to send that deferment paper straight to BYU this week. Are you guys still putting my emails home on the blog? I just got an email from Tanner and he said that they aren´t up to date. You can keep putting my emails on the blog if you want, because I honestly don´t have enough time to write everybody. Thanks, love you.
March 2010
March 29, 2010
Time is flying by just as fast for me as it is for you. I just got an e-mail from Jory this week. He´s already home. I gave him the home phone number because he said he wanted to stop by the house and eat dinner with you guys one Sunday or something like that. So hopefully he gives you guys a call before too long.
Things are going good here in the mission. I was a little worried about my new companion because he didn´t talk to me at all for the first couple of days. I think he was just a little disappointed because an older missionary doesn´t get put with a zone leader unless there is something wrong, and I think he was taking it out on me by giving me the cold shoulder. But he has loosened up and now things are just fine. He´s a really good guy and things are just fine now. Plus, it´s really nice being with a companion that speaks spanish, because my last companion that I was with for four months couldn´t speak very much, which forces me to talk a lot. But I´m happy with changes, things are good.
I got the package this last week. Thank you so much for everything. All of the Elders in my pension and I have been enjoying the instant pudding. All they have down here is flan, and pudding is way better. Also thanks for the protein bars. And thank you so much for the notebook. It is perfect. I´m using it as my study notebook, so every morning when I study, I write down what I learn in that book. I´m actually going to run out of pages in my journal in a couple of months, and I was thinking that it would be cool to have one of those notebooks, but the smaller ones, would be nice for my journal. But I won´t need that for a while, probably around my birthday or something like that, but I´ll let you know when I run out.
This last week went pretty well. We found a family that is from Southern Chile, near Concepción. And they had to move to Santiago because the tsunami that came after the earthquake destroyed their house. They moved in with their son who lives here in my area. It was pretty humbling to hear their experience with the earthquake because for them it changed their lives completely, when it didn´t do nearly as much here in Santiago. But it´s good because we found them because of the earthquake. Well, thanks for everything. And thanks for filling me in on things happening to the family. Thanks for everything.
March 22, 2010
Well this week went a lot better for me than last week. Actually, last week wasn´t bad except for that one thing that happened on Sunday. But I have really good news. On Wednesday night we went over to José and Johana´s house to talk to them. That is the couple that we have been teaching, Johana is the recent convert and José is the investigator. We got there, and only Johana was there, so we didn´t even get a chance to see José that night. But we had a good talk with Johana and we scheduled an appointment for Thursday night when we could go over there and talk to José. So when we get there Thursday night, José starts by explaining to us what happened and why he didn´t get baptized. He said that on Sunday he woke up and wasn´t feeling good at all emotionally, and that he didn´t want to get baptized feeling like that and I could tell that he is afraid of making committments. So I started talking to him a little bit about being afraid to do what´s right, and I shared one of my favorite scriptures with him, Doctrine and Covenants 6:33-37. Then Johana started talking to him about how important the baptism is to her and their family. Then my companion walked him through the day of his baptism, about how he would feel nervous and a little scared in the morning, and how he would have butterflies in his stomach when he got to church, and how he would feel calm and content when he got in the water, and clean and pure when he got out. The spirit was so strong in that moment that we didn´t have to say another word, and José asked us if he could get baptized on Sunday. It was one of the most spiritual experiences that I have ever had in my whole mission. So after that we were scrambling around to get everything organized for the baptismal service, and then he got baptized on Sunday. I´ve got a few pictures, I´ll send them to you next week if I can remember to bring my camera to the Internet place.
Also, we had changes today. I´m still in the same sector but my companion left, so I have a new one now. In this mission the zone leaders are always put with really new missionaries or problem missionaries. My last companion was a really new missionary, now it´s my turn for a problem missionary. He´s not really a problem, but he only has four months left until he goes home and I can tell that he is on the downhill. But it´s going to be a good change, he seems like a really laid back guy. So it shouldn´t be too bad. Thanks for everything. I´ll talk to you guys next week.
