Trying to Reactivate

¡Hola todos!

 

So this week was a pretty good week. New companion, a zone activity. All kinds of fun stuff.

This week we had our schedules changed practically 40 times. First they changed when we were going to have district meeting. then the 28th there is a day here in Chile called "Youth Combatants Day" or something like that, where pretty much it gets really dangerous and there are a lot of protests and stuff. So we were going to enter the house at 7 at night instead of 10, but after 10 calls from the leaders they finally said, "just work as normal, and if you see anything dangerous go to your house." So that's what we did. It ends up that nothing happened.

Then Friday, Saturday and Sunday is Semana Santa, which is a big deal here, but the Youth Combatants Day really ended up being the 29th and this day we really had to enter the house at 7. So many plans changed haha, but during Semana Santa, they play videos about the bible the entire weekend. It was pretty interesting. During this time we saw "Jesus" walking through the streets with his cross. That was an interesting thing to see.

On Sunday we had a cool experience. We were following our plans, and we had plans to go visit some references, but it turns out that they weren't there. But by a list of circumstances I felt the impression that we should go ask a family if they knew where another less active family lived. While we were there another member came, and asked us if we could go visit her husband (he is a member as well, but has some problems), while he was home alone. So we did. We ended up sharing with him, and helped him start to make the changes necessary to return to the church.  We also found another less active woman during all of this. Making it a very unplanned way to find, and help a lot of people.

On to the stuff you want to know about my companion. He is from Cartagena, Columbia. He is 23, and has the same time here in the mission as me. He has been a member for 3 years. There is a member here in the ward that served in his ward. He works hard, and is a good elder. We have our differences, but still we work well together. It just seems like I still need to learn patience haha. But that's ok. But I think that's all for now.  

Love you and miss you all tons!

 

 

Zone Activity

 

Filling the Font with the Fire Hose!

¡Hola! Como estan esta semana?

 

So this week was kind of crazy, but it was still a really good week, and... I HAD A BAPTISM!!!!!!!!!!

Victor was baptized this week! Haha funny story about the baptism. So the baptism was scheduled to be at 5 on Sunday.  My companion and I went to start trying to fill up the font at 3. Little did we know how difficult it would be. First our chapel doesn't have a font so we had to go to a different chapel to use their font. Well the drain to the font was broken so it wouldn't plug to keep the water from draining. So we ended up putting a rock in a cloth to try and plug it better. After that we discovered that this chapel doesn't have hot water. None at all. So we started filling the font with cold water at like 3:35. Ya well at about 4:20 we realized that there was no way that the font was going to be filled by 5. That's when the missionary "nothing is going to stop us" side kicked in. So we got the fire hose, and used that to fill the font. It still took some time but we finished filling the font at 4:45. The baptism went really well, and there were a lot of people that showed up. The bishop also baptized his little girl.

 

 

 Victor's Baptism by Ward Mission Leader

Victor with his girlfriend who is a member

 

 

 

Other than that we did a lot of planning and calling for the baptism to find out where we were going to have it. We have 6 other investigators with a baptismal date so we are going to see how well they progress.

Also this week we passed a lot more for the members, and from 2 families we recieved 13 references, and we are going to have Family Home Evenings with them. We were also able to meet up with some of the investigators that we weren't able to see last week.

And, today we had changes! Finally I stayed in a sector haha. I am now senior companion. My new companion is Elder Arenas. He is from Columbia. He is 23, black, and tall.  We got here to Chile at the same time, but other than that I don't know very much about my companion. I`ll let you know next week.

That's all for now. Love you and miss you all tons!!!

 

 

Nate and Elder Malerva

 

 

Lady we live behind

Scaring the Dogs

¡HOLA! Yo no sè como hablar en Ingles ahora. pero esta bien porque español es mas bakan!

Haha this week was a good week. It was a little slow, but that's ok. Pretty much we knocked a lot of doors this week with very little success. The people we are teaching are starting to progress very well. Saturday and Sunday are the best days for us because that is when people are in their houses. So Saturday we were able to find some new people to teach and keep ourselves busy. Then on Sunday we had an interchange(?) (not sure how that translates from Spanish to English but that's what I got haha) with one of the zone leaders. So he came and helped us with some of our more stubborn investigators.

