Zapadores

¡COMO ESTÎE TODOS! I am quickly learning that every day is a different day with new experiences and crazy stories to be found.

This week was a very long week, but a very good week. Of course something crazy happened but that's ok.

First, we met some members that are from Chile, but are living in Utah now, and they were going to go back to Utah in a couple days, and so they offered to take something back with them. So my parents got a hand delivered card from me this week! That was interesting.

Silvia... Silvia is this really nice lady that doesn't want to accept that the sabbath day is Sunday, not Saturday. It was fun sharing with her, but it didn't go anywhere. But the past 2 times we shared with her, people have come to visit, and everytime they sit down and share with us, they see that we have reason, and so at the end we set up appointments with them. One of them we went and visited, and we are now teaching her, and her husband.

This week we also dropped 4 investigators for various reasons. They don't want to keep learning, or they don't want to keep their commitments. So there really isn't any use to teach them if they don't want to learn. So by Saturday we had 1 investigator... Then Sunday happened, but before that other crazy stuff haha.

Hector is progressing and learning wonderfully. He accepted to live the word of wisdom and is now trying to stop drinking. His wife is also participating again, and is going to give up tea. So we bought her some herbal tea and some ecco for her to drink.

So my companion, and the other elders that we live with think I am totally crazy, but let's be honest, I am totally crazy, and I keep things fun when times are hard!  So I do some crazy stuff to keep things interesting. Nothing dangerous or against the rules, but just little stuff that keeps us laughing and with good spirit when all we do is knock doors all day haha.

Crazy story time!!!

We were knocking some blocks, and one man opened the door and instantly said that we should come in. Normally this is a blessing, but the spirit said otherwise. Both Elder Mendieta and I felt that it was not a good idea to enter the apartment, but the man insisted and told us not to be afraid, and then said that we are missionaries, and that we have angels protecting us, so we should just go in. But we knew that was not the right thing to do, because he was absolutely right, we do have angels protecting us, and they were telling us not to enter the house. Now the man didn't appear threatening, and we really don't know if anything would have happened, but we both had the same feeling that we should not enter the house, and it was very clear that we shouldn't.  After talking to him for a little, we found out that we was a member, disactivated, and that he is now friends with the devil, and I'm pretty sure he was on drugs or something.  But the Lord blesses his missionaries! We will never know what could have happened, and I like it that way!

Sunday we found 3 new investigators. We had a reference from some other missionaries, and originally we didn't have the plan to go see them  but we felt like it was what we needed to do, so we went, and before we could shout "ALO" a little kid was shouting "there here, there here!" and before we knew what was going on a lady named Vilma let us in and we shared with her on her front porch.  It ends up that her brother was recently baptized and she saw such a difference that she wants to learn too.  We were able to teach her the Restoration, and set up a date for her to be baptized!

We also went and taught an antiguo investigator.  She let us in and we shared with her, and with a friend of hers that lives close by. It was really awesome!  When we went to go teach them they said to us "Hey did you guys feel the Tremblor that just happened?" WE MISSED IT AGAIN! I want to feel it!  Haha.

At the end of the week it was a good week. We have interviews with President this week. UH OH! Haha better behave huh! But that was my week. Things are amazing here, and I am loving it! Oh and we had to try and find a home for a kitten, and the members that we live with love that I am here because their dog got sick and they have to give it meds, and so I am giving them, and I hold him down so they can clean his ears and stuff. Working in a vet clinic payed off after all! I am finding out that everything I did before the mission is being put to use one way or another!

Nate with the city in the background
 

 

Did you know I went to Paris?

 

Nate and Elder Meldieta

 

Merry Christmas In January

 

Nate and the River Mapocho.  He says it looks like chocolate milk.

 

The Virgin

 

Zone Zapadores

Golden Investigator

¡HOLA FAMILIA Y AMIGOS!