Love,
Matt
March 15, 2010
So this week was terrible. I´m sorry, but it really was horrible. I try to keep a good attitude, but something really bad happened. Remember last week when I told you that our investigator possibly was going to get baptized on the 14th. We talked to him Monday and apparently he had a little freakout, but he got over it. So everything was fine and dandy, then we kept visiting him every day during the week and everything was fine. He passed the baptismal interview on friday, then on Saturday he tried on the baptismal clothing and everything was fine. But on Sunday morning we went to church, and he didn´t make it to Sacrament meeting. So we ran over to his house during Sunday School, and we talked to his wife, who was baptized a year ago. He wouldn´t even come out to talk to us, so we don´t really know why he didn´t get baptized, but I think he just got scared right in the last minute. So we had to go back to church and cancel the baptism that we planned. It was horrible. I think it was the worst I´ve ever felt in my whole mission. So the last couple of days haven´t been that great.
The earthquake last Thursday wasn´t nearly as strong as the first one, but we definately felt it. It was during the day so I was in another person´s apartment on the second floor. But nothing really happened. Although the lights went out in almost all of Chile last night, but we got them back after about an hour. Nothing else has happened lately. Thanks for sending the package. I´ll probably get it in a couple of weeks. Thanks for everything.
Love,
Matt
March 8, 2010
Things have calmed down pretty much after the earthquake, at least around here. It´s still a hot topic of discussion because supposedly there are aftershocks all the time. But I haven´t felt very many of them, I think because it´s hard to feel them if you are walking around and moving. As far as we´ve seen around here, there isn´t too much damage to the houses. But there are a couple of houses that were messed up, and a lot of the cement walls that people have as fences fell down. We´ve been offering service like crazy but really nobody has accepted it. Like I told you, we made pancakes for one family that didn´t have water or power. Then we went to the church one afternoon because we had a ward service project of making fleece blankets to send to Southern Chile. And this Saturday we´re going to help a member fix a wall in his house that cracked during the earthquake and is crumbling down. But it has been hard because everytime we see a person that needs help, we offer and get rejected every time. Chileans are very proud, even after a huge earthquake. I´m sure it´s a different story down where a lot of damage was done, but at least around here it hasn´t changed too many things.
For the last couple of months my companion and I have been working with the husband of a recent convert, we´ve been teaching him and he was progressing pretty good. He´s kind of stubborn, he was going to church and doing everything, but for some reason he didn´t want to get baptized quite yet. So he was progressing slow, but this last week we finally got him to accept a baptismal date for this next Sunday. I was so excited when he told us that he would get baptized of the 14th. And everything was going good. Then on Sunday, apparently he got in an argument with his wife and didn´t go to church. And we went over to their house on Sunday to see what happened and he left with one of his friends all day, so we´re going to talk to him tonight but I´m really worried that he´s going to back out. So we´re going to see how that goes, but if all goes well, we should have a baptism this Sunday.
Thanks for checking on the BYU thing for me. That means a lot to me. I´ll get that done as soon as I get it. Also, in that package, could you send me some instant pudding packs. Oh yeah, thanks for the extra dried mangoes from the last package, I put them in my emergency backpack that we put together before the earthquake. I guess I didn´t have to use it, but I would have been fine if something big did happen.
Also, there is this guy here in Santiago that makes hand made suits for just about all of the missionaries. My companion just got one made today so I was down there and I was looking at some of the fabric that he had. He had one material that was dark charcoal that I liked a lot. The suits cost 140 dollars and they´re hand made so they fit really well, and I was thinking about getting one. I just wanted to ask you what you think about it before I did anything crazy. So next week tell me what you think about me getting a hand made suit here.
Thanks for everything Mom. Tell everyone I say hi.
March 3, 2010 Earthquake!
