Some of the Baptisms for the last month




May 31,2010

I didn´t get an e-mail from you this week. I´m guessing you guys are pretty busy with graduation and Memorial Day and everything like that.

Well, this week was pretty good for us. My companion and I started working a little bit in one of the richer neighborhoods in our sector. We were rejected a lot, but we were able to teach two families, which we thought was amazing, because there is hardly any receptivity in the richer areas. So that was pretty fun. We´ll have to see if those families will progress. Also, we just got a new ward mission leader this last week. He´s a gringo. His mom was the one that took some stuff to you guys in February. But this guy is a really good ward mission leader. He´s really into missionary work and he has a lot of ideas to help us out, so we are really excited for that. Also, last Saturday morning I wanted to do a load of laundry. So I took my clothes to the washing machine, and when I lifted up the lid to the washing machine, it knicked the water valve that comes from the wall and hooks into the washing machine. The valve was pretty old and coroded, so it busted off with just a little knick from the washing machine lid, and after that a waterfall came gushing out of the wall. So, as I was getting soaked, I found the valve to cut off the water as fast as I could. Even though the water was only going for like 30 seconds, the entire floor was covered in water. So we got the mop out and cleaned it all up. By the time we finished cleaning everything up, the place was actually a lot cleaner than when before. I don´t think anyone had cleaned behind the washer and dryer as long as the missionaries have lived there. So I guess if we are trying to look at the positive side of what happened, everything is a lot cleaner. But we got everything figured out with the mission, it wasn´t my fault because a good water valve should take a lot more force to be broken off, I guess it all happened just because it was old. But it was a funny experience. Well, thanks for everything.



5/24/10
I can´t believe it´s still snowing in Utah, although I can´t say that I´m too surprised. Utah weather is just weird, and it looks like Santiago weather is the same. On Saturday it rained all day, then on Sunday it was freezing cold and windy, and today it was actually pretty warm. Sounds like this week is going to be crazy for you guys. Almost the whole family is going to be together. And on top of that you´re going to be house hunting. Well, good luck with that. I´m a little sad, because the Mangum´s house was a pretty cool house, and I only lived there for a little bit, but to be honest I don´t really care that much. It doesn´t really matter where you guys are living when I get back.

This week went pretty well for us. Ever since I got to this area about six months ago, we have been doing an English Class at the church two times a week, and two weeks ago we started playing soccer with some of the teenagers in the area after English class. We invited a lot of the teenagers from the poor areas of the sector, and of they all came because it was for soccer. It was fun though, It was gringos versus chileans and we lost by one point. But still, it was a lot closer than I thought it was going to be. Anyway, we´re starting this tradition to hopefully start teaching some of these guys.

On Sunday, church always starts at 10:00 in the morning, and we always have to go to a meeting at 8:00 in the morning with the Presidents of all the organizations and the Bishopric. So this last Sunday, we went to the meeting at 8:00, and got out a little bit after 9:00, with less than an hour before church started. And the ward secretary came up to me and assigned me a talk because the person that was supposed to give the talk, was out of town or something. So I had to write a talk really quick before church started. But it went really well. I shared Doctrine and Covenants 87:8, that says ¨Stand ye in holy places.¨ Then I talked about how we need to make our homes into holy places where we can feel the spirit.

We had a baptism this last Sunday too. This guy that is about fifty years old and has cancer, but he is really cool. On Saturday night we were at his house for his baptismal interview, then afterwards we needed to go to the supermarket to buy some rice krispies to make rice krispie treats as refreshments for after his baptism. We weren´t too excited about going because it was raining really hard that night, but we lucked out because he offered to drive us to the supermarket and then back to our pension. It was funny, we were walking around the supermarket looking for the cereal, it felt like he was just one of the guys.

So I noticed that my drivers license is going to expire on my birthday next month, is there anyway to renew that or am I just going to have to wait? Can you look into that for me? Thanks for everything. I love you and miss you. Tell everyone I say hi when they get to the house next week. I expect to see all the pictures you guys take this week pretty soon.

Love,
Matt



5/17/10
This week went pretty well for us. I still can´t believe that Courtney is going to graduate in a couple of weeks. That´s really cool about Brett Cunningham, that was a big surprise to hear that he is going to go to Sweden. That´s too bad about Jake, although it looks like he´s going to make it at least until I get back.

