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.
Friday, April 30, 2010
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
11/30/09 Late Thanksgiving Dinner with the Sorensen's
Good Morning,
We were blessed this weekend to enjoy a wonderful Stake Conference here in Santiago. The weekend was capped off with another dinner with our missionaries. We decided to do a three-day-late Thanksgiving feast. Our thoughts and prayers are with Elder Westover and we hope for a speedy recovery and quick return to the mission field. In the meantime, we enjoy the company of the threesome that remain.
Thank you all so much for your sacrifice and for the dedication of your missionaries. We so enjoy their Spirit and efforts.
Have a wonderful day.
Rick Sorensen
La Dehesa Ward
Santiago, Chile
We were blessed this weekend to enjoy a wonderful Stake Conference here in Santiago. The weekend was capped off with another dinner with our missionaries. We decided to do a three-day-late Thanksgiving feast. Our thoughts and prayers are with Elder Westover and we hope for a speedy recovery and quick return to the mission field. In the meantime, we enjoy the company of the threesome that remain.
Thank you all so much for your sacrifice and for the dedication of your missionaries. We so enjoy their Spirit and efforts.
Have a wonderful day.
Rick Sorensen
La Dehesa Ward
Santiago, Chile
11/23/09 through 11/30/09
11/30/09 Thanksgiving
Sounds like you guys had a good time for Thanksgiving. This year wasn´t nearly as bad as last year. I remember being in the MTC and the MTC running out of turkey. This year we ate Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday with one of the American families that lives here. So I ate a real Thanksgiving dinner, the only thing that was missing was my own family. But next year will be fun. We ate Thanksgiving dinner with the Sorenson family, and he told me that he was going to email you pictures, so you´ll be able to see that this Thanksgiving wasn´t bad at all here. Also, one day this week lunch with one of the families of the ward fell through, so we bought sushi and made a bunch of rice. This has been a pretty fun week. I´m sending a couple of pictures of the last baptism I had a couple of weeks ago. She is the lady who ran away from work to get baptized. Also, in this new area there were two companionships. But one of the Elder´s in the other companionship needs knee surgery, so he went home to get his surgery and he´s going to come back in a couple of months. So now the other companion is with us. We are a trio for right now.
I´ve got a few more ideas for Christmas. I lost my battery powered alarm clock in my last move so I need one of those. Also, I´m out of Tums and I can´t find them here in Chile. And another thing that sounds good to me is a package of those Dried Mangos. That´s about all I can think of right now. Thanks for everything.
Love,
Matt
Sounds like you guys had a good time for Thanksgiving. This year wasn´t nearly as bad as last year. I remember being in the MTC and the MTC running out of turkey. This year we ate Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday with one of the American families that lives here. So I ate a real Thanksgiving dinner, the only thing that was missing was my own family. But next year will be fun. We ate Thanksgiving dinner with the Sorenson family, and he told me that he was going to email you pictures, so you´ll be able to see that this Thanksgiving wasn´t bad at all here. Also, one day this week lunch with one of the families of the ward fell through, so we bought sushi and made a bunch of rice. This has been a pretty fun week. I´m sending a couple of pictures of the last baptism I had a couple of weeks ago. She is the lady who ran away from work to get baptized. Also, in this new area there were two companionships. But one of the Elder´s in the other companionship needs knee surgery, so he went home to get his surgery and he´s going to come back in a couple of months. So now the other companion is with us. We are a trio for right now.
I´ve got a few more ideas for Christmas. I lost my battery powered alarm clock in my last move so I need one of those. Also, I´m out of Tums and I can´t find them here in Chile. And another thing that sounds good to me is a package of those Dried Mangos. That´s about all I can think of right now. Thanks for everything.
