We're a bunch of ants

 Buenos días a todos! Esta semana ha sido super bacan.

Monday: Gatorball. Had a thumb destroy the inside of my mouth but we got ice cream after so☺

Tuesday we had our first interviews with President Gervic! He's super awesome, I'm excited to continue learning from him. We then went to lunch with some friends, this new Venezuelan family we're teaching. We had Arepas, this kind of Naan bread made of Corn that Venezuelans eat a lot. 

Thursday played some Baby fútbol with the ward, after a little I started playing keeper and I received the hardest kick straight to my Adam's apple. It was a good event though! Alembert came and played with us. 

Sunday we had a cool miracle! There were 16 friends at church 😶 it was crazy, like 4 of the families we're teaching came. We are hoping to put some of them on date here in a bit, there's a few of them praying to know about Baptism. We hadn't found anyone yet in the week, so we made a deal with our district that we'd buy them all Luigis ice cream if we didn't find 3, and we ended up finding 3! Sunday was also like 70 degrees and sunny, and I found a frog! really God was just pouring out blessings that day.

We are ants: I had an interesting study this week about pride. Would highly recommend the talk pride and the priesthood by Elder Uchtdorf, and beware of pride by Ezra Taft Benson. When I usually think of pride, I think of selfish thought. And while that is one of the largest facets of pride, pride is so much more. At its core, pride is enmity, competition. Pride destroys self confidence, and it destroys the confidence of others. 

I cant remember quite where I heard this story, but there's a story about a fisher who puts crabs in a bucket. It's a small bucket, and crabs can climb so you'd think it would end up in a mad prison escape. However, peculiarly none of the crabs could escape. Whenever one crabs started on his journey up, another crab sought to take advantage and pull himself up by pulling the other down. The crabs kept each other from progression.

On the flip side, ants are some of the most capable species to exist. Despite being a lot smaller than crabs, they are capable of scaling massive trees, crossing rivers, even wiping out entire forests. They do this by creating living structures, massive bridges or ladders made by hundreds and thousands of ants. In other words, they lift each other up, and the system as a whole progresses.

Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking less about yourself. As we strive to lift others up, we ourselves will be lifted In the process. 

Happy Birthday Elder Jeppson!

 Hola todos! Thanks for everyone who wished me a happy birthday🥺☺ I love reading anything I receive, best gifts i could ever receive are y'alls notes

With no further ado, I present to y'all: my week 

Monday I bought a coat, turned my shoes in to the shoe doctor to repair the soles, we went shopping and then we got Subway. After everything we played Gatorball with the zone. 

Cambios! Nothing happened jaja. Looks like I'm gonna kill Elder Call, I'm amped to stick with him.

Thursday was my Birthday, and so my comp made me breakfast of pork steak and eggs, and then one of our best member friends, Victoria, had us over for completos and cake. We got stuffed haha. Then we went to a lesson with the Saís family, and Antonia knew that it was my birthday so we showed up to a table full of cookies and another cake. We got absolutely stuffed that day.

Cati and Alonzo:

          Coolest experience! Alonzo and Kati are dope, they've got a ton of desire. His issue is smoking, something he's been struggling struggling drop since he was 13. We showed up to our lesson, and this is more or less the first thing Alonzo says, 

    "So I've read Alma 40 like you've asked, and it really hit me. Like, I'm scared of God, and I'm scared of judgement... so, a week ago, after I read that, I knelt and had my first real personal prayer with God. I made a promise to stop smoking, and I've been clean since. It's been hard, but I made a promise with God, and i'm not about to break that."

    

Familia Barria:

       They came to church again! We taught them how to pray this week, and the Matriarch of the Familia, Gloria offered the closing prayer. She's Catholic, and is a pretty firm Catholic, so she was pretty skeptical when we explained why we don't pray to Saint Sebastian. Anyways, she closes our lesson praying in the way we showed her, and then the spirit got way strong and she started crying. After the prayer, she said that it was incredible praying that way, and she was sad that she didn't know that before.

This week we had 13 friends at church! That was a huge miracle, I've never seen that many friends at church before. Hopefully we can put some people on date here soon. Right after that, both Camila and the Burgos fam told us that their moms weren't going to let them continue learning about the gospel, so that was super sad.

D&C 58: 24-29 with Mosiah 4: 27 hit different this week. Agency, Dilligence and Charity are so very closely connected. I've thought a lot about the example of my dad this week, who taught me that it's those who look actively to be productive and add to the world- those who ask to serve, show up early to work, don't wait to be asked to do work, etc., are the people who progress temporally in life. I testify that it is the same spiritually! As we actively seek to love, serve and learn, not just waiting for the golden opportunities, the Lord gives us progression.

