April 2010

April 26, 2010

I can´t believe that Courtney is going to be graduating in a month. That is so crazy. I remember thinking that Courtney was going to graduate and then I will be getting home just a few months later. And now Courtney is graduating, so that means I´m getting pretty close to the end. That´s weird to think about. Jenni posted pictures on her blog of Easter weekend, it looks like you guys had a lot of fun. So if you guys end up having to move, do you think you´ll find a place in the ward?

We had a baptism last Sunday. It was awesome, because she was one of those eternal investigators. Her husband was baptized about a year and a half ago, and she has been going to church with him since then. But whenever we talked to her about baptism, she said that she knew she had to get baptized, she just wasn´t ready yet. Then she saw the last baptism we had, and I guess the spirit touched because about a week later she said she was ready, and so we started working at it and she got baptized yesterday, it was awesome.

Something funny happened to us this week too. We live in an apartment complex that has quite a few buildings. And one night, my companion and I were woken up to some people from the building next to ours, screaming at the top of their lungs that there was a thief and that someone was trying to rob them. Then we heard somebody running away and hop the fence. So after the commotion died down a little bit, we went back to bed. Hey, you can´t blame us, we were way tired. But anyway, the next morning after we got dressed we went out and asked the concierge of the complex what happened. Apparently, in the building right next to us, there is some famous Chilean tv star, and he lives on the third floor. The guard told us that this guy was dating two girls at the same time, without them knowing about it. So I guess that night the two girls found out what was going on, and teamed up and were planning on doing something to him. So they got into the apartment complex, but the tv star wasn´t home, so they decided to climb up the side of the building and sneak in through the balcony. But these two girls were a little drunk, and they accidentally climbed up to the fourth floor. When they broke into the wrong apartment, the family that lives there woke up and thought that they were thieves, and started yelling. That´s when we woke up. Then the girls, who were quite frightened, jumped from the fourth floor balcony all the way to the ground and got hurt pretty badly. Then when the cops came, they hit one of the cops, so they were hauled off. And the next day there were news reporters all over the place. It was quite a fiasco.

Thanks for everything mom. I love you and miss you.

April 19, 2010

Hey Family,

Things have been going good this week. It´s been kind of slow as far as missionary work goes, but some good things have happened. It sounds like you guys have been pretty busy lately, especially with the house. I don´t know how you guys are going to be able to clean out the garage. All I have to say is good luck. So if the house does end up getting sold, where are you guys planning on going?

We have been teaching a guy that we found through teaching English classes. But things were going pretty good, he was reading, praying, and he went to church. And he got an answer and knows the things are true. So we invited him to get baptized on the 25th of April. And he sat there for a second, looked at us, and said, ``I´ve been thinking about it, and I want to get baptized.´´ At this point we were like, Heck yeah, then he said, ``I want to get baptized the 25th of September.´´ It's his birthday, yeah, he totally wants to wait five months, and he´s being really stubborn about his baptismal date. I don´t know what to do. But I guess he at least is determined to get baptized some day, that´s the important part. But anyway, that is crazy. Also, this week we were teaching a lady who is progressing really well and she told us that she feels that we are praying for her. She said that she is really thankful for that. It was a really good experience. It showed me of how important it is to pray, and especially as a missionary pray for the investigators by name. It was a cool experience.

Alright, here´s a funny story that happened to us this week. I sent the exact same story to Justin too. But anyway, we were in the feria, which is pretty much like a big garage sale, except that a ton of people bring their stuff to sell. So my companion and I were walking through the feria and my companion wanted to see if they had some pirated DVDs, because in South America pirated DVDs are all over the place. So we go to the feria, and we didn´t see any DVDs on the ground. So we look for the shadiest guy that we can find. And we saw this guy who was bald, except the hair that grew on the side and back of his head, he grew out past his shoulders. My companion and I looked at each other and we decided that this has got to be the guy. So we walk up to him and say, ``¿Vende películas?´´ The guy looks to the left, then the right, the says what are you looking for, new movies, old movies, movies that are still in theaters? Then he pulls out a big stack of DVDs from his bag. It was so funny, it was like it was straight out of a movie. But yeah, we didn´t even end up buying anything, but it was still funny.