Love,
Matt
11/23/09
Like I told you last week, I am in a really rich sector right now. And this week has definitely been an adjustment week for me. It´s crazy how nice this place is, because I have only been in other areas that are completely different. But I like this new sector, and I like the ward a lot. Actually this ward is a really weird ward. Because there are just as many Gringos and Peruvians as there are Chileans. I´m not even joking, about a quarter of the ward is from the United States. There are a lot of Gringo families that are here working for the church. The second counselor from the Area Presidency of Chile is in this ward. The Bishop and first counselor of the ward are from Utah. It is weird. But it´s really cool. This week has been really hectic, getting to know the new sector, and all of the new investigators. The missionaries that were here the week before baptized an 81 year old lady that lives two or three blocks from the house and I confirmed yesterday at church. It was really funny. At ten, when sacrament meeting started, she hadn´t arrived at church yet so the ward mission leader went to go pick her up and when he got there he saw her in the street walking to church. He told her to get in so that they would get to church faster but she refused. She said that she was going to walk to church by herself. It was really funny, she made it just in time and everything is alright now. Old people are stubborn. I bet Grandpa Lee is like that and still wants to do things his own way. So I finally put a little list together of ideas for Christmas. One of my old companions had a webster´s electronic spanish english dictionary that would be really cool. Also, you could throw in that USB of music that Brian made, and if you could put on the soundtrack from O Brother Where Art Thou, and Tarzan. Also, good floss is hard to find here in Chile. And the only other thing I need is bed sheets. But those would be big, so I think it would be better to send money so that I could buy them here. Also, I would really like to have your recipe for homemade chocolate chip cookies, and Dad´s for how to make really good hamburgers. But that is all that I can think of for now. Thanks for everything.
Love,
Matt
10/19/09 through 11/16/09
11/16/09 New calling: Zone Leader
I had a pretty busy week too. Yesterday we had a baptism that was incredible. We were teaching this lady named Carolina for the last couple of weeks. She works from Monday to Friday as a nanny, she takes care of the kids of a really rich family. But she doesn´t work the weekends so she has been to church with us the last couple of weeks. But on Saturday when we went to her house to do the baptismal interview, she told us that the nanny that works on the weekends for this family was in a car accident, and broke a couple of ribs and was in the hospital, so the family wanted her to work this Sunday. When she told us that, my heart seriously fell to the bottom of my stomach. And after a couple minutes of talking about what we could do to fix the problem, she said ¨I don´t care, I´m going to go to work in the morning early, and I´m going to sneak out to go to church and be baptized.¨ And that´s exactly what she did. It was awesome, she ran away from her work to get baptized. So she was baptized, and everything is all good now. Our mission president told us that we need to fight for our baptisms, and it was funny, because although we never gave up fighting, Carolina was the one that made things happen.
Also, we had changes today. What they always do for changes is Sunday night they call to tell us if we are leaving or staying. But last night there was a problem with our cell phone, I don´t actually know what was wrong, but we couldn´t receive or make calls. And in the morning, when the cell phone started working again, we saw that we had missed calls from the zone leaders, the assistants, and the mission presidents too. So we called our zone leaders and explained what happened they told us that I was leaving the area. So I packed my bags and we went to the meeting for changes. And I talked with the mission president for a minute, he was trying to call me last night because he called me to be Zone Leader, and be the companion of a missionary in his second change. So now I´m in a new sector, with a companion that has six weeks in Chile, and I´m a zone leader. My new sector is one of the richest sectors in the whole mission, so it´s going to be quite a bit different from what I´m used to right now. My new companion is Elder Page, from the United States. He doesn´t really speak very much spanish but he is a really cool guy, this change is going to be a lot of fun. I have a lot of new responsability now, but I´m excited.
That´s good to hear that Grandma is getting better. What´s going to happen to Grandma and Grandpa´s house? It also sounds like this Thanksgiving is going to be fun. But this is the last one for me in the mission, I´ll be back for the next year. Sorry, I haven´t really put too much thought into Christmas with how busy this week has been. But I´ll start thinking and let you know next week. Thanks for everything.
Love,
Matt
11/02/09
Sounds like you guys had fun on Halloween. Jenni sent me pictures of the snow in Colorado. That is definately one thing I miss about the States, the snow. It didn´t snow all winter here. And now summer has started and it´s getting hotter and hotter every day. Here in Chile, Halloween isn´t really a big deal. About half of Chile dresses up and the other half thinks it´s dumb. In fact, we didn´t even see anybody trick or treating that night.
The other day my companion and I were knocking doors and we taught a family of twelve people. It was pretty cool. It really wasn´t like teaching a lesson, more of a class. But it was fun, because everyone paid attention and everything went just fine. Also, about five months ago one of my first companions in this sector and I were knocking in a neighborhood, and we didn´t have any success at all. But my companion that I have right now and I went to try again this past week. I didn´t expect that much would happen. But we taught a lady that remembered me from when I knocked doors there five months ago and let us in. Then she told us that she has been praying and asking God to help her family, and we showed up, so that was a pretty good experience.
