8/10/09

Things are going good here. We had another baptism yesterday and we have one scheduled for the 23rd of August. So things are going really well here. We´ve got two more weeks until the next change, and I think I´ll probably leave. But I don´t want to go. This sector that I´m in is awesome. My mission president came to our branch yesterday. It was good because we had a baptism that day, and a couple of investigators in the church, so I´m pretty sure he was pretty impressed. Everything is going really well. I´m sending pictures this week, finally. If Sam wants to get ahold of me, I think itwould be best through the mission office because I could change to another sector in a couple of weeks. Thanks for everything.Love,Matt

8/03/09 New Mission President, New rules

Hey guys, things are going good. We had a baptism yesterday, it was areally good baptism. I´ll try and send some pictures next week.We´ve got another baptism planned for this week too, so things have been going really good lately. Our baptism from a couple of weeks agogot sick with the pig flu the day after her baptism, but still made it to church for her confirmation the next week. That was incredible.This change has been alright. Training is hard. My companion is from Peru and complains about almost everything here in Chile. That sucks. But I guess it's just an opportunity to practice the Christlike attribute of patience, right? The new President took away a lot of all the stupid rules that we had when President Morán was president.Like now we can eat at restaurants and fast food. So today I had Kentucky Fried Chicken for lunch. It was pretty good. Also, we can listen to music that invites the spirit, and we can have ipods. So I have a big favor to ask. Can you dig my ipod out of my stuff in the closet. It´s in a nike shoe box. And inside of the shoe box, it should be in the ipod box. And then if Courtney and Brian could put church music and soundtracks and stuff like that on it. And I also would need speakers, some mini speakers. The other option is a bunch of cds, and some small speakers. But that would be awesome, it would be the best thing ever. Thanks for everything, love you. Love,Matt

July 27, 2009 P Day

Today was a fun day. In the morning we went with the family that welive with to a campsite and went on a hike in the morning. Then after the hike we ate lunch around the campfire. On the way back home the dad of the family got pulled over for going too fast, and he didn´t have his license or the documents for the car. So we had to go to thepolice station. And the dad has to spend the night in jail, and possibly a couple more days. So today has been pretty interesting. Don´t worry too much about the birthday package. I already bought a sweater vest and a sweatshirt down here. Like Dad said, I should be thankful for what I get, so thank you, and don´t worry about it. Talk to you next week.Love,Matt

Yeah, we got Rockports from Mr. Mac, and they´re waterproof. They actually have been really nice the couple of times that it has rained really hard here in Santiago. I asked Courtney what you guys put in my birthday package because what I got and what was written on the customs slip didn´t really match up, and it turns out like half of the package got stolen. That´s too bad. I´m not going to lie, when I opened it up I thought to myself, hmm I expected a little bit more out of a birthday package. But I didn´t want to say anything. Oh well. This week has been pretty good. It is my first week with Elder Sánchez. He is new to the mission. But he´s a good missionary. He reminds me of how it was for me when I first got out here, not knowing anything. But at least he speaks spanish. We had a baptism yesterday. It was really good. We made a slideshow of pictures of Christ and put some church music on in the background, it was pretty cool. Elder Sánchez is pretty lucky to have a baptism his first week in the mission. He´s from Perú and from what he tells me missionary work is a little bit different there. Chileans are a little bit harder when it comes to the gospel. It was funny, we were knocking doors and I did a contact, and the person was kind of rude. I´ve gotten used to it, so I just started walking to the next door but Elder Sánchez told me that if I did that contact in Perú the person would have let us in. Really nothing much has happened this week, besides the baptism and getting a new companion. Our new president is letting us do zone activities and play sports on p-day so I´m going to buy some shoes down here. I transfered $200 from my savings account to my checking account so that I can use my debit card and have a little bit of spending money. Things are going good. Interviews with the new President are this Thursday. I´m pretty excited to finally talk to President Laycock. Talk to you later.
Love,
Matt