Love y'all!

paint ballin'

 This week started off with some Paintball😶 One of the Assistants, Elder Risi, had his last P day last week so he got permission from President to take a few Elders to Paintball. I'm happy to report that red team took an early lead and dominated the field😎🤠 following the Paintball, we went and played some good 'ol Gatorball at the church.

We went down to Puerto Montt again on Wednesday for another meeting, always a treat to go see other missionaries. A lot of the missionaries there will be heading home here In a few days so it was good to bid them farewell. We sang "God be with you till we meet again" and many tears were shed. 

Thursday great District Council. Afterwards we went to Come y Calle, a local favorite for missionaries due to their gigante Fajitas, and they gave us magnets that said, "for missionaries and special clients." I guess missionaries go there enough for them to make us merch #booyah 

Friday we were running around non-stop. We had 7 lessons that day, and due to some less-coordinated planning we had to cross our sector a few times. Our sector is HUGE hehe, we walk a ton. We worked out our average mileage per day, and even with Pdays we walked around 150 miles in July😐 my shoes are currently in the shoe-doctor because I've got holes all the way through the middle of my soles

Saturday there were three ward baptisms, so we spent most of the day helping them with the font and setting up and stuff.

Sunday miracle: 12 of our friends came to church🥲 it was one of the best fast and testimony meetings ever, everyone was testifying of baptism and the restoration due to the baptisms the day earlier.

Agency is so cool, and fulfilling the will of the Lord is as well. Go read 1 Nephi 8 and 11 while thinking about lead climbing, or while thinking about the relationship between agency, Christ's example and fulfilling his will. Love y'all

1 year mark!

 Feels weird writing my 1 year update already. I got set apart and started the mtc a year ago this last week! The mtc both feels like 3 months ago and a lifetime ago. 

Camila: We put Camila on date! It was kind of funny, she is on vacation right now in Chiloe, and so we've just been having video calls. We asked her how her Book of Mormon reading was going, and she proceeded to tell us the story of Nephi and his brothers getting the plates, complete with names and everything. It was an emotional moment to say the least. She'll get baptized on the 10th of September, but still has not been able to come to church and she lives with her boyfriend sometimes, so prayers for her are very appreciated (:

Familia Sais: We invited the Girls to be baptized, and they didn't say yes but they didn't say no. They actually didn't say much of anything, they don't really talk still😅 but, they keep coming to church and We've had a few Noched de hogar with them and members, so we're pretty excited about their future.

Venezuelan/Egyptian fam: We found the coolest family this last week! They've all got Egyptian names, but I'll try my best to write them out: Alembert, Ranses, Eliman, Gizeht and Tia (we don't know tias name, everyone just calls her tia, which means aunt) teaching them is comparable to surfing a tidal wave, they all talk a ton and the only hope is to kinda guide them in the write direction. After a few hours, we were able to get across the message of the restoration, which they loved. We'll see where this goes! 

Familia Burgos: Cool miracle with this family, we taught about God's Plan for us, and then taught them how to pray. David did his first prayer to end the lesson, and then after he asked us when we started believing in God. We all went around the table sharing, and then asked him when he started believing. He said that he started RIGHT THEN during his prayer. Cool little tender mercy. As a family, they won't come to church which is frustrating, because they are so sick. 

Some fun things from the last few weeks:

- Our indriver played the songs Wonderwall and Yellow Submarine☺ 

- Exchanges with my old Zone leader from Puerto Varas, Elder Baum

- Elder Call got a Pesebre (nativity) and it is an absolute unit. Pic below

- We went to Puerto Montt for 

A conference and had waffles for breakfast 

- We followed Elder Peterson's example and went to the Hospital

- Giant completos. Giant fajita burritos also.

- we are currently building a house. This week was the walls.

- We are on day 4 without rain. Dry shoes are under-rated. 

I found my new favorite line of scripture! The beginning of Ether 2: 16 says, "And the Lord said: Go to work and build." This simple phrase has captured my attention for the last little bit. It is said in the context of the Brother of Jared just having had repented, and he was surely looking for guidance.

At times, I know I've felt that the Lord is not guiding me, or have been frustrated with my circumstances. A line that I heard recently was "it is hard to steer a parked car." In order for a car to obtain direction, first it needs momentum. I think the Lord often works the same way with us! We need to have momentum for the Lord to guide us and give us the experiences we need to grow. In other words, before we obtain more guidance, often we need to "get to work and build" on that which we have received. 

As we just move forward, eager to work and eager to continually Repent, the Lord will steer us on the path we need. Both Faith and Charity are not really Faith or Charity without action. 

Anyways, love y'all. Go to work and Build🤟