Apartment Full of Cats?

As the gangsters in the street say, "Hello my friend!"  That's all the English they know; that or swear words haha.

 

But this week was another crazy week just like normal.

Monday was pretty normal like always.  We kind of just bummed around in the afternoon until it was time to go to work.  On Tuesday we had interchanges with Elder Bruna that got here at the same time I did, so it was pretty fun to be able to remember the olden days when we first got in the mission.  It was a pretty normal day with him. We are still just trying to find more people to teach because pretty much a lot of people are still on vacations.

Wednesday we had another interchange with Elder Muñoz.  It was pretty fun.  One cool thing about doing the interchanges is that I get to know fairly well all the elders that are in my zone, so we become pretty good friends. 

Thursday we had a normal day, besides having to get ready for the interviews on Friday.  I was in charge of the schedule of all the missionaries in my zone so that was pretty interesting trying to figure out where everyone needed to go so that they could all be there without any problems.  Friday we had the interviews.  Mine was the second to last interview.  It was a good interview except that I guess my companion has not been behaving the best when he isn't with me so President was asking me a bunch of questions and I just had to answer them honestly.  Let's just say I don't get along very well with this companion.  He reminds me a lot of the companion that I had in the MTC that I didn't get along with.

Saturday was pretty normal.  Just trying to find more people to teach.  That and we had to prepare for the zone activity that we had today in the morning.  We played soccer and ate hamburgers.  I spent the whole time cooking in the kitchen, but I enjoyed it. So it was fun.  Then Saturday night some cats got into our house and they peed on all my stuff!  my suitcases, my clothes, my extra blankets, everything!  Let's just say I was not very happy. So I spent most of my "Freetime" Sunday washing all of my clothes.  The room still smells like cat pee...  but don't worry I set a trap so they can't get in again.  

But that's it for now.  I love you and miss you all tons!  Have a great week!

Service and Some New Investigators

Hola!  

 

So this week was a pretty crazy week for us! 

 

On Monday it was a pretty normal day for us. Tuesday was a pretty crazy day.  In the morning we had to go to the doctor, but we got lost on the way, and ended up getting in a taxi hoping that the driver would know the street names and stuff, but he didn't. So I then had to call the secretary, and ask her to look up the direction for us on google maps and tell me how to get there.  We made it there exactly on time, so we were pretty lucky.  In the end everything ended up longer than expected and we showed up an hour late for lunch, but the sisters here in the ward are all really nice, so they didn't get too mad.  After lunch we had to worry about being prepared for the zone conference on Wednesday, and we had to teach it too so that was fun.

 

Our zone conference was pretty good.  We made up some pretty fun games to do to make it a little bit more interesting.  One of the games we made purposefully so they could not win.  It was so funny. Then that same day we did interchanges with an elder and we were blessed to be able to find someone new to teach.  She accepted a baptismal date so we will see what happens.

 

Thursday morning we did service to help a member change houses.  She moved a block away and across the street, but that means she now lives outside our ward boundaries, so we lost them.  But that's ok.  After that our water heater had been leaking for a couple days and it was getting worse, so finally someone showed up to fix it.  We thought it would be a quick fix... it wasn't.  It took more than 2 hours to fix, but hey at least it's not going to explode.

On Friday we taught the lady we put with a baptismal date and we asked her if she had read anything. The typical response is "I didn't have time,"  but she said, "yes, I read some".  When we asked her how much she read she said she was already in chapter 11 of 1st Nephi.  We were pretty surprised! but she said she liked it and that she felt good reading it.  So that was pretty good.

Saturday we were blessed again to find 2 new people.  One accepted a date and the other one we didn't have much time to get that far, but they both liked it and felt good about what we were teaching.

Sunday was a pretty normal Sunday, but a family of less actives came to church so we were very excited to see that our efforts are working.

But that's it for now.  I'm out of time.  I love you and miss you tons!

 

Just Doing My Job Sir

Hello everyone! How are ya´ll this week.  (That's my Texas accent)

 

So this week was a pretty interesting week.  Pretty much summer here is killer for being a missionary because everyone leaves for at least a month and that makes things hard for them to progress. But we are getting along well.

On Tuesday we had a meeting with the stake president and the mission president where they get together and talk about how the converts are and a whole bunch of stuff, and it was pretty interesting. As a zone leader we are supposed to ask our zone every month how the converts are doing.  Then during this meeting we can help the mission president know what's going on.  So I did that before the meeting and when I starting telling stuff to my mission president he paused and looked at me and said, "your one of the first Zone leaders for a while now that knows about the converts." I guess it really impressed him because he then brought it up in a meeting we had as zone leaders, so I was pretty happy about that.

Other than that we spent a large amount of time doing contacts.  Talking with people in the street, or knocking on their doors and all that kind of stuff and we were eventually blessed to find some more people to teach.

Then on Friday we had our zone leader meeting, it was pretty fun.  We learned a bunch of stuff that we now have to teach on Wednesday in a meeting with the zone. It should be pretty fun.

But that's it for this week. love you and miss you tons!

Summer Vacations

HOLA! 

 

So this week was a pretty crazy week.  As you know, I got new companions last Monday.  Elder Marín is from here in Chile.  He is from Viña del Mar, which is about an hour and a half from here in Santiago.  He is the oldest of 3 kids.  He has a brother that is 17 and a sister that is 15.  He has about a year in the mission, and he originally was going to go to Venezuela, but he never got his visa so he decided to change his mission and just stay here in Chile.