While the zone leader was here we had a lesson with Victor. He has a baptismal date for this Sunday. So this lesson we finished teaching the last of the things that we needed to teach, and then we were going to do the pre-interview for his baptism. That's when the zone leader said, ya let's do that and then just do the interview while I'm here. So Victor is ready to be baptized this next Sunday!!!

Also Hector my convert from the last change has been working with his family, and now his wife Graciela and his daugter are going to get baptized this next Sunday as well!!! His whole family is going to be baptized!!!!!!!

Funny story that happened this week. we were knocking on a door. Really we don't ever knock we stand outside their gate and shout "HALO" and wait for them to come out. But there was a dog at this house and he was barking at us a lot and it was really annoying haha. So I decided to just stare into the dog's eyes. That's when the dog stopped barking and just backed away. Then when I moved it freaked out and jumped back. Haha it was so funny! I have a stare to scare the dogs haha. I think that's why I haven't had any problem with the gangsters in this area. They know not to mess with me haha.

But things are going good here. I'm working hard and I have decided to extend my mission one month instead of coming home 2 weeks early!

You Did What in the Street?

¡Hola!

 

So this week was really slow I'm not going to lie, but the change is half over now so only 2 weeks left until I change right? Actually I think I'm going to stay in this sector for a little bit longer, but I am doing super good.

This week we had a lot of appointments starting at the begining of the week. Pretty much every single one of them wasn't there. So we would call them and they would tell us to come back in 2 days or the next day, and they still weren't there. So we passed by for the same people multiple times this week without them being there. We also dropped some investigators for a little because they weren't progressing because school started and they get really busy for a couple of weeks, so we have been trying hard to find new people.

So first of all we have this investigator. Juan is his name, and he is an ex-boxer. (not the dog, but like the fighter type) and so because of an acident his nose broke.  So he talks a little funny and is a little difficult to understand,  but he's a nice guy. At the end of every prayer, he says, "Amen, Amen, Amen" 3 times without fail. He told us he says that to reinforce his amen or something like that, but last night we went to teach him. Ends up that he had just drank a coffee (we have taught Word of Wisdom like 3 times) and so I shared something about how we first need to search the kingdom of god before we search other things. Out of nowhere he goes off talking about his nose and who knows what else and I'm sitting there thinking (what does this have to do with searching the kingdom of god?) Ya it was crazy. Then he started asking us a bunch of questions that we had already answered.  It was crazy.

But we also are teaching Victor. Victor showed up to church one day out of nowhere as well. It ends up that his girlfriend is a member and that she asked him to go to church with her, but he is progressing really well. He has a baptismal date for the 24 of March. Time is going by so fast! Before I know it, it will be General Conference! That's so crazy.

This week I also threw up in the middle of the street.  That was fun. We were walking down the street after lunch one day and it just came up. Luckily nobody was around. It was funny because I threw up, and just kept walking. My companion asked me if I was ok and I said "ya let's go". Then I took a 5 minute break to calm my stomach down a little bit more and we kept going.  Haha. Oh the life of a missionary.

But that's all for now. Love you and miss you all tons!

 

 

New Sector

¿Como Estì po loco? So this week was pretty interesting.

 

So pretty much this week, I spent a lot of time getting to know my new sector, and the investigators here. One thing that is amazing about missionary work, it's the same no matter where you go. There are just different people.

Monday I moved to my new sector. and tried to start to get to know a little bit more about my companion and the sector and all of that stuff.

On Tuesday, I got to know a lot more of the members and the investigators here in the ward. The ward here is really small, and has suffered alot. Pretty much the ward is the size of a branch. I guess it was worse before I got here, but pretty much the members still don't help very much because they have a lot of stuff to do. We teach a lot here in this sector. The problem is not very many of the people that we are teaching want to keep their compromisos. I don't know how to say that in English... commitments? Ya I don't know.

Wednesday and Thursday we did the same. We tried to find new people, and see if the investigators that we have are going to progress or not.

Then on Friday. we knocked doors all day. No joke our plans were 3 hours straight of knocking doors, and it actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The people in this sector are nice and they at least answer the door.

My new companion and I get along really well and we work well together too. We teach fluidly and know how to work hard and if necessary we can play good missionary, bad missionary, and try and get the people to understand the importance of reading and praying.

But that is pretty much my week. Getting to know everything, and trying to help my companion in his first change as district leader.

But that is all. Love you and miss you tons!

 

 

Hector and his wife

He was surprised and happy to see me at his baptism

 

 

Hector and the new missionaries

 

 

Transferred Again!

