Back to Fresia

 Hola hola todos! This week flew by. Serving with Elder Quezada has been super good, we have worked with members a lot this week and have seen lots of little milagros with them. One of which was that we had 18 people at the church!! That's the most people we've had since I've been here, honestly those 18 almost made our cute little building feel crowded. I acapella (ocapela? A-capella?) Directed the hymns, and I am positive most of them hadn't heard them before because the number of different pitches present was astounding. The spirit was strong regardless and Elder Quezada was able to lead a great meeting.

I've been studying the Bible a lot this week, and one story that has really stuck in my mind is of Saul. 

When the people of Isreal desired a king, the Lord directed the prophet, Samuel, to the Person for the job. The Lord's anointed ended up being Saul, who was "a choice young man, and a goodly. and there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he." Regardless, when Samuel started talking to Saul, Saul's reaction was one of self doubt, saying that he was of the smallest family of the smallest tribe of Israel. He even hid himself at the time of his anointing out of fear. However, he is still the Lord's chosen. He gets annointed, and saves his people from the Philistines. 

I love this story for two reasons:

      1) the bibles use of "goodly" and "goodliest"

      2) It shows how powerful callings from the Lord are. Saul was of humble background and had no experience as royalty, but he was anointed by someone who held authority from God. The power that he had came from his calling, came from God, not his own experience or strength. 

Similarly, as we try our best to fulfill our roles within our responsibilities and callings, the Lord will bless, sanctify, and consecrate our efforts. With the Lord's help, the least experienced missionary can perform miracles, and without the Lord's help, miracles will cease. 

Love y'all!

Lechero

Elder Quezada

beautiful Chile!

zone hike

On the way to a hike with our zone

Los Bomberos

A week in Alerce

 Hola hola yall

      Alrighty after 10 days of boolin around with the Zone Leaders I received a new companion!! His name is Elder Quezada, and he's a legend I've been on intercambios with him before so I'm excited. In the day we've been together I've already had to stop him from ordering 2 large pizzas with my money. Even as I'm typing this out he's on Papá John's website showing me the daily deals... 

       Spending the week with Elder Miller and Elder Boysen has been a huge blessing, they're powerful Elders and I have learned a lot about ministering to the Zone. Plus Alerce has warm water, always greatly appreciated. Throughout the week we've been doing this balancing act of walking around and ministering to Alerce, and doing Facebook work in Fresia. Definitely have seen the Lord help us out in our online lessons a ton. We also did a lot of chopping wood as per usual, there is literally always wood to be chopped here. 

         On Saturday right after lunch I received news that I would be leaving in a few hours to Frutillar, where I would spend the night. I packed up my stuff and this guy picked me up to travel. Traveling without misioneros was very weird jaja. I arrived at Frutillar at 10:30 pm, and to my surprise when I arrived my companion explained that we were eating dinner with members. It was wayyyy past curfew but the members lived next door and I could literally see them preparing a feast. The member looked exactly like the villain from that one kids show, I cant remember the name exactly but it was something like Little big town. Best  stache I've ever seen.

          In the morning, President drove by and picked us up, and we drove to Fresia. It was a powerful Sacrament meeting, there was a lot of Stake leadership there to see my companion sustained as the Branch President. Unfortunately not a lot of members were there, us being gone for a week kinda took a toll. It's good though, our members need to be converted to Christ not to us so we know where we can work a little bit. 

       Love y'all!! 

Cinco Companeros

 Hola hola! This week has been the hardest week of my mission. However, it has also brought the most powerful lessons, I am so grateful the Lord has give me this experience. Lets get into it

        Alright so to start off my week, my companion returned home. It's personal, I'll keep the details to minimal, but basically it has stuff to do with his family moving to the States and him needing a visa. We had 1 day to prepare, and that day was about as hectic as a day on the mission can get. Lots of tearful goodbyes with the branch, one family gave us a huge pan of Pichanga for din din. Pichanga is a pan filled with fríes, chicken, salchicha (lots of salchich as per usual,) pickles, hard boiled eggs, and yellow Peppers and it is sooo good. Anyways, that night Elder Collado packed. In the morning, the AP's picked us up and dropped me off to stay with the Llanquihue Elders. 