 

So we found our GOLDEN INVESTIGATOR, his name is Hector. We found him by teaching his wife, Graciela. So we live outside of our sector and we have to walk into it.  Every day we pass an almacen (like a store out of a house type thing. They are everywhere in Chile).  Before I got to the sector my companion bought something from her, and she started asking questions about what we believe so we set up an appointment to go and teach her. Her husband recently had surgery and got one of his legs cut off a little bit below the knee. So we tried to teach Graciela twice the Restoration, but she kept having to get up and leave, or the member we brought talked and took the whole time. So one lesson trying to teach the Restoration again Graciela tells us that her husband likes to drink, and that it bugs her when he does that. Ya well we figured out why. So he was trying to help someone in their store and he calls for her to help. She goes to help, and he kinda freaks, and kicks us out of the house, and tells us never to come back. But of course us being the kind hearted and stubborn missionaries we are we went back. After both me and my companion had the impression that we needed to share with him we slowly went back. The first time it was to return a bottle, the second time it was to buy ice cream from them. Then the night came that we had set up another appointment with his wife. We entered their store part and just started talking to him, asking him how he was doing, and that's when he started opening up and sharing with us. He talked about his situation and how he feels hopeless without his leg. So we started to share scriptures with him and talk. It ends up that his parents weren't religious at all, so he isn't either.  We started to teach him the basics. God is his Heavenly Father, and that he wants to help us in our lives. Also that he can pray and find out for himself if God really does exist. It ended up being super spiritual, and during our prayer someone touched me on the shoulder and walked away. (We found out it was an older member of the ward that walked by and touched me and that she then prayed that we could help this man). But we ended up leaving him with 2 pamphlets;  The Restoration and the Plan of Salvation.

 

So we went back a few days later to teach them, and it ended up that we only taught Hector, but that he had been reading and that he loved it. We ended up teaching the Plan of Salvation to him, and he accepted everything we taught him. He almost cried when we explained to him that after the resurrection he would have his leg again. It was a really spiritual lesson, and he really does have the desire to change and to find his faith in Christ.

The next lesson we taught was the Restoration. We taught mainly Hector but Graciela came in for the actual restoration part of the lesson, and that is when we realized how much Hector was absorbing the teachings like a sponge. Graciela came in and started asking why it was necessary for a restoration. (The thing we just explained before that) and Hector taught her exactly why as if he had been studying it for a long time.  It was amazing! After that we gave him a Book of Mormon, and set a baptisimal date for the 24 of February.When his wife found out that he agreed to be baptized I thought she was going to have a heart attack. We then invited him to church and offered to pick him up.

 

On Sunday he went to church with us, and at the end of sacrament meeting when we were asking him questions he started to cry and said that he could feel so much love, and kindness, and faith in the room, and that he wanted to have the same faith here with us.

SO...If you don't know someone or they are new in the church building, GO SAY HELLO!!! It really does help, and you never know, they could be investigators!

 

In other news, I'm learning Chilean Sign Language.  It is similar to American Sign Language, but a lot of things are different.  I started learning it because we have a deaf converso.  He had some books for us to study because we have to teach him the lessons again. We teach every convert the lessons after their baptism so we can try and keep them active.

 

My companion and I are getting along really well.  We teach together really well.

 

Today we went and climbed the Cerro San Cristobal. At the top is a giant Virgin Mary statue. It was fun, and we climbed it as a zone. We live with some members, like in another house behind their house, and they have a dog, so pretty much every night we play with their dog. I am also the "veterinarian" so every question animal related is directed to me haha. Umm... what else? I think that's it for right now...

Back in Santiago and Mom Thinks it's Scary!

HOLA Haha. Ya first things first now that my mom already knows about it.

 

Story time. So we were walking down the street, in my new sector, which is kind of "Flighty", which means like gangster stuff like that.  There were a group of kids sitting in the park thing we were walking past, and one of the kids asks me if I have drugs or a lighter or something like that, and I just say "no" and keep walking. Then one of the other kids is like, "and what would you do if I did this?¨ and he pulls out a gun and then says ´"what would you do if I just started shooting it in the air?¨ My response? I laughed and kept walking!!! AHHHHH! Ok ya let's just say if I wasn't a missionary there is no way I would walk these streets. But seeing as though I am a missionary, I really am not afraid of people haha. But that's my cool story for this week. (I think the gun was fake, and he never threatened or pointed the gun at me or my companion, he was just trying to show off to his friends).  But I know that the Lord protects his missionaries, and there are missionaries in worse places than me.