I actually am good for garments for right now, and I can´t think of anything that I need, so I´ll be thinking about it this week and next Monday I´ll tell you what I need. And I´m feeling a lot better now, I´m pretty sure that I don´t have bronchitis anymore.
I got Dad´s letter and the package. Thank you so much for everything. It was perfect and it helped me a lot. Thanks for everything.
Love,
Matt
10/26/09
This week went pretty well. Yesterday at church the Primary did a program for sacrament meeting. It was really good, and funny. Little kids always do something funny. One of the recent converts that is in the Primary gave the opening prayer for the sacrament meeting so that was pretty cool. But everything has been good. I went to the doctor last week and he gave me some pills to take and I´m feeling a little better but I´m still coughing quite a bit. But it´s getting a lot better. The swine flu got to Chile a while ago, and a couple of missionaries got it. It´s pretty strong but it´s not life threatening. I got the package. Thank you so much for everything, it was really nice to read your letters and see the pictures, thank you so much. The speakers and charger are perfect, thank you. I´m looking at the USB right now and I think you might have sent the wrong one or something, because it doesn´t have any music on it. I think it has some of Brian´s stuff from the Playstation 3. Well that´s about everything new for this week. Thanks for everything.
Love,
Matt
10/19/19
Sounds like the cruise went well. That´s good that you guys got out of Utah for a little bit. I honestly don´t remember much about a lot of the people you mentioned in your letter. Of course I remember Kurt and Laurel, and the Burnett´s, and the Crawford´s. But I don´t remember much about the others. Your cruise reminds me a little bit of when I went to Hawaii with the football team. That´s cool about Vanessa Burnett. I have two friends from the Timpview football team that are in Mendoza right now. They left a couple of weeks after me because I saw them in the MTC. The Mendoza mission and Santiago East are neighbors. The only thing that separates us are the giant Andes mountains. Tell Dad to try and not be so lazy about writing next week. He doesn´t have any excuses because you guy´s only have one son on a mission, imagine what it´s like for the Bird family.
My week went pretty well. We had two baptisms planned for this sunday. We were going to baptize a mom and her son. But in the week the mom told us that her husband won´t let them get baptized. She actually had to lie to be able to go to church. She told him that they were going to the grocery store every Sunday morning. But then he found out, and now won´t let us baptize them. So that was bad news for this week. But everything else is going well. We had interviews with the President this week, I told me that I´ve been in Pirque for a long time, and I´ve done a lot of good things here, but I should be ready for a change the next time we have changes. So it looks like I´ll be leaving to another sector in four weeks. Just so you know, for the last month or so I´ve been writing in my journal every day. President Laycock is emphasizing that a lot. I wrote in my journal every day in the MTC, and when I first got to Chile, then I got lazy for about five or six months where I was writing every once in a while, and now I´m picking it up again. It´s kind of cool, now that I´ve got a year I can look in my journal and see what I was doing one year ago. That´s about it for this week. Thanks for everything.
Love,
Matt
I had a pretty busy week too. Yesterday we had a baptism that was incredible. We were teaching this lady named Carolina for the last couple of weeks. She works from Monday to Friday as a nanny, she takes care of the kids of a really rich family. But she doesn´t work the weekends so she has been to church with us the last couple of weeks. But on Saturday when we went to her house to do the baptismal interview, she told us that the nanny that works on the weekends for this family was in a car accident, and broke a couple of ribs and was in the hospital, so the family wanted her to work this Sunday. When she told us that, my heart seriously fell to the bottom of my stomach. And after a couple minutes of talking about what we could do to fix the problem, she said ¨I don´t care, I´m going to go to work in the morning early, and I´m going to sneak out to go to church and be baptized.¨ And that´s exactly what she did. It was awesome, she ran away from her work to get baptized. So she was baptized, and everything is all good now. Our mission president told us that we need to fight for our baptisms, and it was funny, because although we never gave up fighting, Carolina was the one that made things happen.