Well, the power finally came back on today where the internet cafes are. We´ve had power since Saturday, but most of the houses where we live didn´t get power until last night. It was good to talk to you guys on Sunday. I´m pretty lucky to be in this sector because I probably wouldn´t have been able to talk to you guys if I was in another sector. But anyway, the earthquake was an 8.8 on the richter scale. It was a really big earthquake, but didn´t really do anything to our apartment. Chile is a pretty seismic country, so they have built everything to resist big earthquakes. Around the sector where I am, there wasn´t too much structural damage to the buildings, we just heard about how a bunch of stuff fell off the walls in people´s houses. We heard about a couple of flat screen tv´s that were destroyed, some microwaves that fell and broke. But nothing happened in our apartment. I guess there really isn´t too much to break in a missionary´s apartment though. So anyway, the story actually starts a couple of months ago, because a couple of months ago a couple of missionaries in my zone had some weird dreams about a giant earthquake hitting chile. Then all the missionaries in our mission got water bottles that have a built in filter about a week later. Then a couple weeks later all the missionaries got a piece of paper that told us what to do before, during, and after an earthquake. Then about two weeks after that the earthquake hit. So it actually wasn´t that big of a surprise Saturday morning. The mission president´s wife woke up in the middle of the night a couple of weeks ago and had a feeling that an earthquake was going to hit. So that´s why all of that stuff came out and we were all pretty prepared. So on Saturday morning, I woke up to our entire apartment shaking like crazy. And my first instinct was to yell ¨Terremoto,¨ which is earthquake in spanish. Although I don´t know why, because the four missionaries in the apartment are all american. But also, I got a cold last week and lost my voice for a couple of days, so my voice was really low. My voice was pretty much like Batman from the Dark Knight. So you guys can imagine Batman yelling TERREMOTO in the midst of everything shaking, I think that is what freaked out my companions more than anything. Anyway, we all woke up, then after two and half minutes of shaking, things calmed down. So I tried to go to sleep, but I couldn´t, so I made pancakes at like 5 in the morning. Then all day saturday we went out in P-day clothes and helped people clean up messes that the earthquake caused. It was a pretty crazy experience. A third of Santiago has been without light for almost a week now. But everything is getting back to normal now. Although it is still pretty bad in Southern Chile, where the epicenter was. The big supermarkets opened up and were letting the people take what they needed to survive down there because it was so bad, and the freaking Chileans started taking Plasma screen tv´s and washing machines. I don´t know how anyone could even think of taking those things when they don´t even have running water or power. Well, everything is somewhat getting back to normal now. Have a good week.
Love,
Matt
February 2010
Elder Page
It was my companion´s birthday last week, so one of the families in our ward had a barbeque for his birthday. And yes, he ate all of that food, plus we didn´t get pictures of one of the plates of chicken wings that he had. Yeah, my companion is a monster, he is 6´8´´.
February 15, 2010
Happy Birthday Mom! I hope you had a great day, it sounds like Lauren planned something special with you in mind. I can´t believe you´re not making sugar cookies this year. Just to let you know, that is not going to fly next year when I´m back, I´m going to need some of your homemade sugar cookies.
Anyway, things are going good. As you already know there are a lot of gringo families in my ward here, and we had lunch with one of them this last week. And the grandma of this family is from Salt Lake, but she was here visiting and she is leaving on the plane tonight to go back to Utah. I mentioned that it was your birthday this week during lunch and she offered to take a birthday present back to you. So she is on her way back to the States with a gift for you. I gave her your address, phone number, and e-mail, so I don´t know how she is going to get a hold of you. But be expecting a Sister Eagan to get a hold of you in the next little bit.
About the lady that we taught that was involved in gang violence and all of that, she wasn´t at her house when we went back for the return appointment (like almost everybody we´ve been teaching lately). So we haven´t been able to get a hold of her lately. But at least we helped her feel a little bit better that day we talked with her. As far as the missionary work has been going, it really turned around in this last week. The months of January and February are always really hard because it´s really hot, and it is vacation time for everybody here. Especially in the city, because everyone goes to the beach. So things have been really slow for the last few months and this last week our numbers shot up a lot. We taught a lot more, and our zone went from having nobody with a baptismal date to seven people with baptismal dates. So that has been really good to see everybody in the zone doing a lot better.
I got the package this last week. Everything arrived just fine. Thank you so much, the shoes fit me perfectly, and they are about one hundred times more comfortable than the other pair. We had changes last week, but I´m staying with the same companion in the same area. At the end of this change it will be four and a half months with my current companion, Elder Page. So that means that in the last nine months, I´ve had two companions. I don´t know about you guys but that seems crazy to me. Well, thank you for everything. I love you. Have a good week.
Love,
Matt
February 1, 2010
I haven´t gotten the package yet, but I think it will be this week when we get our mail. Sounds like you guys are pretty busy painting the house. To be honest, I don´t really remember the house very well because we only lived there a couple of months before I left.