[Right now Mom doesn't think so and Dad says the gun WAS probably real.]

Anyway, so on Monday, my last day on the island, we went fishing. It was fun and I caught 3 fish. Then we went and said goodbye to some people. Helped an old lady carry her bags of groceries while she told us crazy stories, and then when we asked her if we could come in and share something, she said no... but that's ok.

Tuesday. was a long boat ride, followed by a long plane ride (neither of the two were very long) then we got back to the office, went and got something to eat, and headed off to the house to change and get to work.  My new companion is Elder Mendieta, he is from Bolivia, he is like a head shorter than me. This is his last change in his mission. He is really funny, and we get along great. We are both new to the sector so we don't know anyone haha. We live in a house behind a member's house. It has 2 stories, and there is a dog! There are 4 elders in the house, one other from Utah and the fourth one is from Mexico. 

On Wednesday, we went and bought some stuff because I didn't have any food or anything. After lunch we went and tried to visit people, and because both me and my new companion are new to the sector we don't have much to work off of, so we are trying to find some people to teach. Let's just say that for the rest of the week we knocked a lot of doors, and not many people answered because they are all on summer vacation. But we are also trying to visit some of the members and get them excited to share the gospel. We have had some very good experiences with that. First I share Jacob 5:70 and then follow with the foot note to 1 Nephi 14:7 (I think) and explain how every member is a missionary and how it's not just the missionaries that are the few, but the members of the church. I then give them a folleto of the restoration to share with one of the neighbors.

I have also met some pretty interesting people here in my new sector. There is a group of small kids that we talked to that were asking us a ton of questions, and now when I am walking down the street, any time they see me they yell my name haha. Also everyone here will shout ELDER and then when we look, they say El de Alado (which means the one next to him). They then laugh like crazy when really it's not that funny. Really we are just trying to find people. We no joke have knocked a ton of doors and not many have answered. but we are still working hard.

 

We have a real church building here, but I still get to play the piano. There were about 65 people in church this Sunday.

Well I'm out of time. The internet is so fast here compared to the island its crazy! But I love you and miss you all!

Leaving For Sure

¡HOLA todas de mis pescados amigos!

My last week here on the island has definitely by far been my best week! We had a ton of lessons, and I was able to say goodbye to people and take pics with them, and I am very grateful for the opportunity that I had to stay here a little bit longer. but now I'm really leaving the island.

So on Monday we went and hiked Mirador del Selkirk which is where you can see both sides of the island if there aren't any clouds... there were clouds, but it was still a really fun and good hike, and the other side of the island is dry and ugly anyway so its ok. It was the longest hike we have done so far, but definitely the funnest.   After that we went and visited the president of the branch to take care of some of the end of the year stuff for the branch. It's crazy how much stuff we have to do at the end of the year. Who knew there is so much work behind the scenes of the church!

On Tuesday we went to deposit the money from this week, and to change the room we reserved for president to have 2 seperate beds. Ends up that the guy had forgotten that we made a reservation and didn't have a room now. Good thing president wasn't going to come. After that we went and taught German and Monica. It was a good lesson. After that we went and set up a ton of appointments for later in the week because nobody had time, but they all wanted to talk to us before we leave.

Wednesday, I learned how to make PAN (bread for all you not spanish speakers) it was really fun, and it didn't turn out that bad so I was grateful for that. Then we were able to go and teach Rodrigo and finally, HE PRAYED IN FRONT OF US!!! This means that we know for sure that he really is praying, and is praying in the right way! I was very happy for this! Then he told us to come back the next day to teach him some more! I love when investigators say we can come back the next day!!! Then we went and taught Paloma, but her daughter was sick so we didn't teach for very long before she was off trying to help her daughter.  So we told her we were going to come back Friday. Then we went and visited with Poncho to try and figure out, and get proof that his sister had really been baptized because we couldn't find her registro in the church records. But he had pictures of her leaving the ocean after she was baptized so it was perfect!!!