This week went pretty well for us. During the week I had to go renew my visa with all of the Elders that came with me to Chile, so pretty much everybody from my district in the MTC. It was fun because I was companions with my old companion from the MTC for that day. It was fun, we didn´t get to do any sightseeing, but we went by a couple of historical places. We also went to the temple as a zone. I have been really lucky because I am in the same zone that the temple is in, so we have scheduled a trip to the temple every transfer for the last couple of months, and since I´ve been here for such a long time, I have been able to go to the temple quite a bit. Yesterday, the son of member that we reactivated a couple of months ago was baptized. The dad baptized his 14 year-old son, it was a really good experience. Now the family is almost complete, we just have to teach the mom, and hopefully she´ll get baptized pretty soon.

So I was thinking about a couple other things that you could send me for my birthday. That Tide To Go pen that you sent me last year has run out, so I need a new one. Those pens are so useful. Also, about the white shirts, the best size for me would be 16 on the collar, and 34/35 length. I think that´s everything, thank you.

Love,
Matt



Mother's Day Call 5/9/10

It was so good to hear everyone´s voice last night. That hour sure does go by fast. But it was great to talk to everybody.

So everything is going really good here in the mission. Even though I´ve been a zone leader for a while now, this is my first transfer having another zone leader as my companion. It´s awesome. We´ve been working really hard this week and we have a guy that is going to get baptized this week, so we´re pretty excited about that. Everything is going great. Just last night, my companion and I were out and about visiting an investigator, but nobody was home. So we were standing outside of the investigator´s house when this guy came up to us and started talking to us. He had been drinking, but he wasn´t one of your average drunks that you see in South America, he was a normal guy. We started to talk to him and it turns out that a guy that lives a block or two from where we were mugged this guy a couple of years ago and beat the crap out of him. And the guy we were talking with never had forgiven the other guy, so he got drunk that night and decided he wanted to find the robber and hurt him really badly. He was actually on the way to the robber´s house when he saw us, then decided that God sent us there to talk to him and to stop him from getting revenge. So we walked the guy back to his house. It was crazy, if we hadn´t been there, he probably would have done something really stupid.

I hope you all have a great week. Thanks for everything.


5/03/10

Sounds like you guys have been busy enough with all of the birthday parties. We had changes today, but I´m staying in my area so I´m pretty sure I´ll be able to call from one of the phones of one of the American families here next week, I´ll probably be calling around three or four in the afternoon here, so I think it would be one or two in Utah.

Changes were kind of crazy. Here in my area there are two companionships, and the two Elders of the other companionship got whitewashed, and my old companion and I got split up and got new companions today. One of the Elders that we were living with that left, left to be the new assistant. My new companion is Elder Bell from Tucson. He´s actually in Grandma and Grandpa´s stake and Grandpa gave him his patriarchal blessing.

Last Sunday we had two baptisms in the ward, one from each companionship. So that was really cool. Also on Saturday, I had to do a baptismal interview for another area in the zone. I interviewed a middle aged man who is the only member in his family. When I asked him if his family was listening to the missionaries or if they had gotten baptized before, he told me that he was going to be working on that. It was cool, that guy had a strong testimony and he was already working on converting his wife and kids.

Also, I got kind of sick this week. Last monday we had a Family Home Evening set up with a member and some investigators, and when we got to the house my stomach wasn´t feeling very good. About half way through the lesson I excused myself and went to the bathroom and threw up. It was so nasty, then I came back and we went on with the Family Home Evening because nobody knew that I threw up. So then we played a little game, and after the game I had to excuse myself again and I threw up for a second time. Then we wrapped up the Family Home Evening as quick as possible and went home, where I threw up for the last time. But by the next day I felt pretty good, it was weird.

It´s hard to think of things that I want from the States on the spot. Could you send me a cake mix and a can of frosting? I´m good on beef jerkey and mangoes, and I still have some of those protein bars left. Just pictures and letters I guess. Thanks for everything. If there´s a change in plans for the Mother´s Day call, I´ll e-mail you sometime in the week before Sunday, but I think that it won´t be a problem to call you guys Sunday afternoon.