That´s cool that you guys had dinner with Briggs. You´re going to have to let me know where he´s going to go on his mission.
This week went pretty well for me. It was really hot, and it´s been hard lately because it´s summer down here and everyone has been going on vacation. But we put together a fun ward activity last friday. We watched a video for the spiritual thought, and we played human foosball for the game. We pretty much played soccer, except for instead of running around, there were a couple of pvc pipes that everyone had to hold on to, just like in a game of foosball. It was fun, also a young man from the ward I´m in is leaving on his mission to Antofagasta, Chile. So we´re going to have a ward farewell party for him because he is a convert from a year ago, and the only member in his family, so he doesn´t really have support from his family. He´s a really good kid, I can´t believe he´s going to go on a mission after only one year of being a member, that sounds crazy to me.
Well, we´ve got one more week until changes, although I think I´ll stay in the same sector, but I´ll probably get a new companion. Things are going good. Thanks for everything. Love you.
It was my companion´s birthday last week, so one of the families in our ward had a barbeque for his birthday. And yes, he ate all of that food, plus we didn´t get pictures of one of the plates of chicken wings that he had. Yeah, my companion is a monster, he is 6´8´´.
February 15, 2010
Happy Birthday Mom! I hope you had a great day, it sounds like Lauren planned something special with you in mind. I can´t believe you´re not making sugar cookies this year. Just to let you know, that is not going to fly next year when I´m back, I´m going to need some of your homemade sugar cookies.
Anyway, things are going good. As you already know there are a lot of gringo families in my ward here, and we had lunch with one of them this last week. And the grandma of this family is from Salt Lake, but she was here visiting and she is leaving on the plane tonight to go back to Utah. I mentioned that it was your birthday this week during lunch and she offered to take a birthday present back to you. So she is on her way back to the States with a gift for you. I gave her your address, phone number, and e-mail, so I don´t know how she is going to get a hold of you. But be expecting a Sister Eagan to get a hold of you in the next little bit.
About the lady that we taught that was involved in gang violence and all of that, she wasn´t at her house when we went back for the return appointment (like almost everybody we´ve been teaching lately). So we haven´t been able to get a hold of her lately. But at least we helped her feel a little bit better that day we talked with her. As far as the missionary work has been going, it really turned around in this last week. The months of January and February are always really hard because it´s really hot, and it is vacation time for everybody here. Especially in the city, because everyone goes to the beach. So things have been really slow for the last few months and this last week our numbers shot up a lot. We taught a lot more, and our zone went from having nobody with a baptismal date to seven people with baptismal dates. So that has been really good to see everybody in the zone doing a lot better.
I got the package this last week. Everything arrived just fine. Thank you so much, the shoes fit me perfectly, and they are about one hundred times more comfortable than the other pair. We had changes last week, but I´m staying with the same companion in the same area. At the end of this change it will be four and a half months with my current companion, Elder Page. So that means that in the last nine months, I´ve had two companions. I don´t know about you guys but that seems crazy to me. Well, thank you for everything. I love you. Have a good week.
Love,
Matt
February 1, 2010
I haven´t gotten the package yet, but I think it will be this week when we get our mail. Sounds like you guys are pretty busy painting the house. To be honest, I don´t really remember the house very well because we only lived there a couple of months before I left.
That´s cool that you guys had dinner with Briggs. You´re going to have to let me know where he´s going to go on his mission.
This week went pretty well for me. It was really hot, and it´s been hard lately because it´s summer down here and everyone has been going on vacation. But we put together a fun ward activity last friday. We watched a video for the spiritual thought, and we played human foosball for the game. We pretty much played soccer, except for instead of running around, there were a couple of pvc pipes that everyone had to hold on to, just like in a game of foosball. It was fun, also a young man from the ward I´m in is leaving on his mission to Antofagasta, Chile. So we´re going to have a ward farewell party for him because he is a convert from a year ago, and the only member in his family, so he doesn´t really have support from his family. He´s a really good kid, I can´t believe he´s going to go on a mission after only one year of being a member, that sounds crazy to me.
Well, we´ve got one more week until changes, although I think I´ll stay in the same sector, but I´ll probably get a new companion. Things are going good. Thanks for everything. Love you.