Thursday we taught Rodrigo again and this time he was the one that started talking about the Book of Mormon! Haha, I nearly fell out of my chair! He has come so far, and now I am leaving. Oh how I hate that! But it was a good lesson! IM RUNNING OUT OF TIME AHH!!!

Friday we waited for the new elders to get here, and then we went and showed them our investigators, and then we had a family home evening of the branch.

Saturday we had a ton of lessons. Also we were able to visit more people because we could split up and visit more than one person at a time! Also I threw in some of my last testimonies/COME BACK TO CHURCH talks because I'm leaving and can do that haha.

Sunday we had a record of 17 and then 18 people in the church!!!! Haha it was amazing. Followed by another amazing day for lessons and saying good bye to people!

 

TUESDAY JANUARY 22 AFTERNOON EMAIL

 

We would like to inform you that your son has arrived safely after his flight from Robinson Crusoe Island. We picked him up a few hours ago and he is already safely in his new sector with his new companion.

Sincerely,

Elder King

Historian

Misión Chile Santiago Norte

On My Way Back to the Continent

¡Hola todas las personas!

So my time here on the isla is coming to an end. I will officially be leaving the isla Juan Fernandez some time this next week. All good things must come to an end... but I'm excited to finally get back to the city and have a Walmart haha!  I'm going to Zapadores. That's pretty much all I know and my companion is a zone leader and a latino and really short. Other than that, I don't know much.

On Monday it was raining again, so we decided not to do a hike, but I still wanted to do something so we didn't just waste the day... that was until my companion just went in and fell asleep leaving me with no option but to sleep as well.  (guess who didn't sleep that night?) But that night we did have a lesson with Paloma where they gave us Pizza... we didn't have an option, they just handed us pizza. It was good, but it definitely was different than any pizza I have ever had before.

Then on Tuesday, we helped Nana do some stuff around the house, and then went and visited with German and Monica again. We taught them about the plan of salvation, and it was a good lesson, the only problem is that they are old and don't remember what we teach very well haha. But that's ok they are great people, and I'm going to miss them a ton!

So being the secretaries of the ward means that we get to do all of the fun paper work, and we had a lot of that, so we decided to try and get as much done as we could, one of them including and annual history. So we went and visited the members asking about all of the stuff that they did this past year. It was really fun to learn about some of the things they do here on the island.

Thursday we pretty much just tried to go and visit people. We had a lesson with a menos activo. Let's just say it was an interesting moment haha. But she is still a good lady.

 

On Friday we taught German and Monica the last part of the plan of salvation, we also then taught Paloma again, but with her it was just a scripture and a question or 2 and then she had to go.

But I'm out of time.  We had 14 people in church this Sunday.  My companion directed the meeting. and I played the piano for the last time here on the island.

We went fishing this morning.  The fishing pole was a piece of nylon wrapped around a tube and the pole was my hand.  We both caught one fish, and they are pretty big too! It was fun haha. We fished for about an hour, and then at the very end we decided to move to a different spot, and I caught the fish within like 20 seconds haha.  Now we are going to go do my last hike on the island!

 

Love you and miss you tons!!!

 

LATER EMAIL

 

So it ends up that I'm not leaving the island this week. President Essig got called to a special meeting and will now not be coming to the island. This means that the flights that they had schedualed are going to be used by the new elders coming, and my companion and I are leaving next Tuesday. ¡Que Bueno! That is all. Love you and miss you guys tons!

Happy New Year

¡Hola todas las personas! ¿Como fue su Navidad y Año Nuevo?
 

Well my week was pretty good. On Monday we had our p-day and we watched church movies because it was raining... again... but after that we had a dinner with the family that we are staying with. We had LOBSTER!!! Oh my goodness it was so good! Also I had no clue how to eat a lobster... you literally break open every part of that thing and eat it. But it was really good.