Also, we had changes today. What they always do for changes is Sunday night they call to tell us if we are leaving or staying. But last night there was a problem with our cell phone, I don´t actually know what was wrong, but we couldn´t receive or make calls. And in the morning, when the cell phone started working again, we saw that we had missed calls from the zone leaders, the assistants, and the mission presidents too. So we called our zone leaders and explained what happened they told us that I was leaving the area. So I packed my bags and we went to the meeting for changes. And I talked with the mission president for a minute, he was trying to call me last night because he called me to be Zone Leader, and be the companion of a missionary in his second change. So now I´m in a new sector, with a companion that has six weeks in Chile, and I´m a zone leader. My new sector is one of the richest sectors in the whole mission, so it´s going to be quite a bit different from what I´m used to right now. My new companion is Elder Page, from the United States. He doesn´t really speak very much spanish but he is a really cool guy, this change is going to be a lot of fun. I have a lot of new responsability now, but I´m excited.
That´s good to hear that Grandma is getting better. What´s going to happen to Grandma and Grandpa´s house? It also sounds like this Thanksgiving is going to be fun. But this is the last one for me in the mission, I´ll be back for the next year. Sorry, I haven´t really put too much thought into Christmas with how busy this week has been. But I´ll start thinking and let you know next week. Thanks for everything.
Love,
Matt
11/02/09
Sounds like you guys had fun on Halloween. Jenni sent me pictures of the snow in Colorado. That is definately one thing I miss about the States, the snow. It didn´t snow all winter here. And now summer has started and it´s getting hotter and hotter every day. Here in Chile, Halloween isn´t really a big deal. About half of Chile dresses up and the other half thinks it´s dumb. In fact, we didn´t even see anybody trick or treating that night.
The other day my companion and I were knocking doors and we taught a family of twelve people. It was pretty cool. It really wasn´t like teaching a lesson, more of a class. But it was fun, because everyone paid attention and everything went just fine. Also, about five months ago one of my first companions in this sector and I were knocking in a neighborhood, and we didn´t have any success at all. But my companion that I have right now and I went to try again this past week. I didn´t expect that much would happen. But we taught a lady that remembered me from when I knocked doors there five months ago and let us in. Then she told us that she has been praying and asking God to help her family, and we showed up, so that was a pretty good experience.
I actually am good for garments for right now, and I can´t think of anything that I need, so I´ll be thinking about it this week and next Monday I´ll tell you what I need. And I´m feeling a lot better now, I´m pretty sure that I don´t have bronchitis anymore.
I got Dad´s letter and the package. Thank you so much for everything. It was perfect and it helped me a lot. Thanks for everything.
Love,
Matt
10/26/09
This week went pretty well. Yesterday at church the Primary did a program for sacrament meeting. It was really good, and funny. Little kids always do something funny. One of the recent converts that is in the Primary gave the opening prayer for the sacrament meeting so that was pretty cool. But everything has been good. I went to the doctor last week and he gave me some pills to take and I´m feeling a little better but I´m still coughing quite a bit. But it´s getting a lot better. The swine flu got to Chile a while ago, and a couple of missionaries got it. It´s pretty strong but it´s not life threatening. I got the package. Thank you so much for everything, it was really nice to read your letters and see the pictures, thank you so much. The speakers and charger are perfect, thank you. I´m looking at the USB right now and I think you might have sent the wrong one or something, because it doesn´t have any music on it. I think it has some of Brian´s stuff from the Playstation 3. Well that´s about everything new for this week. Thanks for everything.
Love,
Matt
10/19/19
Sounds like the cruise went well. That´s good that you guys got out of Utah for a little bit. I honestly don´t remember much about a lot of the people you mentioned in your letter. Of course I remember Kurt and Laurel, and the Burnett´s, and the Crawford´s. But I don´t remember much about the others. Your cruise reminds me a little bit of when I went to Hawaii with the football team. That´s cool about Vanessa Burnett. I have two friends from the Timpview football team that are in Mendoza right now. They left a couple of weeks after me because I saw them in the MTC. The Mendoza mission and Santiago East are neighbors. The only thing that separates us are the giant Andes mountains. Tell Dad to try and not be so lazy about writing next week. He doesn´t have any excuses because you guy´s only have one son on a mission, imagine what it´s like for the Bird family.