January News
January 25,2010
Hey, how´s it going this week? Everything is good down here in Chile. This week went pretty well. We had a zone conference and we talked about developing Christlike attributes because that is the chapter from Preach My Gospel that we´re studying this change. This week we about 30 missionaries from the MTC here and Chile came to our sector for a missionary work activity. It was good, about 20 members from the ward came and we had each member go with one or two missionaries from the MTC and so we had about 25 companionships working in our sector Saturday afternoon. Needless to say, we got a lot done. It was a little stressful because I had to plan the whole thing with the other zone leader I´m with and the ward mission leader. But it turned out good. We had a lot of help from the ward and I think that it is going to get the members a little more excited to help the missionaries. We´re going to have a lot of work to do in the next couple of weeks to visit all of the people that were visited at the activity. Also, on Sunday I had to give a talk in Sacrament Meeting about adversity. It went fine. I talked about how we need to surround ourselves with good things and always stay positive. Last week for p-day we played tennis, that was a lot of fun. Thanks for everything.
Love,
Matt
January 11, 2010
This week has been pretty good for me, but really tiring. We have been working a lot so I´m pretty tired, I think I´m going to go home and take a nap for the rest of Preparation Day. But it´s good because when I work hard it makes me feel good. Sounds like you are going to have a nice slow week, finally. You deserve it, you always do too much for the holidays.
Thanks for getting me those shoes. The only other thing that I can think of is some more dried mangoes. Those are the hot item in the pension with four Elders. And they´re great to snack on in the afternoon, since we don´t eat dinner.
I got one pair of shoes re-soled, so now they don´t have holes in them. I took them to a little shop and the guy put on new soles. What he did was he cut out a slab of rubber to fit my shoe, and then put a little heel on it. But they aren´t very comfortable, I´m hoping they break in after a while. Actually, maybe some in-soles would help them be more comfortable. Could you send some in-soles in the package also? Thanks Mom.
This week was good, we had a good number of investigators at church on Sunday. The Sunday School teacher for the class of investigators is a Doctor, he´s really smart but he also is really proud. One of the investigators that we brought to class studied to be a catholic priest (he never finished, but he still studied quite a bit), so he knows his stuff when it comes to the scriptures. And the brother that was teaching and the investigator got into a big argument and it didn´t end pretty, pretty much everyone was offended at the end of the ordeal. But we talked with our investigators and I think everything will blow over in a week or two. But that was one of the more interesting things that happened this week. Thanks for everything.
Hey, how´s it going this week? Everything is good down here in Chile. This week went pretty well. We had a zone conference and we talked about developing Christlike attributes because that is the chapter from Preach My Gospel that we´re studying this change. This week we about 30 missionaries from the MTC here and Chile came to our sector for a missionary work activity. It was good, about 20 members from the ward came and we had each member go with one or two missionaries from the MTC and so we had about 25 companionships working in our sector Saturday afternoon. Needless to say, we got a lot done. It was a little stressful because I had to plan the whole thing with the other zone leader I´m with and the ward mission leader. But it turned out good. We had a lot of help from the ward and I think that it is going to get the members a little more excited to help the missionaries. We´re going to have a lot of work to do in the next couple of weeks to visit all of the people that were visited at the activity. Also, on Sunday I had to give a talk in Sacrament Meeting about adversity. It went fine. I talked about how we need to surround ourselves with good things and always stay positive. Last week for p-day we played tennis, that was a lot of fun. Thanks for everything.
Love,
Matt
January 11, 2010
This week has been pretty good for me, but really tiring. We have been working a lot so I´m pretty tired, I think I´m going to go home and take a nap for the rest of Preparation Day. But it´s good because when I work hard it makes me feel good. Sounds like you are going to have a nice slow week, finally. You deserve it, you always do too much for the holidays.
Thanks for getting me those shoes. The only other thing that I can think of is some more dried mangoes. Those are the hot item in the pension with four Elders. And they´re great to snack on in the afternoon, since we don´t eat dinner.
I got one pair of shoes re-soled, so now they don´t have holes in them. I took them to a little shop and the guy put on new soles. What he did was he cut out a slab of rubber to fit my shoe, and then put a little heel on it. But they aren´t very comfortable, I´m hoping they break in after a while. Actually, maybe some in-soles would help them be more comfortable. Could you send some in-soles in the package also? Thanks Mom.