Thanks for everything, say hi to everyone for me.

April 12, 2010

Sounds like you guys have had a pretty busy week. Everybody has been off doing their own things. That´s crazy to think that there is a possibility of coming home to a different house when I get back. I know that it isn´t very probable, but you never know. Although, that wouldn´t be that big of a deal to me because I only lived in that house for a couple of months anyway. Good luck keeping the house clean and uncluttered. What are you guys going to do with the garage? I remember that place being a maze when I left. Hey, I know you are going to be selling or throwing out a lot of old things, but don´t throw out my old black and white nikes, I can´t wait to put those shoes on again. Although the Ecco´s that you got me are really comfortable, dress shoes will never compare to tennis shoes.

Things are going really good here in Chile. This week we were knocking doors and we found an inactive lady. She let us in and as we started talking to her we found out that she is the only member in her immediate family, and that ever since the earthquake she has felt that she needs to go back to church. And her daughter has been bugging her the last couple of weeks because she wants to know more about God. So we got there in the right moment. It´s incredible to see how God prepares the people long before we even get there. But they went to church this last Sunday for the first time, and they loved it and said that they are going to come back next week. So we have high hopes for this family.

I am going to complete a year and a half in three days. That is the last big landmark on the time in the mission. It sure is going by fast. I can´t believe that I have only been in three areas in all this time. Although, I like it better this way because I really have been able to get to know the ward well. And if you´re in one area for enough time it feels like you can make a difference, when if you´re only there for a short amount of time it´s not as good.

Thanks for everything, I hope you all have a good week. I love you and will talk to you next week.

Love,
Matt

April 6, 2010
Hey,
Sounds like you guys had a fun weekend in Colorado. Things are going good here. This week has been fun. It was great to watch conference this last weekend. On Saturday after the Priesthood session, the ward went to McDonald´s to get ice cream before going home. This ward is like a third gringo, so it has some traditions like that. So we went out to get ice cream with them after the session of conference.

So I´m pretty sure that I am either alergic to seafood or at least the weird stuff does not sit well with my stomach. On Friday, we visited a family that is Catholic, and the Catholic´s believe that we can´t eat meat on Good Friday. So they had Empanadas de Marisco, or seafood empanadas, and I ate one, and about three or four hours later, my stomach decided that it had had enough. I threw up everything that was in my stomach. Luckily, it didn´t hit me until night time when we had gotten home. But I´ve learned my lesson, and I am going to stay away from seafood down here in Chile.

We are teaching this lady who has come to church with us twice already, and she came to the last baptism we had a couple of weeks ago. And the last time we had an appointment with her, she told us that she already has decided that she wants to get baptized. The only thing is, she smokes. So we´re going to have to work with her on that, but I know that she is getting really close. So that has been really exciting. And another cool thing about her, we found her because of the earthquake. The day of the earthquake, she went to her friends house because she didn´t want to be alone with her daughter at her house, and her friend is one of our investigators. So we met her because of the earthquake.

Also, today we had a crazy experience. That´s actually why I am e-mailing really late today. We had a zone activity in the morning where we played soccer and ate lunch. Then when we were on our way home we got a call from a sister in our ward. She said that her husband was really sick, and she needed us to carry him from their apartment to their car, so that she could take him to the hospital. So we went straight to their apartment. When we got there, the brother was in bed and couldn´t move. He´s only about 35 years old, but he was so sick that he couldn´t move a muscle. So we gave him a blessing and carried him to their family´s truck. And they live on the third floor, so it was tiring to get him down the stairs. Then we jumped in the truck and went with them to the hospital. At the hospital they gave him some shots and helped him out about. Apparently something was going on with his heart. Then we helped them get back home, he is much better now than he was when we first got there. He just has to rest for the next three days and keep taking some medicine they gave him. But that was a crazy experience.

Thanks for everything. I´m going to send that deferment paper straight to BYU this week. Are you guys still putting my emails home on the blog? I just got an email from Tanner and he said that they aren´t up to date. You can keep putting my emails on the blog if you want, because I honestly don´t have enough time to write everybody. Thanks, love you.