My week went pretty well. We had two baptisms planned for this sunday. We were going to baptize a mom and her son. But in the week the mom told us that her husband won´t let them get baptized. She actually had to lie to be able to go to church. She told him that they were going to the grocery store every Sunday morning. But then he found out, and now won´t let us baptize them. So that was bad news for this week. But everything else is going well. We had interviews with the President this week, I told me that I´ve been in Pirque for a long time, and I´ve done a lot of good things here, but I should be ready for a change the next time we have changes. So it looks like I´ll be leaving to another sector in four weeks. Just so you know, for the last month or so I´ve been writing in my journal every day. President Laycock is emphasizing that a lot. I wrote in my journal every day in the MTC, and when I first got to Chile, then I got lazy for about five or six months where I was writing every once in a while, and now I´m picking it up again. It´s kind of cool, now that I´ve got a year I can look in my journal and see what I was doing one year ago. That´s about it for this week. Thanks for everything.
Love,
Matt
9/28/09-10/12/09
10/12/09
Yesterday was fast and testimony meeting, and our recent convert that is only eight years old and has been a member for only one month got up and bore his testimony. It was really cool, because it wasn´t one of the most eloquent testimonies that I´ve ever heard but everyone felt the spirit so strong because first, he´s only eight years old, and second, what he said came from the heart. My companion and I feel really proud to be the elders that taught him the gospel because I know that one day he´s going to be a missionary. Everything else is good. Have fun on your cruise.
Love,
Matt
10/05/09
I watched all of the sessions of conference, in english also. We had a little TV set up for all of the gringo missionaries in the primary room. It was pretty good, I enjoyed it a lot. We also had a baptism in between the first and second session on Sunday. I would have taken pictures, but earlier in the week I had to lend my camera to a member. I gave her specific instructions to bring it to conference Sunday morning and she said she would. Then she didn´t even show up. Actually all weekend there weren´t very many members at the sessions all weekend. Yeah, we had changes today, so I´m pretty sure that Josh White will be getting here tomorrow. I´m staying in Pirque for my fifth change. That means at the end of the change I´ll have about seven and a half months there. And I´m still with the Elder that I trained. That´s three changes with him, or about four and a half months. There were a couple of other missionaries in Pirque with us the last change, but both of them were Chileans that were only in this mission waiting until they got their visas so that they could go to the United States. One is going to California and the other to Salt Lake. They both got their visas and left last Wednesday. Well, that´s about it. Tell Spence, Leah, Amelia, and Charly I say hi.
Love,
Matt
9/28/09
Sounds like you guys had a fun weekend at the BYU game. But you aren´t very good at letting me know what´s going on. Did BYU even win? Things are going good here too. I have been kind of sick all week, so that hasn´t been fun. This last Sunday we confirmed Stephanie, the person that was baptized last week. I confirmed her. That was the first time I have ever confirmed anyone. I don´t need the backpack, thanks though, but I bought one here a long time ago. The only things that I could use right now are extra garments and sock. I remember when you told me that for Christmas and Birthdays I would ask for garments and socks, and now I know why. But if you do get me some garments, the same bottoms that you got me last year are good, but for the tops I would rather have the garments that have the round neck. Like the garments I have are pretty much like t-shirts, but I would rather have the garments where the neck is a little bit lower and round. I don´t know if that makes sense. Oh well, let me know if you can figure out what I was trying to say and can send me some. Thanks for everything.
Love,
Matt
Yesterday was fast and testimony meeting, and our recent convert that is only eight years old and has been a member for only one month got up and bore his testimony. It was really cool, because it wasn´t one of the most eloquent testimonies that I´ve ever heard but everyone felt the spirit so strong because first, he´s only eight years old, and second, what he said came from the heart. My companion and I feel really proud to be the elders that taught him the gospel because I know that one day he´s going to be a missionary. Everything else is good. Have fun on your cruise.
Love,
Matt
10/05/09
I watched all of the sessions of conference, in english also. We had a little TV set up for all of the gringo missionaries in the primary room. It was pretty good, I enjoyed it a lot. We also had a baptism in between the first and second session on Sunday. I would have taken pictures, but earlier in the week I had to lend my camera to a member. I gave her specific instructions to bring it to conference Sunday morning and she said she would. Then she didn´t even show up. Actually all weekend there weren´t very many members at the sessions all weekend. Yeah, we had changes today, so I´m pretty sure that Josh White will be getting here tomorrow. I´m staying in Pirque for my fifth change. That means at the end of the change I´ll have about seven and a half months there. And I´m still with the Elder that I trained. That´s three changes with him, or about four and a half months. There were a couple of other missionaries in Pirque with us the last change, but both of them were Chileans that were only in this mission waiting until they got their visas so that they could go to the United States. One is going to California and the other to Salt Lake. They both got their visas and left last Wednesday. Well, that´s about it. Tell Spence, Leah, Amelia, and Charly I say hi.