This week was good, we had a good number of investigators at church on Sunday. The Sunday School teacher for the class of investigators is a Doctor, he´s really smart but he also is really proud. One of the investigators that we brought to class studied to be a catholic priest (he never finished, but he still studied quite a bit), so he knows his stuff when it comes to the scriptures. And the brother that was teaching and the investigator got into a big argument and it didn´t end pretty, pretty much everyone was offended at the end of the ordeal. But we talked with our investigators and I think everything will blow over in a week or two. But that was one of the more interesting things that happened this week. Thanks for everything.
Monday, April 12, 2010
12/07/09 through Christmas and New Years
This is what we did for Preparation Day. We hiked up Cerro Santa Lucía, which is a big hill in the middle of Santiago. It´s probably the first touristic thing that I´ve done since I´ve been here.
This is what we did on New Year's Eve:
Happy New Year to all of you guys. I´m glad you liked your gifts. I got the second christmas package last week. Thanks so much. I´m glad that I didn´t lose that one, because that was the one that had letters from the family. Oh yeah, and I´m going to use some of that Christmas money that came in the card to re-sole one of the pairs of my shoes. So that way I´ll have that pair to beat up, and the new pair that I asked for can be my nice pair of shoes. We had a pretty good new years eve down here. We were working all day, and nobody really was listening to us because they were all getting ready for their parties. Then the Bishop called and invited us over to celebrate new years with him and his family. We went up there for a couple hours and ate a little bit, and played a board game, but we still had to be back in the pension at 10:00pm, so that was kind of lame. Then we were all in bed before midnight, but we couldn´t sleep because we live in an apartment complex and there were lots of parties going on around our apartment. But it was a good new years. I´m pretty excited for this upcoming year, it´s going to be a good one. Thanks for everything. By the way, in the package that you send with the shoes, I don´t really need anymore candy. I think that Christmas candy is going to hold us over for a while.
12/28/09
Hey Mom,
Wow, I don´t know if it felt the same way for you, but that phone call felt like fifteen minutes. After I hung up the phone, I just felt like talking to you guys for another couple of hours. Thank you so much for the Christmas presents, everything was perfect. Thanks for the ties, that brown one that you got is awesome, I think it is my new favorite tie. And thanks for the rubix cube revolution. When I saw it I thought it looked dumb, but it actually is pretty fun. And my companion got sick on Saturday so we were in the apartment all day. So I cleaned a lot, and read, and played with the rubix cube. We had changes today, but nothing is different in our sector. I´m still in La Dehesa with Elder Page, just like last sector. I have to tell you, this sector is pretty tough. We had fifteen people to visit one day, and only one was actually home when we stopped by. I think that is why I have holes in my shoes, from walking around all day. Did Luis ever get a hold of you guys? I hope so. Well, I hope you guys had a good Christmas. Love you.
Love,
Matt
12/21/09
This week flew by. There was a Christmas activity at the temple all week and they pulled my companion and me out of our sector to help there every afternoon. So we actually have a lot of catch up to do this week. But that´s ok, everything will be back to normal soon enough. Like I told you a couple of weeks ago, we´re going to have lunch with an american family that has free long distance to the US, so I´ll be calling you this year. I´m going to call at 2:30am Chilean time, I´m pretty sure that is going to be 10:30am in Utah. We have a one hour time limit.
Also, the son of the family I lived with in Pirque is going to BYU next semester. He´s actually going to be flying out on Christmas Eve and get to Provo on Christmas Day. His name is Luis San Martin and I gave him some stuff to take to you guys. I gave him your address and your phone number. He doesn´t have a car so I think he´ll probably give you guys a call sometime on Christmas day, and you guys can go pick him up and get the things from him. Also, I don´t think he has anything to do or anyone to be with Christmas day, so maybe he could have dinner with you guys or something. But Luis should give you a call Friday afternoon.
The Christmas package hasn´t gotten here quite yet, but we have one more mail drop before Christmas, so if it comes before Wednesday I´ll have it on time. Thanks for everything. Talk to you on friday morning.