Hola. Wow it is super hot right now! I feel like I am in a oven.

This week was good. It was the last week of Elder Mendietas mission. He is going back to Bolivia. We spent this entire week preparing for the baptizm of Hector and at the very last minute we didn't get to baptize him this week. A sister in the ward got suddenly sick this week and passed away, so we had a funeral on Saturday and didn't get to have the baptism. Then, to top it all off, I got transferred... Elder Mendieta in his entire mission only had 5 sectors. I have less than a year, and I have 5 sectors as well. Don't ask me why I get switched around so much. But there is good news. I will get to see Hector's baptism! I explained to president why he wasn't baptized last Saturday and he gave me permission (something that never happens when you get changed) to go see the baptism.

 

Last Monday we went to Plaza de Armas  and we went and bought stuff. Then right before we left we went into the giant cathedral. It was really pretty, but it was so cold that I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible.

Other than that, this week was really slow. Other than preparing for the baptism. Oh ya. We had another water balloon fight, pizza night, and brownie night. We also gave Hector's wife a giant bible so she could read it, and she was so happy! She hugged my companion! Haha his face as he tried to not let her and then explain why was priceless.

 

A little about my new sector. I'm companions with Elder Malerva. He is from Mexico and has a little more time than me in the mission. I'm in the Barrion Ferím Viveceta. It seems pretty gangster. More gangster than my other sectors. I guess I'm the first Gringo in this sector since like a year ago. The members only feed us 3 times a week. That's new, but ya more information next week.

Love you and miss you guys!

 

 

4 elders in apartment in Zapadores

 

Me and Elder Mendieta

 

I already wore out my shoes

 

Our dog Rocky or Lucky

(Seems like Nate always needs a dog)

 

Going Crazy From Walking Too Much

Hola todos!

 

So this week was fun. Although I think I'm starting to go crazy haha. We have walked so much this week it has been ridiculous.

So we have been teaching Vilma more, and she is progressing amazingly. This week we taught her about the Book of Mormon and how to pray with sincerity to know if it is true or not. It's interesting the different ideas about prayer, and how some people really don't know how to pray to Heavenly Father.

We also found one member Menos Activo who didn't want to pray and never did pray. She also is afraid to pray. Ugh sometimes working with the less actives is the worst because I feel bad. All I want to do is help them, but they don't want it ,and it is worse when they reject us because they already know about the gospel... agency... hate it and love it at the same time.

Pretty much we knocked on a lot of doors this week, and we walked a ton. I'm starting to go crazy from walking so much. I am starting to find the littlest things to entertain me, but this is my explanation as to why. So I used to dance a lot before the mission, and I had a ton of homework and stuff. Also I have a very active imagination. Combine the two and it means that my brain likes to work fast and process things quickly... well without dancing to use my brain and just walking in the street waiting for people to come to the door, there is a lot of time where my brain is thinking about anything... usually involving my surroundings, and I'm starting to go crazy. My companion thinks I'm hilarious, but I'm serious too. That's the best part.

So we live in a house thing with 4 elders. The other 3 elders that I live with have made it their goal to make me district leader by next change. What does this mean?  This means that they are trying to talk me up to president. I DONT WANT THIS!!! I am perfectly fine where I am working hard without any drama. Why does this matter?  Well we had interviews this week. The first thing that President says to me, "Elder Alder, I have heard very good things about you." Then after that my entire interview was about how pretty the island is. But in all of their interviews they all said stuff... oh well I´ll go where you want me to go right?

On to Hector. He is doing amazing. We went to all 3 hours of church on Sunday. He is very excited for his baptism, but we have to change the date because he is now going out of town next Sunday. So we are going to see what we can do, but he is progressing amazingly.

Another investigator that we have is Roberto. We have taught him 2 times and then he left on vacations. We left him a Book of Mormon before he left, and when he got back and we went to talk to him, he told us he had read half of the book! So we are going to pass by tomorrow and see if that is really true and what he thinks about it!

Other than that it has been a boring week. no cool stories about crazy stuff. Just a lot of knocking and walking... lots of doors closed, and very few opened haha. But I'm still loving it, and working hard!

 

Our kitchen where I make Brownies and Cookies in a gas oven

 

Our Tiny Bathroom

We have to open the bathroom door with a string!

 

Here are a couple of my crazy ideas!





 

Water Balloon Fight

 

We crushed these melons with our heads!