Love,
Matt
9/28/09
Sounds like you guys had a fun weekend at the BYU game. But you aren´t very good at letting me know what´s going on. Did BYU even win? Things are going good here too. I have been kind of sick all week, so that hasn´t been fun. This last Sunday we confirmed Stephanie, the person that was baptized last week. I confirmed her. That was the first time I have ever confirmed anyone. I don´t need the backpack, thanks though, but I bought one here a long time ago. The only things that I could use right now are extra garments and sock. I remember when you told me that for Christmas and Birthdays I would ask for garments and socks, and now I know why. But if you do get me some garments, the same bottoms that you got me last year are good, but for the tops I would rather have the garments that have the round neck. Like the garments I have are pretty much like t-shirts, but I would rather have the garments where the neck is a little bit lower and round. I don´t know if that makes sense. Oh well, let me know if you can figure out what I was trying to say and can send me some. Thanks for everything.
Love,
Matt
9/21/09
Well, divisions with the delinquent elders went pretty well. Because the two days that I was with the senior companion we had really successful days. So they don´t have any excuses to slack off now. I can´t remember if I told you or not, but we found a golf course here in the sector a couple of months ago. But guess which day is they´re only day closed for maintenence. Yep, that´s right, Monday, the only day that we could possibly go golfing. But that´s alright, there are plenty of other things to keep us busy. This last week went really well. The Chilean Independence day was really fun. I have eaten so much food in the last three days it is ridiculous. But last night one of the elders that I live with and I ate one last empanada to end the weekend. And I think that that empanada gave us food poisoning because today both of us are sick. We both have thrown up today. Friday night one of the counselors in the Branch Presidency called me and told me I had to give a fifteen minute talk on Sunday. Then when I got to church on Sunday he told me that I´ve got seven minutes because one of the senior couples from the mission was there on Sunday and the guy gave a talk. The senior missionary gave the first talk, and he is one of those old guys that talks a lot. And his spanish isn´t too good yet, so he talks really slow. He ended up taking away almost all of my time. So when I got up, right after he finished, I said ¨Well, Brother Lopez called me Friday night and told me I´ve got fifteen minutes, then today in the morning he said I´ve got seven minutes. And after listening to Elder Day for the last 15-20 minutes I know why my time got cut.¨ Everyone from the ward busted up laughing and when I looked at Elder Day, he was laughing too. But from looking at his face, I could tell that he didn´t understand the joke and was just copying everyone else. It was pretty funny. Mom, I don´t think I take after you so much in the aspect of preparing lessons and talks, because I spent about a half an hour Saturday night working on the talk and then called it good. But the talk actually turned out really well. It was about why we have missionaries. We had a baptism yesterday too, it went really really well. I´ll send pictures. About the music. Putting the music on a USB instead of CD´s is a really good idea. Thanks so much for all your help. I don´t think I need anything else. Thanks again.
Love,
Matt
9/14/09
This week went by pretty fast. Yesterday we had Stake Conference. It was alright, nothing too special. But we´re going to have a baptism for sure this next Sunday. On Friday, September 18th, it´s Chile´s Independence day, so we´re going to have a barbeque and eat a bunch of empanadas with the family that we live with. Also, word on the street is that we´re going to do a big mission activity on Friday. Maybe we´ll get to play soccer or do something fun. This past week has gone pretty well, nothing to complain about. Well, I guess there is one thing. They sent two extra missionaries to Pirque this change three weeks ago, and they still haven´t sent two more bikes. So we´ve got four missionaries, and two bikes. We have to take turns and the companionship that doesn´t have the bikes has to spend a bunch of money taking the bus. But other than that everything is going great. The new responsibilities as District Leader aren´t too bad. Although I just found out that one of the companionships in my district is sleeping in until 10 every day, so I have to do divisions with them this week and chew them out a little bit, with love of course. But that´s about all that´s going on with me lately. Have a good week.
Love,
Matt
Love,
Matt
9/07/09
Hey,
Things are going good here. That´s cool about Spencer and Leah´s new baby girl. That´s crazy, I have one niece and one nephew that I´ve never even seen. How many more will there be when I get back?