Love,
Matt
12/14/09
This week was a pretty good week. Although as you guys are getting snowed in, it´s getting hotter and hotter down here. I got a little sunburnt this week and had to start wearing sunscreen everyday. This week had a zone conference and the Area President of Chile talked to us all morning. It was a really cool conference because it was question and answer all morning. The last couple of weeks have been hectic here in my sector because one of the Elders in the other companionship had to go home for his knee. So for a week we were a trio. Then last monday they called us, and a half an hour later we got another Elder to make two full companionships. Then today, the Elder that came last week finished his mission and is going home, and they ended up taking the other companionship out of the sector. So now I don´t half a co-zone leader in the sector. I don´t know exactly what´s going on. But this week was still a pretty good week. On Friday night we had a ward christmas activity, and four families from the ward brought friends. That was really cool, because now we have some people to teach. Also, at the christmas activity, the missionaries had to do a musical number. So we played Jingle Bells on the nose flute and the kazoo. It was ridiculous, but it made everybody laugh. Also, we taught a deaf girl this week. It was funny because I couldn´t really communicate with her very much. But my companion, who can´t communicate with people in Spanish yet, took four years of American Sign Language in High School, so he could talk to her a little bit. At least better than me. It was pretty cool because he gets kind of down because he struggles with spanish sometimes, but he was able to talk to this girl a lot better than I could. So I think that made him feel pretty good. Also, this upcoming week my companion and I have to help out with a Temple Square Christmas activity all week. So I think our sector is going to kind of die this week. But it will be fun. But it will be consuming a lot of our time this week. I can´t believe Christmas is almost here. This year has gone by pretty fast. Thanks for everything. Talk to you next week.
Love,
Matt
12/07/09
Hey,
President hasn´t said anything about phone calls for Christmas yet so I´m not sure what´s going to happen. But here in the sector where I am, there are quite a few families from the United States that have a long distance plan with unlimited long distance, and we have lunch with one of them on Christmas day, so I think I might be calling you guys this year. Sounds like everybody is doing good. Everything is good here. There actually isn´t too much to report on this week. Although one cool thing that happened was when one of the less active members that we have been teaching went to church and bore her testimony because it was fast and testimony meeting. It was really cool, and she has two sons that aren´t members so we´re hoping to start teaching them and get them going to church also. On Sunday, we actually helped one of the gringo families in the ward put up their christmas tree, and put lights and decorations on it. And that is the family we will be having lunch with Christmas day, and we´ll be calling from their house on Christmas. So I´m going to have a gringo christmas in Chile this year, I bet it will be fun. Thanks for everything. Talk to you next week. Hopefully I´ll have some concrete details about how we´re going to call each other.
Love,
Matt
This is what we did on New Year's Eve:
Happy New Year to all of you guys. I´m glad you liked your gifts. I got the second christmas package last week. Thanks so much. I´m glad that I didn´t lose that one, because that was the one that had letters from the family. Oh yeah, and I´m going to use some of that Christmas money that came in the card to re-sole one of the pairs of my shoes. So that way I´ll have that pair to beat up, and the new pair that I asked for can be my nice pair of shoes. We had a pretty good new years eve down here. We were working all day, and nobody really was listening to us because they were all getting ready for their parties. Then the Bishop called and invited us over to celebrate new years with him and his family. We went up there for a couple hours and ate a little bit, and played a board game, but we still had to be back in the pension at 10:00pm, so that was kind of lame. Then we were all in bed before midnight, but we couldn´t sleep because we live in an apartment complex and there were lots of parties going on around our apartment. But it was a good new years. I´m pretty excited for this upcoming year, it´s going to be a good one. Thanks for everything. By the way, in the package that you send with the shoes, I don´t really need anymore candy. I think that Christmas candy is going to hold us over for a while.
12/28/09
Hey Mom,
Wow, I don´t know if it felt the same way for you, but that phone call felt like fifteen minutes. After I hung up the phone, I just felt like talking to you guys for another couple of hours. Thank you so much for the Christmas presents, everything was perfect. Thanks for the ties, that brown one that you got is awesome, I think it is my new favorite tie. And thanks for the rubix cube revolution. When I saw it I thought it looked dumb, but it actually is pretty fun. And my companion got sick on Saturday so we were in the apartment all day. So I cleaned a lot, and read, and played with the rubix cube. We had changes today, but nothing is different in our sector. I´m still in La Dehesa with Elder Page, just like last sector. I have to tell you, this sector is pretty tough. We had fifteen people to visit one day, and only one was actually home when we stopped by. I think that is why I have holes in my shoes, from walking around all day. Did Luis ever get a hold of you guys? I hope so. Well, I hope you guys had a good Christmas. Love you.