         I was super nervous because Elder Collado knew our Area better, and we have been having a lot of success lately. Lots of success = lots of amigos and lessons that I was now doing on my own. Definitely felt the gift of tongues this last week helping me take care of Fresia over teléfono jaja. We had 7 lessons that first day, and Elder Batty and Elder Stanford were able to help a ton despite not knowing the amigos in Fresia at all. 

        The next day we traveled to Puerto Varas to meet up with the Zone Lords, where they told me I would be living with them for "algunas dias" while everything was figured out. So, we got my stuff and traveled to Alerce! I love the Zone lords, Elder Miller and Elder Boysen, and they have been able to help me manage Fresia a ton. I've just been kinda vibin in their area since, splitting the work between Alerce and Fresia. It's been a weird mix, covering Fresia remotely with phone lessons and then teaching in person lessons in Alerce, but it's been fun.

        Anyways, this week had been super hard but also such a blessing. Lots of lessons learned and lots of milagros. I could not take care of an area on my own, let alone doing it remotely and while working with another area, but the Lord can. This is truly the Lord's work. This week I've studied the song "Consider the Lillies" and the portion of the sermon on the mount that it comes from, and have realized that truly this work is prepared and organized by the Lord. Having doubts about our own ability to do his work can help us improve, but it is also a lack of faith in the Lord. The Lord knows how to work with imperfect servants, it's all he's ever had!!! As long as we seek the kingdom of God, todo va a estar bien. I'm not sure why all of this has happened, but I am grateful for the lessons learned and know that whatever happens, Fresia will be taken care of. 

         Anyways, twas a long one but love y'all!

Saying goodbye to Elder Collado

Mi hermano es un baller

rip Elder Collado

Osorno volcano

$5 crocs con la squad

Slushie shampoo

  Hola hola!! I'm happy to announce that I only had off-brand oreos for breakfast one time this week (: With much persuasion, we've bought a few boxes of oatmeal and so we've moved on to bigger and better things. Side note: I can confidently say I have eaten more Salchicha (hot dogs) In the last three weeks than in my entire life. Everything they prepare is a mix of hot dogs, rice, mayo, french fries, bread (lots and lots of bread,) tomatoes and a random assortment of meat. Surprisingly not bad, you'd be shocked at the things you can accomplish in the kitchen with some salchicha.

      Anyways, a great week but not a ton out of the ordinary happened. We had a Stake conference with a member of the 70, but I really couldn't understand anything. It's interesting, I can understand Spanish pretty well when anyone other than a Chilean is speaking it, but once a Chilean gets going I get lost like 3 words in. Despite not knowing the language, I could feel the spirit present. It's cool, I've loved not being able to understand or speak as much because it really forces me to pay attention and listen to the Spirit more. 

       We had exchanges this week, I was with Elder Quezada here in Fresia. I learned a lot from him, and it was fun teaching our people without Elder Collado carrying. Let's just say that the Gospel has to be real because our amigos didn't drop us after those lessons...

      It is getting colder and rainier already. One morning I woke up, could see my breath it was so cold in our house, went to take my cold shower and the flippin shampoo had frozen. That was a new one for me😅 It wasn't frozen solid, only like a slushie, so luckily we could still use it. We really need to find a way to heat our house... Anyways, there was some Maté prepped for after the shower, so we made a full recovery. 

       Something I learned a lot about this week was the priesthood. I spent the week reading Alma 13, and learned that the high priests in Alma's day were preordained, or in other words they had great faith and strived to do good in the pre earth life, and so the Lord entrusted them to share the Gospel in this life. Similarly, and I say this without pride, those who are called to serve, called to teach the Gospel in these days were preordained to share these things, and there are people, escogidos, who have been prepared to receive these things "from the foundation of the world." People who trusted and hoped that they would be taught these things in the pre mortal life. That is such an awesome work to participate in! If you've thought about serving a mission but haven't made the decision yet, I'd encourage you to do so! You are on this world at this time for a reason, and I can promise the Lord has prepared a work for you. There are escogidos that have been hoping and praying for you, even if they don't fully realise it yet. 

Les amo, cuidense!

Elder Miller

Salchicha with rice ketchup and mayo

Vaca

Mi districto

We chop a lot of wood

Fresia

squad on the pier

Randomly my comp cheffed it up once with some chop suy