Things here have been good. For the last couple of weeks we have been teaching a guy and he accepted a baptismal date and everything was going good. We were going to bless his daughter at church on Sunday. But when we called his house Sunday morning to confirm everything, his mom told us that he left and is in Southern Chile. When we asked his mom when he was coming back she said that she doesn´t even know if he´s going to come back. So that was pretty lame. I have no idea where he is right now or anything. And he was one of our progressing investigators. But it´s ok, because this last week we found a girl and started teaching her. And she accepted a baptismal date and came to church with us this last Sunday. When we first met her she had a nose ring, but we asked her to take it out to go to church and now she doesn´t use her nose ring anymore. She´s a golden investigator. On Sunday it was raining, and when it rains in Santiago, hardly anybody goes to church. But this investigator came with us in the rain. It was really cool. I´ve had a cold the last couple of days so that hasn´t been too fun. Last night I felt horrible, but I took some medicine and when I woke up this morning I felt a lot better. We are teaching the husband of the first person I baptized here in Pirque, and we have taught him all of the lessons. He´s gone to church a couple of times. But he doesn´t want to get baptized yet because he just doesn´t feel ready. So my companion and I prepared a really good lesson about the importance of the Priesthood and the importance of the Father in the home. And in this lesson I shared the experience of when Dad gave me a blessing of comfort before entering the MTC. I actually got a little choked up while sharing that experience because I felt the spirit so strong. So I figured I would share that with you guys and thank Dad for being a Priesthood bearer and being an example. And Mom, thanks for always loving and supporting me and doing everything to make sure I´m alright. Thanks for everything.
Love,
Matt
Things are going good here. That´s cool about Spencer and Leah´s new baby girl. That´s crazy, I have one niece and one nephew that I´ve never even seen. How many more will there be when I get back?
Things here have been good. For the last couple of weeks we have been teaching a guy and he accepted a baptismal date and everything was going good. We were going to bless his daughter at church on Sunday. But when we called his house Sunday morning to confirm everything, his mom told us that he left and is in Southern Chile. When we asked his mom when he was coming back she said that she doesn´t even know if he´s going to come back. So that was pretty lame. I have no idea where he is right now or anything. And he was one of our progressing investigators. But it´s ok, because this last week we found a girl and started teaching her. And she accepted a baptismal date and came to church with us this last Sunday. When we first met her she had a nose ring, but we asked her to take it out to go to church and now she doesn´t use her nose ring anymore. She´s a golden investigator. On Sunday it was raining, and when it rains in Santiago, hardly anybody goes to church. But this investigator came with us in the rain. It was really cool. I´ve had a cold the last couple of days so that hasn´t been too fun. Last night I felt horrible, but I took some medicine and when I woke up this morning I felt a lot better. We are teaching the husband of the first person I baptized here in Pirque, and we have taught him all of the lessons. He´s gone to church a couple of times. But he doesn´t want to get baptized yet because he just doesn´t feel ready. So my companion and I prepared a really good lesson about the importance of the Priesthood and the importance of the Father in the home. And in this lesson I shared the experience of when Dad gave me a blessing of comfort before entering the MTC. I actually got a little choked up while sharing that experience because I felt the spirit so strong. So I figured I would share that with you guys and thank Dad for being a Priesthood bearer and being an example. And Mom, thanks for always loving and supporting me and doing everything to make sure I´m alright. Thanks for everything.
Love,
Matt
8/30/09
The cruise sounds pretty fun. You´ll get to see a couple of countries and hang out with some old friends. Sounds fun. This week has been pretty hectic. The two extra missionaries were sent Monday, but without bikes. So we had two bikes for four missionaries. And then on Wednesday one of the bikes broke. So we have one bike for four missionaries. It´s crazy. We have been spending so much money on buses lately. And we borrowed a bike from the Sister that we live with. We had our Branch Conference yesterday. It went really well,President Laycock came with his wife and son. He went to the Priesthood Executive Meeting in the morning where the missionaries present the investigators to the Branch Leaders, and afterwards Pres.Laycock came up to me and told me that I presented the investigators perfectly and a couple of other compliments. It was pretty cool, I was feeling pretty good yesterday. Things are going good here in Chile. I´m sending some pictures. Thanks for everything. Let me know when you send that stuff for the mp3 player I asked for. Love,Matt
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