Love,
Matt
12/21/09
This week flew by. There was a Christmas activity at the temple all week and they pulled my companion and me out of our sector to help there every afternoon. So we actually have a lot of catch up to do this week. But that´s ok, everything will be back to normal soon enough. Like I told you a couple of weeks ago, we´re going to have lunch with an american family that has free long distance to the US, so I´ll be calling you this year. I´m going to call at 2:30am Chilean time, I´m pretty sure that is going to be 10:30am in Utah. We have a one hour time limit.
Also, the son of the family I lived with in Pirque is going to BYU next semester. He´s actually going to be flying out on Christmas Eve and get to Provo on Christmas Day. His name is Luis San Martin and I gave him some stuff to take to you guys. I gave him your address and your phone number. He doesn´t have a car so I think he´ll probably give you guys a call sometime on Christmas day, and you guys can go pick him up and get the things from him. Also, I don´t think he has anything to do or anyone to be with Christmas day, so maybe he could have dinner with you guys or something. But Luis should give you a call Friday afternoon.
The Christmas package hasn´t gotten here quite yet, but we have one more mail drop before Christmas, so if it comes before Wednesday I´ll have it on time. Thanks for everything. Talk to you on friday morning.
Love,
Matt
12/14/09
This week was a pretty good week. Although as you guys are getting snowed in, it´s getting hotter and hotter down here. I got a little sunburnt this week and had to start wearing sunscreen everyday. This week had a zone conference and the Area President of Chile talked to us all morning. It was a really cool conference because it was question and answer all morning. The last couple of weeks have been hectic here in my sector because one of the Elders in the other companionship had to go home for his knee. So for a week we were a trio. Then last monday they called us, and a half an hour later we got another Elder to make two full companionships. Then today, the Elder that came last week finished his mission and is going home, and they ended up taking the other companionship out of the sector. So now I don´t half a co-zone leader in the sector. I don´t know exactly what´s going on. But this week was still a pretty good week. On Friday night we had a ward christmas activity, and four families from the ward brought friends. That was really cool, because now we have some people to teach. Also, at the christmas activity, the missionaries had to do a musical number. So we played Jingle Bells on the nose flute and the kazoo. It was ridiculous, but it made everybody laugh. Also, we taught a deaf girl this week. It was funny because I couldn´t really communicate with her very much. But my companion, who can´t communicate with people in Spanish yet, took four years of American Sign Language in High School, so he could talk to her a little bit. At least better than me. It was pretty cool because he gets kind of down because he struggles with spanish sometimes, but he was able to talk to this girl a lot better than I could. So I think that made him feel pretty good. Also, this upcoming week my companion and I have to help out with a Temple Square Christmas activity all week. So I think our sector is going to kind of die this week. But it will be fun. But it will be consuming a lot of our time this week. I can´t believe Christmas is almost here. This year has gone by pretty fast. Thanks for everything. Talk to you next week.
Love,
Matt
12/07/09
Hey,
President hasn´t said anything about phone calls for Christmas yet so I´m not sure what´s going to happen. But here in the sector where I am, there are quite a few families from the United States that have a long distance plan with unlimited long distance, and we have lunch with one of them on Christmas day, so I think I might be calling you guys this year. Sounds like everybody is doing good. Everything is good here. There actually isn´t too much to report on this week. Although one cool thing that happened was when one of the less active members that we have been teaching went to church and bore her testimony because it was fast and testimony meeting. It was really cool, and she has two sons that aren´t members so we´re hoping to start teaching them and get them going to church also. On Sunday, we actually helped one of the gringo families in the ward put up their christmas tree, and put lights and decorations on it. And that is the family we will be having lunch with Christmas day, and we´ll be calling from their house on Christmas. So I´m going to have a gringo christmas in Chile this year, I bet it will be fun. Thanks for everything. Talk to you next week. Hopefully I´ll have some concrete details about how we´re going to call each other.
Love,
Matt
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