Then on Tuesday the entire island was still partying. So we went to lunch, which was a bbq, and then went and tried to visit people... key word, "tried", but we were able to visit with some of the members and share a little bit with them.

On Wednesday we went and taught Rodrigo. The kid who doesn't know if God exists or not. We had a really good lesson with him. We watched The Restoration in English. He insisted that we kept it in English, and he actually understood most of the stuff so that was interesting. Then we finally got him to commit to pray. So I guess we will see if he does it or not.

On Thursday we shared with German and Monica. We are teaching her the lessons and stuff, but she is still planning on being baptized on the continent so we can't really put her with a date. Then we went and did service for several different people.

Friday was pretty much the same as Thursday. Lots of service to help people with their New Year's resolutions and all that stuff.

Saturday we had a ward activity. We had a lunch and a bbq thing after. There were actually a lot more people than we had expected. Several inactive people showed up, and even some nonmembers. It was really fun, and now we have some more people to work with.

Chapel on the Island

Sunday we had 14 people in church! That's a new record in the time we have been here! It was pretty interesting. Pretty much they all got up there and said how the branch needs to do better at trying to reactivate, and helping us out. Yes it was testimony meeting. Then during the classes we had tithing settlements. So after church we had to try and figure out how to input all the information in the computer, and how to fix all of the problems there were. Being a secretary is fun, but is crazy here on the island because it's so unorginized! But I'm learning alot about how the things work. All the behind the scenes of the church! It's pretty fun. But that's all for now.

Some souvenirs I bought.

Love you and miss you all tons!!!

I PUT A NEW PICTURE OF NATE AND HIS FISH SKIN BOOK COVERS IN THE CHRISTMAS POST SO MAKE SURE YOU GO BACK AND LOOK AT IT.

Feliz Navidad!

¡¡¡HOLA HOLA HOLA. FELIZ NAVIDAD, Y UNA FELIZ ANO NUEVO!!!

So on Monday was our p-day and we decided to help Nana prepare dinner for that night. We had stuffed chicken and potatos and stuff. So that was really fun helping her out, and learning how to cook a little. After that we went and watched "The Testaments" in English just because we could haha, and then after that we took a nap. That night we went and helped Nana's daughter make a present with some pictures that we printed off at the church, and then we had dinner at about 9:30 and they opened presents at 11:30 because her granddaughter was too impatient to wait. She got like over 20 gifts, and my companion and I each got a handmade wallet from Nana, made out of fish skin! It's so cool!

Tuesday morning I was a little sick of the stomach, and ended up spending practically the entire morning in the bathroom. Luckly I got that all taken care of before my skype call to my family! SKYPE WORKED ON THE ISLAND!!! haha pretty sure I have been praying for skype to work since I got to the island and it did. Prayer answered. (Mom's prayer too!)  After that we went and visited some members.

 

[The call was great.  Nate looked good and happy and we all got to see him and his fish wallet.]

 

Wednesday. So most of our plans failed again. But we still had a good spirit, and I was sick again. I call the mission medic and she told me to take some pill. So I took it, and after that felt completely WEIRD!!! Ya so I called her again and she told me to drink more and sit down for a while. Nana and Lope told me to go to the doctor like 50 times this week haha.  Still haven't gone! :) But I'm feeling much better so I probably won't go.

We had several lessons this week, and also we had a party for the kids for Christmas along with a gift exchange for the adults. It was really fun, and we had more people than ever there. Even more than were ever in church. Hey at least they know where the chapel is haha. We also got a belated Christmas gift, that we kind of made. FISH SKIN BOOK COVERS!!!! They are very cool and handmade like our wallets.

 

 

Sunday we had 9 people in the church and church ended more than an hour early. That's what happens on an island. For New Years we are going to eat lobster! Finally! and other than that we are going to keep doing what we normally do haha.

Love you all and hope you have a happy New Year!