Elder Hall is from Lehi.  He is also the oldest of 3, with a brother of 17 and a sister of 15.  It's really easy to remember about their families because they are the same.

This week was a really crazy week.  So here in Chile it's summer, and everyone is going on vacations.  But here in Santiago when people go on vacations, it's not for a week or two, it's for a month or two! So pretty much most of the people that we were teaching went on vacations, and now we are trying to find the people that are going to still be here.  There are some possibilities for baptisms in the upcoming weeks, but it all depends on if we can find the people or not.

We had several days this week where all we did was contact people in the street or we knocked on their doors, and so far we have had little luck, but we know that we have to keep working, and the Lord is going to bless us.  

Other than that things are going well, I have more and more meetings to organize and go to now, so that's pretty fun, but things are great here.  I had to fill out some forms for BYU.  That was weird!  But I/we just have to keep working hard!

I love you all! Miss you tons!  Have a great week!

New Companions

Hello!

 

So this week was a pretty crazy week, but it was a good one.  We did 3 interchanges this week. One on Tuesday with Elder Breed. He is a fairly new missionary, but he teaches well and speaks Spanish really well.  Pretty much we just are trying to find people because everyone is leaving for vacations which makes things kind of difficult.

Then I had an interchange with Elder Bruna, an elder from Chile that has the same time as me in the mission.  We served together in the same ward when I was in Dorsal.  It was fun to see him and work together a little bit.  

Then I did another interchange with Elder Verón from Paraguay.  That was pretty fun, and I went out of my sector for just the last one so I could change the routine a little bit, but now I remember why I don't like leaving.

 

Other than that things are going pretty normal here.  We had changes and my companions left so I got 2 new companions Elder Marín from Chile, Viña del Mar.  He has a little more than a year in the mission, so it should be fun with him, and also Elder Hall from Lehi, Utah.  He has about 9 months in the mission.  More details next week when I get to know them a little better.

 

 

Love you all and miss you tons!!!

Cleaning the Fridge the Red-Neck Way

Hello, hello, how are you my friend!  (That is what all the gangsters yell at us in the street.  That or words that aren't appropriate.)

 

So this week was a pretty fun week.  On Monday, I spent 3 hours trying to get all of the ice out of the fridge.  It took a long time, and I made quite the mess, but I got it all clean in the end.

 

 

 

 

The results of my red-neck efforts

 

Then on Tuesday we did service for the elder's quorum president.  He is going to put grass in his front yard, so we went to help him clean it up a bit, to get ready.  We also did an interchange that day with Elder Taborda.  He is from Columbia so it was pretty fun to be able to work with him.  It was a little bit difficult because everyone was partying for New Years, and they were all starting to get drunk, but we got to see the fireworks at midnight, and the hill started burning and everything.  It looked like a volcano but it was cool.

On Wednesday we had another interchange with Elder Parker.  He is from Idaho. Everyone calls him Spiderman because that's how they know the name Parker.  It was an interesting day.  The streets were empty and if there were people in the streets they were all drunk, but we were still able to find some new people thanks to the members.  We are teaching a lot of family members and friends of people in the houses of the members so that helps a lot.

 

On Thursday we had a zone conference with President.  It was pretty fun. and we learned quite a bit. It was in our chapel so I had to clean everything and make sure that everything was locked up at the end, and then we went to work for a little bit.

On Friday we had to go to the doctor for my companion. They are going to cut out his tongue growth next week so that should be pretty fun.  We have changes this weekend so we will see what happens.

 

Saturday was a pretty normal day, nothing too exciting happened and on Sunday we worked as normal as well.  It's just getting really hot here so it gets difficult some times.

But that was my week.  Hope everyone is well and I love you and miss you all tons!!!

 

 

Root Beer!

 

Feliz Navidad! Feliz Ano Nuevo!

¡FELIZ NAVIDAD!  Espero que todos tuvieron a muy feliz navidad, y que disfrutan un buen año nuevo!

We had Christmas dinner with this couple

 

Haha this week was a pretty crazy week for us.

On Monday we had our p-day, we had our zone activity that day, and that's why we climbed Cerro Renca.  It was fun, but it kind of stressed me out because I was in charge, and I had to make sure that nothing happened, and nobody wanted to listen to me, but it was still fun.

On Tuesday was the 24th, so that was awesome.  Here in Chile it's called the Noche Buena.  Pretty much that was like another free day for us. We could just go to member's houses, and celebrate it with them, and eat.  We got to stay out until 12:30. It was pretty fun.

On Wednesday we got to sleep in until 9.  That was awesome.  Then we had our district class and then we got to call the family by Skype and talk with them.  It was great to be able to see everyone and talk with them.  After that we had to try and work like normal.

On Thursday we had to go to the doctor for my companion.  He is growing a second tongue so they are going to cut it out.  Ok,  maybe not a second tongue but yes he has a weird thing growing under his tongue so we had to go to the doctor and we lost pretty much half our day.

Then on Friday we had to wake up at 5:30 to go to the doctor again for a different test.  We had to go before our leadership council, so then we lost another half of the day.  But I got to see all my friends in the council so it was ok.

 

On Saturday we had interchanges and it was pretty much the first normal day of the week, and Sunday was a normal day as well.  Yaritza got confirmed, and this next Sunday we should have another baptism!!!!

Other than that things are going well!! Love you all and miss you all tons! Have a Feliz Año Nuevo!!!

 

 

Nate and Elder Bishoff